Christmas Greetings and other stuff!

 I know this is an opening shock to my update but it's our way of saying hello to each of you and wishing you a wonderful Christmas. I realize it has been over a month since my last blog update but it took me awhile to accumulate some pictures for you all and we have also been very busy around here. You realize serving a mission is not all bon-bons and naps. Naps? What the heck are those. Oh yeah, we get one about once a week. They are actually not called naps they are called crashing after work one night and stalling the preparation of dinner with our eyes closed.

 In November we were able to get permission from our Mission President to travel to Anna's to help out for a week after the arrival of their new baby. It's not hard to get permission but they don't encourage it very often as we have a different purpose for these 18 months. I don't actually think help is the right word as that would imply a bit of difficulty. We really suffered as you can tell from the above picture. It was a wonderful week and we loved every minute of it. It was great to be with little Grayson, Adeline, Eli, and Anna and Stratton in North Carolina.

 Introducing Eli Everett Allen. He is a wonder and we love him already!

 We are up early each day and since the Martin Harris house faces east we are blessed with beautiful sunrises most every morning as we depart for work. I just had to get a picture of it this morning. I keep the camera in my pocket much to Elder Nagel's dismay as I am often shouting at him to pull over so I can get a picture of some such thing or another. Actually, he makes sure I have the camera just in case we see something cool. We will probably get ourselves killed one day, but we will have great pictures!

 This was one such day for getting killed. I am fascinated with the farms here. I have such respect for farmers and all the work it takes to provide us all with food. We just had to stop and record the harvesting of this corn crop. This was taken by the field in front of the Branch we attend in Hornell.

 Sister Frost, one of the other FM employees and I were assigned to decorate the sites for Christmas this year. Now let me just start with telling you I usually drag my feet just doing my own so decorating three sites was not on my wish list for the day. Duty calls though so we all lugged and tugged boxes and trees and more from yonder attics and basements. Needless to say it was an exhausting day but I have to admit quite satisfying as well. The above photo is from the Grandin building as is the picture below with the Nativity in the window.

 When I was setting up this Nativity I was crawling around on the floor and at one point took a little rest sitting on the floor. I was looking at the original floor boards with the square nail heads and just sat pondering the people that walked these floors. As some of you know the Grandin building is where the first 5000 copies of the Book Of Mormon were published. I love this building. To think that Joseph, Hyrum, Oliver, Martin,  maybe Lucy, Joseph Sr. and others walked here really touched my heart and made me so grateful I was sitting there. Felt for a moment like a time traveler. I became grateful for the assignment that brought me there that day.

 This tree is in the Welcome Center to the Joseph Smith farm.

 I loved this nativity. It was part cloth part ceramic and is very beautiful. especially the camel.

 This tree is at the Visitors Center to the Hill Cumorah. One of the Senior Sister site missionaries is sitting next to it. She is Sister Miller. When we travel around to the different sites there is always a senior couple there. We love seeing them and visiting with them for a few minutes. They are all so nice and fun to be with.

 I bet Joseph and Mary wish they could have traveled like this to Bethlehem. Bill had the job of working with other FM employees and Elder Frost to set up the two large nativity sets that are at the Visitors center and the Temple. I guess they were very heavy and it took a bunch of the guys to accomplish the job. Bill had the dubious job of carrying the back end of the donkey,,mmmmm boy could I make a few comments on that one.....

 Elder Frost, Elder Nagel, Derek, Geoffrey, Mary Joseph and baby Jesus, and Rick. (can't forget the donkey and sheep)

 On the odd jobs list. There was a bunch of art work at the Toomey barns that had to be shipped back to Salt Lake City. Sister Frost and I inventoried it all and the guys had to crate it up. This sculpture was so heavy it took a fork lift to get it in place.

 The above beams are the floor beams in the basement of the Joseph Smith frame house. As you can see there is a lot of mold growing on them which needed to come off. Enter Elder and Sister Nagel. We had to wash all the beams with Clorox and water. It was a creepy job with all the cob webs (not your kind of job Sarah) and dust and who knows what else. It took us about one and a half hours to do the job and as you can tell by Bill's expression was not a pleasant one. The one solace is that working there reminded me of the knowledge that Alvin Smith helped build this house. I liked thinking about that.

 Frame house second story.

 Lathe work and plaster work on the second story.

 While we were at the frame house, after we finished the basement we decided to check out the second story. It is closed to the tours and the door is screwed shut. We had had a report of a light being left on up there so used that as an excuse to go investigate. I love the construction of these historical homes. I marvel at what it took to construct them with no power tools. The pioneers were amazing. Then to again think of the actual people who built this house just makes it extra special to see.

 Now this was one of my favorite adventures to date. At the Palmyra stake center there is a beautiful pipe organ. The pipes are all up above the rostrum. It is a beautiful building. One day when we were at the Stake center for a meeting, as I was sitting there in between speakers I found myself wondering how people get up there to work on the organ parts? I decided that the next time we had a work order over there I would check it out. After all, we do have the keys to the kingdom so what the heck!?

 There are three locked doors that finally give access. The first one is right by the rostrum. It leads to a long hallway that runs the width of the building. Then there is another door at one end of that hall. We opened it to see a small closet like space with a ladder attached to the wall. It leads up to a small landing and another small door. Inside these pictures are what you see. It was sooooo neat. The picture of Bill below shows him climbing the ladder up to the platform. If you look real close to the picture above you can see Bill's hand waving between the big pipes. I was standing down on the rostrum. There are tons of these pipes and each one has this allen wrench thing on them I assume for tuning them. Can you imagine that job? We didn't dare touch a single thing as I would guess we would get a one way ticket home but it was so cool to see it all. Imagine what it looks like at the Tabernacle?

 You can just see the little door leading to the pipes. We were so glad we had the camera.... and the keys!

 We had our work Christmas luncheon yesterday. It was really nice. Bill and I went into Rochester to the Dinosaur BBQ to pick up the feast. We all had a nice lunch together then had a safety meeting afterwards that is required each year. As you can see by our above antics, we probably needed it.

 Sister Frost decorated the table for us. This is where we have our daily morning meeting before we are off to complete work orders.

 You know you are true missionaries when you break out the Kraft Mac and cheese for dinner. It was one of those days. I am grateful that I have a wonderful husband who will eat most anything and not complain. It actually tasted pretty good. Threw in some applesauce just to quell my conscience.

And finally, our little Christmas tree at our apartment. It is about 12" tall and we made the little gold star on top at the wood shop. I strung popcorn last night and voila! our lovely little tree. It's real and both Sis. Frost and I plan to try and plant them somewhere around here. We may have to keep it alive until spring but we will see.
What a blessing it is to be here. We are so grateful. To be serving at the very place where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove is a joy beyond expression. We hope all of you rediscover the joy of the season as we celebrate Christ's birth. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you all for your love, prayers, letters, and support as we continue on this wonderful journey.  Much love, Elder and Sister Nagel