A Great Week

 I thought I would tell you a little about what we have been doing this week.  This picture on the right shows the dead grass where the donkey and sheep were stabled at Christmas time.  The men were all busy cleaning up the sand on the sides of the roads, and the dead grass was really bugging me, so I decided to tackle the job.  I dug out the sod (I had to jump on the shovel with both feet to be able to cut through the dead grass.)  I dug the dirt down 2-3 inches to get rid of the ammonia and hauled it off.  Then I started hauling in new dirt and mulch (in 5 gallon buckets with my little golf cart.)

You can't run down to Home Depot and buy sod by the piece in Vermont, so I had to drive around the property and walk the gardens looking for grass I could borrow (where no one would miss it).  I dug grass out of flower beds where it didn't belong, and cut some sod from a field near the woods where it could grow back without being seen. I found some in the field behind the cemetery (which reminds me I still need to fill that one in with dirt). This picture was taken after I finished.   The grass didn't match perfectly, but it looks a lot better. I will take pictures of Mike's projects and tell about them next week.

Today (Saturday) was an exciting day for us.  We went to the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College to see their first edition copy of the Book of Mormon.  The man who discovered it wrote the following: "A copy of the original edition of the "Book of Mormon," is without doubt the scarcest book published in the nineteenth century which has obtained any kind of reputation. As an evidence of this, I have been in search of a copy for a great many years, and always unsuccessful till this copy, here named, came into my possession by accident among a lot of old school books." (1869)

 There is no question that First Edition copies of the Book of Mormon are rare and valuable.  Brigham Young University has one, but you can't hold it or touch it.  You can only look at it under glass.  As for it's value, an original copy was sold in 2007 for $108,000, and another one sold for $180,000.  We had one at the memorial, but many years ago it was moved to Salt Lake to be preserved in the archives. The Dartmouth library staff was great.  They told us that so many people come to see it, they keep it in a special place nearby.  They allow you to hold it, read it, and even take pictures.  It was amazing.   

This is Elder and Sister Peterson from Mesa, Arizona.  They just arrived a few weeks ago and they are great!  We invited them to go with us to the library, and they enjoyed it as much as we did.  We spent about an hour at the library and then they bought us lunch at Subway. 
Brother Peterson was a teacher and coach at Dobson High School in Mesa.  Sister Peterson is a GREAT cook.  She invited all the missionaries to her home for dinner Thursday night, and served the best Chicken Pot Pie I have ever tasted.

I took this picture of Mike at the library.  It was fun to watch him.  You could tell his feelings were tender as he very carefully turned the pages to read from this special First Edition Book of Mormon, which is now 182 years old. It was an awesome experience.  Some people might wonder how we could be so excited about an old book, but this is not just any old book.  There is only one book in the entire world that has had more copies of it printed, and that is the Bible.  In other words, more copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed than any other book, except for the Bible.  It tells of the Savior's visit to the ancient Americans more than 2,000 years ago.  It describes how he blessed the children and healed the sick among the people.  It is a very powerful testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and Redeemer of the World.  We wish EVERYONE would read it and decide for themselves.  It has certainly blessed our lives.    We love you all.