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 12th. 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 1st; 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 46th 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 28th 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
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