July 7, 2019 - As we celebrated the 4th of July this past week, I am reminded of the prophecies in the Book of Mormon:
And this land shall be a land of liberty
A land of promise
A land which is choice above all other lands
And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper
We are so blessed to live in this land of freedom.

And Happy Birthday to my Grandpa, James Roy Moore - he was born July 4, 1891. (Sadly, he is long gone - he passed away while I was on my mission in 1973.)

As a service project in the branch we helped John erect his flag pole.

Everette and John - 2 Marines enjoying our flag.
We went to Norwood, a small town outside of Massena and enjoyed a night of fireworks on the 4th of July. I dearly love small town fireworks, they are always so awesome.

In case you didn't get enough fireworks, watch this video for the mid-finale of the Norwood fireworks display. (This happened about halfway into the program and was like ten times better that the ending finale - not sure why they did it this way.)

On Saturday, July 6th, they had a big golf tournament at the course across the street from our apartment. I walked down to see what was going on and if you look closely, you can see all the tubes on the lower part of the picture that are set up to launch the fireworks. And I couldn't resist the beautiful setting sun on the St Lawrence River.
We were able to sit on our back porch and enjoy another night of fireworks.
As we were visiting a member of our Branch, I notice a very unique flower pot - it's made out of an old tire!
Carrie and Karen. Carrie just won her 2nd term as Chief Judge for the St Regis Mohawk Tribe. She invited us to attend the swearing in ceremony.
Barbara and Cecil - Carrie's VERY proud parents.
Sisters Wiese and Oleson were also able to attend - it was on our Preparation Day.
Carrie was sworn in and then she later swore in the other winning candidates. Carrie received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, her law degree from Stanford and a master's of public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

This young tribal member who attend's the Tribe's Akwesasne Freedom School (AFS) recites the closing address in Mohawk. Through the ongoing efforts of parents, families and the larger Mohawk Nation community, AFS has played a critical role in the formation of Mohawk identity, citizenship, and nationhood for about 40 years, extending even beyond those who attend the school and into the next generations of Mohawk leadership.

After the closing remarks, the Honor Song was performed.

Cecil helping his wife Barbara to go to the luncheon. The beautiful building in the background is the Tribe's new Administration Building.
We found this poster that showed when Cecil was one of the Sub-Chiefs of the the Tribe. His dad also served as the Tribal Clerk. As a side note, Phillip R Cook in the upper left corner, is related to a family friend of Sister Oleson.
Of course, Sisters Wiese and Oleson have found joy while serving their missions.
We found another sign that you don't see in Spokane - Turtle Crossing. We had been down this street many times and never seen the sign - we realized that the sign is hinged in the middle and they only open it up when the turtles come out to lay their eggs.
Turtle eggs that were found out at the Nature Center. Unfortunately for the turtles, predators have dug up the eggs and eaten the insides, leaving behind only the empty shells. They tell us that's why the turtles lay 25 or more eggs - because a lot of the eggs and baby turtles don't survive.
We cleaned out two excess apartments this past week, one in Liverpool and one in Carthage. The complement of missionaries assigned to the New York Syracuse Mission has been reduced, so we now have vacant apartments that have to be cleaned out and cleaned up and given back to the Landlords. Elder's Allen, Henrie and Gardner were awesome help. Of course I supervised and they did all the work! They got rewarded with Chic-fil-A. 

One monkey jumping on the bed: We needed to make room for everything in the dumpster, so Elder Allen volunteered to help squish everything down.

We had to take a little trip to the hospital this week - fortunately, we drove to the hospital and got there just in time to see a helicopter ambulance land.
Everette was having a hard time standing and seemed confused, so we out voted him and I took him to the hospital. Thank goodness, it wasn't something super serious. He had gotten dehydrated. They ran a bunch of tests which were all negative. But in the meantime, they hooked him up to an IV of Saline and when he got a bottle of that in him, he totally perked up and returned to being his normal outgoing, happy person.

Be grateful for our free nation. Thank someone who has served our country in the military and do something nice for them. Freedom is not free - it has been bought and paid for. God has prepared this land for His purposes - join in and share His message with someone this week.