August Week 4

You must check out Katie & Kory's blog site. You will see the cutest pictures of my grandchildren. Katie took them last week and they are all getting so big. Katie's blog site is in the right hand column.

Friday after our morning shift we went with the Harmons to see the Erie Canal Lockes. This is an old one that is no longer in use. They just arrived to serve with us from Sandy about a month ago now.

We finally saw the cows on the hill again and had to stop and take a picture.

We climbed the Hill tonight after our dinner and found "Moroni" taking a little nap at the top.

It's hard to believe but it looks like fall is coming. The trees are starting to change. It's exciting but also reminds us that our time here is getting short. There is a little tree outside the temple clear window which we watch daily as it is turning quickly.

We are keeping busy at the temple. This week we had our Saturday afternoon shift changed to Friday night. We had just grown to love the Lindseths and the other Saturday workers. Just more wonderful friends we have met here. Saturday morning we went in and helped train the Morses in the baptistry. We had wonderful group. The first was a sister having her deceased husband baptized and then the rest of his ordinances done and she was receiving her endowments and being sealed to him. It was wonderful day for her. We also had a youth group come in so we were kept very busy.

After returning home Tonita Crookston and I went to the Sonnenberg Mansion arts and crafts fair again. We have been wanting to see the beautiful gardens since we missed them in May when they were not blooming. It was a lovely afternoon. This weekend they were celebrating the Thompsons 100 wedding anniversary. The home was built in 1890's and just last year the state bought it and is restoring it. The grounds are just beautiful.

Today, Sunday, we attended the Palmyra Ward where our fellow missionaries John and Susan Hutchinsons spoke about the temple and what he would want his grandchildren to know about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We then served in the nursery today and had 7 children and two helpers. They loved snack time and Paul tried to get a picture of them stuffing marshmellows into their mouth but he is a little too far away for you to see.

We then went to the Pittsford Ward. We have been trying to visit some of the other wards and branches and the Harmons attend this ward. They have many temple workers from their Ward so we knew many people there. Here are a couple of statements from the speakers that touched me. "You make a living by what you do; you make a life by what you give" Winston Churchhill. "If you want something you have never had, then you have to do something you have never done". "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." "If you live up to your privileges even the angels cannot be withheld from you."

After returning home we had a spaghetti dinner with our Temple family at the Zion's Camp pavilion. We serve with such wonderful people. Our Temple Presidency are always with us. This is President and Sister Siebach.

It's been a good week and we did some other things too but who can remember what they were. That's why it's good to write in your journal every day. Have a great week. We love you and appreicate your love and friendship.

August Week 3

Monday after the temple we visited the Wayne County fair. We saw the trotter races and had some fish and chips and fried bread. That night at FHE Brother Jenson gave the lesson on Who am I? He challenged us to study our patriarchal blessings which on Wednesday in the temple when we were not too busy I worked on and identified blessings, warnings and admonitions. After the temple we went to Sis. Cederlof’s home and watched Pres. Faust’s funeral. What a wonderful man and a legacy of love and service he left for his wife, family and the church. Elder Holland, Pres. Monson and Pres. Hinckley and his son, Mark, spoke. The Choir sang and they sang O Divine Redeemer and “This is the Christ”. Written by Pres. Faust.

Tuesday evening I went to my first Enrichment meeting here. They changed their usual night to Tuesday so I was available. Bro. Grommin, the CES director in this area spoke to us on “Reading the Scriptures”. He used a talk given by Pres. Howard W. Hunter in 1979.
Some main points:

There must be concentrated study
The study of the scriptures is the most profitable of all study in which we could engage
Through them God speaks to man
There should be a regular time set aside when we can concentrate without interference
An hour would be ideal, a half hour would result in substantial accomplishment, a quarter of an hour is little time, but it is surprising how much enlightenment and knowledge can be acquired in a subject so meaningful
Allow nothing else to ever interfere with our study

Wednesday we were in the temple for the morning and evening shift. Thursday, our P Day, we visited the Chiropractor, stopped at the Diner in Newark with the Jackman’s for spaghetti and then subbed in the temple office for the Lindseths.

Friday the 17, Happy Birthday to my dear friend, Edwina. Hope you had a wonderful day.

Friday we started out with not much happening in the temple and it developed into a wonderful day with people showing up for all the ordinances. We were very busy. After the temple we went over to help the Wards move some boxes into a trailer. There son, Dave, has a restaurant in Macedon and they gave us free hamburgers so we went over and had dinner. These hamburgers are ¼ lb, huge with French flies and onion rings. Really good. We then went to the Temple to help the Hutchinsons with baptisms for their grandchildren who are visiting from Utah and then we went on the 7:30 session and finished up endowments I had left to do. The Hutchinsons did the rest of the baptisms for us and Saturday afternoon I was able to do the initiatories for them.

Saturday morning we were asked to help with a big baptism group who were coming in at 7:30 am. They were from South Jordan 1st Ward. What a wonderful group they were. We had 20 in each group with lots of adult help. We served our shift in the afternoon and it was very busy.

Today, Sunday, we attended the Lyons Ward with the McEwens. We stopped by the Church on our way home and were asked to take over the Nursery for them for the next two weeks while they go to the singles conference and on vacation. That should be fun.

We finished off our day with a walk along the Erie Canal taking a little nature hike and then a walk up the Hill Cumorah to top it off.

We missed the Raymond and Verletta Family Reunion. We heard it was great and everyone had a great time. We always do when we get together.

Have a great week. We love you.

August 2nd Week

What a great week this has been. We have been busy and had some great experiences. We had some rain on Tuesday and after the temple we took Bruce Armour, a new friend who helps us in the temple often, out for a birthday lunch. He has a wonderful old house he purchased last year and has been working on it. He tried to be in the temple 4-5 times a week and we often get to serve with him. Last week he brought 80 names of his immediate family to the temple and we have been able to help with the initiatories and other ordinances.

Wednesday was a busy with with two shifts. Thursday on P-Day we drove to Corning, NY where we took in the Corning Glass Museum. Very interesting and such a beautiful drive. Oh, last week the kids bought us a GPS and we used it to get to Corning. It took us through some very beautiful country. At the museum they have a large collection of glass through the ages and world. They also have exhibits of glass making and lots of exhibits of how it has developed during the last century. We took the shuttle over into Corning and walked through the shops and ended up at the town square. The drive back was up the Seneca Lake, one of the finger lakes.

This weekend in Palmyra they are celebrating Pirate Days. The Lois McClure schooner is in town. It has been on a 100 day 1000 mile canal trip from Lake Champlain to Buffalo and back again. After touring it we remembered that a couple of years ago we were in Burlington, VT visiting Dorsey and Matt, Paul's cousins, and they were building the schooner at that time. Sunday two of the four corner Churches in Palmyra had open houses. Several of us went down to see the insides. The Presbyterian Church has an organ dating back to the 1860's and also the Episcopalian also has one of the same period and company. The Episcopalian also has a bell tower, which we got to ring, and some beautiful stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ. They are rare because they were all created at the same time and so all the colors are the same. Normally the windows would have been done one at a time through donations.

Paul in front of the Presbyterian Church

The Episcopalian Church with the bell tower

Later we drove out to the Harmon's who are living at the John Young home in Mendon. On the way out we saw these deer behind some one's house having lunch.

This is a hornets nest located in Zion's Camp a few trees down the road from us. Elder Decker carefully got rid of the hornets and cut it down. He uses everything for an object lesson and we are anxious to see how he uses it. We have never seen one so large. It is made from the saliva of the hornets. There must have been hundreds in there.

The Gospel is true. We feel so blessed to be serving the Lord here. May you have a wonderful week. CTR

August Week 1

It is so nice to hear from some of you. If you use "Other" on the comments we should be able to get them. Love you all.

Sunday we went to Church at the Pen Yan Branch about 40 minutes from here with the Stoddards. They are from Dillon, Montana and serve in the Idaho Falls Temple. They are our neighbors here in Zion's Camp. We got some pictures of the Mennonites on their way to church down in that area.

This last week a new Temple Missionary couple arrived from Sandy, Utah. He is a sealer and is badly needed here in the Palmyra Temple. Sunday afternoon we went to the viewing of Bro. Van Den Berge. He was a sealer and patriarch in this area. A wonderful man we had the opportunity to meet when we first came to the temple. We used our new GPS, which the kids bought for us, to find our way there and back. It's taken us three months to decided we needed one.

Tonight we had FHE at Zion’s Camp. We had a hot dog roast and pot luck dinner. Lots of fun. They had some games to begin with and then dinner and then we played a new card game, Phase. You use a Rook deck, pass out the cards and the lst game Yellow is trump and if you end up with any it is 10 pts. for each one. The 2nd hand red is the color you don’t want, 10 points for each one you end up with, the 3rd hand if you end up with any 13’s you get 25 pts. each. The 4th hand is the black 14 worth 100 pts. The 5th hand is 100 points for the person who takes the last hand in the game and the 6th hand is all of the above. Very fun. We’ll have to play it when we are together. We ate so much we needed to take a walk up the Hill after it was all done.

August 2, 2007

Ami, Janet, and David Kent visited us today in Palmyra. What a special treat to go to the temple with them and spend a little time before they headed off to Kirtland.

This last Monday for FHE President & Sister Siebach gave the lesson from the Book of Mormon and discussed the sword of Laban, the Liahona, the materials of war used by the Nephites and Laminites and then he brought a sword, which could have been the sword of Laban. We knew Tyler would love it. That sword was really heavy and they would have needed both hands to hold it. Better to use the Word of God as a two way sword.

The Jacobsons, our missionary couple from the Sacramento Temple, celebrated their 55th Anniversary. They invited us all to the Great Wall for lunch. The Thrifts have their Corvette here so they let them use it for the day.

We visited the Rochester 1st Ward on Sunday. We attended with the Jackman's, our friends from the Palmyra Inn. We also walked the Hill Cumorah and visited the Visitors Center where we watched the Joseph Smith movie.

Check Katie's blog site. She and her sister Leslie have a digital scrapbooking company and she has great pages. You will love them. koryandkatie.blogspot.com