December 22, 2012

Winter has definitely arrived in Palmyra, NY!!  Started snowing last night and snowed most of the day.  We had about 14 inches of snow!  This southern girl is definitely not accustomed to this!  At least the state has enough equipment to keep the roads clear, and the church has contracted with a company to keep our driveways and walkways clear....even if they do come at 5 AM to start plowing.

December 22, 2012

We had a ward assignment at the Bishops Storehouse this morning.  We helped fill orders for families needing assistance from the Church.  It really made me thankful for all my blessings.  I have done a lot of thinking about our mission and how we prepared temporally to serve.  If Lee & I had not had great retirement benefits we would not be able to serve this mission.  How grateful I am for this opportunity.

December 18, 2012

Started  today by attending our Mission Christmas Devotional.  It was awesome!  Pres. Christianson is a terrific mission president and an inspiring speaker.  I am always uplifted when I hear him speak.  The theme for the devotional was Jesus Christ as a missionary.  The scriptures are loaded with examples.  He was the greatest teacher of all time!  We left our devotional at 12:15 PM, grabbed some lunch at Wendy's in the drive-thru, then headed to the Hill Cumorah to do our afternoon shift.  Left the Hill at 5 PM, changed clothes, and arrived at the Lion's Club at 5:30, ready to serve them their Christmas Dinner and clean up afterwards.  We arrived back at our apartment at 10 M - exhausted, but feeling very blessed.

Today I was fed temporally and spiritually.  I am truly a very blessed person!  It is ALL ture!  I KNOW the Book of Mormon and it is TRUE!

December 17, 2012

Today is the start of a very busy week for us.   We completed our regular shift at the Peter Whitmer Farm and were trying to leave a little early (4:30 PM) in order to make our Family Home Evening event at the Smith Farm by 5:30 PM.  Well a couple of sisters arrived at 4:20 PM....we are missionaries first!  We gave the tour and arrived at the farm late.

Each year our mission has a family home evening during December at the Smith Farm.  We invited three stakes to attend.  There is a couple sitting in the log home reading Luke 2, and a couple in the frame home reading "The Night Before Christmas"; each dressed in period clothing.  A set of sister missionaries takes a group and they carol from the log home to the frame home and back; then we had hot chocolate and cookies in the basement of the welcome center.  We had over 400 people attend.  It was a great evening!!

December 8, 2012

Today was suppose to be our Preparation Day, but we are doing a morning shift at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center for the Heyns (have family visiting); so we did not get off until 3 PM.  During our shift we had seven professors from Rochester visit.  All were nomembers except one.  All are professors of religion, anthropology or philosophy.  Sis. Gillespie and Sis. Jones took them on tour.  Tours and the Hill are usually short, but this one lasted about 1 1/2 hrs. One of the professors was from Ghana and Sis. Jones was able to find him a Book of Mormon in is language.  He was thrilled to be able to have one he could read, and I think he will "seriously" read it.  After our shift we headed to Canandaigua to see the Christmas decorations at the Granger Homestead.  Unfortuately, they were about to close when we arrived so we did not get to see much. 

December 4, 2012

Today was a beautiful day here.  Reached a record high of 70 degrees here in Palmyra.  We certainly did enjoy it while it lasted; we know it will change tomorrow.  We took a walk in the Sacred Grove this morning and spent 1 1/2 hours trying to find some of the Witness Trees  and the Apostle Tree.  Look at the picture of Lee at the highest point in the Sacred Grove; over his right shoulder is one of the Witness Trees.  Many believe it was here at the highest point where Joseph knelt so many years ago.  The Witness Tree in that picture is 200 years old.  The Apostle Tree is so named because at one time it had 12 main branches.  It is an Ironwood tree that is dead.  It is the oldest tree in the Grove and is 400 - 450 years old.

Apostle Tree

Highest Point in the Grove

Witness Tree

December 1, 2012

Happy Birthday to by Dad!!  He is 91 years young today.  He is my rock and I sure miss him.  Today is also my daughter, Kerri and her husband, Aaron's anniversary.  Happy 17th anniversary to them! 

Me & My Dad

Kerri & Aaron

And to make this an even more memorable day, we woke up to our first "light" snowfall of the season.   Just the way I like it....here and gone by 10 AM.

November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!  It has been a really good Thanksgiving for us.  The sites had a shorten shift today - 10 AM -3 PM.  We were at the Book of Mormon Publication Site (fondly called the BOMPS) this morning until 12:30 PM and then we came home and Lee cooked two pork tenderloins for our dinner this evening with other senior couples.  Since he is the chairman for the Activity Committee, he has been responsible for this dinner.  We have worked with the Howells and Yearsleys to plan this dinner and get it ready.  Wednesday evening before site meeting we set up all the tables and got the decorations out for our dinner, so everything was ready for today.

At 5 PM 15 senior couples along with our mission president and his wife joined us for dinner.  We had so much food.  In addition to the loin, we had turkey, ham, stuffing, veggies, all kinds of salads, bread, and lots of desserts.  We had enough food to served 30 more people.

Pres. & Sis. Christianson

I guess if we cannot be home for Thanksgiving, these are some of the best people in the world we could spend this time with.  Today I am so thankful to be serving here and have the opportunity to walk these sacred grounds and feel the Spirit each and every day.