Sis. Shirley Pease who is a member of the South Royalton ward where we attend took Sis. Vorwaller and I on a field trip to learn the location of a few of the sites around the scenic village of Tunbridge where most of the history of the Smith family happened. I happened to catch a small flock of turkeys in the foreground of this shot of Tunbridge that evening. The picture below is of the Tunbridge Gore where Asael and Mary Duty had moved their family to help their sons start farms of their own. It appeared to be a fairly fertile valley situated in the rolling hills about three miles from Tunbridge.

At the suggestion of Elder McKinnon we joined with Elder and Sister Slade for a trip to the Montreal, Quebec, Canada Temple on Tuesday, August 26. We picked the Slade's up a little after 5:00 a.m. and the trip took about three hours. We had made an appointment to be on the 9:00 a.m. session. The people at the temple were so kind to us. There were only the four of us on the session who were English speaking only, but they did the entire session in English and asked the other participants in the group if they needed a headset for the French translation. I thought that was really going the extra-mile to make us feel welcome and comfortable. There were about 20 people on the session including the four of us. After the session we traveled into the heart of Montreal to the area known as "Old Montreal" to have some lunch before driving back to Vermont. It really is a foreign country even though it is so close. We got lost trying to find this part of town but most of the people we asked for directions spoke some English.

Montreal is a beautiful city on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. We were glad to have the chance to view the city and very grateful to go to the temple since we haden't been since we left the M.T.C. Our next temple trip will be to Boston in a few months which we are really looking forward to.

On bright crisp mornings when Sis. Vorwaller and I hike to the top of Patriarch Hill we are rewarded with the sweet taste of Blackberries which are now ripening faster than we can pick. I guess most people don't like getting scratched by their thorny stems but the harvest is worth it for us. Fresh Blackberries on oatmeal cereal is great with Vermont maple syrup. And I'm really excited about having Blackberry pie.

I have met the most interesting people here at the memorial. A few weeks ago I met a single woman and her young daughter at the monument. They didn't want a tour of the visitor's center but I told them about the monument and they told me that they were here to find a letterbox. This really piqued my couriosity so I asked her to tell me all about letterboxes and this is what I found out: Letterboxing is an intriguing pastime combining artistic ability with "treasure-hunts in parks, forests, and cities around the world. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by cracking codes and following clues. The prize: a miniature piece of art known as a rubber stamp--usually a unique, hand-carved creation.
Letterboxers stamp their discoveries in a personal journal, then use their own rubber stamp, called a signature stamp, by stamping it into the logbook found with the letterbox, perhaps writing a note about the weather or their adventures in finding the letterbox.
Clues and directions on where to find letterboxes can be found on the internet at www.atlasquest.com .
This is a picture of me finding my first letterbox and a picture using the stamp that Elder Vorwaller carved for me from a pink eraser to stamp in the logbook. The letterbox I found is on the memorial site, down by the Solomon Mack foundations.

August 8, we met some members of our South Royalton Ward, Randy and Amy Ferris and their daughters and Brother and Sister Oparowski in Pomfret, Vermont, at the Moorse Farm blueberry fields. It was a rainy day but we were able to arrive between showers. In less than an hour Craig and I had picked 13 pounds of delicious blueberries. This is the first time we have ever tasted fresh wild blueberries and it was such a treat not only to eat them, but to see how they grow and to pick them ourselves.

We are just catching up on some of the nice experiences that transpired during our busy summer. A most memorable event took place when our dear friends Steve and Deb paid us a visit and we were so glad they could stay with us for a couple nights. They were here with us last October when we talked with Elder McKinnon about the possibility of serving a mission here. We were so pleased to spend some time with them. We went to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory and they were introduced to a new favorite. We also visited my favorite fish hatchery in Roxbury to see beautiful Vermont Brook Trout.

Sister and Elder Sanford kindly invited us over for a Lobster dinner to celebrate her birthday. They showed us how to cook Lobster and how to eat them after cooking your own. It was a first for us and we found out that Sister Vorwaller loves Lobster as much or more than I. At least when it is home cooked. I doubt if she has ever had more enjoyment eating a meal. Now we're so looking forward to having Lobster in the Sanford's home state of Maine next month.