Message—10 June 2012
Dear Family & Friends,
Monday we had a good mission office staff meeting with President and Sister Christianson. Our opening hymn was “Let us oft speak kind words”. This hymn always brings back to my memory a number of occasions in our Mapleton Sacrament Meetings when Welby and Burt Warren and Ernest Binks used to sing this same hymn. I greatly enjoyed hearing these good men sing this hymn. I have been greatly blessed to have wonderful parents who practiced speaking kind words. The hymn has helped me remember to follow this same example. I have really benefitted from hearing others sing the hymns of the church; they are filled with great messages which have helped my testimony grow and be strengthened, and I feel the Holy Spirit often while hearing or singing these hymns. Sometimes I have to stop singing because the Spirit touches me so deeply. In fact, I have experienced a Danish nosebleed, also known as shedding tears, while listening to or singing hymns. I shared these thoughts in a shorter version after the opening song and prayer in our staff meeting Monday. President Christianson said he has had the same experiences in his life; and he then changed the spiritual thought he was planning to share and expanded on the thoughts I expressed. President Christianson has written a few books on the effects of music on our minds and spirits; so he is well versed in scriptures on the topic. In our staff meeting a number of experiences were shared about how the Lord had blessed us in accomplishing our assignments.
We regularly see miracles taking place in the missionary work being done in this mission. Last week Sister Thomas and Sister Raines in the Buffalo area found 17 new investigators to teach. They began with finding one family of six; who then invited two other families they are friends with to come to their home and listen to what the Sisters were teaching and feel what the family felt, meaning the Spirit. One week ago, Elder Wilson and Elder Vazquez, also in Buffalo, had a goal of getting 8 people to attend church the next Sunday. They had invited investigators and some inactive members to attend; they followed up Sunday morning with these people to insure they were coming. When the Elder’s arrived at church, only 7 people had come. About 10 minutes before meeting began an inactive brother called and said he would come if he had a ride; so the Elder’s asked a member to go get this brother, he did and so the Elder’s met their goal of 8 people attending church. During the next week these two Elder’s met together, one hour before their district meeting, with another set of Elders in their district, who are teaching in Spanish; to practice their Spanish together. When Elder Wilson and Vazquez came in to the church, where they were meeting; a Hispanic man was sitting in the foyer on the couch. Elder Vazquez asked him how they could help him. The man told them he had just moved to Buffalo; and his relatives who are LDS had invited him to find an LDS church and let the missionaries teach him the gospel. He did not speak any English, so he was hoping to find some missionaries who could speak Spanish. Elder Vazqeuz said it just so happens that there are three missionaries here today who speak Spanish and we would love to teach you, please come in this room with us. So they proceeded to teach him and arranged to teach him more on another day. As Alma 13:24 states the Lord is preparing people to hear the gospel. He also leads them to find the missionaries or the missionaries or members to find them so they can hear the restored gospel in their own language whether that is English or some other language. The Lord really is on our left hand and our right hand to help with His work to gather Israel.
Tuesday morning we took the new Chev Colorado truck we had brought back from Kirtland last weekend down to the Elder’s in Hornell; then we returned to the mission office. When we arrived in the parking lot in front of the mission office; Sister Servoss had a lady in her vehicle who she introduced to us. Her name is Shoshanna, she is Jewish lady who has been converted to Christianity; and has been shunned by her Jewish friends. She has many medical problems; but she has a medical degree so she has some knowledge of her problems and is trying to manage her health challenges. One problem is a type of hypotension where she has to be in a place where the temperature is in the 55-60 degree range. Sister Jensen supported Sister Servoss and sat in the Servoss’s vehicle with Shoshanna and had the air conditioner on as low as they could get it and talked with her most of the rest of the day. Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss were both very cold by the end of the day. While they were doing this Sister Christianson managed to find who the Transient Bishop is and got his counselor to come and talk with Shosahnna and see what help could be provided. Bishop came a little later and provided some assistance for Shosahnna. She is a very interesting lady. Some gospel related topics were brought up and discussed a little; but Shoshanna needs more medical help before she will be in a position to learn the gospel.
Wednesday evening we attended the Site Training meeting in the basement of the Hill Cumorah. The topic covered was about the events and history of the Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette. Sister Chatterton and Sister Hatch did a modified version of the Jeopardy Game with all the questions being about the history, facts, and events that happened at the farm. It was quite fun and helped us learn more about the farm. There is a new display in the main foyer of the Hill Cumorah Visitor’s Center for the visitors who come during the pageant. It consists of some of the costumes used in past years in the Hill Cumorah Pageant. This is the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Pageant; so these costumes were selected to represent how the costumes have changed over the years. Some of them are very elaborate and beautiful. This week when we go I am going to take the video camera and take some video of these costumes; they are very impressive.
Wednesday afternoon I picked up the truck Elder Ingram and Elder DeLaCruz have been driving, from Fred Foti Collision. The repair work had been done by Fred due to an accident in which it was involved a few weeks ago. On Thursday afternoon I took it to a shop to have the Rhino Bedliner repaired and partially replaced on Friday. Fred started working on the truck from Hornell that was in the accident last week. I and Sister Jensen went and picked up Elder Ingram’s truck after we left the office on Friday. Also on Friday, Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss provided some food for the Elder’s and Sister’s who were being trained by the President to be new trainers for the new missionaries who will arrive tomorrow.
Saturday we met Elder Ingram and Elder DeLaCruz to give their truck back to them. Elder Ingram is completing his mission this week, on Wednesday, so Sister Jensen and I decided we would take Elder and Ingram and Elder DeLaCruz to lunch at the Olive Garden, for Elder Ingram’s last meal bought by us. We have had many good experiences with Elder Ingram since we have been here. His mother is coming on Monday to spend some time with him here in the mission before she takes him home to be released. He is from Phoenix AZ; he is going to go to college there someplace and he also has a girl friend from Phoenix, who has been writing him all during his mission. So he will have to find out how things are between them also; if all is well, a marriage may happen in the near future. I told him to go to the Phoenix Mission office and find President Taylor and give him a hug for me. Elder Ingram will continue to be a good member missionary, rather than a full time one.
We went with the Servoss’s to the Saturday evening session of their Stake Conference in the Palmyra Stake Center, which is across the street from the Palmyra temple and less than a fourth of a mile from the Sacred Grove. Elder Gerard (sp), a member of the Quorums of 70, presided at the conference. There were some very good and appropriate messages given; it was well worth attending. President and Sister Christianson spoke in this meeting; we always love to learn from them. This Saturday evening session of a Stake Conference is always a great spiritual meeting that lifts and motivates and inspires us to do better. Before the meeting began, I visited for few minutes with Larry Benson and his wife Lynne who are serving a 6 month Temple mission at the Palmyra Temple. Larry worked in the BYU Library with me for many years; he is a great person. He and his wife have been assigned to attend Sunday church meetings in the Hornell Branch where Elder Olson and Elder Decker serve.
Today we attended our ward meetings in Geneseo. We had a youth speaker who gave a great message about forgiveness. Two other great speakers also shared messages about forgiveness. I substituted for Chris Elliott, the Ward Mission Leader, as the teacher for the Gospel Principles lesson in Sunday School; the lesson was on the topic of Exaltation and Eternal Life. We had a good discussion and the Spirit helped do the teaching.
We very much appreciate all that our children and grandchildren are doing to take care of our yard while we are here. They do a lot more than we know about; and we are so grateful for each of you and what you do for us. We also appreciate our good neighbors who also help out in many ways. We are truly blessed with good family and friends.
We hope all the fathers have a great Father’s day next Sunday. We have both been so greatly blessed by our wonderful father’s; they have done so much for us and taught us and set examples for us and just loved us. We are especially thankful for Father in Heaven who provided us with this mortal experience and has helped us every day of our lives in so many ways; we love Him and His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ and express our deep gratitude for the atonement and the resurrection and the great eternal plan of happiness they made possible for us.
We express our love to each of you and we want you to know we pray for you and think of you. We have been blessed so much by good family and friends who have been a good example to us and have helped to mentor and teach us valuable and important things through the years. The Lord has been very good to us in so many countless ways.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Richard & Maxine
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