Message 20 May 2012

Message—20 May 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

There was more than plenty to do this past week.  We did accomplish many of the things we had to do, but some things are still left to do this week.  Sister Jensen helped with a number of projects in the office, and also caught up on her own projects.  We had a few missionary transfers the first of the week on account of the decision was made to have Elder Bowman return home to take care of getting his diabetes under control.  There were only 4 or 5 companionships affected by these transfers.  Elder and Sister Ellis were assigned to find a few additional apartments; one for two Elders who needed to move out of the apartment they have been living in; and a couple of new ones for senior couples who will be arriving in the mission soon.  They are doing a great job with the apartment issues since they took over what our assignment was last year.

I spent most of my time during the week getting some vehicles ready to be sold.  Some needed mechanical work done on them; and a few needed to still have a good interior cleaning done on them.  By Friday I finally got 3 of the 4 ready to sell.  I have one more to get ready this week; it has been in use for the last week or so by a Senior couple who had major repair expenses needed on the vehicle in which they drove to the mission.  Instead of fixing the old car they came in, they decided to buy a newer vehicle; so they will return the mission vehicle on Monday.  I also worked on some things related to getting ready for zone conferences to be held this coming week.  Our internet access was unavailable Thursday afternoon and Friday; so we learned how dependent we are on internet access; it is a major part of allowing us to do our office work.

The zone conferences this week will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and Saturday.  They will begin at 9am in the Sacred Grove; and after two hours there we will move to the basement of the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center for the rest of the time until 4pm.  During the morning I will have to try and get the vehicles all inspected quick enough so the missionaries can drive from the Grove to the Hill for the rest of the meeting.

Wednesday evening we attended the Site Training meeting at the Hill Cumorah.  Sister Chatterton and Sister Hatch did some training and provided some examples of how to naturally include teaching and testifying of Christ in the tours that are given by the missionaries.  Thursday evening we did not have Institute so we were able to stay at home and rest a bit.  Friday evening right after we left the office we went to the Apple Computer Store in the Eastview Mall and attended a workshop on how to make better use of our I-Pad’s and I-Phone’s; it was a very helpful training for us.

Saturday we did the needed “home work”, washing, cleaning, and etc.  Then we drove to Romulus NY which is about 6 miles south of the Peter Whitmer Home in Fayette.  There a number of Amish families who live in the area around Romulus.  We used the video camera to take some video clips of what we saw.  We saw the Seneca Lake which is the eastern boundary of our mission; there is also a church owned camp site at the North end of Seneca Lake; similar to MIA Shalom in Utah; except it is only at an elevation of about 500 feet.  We saw several Amish farmers out working their land getting ready to plant and planting with horse drawn farm equipment.  It brought back some memories of our youth for both of us.  These Amish usually have either Belgian horses or Mules.  The ones we saw were all Belgians; except for two of the farmers were also using one of their buggy pulling horses along with the Belgian’s.  They do this to allow the better trained Belgian’s to teach the younger horses how to calm down and work and not be so jumpy and flighty.  There is a great lesson in this example; we youth can learn from those who are older and more steady and experienced.  On our way back home we stopped at the Peter Whitmer Farm and I took some video segments of the visitor’s center there and also the log home.  I was all alone in the log home taking the video shots; it was a great experience to be in this sacred place all by myself.  Sister Jensen was wore out and chose to stay in the visitor’s center and visit with Sister Jeff’s from Castle Dale UT.  I visited with Elder Jeff’s for a few minutes.  He told me he has become friends with an Amish farmer in Romulus who has helped him with cutting some leather to use to braid 8 sets of bridles and reigns.  The Amis fellow has also made a set of harnesses for Elder Jeff’s.  Elder Jeff’s has also negotiated with an Amish farmer in Indiana to get a set of Belgian horses for his ranch in Castle Dale.  The Jeff’s will return home from their mission in September.

Today we attended church in Geneseo and had very good instruction in all the meetings.  I was asked to help pass the sacrament due to a shortage of Aaronic Priesthood youth.  This was a nice experience and reminded me of the opportunities to help with the Sacrament in my youth.  After the meetings, we drove to Leicester NY and visited with the Boyd Family, who are members of the Geneseo Ward, but they do not attend meetings; they still live the rest of the gospel principles.  They used to operate a small dairy farm in the Bliss NY area, by Arcade.  He sold the farm there and the cows and most of his farm equipment and bought a smaller, 34 acre, farm in Leicester.  We had a good visit with them and learned about their family and their church service in previous years.  We also talked a lot about farming and lessons to learn from working on them.  He told us about a variety of sweet corn, named “Got to Have it”; which he said is even sweeter and has larger kernels than the milk and honey kind we grow at home.  We are going to try and find some of this variety when we get home and grow some.

We are looking forward to being at the zone conferences this week and serving there and learning from the instruction we might get to hear.  We are so greatly blessed to be in this mission and experience first-hand the places where the restoration events began and took place.  We know the gospel is true, the church is really the Church of Jesus Christ, and it is perfectly true.  We should not allow negative things about the people in the church keep us from receiving the blessings of living the gospel.  The gospel doctrine and ordinances are the only way to become qualified to live for eternity with Heavenly Father and the Savior and our ancestors and our own families.

We express our great love for each of you and pray for your well-being and your peace and happiness in living the gospel.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine