Monday, April 19, at her request we took sister Evelyn Deel, our Bedford Branch Relief Society President, down for a visit to Goodview and the other areas that border Smith Mountain Lake on the southern end of our branch boundary. She wanted to see where a new member of the Relief Society, Kathryn Laprade, lived.

It gave us the opportunity to show her the location of several other member homes in the area which are far distant from where Sister Deel lives up in Blue Ridge (some 30+ miles away).

This beautiful horse farm is located in Moneta, near Smith Mountain Lake on the road we take to get to our former Branch President Paul Martin, Erica and family. In her nearly 4 years of faithful service as Relief Society President, Sister Deel had never been to the Martin's new home. The distances that must be traveled in order to visit each member require much of time and expense. This is very different from the conditions we deal with in our compact wards and stakes in central Arizona. We so appreciate and admire members like Sister Deel who give so much of their time and resources in fulfillment of their sacred callings in this Bedford Branch and in the Roanoke Virginia Stake of the church.