Movers and Shakers

We have mentioned before that part of Larry's assignment includes managing mission apartments and cars. Last Fall we found ourselves on the road quite often looking for apartments for senior couples, replacing old furniture in the young missionaries apartments and helping to deliver 10 new trucks that were assigned to the mission.

In August and September we found and furnished apartments for two new couples assigned to the mission, the Duncans in Amherst, Nova Scotia and the Hunters in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Later at very short notice we also found and furnished an apartment for the Piersons in Halifax. It is so exciting to see these new couples come. They are needed very badly and make such a difference in the areas where they serve.

In early November we drove one of the new truck to the elders in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. On the way we dropped off a new dresser to the the Duncans' apartment in Amherst and shuttled their other dresser across town to the Amherst elders.

Lovely farm on the way to Amherst

Our Amherst Elders Meynders and Steward along with Elder Foley

The moving crew

We next drove to Summerside, PEI where we left the truck and picked up their car to be delivered later to St. John, New Brunswick, something like musical cars.

From Summerside we drove to Charlottetown, PEI where we were able to participate in an historic district conference. On Saturday night we stayed at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel which also was the venue for a big district dance. It was fun to see the room packed with people, all the way from babies to grandparents (like us). A fun Mexican buffet was the fare of the night followed by lots of visiting and dancing.

Everyone having a great time

We enjoyed watching the Duncans. They were great dancers!

Years of Arthur Murray??


The District President and Sister Aitken (front right)

On Sunday morning we were greeted at the chapel by some of our great elders. They helped park the cars for a well attended conference.

Aren't they cute?

During the meeting the New Glasgow District was disolved and its units were divided between the two stakes in our mission, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and St. John, New Brunswick. President Aitken was released along with his counselors. The hope is that these two stakes will continue to grow and get stronger and that a third stake can be added in the near future. Church headquarters felt that this was a necessary step in that direction. Some people were quite surprised about the change but the attitude seemed very positive.

It was a cold but very sunny day and after the meeting we had a beautiful drive around the island, across the Confederation Bridge, and then home through some scenic countryside.

Scene on PEI


More of PEI

Access to the island is either by bridge or ferry. The Confederation Bridge is quite a marvel. This 8 mile long bridge connects PEI with the mainland and makes travel to the island much easier. The toll for using the bridge is about $43 which may sound like a lot but the ferry toll at the other end of the island is about $70 and takes a lot longer.

Confederation Bridge


Yet one more lovely sunset on our way home

Also in November Elder and Sister Steffen arrived in Halifax from the MTC. The Steffens are from Fruit Heights, Utah and many years ago lived next door to Janice's cousin T.J. Jones and his family. The President was out of town, so we had the honor of showing them around the area for a couple of days before they left for their assignment in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Of course, we had to show them Peggy's Cove even though it was a very windy and cold day.

By the lighthouse


Beautiful Atlantic Ocean


Church at Peggy's Cove


By the temple at Church the next day

After sending off the Steffens, we sent home one of our lovely sister missionaries, Sister Tolliver. Her parents and younger brother came to pick her up which was fun because they live in the same ward in California as our niece Lori Sherman. We enjoyed meeting them and hearing how wonderful Lori and Dave Sherman and their family are (we already knew this of course).

Sister's Simpson and Tolliver

Our next November adventure was to drive the mission van and trailer to Annapolis Royal to vacate a missionary apartment. This area had been closed down and the apartment was left full of furniture and missionary "stuff." Elders Langford and Cordner from nearby Kingston met us at the apartment and helped us de-junk it and load the furniture into the van. We cleaned and scrubbed and finally headed with the full trailer in tow further down the coast to Yarmouth where we unloaded the desks and beds and reloaded it with the old beds and desks from the apartment there. By this time it was late and we were exhausted. Rather than drive five hours back to Dartmouth in the cold and dark, we took the elders for pizza and then we hunkered down in a hotel.

Elders Cordner and Langford at their finest


All packed up and ready to roll

One thing for sure on this mission we have met many wonderful people and seen many beautiful places and we NEVER get bored. We are continually impressed by all the great missionaries we are blessed to serve with, both young and old. We love President and Sister Simpson and feel honored to be able to try and make their load a little lighter.

Trip to Cape Breton Island

In early October we took a long weekend and went to Cape Breton Island. This island is about 4000 sq miles and is located between the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. It is noted for its stunning scenery and breath-taking vistas of shoreline, highlands and forests. It is circled by the Cabot Trail which is about a 200 mile loop around the northern end of the island.

Autumn is supposed to be the best time to visit the Island and although we did see some beautiful leaves they were not at their peak. Cape Breton, however, is very scenic and worth seeing at any time of the year.

Along the way we drove to Louisberg where we spent a fun night at a pleasant inn on the bay. Louisberg is well known for the Fortress of Louisberg, an 18th century French fort that was prominent during the French and Indian Wars. The Canadian government has reconstructed part of the original fortress which everyone says is a must-see. However, because of our tight schedule we could not fit in a tour of the fort. We are hoping to see it before we leave Canada.

On our drive to Cape Breton

The inn at Louisberg

One of many lovely rivers

The next morning we began our drive around the Cabot Trail. It was such a lovely day but started out badly. When we stopped at a convenience store we locked the keys in the car. Actually that turned out nice because the people there were very helpful. The owner and some customers lent us a helping hand. After about an hour we finally got the door open. Nice, nice, nice.

One of our favorite spots on the drive was a place called Green Cove. It was a beautiful clear day and the blue water and the green grass and the rock formations were amazing.

Green Cove




Interesting rock formations at the cove

Elder and Sister Foley @ Green Cove

We finished the drive around the trail and arrived in Port Hawkesbury about 5 pm.

Breathtaking views from the trail


An idyllic village


Port Hawkesbury

Elder and Sister Baures, temple missionaries from the Halifax Temple, were also staying in Port Hawkesbury that night, so we met up with them for dinner. We ate together in a local pub and it was really fun to have a chance to visit and compare notes.

Elder and Sister Bauer

The next morning was Sunday and we attended the Port Hawkesbury Branch. It is a small branch and they meet in a lovely little building. We have 3 elders there and they are loved by the members. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures.

After church we began our trek home. We decided to go the scenic way along the Atlantic coast. Beautiful but very long drive!

Funny little lighthouse on an island


Waiting an hour for a ferry to make a five minute crossing


Departure point for the ferry

An added reward for our long drive home was seeing a beautiful sunset as we neared home. A wonderful way to end a special weekend.

We covered about a 1000 miles on this trip and were happy that we saw such beauties of nature.

We love Family!!

We have had a wonderful visit from Randy and Janet. It was so nice to have them spend some time with us. Since the recent death of their sweet son Jeff, we have wished we could hug them and spoil them and just spend time with them. We also thought it would be good for them to get away and have some down time from their many responsibilities. I think our time together was enjoyed by all.

They arrived on Thursday evening September 8th. We had a quiet dinner and visit and hit the sack early.

Friday we woke up to beautiful sunshine. We spent a leisurely morning and then piled into the car to head for Peggy's Cove.

Hello again from Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove is always beautiful but this particular day it was spectacular. The sky was blue, the air was fresh and the waves were huge.

Pounding surf

We were mesmerized and spent much time just watching the huge waves roll in.

Waves and more waves

Four guys at the beach

Someone very patient had been quite creative and had built hundreds of pagoda-like creations out of the rocks on the shore.

Pagodas

I don't think I could ever get tired of the beautiful scenes all around the Cove

It was funny because President Simpson's sister and her husband were visiting them and we ran into them at Peggy's Cove. In fact we kept running into them at Peggy's Cove. The president told us of a good place to get some lunch nearby and sure enough we ran into them there too.

Fish and chips is the fare of the day

The president and family

From Peggy's Cove we drove to Mahone Bay stopping by the memorial of the Swiss Air flight 811 that went down near this area. It was a very humbling experience, like being on sacred ground.

Peggy's Cove from the Swiss Air memorial site

Unlike our first visit to Mahone Bay this time I got in the right place to get a picture of all three churches. They were beautiful.

The three churches of Mahone Bay

Then off to Lunenberg. This is another place that is just so beautiful and so much fun.


Picturesque home in Lunenberg


Lots of hanging flowers

Again we ran into the Simpsons in Lunenberg and the President told us of a place we could go to see ship building. We put our hard hats on and off we went.

The Jones' ready for serious ship building


One big ship under construction

It was really pretty cool! After ice cream and a walk through many of the fun shops in Lunenberg we drove to the golf course on the other side of the bay to get this classic view of the village.

Lunenberg across the bay

Saturday was another perfect day and we decided to spend it on the harbour in Halifax. We again took our time and made the 11:00 ferry to cross from Dartmouth to Halifax.

Halifax skyline from the ferry

We had a great time strolling along the waterfront and people watching (and bird watching).

Elder & Sister Foley on the waterfront

Bird perched on a buoy

The grandkids would have liked this crazy bird who stayed for a very long time just hanging out on this buoy. They also would have liked Theodore Tugboat.

Colorful tug boat

Theodore goes to sea

After grabbing lunch from a stand we went to the Maritime Museum and especially enjoyed the exhibits on the crash of the Titanic and on the great explosion in the Halifax Bay in 1918. The exhibits were so well done and we learned quite a bit of history. After we left the museum we walked through a ship that was docked nearby. It was really interesting.

Our fearless captain

Then it was to the ferry for the trip back across the bay.

Happy campers head home

We next headed to Point Pleasant Park for a nice stroll then back to the apartment for a quiet evening of visiting and catching up.

Sunday we had a quiet morning then off to church at 1:00 pm. Although the Temple was closed for cleaning while the Jones' were here, they at least got to see the outside and the grounds.

No session this time

After dinner and a short rest we took a walk to Lake Banook, our neighborhood lake. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed the sights.

Randy and Janet lakeside


Let's pull, pull, pull

As we were coming back across a small bridge we saw 3 young boys climbing on the bridge to jump into the lake. The water was very cold and it looked pretty dangerous to us but they assured us they had done it before and their "mother's knew".

Look Mom, no hands!!



They seemed to be okay as we walked away.

As we walked home we ran into guess who? Yes the Simpsons heading to the lake for an evening stroll.

The presidential party

On Monday, our last day together, we decided we had to go to Wharf Wraps for fish and chips. It didn't disappoint. We then took a walk around the shore. Eastern Passage where Wharf Wraps is located is a fishing village with a long and colorful history. We read of some of the history and we also stopped and watched a man dig for clams.

Eastern Passage shops


Randy getting a lay of the land


Lots of sad fishing tales here


Digging for clams

We were then off for a drive along the Eastern Shore and a stop at Clam Bay Harbour.

Two red heads on the beach


Whoops! I forgot to bring a towel


Happy beach combers

The beach was beautiful and we had it to ourselves. The sand was so soft and fun to walk on. Janet found some sea shells for her collection. It was a great way to finish a wonderful time with loved ones. Thanks for coming Randy and Janet!!