Dear Family & Friends,
Monday morning we had mission office staff meeting, the first one in the new mission office in the church on Kreag Rd. We always have great meetings with the President to teach us. We made final plans for the week of September 17th for the mission tour being presided over by Elder Anthony Perkins of the First Quorum of 70. President and Sister Christianson were to drive to Toronto on Sunday the 16th, right after our 10 am Rochester Stake Conference to pick up Elder and Sister Perkins and bring them to the mission home. Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss were assigned to prepare a meal for when they all arrive at the mission home Sunday evening. Then on Monday and Tuesday September 17th and 18th from 9am to 4pm; we are to have our missionaries meet with Elder Perkins, two zones each day; the Rochester and Buffalo zones on Monday in Batavia, and the two Palmyra Zones on Tuesday at the Palmyra Stake Center. Sister Jensen and Servoss are preparing the food for lunch and also snacks for the morning and afternoon breaks for those who will attend. This will be a busy week for us.
Last Monday, the 10th, after our day in the mission office; we went to the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center for the first Family Home evening of the fall and winter, with the Senior Site Couples. We had a potluck dinner together then we had three new site couples; the Muir’s, the Hansen’s, and the Yearsley’s, who just arrived to start their mission this week, tell us about themselves. Then we had two couples who are returning home on Thursday, the Beckman’s and the Jeffs, share some thoughts with us about their missionary service. Elder Jeffs does cowboy poetry, and he had written a poem about his missionary service using cowboy expressions, it was very touching. Elder & Sister Jeffs are from Castledale UT where they have a large ranch with around 650cattle and enough horses to take care of the cattle. The ending of his poem had the phrase “…I hope when I cross that great divide that the Savior will give me a riding assignment…”; I hope he gets his wish. President and Sister Christianson shared a few thoughts and their testimonies with us.
Tuesday I was blessed to have two people want to purchase mission vehicles which have been for sale for quite some time. I was able to make connections with these people to get the cashier’s checks to pay for the vehicles. I then completed the needed paperwork and put it all in an envelope and sent it by overnight express to Salt Lake to the Fleet Management Office so they could send the titles to the vehicles back to the people who bought them so they could get the vehicles registered in their names. Tuesday right after we left the mission office we hurried home and Sister Jensen fixed some of her famous carrots and also some sliced apples and we went across the street to the Servoss’s and had dinner with them and with three young sister missionaries who serve in the Henrietta area. Sister McManama, Sister Meister (from Australia), and Sister Park (from Korea) are serving together as a threesome. The Servoss’s had invited them to dinner and to see the church history sites in the Mendon area where we live. Sister Servoss had prepared a fine meal and then Elder Servoss and I took the three sisters to see the Brigham Young Baptism site, the Tomlinson Inn, and the Boughton Hill Cemetery.
Wednesday after our day in the mission office, we went to the Hill Cumorah again for the regular weekly Site Training Meeting. We go to this meeting, even though we are not site missionaries, so we can take the mail that has been received in the mission office for the young sister missionaries. We also take missionary teaching supplies and sometimes other things needed by the missionaries or by the site couples. Sister Hatch and Sister Madsen, young sister missionaries, are the site trainers; they provided some instruction and answered some questions about a new resource called Connect, which enables the missionaries to keep track of the progress being made with following up on referrals which have been received at any of the historic sites. Connect is managed from the Provo MTC and it is sort of like an electronic and online Area Book, which most missionaries have in print, to keep track of who has been contacted in their area and who has been taught or what the status is of those people the missionaries have spoken to. It was helpful information for Sister Jensen since she is a part of the referral process. She checks the Referral Manager Database daily to see if new referrals have arrived which need to be forwarded to the missionaries for them to contact the person being referred. She then follows up to get a report from the missionaries about what happened when the called on the people.
Thursday we actually were able to spend the evening at our home and do some things we needed to do here. We also were able to relax just a little; until I received a call about 9:30pm from two Elders who had just been in an accident with their truck. They had hit the passenger side doors of another vehicle being driven by some young ladies. Fortunately no one was injured, so I just need to take care of reporting the accident to the insurance company and following through the process to get the truck fixed. The insurance company will take care of working things out with the owners of the other vehicle.
Friday we had some good rain storms which are badly needed; we have had a very dry summer. The fruit crops had a severe loss this year, somewhere in the area of a 70% loss. Other crops have survived and done fairly well. Most of the corn is about 2 feet short of normal; but much of the corn is grown for grain and not silage, so the shorter corn is not so serious for grain corn. The soybeans have done fairly well also; they are in the process of turning from green to yellow and to brown which is the normal process for soybeans. They are not harvested until usually around the first part of November or even later. Farmers who raise soybeans tell me they try to harvest soybeans the day before it is too late to get them. Friday on the way home from the office we went to BJ’s, which is sort of like a Sam’s’ Club; and picked up 14 chickens which had been ordered for the lunch at the two mission conferences on Monday and Tuesday. We took them home and I found us some dinner while Sister Jensen started tearing off the meat from the 14 chickens. We finished with the chickens about 10pm and put them in containers in the fridge. Saturday we went a few places to find the rest of the things we needed for the Sunday evening dinner for Elder Perkins and the others who would be meeting with him; and also some things for Monday and Tuesday. We spent the afternoon working on preparing some of the things for the coming mission tour meetings.
At 5:30 Saturday, we received a call from our Geneseo Elders that they needed a ride to the Saturday evening session of our Rochester Stake Conference. We met them in Avon and took them with us to the stake conference meeting. We were blessed to have Elder Eric Kopischke of the First Quorum of 70 as our visiting authority for the Stake Conference. The meeting was, as every Saturday evening Stake Conference meeting is, very spiritually strengthening. One sister has only had a couple of lessons taught by the Elders, but she was brave enough to stand and share her feelings about how she has been so blessed to learn about how to pray and talk with God and feel peace in her life for the first time. President and Sister Christianson shared a few thoughts and their testimonies about trying to have unity between the missionaries and the members to help bring people to Christ. Elder Kopischke is a great teacher. He shared some feelings about what he had learned from the talks given in the meeting before he began. He talked about how everything on earth is connected to the unseen world, both pre-mortal and from the Spirit World. He also talked about families and how central and important they are to Heavenly Father and to us. He taught about how we need to teach our children and each other; but we cannot take away the agency of others. We can love and teach and pray for our families and for others; but we have to allow them to use their agency; and still love them and pray for them. We have to allow Heavenly Father and the Savior to help people come to them; and we can also be among those through whom the prayers of parents can be answered, by reaching out to love and help others when the Spirit directs us to do so.
This morning we attended the Sunday morning session of Stake Conference. Again there were good messages and testimonies shared. One sister who had not been active for over 25 years spoke. She is currently serving as the Stake Young Women Camp Director. Her husband is not a member, he loves to have the missionaries come to his home and provide dinner for them and talk with them, as long as they do not talk about the gospel. Several years ago while she was not active, she was taking care of her father before he died. One day as she was caring for her father, she asked her father, after you die and I die, will you come and visit me in the Telestial Kingdom? Her father answered, NO. She then said but dad I love you and I know you love me; won’t you come and visit me in the Telestial Kingdom, because that is where I am going to end up. He said again, NO, but I will see you in the Celestial Kingdom; you have to try to prepare to go to the Celestial Kingdom so I can see you there. She promised to try. After her father died; one Sunday morning she was laying bed, and her husband came in and said are you going to church today? She answered, no I do not feel like going. He said to her, you promised your dad you would try to be where he is. She asked him are you going with me, he said no, I did not promise him I would try, you did. She got out of bed and went to church, and has been going since then. Her husband still does not go with her, but he does support her. He has had some health problems the last two years. Earlier this year she asked him one day to go for a ride with him to the Seneca Falls Young Women Camp and help her set up some things for the Stake Young Women Camp. He got in the car and went with her. He has spent most of his life rebuilding old cars and is very handy at doing a lot of things, so he went and helped her. While they were at the camp, they were talking with Elder and Sister Hansen, who are a senior missionary couple serving at the Young Women Camp. Elder Hansen and the ladies husband talked about restoring cars and got to be comfortable with each other. When Elder Hansen learned the husband was going to have surgery he asked him if he wanted a priesthood blessing. The lady had not warned Elder Hansen not to talk about the church; so she was a little worried about what her husband would say. She was totally surprised when he said yes he would like a blessing. She asked her husband later, why he said yes. He said, I believe in Christ, so it does not matter who gives me the blessing because the blessing will come from Christ. The lady, her husband and the Hansen’s went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant together in July. The husband said he really enjoyed the pageant, he knew all the prophets that were talked about in the pageant including Joseph Smith. Again the wife was surprised, but very happy. It is amazing how the hand of the Lord is so intertwined in our lives to help us come unto him if we just make an effort to try, he will help us find him.
President Sherwood is the Temple President in the Palmyra Temple; he is being released and replaced in November. Elder Kopischke asked him to share his testimony. President Sherwood said his son had asked him to submit his resume for going to help do some work in Africa, after he is released. As he looked through his resume of two pages, he decided to reduce it to one page. Then as he pondered about what kind of resume we should prepare for returning to Heavenly Father; he decided we should have a totally different resume. Our education, our college degrees, our positions and titles in the world, our possessions, or our positions or titles in the church will not be important to Heavenly Father and the Savior. What we need is a family group sheet, filled out with all the relevant names of ourselves, our families, and our ancestors and then also include all the ordinances both we and our families have received. Families are forever when we are sealed together through temple ordinances; all the stuff and things of the world we have will stay here.
Elder Kopischke used Matthew 11:28-30 to teach us about how the atonement can help us give up our burdens and let the Savior and the atonement give us rest and peace. We come unto the Savior through repentance, forgiving others and ourselves, and learning from the experiences of life and the trials and challenges which we have. As we do this we can learn of Christ and his gospel of peace. The doctrine of conferences is perfectly true; they can help us learn what we need to know and do to return with our families to Heavenly Father and the Savior. We know and testify these teachings are all true and are the only way to be truly happy now and in the life to come.
We love you all so very much; you are all special and wonderful to us. We will love you all forever and we continue to pray and hope all is well and will continue to be well in your lives.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard
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