Monday: We began the
day getting ready to go to Pittsford to the weekly office meeting. We picked up a suitcase to take to Strong
Memorial Hospital for Susan, a young woman that we home teach. She had to go to the hospital in Rochester by
ambulance on Saturday morning, and didn’t have time to take a bag. Her mother asked that we take it to her. After the meeting we finished packing up the
used IPads for shipment to Salt Lake and then went to the hospital. Susan was in good spirits and is being
treated, but they aren’t sure what infection she has at this point. We are hopeful that they are on the right
track for her. We stopped at Sam’s Club
afterward to get some cold medicine for Dennis.
He is suffering from a bad cold at this time. We did find an Olive Garden and had some
lunch. It tasted so good to have a good
salad. We came back to Batavia. (It
seems that we drive all the time, nothing is close here) We had an appointment to meet with one of the
less-active members and invite her back to church. She is a really nice younger woman that has 3
kids of her own and 2 step children. The
step children live with their mothers.
She is one of the luckier gals we have met; she is married. Most of the women we meet don’t have a husband. She works night shifts as a RN in a hospital
about 35-45 minutes from here. We then
went back to see Judy, our less-active sister that has cancer. She seems so lonely. She said she has waited 4 days now for her
daughter to come to do her laundry. She’s
not sure what has happened to her, and she doesn't seem to have many
visitors. We took her some oranges, and
she was happy with them. We got home
about 5:00 and Dennis laid down. His
cold was severe and he didn't sleep too long because of the need to blow his
nose.
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| I caught him sleeping |
We did some more preparation for
the 3 zone conferences we have this week and then read from the Book of
Mormon. I am getting so much from this
reading of the Book of Mormon. We stop
after each chapter and discuss what we thought was the best/most meaningful
part of that chapter. I then write a
short amount regarding what we learned for ourselves. It is really helpful!
Tuesday: We went to
Buffalo to Zone conference and made our 1st of 3 presentations. It turned out alright. (at least President Francis said it was
exactly what he wanted) The missionaries
are so happy to get together in large groups.
They see past companions and friends and the meeting was full of
joy. I am so proud of our young men and
women, they really are good representatives of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Dennis got up Tuesday and his cold was almost
gone, 3 days instead of 10. What a
miracle! It really does help to take
lots of vitamin C, zinc, and Echinacea-Golden seal complex. We saw
our neighbor, Lorraine, this morning and she said that she had been in the
hospital a few days. She went to the Dr.
to have a shot of lidocaine in her shoulder and he punctured her lung and it
collapsed. I sure don’t want to go to
the Dr. (for anything) here! It was a
really pretty evening here and we took a long walk around town. By the time we got home it had cooled off and
my hands were pretty cold. It was nice,
we noticed deer prints in the lawn down the street. There are so many deer here you can’t
believe. The fields are full of
them. There have been so many geese
flying over also. They seem to be flying
higher than the ones in Grant. They are
going on vacation as Conner once told us—because they are in a V. (we loved how he said it, so confident in his
story)
Wednesday: We went to
Zone conference at Westfall and spent the day there. We had many good talks and
presentations. We returned home about
5:30 and were tired. President Francis
told a story about something that had happened in World War I. The Germans were on the side of an important
hill and our military had a plan to remove them. The General asked for the most obedient
calvary man that they had. The officers
all agreed on one of the men and he was called in to visit with the
General. The General asked if he could
be strictly obedient. He answered yes
each time he was asked. The General told
him to get 100 of the best calvary men to ride up on the ridge at 9:00 a.m. and
then promptly off at 9:05. The man took
his men up the ridge and there they saw many Germans coming out of cover to
attack them. Instead of taking the men
off the ridge, they confronted the Germans.
At 9:05 there was a terrible attack of cannons, etc. that killed all the Germans and the 100
calvary men with their horses. He had
not been strictly obedient. The
missionaries were told how important it is to be obedient in all things. It was really good! Our good President Francis talks about our
‘weapons of rebellion’. We all have them
and we hang onto them for who knows what reason. Maybe they are a comfort, an addiction, or
just something to say, ‘I don’t want to conform/reform’. Some are more visible than others; weird hair
styles, weird clothing, tattoos, piercings, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. I have been thinking about what my weapons
of rebellion are and I think I have several.
They are HARD to give up.
One day we had spent quite a bit of time in study and
preparing and I had worn jeans most of the day.
We needed to go to the store and I debated wearing a skirt (I didn’t
want to—maybe one of my weapons of rebellion—and who can stand those
pantyhose?) Well, I changed and we
went. While waiting for Elder Merrill at
the end of the checkout a man came up to me and said, “It’s sure nice to see a
lady in a dress.” I guess it was worth
it. It is a little rare to see gals in
dresses, even in church.
Thursday: We went to
Zone conference in Palmyra. The Stake
center there is across the street from the Temple and around the corner from
the Joseph Smith home and the Sacred Grove.
It is a beautiful location. We
enjoyed being there with the missionaries and then returned home afterward.
Friday: We had a
little time and decided to take Brother Haggerty up on his offer to help with
some of our laundry. He had boasted
about his wringer washer and how great it was.
So we took off our water damaged curtains (from the indoor downpour) and
our bedding and went over to see his washer.
It was similar to the one my mother has used, but his was new and more
fancy. It did a great job and we did a
double rinse. Everything came out so
nice. I was amazed at how he was able to
set up everything so well. (as he is
blind) He has always done the family
wash for him and his wife. (they did
have 2 children too) He thinks it is
therapeutic. We weren’t too long getting
it done and home to dry it. We then took
Susan to the grocery store and then we went to Albion and visit our home
teaching family of husband and wife and to dinner with them. It was a nice day off. (P-day)
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| This barn had neat old gas pumps around it and other memorabilia |
Saturday: We picked
up the Elders at 8:30 and headed to Warsaw.
We had a baptism there for a young Japanese man that the Elders had
taught at the local community college.
(GCC) He was so nice and excited
about his baptism. He would like to join
the Marines, but isn’t a citizen of the United States. After returning to Batavia we prepared a
lunch for the 4 Elders. We served sweet
and sour pork and a birthday cake for Elder Longhurst. It was a nice time.
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| Does this look like something Greg sent home from his mission? Elder Parker and Longhurst |
We
visited a less-active man in our ward to invite him to come back. He is very nice, but has schizophrenia. It’s difficult for most people here, they all
seem to have so many trials. Dennis and
I watched the women’s conference on the internet. It was nice to just enjoy it together. I had invited Amanda to go the church to
watch it with me, but she was ill. It
sounded like most of the ladies were going to watch it at home; so we did the
same.
Sunday: We had a cold
morning again. We had fast Sunday
today. The members here are nearly all
converts, and they have really good testimonies. We had a good meeting with the President
following church about how to reactivate less-active members. We were assigned another less-active husband
and wife to home teach. We have met them
in our visits with the missionaries. She
isn’t a member and he was active at one time.
This should be interesting! We had a few hours of down time this
afternoon and then we went back to the church for a Book of Mormon study class
that was started last week by the missionaries.
Amanda was sick today and her and Skyler weren’t at church, but they
came tonight. Skyler is the only child
in the class, but everyone loves to hear what he has to say. He is more of an adult than most adults. Near the end of the class he asked if next
week would be fast Sunday. He was told
that it had been today, he turned to his mother and said, “we need to skip
supper then”. He answered some of the
questions that people asked in the class tonight—and the answers were really
good. The question was asked, “what is the
difference between a vision and a dream?”
He felt that a vision was something that a person would see while they
were awake. Sounds right to me; if
anyone has something they would like to add to this question, we would like to
hear it. We beat if up pretty badly at
the class.
Funnies: We were in
the 1st zone conference and I felt a bump on my chin. I asked Dennis to look at it and he said,
‘Whoa, when did that happen?’ I guess it
was a big blind pimple. (his reaction
scared me!) Then we couldn't quit
giggling. Why??
We were copying a recipe and I had Dennis reading it to me from a text message. So he says when you have the caked chicken remove it from the feet and . . . What? I think it is cooked chicken, and remove it from the heat. (is was pretty small print)
Realizations: I
haven’t seen very many Spanish people here in New York. We have seen black people, but not many
Spanish. There are lots of farms and
dairies, but maybe they don’t hire extra help.
We met our first Muslim man Monday at the hospital. We were in the elevator and he looked at our
name tags and then asked if we were Mormon.
We said yes, and we asked him what religion he was. He said he was Muslim. He said that he had spent some time in Salt
Lake City and knew a few Mormons. He was
a nice fellow. He said that he had liked
Salt Lake very much. I wondered if he
had been at the hospital there and was a doctor, but he didn't have any
identification on his shirt, and I didn't ask.
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| This is rust on the bottom of our neighbors pick up, and it isn't too old! |
Blessing:
- Being sound of mind--we are so fortunate to be able to think clearly and without trouble. We have met people that have difficulty thinking because of the use of drugs, disease, or other ailments. We have been very blessed!
- Chris recovering so well and quickly! He is feeling so much better and is so happy with his surgery. He has been blessed to get the right help! We are so thankful for this HUGE blessing to him and his family! (and all of us that know and love him so much!)
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