Message—23 January 2012
Dear Family & Friends,
Since the last Blog message was a day late, this Blog message will begin with Wednesday January 18th, last week. Wednesday we attended our district meeting, it was held at our apartment. We only have the zone leaders and the district leader and his companion in our district, just the six of us; so it is easy for us to fit in our apartment. Elder Hulse is our district leader and he had prepared some helpful ideas in helping us change from the people we were before our missions, to become more like Jesus Christ so we can be more effective and successful in finding and teaching those people who the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel from us. This is a good process that would benefit any of us. Evaluating our past behavior and attitudes and characteristics and then comparing them to the example of the Savior can help us see things we need to change and how to make the changes needed. This process sometimes includes repentance, and a change of heart, so we can improve.
Thursday and Friday we spent the day in the mission office. Elder McVea had me help him with getting some vehicles ready to be sold, which had been replaced by new vehicles. We also put together the right information for 4 vehicles to be picked up and taken to an automobile auction down on the Pennsylvania and New York border. The church is going to try this method out here in our area as an experiment to see if it is successful and provides sufficient income to justify doing it in the future. In the past the vehicle coordinator has been responsible to try to sell the vehicles. We first try to sell the vehicles to church members by asking the Bishops to put a flyer on their ward bulletin boards. We also advertise on some local classified advertisement web sites. We have had the four cars we sent to the auction available for sale for over three months and not one offer to buy one; that is why the church is trying the auction option.
Saturday I went to Brother Arrington’s for a couple of hours to work on the bowl I started last week on his lathe. I got it shaped the way I want and got the lid to fit on the bowl. Next I will get it smoothed up and start sanding it. Lee is helping me learn a number of very helpful techniques and skills to use the lathe. He also has given me some good suggestions on tools and some other useful things to help with projects. The rest of the day Saturday we got the clothes washed and dried and some shopping and other things done to be ready for Sunday.
Sunday we had very good church meetings. All three of the speakers in sacrament meeting spoke on the topic of faith. A priest age young man, Mitchell Pate, spoke first and shared some examples of faith from the Book of Mormon, mostly the 2000 stripling warriors. The next speaker was Elder Preisendorf. He talked about some of the verses in Alma 44 and Alma 48 that refer to the faith of the Nephites in their wars as they were led by Moroni. The third speaker was Cory McNeese, one of the older Elders in the ward. He shared his experiences that led to his going on a mission. When he filled out his missionary recommendation papers, one of the questions was “If you were called to a foreign mission which mission would you choose”; there were three boxes, and he put Australia in all three boxes. When he received his mission call envelope he delayed opening the envelope for several days, until his father finally talked him into opening it. He said I knew where I was going before I opened it; and I was right; I was called to the Brisbane Australia Mission. His mission experiences changed his life and helped him build a faith based firm foundation for the rest of his life. He has been a police officer in Rochester for the last 20 years. He also said his faith is not near as strong as the youth who get up early every morning during the week and attend seminary. Then, without saying her name, he referred to Casey Reichhart who was baptized a few months ago, who started attending seminary before she was baptized, and she is the only member of her family who is a member. Her mother is being quite negative about the church right now, so Casey is feeling a little alone. We set up a subscription to the New Era for her, and the last issue had a full page picture of the Savior in it, and at the bottom of the page it said “You Are Never Alone”. This was a very reassuring and comforting message just for her. Since the two Elders who baptized her have moved we have been trying to provide some support and encouragement and listening hearts and ears to help her through the struggles she has. Casey is trying to get her mother to let her go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead next month with the youth in the ward. We had the Elders take a copy of the issue of the Ensign, that was about temples, to Casey last week, and she left it in plain sight where her mother could see it. Casey could tell her mother had looked through it. We are hoping her mother can see the wonderful positive effect the gospel is having on Casey and will begin to soften her heart towards the church.
Sunday evening we and the elders had been invited to a member’s home for dinner. Sister Johnson and her 14 year old daughter Bianca live in Albion alone, so we took the elders with us so they would not be alone with these two sisters. We had a fine meal and afterwards, Sister Johnson brought out an old game of Seek which had cards with scripture questions on them. We went through some of them and tried to help Bianca give the answers to some. She is usually quite shy but she started opening up and participating more with us and her mother; so I think we did some good. We attended the Centennial of Seminary fireside last night with Casey. President Packer gave an awesome message to all the youth that will bless their lives forever if they will follow his counsel; the same will happen to any of us. I truly love to listen to President Packer, he is so filled with wisdom and a knowledge of the gospel and all its doctrines; and can teach by the Spirit so well. I hope his instruction is made available to read and study more carefully.
Today we went to the mission office for staff meeting and spent most of the day there learning more about our new assignments. About noon an older man brought seven other older retired men with him to pick up the four vehicles which were to be taken to the auction. These retired men earn a little extra money by helping to drive the cars to the auction. It is far cheaper to drive the cars to the auction, only 110 miles away from Rochester, than to pay the expense of having them picked up on a car carrier rig and taken to the auction. Near the end of the day we learned that one of the elder’s vehicles would have to stay in the repair shop here in Rochester for another day, so we took an extra vehicle which is not yet ready to be sold to the Elders whose vehicle needed to stay in the repair shop. These elders live clear down in Arcade NY, so they will have this car until they can make a trip back up to get the one being fixed. We also had to get a few things for two other elders in the south part of Rochester.
We just keep moving along and try to do whatever is needed when asked to do so. There is a fairly constant need to be flexible and respond to the needs of the missionaries to keep them safe and healthy and provided with what they need to do the missionary work and service they were called to do. We love our mission experiences and are so grateful to be here and have a chance to be of service.
We hope all of you are well and happy, and safe and warm, and have what you need to provide for yourselves. We know Heavenly Father lives and loves us and we know His Only Begotten Son is the Savior and Redeemer. We know the gospel is true and will safely lead us back to be with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ; if we will follow the example he set for us. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration, and Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today. The Book of Mormon is absolutely true and filled with powerful spiritual messages to bless us.
We love and appreciate each of you.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine
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