Message--28 june 2011

Message—28 June 2011

Dear Family & Friends

Last week was very busy and also full of great spiritual experiences.  We went to the Mission Office Staff meeting on Monday.  This meeting is always a great experience and opportunity to meet with President & Sister Christianson as well as the other people who serve in the Office.  We begin with a song, prayer and at least one spiritual thought shared by a different person each week.  We usually have a discussion on the thought and share experiences and other related scriptures about the thought.  President Christianson knows the scriptures so well and has a broad knowledge of the history behind the scripture as well as knowing scriptures related to the scripture or principle shared by the one giving it.

On Tuesday there was a training meeting from 8am to 12 noon for the missionaries in our Rochester Zone.  The President did the same training for the other three zones as well; one from 2-6pm also on Tuesday, then the other 2 zones were on Wednesday.  Thursday afternoon there was training for the senior missionary couples who are assigned to do member leader support.  This training was held at the home where JohnYoung, Brigham Young’s father, lived in Mendon New York.  The Church owns this home; in fact, the senior missionaries who work in the Mission Office live in this home which has been separated into two homes.  Some years ago the town of Mendon wanted to build a road and they insisted it needed to go in a place that would make it go through the original home.  The church separated the older part of the home and moved it North far enough that it was on the North of the road and the newer part of the home remained on the South of the road.  The part of the home on the North also has a shed which was converted into a two car garage.  There is also a large barn east of the garage; but part of the barn was also separated, dismantled and moved to the Joseph Smith farm and reassembled.  About ¼ mile south of the John Young home is the Tomlinson Inn where Samuel Smith sold the first copy of the Book of Mormon that was sold.  This Book of Mormon was sold to Phineas Young, Brigham Young’s brother, who was a preacher.  He bought it just to prove it was wrong.  After reading it twice in two weeks he knew it was true and started teaching from it to his congregation.  He was baptized soon after this.  The same copy of the Book of Mormon was also read by John Young, Fannie Young, and Parley P. Pratt, who all joined the church soon after reading it.  Brigham Young also read and studied it for two years and then he joined.  Just to the East and North of the Tomlinson Inn was where Heber C. Kimball’s home used to be, Heber also joined the church.  Just ¼ mile East of the John Young home is where Brigham Young built a saw mill and grist mill on a small stream.  The home was two levels; the lower level is where his carpenter shop was located, and then he and his first wife, Miriam, lived in the upper level.  The living area was one room with an area for the kitchen, and area for the bed and the rest for living in.  Miriam died at the age of about 26, so she and Brigham were only together about 5 years.  Miriam is buried about a mile South East of the John Young home on a higher elevation; from this small cemetery you can see the John Young home.  Brigham Young was baptized in the stream by his home.  We had our missionary meeting in the part of the John Young home that is South of the road.  We met in the living and dining room of the home.  We had a great dinner after the training.  Dutch oven chicken and some baked beans and salads, followed by dutch oven peach cobbler and ice cream.  Part of the training was to present and discuss the new senior missionary guidelines that were read in your sacrament meetings recently.  The intent of the new guidelines is to encourage more senior couples and sisters to serve a mission.  There is a need for over 6500 senior couples in the mission field; and there are only about 3200 now serving.  So if you can possibly serve go see your Bishop; even if you can only serve in your local area that will be a great experience.

Friday evening we went to the Joseph Smith farm and Sacred Grove Visitors Center to wait for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (MTC) to come and visit on their way to spend the night in Buffalo NY.  Elder Jay Jensen (Jay) had called me earlier in the week and said he was assigned to be the General Authority to accompany the MTC on their tour this month.  He said he and Loni would like to get to see us at the Sacred Grove on Friday; and he also arranged for Sister Jensen and I to have tickets to see the MTC at the concert they were going to do in Chautauqua NY on Saturday.  We asked permission from President Christianson to go to Chautauqua; and he approved our request, since Elder Jensen said I could.  The original plan of the MTC was to divide in half, and one half would go to the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center and sing a song there; while the other half of the MTC would stop at the Joseph Smith Farm Visitor Center, walk into the Sacred Grove, then gather at the Joseph Smith Frame Home (this is the home Alvin Smith was building when he died) and sing Joseph Smith’s First Prayer which begins with “Oh how lovely was the morning….”.  The two halves of the MTC were then going to switch places sing again.  While we were waiting, in the rain, Elder Jay Jensen called from the bus he was on and said they were just leaving Syracuse NY; so they would be an hour or so later than 4pm as planned.  The buses could not get out of the Philadelphia traffic any sooner; that is what delayed them.  He asked if I would let the Visitor Center site leaders know the MTC would be late so the large crowd of people at the Visitors Centers could be informed that due to being late the MTC would only stop at the Joseph Smith Farm and not at the Hill Cumorah.  I found Elder Hales, who is the Site Supervisor for the Joseph Smith Farm, and told him of the delay and he let the Site Supervisor at the Hill Cumorah know the MTC would not stop there.  About a half hour later we learned that one of the MTC buses had its engine overheat so they were delayed even longer.  As a result the MTC divided into three groups; and were about a half hour behind each other.  The first group of the MTC arrived about 5:30pm at the Joseph Smith Farm.  They got off the buses and walked through part of the Sacred Grove and then gathered at the Frame Home.  As they approached the home from the Sacred Grove I was standing where I could see them clearly and noticed Jay and Loni were leading the MTC out of the Grove.  We were able to greet each other and visit for about 2 minutes then he and Loni went and stood by the part of the MTC who were in the first group; President & Sister Christianson were also standing by Jay and Loni.  The part of the MTC who were there, gathered together and Mack Wilberg led them in singing “Oh how lovely was the morning…”  Some of our missionaries and members had brought investigators with them.  Knowing the MTC had just walked out of the Sacred Grove where the Prophet Joseph had seen the Father and the Son in 1820; and hearing them sing that song brought a powerful feeling of the Spirit to all the people assembled.  There were around 200 people assembled.   Many people had tears in their eyes, including some of the choir.  One of our Sister Missionaries who serves at the sites, Sister Lowe, is completing her mission next month; and she was especially touched by the Spirit.  Even Mom & I had wet eyes.  We have talked to some of the missionaries in the last few days and they said the investigators who came with them could feel the Spirit there.  Following the song, they also sang “God Be With You Till We Meet Again”; then they started going to get on the buses.

As we were walking back to the parking lot we met Sister Shepard, who is the wife of Elder Shepard who is the Site Supervisor at the Grandin Press Building Visitor Center.  We have been asked to help with visitors to the Grandin Building every other day during the days of the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  Sister Shepard took us to their apartment; which is only about 100 yards from the Joseph Smith Farm Visitors Center, and Elder Shepard gave us some instruction on what we would be doing while at the Grandin Press site.  When we walked out of their apartment the 2^nd group of the MTC were walking into the Sacred Grove.  We did not stay to see if they would sing.  We learned today that some people stayed to see both of the later groups of the MTC and they did in fact sing for the few who were there.  In short, being present for this experience was truly AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday we drove to Chautauqua for the Saturday afternoon MTC concert. This is about a two hour drive from Brockport.  When we were about 8 miles from the Chautauqua Institution Jay called and told us he had arranged for us to sit near the front by he and Loni; and wondered how close we were.  We said we were 8 miles away; so he said when we got parked to call him and he would direct us where to go to find him.  We reached the gate where they wanted a ticket, which we did not have; I explained to the young man that Jay had our tickets inside the Amphitheater.  I called Jay on my cell phone and he said the right things to the young man and he let us go in.  The Amphitheater at the Chautauqua Institution is similar in shape to the Old Tabernacle at the Salt Lake Temple Square.  It is oval and has a roof, but the sides are open; the stage is at the front and seats are all the way around from the front of the stage on one side to the front of the stage on the other side.  I would guess it seats around 1500 people.  At the back of the stage is a few dozen Organ pipes a little like in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.  Jay said to meet him at the Southwest Corner of the Amphitheater; the only problem was I had no idea which direction was which.  We asked one of the people who were at the ticket gates (the 2^nd ticket gate, different than the previous one) into the Amphitheater where the Southwest corner was, and she did not know the answer.   So I used my height to an advantage and started looking around and finally saw Jay at the opposite corner from where we were.  So we made our away around to him and met him.  He escorted us past the ticket guy to our seats.  We were seated in the front of the stage right at the center, just 5 rows out from the stage.  The stand on which Mack Wilberg stood to direct the orchestra and choir was right in front of us.  We could see everyone in the MTC very clearly and also most of the orchestra.

I do not think there was a better seat any place in the amphitheater.  We were able to visit for about 15 minutes before the concert began with Jay and Loni.  We also visited a little during the 10 minute intermission; and then also after the concert was over we also visited a little.  I do not remember the last time I had the privilege of sitting by Jay for two hours straight and enjoying such a powerful spiritual experience.  Loni commented that she thought she might get a little bored after hearing the same performance so many times; but she said each time gets better and more wonderful; and she is exactly correct.   I have never heard a bad performance by the MTC and this was no exception.  They and the orchestra and organ were simply wonderful.  The concert lasted 2 hours.

Earlier in the week we had called Tricia Brown, who is the daughter of Alma and Anne’s daughter Diane and had arranged to stop and visit her and her husband Rich after the concert was over.  Tricia and Rich live in Cassadaga, about 20 miles Northeast of Chautauqua; and were kind enough to offer to fix dinner for us.  After the concert, we found our way to their home and had a wonderful dinner and visit with them.  We then drove home and arrived about 9pm.

This week’s experiences have been very special and spiritual.  We are so greatly blessed to be here in this mission and have the chance to serve and learn and help where we can.  We have our testimonies increased more each day of how true the Lord’s work and church are.  We really have living prophets and apostles to help us learn to choose to do what will lead us back to Heavenly Father through the Savior’s atonement.  We know the Father and Son live and love us and answer our prayers.  President Monson is a prophet, the Book of Mormon is true, and Joseph Smith is the prophet of this last dispensation.

We hope Travis continues to recover from his surgery last week and that there are no problems like there have been in the past.  We hope Ali and Jada will continue to be blessed and helped to be patient while Travis gets better.  We hope this is the last of the serious health problems Travis has to go through.  We hope all goes well for Mckinzi and the birth of her baby girl; we are anxious to hear how things go and see a picture of this little one.  We hope Bailey gets feeling better after her pain and misery.  We pray that Kendra will learn that the lung nodule she has will not be a serious problem.  We hope and pray Kendra will be able to provide the needed support for her sister while she has radiation treatments for her cancer.  We also hope Brad, Shay, Aaron, and Braden will be helpful through the coming weeks as they have the challenges that come to them.  We are very pleased that Austin was sustained to be ordained an Elder on Sunday; and hope he and Josie have a wonderful wedding day on July 15^th.  We wish happy birthdays to Wes on July 9^th, Shaun and Shay on July 10^th, and to Brad and Tyler on July 14^th.  We hope you all have a wonderful and safe July 4^th and July 24^th holiday.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message 20 June 2011

Message—20 June 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

Tomorrow will be the first day of summer, my how the time flies.  Since it has rained hardly at all for almost two weeks now, many of the pretty green lawns here are now turning brown like those in Utah do when they do not get enough water.  Very few people spend money on watering lawns, they just wait for the next rain storm and the lawns will recover.

Since we spent most of our time last week helping get missionaries moved and delivering and or installing air conditioners we did not get the apartments in our area checked for June.  So this week we spent most of our days checking the 18 apartments we have in our area.  Because of the long distances between the apartments it takes the better part of 3 days to check the apartments.  There are usually a few things to fix or repair or replace at some of them.

In addition to checking apartments, we also took Elder Morrison and Elder Swaner, who serve in the Brockport ward with us, to follow up on a few referrals and make visits to inactive ward members.  One of the inactive members is a widower, his wife died a few years ago.  He lives in a far corner of the ward boundaries and has not been to church for several months.  We went to visit him with the Elders and had a good visit with him.  We were able to learn about him and his family and his conversion to the church.  He told us the main reason he joined the church was because his daughter joined.  Since this was his motivation, he did not really have the change of heart and testimony needed to sustain him in being active.  He was active for several years, but has not been coming since the first of the year.  We have coordinated with the High Priest Group Leader to have him be sure home teachers will go to his home and try to strengthen him and get him to become active again.  We will also keep visiting him as well.  It is very important that people get truly converted to the gospel before being baptized so they will remain active.  They do also need to continue to be nourished by the good word of God as well; thus the need for home and visiting teaching.

This week we will be having some training from the mission president on two different days.  Tomorrow will be with all the missionaries in our Zone; then on Thursday afternoon we will have more training with other senior missionaries.  The training on Thursday will be in Mendon at the John Young home and the Tomlinson Inn.  We will share more about this training next week and also tell you about the history related to this area.

Thank you to all the family who sent father’s day greetings and wishes to us.  It is an honor to be the father of each of you good children; as well as a grandfather to the grandchildren.  You are each a child of Heavenly Father, as well as our children.  We love you and pray for you every time we pray, both collectively and individually.  We know Heavenly Father will answer all of our prayers and all of your prayers as well.  We need to pray in faith that He will do what is best for each person according to His wisdom and timing and love for us.  We know Heavenly Father and the Savior live and love us and will do all they can to help us.  As we live in harmony with their teachings and the example of Jesus Christ, and use our agency to choose to follow the answers to our prayers, we will receive more blessings and help in our efforts to become worthy of all the promised blessings that will enable us to be together forever as families.  We share our testimony and witness that the gospel is true, President Monson is the Lord’s prophet, the Book of Mormon is true, and was translated by the prophet Joseph Smith through the gift and power of God.  The doctrines taught in the Book of Mormon will help us come unto Christ and be worthy to live with Him and Heavenly Father.

We love you all,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message--13 June 2011

Message—13 June 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

First we express our love to all of you; we very much appreciate our associations and relationships with each of you; and we thank you for being the great people you are.  We have been blessed by knowing you and learning from you.  Second we hope that all the fathers will have a wonderful Father’s Day next Sunday, and that you will take time to be with your families in so far as it is possible.  Our families are one of the few things we can take with us into the next life and the eternities.  We can do this if we live in harmony with the commandments included in the gospel, and also by making and keeping covenants which are included with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have had very good weather for the most part for last week.  We have only had one brief rain shower; but it has been cloudy and cool most of the time.  There were a few days when it was hot and humid.  Much of the farmland that has had standing water on has now dried up and been disked and harrowed and prepared for planting.  The majority of the farmland, not previously planted, has now been planted.  I am sure those farmers who have planted corn have had to plant corn seed that will mature in 70 to 80 days instead of the normal 120 days; due to the late planting.  Some of the farmland still has a few places that are still too wet to grow any crops; but from what I have been told the farmers are used to these kind of wet years so they just do the best they can and hope for good crops from what does get planted.

We made a few trips this past week to some apartments which needed air conditioners and fans so the missionaries could be cool enough to study in their apartments.  One of our trips was to Geneseo, which is about 50 miles South of Brockport.   A little North of Geneseo is a small town named York.  In this area there is a very large dairy which supplies most of the dairy products for Western New York.

While we were there in Geneseo, the Elders shared an experience they had a few days prior to our visit.  They had received a referral to visit a 17 year old young man.  When they arrived at the home, the young man and his mother were there.  The Elders were invited in and as the Elders talked with the mother and the young man they asked him how he learned about the church.  Here is what they learned.  When the young man was 5 years old he remembers very clearly going with his father in the car and on their trip they drove by an old cabin with a large grove of trees behind it.  His father said to him, in that grove of trees God and Jesus Christ appeared to a boy named Joseph Smith.  This young man remembered this experience.  Not too long ago he had to do a report for a history class in his school and he chose to do his report on Joseph Smith.  To find information about him he looked on the internet and found the Mormon.org web site.  This report got him started to study about different religions, both Christian and Non--Christian.  In his studying he included the LDS church.  From the church web site he printed a variety of sources, including pages from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi, some of Alma, some of 3 Nephi, and Moroni Chapter 10.  His mother said she has allowed her children to choose the religion they wanted to follow as long as it was a Christian religion; and she approved of his interest in the LDS Church.  He said after reading in Moroni Chapter 10 that he could learn for himself if what he had read was true he decided to put Moroni’s promise to the test.  He dressed in clothes similar to what he thought Joseph Smith would have worn and went to the grove of trees in the Sacred Grove and prayed.  He felt the power of the Spirit and knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  The Elders asked if they could teach him more about the church.  He said I already know the church is true.  The Elders said they would like to teach him about the commandments we have to obey; he said you mean the Word of Wisdom and Tithing and being morally clean.  I already know about these and I live them all.  They invited him to attend church and he said he would be there.  The Elders then asked what do you want from us.  He said I want to be baptized, when can I be baptized.  He also wanted to know when he could receive the Aaronic Priesthood; and he also said he wanted to go on a mission and teach others about the church.  The Elders said they would need to review with him what he has learned on his own to be sure he understands what he needs to know; and they set a baptism date for June 18^th.  The Geneseo Elders also learned that the Sister missionaries in Dansville are teaching the young man’s father the missionary lessons.

The Elders here in Brockport also received a referral to deliver a Bible to a 17 year old girl.  While giving her the Bible, they also shared the first lesson with her and gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it first, then the Bible and she would see how they fit together and how the Book of Mormon supports the Bible and explains Bible scriptures better in many cases.  Since she is 17 she needs to get permission from her Grandparents, who she lives with, to have the elders come back to teach her more.

Looking after the apartment needs of the missionaries keeps us busy much of the week; but our doing this relieves President Christianson from having to deal with all these needs.  It also makes the apartments better and safer for the missionaries; and also makes the apartment more inviting to have the Holy Ghost in the apartments; so we are happy to do what the President asks of us.

The restored gospel is absolutely true, the Book of Mormon will help bring us to understand Christ and his teachings and help us come unto Him.  President Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today.  Heavenly Father and the Savior live and love us and they answer everyone’s prayers, because He loves all of His children.  Answers we receive are not always what we want, but they are the answer that Heavenly Father knows will best help us to learn what we need to know to help us make progress towards becoming like Him.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message--6 June 2011

Message—6 June 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

Our hearts are very saddened today to learn of the death of our special friend and brother, Dennis Wright.  Dennis and his wife Marcia and their family have been our good friends and neighbors for all the years we have lived in Provo.  We have done many things together through the years, including raising our children together; with many of them being similar ages and in the same classes in school and at church.  We do not know of anyone who is more kind and considerate of others and who have quietly done so many kind things to help others.  We have never heard Marcia say anything negative about another person.  We could go on for many pages about this great man and how much he means to us.  We express our deep love and appreciation for Dennis and pray for the comforting love of the Savior in behalf of Marcia and all the children and their families.  We know it will be difficult for Marcia and the rest of the family to carry on without Dennis; they have done everything together throughout their entire married lives.  We would very much like to be there to offer our love and sympathy and comfort in person; but we cannot do that; so our expression through these words is the best we can do for now.  We will pray for all of the family through the coming weeks and months for you to be comforted and sustained and blessed in every way possible.  Perhaps the Lord will allow Dennis to drop in on us while we serve here and be a missionary in some way here in this mission like he was on his mission as a young man.  We will love you forever Dennis and we hope to be worthy to see you in the next life.

Last week we had a busy schedule to take care of several apartment problems and issues.  An apartment in Newark in which some Sister missionaries live has had some strange things happen in the last week or so.  We went to the apartment to find out what was going on and solve the problems.  President Christianson asked us to go and use the priesthood to make it safe for the sisters to continue living there.  We had the Assistants to the President (AP’s) meet us there so there were three Melchizedek Priesthood holders there.  The Holy Spirit was not felt by any of us when we arrived there; in fact we felt the influence of Satan there.  Since neither of the AP’s had done this before Elder Jensen was voice.  As we proceeded with the prayer the Spirit directed me in what to do and say; at the conclusion of the prayer; the bad feelings left and the Holy Ghost came in to the apartment.  Two days later on Thursday, we went back to Newark to try and find a different apartment for the Sisters to live in.  Once again the Spirit directed us and the Sister Missionaries and we found a new apartment in a different part of the town which had the right feeling of the Holy Spirit in it.  The Spirit directed us and also the owner.  The owner was still in the process of advertising the apartment was available to rent; this was intercepted by divine sources and the Sisters found it and called us and we went to the apartment and we were able to make connections with the owner and her maintenance man, Walter, and they agreed to let the Church rent the apartment.  The owner also included for free, a very nice 5 piece corner couch which includes a pull out double bed.  The Lord loves his Sister missionaries and takes good care of them.  We have made arrangements to get the Sisters moved into the new apartment this week.

One of the Newark Sister Missionaries is Sister Tuitavake who is Tongan; she is completing her mission today and will fly home to Longbeach CA tomorrow morning.  Sister Tuitavake and her companions, Sister Lowe and Sister Holm organized a Luau last Saturday evening.  With the help of ward members and other missionaries they had advertised it well.  The food was free and they had also organized a program.  We attended it and it was very well done.  The program included several Pacific Islands dances done by ward members, both young and old people.  Each dance was introduced by having Sister Lowe and Sister Holm read two complimentary scriptures, one form the Bible and one from the Book of Mormon that was related to the dance.  The message being that the Bible and the Book of Mormon witness of each other’s truths.  It was really well done and the Cultural Hall was full of people, some were not members.  One of the people in the audience was the man we told you about a few weeks ago who had been released from jail and was fully released from any legal requirements.  While in jail he had read the Book of Mormon twice and some other church publications as well.  When the missionaries taught him he already knew about each lesson and the commandments he needed to keep.  Earlier in the day on Saturday he had been baptized.

Happy birthday to the following family members; Jana on June 3^rd, Shalee on June 5^th, Brandon on June 13^th, Bailey on June 20^th, and Robyn and Braxton on June 28^th.  We hope you each had or have a great day on your birthday.

We love and miss you and appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and letters or emails.  Heavenly Father lives, Jesus is the Christ, the Book of Mormon is true and can change lives, President Monson is the prophet; we testify these things are true.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine