Hello Everybody,
So
late this afternoon we were finishing up a few things before going to
an investigator's house for Sunday dinner and decided to turn on the TV
and see what the score was of the World Cup final and there across the
bottom of the screen is scrolling Severe Thunderstorm Alert which then
in a matter of minutes became Tornado Warning for not only our county
but our town and all the towns between here and where we were going for
dinner. Our experience in Iowa taught us that a Warning meant that
rotation had been sighted and to take cover immediately. Then the
sirens started going off!! Long story short, everything blew over, no
tornado here, we went on our way to our dinner appointment and Argentina
lost the World Cup and Jordon is happy!!
Our
dinner with Valerie was like a Christmas dinner served on her
grandmothers Blue Willow china....for us and the Elders in Owego. We
first met Val last week when we gave her a ride to Institute in Owego.
She's awesome and she's a Yankee's fan! We'll keep picking her up for
institute. Her husband was killed a few years ago in an accident and
she's trying to pull herself up and out of the pit. She seems really
receptive to the Plan of Salvation but is still pretty angry at God. We
also went to visit another investigator with our Elders and it looks
promising as well. Then our Sisters decided to "tract" just right there
around the Church and met a wonderful girl who had just moved home
after graduating from college in Mass. and she immediately took to the
message and the experience of the Restoration. She came to Church today
and just loved it. Then Uggi and Angela who said they probably would
miss Church today because of World Cup and all the pre-game festivities
came and stayed for the whole 3 hours!! Some days everything just goes
right and the missionaries are in 7th Heaven. Speaking of missionaries
and families, the highlight of our week was Family Home Evening via Face
Time with you all!! WE LOVED IT!!!!!! "Called to Serve, the great
lesson and the totally fun game. Did we forget refreshments? Well, we
had them for you all. And guess what? We loved it and we missed you
all but we weren't overwhelming homesick. Maybe we've turned a corner??
And it was particularly special to be part of Cade's setting apart via
face time. There we were...two old people sitting outside in the car
(the best place to get phone reception) in front of our apartment,
huddled around a cell phone, car windows up so it was quiet, and totally
dying of the heat. Our neighbors would drive in, look at us like we
were crazy, wave and go in. And it was great to talk on the phone to
Carlee that night too and both the next morning for our goodbyes. Hey
we were just thinking that if we drive home the north route in September
of next year and 2 mission presidents are amenable, we'll see both of
them before anybody else does! The pictures of everyone at the Provo
Temple were so good!
We've
run like crazy this week as usual. We've spent some major time with
our special needs YSA whose Mother is facing some overwhelming
challenges with major back surgery last week, recover from that for 3
weeks, then start 4 rounds of chemo followed by surgery for Stage 4
bladder cancer. Harmony is an only child, no Dad in the picture and
needs help. She got the biggest kick last night when we brought her
home from the hospital and Dad was fixing her bike and so when he got it
fixed he rode it up and down the streets of the trailer park where she
lives to make sure it was working....along with about 4 teenagers and a
half dozen little kids who were also riding their bikes on the same
roads. Harmony struggles with showing emotion but she absolutely loved
that! Where was my camera, even didn't have my phone!! Besides all our
Institute preparations and teaching, getting ready to teach RS today
(me), getting all our attendance for our classes into the reporting
system (Dad), doing more on-line CES training and NOT cooking anything
(bought all the treats and fed the missionaries pizza one night and
leftovers the next), we went with one of our YSA on a self-guided tour
of all the Churches in Ithaca that are on the National Historic
Register. It was great!! My favorite was the first Black church in
this area which was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad.....a
special feel in that one. We ate lunch at Moosewood, a famous
vegetarian restaurant, and hit one antique shop where we snatched a
bargain out from under the nose of some people who were looking at it
but then moved on. When they saw us pick it up, they were NOT happy and
said they were planning on buying it after they had looked around the
store. We were ready to concede it to them (a little table with side
extensions that lift up) but then the owner said "first pick up, first
buy." We didn't argue with him. It
sounds like we're doing too much playing to be missionaries but what
we're doing IS missionary work by virtue of our assignment and it's fun!
Dad's in a pickup basketball game a couple of times a week with
members of both the branch and ward which now includes some
investigators and less actives. These young guys are impressed!
Time
to go to bed and hope for no more tornado warnings tonight! This week
is our 2 days at the Palmyra Temple, the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and on
the St. Lawrence Seaway with the other senior couples in the mission.
It will be fun! There's that word "fun" again......studying the Gospel
and teaching the Gospel is fun!! Spending 15 minutes of our mandated
exercise time watching the blue heron on Sapsucker Pond is fun...so is
giving missionary hugs, laughing with them, and watching them devour two
whole pizzas of the worst pizza we've ever bought. Give missionaries a
can of root beer and chocolate chip cookies with ice cream and they'll
eat anything in-between! Have a wonderful week and we love you. We
probably should close with a scripture or something because that's what
missionary letters are supposed to have but we're too tired to go find
one and too brain dead to pull one from memory. The Church is true!!!!!
How's that.....Goodnight!!
XOXOXOXOXOXO Dad and Mom/Grandpa and Grandma
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