Message—20 February 2012
Dear Family & Friends,
This past week was dedicated to spending as much time as we could with Elder & Sister McVea in the mission office so we could learn as much as possible from them to help us in our office assignments. This was the last full week the McVea’s were available to teach us before they go home next Monday, the 27th. This week we are now in, we will have four days of zone conferences, so we will only have today and Thursday to be in the office. We will be able to learn some things for which we are responsible, during the zone conferences. Beginning next week we will be on our own to figure out what to do with problems.
Friday evening we were invited to have dinner at the home of Bentley and Tammy Hutchings in Honeyoe Falls. Bentley is the 2nd counselor in the Rochester Stake Presidency. Brockport Ward is part of the Rochester Stake. He is also the son of Gerald and Neva Hutchings in Mapleton (or Springville). We will be in the same ward as the Hutchings when we move to Mendon next week. The name of the ward is the Geneseo Ward. The Hutchings have a nice home in the woods with a variety of animals, including two burros. Tammy’s sister and her husband Rick live nearby the Hutchings, and were also at the dinner.
Saturday morning I went to the home of Lee Arrington to work on my wooden bowl. I got it finished and one coat of varnish on it. I will need to find time to go one more day and put another coat of varnish on to finish it. It is made of maple wood and has turned out very well for my first try at doing work on a wood lathe. Saturday evening we attended a dinner in honor of the 60th wedding anniversary of Dale and Lois Morley who live in Victor; which is next to Mendon. They are the couple who were doing the apartments in the mission when we arrived last year. They taught us how to do our assignment with the apartments. They are great people and have had a lifetime of great experiences in their work and church service. The dinner was held at the chapel on Kreag Road, in Fairport.
Sunday we attended our church meetings and were blessed with the messages and lessons taught to us. We were happy and surprised to see that Casey Reichhart; who was baptized last October in our Brockport Ward, had brought her friend and neighbor, Joshua, to church with her. He is also 16 years old and was very impressed with the church meetings and messages taught. He is going to ask his parents if he can have the missionaries teach him. We will wait to see what happens. We just learned that Casey spent five hours Saturday teaching Joshua about the gospel and the church; she is a great young lady.
Today we had our Mission Office staff meeting with President and Sister Christianson and the McVea’s, the Servoss’s, and the Ellis’s. After the meeting we had lunch together in the office, since this was the last staff meeting for the McVea’s. President Christianson gave the McVea’s a painting that has been hanging on the wall in the office for some years. It is a painting representing Ephraim Hanks riding a horse and leading a pack horse, both loaded with buffalo meat. The horses are struggling through three feet of snow in a wide open area that does indeed look like the Wyoming South Pass area where he met the Martin Handcart Company who were mostly at death’s door. Elder McVea loves this picture since he had the opportunity to portray Ephraim Hanks for a Young Women camp in his ward. Elder Morley & Sister Morley, whom I mentioned above, served a mission at Martin’s Cove some years ago. Elder Morley was asked by the Site Director to do a portrayal of Ephraim Hanks for the groups who came to Martin’s Cove that year. He was the first person to do this and started what is now a tradition at Martin’s Cove.
This afternoon we spent our time getting things ready for the zone conferences which begin tomorrow. We hope all will go well at the zone conferences so President Christianson can provide the instruction he has been inspired to prepare.
It is hard to believe we have been here in New York for almost one year already. Since we are serving a 23 month mission we are actually at the point where we have just less than one year left. The time has truly flown “…on wings of lightning and we cannot call them back…” as the hymn states. We are very grateful for the privilege and blessing of serving this mission. We have had great experiences and opportunities which have greatly added to our knowledge and testimony of the gospel and the work of gathering scattered Israel. We know Heavenly Father lives and that His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ also lives and is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He really can heal us from all our grief and heartache and trials and challenges. Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the restoration; the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Christ and can lead us back to Heavenly Father if we will do what it teaches us to do. President Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today; and he receives revelation to guide the church according to the Lord’s will and wisdom and timing.
We express our sincere gratitude for each of you; we love you and pray that all will go well for each of you.
Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine
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