Message 25 March 2012

Message—25 March 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Monday six new missionaries arrived in the mission; four Elders and two Sisters.  Monday Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss helped Sister Christianson get the evening meal ready for the missionaries.  The new missionaries had to get out of bed about 2am at the MTC to get to the SLC airport to catch their plane at 4am.  By the time 6pm arrives it is very hard for them to stay awake for the orientation, but they did well.  Elder Servoss and I took care of the Office and then went to the President’s home about 5:30 and had some of the dinner left from the missionaries and President and Sister Christianson.  At 6pm we began the New Missionary Orientation meeting in the basement training room at the President’s house.  This was my first time on my own to give the required vehicle safety training to the new missionaries; I will get better at doing this.

Tuesday at 12pm we met at the Chapel on Kreag Rd.; which is about one mile from the mission office for the Transfer Meeting.  The President and his wife and he AP’s take the new missionaries to the church history sites in Palmyra Tuesday morning before the transfer meeting.  At this meeting, which is only about 30 minutes or so, the new missionaries were introduced to their first companion and trainer.  All the other missionaries affected by the transfer also were there.  The President gave some instruction, and one senior couple who are going home in a week shared their testimony for the last time.

Sister Jensen helped me with some of my vehicle projects during the week; she is very good at performing her job as well as helping me with mine.  I also worked on getting the rest of the 10 vehicles that need to be sold, ready to be sold.  Sister Jensen also helped Sister Servoss with preparing some food on Friday for the new missionaries and their trainers who came to receive some training from the President to help them be more effective at doing their missionary work.

Saturday we spent most of the day doing errands of various types.   We had to be at the Rochester Airport at 11:10 am to pick up Tim Ott and Joe Paul who came from the Church Vehicle Fleet Administration Office in Salt Lake to spend the weekend and they will meet with me and the President Monday morning at 8:30am.  We invited them to have a good home cooked meal with us Sunday evening, at 5:30pm.  They have been traveling for about two weeks to various missions in the Northeast USA area, including up to Halifax Nova Scotia.  Joe has been newly assigned to this area by Tim so Tim is training him.  They attended church this morning at the Palmyra Stake Center, across the road from the Palmyra Temple.  They then went to the three church history sites in the area, and also to the Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette.  After dinner with us, and the Servoss’s, Elder Servoss and I took them to see the Brigham Young baptism site, the cemetery where Brigham Young’s first wife is buried, and also Heber C. Kimball’s father and President Spencer W. Kimball’s great grandfather; is buried there.  Then we took them to the Tomlinson Inn; then back to our house.  We feel so blessed to be able to spend time at some of the places where the events of the restoration took place.  We then let them see some DVD’s that Elder McVea made on several different topics.  Two of the video clips were about vehicle training.

This morning, Monday, at 8:30 am Tim and Joe will meet with President Christianson and I for an annual review of all of our vehicle needs and problems etc.  Tim is responsible for all the church vehicles in the world; and Joe is assigned the vehicles in the North America Northeast Area which includes Eastern Canada and up to Nova Scotia; this is the same area for which Elder Jay Jensen is the Area President.

We invite everyone to take time to watch the sessions of General Conference this next Saturday and Sunday.  President Monson is the prophet of the whole world, not just members of the church.  Our lives will be blessed by hearing his message, as well as the twelve apostles and other church leaders.  We will be taking time to watch the conference from our home, except that I get to go to a church to see the Priesthood session.

We very much appreciate those of you who are watching over our home, thank you so much for all you do.  We love each of you and are grateful for your prayers and thoughts in our behalf.  We hope and pray all is well with each of you and that you will be blessed in your trials and challenges.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine