Happy Sunday Night All,
We
just heard the weather report for the next week, and we think now would
be a good time to go to Hawaii or someplace like that. So it's
supposed to be record high temperatures here the next two days and then
we'll get slammed. But we think that Carlee and Cade will be worse than
us....both Minnesota and South Dakota were actually on the news for
projected sub-zero temperatures, so you all need to feel sorry for them
and not for us! Our missionaries are gearing up with warm coats and
boots and being glad that they can now teach on-line lessons if worse
comes to worse. We went to dinner at the Brown's last week and they are
in a "snow pocket" and by the time we got there, there were several
inches of snow on the ground and the little girls were out in the yard
making real snowmen. It was fun....we'll send pictures of the snow on
the jack-o-lanterns.
We
had a great branch conference today....except that we had to miss the
ward's Primary Sacrament Meeting Program in order to go to branch
council meeting. Dang!! But word has it that by popular demand, they
will perform for the branch next week. We hope so as it has probably
been really a lot of years since we've missed a primary program which
are the best meetings of the whole year. We're also sad to realize that
we don't have too many of you all singing in Primary
anymore....everybody stop growing up!!
We
went to the Mall yesterday looking for WARM winter coats and all the
Christmas decorations are up and there is Christmas music playing in all
the stores. What happened to Thanksgiving! This past week wasn't as
stressful as the last few have been which was really nice. A highlight
on Monday was visiting Greene, New York which is about an hour from here
and having lunch with the other senior couple in the Owego Zone, the
Willes from Lehi who have been out just a month longer than us. They're
MLS missionaries and part of their assignment is to check periodically
on the Joseph Knight and Josiah Stowell homes. They are two families
and homes that are prominent in the Church History of this area. The
Church isn't doing any restoration on these homes but 3 families (I
think from Arizona?) have bought the homes and are doing their own work
to make them such that people can visit. Joseph and Emma lived in both
homes at various times and it was a great experience to walk up and down
the stairs with our feet on the same steps and our hands on the same
handrails they used. Because it's not an "official" restoration much of
the structure of the homes is exactly the same as when the Prophet was
there. We sent you pictures of the actual room where Joseph proposed to
Emma in the Stowell home and it was pretty awesome to think of the
events that took place there. The last part of the Book of Mormon was
translated in the upstairs bedroom of the Knight home and it was Joseph
Knight's wagon that the Prophet borrowed to go all the way to the Hill
to get the plates. These 3 families who are doing the restoration are
hoping to have the homes ready for visitors to come on a regular basis.
Also across the road from the Knight home is the pond where Emma was
baptized. Anyway, it was a great day to talk senior missionary talk
with somebody like us...old (and they made us lunch!). And then we
finished up the day with a rousing game of Disney charades for FHE (it
has a new acronym here...HEG or home evening group....it will always be
FHE to us!) and I think Dad's team won which means that my team lost.
Oh well, life could be worse!
We
are hoping that all you who are going to Seminary are loving this new
program! We had our CES training this last week and it's mostly geared
to the Seminary teachers but we love it and we usually help with it as
much as we can. In fact, most of our Institute preparation is done from
the new Seminary manual (we're still in B. of M.) because we love the
increased emphasis on the doctrines and principles in the scriptures.
The curriculum is based a lot on questions and answers and lets the
students find out exactly where their testimonies come from and how
strong their conversions are. So.....listen to your teachers and read
and ponder all they have you do and you will be great missionaries
whether or not it's serving as full time missionaries or member
missionaries. And we just learned how to give the assessments (ie
"tests") and you will pass them with no problems at all. Our
supervisor, Matt Baker, is a phenomenal teacher and we wish we could be
like him! We have one Seminary left to visit and then we're done until
next Spring. Now what can we use as an excuse to go out for breakfast
two times a week! Wait a minute, we don't need an excuse!!
It's
been a busy week this week though with "missionary support." Our new
Elder with the hip problems had to go home for hip surgery and that
along with a couple of other situations in this area made it so we lost a
set of missionaries at least for this transfer. So Elder Flarety was
transferred to Cortland and Elder Thompson and Elder Chao along with the
Sisters are covering three areas as much as they can and boy are they
working hard and when they work hard, miracles will happen. We're
excited. So one morning last week was another goodbye breakfast which
they ate to the last piece of french toast. We probably spoil them a
bit much....but they are always helping us, especially on Friday Forum
day. And the members of the branch and ward are going to have to step
it up a bit too which will be good and which they are doing, especially
in the branch. We love our missionaries and they are finding and
teaching and walking and knocking and just about everything else under
the sun. The other service organizations are discovering that when they
want to get good hard workers, they call the Mormon missionaries and
the missionaries love service! That's what we'll be doing a lot of
during the Christmas break so we're looking forward to that (and the
break from cooking every second!).
Well,
it's time to go get caught up on all of the extra reading we've
neglected for the last 3 or 4 weeks and when it gets dark at 5:00 at
night, it feels like it's time to go to bed! But we guess 6:15 at night
is too early to go to bed, right? We've learned a lot of things this
week that make us better missionaries. We love the opportunity to spend
several hours studying for our Institute lessons and are preparing for
Christ's coming in 3rd Nephi which is our next lesson. We have two
investigators in our Owego Institute and when you see them hear some of
these things for the first time, it's worth being here. And here was a
great experience last week....one of the investigators, Keely, who is 19
and has never learned to read and is now learning to read, read a
scripture for the first time last week in Institute and it was as
powerful as somebody giving their testimony. She was so happy and we
were so proud of her. We love those people there and our really great
young single adults in our Cornell group who sacrifice time and energy
and sleep and everything else to gather together and teach each other
the doctrines of the kingdom.
Good
night everybody and get ready for a new, busy and productive week and
know that we're always thinking of you and praying that you'll all be
happy and work hard and love and serve each other.....and that you'll
have lots of fun along the way!
LOVE YOU (a bushel and a peck and a whole lot more)!
XOXOXOXO Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and E and S Jolley
P.S. Get your flu shots!
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