Tis the Season

Tis the season all right. We finally got our computer back so I can use pictures and catch up on what's happening here in Bahston. Last night was the ward Christmas party so we took the opportunity to talk to Santa. Unfortunately, he can't bring us what we want-----all our kids. But this is what we signed up for. Tomorrow we'll mail the last of the Christmas boxes to the kids! There were like 14 boxes all together and the post office loves us because the boxes were heavy so they could charge us a LOT!!! Next year we have to figure out something less expensive than postage.






As you can see, the season has changed..in fact, we got our first snow this morning..not even enough to cover the street. Instead of leaves we have all these grayish brown sticks by the thousands. The one nice thing is that we can now see a lot of homes that have been hidden by the leaves!!

For Thanksgiving we ate with a couple in the ward and their daughter and son-in-law. The dad fell off his roof and broke all his ribs and cracked some vertebrae so we've been taking them to appointments, etc. He's a non member, Marguerite is a member and the daughter is totally inactive. But all were very nice and it was quite humorous. We got a call from Marguerite early Thanksgiving morning saying that the turkey was in the garage frig defrosting but when she went to get it out, the frig had done something and everything was frozen. Did we have a turkey??? Wellll, not exactly. We had one of those small frozen turkey roasts that we popped in the oven and took. She had some chicken and the daughter, who is a great cook, brought all kinds of side dishes so we had a good meal. And she set her oven on fire twice. When we got there the kitchen was a bit smoky. But we were all grateful we were alive and well:-)

Had another fun experience with them. We took them to Massachusetts General Hospital, which I'm sure you've all heard of. Well, it's downtown Boston and I can't even begin to explain the fun of getting there and then getting home during rush hour!!! There is NO rhyme or reason to the way the streets are laid out. I think the designer must have been drunk when the plans were written because they twist and turn all over!!!

We've been going to a different ward each Sunday to get introduced and asses the employment needs in each ward. They range from the poorest of poor to the very wealthy (Danny Ainge is the bishop of one of the latter). Because we don't actually have jobs for these people, it's really hard to know what to do. Starting the New Year we will have regular career workshops but as we found out in Connecticut, there has to be a system to commit the people to come. And of course people are losing jobs right and left. Rhode Island has a 10% jobless rate! There are a couple of Stakes that have really up and going Stake employment leaders but the others are floundering. And of course, we have to wait for the Bishops and Stake Presidents to get on our bandwagon which takes a lot of time!!! They have so many others just like us clamering for their attention.

We had a "senior" missionary gathering last Saturday which was fun. One couple we met in the MTC is serving in the Springfield Stake. Good food---which is true church-wide, merriment and direction from the Mission President. This coming week all the zone conferences are happening. Each zone goes to the Temple and then to the President's house for lunch and the young ones get their Christmas presents from home. They always need the senior missionaries to go to the Temple as the Elders can't be in the prayer circle. So we'll go to a couple of the zone conferences next week.

Wednesday night we're going to New Hampshire for a "job club" meeting that a gung ho stake leader is hosting. We also joined the BYU Management group here in Boston and found ourselves as one of the officers!!! They have some job resources. Interesting thing--the president is a grad of BYU and lived in Pleasant Grove as a kid. She said she "used to belong to the church but unjoined". She has a good job with a relatively new pharmaceutical company as the human resources person and this company is about ready to send out a new antibiotic for MRSA. Clinical trials are done and they have their sales people hired and ready to go. The New York office is having a Christmas party so we're going to New York on Dec. 17 -21. We'll work in the employment office there for a couple days, and then do the sights----see the big tree at Rockefeller Center, ect. We'll probably stay in a suburb somewhere and take the train into town since driving is a hazard to your health and parking is VERY expensive!!!

We should get our volunteer assignment tomorrow at the hospital. We passed all the tests: 2 TB test, and I'm immune to all the diseases and dad just has to get one more hepatitis shot in Feb. All you at the brand new IMC can laugh at the above picture. But they've done a lot of updating so it's okay on the inside.

Today we were looking for a chapel and had the wrong address. In the process of trying to find the road and turning around and around I backed into a entry post by some apartments and dented the back of the car and more importantly shattered the back window. Didn't do a thing the the post!!! GRRRRRRRRR..........

I'm way into the different liscense plates around here. So here's some from Mass.








There's a little town just around a few curves called Bolton. So these pictures are for Jolynn (#2 daughter-in-law) and her family. Jo, do you have any relatives from back here? We could go cemetary hopping!!


Bolton country store where we ate lunch.


Picture in the country store announcing the fair.


Bolton Library being updated.


Bolton home.


Bolton Town Hall


Don't miss that sign to the Bolton shopping center.


Bolton Orchard store--I think it's the biggest store in town.


And last but not least.......the purplest of purple houses we've seen!!



Happy Holiday to all of you. You know, no matter where you go, the gospel is the same. The faces may be a little different but the parties, the lessons, the meetings and the people are the same. The gospel is true.