September of what year?

We are losing track of time. It is slipping by so quickly now that our departure date is but two months away form today. We love serving a mission in Kirtland Ohio and loved serving in South Africa too. We have had three sets of tours from South Africa this past month and that brought back such great memories. Here we have a picture of Niel and Ineka Atkins from Johannesburg whom we knew while there. We knew their son Michael and Michael's wife even better. But we knew them well enough to know they are the greatest of people.

The man with the motor bike is Roy McGinnis who was our next door neighbor in Garrettsville. He was one of several who came to a BBQ Picnic at the Johnson Farm that the Missionaries held (Elder Guenther also in the picture) down there and we attended that picnic. It was such fun to see our old neighbors and good friends in attendance.

What a month we had this past few weeks! It has been such a privilege to serve the Lord here.

Here is the beauty!

A path we walk on frequently.

Elder Orton greeting lots of tour groups and I had to get a picture of this cute boy (Elder Orton) and the other one.

See the flowers within the flower? Isn't the Creator a most marvelous designer?

Here is Elder Orton in front of the Joel Johnson Home. Each dwelling has exquisite flowers and you would agree that the Visitor's Center is a show place for guests from all over the world. I am so pleased to be part of the work that goes on here. Everything is going to change soon here and we are so thankful we were able to serve in 2010 and 2011.

My computer would not let me include these other pictures I was about to put on the last blog. I had to start over and do a new blog. We will just post a few more for your benefit of seeing how lovely Ohio is.

There is Beauty All Around

What a beautiful time of year in Ohio! I know you will be jealous when I tell you the night temperatures have been in the 60's and the day time temperatures in the mid to high 70's. We see on the news how hot it is in Utah and Idaho. I am sure we deserve it however, since we had such awful hot, muggy months before this. However, with the cooler air, the leaves start to turn red in the very tippy tops and some have begun to fall. I suspect they have to get a head start or it would completely blanket the entire state with leaves if they fell all at once. Here are some views of where we walk, and some of Elder Orton in front of what is Joel H. Johnson's property and what they used to think was his home. It has been established now that it is a move-on house, not Joel Johnson's original home. It stands right as one would drive into the parking lot of the Visitor's Center. One of the reasons we took Elder Orton's picture here is partly so you could see the house, but also so you could see the flowers. The flowers on the grounds are just stunning right now too.

Time is flying and we will be heading home in three months time. In the meantime to keep our thoughts focused, Kimi and Jeff will be coming out to see us in October and we pray for lovely weather and a few beautiful leaves. I wish the weather would stay like this until then. In the meantime we are very busy and doing quite well.

We are thankful to report that our car whose picture was in the last blog, was repaired painlessly to us because it turned out that the part needing replaced had been on recall from Toyota, so the dealer fixed it at no expense to us. What a nice missionary blessing.

I've been working with a couple of small choirs for different events and enjoying that very much. The next one will be for a training meeting the senior missionaries have with Elder Nash of the Seventy. I am also in charge of the Historic Kirtland History, so try to make pages for that in between other things. Life is good and "Our future is as bright as our faith" to quote a wonderful prophet of God.

JULY IS ALMOST HISTORY IN HISTORIC KIRTLAND

I always think I am going to blog every week or two. But the months keep passing. We had a little trouble with our car our here. We didn't expect to, but if they can get it fixed it will probably be a good thing. At least the problem happened while trying to get out of our driveway. The power steering just completely failed and it was impossible to steer at all. Mark was able by going forward and back and forward again, to turn just enough to get it back into the drive way. He had backed up and started to turn so he could go downhill when it went out. We had to get a tow truck to take it over to the Toyota dealers while we envisioned a terrible bill to follow. We should get it back within the next day and now after a day without a car even that sounds good. We can walk to work if we need to.

I think I will include a little picture of our "Luxury Lounge" under the stairs at the Visitor's Center. It is a laugh a minute. The women usually gather there because we are not supposed to all be out in the foyer at the same time. This space is supposed to be for up to seven couples when they are not on tour. Isn't that funny? Everyone bumps their head on the stairs if back in the back seat. But we are extremely grateful for the cushy chairs and a piece of carpet and even a microwave.

We are doing well in Kirtland even with the heat. We have a good air conditioner in our house this year, unlike last summer, and it makes us feel better in the mornings. We are excited to continue our work and to meet many more great people. Where is the time going? What happens to it once a week has gone by? Is it out there in history somewhere? I know we cannot call it back. But I don't want my future speeding up either, do you? Have a happy summer even though it is more than half over.

Pictures around us

I wanted to send pictures of the flowers in front of our house which are getting full and beautiful, a tree that is in the back of our house, which has tendrils and is most interesting. I will take time sometime to identify it. The tendrils are gone now and just the large oval shaped leaves remain. Also a picture that Mark took of the puzzle he did of the Farmall tractor like his dad used to have. I will post other pictures as we get them downloaded.

One Year Mark for Mark and Annette June 20

LOOK AT OUR TOMATO PLANT!!!!! WE HAVE HARVESTED TWO TOMATOES FROM IT AS OF 28TH OF JUNE! I know you are all jealous. We cannot take much credit for these beautiful plants. This one already had small tomatoes when we bought it and the Ohio weather is perfect for growing gardens if you can keep the critters out of them.

Carol and Al Donely with us and Guenthers went into Cleveland and had a grand day. The Donelys are our friends from Hiram and she is president of the Rotary club and that is how we became friends. They wanted us to see where they grew up, the Chapel they were married in and for us to see what we should see in Cleveland including Museum of Art, the Brown's Stadium, Rock 'n' Roll hall of Fame, Science Museum, Botanical gardens and much more.

I am giving instructions for the skits that I was in charge of for our Memorial Day Picnic/BBQ.

The skits were such a hit and so very creative. I was pleased with the results. Everyone who participated was willing and ready to have fun and to do something extra good. It was more fun than anything we have done here since we came. We had about 70 people in attendance.

None are veery good pictures this time. Sorry. But they do give an overview of things

Picnic help up at the Quarry Park with the Community of Christ and their Summer workers. It was a great picnic, but the weather was a bit cold for June. Here is a picture of Mark, Karl R. Anderson (Mr. Kirtland and first Stake President in Kirtland) and Elder Edman our Director. We always have a great time when we are with the other missionaries. We work with the best people ever. We have just had two new couples join us, the Johnsons from England and the Farr's from Kaysville, Utah. We have more recently had six new sisters join our team.

June is Bustin' Out All Over

What a beautiful month, June! The green is so lush and dense. And we did have visitors after all. We had Pam and Kimball and Daniel Lynn for one whole day. Daniel is off to the MTC the 15th of this month.

These are pictures of tree removal company taking out dead trees behind our house. It was most fascinating. The tree man climbs the tree, lops off the top large limbs, and hooks a belt around the top of the tree, then the big crane lifts until it is taut. The climber goes down and cuts the tree off at the bottom, and the machine lifts the tree up and over the house. Wow! It was really cool. The tree is lifted from the air right into a shredder and it is gone in minutes. We had never seen such an operation before and we stood outside and watched the whole time as they took out five trees.

And the picture of the lovely path in the forest is where we walk every morning. but that is just a taste of the beauty involved. It is a feast for the eyes as we try to walk off the feast of the past days.

It's been busy in Kirtland and we have met and taken on tour some of the most interesting and lovely people.