Message--9 May 2011

Message— 9 May 2011

We express our deep appreciation for the Mother’s Day cards and phone calls and wishes.  We also hope each of the mothers received our Mother’s Day cards that we sent.  In a talk our mission president gave some years ago, which had the tile “Women of Light”, he quoted the Apostle Matthew Cowley as saying the following: “Mothers are the co-creators with God of His children.  Therefore, it is expected of you by a right divine that you be the saviors and the regenerating force in the lives of God’s children here upon the earth.”  You Mothers are of eternal importance in the lives of the children and we express our love an appreciation for each of you and our great admiration and respect for all you do to help your children who are also our grandchildren.  We also express our most sincere heartfelt gratitude for our own wonderful mothers for all they have done to sacrifice for us and set good examples and teach us and help us and pray for us and help us become who we are.

This past week we spent most of our time doing our May apartment checking to see how the missionaries are doing and how we can help them make their apartments more appropriate to invite the Holy Spirit to be present as the study and prepare to do their missionary work.  We checked 17 apartments and traveled through a variety of towns and villages.  Some of the names of these places are Warsaw, Batavia, Egypt, Geneseo, Chili, Greece, Orangeville, Lehigh, Holley, Sweden, Ogden, Marion, and Palmyra.  If you look at just the names of the towns and villages and ignore that they are in New York, it would appear we have traveled the world.  The weather was mostly good for us, some days were cloudy, and other days were mostly clear and sunny.  The leaves are finally appearing and it is looking like we expected New York to be.  Sunday and today were just perfect days and warm.  Maxine is impressed with the fact that hardly any of the homes have fences around them; the lawns between the homes are like one continuous lawn.  The neighbors treat each other like family and when they mow the grass they do not worry about whose boundary line is where.  Some of the people just mow their neighbor’s lawn while they are doing their own.  Many of the homes in the rural areas have lawns that cover from one half to several acres.

The members in the ward here are much like the people at home in our ward in Provo.  They accept us and are very good to us.  In the High Priest Group meeting it felt just like attending my group meetings in Provo.  The High Priests have a great feeling of brotherhood.  The Relief Society sisters likewise have a great feeling of sisterhood and treat Maxine with love and kindness.

This past week in our mission several missionary miracles happened.  In one ward, on Sunday May 1^st a young woman, a single mother, who lived near one of our church buildings, brought her two children and attended church.  The members and missionaries welcomed her and learned she had been looking for a church that felt right for her to bring her children to, and she had tried to attend previous Sunday’s but came in the afternoon after the meetings were over.  A neighbor told her the meetings started early in the morning so she came at the right time.  The elder’s met with her and her children and started teaching her that very day.  A Tongan man called the mission office to find out how to get hold of the elders.  He sounded a little scary to the Sister in the Mission Office who took his call so she sent the Assistants to the Mission President to see him.  He insisted he could only meet them in a library, not in his apartment.  When the elders met with him they learned he had been taught one lesson and had been given a Book of Mormon last November.  The missionaries who taught him lost track of him.  What had happened was that he had some legal problems and the judge had given him the option of doing 5 years of probation or going to jail for 4 months and he would have his record purged and cleaned; so he chose the jail time.  While in jail he had read the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon several times.  He just got out of jail and wanted to be baptized as soon as possible.  The elders have been teaching him several times this week and have set a baptism date of May 28^th.  It appears the Lord is bringing people to the missionaries so they can be taught and baptized.

We testify the gospel is true, and there are living prophets and apostles on the earth today who are inspired by the Lord to do His work and direct the missionary efforts to gather the children of Heavenly Father who will accept the truth and keep the commandments.  All the people who are truly converted have received a testimony by reading the Book of Mormon; it has the power to bring people unto Christ and His church and kingdom.  We are gaining a stronger testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon as we read from its pages every day.

Megan, thanks for the emails, we will answer them as often as we can; keep sending them; we love to hear from any of you.  We love you all and appreciate your prayers and help in various ways.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, etc.