Message—11 November 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, what a busy wonderful week we had this past week.  We had 4 zone conferences; maybe our last full zone conference week.  The zone conferences were on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; this gave President and Sister Christianson Thursday to have a break and prepare for the last two conferences.  The zone conferences were held in church buildings; Tuesday was at the Rochester Westfall Rd Chapel, Wednesday was at the Palmyra Chapel, Friday was at the chapel in Canadaigua, and Saturday was at the Amherst chapel in the Buffalo area.   In addition to doing the vehicle inspections in the morning, we were also blessed to receive spiritual instruction from President and Sister Christianson and the zone leaders and the Assistants’ to the President during the rest of the day until about 3pm.  It also provided us Thursday to catch up on things that needed to be done in the office.  Monday we spent the day in the office getting everything ready for the zone conferences.  There were vehicle inspection forms to print and organize by zone, and the supplies for the vehicles to collect and load in the car, and I also had some PowerPoint’s to finish creating and putting on my MAC to use in my vehicle safety instruction at each zone conference.  Sister Jensen had mail to sort and organize by zone so we could take it with us to deliver to the missionaries in each zone; she had to do this each of the other days late in the afternoon when we returned to the mission office before going home.  With Sister Jensen’s help and the help of Elder Ellis and Elder Servoss we were able to do the vehicle inspections in about 2 hours each of the four days.  We had to get up a little earlier so we could leave in time to get to the location for each zone conference by 8:30 am so we could get the needed information about their vehicle from each missionary companionship, before they went in the church.

Sister Christianson taught us about prayer and how to make it more effective in our lives to do what Heavenly Father in His great love and wisdom wants us to do; rather than try to tell Him what we think He should do.  President Christianson taught us about 20 or more scriptures to help us learn and know and remember that we can do all things through Christ and  the help of the Holy Ghost and the atonement and example of Christ.  He used the example of Dick and Rick Hoyt to help us see that with the right attitude we CAN do anything through faith and work and love.  If you want to know about Dick and Rick Hoyt go to the following URL and read the story first, then watch the video clip; it is a powerful message.  http://bsix12.com/teamhoyt/?goback=%2Egde_4311521_member_95870902

Thursday evening we went to Geneseo for our Institute class.  We stopped to get something to eat before the class.  While we were eating a call from two missionaries came on my mission cell phone.  The Elders had been to the Seneca Lake Girls Camp most of the day doing some service work for the camp manager, Brother Brienholt.  While working they had lost the keys to their mission vehicle some place.  Brother Brienholt had been helping them search for a few hours and it was now dark so they finally gave up looking and called me to see if I could help them.  They were supposed to be to zone conference the next day in Canandaigua with their older vehicle to trade it for a new Chev Cruze we had received to replace their older Malibu.  We have a standard practice of keeping the extra key that comes with a new vehicle in the mission office in the vehicle file folder; just for such events.  Thursday night was Brother Gammon’s turn to teach the lesson; he called me just after the Elders did to tell me he would be a little late getting to Institute.  I told the two Elders without a key that I would go to the office in Pittsford and get the extra key and bring it to them.  Brother Brienholt was kind enough to bring them half way to meet us with the key.  When Brother Gammon arrived, I told him we needed to leave to take care of the car issue so he was happy to take over the class and we left to go get the key and take it Canandaigua to meet with Brother Brienholt and the Elders.  We arrived back home about the same time we would have arrived if we had stayed for Institute and drove home.  The next day, Friday, the Elders who lost their keys arrived with a very clean car as they had been requested by me to do earlier in the week.  They received their new car, and Elder Servoss drove the old one back to the office for me so it would be there for me next week to get ready to be sold.

Friday the Assistants drove two Chev Colorado pickups to the zone conference so I could trade them for an older Chev Malibu which I need to get ready to sell.  The other pickup was given to Sister Missionaries who serve way out in Waterloo, who have been riding bikes.  With winter coming President and I thought we should let them drive this pickup so they were safer from the winter weather and slick roads.  The Assistants were late getting to the zone conference because they had to stop and put air in the tires of one of the pickups.  They also had forgotten they did not have an E-Z Pass to drive on the I-90 freeway, but they did not remember until after they had driven through the toll booth gate; so they had to stop and walk in to the office to get a pass ticket so they could drive on the I-90.  Only one of the Assistants had cash to pay the cost of the toll when they got off I-90 in Canadaigua so the one Elder had to pay for both pickups which took extra time.  I think the message of these problems is that Satan puts obstacles in our way to hinder doing what we planned to do; but the Lord always provides a way to overcome the obstacles and still accomplish what is needed.

Saturday after the Buffalo Zone Conference we drove home and did our “home” work cleaning and doing the wash and getting ready for Sunday.  I did not remember until Sunday morning that I had been assigned to teach the High Priest Quorum lesson in Priesthood.  So I spent the time needed to prepare to teach this lesson.  We had a good Sacrament meeting, especially being privileged to take the sacrament.  The speakers for the meeting were a missionary couple who help with the Church Addiction Recovery Program in our Rochester Stake.  My sister Kathy and her husband Paul, as well as the Andreasons’ in our Sunset Stake at home will know all about this great program.  Carol and Tom will also appreciate the blessings of this program in the life of their son.  They missionary couple did a great job teaching the doctrine related to this program.  The missionaries in our Geneseo ward had an investigator come to church the second time in a row and he stayed for Sunday School this time.  They are hoping he will continue with learning the lessons and reading the Book of Mormon and praying so he will be converted and want to be baptized.

I am a day late learning about my cousin Keith passing away earlier last week.  Jay spoke at his funeral graveside service yesterday.  I am confident all went well.  I would love to hear from anyone about how Sharon is doing and any details you want to share about the service for Keith. That leaves Sharon as the only remaining child of Uncle Verl and Aunt Jane.  We are all getting a little older.  I have great memories about living next to Uncle Verl and his family; including seeing Keith outside almost every day during baseball season each year batting rocks out into Dallas Holley’s field.  Verl and Keith and Grandpa Jensen would listen to or watch on TV as many baseball games as they could in which the NY Yankees played; all three were great Yankee fans.  Since this is Veterans day I express my appreciation to Keith for serving in the Marines to do his part in keeping us a free nation.  We both have been so blessed in our lives to have so many great family and relatives and friends who have had a positive influence in our lives; Heavenly Father has been so good to us and we are most grateful to Him for His blessings and kindnesses.

One more comment; the elections are now over and the counsel of the First Presidency to remember to pray for President Obama and the other leaders of our country that they will make correct decisions that will preserve our freedoms.  We hope also we can maintain our opportunities to live the gospel and help the gospel message spread to all who will accept it.  We know the gospel is true and that we have living prophets and apostles who are inspired by Heavenly Father in all they need to do.  We just need to develop the attitude to be obedient to the scriptures and teachings of modern prophets, seers and revelators.

We love you all so very much and pray for blessings upon each of you and your families.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard