January 26, 2014

 The picture to the left is of Miriam practicing the organ. We try to go to the chapel every Saturday so she can practice.  She is getting pretty good.  She is trying to figure out the sound and stops and stuff, but I think she is awesome.
  Our week was busy as usual.  It is cold and snowy but we seem to be getting more used to it.  We went to a local art gallery with an older couple Saturday.  They are the Earnshaws and they are wonderful.  We met them at a Christmas social and he being an artist struck up a good conversation with Miriam.  They are in their 80's and have lived here for over 40 years.  They love it here, have 1/2 of their children living in New Hampshire and Maine.  Their son is the Bishop of the Bedford Ward.  Anyway, they told us that in the forty years they have lived here, this is the coldest and the most snow.  Just our luck it seems. It was a fun day and we quickly learned to love them.
   We are now preparing for Zone Conferences again.  This time President Stoker has asked us to teach a lesson the attributes of Christ from Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel.  It is nice to be asked to participate in teaching.  This will be the first time we will teach our wonderful missionaries.  We love them all so much.
   We picked up two investigator for church this morning.  A man from the Sudan who's name is Mike and a man from Haiti who's name is Ralph.  They are such interesting people.  They come from such humble circumstances.  They don't have a car as do many of the investigators.  They live with family and friends to help pay the expenses of housing.  Ralph has been to church a few times and seems to be progressing very well toward baptism.  This was Mike's first time and he told us that he really enjoyed all the meeting.
   Our Ward has had a lot of young people move in and it is really a blessing to the Ward.  The Bishop has made some changes and you can really feel the spirit in all the meetings.  It is always such a blessing to go to church on Sundays.
   The mission has a great tradition when the missionaries are going home.  They each get to come to the pulpit and answer this question.  THE GOLDEN TRUTH THAT I LEARNED WHILE ON MY MISSION THAT WILL AFFECT THE REST OF MY LIFE IS:  Elder Ward who went home two weeks ago stated that his golden truth was the value of Hard Work!  He stated: you had eternity to anticipate your mission, you'll have eternity to reflect on your mission, but you only have 2 years to live your mission!  I thought this was great.
   Our testimonies continue to grow.  We love the Lord so much.  I know that I have learned things here that I would never have learned without going on a full time mission.  For that I am grateful. 

January 20, 2014

This past week was a transfer week which usually keeps us very busy, but this one was our smallest one ever.  We only had 3 new missionaries come in and we had 6 go home.  So the work load was much smaller.  The transfer meeting was wonderful.  President Stoker moved a lot of missionaries.  We are starting to see some great results of the changes he has made. President Stoker added another zone and changed the existing zones to match the boundries of the 5 stakes in the mission.  We had 9 baptisms last week, which I understand is the one of the largest ever.
  The picture to the left is our Manchester Chapel.  We have all our transfer meetings and training meetings here.  Two Wards meet here, the Manchester and Bedford Wards.  So the building is used a lot.  The brethren are working on moving the mission office either to this building or the Concord Stake Center.  It would save a lot of money as we now have our office in a regular office building where the rent is quite high.  I am not sure when this will happen.  Maybe in the next year or so.
   We were asked to pick up some investigators for church Sunday morning. But when we got there no one was home or they wouldn't answer the door.  It is always so disappointing for the missionaries.  They work so hard.  But I have come to know that it is not the number for baptisms one gets on their missions but the effort and work that is done.  All missionary work done for the Lord is good and all the people have their agency to choose.  But records are kept and goals are set and their is a tremendous amount of effort put forth to teach the Gospels precisious truths.  We love the missionaries so much.  Our testimonies continue to grow.  Our love for the Lord has no bounds.  We pray always that our work will be acceptable to Him and benefit the work.

January 14, 2014

Last Saturday Miriam took Sisters Taylor and Turley to lunch with Nancy Lynch who was recently baptized.  The Sisters are serving in our Manchester Ward and they are great.  Sister Turley and Miriam are related going back a few generations.  Miriam has gotten close to Nancy and is trying to stay close to her to help her adjust to the new life as a Latter Day Saint.  Nancy works hard and has just gone through a number of surgeries that has really drained her energy. 
After lunch I picked Miriam up and took her to the chapel where she practiced the organ.  The Ward has asked Miriam to play as there are no others in the Ward that can.  Miriam does a great job and the Ward really loves her for her willingness to do it.  She works hard to improve her organ playing skills.
   The Elders below also serve in our Manchester Ward and we have gotten so close to them.  They are (left to right) Elders Rowley, Aldous, Robison and Harper.  Elder Rowley has completed his mission and goes home to California tomorrow.  Elder Aldous is new to the mission and has been out 6 weeks.  Elder Robison is from Arizona and left yesterday for Brazil.  He  has been a VISA WAITER in our mission for 8 months.  We are going to miss him, but we know he is so happy to be finally going to the mission of his calling.  Elder Harper has been in the mission for about a year.  He is from Mesa AZ and we love him dearly.

January 5, 2014

   It is definitely winter here in New England. Our first Nor'Easter.  We had another foot of snow and temperatures of 8 below zero.  With the wind chill if felt like 15 below. I am remembering winters back in Idaho and Colorado where we would deal with this kind of weather.
   We went out to dinner with President and Sister Stoker and the Pettingills New Years Eve and the Longhorn steak house.  It was wonderful and then we went to the Mission Home and played a game called Five Crown.  It is a modified card game and it was pretty fun.  Miriam killed everyone however.  It was a fun night but as usual we were in bed by 10pm and found out it was a new year when we woke up. 
   The work week was short with the holiday and we took a few hours off work to deal with the weather.  Elder Pettingill deals with all the car related problems and accidents and I deal with the cold and apartment problems.  When we get wet snow, power lines go down, then no power and my phone rings.  We have had real cold weather and when furnaces break down my phone rings again. But we get through it and in the end we all are ok and the work goes on.
   Today we moved to 9am church and that is always good.  It was fast and testimony meeting and I think it was one of the best.  Miriam and I were fasting for Penny Scanlan.  She is having surgery this coming Friday hopefully to relieve the sever pain she has in her hips.  Bob and Penny are dear friends.
   I was able to bear my testimony.  It was special as I testified of the truthfulness of this wonderful gospel.  I also took the opportunity to thank the Manchester Ward for the way they treat all the missionaries especially at Christmas.  I also was able to publically thank the Larr family for having us all over Christmas morning.  They are such a loving and generous family.  We missionaries really feel the love from all the members here in Manchester.
  This coming week we prepare for transfers.  It will be great!  We love the work and found we missed the family more than ever during the holidays. 

Decembrer 29, 2013

Sister's Skidmore, Frampton, Stoker, Cloward, Pettingill
Elder Skidmore, Pres. Stoker, Elder Pettingill

This was our Christmas week.  It was different here in the mission field, but wonderful none the less.  The picture to the right are those of us along with the AP's (below) that had dinner with President and Sister Stoker at the mission home.  It was wonderful with more food than we could possibly eat.  Sister Skidmore, Sister Pettingill did the lion share of the cooking to ease the burden on Sister Stoker.  It was Sister Stokers birthday also.  She says she doesn't celebrate her birthday on Christmas, but in July so to break up the festivities.  It was a wonderful day.  Christmas Day was the only day we didn't work last week and that was something new for us also.  But the work goes on!
   Christmas morning we got up, picked up the moose(Chevy Van)and picked up 6 missionaries to go to Brother and Sister Larr's for breakfast.  They had invited us all over for Christmas Breakfast at 8am.  It was bitter cold, but the food and hospitality was outstanding.  We love the Larr's!    So between Christmas breakfast and Christmas dinner, we thought we would never have to eat again.                                                     
   On December 27th Nancy Lynch was baptized.  She and the sisters that taught her are shown below.  Sister Caffall completed her mission last transfer and she flew back from Arizona to be here for Nancy's baptism.  I was able to assist the sisters and Elders in teaching Nancy.  Miriam got to know her at a church Christmas party so we learned to really love her. 
Sister Caffall and her companion related a wonderful story in finding her.  She went out to Goffstown looking for a lady they had an appointment to teach.  Finding this lady not there, they decided to knock on some doors in the neighborhood.  Not having any success, they decided to try one more.  It was Nancy's.  Nancy scorned them off and as they were leaving, they noticed that her driveway had never been shoveled and it was full of snow.  The spirit prompted them to shovel the snow.  So they went to their car, got out the shovels and commenced to clear Nancy's drive.  While they were working, Nancy came to the door, ask them to come over, then ask them if they were Mormons.  The ice was broken, and the teaching began.  Nancy went through quite a number of missionaries until she accepted the Gospel.  I feel she will be a great asset to the Bedford Ward.
   So we had a wonderful, busy week.  We got to face time all the kids and grandkids and that was the best.  It made us miss them all so very much.  It is when you are away that you realize just how important families are.  Miriam and I count our blessings often and it always starts with family.  Our testimonies continues to grow.  We love the work.  Especially working with all the wonderful young missionaries in our mission.  They are the best.  The work isn't easy, but they continue on and on.  We love them so! 


Sister's Caffall, Nancy Lynch, Cloward, and Frampton

AP'S Elders Preslar and Guthrie

December 22, 2013

This was a week filled with wonderful experiences.  The week before Christmas is always special as I always contemplate how blessed I am as 43 years ago this week I was coming home to Arizona from the Army to marry Miriam.  Our anniversary is December 21st and this year I wanted it to be extra special as we are away on our mission in New Hampshire. 
I started looking for a sleigh ride a few weeks ago, and found that many times in December there is not enough snow.  The best sleigh rides are in January or February.  Well that just wouldn't work for me.  Anyway I made a reservation at The Farm in North Conway which is up in northern NH.  I figured if anyone would have snow they would.  And they did!  The picture below is Miriam and I there.  It was special as Miriam has long wanted to do this and the weather and the snow was wonderful.  Elder and Sister Pettingill went with us and we had a blast.  We ended the day with dinner at Shorty's, which is the best Mexican restaurant we can find here in New Hampshire.  It was wonderful.  I thank my Heavenly Father for that fateful dance Miriam and I met at so long ago.  I do love her.
Tuesday morning at 2am I get a call from one of our Manchester missionaries and he has a bloody nose that he just can't stop.  I get up, go get him and take him to the hospital where they coterized his nose in 2 places. I got home at about 5:30 am and work that day sure made me know my age.  President Stoker let me go home that afternoon for a nap and I was grateful for that.  Elder Betts is a great missionary and I loved to be able to help him.
Sunday was special with the Christmas program.  Our Ward had 5 boys and 1 girl sing for the primary, 4 of our missionaries gave short talks, the RS sang a beautiful number and the flute and piano was played by a members of the Bedford Ward, Miriam played the piano for the YW/YM and the Bishop gave some concluding remarks.  Even though it was small, the spirit was so strong.  Then the Ward took all of us missionaries in the RS room where they thanked us for the service to their ward and gave us Christmas gifts.  Tears of gratitude were flowing and boy was it special. 
Then Bishop Dickson and his wife had us all over to his home for dinner.  That is 12 missionaries, the Ward Mission Leader and his wife.  The dinner was lovely and so appreciated. 
Our hearts swell as we accept the love of the members of the Manchester Ward.  It is small and needs help in so many ways, but the love and gratitude they have for the work is spectacular.  It increases my testimony so much.  I know the Gospel is true, and the evidence of it is it's members everywhere in the world.  I am so thankful for our Lord Jesus Christ, his birth, life, death and resurrection.  The atonement means so much to me.  Our mission experiences are wonderful.  The work is His work and it is true!!!!

December 15, 2013

 We had our first real winter storm last night.  We got 12 inches of snow, it was 17 degrees and it will get down to 2 tonight.  President Stoker grounded all the mission autos for today, so if any of the missionaries wanted to go any where they had to walk and that would be real tough.  I don't think it gets above freezing all week.

But it is beautiful and we are doing fine.  Our apartment is comfortable and we have all we need.
Last night we were invited to a Christmas Party by an inactive member.  WOW!  I have never seen so many Christmas decorations.  It was a beautiful two story New England house and it was decked out.  Patty and Eric were the hosts and it was wonderful.  They have lots of friends from every walk of life.  It is hard to imagine she says she will never come to church again.  It's a long story.
I had a great opportunity to teach with the Elders and Sisters to a single sister.  She fixed clam chowder and hot bread to feed us and it was wonderful.  Elder Harper gave her the

baptism interview, the Sisters gave a wonderful Christmas lesson and I was fortunate enough to participate when I was asked.  Nancy will be baptized December 27th.  She has taken a along time and gone through a lot of missionaries to get to this point, but it is worth it.  She actually lives the gospel, loves it and wants to live it.  She will be a wonderful member and a great asset to the church.
Then Thursday night  I get a call from the Elders who asked me go with them to give a blessing.  This was a non member family who has a baby with a large lump on her neck and she is going in for surgery next week.  They are not members but some of their family is and they convinced them that a priesthood blessing would be the best thing for her.  It went wonderful.
We work all day in the office and then when the opportunity arises, we go out at night to bless the lives of the people of New England.  We love the work.  The Lords way is the only way to bring true happiness into ones life.  Our testimonies continue to grow everyday.