Message—25 November 2012

Well here is the message for the last Sunday in November this year; another month has almost disappeared.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we were in the mission office taking care of our assignments there.  Part of the time we were doing what needs to be done to get ready for transfers this coming week.  A few missionaries completed their missions and returned to their homes on Wednesday in time to be with their families for Thanksgiving.  Sister Jensen helped with fixing a dinner for these missionaries on Tuesday evening.  I worked on getting three cars inspected to see what needs to be done to get them ready to be sold.  On Wednesday we took our car to get two new tires on it; the old ones were worn out and needed to be replaced before winter begins.

Wednesday evening we attended the Site Training meeting so we could deliver mail to the young sister missionaries.  These sisters are always excited to get mail from anyone.  Some get more mail than others but they are always very happy to hear from anyone they know, especially from home.  The training that was given was concerning a major campaign by the church during this Christmas time to share a message about Christ to as many people as possible between November 26^th and December 26th.  A revised Mormon.org website will officially be available tomorrow, November 26^th which is focused on Christmas messages related to Christ.  The URL is Mormon.org/christmas  All the members are invited to share Christ centered messages with their friends, relatives, or anyone else.  There will be free downloadable Christmas music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, there will be options to receive a free bible, or to see some of the Bible Videos the church has been producing in the last two years about the life of Christ.  There are options to have missionaries deliver free DVD’s and a Christmas message about Christ.  There will also be free electronic Christmas Cards that can be sent to anyone to whom you would like to send one.  Members can create their own messages about Christ which can be approved and posted on the website.  The church is doing a lot of advertising about the new website.  In addition to sharing a Christ centered message, the church is hoping that there will be many referrals for missionaries to follow up on and invite people to learn the gospel and come unto Christ.  This effort is being done on the heels of a year of media attention about the church during the political campaigns of the year.  It is hoped that there will be some good success in inviting people to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and receive the blessings that come from the gospel.

Thursday we joined with a number of senior couples at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center in the large basement for a Thanksgiving dinner.  We really enjoyed being with these good people.  President and Sister Christianson attended also and shared a Thanksgiving message after the dinner.

Friday we had arranged to meet with Sister Hausauer and Sister Raines at 8:20am to get their car and take it to the Subaru dealer and have the headliner replaced since it had come loose and been sagging.  We left the car at the Subaru dealer for them to do the needed work under warranty; then the sisters picked up the car late in the afternoon after they completed their site assignment.  Sister Brown and Sister Park gave them a ride to the site they were assigned and then gave them a ride back to get their car.  We then spent the rest of the morning at the mission office hoping that the mail would be delivered before we had to leave.  The mail never came by the time we had to leave at about 1pm.  We left the office and picked up clothes from the cleaners and went home and had some lunch.  We then drove to Romulus to pick up a couple of items we needed.  We stopped at the Whitmer Farm to take care of an item on one of the mission cars.  After we arrived home and had dinner we spent the evening watching a Christmas movie and we also watched an old classic movie, “My Fair Lady”.

Saturday we did our home work to get ready for Sunday; then we went and bought a few items we needed from a couple of stores.  In the afternoon we remodeled our 6 foot high Christmas tree to be a 5 foot Christmas tree so it would fit in our small bay window and then we set it up and decorated it.  We also put a Christmas wreath on the front door.  Many people in New York do a lot of decorations outside their house for Christmas; and some of the homes have already set up their decorations.

Today in our church meetings we were blessed to hear some good instruction and be taught by the Spirit.  We are always so grateful to be able to partake of the Sacrament to allow the atonement of Jesus Christ to help us be forgiven of our mistakes we have repented of during the week; and be made clean and worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us during the coming week.  Brother Elliott was the first speaker in Sacrament meeting and had been assigned to speak on the topic of work.  He did very well and shared some great principles about the importance of and the value of work in our lives.  Work is required of everyone in our mortal lives.  Not only does work enable us to provide for ourselves and our families; but work also teaches us so many additional eternal principles and doctrines.  In our Sunday School lesson we talked about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit; they are many and varied and are all a source of providing Spiritual help and direction in our lives and the lives of our families and others.  The teachings for our times lesson was from President Uchtdorf’s October General Conference talk on Regrets and Resolutions.  We had a great Sabbath day.

Since there are birthdays beginning on December 1^st we will extend our birthday best wishes for the month of December in this blog message so we do not miss anyone.  We offer our hope that each of those with birthdays this month will have a great day and recognize the great blessings they have in their lives.  Happy Birthday to Josh on December 1^st, Alli on December 10^th, Jada on December 18^th, Colton on December 15^th, Olivia on December 19^th, and Kristine on December 22^nd.  We hope you each have a wonderful birthday in addition to and separate from having a wonderful Christmas Day.

 

We hope you each had a great Thanksgiving day and stopped to express gratitude for all the wonderful and marvelous blessings provided by a living, loving, and kind Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  We are so greatly blessed to live in America among the beautiful creations provided by Heavenly Father and to also have freedom to live our lives in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We truly have blessings un-numbered.  We express our great love for each of you and we are very thankful for the influence for good you are in our life.  Thank you for being who you are and thank you for all you do for us; we love you now and forever.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard