Week 22--January 19-25, 2020

We had the opportunity to attend the baptism of Faith Scribner who was baptized into our Ward on Wednesday.

Pictured: Sister Holdeman, Faith, and Sister Emma Smith.

On our P-Day this week we visited the Truman Home. It was the childhood home of Harry S. Truman's wife, Bess Wallace. When Harry S. Truman and Elizabeth Virginia "Bess" Wallace were married in 1919 they moved into this home. The home was built by Bess' father. Harry and Bess had known each other since childhood as they attended the same school in Independence.

 Tom in the kitchen area. The refrigerator is the original and was used by the Trumans. They ate breakfast at the table each morning. All of the furnishings are original. They were in the house when the house was willed to the United States Government at the death of Bessie in 1982.

Garnalee standing at the double sink.

Do you remember the rotary phones. This one was located in the hallway.   Our guide tried the number noted on the face, but it is "no longer in service."

The formal dining room where they would have entertained guests.

This was a wedding gift from Bess's parents. In the top dish are marbles that one of the grandsons was found putting down the heat vent.

The library in the Truman home. Bess loved to read mysteries, especially those by Agatha Christie. Harry would read five newspapers a day to make sure he got both sides of the story.

The grand piano located in the music room. The piano was given to their daughter, Margaret, for Christmas when she was eight. She had hoped to receive an electric train set and was very disappointed to receive the piano.. Harry played the piano also.

Official portrait of Bess Truman that hung in the White House. It was shipped to Independence by accident when Harry left the White House. A copy was made for the Truman's but the original stayed in the house. Bess did not enjoy the social and political scene in Washington. At the end of Harry's term in 1953, she was relieved to return to Independence. They would often take their evening meals in the summer on the  back porch. She holds the record as the longest lived First Lady and Second Lady at 97 years 247 days.

Margaret Truman, the only daughter of Harry and Bess Truman. She was an American classical soprano, actress, journalist, radio and television personality, writer, and New York socialite. 

The living room that saw many famous men sitting here visiting with Harry.

Harry S. Truman made three very hard decisions while he was President: Soon after succeeding to the presidency upon the death of Franklin D.Roosevelt, he authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 he authorized the sending of troops to Korea. In 1948, Truman made the controversial decision to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces. Truman is ranked by some as the 5th greatest president of the United States. .

The top coats, hat, and canes of Harry S. Truman still hang in the entry way.

The house across the street from the Truman home where the Secret Service resided.  Today it serves as a bed and breakfast.

The Noland home, also located across the street from the Wallace home. This was the home of Harry's uncle and aunt. The story is told that a cake plate needed to be returned to the Wallace home across the street. Harry quickly grabbed the plate and dashed across the street to return the plate. However his real motive was to see Bess. After a nine year courtship they were married in 1919.

Understandably, the fact that a citizen of Independence, Missouri, became president of the United States is a great source of pride for the city.  Many streets and buildings are named in his honor.

This is not the first snow we have had this winter, however, the other snow storms had wind with them . This snow fall left the snow on the trees creating a beautiful winter scene.  This photo was taken from our third floor balcony.

We have a missionary from Guatemala living in our apartment building. This is the little snowman she built. We think she would have made it bigger but here companion was probably ready to go inside after a long day out in the snow.















Wendy had carpal tunnel surgery on her right wrist Friday morning.  The surgery seems to have gone well, but we won't know for sure for a week or two.  She's in our prayers.

We had the opportunity to go on team ups twice with the missionaries this week. One was on Friday night to a Spanish speaking woman who is taking lessons from the sister missionaries. Only Sister Villegas speaks Spanish and they needed someone else to go with them. We were happy to oblige and Tom got to use his Spanish skills. The woman works on Sundays and is not able to attend church. The missionaries invited her to fast and then take her problem to the Lord seeking His guidance and help.

The other one was on Saturday afternoon. The missionaries wanted someone who could give their investigator a ride to church on Sunday. We agreed to go and then to give him a ride on Sunday. The missionaries were teaching the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness.The missionaries explained about our pre-mortal life, the creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, our life on earth, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the spirit world, resurrection, judgment, and the three degrees of glory. Garnalee and Tom were able to add several personal experiences that added to the lesson. He is a widower whose wife passed away 12 years ago. Several things the missionaries said answered questions he had.

Also of note this past week was the KC Chief football team.  They play in the Superbowl next Sunday (February 2) against the San Francisco 49ers.  KC hasn't been to the Superbowl in 50 years. Go Chiefs!

Saturday night was Stake Priesthood Meeting.  All three members of the Stake Presidency spoke.  President Cato was pretty blunt about how we Priesthood holders should be dressing, grooming, and behaving. Tom wrote several pages in his journal from the notes he took. 

Week 21--January 12-18, 2020

On Sunday, January 12, we had our Ward Conference. We were combined with the Independence 1st Ward. The turn out was low due to the snow storm on Saturday. President Cato, our Stake President spoke. He quoted 1 Corinthians 3:16 and encouraged all of the members to take better care of their bodies and follow the Word of Wisdom. As we care for our bodies we can feel the Holy Ghost. He had attended three funerals in our Stake recently, and all three deaths were from preventable illnesses.

On Wednesday, January 14, we recognized the tender mercies of the Lord in the lives of several people. We had talked about going to the movie but decided not tonight. At about 7:45 pm we received a call from Sisters Smith and Flint asking if we could give them a ride over to a sister's home to comfort her as her best friend had passed that day. We quickly said yes. When we arrived at the sister's home it was 8 pm and we told the sisters we would wait for them so we could get them back to their apartment on time. While we were waiting in the car, Sister Smith called and asked if we could come into the home so Elder Harrington could a comfort blessing to the sister which we did.

Now to explain the tender mercies. If we had gone to the movie we wouldn't have been available to take the sisters. The sisters had a dinner appointment at 6:30 pm, but it was moved up making them available to go to the sister's home to comfort her. Because it was 8 pm when we arrived at the sister's home we decided to just wait rather than go back home and then come back to pick up the sisters. Because we waited Elder Harrington was readily available to give a blessing for which the sister was very appreciative.

We are blessed to be serving this mission.

On Thursday we had Sisters Smith and Holdeman over for dinner. They were sad last month when we had the elders for dinner and served them lasagna. So I made lasagna for them. After dinner we discussed President Nelson's invitation about the Restoration and watched the video "Ask of God: Joseph Smith's First Vision." After the sisters left we went to see the movie "Little Women." It is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. We enjoyed it very much.

On Friday we had another freezing rain storm so the Visitors' Centers were closed. We stayed home all day. We have another storm coming next week. We will see what happens with this storm. We had a very mild December, and everyone kept staying, "Wait until January!" They were right.

As a side note, since this is typed on Sunday night, the Kansas City Chiefs won the AFC championship against the Tennessee Titans (35-24), so they are headed to the Super Bowl on February 2. This the first time in 50 years that they have been in the Super Bowl. We think things will be pretty crazy around here for the next few weeks. 

Week 20--January 5-11, 2020

We had a New Year's Party with the sister missionaries. They gave out plate awards to everyone. Our award was "The Best Counted Cross Stitcher" because Tom has been making these cute counted cross stitch souvenirs for the sisters we serve with at the two visitors' centers. He asked Sister Mickelson to create the pattern, and voila.













He has also been busy making these counted cross stitch of Liberty Jail.

















We had a big rain, freezing rain, and snow event on Friday and Saturday. The centers were closed on Saturday. We hunkered down and stayed home.

These pictures came from some of the other senior couples. They represented our day very well.

We definitely felt like we were the frozen man.


With the shortened week because of the weather, we didn't have much going on this week.  Today we didn't have a single visitor, so we spent our shift studying.





We celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary this week. We have had seventeen wonderful years in which we have grown and had many exciting adventures together. We are looking forward to many more wonderful years.

An update from last week's blog. After we sent the blog out with the name of the new senior couple we are serving with, we discovered that they are related to Chad's wife. A small world!










  

Week 19--December 29, 2019-January 4, 2020

Just before Christmas the Marchants arrived as Historic Sites missionaries. We are glad they are here. They came from the Park City, Utah area.
















This week visited the  Bingham-Waggoner Masion and Estate which sits on 19 acres of land near Independence Square in Independence, MO. This museum home, with more than 90% original furnishings, carpets and paintings, provides insights into the lifestyle of its wealthy 19th century residents. The home was built just west of where the Santa Fe Trail begins. The first owner was George Caleb Bingham who was an artist and politician.  He had very strong feelings about the Civil War. One of his most famous was is of General Order No. 11 which was a Union Army directive issued during the Civil War forcing the evacuation of rural areas of western Missouri regardless of their allegiance.
Many of his paintings were hanging throughout the house.

Tom and our guide going up the walk to the mansion.

One of the paintings from George Caleb Bingham. This painting was titled "The Jolly Flatboat  Men in Port."












In 1879 the Waggoners purchased the Estate. The Waggoner family were nationally known millers of flour.

Their "Queen of the Pantry" was considered the very best in baking and cake flours. Three generations of Waggoners occupied the house for 100 years. In 1979, a group of private citizens, in cooperation with the City of Independence, purchased the home for a museum and park.

Ladies spittoon. 

Bench to the pump organ below that still worked. 

Our guide played the pump organ for our tour.

Tom standing by the grandfather clock that still worked. 

 The lights throughout the house were both gas and electric. This light was over the dining room table.

The light switch was double level. The upper buttons turned the lights on and the lower buttons turned them off.

 The icebox in the house occupied a large space where a considerable amount of meat and/or produce could be kept cool.

 A child's room in the house.

 All of the pictures were hung on picture rails. This feature allowed the owner to move pictures at will without worrying about nails in the walls

All of the rooms were also decorated with a border mural. If is was a man's room then the mural was more masculine.

 This game, called Zimmer's Base Ball Game from 1893, was found in one of the rooms when the mansion was purchased. This game is considered the "holy Grail" of baseball board games. It was like a pinball game. It had the pictures of early baseball players including Cy Young. This is one of only three known to exist.

The carriage house of the mansion.