Happy Sunday Night All,
We
just got back from a Sunday late afternoon drive and the colors of the
trees are pretty impressive! We're still not sure they can rival the
Alpine Loop but it's close....and because there's lots of trees here,
you don't have to drive on a high mountain road with a billion other
cars.....but we still miss the aspens. Fall is here and there's that
feeling in the air and it's not college football. But we still are
Cougar fans even if they loose and we just have to put up with those
here who are glad when they loose....but we're gaining in numbers:)!
We're
looking forward to a slower week this week because Cornell is in Fall
Break. We still have all our assignments as usual but it just seems
like "break" makes us think a little rest and renewal. Last week was
crazy! We spent Tuesday in Owego at Zone Leader Training where we got
to watch Meet the Mormons with the other missionaries. Loved it! So
far there's only two places to see it in upstate NY.....Rochester (out
of our mission) and Watertown (3 or 4 hours away), but there are pretty
strong petitions to get it closer, maybe Auburn or even Ithaca. Just
thinking actually that most of what we do out here is our own version of
"meet the Mormons." Most of the members are strong examples of what
we believe and teach and especially the missionaries are loved at the
YMCA and the food pantry and any other place that their work ethic and
their muscles stand out big time. So back to driving to Owego on
Tuesday.....we were there most of the day and then hauled our
missionaries back to Ithaca and then turned around and went BACK to
Owego (about an hour's drive) to a CES training meeting and then back to
Owego again the next night for Institute. We think our car wanted a
rest because on the way back home the last time, we had our 4th flat
tire in the last 6 months. AAA in the boonies is at least an hour away
so we changed the tire (as in I held the flashlight and Dad changed the
tire---in his suit even).
Speaking of
things needing a rest (besides us), our oven decided it had had it too
and so it just stopped. Our most helpful and wonderful handy dandy
apartment handy man figured he couldn't fix it and after calling around
and trying to get someone here and finding the closest date a repair man
could come was October 27th, he went out and bought us a new stove!
Could it be that he likes the treats we give him whenever he comes to
our house?! We love our new stove.....you don't have to guess when it's
on the right temperature and the oven racks don't sag in the middle.
We are just realizing when we walked in the door the other night that
this place finally feels like "home." That's never to take the place of
home-home (Orem) or home-home-home (Salmon and Firth) but it felt like
this very little finally homey apartment was where we're supposed to
come back to at the end of a busy day.
We had a
really good week of Institute. It seems like there's a special spirit
among us all after we've just had General Conference. Do you suppose
that the Brethren would consider quarterly or monthly Conference?! We
studied Helaman 1-4 last week and (have we said this before?) if there's
ever a time in the Book of Mormon that our time mirrors, it's that time
just before Christ visits the Promised Land. Could it be that we are
quickly approaching the 2nd Coming?! We so love and appreciate these
faithful people in our classes! We've told you probably that our Owego
Institute is various ages from 19 to 89 and they teach each other and
learn from each other. It's been such a great experience to pick up
Valerie on the way and take her with us to institute. She's set a
baptism date for January 15th. It sounds like a long way off but she's
got some Word of Wisdom things she needs to work on....a lifetime of
habits. She's become a dear friend as well as being an investigator.
She needs the Church and the Church needs her and Satan is rocking her
right and left. So far she always pulls herself back up. Our Cornell
Institute has our backs! Our teaching method there is a type of
discussion where we just guide the direction of the discussion and they
teach each other the "Doctrines of the Kingdom." The active graduate
students are such good role models to the undergraduate students who are
trying to figure out which way is up and can they be active in Church
and still make it work in school. We think Cornell is a great place for
academic excellence but the students pay a high price when the pressure
is so great that classes and tests and meetings and help sessions are
held on both Saturday and Sunday.....and they're required attendance.
Our
CURW meeting this week was a good discussion on when faith is tested
and doubt comes with our young people and we are realizing more and more
how much we share with these good people from other religions. We have
so much more that brings us together than that divides us and we're
learning to realize what a blessing our differences are. We're hoping
that when Terryl Givens comes for our March Conference we can somehow
have him meet with our group. Another great thing this week is that for
the first time in many years our LDSSA is now "table-ing" a few times a
week on Ho Plaza. This means that we now can have missionaries on
campus with students. One of the students handing out flyers last week
(a member of the wrestling team here at Cornell) had a "cameo" on Meet
the Mormons (he's from Georgia and his bishop is the one featured in the
movie). We've probably only got a couple of more weeks of good weather
and then we'll pack it up for the winter but all will be in place for
next spring. We have an amazing new LDSSA President who really has the
vision for what can happen here.
Well.....the
Red Cross got our blood on Saturday and for the first time in 3 tries I
finally wasn't rejected......and it was a good excuse to have "real
meat" at Applebees that afternoon (you know replacing the iron we
lost). We miss our freezers and our Idaho cows!! We'd like to feed the
missionaries and Friday Forum a good old Idaho/Utah family dinner with
steak on the grill or roast beef and potatoes and gravy. But here's
what's cool.....today we found out none of our missionaries had dinner
appointments or they fell through and so we opened up cans of beans and
tomatoes and ground beef and mixed them all together with our leftovers
and made some biscuits and a salad and you'd have thought we'd given
them a gourmet meal. These are such appreciative and good boys and
girls!! And after they ate, they had a pillow fight in our living room
and it almost felt like home. And when Dad finished singing a song with
the Elders in Sacrament Meeting today and was walking off the stand,
our little "friend," Mia, yelled "Grandpa." She's the cutest little
2-year old who speaks both English and Chinese.
But
keep the news from home coming as often as you have time to do!!! Our
prayers take a while now because we're praying for each of you
individually for what you're doing. Technology is the best to know what
has happened with you all at almost the minute it happens. We love you
all, we miss you all, we thank Heavenly Father daily that you're
faithful, kind, and thoughtful and that you love each other.
XOXOXO Dad and Mom and G and G and E and S Jolley
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