Message 29 April 2012

Message—29April 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

In our Monday Office Staff meeting last week the theme of the thought was that Heavenly Father loves us.  When I think about all of my experiences in life as well as the experiences of other people I know and have read about in the scriptures as well as in history; there are innumerable evidences that Heavenly Father does in fact really love us.  There will never be any doubt in my mind of His great love for us.  First and foremost He has provided His Son, our Savior and Redeemer who has blessed us with the atonement and the resurrection and a knowledge of the great and eternal plan of eternal life, exaltation, and happiness available to all of us.  Regardless of how many difficulties, or challenges, or trials we experience, Heavenly Father will always and forever love us and do all He can to help us, help ourselves, become prepared and worthy to return to be with Him.

Monday evening we went to the Joseph Smith Farm Welcome Center, at the Sacred Grove, to attend a Family Home Evening with the Senior Couples who serve at the Church History Sites.  The speaker for the evening was Norman White, after he joined the church he was called by those who worked with him, Norman the Mormon; he did not join the church until some years after the events below took place.  In his younger years he purchased a farm six miles south of the Peter Whitmer Farm near Romulus NY.  A narrow lane leading to some of his fields was too narrow for the new hay swather he had purchased.  He asked his neighbor George to use his D-8 Cat to widen the lane by pushing over some trees.  After widening the lane Norman asked George to push over an old building that was too infested with rats to use as a granary.  George drove the D-8 Cat to the building and was going to push the building in to a pile so it could be burned.  When the Cat hit the building the engine died.  It took quite a while to get it started again, but when he did get it started he tried to push the building over again, but he could not get any traction with the tracks, so he got off the Cat and told Norman we will have to do this another day, I have to get to a meeting.  For some reason George never came back to push the building over.  In looking more carefully at the building, Norman discovered the building was actually a solid log cabin with shingles on the outside walls and lath and plaster on the inside walls.  He looked at the abstract to his deed for the farm and learned the building had been built to be “Brown’s Tavern”.  It had been built around 1830.  Sometime later Norman was called by a student from Cornell University who was part of a study group who were studying old log cabins and they would like to look at this log building which had not been pushed over.  Norman finally gave permission for them to come and so they did.  He told them they could tear off shingles or the plaster walls because he was going to have the building pushed over and burned.  For the next six to eight weeks the students came with their tools and equipment and did their study.  The students told Norman they hated to see the log building destroyed because of its historic value.  While this was going on the LDS Church was in the process of rebuilding the Peter Whitmer log home in Fayette; and they were in need of some additional logs to finish the project.  Near the end of the Cornell students study, the students brought Karl Butler to see the log cabin; he represented the LDS Church.  Karl told Norman the Church was looking for some logs from a log cabin that was built around 1830 to use in rebuilding a log cabin at the Peter Whitmer Farm 6 miles away.  Norman said they could have the logs but they would have to take all of them or none.  Karl agreed to take the whole building.  The top three rows of logs above the doors and windows of the rebuilt Peter Whitmer log home came from Norman White’s log building.  These events all took place in 1979 and early 1980.  As you all know, President Kimball was at the Peter Whitmer log home on April 6^th 1980 to dedicate this rebuilt home as part of the Visitors Center there.  This was part of the General Conference that year.  There is a lot more to the story of Norman’s life and conversion to the church and the events and experiences in his life after he joined the church.  I will share them at a later time.

We went to the Wednesday evening Site Training meeting at the Hill Cumorah.  We all participated in a version of the Jeopardy game; using the information in the Joseph Smith Farm Site Training Manual for questions.  It was an interesting and fun evening.  Sister Carver, one of the Site Trainers, shared her testimony with us, since she is completing her mission and going home this Wednesday May 2^nd.  She has been an excellent missionary and has a great testimony and knowledge of the gospel.

Thursday evening we went to Geneseo and taught the Institute class; only one student, Caitlin Pembroke, attended.  Elder Davis and Elder Pratt also attended; Elder Pratt is the Elder I have told you about before who has only about 10 inches of arms all above the elbow.  We had a great discussion about 3 Nephi chapters 1-10.  These are the events that occurred at the time of the birth of the Savior; and the events just before the Savior came to the Nephites.

Friday I was blessed to complete all the details and paperwork to sell two Toyota Corolla’s to Ajay and Kalyan.  They came with their new license plates and I gave them the keys and they took the cars and left.  These are the first vehicles I have processed on my own; all the way through to the final sale.  I learned a lot in the process.  Sister Jensen and I and the Servoss’s worked together to get the monthly Mission Newsletter printed and collated and folded and put in envelopes and either mailed or delivered to the missionaries.  Friday evening we were able to stay home and enjoy the evening together alone, relaxing and resting.

Saturday we did our grocery shopping for things we needed for us and also for the items Sister Jensen needs for her food assignments for this next week for new missionaries coming on Monday, and missionary transfers on Tuesday, and a few missionaries going home on Wednesday.  Elder Swanner and Sister Carver are going home on Wednesday, and Elder Larson goes home the following week.  Elder Swanner served in Brockport for about half of the time we were there; so we know him well.  His Utah home is in Far West, which is northwest of Ogden.

Today, Sunday, we attended church in the Geneseo Ward; it was our ward conference.  We had the Stake Presidency and other stake leaders there to be with and teach us.  The Bishop and the Stake President were the speakers in Sacrament Meeting.  They both spoke on the topic of the blessings of the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  Three of the stake leaders were from the Brockport ward, so we were able to visit with them a few minutes.  The Elder’s had brought an investigator family to church; Spring and her children.  The missionaries have been teaching her off and on for about 16 months; multiple sets of missionaries have taught her.  We had a good lesson in the Gospel Principles Sunday School class with Spring.  The teacher is Chris Erickson, and he is also the Ward Mission Leader and is a good teacher.  Spring had several questions which were answered in a way she understood better.

For the month of May we wish a happy birthday to each of those who have a birthday this month.  May 3^rd is Megan’s birthday, Shayden’s is on May 11^th, Hayden’s is on May 23^rd, and Chandler’s is on May 24^th.  We hope you have a wonderful day and remember that we love you and will be thinking of you on your birthday.  We are anxiously and patiently waiting for Lynne to have her baby boy, Dylan any day.  We surely hope all will be well with both of them and that Dylan will be welcomed and loved by his family, including all of the extended family.  We hope Jason will be blessed to find a new job quickly.  We hope all the grandchildren will finish their school work in May with good grades.  We congratulate Aaron on his high school graduation one year early and with honors; that is a great accomplishment, Aaron; we wish you all the best in pursuing more education.  We also congratulate Mckinzi on finishing her Medical Assistant requirements and also finishing her externship and also being blessed to find a job in a medical office; we are very happy for you Mckinzi.

We express our love and sympathy to Julia Hansen’s family with her passing to the Spirit world this past week to be reunited with Walt.  Thank you to April for attending the viewing and funeral for us.  Julia and Walt Hansen have been a great influence for good in our lives.  They have set examples for us which have motivated us to follow their examples.  They have also mentored us in many ways, including helping us learn how to serve in the church and how to teach our children.  They have been great neighbors to us.  We hope we live good enough to see them again in the next life.

We continue to pray for Jerry Miller and Richard Bradford and their families with challenges they are going through.  We express our love to you and promise you Heavenly Father will bless and comfort you in the way He knows you need to be blessed.  He will also bless and help their families and provide love and support and encouragement to continue in your lives to do all that is required of you.

Please know that we love each of you dearly and pray for you and are very grateful to each of you for the good influence you have been and continue to be in our lives.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message 22 April 2012

Message—22 April 2012 

Dear Family & Friends, 

We really are blessed to be a part of the weekly office staff meetings where we have an opportunity to be taught and encouraged by President Christianson and his wife.  They are a great example to us and always have spiritual messages to share with us and teach us.  Even though it was my turn to provide a spiritual thought, which I did, President always expands on what is shared so we can see and learn even more than what we learn on our own to prepare to give the thoughts we share.  Monday evening we actually were blessed to have a FHE together.  Tuesday and Wednesday we were involved with trying to catch up on our work in the office.  On Wednesday I started the process of negotiating with some young men from India to sell two Toyota Corollas' which the mission has for sale.  I do pretty good at understanding their accent when I talk with them in person, but I struggle a bit when I talk with them on the phone.  One of them wanted the silver colored Corolla, but his wife talked him into buying the red one instead.  Then a friend decided he wanted to buy the silver one; and we got through the process far enough that I received the check to pay for the silver car.  I sent the check and the accompanying paper work by overnight mail to Salt Lake; the Fleet Administration Office people will send the signed title to the car back to me overnight on Monday, tomorrow, so I will have the title on Tuesday.  The other guy who wants the red Corolla will bring the check for that car tomorrow and I will get it sent to Salt Lake so I can get the title back for this car.  I will then have only a Mazda left to sell.  In the next week or so we will receive 3 more new 2012 Toyota Corolla’s; so I will then have to sell the 3 cars these new ones replace.  This is a never ending process to keep the cars serviced, maintained, and sold. 

Wednesday evening we attended the Site Training meeting at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center.  We go to these meetings instead of a district meeting like we did when we were in Brockport.  We also go to deliver mail which had been received in the Mission Office, to the young Sister missionaries, who also attend these meetings.  This mail includes packages sent to the missionaries from family and friends at home.  These packages and mail always make the sisters happy.  In some cases the mail is from a certain young man back home, and we can see the sparkle in their eyes when this is the case. 

Thursday after we left the office we drove to Geneseo to attend the Institute class we help teach twice a month.  Brother Don Gammon taught the lesson on the entire book of Helaman in the Book of Mormon.  This coming Thursday it is our turn to teach the lesson on 3 Nephi chapters 1-10.  The two students who have been attending Institute are both graduating from Geneseo College on May 12^th.  They are both then going to their homes for the summer.  Then one is going to do a master’s degree at the Univ. of Virginia; and the other one is going to move to Utah to get a job teaching school and also make connections with a missionary who served his mission here in NY; whom she has been writing.  She will likely marry him and then help support him while he gets his college degrees. 

Friday afternoon one of the districts in the Palmyra North Zone; which includes the area where the Mission Office is located, had their district meeting in the office.  We stayed until they were finished and then ate some dinner we had brought from home.  We then went to the Chapel on Westfall Rd. which is the stake center for the Rochester Stake.  President Russell Osguthorpe, the General Sunday School President of the Church came to provide some instruction on how to be better teachers.  The meeting was for all adults in all three stakes in our Mission; the Rochester Stake, the Buffalo Stake, and the Palmyra Stake.  About 400 people attended.  The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7:30pm.  All three stake presidents attended, and also Elder David Cook who has been our Area 70 for the last 5 years attended, and he also presided.  He was released in General Conference this month; and his actual release date is May 1^st; so this was probably his last assigned meeting.  President Osguthorpe’s plane was delayed in arriving, so he was not present when the meeting began at 7:30.  President Cary Jensen of the Rochester Stake conducted the meeting and we began on time.  President Osguthorpe had texted President Jensen that he would be there as quickly as he could.  The Rochester Airport is only about 5 miles from the chapel, so once his plane landed; it did not take him very long to get to the chapel.  After the song and prayer, Elder Cook took some time and shared some experiences he has had in his life to illustrate teaching which was not so good and also contrasted that with some excellent teaching.  As a priest age young man growing up in Utah he had some Priest Quorum Advisors who spent most of the class time trying to play games and make things fun for the priests.  Elder Cook said he does not remember any of the lessons they tried to teach.  The Bishop then called an older High Priest to be the Priest Quorum Advisor.  The first day they met in the quorum meeting; this good brother told them he was there to teach them the gospel and how to magnify their priesthood; and he would like all of them to benefit from this teaching.  He said if any of you do not want to stay and learn, you are invited to go find your mother in Relief Society and sit by them so you will not distract those who stay to learn.  They all stayed; and this good High Priest teacher taught them the gospel and how to magnify their priesthood.  In a short time the boys all began going to his home after they got bored trying to cause mischief.  They had their fun outside of church time.  All but one of those boys, including Elder Cook, went on missions and were married in the temple.  His point was teaching gospel doctrine in church meetings will do far more good than entertaining or having fun in a church class. 

Pres. Osguthorpe arrived about 8pm and took over when Elder Cook finished.  He began by inviting people to ask questions about teaching; and while he did this a couple of people helped set up his computer and a projector so he could use his PowerPoint Presentation.  He answered some good questions which helped to get people involved in the meeting.  He then provided some of the instruction he had prepared.  He really taught by the Spirit and provided some great examples and gave some good resources to help teachers do better teaching.  His primary message was to learn to teach for conversion, teach so people will change.  He said please do not feel that you are required to teach everything in a lesson; teach what the Spirit directs and what will help people change for the better.  The youth are our future so we must do better at teaching them so they can rise and shine forth and accomplish what will be required of them.  Learn to make good use of the information on the websites the Church has provided; including the “Teaching the Gospel” website.  There will be a transition to using digital resources more and more in the Church.  Pres. Osguthorpe was in a meeting with youth and he asked them what they expected from Church lessons.  Their answer was they wanted to be challenged not lectured to.  He used some video clips from a talk by President Uchtdorf to illustrate how to teach correctly.  There are three steps in the example; 1) teach a key doctrine of the gospel, 2) invite people to action using the doctrine, 3) describe and testify of the promised blessings for changing.  In three words the concept is KNOW—DO—BECOME!  Before giving his summary and sharing his testimony, he did something different.  He asked each person to turn to someone next to them and explain what one principle they had learned and how they were going to use it in their teaching.  He then asked a few people to share what they had said.  Pres. Osguthorpe presented a very excellent training session. 

Saturday was Sister Jensen’s birthday and also our 46^th anniversary.  Saturday morning we went to the Palmyra Temple and did an endowment session; then we went to a nice restaurant and had a good dinner.  We then went home and did our P-Day work; washing and cleaning.  In the evening we mostly spent our time learning how to make better use of our I-Pad’s.  I have an I-Pad 2 and for her birthday I gave Sister Jensen one of the new I-Pad 3’s.  We downloaded church related resources and learned how to use them somewhat. 

Today, Sunday, we attended church in the Geneseo Ward and had very good meetings.  We attended the missionary coordination meeting right after the meeting block.  I helped Elder Pratt put some new windshield wiper blades on their truck; I had brought them for them from the Office supplies I have for vehicles.  We came home and had a great dinner, which my children would love to have been present to enjoy, it was like the normal dinner we had when they were living at home.  We then drove to the Peter Whitmer Farm to get some information and pictures and the accident report from some Sister Missionaries about a minor accident they had yesterday.  Here it is the end of another Sunday and another week of our mission. 

We are patiently and anxiously waiting for our daughter Lynne to call us and report that her new son, Dylan has arrived; he is expected to be born this week; Lynne sure hopes he is.  This will be our 28^th and last grandchild; this makes 19 boys, and only 9 girls, but they are certainly the most beautiful girls I know.  In the future we will continue to await more great-grandchildren.  We were saddened to hear the bad news about Jerry Miller and Richard Bradford, in our ward at home in Provo.  We pray for them and their families that they might all be comforted and strengthened through these challenges.  We also learned that Norm Erickson’s cancer has returned and we continue to pray for him that he will be able to endure and be comforted and blessed.

We express our great appreciation and love for each of you and pray daily for you to receive the blessings you need to sustain and help you in all you have to deal with each day.  Our lives have been blessed by our associations with each of you. 

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard and Maxine

Message 15 April 2012

Message—15 April 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

On Monday morning, April 9^th, we had a very good staff meeting; in addition to the business of the meeting, President shared the spiritual thought and we had a great discussion about his message on the atonement of Jesus Christ.  We usually also learn about some of the great experiences the missionaries are having in finding and teaching people they are led to find.  There were two new missionaries who arrived in the mission on Monday who both do ASL.  They came between the normal transfer arrivals because ASL missionaries are in the MTC for 9 weeks. We also had one missionary arrive last week from Mexico; Elder Vazquez, he had been in the MTC in Mexico but had a difficult time getting his visa to come to New York.  He is an older missionary, 25, who has been working several years to earn enough money to go on a mission for both he and his brother.  His brother is also on a mission.  He had a successful business related to tourists who come to Cabot San Lucas.  He sold the business in order to pay for his mission and also for his brother.  He was assigned to serve in the Mexico North Mission while he was working on getting his visa.  He prayed for Heavenly Father to help him find someone at the embassy who understood about missionaries for the LDS Church to help him get the visa.  On his first visit to the embassy in Northern Mexico the man who did the first interview was asking him questions about why he wanted to serve a mission and Elder Vazquez was feeling he was not going to have success in getting the visa.  The man then said he was a member of the LDS church and he would do all he could to get his visa approved.  He then had to meet with the Consul who was a lady; before he went he prayed for help that the Consul would approve his visa request; this was on a Wednesday.  When he entered her office and sat down, the lady saw his name tag and asked are you Carlos Vazquez who helped me at Cabot San Lucas last year while I was there?  He said he did have a business there at the time; and she said you were so helpful and kind to me.  I will see that your visa is approved and available for you on Monday.  The Lord truly is involved in the details of our lives.  It is so amazing to me how the Lord put in motion all the events that had to happen at the right time preceding Elder Vazquez getting his visa approved in less than two weeks, when it usually takes months.  Heavenly Father and the Savior love us so much and are so good to us.  We will see this is true if we will pause, be still, and see His hand in our lives.

The President tried a different sequence in providing the orientation for these three new missionaries.  Instead of doing the orientation Monday evening, he had us do it Tuesday morning after he had taken them to the Sacred Grove and the Hill Cumorah.  Doing the orientation Monday evening, which we normally have done, after the missionaries had been up since 2am to get to the airport and then travel all day and try to stay awake in the evening after a good dinner made it difficult for the missionaries to stay awake and listen.  It worked much better to do the orientation Tuesday afternoon.  We will continue with this schedule from now on.  After the office staff did their orientation the President had the rest of the afternoon to do some training and teaching before sending the new missionaries with their companions to their assigned areas.

Monday evening we joined the Senior Couples at the Historic sites for a tour of some museums in Palmyra.  We met at the Alling Coverlet Museum, which is right behind and to the west of the Grandin Building.  The Palmyra Historic Society has some control over the museums, and two of their officers gave all of us missionaries an evening special viewing and tour.  The Alling Museum is one of the few museums that specializes in collecting quilted bed coverlets.  They have also included a number of other historical items which citizens of Palmyra have donated over the years.  They include some items made by Indians from Western New York.  We also went to two other museums on Market Street, which is just east of the Grandin Building.  One was the Historic Palmyra Museum.  In here they have displays in every room of the building which was once a store, a boarding house, and a residence.  There is a room with Mormon related items in it; one with dolls of various kinds, one with women’s period clothing, one with toys from the 1800’s including a 7foot long toboggan, and one with war mementos from Palmyra citizens who were in all the wars from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War.  The main floor has a collection of printing presses from the 1800’s.  There is a room with hand tools of all kinds, and there is a room with information about the grandparents of Winston Churchill who came from Palmyra.  There is a display about Ira Lackey, the whaler and owner of the "Morning Star," the first boat to send missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the South Pacific, Ira was from Palmyra.  The other museum we visited is the William S. Phelps General Store.  As far as is known he is not related to our LDS, William W. Phelps.  The store has been preserved so it looks just like it looked in the 1940’s; including the shelves being stocked with the goods that were available for sale back then.  I recognized many of the brand names on items on the shelves, and have some pictures of them.  There is a door on the north of the store which opened to a ramp which went to the wharf along the Erie Canal so that goods could be brought in from the boats on the Erie Canal.

Tuesday evening we worked together with the Servoss’s to get the food ready for the Special Training meetings on Wednesday.  We provided 13 pineapples, about 10, 3 pound containers of strawberries, and 10, 3 pound containers of grapes and mixed them together.  Then at the meetings we cut up some bananas to add to the mixture; and also provided bottled water and 13 dozen Bruegger’s bagels of various types (we bought the bagels we did not make them).  The Rochester and Buffalo Zones met Wednesday morning from 8am to 12 noon in Batavia.  The Palmyra North and Palmyra South Zones met Wednesday afternoon from 2pm to 6pm in Canandaigua.  The Servoss’s went to the Batavia meeting and took care of setting out the food we had prepared.  We took care of the Mission Office during the morning while the Servoss’s were in Batavia.  The Servoss’s got to the Mission Office in time for us to get to Canandaigua; and we set the food out for the missionaries during their break.  By doing this we were able to hear most of the training the President provided.  He is such a great teacher.  One idea he talked about was an answer to a missionary question about the anti-Mormon people.  The LDS Church is the only church which has a major organization dedicated to trying to drive people from the church and they have a publishing company that prints nothing but anti-Mormon literature.  Why do they target our Church, because it is the true church and Satan wants to do all he and his followers can do to destroy the church.  The primary focus they have is to promulgate negative things about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  By doing this they hope to have people lose their testimony of these two foundation doctrines of the church.  The Book of Mormon is the Second Witness of Jesus Christ; and Joseph Smith is translator of this book of scripture and is the Lord’s prophet of this dispensation, and there are living prophets and apostles on the earth today.  Through these prophets revelation comes and the Priesthood Keys are administered.   If the Anti’s can succeed in destroying the Book of Mormon and living prophets, then the priesthood keys go away with it; and the priesthood is the one power Satan can never have; so he wants to keep us from having the blessings of the priesthood.  Since this is what Satan wants to destroy, then prophets, the Book of Mormon and the Priesthood should be the major focus we have in our lives, because they are the means of saving us from Satan’s power.

Thursday evening we were on our way to Geneseo to attend Institute, when we received a call that Brother Gammon had cancelled Institute for that night.  He had his secretary call the students and the missionaries so they knew.  This made it possible for us to arrive home in time to have dinner at the Servoss’s with a new senior couple, Elder and Sister Nielsen, from New Port Beach California.  They are here for a 6 month mission and have been assigned to serve in the Freedom NY area and help the branch there.  They are great people and will be a great help to the branch.  We visited with them for a few hours after dinner then walked across the street to our home and went to bed.  Friday morning Sister Jensen arose early and prepared a very tasty quiche breakfast to share with the Servoss’s, the Nielsen’s and the Ellis’s, who also came for breakfast.  After breakfast we went to the office and the Ellis’s led the way for the Nielsen’s to their apartment in Freedom.  The Ellis’s were then prompted by the Spirit to find a nice apartment in the Collins area, for another couple, the Jeppsen’s, who will be here next month to serve in that area.

Friday evening we stayed home and rested a little.  Saturday morning we slept in for an hour to 7am.  We spent most of the day, from 10 am to about 4pm with the Servoss’s.  We rode together in our car and drove to Lyndonville, NY to shop at two Amish operated stores.  One was a General Store type place which included bolts of fabric which kept Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss occupied.  We then went to Yoder’s Country Store; which sell’s primarily food items.  We then drove up to Lake Ontario and stopped at a large boat harbor with a lighthouse replica and the look and feel of a small fishing village, including many people along the harbor fishing.  We drove along the Lake Ontario Sea Way, which is a four lane divided highway that parallels the Lake.  You can see the lake in many places.  When we got near Rochester we went South on highway 390 and returned home.  We spent the evening taking it easy.  The week was long and tiring but we were very busy serving in a variety of ways and were blessed to accomplish what was needed.

Today we went to church in the Geneseo ward and had very good meetings; the sacrament meeting talks were about the atonement.  We stopped in Lima to check on a referral the missionaries had received from the Elders in Greece NY, that was quite a distance from their apartment, but it was just off the road we travel to return home.  It turned out that the address was incomplete.  The address was an apartment complex with 8 buildings with 8 apartments in each building which was 64 apartments.  We had no apartment number so we will have the Elders drive to this place one day and have them tract through the apartments and see if the person lives there; if not maybe they will find someone else who is interested in being taught.  We call these referrals, bogus.  Some people provide false information just to get rid of the missionaries.

We express our love and appreciation to each of you.  Our lives have been very blessed by your examples, your kindnesses, your help, your love, and your prayers.  We pray for all of you each day and we know you are being blessed in many ways.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message 8 April 2012

Message—8 April 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week and the week before went by so quickly that I did not get a message posted on the blog.  So I will put two weeks of message in this message. 

March 26^th Tim and Joe spent the morning with me going over records and related information on how I am doing at keeping track of all the vehicles in the mission.  We have 53 vehicles at the moment; only 43 are in service; the other 10 are in the process of being sold.  Tim and Joe were kind enough to take Sister Jensen and I to dinner before they left to meet with the FM Office in Palmyra to review how they are doing with their vehicles.  Tuesday afternoon I took Joe and Tim to the Rochester airport to catch their plane back to Salt Lake.  Before they left. Joe said he was working on an agreement with a car dealer to sell our vehicles for us so the vehicle coordinators do not have to worry about selling the vehicles which are replaced.  Wednesday I received a call from a guy named Ricky in Mississippi telling me he would have a car transport driver coming to pick up 7 of the 10 vehicles I had for sale.  I called Joe to find out if this was all arranged for.  Joe said no, but he would check and see what was going on.  He called me back later in the afternoon and said that Ricky would have his transport driver come and pick up seven of the vehicles on Thursday and gave me the VIN #’s of the ones he would take.  The driver did not actually come until Friday morning about 9:30am.  I watched and helped some with getting the vehicles all loaded on the transport trailer.  George was the driver; he has been doing this for about 13 years.  There is an art to getting the vehicles loaded so they are balanced in weight and also so the height of the vehicles will be under 14 feet so they will clear freeway overpasses.  It took until about 1:30pm to get them all loaded and chained down and get the needed paperwork signed and copies made.  It was quite a learning experience for me.  After he left the mission office he drove to Pittsburg and picked up two more vehicles from the mission office there.  It was after 10pm before he left Pittsburg.  A cousin of the Servoss’s is the vehicle coordinator for the Pittsburg Mission.

Joe also had me work on getting information from some mobile scratch and dent repair businesses concerning prices and what they do to make the cars look better to help in selling them.  The church wants us to be careful to insure we have the cars be in good condition both inside and outside before we sell them.  The church does not want bad feelings or publicity for selling the cars.  I gave the information to Joe and he told me to try these businesses out and see how good a job they do.  The business we selected will be coming this Thursday, the 12^th to work on two of the cars.  We hope this will work out well for us without a lot of cost.  I received a call Thursday the 5^th telling me one or two new cars will be delivered to the mission office this next week  They will be used to replace ones that have over 50,000 miles on them.  This means I will have more cars to get ready to sell again.  “One eternal round” in the missionary vehicle assignment.

Sister Jensen has been very busy following up on old referrals that the missionaries have not reported on.  Some good investigators have been found by having the missionaries finally contact the referral.  Sister Crook and Clark had a referral come to them from a gentleman who called and said he was rude to them when they came to his home, and he would like them to come back again.  We are waiting to hear from the sister’s if he was really interested in the church or just wanted to apologize for being rude.

On Monday evening, March 26^th, we attended the 182^nd anniversary of the Book of Mormon first being available.  This was held at the Grandin Press Building in Palmyra.  It was an open house which had been well publicized.  Some of us senior couples had dressed in 1830 period clothing; and the site couples provided information and tours to those who came.  President and Sister Christianson were dressed as Joseph and Emma Smith with name tags to match.  Some of the young missionaries sang hymns of the restoration in some of the locations in the building.  They were awesome; especially Elder Elrey and Elder Adair, and Sister Willis and Sister Barrus.  Sister Willis is from England and has a beautiful strong voice.

We were blessed to hear all of the General Conference sessions and messages from the Lord’s servants.  Every talk had great messages for us to apply in our lives; we will work on making those applications to bless our lives and help us in our service as missionaries.  On March 30^th Elder and Sister Servoss had invited two new senior couples to come to their home for dinner, and also invited us to come since we are across the road.  Sister Jensen fixed some dessert for us all.   Elder Servoss and I took the two couples, the Smellie’s and the Fullmer’s , to see the Tomlinson Inn and the Tomlinson Corners cemetery.

Elder Servoss invited me to go with him to the Saturday evening Priesthood General Conference session at the Pittsford chapel on Kreag Rd in Fairport, which is much closer than the Geneseo ward chapel.  The wards usually have some kind of food treats for the priesthood session prior to the meeting.  The Pittsford ward has a tradition of having a chili making contest to see who can make the best chili.  Those who come try each of the kinds of chili and then vote on which is the best.  There are a lot of varieties of chili, many of them being very spicy hot; I avoided those, but did choose to eat some of the chili which was selected as number one.  It was made in a dutch oven so it had an advantage over the others.  The priesthood session was very spiritually strengthening.

Tuesday evening, April 3^rd, we had dinner at the Servoss’s with the Elders assigned to our area, Elder Cox from Idaho and Elder Richardson from Weiser Idaho, a new missionary.

Wednesday evening we attended the meeting held each week for the Site missionaries for training and coordination.  Sister Carver and Sister Chatterton are the site training young sister missionaries; and they provided some instruction on using Preach My Gospel lessons and principles in giving tours to those who come to the sites.  The training was very inspiring.  President and Sister Christianson provided some instruction and testimonies also; they are always inspiring.

Thursday evening we did our first lesson as Institute instructors in the Geneseo ward.  Caitlyn and Jill both came as well as Elder Davis and Elder Pratt.  I had spent some time at the office Thursday afternoon highlighting and making notes in the margins of my lesson manual and also finding a talk by elder Christopherson that had a quote which was very relevant to the lesson.  The lesson was on Alma chapters 43-63, the war chapters in Alma.  When we arrived at the church I discovered we had left my manual with all of my notes at the office, so we only had Sister Jensen’s copy of the manual.  So we ended up doing the lesson totally by the Spirit and teaching what the Spirit said instead of what I had prepared.  As is usually the case, when we go by the Spirit the lesson is always better; and it was.  We discussed the Spiritual lessons that we can learn from the war chapters, which are many and powerful.

Friday morning, April 6^th, we got up early and left our home at 6:30am and rode with Elder & Sister Servoss to the Peter Whitmer Farm to attend a baptism service for a young man.  Elder Ingram and Elder Peck had taught him most of the lessons before Elder Peck returned home at the end of his mission the week before.  The young man is the student body president at a local college.  He had requested and permission was given for him to be baptised in the chapel on the Peter Whitmer Farm on April 6^th which is exactly 182 years after the church was organized at the same site.  It was a great baptism service and a great experience.  President Christianson shared some thoughts and testimony about the restoration and living faithful lives as did the early saints and the Prophet Joseph. 

Friday evening we attended a fireside for the senior couples that was held at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center in the large theater.  This was held in commemoration of the 182^nd anniversary of the organization of the church.  The speakers were Elder David Cook and his wife Katherine.  Elder Cook was released at General Conference as an Area Authority for our mission and the Utica Mission and the stakes in these two missions.  He is a very well respected lawyer in New York.  Elder Cook has read and studied everything he has been able to find about Joseph Smith.  He shared some of what he has learned and his testimony of the prophet Joseph.  This was a very informative and spiritual witness of the Prophet Joseph.

Saturday morning we attended our Geneseo ward Easter activity.  The ward mission leader had organized an event about Easter and had invited community members as well as ward members.  Instead of doing Easter eggs; he had organized some activities in some of the rooms in the church which were oriented toward focusing on the resurrection.  The ward was very positive about it and it went well.

Saturday evening we went with the Servoss’s and met Elder and Sister Jones in Stafford at a nice restaurant and had dinner together.  Sister Jensen had made this suggestion and then organized this with the Jones’s  The Jones’s are a great couple and have been a very positive influence in the Warsaw branch.  They do not get to be around other senior couples very often so they were very appreciative of us coming to be with them.

We hope those with birthdays this month have a wonderful day; we love and appreciate each of you.  Justin’s birthday was April 2^nd, Austin’s was on the 3^rd, Bailee’s is on the 29^th, and April’s is on the 30^th.  In addition Sister Jensen’s birthday is on the 21^st; and that is also our 46^th anniversary.  One other event is my mother will be 100 on April 12^th, even though she is in the spirit world and can celebrate with my dad and Alma, Neil, and Lou.  My brother Dave’s birthday is on the same day as my mother, except he will be 59, if my math is correct.

We know the work we are doing is part of the Lord’s work to be accomplished before he returns to the earth.  The gospel is perfectly true, Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration, the Book of Mormon is the key to obtaining a testimony of the gospel, and President Monson is the Lord’s prophet in our day.  Most important of all, Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, He lives and guides the prophet and will guide us in living the way he taught us by His example and through scriptures and modern prophets and apostles.  We know these things are perfectly true.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine