We started out our week going into DC with the Larsen's by
hopping on the Metro to start our Monday adventure. It was my turn to plan our
outing and I selected the Library of Congress and the
Kennedy
Center.
The Metro is the best way to get downtown.
It has stops right by all major attractions
and is such a piece of cake to use.
Our
first stop was the Library of Congress.
Wow, I think this building
has
the most beautiful interior of any I have visited in DC.
It is amazing and I loved it. There was so
much to see and so much history housed there.
It was overwhelming to think of the 150 million wonderful
items that have been collected and on display
for everyone to see.
The entire library
of Thomas Jefferson of 6,487 books laid the foundation for the library in 1815,
and are still on display. I really do want to go back and get an official
"library card", and visit the reading room and have a book found and
brought to me to look at.. and sit in that historic place and take it all in.
We then hopped back on the Metro and headed for the
Kennedy
Center. Every evening at
6:00 there is a free performance in the
Millennium theater.
We saw a musical
group from
Colorado called
Elephant Revival.
They were a group of 5 musicians who
performed music containing elements of rock, gypsy, Celtic, altcountry and
folk.
It was a great evening and we
really enjoyed the music.
A very fun
day..
Sister Wege, Sister Larsen & me
Beautiful interior of the Library of Congress
The Reading Room
The Library of Congress
Tuesday we
started out our day picking up Linda to go with her on a visit to Thelma a
sister who used to be her neighbor who is now living in a nursing home. We stopped to pick up a beautiful fall
flowering plant to help brighten her room. When we arrived at the home, Thelma
was in PT, and the staff said to go on down and visit her there. She was very
excited to see us and so happy for our visit.
We learned that another sister from the ward was also living there, so
we went down to see Anna. She was in her bed, so we just stayed for a few
minutes..she too was happy with our visit. It is such a joy to spend a few
minutes with these sweet ladies and bring so much joy to their day.
We then picked up
Karen (that I talked about last week) at noon
to take her to several appointments. She
was getting the several things taken care of that she needed to do since her
husband left, to help provide the means to live..like assistance with her
utilities, social security and such. We
finally arrived home about 7:00. Long day, but very happy we could help Karen
out.
We were invited
to a birthday party for Doug Larsen ( the husband in the couple we have been
doing things with on Monday's).. It was a taco dinner and we provided all the
fillings for the taco's and the other couple, the Dickey's brought
dessert. Doug was so appreciative of the
dinner and for all of us coming to help celebrate his birthday.. fun day.
Wednesday morning
at the Family History
Center I decided to see how far
back I could get in my family tree.. I was amazed at how far back I got.. It
was so fun to see the names and the places my ancestors were from.. It went
way..back and can't wait to research and see all that I can find.. I am loving
doing the genealogy for my family. I was
looking at my mother's line this week and want to record all that I found
before I start on my father's line.. After our shift at the FHC we had a
meeting with our new district leaders.. They are a new missionary couple from Utah
and just arrived in the mission field.
It was really fun to get to know them and help fill them in on our
activities and the work we were accomplishing on our mission. We then went to a
session at the temple.. Such a wonderful day..
Thursday we
picked up Sharon, and drove up to Glen
Burnie to pick up Sue, a sister from the ward here who just moved
there. Sharon
used to be an English teacher in high school and now that she is retired she
teaches English in her home to people from Korea, all the residents in her apartment building are from Korea
and she is helping them learn English.. She was a wealth of information on so
many subjects.. She says she gets all the major newspapers and magazines so she
can stay current on all things.. She had several clippings from different media
to share with us.. After we picked up Sue we went to lunch.. it was a very fun
day and I loved meeting new people. Sue
just moved out of her home, because her husband was being very abusive and
threatened to kill her. She called the Police and when they arrived they helped
her get her things out and found 9 guns in the apartment of which 3 were
loaded.. She is such a darling lady and it is so sad that anyone would treat
another person like she was being treated. I am so happy she is now safe and
living with her daughter, who is a member of the church and they are both
taking temple preparation classes together..
Sue, me, Sharon & Sister Wege
Friday morning at
8:00
the fire alarm went off in our building.. Well you know they turn off the
elevators so we walked down the "10" flights to the main level.. It
wasn't a fire and we were allowed to return to our apartments.. When it went
off, we were trying to decide what to take with us, just in case it was a real
fire.. so now we have our bag with all that we need to take in one place, ready
to grab and go..
On Friday we
called on 15 sisters.. We got in to see many and I want to share just a few
stories with you. When we
arrived at the home of Lois, I knew that I recognized her from the temple where
she works on Tues. & Weds. I worked on a different shift, but I used to see
this sweet 85 year old many times as she was coming in for her shift as I was
leaving. What a wonderful visit we had with her.. So happy when we can visit
those who don't get out much. She is recuperating from pancreatic cancer
surgery and the doctors have assured her that they got it all.
A doctor here in the DC area has developed a
procedure that is groundbreaking in this surgery.
Lois
Jinnah is a young
sister in her mid twenties who is attending nursing school. She was so sweet
when we arrived at her door.. She welcomed us in and we had a wonderful visit
with her. She said that she was sorry she hadn't been to church, but she went
to school all week and then had to work on the weekend. We asked her if she was reading her
scriptures and she said that she did love reading them but they were stolen. We
told her where she could get the kind she was looking for and after talking to
her for a while asked if we could end our visit with a prayer and she said yes.
Sister Wege asked her if she would give it and she said she would. Wow what a
powerful spirit accompanied her beautiful prayer. I just loved our visit with
Jinnah.
Kady was at work
when we arrived at her apartment, but her grandmother invited us in. They are
from Sierra Leone
and she speaks very broken English. She was taking care of Kady's 3 adorable
children and they were all just getting out of the tub. So as she dressed each
one they would come and play with us.
Tsi Tsi is 5, Dylan is 3 and Su Su was 2. They loved it when I took their picture and
even Grama wanted to get in the pictures.. What a fun visit.
Su Su, Grama, Tsi Tsi & Dylan
Tigi said that
she was very anxious for us to come today. We missed seeing her the last two
weeks. She is 35 and had a stroke that has effected her left side and she still struggles
with use of her left arm and her walking is slow.
She is also waiting for a kidney transplant
and has to have dialysis 3 days a week. Last week her port became clogged and
she was in the hospital for several days. She is doing well now. She is a BYU
graduate and has a nursing degree. She has a 10 year old daughter who lives
with her dad & she hopes to get papers signed soon so she can see her son
more often. She is so grateful for everything we do for her. She loves fruit
and we bring some each Friday when we visit. She lives with her mother, who is
now in
Sierra Leone
for 6 weeks and Tigi is struggling with cooking and getting around. So we
stopped by the store and picked up some groceries for her. Saturday we took her
and picked her up for her dialysis appointment.
Tigi
We called on 17
sisters on Saturday while we waited to
pick Tigi up.. Talked to 6.. It was a beautiful Fall day here in
Maryland
and so the driving around to each sister's home was so nice.
After we dropped Tigi off at home we met with
Ann & her husband Craig at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then attended
the
Prince George's Philharmonic
opening fall concert.
Ann plays the
viola in the orchestra.
This is the
orchestra's 47th season. It was held in the
Bowie
Center for the Performing
Arts.
They performed Wagner, Mendelssohn
& Tchaikovsky and it was beautiful..
Sunday I attended
my first meeting in the White Oaks Ward.
It was so nice to meet everyone and I was introduced in each class and
in Sacrament meeting.. After church we visited a sweet sister in the
hospital.
Dorothy fell and was on the
floor for "3" days before someone came to see why she wasn't
answering the phone. She is 87 and sharp as a tack.. She was happy to have us
visit.. and we promised to be back each day she is in the hospital.. That
evening we were invited to Ann and Craig's for dinner.. Craig is a fabulous
cook and had prepared 3 different soups with all the trimmings.
We brought dessert.. Then we went to a
special event at the
Visitors Center
to hear Rosemary Wixom, the General Primary President for the church..
Fall is really
here now in Maryland, the weather
is cooler, the leaves are turning, pumpkin patches and stands are popping up
everywhere.. I just love this time of year and all the tastes and smells of
Autumn.. One thing we see everywhere up here where I am now are squirrels..
gathering the acorns as they fall and scampering up the trees and running
across the power lines (which amazes me, that they don't fall off).
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