In the blog message last week I told you that we were moving in to our new mission office on Monday 27 August; and that is what we did on Monday. President and Sister Christianson met the Servoss’s and us and also the Ellis’s came to help. We also had 10 other Elders come to help with the muscle work; and they brought 2 trucks to help haul things. The AP’s brought their truck and also an enclosed trailer. We also had two other pickups that we are trying to sell, with which we hauled things. In addition we also had help all day from Sister Torres and Sister Hausauer; then we had help for a few hours each from Sister Hess and Sister Earl, and also from Sister Crook and Sister Jones. We had many of our office things already in boxes so the Elders started taking those boxes out to the trucks. A couple of the Elder’s (Hoffman particularly) disconnected the computers and printers, and copy machine; and they put them in the back seat of 5 cars we have for sale so they would be well cushioned while being taken to the new office about one mile away from the old office in one of the LDS Churches which had a vacant Stake Office suite which was remodeled to accommodate our needs. After we got as many boxes loaded as we could two of the trucks were taken over to the new office where Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss were waiting to show the elders where to put the boxes. We loaded the rest of the things in the other trucks and sent them over as well. We then loaded the desks and credenzas and some other furniture into the trailer. It was necessary to make a second trip back with the trailer to get the desk and credenza and transfer board in the President’s office and bring it to the new office. We then spent the rest of the day getting things out of the boxes and putting them where they were supposed to be. Elder Hoffman also had his companion help him get the computers and printers set up on our desks and tables. Some of the sister’s helped with filing things in the file drawers and also doing some dusting and cleaning as we put things away. With the help of our missionaries we were able to get most of the things put where they should be by 5pm when the missionaries had to leave and go get ready to take care of their missionary teaching appointments they had scheduled for the evening.
While we were moving in there were some guys outside in the church parking lot working on totally replacing the asphalt. They were digging up the old asphalt and hauling off some of the gravel and then doing some trenches to lay wiring in and also some conduit in separate trenches for storm drains. They will then put down a layer of heavy plastic and new slag; then replace all of the asphalt. Tuesday morning we discovered that a backhoe had accidently cut through a large conduit which had the phone wires and Internet lines for the church. So we did not have the land line to one of our phones and we did not have internet for our computers or for our new phone system which had been installed on Monday. It took until about noon to get the phone land line and the internet restored. Two guys from the FM came on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to hang pictures, the President’s transfer board, and a variey of other things to get us all set up. After the phone line and internet were restored we discovered that Sister Jensen’s computer would not connect to internet. One of the FM guys, Allan, talked with the Salt Lake Global Tech Support guys and they had Allan try a number of options for over an hour but had no success in making internet work on Sister Jensen’s computer. It was determined that we needed to try re-imaging the computer with Windows 7 and see if that would solve the problem; or have the Missionary Department send us a new computer. The computer still had Windows XP running on it. The other three of us had internet on our computers. I called the Missionary Department Tuesday afternoon and the technical support person there made the decision to first try re-imaging the computer with Windows 7. So I contacted the Stake Computer Specialist, Brother Hales from Brockport, who we knew well from when we lived there last year. Bless his heart, he came and spent Wednesday afternoon and evening saving all of the computer files on Sister Jensen’s computer; then he started the process of installing Windows 7. He came again Thursday morning and stayed into the afternoon and finished getting Windows 7 running and he also restored the programs and files on to the computer. By late afternoon the computer was functioning properly with Windows 7. Unfortunately Windows 7 is different from Windows XP so Sister Jensen got frustrated trying to figure out how to do things a different way than she already knew; but she is making good progress in learning how to do what she needs to do, but in different ways. By the end of the week we were able to get everything organized and were able to go about doing our work pretty much like we were before the move. One additional detail is still left to do; our new phone system is installed but our previous phone number has not yet been released by the previous phone company so the new company can get it installed to work on our phones as it should. We are temporarily using a land line phone number that used to be in the old stake offices, but was not yet removed. The only problem is no one knows this new phone number. I sent a mass text to all the missionaries so they know to call the temporary number until we get the new phone company to be able to set up the previous main office number. When that number is set up the new phone company will come and teach us how to use all the functions of the new phone system which is internet based.
Wednesday evening we taught the Institute lesson to the YSA’s in the GV Branch; we taught the last three chapters of Moroni in the Book Mormon. We had the largest group of YSA’s we have had during all of August. They all contributed and we had the Spirit help us learn some good principles and doctrines. One great principle I learned came to me while teaching from Moroni 10:31. This verse includes the phrase “…strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever…” (read the rest of the verse and it helps even more to understand what I am going to share). As the class was commenting on how to strengthen the stakes the impression came to me that the answer is connected to Moroni 6:4. In order to be nourished by the good word of God so we can be kept in the right way we have to have help. The thought then came to me that the way this is done is to not only attend our church meetings; but we also need to do effective home teaching and visiting teaching. As we each faithfully fulfill these two callings, including returning and reporting on our visits; we would find that each person would have a minimum of 6 to 7 people nourishing them. There would be the two home teachers, the two visiting teachers, the priesthood leader and the Relief Society President; then by extension the Bishop would also be able to provide help with his priesthood keys, because he would know about each person in each family through the home and visiting teachers. Ponder on this process for a little time and you will begin to see how home and visiting teachers can provide such great blessings to the families they teach; and these blessings will also become part of the families of the home and visiting teachers as well. These principles increase my testimony of how essential and powerful home and visiting teaching is to help in strengthening the stakes and enlarging the borders of the church. As we become more effective at home and visiting teaching the success of missionary efforts would increase and help to enlarge the borders of the church to include more of our brothers and sisters in the area in which we live.
Friday evening we went with the Servoss’s down to Dansville with the intention of seeing a hot air balloon festival. When we arrived we met up with Elder and Sister Best who serve in Wellsville and they are related to the Servoss’s. Unfortunately the wind was too gusty and strong to safely have the balloons in the air. So we 3 couples just had dinner together and returned home.
Saturday we took care of some errands and some shopping and came back home and did some home work. We wrote a letter to send to each of the YSA Institute age youth in the Geneseo Ward to invite them to attend Institute this year. We got the letters all made and addressed and in the envelopes and put stamps on them; then we mailed them Sunday morning on the way to Church in Geneseo. Elder and Sister Jeppessen who serve in the Cattaraugus area came to spend Saturday night at our home so they could be to the Palmyra Stake Center for church by 9am Sunday morning to meet up with their son who came over from the area near New York City. Today we attended our Fast and Testimony meeting and had some good spiritual testimonies; and also some good lessons in our other meetings. President and Sister Christianson attended Sacrament Meeting in our Geneseo Ward.
For the month of September we express our love and best wishes to those who will have birthdays. Brody and Bryce both have birthdays on September 3rd, Dana’s birthday is September 5th, Caitlyn’s is on September 25th, and Craig’s is on September 28th. We hope you each have a wonderful day and that you will not feel older, unless you want to.
We love each one of you and we appreciate our relationship and association with you. We thank you for your kindnesses to each other and to us, and also thank you for your prayers for us. We invite all who are willing, to include Shaun in your prayers this week as he has his surgery on Friday; we pray that the surgery will be successful in helping him be healed, and that his recovery will be complete and without any complications.
Love and blessings to all of you,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard
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