11 May - Preparation Day

11 May 09: We are getting out of shape so decided to go on a walkabout. The picture to the right is of a power box along the way - a nice touch.

We saw some walking trails just over a mile from our home. We walked to them and explored. Sister Muhn is in heaven - there is a red barn at the beginning of the trail (she has this thing for red barns). The water in the pictures is a bay leading to the ocean. It ended up a nice 4 mile walk.

... <-Elder Muhn enjoying the sun!

Here is a view of the Temple from our walk; it is just below the horizon a little left of center - the Stake center to the left. Our apartment building would be to the right of the temple if it were visible.

We thought some of the pine trees were dead. But they are deciduous - they lose their foliage in the winter. Here is a closeup of one budding out. Wait until the fall - the colors should be amazing!

Getting 'Lost'

10 May, Sunday we walked to Church (starts at 9 am), thoroughly enjoyed it all, then accepted an invite to the Bishop's home for dinner. He also teaches Institute of Religion here and supervises early morning seminary for the high school age youth for this region. We stayed to play some games and got to know his wonderful family better.

Surfers at the beach - not much action........... A Little Church by the sea............ The Atlantic Ocean

As we left the bishop's, we took a wrong turn and got lost (well . . . maybe not), and took some picture on the way back to our apartment. It's less than a mile to his house, but took us about 15 miles to take the scenic route back home. It was a bit blustery, but that has its own special beauty.

Our Apartment

Our apartment from the rear parking lot; just to the left of the black car.

From the parking lot, the temple is up a little hill to the left.

The left picture is looking toward the hall entrance from the outside entrance.

To the right is looking back from the hall entrance. Janet is talking with her mother for Mother's day.

Behind the blue couch (left picture)in back of the divider and to the right is a coat closet.

To the left of the hall entrance door is the kitchen. Everything is electric ($$).

Here is the kitchen with the hall to the left. At the end of the hall is the water heater closet.

To the left are the 'den' followed by the bedroom.

On the right, past the kitchen, is the bathroom.

Here is the bedroom from the hall, then looking back towards the closet.

Here is the den or computer room. To the left and hidden is another closet.

The bathroom, or as they call it here; the 'changing room'. Nice big tub with shower, long counter - but only one basin. All in all, we are growning to like it. The people here are friendly and the apartment is quiet. The manager or 'super', Claud Keeping is friendly, attentive, and takes good care of the apartments.

It takes a little getting used to the 100% humidity - things don't dry out like they do in the desert! This week has been overcast with occassional light rain or drizzle and fog one morning.
We also have a small storage cage elsewhere in the apartment complex.

Sunday 3 May 2009

This week has been quite an experience. Last night and today we heard from Stake and General Authorities as part of the Dartmouth Stake Conference. The special occasion was the release of President Smith and his counselors and the sustaining of the new stake president and his counselors. Each was unique and had a special testimony that was shared in the talks of Saturday evening and Sunday. The meetings Saturday were held in the Stake Center adjacent to the temple and was quite well attended; the Sunday meeting was held in the Halifax Forum in downtown Halifax due to the great number of people expected. Elder Daryl H. Garn of the Second Quorum of Seventy served in Canada as a young missionary and commented on the extrodinary growth and progress of the Church in Canada resulting in five temples across Canada at present. The other visiting general authority, Elder Walter C. Selden told some of his experiences growing up and his personal testimony of the Savior.
The new Stake President, Brother Evans, is a native of England and a convert to the Church. He related how he had received the impression that he would be called as the new president and who his counselors would be; one of them he knew, the other he did not. So he visited the Cole Harbour Ward a week ago (our Ward) to see who this man was. He was our High Priest Group Leader and gave one of the most outstanding lessons I have ever seen.
President Blake (our Temple President) spoke at the Saturday evening session and promised us that if we would ask the Lord, and seek to know, He would confirm in our hearts that this new stake presidency was called of God, not of man. To know that this is a divine process, not a political one, and to see the beautiful manner in which the mantle of leadership transfers without any animosity or bantering for position occurs is in itself a strong testimony of how the Lord guides and directs His Church.

Arrival at Dartmouth

We spent Friday night at Fredricton after driving into the night. Towns here are far and few between and gas is about $3/gal U.S., so we are sure glad we don't have a gas guzzler! The price is set by the government, so there isn't much sense shopping around.

You can also tell you have arrived in Canada by the MacDonalds signs - notice they have a little oak leaf in the center of the 'M'!









The day was beautiful and the warmest of the year so far. As you can see, it was blue skies and smooth sailing as we entered Nova Scotia.



Here was our first glimps of the temple through the traffic! We found it!




We arrived at the temple and found the couple we will be replacing, the Alder's, and began training right away.

Saturday evening we went to President & Sister Blake's home to stay until the Alder's leave and we are able to move into the apartment.
Also that evening we were invited over to the Stewart's home for a farewell/welcome party with many of the people in the ward and even the Stake President and his wife showed up there. We played a fund game until around 9PM and then headed back to the Blake's. in intermittant rain.
The Blake's are at Fredricton at a Stake Conference and will return Sunday night. More pictures to follow as time permits. Love You ALL!

WE MADE IT

We finally found a place to cross the border (we tried once and couldn't because they didn't process visa's there) and spent our first night in Canada. We then headed out early the next morning and arrived at the Temple in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia about 12:15 PM on the 25th of April. We met Elder & Sister Alder there and received our first half-day of training. The weather was beautiful most of the way and nice and balmy in Nova Scotia - we drove under blue skies all day.
I hope to be able to load some pictures of our drive over in the next year . So I'm not promising anything immediately, and we have to decide which of the 500 'red barn' pictures that Sister Muhn took to put on the blog. We are in HEAVEN here.

On The Road - Day 2

On our second day we traveled from Cheyenne, WY to about 45 minutes past Omaha, NE. It was rather windy but clear and a good trip today. We stopped at the Winter Quarters temple and attended an endowment session, then took some pictures (later I hope) and got a good night's rest at a Motel 6. Nothing fancy, but it was quiet, clean, and comfortable. We appreciate all your prayers and interest in our safe journey.