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
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