Hello All,
We can't believe that this week will be the week of
the 4th and then it seems like summer is downhill from then on....not
really downhill.....just that then comes Christmas! We missed another
missionary farewell today. It would not be truthful if we didn't feel a
little/lot sad to not be there. But we are excited for these two
new-in-one-and-a-half-week missionaries! So it seems like Jordon and
Carlee and Taylor and Cade were playing in the kiddie swimming pool in
the back yard just last week!! Can we rewind time and start back at the
beginning? Send us addresses as soon as you get them and we'll send
them at least one letter while they're in the MTC. Sorry there won't be
any cookies in the letters! Speaking of cookies, do you know that this
week, actually the next 5 days, I'm doing refreshments for one FHE, two
Institutes, one fireside and two dinners. This is fair warning that
when we get home from this mission I may never want to cook again!!!!
And there's never any left-overs when it involves YSA. They did a great
FHE last week....the second half of Dungeons and Dragons Book of Mormon
style. That "version" needs to be published and marketed on Deseret
Book or something! It was incredibly creative and everybody had a great
time. We just sat and watched because it was as much fun watching them
play as they were having playing.
We got to go to Utica to be
part of transfer day this week...not that we're being transferred or
anything (thank heavens) but we drove missionaries there. It was a
great meeting to see the new trainers being trained (we told them that
there are lots of Dads and Moms and Grandparents praying for trainers of
new missionaries!) and then to watch these brand new missionaries come
in the chapel and meet their brand new trainer/companions and get hugs
and some of the anxiety just goes out of their faces when that happens.
We met the young elder from AF that I met in the credit union when we
were home for Jordon's wedding and it was good to welcome him actually
in the mission as a familiar face even though it was just for a few
minutes in Utah. And he got a great trainer! We just about had to
paddle home from the mission office because I've never seen it rain so
hard ever! Worse than some of those downpours in Iowa. But the storm
quit for the half hour it took for all the missionaries to load their
luggage in everybody's cars which was a miracle because trying to
squeeze a carload of elders and sisters and all their suitcases in one
car was CRAZY! We brought back Elder Chao and his companion and all his
bags and the sisters's bags with us....reminded us of moving here
ourselves.
Other than the normal things this week, we shopped
and prepared ourselves with 72 hour emergency kits and preparations for
surviving for a few days if needed without power or whatever hopefully
will not ever come. President Wirthlin just said he felt prompted that
all the missionaries needed to be prepared and that included us. And
you know me. I prepare for ourselves and anybody else who might knock
on the door. And.....speaking of knocking on the door, we know one
reason for sure that we're here and that's to love and hug and bouy up
and feed discouraged and hungry missionaries. They're such faithful and
diligent and obedient young people and sometimes missionary work is
hard, hard, hard.
We finally bought some outside flower pots for
our house (with flowers) and if you wait long enough they lower the
prices enough so that we can afford some because I kill them by mid July
anyway. So now it's not quite so bad to look out our sliding glass
doors and see something besides the backside of the laundromat.
Tonight
we just got back from a great fireside at the Stake Center in Owego
that was a "meet the new stake president" night. His name is President
Tony Frutos and he lives in Corning, New York which is about an hour and
a half from here. Our Stake leaders really have to travel when they go
anywhere in this stake....reminds us of Iowa. Anyway he gave a great
talk designed to introduce himself but also to tell us how the
principles of the Gospel have influenced his life. He's in management
at the big Corning glass international headquarters in Corning (ie the
name of the town). He talked about these two chemistry professors he
had at BYU who had such a profound effect on his choice of a career.
What a coincidence that he was referring to Steve and Julie Goates!
It's a small world in the Church!
So, the end of a busy week and
the beginning of an even busier one! We miss you all and know that
you're busy with all the things of summer but be sure and remember to do
the things that matter most!!!!!
Love you Mucho!!!!!!
Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma,
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
It's hard to be far away on days like today!
Hello Everybody,
So today I listened to Dad speak in Church and the rest of the time I was imaging the missionary "farewell" in American Fork and all the family being there....Church was even at the same time. These are the times when it's really hard to be gone from home. But how can we be sad?! We're so blessed because in whatever way we all serve missions, we're in it together! How can we not share everything we've been blessed with including our time and our talents whether it be in the mission field or on trek or cooking every second or being the designated missionary car pool drivers (which we love by the way) or sharing good principles by being good sports on the soccer field or at the CC meets or playing softball or marching in the parades in 90 degree heat with a wool band uniform on. We can share the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in everything that we do.....and love is the "biggie!" Loving and sharing and working hard and families forever and just everything!
This week has literally flown by and we miss one day of journal writing (yes, we do lots of "catching up") and before we know it, we've missed a week. We had some great institute classes this week. Supposedly attendance typically falls off in the summer but we've stayed high so far. In Owego we've picked up some additional adults and at Cornell they like the "discussion" format where we ask a few questions and they very capably teach each other the doctrines. We're doing "The Gospel and the Productive Life" for our summer classes and we're amazed that whether or not we're in a class with a 21 year old and an 89 year old in the same class or our very diverse Cornell group the doctrine is the same for all of us.
We bought a summer access pass to all the state parks around here which is a lot so we can continue our P-day activity of a different hike every Monday. The weather has finally turned off beautiful despite an early in the week of 85 degree 85 percent humidity days and a couple of spectacular thunderstorms with literally buckets of rain. That must be the reason everything is so green here is all the rain. We've loved sleeping with our windows open at night time. Just miss my flowers and sitting out on the deck. We have a cozy little back patio that overlooks the back of the laundromat and several other ugly buildings and you can't hear yourself talk because of the sound of their huge air conditioning units! Gratefully we're still exercising in Sapsucker Woods or other trails nearby which keeps us in shape and sane. Dad still goes out with the missionaries and I am still making treats for FHE and Institutes and other activities. My 5 Ingredients or Less cookbook is coming in really handy!! This next week is transfers (so lucky we don't have to worry about that), and we're getting sisters back in our area which is wonderful! I've missed our sisters. We're loosing one of our great Elders. This is his last transfer and he's going back to the area he began his mission in for his last six weeks so he's really excited but hates to leave a very fruitful field here right now. But we're finally getting our Mandarin speaking missionary!! There are so many Chinese people here right now who are serious investigators. Friday one of the wonderful Chinese investigators, Jun Xiu, was baptized. We went over a couple of hours before and cleaned that half of the Church top to bottom and set up everything and it looked so nice and she was so excited for her baptism. She's almost 8 months pregnant and so her mother from China was there because she has come for 6 months to help out when the baby is born. The Chinese are very family orientated. One of the talks was given in Mandarin by a branch member, the other by a young man who we've been bringing to Church every Sunday and who has grown in the Gospel by leaps and bounds the last 3 months that we've been here. Jun's husband, Fanyuan, gave a wonderful opening prayer. He's the one we talked about a letter or two ago who wants to be baptized but his major professor has told him he'll never get a job back in China if he converts to Christianity. He's happy for his wife and in his prayer he asked for Heavenly Father to bless her for her courage. Now he just needs to find the courage and faith himself. She was given the Holy Ghost in Sacrament Meeting today. There were 5 investigators at the baptism which was the best. Also last week we decided to just "drop in" on one of the investigators our other set of Elders was teaching.....p-day clothes and all. She committed to baptism a week ago and then has gotten afraid and has been dogging them ever since and not answering her door or the phone. So Heavenly Father is in the details. We didn't get to her house as soon as we'd planned, things just kept coming up.....and when we got there, again no one answered the door and we were just getting ready to leave when she drove up with her mother who had taken her grocery shopping. She had us come in and visit and we were able to set up another appointment for her with the Elders. Just a little tiny thing....but who knows. We were definitely in the right place at the right time. She lives about 25 minutes from here and even if we'd hit an extra long stoplight we'd never have been there at the same time as she drove up.
World Cup is going on without us! But since the YSA were playing ultimate frisby last Monday for FHE we sat on the sidelines and watched the US-Ghana game on our phones. The phone comes in handy for things like that! And one of our branch members whose husband is a non-member invited us to eat with them (we offered to bring the dinner!) at the same time another game is on and they're both from Colombia and are soccer nutso! She thinks her husband who does come occasionally with her to Church would like to become friends with someone who loves futbol as much as he does. That would be Dad! Do you suppose that could justify watching the USA game today so they can rehash it the next time we are together??!! That probably will need to be classed under "preparation" which we do a lot of or a matter for repentance after the game is over! We'll see!
One more week left in June! It seems like once the 4th of July is over, the summer is gone. We'll have a busy July which will include the Hill Cumorah Pageant and a mission-wide senior couple excursion on a boat on the St. Lawrence Seaway. We're looking forward to both activities besides trying to gear up for all the students to come back in August. We were thinking we'd like to paint our apartment (which still has the non-washable paint from the 60's) this summer but that looks like that's a project for next summer (or never!).
Well, I'll finish this letter while Dad is out walking around the apartment 20 times to cool off after the last 30 seconds of stoppage time in the US-Portugal game. Ahhhh, such is life!!
Everybody be good, be happy, and write us a letter if you get some extra time and tell us all the little details of your lives!! Next week it's you, Cade-o! But it's all so exciting.....somebody be sure and man the video camera on July 9th. We love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXO
Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma
So today I listened to Dad speak in Church and the rest of the time I was imaging the missionary "farewell" in American Fork and all the family being there....Church was even at the same time. These are the times when it's really hard to be gone from home. But how can we be sad?! We're so blessed because in whatever way we all serve missions, we're in it together! How can we not share everything we've been blessed with including our time and our talents whether it be in the mission field or on trek or cooking every second or being the designated missionary car pool drivers (which we love by the way) or sharing good principles by being good sports on the soccer field or at the CC meets or playing softball or marching in the parades in 90 degree heat with a wool band uniform on. We can share the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in everything that we do.....and love is the "biggie!" Loving and sharing and working hard and families forever and just everything!
This week has literally flown by and we miss one day of journal writing (yes, we do lots of "catching up") and before we know it, we've missed a week. We had some great institute classes this week. Supposedly attendance typically falls off in the summer but we've stayed high so far. In Owego we've picked up some additional adults and at Cornell they like the "discussion" format where we ask a few questions and they very capably teach each other the doctrines. We're doing "The Gospel and the Productive Life" for our summer classes and we're amazed that whether or not we're in a class with a 21 year old and an 89 year old in the same class or our very diverse Cornell group the doctrine is the same for all of us.
We bought a summer access pass to all the state parks around here which is a lot so we can continue our P-day activity of a different hike every Monday. The weather has finally turned off beautiful despite an early in the week of 85 degree 85 percent humidity days and a couple of spectacular thunderstorms with literally buckets of rain. That must be the reason everything is so green here is all the rain. We've loved sleeping with our windows open at night time. Just miss my flowers and sitting out on the deck. We have a cozy little back patio that overlooks the back of the laundromat and several other ugly buildings and you can't hear yourself talk because of the sound of their huge air conditioning units! Gratefully we're still exercising in Sapsucker Woods or other trails nearby which keeps us in shape and sane. Dad still goes out with the missionaries and I am still making treats for FHE and Institutes and other activities. My 5 Ingredients or Less cookbook is coming in really handy!! This next week is transfers (so lucky we don't have to worry about that), and we're getting sisters back in our area which is wonderful! I've missed our sisters. We're loosing one of our great Elders. This is his last transfer and he's going back to the area he began his mission in for his last six weeks so he's really excited but hates to leave a very fruitful field here right now. But we're finally getting our Mandarin speaking missionary!! There are so many Chinese people here right now who are serious investigators. Friday one of the wonderful Chinese investigators, Jun Xiu, was baptized. We went over a couple of hours before and cleaned that half of the Church top to bottom and set up everything and it looked so nice and she was so excited for her baptism. She's almost 8 months pregnant and so her mother from China was there because she has come for 6 months to help out when the baby is born. The Chinese are very family orientated. One of the talks was given in Mandarin by a branch member, the other by a young man who we've been bringing to Church every Sunday and who has grown in the Gospel by leaps and bounds the last 3 months that we've been here. Jun's husband, Fanyuan, gave a wonderful opening prayer. He's the one we talked about a letter or two ago who wants to be baptized but his major professor has told him he'll never get a job back in China if he converts to Christianity. He's happy for his wife and in his prayer he asked for Heavenly Father to bless her for her courage. Now he just needs to find the courage and faith himself. She was given the Holy Ghost in Sacrament Meeting today. There were 5 investigators at the baptism which was the best. Also last week we decided to just "drop in" on one of the investigators our other set of Elders was teaching.....p-day clothes and all. She committed to baptism a week ago and then has gotten afraid and has been dogging them ever since and not answering her door or the phone. So Heavenly Father is in the details. We didn't get to her house as soon as we'd planned, things just kept coming up.....and when we got there, again no one answered the door and we were just getting ready to leave when she drove up with her mother who had taken her grocery shopping. She had us come in and visit and we were able to set up another appointment for her with the Elders. Just a little tiny thing....but who knows. We were definitely in the right place at the right time. She lives about 25 minutes from here and even if we'd hit an extra long stoplight we'd never have been there at the same time as she drove up.
World Cup is going on without us! But since the YSA were playing ultimate frisby last Monday for FHE we sat on the sidelines and watched the US-Ghana game on our phones. The phone comes in handy for things like that! And one of our branch members whose husband is a non-member invited us to eat with them (we offered to bring the dinner!) at the same time another game is on and they're both from Colombia and are soccer nutso! She thinks her husband who does come occasionally with her to Church would like to become friends with someone who loves futbol as much as he does. That would be Dad! Do you suppose that could justify watching the USA game today so they can rehash it the next time we are together??!! That probably will need to be classed under "preparation" which we do a lot of or a matter for repentance after the game is over! We'll see!
One more week left in June! It seems like once the 4th of July is over, the summer is gone. We'll have a busy July which will include the Hill Cumorah Pageant and a mission-wide senior couple excursion on a boat on the St. Lawrence Seaway. We're looking forward to both activities besides trying to gear up for all the students to come back in August. We were thinking we'd like to paint our apartment (which still has the non-washable paint from the 60's) this summer but that looks like that's a project for next summer (or never!).
Well, I'll finish this letter while Dad is out walking around the apartment 20 times to cool off after the last 30 seconds of stoppage time in the US-Portugal game. Ahhhh, such is life!!
Everybody be good, be happy, and write us a letter if you get some extra time and tell us all the little details of your lives!! Next week it's you, Cade-o! But it's all so exciting.....somebody be sure and man the video camera on July 9th. We love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXO
Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma
Monday, June 16, 2014
The end of Father's Day and the first day of sun since we got back from Utah!
Hello, Everybody....
No kidding! It has rained every single day since we got back to New York Tuesday night and today was the first day of sun and no rain. In fact yesterday afternoon, we had to turn our heat on for a couple of hours! Today's sun was awesome and after Church and all the father's day festivities, we drove down to the park bench by the lake (with 5 million other people) and just sat and soaked in the sun. We had a cloud burst the other afternoon that was phenomenal. Our Chinese neighbor/friend got caught in it right in front of our house and came in to wait out the storm. It is such a riot to see us try and converse with each other! He had to be home at 5:00 and it was still pouring rain so Dad gave him a ride home and later that night the grandma (his wife who also speaks no English) brought over a big bowl of homemade Chinese dumplings that are to die for. They're such good people. We're hoping and should get a Mandarin speaking Elder next transfer and are going to get us all together.
Back to Father's Day....it was a very nice day. We drove to pick up our less actives and both of them had excuses for not coming. Oh well....we love them anyway. So now we're going to the ward sacrament meeting at 9:00 and the branch meetings from 11:00 to 2:00. It's good to be able to do both. I had to speak in the branch sacrament meeting today. Dad is up next week. Then I made Father's Day dinner (fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, corn, salad, rolls, and brownies and ice cream) and the 4 missionaries and one other person came to eat with us. These boys are hungry!!! And then Dad helped with the dishes....on Father's day even!
So it was soooooo good to be back in Utah for Jordon's wedding. At first it seemed strange to be there and then it seemed like we never left home and before we knew it, those few days were over and it was time to come back to NY....and it was hard!! But as much as we miss home, we're happy to be back and doing our missionary work again. And it has been BUSY since we got back teaching institute and catching up on our other assignments. We did the blood drive again yesterday and I was rejected yet again!! But I guess they decided to make up for my failure by doing a "double" on Dad whatever that means. We tried to help one of our YSA with his garden but got rained out. Our numbers keep going up in both our Owego and Cornell Institute classes which we're glad for. And we just got notification of all the things we need to do for new student orientation at Cornell in connection with the CURW (Cornell United Religious Work). So far it doesn't seem like we've had a summer break yet! Speaking of summer break, the public schools still have a week and a half yet until summer vacation. Be glad you don't have to go to school most of June!
The missionary work is really picking up here. Both sets of Elders are doing a lot of teaching now and that makes them happy! And our friend Jun is getting baptized this Friday. She and her husband were "found" by one of our YSA's and the Elders have taught them. She's so cute. She wanted to wait until after her baby is born (she's about 7 months pregnant) so that her baby could decide whether or not to be baptized too! When they explained that her child didn't have to be baptized until she was 8 years old then she wanted to do it right away. Her husband, Fong Yen, was on track to be baptized with her too and then his major professor who coordinates his graduate program here at Cornell and who will place him in a position in China when he goes back in a year told him that he wouldn't get a job if he joined the Church so now he's postponed his baptism. But his wife is going ahead. We're excited for her. And several of their non-member friends will be there as well. The missionaries also told us of an experience with another couple that they're teaching who we saw at Church today. The young man is just learning to pray and at the end of their lesson the other day, the elders asked him to pray and at the end of his prayer he prayed that Spain would win their World Cup game. When he finished he told the Elders "Well, you told me to say what was in my heart!" Love it!!!! It is really good to be part of this part of our assignment....although Dad gets to go more often than I do because they need another male when the elders teach and both of us would be over-kill. But after I feel sorry for myself, then I move on to doing other things! But I do get to go once in a while which is nice.
We've walked in Sapsucker Woods again several times this week and it changes every week....new flowers, bushes, birds (a blue heron again) and this week the lilies on the lily pads were gorgeous. Luckily the weather has been cool enough that the mosquitoes have stayed away but we've been assured that will soon end.
The Cornell Plantation is now just beautiful and luckily missionaries are told to get some form of exercise every day so we find lots of places to walk. We never told you that last week we went to this incredible place called Watkins Glen with all the Elders in our District for P-day. It is a 3 mile hike through the most beautiful gorge in the whole state that has 19 waterfalls as you go through it. There's a couple of waterfalls that you actually walk behind and the elders all conveniently got their heads wet. We kept up with them and I think that they were surprised that they didn't have to wait for the "old guys" to catch up. Yay for us!!
Well.....it feels like it's time to go to bed after a really nice Sunday father's day and Dad is going over to the Church early to play BB in the morning. We count our blessings every morning and night! When we were in Utah in the Temple with all of you and the great grandpas and sisters and cousins and friends, it was overwhelming to feel so blessed. We will miss so much the upcoming farewells and going into the MTC and the birthdays and EVERYTHING but we know that Heavenly Father will bless all of you and us for our work and sacrifice.....and yes, being on a mission is a sacrifice to some extent, but we know it is what we need to be doing now and we're blessed to be able to do it.
Take care....We love you all!!
XOXOXO Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma
P.S. We discovered a way to access some World Cup games on Univision on the Internet. So the GREAT challenge and temptation will be to restrict it to p-day and "after hours!"
No kidding! It has rained every single day since we got back to New York Tuesday night and today was the first day of sun and no rain. In fact yesterday afternoon, we had to turn our heat on for a couple of hours! Today's sun was awesome and after Church and all the father's day festivities, we drove down to the park bench by the lake (with 5 million other people) and just sat and soaked in the sun. We had a cloud burst the other afternoon that was phenomenal. Our Chinese neighbor/friend got caught in it right in front of our house and came in to wait out the storm. It is such a riot to see us try and converse with each other! He had to be home at 5:00 and it was still pouring rain so Dad gave him a ride home and later that night the grandma (his wife who also speaks no English) brought over a big bowl of homemade Chinese dumplings that are to die for. They're such good people. We're hoping and should get a Mandarin speaking Elder next transfer and are going to get us all together.
Back to Father's Day....it was a very nice day. We drove to pick up our less actives and both of them had excuses for not coming. Oh well....we love them anyway. So now we're going to the ward sacrament meeting at 9:00 and the branch meetings from 11:00 to 2:00. It's good to be able to do both. I had to speak in the branch sacrament meeting today. Dad is up next week. Then I made Father's Day dinner (fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, corn, salad, rolls, and brownies and ice cream) and the 4 missionaries and one other person came to eat with us. These boys are hungry!!! And then Dad helped with the dishes....on Father's day even!
So it was soooooo good to be back in Utah for Jordon's wedding. At first it seemed strange to be there and then it seemed like we never left home and before we knew it, those few days were over and it was time to come back to NY....and it was hard!! But as much as we miss home, we're happy to be back and doing our missionary work again. And it has been BUSY since we got back teaching institute and catching up on our other assignments. We did the blood drive again yesterday and I was rejected yet again!! But I guess they decided to make up for my failure by doing a "double" on Dad whatever that means. We tried to help one of our YSA with his garden but got rained out. Our numbers keep going up in both our Owego and Cornell Institute classes which we're glad for. And we just got notification of all the things we need to do for new student orientation at Cornell in connection with the CURW (Cornell United Religious Work). So far it doesn't seem like we've had a summer break yet! Speaking of summer break, the public schools still have a week and a half yet until summer vacation. Be glad you don't have to go to school most of June!
The missionary work is really picking up here. Both sets of Elders are doing a lot of teaching now and that makes them happy! And our friend Jun is getting baptized this Friday. She and her husband were "found" by one of our YSA's and the Elders have taught them. She's so cute. She wanted to wait until after her baby is born (she's about 7 months pregnant) so that her baby could decide whether or not to be baptized too! When they explained that her child didn't have to be baptized until she was 8 years old then she wanted to do it right away. Her husband, Fong Yen, was on track to be baptized with her too and then his major professor who coordinates his graduate program here at Cornell and who will place him in a position in China when he goes back in a year told him that he wouldn't get a job if he joined the Church so now he's postponed his baptism. But his wife is going ahead. We're excited for her. And several of their non-member friends will be there as well. The missionaries also told us of an experience with another couple that they're teaching who we saw at Church today. The young man is just learning to pray and at the end of their lesson the other day, the elders asked him to pray and at the end of his prayer he prayed that Spain would win their World Cup game. When he finished he told the Elders "Well, you told me to say what was in my heart!" Love it!!!! It is really good to be part of this part of our assignment....although Dad gets to go more often than I do because they need another male when the elders teach and both of us would be over-kill. But after I feel sorry for myself, then I move on to doing other things! But I do get to go once in a while which is nice.
We've walked in Sapsucker Woods again several times this week and it changes every week....new flowers, bushes, birds (a blue heron again) and this week the lilies on the lily pads were gorgeous. Luckily the weather has been cool enough that the mosquitoes have stayed away but we've been assured that will soon end.
The Cornell Plantation is now just beautiful and luckily missionaries are told to get some form of exercise every day so we find lots of places to walk. We never told you that last week we went to this incredible place called Watkins Glen with all the Elders in our District for P-day. It is a 3 mile hike through the most beautiful gorge in the whole state that has 19 waterfalls as you go through it. There's a couple of waterfalls that you actually walk behind and the elders all conveniently got their heads wet. We kept up with them and I think that they were surprised that they didn't have to wait for the "old guys" to catch up. Yay for us!!
Well.....it feels like it's time to go to bed after a really nice Sunday father's day and Dad is going over to the Church early to play BB in the morning. We count our blessings every morning and night! When we were in Utah in the Temple with all of you and the great grandpas and sisters and cousins and friends, it was overwhelming to feel so blessed. We will miss so much the upcoming farewells and going into the MTC and the birthdays and EVERYTHING but we know that Heavenly Father will bless all of you and us for our work and sacrifice.....and yes, being on a mission is a sacrifice to some extent, but we know it is what we need to be doing now and we're blessed to be able to do it.
Take care....We love you all!!
XOXOXO Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma
P.S. We discovered a way to access some World Cup games on Univision on the Internet. So the GREAT challenge and temptation will be to restrict it to p-day and "after hours!"
Sunday, June 1, 2014
The Countdown is On!
Hello Everybody,
Actually we shouldn't be counting down the days until we come back to Utah for Jordon's wedding but it's such an exciting occasion that we can't help it if we do. But we were telling some of the YSA this morning at Church that we will miss them while we're gone and that's true for sure....but not enough to stay here and they laugh when we tell them that. We're hoping it won't be harder to say goodbye the second time when we come back but it will be nice to know that we're coming back to our "home away from home." So....we'll be in sometime Wednesday depending on how our flights go and then heading out to come back here the following Tuesday. It will be a great 5 days with all of you!
We can't figure out where the week has gone this week. It began with the memorial day holiday and that was fun. Can such a serious, important day be fun? We went with some of the YSA and wandered through the old Ithaca City Cemetery and it was so cool. There were the grave sites of veterans from the Revolutionary, Civil, World Wars I and II and other wars as well. There was the headstone of a slave who made it safely to New York on the Underground Railroad that brought escaping slaves up into the northern states. There was a section for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and also for firefighters who lost their lives on 9-11. It was an awesome cemetery and we took lots of pictures. That night we went to a great FHE out in the country on a farm of 2 of the girls and the guys built this amazing bonfire and we all lost track of time and all of a sudden the young Elders realized there was no way they could get back to their car in time (we drove them) at our apartment so they had to text Pres. Wirthlin and tell him they were going to be late and we told them to blame it on us. Oops! Did you know that all mission cars have a device on them that electronically reports to Security at the Church Office Bldg. in Salt Lake if the car is being driven after 9:30 at night?! We got them to their car at 9:35. When we all saw President Wirthlin a few days later, none of us were in trouble....whew!
The rest of the week was normal....institute in both places which was pretty fun, and after we teach, everybody just hangs around and talks forever which is great. there's not a lot of members here their age so they love to all be together. FHE tomorrow night is a Dungeons and Dragons night with a Book of Mormon twist. I think we'll just bring food and watch! Luckily they do all the planning and carrying out for FHE. We did more Seminary this past week and our last one is this coming Tuesday and that will be nice. We're too old to go to bed at 11:00 at night and get up at 4:00 in the morning!! Won't go again until the fall. Dad has been out some with the Elders this week teaching because members often can't go in the daytime and they need a "member" present. I think we're pretty good at the fellow-shipping part and it's great to see the love the people of the branch have for new faces in Church. Our branch is sooo small in the summer but the spirit is still strong....about 15-20 people but today we had 4 investigators and some less actives so that was really exciting. We'll all get the chance to teach RS or SS or PM or talk in Church at least a few times this summer! The branch now goes to Church at 11:00 so we pick up our wonderful, faithful not-any-more less actives for the Ward's 9:00 meetings, take them home after, pick up another less active for the Branch meetings and then come home. Tonight we ate dinner with a member couple and then sat in on a lesson with a young mother and her husband. This was the first time her husband has been to any of the lessons. Speaking of husbands, we went to our first baptism out here and it was AWESOME. It was for a man who has been "investigating" the Church for 31 years! He has supported his wife and family in their Church activities for all these years and yesterday he was baptized. We think all baptisms in the Church need to be in a pond in the back of the house they've lived in for 31 years, surrounded by woods and wildflowers and listening to birds and frogs and geese walking along the edge of the pond. It took special permission from President Wirthlin for the Elders to perform the ordinance there but it was a beautiful and spirit filled occasion. Wouldn't recommend Utah Lake!!!!
Some other interesting Jolley New York Mission facts:
1. The recycle guy won't pick up your recycle if you even have ONE thing in the bin that's "illegal."
2.. I can drive in certain parts of Ithaca by myself.....only if it doesn't involve a one-way street. So I don't venture very far from home.
3. We're spoiled now having a big nice industrial sized printer and copier at our house. I just need to figure out how to turn it off if I'm trying to print the first page of a fifty page document and it keeps going after page one.
4. The blue heron on Sapsucker Pond can catch a fish just like on the Discovery Channel.
5. We need to find an investigator who HAS to watch a World Cup Game or two!
Well.....it's the end of a satisfying Sabbath Day. We still have much to learn about being missionaries such as how can I turn CES (cooking every second) into a missionary activity; remembering that if we don't teach like we could or should, there's always tomorrow; If we're too tired to cook dinner, pb and j sandwiches are just fine; and it's ok to get excited over thinking someone will come to Church and then being disappointed if he doesn't......an everyday fact of missionary life. We love our work, we love these people, we love pictures on texts and e-mails from home and a visiting teaching message all the way from Utah! We love studying about the life and Atonement of Jesus Christ and increasing our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. You would think that we'd learned all that by now but we're learning something new every day.
Happy Summer (which it finally is sort-of in New York)
XOXOXOXOXO Dad and Mom, G and G
Actually we shouldn't be counting down the days until we come back to Utah for Jordon's wedding but it's such an exciting occasion that we can't help it if we do. But we were telling some of the YSA this morning at Church that we will miss them while we're gone and that's true for sure....but not enough to stay here and they laugh when we tell them that. We're hoping it won't be harder to say goodbye the second time when we come back but it will be nice to know that we're coming back to our "home away from home." So....we'll be in sometime Wednesday depending on how our flights go and then heading out to come back here the following Tuesday. It will be a great 5 days with all of you!
We can't figure out where the week has gone this week. It began with the memorial day holiday and that was fun. Can such a serious, important day be fun? We went with some of the YSA and wandered through the old Ithaca City Cemetery and it was so cool. There were the grave sites of veterans from the Revolutionary, Civil, World Wars I and II and other wars as well. There was the headstone of a slave who made it safely to New York on the Underground Railroad that brought escaping slaves up into the northern states. There was a section for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and also for firefighters who lost their lives on 9-11. It was an awesome cemetery and we took lots of pictures. That night we went to a great FHE out in the country on a farm of 2 of the girls and the guys built this amazing bonfire and we all lost track of time and all of a sudden the young Elders realized there was no way they could get back to their car in time (we drove them) at our apartment so they had to text Pres. Wirthlin and tell him they were going to be late and we told them to blame it on us. Oops! Did you know that all mission cars have a device on them that electronically reports to Security at the Church Office Bldg. in Salt Lake if the car is being driven after 9:30 at night?! We got them to their car at 9:35. When we all saw President Wirthlin a few days later, none of us were in trouble....whew!
The rest of the week was normal....institute in both places which was pretty fun, and after we teach, everybody just hangs around and talks forever which is great. there's not a lot of members here their age so they love to all be together. FHE tomorrow night is a Dungeons and Dragons night with a Book of Mormon twist. I think we'll just bring food and watch! Luckily they do all the planning and carrying out for FHE. We did more Seminary this past week and our last one is this coming Tuesday and that will be nice. We're too old to go to bed at 11:00 at night and get up at 4:00 in the morning!! Won't go again until the fall. Dad has been out some with the Elders this week teaching because members often can't go in the daytime and they need a "member" present. I think we're pretty good at the fellow-shipping part and it's great to see the love the people of the branch have for new faces in Church. Our branch is sooo small in the summer but the spirit is still strong....about 15-20 people but today we had 4 investigators and some less actives so that was really exciting. We'll all get the chance to teach RS or SS or PM or talk in Church at least a few times this summer! The branch now goes to Church at 11:00 so we pick up our wonderful, faithful not-any-more less actives for the Ward's 9:00 meetings, take them home after, pick up another less active for the Branch meetings and then come home. Tonight we ate dinner with a member couple and then sat in on a lesson with a young mother and her husband. This was the first time her husband has been to any of the lessons. Speaking of husbands, we went to our first baptism out here and it was AWESOME. It was for a man who has been "investigating" the Church for 31 years! He has supported his wife and family in their Church activities for all these years and yesterday he was baptized. We think all baptisms in the Church need to be in a pond in the back of the house they've lived in for 31 years, surrounded by woods and wildflowers and listening to birds and frogs and geese walking along the edge of the pond. It took special permission from President Wirthlin for the Elders to perform the ordinance there but it was a beautiful and spirit filled occasion. Wouldn't recommend Utah Lake!!!!
Some other interesting Jolley New York Mission facts:
1. The recycle guy won't pick up your recycle if you even have ONE thing in the bin that's "illegal."
2.. I can drive in certain parts of Ithaca by myself.....only if it doesn't involve a one-way street. So I don't venture very far from home.
3. We're spoiled now having a big nice industrial sized printer and copier at our house. I just need to figure out how to turn it off if I'm trying to print the first page of a fifty page document and it keeps going after page one.
4. The blue heron on Sapsucker Pond can catch a fish just like on the Discovery Channel.
5. We need to find an investigator who HAS to watch a World Cup Game or two!
Well.....it's the end of a satisfying Sabbath Day. We still have much to learn about being missionaries such as how can I turn CES (cooking every second) into a missionary activity; remembering that if we don't teach like we could or should, there's always tomorrow; If we're too tired to cook dinner, pb and j sandwiches are just fine; and it's ok to get excited over thinking someone will come to Church and then being disappointed if he doesn't......an everyday fact of missionary life. We love our work, we love these people, we love pictures on texts and e-mails from home and a visiting teaching message all the way from Utah! We love studying about the life and Atonement of Jesus Christ and increasing our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. You would think that we'd learned all that by now but we're learning something new every day.
Happy Summer (which it finally is sort-of in New York)
XOXOXOXOXO Dad and Mom, G and G
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