Message 10 February 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

Much has happened since last Sunday.  Monday morning at staff meeting we had a great discussion led by President Christianson in which we all learned principles and doctrines which we have not recognized previously.  We began with some great missionary related principles shared by Sister Christianson, which she had read in Clayton M. Christensen’s new book which is entitled “The Power of Everyday Missionaries”.   President Christianson then led a discussion about how the scriptures are filled with vignettes of real families with real people who have real problems and challenges and how they handled them.  These scriptures allow us the opportunity to learn from them by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.  We can learn from these real people, any truths, principles, and doctrines that our Heavenly Father knows can help us by reading, pondering, and praying about what we read in the scriptures.  Then through the Holy Ghost we can be directed and guided through our own real problems and challenges.  Many times as we receive answers through the Holy Ghost, He teaches us not just from the words in the scriptures but also from the thoughts and impressions that come into our minds and hearts.  Another very important thing we learn from the scriptures is that families really are central to Heavenly Fathers Plan for his children.  The Bible begins with Adam and Eve and their family and includes how Adam and Eve had great challenges with two of their sons, one of whom killed his brother.  Then we read about the family of Abraham, whose father tried to offer him as a sacrifice to idols.  Abraham had to leave his home and family to save the lives of his wife and family.  Then we have Moses who became a foster child of a princess of Egypt and then had to find his way back to the gospel by running away from the home he was raised in and finding Jethro and his daughter Zipporah who taught him the gospel so he would be prepared to be the prophet of the Lord who could lead the children of Israel from Egypt.  Then in the Book of Mormon it begins with Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem to save their lives.  Lehi had two sons who just never received a spiritual witness that changed their hearts.  Instead they tried to kill their younger brother who did have a spiritual witness of the gospel.  Lehi’s younger son Jacob was abused by the rudeness and meaness of his older brothers.  The examples go on and on in the scriptures.  We are not the first parents to have difficulties raising our children; it began with Adam and Eve and continues today.  The scriptures which we have, were provided by divine design and have been preserved by the hand of the Lord to be available to help us with our lives in this day and time.  We were greatly blessed by being a part of this discussion with the President and the rest of the office staff.  Monday evening we went to dinner with Elder and Sister WIllyerd and we had some good discussions to help them in their assignments.

Tuesday and Wednesday I helped Elder Willyerd with the vehicle inspections at the zone conferences for the Rochester Zone and the Palmyra North Zone.  Then in the afternoons of both days I helped him with other things that he still needed to learn.  I am confident that the new office staff will do all that is needed and required of them, and they will likely do it even better than we did because the Lord will help them as He hastens His work.  Tuesday evening President and Sister Christianson took us to dinner and we were blessed to spend some time alone with them before starting our journey home on Thursday.  Wednesday evening we attended the Site Training Meeting at the Hill Cumorah.  We had been invited to share our testimonies with the senior couples and the young Sister missionaries.  It was a heart wrenching experience filled with the Spirit.   We will greatly miss these experiences with the missionaries who teach at the church history sites.  We will also greatly miss our associations with all of the missionaries; we have received far more blessings than we deserve.

Thursday morning we began packing what we own into the car, only to discover that we could not quite get everything in.  So we ended up sending one more box of things home through UPS before we could make everything to fit.  We finally started our journey homeward about noon.  We drove southeast to Bainbridge NY and arrived about 4pm.  Brother and Sister Sherman helped us find our way to their home on the phone since the GPS could not find the address for us.  We learned later that the reason the GPS could not find Bainbridge is because the community is in the process of changing the name to Afton.  The Sherman’s were very good to us and took us to see the Josiah Stoal and Newell Knight homes.  The Sherman’s have keys to these homes so we were able to go inside them and see the interior and take pictures.  They also showed us Kelsey’s Pub where Joseph was tried on false charges.  We also drove along the road where the constable drove Joseph to jail and was supposed to turn him over to a mob that was waiting on the bend along the Susquehanna River.  The constable had a change of heart and drove through the mob and then a little farther down the road the wheel came off the wagon but Joseph and the constable were able to get the wheel back on and get a way from the mob before they caught up with them.  The Sherman’s provided a good dinner and let us stay with them for the night.  They also fed us a good breakfast and we bid them farewell and started westward about 9am Friday morning.  We drove through some light snow storms most of the day, but arrived safely in Cleveland at the mission office Friday about 4pm, where we met Elder and Sister Jacklin.  They then took us to dinner and then to their home where we spent the night with them.  We had time to visit and reminisce with them and share missionary experiences and other memories.  They also provided breakfast and more conversation.  We left their home Saturday morning about 9:30am and drove to Carthage Illinois; arriving about 8pm.  We found a motel and spent the night there.  Sunday morning we drove about 15 miles to Keokuk Iowa, across the Mississippi River and south of Nauvoo.  After church we drove back to Carthage to the Jail where Joseph and Hyrum were martyred.  Some Senior missionaries provided a tour and commentary about the events that happened there.  We then went to find a motel closer to Nauvoo; and ended up in a motel in Keokuk Iowa.  We are going to spend Monday in and around Nauvoo and then see where we will go from there.

We express our deep and abiding love for each of you and we are so appreciative of your thoughts and prayers in our behalf.  We look forward to seeing you next Saturday.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine &

Message—3 February 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

We spent every day in the office this week trying to help the Willyerd’s and Sister Harris and Sister Allred learn more of what they need to know to take over the mission office responsibilities all on their own, beginning on Thursday.  We spent time planning for this weeks’ Zone Conferences at the Hill Cumorah and what needs to be done.  These wonderful people have been called by the Lord and they will do exactly what needs to be done in the way it should be done.  The Lord will direct them and sustain them in their assignments and provide help through the Holy Ghost just as he did us a year ago.  This really and truly is the Lord’s work and he is in the details more than we know.

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings we stayed home in the evening and started organizing and planning and gathering together what we need to send home and what we will take with us in the car when we leave.  Thursday morning the Servoss’s stopped at the office to say farewell to everyone.  They are taking a month to drive home because they will be stopping in many places to see friends and relatives.  Thursday evening we decided to go to the last Institute Class which Brother Gammon taught.  As we left the house to drive to Geneseo it was cold but there was no snow.  After about 5 miles the snow began to fall and the closer we got to Geneseo the snow became more heavy until by the time we were getting off the freeway exit to Geneseo it was white out.  When we arrived at the church there was about an inch of snow in the parking lot.  At the end of the lesson we said farewell to Brother Gammon.  When we went outside after Institute, there was about 4 inches of snow.  As we drove home the snow gradually quit and by the time we got to the house there was no snow on the ground.  These lake effect snow storms have very strange and unique patterns.

Friday we spent most of the day helping the Willyerd’s prepare for next weeks’ Zone Conferences.  Saturday we spent the day deciding what items we still needed to send home in boxes and getting them boxed up.  We also spent part of the day cleaning up some of the rooms in the house so the Willyerd’s will have a clean home in which to move.

Today, Sunday we attended church in Geneseo and had a great Fast and Testimony meeting.  Elder Willyerd shared his testimony first and we shared our testimony a little alter, and others shared their testimonies.  Our other meetings were very spiritual and edifying.  The church is really true and the people in Geneseo are great people whom we have learned to love.  A young 4 or 5 year old boy, who is a son of our newly sustained ward clerk, shared his testimony by relating a short story about fish getting caught in a net.  He then said if we do not want to get caught in the net of Satan we have to choose to do what is right and let the Holy Ghost help us.  That is so profound and from a 4 year old.  Our life really is that simple; choose to do what is right and let the Holy Ghost help us.  The youth of the church today are so much closer to the gospel and the Lord than I ever was at that age.  The church is in the Lord’s hands for sure; but he has sent young people who will be a part of the coming of the millennium.  Many of our young missionaries in this mission come from very dysfunctional homes and yet they are the spiritual giants they are and will yet become even greater leaders.  We know the missionary work in which we have served the last two years is perfectly true and it is being hastened through inspired prophets and apostles and other faithful servants raised up in this day to do all the Lord needs to have done.  We as members need to do our part to help in the gathering of Israel.  Joseph Smith is the prophet of this dispensation; the Book of Mormon is absolutely true and will help us come to the Savior through faith in his atonement and using our agency to choose to follow the inspiration we receive from the Holy Ghost.  President Monson is the Lord’s prophet today and we need to follow what he and the other brethren teach us.

We love you all and look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.  Many of you we know will not come to see us on the 17^th, but you are welcome to come to our home any time after that when you are available.  This will be the last blog message from us as we complete our mission on Wednesday and begin driving homeward on Thursday, in a meandering path that will get us home on February 16^th.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard