Mission News 4/26/09

Hi Gang, Here are two typical missionary pictures from our district activity day. Transfers are this coming week, one of the Elders is going south and our district gets a greeney to train. It seems like someone is always leaving and someone is coming, both in the military and missionaries. You get use to the constant change of people. The young couple with the twins is leaving tomorrow for Fort Huachuca, Az. We have grown close to them, I was able to give the little girl another blessing when she went back to the hospital this past week. It continues to amaze us how things work out. We were up taking dinner to a family whose son has leukemia when we got a call from the couple. They were in the process of moving when the little girl twin starting getting jaunticed again. They took her to the hospital and called us about blessing her. Now this is a part member, inactive couple who lost their first child less than a year ago. It is interesting to see how they responded to this problem by going to the church first. We were greatful of course for the opportunity and the little girl is doing fine now. The deployed husbands of our spouses and beginning to come home now for R & R. We met our first one today at church. He was in the heat of things in Afghanistan less than 3 days ago. It is fun to watch the family cling to them, they are home for 18 days and then go back to the zone as they call it. These families are just great, they live with so much day to day stress and just keep going. We are humbled by it all. The weather is beginning to break, yesterday was the warmest 25th of April since 1916, at 82 degrees. We have lived through several record breaking days so far on our mission. We have a good group of YSA now who are all active and come to everything. Today a new female soldier from SLC showed up at church which was great for moral also. We love the work and feel so thankful to be here at this time and in this place and to have the experiences we have daily. We miss you all and pray for you. Mom and Dad

Mission News 4/19/09

Another eventful week has gone by. We began on Sunday by visiting in the hospital two inactive women, one from each ward. I also taught in Primary, which I do often. Other visits were later in the day. Monday we did our volunteer work putting together packets for the new soldiers on base. We also went to the Horton's and helped them order all their temple clothing on line. They will be sealed as soon as they come. We had family Home Evening and took them out for pizza. Tuesday Dad worked in the Pharmacy, we had District Meeting and then gave a blessing to a young woman after which we made some other visits. Wed. we went to Drum Inn to deliver packets and attended the community prayer lunch. We spent the afternoon at the home of the soldier who died in Iraq. His wife is coming out to sell the home and we needed to fix a few things and clean up. It was covered inside with dead flies. I'd never seen anything like it. The Bishop called them attic flies. We attended a barbeque for volunteers for dinner and then went to Book of Mormon class. The rest of the days I attended a baby shower for Sis. Horton (in picture) and spent two days helping a family move whose husband is in Iraq. She has four little children and we had helped her out several times before. On Friday we took dinner to three families who were in need of some help. Sat. we attended a baptism in Lowville. We pick up and drive people wherever we go, Young Adults for FHE, Missionaries for all the meetings, three people for church,etc. Today we helped with food and programs for a baptism in Watertown Ward. We than went back out to the home and helped finish cleaning before they moved. We meet so many great people and are happily busy as we visit and serve. The spring weather is great and the sun is shining! We send our love to all!

Mission News 4/12/09

Hello from the north country. Here are two pictures from last week. My brother Don came up to visit for our P-day. It was great having him here. We showed him the sights on the St Lawrence river and Lake Ontario. He had no idea there was all this coastal stuff up here. He treated us to some great meals. He loved eating at the mess hall it was like the good old days for him. We had a great time just talking, the weather was great for a change. It is still cold here but at least the sun is shining. The other picture is so cool. In alot of the soldiers homes they have memorabilia about their careers. This one is about the best I've seen so far. This soldier is recently retire and made these two shadow box pictures. One is for his father a retired airforce NCO who recently died. The other is of his own career with all the patches, crests, ribbons, rank, awards, medals and service ribbons. He is a wounded warrior and earned a bronze star for bravery while in Iraq, where a IUD exploded near him and did damage to his eye and some brain damage. He is not a member but is going through a heated divorce and just needed to talk to someone. His home was really clean and contained all this neat army stuff. It was really interesting listening to him. He is a close friend of one of a recently baptized family. The week was filled up with the YSA dinner and taking around Easter gifts to the spouses. We also did our usual fix-up projects. The work just keeps rolling along, we see the hand of the Lord in so many different ways. Sometimes it's almost a little scarey. We miss you all and trust you are keeping the faith. Take care of the little ones and give them all a hug for us. Love Mom and Dad

Mission News 4/5/09

Hi Gang, we have had another busy week. This is a picture of a bowling District activity at the alley at Ft. Drum. Since then we have a new Sister and Elder. The sister is Sister Heaton and she lives by Dave & Aleta. Her little sister dated Davey. Small world. The second picture is one of the new dad of the twins in the nursery. They are home and doing great. The young couple is doing a great job with them. Thought I'd share some of our daily activities during this week. we started with an open house at Carthage Ward for investigators. Hardly anyone came. We took some dinner to the family of the little boy with Lukemia and to a Sister who is sick and her husband is leaving for training. Dad helped two members with repairs on their houses, one is moving and the other is remodeling. Thursday we had Zone Conference in Utica. It was a beautiful sunny day for a change. The Mission Pres. and his wife are starting to get a little emotional about leaving. They have called a new Pres. due in July and they are training them by phone now. The new Pres. is going to be Bullock from Cedar City. The church trains them by phone conference and then they train with the Mission Pres. by phone conference for several months before they come out. We finished Temple Prep. lessons for one couple who just had their baby, so they are ready when they plan to go. We will be able to go with them. Conference weekend is a welcome event around here. We go to the church for the meetings. Not too many show up, but some watch it on the BYU station or on computer. It is very impressive to the people out here to see the prophet, etc. They always have an ice cream social before the Priesthood session. It gives Dad a chance to visit. We try to have over twenty visits each week plus do all our volunteer work. We never lack for people to visit, in fact, we can't get to everyone soon enough. We love the work and the people. The spring isn't too bad, we actually have seen the sun and most the snow is gone. We are looking forward to summer. We miss you all. It seems like I can't even remember what the house looks like, it's been a long time! We send our love to you all!