TO KIRTLAND: CITY OF FAITH AND BEAUTY

'Over the River and through the woods to Kirtland Town we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh' and that is almost what we need this time of year. Here we are leaving the Johnson Farm headed for a new adventure now at the Historic sites in Kirtland.

Sister Guenther and I were in charge of a farewell dinner for the Butterfields who were the site directors for three faithful years. We had 58 attend and eat and participate. Sister Guenther is the creative genius and came up with splendid ideas for decorations and program idea and she made the cute lady bug cakes and favors for each person to match. She did all of the creative, crafty, cute stuff and I tried to put together a menu, assign food and write a little skit to be presented for the Butterfield's entertainment. It was so fun and went off well. The big things you see by the cakes are extra, extra large pans of Ohio Bread pudding. It is nothing, I say NOTHING like the bread pudding I used to make with old, stale bread. No wonder I never liked bread pudding. This was made with croissants, butter and brown sugar. Ugh, so rich and decadent. We had them wrapped to try to keep them warm on the trip from Garrettsville.

It is fitting that we should be in charge of the Butterfield's farewell dinner. They were also Kimi's mission President 15 years ago in Ventura Ca. And when Kimi left on her mission, we moved into the very ward in South Jordan where Elder Butterfield had been bishop and the stake where he had been stake president. They knew the exact house we lived in. We built a house in Riverton and moved before they came home from their mission, but our paths were bound to cross. And here we were for seven months under their direction in the Kirtland area. What great people. We will miss them.

We hated to take down the Christmas cards and pictures from our door. But we didn't figure the people moving in in two days would appreciate them nearly as much as we did, so we had to finally taken them down. How we love family and friends who remember us out here in Ohio with emails, facebook, blogs, letters, cards and even packages. We are having a wonderful Mission and just pray for strength to keep up the pace. Serving here is like a dream and I am going to try harder to be more proactive and accomplish more. We meet people frequently who know people we know or are related. Just a few days ago we met a man who knows my sister Jenny in Tabor, Alberta and also talked to one of the sister missionaries who had talked to my niece Pam on the phone.

The next blog to be posted when we get our computer hooked up again in Kirtland.