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 6th 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 2nd. 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 3rd is Megan’s birthday, Shayden’s is on May 11th, Hayden’s is on May 23rd, and Chandler’s is on May 24th. 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
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