June 1, 2015 Most
days are the same at work, so I will say that we work at the office from
9-5 (and sometimes longer) each day, Monday-Friday. After work we went over to the President’s
home and welcomed 2 new missionaries to the field. We had dinner and then gave them an overview
of the things the office would do for them.
They looked so tired and scared.
We then drove over to the Palmyra Inn where we met our wonderful friends
from Grant. The Hansens, Beesleys,
Summers, Hegsteds, Stuckis, Phyllis Millar, and Kaye Field. It was such a glorious reunion! They looked so good to us. It is such a blessing to have wonderful
friends.* It seemed like a life-time ago
that we had seen each other and it made me think of how great the reunion will
be in Heaven when we see our loved ones again.
That is something to live for, right?
(not die for—we must live right so we can be together forever)
June 2, 2015 We had transfers
today and the missionaries are always so excited to get new companions (not
that the old ones are always bad) and then the new Elders were given their
trainer. We had 1 Elder leaving this
week and he bore a great testimony of the things he had learned on his
mission. After work we drove over to the
Inn again and picked up the Hegsteds.
Chuck and Janet had friends from New York and the 2 car loads came over
to Mendon to see our home. Paula was a Young
and wanted to see the Young home. We had
a great tine and then went to Tom Wahl’s to have a burger. We visited until around 10 at the Inn. The other couples didn’t return from the
Temple so we left. It is always hard
here to stay late because the drive is long.
The tour was supposed to come to the Mendon Cemetery on Wednesday
morning and we were going to meet them there.
Then we would have gone to the Temple with the group. However, one of the tour members had a kidney
stone and they were afraid to spend too much time in an area without medical
help—so that is the reason we brought the Hegsteds to the Young home on Tuesday
night.
June 3, 2015 We went
over to Sam’s Club after work (about 10 miles) and got some groceries. When we started putting groceries away we realized that the door had closed and that we were locked out. We tried everything and then Dennis found a window that wasn't locked shut. He was so nice about climbing through. ( it was my fault we were locked out)
We worked on getting the house put together a
little more and flopped into bed. We
have a new sister in the office and she has had to have lots of help. That has kept me pretty busy. I like her and she is catching on. Dennis has received 8 new cars for the
missionaries. I have had to drive with
him over to the dealership and then follow him home. The church has used several of the
dealerships around here for their cars.
I guess that gives everyone a little piece of the pie. However, some of the dealerships are quite a
few miles away.
June 4, 2015 After
work we went to Wegmans. It is a very
nice grocery store that seems to have everything and then some. The produce is beautiful and everything is
clean and neat. The prices are alright
and we got some things that Sam’s doesn’t offer. We went home and made potato salad and
chocolate sheet cakes with hot fudge sauce for the MLC meeting in the
morning. (MLC is mission leadership
council) We are getting more accustomed
to our little home now. It still has
uneven floors, but it is cozy! There
were some people in our drive way after work and Dennis talked with them about
the property. It was 2 couples on a trip
here from Utah. They weren’t interested
in coming in but wanted to see where Brigham Young had been baptized. (it is very close to us) Tonight we saw our first fireflys here. (or lightening bugs as they say in North
Carolina) It was dark out and there were
little bright spots flitting around. It
was neat!
June 5, 2015 We
served dinner to the MLC group at noon and they seemed to enjoy it. There was pulled pork sandwiches (which seems
to be a staple in the mission) and then the potato salad and the brownie
delight. We did some more cleaning after
we got home. Dennis was worn out as he
had sent most of the cars home with missionaries and sold some of the old
ones. He is doing very well at his new
calling. I am really proud of him. I guess my scary thing today was that one of
the Elders lost his wallet. I had to
cancel his MSF card (Missionary support funds; a limited credit card that I
load each month with $195) and order another one. When they lose their funds they can borrow
from their companion until the new card arrives. The day was nice and sunny and then we had a
cloud burst in the afternoon that really put down the water. It poured!
It also poured in the evening; along with lightening and thunder. It was so pretty!
June 6, 2015 We got
up early and picked up the Workmans and the Walkers. We had a great day as we visited the Corning
Glass Museum in Corning, New York.
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| This glass piece represents the death of a glass factory and how the vultures ate it up |
We also went to Watkin’s Glen. It is a state park that has lots of
waterfalls and 800 steps to the top. We
made it almost half way before Sister Walker’s knees began to hurt and so we
didn’t do the entire hike. It was a
beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves.
Both of the couples are great!
The Walkers are MLS (member leadership support) missionaries in Warsaw
and the Workmans are the apartment people along with the mission nurse. We had really good hamburgers at a Friendlys
in Corning. It was nice to hear of their
lives and work in the mission. Elder
Walker was a soldier in Viet Nam and a State Highway Patrolman in
California. He has lots of entertaining
stories. The Workmans are from North
Carolina and they have cute sayings. The
one they used today was, “gooder than snuff, but half as dusty.”
A saying I enjoyed this week is “If you keep doing what
you’ve done, you will get what you’ve got.”
In other words—if you keep doing things the same, don’t expect a
different outcome.
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| Elder Merrill and Elder Walker sharing secrets |
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| Ron and his brother Dennis and his other brother Dennis |
June 7, 2015 We got
up early and drove to Batavia to church.
We went with the Elders to pick up an investigator, but she was not
home. So we attended church and fast and
testimony meeting was really nice. Our new little convert Skyler was one of the first to bear his testimony. He bore such a sincere and simple testimony. It was very special. Sister Karol was there after having been released from the cancer unit
at the hospital in Rochester and she bore a wonderful testimony. She is still really weak and going to have
more chemotherapy, but she is happy to be home.
After church we went home teaching to the Haggertys, Sandra and Susan,
and then over to visit with Carla. Carla
thought she had been baptized, but there aren’t any records for her; so she is
going to be baptized in the near future.
She is a very nice lady. We
arrived back in Mendon about 7:15. That
seems like a long day!
One of the sisters at church told me about her conversion. Her daughter was grown and lived beyond
Palmyra. Her and her husband drove by
the Hill Cumorah when they would go visit their daughter. They were always saying it was a beautiful
hill. She had bad knees and told him
that someday she was going to climb that hill.
He would laugh. (reminds me of
Barbara’s song about ‘climbing that hill someday’) So, one year they saw the advertisement for
the pageant and decided that they would go and see it. They loved it and went 2 more times that
summer. He told her, “if I believe
anything, it’s what they do in that play.”
So, she asked him if he wanted to have their names put into the canister
for missionaries to visit them on their way out. He said yes.
Well, they did and it was a windy evening and they didn’t hear back at
all. The next year they decided to go
back to the pageant and loved it again.
This time they put their names back in and they were contacted and baptized. They are great people. There are people prepared to hear the truth
and they want it. I can hardly wait to go
to the pageant now. Our stake president
here, President Jensen, came to church last Sunday and had a full beard. He is in the pageant and is growing the beard
for his part.
Blessings: Having
friends that we can do things with and that we love and get along with so
well. We can count on them for support
and help. Good friends are huge
blessings! Thanks for coming to see this
part of the world dear friends! We love
you!
Update on Brent: He
arrived home Saturday, June 6, 2015.
Yahoo! We are so excited for him
to be home with his family.
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