Message 26 August 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Monday was another good office staff meeting, including a discussion of a gospel principle shared by Sister Christianson.   We received a FEDEX package during staff meeting for Sister H. which was supposed to contain a bottle of her prescription medicine from Utah.  The package had been partially torn open, either accidently or on purpose, we do not know which; and the bottle of medication was not there.  Sister H. did not have enough medication for her evening dosage for Monday; and it is essential that she have the medication on schedule.  Sister Christianson called the pharmacy in Utah and they agreed to overnight a replacement to us in a more secure package, in hopes it would arrive in time to prevent any problems for the missionary.  WE planned to find a way to get the medication to her as soon as it arrived on Monday.  We were hoping it would make it by the morning FEDEX delivery time around 10 am.

On Tuesday I had made arrangements with two other sister missionary companionships to meet them at the Joseph Smith Farm at 1:30pm to take care of some problems with their vehicles.  The medication for Sister H. did not arrive by the time we left the mission office to go to Palmyra, so we left anyway.  We had only driven about 3 miles when the Servoss’s called and said the medication had just arrived; so we returned to the office and picked up the medication.  Our intent was to deliver the medication to Sister P. & Sister G. who were at the Smith Farm that day and who lived at the Peter Whitmer Farm where Sister H., who needed the medication, was assigned to serve that day along with her companion Sister T.  When we arrived at the Smith Farm I took care of the problem with one vehicle; then started on the problem with the other vehicle.  As I was doing so, I discovered the valve stem in the left front wheel was broken and the air was leaking very slowly.  This valve stem is the type which has a tire pressure sensor included.  So we made arrangements to have Sister Jensen be the companion of Sister P. and ride with her and I drove our car and they followed me to find the nearest Monro Muffler shop to get the valve stem replaced.  I thought the nearest one was in Palmyra; but I was wrong; so we had to drive over to Newark about 6 miles east of Palmyra.  We left the car there to be repaired, then went back to the Smith Farm to return Sister P. to her companion Sister G.  While the valve stem was being replaced we took the medication for Sister H. and drove to the Peter Whitmer Farm to deliver it to her so she could get her needed dose.  When we arrived we found that since she had missed two doses; Sister H. was not well and she was dizzy and had a very bad headache due to not having her medication.  They knew we were coming with the medication, so when we arrived we awoke her from sleeping and had her take a normal dose.  Elder and Sister Fuller, a senior site couple were also at the Whitmer Farm; so Elder Fuller and I provided a priesthood blessing for Sister H.  Sister H. is the designated driver for the vehicle she and Sister T. drive; and Sister T. does not have a license to drive so she could not drive their vehicle home. Sister H. was not in a condition to drive home safe; so I asked how are you going to get back to your apartment.  Their car was back at the Smith Farm, because they had ridden with the Fuller’s.  So we arranged with the Fuller’s to have them finish the shift at the Whitmer Farm alone, and we had Sister H. & Sister T. ride back to Palmyra with us.  We stopped at the Hill Cumorah where we helped Sister H. & Sister T. into the apartment of the Toronto’s to lay down and rest and get something to eat while we drove back over to Newark to get the car from Monro Muffler and pay for the repair work done and then take their vehicle back to the Smith Farm so they had a way to get home to the Whitmer Farm where they live.  We then picked up from the Smith Farm the car which Sister H. and Sister T. drive and went back to the Hill Cumorah.  The two sisters rode with Sister Jensen and I drove the sister’s car and we took them to their apartment in Irondequoit and got Sister H. into their apartment.  We then went and bought us some dinner and then went home and arrived home about 9:40pm.  Now if you are confused with all of this just imagine how we feel.  This made a long day for us but we are grateful to be of service to the missionaries; and in the process we saved President and Sister Christianson from having to do all of this.  The next morning I called Sister H. & Sister T. at 8 am to see if we needed to arrange transportation for them to get to their site assignment for the day.  When Sister T. answered she said they were in the car on their way to their assignment and that Sister H. was doing just fine, as was promised in the priesthood blessing she received.  Heavenly Father loves his missionaries and blesses them as needed and vindicates priesthood blessings given by his servants.

Wednesday was a much easier day than Tuesday; except for the problem that I started on my first day of having a cold and runny nose.  I spent more time taking care of my nose than I did anything else; but I did get some of the things from the mission office put in boxes to start getting ready for moving in to the new mission office on Monday the 27^th.  After we got home I just laid around until bedtime.  About 3pm I called the secretary to Brother Gammon in the Regional CES Office and asked her to notify the YSA in the GVB that the Institute class for Wednesday would have to be cancelled since there was no way I could appropriately teach with a runny nose.  She took care of that for us.

Thursday was a very long hard day for Sister Jensen.  There was a training meeting for all the MLS missionary couples in the mission which was held across the road from our apartment at the other part of the John Young Home from 2pm to 6pm.  Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss prepared all the food for about 30 people for dinner at 5 pm.  Sister Jensen started about 6:30am to prepare the food for the dinner.  I was not much help to Sister Jensen; the only thing I did was not watch the homemade rolls so they were overdone.  The rolls on one pan was slightly burnt on the bottom, so they are in the freezer waiting for me to use in bread and milk. Sister Jensen cooked chicken, and prepared newly dug potatoes with creamed peas (frozen ones) and fresh picked corn on the cob; she husked all the corn.  Then for dessert Sister Jensen had made her famous fresh peach and whipped cream specialty.  The MLS couples told Sister Jensen and Sister Servos that the dinner was just like going home to eat at their mothers.  Sister Jensen is an awesome cook, as many of you already know.  I slept most of the day and then in the evening I did what dishes were used to do the cooking.  I missed the training that President Christianson provided, but Sister Jensen got to hear most of it.

Friday I felt much better; we both went to the mission office and spent most of the day boxing up the rest of the things from our part of the office so we would be ready for moving at 8am on Monday.  We have arranged to have the President and the Assistants and two sets of zone leaders and some other Elders who live near the mission office to come and help us move on Monday.

Saturday we attended a CES Training Seminar at the Westfall Chapel to help us learn how to be better teachers in our Institute classes which will begin on September 20^th.  We had Seminary and Institute teachers from our mission and the Utica mission who attended.  President Christianson provided the keynote message and instruction which was excellent and very helpful.  There was a CES missionary couple, Elder & Sister Walker who are from Pinedale Wyoming, who provided some instruction on teaching skills.  He spent his life as a school teacher and administrator including Superintendent of Schools in the Rock Springs area; and she was a fourth grade teacher for most of her life.  We then had sessions taught by Brother Gammon and Brother Baker who are both CES Regional Directors.  We attended a session taught by Brother Gammon on what the Mount of Transfiguration experience can teach us.  They provided lunch for us then we had a session about ways to involve the students in the process of teaching and learning by Sister Wadell.  She had dozens of ideas to share with us; she is about about the most energetic lady I have ever met.  We then attended a smaller session taught by Brother Baker on the topic of teaching by the Spirit.  We received some great instruction during the day.

Today, Sunday, we attended our church meetings.  As we went out to get in the car to leave home an SUV pulled up and stopped in front of the house; I walked over to see if they needed help.  It turned out they were an LDS family from New Jersey who had come to see the church history sites.  They were trying to follow their GPS to find a LDS Church where they could attend sacrament meeting.  After giving them several options they decided to go to Palmyra and see one of the sites while they waited for a later sacrament meeting.  I asked them if they wanted to know a little of the church history here in the Mendon area; they said yes.  I had them follow me to the Tomlinson Inn where we stopped and I shared a short version of the restoration events that occurred here in the Mendon area.  They then went on their way and we went on to our church meetings.  The two talks in sacrament meeting were on the topic of unity; and they were both very well done and the Spirit provided some additional messages besides what was said.  After our meetings, the Elliott family had brought some lunch with them and had included enough for us missionaries, all four of us, to join with them so we did.  We then came home and had a nap and I am now doing the blog message for the week.  Tomorrow morning we will have to start a little earlier and be at the office by 8am so we can help with getting the mission office moved to the church building at 460 Kreag Road.  So just a reminder, any mail you send from now on needs to be sent to the new address:

New York Rochester Mission

460 Kreag Rd.
Pittsford, NY  14534

We express our great love for all of you and pray for you and hope that you will receive the blessings and help you need in your life to do all that is required of you each day.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard

Message 19 August 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Four days of this past week we had zone conferences in the mission from 9 am to 4pm.  We have four zones: Buffalo, Rochester, Palmyra North, and Palmyra South.  Each conference was held in a chapel within the zone: Buffalo was in the Amherst chapel which is where the stake center is, Rochester was in the Chapel on Westfall Rd. which is where the stake center is, Palmyra North was in the Palmyra Stake Center on Temple Rd. across the road from the Palmyra Temple, and the Palmyra South was in the chapel in Canandaigua.  Three of the chapel buildings are within a half hour drive from where we live in Mendon; the chapel in Amherst is a one hour drive from Mendon.  We had to arrive a half hour early for each conference so we were there as the missionaries arrived with their vehicles so we could get the vehicle parked where we wanted it to be and also get some information from the missionaries about their vehicles.  We were blessed to have good help from Sister Jensen, Elder Servoss, and Elder Ellis with inspecting the vehicles so I had information to update the computer record for each vehicle.  Sister Jensen and I worked together to do half of the vehicles and Elder Servoss and Elder Ellis worked together to do the other half of the vehicles.  This took us about an hour and a half to two hours; then we went in to the conference meeting and listened to the instruction from the AP’s and the President and Sister Christianson.  Sister Jensen took care of setting out the water and treats for the morning and afternoon breaks, and cleaning up afterwards; she usually had help from someone else.  After the break in the afternoon we returned to the mission office for the rest of the afternoon.  The zone conferences were held on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.  On Monday and Thursday we spent the day in the mission office as we normally do.

The instruction provided was mostly on improving our planning and goal setting skills and then being obedient so the Spirit could direct us in our work.  President also stressed teaching from the scriptures, following the Preach My Gospel manual, and teaching and testifying by the Spirit.  The President used part of a recording of some training given to the mission presidents in the June 2011 mission president seminar.  He used the segment of the training in which Elder Holland shared how his first companion who trained him on his mission helped him learn how to be a faithful and effective missionary.  He also used some principles from some instruction given by Elder Bednar in his 2011 Christmas Day devotional at the MTC in Provo.  Elder Bednar taught about developing Christ like attributes and following the example of the Savior to spend our efforts in serving others and forget about ourselves.  Everything the Savior did in his mortal ministry was to bless the lives of others, he did not spend time worrying about himself or what he did or did not have.  By inviting others to receive the gospel and helping them to do so the Spirit can guide us to do what the Savior would do if he were here himself; which He is, through the power of the Spirit.  What a special love and association the Savior and the Holy Ghost and Heavenly Father have with each other; we can be part of that relationship if we are exactly obedient and work for them and with them.

Wednesday evening we taught the GVB Institute lesson at the GVB meeting place in a building on Culver Rd. in Rochester.  The Regional Institute Directors office in in this same building; the director is Brother Don Gammon.  The GVB is a YSA Branch with about 120 members and about 80 of them attend Sunday meetings regularly; the number who attend Institute is about 8 to 20.  We are teaching this institute for Brother Gammon while he is doing some training of Seminary teachers who will begin teaching this next month in September.  The lesson we taught was on Moroni chapter 7.  This next week we will teach Moroni chapter 8 and 9; then the following week we will teach Moroni chapter 10.  Then in Spetember Brother Gammon will resume teaching the GVB Institute class.  In September on the 20^th, we will be teaching Institute in the Geneseo ward if we can find enough YSA to attend.  There is a NY State college in Geneseo, so there are usually some YSA’s who are LDS who attend the college.  We hope some of them will have schedules which will allow them to attend institute.

Today our Sunday meetings were all very good with good speakers in Sacrament meeting and our other meetings were also good.  The person who was to teach the Gospel Principles lesson did not come today so I ended up teaching that lesson; I had pre-warned that the person may not show up, so I was somewhat prepared.  The lesson was about the life of Christ and His atonement and resurrection and His perfect example for us.  Then in Priesthood it was my turn to teach the High Priest Group lesson.  It turned out the Elders Quorum instructor did not come today so the High Priest’s and Elders met together and I taught the lesson to both groups.  The lesson was on keeping the Sabbath day holy.  One of the principles I learned from preparing the lesson came from the first paragraph in the lesson which was a statement from President George Albert Smith who was the church president when I was born.  As a young boy the neighborhood boys would come to his house after Sunday School in the morning on Sunday’s and invite him to come and play ball with them.  He thought it would be fun, but he said I had a wonderful mother who did not tell me I could not do it; instead she told me, “Son you will be happier if you do not do that….”  Later in the lesson we are reminded that the blessing promised in the sacrament prayers is that if we are obedient, including attending sacrament meeting and keeping the Sabbath day holy, we will have the Spirit to be with us.  The Spirit taught me that the opposite is also true; that is, if we are not obedient, including honoring the Sabbath day, we will not have the Spirit to be with us.  That is precisely what happens when we do not keep the Sabbath day holy, we lose the Spirit and miss out on learning things of the Spirit which are of eternal value to us.  Anyway it was a great Sabbath day.

In Sacrament meeting one of the speakers was the Bishops wife, she gave a great talk about having unity in our ward and in our families so we will not have contention and lose the Spirit.  The other speaker was Jerry Argentsinger who is a member of the Rochester Stake High Council.  His message was taken from President Hinckley’s book “Way to Be”.  The topic he was assigned by the Stake President was the chapter on “Be Still”.  When we are still and quiet and listen to the Spirit we can learn much more than we can in any other way.  He shared a few examples from his years when he was director of the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  Doing the casting, which is choosing which performer should be given the person they would represent, was the most difficult part.  The Pageant had been greatly rewritten two years before he became the director and the way they did the casting for the previous years just did not work for the new version.  The old version had only had about 50 or 60 specific parts; the new version had over 250 specific parts.  There was only about a three hour time frame to assign all the parts on the Friday afternoon when the cast members all assembled for the first time.  To make it work right Jerry prayed a lot and waited for an answer as to how to do it.  The answer came as he talked with a young man he knew; as he did so he had the strong impression that this young man should play the part of Christ descending in the Pageant.  After having this experience he understood that the parts assigned to the cast should be chosen by the Spirit.  As a result he was inspired to take the 10 scenes and have the other assistant directors divide in to pairs and have each pair choose the people for the parts in two scenes.  One example was choosing the person to be Mary the mother of Jesus.  As the assistants were going through the people who had been selected as candidates for the part, the one assistant stopped in front a young Japanese girl who spoke no English and she had the impression to choose her.  She talked herself out of that choice and went through the rest of the candidates but did not feel prompted to choose anyone else.  She went through the group two more times and was prompted to choose the Japanese girl, but she talked herself out of it; but the fourth time she said the Spirit just told her it was right.  So she gave her a paper tag and hung it around her neck and pointed her in the direction of a table where they would record the decision and then they would send her to be given her costume.  While she was at the table a young man was also standing there at the same time who had been selected to be Joseph; this young man had just returned from a mission to Japan and spoke Japanese and he helped the Japanese girl with instructions on what she needed to do and also helped her with her playing her part.  That was not a coincidence; it actually turned out later that the two of them were married in the temple.  The message of Jerry’s talk was if we take time to be still the Spirit can teach us and help us learn things that we would otherwise not learn until much later, if at all.  Another experience in choosing cast members was selecting who should be Mormon and Moroni.  Jerry said they thought they had selected all the cast when it suddenly dawned on them that they had not yet selected people to be Mormon and Moroni.  As they thought of having to go back through the people of the right age group again and select the people for these two parts and then of the trickle down effect of changing to fill these two people and then change the ones whose part they had held etc. they wondered what to do.  As Jerry looked around he saw a father and his son standing nearby who were of the right age to play the parts.  Jerry went over to them and asked if they had a part yet; they responded they did not have a part.  So Jerry felt impressed to have them fill those parts and asked them to do it.  They were delighted to do so.  The father then told Jerry you have to know the rest of the story.  He said my son has been praying every night for two years for the opportunity to play the part of Moroni in the Pageant.  Again, this was not a coincidence; it was another part of God’s divine design.

Today, August 19^th is the 81^st  wedding anniversary of my wonderful parents.  I am so very grateful for both of them and for all they sacrificed and all of their efforts to teach me the gospel and the right way to live.  I was a little slow in learning some lessons but they were patient with me and loved me and encouraged me and set good examples for me and helped me in so many ways.  I hope to become worthy of seeing them again and being with the members of my family, including our own children and their families as well as with my ancestors.  Happy birthday to Marv and Lou on August 25^th, next Saturday; I hope they have a great day; Lou will for sure, I hope Marv does also.

On Monday August 27^th we will be moving the mission office into a church building at 460 Kreag Road, Pittsford NY 14534.  It is only about one mile from the current mission office in Fairport.  If you want to send any mail to us, that will be the best address to use.  Sister Jensen sorts the mail every day that comes to the mission office so she will be the first one to see any mail.

We express our love to each of you and hope all is well in your homes and your lives.  We are so grateful for each of you and we appreciate all you do for us in any way.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine and Richard

Message 12 August 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Monday in the mission office staff meeting it was my turn to provide a thought.  I shared some thoughts from Ether chapter 6.  A question was asked about the two additional stones that were prepared to translate what the Jaredites would write later.  This led to President Christianson sharing some thoughts and information he knew about the Urim and Thummim and some related scriptures.  It was a good discussion and we felt the Spirit.

Tuesday two Elders from the Palmyra area came to the office for me to take them to Fred Foti’s Collison Repair shop to see what could be done about repairing the loose front bumper on their car.  We got that fixed and stopped at another repair shop to take care of an engine maintenance light problem.  When we returned to the mission office Elder Olsen asked me a question about what bed bugs look like.  He then also showed me some bites around his ankles and asked if they could be bed bug bites.  I knew they were right off, but we looked on the internet and found some reliable information about bed bugs including pictures of them and what the bites look like.  After seeing the pictures he said I killed one of them on my bed this morning; and then he said my bites look just like some of the ones in the pictures.  I said you definitely have bed bugs in your apartment.  We called Elder and Sister Ellis and had them talk with Elder Olsen and give him instructions on what they needed to do to take care of the problem.  The Ellis’s went to their apartment the next day to help them get things ready for the exterminator to come and spray the apartment.  This is the second missionary apartment we have had with bed bugs.  We sure hope they do not spread to other missionary apartments.  Sister Jensen went with Sister Servoss to help Sister Christianson with providing a last meal for 5 missionaries who went home a few weeks early so they would be able to get ready for attending a university to continue their education.  These missionaries flew home on Wednesday.

Wednesday I and Elder Servoss went over to the church on Kreag Rd. which is about a mile from the office.  The last week of this month we will be moving the mission office into this building.  As we got to the entrance to where the office will be the FM Manager was holding his phone to his ear and saw us coming and said how did you know I was calling you.  We said we did not know but the Spirit did and told us to come.  We were able to solve some issues related to our moving in to the building and we also obtained the information for which we went to obtain.  This helped us put some finishing touches on how to arrange the existing furniture in the office in the Kreag Rd. building.  We have planned with the President and some other missionaries who serve in areas near us, to come and help us get things moved from the current office into the Kreag Rd. building.  We will make the move on August 27^th.  The new office address is given below; be sure you notice the spelling of Kreag (it is pronounced like Craig but spelled as you see it below).  You can put our names above the New York Rochester Mission.

New York Rochester Mission

460 Kreag Rd.
Pittsford, NY 14534

Also on Wednesday evening we taught the Institute lesson for the GVB YSA.  The lesson was on Moroni chapter 1-6.  There are a number of great principles and doctrines taught in these few short chapters.  One principle came to me by the Spirit as I pondered on Moroni 6:4-5.  This verse is obviously related to how to do things in the church; the process is that after we are received unto baptism and are cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost; the people were numbered, their names taken, they were remembered and nourished by the good word of God (scriptures & revelation), to keep them in the right way.  This is absolutely true for how to help baptized members.  I was prompted by a strong Spiritual witness to also make the application of these principles to our own families.  The baptism and cleansing fits in later.  As parents we bring children into our families with God’s help.  We number them, 1^st child, 2^nd child etc. (if we only have one child then we only have one number 1child; each child is number one as we teach them one on one).  We name them, then we remember their name (especially in our prayers), and then we nourish them physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually; including using the scriptures, including those from living prophets.  The object of these efforts is to keep them in the right way so that when the time for baptism comes they will be cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost.  We must then continue to remember and nourish them and help them keep in the right way until they are ready and worthy to receive temple ordinances; then we continue to help them some more.  In verse 5 we are instructed to meet together oft, fast and pray and speak one with another concerning the welfare of our souls.  In addition to church meetings we also meet in family home evening, family prayer, scripture study, meal times, parent and child one on one visits etc.  This is one of those experiences where we can liken the scriptures unto ourselves and by making the application we can receive additional blessings.  We can also use these principles as grandparents with our children and grandchildren.

Thursday and Friday we had fairly normal days in the mission office.  Friday morning I had my monthly MARC meeting with President Christianson and the AP’s.  This meeting is to coordinate matters related to the vehicles and missionaries who drive them.  We council about the number of miles they drive which exceed their allotted number of miles and we also discuss whether we have the vehicles in the right areas.  We have around 46 companionships, but we only have 43 vehicles, so there are 3 companionships without vehicles.

Saturday morning we arose early and drove to the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center for a meeting in the basement room with all the senior missionary site couples and Elder and Sister Searle who are the Site Directors.  The Searle’s had arranged to have Elder Gordon Smith, our new Area Seventy, speak to us at 7:15 am.  Elder Smith was also there to meet with a group of Scouts and their leaders who were having a regional Scout Jamboree.  There were scouts from all over NY and some groups also from Canada.  Elder Smith had spent some time training scout leaders Friday evening.  President Christianson had spoken to the group earlier in the day on Friday.  After speaking to us early Friday morning, Elder Smith then also spoke with the scouts and their leaders at the lowering of the flag ceremony ending the Jamboree.  Also Saturday morning President Larry Gibson, First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, came to teach the scouts and their leaders.  It was a great experience for those who attended.  Some of the scouts also went to the Palmyra Temple and did baptisms for the dead while they were there.

Elder Smith shared with us an experience he had with then, Elder Uchtdorf, in trying to obtain legal recognition of the church in Italy.  Elder Smith was at the time a US Senator and arranged for he and Elder Uchtdorf to meet with the Italian Minister who was over religious affairs, she was a very knowledgeable woman; and she had asked the assistant minister to also attend the meeting.  Senator Smith introduced Elder Uchtdorf as an apostle in the church.  He then introduced the discussion by referring to some quotes from the NATO Treaty which included the USA and Italy.  He then had Elder Uchtdorf explain the problems our LDS members were experiencing and asked if the church could be legally recognized.  The Minister then asked the Assistant Minister what he thought.  He shared an experience he had the previous year in visiting Utah and Salt Lake City, including the Temple Square.  He said two young Italian Sister Missionaries had given him a tour of Temple Square.  He said he was so positively impressed with the two Italian young ladies and said that he wished there were thousands more of young ladies like them in Italy.  He was confident that the church could help make this happen.  He also said to Senator Smith and Elder Uchtdorf that we would like you to build a temple like the Salt Lake Temple here in Rome.  Legal status was given to the LDS Church and other churches as well.  This was also the beginning of the process to get approval to build the now partly built Rome Temple and related facilities.  The two young Italian missionaries had a great influence in helping this process come to pass.  Never underestimate the power of a good example in the hands of the Lord.

Today we attended our church meetings and had very good instruction from speakers, teachers, and leaders.  The Geneseo Ward has some great members and leaders.  The Ward Mission Leader is very helpful and is a great help to the missionary work in the ward, including getting the members to participate in a variety of ways.

We are in the process of contacting the YSA age group members in the ward and inviting them to attend Institute this fall beginning on September 20^th.  We hope to get some of the YSA to attend.  We are also coordinating with the Senior Couple in the Warsaw Branch to invite their YSA to also come to the Geneseo Ward Institute.  The Warsaw Branch is immediately west of the Geneseo Ward Boundary, only about 20 miles away; so maybe some of them will also come.

If my math is correct, on August 19^th, next Sunday, my wonderful faithful parents will have been sealed for 81 years of their eternal temple marriage.  Oh how greatly blessed I have been to a member of the Ruel and Ethel Jensen family.  Heavenly Father has been so good and kind to me by blessing me with these two obedient, faithful, and loving parents.  I love them so much for all they have done for me, and I hope I can live worthy to be with them in the eternities.

We express our great appreciation to all of you for your prayers in our behalf and in behalf of our children and their families.  We feel the power of your prayers and thank Heavenly Father and the Savior for all they do to bless us.  Please know that we also pray for each of you and your families in your challenges and trials.  We know you will be blessed and sustained and guided in all that is required of you.  As we pray in faith and then live in obedience to the gospel teachings our prayers will be answered according to the love, wisdom, and timing of Heavenly Father.  The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost really do live and love us and guide us in our lives; we know this is true.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard

Message 5 August 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Another week has flown by on wings of lightning.  Monday and Tuesday were fairly normal days in the mission office.  Sister Jensen has kept busy with following up with the missionaries on contacting referrals they were given to see what the outcome of their visits was.  Some of the missionaries have found some people who are very interested in learning about the gospel.  One man who speaks only Spanish has sent 2 self-referrals to have someone bring a Spanish Book of Mormon and teach him about the church.  He lives in Batavia; the Batavia missionaries tried to contact him by texting in English but he replied he cannot speak or text in English.  President Christianson has authorized the Elders who speak and teach in Spanish in Rochester, to travel out of their normal area to go down to Batavia and teach him.  The 2 sister missionaries who were just moved to Brockport, where we were first assigned, followed up to contact two referrals and they both invited the sisters to come and teach them.  Our missionaries are being blessed with some success from the pageant referrals.  Tuesday evening Sister Jensen prepared some food for having lunch together after our mission office staff meeting Wednesday morning.  The staff meeting was changed from the normal Monday time to Wednesday due to some issues the President had to take care of on Monday and Tuesday.  Also on Wednesday after the lunch the President interviewed the couples who work in the office.  He is a great president and is dedicated to doing all he can to help the work move forward.

Wednesday evening we taught the GVB (Genesee Valley Branch) Institute at 7:30pm in the building they meet in which is on Culver Road in Rochester.  We had only 8 people attend, but we had a good discussion about Ether Chapter 6-15.  In Chapter 6 verses4-8 are a few great lessons for our earth life.  In verse 4 it states “…when they had prepared…”; not before they prepared but after; sometimes we go forth not prepared and things do not always turn out quite so well.  If we prepare first, including spiritual preparation, things go better for us.  At the end of verse 4 it says when they had done all the things to prepare, then they got aboard the barges “…and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.”  This is a great lesson to learn; after preparing, then set forth to do whatever it is we are supposed to do.  The last phrase has great significance; that is “…commending ourselves to the Lord…”.  To me that means trust Him, put our full faith in Him, and rely upon Him to help us complete what we are supposed to do.  The people of Jared had no way to steer the barges, they were totally and completely in the Hands of the Lord to get them across the great waters safely; and they trusted He would do just that.  In verse 5 it says the Lord caused a furious wind to blow towards the promised land.  While there was a furious wind and they were often buried beneath the waves, they had prepared the barges so they were “…tight like unto a dish…”; therefore the water did not get in the barges to cause any harm to them.  With correct preparation we can safely travel through our adversity and trials without being harmed, either physically or spiritually.  The other great lesson here is that for the 344 days they were in the barges being driven by the furious wind, and often being buried under the water; they were carefully being guided to the correct destination.  Our lives are like that, we have adversity and trials all along the way; but if we totally trust the Lord we will be guided to the correct destination by Him, including learning from the adversity; but not destroyed by the adversity.  What a wonderful and wise and loving Heavenly Father we have to trust in and have faith in and allow Him to get us where He wants us to be; if we will allow Him to do so.  The YSA had great comments to go along with the lesson; we had a good institute class.

Thursday afternoon we drove to Batavia and met up with Elder and Sister Jones who have been serving in Warsaw for the last year; they leave tomorrow to return to their home in Utah after completing a very effective and successful mission.  They are great people and have made great contributions to the Warsaw Branch.  A recent convert, Sister Strang, were with the Jones’s and she led us to the town of Akron NY to visit the Perry Ice Cream Company Plant.  Brother Strang is a good friend with one of the company executives and he had arranged for us to have a tour of their ice cream making plant.  Roseann was our tour guide and we were able to see most of the process of how their ice cream is made and packaged.  They distribute ice cream products in NY, PA, Virginia and Southern Vermont.  It was very interesting to see this; and Sister Strang was happy to be with us.  Her and her husband were both baptized into the church a few weeks ago; the Jones’s worked with them for almost the entire year they have been here.  Brother Strang’s son was able to perform the baptism for both of them so it was a great day in their lives.  We then went to a restaurant in Batavia for our last dinner with the Jones’s before they return home to Utah.

Friday morning early, Sister Jensen prepared some food to help feed those who would be coming to the President’s home for Zone Leader Council.  This Zone Leader Council group includes the President and his wife, the four zone leaders, the young sister Site Trainers, Sister Chatterton and Sister Hatch right now, and Elder and Sister Searle who are the Site Directors over all the senior couples and young sisters who serve at the historic sites.  They have this meeting on the first Friday of each month from 9am to 4pm.  Sister Jensen and Sister Servoss help Sister Christianson with feeding these people lunch and providing snacks for them during their two breaks.

Saturday was our P-Day so we took care of our “home” work including cleaning the house and preparing for this next week.  Today, Sunday, we attended our church meetings in Geneseo.  We had a great Fast and Testimony Sacrament meeting and good lessons in our other meetings.  In the Gospel Principles class the teacher was finally successful in getting an investigator to say the closing prayer; he did just fine.  In the High Priest Group meeting our lesson was chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel; which is about making and keeping commitments.  These principles not only apply to missionary work but they also apply to our own personal lives, our families, and our work lives as well.  Making commitments and keeping them is how we make changes in our lives to improve in any area we choose to work on.

We have been informed that Casey and her mother, from Brockport NY, made it safely to Utah and they are enjoying their visits to all the places they have planned to go.  Kristine is inviting them to go to the Castle Valley Pageant with them; this would be a great experience for them, so we hope they go.  Thank you to all who are helping in any way at home with all the challenges each of you are having.  We pray for you and you are frequently in our thoughts during the day and night.

We express our love for those who have birthdays this month and hope you have a great day on your special birthday.  We are two days late wishing Mckinzi a happy birthday, but we heard you had a good day.  We wish a Happy Birthday to Britt on Aug 16^th, Wyatt on Aug 18^th, Aaron on Aug 20^th, and to Chris on Aug 26^th.  We will all be praying for Shaun on Aug 22^nd that his surgery will be successful in enabling him to be healed; and that his recovery will be quick and complete.  We also pray for Bailey to have her problem correctly diagnosed and corrected.  We love each of you and are so grateful for all you do for us, including praying for us.  We likewise pray for each of you.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard

Message 29 July 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

This past week was not as physically exhausting as the week before.  We have recovered mostly from our trip to Utah to attend with Austin and Josie being sealed in the Draper Temple and having a family reunion while we were there.  Monday evening we attended the new missionary orientation training at President Christianson’s home.  There were 6 new Elders and 2 new Sisters who arrived in the mission Monday.  We provided our standard training for these 8 new missionaries.  The missionaries seem to just keep getting better and better as each new group comes.  Also on Monday when Sister Jensen checked her computer referral file she found there were 150 new referrals; most of them came through the Pageant, but some also came from other sources.  She also received some additional referrals during the week.  She has to get these sent to the right missionaries, or to the right mission and follow up with the ones within our mission to report what happened.  She kept very busy with all of these during the week.  Some of these people invited the missionaries to return and teach them more about the gospel.  One lady accepted the invitation to be baptized on the first visit.

On Tuesday I went to the Transfer meeting at the Kreag Road Chapel.  With all of the transfers that were made I had a number of new designated drivers to talk with and provide the needed instruction.  I also took the mail that had come to the mission office for the missionaries.  Elder Servoss also gave me the new directories with the changes in companionships for those who needed these directories.  On Wednesday 7 Elders and one Sister returned to their homes after completing an honorable and successful mission.  We will miss these great  missionaries.

Wednesday evening I had accepted a request from the regional CES Director to teach his Institute class that night, and also the next four Wednesday’s while he does some training of Seminary teachers.  There were about 15 YSA youth who attended.  We discussed the first 5 chapters in the Book of Ether; it was a good discussion and meeting.

Thursday I and Sister Jensen got the letter and form printed and mailed so the missionaries can do their July Car Reports.  I hope they will follow through and get the reports done and mailed to me by August 1^st.

Saturday we attended our Geneseo Ward Pioneer Activity.  We did sack races, three-legged races, handcart races, and a tug of war; then we had food and a bake sale that was a silent auction to help provide money for the Young Women to go to their YW Camp.  One of the tug of war pulls was between the missionaries (Elder Maisey, Elder Stoddard, and myself) and all the Primary Children.  We did pretty good to begin with, but they kept adding more children until we lost.  Everyone had fun and it was a good activity.  We then met the Servoss’s at the Henrietta Mall and went to the Amish Stores up in Lyndonville to get some things they have.  We then went to a restaurant to dinner with the Servoss’s and then went home.

Today we had a good day at church; the speakers talked about qualities that our Pioneer ancestors had and how we can apply them in our life.  The talks were good.  After our church meetings we met the Elder’s at their apartment with some lunch we had brought with us which Sister Jensen prepared.  After eating we spent the rest of the afternoon taking the Elders to some referrals which were in the far reaches of the Geneseo Ward area.  All but one of the people let the missionaries talk with them; one couple let the Elders teach a discussion.  The man was very interested in the church doctrines except for the Word of Wisdom.  He said he would be baptized if he did not have to give up his tea, coffee, and wine.  The missionaries may be able to go back and teach more to a few of these people.

We are being greatly blessed as a mission by reading the Book of Mormon together.  There are miracles happening and people being taught and accepting the invitation to repent and be baptized.  We are having more unity and more spiritual blessings come to each companionship, including us senior couples.  Reading, pondering about, and praying about the Book of Mormon really does bring the promised blessings into our homes, and our lives, and our marriages.  Our testimonies of the gospel are being added to every day; we know Heavenly Father, lives and loves us, Jesus Christ is truly our Savior, President Monson is the Lord’s prophet today, the scriptures are true including the Book of Mormon.  We love each of you and pray for you daily.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Maxine & Richard

Message 22 July 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

Since the last blog message was done on Tuesday, this blog message should be shorter; but because of what we did the rest of the week it may not be any shorter.  Last Tuesday evening we attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant, this time without having an assignment.  We just sat back and relaxed and greatly enjoyed the Pageant.  We knew this would be the last time we would have the opportunity to see the Pageant while we are serving as missionaries.  The Pageant is much like the scriptures; as we read the scriptures we keep learning more from them, even though we have read the words previously.  Each time we have seen the Pageant while serving as missionaries, we have also learned new things we did not notice previously, even though we have seen it.  Prior to the Pageant we attended two presentations given in the basement of the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center.  Since this is the 75^th anniversary of the Pageant; these two presentations were on the topic of the history of the Pageant.  One was a 15 minute video summary of some Pageant milestones.  A number of people who were a part of producing and directing the Pageant provided short comments about some of the miracles of the Pageant.  The second presentation was done by two past presidents of the Pageant, and the costume designer for many of the Pageant costumes.  Charles Whetten was the director and producer of the 1988 completely revised version of the Pageant; he spoke about how the Lord’s hand was very evident in putting this new production together through divine direction.  Orson Scott card wrote a lot of the script for the 1988 Pageant.    Crawford Gates talked about a few experiences he had in writing the music for the 1988 production.  We learned later that the music he wrote has had very few minor changes in it since he wrote it; essentially the same music is still used today.   While he was working on the music; he said he prayed a lot and had done 17 writings of the music but none of them sounded right.  So he asked one of the 12 apostles to give him a blessing to help him; which was done.  In the blessing one phrase stood out to him; he was told he would feel the right music.  This is precisely what happened and he was then able to complete the music and have it sound right.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony, and the Mormon Youth Choir performed the music; and it was professionally recorded.  Gail and Jerry Argetsinger were involved in producing the pageant for a number of years; they are both in the University Of Rochester Theater Department.  Gail designed over 3000 of the costumes used in the Pageant.  Gail shared a couple of miraculous experiences in getting the costumes done for the 1988 Pageant.  One was about being led by the Spirit to two unique dress shops in NY where she obtained 50 of the costumes she needed which were already to use as they were; and they matched exactly the type of clothing that would have been worn by people who lived in the time of the people who would have lived when the event took place.  The second one was the miracle of the Goop.  This mixture was used to make cording on a group of costumes.  Gail had the lady who actually placed the Goop on the costumes tell her personal experience in doing this.  The Goop was put in place on the costumes by using a cake decorating squeeze tube.  She placed the Goop on the costumes for the first performance; and as the cast members went out on the stage the temperature was so hot and the humidity so high the Goop melted and ran down the costumes.  The next morning when the lady told Gail they had a problem to fix; Gail asked how much Goop she had left, and she said about one Cool Whip size container full.  Gail asked how much she needed and she said about 2 gallon; but they had not time to get any more.  They prayed together for help to take care of the problem, and Gail left to take care of some other things.  The lady went to work putting the Goop back on the newly cleaned costumes.  She just kept filling up her squeeze tube from the same Cool Whip size container; and after a few hours she had them all done.  At this point it finally dawned on her that the amount of Goop had been enough to do the job; and she still had about as much as she started with.  This second Goop application lasted for the rest of the Pageant, even though it was hot and humid.  Another miracle happened in getting the totally new stage built in time for the Pageant in 1988.  The full new script had not been approved by the First Presidency until the first of the year 1988.  The directors told the crew to save the old stage and store it behind the Hill Cumorah just in case it was needed; a few weeks after that the old stage caught fire and was destroyed.  They had not yet found a stage building company that had time to build a stage.  By divine help Thiokol Chemical Co. near Ogden UT had somehow gained access to some oil well drilling platforms which fit the need for the new stage.  Footings were put in place on which to place the platforms.  When the platforms arrived the legs did not match the footings that were made.  At this point they discovered that the Lord had provided a member of the Cast and Crew who was a professional welder; so they set up a welding fabrication shop area and the welder and some helpers made the right legs to fit the footings.  The stage was finished within just a few days of the Thursday night rehearsal.   These are a few of the miracles of the Pageant; there are many more; they lead me to know that this Pageant is the Lord’s Pageant, not man’s.

Wednesday evening we went to the airport to get on a plane to fly to Provo to be present for the temple sealing of our grandson Austin and his wife Josie in the Draper Temple on Saturday.  Our flight from Rochester to Atlanta was delayed an hour; and our flight from Atlanta to SLC was also an hour and a half late leaving; but we finally made it SLC about 1:30am; where Jana was waiting to pick us up and take us to our house.  We arrived at about 2:45 am Thursday; that was a 22 hour day for us from Wednesday at 6am to when we arrived at our home.  We went a few days early so we could take care of a few items of business we needed to do; and also our family had arranged to have a family reunion with us on Friday while we were there.  We express our great appreciation to all who helped with the reunion; it was truly an awesome reunion.  We are so pleased and happy that all of our children were able to come while we were there.  We had a very enjoyable few days together.  We were blessed to see and hold our 28^th grandchild for the first time and to also see two of our great grand-children we had not seen or held yet.  We were able to visit for a few minutes with some of our neighbors while we were there.  We met our new neighbor across the road who is a Police Officer and has been very good to keep an eye on our place.  We also visited with our neighbors Ruth Johnson, and Bruce and Linda Gammon, and Harold and Gloria Thomas and their son John; and also Dee Ann Jenkin, who is an aunt to Elder Hole here in our mission.  Saturday was beautiful day and we had a spiritual experience to help Austin and Josie receive their temple ordinances, including being sealed forever.  We were pleased to meet Josie’s family; they are great people.  We were very blessed to also have Jay be available to do the sealing for them, and Loni was with Jay.  Thank you very much Jay for being available to do the sealing for them; The Spirit directed what was said.  Due to poor communication on my part, Jay and Loni were in an earlier endowment session than we and Austin and Josie; I failed to follow a prompting to call Jay on Friday; I feel badly that we missed having them on the same session with us.  There was a powerful felling of the Spirit in the temple with us; some of our parents and family and ancestors from the Spirit world attended with us; I know and felt that is true.  We spent some additional time with some of the family Saturday evening.  This morning we got up 4 am and Josh picked us up and got us to the SLC airport by about 5:30am for our 7 am flight to Atlanta which was a half hour late leaving.  We were blessed to not have too far to walk in the Atlanta airport to get to our flight from Atlanta to Rochester.  We made it to Rochester about 5:30pm; and got to our house about 6:15pm.  Now that this blog message is about done we will get to bed at a decent hour and hopefully be ready for all the responsibilities of tomorrow.

We express our love to each of you for being who you are and living the way do and doing all the good things you do.  Thank you again to our daughters who did much of the work for the reunion; we love you and are so grateful for all you did.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine

Message 17 July 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

I am two days late getting the Blog message written, but I will get it done now before the week is over. Monday through Wednesday last week was not very busy for us. We were able to get caught up on a number of things in the office. Sister Jensen had problems with a couple of teeth on Tuesday. We went to a dentist, Dr. G., who is not too far from the mission office, to see what he could do to help her. The dentist has a very unique way of helping patients with teeth problems. The office staff is very helpful and friendly and provides more information about the office and all the treatment options and professional etiquette they use than I have ever seen done by dentist. It turned out that the dentist called a friend who does root canals and made arrangements with him to take care of doing the root canal that very day. This eliminated most of the pain. Then on Wednesday Dr. G. did two crowns to take care of the problems. It just happened that another patient cancelled their appointment for Wednesday morning and so we did not have to wait to do the crowns. We consider it a blessing from divine sources that everything worked out so well and so quickly.

Thursday evening we had an assignment to be at an Information Booth on the North Side of the Hill Cumorah Pageant from 7-9pm and then again for 15 minutes after the pageant ended at about 10:30pm. Thursday evening was the final full dress rehearsal for the Pageant. The cast members are all set apart as missionaries while they are here in the pageant. One of their assignments is to walk around among the audience members, in their costumes, from 7pm until a little after 9pm; when the Pageant is to begin. Their costumes are very warm, and the temperature was close to 90 and the humidity was also about 90%. While doing this they each have programs which they give to the audience members, they also pose for pictures, and they just talk with people and answer questions and if they meet people who are not LDS they try to get in a conversation and share a gospel message with the people about whatever they are interested in. It is a real miracle that the Pageant is done so well. The cast members arrive in NY one week before opening night; and they do not know what part they have or what their assignment will be. They are given their assignment on the day they arrive; and they have just one week, excluding Sunday to learn their parts. The cast members also help place all the stage props in their place during a brief minute or so while the lights are off between each scene. Two members of the cast were missionaries who have recently completed their missions and returned home. They came back for the Pageant; they are Elder Swanner and Elder Hulse, and they were both assigned to
the Brockport ward while we were there last fall. Elder Hulse was assigned the part of Alma in the wilderness baptizing at the Waters of Mormon. Elder Swanner was in two battle scenes and waved one of the large red flags in the final battle between the Lamanites and the Nephites on the Hill Cumorah. Friday night we did not go to the Pageant but we did wait up for a senior missionary couple who spent the night with us at our home. Elder & Sister Best who came up to the Pageant from Wellsville NY; they spent the night with us and then did some other things on Saturday and attended the Pageant again on Saturday night and returned home Saturday night, Sunday morning at 1 am.

Saturday evening we were assigned to be at the South Information Booth for the Pageant. A student, Heather, who worked at the BYU Library for me a few years ago brought her friend, Megan, with her to see the pageant. They both live in American Fork. They had been to other places here in the East this past week and arrived in time to see the Pageant on Saturday night. They stayed with us Saturday night; then went to Sacrament Meeting with us to the Pittsford ward, which is closer than Geneseo. After meeting we spent the rest of the day with Heather and Megan at the sites. During the Pageant week, there are too many people to do the regular tours which are done by the Sister missionaries and the Senior Couples; so I did most of the tour information for Heather and Megan. We were very fortunate that there were not very many people at the sites on Sunday so Heather and Megan were able to hear some of the sister missionaries at the sites. When we got back to our house in Mendon Sunday evening about 6pm; Sister Jensen fixed dinner for us while I took Heather and Megan to see the historic sites in Mendon. When we arrived at the Tomlinson Inn, President and Sister Christianson were just getting ready to leave after showing their grandson and a nephew who came to visit for a week or so. As we got out of our car, Heather said one of the boys had been in her Physics class she taught at Lone Peak High School this past year. How amazing it is that she traveled 3000 miles and met up with one of her students. Heather and Megan were happy to get to meet our mission president. Megan also has a grandfather who is good friends with President Christianson. We had a great chicken dinner prepared by Sister Jensen. We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Heather and Megan; and had prayer together with them and went to bed. They both left Monday morning soon after we left to go to the mission office. Monday evening, we rested up a bit for the rest of our busy week, which we will report on next week.

One thing that has been impressive to me here in NY is that it is very common to see trees which have limbs that have grown from one side of the trunk wrapping around to another side so the limb and its leaves can reach the sunlight needed for
photosynthesis. This sunlight is so essential for trees to survive. It seems to me that if a tree is wise enough to grow towards the light; that we as children of Heavenly Father should also make every effort to grow towards the divine light of Christ and the restored gospel he has restored to the earth. While we were in the Joseph Smith Farm visitor’s center I paid closer attention to a sculpture that is in front of the south window on a table. This sculpture is of the Father and the Son appearing to Joseph Smith. I looked at the backside of the sculpture, and the person who did the sculpture, has Heavenly Father standing on the right and Jesus standing on His left. The Father has His right arm around the shoulders of His Only Begotten Son and His left hand across the front of the Son pointing to Him and introducing Him to Joseph. This little detail greatly touched me; the Father is so pleased with all His Son has done for us that he has His arm around him pulling him close to His side. Oh how I hope someday to have Heavenly Father pleased enough with me to put his arm around me; I just want to do whatever I can to please the Father and the Son.

We love each of you forever; we have been so blessed to have each of you in our family and our circle of friends and neighbors. We pray for each of you every day and trust that our prayers and your prayers will be answered according to the love, wisdom, and timing of Heavenly Father. He lives, and His Son lives and they love us and the Holy Ghost can guide us to them.

Love,
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine