Message 26 September 2011

Message—26 September 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

Monday morning at 8am we attended the Mission Office Staff meeting at the Mission Office.  After it was finished we drove to Lockport to see if an apartment in a member’s home would be appropriate for the Elders there to move in to.  The apartment was the upstairs of a home Dale and Cindy Ricks just bought and moved into.  The apartment was very nice and would be a fine place for the Elders to live.  Dale Ricks is a great-grandson of the Brother Ricks that the Ricks College (now BYU Idaho) in Rexburg Idaho was named after.  Their children are all out of the home.  Cindy works as a teacher of English for students in Asian countries through an online program.  She uses Skype so the students and Cindy can see each other.  With the time differences she teaches the first class at 4pm and the other one at 8pm.  She uses the method of teaching where the students learn what to say in certain common situations.  One of the resources she uses is some of the pamphlets the missionaries use.  She has them use the copies on Mormon.org.  She doesn’t teach the doctrine, she just uses them as a way to help the students learn what to say in certain situations.

We also went to Cheektowaga to look at a possible apartment for missionaries that may be moved to work in that part of the Buffalo area.  Then on Tuesday we drove to Arcade NY, we in the mission call it the Freedom area.  This is the area Warren Cowdery was sent to be the presiding high priest as recorded in D & C 106.  President Christianson asked us to go and see if we could find a different apartment for the Elders there.  The Elders found the apartment and we went to see if it met the standards required.  We are still trying to negotiate to get them into this apartment.

Wednesday we had time to visit some inactive members in our ward.  The people we went to see live in the Albion area which is about the most distant area of our ward boundaries, it is northwest of Brockport about 20 miles.  We were invited to have dinner with one of the families, and then another family, the West’s, who are one of the solid foundation families in the ward, also invited us to have dinner with them while we were out in their area.  So we had two dinners in less than two hours.  One family was the Long’s, a husband and wife; they both have serious health problems that prevent them from sitting through church meetings.  They both shared their conversion experiences with us.  Ann, the wife, has a very deep voice for a woman, and she also has problems with anxiety and depression.  She said when the Elders were teaching her they invited her to visit the Church Historic Sites with them.  When she was at the Sacred Grove, the Elders invited her to find a place to sit down and pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon was true.  The Elders said they would go to another place in the Grove and let her pray alone.  She felt the power of the Spirit tell her yes to both questions.  She also felt so peaceful that when the Elder’s returned she told them how peaceful it was to be in the Grove.  She then told them to go back to her home and get her tent and sleeping bag and her gun and bring them back to her; she wanted to stay there and enjoy the peace and if she had to, she would use the gun to keep people from making her leave.  She was not serious about using the gun, but she did say that was the first time in years she had been relieved of her problems.  Two weeks later she was baptized.

Thursday afternoon we visited another member in the Albion area.  The mother is a member, the husband is not.  The mother would like to have her 9 year old son baptized and the father is OK with doing that but he would like to hear the lessons along with his son.  We are waiting for the mother to let us know when the husband will be available to participate in the lessons.

After our District meeting which was held on Friday, we stopped at a fast food place named “Five Guys”.  The owner of this restaurant is a member of the LDS Church and has told all of his employees that when LDS missionaries come in to eat there, they are to eat for free.  The employees always treat the missionaries very well.

Saturday morning we had another turn at the Ward Family History Center from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.  No one came to use the facilities so we spent some time learning how to use some of the resources that are available.  We found a website that has pictures of head stones from various cemeteries.  We found Uncle Leon Mather’s headstone as well as some others of both of our families.  We did some searching for some of Maxine’s ancestors.  We went backward on one line and got back to 1145 AD.  We also had a good visit with a wonderful brother who takes care of seeing the building is cleaned and ready for Sunday meetings.  He had a very difficult life as a youth; he was taken to three different foster homes in one day.  Finding his wife and marrying her, and also finding the gospel saved his life.

Sunday in Fast meeting one of the investigators, Casey a 16 year old young lady the Elders are teaching here in the ward, was brave enough to share her testimony.  She said she knows the Book of Mormon is true among other things.  She and her mother took the Elders to the Church History sites on Saturday and spent all day and part of the evening before they returned home.  We hope the mother will allow her daughter to be baptized, she surely wants to be.  In her testimony, Casey used the phrase “I guess I am an honorary member until my mother lets me be baptized”.

We hope Craig has a great birthday on Wednesday.  We hope Caulter recovers from his motorbike accident he experienced yesterday.  He was wearing his helmet which prevented more serious injuries.  He does have a bad concussion and a variety of bumps and bruises and will be sore for a few days; but the Emergency doctors could not see any broken bones in the x-rays.  We hope Tyler continues to do well in his military training.

We continue to pray for all of you and express our love and appreciation for each of you; and for your prayers in our behalf.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard