very busy, but it's all good!

Since President Monson announced at October Conference that young men could start serving missions at age 18 (formerly age 19) and young women at age 19 (formerly age 21), the amount of applications has skyrocketed phenomenally. Here is our first larger group of missionaries who came in mid January.

Here they are! Fresh from the MTC. They are sitting next to their trainers. Along with the two other mission office  staff couples, we helped orientate them regarding the practical aspects of their missionary service -- cars, housing, finances, etc.

We are very busy gearing up for two even larger groups arriving in February and March.  After Christmas, Carl and I hit the ground running (just before Christmas, we had found a nice apartment for a new senior missionary couple in the tiny town of Medina), to find 6 new missionary apartments for the February group. We planned on two weeks to do so, knowing that we also needed time to find furnishings and household supplies for all these apartments. With the help of the Lord, all the apartments were found in the needed areas. At the end of a long day of searching for a place in a rather expensive area (Victor, NY), we "stumbled" upon this gem.

The owner had just put it up for rent, a newly renovated 2nd floor apartment -- ceramic tile floors, new carpeting, new kitchen cabinets and appliances--immaculate throughout. And the best part, for only $500, a really good deal since the cheapest apartment we could find in that city was almost $800.

The missionaries will really like this very large bathroom, with a walk-in shower and an old timey tub.

  

 

Wish us luck as we are continuing to shop for all the furnishings, etc., getting ready for a week of zone meetings in the middle of the moves, and moving (thankfully with the help of the Assistants to the President and other strong young Elders) all the stuff into the 6 new places in less than two weeks time.

It was a very good Christmas

We thought we'd be spending Christmas in our missionary apartment, skyping with grandkids. Much to our surprise, we ended spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day with family. Carl's brother Billy and his wife Carol (who live in Pennsylvania) invited us to spend Christmas with them and Carol's sister's family in Bainbridge, N Y.
Carol's sister and her husband (Elaine and Phillip Sherman) live in 200 year old farmhouse on an 80 acre farm in Bainbridge, a 3 hour drive from us.  We were warmly welcomed and felt right at home with these wonderful folks.

Christmas eve was very cozy, visiting and catching up by the fire.

Christmas was everywhere, in every nook and cranny of the cozy farm house.

   

Yummy meals came out of this wonderful  kitchen.

 

 

Elaine and Philip are volunteer caretakers of the church sites in Bainbridge.  So Christmas morning found us in some places that are special in church history. Here we are at the Josiah Stowell home, built in 1810. While working for Josiah Stowell, Joseph Smith met Emma Hale, proposed to her in this house, and spent his honeymoon there.

 From left to right: Billy & Carol Ellis, life size statue of Joseph Smith (by B.J. Bawden), me, Elaine & Phillip Sherman

Upper right:   parlor where Joseph Smith proposed to Lucy.  Lower middle:  stairway that was revealed when a wall was knocked down during the restoration.All the floor boards also are the original. Lower right:  death masks of Hyrum and Joseph Smith. The sculptor Bee Jay Bawden used the death mask along with Joseph Smith's skeletal measurements to create an accurate likeness for the statue shown in previous photo.

We also visited the site of the first branch of the church, in nearby Colesville. The early saints met in a barn across the street from the Joseph Knight home, pictured below.

 
 

On the left are some artifacts that were found, while the Shermans worked in the basement of the Knight home, digging out piles of dirt and stabilizing the foundation with an inner brick wall. On the top left is a mallet, and remnants of a child's shoe.

The Sherman's have done so much in helping with the restoration of these sights. As a token of appreciation, they were presented with these replicas of the sculptures created by  Dee Jay Bawden, who has created many bronze sculptures  for the Church.



It was hard saying "good-bye" to  our brother and sister-in-law and their family, which now have become part of our extended family. We truly had a wonderful time, and hope to see them again before we head back to Texas next December.

So, the next morning after Christmas, hoping to make it back to Brockport in advance of a big snow storm, we said our farewells.

And good-bye to Nora, a very smart and sweet Australian cattle dog, whose deceased father is depicted by our sister-in-law, Carol, who is a very talented artist.

P.S.: we got to Skype with grandkids after Christmas.