Cape May at Dusk

 Yesterday we needed to go down to Cape May, New Jersey.  It all started innocently enough...We needed to take a phone to 2 Sisters in Woodstown, NJ and bikes to Elders in Vineland.  So we contacted the Senior Couple near Cape May and they were overjoyed to have company.  They are very isolated and have been out on their mission long enough that they are missing the association of other couples.  Anyway, we opted to go on our P-day to take care of this.  As it turned out, the Mission President did not want the Elders to have bikes--they will be closing down some areas next week and that will make a car available.
That is safer, as there are no shoulders on roads in this area.  By that time we decided not to disappoint the Senior Couple (The Johnsons) so we would go and take the phone and see them.  We had a party of 6 to go.  Saturday morning another couple wanted to join us, so we ended up taking a Mission van and away we went.  The people in the back of the van got an extra thrill from the thousands of potholes we encountered along the way.  We enjoyed seeing the Johnsons and we kidnapped the Sister Missionaries there and took them to lunch with us at the Lobster House.  I had monk fish and dad had stuffed shrimp.  I also enjoyed a bowl of lobster bisque--delicious!  We had a cold Atlantic wind blowing, but we braved the local attractions and shopping for a brief time.  Below are pictured, left to right, Jones', Holloways, Carrs, and Johnsons.
Smuins were the photographers.  We are pictured at the site of the WW II bunker on the beach.

 We finished our sight-seeing at the perfect time.  We pulled into the parking lot at Sunset Beach just as the sun was sinking into the Atlantic.  Great photo.  What you cannot see is that all of the people on the beach were clapping when the sun disappeared.

Some highlights of our week:

• Teaching the Dixon's.  This family has been through a lot and Wednesday night we had a very tender experience with them as the father related the passing of his wife and doing her temple work and what he wanted for his children.  Elder Jones also got to teach Wendy with the Elders.
• A break in the weather.  Friday it rained quite a bit and big chunks of ice fell loudly from the eaves around the office.
• Hearing about some of the interesting experiences of our mission president and his wife.  They are so very busy taking care of the missionaries in this area.  Their phones seem to always be ringing...
• Realizing again and again how very blessed we are to be on this mission with each other.  It truly is a blessing to serve together.
• Feeling Heavenly Father bless us as we try to better comprehend how best to do our assignments at the mission office.  Elder Jones is learning lots about the new computer system to track all of the mission cars.  Sister Jones learned this week that she will need to learn to handle the finance secretary position at the office when the Smuins go home in May.  
• Today the Mission Presidency was meeting, so President Hakes was at our ward.  He mentioned that he lived as a child in Lehi.  I mentioned that my great-great-grandfather had settled that town and he immediately responded with "you are related to David Evans--so am I!"  It is a very small world...