Introducing a very special couple, who I just added to my sidebar, under "Friends" --

Introducing Elder & Sister Servoss, who along Elder & Sister Jensen and us, serve as Mission Office Staff. Sister Servoss is secretary for the mission, while Elder Servoss handles all the finances. Prior to serving in our mission, they served a senior mission in Holland (Elder Servoss served there also as a young missionary.)  If you want to learn more about the historical sites in our mission, take a peek at their awesome blog. Keep up with Elder Servoss's interesting commentaries and photos about our mission by clicking on their names on the sidebar.
You can also see a segment about about our mission by watching the CES broadcast this Sunday night, May 6, 6:00 p.m. MST (view it live or anytime after that) You can watch it on www.lds.org or www.byutv.org. The segment was filmed in the sacred grove with our mission president, Jack Christianson and a few of our missionaries. We are so excited to watch this!

Unlike, the other two mission staff couples, our office is in our car -- a little cramped, but the view is lovely.

l love the very old stone homes that are in this area (built in 1800's).

There are old red barns galore in this part of New York State

fruit orchards are trying to bloom in spite of our recent freeze warnings. 

We enjoy our drives throughout the mission, passing towns with some pretty crazy names --  Bishopville, Churchville, Pumpkin Hill, Kuckville, Hombok, Gowanda, Lackawanna, Tonawanda, Batavia, Bliss, Swain, Cattaraugus, Caneadea, Shogo, Almond, West Almond, Livonia. Upper New York is a name kleptomaniac, with towns called Greece, Chili (pronounced "chil-eye"), Hamburg, Cadiz, Nile, West Sparta, Java Village, Egypt, etc.

We love being a senior missionary couple in the beautiful New York Rochester Mission!

How come?

How come it was Spring last week .....

...and tonight we have a winter weather advisory?  3 to 5 inches of sleet and snow expected to start tonight and throughout tomorrow. We've got to head out early tomorrow morning to staff meeting. That kind of weather advisory is scary to us Texans! 

3 months in New York

As of today, we have been on our mission for 3 months!  What an amazing experience it's been so far. We are very fortunate to be here in northwestern New York, to be in the cradle of the
Restoration, where we feel such a tremendous spirit at the church sites. We also see some of the most beautiful countryside during our constant travels from Palymra to Niagra falls. We've put 6,500 miles on the car since we've left on our mission!  We love our associations with all the missionaries, junior and senior, as well as our mission president and his wife. We are getting to know the great members of our Brockport Ward and are learning how we can help them.
Some of the happenings this past week: staff and training meetings, helping orientate a new group of missionaries (one of whom came from Mexico City), helping a new senior missionary couple move to their apartment in the small village of Arcade, and finding an apartment for another senior couple way down south in Cattaraugus (which is part of the Seneca Nation Indian Reservation). It's very hard to find decent housing in that remote area. We were getting a little discouraged.
Finally, after saying, "Lord, we put it in Your Hands", we found this, and were very pleased.

This is an old school house built in 1850. It has been reconverted into 4 nice apartments. There's a half acre lawn in the back, bordered by tall pine trees bordering the Seneca Reservation. Our chapel is on the reservation, and the new senior couple will be serving there.

Saturday night, after a very busy week, our "sons", the Elders who live in our complex, offered to cook us dinner. Looks like we've got a tradition going. We buy the main ingredients and fix some of the sides, and the elders cook their signature dish. (It's sort of  a competition to see whose dish we like the best.)

Elder White (on the right) was so proud of his "Chicken Azteca" and re-fried beans. It was very, very yummy. (Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll e-mail it. Kids would really like it too.) Elder Bowman just got transferred here. He's our new district leader, and is a very awesome, hard-working missionary. An Illinois farm boy, he is going to make us his homemade biscuits with sausage gravy.
Good thing we're still able to squeeze in some running time a few days a week!

a house guest this week

Philip flew into town on Monday night and has been with us all week. The missionaries joined us for two games of bowling. One of the Elders won the first game, while Philip won the second. I came in dead last on both games.

 We still had our duties to attend to during the day. One day we were busy for 6 hours doing apartment checks on just a few of the many that we check. I love this old house that was built in the early 1800's. The Elders live in the 2nd floor apartment.

The house has charm and is a bit spooky. I call it the "ancient house".

This window latch is so old and cool. The window beneath it has a bullet hole in it.

We also have to find 3 new apartments this month. Here's  one we found in the town of Batavia for a senior missionary couple arriving soon.

In spite of a chilly week, and a few freeze warnings at night, spring has sprung. I love these white "popcorn" trees. They are all over the place.

Friday evening, we attended a special fireside for senior missionary couples at the Hill Cumorah visitor's center. The speaker was Elder David Cook, our Area Seventy General Authority. He spoke on the prophet Jospeh Smith.

 It was special celebrating our first Easter as missonaries. We were asked to speak in church, so it was a neat opportunity to reflect on our Savior's Atoning Sacrifice, and feel gratitude for the peace, comfort, and joy it brings to us.
And, of course, we missed our loved ones, children and granchilden, in Texas, Minnesota, California, and Utah. Since we have one kid here visiting, as well as our missionaries who across the way from us, the Easter Bunny came.

Elder Preisendorf is being transferred to another area tomorrow, so Easter dinner was his last meal with us (he really didn't eat that entire bunny face!).

Celebrations

Monday, March 26, we attended a special event at the E.B. Grandin Bookstore/Printing shop in Palmyra, celebrating the anniversary of when the Book of Mormon became first available to the public (at this very place).

3,000 copies were printed, and sold for $1.50, equivalent of 2 days' wages in those days.

This was the most advanced printing press of the day, brought to Grandin's printing shop via the fairly recently completed Erie Canal. The ink is being applied in this photo.

Our sweet Mission President and his lovely wife greeted hundreds of guests who walked back in time to that day in 1830.

We were also reminded of the special sacred circumstances involved in the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon.

view from 2nd floor window of the Grandin Building

I know that the Book of Mormon can bring us closer to our Savior, as it testifies of Him and contains the fullness of His Doctrine and stands next to the Bible as a witness that He is real, that He was resurrected, continues to live and loves us beyond measure. 

The next morning, the missionaries who live in our apartment complex helped celebrate Elder Ellis's  (Grandpa's) 66 birthday!

Elder Preisendorf made french toast with his special buttermilk syrup(sounds yukky, but it was good)!

Elder Preisendorf , Elder Ellis, and Elder White

Later on that day, we came home to this surprise (done by none other than our sweet Elders).

On Saturday, we drove to Cattaraugus, location of the Seneca Indian reservation, to attend the baptism of a young lady whom Elder White had taught while he was in that area.

The man in the middle of the picture, holding a paper plate, is Brother Garlow, a Native American (Onieda tribe) from Canada, whose wife (not pictured) was born on the Cattaraugus reservation. When a missionary first handed him a Book of Mormon, he immediately felt something that made him cry. Three weeks later, he and his young family were baptized. He serves in the branch presidency, along with another Native American, who is the branch president. This chapel is on the reservation.

This weekend, was a celebration of another kind--General Conference. On Sunday, we saw the sessions of conference along with a few guests, one of whom is deaf. So, along with hearing it, we got to see it signed in ASL (American sign language).

These two gals, who are college students, are seeing General conference for the very first time.

Conference was great! The words of our Prophet and apostles were timely, uplifting and inspiring.  If you missed it, you can see and hear it on lds.org.