At Home and Abroad: February 2016

It has been three months since I posted anything. Oh, well, never too late, I guess. I'll go back to late November and December, 2015 and post some photos and information.

Missionaries at the Nov. 22nd “Why I Believe” Fireside in Elma, Washington. This is presented a few times per year at the stake center. The missionaries from several zones were seated in the chapel choir seats and we sang 4 songs: Called to Serve, The Battlehymn of the Republic, As Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman combination, and Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone. These were interspersed with testimonies of recent converts from the area. They told their conversion stories and bore amazing strong testimonies. Some were quick conversions like Micah (3 weeks), some took many years. Micah spoke and did a great job. All were great. In the audience were many investigators as well as members. Pres. and Sister Blatter were there and spoke as well. It was really a terrific and spiritual missionary tool.

On a rare, clear day we drove to the coast (about 15 miles) to see the ocean since we had already driven part way there to seek out some members. It was the end of November, so there were not many people around and it wasn't very cold. One photo shows what looks like snow at the side of the road, but it is just a lot of frost that stays on the tree-shaded roadside.

Pacific Beach

Frost at the side of the road

What the scenery on most of the drive looked like--road through trees.

Copalis Beach

mouth of Grays Harbor

Drive back home. Grays Harbor is to the right beyond the trees.

December 2015

On Dec. 14 we had a senior missionary Christmas party in the evening at Pres. Blatter's house. It wasn't raining that day so we decided to go during the day to see something in Tacoma. The museum we thought we might visit was closed on Monday so we decided to go to Point Defiance Park and take the 5-mile drive around that park. The park is mostly forest. It is on a finger of land sticking out into the sound. There is a zoo and an aquarium and a small museum of living history. There is also an area where they have lots of flower gardens in the summer, but of course not in December. The house with the visitor’s center was also closed for the season. So, we drove the loop thinking we might go into the museum, but the sign outside that said it is open Wed. through Saturday. So, we saw lots of ferns, mossy trees, a few raccoons, and several viewpoints where we stopped and looked across Puget Sound to Vashon Island and the port of Tacoma. It was cool, but we didn’t wear coats. There was not much traffic on the one-way road that goes around the point. So, it was a nice relaxing drive. After that we went to see the Union Station building next to the Washington Museum of History (which was closed) across from the Tacoma campus of the University of Washington. This big train station was built in the early 1900s when travel to the Northwest by train was in its heyday. There were 48 trains a day leaving from that station. Later in the century when planes and cars were the popular method of travel and the number of trains per day reduced to 6, it was closed. It stood in disrepair for a few decades and then was restored and now is a federal court building. But the main domed central hall and floor beneath are open for the public to visit and observe the architecture of the building and glass sculpture and art displayed there. The artist, Dale Chihuly, is a Tacoma native and very famous in the area, especially for his glass sculptures. Not far from Union Station is a glass museum, but we didn’t go there. Some of his art and sculptures were kind of wild, but I like the huge orangey glass morning glory- type blossoms in the big arched window on the east side of the building. The following photos are from the 5-mile drive, Puget Sound, and the Tacoma Union Station: