Memorial Day Weekend

 

Goose Family 

           Today is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  We are doing great here in Illinois.  It seems like we are getting busier all the time.  We continue to be very engaged with the ward here in Ottawa.  We have made some very good life long friends in the few months we have been here.  Today we taught the fifth-Sunday lesson on Family History.  The lesson generated a lot of good discussion.  We talked about how everyone can get involved with family history regardless of how much work has been done.  Last Wednesday, we taught the Young Men how to do indexing by having them verify names from the 1950 Census.  Even though the Census was indexed by a software program, the results needed to be checked by a human.  We proved to the boys that they are smarted than the most advanced computer system.  The computer interpreted ‘no one at home’ as a name or ‘vacant’ as Vincent.  The boys did have a bit of a challenge since they no longer teach cursive writing in school; it was a bit like learning a new alphabet.

 

Yesterday, we built a handrail on a porch for a single lady in the ward.  She was the one who recently lost a daughter to an overdose.  We had the help of a ward family that that we bumped into at the hardware store while picking up supplies.  We asked if we could borrow a post-hole digger and they offered to come and help install the railing.

 

We are also very involved with the other missionaries.  Last week we had zone conference.  This is the last conference we will have with President and Sister Shumway.  These conferences are always very spiritual experiences.  We picked up a set of sister missionaries early in the morning to carpool to the conference.  We ended up waiting most of the afternoon until the President had completed the interviews with these sisters. It was evening by the time we got back to our apartment.

 

We have started teaching the lessons to a young lady who asked for the missionaries.  She has had the lessons before, but has been too anxious to get baptized.  Last Tuesday was our second lesson and her roommate joined in.  We have an appointment to teach her again this coming Tuesday.

 

The weather this spring has been very variable, with mostly cool rainy days.  However, the last couple of days have been very nice with temperatures in the low 80s.  The humidity does take some getting used to.  The farmers have been mostly able to plant their fields.  The fields have turned green as the corn and soybeans have sprouted.  The field across the road from our apartment was corn last year, but this year it was planted in soybeans.  Many farmers rotate these two crops since the soybeans add nitrogen to the soil that the corn can use.

 

Tomorrow for memorial day we have been invited to join several member families out at a member’s farm for a cookout.  Before the cookout we plan to walk down into Utica to observe the festivities that the town puts on.  They celebrate Doc Holliday here this weekend because he started out as a mule driver towing boats on the I&M Canal as a 14-year old boy.  We understand they re-enact shootouts reflecting Doc Holliday’s later life.

 

We hope everyone is doing well and that you all have a great summer.

 

Love, Elder and Sister Curtis

One of many June bugs that showed up on our door every night during a warm spell

Another great sunset from our apartment

The missionaries carved watermelons for our zone P-day activity

                                                                      View of Illinois River

Cardinal on our front lawn

View of I&M Canal

Tractor for Derek

Planting soybeans across the road from our apartment

Rat Snake on the canal tow path

Wild Turkey

Sister Curtis at a historic lock on the I&M Canal

Camel at the Brookfield Zoo

Dolphin show at the Brookfield Zoo