It's Monday!

Hi Everybody,

We're wondering about how to make Sunday a day of rest!  This didn't get written yesterday, and this morning it's most important that we at least get a few lines written to you.  Before we know it, our time here will be done and we'll miss "talking" to you all on Sunday afternoons about missionary work. 

Ah, missionary work!  If anybody reads this who is contemplating a mission, old or young, go for it!!!  To our grandkids, how proud we are of you.  You're making better choices right now than we ever made at your age that will prepare you to do the Lord's work.  To our kids.....before you know it, you'll be old!!  Your kids will be married or off on their own and you'll be wondering what meaningful things you can do with your lives.  Make sure that a mission is high up on the list of priorities.  That's what you can do with all this $$ we're leaving to you when we die!!  If I knew how to do a smiley face on the computer, that's what I'd put right here!  And to the rest of our family and our friends (do we still have friends at home?), you too!!  If you can possibly somehow help out the senior missionary force in the Church, do it.  And with all the opportunities and needs throughout the Church, you can do senior missionary work anytime, anyplace, anyhow.  Your lives will be immensely blessed as well as blessing the lives of others.

We started this last week with "The Spirit of Cornell.  That's when all the affiliated chaplaincies of the University have a table on a grassy and sidewalk area where the foot traffic is high and we basically let the students know what being active in whatever faith they choose can mean to their education experience.  How much they need faith!  How much they need that time out of each day or week to think on spiritual things and thank God for what He's given them and ask Him for help when the going gets rough as it surely will.  We had a great time there with 5 of our students who engaged anyone who wanted to in a Gospel discussion or just to hand the curious a Book of Mormon (10 of them....a record!).  Some were interested in My Family, others in the sacred sites of upstate New York, others in The Family Proclamation, and of course a lot of pass-along cards.  So much missionary work to do....so little time!  And as many as we have, the laborers are few.  We need to be better member missionaries when we get home!

We also began a new semester of Institute with lesson #1 of Foundations of the Restoration.  Oh my goodness this is an amazing course of study not only for young adults but for any of us.  Our lesson this last week was "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" and was all about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration.  We've been challenged as teachers in the Church Education System to more fully prepare ourselves with a knowledge and sure testimony of what we teach before we teach it.  For example two of the readings to prepare us for this lesson, besides the manual and the Scriptures of course, were two talks from General Conferences in the 90's.  One was Elder Neal Maxwell's "From the Beginning" and President Hinckley's "At the Summit of the Ages."  These were two absolutely amazing talks which we know we heard and loved then but were so appreciated this past week.

We sense a renewed determination from our 18-80 year old students to make Institute more of a Priority in their lives (President Monson's challenge).  We're in a time when what we've done in the past won't be enough to keep us firm and faithful in the future.  We....all of us....have to be better in learning and loving and living the principles of the Gospel and in "striving to become, attribute by attribute, more and more as Jesus is.  By so living, ours will not then be a mere appreciation of Jesus, nor a modest admiration of Him.  Rather, ours will be an adoration of Jesus expressed by our emulation of Him!"  (Elder Neal A. Maxwell)

OK.....we promised a few lines and a few lines it will be.....the everyday tasks this last week were busy as could be:  Friday Forum again!  One down and two to go until our time is done.  We were pretty efficient this week so it wasn't too hard....or maybe we're just getting better at it!  This has been such an important part of our assignment to provide physical nourishment so that others can give spiritual nourishment as the young people here at Cornell in both the branch and the ward come together in their united efforts to maintain faith in this secular university environment.  It's been worth all the work and the worry!  And we've had a few loaves and fishes experiences to let us know whose hand is in this part of our missionary assignment!!  What else?  Lots of driving here, there, and everywhere with missionaries and members getting them where they need to be when they need to be there.  It's always a blessing to go along for the ride.....or in most cases be the ride.  We've had a branch social, a young adult social, planning meetings, council meetings, coordination meetings, etc. etc.  At this time of year at the beginning of the semester, meetings are a necessity!  The only thing we're loosing sleep over besides our car (that's a whole story that doesn't need complaining about....actually not our car but those who work on our car) is the fact that we still don't know who our replacements will be.  We've rattled as many chains as we know how and we just guess it is what it is.  Anybody want to volunteer?  Didn't we already ask that once??  We know something will be done, we just don't know what and when, and we're the ones that everybody asks. 

End of email!  We're praying for rain just like you are.  Imagine that.....praying for rain in upstate New York.  Are we never satisfied?!  Last year we barely had a sunny day....this fall we have beautiful sunny days but as dry as can be and the grass is turning brown and the trees are changing into fall colors.  It still is really beautiful here and we're looking forward to a couple of days at the end of our mission driving up into the Sharon, Vt. area and maybe barely into Maine and then back through the Adirondack mountains as we begin our journey home to our mountains and our kids and our grandkids.  We love you!  We pray for you to be good and to make good choices and to serve others and to be happy and to have fun and to mind your parents!!

XOXOXOXO   Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and Elder and Sister Jolley

Where did our Summer "vacation" go?

Hello Everybody,

Summer vacation is a misnomer with missionaries including senior ones!  We believe this summer was more busy and thus went a lot faster than last year.  And today is the calm before the storm as we look at our calendar for the next 4 weeks.  We're wondering how to fit it all in to the days we have left and in our old people speed, but it will all work out.  We expect you all are feeling the same way with school starting and life flying by.  School starting again?  How can it be that we've missed Krispy Kreeme and chocolate milk for the first day of school two years in a row?!  Maybe we'll find another reason to bring them over if we can remember where the Krispy Kreme shop is!  So anyway, you've all been in our thoughts this week as lots of new and challenging things are happening and we know Heavenly Father listens to our prayers when we ask for His blessings to be with you.  And He'll listen to yours!!

So here's our week.....and maybe a contemplation on each event:

1.  Monday missionary transfer breakfast.  Six missionaries and us (mostly 6 elders and sisters) went through 3 lbs. of bacon, two dozen scrambled eggs, a billion waffles, hash browns, a gallon of chocolate milk and most of the same of OJ.  Breakfast is one thing that's pretty lacking in the missionary diet and they love eating!  We think it's not only a time to nourish them physically but emotionally as well.  They feel like our grandkids and we have to be careful not to spoil them beyond missionary guidelines.  So, after breakfast I went over to do laundry and when I came back two hours later, they were still there......just chillin' with Elder Jolley.   It was P-day so it was legal!

2.  CES training in Owego with the Seminary teachers.....oh they are good!  They love their students, they love teaching gospel principles, they don't love early mornings just like their kids but they do it because their service blesses the lives of these kids who come usually at 6:00 a.m..  and they love those sometimes grumpy teenagers!

3.  Transfer Day....our official goodbye to the mission as we will be on the road for the next transfer meeting.  We were so fortunate in that many of "our" missionaries that we've worked with and loved over the last almost 18 months were there either being transferred, a couple going home, or just there to help drive.  They all want to have a mini missionary reunion in our back yard or basement someday.  We tell them that once they get home and life moves on, they won't even remember who we are.  Love these faithful, hardworking, brave young people!

4.  Last summer institute and Teachings of the Living Prophets.  How can it be that we learn more than our students!?  We're starting a new course from the Cornerstone series of lessons called Foundations of the Restored Gospel.....it's 28 classes from lesson 1 "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" to lesson 28 "Preparing for the Second Coming" and everything in-between....such as The Vision and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  After we quite teaching we plan on finishing out the lessons ourselves.

5.  Temple trip.....just us!  Needed the peace and strength that comes from the temple to have the physical and mental energy to make it through these last few weeks.  We will miss our wanderings through the Sacred Grove which is always a part of our temple trips no matter what we come for or who we bring.  And.....here's an exciting experience from our drive home from the temple.  We planned to drive through Auburn (sort of on the way) to see if we could track down a family that Grandpa Lyon knew as a young missionary there in 1943.  This family was called "the glue of the Church gang" because the Church and the missionary work revolved around the help and service of the Durfee family.  We had a name and an address but that was all and the address proved to not be the right one.  Ah technology.....a couple of quick phone calls, tracking down someone who found someone else who told us where to go but warned us that the only remaining Durfee family member here in New York had left the Church and was very anti-Mormon and could easily be offensive.  We knocked on the door, waited, knocked on the door, waited, etc. etc. and finally a cute little lady answered the door and I introduced myself and who I was in relation to Grandpa and she said excitedly "Oh I remember Elder Lyon!"  Imagine that!  She was 15 years old when Grandpa was there and she still remembered him!  Anyway, we had a great visit and took pictures of us and her and took pictures of her family pictures she had hanging on the wall.  We met her husband who was in England the same time Grandpa was there in World War II.  In fact, he was the mechanic that worked on the B-17's that Grandpa flew in.  They're active, practicing Catholics but for a few minutes the connection between missionaries and members over 72 years ago came back around full circle and it was GOOD!

Well, three more of these letters and then we'll have to figure out something else to do on Sunday afternoon!  Maybe we'll write backwards to our friends here, especially Charley and Tom and Olga and Ceasar and Janina and Keeley and Bonnie and Hector and Monica and Leonard and the Browns and theTuros and the Swigerts and all the great people here in Ithaca from the ward and branch and other places all over this part of upstate New York that we love.

But.....in odd moments, we sense an anticipation....almost a "Christmas is nearly here" feeling and we know that when it's time to leave, it will be time to leave and come be with you all and do the things we've so much missed being part of these last 17 months.  Gotta be careful not to get "trunky!"

Love you all!  Be good this week!!!

XO  Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and E and E-ette Jolley

Our Brains are Exhausted!

Hello Everybody,

So this is another one of those Sunday afternoons when we know (at least we think we know) that you all are getting together for the monthly birthday dinner.  Remember to sing the happy birthday song in the traditional family style!  We sang happy birthday the other night in something (can't remember what....oh dear we're loosing our minds) that involved YSA or missionaries or somebody and they sounded just like home.  It was freaky!  And wasn't this the last week before school starts?  The summer came and went and didn't even stop long enough to let us stop and smell the sunflowers.  Speaking of sunflowers, we saw our first "sunflower field" ever a couple of days ago.....acres and acres of sunflowers.  It was awesome! 

So we said in the subject line of this email that our brains need a rest.  We procrastinated the last couple of months and saved our summer on-line CES training until the last week which was last week.  It was basically a re-run of the 3 days we spent in the MTC a year ago March learning how to teach.  We wish that anybody who teaches in the Church or in the family or anywhere (basically all of us) had access to the Seminaries and Institutes website!  We'll be sad to loose our top secret password when our mission is over:).  The emphasis on doctrines and principles and getting those into the hearts of the young people as opposed to just context and content makes so much sense.  These new manuals are phenomenal!  We're beginning a course (which we'll only get to teach for 3 weeks) for this next school year that is one of the "cornerstone" classes, of which there are four, called "Foundations of the Restored Gospel."  You can access those manuals on LDS.org and what a great study text those manuals would be for even personal scripture study.  And wouldn't we like to go back and take Seminary all over again!!

Back to summer.  The dog days of August are here again.....hot and humid but at least we don't have the severe weather that the east coast has had.  In fact because irrigation is non-existent here some of the lawns are actually starting to have dry spots and in walking in Sapsucker Woods the other day we saw that the leaves are starting to change with some beautiful reds and oranges.  We've got to remember in these last few weeks we're here to take time to see the leaves instead of slaving over the stove!  One more week of "freedom" and then we do our last three Friday Forums.  We're expecting our numbers to go down as a lot of our regulars graduated and moved on.  Did we say that in last week's email?  But we'll see if we can't entice new ones in with Hawaiian haystacks or meatball subs or better-than-anything cake or whatever else is on the menu.  Tomorrow morning will be our last "transfer breakfast."  That's been a fun tradition where the day of or a day before transfers, our district of missionaries come over for waffles or french toast or whatever and ALWAYS bacon and chocolate milk.  We'll go to transfers this week as this will be our 'farewell" to the missionaries.  Since seniors come and go on a different time schedule than the young Elders and Sisters, we will already be on the road for the next transfer day.  The best part of the whole day is seeing the brand new missionaries come into the chapel after a morning of training and meet their very first companion/trainers.  Those hugs from the ones who know what's going on to the ones who don't have a clue are the best!  We unfortunately loose three of our missionaries to other areas and adventures.....we will miss them but we get two brand new to the mission field Elders which is always exciting.  A fun thing last week was to have the visit of one of our "old" Elders who finished his mission 6 weeks ago and came back out with his family to see where he'd been and meet those with whom he spent the last two years of his life.  Anybody up for another trip to upstate New York in a year or so!!!!

Our little branch is starting to grow again.  It will be a bit smaller than last year but we have some great new undergrads and graduate students and their families moving in.  It reminds us of what it was like when we moved to Ames, Iowa just day before yesterday!!  These are some pretty choice young people and we love to tell them that they too will survive these years in school.  Next week most students will be moving in (does that mean more moving of furniture up and down stairs?) and then everything is back for real again.  We're still waiting for the names of the senior couple who will take our place and hope there is one as our official according to the office last day is September 18th.  Any volunteers?!

The last thing for this email is our great gratitude for the principle of eternal families and knowing through the Plan of Salvation that there is life after passing from this one.  Today we went with our Branch President and Harmony, our special needs YSA, to visit with her mother who has terminal cancer and who doesn't understand that doctrine.  Liz (the mom) wants to have her funeral at the Church because she believes that it will be best for Harmony to have it in a place she knows and loves.  So we went to support Harmony (and Liz as we know her well too) while funeral plans were made.  Liz likes to have Gospel discussions when we visit and we think that she finds great comfort in what she's learning. 

Well.....sorry there won't be donuts and chocolate milk for after school snacks for the first day of school for the second year in a row.  Maybe we'll figure out another occasion.....like maybe the first day in November or something!  Have a great week.....take pictures......text how your days went......anything would be fine!!  Hint!  Hint!

WE LOVE YOU!!

Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and E and S Jolley

Oh what do we do in the summertime......la la la

Hi Everybody,

I think the subject line of this is a Primary song or something.  "Oh what do we do in the summertime when all the world is green."  We will miss the green when we leave upstate NY!  But we've forgotten what mountains look like too so it will be a trade of beauty for beauty.    We've had a glorious weather week here and at the risk of having the weather be a topic of this email, this past week has made up for all the winter and rain and cloudy skies of the past 16 months.  How about low 70 degree weather and brilliant blue skies and white fluffy clouds and NO humidity!  It was tempting to just go play this week but we didn't except that the little patio was a great place to read and study for Institute lessons.  And night was in the 50's so it was perfect for sleeping (if only we weren't old and could actually sleep all night!).  This is also high season for many of the literally fields of wildflowers.

OK.....Last Friday we walked out of a house with the missionaries about 8:00 at night and their was a hint of fall in the air and we realized that you all will be getting ready to go back to school.  Time is passing us by and we need to stop and take time to smell all those flowers.  But....starting our week's reporting backwards.....Saturday was a branch social on Senaca Lake (we've written about being there before) and we did take the time to just sit on the dock or on the deck and watch the sailboats on the Lake and the ducks and the paddle boats and the branch "kids" swim and jump off the peak of the boat house into the water and be pulled around behind the boat on a New York version of Big Bertha (that one made us a bit homesick).  And we did really good at not telling the young parents there to put life jackets on their kids....had to sit on that one!

This has been a week with CES assignments.....trying to finish up our on-line summer classes and the the Church had a Church wide CES broadcast training that was absolutely the best 2 hours ever.  This Seminary and Institute program of the Church is so inspired and it's absolutely crucial for the kids to go to Seminary (and Institute).  One of the wonderful talks centered around how the Seminary and Institute will support the Church's initiative on Sabbath Day observance.  Then Elder Clark, CES Commisioner of Education and newly called Quorum of the 70 concluded.  One thing that he said just completely stood out:  "Whatever goodness we now have, it will not be sufficient for what is ahead.  What does God want me to do?  Put on the WHOLE armor of God," and he challenged us to ask the following, very, very simple questions:  What am I doing today that I need to stop doing and What am I not doing that I need to start doing?

And still going backwards to the beginning of the week.  We had an inspired Mission Conference....supposedly the first one that they've had in this mission for 3 years.  It's so fun to watch all the missionaries get together with their companions and friends they haven't seen for months and "catch up" on areas and wards and branches loved and left.  They give each other strength and President Rogers challenged them to renew their faith and commitment and work harder and more efficient and receive the miracles that come from exact obedience.  When he was talking about commitments, it reminded us of all of you....people often ask us why our kids are so good (notice we didn't say perfect) and we think that is in part because of your willingness to made and keep commitments.  Thanks for making us proud of you all!!

We began the week with a district activity that culminated with a district lunch at the local pizza place and wouldn't you know it, some of the misssionaries "forgot" their wallets.  Does that sound familiar???  We're pretty soft touch.  So all in all this was another busy and good week that also included more moving of members from one apartment to another (luckily no third floors this week) and paperwork necessary to turn over our assignment to another senior couple....who we don't know if they've been called yet...and other ticky tack things like doing a new foyer bulletin board for the Church that someone said hasn't been changed for around 10 years.  That meant a trip to Hobby Lobby----yay!!!!  A shopping trip that wasn't to a grocery store!

Y'all have a great week....make the most of these last few days of summer vacation (depending on whether you're the parent or the child).  Stay close to each other and help each other and love each other.  The unexpected passing of Bishop Oliver has sobered us to the importance of loving and serving each other all the days of our lives so there are no regrets.  Let's make our time on this earth count for goodness.

HUGS AND MORE HUGS and we love you all!!!!!!

Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and Von and Patty and Elder and Elder-ette Jolley

Wait a Minute.....

.....It's not time for August to be here already!

Hi Everybody,

.......But August is here and we're having to run to keep up.  What happened to our summer of looking for things to do to keep us busy.  It's amazing that the slowest time of the whole summer with our responsibilities in our assignment was the 3 weeks that everybody came.  We turned over our calendar yesterday morning and there we were with school starting and Friday Forum and everything else on this very calendar page. Yikes!  Also a weather note:  The best weather of the whole summer was the time that everyone was here as well so we all lucked out.  This past week has been temperatures in the 90's with unusually high humidity so our air conditioner has gotten its workout both day and night.  We know so many people who just depend on fans for cooling and well....we're spoiled.  We did help 2 families move this week and Dad probably sweated off 20 pounds moving stuff up and down stairs.  The ultimate one was moving a sofa and bed among other things from the ground level to the 3rd floor apartment of an old home WITHOUT an elevator!  So if you see that absolutely horrible picture that friends posted on Facebook where we're eating at a Mexican restaurant, just know that it was taken about 15 minutes after that move.  That was our "reward" for helping them move and we looked terrible and were way tired.... and the food was fantastic!  Life is pretty tough for people trying to find a place to live here especially close to Cornell campus.  The rents are extremely high for not a very good apartment and many of these old homes are divided up into studio apartments (just a big combo kitchen-living room-bedroom with a dinky bathroom) that go for $1200-$1400 a month so some of these "slum" landlords (we really didn't say that but it's true) are making $10,000 or more a month on an old run down house. 

Enough ranting about the housing situation except to say that after many days of looking for an apartment near the Cornell campus for a new set of missionaries and the exorbitant cost of rent, the mission decided that it was best to have the extra set of missionaries go to another town.  That was with many of us looking and none of us coming up with anything adequate and within the mission's price constraints. 

We've lost our pet sitting job this week too.  John (upstairs neighbor) is home from the hospital and rehab after almost dying and is now enjoying being here after being gone for almost two months.  We're trying to get used to having someone live upstairs again where every footstep and open and shut door sounds like it's in our house......but we're so glad he's home again and alive. 

So what else?  Two dinner appointments this week, so we love it when the missionaries are invited to people's homes for a meal and we get invited along for the ride and to give the missionaries a ride because the houses are pretty far away.  We made another trip to Cortland to return lock and key to a storage unit for a former branch member, did some shopping at a wonderful Walmart store there (unlike our one in Ithaca), took Harmony to visit her Mom, cleaned and transported a fridge from the Mom's house to the nursing facility where she's now in hospice care, and in between those things started cleaning our own house and prepared for our two Institutes.  We're loving "Teachings of the Living Prophets."  We had great lessons in both classes this week where the Spirit was strong as we discussed President Monson's last Conference talk on the Temple.  We don't do much teaching.  The students discuss and the Spirit teaches.  It was a pretty neat experience to see Valerie (our non-member attendee in Owego) feel the spirit of the temple even though she has never even been in one. 

One of the absolute highlights of the week and of our mission was to spend a day at the Harmony Priesthood Restoration site with Brother Baker and Brother Done (CES institute teacher at Penn State).  The construction work is almost done on the site and it will be comparable to Palmyra when it's done with a big new chapel and visitor's center and restoration of the grounds and the Hale home and cabin where Joseph and Emma lived and where most of the Book of Mormon was translated.  We were only able to see those things through the construction fences but we walked down a beautiful path to the Susquehanna River where many of the baptisms took place.  Brother Done gave a wonderful talk to a stake youth conference that was there for the day and told them the history of the Church in that area leading up to the restoration of the Priesthood.  After they all left, we lingered for awhile and there is truly a "Sacred Grove feeling" in that place and on the banks of the river.  Before that experience, we went with Brother Baker (and the other CES couple who are in this area) back to the Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight homes and were told the history of the homes by the "experts."  All in all, it was a great day!  The site will be dedicated on September 19th and we're hoping to go to the dedication but it sounds like the "guest list" is already full of historians, Church and otherwise, from all over the world, along with the VIP's of the Church and the area.  There's a possibility that we may get to be guinea pigs for the missionaries who have been called to work there to practice their parts before the dedication.  Hope so!

We made a quick run to Johnson City today to visit Hector again at the hospital and he was so glad to see us.  Made us feel good too to know that he's improving.....and now it's off to branch mission correlation meeting so we'll say goodbye for the week.  We love to hear from you with all the news so we'll take whatever you send and whenever you send it.  Keep being the wonderful "kids" we always brag about!  We love you and you're always in our prayers and we know that your prayers will be answered as you thank Heavenly Father and ask Him for the blessings you need.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO  Dad and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and E and E-tte Jolley