We've finally figured out which
direction we're going when we walk out the door!! And just a few days
ago I actually drove somewhere (but with Dad sitting on the passengers
side). Here's something funny about me driving: We went to the grocery
store and I just wanted to go in by myself and Dad just wanted to sit
in the car so I drove and parked, jumped out and went in the store and
shopped for about 45 minutes. So Dad decides he's going to get out and
come in too but unfortunately I had locked the doors (since I had the
keys) and whenever someone IN the car tries to get out and the doors are
locked the car alarm goes off! So there he was.....totally and
completely stuck. I probably won't ever do that again!!
Number
two.....we need to be more selective on the pictures we send for the
blog or I need to edit the ones Dad sends....there were a couple of
really bad ones! Jan, make an executive decision and leave off the ones
that you know I'd die before posting.....like the one where we tried to
do a "selfie." I think I will forget my phone next time!! But the
place we were at was beautiful.....the tallest waterfall east of the
Mississippi. The nicest thing about having P-day on Monday is that
there is nobody out and about in these beautiful places except for old
people like us....and a few dogs with their physically fit owner/runners
who fly by. One of these days the sun will come out long enough so
that the leaves can break out on the trees. One of the places we
"fitness" walk is just a couple of minutes from our house if we drive or
10 minutes if we walk. It's called Sapsucker Woods and it has
wonderful trails and ponds and pussy willows and little critters and
birds. It's a wetlands preserve right next to an orthinology lab and
visitors center which we have yet to go in.
Lest
you think all we do is explore and play, we really are finding
ourselves inundated with things to do and people to see.....if we could
just find them. The official membership rolls for young single adults
is huge but nobody seems to know where they're at or if they're even
here. Can we tell you though that this core group of YSA's here at
Cornell is amazing! They're not only looking for the lost but they're
trying to figure out how to find them and love them back into the
Church. The two stake YSA reps, Sara and Joseph, came to our house the
other night after Institute to bring us up to speed on what they know
and they left at 1:00 A.M. That's like 3 hours past our bedtime! But
the time just flew by and it's a good thing that senior missionaries
don't have the 10:30 going to bed rule. We were certainly dragging the
next day though. We tripled our numbers at Owego Institute....not
because of us by any stretch of the imagination but because they're
finding creative ways to get others to join them. We get great support
from the adults that participate there. And we're working on that with
the group here at Cornell. We had a great Zone meeting last week and
it was fun to be with the Elders and Sisters in the zone who all
gathered. The missionary numbers are down
and will hopefully go up when the summer comes. We have an area here
in Ithaca that had to be closed because not enough missionaries.
President and Sister Wirthlin are so great with the missionaries as are
the office couple who came with them. And then we met the MLS senior
couple who serve in our zone (membership leader support). By the way,
President Wirthin strongly encouraged us to come home for Jordon and
Jen's wedding if it was possible budget wise so we'll see you in just a
little over a month. We'll fly home Wednesday June 4th and come back
Monday June 9th because those are the best travel days. It sounds like
doing things like that is encouraged because the Church is trying to
"attract" more senior couples to missionary service and not having to
miss out on "critical family events (that's what the handbook called it)
is part of that. Ha Ha Cade and Carlee....don't you wish you were
old?!! We had a really good experience with the north Elders yesterday.
Their area is quite large and they usually don't have enough "miles"
on their car to go to visit less actives who live far out in the little
towns very often so we offered to take them. They had a list of 6 names
to visit. The first 3 weren't home, the fourth was not a member but his
ex-wife was and it was her name that was on the list. He greeted us in
the back yard....about 6'2"250 lbs., beard, long cigar, and working on
his awesome 1954 muscle car.....but he very politely greeted us, we
chatted for a few minutes and then he said we could go. 5th house
didn't exist but the door of the 6th house was answered by a wonderful
woman who is a retired college chemistry professor. We had a great
visit with her. She's thinking that God doesn't care about her anymore
and wondering what her purpose is in life. The Elders were sooo good
with her and talked to her about Heavenly Father's love and how to
access that love through prayer. The spirit was very strong. I think
we'll see her again as we seemed to hit it off really well with her and
we could talk baseball. We joked over her sign that said Red Sox fans
could come in the front door but Yankees fans had to use the back.
Another fun thing happened this weekend. The ward sponsored an event to
raise money for "Feed My Starving Children," a non-profit group
supported by several Christian denominations to provide food packets for
children all over the world. It was a dinner theatre and the program
was "The Taffetas." We saw the show at Hale Center Theatre in Orem a
couple of years ago and it's wonderful 50's music. Friday night we
worked in the kitchen all night helping prepare and serve a dinner and
then washing a million dishes after. Last night we attended the show
and it was great. We shared a table with a member of the former stake
presidency and his wife and a couple from the Methodist Church. The
whole table next to us was also Methodists. The lady at our table was
formerly married to a Methodist minister and her twin boys were both
born in 1979 at Mary Greely Hospital in Ames (Brian and Bryce
"birthplace") while her ex-husband was pastoring a church there in Ames.
Small world! Well, the last thing we'll tell you about before
quitting was last Wednesday as we met with the chaplains at Cornell.
Our speaker was a man by the name of Phillip Jenkins, a world renowned
religious historian. He actually spoke at a BYU forum in 2006 and Dad
heard him then. Our group was small, maybe a dozen people, and so it
was very informal and he singled us out as having a wonderful experience
at BYU. Then that afternoon we went to a campus wide lecture that he
gave in this beautiful old place on campus called Sage Chapel. We got
there way early and Mr. Jenkins came in and just sat down by Dad and
started talking as though he was an ordinary person. He told us that
periodically when missionaries come to his house at Baylor University
where he holds some "chair" they always think he's a Mormon because he
knows so much about the Church. I visited with his wife in the masoleum
(sorry can't spell) attached to the chapel. She's an English professor
at Penn State and she loves her Mormon graduate students. And there
are really dead people buried in the Sage Chapel!!
Well.....Dad's
doing all the CES work this afternoon and I'm writing this letter! He
has better ideas than I do and he does a better job on the computer with
what needs to be done. Good thing we brought 2 laptops! So I'm
thinking that you're all gathering for family dinner this afternoon.
Boo hoo that we're not there! We miss you all but we knew that would
happen and we anxiously wait for e-mails from anybody. Hey a thing just
popped up on our phones that said there is a hard freeze warning for
Utah County tonight. Does that mean you're having New York weather?!!
Our sun is shining today but the high temp is probably only 45 degrees.
We'll be happy for summer if this is spring! Amazing that we've been
gone for a month. Time flies when you're having fun!!!
Love you
Dad and Mom/Grandpa and Grandma/ aka Elder and Sister Jolley
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