Week 37--May 3-9, 2020

President Love announced in the devotional Sunday morning that 140 reassigned missionaries will be arriving in the next few weeks. That will be doubling the number of missionaries serving in the Missouri Independence Mission,

The first of the tulip blossoms on the Tulip Tree in the cemetery.

This week we changed unions and became the Flower Planting Workers' Union, These are the flowers that need to be planted at Independence Visitors' Center, Far West, Richmond Pioneer Cemetery, and Liberty Jail.  Tuesday our job was to dig up the tulips at the Visitors' Center and plant flowers in the planter boxes.

 As we looked at the sea of plants in front of us the thought came, "How do you eat an elephant?" Our thought now is, "How do you plant a sea of plants?" The answer is, "One plant at a time."

 The tulips have to be dug before these flowers can be planted. Sister Cannon is ready to dig.

Tom is planting in one of the 68 planters around the Independence Visitors' Center that need to be done.

President Cannon carries the flat of flowers and Mark Dinning drops the plant where it needs to be planted.

Tom planting.

 Elder Brown.

Sister Brown.

 Sister Cannon

Let's see where should I drop this one? (These are called Dusty Millers)

 Garnalee planting.

One of the 68 planter boxes is done. We expect this will be an ocean of color when these young plants get bigger.  We'll take new pictures in a couple of weeks.

 Checking the planters on the east side of the center.

Wait! I'm locked in. Oh, there is a crash bar. I didn't know.

Wednesday morning we were at Far West. Elder Larsen, Tom, and President Cannon are busy getting the plants in the ground.

Sister Larsen.

Mark is dropping as Elder Brown carries the flat of flowers.

Sister Brown.

One of the two flower beds at Far West is completed.

 The afternoon found us the Richmond Pioneer Cemetery where the Three Witnesses Monument is located. Also Oliver Cowdery is buried here.

We planted all coleuses here.

Sister Cannon is dropping plants.

 That one can go right there.

Garnalee planting.

 Tom planting.

One of the beds is done.

 How many elders does it take to get the sprinkler turned on.

Punxsutawney Phil stuck his head out. Yep! It's planting season!

After completing the planting at Richmond we drove to the grave site of Hiram Page who was one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. His grave is on the side of a dirt road. He died in a wagon accident. The ground where he is buried was part of his daughter's farm. We think the grave was originally in a field but over time the boundaries changed  and now the grave is on side of the road. It is the only grave located here.

We all gathered for a picture at the grave site.

Elder Larsen, Sister Larsen, Sister Brown, Elder Brown, Elder Harrington, Sister Harrington, and Sister Cannon. President Cannon took the picture.

Thursday morning we were at Liberty Jail. Elder Harrington and  elder Larsen planting.

Sister Brown

 Sister Larsen

Front: Mark Dinning and President Cannon.
Middle: Sister Brown and Elder Larsen.
Back: Sister Cannon, Elder Brown, and Elder Harrington.

The front flower bed is completed.

One of the side flower beds with new hostas plants and New Guinea Impatiens. We were all sore after three days of planting flowers. We are glad we get the weekend to recover before we finish the job on Monday.

On our Zoom conference call on Thursday (May 7th) afternoon, Gary Boatright, the managing director of  the Church History Department, came in his Star Wars Storm Trooper costume. It was a carryover from three days earlier when he was able to say, "May the 4th, be with you!"