News from the north country

Hi Gang, We took this picture today of the snowmobile races on Black River.  You can see that the weather is still holding, cold. It's a pretty wide river with a lot of weight on it and no one seems worried about cracking.  Mom and I couldn't believe they were out there.  Our week was busy with visits and travel.  We took dinner to two spouses and their families. One who was very sick and needed help. She has two small children, her husband just deployed as a sniper to Afghan. We also visited a spouse of a deployed soldier.  She has 5 children one of which is autistic. You can imagine how full her plate is.  She is 34 and has a 17 year old son, do the math. She was young when she had him. She also has 15 and 12 year old daughters, the 5 year old autistic son and a two year old boy.  She is holding things together pretty well.  When we asked if we could help her with anything she mentioned that her vacuum wasn't working.  I took a look at it and found two very large nails lodged in the belt. It took about 5 minutes, the daughter immediately began to vacuum with it.  The husband is in the heart of things in Afghan. I recently sent him some serviceman's  scriptures that he asked his wife for.  They have been an inactive family for about a year. We made two white knuckled trips to Utica this week also in snow storms.  One for Zone conference on Thursday and another for a couples party on Friday.  We have three couples leaving in the next two months and one couple just arrived.  It is always fun to get together. We have a great sit down dinner at the mission home and President Eckersley always brings us up to date on the world wide missions progress.  He talked about how the economic down turn has dropped the Church's stock portfolio by 40% and how this will effect the church and the missions.  Already senior couples going of missions are down by 14%.  We are all in for some interesting times ahead.  A good time to fill up the old oil vessels. We certainly enjoy this work and the great military people. We also miss you all and pray for you.  Take care of yourselves give the kids a big hug for us.  Mom and Dad       

  

NY Mission News 2/15/09

We had a busy week beginning on Monday with a Young Adult bowling activity.  We had a great turnout with the picture showing only part of the group.  The silver haired woman is the institute teacher here.  She an old Army nurse and her husband is an oral surgeon who is retired military.  They live here in a beautiful area in Alexandres Bay on Lake Ontario.  We had our new soldiers show up again, so it was successful!  This week we visited the families of the deployed and took dinner to some.  Friday night the Watertown Ward had a valentine party.  On Saturday we had one of those amazing mission days.  We took four young girls down to the temple.  Two of them have husbands in Afghanistan, one is going to be baptized next week, one has her husband away in Special Forces training and she is a soldier too.  None of them have children yet.  Sister Clark was baptized in December and went to do baptisms for the dead.  The Mission Pres. wants them to the temple within 90 days of baptism.  Two of the others went on a session and the other girl waited for us.  We then went to the Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah.  The grove was barren and snow covered, but still peaceful and beautiful.  Two of the girls knew each other but the others got acquainted easily.  We had good clear weather and it was a great day.  The girl who is to be baptized is friends with one of the active members.  We knew she didn't stand a chance because she had been there for blessings, etc. and her husband is a member.  The combination was a blessing because they all hit it off and will help and support each other.  It is a rare privilege to be involved in the lives of these people.  We learn to love them as we serve them.  We love Palmyra and are so blessed to have an area like this to bring members and investigators to visit.  We send our love to all!

blarsen1474

News from the frozen north

This week we saw the best and the worst of military life here on Ft. Drum.  On Thursday we went with one of the military wives to her husband's welcome home.  They have four little kids and he had been gone with an MP unit for 15 months.  It was so much fun to be there, it never gets old.  This time they had a live military band and it gives you chills when they all march out and they play the Star Spangled Banner and the Army song.  These military wives continue to amaze us.  This soldier had been deployed six times in five years.  Some of them short deployments, but he still has been gone so much.  We also were very saddened to be called by the Bishop on Monday evening to tell us that one of the Watertown soldiers had been killed in a helicopter collision in Iraq.  He was flying a Kiowa helicopter.  We took pictures of he and his wife and baby the night he left.  He helped Dad give blessings to three of the Young Adults before he left that night.  His wife left to go back to Washington after he left, so she was there when the news came.  We had a special fast meeting in the family's honor today at church.  Many of the military wives bore testimony and expressed the fact that they knew the risks and accepted them when their husbands left, leaving it in the Lord's hands.  They have great strength and faith.  It was a very emotional meeting.  The Stake Pres. spoke briefly.  They will have a memorial service on post for all 4 soldiers.  Two of our ward members had the duty to go inform the families of the death of their husbands and fathers.   One bore his testimony and said that his only duty for the next few months will be to the wife he was assigned to help.  The wives know immediately what has happened when they open the door and see a soldier dressed in his Class A uniform.  All expressed how fragile life is and how we should treasure time with family.  These families have such unity and support each other so unselfishly.

On a lighter note, this is one of the worst winters in 40 years.  We have had snow every day for over a month and it has been 20 or below almost every day.  We have still been out and around as normal.  The car does great in the snow.  We are glad that two months of winter are gone.  We do love the work and are privileged to be part of the lives of these people.  We send our love to all of you and think of you often.  Pray for us, we need all the help we can get!  Love, Mom & Dad