so sad to say good-bye to our mission president

Tomorrow is the last day of a 3 year mission for President and Sister Christianson. Tomorrow afternoon, they will be picking up the new president and his wife (President and Sister Francis) at the airport. After spending a few hours with them, the Christianson's will head off to a hotel and then fly home to Utah early Tuesday morning.

 All of us in the New York Rochester Mission love them so much and will miss this dynamic duo!

 

On June 18, the entire mission gathered at the Hill Cumorah study shelter for President Christianson's last transfer day.  Emotions were very tender. Testimonies were shared by departing missionaries and President and Sister Christianson.  The Spirit was strong.

 

 

We also assembled for a huge group picture at the Hill Cumorah.

It was quite a task.

Check out "face book" for the finished product. Copyright laws prohibit me from posting it on my blog.  Carl and I are on the front row, to the far right, standing up (on the face book photo).

 

This Monday we had our last staff meeting with President and Sister Christianson. Carl and I  have been so blessed to have had 18 months of inspirational weekly staff meetings with the Christianson's (along with two other office couples, who are also senior missionaries). We dressed very casually since we headed to the mission home after the meeting to help deep clean the home.

Sister Christianson removing photos, from the office bulletin board, of her and her husband
with groups of new missionaries

President Christianson gathering the last of his personal desk items 

 

 

It seems strange to think that tomorrow afternoon, we will be greeting President and Sister Francis,  and saying "good-bye" to Jack and Melanie Christianson. They have given it their all these past three years and have been valiant in their testimony of the Savior and have had a huge positive impact on the young missionaries who are their main responsibility. We all desire to be better people for having known them.

Good times with old folks and young folks

A few weeks ago, a group of us senior missionaries took a day trip.

Here we are on the banks of the Susquehanna River, in Harmony, Pennsylvania.

This is a very important Church historic site and where the Aaronic Priesthood was restored.

Before taking off to see other historic church sites in this area, we enjoyed sitting on the banks of the river, where several knowledgeable men spoke to us.  

 

The couple on the very far left (standing up) are Elder and Sister Searle,
 the awesome Site Directors for all the historic places in Palmyra.
 They formerly served  as mission president of the New York City Mission.
 How we admire them and all these other wonderful senior couples
 that we had so much fun spending the day with.

On this trip, it was great to meet up with Elaine Sherman, an extended family member whom we spent Christmas with. Elaine and her husband are the volunteer caretakers/tour guides of the  historic sites in Colesville (near Harmony), the site of one of the earliest branches of the church in New York in the 1800's.

 

 

It's nice to get together with other senior couples, but we seem to spend most of our time with the junior missionaries.  We recently went to the Palmyra Temple with our Brockport District, an awesome group of young missionaries, whom we call our "Brockport sons and daughters".



Our "sons", Elders Hill,,Gurr, Wilcox, and Kelly (who is one of our first 18 yr. olds
 to enter the mission field).

Our lovely "daughters"--Sisters Gillespie, Johnson & Johnson



Every time Elder Wilcox is with Elder Ellis,
 he gives him the biggest bear hug, lifting him
 off the ground. Sadly, (but luckily for Elder Ellis' back) he just got
 transferred to the small town of Bath.

 

Since January, we have been spending so much time obtaining and setting up so many new apartments for the large influx of new missionaries. It's been a lot of work, but the reward is seeing the smiling faces of these sweet sister missionaries, who are so appreciative of the comfy new beds in their new apartment in the small country town of  Dansville. The third sister (in green shirt) is a "visa waiter", who will be heading off to Brazil. She has to sleep on an air mattress, since she is here only temporarily, and the bedroom is too small for a third regular sized bed.

Recently, we have spent 6 awesome days in zone meetings with all of our missionaries, young and old.  Sadly, it was President Christianson's last zone meeting.  The Christiansons will complete their 3 years of service on July 1. They are very dear to us and everyone in this mission.  How we cherish our close association with them. In the mornings, we all met in the Sacred Grove, followed by tours of the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was first printed in 1830.  How fortunate Carl and I are to be serving our mission  here in the " Cradle of the Restoration". It has been an amazing experience.


We ended the early morning portion of zone conference in the Sacred Grove, with our mission president pointing out some of the centuries old trees, that were standing at the time of the First Vision, when Joseph Smith entered these woods to pray.

President is telling us about his favorite tree,
 which recently had to be cut down for safety reasons.
 When President Christianson's father died, he couldn't leave the mission,
 and while his wife went back home to attend the funeral, he took solace in the Grove.
 While there, he noticed this ancient, decaying tree, which had a new tree growing up from the
roots of the parent tree.
 He calls these two trees, one of which is dead and the other alive, the "Jack trees" -- Little Jack (Pres. Christianson's first name) and Big Jack (his deceased father's first name.)

 

Here President is telling us about the "Apostle" tree, a 400 year old ironwood tree,
 which at one time had a total of 12 branches.
 This tree is badly decayed inside, and probably won't be standing for too much longer.

We are amazed at how quickly these 23 months are flying by. We are entering the home stretch now, with barely 6 months left til we go home.  Now that things may be slowing down a bit for us, I plan on posting more than just once a month. Stay tuned.