Message—17
December 2012
Dear
Family & Friends,
Due
to there being so many things to do yesterday on Sunday, I did not have time to
do the blog message for last week until tonight. All of this past week Sister Jensen has been
very involved in keeping track of all the Christmas mail and packages coming
for the missionaries. She has to keep a
tracking sheet for all the packages that come through the USPS, through FedEx,
and also through UPS. Some of the
packages she can forward on directly to the missionary apartments; but some she
cannot forward. Those that cannot be
forwarded she calls the AP’s, the President, or the Zone Leaders to see if they
will be going to the right area to take the packages with them and deliver them
to the right missionary. She also does
all she can to see that the missionaries get regular mail by forwarding or
sending with someone traveling to the right area of the mission. She has been making separate piles for each
of the zones so she can keep items until tomorrow and Wednesday when all the
missionaries will be coming to the Christmas Gathering. Two zones come tomorrow and the other two
zones will come on Wednesday. There are
a number of things for each of the missionaries to take home to their
apartments for Christmas. In addition to
the gifts for the missionaries we have some other mission related items for
them to pick up and take with them.
Sister Jensen helped me get new vehicle gas credit cards ready to exchange
with each companionship for their old card.
The old cards all expire on December 31st, so they have to
have the new cards to start using.
Sister Christianson also has new missionary medical cards for each of
the missionaries to receive.
President
and Sister Christianson are giving each missionary a book President wrote about
the doctrines of the Book of Mormon. A
Senior Missionary Elder was given a tree which blew down a few weeks ago due to
the high winds we had from Hurricane Sandy.
The tree was on the Hill Cumorah, and when Bob Parrott, the forest
manager for the Church History sites, found the tree he gave it to Elder
Poulson who is a FM Missionary. On his
own time, Elder Poulson used the saws and other tools in the FM Shop to cut the
branches into elliptical pieces about one fourth inch thick; and then sanded
them and put a clear stain on each piece.
Each missionary has, or will receive one of the pieces. We were given a piece last week at Site
Meeting, like I described, and also a second piece a little larger made for a paper
weight. The pieces are very beautiful.
Wednesday
evening after Site Meeting I had to do some vehicle trading with two Sister
Missionary companionships. Sister Earl
and Sister Adams brought the Toyota Corolla they had been driving and I gave it
to Sister Larsen and Sister Aiello to drive.
I had brought the new Dodge Caravan that we picked up at Kirtland with
us; and that is the vehicle I gave to Sister Earl and Sister Adams to
drive. The Chevrolet Colorado pickup
Sister Larsen and Sister Aiello had been driving; Sister Jensen and I drove
home to take the next day to give to Elder Olsson and Elder Guzik in the
Buffalo area. Elder Teichert and Elder
Bird gave Elder Olsson and Elder Guzik a ride to meet us in Batavia at 9am
Thursday morning. Sister Jensen drove
our car and followed me to Batavia. After
giving the truck to them we then drove our car to the Mission Office to do our
days’ work there. Before we left for
Batavia we took Elder and Sister Servoss to the Mission Office because their
car was having the transmission repaired, so they did not have a vehicle. Later on Thursday afternoon I gave Elder
Servoss a ride to get his car back from the transmission repair shop in Ontario
NY; just east of Webster. When we went
there we drove on Route 104 (Ridge Road) and we passed what is called the Xerox
Area. This is the main offices and
production facilities for the Xerox Corporation. The Area is about a half mile long and about
another half mile deep. Then Thursday
evening we drove to Geneseo for the last Institute class for this
semester. We will have a break from now
until January 10th before we have the next class.
Friday
afternoon I received an unexpected but great blessing to have a phone call from
the Phoenix weather man (that is who he said he was), but I recognized his
voice immediately as President Taylor. It
was a great blessing to spend some time visiting with him in person. He and Sister Taylor are doing an awesome job
of being the Phoenix Mission President and faithful wife; she is also a great
teacher. President Taylor has a special
place in my heart and life. We made
plans for us to attend the Mesa Temple Easter Program in March next year and
stop to visit with them while we are there.
We are looking forward to this. Friday
evening we went to the Geneseo Ward Christmas party. They had a good meal and then a Christmas
Program. The theme of the program was
the 12 Gifts of Christ; which he has given us.
Sister Jensen and I had been asked to do the gift of “renewal”; which is
actually the gift of the atonement which enables us to repent and change and be
renewed. So that is what we talked
about. Sister Jensen gave an abridged
version of “The Mansion” by Henry VanDyke.
I then shared a few thoughts about the story and how it relates to
Christ and Christmas and repentance and having a change of heart.
Saturday
we were able to do some shopping for groceries and also did some cleaning and
straightening up. In the afternoon we
went to the West Fall Chapel to attend the baptismal service for Yessinia and
Brianna. These two young ladies, college
students at the John Wesleyan College, had been first contacted by Elder
Swanner and Elder Olsen when we were in Brockport last year. These Elders had invited Yessie and Stephanie,
another friend, to the baptism service for Casey Reichert last October on the
day of the Brockport Halloween Ward Party; and they came and stayed to the ward
party. These two Elders had arranged with us to bring Yessie and Stephanie to
watch a CES Devotional and then also the First Presidency Christmas Devotional
last year. These young ladies had
attended church in the Brockport ward three Sundays during November last
year. Yessie and Stephanie had been
touched by the Spirit at all these meetings; but unfortunately, Elder Swanner
and Elder Olsen left Brockport soon after these visits to church and our home
in Brockport. We kept trying to get the
next missionaries to continue teaching these young ladies but it just did not
happen. Sister Jensen kept in contact
with them through texting. In August
this year we were able to get the AP’s, who are assigned to the YSA Branch,
called the GVB (Genesee Valley Branch).
This is the Branch Yessie and Stephanie and Yessie’s friend Brianna
should attend. These two Elder’s, one is
Elder Hole who is a nephew of DeeAnn Jenkins in our ward in Provo, the other is
Elder Harris, started teaching Yessie and Brianna in August. Stephanie lost interest along the way so she
was not taught again. When the Elder’s
taught them a week before Thanksgiving, Yessie and Brianna accepted the
invitation to baptized on December 15th. However they were afraid to tell their
parents and family. Elder Hole and Elder
Harris asked me to join them in talking with Yessie and Brianna the Tuesday
before Thanksgiving to help give them courage and support to tell their parents
and family. With the help of the Holy
Ghost we were able to say the right things to help them. They texted us on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day,
and told us that their parents and grandparents accepted their choice and
decision to be baptized. Prayers are answered. Brianna’s mother and grandparents came to her
baptism last Saturday; they drove up from Pennsylvania, a three hour drive, one
way. It was a great baptism service with
a strong presence of the Spirit, and a number of GVB members and missionaries
who also came.
Sunday
after out Church meetings we stayed for the Munch and Mingle; this is a phrase
which means all the adults bring some kind of food to share and we all share
it. Afterwards, we took Elder Maisey and
Elder Southwick to call on some referrals in the far edges of the ward
boundaries. After this we came home
about 5:30pm and had a little more to eat.
Then at 6:45 pm Elder Maisey and Elder Southwick arrived at our home and
we took them up to the Westfall Chapel to attend a Rochester Stake Christmas
Concert. David Cook did the narration
for the concert. The stake choir, who
has been practicing for over a month, sang beautifully a number of Christmas
hymns and other classical Christmas music.
The congregation was invited to join in some of the numbers. Yessie and Brianna came to the concert so we
were able to see them again after the concert.
They had someone take a picture of us with them. We were also blessed to visit with some of
the Brockport ward members who were in attendance. We arrived at our home about 9:30pm. Now you know why I did not get a blog message
done yesterday.
This morning we left a little early so we could get some things in the mail before going to the Mission Office to get ready for our 10am staff meeting. After the staff meeting I had to take care of some vehicle issues for the President. I had a wonderful surprise after the staff meeting; Annette called me and Anne was there with her; so through speaker phone technology, I was able to visit with them for little bit of time, before I had to leave. Annette is a very spiritually strong woman; she is very much like her mother and grandmothers. I would have liked to have visited longer, but I could not; I will call and visit another time from here at home, after the zone conferences this week. Today Sister Jensen received several mail deliveries of more Christmas mail and packages which she had to record and sort in to zones to be ready to give them out tomorrow. Then at 4pm Sister Jensen and I took Elder Servoss with us to Macedon to pick up two new Chevy Cruze’s which are for some of our additional missionaries who will be arriving in January and February. Then this evening after we finally left the Mission Office we went to Palmyra to the Joseph Smith Farm for their annual Christmas Family Home Evening. We did not stay very long because Sister Jensen had some things to do at home in order to be ready for the Christmas Gathering meeting tomorrow. While she has been doing those projects, I have put this blog message together.
We
express our love and appreciation to each of you and we want you to know you
all have a special place in our heart.
We will love you forever. Thank
you for all you have done and continue to do to bless our lives.
Love,
Mom
& dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard
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