February 2015

In the month of January, we spent a lot of time visiting members in Ogdensburg and in Gouverneur, a town about 45 minutes away. Our routine takes us to visit lots of members and the investigators of the Church. On Mondays, we have what is called P-Day (Personal Day) and most of the time the Elders here in Ogdensburg come to our home where they can do their laundry and they cook a big breakfast for us complete with bacon & pancakes or waffles. We just love having our own personal chefs! Then on Thursday mornings, we attend what is called a District meeting where we join with other missionaries from the area for training. Those meetings are so spiritual & wonderful and we have come to enjoy the great work being done by these wonderful young people who seek only to serve Jesus Christ. They are spectacular!

 

One Wednesday in the middle of the month, we took a couple to Watertown, which is a little over an hour away from Ogdensburg. We went to dinner and a movie and had a great time. It is probably fortunate that we are in an area where there is no theater or we would be going too often.

 

At the end of the month, we were thrilled to take a little time to visit our good friends south of Syracuse, the Clays, and to go to the Palmyra Temple. Jim even had a chance to go snowmobiling with Marc. He said it was a hoot and that he had a great time. Who knew that he could enjoy the cold and snow of New York! Fun stuff! 

 

While we have had light snow storms off and on during the month, the real weather issue was the amount of cold weather we had during the month. Of course, the temperatures can be cold during the day and we have had numerous days when it didn't get out of single digits and then some pretty brutal cold has occurred during the night dipping to -20 degrees.  Even so, we haven’t been the recipient of the intense weather that has been reported so often in the national news.  Feeling blessed!

So far for the month of February, it's gotten even more cold. The temperature has been consistently below freezing, with several days below zero. Adding in the wind chill to those negative temperatures and it's just freezing. We can't really complain though, we know an elder in Boston from Red Rock. Poor Boston is really setting the records on the snow!

Steam coming off the river... it looks like the Arizona dust storms, but there's no wind!

Our squirrel figured out in seconds how to get to the new bird feeder. He would shake the house and the seeds would fall on the ground. Then he would climb down the tree and eat the seems off the ground. We bought a metal pole to put it on, but the ground is frozen solid... guess he'll stay fat until spring.

Crazy squirrel is a glutton!

 Playing French Bridge on P-Day & they're hooked!

Changes on the river.

Lights at a local park by the river.

 The children are drawn to Jim. He’s not complaining at all – a good substitute for our grand & great grandchildren.

"Playing" the organ on Sunday (pushing buttons only!) with Jim leading the music.

While eating at the Chili's in Syracuse, we noticed the mode of transportation for many in the area.

Jim getting suited up... to ride the snowmobile! 

x

January 2015

Here we are in a new year and woke to an ice storm on January 4^th.  Everything was covered in a sheet of ice, so our church meetings were cancelled for the day.  This was on top of about 6-8 inches of snow, which made travel in the area a bit precarious.  

We worked on some Family History and just enjoyed the quiet time to consider our mission responsibilities. 

Jim was asked by an elderly member of the branch to conduct and give the eulogy at the funeral of his wife on the 7^th.  It was a truly a wonderful experience and the family seemed pleased with all that was said. 

The community here is depressed economically, which puts most of our members at risk.  They are wonderful, but most are just “living on the edge.”  It is hard to know how to help them sometimes, but we know that the Gospel is the way to lighten their loads.  The difficulty is that many simply haven’t recognized that even in bad times, good things can be a part of their lives.  Thus, that is the “good news” we try to help them see and understand.

We’ve put about 4200 miles on our car since we arrived!  We drive several members to and from work on a regular basis and with all the visits and meetings it has added up quick.  We had snow tires put on the front after the first snow and that has sure been a necessary addition.  Looks like we’ll wear them out during the two winters we’ll be here. 

We are fortunate to be associated with two wonderful young missionaries on a daily basis.  They are such an inspiration to us as we watch how hard they work, how obedient they are, and how committed they are to serving for two years.  We had them and four other missionaries from the general area here for Christmas and had a wonderful time just being with them.  We are simply having a great time being missionaries. 

Christmas Day in our back yard with all the missionaries in our District.  No white Christmas for us.

Elder Knight, Sister Knight, Elder Hong, Elder Ounesavath, Elder Moore, Elder Hayes, Sister Hale, Sister Gelinas

Elder Ounesavath cooking made-to-order pancakes with pecans, blueberries, strawberries & chocolate chips.

Elder Hong is our official bacon fryer with his stylish apron.

Elder Knight is opening his ‘white elephant’ Christmas gift.
We had such a great time with all 6 missionaries here for Christmas Eve and Day.

Elder Ounesavath cooking our Christmas dinner!

Thank goodness this isn't our car!

The river has begun to freeze again with the sub-zero temps we've had for a few nights.

Squirrel in the backyard preparing for winter and watching me watching him.  So cute!

This is becoming a common occurrence.
We are fortunate to have a member of the church whose husband plows our driveway
by 6:30 am when it's needed - out of the goodness of his heart.

Ice on branches

Amish Buggy Parking at Walmart!

We met this Amish man, Brother Miller, and his son Sam who were selling baskets on the side of the road not far from Ogdensburg.  
We bought several items as gifts for family back home. 
(Shel's note: they are beautiful!)

Someone turning around in the driveway left behind this unintentional message.

No words needed.

So, this happened...

During the past couple of weeks, we have been able to meet many members and investigators of the Church here in Ogdensburg and Gouverneur.  Our Sundays are very busy as we attend our three hour block meetings here in Ogdensburg and where Elder Knight is the First Counselor to the Branch President.  After those meetings, we travel to Gouverneur, which is about 45 minutes away where we participate in their meetings as well for two hours.  They have what is called a Dependent Branch there.  Both have small groups and it is easy to like them.  They are humble and kind people and we are enjoying them.

During the week, we have a “P-Day” (personal day) on Mondays.  The young missionaries come to our house to do their laundry in the morning on those days.  Linda and I have been able to get to Watertown to do some shopping and have date night.  It is about an hour and ten minutes from here.  During the rest of the week, we are out and about visiting members and helping the Elders teach investigators and giving service where needed.  For example, last Friday a young family in the Branch needed to go to Syracuse and Watertown for personal and doctor appointments so Linda babysat their two little girls during the day.  I took the three little boys to and from school so that the husband and his wife could make the trip more easily.  Syracuse is slightly over two hours away.  We were active in assisting the Branch, which included the Gouverneur group with a Thanksgiving Dinner and then with an early Christmas Dinner as well.  Linda knows how to pitch in with organizing and running such activities and I’m a good dishwasher.  It has been fun and we have already seen some nice things happen for us and the Branch here.  We actually feel blessed to be here and to be serving.

As for the weather, we've had very little snow – just what you see in the earlier pictures.  But it has been very cold for this Arizona couple.  It’s mostly been in the teens and when the wind blows it’s just, well, wretched.  We layer and bundle and stay inside as much as possible.  I told Jim when we bought the car we would be happy to have the heated seats!  The people around here have said it’s going to get much worse!  Oh my goodness.  I won’t be able to walk if I layer any more.

~

Elder & Sister Busby from Tucson are serving in Brockville, Canada just 20 minutes from us (Jim met him years ago in Tucson). We've known his brother & sister-in-law from Tucson since we moved there in 1988. I ran into them in a local grocery store where they shop weekly.

It's such a small world in the church. 

 Our elders - Elder Ounesavath & Elder Hong 

 Elder Ferris (middle) is from the Tucson North Stake! 

Again, small world.

Members from both our Branch and Twig!

The ice is beginning to develop along the banks of the river as you can see by the dock. 

The river will freeze over soon.

Sister Gelinas & Sister Gochner serve in the Gouveneur area.

Elders serving the Christmas dinner to the members.

Week One...

Shel's note: Received updates today from Mom & Dad. Their internet was finally hooked up, so we're doing some catching up!

Our first week of our mission has been wonderful - filled with great experiences and strange weather!

Saturday, Nov. 15

We noticed a wall in the living room of our rental home with pictures of the last five senior couples who have served here in the Ogdensburg area and lived in this home. The couple that served here from 2010-2011, Brent & Pauline Esplin, lived in Westerville, Ohio at the same time we did in the early 80’s. Amazing!

Sunday, Nov. 16

Today we went to our first Branch meeting in Ogdensburg from 10am-1pm. They meet in a small but beautiful LDS building. We were there early enough to meet some of the members as they came in. They were all so welcoming and seemed genuinely happy to have us there. There were only 29 there for the meetings. 

We were sitting on the stand since we were the speakers for the day (the youth speaker didn’t come) and five minutes before the meeting began, Jim & Elder Hong asked me to ‘run’ the organ! I’ve never even sat at one so panic set in. The Elder gave me a quick lesson on finding the song and then how to keep pressing a key to keep it on beat. Thank goodness the chorister heard him and said we could set it automatically to keep the beat, which can be selected from the controls for each song. At the end of each verse I had to tap a button to start the next verse. During the song she leaned over and said we needed more volume and of course I was clueless. She said to push the pedal so I did and we had very loud music for a few seconds. It was just crazy. I’m pretty sure the congregation was thinking how they were glad it was me instead of them. No judging at all! I’ve already been asked to do it again next Sunday, so I guess no one else thought they could do it better but that sure wouldn't have taken much. I’ll be an expert soon. The good news is I didn't stress about my talk since I was so busy with the music.

The next meeting was in Gouverneur about 30 miles away where about the same number of members meet in a large room of a retirement home. There is one member who lives there and he was able to get permission for us to use their large dining room every week. Some of the members who live in the area are older or without transportation so this is done so they can come and participate. This meeting is from 3-5pm. I am guessing we will be giving a lot of Sacrament talks in the next 18 months.

Monday, Nov. 17

Our first opportunities for service came today. We were headed to Heuvelton to visit a family from our Branch. The roads were wet and it was lightly snowing. There was an Amish couple in their buggy heading towards us with a car approaching them from behind. The driver must have been worried about the timing of us approaching and she hit her brakes and spun clockwise. The back left side of her car hit the back left buggy wheel & jolted the buggy but hardly moved it. She then went off the road, nearly hitting an electric pole. We turned around and went to see what we could do. The Amish couple was just fine, as was the horse and they were very nice about the whole incident. They smiled and said everything was fine. They took off and the Elders and Jim proceeded to push the car until she got it back on the road. Jim was splattered, literally, from head to toe in mud. I failed to get a picture of him – it was snowing & he just needed to get wiped up as much as possible. We had to go back home so he could clean up and change clothes.

Just as we were ready to head back to Heuvelton we received a call from a member working at a local grocery store saying there was an older woman who was distraught about needing help moving some items from her porch to their upstairs rental home. Of course a large sofa was involved. So, we met her at the grocery store and followed her to her home. Her husband has serious health issues and was unable to help. When we took the cushions off the sofa I found a measuring tape (I took that as a sign) and suggested the men measure to make sure it would fit since there was a bend in the stairs and then what looked like too small of an opening at the top of the stairs, in my humble opinion. I was assured it would fit. Well, after 20 minutes of balancing and maneuvering this 3 cushion, very heavy old sofa on the stairway they gave up and brought it back down and out on the porch. 

(Update – today is the 24^th and Jim’s back is giving him fits and we all know why. He has been counseled by our Mission President to not move any more furniture and to leave it to the young missionaries. We’ll see if he can follow that counsel. I've ordered him an inversion table as an early Christmas present.)

Wednesday, Nov. 19
We were supposed to drive to Watertown, just one hour southwest of here to get our car 'winterized' but the service department called to let us know they were having a blizzard and the roads were closed. Thank goodness they called because it was sunny here & we had just started to drive that way. So, we decided to drive to Ottawa which is only one hour away. It was a beautiful sunny day when we left. We found a shopping mall and did a little browsing. We headed home after about an hour and just as we were approaching the bridge back to the US we found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm. Thank goodness we live one minute from the bridge!  

Mall in Ottawa

 Snowing on the bridge crossing back to New York

Snow & the St. Lawrence River 

St. Lawrence River 

View of the St. Lawrence from our living room window

Beautiful old church in Malone