Ahh...life in West Virginia is very rural, very rustic, very close to nature and very wonderful! Here is evidence of some of the animals we see frequently.  These are two baby possums on the side of the road-no doubt hunting for lunch among the snowy leaves.  One morning last week I took a trash bag out the back door to the trash can in our small back yard and I am so glad I first glanced into what I thought was an empty trash can.  Nestled in the bottom of the standing trash can was a sleeping possum!  We have also seen a bear running up the mountain and deer everywhere.  Beautiful country!

Yes, winter has come to West Virginia.  This picture was taken last week after a couple of days of snow.  The colorful leaves have been replaced with glistening snow.  Another evidence of the lovely hand of nature!  Today, in the 7 o'clock hour it is already 30 degrees with the weatherman predicting a high in the 50's.  We are witnessing the up and down of the weather however.  By Sunday we are to again have snow with a high in the 30's.  We especially know that it is winter in our cute old house that has no insulation and is so cold all the time.  We do have base board heaters but it can't keep out the chill.  So I sit at the computer in the living room with warm socks, pants, long-sleeve shirt and a sweat jacket besides! 

My, how we enjoyed Thanksgiving!  We actually had family here...Vicky, our oldest daughter, John, Brandon, Josh, Alex and Mary...Brandon's girlfriend whom he baptized just two months ago.  Every meal was a HUGE production but sure loved the help, the great appetites and so much fun!  Indeed, we have much to be Thankful for!

 

Here is the proud grandpa, Elder McBean, with Brandon...smart, accomplished grandson who has submitted his papers to go on a mission.  Right after this picture, Brandon and Grandpa went to a missionary teaching appointment.
Very memorable evening!

 While Grandpa and John stayed home in the relatively warm house to watch football, Vicky and I headed into the mountains, borrowing sleds on the way...the kids wanted to play in the snow and they did!  Grand time for all!! 

The Carter Family with Grandpa and Grandma.  Thank you so much for driving the 400 + miles to spend the holiday with us!
In three weeks we will be driving the 400 miles to South Carolina to spend Christmas with them!
        Family...that's what it is all about!
We send our love to our other 11 children and other 18 grandchildren (which includes Scarlett born in September and will welcome Maci to be born later this month!)  We sure miss you all!!

 Yup!  West Virginia may be a Democrat State but they sure don't like the present Administration.  This sign was outside the door of a local business.  The economy here continues to suffer with all the government regulations that are slowly destroying the Coal Industry...#1 export for this State.  We daily hear of lay offs and see evidence of closed mines, closed businesses and deserted homes.  It is really quite sad.

This day we had quite an adventure.  To visit a family we drove 12 miles down a single lane gravel road and then had to park our car and walk across this 229.5 foot swinging bridge.  Then it was another 1/2 mile to the farmhouse.   :) 

Here are the mountains surrounding our little town of Webster Springs.  This was taken while on an early morning walk while the clouds were still sleeping among the beautiful trees.  We have never seen so many beautiful trees and so many varieties.  They average 1-2 days/week of some rain and it provides moisture needed for the lush forests that are everywhere.  Nothing is dry and brown like the mountains of Central Washington or Utah.  I can see why it is nick named: The Mountain State!

 

Here is evidence of Fall.  Lots of beautiful colors are everywhere.  The trees on the mountains are every shade of yellow to gold to orange to red.  I have never seen such a beautiful Fall.  With this comes a drop in temperature...it is now 40-50 during the day and in the 30's at night.  We are told that twice last winter they were without electricity for at least a week because the ice breaks the millions of tree limbs that fall all over the road and also break multiple power lines.  Hmmm....this could be an interesting season coming upon us!

I am now the Primary President meaning I am in charge of teaching the children age 3-11 for 2 hours every Sunday.  I have one counselor and hope to eventually have another counselor, secretary, chorister and teachers.  For now I teach two lessons and play the piano.  Wow!  We are also growing.  We started with 5 children and last Sunday we had 8!!  There are many more yet to activate.  We are having a great time!

We are teaching the Steele Family.  We sure do enjoy meeting with Diann and Dusty and their two sons, Dallas and Damon.  They live up in the mountains on 190 acres...mainly forest of course.  They have horses, chickens and dogs.  The boys spend most of their day...when not in school...outside and building lots of things that we get to see when we visit.

Here is a good 'ole West Virginia Wedding.  It is complete with suspenders, jeans and cowboy boots. Standing in the middle is the Branch President, Gary Palmer who married them.  Paul, the groom, will be baptized next Sunday.  It has been most enjoyable teaching him and family.  the food was sandwiches, salads and cupcakes.  This was indeed a great event that I was happy to make sandwiches for and be there for the happy couple.  We are indeed living the dream!!

 

 





 This has been our home for the first month.  On the right is the lovely home of President Hamrick and his sweet wife, Hope.  On the left is their renovated garage...large apartment...which was one large room that had bed, couches, small kitchen, bathroom and lots of miscellaneous "stuff".  It was great being next to this wonderful family...sharing dinners, tomatoes from their garden, enjoying the river in the back yard and having a place to actually do our missionary work.





Here is the most adventurous thing we have eaten...thus far...

Squirrel with squirrel gravy on fresh biscuits with corn and hash browns.  Not bad actually!  I especially love the fresh biscuits that we get everywhere!  YUM!!

Here is our church building in Cowen.  It is a phase one building that is very small but adequate for meeting on Sunday.  The Chapel is also the multi-purpose room depending on what day they put the needed furniture.

The Relief Society Room is about 6 feet across and the Primary room is the largest next to the chapel with about

8 -10 feet across and dividers to make 3 different classrooms when there are enough children.  Last week there were only three children!  We had 38 in Sacrament meeting yesterday.   

Now we are living here in town at the "Dotson House" in the middle of Webster Springs.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining room, kitchen, living room, screened in back porch and nice front porch.  All for only $350/month!  This lets you know how depressed the economy is in this once booming coal mining town.   We are happy to spread out although we miss the great neighbors we once had! Now I am 4 doors down from the gym, which is also across the street from the Post Office.  Good location.  Now look below for what is in the other direction down the street...

 

 

Here is a river across the street...have to go across a swinging bridge to get there...yup...3 minute walk from the house!

Here is one of the side streets (that is 2 blocks away-- still part of the middle of town!) that show the road going until it reaches the forest covered mountain.  Notice the low-hanging cloud...very common in this mountainous area. 

Here is the entrance to the Swinging Bridge.  It is suspended by cables and swings and rolls as you walk on it.  Something else new for us.  Again...this is in the middle of town. 

One recent development in this struggling economy:
Last week 75 coal miners were laid off at a nearby mine.
Another blow to this struggling economy. :(

We are temporarily staying with some wonderful people...the Hamricks...real southern hospitality!  This is what's in their back yard...the Elk River.  I am standing on a rock at the edge of the water.  It is so very beautiful here!

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This is one of the few major highways through West Virginia. 

It is very windy and that is what we would encounter in

the mountains where we will be living for the next 18 months.

As we made our way into West Virginia we passed through Amish Country in central Ohio.  What a pleasant, peaceful way of life.  Yes, there were horses and buggies all around.
Oh, and they make delicious cheese!

West Virginia is known as the Mountain State and is the 41st in size.  The total population for the state is 1,819,777.  We will be living in the town of Webster Springs with a population of 700-1000 people.  There is one medium-sized grocery store that is connected to Ace Hardware, a Rite-Aid drug store and a post office.  There are also several tiny stores that seem to struggle to stay open.  There is one fast food place...Subway...no theatres...no clothes shopping and just a real simple life style.  This town is considered in the middle of the Alleghany Mountains. Two-lane very windy roads connect the small towns and because you have to drive slowly they don't measure in miles but rather in time to get somewhere.  Directions are very interesting with "over the bridge, turn by the white barn and house is by the biggest oak tree around". Our church covers 100 mile diameter of members and we will put at least 500 miles on our car weekly.  We are finding members who are needy and haven't been attending as well as teaching lessons about the church to non-members.  This is such a wonderful way to serve and help 24/7!  We are so enjoying what we are doing. 

Well...it took us a week to go about 2,000 miles.  We sure do live in a beautiful country!  First night was in Rawlins, WY then on to Omaha, NB then to 2 nights in beautiful Nauvoo, IL.  He we spent some time with our dear friends from Yakima...the Thompsons.  Georgia is pictured to the right.
The area is beautiful...the Mississippi is very wide and everything is green and lovely.








Here is the Nauvoo Temple at night.  It is so sacred.  We were able to go inside and do a session.  So wonderful.  

From Nauvoo we headed North to Kirtland, Ohio and
enjoyed the sights there.  We also enjoyed seeing the
Amish people in central Ohio.  Beautiful country as well.

Here we are at the MTC in front of the World Map. What a thrill to be here!  There were 5 days of great instruction and practical work.  We so enjoyed it.  Facts:
2012 - Jan - Aug - 7,500 Miss. thru MTC
2013 - Jan - Aug - 17,000 Miss. thru MYC
There are 50,000 members who are in the process of submitting their papers to serve a mission!  We are so excited and privileged to be a part of this great work!

Here is the Provo MTC. Acres and acres of buildings to train the Army of Missionaries that go through here.  The cafeteria is run by BYU and it is huge and delicious!

Here we are with our wonderful Elder Finch.

Receiving the Call from the Lord

We have been called to the West Virginia, Charleston Mission.  We are to report to the Provo MTC on August 5th.  we are both very, very excited to be able to serve the Lord 24/7! We are so very humbled to be considered worthy to represent the Lord.  Our specific calling is to Member and Leadership Support.  We can hardly wait!

 Here I am in paradise enjoying children and grandchildren and thinking of all the things I should be doing at home... packing up the house, cleaning, getting cars ready to sell, buying a new car, helping Arnold organize himself and all of his projects so we can be finished by the end of July.  So for now everything is on paper as I enjoy this beautiful scenery here at ward camp with Kathy and family.

Here is Arnold doing his favorite thing: trimming trees while I am playing in the sun in Hawaii.  He is deep into his many projects with rentals, rebuilding the truck, putting in a sprinkler system, redoing the bathroom, and all of this to be finished before we leave for our mission.  He doesn't worry about getting it all done, but I do.  In any event, he will have to be finished by August 3rd.