Message—10 October 2011
Dear Family & Friends,
Last Monday evening we went to President Christianson’s home to participate in orienting some new missionaries. There were supposed to be six new missionaries but only five made it in time for the orientation meeting. There were 3 Sisters and 2 Elders; one of the Sisters is Sister Wall, her parents live on86 South, 9th West in Provo in the Provo 2nd Ward, Provo South Stake. The 4th Sister missionary was Sister Gulzar who is from Pakistan; she has been serving at the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission. Generally, these Temple Square missionaries are assigned to serve the last two transfers (12 weeks) of their mission in a regular proselyting mission. Sister Gulzar flew out from SLC and made it to the Chicago airport; but her flight from Chicago to Rochester was cancelled. Elder Servoss in our mission office was informed of this by the Missionary department in Salt Lake, so he arranged for her to be on standby for the next available flight to Rochester, or a 12 pm flight which ever became available first. She finally made it to Rochester at 1 am Tuesday. During the time we did the orientation for the other 5 missionaries President Christianson was on the phone trying make contact with Sister Gulzar to tell her what was going on and help her get to the right place to get on the right flight. Satan sure knows how to mess things up for missionaries if he possibly can; but it all turned out fine. Sister Gulzar has had a very difficult life. Both her parents died while she was a child; she did not want to live in an orphanage so she was able to live with her sister some of the time. When she could not be with her sister, she lived on the street or wherever she could find shelter and food. She was blessed to meet up with the missionaries and joined the church when she was around 16. Her two great desires after joining the church were to be able to see the Salt Lake Temple in person and also go to the Sacred Grove. Heavenly Father loves his daughters and inspired a prophet to call her to serve a mission at the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission. Then by inspiration she was sent to the NY Rochester Mission for the last 12 weeks of her mission so she could have her two great hopes come to pass. This is another witness that Heavenly Father and the Savior are in control of their work being done. We give our witness that they really are “able to do..(their)… own work”. (2 Ne 27:20-21)
I went with Elder Swanner and Elder Olson, who are the Elders here in Brockport, on Thursday to help an older man who lives next to a member, Brother Dodds. The neighbor, Fritz, had some things to carry from his basement to his garage for the Salvation Army to pick up. He has a bad back and cannot lift much, so he needed help. He is a Lutheran and had asked in his church for some help and even offered to pay $20 each to two men if they would come and help him. After two weeks and not getting anyone to offer help; he asked Brother Dodds if he could get some Mormon missionaries to come and help him. The Elders and I offered to come and help him and so we did, and we finished moving things for him in about 30 minutes. He was very happy and grateful for our help. He told me it was disappointing to him that no one in his Christian church would come and help. He and Brother Dodds are very good friends. I do not think he is ready to listen to the gospel yet, but maybe later when he moves to Florida.
With the help of the Lord we were blessed to find a new apartment for some Elders who have been stuck in an apartment that is not as clean and safe as Elders should be living in. The Elders were led by the Spirit to find the apartment. We met the Elders on Friday and went with them to evaluate the new apartment to be sure it was appropriate. We explained to the apartment owner who we were and what the missionaries do and how there are changes in which missionaries will live there. She said we would not be allowed to “witness” to any of the other tenants in the house. We explained we were not Jehovah’s Witnesses; she thought we were. We then told her about the strict rules the missionaries live, including that they also do not date. We also assured her the rent and utilities would always be paid before they were due. After she understood how well behaved the missionaries are and that the rent will be paid on time; she asked if we had other missionaries to whom she could rent.
Saturday we took a short trip with Elder and Sister McVea and Elder and Sister Servoss to see the Letchworth State Park. This park is called the Little Grand Canyon of the east. It is really more like the Upper and Lower Falls in Yellowstone; except that the rock formations are blue limestone. Also instead of rocks and sand and etc. the terrain is covered with very thick trees, vines, and other green growth. We were hoping some of the trees would have fall colors; but there were not very many with colors yet. When we made our trip to the south part of the mission on Friday we took some pictures of some of the leaf color changes that have taken place at the slightly higher elevations; about 1500 feet. The elevation here in Brockport is only about 550 feet. We will try to figure out how to put some of these pictures on the Blog for you to see. After driving the scenic route we stopped at an Arts and Crafts Show that is sponsored by the Livingston County. While some went to see the arts and crafts, Elder McVea and I looked at some of the restored cars in the parking area. There was a 1932 Chev with a rumble seat, and a 1953 Chev pickup; and some others as well. We then stopped in Mt. Morris at a 1950’s restaurant for some dinner. We had a fun day together.
Saturday night and Sunday morning were our Stake Conference Sessions. The Stake Presidency presided, there was not a general authority visiting. President Christianson spoke at the Adult session Saturday evening; and Sister Christianson spoke at the Sunday Morning session. The other speakers also did well and shared some great messages. One young lady was baptized 3 months ago and stood up in front of about 800 people and shared her conversion experience; she did very well. I think this is the first time in about 20 years that I have not attended the Saturday afternoon priesthood leadership session. I felt like I was missing a meeting; but I was not invited to attend, so I did not.
We hope and pray for Lonie that her detached retina can be successfully reattached so she can be blessed with good vision again. We hope and pray for Tom and Carol to be blessed with better health. We hope and pray that Kendra’s sister Rhonda can have her cancer put into remission. We also hope and pray for Norm Erickson that his cancer and heart problems can be treated and that he can be comforted and sustained through his pain and suffering. We hope all the grandchildren can do well in school and take advantage of the chance to get a good education.
We love you all and pray for you to be blessed with all you need to find true joy in your lives and be able to endure and handle all the challenges in your lives.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine
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