Finally!

We have only 8 more weeks left here in New York. In retrospect, our 23 month mission has flown by so quickly.

Recently we've finally gotten to do a few of these things:
 

A few weeks ago, on a mild early September day, we finally got a tour of the Sacred Grove in Palmyra with Bob Parrott.  Bob is a forester and naturalist, employed by the Church, who has restored the grove from a park like setting to it's current natural state, reflecting how it looked back in Joseph Smith's day.

 For three hours  Bob shared with us some marvelous insights he has gained. There are many lessons to be learned in the Grove. You will enjoy this CES Devotional for Young Adults (May 2012) presented by Elder Marlin K. Jensen who had served as mission president here. He shares some of these insights about the Sacred Grove. We can apply these to our lives. Watch it for your next "family home evening".

 

 

After our tour of the Grove, we enjoyed our final ice cream at the famous "Chill 'n Grill". It's now closed til next summer. We don't dare order anything bigger than a "half kiddie cone".

 

 

Just last week, Billy and Carol Ellis (brother and sister-in-law) came up from Pennsylvania to visit us for a few days. Elaine and Phil Sherman (Carol's sister and her husband) also came. We met Elaine and Phil for the first time last December, when we spent Christmas with them on their farm. We'd been planning on them coming since then, and are so glad it finally happened. We had such a great time being with family.

 

We spent the first day at Niagara Falls, which is in our mission.  The weather was perfect -- the last fall day with warmth and sunshine, so we didn't mind getting showered by the falls when we rode the Maid of the Mist and did the Cave of the Winds hike.

 Carl enjoyed spending time with his big brother Billy, who is very funny.

Me, Elaine, and Carol enjoying our up-close-and-personal experience with the Falls, on our Cave of the Winds hike. 

 

On our second day, we took in some nearby sights. The weather was a bit cooler, and the sun stayed out long enough for a cruise on the Eerie Canal on the packet boat replica, the Sam Patch.

Captain Bob and the "Sam Patch", named after a daredevil ("The Yankee Leaper") who lost his life jumping into the High Falls in Rochester with his pet bear.

 

We spent the remainder of the day at the Rochester Museum of Science.  

 

 

 

After our company left, it was back to checking missionary apartments. What a great way to end up a day of apartment checks -- at Letchworth State Park!  It was our final visit  to the "Grand Canyon of the East", where we enjoyed the beautiful fall foliage of upstate New York. 

Can you believe that this bridge, the Portage Bridge, was built in 1875?  It was built to replace the highest wooden bridge in the world, which burned down in 1875. It spans the upper falls of the Genesee River, which runs through Letchworth Park.

 

It was a fun hike up to the bridge, with very scenic views.

          There's always a rainbow on a sunny day, because of all the mist from the falls.

 

 

Letchworth Park is also the burial place of Mary Jemison, the "White Woman of the Genesee".  As a young teenage girl, she was captured by Seneca Indians during the French and Indian War.  She raised her Indian family within the present boundaries of the Park.

Grave and monument of "Deh-ge-wa-nus"--Mary Jemison. She refused the opportunity to return to the white people, finding life more rewarding among the Seneca.

 

We celebrated the end of an amazing autumn day, by dining at the Glen Iris Inn, which overlooks the scenic gorge. The inn is the former home of William Letchworth who donated the one  thousand acres he owned in the Genesee Valley to the State of  New York

 Spectacular view from the Glen Iris Inn  of the Middle Falls

 

We will really miss these lovely autumn days.

 

 

Yesterday, we ran our final 5K race in New York -- a repeat of the one we did last year. Our church is a main sponsor of this event, which benefits the House of  Mercy, a local homeless shelter. We both did better than our last year times, and Carl won first place for his age division!  

 Carl's prize was a gift certificate for a running store -- just in time to get new running shoes for our next 5K -- the Houston Rodeo Run.  Yahoo!

After the race, we enjoyed our final New York apple season, by picking our own fresh apples, straight from the tree, from a local farm. These are the yummiest apples I've ever tasted. Divine! Got the best apple cider ever, along with 2 (only 2!) homemade pumpkin donuts that were also divine. On Halloween, we'll get a dozen apple cider donuts (which were all sold out), to share with the missionaries.

If it weren't for the high taxes, salty winter roads, and lack of grandkids here, we'd be tempted to  stay here forever. It's been a great place to serve a mission.

 

September celebrations!

 A new grandson, Benjamin Liam, was born on September 17, to Lauren and Dan.




A few days later, on Sept. 21, we celebrated sweet granddaughter Kyla's 10th birthday, by walking from the Joseph Smith Log home to the Hill Cumorah (4 miles) .  Sept. 21 is the day the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in this room in the log home, instructing him and telling him of the ancient record that was hidden in the Hill Cumorah.

A group of 40 missionaries made the hike. Our new mission president, President Francis is on the far left.
 (He is 6'7", almost as tall as the monument in back of him!)

 

 

The following day, Sept. 22, was another very special celebration -- the 2nd birthday of our precious miracle granddaughter, Dahlia!

             


 Last Tues., we celebrated a beautiful autumn day by going to the Palmyra Temple with our Brockport sister missionaries. We learned that the angel Moroni statue that tops the temple had just been replaced with a new one.  The old one got hit by lightning.
                   

 

This is Brother and Sister Wallgren.  Brother Wallgren travels the world, restoring these statues.

On the way home from the temple, we treated the missionaries to lunch.  Sister Butters loves "Happy Meals" and the toys that come with them.

  
Last night, the women in our stake gathered to hear the Women's General Conference broadcast from Salt Lake. Here are Lorraine (a special friend and member of our Brockport Ward) and I at the dinner provided beforehand. Lorraine has been recently battling  cancer. She has finished radiation and chemo and is now cancer free. A big reason to celebrate! It's going to be hard leaving behind friends like this when it's time to go home.

Where did August go? Hello September and Andy and KayLynn!

Wow! August has been pretty busy.  Along with finding the last of the 4 new apartments needed in the mission, we had two weeks of zone conferences.  Carl and I do a little presentation on missionary housing after zone conference lunches. Carl's presentation is on the serious side, while mine is silly.  It's fun giving out award certificates for 100% apartments (we give them a score each month when we inspect their apartments). We have a drawing -- all apartments scoring 95 and above for the quarter -- are entered.  The missionaries in the winning apartment get  McDonald's gift cards. The silly part is the little housecleaning "tutorial" I give. This month, they all learned how to dust (and even got a free microfiber dust cloth).

                                      Here are the props I used this month.

 Many missionary apartments have this

                                      warning sign by their front door.

 

 

In the morning of all the zone conferences, Carl is busy with Elder Willyerd (the mission "car czar"), helping inspect the mission autos, and select the cleanest car, which earns the "golden plates".

 

For the remainder of the month, we had a grand total of 40 apartments to check, which is 11 more than usual, since the senior missionary couple who checks those went home. Their replacement just arrived, thank goodness!  We have 7 other senior couples helping to check apartments. Our mission covers a huge geographical area.

 

It was so sweet for one pair of our  Elders to do this for us.

(of course, they got a 100!)

 

When September rolled around, Andy and KayLynn visited us for a few days. They couldn't have come at a better time. It was a very badly needed break, and filled our hearts with joy.

KayLynn looked so cute pregnant with our little grandbaby# 14, who is due in January.

Here's a peek at the places we took them to.

 

After visiting all the historic Church sites in Palmyra, we ended up in Fayette, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, at the Peter Whitmer Farm.

 

 

It was labor day, so we relaxed on the shores of Lake Seneca, which is close to Fayette

.

 

 

The next day, we went to the Palmyra Temple. Nothing beats being in the temple with family.

 

 

 

Wednesday was a perfect day to visit Niagara Falls. Here we are at the place where the force of the water coming down from the Falls and entering the Niagara River, has created a Gorge.

 

 

When we were at Niagara Falls, waiting in line to get on the Maid of the Mist, who should we meet, but DEXTER -- look closely at his name tag! (I haven't a clue who Dexter is, but I guess he's an infamous T.V. character). Dexter was so excited to see his newfound friend, Andy, that we sort of got V.I.P. treatment.

I think I prefer the real Dexter to the T.V. Dexter (based on Andy's T shirt).

 

The Maid of the Mist was an awesome boat ride. Boy, did we get drenched.

In case you're wondering who the weirdo is --it's me!

 

It was good to get out of those blue plastic rain ponchos. (It was an electrifying experience for Andy!)

 

 

 

 

The final day, we took in some of the tourist spots in nearby Rochester. (And had a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory) ----

 

We were part of a group, with a grand total of 6, including us, on a cruise of the Eerie Canal on a replica of an original packet boat, the "Sam Patch". During the summer, this canal boat is packed.

Our tour guide has done documentaries on T.V. about the Eerie Canal.

 

 

Rochester is the home of the once thriving Eastman Kodak Company. We really enjoying seeing the mansion of the founder, George Eastman. Here is Carl in the Museum of Photography, which is an extension of the mansion.  There were all kinds of old, historical cameras, and photo exhibits.

 

 

This is our favorite room in the mansion, where George Eastman liked to eat breakfast, while listening to his own private organ recital. The organ, shipped in from Europe, is hidden behind some plants (on the right). 

 

The mansion is surrounded by magnificent gardens

 

 

Then it was on to "High Falls", right in the middle of the city of  Rochester.

 

 

We finished up the day at Lake Ontario, which is close to the town of  Brockport, where we live.

Thanks for coming to visit us Andy and KayLynn! We had so much fun.  Now it's back to work.

 

We are in the final weeks of our mission, with slightly more than 8 weeks to go. Our replacement couple gets here the end of Oct. After training them and probably  attending our last zone conferences in November, we're good to go -- a bit earlier than the projected Dec. 16 release date. Hard to believe. The time has literally flown by.

Hill Cumorah Pageant -- 2013

Lots of people came to town during the two weeks of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, in Palmyra, New York (part of our mission).

Vernon Law, 1960 World Series Champion and baseball Hall of Famer, was in town during Pageant and was the guest speaker at a fireside in Rochester on Sunday night. He spoke of "how living the Gospel of Jesus Christ has helped me realize my dreams".

 

Vernon Law being presented an original 1960 baseball program
by Elder Snarr, the senior missionary who made this event happen.

 

 The next day, we picked son Philip up from the airport, and attended the first annual "Mormon Night", baseball game in Batavia, home of the "Muckdogs", where Vernon Law threw out the first pitch.  Philip rooted for the "Tri-City Valley Cats", a farm team for the Houston Astros, who won the game. The only other people rooting for the opposing team, was a family from Buffalo, who -- oddly enough-- were Astro fans. We had a fun visit with them and invited them to Pageant.

The next night we took Philip to the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  He was a toddler the last time he saw it.

Carl and I attended Pageant almost every night and were amazed to run into so many people we hadn't seen for a while.

One of our first surprises was in literally running into our daughter-in-law Nicole's parents, Michael and Rochelle. Last time we saw them was at Jeremy and Nicole's wedding.

 

 

 

We ran into some folks from our home ward in Friendswood, Texas.  These two couples were in the cast.

Lydia and Dick Rowan

David and Ingrid Frey

Another surprise was running good friends we haven't seen for a few years, Marta Bourgeois (Rudy there also, but not pictured), and Eileen Peterson, a member of our Texas ward.

Marta, Eileen, Carl and I (Rudy B. was there too, but not in photo)

We were also delighted to see Shelli Horman, from our home ward, who flew in from Texas with her husband and children.

 
One of the biggest surprises was running into Steve Robinson (whom we have known since he was a boy) and his wife Sara and their young children. Steve had just gotten a job with Corning, which is in our mission. They didn't expect to see anyone they knew at the Pageant in Palmyra, and were totally shocked to see us.

It was so much fun to see some of our former missionaries, who came back for Pageant with their families. They were surprised that we were still here (a 23 month mission is a long time!)

"Elder" Caldwell

"Elder" Hoffman

"Elder" Anderson, who was one week shy of getting married.

Sadly, one of the Pageant performances got cancelled, due to lightning storms which were a threat the entire evening. It was very disappointing for many people, who had come from great distances. We worked at one of the information booths that night, and got to visit with a few of the cast members while waiting for final word on the cancellation of the show.

Jordan Davis, a member of our Brockport ward, Carl, and another cast member

"Nephi", who is portrayed by a recently returned missionary.

It's been such a treat for Carl and I to have attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant for two years in a row. This amazing production portrays scenes from the Book of Mormon -- from Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem, arriving in a promised land, and showing Christ's visit to these people, his "other sheep", following his resurrection.
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