Our quarterly zone conferences started this past week. It's sad to think that this was the last time we got to be with Buffalo South and Buffalo North zones. Next week, we have 4 more days of zone conferences.
Here we are with one of our wonderful missionaries, Elder Bagley, from Georgia. It's his last zone conference too. He's going home next week. He promised to come by and see us when he drives through Houston. We feel such a special bond with our missionaries, and love them so much.
Saturday was very awesome. Sister Butters, who is in our Brockport District, was asked to speak in Palmyra at the baptism of this sweet lady, Kathy. Sister Butters had taught Kathy for 6 months prior to being transferred to Brockport. We were so happy to give her a ride to Palmyra so she could be a part of Kathy's baptism. Sister Butters has seen a remarkable transformation in Kathy, from someone who was very hardened to someone who radiates true happiness. That's what missionary work is all about -- sharing the Gospel with others, and bringing them to Jesus Christ.
From left to right: Sister Killen, Kathy, Sister Graham, and Sister Butters.
On Tuesday, we moved the Gowanda Elders out of their temporary home. While their new apartment was in the finishing stages of being remodeled, the owner has graciously let them stay in one of his homes, which we nicknamed "the Mansion." Mark S. is probably the wealthiest man in town, and owns the local funeral home. He is very happy to be renting to the Church and his rent is very reasonable and well within the allotted budget.
The" Mansion" sits high on a hill overlooking Gowanda.
This fellow lives in one of the rooms in the other part of the mansion. The owner is remodeling that part. Our newest senior missionary couple moved into the Mansion this week, after the Elders moved out.
Standing up: Carl, Sir Lancelot, Elder Bevan, Elder Cashmore.
Kneeling: Elder Hadley and Elder Ivy.
The new apartment, a small apartment in an old house, is beautifully remodeled by the owner, who runs the funeral home next door. Elder Ivy and Elder Cashmore are living there now. (the other two Elders live down the road in Cattauragus, on the edge of the Seneca Indian reservation.
The counter tops are stainless steel! That red glow comes from a light strip that is constantly changing colors -- a fancy night light invented by the owner.
Our replacements, Elder and Sister Ray (Sister Ray is the sister the apostle Elder Anderson), have arrived in the Mission! We started training them on Wednesday, taking them down to Canandaigua with us, where we found another new missionary apartment. After that we headed further south, down past Lake Seneca, for a little outing at Watkins Glen, a very scenic site with 19 waterfalls and 200 feet cliffs. It was cold, but the steep hike warmed us up.
On the way there, Carl stopped for gas in the small town of PennYan and here's what we saw coming down the street-- an Amish buggy!
Notice how we look a bit haggard and worn out, and the Rays look brand new.
On Thursday, the missionaries came over to our place for a Halloween district meeting and lunch.
It took me a while to realized the things on top of the Sisters' heads were supposed to be frogs' eyes.
From left to right: Elder Fierros (band new missionary), Elder Barnes, Elder Johnston, Elder Kelly
Sister Sumsion and Sister Butters -- our current Brockport "sons" and "daughters". We sure do love them.
On Friday, a mini hurricane blew through our part of upstate New York. All the leaves in our part of the apartment complex got blown onto our front door entry way.
Even a trip to the local grocery store is scenic around here. These flaming red Maple leaves won't be on the trees for too much longer.
Yesterday afternoon, we had our Ward's fall social. The weather was quite cold and rainy. We had it inside the barn of one of the ward members. Homemade hot soups and hot spiced apple cider warmed us up. It was so pretty with the view of corn fields out the open barn doors. We were glad we went, and we had a fun time fellowshipping.
Today, ended up a busy week, with me fixing dinner for 10 -- us, the 6 missionaries in our district, and a wonderful young couple who are investigating the Church and have set a baptism date for Nov. 23. Carl cut up one of our Halloween pumpkins, and we enjoyed fresh pumpkin pie for dessert.
I've challenged myself to do a post for each of the last 8 weeks of our 23 month mission in Upstate New York. Here are a few of the happenings I photographed from last week.
On Monday, we drove Sister Morgan into Rochester for her last meal in the USA. After treating her and her companion, Sister Butters, to lunch at Cheesecake Factory, we dropped her off at the mission home. She and a few other visa waiters piled into the mission van and were promptly dropped off at the airport. She has now completed her first week in Brazil and is dining on rice and beans.
Sister Morgan and Sister Butters. (Sister Butters is still in our Brockport district, but with a new companion, Sister Sumsion.)
This past week, we enjoyed spending time in the Sacred Grove, before it gets really cold.
On one of our infrequent days that we get to stay all day in Brockport, we had a great visit with one of our ward members, Sister Lucero, who shared with us the stories behind the many wonderful Native American artifacts decorating her lovely home. Her husband, who died two years ago, was a Navajo Indian. Sister Lucero is wearing the handmade Indian shawl she wore when she participated with her husband in Pow Wow dances in New Mexico and Arizona.
Towards the end of the week, our mission was visited by Elder Bruce D. Porter of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife Susan. Before leaving our mission, Elder Porter and his wife visited with the office staff. When he asked Carl and I where our office was, we had to tell him "our car". Each of us on the staff shared with him what we've been up to. He then treated us to a wonderful devotional before we all had lunch together. Then they were off to tour the Utica New York Mission.
Not only are Elder and Sister Porter spiritual giants, but they are very tall. (We are such shrimps.)
After some busy days of checking various missionary apartments this week, it was fun to attend several night time events.
Our first event was at the Grandin Building, where the Book of Mormon was printed in 1830. Mark (who does this for a hobby) demonstrated the tedious process of how the books were originally sewn together and bound. He is making us a leather bound replica of the original Book of Mormon.
Here he is sewing sections "(signatures") of the book together.
The following evening, at the Palmyra Inn, we attended a lecture by Rod Meldrum (the event wasn't church sponsored), where he told of the compelling evidence for the "heartland of America" theory of where the events in the Book of Mormon took place. Take a look at his interesting website.
Rod signed copies of his book, "The Book of Mormon in America's Heartland".
Friday afternoon found us in Rochester, where we decided to spend our date night at the world famous Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre. Built by George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, this opulent, magnificent concert hall, which opened in 1922, is the primary concert hall for the Eastman School of Music (on same level as Julliard School of Music). This historic venue originally contained 3,094 seats. Some of the world's greatest musicians and conductors have shared its stage with Eastman students.
We were treated to a breath taking, world class performance, by the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eastman-Rochester Chorus, of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.2 in C Minor, "Resurrection."
Admission was free. All the seats were filled. The standing ovation lasted 15 minutes.
Mother Nature is putting on quite a show around here too. This is across the street from our local Wal-Mart, where we are constantly buying items needed for missionary apartments.
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.
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.
