Message—26 December 2011
Dear Family & Friends,
Since the last message was late; done on Tuesday, this message will begin with Wednesday the 21st. We drove to Palmyra and met Sister Tirrell and Sister Fetuli at the White House apartment at 1pm. The sister’s had made a spaghetti dinner for us. We enjoyed the good food and visiting with the sister’s. The AP’s and the Zone Leaders also met us there at 1:30pm. We then loaded all of the furniture and belongings from the garage of the White House, into the trucks and trailer. It was raining a little, but nothing serious. We managed to get everything in one trip. We then went to Farmington where their new apartment is located. We moved all their items into the new apartment and helped them get everything organized. We arrived home about 9pm. The AP’s and the zone leaders were a great help. We are more impressed with the faith and devotion and obedience of these great missionaries; we enjoy associating with them. We can see the wisdom of Heavenly Father in using younger missionaries to help accomplish His work. They are at the right age and stage in their lives to be moldable to do what they are inspired to do. They also have the desire, energy, and enthusiasm to do what is required.
On Thursday we spent the day checking the apartments in the Rochester Zone; there were 8 apartments. We also checked the apartment of the Elders who live in our same apartment complex here in Brockport. This completed the apartment checks for this month. This made it so all the apartments were ready for the transfers for this next week. One of the apartments was not as clean as it should have been, so we told the elders they needed to clean what was not done and we would return on Tuesday morning before transfers to check the apartment again. Friday morning we drove to the Kenmore apartment in Buffalo to re-check it to be sure it was clean for the coming transfers. The apartment was very clean and looked great; far better than the first check. Elder Garcia, at this apartment, is a very talented young man. He had done a pen drawing of a farm shed and an attached vertical corn silo, with fields and some trees in the background; it was very well done. He asked us to take it with us to give to Elder and Sister Jones, who are serving in Warsaw, as a Christmas gift. We have made arrangements to get it to them tomorrow, Tuesday, with an elder who is being transferred to Warsaw. Friday afternoon we did some shopping on the way home so we would have what we needed for the Christmas weekend.
On Saturday we had a P-Day and did the washing and cleaned the apartment so Santa would feel welcome. We talked with our daughter, Lynne, on the phone and had a short conversation with our grandson, Shadyn. I told him maybe Santa would not find me since we were living in New York. He said, “...trust me Grandpa; Santa will always know where you are”. Sure enough, Christmas morning there were some presents from Santa under our small Christmas tree; so Shadyn was correct. Saturday afternoon we drove to Palmyra to the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center to join with the other Senior Couples for a Christmas Eve dinner and some other activities. We sang some Christmas songs and did an interesting way of sharing presents. We had all brought one inexpensive gift; when we arrived we placed our present on one of the chairs in a circle of chairs. We had a dinner of ham and potatoes and some other good food. After the dinner, we all moved to the circle of chairs and picked up the presents under the chair we chose to sit on. Sister Lenker then read a story about Mr. and Mrs. Right doing a variety of things. As she read the two page story, every time she used the word “right” we were to pass the present we held, one person to the right; every time she said the word left we passed the present we held, one person to the left. At the end of the story, whatever present we held we opened and kept. It was an interesting way to move the presents around and involve everyone in the process. It was a nice event together.
Sunday morning we attended our sacrament meeting. Most important we partook of the sacrament on the day we recognize the birth of Christ, who is the center of the sacrament. It is such a marvelous blessing to be able to weekly prepare for our sacrament meetings by repenting and becoming worthy of being forgiven of our sins and mistakes during the previous week. By repenting we can come ready to allow the atonement to cleanse us by taking the sacrament. After partaking of the sacrament; some ward members had put together a narration about the birth of the Savior and interspersed it with some Christmas hymns done by a number of different people, and included some songs for the congregation to join in singing. It was a very good service and the Spirit was present. Sunday afternoon and evening we received some phone calls from some of our family; and we were able to visit with April and Josh’s family by using Skype. It was fun to see the excitement of the grandchildren with gifts they received. Christmas does indeed include a special peace and power of the Holy Spirit that touches our lives in important and special ways.
Monday we attended our mission office staff meeting. We were asked by President Christianson to find an apartment in the area of Fairport for two Elders to begin working in that area again after it had been closed earlier in the year. With the transfers taking place tomorrow, one of our Brockport elders, Elder Swanner, will be one of the missionaries moving to Fairport; his companion will be Elder Adair. Our other Brockport elder, Elder Olsen, will be going to Warsaw to serve with Elder Bowman. We spent time after the meeting trying to find an apartment in Fairport; we were blessed to find 2 possible apartments and made appointments to go see them tomorrow. Twelve new missionaries arrived in the mission today; so we attended the new missionary orientation meeting tonight at 6pm; and presented our instruction about taking care of their apartments and keeping them organized and clean so the Holy ghost will feel welcome to be there.
We thank everyone who helped to provide the pictures of each of the grandchildren; we have hung them across the top of the drapes over our sliding glass door in our living room so we can look at them anytime we want. We also thank Dana and Shaun for sending us the picture taken at the family reunion last summer and the banner that was signed by those who came to the reunion. We thank our children for the gifts they sent to use, we appreciate each one. We also express appreciation for each of you who sent us a Christmas card and/or letter; we are very appreciative of each message and thought you shared. We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday week.
We express our love and appreciation to each of you and we feel the power and influence of your thoughts and prayers in our behalf. We know the Savior lives and loves us and will help us in our lives to choose to follow Him. We know this work is true and divinely guided. We know we have living prophets and apostles who are so faithful, diligent, and focused on doing all the Lord inspires them to do. Obeying all of their instruction and counsel will bless our lives eternally.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine
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