Spring celebrations

 For the past 16 weeks, Carl and I have been  super busy -- finding, furnishing, and moving stuff into 16 new missionary apartments. Call it "pre" and "post" March madness.  This is all part of a huge wave (or Tsunami) of missionaries flooding the earth due to the recent change in ages that they can serve. As a result, all missions have enlarged their missionary forces, and 58 new missions have been created throughout the world. We've been riding the wave, paddling furiously, and are just now approaching some calmer waters. Thankfully, we've had a few occasions, to kick back, and catch our breath a little.

Such as, taking the time to celebrate Elder Gurr's  20th birthday. He came out not too long ago, and is part of our Brockport "family" (the elders and sisters who live close-by us)

left to right: Elder Wilcox (Idaho), Elder Gurr (Arizona), Sister Hawkes (Utah), Sister Johnson (Colorado), Elder Robertson (Utah), Elder Hill (California)

Easter weekend came at the chilly end of winter. We had a nice ham dinner with our little missionary "family". We are all "homeless", in a far-away part of the country, but felt a lot of joy in celebrating this special time of year together.  We are out here because of our love for the Savior. We celebrate His triumph over death and the grave.

The food and plates have been cleared away for the encore--our traditional Easter  bunny cake, which Sister Hawkes and Johnson decorated.



Next came General Conference -- a whole weekend to recharge our spiritual batteries! Also, another occasion to enjoy a meal together. We enjoyed our traditional "potato bar" dinner, following the Sunday afternoon session of conference.

from Left to Right: Elder Gurr, Elder Wilcox, Elder Robertson, Sister Johnson, Sister Hawkes, Elder Hill, and Casey R., a  fairly recent convert in our Brockport Ward, who will be attending BYU in the Fall (her last conference with us!)

Everyone ate up all the food, and are waiting for the traditional Conference dessert to be served.


On April 9, we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary by going to the Palmyra Temple.  After that, we spent some time in the Sacred Grove, where the trees are still bare, but the first flowers are beginning to bloom. 

That  evening, we  were going to celebrate at a great Italian restaurant in Rochester, but instead headed out to Buffalo to pick up Philip, who flew in for free at the spur of the moment (the perks of working for an airline).  The next day, Philip joined us for a morning of specialized training with 4 zones of our missionaries and got to hear and meet our awesome mission president, Jack Christianson. Then, we had lunch in Niagara Falls at Buzzy's (New York style pizza and real Buffalo chicken wings). Before taking Philip back to the airport, we took in the sights at Niagara Falls. It was freezing cold and rainy, but Philip wanted to take his jacket off for the photo.

That was the icing on the cake, to have a visit from a bona fide, real flesh and blood family member!  Hope some more are able to make it out for Hill Cumorah Pageant this year.

special March visitors

Wendy R., our Bishop's wife and her sweet daughter Bailey flew in from Texas, for a very quick visit to celebrate Bailey's 12th birthday. We had so much fun spending the morning with them touring some of the historical Church sites in Palmyra. We were so happy to be with some of our Friendswood 2nd Ward family. (Miss y'all!)

We were also treated to a visit with our sweet daughter Jessica, who also flew in from Texas. It does the heart good to be with family. After seeing Niagara Falls, we spent the next two days touring the wonderful Church sites in the "Cradle of the Restoration". Here we are in front of the Joseph Smith Log Home, before we took a little hike through the Sacred Grove.

The last stop on our second day was the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center.

These two wonderful visits were the only breaks we've had (besides Sundays), in an extremely busy month of March (as well as Jan. and Feb.,--during which 6 other apartments had to be found), involving many set-ups of new missionary apartments (total of 8 if you include the last week of February and the first week of April). We've had to really scramble to find new apartments to accommodate the huge influx of missionaries, due to the recent change in the ages at which the young men and women can serve (18,now for men, and 19 for women).

So after Jessica left, it was back to work. Here I am packing kitchen stuff for one of the missionary  apartments while Carl (Elder Ellis) is loading the car with all the small household stuff.  Meanwhile, the two Assistants to the President, Elder Harris and Elder Olsson are loading the mission moving van with the furniture, which is in the mission storage sheds or in our temporary storage, the mission president's garage. We've had so much bedding and furniture to get that President Christianson barely has room for his car in the 3 car garage. Boy, will he be glad when all these moves are done.

Now, we're not in this for any payment or reward. We do this because we volunteered to serve the Lord in any way He needed us. But there are sweet rewards -- one of which happened just last Sunday, when our Rochester Stake was treated to a special visit by an Apostle of the Lord, Elder David Bednar.  One of my pre-mission wishes was that I would get to shake the hand of an Apostle while out here serving a mission. That wish came true, as he shook my hand, looked into my eyes and told me "thank-you" for my missionary service.

Next weekend, we get to hear him, and other General Authorities bear their special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and give us very timely and inspired counsel that will bring peace and happiness as we heed their words and apply them to our lives. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and how grateful Carl and I are for our Savior and His Gospel that has been restored upon the earth.  He is risen and He lives and loves us more than we can comprehend!

Winter Whites (and Blues)

On a snowy day a few weeks ago, we were doing apartment checks in the Buffalo area of our mission, and decided to see what Niagara Falls looks like in the winter. 

 It was such an amazing white winter wonderland, that we didn't mind the frigid temperatures.

 Last month, we finally got to see our first ice hockey game at Brockport College. I love the sound of the hockey stick hitting the puck and the sight of it flying over the white ice.
                           


Carl loved getting dressed in whites to perform JoAnne's baptism. Sister Torres and Hawkes taught this wonderful woman about the restored Gospel, and we enjoyed getting to know her when we had her over for dinner in our missionary apartment. We felt an instant bond of friendship with her.

 

I love the whiteness and warmth of the temple on a cold winter day. 

Palmyra Temple

  We are loving the whiteness of winter here in upstate New York, however there is such a thing as winter blues.

Winter blues are things like driving through a fast approaching snow storm (Nemo)...

(If it weren't for a zone meeting, we wouldn't have even ventured out.)

 

.... and for this Texan to have to shovel snow for the first time in his life.

We feel the winter blues when dear friends finish  their missionary service and leave to go home. These two very wonderful couples have served with us on the mission office staff since we arrived here last January, and have welcomed us with open arms.

Elder and Sister Servoss left in January, heading back home to Utah. This was their 2nd mission, the first one was in the Netherlands, where Elder Servoss served when he was a young man.  We miss you!

 One week later, Elder and Sister Jensen also headed home to Utah, leaving more broken hearts in the mission. We miss you!  It is really hard to go into the office each Monday for our staff meetings, and not see them there.  The only consolation is that we will see them (and the McVea's -- another dear office couple) when we are in Utah.

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.

rejoice!

Christmas greetings from the New York Rochester Mission



(left to right) Us, Elder and Sister Servoss, Elder and Sister Jensen, and (seated) our wonderful Mission President
and his wife, the Christianson's.

What a blessing it's been to meet every Monday morning  with these tremendous folks. 
Along with planning and coordinating all the details of running a mission,
 we are strengthened spiritually as our mission president shares with us
 his testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, his tremendous knowledge
 of the scriptures (he can pull any scripture out of his head) , and his many insightful thoughts.

This week we had our Christmas Zone meetings. Each day ended with
 musical presentations by the missionaries, a movie and testimonies.

One of our missionaries, Elder Goedel, a former national hoop dancing champion,
 was able to perform a dance taught to him by his father.

 

 

 

 

 

 He starts off with just one hoop, and  gradually adds more hoops, until he is dancing with all 8.
The dance is very intricate and graceful,
 representing the growth of a fledgling into a mighty eagle.

These young missionaries emerge from their missions as mighty men and women of God.
 Jesus Christ gives us wings to soar like an eagle.

So, wishing all of our family and friends a joyous Christmas.

 Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers sent our way this year.

 And, y'all -- looks like we're in for a white Christmas!

 

 view from our bedroom window this morning

 

 

 

beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We had a bit of snow the first weekend of December, just enough to get us in the mood to set up a few decorations in our missionary apartment.

(Can you spot our Texas car shivering in the cold?)

We took a break, on Dec. 5, from our busy schedule to celebrate my 65th birthday (officially an "old lady" now).  Got my Medicare card. Now just need to get a cane and I'm ready for anything life throws at me.

We celebrated at The Village Inn, which was a resting place for weary travelers and was built in 1824, in the town of Albion, on Ridge Road, formerly an Indian trail. The main dining room where we sat, once served as a carriage shed with a dance floor above.

If that wasn't enough excitement, the following weekend, the Jensens (another couple on the mission office staff) invited us to accompany them to Kirtland, Ohio, where we drove a  mission van and  traded it out for a brand new one (the new car smell was intoxicating).
Were we in for a treat!  Historic Kirtland was alive with the Christmas spirit! The church's Historic Kirtland Visitors Center took our breath away with the most magnificent display of 700 nativities from all over the world.

huge olive tree wood nativity made in Israel

Another weekend, we were treated to a most glorious performance of Handel's Messiah, performed by the Rochester Chamber Orchestra and featuring world renowned opera singers.

Hochstein Performance Hall, Rochester, N. Y., an award winning concert hall, built in 1890 as a Presbyterian Church sanctuary

There's nothing like music to bring in the Christmas spirit. Don't forget to get your free download of the best ever Christmas music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It is sooo beautiful, it sends your spirit soaring. Click HERE.