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.