Hi Everybody,
Well, half of you are here in New York with us and we surely
miss the other half!! But we know that
two trips to here probably isn’t do-able especially with one missionary out and
another soon to be on a mission. How
about if we slip into the back seat of somebody’s car and come back for Zac’s
farewell! We’ve learned over this almost
18 months how hard it is to be gone from home for the very important life
events!! Usually when we’re missing some
big family thing the same is happening to one of our missionaries (and Carlee
and Cade) and we realize that we’re all in this great work together.
This
week has been a blur and a great one at that. Not that you need to
know our daily schedule
but here’s a run down. Monday was
missionaries over for preparation day district study and then play games
and
then Meet the Mormons. Tuesday was our
adventure picking Bryce up from the Syracuse airport. How glad we were
to see him! But we wondered if we were going to get there
going through one of the worst rainstorms we’ve ever experienced and on
the
freeway of all places. We got stuck on
the freeway for 45 minutes because of an accident ahead due to the
rain…..total
dead stop. So after us and the cars
behind us backed up (on the freeway….never done that before) and got off
on the
closest side road, we got to the airport well after 11:00 at night.
Then the huge amounts of water on the freeway
caused it to be closed again. Long story
short, we got back here and to bed by 2:00 a.m.. But we survived! So
then we had two great days showing Bryce
around Ithaca and going on a couple of gorge hikes and going to
Institutes and
going to a special zone meeting to meet our new mission president. We
will miss President and Sister Wirthlin
and President and Sister Rogers will be great!
Then came our New York City adventure….all with President
Wirthlin’s approval and encouragement (the Church likes the members our age to
know that senior missionaries can take time out for fun….especially when family
comes to visit). On one of New York’s
rare beautifully sunny days we drove to New Jersey and parked our car (great thanks to Chris and
Wendy Koller who live there just a few blocks from a transit stop) and rode the
train into the city. We checked into our
hotel right next to Central Park where we experienced the plain old fact that
space is an absolute premium….our hotel room was 2 beds in probably a 9x12 area
and a bathroom that you couldn’t turn around in and we won’t say how much it
cost for one night (a lot!). But it was
great to be so centrally located and we had a great time walking through
Central Park. Then it was take me out to
the ballgame! We sat in Yankee Stadium
(on my bucket list for sure) surrounded by Mormons and listened to the MoTab
Choir sing a set and then the National Anthem.
All the thousands of people there cheered loudly!! The game was….well a typical game (a bit
boring and the Yankees loosing) until the 9 through 12 innings where the Yankees tied and then won in total
excitement with a two run homerun in the 12th inning. Those of us who stayed were rewarded!! After a subway adventure trying to get out of
the area along with several other thousand people, we made it back to our hotel
by way past missionary going to bed time!
The next day, July 4th, was spent at the 9-11
memorial for a
special time and seeing the city from The Top of the Rock (observation
deck
from the top of Rockafeller Center) and being on Times Square with the
other
millions of people all decked out in red, white, and blue. It was
fun….and it rained! Then reverse of getting there to NYC brought
us home where we excitedly waited for more family to arrive. Brian and
Melissa and the kids are now here
and it was great fun figuring where we all could sleep in our bitty
apartment. Thank heavens for adaptable
kids and grandkids.
This wasn’t a very missionary experience filled letter but
hey, what better way to teach the concept of families can be together forever
than practice it!! Which is what we’ll
be doing more of this week meeting Greg and Chelsea and the kids with time
spent in Palmyra seeing all the sites and then going to the Hill Cumorah
Pageant. Now it all would be perfect if the Jacklins were with us!!
How much we love our family!! The bigs and the littles and the old and the
young, and the ones here and the ones not here and the ones in Idaho and the
ones on missions and the ones we’ve known since we were kids, etc. etc.
etc. When we preach families, we preach
what we’re so blessed to have! When
President Packer passed away, we felt such a sense of loss of a great voice who
champions the family. We’re so grateful
that we can still read the things that he wrote.
And lastly, how grateful we are to be on a mission and to
teach how Gospel principles are absolutely necessary to direct every stage of
our lives. We testify on this Fast
Sunday Sabbath morning (in the office
here on the computer next to Hannah who is literally “sawing logs”) that Christ
lives! That this Church has the fullness
of His teachings…..and that His Apostles and Prophets direct the whole world in
these challenging times with wisdom and necessary direction. It’s up to us to listen and learn.
Love you all!!!!!
Dad and Mom and Gpa and Gma and Elder and Sister Jolley
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