Week #5

Our time is rapidly winding down here in New York. Here are a few photos from last week.

We had the first snow of the season! It fell softly throughout the night, and didn't stay on the ground very long.

The remnants of the terrible storms that brought tornadoes through the Midwest, blew through our part of NewYork.  The wind was howling all night.

We had a very busy week, with the remainder of the zone conferences. It was sad to be standing in front the wonderful young missionaries for the last time, for our brief segment on housing. We presented the usual housing awards--certificates for 100% apartments, and a drawing for all apartments who have earned 95% and above, with one apartment winning the prize-- McDonald's gift cards. I put together a little "tutorial" on establishing good relationships with their landlords, or how to be ideal tenants. A few missionaries from each zone participated in a little skit, with one of them playing the part of the landlord. We got a lot of laughs out of that.

The Relief Society sisters in each of the hosting ward buildings serve lunch at the zone conferences. The Palmyra ladies went all out. Kristi Jung stayed up til 2:30 a.m, making the most gorgeous edible centerpieces.

    

After the final zone conference in Palmyra, we were minutes from the Sacred Grove. We took advantage of what was the last nice day of late Autumn and spent 2 hours at our  favorite place in this Rochester New York Mission. We were the only people in the Grove. The setting sun cast a beautiful glow in the peaceful forest.

 

  Here is Carl, standing next to a 230 year old "Witness Tree", an American Beech that stood in the forest when Joseph Smith entered with a deep desire to know which of all the many churches he should join, and received a marvelous answer from a living God and His Son Jesus Christ.

 As we left the Grove, we marveled at how the lowering sun set the last of the  autumn leaves ablaze, creating a glorious frame for this photo of the  Palmyra Temple. At the same time, higher in the sky, the white moon softly glowed in the fading sky.

 How grateful we are to have served for 23 months in such a place as this!