One of the most enjoyable and meaningful experiences of our mission includes the family of Ken and Nancy Sypher. We met them the first month we were at the Memorial. Sister Sypher along with their two sons are members of the South Royalton Ward and their greatest desire is for Ken to enter the waters of baptism. He has overcome a great deal of opposition and has made amazing progress. I'm grateful I could be with the Elders when Ken commited to be baptized before our mission was completed. We were able to be in the Sypher's home each of the last three weeks and enjoyed a marvelous evening and dinner with them and their boys our last weekend here. Ken and Nancy are true Vermonters and will always be dear friends.

We grew to love John and Evelyn Gant during the course of Shelly's Lace class. John and I had so many good visits about many subjects where we enjoyed common ground or common interest. One of those was "Sugaring"and I was thrilled to have him take me with him to his neighbor's sugarhouse to observe and learn all about making maple syrup. It was called the Putnamville Sugarworks.

Even though this picture will remind our family and others of bottles of honey like we have extracted in the past this is actually our harvest of maple syrup that we boiled down from the sap we collected from four taps over a ten day period. We ended up cooking four batches. It was a once in a lifetime experience we enjoyed immensely. We are so pleased we took advantage of the opportunity and we were successful in making delicious pure Vermont maple syrup.

We ended up making maple sugar on our first try but our next batch turned out much better. We took it to our F.H.E. and learned from more experienced syrup makers in our group that it was grade A fancy syrup but just a little bit thin. So we boiled it down further with our next batch which was around four gallons of sap and finshed with three pints of beautiful medium amber syrup. We did the mayor part of the boiling on the BBQ behind the residence at the Memorial and finished the boiling and straining at our apartment. We think we'll have time to cook one more batch before we leave for home and end up with about half a gallon of homemade Pure Vermont Maple Syrup.

It was foggy when Bro. Gilman and I started collecting sap from the sugarbush on the farm where he is the caretaker. The farm is actually the one located at the top of Patriarch Hill which we see when we hike and we have pictures of in every season. Sugarbush is the term used to refer to the stand of maple trees being tapped. I had such a great time out in the woods enjoying this age old enterprise. We gathered 300 gallons of sap from which they will only get about 8 gals. of syrup when it's boiled down thus we are realizing why pure maple syrup is so expensive.

I have always loved real Maple Syrup and being here in Vermont allowed me the opportunity to have the "Sugaring" experience for myself. Our neighbor let me tap two of his sugar maple trees when it warmed up enough to get the sap running. I used a sap bucket and lid we bought at the Morse Sugarhouse last fall and another bucket and lid that the Jensens had bought. I just used milk jugs for the two taps I put in the second tree.

One of the neatest experiences of our mission resulted from our meeting Evelyn Gant at the Tunbridge History Expo. Sister Vorwaller has been taking lace making lessons from her on our prep days throughout the winter. It has been very challenging but she hasn't given up and she is doing amazingly well with very few lessons. I've really enjoyed getting to know Evelyn's husband John while being in their home as she is having her two hour lesson that usually lasts longer. John and I have enjoyed visiting about any and every subject. We have much in common and lots of similar interests.

We are pleased we get to attend the Temple while on our mission and finally got down to the Boston Temple with Elder and Sister Jensen on a bitter cold day the end of January but it was mild enough to eat a lunch on the temple grounds when we went to the temple on Elder and Sister Sanfords anniversary March the seventh.

We didn't get many visitors on this snowy Sunday.

Pictured here is the adorable "Chicken Quilt" Sis. Sanford made for her granddaughter which Sis. Vorwaller loved quilting.

You can see how happy I am to put on my new pair of snowshoes which I was thrilled to find at a consignment store in Woodstock. We had just watched how they made them on T.V. and I liked the old type and thought they would work better for me which was confirmed when I used them. Now we look forward to snowshoeing back home. It will be a fun and enjoyable way for us to hike in the winter.

On January 17th we bid farewell to Elder and Sister McKinnon and welcomed our new director Elder Mitchell and his wife who are also from Utah Co. The change created more opportunities to keep busy during the slower winter months. That's my excuse for not blogging for awhile.