Message 20 February 2012

Message—20 February 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

This past week was dedicated to spending as much time as we could with Elder & Sister McVea in the mission office so we could learn as much as possible from them to help us in our office assignments.  This was the last full week the McVea’s were available to teach us before they go home next Monday, the 27^th.  This week we are now in, we will have four days of zone conferences, so we will only have today and Thursday to be in the office.  We will be able to learn some things for which we are responsible, during the zone conferences.  Beginning next week we will be on our own to figure out what to do with problems.

Friday evening we were invited to have dinner at the home of Bentley and Tammy Hutchings in Honeyoe Falls.  Bentley is the 2^nd counselor in the Rochester Stake Presidency.  Brockport Ward is part of the Rochester Stake.  He is also the son of Gerald and Neva Hutchings in Mapleton (or Springville).  We will be in the same ward as the Hutchings when we move to Mendon next week.  The name of the ward is the Geneseo Ward.  The Hutchings have a nice home in the woods with a variety of animals, including two burros.  Tammy’s sister and her husband Rick live nearby the Hutchings, and were also at the dinner.

Saturday morning I went to the home of Lee Arrington to work on my wooden bowl.  I got it finished and one coat of varnish on it.  I will need to find time to go one more day and put another coat of varnish on to finish it.  It is made of maple wood and has turned out very well for my first try at doing work on a wood lathe.  Saturday evening we attended a dinner in honor of the 60^th wedding anniversary of Dale and Lois Morley who live in Victor; which is next to Mendon.  They are the couple who were doing the apartments in the mission when we arrived last year.  They taught us how to do our assignment with the apartments.  They are great people and have had a lifetime of great experiences in their work and church service.  The dinner was held at the chapel on Kreag Road, in Fairport.

Sunday we attended our church meetings and were blessed with the messages and lessons taught to us.  We were happy and surprised to see that Casey Reichhart; who was baptized last October in our Brockport Ward, had brought her friend and neighbor, Joshua, to church with her.  He is also 16 years old and was very impressed with the church meetings and messages taught.  He is going to ask his parents if he can have the missionaries teach him.  We will wait to see what happens.  We just learned that Casey spent five hours Saturday teaching Joshua about the gospel and the church; she is a great young lady.

Today we had our Mission Office staff meeting with President and Sister Christianson and the McVea’s, the Servoss’s, and the Ellis’s.  After the meeting we had lunch together in the office, since this was the last staff meeting for the McVea’s.  President Christianson gave the McVea’s a painting that has been hanging on the wall in the office for some years.  It is a painting representing Ephraim Hanks riding a horse and leading a pack horse, both loaded with buffalo meat.  The horses are struggling through three feet of snow in a wide open area that does indeed look like the Wyoming South Pass area where he met the Martin Handcart Company who were mostly at death’s door.  Elder McVea loves this picture since he had the opportunity to portray Ephraim Hanks for a Young Women camp in his ward.  Elder Morley & Sister Morley, whom I mentioned above, served a mission at Martin’s Cove some years ago.  Elder Morley was asked by the Site Director to do a portrayal of Ephraim Hanks for the groups who came to Martin’s Cove that year.  He was the first person to do this and started what is now a tradition at Martin’s Cove.

This afternoon we spent our time getting things ready for the zone conferences which begin tomorrow.  We hope all will go well at the zone conferences so President Christianson can provide the instruction he has been inspired to prepare.

It is hard to believe we have been here in New York for almost one year already.  Since we are serving a 23 month mission we are actually at the point where we have just less than one year left.  The time has truly flown “…on wings of lightning and we cannot call them back…” as the hymn states.  We are very grateful for the privilege and blessing of serving this mission.  We have had great experiences and opportunities which have greatly added to our knowledge and testimony of the gospel and the work of gathering scattered Israel.  We know Heavenly Father lives and that His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ also lives and is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.  He really can heal us from all our grief and heartache and trials and challenges.  Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the restoration; the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Christ and can lead us back to Heavenly Father if we will do what it teaches us to do.  President Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today; and he receives revelation to guide the church according to the Lord’s will and wisdom and timing.

We express our sincere gratitude for each of you; we love you and pray that all will go well for each of you.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message 14 February 2012

Message—14 February 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Here I am a day late again on adding last week’s blog message.  This past week has been packed with much to do and not enough time to do it all; but we did our best anyway and with good help from other missionaries we accomplished what was needed.  Tuesday the 7^th was missionary transfers again.  Eight new missionaries arrived on Monday and were assigned to their companions on Tuesday during the Transfer meeting.  All of the other companion changes took place as well.  Elder Cook, who has been an AP for one year went home; with many tears on his part as well as on the part of many others, including President Christianson and myself and Elder McVea.  Sister Jensen and I have had many great experiences with Elder Cook in moving Elders and Sisters to different apartments and in other meetings and settings.  Elder Cook is an awesome missionary and a great young man with much potential for doing great things in the future.  He is from Washington State and for the time being is working for his father who is a mortician.  Elder Anderson has been his companion and the other AP for the last few transfers.  The new AP is Elder Campbell, who has been a Zone Leader in our zone for several transfers; and he was also in our district, so we met with him every week while he was our zone leader.  He will be a great AP.

Tuesday afternoon we went with Elder and Sister Ellis to help them select some items from the Mission Storage Shed which Elder and Sister Wood will need in their apartment.  Elder and Sister Wood arrived in the mission late Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday we spent the day in the Mission Office with Elder and Sister McVea teaching us more of what we will need to do when they leave two weeks from today.  Elder and Sister Ellis went with the Wood’s to purchase a few additional things for their apartment.  We went to the President’s home at 5pm to meet the AP’s and the Wood’s and the Ellis’s; and also to load the trailer with the furniture which was in the President’s garage; and also other things for the Wood’s apartment.

Thursday morning we took the Ellis’s with us and went to Depew NY where the apartment for the Wood’s is located on 4845 Transit Rd.  The AP’s and the Elders who live in Lancaster (the town next to Depew) and also the Elders from the next nearest town of Orchard Park, met us at the Wood’s apartment a little after 11 am.  We helped direct getting the furniture and other items all moved in the Wood’s apartment.  The AP’s and I helped put together a new bookcase for the Wood’s.  After getting everything moved in we went with the Wood’s, the Ellis’s and the 6 Elders to get some lunch.  Each of the senior couples paid for the dinner for one of the elder companionships.  We ate at a place called the Olive Tree; it is a very nice newly remodeled restaurant with good food.  A member of the Lancaster ward works there.  After the lunch we went to a Home Depot store and bought a baby (small) refrigerator for the AP’s and put it in their truck to take to their apartment.  Elder Campbell only drinks milk because he cannot stand NY water; so he needed a place to put his milk so he can have a drink.  The AP’s live with a member, Brother Kai, and share his fridge for their food; but there is not enough room in it for the milk Elder Campbell drinks.  We arrived home about 6pm, had some dinner, and tried to relax and rest, but the phone kept ringing and we also called some other missionaries.  While we were at the Olive Tree I received a phone call from Elder Peck and Elder Ingram who are serving in Geneva.  A non-member man, Bill Dimick, for whom they have done a lot of service work, had an apartment available that he wanted to rent to the Elder’s.  President Christianson told us he would like to have the Elders in Geneva move to a better apartment; so we made contact with Bill and made an appointment to go see his apartment on Friday morning at 9am.

In order to get to Geneva by 9am we got up at 5:30am and left home about 7am.  We stopped and picked up the Ellis’s, who are staying in an apartment next to the Joseph Smith Farm, at 8am and made it to Geneva about 10 minutes before 9am.  The apartments Bill has are very nice and well maintained; he does not allow smoking or pets, or drugs in any of his apartments.  We were very impressed with the apartment and had a very good visit with Bill.  Sister Jensen and Sister Ellis talked with an older lady, 87 years old, her name is Evelyn, who will be moving out of the apartment the Elder’s will be able to move into on April 1^st.  She gave the Sister’s a number of things which the elders could have when they move in; including a very nice set of china for $20.00.

We returned to the mission office about 12:30pm and spent the rest of the day learning some things we needed to know how to do correctly.  Friday evening Sister Jensen did the wash and worked on some other things.  I worked on getting talk ready for Sunday.  Saturday we met the Ellis’s and the AP’s at the apartment where our ASL missionaries, Elder Frost and Elder Rasmussen, have been living.  We loaded all their things, including furniture into the trailer and the truck and moved it to their new apartment at 2046 Monroe Ave.  While there I and Elder Ellis put up new blinds in the windows of their apartment.  When we finished with this move project; the Ellis’s and the AP’s went to meet Elder Miller and Elder Garcia at their apartment at 220 Culver Rd. and loaded up their things and furniture and moved these elder’s into their new apartment on Lilac St., Apartment 59 #1.  While they were doing this move project, we went home and got ready to attend a funeral service in our Brockport ward for Dorothy Donoghue, wife of George Donoghue.  She passed away last Wednesday and her funeral service was at 4pm Saturday.  She is a wonderful lady who has given her whole life to serve others.  Her and George have four children of their own; and have also been foster parents for about 100 other children.  George mostly grew up in foster homes; including being taken to 3 different foster homes on the same day.  At the first two he got in fights while the social worker and the foster parents were talking about George.  At the third foster home that day they let him stay but he only stayed about 1 week; before the foster parents wanted him taken some other place.  He had a tough life in his younger years and knew a lot about foster homes and the life of a foster child.  His wife and the gospel saved him, literally, and he has become a wonderful faithful priesthood holder who has given much time and service to help others who needed help.

Sunday in Sacrament meeting I had been asked to give a talk on baptism covenants.  I learned more about the baptism covenant in preparing the talk than I have known before.  I actually ended up with about 30 minutes of time to give the talk; that is longer than I have ever had to give a talk; but it went well.  The Sunday School teacher actually used one of my statements in the lesson she taught, because it fit right in with the topic.  We all know that it was the Spirit which made this all work out, it wasn’t me alone.  We actually ended up getting a Sunday afternoon nap, which was a real treat.  It helped us feel rested up to begin a new week on Monday.

Monday morning we went to the Mission Office and had staff meeting.  After this meeting and doing a few things in the office; we went home and Sister Jensen finished preparing some barbequed pork ribs to take to a dinner at President Christianson’s home.  He and Sister Christianson had invited all the MLS Senior Couples, there are 7 couples, in the mission to this dinner at 4pm. One of the Christianson’s daughters and 3 grandchildren have been visiting since last Thursday, and they also ate with us.  Four of the senior couples will be going home in the next 2 months.  Elder and Sister Paulsen left to go home today (the 14^th); Elder and Sister McVea go home on February 27^th; the Gibby’s and the Depew’s go home April 2^nd.  We had a nice dinner.  After dinner we met together for some instruction from President Christianson.  Before beginning the instruction the President had these four couples share their testimonies.  It was a very good evening.  We did not get home until almost 10pm; so that is why the blog message is a day late.

Out testimonies are continually growing and being added to each day.  We know more certain than we have before that Heavenly Father lives and his Son Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of all people everywhere.  They direct they lives and events of their children on the earth; and they are directing the prophets and apostles of our day in accomplishing the work that needs to be done before the Savior returns.  Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration; the Book of Mormon is filled with the truths of the gospel and truly is a witness of Jesus Christ.  We are so greatly blessed to be serving in this mission where the restoration began.

We love each of you and pray for you daily.  We hope you will all be guided and blessed through the Gift of the Holy Ghost in your individual and family lives.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message 6 February 2012

Message—6 February 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

In our last Blog message I mentioned I would share an experience Elder and Sister Ellis had, who just arrived in the mission on January 26^th.  They are from Friendlywoods Texas, just south of Houston about 45 minutes.  They have an infant granddaughter in Texas who is about 4 months old.  When the baby was born she had heart defects that required her to have a Berlin artificial heart to keep her alive.  She was placed on the list to receive a heart transplant; with not a very likely possibility she would get a heart match in time to prevent her from dying.  Elder & Sister Ellis prayed a lot about whether they should proceed with their mission application or wait until the baby received a heart or died.  They communicated with the Missionary Department several times to let them know of their concerns about the baby, and then they prayed some more.  They finally decided to go ahead and be assigned to a mission and enter the MTC.  They received their call and were assigned to enter the MTC on January 16^th; this only gave them about 3 weeks to get ready and report to the MTC.  They flew to Salt Lake and spent the week in the MTC; then flew back to Texas to get their car and the things they needed to bring to NY.  They left Texas on Monday, January 23^rd.  They arrived in NY the evening of January 26^th.  When they arrived in NY on Wednesday, they received a call from their daughter, the mother of the baby who needed the heart transplant, informing them that a matching heart had become available and the surgical team were on their way to get the heart and would return with it and first make sure the heart was a match, and do the surgery to place the heart in the baby.  The lead doctor of the team said that it was a miracle to him the baby was still alive; she should have died by this time.  The heart was a perfect match and was placed into the baby on Thursday.  That evening and the next day the medical team watched the baby closely and determined on Friday that the heart was so perfect of a match that they did not need to do any immunity rejection treatments.  The baby is doing just perfect and the heart is functioning as though it were the heart the baby was born with.  You can think what you want, but to the Ellis’s and their family, and also to us, the Lord’s hand was in this whole process and timing of events and people involved that had to match precisely.  The timing of the mission call to Elder and Sister Ellis, the week they were in the MTC and their arrival in NY on the day the surgery was done.  The additional miracle of another baby who did not have to stay on earth, who had a heart that perfectly matched the Ellis granddaughter were all divinely planned and guided.  Heavenly Father is the perfect master of coordinating and timing events in the lives of His children.  Great blessings are bestowed upon those who are willing to serve the Lord and participate in His work to bring the gospel to His children.  We have a certain testimony that Heavenly Father and the Savior are providing divine guidance in the lives of those who live on the earth, and in the spirit world.

Tuesday through Friday we spent every day with Elder and Sister Ellis going to the apartments which they will be responsible to check.  We shared with them what we have learned about looking after the missionary apartments.  We had them participate in the checking of the apartments and filling out the apartment checking forms.  We also shared with them our first, as well as their first, experience in finding appropriate furniture for senior couples.  We found a furniture warehouse sale and were able to find the furniture; at a very reasonable cost, which will be needed for Elder and Sister Wood when they arrive in the mission on Thursday.

Saturday morning we drove to Mendon NY, one fourth mile from the John Young Home.  Elder McVea had arranged with Bob Haven and the office couples, and also President and Sister Christianson; to have an informal sign installation ceremony at the Baptism site where Brigham Young and about 60 other church members were baptized.  I explained about this in last week’s blog.  We had a good experience together with Bob; and President Christianson gave a dedication prayer.  We had a great spiritual experience together.  After the ceremony, we drove to Geneseo to check the missionary apartment there; then we returned to our apartment and had part of a P-Day.

We had a great Fast and Testimony meeting on Sunday.  Great testimonies were shared; good lessons were taught in Sunday School and Priesthood and Relief Society.   The Elders had several new investigator families who had said they were going to come to church, but none of them made it.  The Elders were disappointed, but they were not discouraged.

Today we spent the day in the mission office helping with some of the things that need to be done to get ready for missionary transfers which will take place tomorrow.  This evening at 6pm we attended the new missionary orientation meeting at the President’s home.  Eight new missionaries arrived today; four elders, and four sisters.  I also helped Elder McVea with getting four new Subaru cars ready to be switched for older cars with missionaries who come to the transfer meeting tomorrow.  It has been a very busy week for us; and will continue to be busy this week.

We express our love and gratitude to all of you for all you do for us, including encouragement, prayers, thoughts, and kindnesses to us.  We pray for each of you and hope you will all be blessed according to your needs and the wisdom and love of Heavenly Father.

We know Heavenly Father lives and loves us and blesses us more than we recognize.  His Only Begotten Son really is our Savior and Redeemer.  President Monson is the living prophet of our day; the Book of Mormon is a powerful source of truth and inspiration and guidance to help us make wise choices with our agency.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine