Message—21 October 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

On Monday we both spent the day with Ruth and April at the Joseph Smith Farm and Sacred Grove and also at the Hill Cumorah.  We went through the Sacred Grove together first.  We spent several hours there where I shared with them the information I have learned from President Christianson and from Bob Parrott.  We took quite a few pictures and I did some videos of many of the places.  We had a great spiritual time together.  When we finished in the Grove we went to what is called the Welcome Center, which is a building which has a large room where people gather and are divided into small groups and then the young sister missionaries take the groups to the Joseph Smith Log Home, the Frame home which was started by Alvin Smith and then finished by the rest of the family after he died in November 1823.  By the Frame home is a barn and a cooper shop.  We were blessed to have Sister Butters take us to these places and share the history and sacred events that occurred there and she also shared her testimony along the way.  We also had another couple join us in our group and we had a great experience with Sister Butters.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Hill Cumorah.  We first went up on the Hill itself and took some pictures for April to take home and show Hayden she had really been on the Hill.  April and I then went on some trails in the old forest area on the South half of the Hill.  Some of these trees have been there since before Moroni showed Joseph Smith where the gold plates were buried.  We then went to the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center where Sister Hatch, one of the Site Trainers shared her testimony with us and then she let us see one of the videos that are available to see in the large auditorium.  We watched the one that tells about the life of Joseph Smith.  We then went to our home and had dinner and shared the evening together.

Tuesday was transfer day; with 6 new missionaries who had arrived on Monday and all the changes in missionary companionships that it takes to assign these 6 new missionaries.  These 6 missionaries were not able to land at the Rochester Airport on Monday as they should have because they winds at the airport were to high; so their plane had to land in Syracuse, about a hundred miles east of us.  President Christianson then took the van and the trailer and drove to Syracuse to pick up the missionaries and their luggage.  They did not arrive at the mission home in Rochester until very late Monday night.  New missionaries have to get up at about 2:30 am at the MTC in Provo in order to be at the SLC airport for a 5:30 am flight to Rochester.  By the time they arrived at the mission home Monday night they had been up for about 20 hours.  About two thirds of the missionaries were affected by the transfers.  Transfer day is always very busy for us so we had to be at the transfer meeting and the things we have to do afterwards; so we gave April the keys to our car and set the GPS for them and sent her and Ruth to go to a session at the Palmyra Temple.  Unfortunately, April did not get off at the right exit so they did not arrive at the temple in time to be in the 9:30 am session.  They did take pictures of the outside of the temple.  April and Ruth then drove up to the town of Palmyra and walked up and down the main street and visited as many shops as they wanted to.  They then spent some time at the mission office getting as many missionaries as they could to sign in the blank pages in front of their Book of Mormon we gave them.  Ruth and April asked the missionaries to sign their name, where their home is, and their favorite scripture.  Ruth and April had also had the sister missionaries at the church history sites sign in their Book of Mormon.  Sister Jensen and I had to spend some time in the afternoon providing training for the new missionaries to help them know important things to help them with the policies and procedures in the mission.  After we finished with the training we went to our home; and while Sister Jensen and Ruth worked on preparing some dinner, I took April to see the Brigham Young Baptism Site.  April and I then came back to our home and picked up Ruth and took her with us to see the Tomlinson Inn and the Tomlinson Corners Cemetery on Boughton Hill Road.  While at the cemetery I shared the experience of Heber C. Kimball and his wife Vilate seeing the “Vision of the Night Sky” while at the cemetery on the night of September 22 1827.  Brigham Young also saw the same thing from about 40 miles northeast at Port Byron where he and Miriam lived.  This was the night the Prophet Joseph Smith received the gold plates from Moroni.  This same experience was reported on the next night and was also seen by other people in the Mendon area.  None of these people knew about the restoration events until a few years later; but they remembered seeing what they saw.

Wednesday morning we drove to Lyndonville to an Amish store so Ruth and April could get a few things they wanted.  We then took a scenic route back along Lake Ontario on the Sea Breeze Parkway.  We then had lunch at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Henrietta; then took April and Ruth to the Rochester Airport so they could get on their flight back home.  We then returned to the mission office to catch up on some things we did not get done while April and Ruth were with us.  Wednesday evening we went to the Site Training meeting at the Hill Cumorah to take some mail to the sister missionaries.  We had picked up a vehicle that had been repaired and drove it to the Site Meeting to return to the sisters who drive it; we then rode home with the Servoss’s.

Thursday we spent the day taking care of office things and I spent a little time preparing to teach the Institute lesson for Thursday evening in Geneseo.  Thursday afternoon while working in the office, I proctored a placement test for Elder Hole which he had to complete in order to attend Weber State University when he goes home in a few months.  We only had one young man come to Institute, but the two Geneseo elders also came so it was a better meeting with two extra people there.

Friday morning we went to the office at 8am so Elder Hole could finish his placement test.  A little after 10 am I had my MARC meeting with President Christianson and the AP’s.  This meeting is to coordinate and plan issues dealing with the vehicles.  We spent a little longer in this meeting because President Christianson had to have additional information to include in a report he had to submit to Elder Hallstrom by the end of the day on Friday.  In the evening we relaxed and rested a bit.

Saturday morning we left home about 8:30 am with the Servoss’s for a short trip to Corning NY, about 90 miles from Mendon.  President Christianson had given us permission to go to Corning which is outside our mission boundary a little ways.  The purpose in our going was to go through the Corning Museum of Glass.  This is a museum built and provided by the Corning Glass Co. to tell about the history of glass from the Egyptian Dynasty period to the present.  They have a number of galleries and demonstrations; including a place where you can pay to have the opportunity to do your own glass blowing project.  The cost for making your own glass item was more than we wanted to spend so we did not do that; but we did watch two glass blowing demonstrations.  It was very interesting.  We also watched a demonstration about the properties of glass and how glass is made more resistant to breaking. We attended a very interesting presentation about the development of fiber optics.  Three men from the Corning Glass Co. were the ones who worked out the problems with making and using fiber optics for transmitting information. One strand of fiber optic glass can carry one million times more information ten times farther than a six foot diameter copper wire bundle.  Vince was our instructor and he demonstrated how the light travels through the fiber optic strand, which is just a little larger diameter than a single strand of human hair.  The fiber optic strand is made of glass.  The light waves carrying the information follows the fiber optic strand and never goes astray.  The fiber optic strand has the capacity to withstand 600 pounds of pull against it.  It could be used as fishing line to catch large fish up to 600 pounds; except you cannot tie knots in it.  It was a very educational experience we enjoyed very much.  On the way to and from Corning we were blessed to see the beautiful fall colors in the leaves on the trees and shrubs.  We took many pictures of all the colorful scenery on the hills and in the valleys.  Heavenly Father is a superb artist who has provided the beautiful colors we see in nature.

Today we attended church in our Geneseo ward and had great meetings.  A returned missionary, Dallon Schultz, and his father who is on the stake high council both spoke to us in sacrament meeting.  After the meetings were over we stayed for what is termed “much and mingle”; which means every family brings something to share for a meal and it is set out for all to enjoy while visiting with each other.  Then we stayed for the baptism of a child of a couple the Elders have been teaching.  The mother is not a member of the church, but the father is and the young girl, Hayden, was baptized.  The missionaries hope that while teaching the new member lessons to Hayden the mother will get a testimony and choose to be baptized.

We express our love and gratitude to each of you for the great influence for good you are in our lives.  You are all awesome people and we are so thankful Heavenly Father blessed us to have you as part of our lives.  May you each be blessed according to your faith and prayers and needs.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard