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!!
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