Winter Mission News

Hi Gang, This is taken at the home of the Da Silva's, a recently baptized family in Carthage. The Elders and I have been helping him with an old home he is redoing so that his family can live in it. They are a great family and a real asset to the ward.  He had to sheet rock the whole place after removing all the old lath and plaster, to upgrade the plumbing and electrical.  I worked on some finish plumbing and the Elders were sanding and taping.  We have managed to keep busy despite the weather, which has been cold and snowy.  They are running out of places to put the snow.  Huge piles are all over, they are loading it into dump trucks and dumbing it in the river.  It was kind of fun at first all the snow, but it's beginning to get old. They cancelled both wards today because of the snow.  When have you ever seen church cancelled because of the weather.  The members at Ft Drum couldn't get out of their driveways.  There was a good 2 ft over night.  At family home evening this week a recently returned soldier from Iraq brought two nonmembers friends. One was from Russia and was Jewish, the other a chaplain's assistant.  They were impressed with the building and enjoyed the change from the barracks.  We took three of the young spouses to dinner last night, two of their husbands just left for Afghanistan.  One is inactive and just lost her brother in Iraq two months ago, he had been in the Special Forces for 11 years, and now her husband is gone.  These spouses are great, it's uplifting just being around them. We miss you all, take care of the little one for us.  Love Mom and Dad

Our blog today shows our half mission conference and snow!!  The weather out here has been cold.  On Saturday we got three feet in about 4 hours from a small lake affect storm that was just over Watertown.  The Elders and Sisters are so tough.  They are out tracting in twenty below and deep snow.  We drive them here and there, but they spend a lot of time on their own.  Our half mission conference was lots of fun with presents and skits from each District.  We met a lot of missionaries that we don't normally see.  We have also done a great deal of long distance driving in terrible weather.  The last week or so we have been able to stay closer to home.  Today (Sunday) was another spiritual high day.  We pray constantly to find more young adults because most of them have gone.  The Elders called with two new names for us.  After church today we went on some visits and then went up to Sister Ortega's house to give her a blessing.  She's been having a hard time sleeping and being alone with her husband gone.  We got there and another young sister who is newly married came over.  It turns out that her husband is wanting a divorce.  They have only been married 5 months and she doesn't know what to do.  It is a temple marriage and she's devastated.  Dad gave her a blessing and told her that all would work out.  She was so encouraged and thrilled.  While there they had a another friend visiting, another spouse of a deployed soldier.  She witnessed all that went on and we asked if she was a member.  She said no but that her husband was.  We asked her name and dad knew immediately that her husbands name was Matthew.  She was so shocked.  He was on one of the lists of lost ones we had been looking for.  The Lord works in mysterious ways and we find these soldiers and inactives often by chance, ( but really by design).  We had a great visit with the three women and were thankful for the service we could give.  

Hi gang, this picture seems like a pleasant change of scene from the cold and gloom of Northern NY.  We have actually made it through our first full month of winter and so far it hasn't been as bad as everyone said.  We have suffered lake effect snow, freezing rain and record snow falls with no real problems.  There have been some white knuckled drives and even frozen windshield wiper scares but nothing has stopped our Santa Fe from making it through, of course Mom would tell a different story. The locals say that in Jan. and Feb it really starts getting cold.  So far the weather thing hasn't been that impressive.  I have hardly used by gloves.  Tuesday was one of those drive all over and transport missionaries to meetings day.  The Zone leaders were there to teach. The Elders in Watertown wrecked their car.  Which means we become their car.  We spent some of last week moving a spouse of a deployed soldier and visiting soldiers on Post with the Elders.  One of our newest YSA was put in the hospital with what was thought to be a MERSA (very bad) infection.  He went through emergency surgery. The Elders and I were able to give him a blessing right after surgery, of course he's doing fine now and it wasn't MERSA. News Years Eve we went to a members for dinner with the Elders and went to bed early. New Years day was our P-day since the weather was fair we drove to the Syracuse Mall, H&M fame, to get way.  Saturday we made our monthly trip to Clayton to visit members when we got home the Sugar bowl game was on.  How about those Utes, unbelievable, There is no one I'd rather beat than a so called BCS, SEC team, especially like that. It will be interesting to see what the BCS does with the standing.  We are doing great and love the work, thanks for all your calls on the holidays they really helped out. We miss you all, take care.  Love Mom and Dad.  

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!