HFD

Happy Sunday afternoon and Happy Father’s Day to everybody who is a Dad, who will be a Dad, whoever had a Dad, whoever does all the good things most Dads do whether they’re Dads or not….and etc. etc. etc.

How are you all this beginning of a new week? We just ate dinner for Father’s Day and my mind must have been elsewhere because we have enough leftovers for the next week (sorry, Bryce….they’ll be gone by the time you get here)! There seemed to be a run on dinner invitations for the missionaries today and we didn’t get our “request” in soon enough. Dad missed the rolls I never make (Rhodes just doesn’t cut it) and the cherry pie crust looks pretty much like the one I made the first time I tried to make a pie crust like Grandma Jolleys….bad. Maybe we can cover it up with lots of Hagan Daz!

We’re feeling a bit waterlogged here these days. We’re still lucky we haven’t had the floods in Ithaca that others have had. A couple of the gorge trails are still closed because of flood damage from last Sunday night. We’re hoping they’ll be opened by the time some of you get here. There was one little town called Danby that had five and a half inches of rain in an hour and a half. That was where the road was washed out just after we went through it last Sunday night and there was also a spot where the railroad tracks had no ground to rest on….probably 4 or 5 feet off the ground because the rushing water had washed that much ground out from underneath it. When it rains here, it pours! We’ve had our share of rain and wind as evidenced by the picture we texted you of the tree that blew over about 3 apartments down. It actually fell on the neighbor’s glass topped patio set and mushed it pretty good.

This last week was a week of being “On the Road Again.” We had four trips to Owego …..Seminary graduation, CES training, Institute, and helping the Sister Training Leaders get to their exchanges. We already told you about Seminary Graduation. CES training was great. Have we ever told you about our Supervisor, Brother Matt Baker? It would take too long to extol his virtues in this email but just let us tell you that he’s amazing. Whenever we feel to complain of all the road time we have, we think about what Matt does. He not only visits us but several other areas to provide training and even has a few places where he teaches both Institute and Seminary….and these areas are spread out over a couple of hundred miles. Plus his “weekend job” is at Regan Airport in NYC where he has permission from the Church to work from Friday night all night to Saturday night in order to access the government insurance benefits that they need for his critically ill wife. Heidi supports what he has to do a hundred percent and she is amazing herself in doing that with the help of friends and church members who help her to dialysis where Matt meets her at 2:00 a.m. to bring her home….several times a week. So even if you don’t know Matt Baker, remember him in your prayers!

We keep thinking that our Institute numbers will go down this summer but they’ve stayed pretty level most of the time. This is when people leave to go on vacation, students go home for the summer, work summer jobs, play summer sports. This last week we taught Elder Perry’s last Conference talk on the Family. How grateful we are for all of you and our pretty great family!! There are some big challenges in all of our families and how on earth would we get through these challenges without Gospel principles and teachings! We’re concerned about the very strong opinions of some of our students and members that don’t think that the proposed re-definition of marriage is a “big deal” and that the Brethren will eventually “catch up” with the inevitable. We teach in a conversation format where we ask questions and encourage the students to teach truth and testify to each other. Our job is to make sure that things don’t get too lively and to make sure that these really bright kids know that WE know that foundational doctrine is true and constant and what the Prophets and Apostles say about this doctrine is truly the mind and will of the Lord.

It’s a whole lot easier to do what we did most of the day Friday….good, hard, dirty work! We met a couple of sets of young missionaries at Valerie’s house in Berkshire and worked on her very long, very curved, falling-apart path of pavers and the flower beds on either side. Her health just won’t let her do that anymore and she was grateful! We are just having a hard time moving ourselves yesterday and today. We took a picnic lunch and sat on her porch to eat and the beauty around us was spectacular because she lives out in the country. And we were definitely blessed that day being the only day in the whole week where it wasn’t hot and humid!

Let’s see…..also a branch hike this week (where I kept up with the pregnant mom and her 2 year old), another dinner appointment (whoo hoo), a YSA to the airport, district meeting, “Meet the Mormons” with a less active family, and wishing we were with all of you when Zac went to the temple. We’re still trying to figure out how to make Los Angeles be “on our way home” in September. Minnesota and North Dakota are easy but California is a bit of a stretch.

In your busy, busy lives this summer, remember to always make time to love and serve each other. Evaluate your priorities and remember the good, better, best things that Elder Oaks counseled us to do. We’re still working on that and hope that by the time we’re 90 we may have figured it out. We love and miss you all but we want you to know that “sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven.” Aren’t we glad that we have hymn texts that say what we want to say so well?!

XOXOXO Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and Elder and Sister (Elder-ette) Jolley