Good Morning Everybody!
With
the time change, we're up "early" and ready to go.....well, we're up
but not necessarily ready to go anywhere. This past week we put nearly
800 miles on our car (and no flat tire, cross your fingers). It was a
week of going here and there and everywhere but all good and so far no
snow so we'll take advantage of that. Our phones are programed to tell
us the daily weather in all the places we care about (Orem, American
Fork, Lehi, Firth, Salmon, and all the home towns of our missionaries)
so we just wake up here and it is what it is. We're part of the polar
vortex these last two days that was famous from last year when we
weren't here but now appearing to go for a second round. Yesterday we
were in Palmyra and the car thermometer said 37 degrees. We didn't want
to get out! But we did and had a wonderful day. We had driven YSA and
our newest baptized member, Angela, for some site-seeing in Palmyra and
for her very first visit to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. We
started by stopping at the Peter Witmer farm and who should greet us
but one of our sister missionaries from those great days at the MTC.
Here's what's more amazing. She, Sister Lewis, is finishing her mission
in Rochester, NY Spanish speaking mission on Wednesday so the chances
of us EVER "coincidentally" running into her are next to nothing. There
are NO coincidences!! Dad should have made her give the tour in
espanole! The change from the day before a young missionary leaves the
MTC to just a few days before that missionary goes home is
phenomenal....and there it was right in front of our eyes!
Here's
another NOT coincidence. It was mission transfers on
Wednesday.....more about that in a minute....and we were in Utica to
transport missionaries and luggage and we were getting 2 new
missionaries. Our first "new" one wasn't exactly new as she has been a
Temple Square missionary for almost a year but our new Elder is brand
new on his mission. We should start at the beginning and try not to
confuse you. In February, our Elder Thompson entered the MTC.
Unfortunately his assigned companion wasn't there as he had to have
emergency hip surgery and postpone his mission. So Elder Thompson was
put in a "trio" at the MTC, completed his training and came here to NY
where he served in other areas and then we got him about 13 weeks ago
and he became our district leader. Last week he found out he'd be
training a new missionary and so we took him to Utica with us to pick up
his companion. We should say here that President Wirthlin knows
nothing about the new missionaries coming into the mission when he makes
transfer assignments but he does know "his" missionaries here in the
mission and makes those assignments completely under the direction of
inspiration. There were 14 new missionaries being assigned that day and
Elder Thompson was the last to meet his new companion and LO AND
BEHOLD, it was Elder Larson.....the young missionary from clear back in
February who was supposed to be Elder Thompson's companion at the MTC
and had to postpone for his hip surgery. President didn't have ANY idea
of any of this but Heavenly Father did. Elder Thompson and Elder
Larson are supposed to be together....if not last February but for sure
last week and the next 12 weeks! And our new Sister from Temple Square
is Sister Lopez from Mexico and she's wonderful. She and Sister Davis
will do great things together. But oh how we miss Sister Hopkinson and
Elder Nepote!! We get so attached to these Elders and Sisters and they
become so close to each other that even though transfers are exciting,
they're hard. Transfer day consists of lots of hours in the car (where
everybody but us is higher than a kite on the way there and sleeps on
the way home) and then great training from President Wirthlin and the
assistants and pizza for lunch and testimonies from all the Elders and
Sisters going home. We got back from Utica that day in time to change
bags (less than 5 minutes) and head down to Owego for another hour's
drive and Owego Institute. From there we drove the Owego Elders home
and decided to stop at Valerie's house on the way home and make sure she
was ok as she hadn't ridden to institute with us as she always does but
she always calls and lets us know she's coming and we couldn't get her
on the phone at all. Val is the investigator we've talked about
before. We got there about 8:30 that night and found her in a dark
place spiritually. When one makes a commitment to baptism, Satan pulls
out all the stops! Long story short, we felt the Spirit as we talked
and talked and talked until nearly 11:30 that night and then still had
to drive home. But Heavenly Father blesses us old people to have the
energy in the moment because we left our house at 7:15 that morning to
go to transfers and got home just before midnight that night....almost a
17 hour day! We think it all might catch up to us tonight but no rest
yet as it is 2 sessions of Church today and CES fireside here tonight
(and waffles and ice cream!).
And now
it's just about time for Good Night. We just finished saying goodbye to
the last of the YSA after watching Elder Halstrom speak and the last of
the waffles and ice cream were eaten. Most of these guys had never
heard of waffles and ice cream before and it was a hit. How could you
not ever know about waffles and ice cream!! I made waffles for a solid
hour so sometime we need to figure out how many that was. Let's see, 4
waffles every 6 minutes....about 40-60 waffles and a gallon of ice cream
and all the good stuff that goes on top.
So
this was the big Halloween week. On Monday, FHE was carving pumpkins
and decorating cookies which was great.....and it didn't involve hiking
anywhere or playing a game that we have never played before! We had a
lot of kids come which was fun. It seems like they get so overwhelmed
with school and need an hour in the day to just come and hang out and
relax. Halloween is a big deal around here with decorations and
costumes and parties and every grocery store in town selling pumpkins
and having a Halloween parade. The missionaries have to be in
somebody's house by 5:00 that night, either their own or a members. So
they all came over to our house for dinner and then we went to the
branch presidents house for other activities. We were so beat by the
time 9:00 came that we came home and turned out the lights and went to
bed. So here's a loaves and fishes experiences for Friday Forum that
didn't have anything to do with Halloween except that it happened on
Friday. We'd made this wonderful thick potato soup that we were having
with hot french bread and broccoli waldorf salad and we had the soup in
two big crock pots and one of the missionaries was moving the table with
one of the crock pots on it and the table leg collapsed and dumped one
of the things of soup right on the floor.....horrors!!! But we cleaned
it up (this was before everybody came) and put out the other one hoping
that maybe we'd have a sparse crowd but they kept coming and kept coming
(I think we decided 44 people counting a few little kids) and the "soup
pot" kept producing and producing until everyone had plenty to eat.
Imagine that!!
This is a 3-part email!
It's now Monday morning and we're headed to a little branch called Green
to visit with the other senior couple in our zone and have lunch and
they have the keys to a couple of old homes that the Church owns but
that haven't been completely restored yet or opened to visitors and
we're going to go see them. They are the Josiah Stowell home and the
Joseph Knight home. Josiah Stowell brought Joseph Smith to the
Susquehanna region to work where he met Emma and after they were
married, they lived in the Stowell home for a few months. Joseph
Knight's family were stalwarts of the early Church and original members
of the Colesville Branch. It was his wagon that Joseph used to go to
the Hill Cumorah to get the plates. And then the rest of this week
promises to be like last....go, go. go. It keeps us happy and the time
just flies by!
We had some great
discussions in both Institutes this week on the last chapters of
Helaman. Don't mean to sound like a broken record but as we read these
scriptures, we are more and more convinced that we are in the days
leading up to the 2nd Coming. Our discussions this week focused on
following the Prophets (Samuel the Lamanite) and how do we follow the
Prophets and what do we do when we are shown signs. We feel a strength
building in these kids (and not kids) that we didn't feel when we very
first got here. It's not anything we're doing, but it's in them
teaching each other the doctrines and principles found in the scriptures
and how those doctrines govern their lives and keep them safe from
challenges to their testimonies and even from apostasy. They teach us
way more than we teach them!!
We missed
being with you all last week for the beginning of the holiday seasons
but we are pretty sure you all had a great time without us! Now the
weeks will fly by and the snow will fly down (there were a few flakes
here yesterday morning) and we will hunker down NOT for a long winter's
nap but to doing what we were sent here to do. We're being blessed as
we know you all are. Keep making us proud of you all....that's a good
kind of proud....and keep posting on facebook and sending us pictures
and writing to us and we promise to keep working hard so you can be
proud of us....only proud because these old people keep on keepin' on!!
LOVE,
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