Mission News-

This week has been one of our busiest yet.  In the last two weeks we have delivered about 45 Christmas goodies with a card and message to military families.  We also delivered our sub for Santa gifts to six families on the 23rd at night in deep snow.  Dad waded through to each house and never got caught.  On Christmas Eve we had a small wedding in the chapel and then we furnished refreshments.  Earlier in the week we went with this couple to pick out a bouquet and help them find a Christmas tree stand.  On the way home we saw the sisters in the freezing cold and picked them up and took them to get some dinner.  It was a fun, unplanned evening.  Christmas Day we had the Elders and Sisters over in shifts for brunch and then in the evening we went to dinner at the home of the Petty family.  They have 6 children and it was great to be with a family for Christmas.  Their whole family was in Pageant last summer.  We missed the family and all of the usual things, but we kept busy and did fine through Christmas.  The next evening we went to visit the Ortega's again to take them a DVD of their temple trip and some consecrated oil for him to take to Afghanistan.  His mother was visiting and wanted a blessing because of migraine headaches.  He helped dad give the blessing and was thrilled for his first time.  We are now letting down a bit and getting back on our normal schedule.  We send our love to all! 

Palmyra temple

Hi everyone, These are two pictures are from our busy Saturday. One is of the Ortega family from Texas.  He will be deployed on the 28th of Dec. to Afghanistan with the 3rd Brigade as a medic.  They have been here just about a month and wanted to get married in the temple before he left.  I think we told you the story of their busy Sunday. On Friday, in a major snow storm, (Mom was a nervous wreck}, we drove them down to Palmyra. We left on Friday because we were worried about not being able to get there Sat. morning because of the storm, this is the only window they had.  The Ortega's had a 7:45 appointment at the temple for endowments and sealing.  We stayed over night at the Palmyra Inn and got up to more snow but the temple was less than 5 minutes away. It was a great experience to be with this faithful young couple fulfilling their righteous desire.  They were so excited.  It was still snowing when we got out of the temple. We quickly showed them around the sites and then raced home to a baptism in Watertown, the other picture. Mom was doing the refreshments for after the baptism social.  Sister Santiago is also a deploying soldier in the 3rd Brigade.  Her finance, in the picture is in the second phase of Special Forces training and will be gone most of the year anyway.  They decided to get married before she left. They are going to be married by the Bishop on Christmas eve.  Mom will help with some light refreshment, ya right. I was asked to baptize and confirm her, it's what the mission calls a white Christmas (clothing). It was a very busy but a spiritually uplifting day for all involved. We could not have done the temple thing without Melissa's help on the temple clothing.  Everything fit perfectly and the Ortegas were very happy.  The Lord really wanted them married in the temple because of how things worked out.  Only in the mission field!  It has been snowing all week.  Today after church I took the Elders to Syracuse and then to Utica, one is going home tomorrow. I went alone because Mom was just not up to another nervous storm run.  It was a good thing too because the roads were snow packed all the way down and on the way home things got really bad fast. I drove for 20 miles in almost white out conditions, snow packed roads with temperatures in the low teens, talk about a prayer in one's heart.  Our car has been super, it has really been snow tested, I can't imagine driving conditions being any worse.  We are loving the work, especially the people.  We love and miss you all, have a great Christmas and at some point read the Bible story in Luke of Christ's birth.  Mom and Dad      

This Weeks News From NY

Hi everyone!  We started our busy week by driving a sister missionary down to the Syracuse Airport at 4:30 Monday morning.  That's the story of mission work. We had a wonderful couple of days with Mark and Mel and kids.  It was so much fun to meet Cael and know his sweet, happy personality.  The weather isn't the greatest here, but we had fairly good travel conditions.  They met the Mission mother down in Palmyra and came to the Watertown Christmas party with us and met lots of the returned soldiers and their families.  This picture is at Sackett's Harbor which is now ice.  It was cold, but fun.  We shopped at H&M (eat your heart out girls), and saw the sights at Palmyra.  At the Watertown Christmas party one of the soldiers who is home on leave for Christmas gave us an American flag that was flown over the Multi National Corps- Iraq Headquarters in Bagdad.  It had a certificate with it signed by a general and a thank you to us for our support.  We were thrilled and honored and will treasure it.  Mark and Mel left about 1:30 on Saturday and we went on to the Carthage Ward Christmas party and followed that by two baptisms for which we furnished the food and programs.  It seems we get busier and busier.  This week we have half mission Zone Conference in Utica, taking the Elders and Sisters bowling for their p day (8 of them), taking a couple down to the Temple to be sealed and trying to visit everyone to take our Christmas goodies around  and do our volunteer work.  Tomorrow night we are wrapping up our sub for Santa presents at Young Adults.  It is a busy, happy work.  We send our love to you all at this holiday season!

News from the north country

Hi gang, this has been one of those fantastic weeks to be in the field.  First to explain the pictures.  The Family is the Da Silva's. The oldest son was baptize several weeks ago.  On Saturday he baptized his father and younger brother and on Sunday he ordained his father to be a priest. The mother will be baptized this coming Saturday, the twins are 4 years.  The other picture is of the YA group at the monthly dinner.  Sister Larsen is setting a pretty high standard here for dinners, with table cloths and center pieces.  The soldiers love the food and so do the Elders. Sunday we had just an amazing day.  It began with a big lake effect snow storm, we crawled over to the Watertown Ward for PEC meeting and learned they were canceling church.  After the meeting we decided to make the trek to Carthage because the Stake president was going to be there for deployment blessings.  It was a heavy storm with snow packed roads all the way but well worth the drive.  A couple who has just been here from Texas 2 weeks wanted to go to the temple for endowments and sealing before he is deployed on the 28th.  We had begun to teach them the temple prep. lessons just this week.  Their records had not arrived yet and he was still a priest. No way right, but this is the mission field.  After sacrament meeting the ward clerk was checking the computer for something else when their membership records showed up.  Since the Stake Pres. was there all the interviews were done and Brother Ortega was ordained an elder by the Stake Pres. with the rest of the presidency assisting. To get all that done while church was going on was a real miracle.  They also got their temple recommends completed.  He even called the temple pres. to make an appointment. We were in a meeting with some of the Ward members and the Stake Pres. kept coming in and having the men sustain the ordination and then he came back in the meeting and the men joined in the ordination with lots of hugs and handshakes afterward.  To get their temple clothes in time we called Melissa and she is going to mail them this week.  We also set apart a serviceman group leader for the 3rd Brigade. All this during a raging lake effect snow storm. We taught the Ortega's two more temple prep. lessons and topped off the day by watching the Church Christmas Program via satellite at the Watertown Ward with the Sisters and Elders and 3 investigators.  What a day! Love this work, take care, we love and miss you all.  Mom and Dad 

Mission News- 11/30/08

What a wonderful surprise!  We love the tree ornaments.  As you can see, our little tree is full, but beautiful.  Thanks to all of you, it is such a  great gift for us out here.  We are already in the holiday spirit with our Dec. Young Adult dinner being on the 1st.  We are grateful for your help with the sub for santa and the young adults are excited.  We are going shopping next Monday and wrapping the following week.  We have a half mission conference this month for Christmas and Ward Christmas parties, etc.  We are also going to try to visit as many as possible with Christmas goodies.  We are doing so much better visiting the new families of the deployed than we did when we first got here.  We are sooo excited to see Mark and Mel & family!

We had a great Thanksgiving and we mixed it with missionary work.  We had thre soldiers        
and an investigator family plus the missionaries to dinner.  This family is sort of a miracle.  The son got baptized and the Dad is getting baptized Saturday.  The mom's sister lives in Kaysville and was recently baptized.  The dad's mother lives in Portugal and she is taking the missionary lessons.  None of them knew about the others until just recently.  The mission president tells us there are no coincidences.  We love the people here and are as busy as ever.  The winter is coming with three days and nights of snow this week.  Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and we send our love!

weekly missionary news

Hi Gang, I am posting these pictures of this family because it is a typical story of how things work, out here in the North Country.  Mosiah and his wife Cindy were both raised in Orem, Ut and went to Orem HS.  Mosiah is flight engineer on the Chinock helicopter.  He deployed less than a month ago to Kirkuk, Iraq.  They had just bought a house in Natural Bridge, NY out in the country.  They have 4 year old twins and Mosiah's brother Dennis is living with them. They have been inactive since arriving over two years ago.  A week after Mosiah left, the upstairs toilet started to leak.  After several trips and parts I was able to fix that problem. Before I left I asked if everything else was alright.  Cindy told me the dishwasher wasn't working.  I checked it out and found that the valve in the basement was spraying hot water all over the place.  The plumbing was so old that the valve just broke apart.  I finally got things shut off and was able to get a new valve and fixed it the next day.  If I hadn't gone into the basement and notice the flooding who knows how long it would have lasted.  Cindy and the twins have been going to church since Mosiah left. Mosiah came to church the Sunday before he left and asked for a deployment blessing, imagine that.  Oh, did I mention that Mosiah's father Jorge sold us our car before we left, we found that out after visiting them here.  Mosiah noticed our license plate and frame and said his Dad worked there as a salesman.  Situations simular to this happen all the time out here.  They are common place until you start to think back on them.  The top picture was taken just a hour before Mosiah deployed with his unit, Scott and Jen were there also. At that time I promised Mosiah I would keep an eye on his family. We love the work and miss you all, stay close. Love Mom and Dad  

Mission News- 11/16/08

These two pictures were taken at Lake Placid, NY on our P-day this week.  It is about 2-1/2 hours North East of here in the Adirondack mountains.  We decided to go up there before the snow starts to fall.  It was just a beautiful drive not unlike driving in the Unitas of Utah.  The lake at the bottom of town, where Mom is standing is at 1890 feet elevation and the mountains they ski off are about 48oo feet so you can see it is a much smaller version of our olympic venue.  The building with me in front is the the hockey stadium where the famous "Miracle of Ice" game took place in the 1980 Olympics. It was kind of fun seeing that part of history.  The town has one main street with lots of gift shops and such, much like Park City's main street. It was fun to see, especially with all the history involved. The Adirondacks are a hugh recreation area for the whole East Coast, lots of camps, cabins and tourist stuff.  There are lots of lakes and waterways in the area with numerous SMALL towns.  We are still managing to stay involved the this mission thing.  We are getting used to having more to do than we will be able to complete. Kind of like always being behind. All the past deployed soldiers have returned now and we are gearing up for the new deploying one's.  It's kind of interesting that the wards have changed places with most of the new deployed soldiers coming from Carthage now.  We will have 17 spouses in the Carthage ward and less than8 in the Watertown ward. We still have a problem in locating the new YSA that come to Post, the lost sheep list is a constant worry for us. The elections have had little impact on Post, the military just keeps doing its job and not saying much.  We feel so blessed to be involved in this work.  We miss you all, love Mom and Dad 

We are sharing more pictures of the homecomings.  They are so great to go to.  It really brings tears to your eyes.  Three hundred men all saluting is impressive. This one in the picture had two men from the ward in the unit.  At the beginning they welcomed them all back and paid special honor to a soldier that was lost in battle.  His family was there and everyone stood and applauded.  They play the national anthem and turn them loose.  It is so great to be there!  These soldiers had been gone 15 months.  In the election they were all for Mc Cain.  They believe in the war effort and say that they are doing good things in Iraq.  The best thing is that they just want to go home to their families when they return.  They expect no honor or attention for what they do, it's just their job.  The next picture is of the baptism this week.  The young man is 16 years old and part of a whole family that is being taught the gospel.  He hopes to baptize his parents in a couple of weeks.  His father is an amazing man.  He was raised in Portugal and speaks several languages.  He has served five tours of deployment on special missions.  He goes undercover into the culture as one of them.  He has been wounded three times.  They are now remodeling an old home here to stay and live in as he is getting out of the service.  They will be great additions to the ward.  It has been so much fun this past week to get to know all the returning husbands.  Now we have a whole new group to visit whose husbands just left.  The work is great and we love it!     

We had a wild week trying to attend deployment ceremonies and returning ceremonies of the soldiers.  On Monday we went up to the hanger to send off a soldier and we never found him, but we found two others from the Watertown Ward  with their families.  A few minutes later three of the young adults from the Carthage Ward came up to us and asked if they could get a blessing.  We got the two from Watertown to help and found a small room and dad gave them all blessings.  It was a great experience!  Scott and Jen also went with us to one on Friday night.  We went to a ceremony of a returning group on Wed.   and it was so much fun.  The families are on the bleachers in the gym and they march the soldiers in and have a short ceremony and then let them loose.  There were about 300 in the group we saw.  They had been gone 15 months.  More are coming and going for a few weeks.  We loved having Scott and Jen.  It was so much fun to see family and show them around.  We send our love to all.  We loved the pictures of the Halloween party!  Thanks Molly and family! 

Mission News- 10/19/08

Hi Gang, This is a pictures just across the street from where we live on Black River. Those little specks are geese and they are all over the place up here. Every morning they fly off to eat in the recently cut corn fields. When I run in the morning they are in flight going north. In the evening they hang out on the river. More are coming each day soon they will all fly south. They are really noisy, lots of honking. They are fun to watch and hear. It is one of those things we never expected to see and experience. Been another busy week, lots going on more soldiers coming and going all the time. We are trying to get acquainted with the new spouses of the deployed. We finally had a baptism in the Watertown Ward, the Sisters prepared a woman for baptism and one of the Elders preformed it. Mom, as usual did a GREAT job on refreshments (food) for after. It was a special time for all. We are involved in these baptisms in both wards, doing the programs and refreshments. It's uplifting to watch the change that comes over these investigators while they are being taught. You realize each day what a great work this is. Truly the Lord is preparing people to receive the gospel, it's only a matter of finding and teaching them. We had a special Sacrament meeting in Carthage today for the deploying soldiers. Three of the Stake High counsel members, two of which are active Air force, came up to give deployment blessings. Several of the wives asked and received blessing also. It was good just to be a part of it. We love and miss you all. Mom and Dad

Mission News- 10/12/08

Hi gang,  These are some of the activities we have been involved in this past week.  Top left is Mom and Sister Horton, a recent convert, just out side the sacred grove at the Joseph Smith farm.  The coopers shed and farm are in the background. Top right is the YSA monthly dinner at Carthage ward, Mom can still put out a spread.  7 of the group are soldiers.  Bottom left is Elder and Sister Larsen with the Hortons, both soldiers.  Sister Horton is on fire, she has been in the church just 5 months. We came down to the Palmyra temple to do baptisms for the dead.  She brought cards for her grandmother and sister, she was able to be baptized for them.  It was a first for both of the Hortons.  They are planning to be sealed here in the spring before their baby is born. We will be able to teach them the temple prep. lessons. We had 20 visits this week along with several fix-up projects.  Some of the deployed soldiers get back this week and some leave next week.  There are a lot of bitter sweet moments.  Today in church a young Blackhawk pilot blessed his 3 week old son, he leaves Tues. for Iraq, leaving behind a 2 year old and a new baby. We love this work and are beginning to get the hang of things, there are times when the reality of all the sacrifice gets to you.   Love Mom and Dad  

NY Mission News 10/5/08

Hi Gang, This picture is the Sisters we brought back from Fayetteville to Watertown on last Wednesdays transfers. The last three in the picture are now here in Watertown, a threesome they call it.  We drove two of the sisters from Watertown to Fayetteville, which is south east of Syracuse on Tuesday evening, stayed over night and drove three back with all their stuff on Wednesday.  It was a pretty packed car.  Two sisters have a lot of stuff trust me on that. They were thrilled to watch Legacy on the way back. The next trip to zone conference should be interesting with 3 sisters and two elders.  We'll see if the car can handle it.  The spouses of the deployed are really getting excited, some of the husbands start getting back on the 15 of Oct.  The Aviation Brigade is leaving for Iraq on the 22nd of Oct. We are looking forward to attending the homecoming and deployment ceremonies, they should be a real contrast.  We are still finding more do than we have time for. There is always someone to visit, which is good I guess.  The 2nd Brigade leaves for a 28 day training exercise this week to Ft. Polk, La. Things will be in a real state of flux for the rest of this month, with some 12,000 troops moving around The weather is getting cooler and you can feel the chill in the air. Conference was great we saw all the session.  They were broadcast at both wards but poorly attended.    

Mission News 10/5/08

Mission News 9/28/08

mission news 9/28/08

We traveled down to Lowville for one of our District Meetings.  We took the Elders to Vinny's Pizza after for lunch.  We love spending time with them.  One of the Carthage Elders is transferred this week.  On Saturday we had a full day, a little of everything.  We first visited a young wife at Drum Inn.  We go there with welcome packets each week.  The lady at the desk said that they had a girl that was very depressed and could we visit her.  She would not answer her door so we called her room and asked to visit.  She is pregnant, had not seen a doctor yet and had a two year old.  She had hardly been out of the room.  We told her how to get help and then went to visit again on Saturday.  She let us in and we had a good visit.  Next we went to a ward member's home to patch a hole in her wall.  After that we grabbed the food we had prepared to drive out to a baptism.  It was held at a small lake called Lake Bonaparte in a small town of Diana.  One of the Carthage members has a summer home there and they offered to have the baptism since the man getting baptized was claustrophobic and was worried about the font.  It was cloudy, but warm.  The man is a wounded soldier whose wife just left him.  The leaves were starting to change, the water was like glass.  There were only about 15 people there and it was so peaceful and beautiful.  The spirit was so strong!  We felt so lucky to be a part of it.  We than drove back home in time for me to pick up the Sisters and go to the General Women's broadcast at Watertown Ward.  Two of our inactives came and we were thrilled.  One had not yet been to the church building.  This is an example of how our days go.  We feel so blessed to be here and have all of these experiences.  We meet wonderful people and are put in situations to serve all the time.  Each day is different, but full and happy.  

mission news 8/23/08

Hi gang, This is a street view of the Lowville Cheese Cake festival  we attended last Sat. on our P-day.  There were some 30,000 people there with all kinds of booths selling everything.  Mom was in her hay day.  I had to keep asking her the question about how we were going to get it home.  It was really kind of fun.  There was a cream cheese filling, eating contest and a tractor pull contest for kids using John Deere pedal

tractors pulling a trailer filled with sand bags.  There was also the unveiling of the worlds largest cream cheese cake.  All this is big time for Lowville because the Kraft cream cheese factory is there.  Most of the cream cheese for the US is produced there.  Lowville is the big dairy producing area.  Work is still going great, we a kept very busy with all the hot irons we juggle.  The Lord continues to answer our prayers with YSA showing up at church wanting to be active.  We had a lot of visits with the spouses which is always inspiring.  When bedtime rolls around we are really ready for sleep.  The weather has been just gorgeous, clear blue sky and cool evenings  We actually had a hard frost on Mon. morning so the leaves will be really changing now.  The farmers are cutting the seed corn now and clearing the fields, lots of activity going on.  We are loving the work and can see some real value in what we are doing.  These soldiers are just great, they can't wait to get over there and be part of the war.  I have a hard time understanding their motivation sometimes but admire their courage.  We love and miss you all.  Hang tough.  Mom and Dad

News from the field

Hi Gang, These are the two big items of the week.  Greg one of the YSA we first met at FHE finally got baptized Saturday evening.  He was gone all summer helping train Cadets a West Point.  The missionaries couldn't contact him because he had his phone stolen.  They didn't know how to get in touch with him. He showed up at church on Sunday and wanted to get baptized the following Sat.  He is a great soldier, back from a deployment to Afaghanistan, and all ready to go again.  He knew some friends in high school who were LDS and was impressed with their life style, although he was not ready for it at the time.  The other picture is the beginning of the count down starting on Post for return of the 1st brigade.  The wives and families are doing some pretty creative things to show their excitement. We saw this in the parking lot of the gym and Mom thought it was really cute!! The weather has been really nice this week, in the mid 70's and very little rain.  Everything is still very green.  We helped a spouse take out and replace a bath tub, which was more work than the two Elders wanted. We had a great discussion with two Chaplains at the luncheon this week.  We got a chance to explain how our church is organized, and how it functions for deployment.  The military group leader thing was kind of new to them.  They seemed to be impressed with the fact that the church calls and sets apart someone to take care of their members overseas.  One of the Chaplains was with the Ava 

tion Brigade which is deploying next month. He was concerned who was going to take care of our members.  It was one of those teaching moments you look forward to and wish there were more of them.  Take care of yourselves and stay close.  We love and miss you, especially the new babies.  Mom and Dad

Mission 9/9.08

This is a picture of a bunch of us at the Smith farmhouse in Palmyra.  We took some young adults down on Saturday.  Four of the soldiers had never been there and they loved it.  We had a great day because we were just about the only ones there.  The sacred grove was beautiful. It was peaceful and calm.  We have had several new soldiers show up lately on their own.  We feel like it's an answer to prayers.  On Monday we cooked a dinner for them for family night, so its been a busy week.  We also had Zone Conference this week in Utica.  We have now visited and helped almost every family of the deployed soldiers.  In a couple of months they all will come home and a new group deploys and we will start all over again.  How about the Capone sign, only in NY could this be for real.  Check what he's running for, is that a joke? These signs are all over the place, the news and everything with no explanation. I guess no one has made the connection. I was at the opening priesthood meeting on Sunday at Carthage, the bishop asked for a rise of hands of those who were deploying, 3/4 of the hands went up it was shocking to me.  Can you imagine what the impact on your ward would be, if 3/4 of the priesthood were leaving in 2 to 3 months?  It should be interesting to see how the Lord fills the void.  We love and miss you all and pray for you.  Keep the faith.  Mom and Dad 

Mission 9/1/08

This a shot of just one of the rooms where the party was going on.  Pres. Eckersly is in the apron

and helping out serving.  The ribs and chicken were great.  

Mission 8/25/08

Hi gang,  This is an Amish couple stocking up at the local grocery store, kind a strange site to see in the parking lot. I didn't dare get any closer, the women  has a black coat and hat and the man has a  beard.  It's been a very exciting week, we had 19 visits and a trip to Utica for transfers. We are getting better acquainted all the time and can find our way around without the GPS, imagine that.  We have been teaching B of M Class in Watertown and Institute at Carthage for the past two weeks.  Both teachers are in Salt Lake with family.  Our volunteering keeps us busy on top of everything else.  We are really loving the work, there are so many times, almost on a daily basis, that we feel the spirit in the work.  Sunday was a great example of it.  The gospel doctrine class was being taught by Col. Haight the 3rd Brigade commander.  He has served in Somalia, Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down fame), Afghanistan, Iraq and now back to Afghanistan again in Nov. He was talking about Alma 43 and the purpose of war (verses 8, 9).  Capt. Moroni's character and his feeling on fighting (verse 30). He discussed the work of death (verse 37) concept to a soldier and then Verse 45-46.  It was very interesting to hear his belief and experience.  There were 6 to 8 of his soldiers who participated in the discussion, is was a very serious, yet spiritual time, one I will not soon forget.  Several of the soldiers were new and had not been deployed yet.  You can imagine, what it was like for them, hearing their commander talk about sacred things in this king of setting.  We have things like that happen all the time here, we call them our special moments.  We love and miss you all, take care of each other and hang in there.   Mom and Dad 

Mission 8/17/08

This was the first baptism we were part of.  This young soldier is going to Iraq in Oct. and was baptized by the Carthage Elders.  Weren't sure he was going through with it until Sat. morning.  We furnished some refreshment for after.  The two Elders on the ends are going home next week.  We are loving the work.  One of the most amazing things we experience is all the conversion stories and how military people met and married as they travel all over.  Every person was drawn to the gospel for a different reason.  It is a great testimony of how the Lord knows the needs of each person.  We keep busy visiting and meet great people.  This week will  be spending much of our time at homes with Dad fixing things for the spouses of deployed soldiers.  We taught institute last week and we a subbing for the Book of Mormon class for the next two weeks while the teacher, the bishop's wife, takes their son out to BYU.  We love our Young Adults, we're planning a trip down to the Palmyra temple with them.  We love and miss you all thanks for remembering my birthday I enjoyed all the cards, letter and stuff.  

Mission 8/17/08

There are many old homes here that they have kept.  Some are run down, but many are beautiful.  This is the street we go down to pick up the Sisters.  It is beautiful.  The homes even still have the old carriage houses out in back.  Everything here is so much older than out west.  The homes are all victorian style.

Hi Gang, This is some of our Institute class along with two area CES supervisors who were visiting for the evening.  One out going and the other incoming (suit).  The one kneeling with the teacher has already left for Iraq.  The teacher is from Wellesley Island and has been teaching Institute for over 14 years.  She travels 45 minutes one way each week to teach. She is great and really loves the soldiers.  She is an old Army nurse who still has lots of the spirit.  Her husband is a retired army oral surgeon, who is in private practice now. As usual we have been kept really busy, I guess this is the way things will be.  I started working in the pharmacy finally. It is very high tech with lots of support.  They fill over 800 rx's daily (8 hrs).  It didn't seem that bad. I just work two hours and spent the whole time checking filled orders.  It was kind of fun seeing HCTZ again.  This will be a good PR spot, because there are lots of people there.  Still lots of rumors about deployments this fall.  We will be losing at least 3 brigades (BCT) some 10,000 soldiers, but one BCT will return so that will help some. You can imagine the impact on the wards with the loss of priesthood, not to mention the emotion drain.  Mom and I are really getting into the visiting routine. We enjoy the conversion stories especially, they are simply amazing. These Army families are the greatest, so inspiring.  It is uplifting just being around them. We drove down to Utica again on Sat. and met with the Stake Pres., Mission Pres. and the Bishops we work with, to plan for all the loses.  It was a very concerned priesthood counsel.  They even let Mom speak, the church is so far ahead on things on things like this.  We feel overwhelmed at times but are throughly enjoying this experience.  We pray for you all and miss you.  Take care and be good.  Love Mom and Dad

Wagon 8/08

This is the best shot of the wagon we could get.  They all look the same, box like and black.  They are horse drawn, and the horses are beautiful.  I was parked across the street, as soon a the lady saw me she ran in front of the wagon to hide.  Kind of quaint though, don't you think.  They were selling baked goods and quilts.    Dad

mission 8/2/08

Hi Gang,  This is Sister Larsen behind the dark glasses in case you didn't recognize her. This is one of her favorite road signs, they are all over up here because of all the Amish or Mennonites.  They don't like their pictures taken, so you have to be real quick to get a picture of the wagons.  The wagons travel on the roads, all horse drawn, Mom thinks it's so cute. The women wear white caps or black bonnets.  The men all have beards and straight straw hats.  We always seem to find plenty to do way out here.  The missionaries were on a split and it was also the end of the month so they were out of miles.  We were involved in transporting them around for two of the days.  People are so spread out that it is almost impossible to walk. I talked to an old farmer at the Carthage ward who has been farming for over 71 years, this is the wettest summer he can remember.  Here we thought all this rain was normal.  I hope this doesn't mean the winter is going to be real hard.  I'm getting the feeling that all you have to do is hang out and the Lord will give you plenty to do.  Four opportunities to give blessing just came out of no ware this week.  We were just kind of there.  Lots of rumors going around on Post about deployment.  It's very possible that 4 Brigades (12,000 soldiers) could be gone this fall.  When the dust would settle, there would be a whole lot of families with deployed spouses needing help.  Imagine the effect on the two wards, with all that priesthood gone.  All we can do is hope for the best. I'm sure the Lord knows what's going on.  We love and miss you all take care and stay out of trouble.   Mom and Dad

mission weekly report

This is our bowling activity at Zone Conference.  After meetings all morning we bowled in the afternoon and then drove back in time to go to Institute at 7:00.  After institute we had two soldiers over for dinner.  One was going to Hawaii and another, a young girl, was going to Iraq.  She's part of the Army band for her unit.  Dad's going to give her a blessing on Sunday before she goes.  We also met a young woman this week that grew up in Park City.  She was running a children's clothing store in Clayton, a small town on the St. Lawrence River.  She moved there to get away from her ex-husband.  We walked in the store and she said, "You found me."  She and her husband grew up in the church, married in the temple, had three children.  One day she walked in on him injecting crack cocaine. Her life fell apart and she no longer went to church.  She told us her whole story and seemed ready for activity for herself and her children.  We will be visiting her again.  The Spirit was so strong that we knew that someone had been praying for her.  Some of the stories break your heart.  We hope to be a support to people like her.

Sackets Harbor, NY

mission weekly report

Hi Gang,  This was on our P-day for the week, we went to a lake side town about 30 minutes away, called Sackets Harbor.  It's a tourist town, reminds me of Park City, except by a really big lake, Lake Ontario.  It is famous for a small part it played in the War of 1812.  American troops held off a British navel attack and saved the work from bad teeth or something like that.  They were having a big celebration with a parade, bands and a blessing of the boats thing in the harbor.  A catholic priest stood on a platform and blessed each ship as it passed by.  Saw some really  great looking sail boats.     

mission weekly report

mission weekly report

Hi Gang,  This a shot of some the YSA at family night playing in the Black River behind a members home.  The river runs out of the Adirondack's all the way to Lake Ontario, right through Watertown. As you can see its a good sized river, this is in no way, near the widest part.  They call it the black river because of the dark color caused by the minerals leached out of the slate stone on the bottom.  Actually it is one of the top ten cleanest river in the nation.  It runs just south of our home and we cross it every day several times.  Homes along its banks have great back yards like this one.  We had a really busy week, moved a sister whose husband is deployed  to Post from way up north.  Drove another sister with a deployed spouse to get her stranded car way out East.  Visited several other sisters with deployed spouses.  Had a great turnout for Instituted with two soldiers returning from training to be with the group.  We played the church DVD titled Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled. It is designed by the church specific for soldiers going into combat.  It is great, one soldier who got back early spring was really touched and teared up telling the group how much the church had helped him through the ordeal.  He was a MP and was really messed up upon returning.  A trip to Palmyra straitened him out and got him back on the path.  He has been on of our stalwarts. It is great just to be a small part of all this.  Mom and Dad  (keep the cards and Letters coming)   

This is a crown scene at sunset.  Just a few comments about our last few weeks:  we moved a couple, did lots of repairs for spouses of the deployed, visited about 15 people, fed the missionaries and the Young Adults, attended Institute and B of M classes in the wards, visited families on post, met new ward members, went to the Bishop's lake cottage for dinner, took a group to Pageant, etc.  We are getting more and more acquainted with the ward people.  Today at church the Brigade commander taught the Gospel Doctrine class and the couple who served here three years ago came back to visit.  We are busy and loving it!  We send our love to all of you! 

While we were waiting around as the seats filled we looked up and walking down the isle next to us was Trudy Lamb, a dear old friend from College and then our Ward.  I haven't seen her for at least 15 years.  We had time to visit and talk about our families.  Also, in the picture right behind us, the couple sitting there are the Head LDS Chaplain and his wife in the Army.  They saw our badges with the military on them and started talking to us.

A dream of mine came true this week when we attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We took an investigator and a less active member down, a young married couple who lost their first baby.  She is a soldier.  They have had a rough time and looked to the church for comfort.  We had a great time!  They set up 9,000 chairs and people also sit on blankets in the front and on the sides.  It is a big outdoor party.  We got there about 4:30 (shown here) to save seats.  The weather, the people and the pageant were great!  It is an amazing production about the Book of Mormon that everyone should see!  The fact that it takes place on sacred ground is even more inspiring.

We are at the Ward on Family Home Evening with the Young Adults.  We are providing a dinner once a month now and the missionaries teach the message that night.  We have lots of fun with them.  They went to Pageant the same night we did and stayed for a Young Adult dance they have there the first night.  They are a great group of members!

This is our district.  We just finished our meeting with the Zone leader and took some fun pictures.  We always take goodies to the meeting and they love that.  We have one Elder who is six foot nine.  Our Elders and sisters are great.

New grandchild-Cael

Welcome baby Cael Corwin Larsen, born to Mark and Melanie July 3, 2008!  He is the 23rd grandchild.  We're so thrilled he's here and healthy! The only problem is that we don't get to hold him.  We are thrilled for all the family, his brothers and sisters will adore him.  We certainly are blessed!  We have shown everyone in the mission the pictures!

Mission weekly report

One of the young adult soldiers in Carthage Ward reenlisted in the Aviation Brigade for two more years.  He invited us to attend the ceremony.  It was up at the airfield.  The brigade headquarters people were there.  It was one of the few days with clear blue sky we have had.  After the swearing in the Colonel gave a little speech and said that they are way ahead of their reenlistment quota for this year.  This young soldier is a returned missionary from Idaho.  The hats were interesting.  The cowboy looking hats are of the Calvary unit. They are authorized to wear in formation if you are in a Cav. designated unit.  This unit is scheduled to deploy in Nov. o8 to Iraq. This is called a swearing in ceremony, and words of the oath reminds one of Moroni's title of liberty.  Young adult family evening continues to grow in numbers and activity.  Love Mom and Dad, we miss you.