What a wonderful weekend. General Conference is always a major uplift and this one was no exception. The week was a little slow for missionary work. Tuesday George got really sick and spent most of the day in bed. Once as he started for the bathroom, he fainted and landed in a heap on the bedroom floor. Fortunately Ruth was close by and was able to divert his fall some so he didn't hit his head on the rocking horse at the foot of the bed. However, in breaking his fall she hurt her knee and wrenched her back some. George experienced the dry heaves and finally had Ruth call the doctor who prescribed some medicine. It seems like it must have been the flu and it took most of the week to get over the effects. We are determined to get the flu shot soon and avoid future events like this.
Wednesday Ruth found a sister to go with her to a lesson and George found a sub for an appointment he had to take a fellow to a meeting with his bishop.
  Thursday we went to the funeral of Bro. Baxter. He was a great man who died last week. His two sons told some events that were really nearly unbelievable. After working and teaching school he decided his two boys needed something to teach them how to work. He put a claim into the Canadian Government for 10,000 acres in the wilderness. They approved 640 acres and in order to make improvements that were required to keep the claim alive, he decided to take the boys to Canada and fence the property. That was four miles of fencing. They bought the material and had to cross a river which was especially challenging with 100 pound bales of barbed wire with a twenty foot deep river to ford. They finally got the fencing material across the river and built the fence while defending themselves against moose, bear, deer, and elk. It was a summer of camping and hard work. After some time he sold that property and then he decided to buy another property in Canada. This property had been developed with a home and some fence but not all fenced. The seller said there was a house on the property occupied by a manager but that it would be empty by time they arrived. Well, not only was in not empty, the manager was determined to stay and shot a rifle at them as they approached. Bro. Baxter was not deterred and ordered cattle and machinery and began having things delivered to the ranch amid the continuing gunfire. Finally the manager left to get somethings in town and the new owners fell trees across the road and took over the house. Confrontations with wildlife were always a threat but they miraculously survived. Later the younger son took a creative writing class in school and wrote about some of those experiences. His teacher told the family that he had the biggest imagination she had ever seen.
  That evening we were happy to join members of our ward in an adult social. It had been a long time since we had enjoyed that opportunity. It was a great evening. Friday was a good missionary day as we were able to make several visits to families ward mission leaders had given us. One fun time was a family  with three boys. The youngest boy is a babe in arms but the other two boys were excited to talk with us about family history and share things about their lives.
  As mentioned at the beginning, General Conference is always a shot in the arm. It was a historic conference in which three new apostles were appointed to replace three who had died since the last conference. Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund were appointed to take the places of Elder Perry, Elder Packer and Elder Scott who died just twelve days ago. Many of the speakers during this conference talked about these three departed servants of the Lord. Elder Hales who has been ailing for some time was able to speak on Saturday. Pres. Monson spoke at Priesthood meeting and then in the session this morning. He really seemed to be struggling by the end of his talk but he fought through and bore a strong testimony of the great work of the Lord in our day.