Hi Everybody,
Is
Sunday the end of one week or the beginning of another? Just
wondering. Some days it's either or. This is the first quiet Sunday
we've had in forever and it's nice...it was time for a rest. We were
only in Church related meetings from 8:30 until 2:30 today. Not tooting
the we're-so-righteous horn but just justifying being lazy tonight!
It's time to start gearing up for the back to school rush here at
Cornell in about 3 weeks. That means the kids there will be back to
school too. Is that good or bad? Guess it depends on who you ask!
We're getting ready bit by bit. Our big project now will be to get the
office ready to be a "safe haven" for the kids when they get back to the
rigors of academia. We're going to turn it into a place that they can
come on their noon hour to eat lunch or take a nap or read their
scriptures or just whatever over-achieving over-stressed college kids
do. We won't be there all of the time but who needs us when there's a
couch and a pillow and blanket and fridge and microwave. Debating on
whether or not to stock the fridge with soda....what do you guys
think?!! Just to let you know our grocery bill has gone down
significantly since being here and we'd pay it in a heartbeat if you all
were here to eat with us!
Shall
we start at the end and work backwards? So yesterday we drove
missionaries to our Branch Summer Social at a lake house on Seneca Lake
(next one over from our Cauyga Lake). All of us missionaries felt sorry
for ourselves as we watched everybody swim and tube and boat ride and
jump from the top of the boat house into the lake. But we were the
designated photographers and for us old guys it was just nice to sit on a
lakeside deck chair or up on the house deck and watch all the fun. And
all I had to do was make a pan of brownies! Made us a little nostalgic
for Williams Lake. Did we say once before that this is the first
summer in 40-plus years that we haven't been been to Idaho for at least a
few days in the summer.
We
missed being in Utah for Pioneer Day celebrations....but here's a
completely awesome tender mercy. We discovered we could get the Days of
47 Parade on the internet on KSL Live so we had some work to do at home
and thought we'd watch the parade since the American Fork Marching Band
was going to be marching. So we're watching the parade and the
announcers say here comes the AF band and they give a little blurb about
how good they are and they start to play and the camera is "panning'
over the whole band and all of a sudden it focuses in on Connor's
face....his whole face....on the whole screen....for 10-15 seconds!!!
We didn't know whether or not to cry or cheer.....so we did a little of
both!! How did KSL's camera-man know that a grandpa and grandma in
upstate New York needed to see that face??!!
Our
Institutes this week were focused on Education and we loved teaching
them. Our students be they 80 or 20 have such good insights on lifelong
learning and balancing spiritual and secular learning. Our challenge
here at Cornell is with the undergraduate students understanding the
necessity of not neglecting the spiritual education. There is an
atmosphere here of Sunday being just another day for tests and study
groups and assignments due and appointments made in connection with
school and it's hard for especially the younger ones to understand how
easy it is to fall away from activity and even testimony when the
spiritual side of learning falls by the wayside. But we have such a
great core group of graduate students who care about their "younger
brothers and sisters." They have such capacity to find and fellowship
those who need the lifeline of Gospel principles. We're still searching
for the lost ones. How important it is to teach the kids from the time
that they're little that as Pres. Eyring says "There should never be a
conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary as a pattern in
our lives. Never!!" So next week we teach Eternal Marriage. Yikes!!
That's a hot topic with YSA.
We've
had some great experiences this week with our young Elders and Sisters
too....especially with the Elders in Owego and an investigator they're
teaching who we pick up and drive to Institute. She's about our age and
we've mentioned her before (the Christmas dinner in July) and she told
us the other night how her husband died....suicide on the day they were
foreclosed on their home they'd built with their hands. She is so angry
with God and the Elders are teaching her how to know that He does love
her and will bless her now and for the rest of her life and into
eternity. I love hearing her pray because she says it like it is. We've
watched the Spirit fill missionary mouths with what to say at the exact
time it needs to be said....because they're surely not that
smart....they're just kids. Heavenly Father is definitely taking the
"weak things of the world" to give His message to those who are prepared
to hear it. Our Cornell elders have two more baptism dates for their
Chinese investigators! Our South Elders are"finding" just about every
day they go out and our Sisters hold the district together along with
our two Elders from Trumansburg who are both converts themselves. Our
district leader was a member for only about a year and a half when he
came on his mission. His Gospel insights are so mature. This mission
has made us more aware of how important the members are in missionary
work with both investigator and less active. And finding and teaching
less actives is such an important part of missionary work. How
important it is for them to be taught systematically as well. We seem
to want to throw them right into the "application" of Gospel Principles
(come to Church, pay your tithing, etc. etc.) without re-teaching them
the Doctrine and Principles first (that is one of Elder Bednar's well
defined admonitions). Seeing this work is changing completely how we
feel about home teaching and visiting teaching too. We could go on and
on about this!!
And
so we won't for this e-mail! We know that the crazy busy time of year
is coming up for all of you and we're so happy that you're still taking
the time to do what's important....being with and loving your families
and supporting other family members in what they do and
just------EVERYTHING! We still love you and miss you as much as ever
but we don't worry about you as much.....we've finally realized that you
can get along without us. How about that!! But still don't forget to
drop in an e-mail or few and keep posting on Facebook because we do take
a few minutes each day to see what's going on at home.
WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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