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.

enchanting forests

Two weeks ago, while checking out a lead on a missionary apartment in the town of  Nunda, we took our lunch break in nearby Letchworth State Park, known as the "Grand Canyon of the East". (There is a huge waterfall in back of Carl.)

 We are continually amazed at the beauty within our mission here in upper state New York.

 When we returned this week to move all the stuff into this missionary apartment, we visited Letchworth Park again, and finished the day with a picnic supper.  This time, things had begun to green up a bit, and we witnessed a hot air balloon launch right across from our picnic table.

                                                                          UP

                                                                        UP

                                                                       UP

                                                                 
                                                                  AND AWAY!

 Equally as breathtaking, was the sight of a very long train slowly going across the spindly bridge spanning the width of the canyon.

 Meanwhile, back in Palmyra, Spring is starting to bloom in one of our favorite places, the Sacred Grove, where on a beautiful Spring morning in 1820, the prayers of a young boy were dramatically answered.

Do you see the spider?

Another enchanting forest is this "fairy garden", created by sweet Ali, her mom and her sisters, who are in our Brockport Ward.
 We had a Relief Society Enrichment night on gardening and this delightful creation was on display. Cute little Ali is even more delightful.  She loved posing for these pictures, and is hamming it up for the camera (which is so funny because she is very quiet and shy).

I love Spring in New York!

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.