Message—23
December 2012
Since
I did the blog message last Monday night, I will begin this message with
Tuesday. Tuesday and Wednesday we helped
with the Christmas Devotionals for the missionaries. Tuesday the missionaries in the Rochester and
Buffalo Zones came to the church on Kreag Rd. in Pittsford where the mission
office is located. All the young
missionaries came and the MLS senior couples from the two zones; and also some
of the Senior Couples who are assigned to the church History Sites. On Wednesday all the missionaries from the
Palmyra North and Palmyra South Zones came, along with the MLS Senior Couples from
these two zones; and also the Senior Site Couples who could not come on
Tuesday. The Senior Site Couples took
care of being at the historic sites so the young sister missionaries could come
to the Christmas Devotionals. Sister
Jensen and I had to be to the Mission Office by 8:15am both days so we could get
the gas credit cards for their vehicles, which expire at the end of the month,
and give them new cards with which to buy gas for their vehicles. We did this as the missionaries first arrived
before they came into the church. The
meeting began at 9am with the AP’s conducting and President Christianson
presiding and Sister Christianson also was there. On Tuesday one of the Elders was sick and
stayed at the Presidents house with his companion tending to his needs. Late that night the sick Elder had to go to
the Hospital emergency room because he was so dehydrated; he returned home
about 2:30am. In each meeting, the AP’s
gave some instruction first, followed by President taking some time to begin
the instruction planned for the morning.
After President spoke briefly he had Sister Christianson give some
instruction; she is always well prepared and teaches by the Spirit. President then took the rest of the morning
to provide instruction. He is a very
expert teacher and he knows the scriptures very well and uses them to teach
great spiritual messages and doctrines to help us become better missionaries. Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss had prepared
what was needed for food for lunch. They
had prepared all the items to have a Hawaiian Haystack lunch. The missionaries helped set up the tables and
chairs in the cultural hall before the meetings began, and some senior sisters
helped with decorating the tables. At
about 11am some Senior Sisters helped get the food ready to put in the cultural
hall and set the tables etc. Shortly
after 12 noon President broke for lunch and we office couples and a few others
set the food out for the missionaries to serve themselves and sit at tables and
enjoy the food. Elder Ellis, Elder
Servoss, and I brought out ice cream and the Sisters brought out the cookies
and some topping for the ice cream; then we 3 old Elder’s scooped the ice cream
into the bowls and let the missionaries add what they wanted to their own ice
cream.
After
lunch we took pictures of the missionaries from each of the zones. On Tuesday after the lunch and the pictures
we stayed in the cultural hall and were privileged to watch Elder Goedel do an
Indian Hoop Dance. He was taught by his
father how to do the hoop dance; and Elder Goedel is a world Champion Class
Hoop Dancer. He was in full costume and
I made a video of him doing the dance; he is really awesome. Everyone then went into the chapel and
missionaries from each of the zones shared some of their talents with Christmas
related music and songs. Elder Hunt has
been here on his mission for about 6 months and he started learning how to play
the harmonica after he arrived in the mission.
He did a great job playing Silent Night
on the harmonica. Before he began, he
said to all of us “I am not very good at this, but since you are all
missionaries I know you will love me anyway.”
After the Christmas music we watched a movie that had to do with
Christmas and the gifts the Savior has given us; we learned some great
principles about the life of the Savior and what he has given to us. Following the movie a number of missionaries
shared their testimonies of the gospel.
The meeting ended about 4pm.
Following the meeting many of the missionaries came into the office to
get supplies, and report on referrals to Sister Jensen and a few had some
vehicle questions for me. Tuesday after
the meeting I had two Elders stay and take driving instruction tests. One elder did the upgrade test so he could be
approved to drive; and the other Elder took the Van driving test so he could be
certified to drive the mission van. They
both passed their test. It was almost
6pm before we left the office to go home.
Sister Jensen was too tired to fix us a dinner so I fixed dinner by
taking us out to a restaurant to eat before we went home.
On
Wednesday we did about the same thing as on Tuesday. The Wednesday missionaries did not get to see
Elder Goedel do the hoop dance. A few
additional things we did was take the new Dodge Caravan we received a few weeks
ago to a place in Macedon to have a receiver hitch mounted on the rear of the
vehicle so we could put a hitch mounted bike rack in the receiver so the Sister
Missionaries who drive the van could carry their bikes when needed. Then at 4pm we took the two sisters who drive
the van to an appointment they had; then while they were at their appointment, we
went to Macedon to get the van and pay for the work, and bring it back to give
to the sisters to drive to Site Meeting at 7pm at the Hill Cumorah. It was 6:30 pm before we got the van back to
the sisters; so we skipped dinner and went to the Site Meeting for the special
training that had been planned. We
arrived home after 9pm very tired, and went to bed so we could get enough rest
to work at the office on Thursday.
Thursday
and Friday we spent catching up on office work that did not get done on Tuesday
and Wednesday. Friday I had my monthly
MARC meeting with President and the AP’s which is about issues related to the
vehicles.
Saturday
we stayed home and had a real P-Day for a change. I did make a trip to the office to send a
text message to the missionaries to caution them about driving in the snow
storm going on and to slow down since the roads are slick. We received about 6 inches of snow Friday
night and Saturday, the first snow storm of the winter, and it was on the first
day of the Winter Solstice. I actually
got to shovel some snow off the walks and from in front of the garage. The snow is half melted on Sunday; but it is
supposed to snow again about every other day this week, a few inches each time.
Today,
Sunday, we attended church and were blessed to receive good messages and we
were also privileged to take the sacrament to renew our covenants so we could
try to do better this week. Tuesday is
Christmas Day, we pray that each of you will have a wonderful Christmas and
that the real Spirit of Christmas will touch your lives and bless you with
peace and love and joy in the gifts of the Savior to each of us.
We
are so greatly blessed to be serving in this special mission with the wonderful
people who are here. Each single
missionary and all the senior couples are serving here by divine design. We have been blessed in so many powerful ways
through our associations with the missionaries, the members, and the people of
NY. A week ago I went to get something
for dinner for Sister Jensen; I went to Wendy’s to get her a salad. While standing in line waiting to order, the
man behind me asked me if I had driven all the way from Utah, he had noticed
the Utah license plate and my name tag and connected the two pieces
together. I told him I had, and that I
would get to drive back home as well. He
then told me he had just been to BYU a week or so ago. He said he was an author of a wonderful
Christmas story entitled “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey”. He said a BYU Theatre Professor had obtained
permission from the authors to make a play based on the book; and the professor
had invited him to attend the opening night performance which he had made into
sort of a musical. He said he met some
wonderful people at BYU who treated him very kindly. He said he also went to Salt Lake City and had
never met so many nice people in one place.
I do not know all of the details of his visit, but he was impressed by
his experience. I asked him if his book
was for sale and if so where I could buy a copy. He said it was available from Amazon, so when
I got back to the office with Sister Jensen’s lunch I looked online and found a
copy was available to purchase, so I ordered a copy. When I read about the details of the book on
the Amazon website I discovered that I had just been talking with the well-known
illustrator of books, P. J. Lynch. He is
a very fine person and I appreciated the chance to meet him. We read the book together Saturday evening;
it is a very well written story with a great message. The author of the story is Susan
Wojciechowski, and as I said P. J. Lynch is the illustrator. At the end of the book, Susan states that
this did not require a lot of handwritten drafts and edits. She states: “I have only a few pages of
computer-printed text. I truly believe a
power beyond me guided my hand.” P. J
.Lynch states “I can’t say whether my work on the book was inspired in the same
mystical way that Susan’s was, but it is true to say that as I painted, I had
no doubts—and that is very unusual for me.”
Read it if you can find a copy.
We
love each of you and we pray for your well-being and happiness, and that you
will receive the blessings you need in your life to help you have the light of
Christ in your life always.
Love,
Mom
& Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard 
No comments:
Post a Comment