August Blog

Lighthouse on the Canadian side -
we see it illuminated at night from home.

Our calling as Member and Leader Support (MLS) Missionaries is much like it sounds. By now, if you have been following our Blog, you will note that our lives are busy and fall into a fairly normal routine. In August, we spent the lion’s share of our time visiting and working with members. Jim serves in the Branch as the First Counselor to the Branch President so he has a direct link with the leadership of the Branch. Linda serves as the Family History Consultant for the Branch and has that additional “hook” to visit the members, both active and less active. Needless to say, we love our time here as missionaries for the Church. It is wonderful and at the same time very challenging. 

During the month, we enjoyed our usual Zone and District meetings along with all of the other responsibilities associated with our work here in Ogdensburg. We have two sets of Elders working in the Branch. One set is here in Ogdensburg and the other in Gouverneur. Routinely, we drive down to Gouverneur on Wednesdays to be with the Elders there. Every six weeks, is transfer week when new Elder and Sister Missionaries arrive in the mission, while others who are completing their missions return to their homes. Elders serve for two years and sisters serve for 18 months, so placing the new missionaries and moving others around is a huge task and the Mission President with his assistants coordinate all of that work. During the transfer that occurred on August 19, both of our more experienced Elders became trainers so we brought back two new missionaries to be trained - one here in Ogdensburg and the other in Gouverneur. Of course, as a senior missionary couple, we stay put, thank goodness. For that, we are glad because we love it here in Ogdensburg.

The summer is beginning to wind down. Our nights are usually in the 50's and the days are currently in the low 80's with fairly high humidity. Even so, it is pretty comfortable most of the time. We can already tell that the fall is going to spectacular here in this part of the country. A few trees are starting to change colors. We think by the end of September and into early October we should be in full color.

Our District missionaries helped paint the fence around the St Lawrence Historical Society in Canton as a service project.