Pageant is over for another year

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today is L’Erin’s 20th Birthday. I want to wish her a fun & Happy Day.

She had her tonsils out recently so is recuperating form that. I hear that she is on the mend -
so that’s good!

Anenn (Joe) Steele's birthday was this month also. I haven't heard from him lately but look forward to hearing from him soon. His summer is a really busy one!

Well, the pageant is over & we are recuperating for that. We had over 50,800 visitors this year. It was fun having Karyl Lee & RaNae and Skip & Roberta here as pageant volunteers. We didn’t have as much time to visit as we had hoped but loved what time we could spend together. We were able to work in a trip to Wal-Mart each day - lol! Skip & Roberta were assigned to the Whitmer Farm with Elder & Sister Hamblin (aka: Donna & Ray) so had to travel 2 extra hours each day to accomplish their service. Needless to say they just fell into bed each night, exhausted! RaNae & Karyl Lee were assigned with us at the Grandin Press, the Book of Mormon Publication Site. We were able to enjoy each other at dinner time & during the evening hours. We kept the neighbors awake late into the evening laughing & giggling at Skip & each other. We were dead tired when we finally call it a night but loved every minute. We did enjoy a night out on the Columbia Bell on the 21st. It was a dinner cruise (15 miles on the Erie Canal) & also Skip & Robert’s wedding anniversary. It was a good way to end our time together. Sure hated to see ever one leave!! It’s so quiet now!

Elder Bennett (aka: Gary) wrote this for our letter:
The pageant went really well even though the numbers that attended were down about a third from last year. Our responsibility was the Grandin Building. This is the place were the Book Of Mormon was printed and bound. We averaged a little over a 1000 visitors a day. Thank goodness for the Sisters and the voluntary senior couples we could not have take care of so many people with out their help.
Things went quite smoothly except for a couple of incidents . Friday, the next to the last day of the pageant, we were awaken by our neighbor at 5:30 AM telling us that our license plates on our car had been stolen. We hurried, got dressed and went out to look. Out of 6 cars that was parked out front 5 were missing their plates. Only the car that had New York Plates still had their plates. We thought that some one had taken them so that they could put them on their car and go into a gas station and full up then skip with out paying. But the next night over at the Palmyra Inn any car that had Utah plates were stolen. So we decided that is must have been the protesters of the Pageant that had taken them to harass us. The same people that protest at General Conference. In New York you can't drive your car with out having a plate on your car. We had to send for new plates and received them yesterday so now we can drive with our fear of getting pull over. The second thing that happened was one of our senior volunteers, on the last day, had a heart attack wile out in the Grove. Since we live by the Grove they brought him to our house and Linda called 911 so with in a matter of a few days we had the police and ambulance here causing the people in the neighborhood to wonder what was going on at our home. Brother Herbert ended up having two stints put in and all turned out well.
The Pageant was really great, and we were able to get over 6000 referrals compared to the 600 they got last year. So you can guess that we are going to be busy doing for the next few weeks - calling them on the phone. Hope all is going well with you and looking forward to hearing from you.
Elder Bennett

We also had some excitement when Bridger (RaNae’s grandson) was here with his family. Little Hailey, while playing with the keys, managed to lock the doors. Bridger took them away, tossing them in the front seat & shutting the door - which locked her in -with the keys. It was 90 degrees that day so we called 911 to get her out. It took over a half hour, her hair was wet & she was really HOT. We were getting ready to break the window but finally got her out & she is OK! The emergency people here in Palmyra now know our address!
The pageant truly was an exciting time for all of us. We were able to go to the performance twice & enjoyed seeing people we knew & making friends with others. They have a huge cast & spectacular effects. I have included some pictures that I hope you can see & enjoy. Email us when you get a chance.

Love Ya,

Elder & Sister Bennett


The Pageant is Over! Great Success! 50,800 visitors this year. Average visitors to the Grandin Press was 1000 per day.

Nephi's Ship

Pageant Begins





King Noah & Abinadi

Christ & the Nephites


Appearance of Jesus