Whew!

Dear Everybody,

Happy Sunday night!  It's Sunday again....another snowy Sunday morning, afternoon, and evening in good old upstate New York!  But we're having a bit of a heat wave.....plus 25 was the high today!  We hear that the West is finally getting a little precip as well which is nice for you.  Do you ever wonder if this is global something-or-another or Heavenly Father telling us that He's in charge and to wake up and pay attention?  Just wondering.  One of our nearby strip malls (where I always find my food bargains at Big Lots) had a roof collapse last week because of the weight of the snow.  But hey, it's March, and we can last through a few more weeks....maybe.  We were also thinking that on April 1st....one month from today....we will have been here for a year.  Where has that year gone?!

This last week is gone thank heavens and was exhausting to say the least!  So what can we say?  "When we're helping, we're happy, and we sing as we go.  La la la la."  But hard work does pay off.  We had our Stake President coming to present the Friday Forum discussion last Friday and so we thought that Cafe Rio pork salad might be a menu that would be nice (and he and his wife are BYU alumns) and guess what....we had 77 people show up for Friday Forum.  That's right....77 people!  Oh my gosh, were we hoping with every spoonful of food that went out of the "pot" that we wouldn't run out and thankfully everybody got a nice hearty salad because we over-prepared for our normal crowd thinking that the combination of President Frutos and Cafe Rio might bring a few extras.  That and tres leches cake took many, many more hours to prepare than we ever thought it would, but guess what.....we made guacamole from scratch for the first time ever of many years of cooking.  That's another thing that we "might" make when we have a family dinner in a year from now.  Our "dishwasher" and our "can-opener" (Dad/Grandpa) is getting a little weary and all these things wouldn't be do-able if "they" ever wore out or broke!

Another experience this week which was nice was driving to Auburn about 35 miles north of here and number #1, taking two Sister Missionaries to lunch....one who served here for many months and who is finishing her mission next week......and number #2, driving down the streets that Grandpa Lyon probably walked down while on his mission in 1943.  We researched where the little branch met back then in the Masonic Lodge and we're pretty sure we found the same building because it's the same address according to the lodge history and it has Masonic signs and symbols on it.  Unfortunately, the lodge moved to a new building 15 years ago and the old building was turned into a tavern so we didn't think it would be too appropriate to stand in front of a bar and have our pictures taken!  After we got back from Auburn, we went to a Chinese New Year's pot luck/celebration at the Church hosted by LDSSA and there were probably more non-members there than members......mostly Chinese.  Our contribution to the eclectic menu was frozen spring rolls from BJ's because we were too tired to cook....but there was wonderful food that was contributed by those who truly know how to make authentic Chinese food.

OK....so everybody go read the first 6 chapters of the book of Mormon in the Book of Mormon.  How many times have we read it and how many times do we learn something different every time we read it?!  That was our discussions for Institute this last week.  Our two institutes are so different and we find ourselves teaching them differently which can be a bit challenging but cause us to stretch in preparation.  And there is one thing that is always un-changable and that is the truth of what Elder Holland calls the 1st Level Doctrines.  Sometime think about what those doctrines might be.  We love all these young and old people we have discussions with in Institute.  We gained such a great appreciation for the Prophet Mormon!  What a great man of God!  How grateful we are to be "Mormons" even if we need to be more diligent in using the complete name of the Church.  Even President Hinckley said "I am happy that the nickname [Mormon] is one of great honor made so by a remarkable man and a book which gives an unmatched testimony concerning the Redeemer of the world."  And how sad we get when people tell us what a great broadway play The Book of Mormon Musical is!!!  A lot of our questions come from the new Seminary instruction manual and it's amazing to read what our young people who are high school age are being taught and taught to think about.  For example:  "How do we knowingly begin to make compromises with the Lord's standard?"  Or "How can we qualify to have our names called individually by Christ at the judgment?"   We love questions and the discussions that answers bring!

So that was our week.  We finished up tonight with our last MarCon planning meeting.  How grateful we are to be able to go to those meetings and have the young people just give us assignments!  We were happy this week to get emails and pictures of what is going on in your lives.  Time at home is flying by without us and we occasionally feel that twinge of homesickness of not being there and watching you do the things you're doing, but we know that this is the time Heavenly Father needs us here to be missionaries.  We hope we're doing what He wants us to do and how He wants us to do it.

We love you all!  We love your goodness and your determination to do what is right.  We love that all our grandkids are cute and perfect!!!!!  We love that their parents are the best kids ever and even if they are not kids anymore, they'll always be the best kids ever.

XOXOXOXOXOXO    Dad and Mom and G and G and E and E

And P.S.  We get our Sister Missionaries back next week at transfers.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!