Our Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission 2021 to 2022
In addition, the senior couple there right now helps in the mission office with baptism paper work and getting online referrals to the correct companionships and following through on those. The mission president asked if we would be willing to do that as well, and, of course, we agreed.
The last few months were pretty challenging because we were homeless, relying on our kids to keep us from living in a tent! We spent over a month in an apartment that Amie's mother Robin rents from them while she is staying at their home recovering from knee surgery. The additional time (we had originally said we would be available October 1) allowed us to take care of some medical issues and a number of other things, so it was a real blessing.
We left the Atlanta area on Saturday November 27, and drove to Durham, NC, to see our first great granddaughter (Eden and Stephen’s first) and then on to Harrisonburg, VA, to be with Brittany and her family for a couple of days. On Wednesday, Dec. 1, we drove to Philadelphia, visited with the Cardinet's who we are replacing, viewed a few Philly sites, left our full car at the temple, and flew out to the MTC in Provo. We are excited about his unknown adventure for the next 18 months.
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| Here we are with our district at the MTC |
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| Margaret and Bruce Bartholomew from Heber City, Utah -YSA's in Romania |
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| David and Connie Foster near Pittsville, PA - CES at UCLA & Santa Monica |
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| Don and Loretta Asay from near Mesquite, Nevada - CES at Purdue |
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| And us - CES in Philadelphia |
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| This is our cute little apartment for this stay. |
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| The tradition of showing where we are going on the world map in the foyer of the MTC |
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| One of large group training sessions. |
There are about 1100 young missionaries here going all over the world and 80 Senior missionaries. A senior missionary can be a single woman or a couple with no children left at home, so the ages range from early 50's to late 70's.
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| A portion of the training campus designed to handle a full capacity of about 3,000 |
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| If one doesn’t get there early to the cafeteria, he or she may have may have to wait a little to eat |
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| The Christmas decorations around the missionary training campus add a special element of beauty and enjoyment. |
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| The weekly missionary devotional where all the missionaries at the MTC gather together. |
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| A fun surprise birthday party for Jill planned by our district members. |
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| With our district trainer |
Our first and foremost assignment is to teach one or more Institute classes. Our Thursday night class on the Old Testament was a zoom class last semester, but one of the girls in the ward has worked very hard for over a year to arrange for us to be able to teach on the Drexel University campus nearby. Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania (hereafter called UPenn), and Temple University campuses all share an area downtown called University City. Besides young adults living and working in the area, there are members of our church studying Biomedical Engineering, Architecture, Law, Medicine, Nutrition, Materials Engineering, Fluid Engineering, and Molecular Biology, among other degrees. At least these are the ones that we know from the Young Singles ward. But there are others who attend the South Philly family ward. We hope to have this as an in-person and a Zoom class for those who want to attend but live in New Jersey, Delaware, or in other parts of the area. There should hopefully be about twenty in the class. It’s a little daunting to be teaching young adults like these who are very smart and committed to education, so we are working hard on lessons. We don't plan on just standing up and teaching, but having class discussions on Gospel topics.
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| A few of the amazing young adults that we get to work with! |
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| We actually got about 4" of snow and then it was so cold that it stayed on the ground for several days. This is the patio area at our apartment building. |
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| And last of all, we were able to go to the temple this past week. It is such a beautiful temple and has lovely stained glass windows. We are so fortunate to be so close. |
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| The class, “Christ and His Gospel: How to Build Heaven on Earth,” afterwards is taught by the full-time institute director Zach Horton who is great. |
On Thursday, we taught our first class on the Old Testament was a hybrid class with 8 in-person students and 3 on zoom. We were very pleased to have that many for the first time on the Drexel University campus. Again, we hope to have more next week with the UPenn students back on campus. They are such a great group of young adults, both students and working professionals. They are bright, enthusiastic, and love being with each other. One of our students is from Cambodia, another from Laos, another born in Sweden, and the others from all over the United States. We love their diversity and the different viewpoints that they share. We feel it is a real privilege to be their teachers.
We were grateful to have been able to visit the classroom ahead of time on Wednesday morning to check everything out. There is a projector in the class, but no whiteboard which was a little hard for Sister Dunford who is used to writing on the board as a classroom teacher. We hope to maybe find one in a nearby classroom that we can bring in.
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| In addition, we have to say that we finally did get some snow – about 4 inches. When we get our next snowfall, we will go over the courtyard in the middle of the ward building and take pictures of our making snow angels! |
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| One of several butcher shops offering all kinds of meat |
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| Just one wall of a giant candy store |
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| Peking duck with their heads on, hanging at a Chinese shop |
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| Shelves of dozens of nuts and other commodities |
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Philbert the Pig sculpture standing on a money drop box for a local food bank (and, of course, he is wearing a face mask like the rest of us!) |
The first part of this past week was just spent working on our mission assignments which involves my receiving photos and conversion stories from those baptized in our mission and putting them in a power point to share at Zone Conferences. They are such sweet folks and tender stories, so it is fun reading about them. Rob them takes the statistics and shares them with the stake presidents in the area in a line graph. He also continues to receive and place online referrals.
Last Tuesday morning, our new friends Milan and Leslie Kunz who are the temple president and matron invited us to come to the church building to learn how to play pickleball which is a big thing with our Institute kids. It was really fun to receive their great instruction, although we have a long way to go. Having been tennis players in the past, the rackets were too short, and the whiffle ball didn’t bounce like a tennis ball! Any of you who play will know what we mean. But we are going to try to go practice on our own to get a little better before we play with them again. We might even remember to take a photo next time!
We had a good Drexel class with 8 again, but two new ones to replace two others who couldn’t make it. These students are so busy with their courses that it is a sacrifice for them to walk the several blocks to get to our classroom. Apparently, the building is pretty central to UPenn, Temple and Drexel, but it does mean that everyone has some walking to do. It was raining, but that didn’t bother them a bit!
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| The ranger got mad at us when he saw we were trying to remove our masks for the photo! |
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Of course, we needed a photo at the Liberty Bell. We love the way they planned this display to center it right in front of Independence Hall. |
We continue to be so grateful for this opportunity to serve Jesus Christ and these great young adults. They are so patient with us and seem to enjoy our classes.
We hope that all is well with you and with your families. We miss you but hope that these little updates are helpful in keeping up with us. May the Lord bless you and your loved ones.
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| Rob checking out a sweet Renoir. |
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| This is a typical wall in the museum. |
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| We stopped for some nice warm hot chocolate and pastries to have in the sun on the way home. |
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| Storm clouds were gathering over the Philadelphia skyline as we traveled home. |
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| A great sandwich for under $9.00! Rob tried cheese whiz, and I had provolone. |
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| Rob with one of his great power point presentations. |
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| Discussing scriptures in pairs |
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| This past Thursday, they all left as it began to rain, but walked about four blocks to eat ice cream and just visit on the sidewalk. It was so fun to go by and see them. |
We continue preparing dinner for the Wednesday night Institute class taught by our CES director. I have to say that I am not sure I can cook a dinner every Wednesday night for the next 15 months, so I have to become better at simplifying it.
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| White Chicken Chili |
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| Rob teaching Institute at Drexel |
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In a recent class about Jacob and Esau, we shared this about Esau’s giving up his birthright for pottage. We talked to them about not giving up things that are eternally important to them for things that look very enticing right now. Valuable advice for all of us. |
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Rob’s birthday was on the 24th, so I made a chocolate cake (his favorite) to our class, and we all sang to him. |
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| As a part of that celebration, he was able to talk to all our kids. And our friends, Milan and Leslie Kunz (he is the Philly Temple president) brought a surprise box of all of their favorite kinds of Beiler’s amazing doughnuts from the Reading Terminal to celebrate. |
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| Clara, neurons and the brain |
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| A fun optical illusion (Benjy spontaneously made this pose!) |
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| But we did find a great indoor mall and ate a quick lunch under the dome. And we were able to see more of the city. But next time, we’ll head to the one north of us. |
One of the things that I am enjoying in my mission responsibilities is receiving the photos of new members taken just before their baptisms and a short conversation story that I process into history files for the mission and a powerpoint to show the whole mission before or after mission conferences. There are so many sweet stories. Rob is still following up on referrals and making sure that they are placed with the correct missionaries.
Finally, one of the most important things that we wanted to mention was that our darling daughter-in-law Emily, Bryan’s wife, has had her brain tumor return after about 8 years with some additional tumors found along her spine. After consultations with the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, she will begin some specific radiation starting in about a week at the Huntsman Cancer Center in Salt Lake City for some weeks. They are grateful that this can occur there instead of their having to travel somewhere else. Would you please keep Emily in your fasting and prayers? We will keep you up to date with how things go.
As we leave you, we continue to pray for those in Ukraine and the terrible destructions that are taking place there. One of the young men shared a scripture before our Institute class after talking about the war going on. We think it is an important one that we should all remember in these difficult times.
John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
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| Happy Spring! It has been so nice to see little daffodils coming up and buds showing on trees. |
Last Friday, we walked to the Benjamin Franklin Museum and saw these sweet flowers coming up outside. We took a lot of pictures which we might share with you in future posts, such as the amazing murals on lots of outside buildings, the many statues, and the architecture.
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| Here we are standing by the LOVE statue in Love Park |
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| The museum highlights Franklin’s wise sayings and inventions. |
We hadn’t realized that he had
invented an early odometer that was attached to a carriage wheel. He
established a library, changed the way the streets were lighted, invented
bifocals, and, of course, did all his electricity experiments.
Later that night, we went with the Kunz' to Gooey Looey’s, another cheese steak restaurant which was very good. It was what is called a "hole in the wall" on a little side street with only take out. But there was a nice patio outside and the weather was wonderful. Have you ever had Birch Beer? This was a first for us, and it was good. It actually is traditionally made from the bark of the birch tree, whereas root beer is made from sassafras root, and is a Pennsylvania favorite.
The Friday before we went to the Eastern State Penitentiary which has been restored. It was the first prison of its kind and housed all the inmates in solitary confinement. They weren’t allowed to communicate with anyone, and even when they went out into the yard for some fresh air and sunlight, they had a sack over their head so they couldn’t see anyone. The prison sentences were less than two years, but they would have been plenty of time for someone to go crazy. And they didn’t keep any records on whether the prisoners committed crimes afterwards. Al Capone’s jail cell, unlike others, was furnished with a radio, and other amenities (he was there for just a year).
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| The cells contained a bed, a commode, a chair, and a Bible. |
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| There were skylights, but no other views for them outside. |
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| This was in the newer two-story section. It was just so bleak and would have been freezing in the winter and hot in the summer. |
Besides preparing meals for Institute, this past Wednesday, we
taught for our supervisor who was attending an out-of-town
meeting. The lesson He is Risen from the Jesus Christ and the
Everlasting Gospel manual was such an important one to cover as we approach
Easter. This quote from Elder Dallin H. Oaks is such a meaningful
one.
“The assurance of Resurrection gives us the strength and perspective to endure the mortal challenges faced by each of us and by those we love, such things as the physical, mental, or emotional deficiencies we bring with us at birth or acquire during mortal life. Because of the Resurrection, we know that these mortal deficiencies are only temporary!”
Last Sunday, we had stake conference for Valley Forge Stake, and it was one of the best that we have ever attended. There was a great emphasis on attending the temple and doing Family History work for our kindred dead.
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| Several of the YSA’s from the ward sang on Saturday night. |
As we study and teach the Old Testament in our
Drexel class, we become so much more aware of the things that Jehovah did to
make sure that the right people were in the right place when they were
needed. The story of Joseph being sold in to Egypt and going through
slavery and prison before being made second to Pharoah highlights the
importance of his being there to take care of his family. We need to have faith
in God's plan for us, even if we don't know the end of the path that He is
having us walk.
We continue to be so heartbroken about all that is going on in
Ukraine. We have friends serving missions in Bosnia, Romania, and
Slovakia who are working hard to help the refugees receive help as they flee
the war. We, as all of you we know, are praying for this to be
resolved and for peace to be restored.
This is Dad/Rob/Bapa/Elder Dunford posting this time. It’s
possible, with all the interesting things we report on seeing and doing in and
around Philadelphia, that some of you may believe that our mission here is
little more than a vacation for us. Well, that ain't so. It's a lot of work but
the work is very enjoyable (most of the time.)
One
of the high points in our work is getting to know and love the outstanding
Young Adults who go out of their way to attend our evening Institute of
Religion classes. Jill has described the meals she prepares for a class
of 20-25 appreciative students on Wednesday nights taught by an
experienced CES (Church Education System) instructor in one of our inner-city
chapels. Here are a few of them before class starts:
Another of our responsibilities is to encourage Young Adults in the area who are candidates to attend Institute but are not. With the help of a former Institute student and his videographic expertise, we had this little 3-1/2 minute video, The Institute Journey, prepared to invite all Young Adults to allow Institute to take them closer to their Heavenly Father, into the scriptures, and to a better ability to hear the Voice of the Lord.
For example, we had an enriching experience this past week teaching Exodus 7-13 about the plagues, their symbolism, and the Passover instructions by Moses in the Old Testament and their application to our and our students’ lives today. We’re looking forward to having our students come to our apartment for a real Passover or Seder dinner in two weeks.
Even though we are far away from our families and children, we enjoy getting together with them regularly via monthly Zoom meetings. (we both thought we had taken a photo on a zoom call with our children, but we must not have. Here we are with some of my siblings.)
I am close to wrapping up a year- long effort with three of my fellow ex-missionaries to Argentina to gather and make available more than 70 short stories showing the Hand of the Lord in preparing the good people of southern Argentina to receive His gospel.
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| They had us and another senior missionary to dinner with their darling family. |
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The Liberty Tree was a large elm tree in Boston was a gathering for the early patriots. This is just a small piece that remains. |
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This is a replica of George Washington's chair in Independence Hall. Ben Franklin said that the sun represented a rising country. |
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I loved the writings of the patriots during the American Revolution when I taught them as a high school teacher, especially these famous lines by Thomas Paine. |
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All these tapestries on the wall surrounding the open area are from the 1600's, many were designed by Reubens. There are just remarkable, and the fact that they have been so preserved is amazing! |
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There were a number of 16th century stone works from Europe that were moved to the museum. Some of the smaller pieces as well as this one were all embedded into the museum wall, so you felt that you were actually entering the original edifice. |
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| This is from Germany around 1500. |
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| Part of the amazing displays of swords, armor, spears, etc. in the Armor room. |
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| A Japanese tea house from around 1917 |
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Rembrandt - Head of Christ. One of our Young Adult's who is an artist did his own copy which is amazing, so we had to take this photo. |
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| Statue of John the Baptist ordaining Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey |
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| A stop at Love Park at one of the lesser known Love Statues |
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| Here is the famous one on the other side of the park. |
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| And some more fun shots of her visit |
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| Also, here is a flyer for the summer online classes that we will be teaching. |
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| Us in the Council Room |
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| The observation tower is closed right now. But here is William Penn dressed for a Flyers game. How would you like to have had to go up inside him to drop a shirt around him from the top?! |
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| Baldwin Locomotive Company - this one looks just like a photograph |
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| Read - behind the Free Library on our walk to Target |
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| How to Turn Anything into Somethin Else |
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| Honoring our Military |
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| Philadelphia Muses |
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| The Phillies, of course |
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| Reach High and You Will Go Far |
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Life Long Learning on the side of a 24 story assisted-living apartment complex across the street from our apartment |
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| Hope Begins with a Meal |
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| Common Threads |
We believe that we have mentioned that this has been our hardest mission as far as the learning curve is concerned. This is the first where we actually had a part of the actual mission and the young elders and sisters. In the Caribbean, serving as Public Affairs specialists, we reported to the Area Presidency. In the Salt Lake City Headquarters mission, although we did report to a mission president and Rob was a zone leader for awhile in a zone with other senior missionaries serving in the Church Office Building, we didn’t have any direct responsibilities to mission activities.
With this mission, although we report to the director of Seminaries and Institutes for the teaching and food prep part of our mission, we also have several mission office responsibilities, including Referrals for Rob and Baptism Accountability and recording for the mission history (which we have mentioned before). But we didn’t know that we were supposed to be attending zone conferences and a number of other all mission meetings until about five months into the mission. This may sound surprising to others of you who have served missions, but none of this was explained to us early on. So, to get us into all of that, we were asked to attend all three multizone conferences two weeks ago and present the new program to encourage new members to go to the temple quickly to do baptisms for the dead after their own baptism. We continue to learn new things all the time!
Two weeks ago, for “fun Friday”, we went to Cape May, New Jersey. This lovely ocean town was a favorite destination in the late 1800's. I've included a picture of one of the restored homes and the lighthouse (we didn't climb it because it was immersed in fog, and we wouldn't have been able to see anything!) We enjoyed walking on the beach.
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| The topiary garden with the Conservatory in the background. |
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| Floribunda roses in the Rose Garden |
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| Here is just one shot from the fountain show |
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The lovely Italian Garden (The lawn was cut to make designs) |
We are so grateful to the Lord for the many blessings that we all receive. As we eat our dinner, we think about those around the world who might not be getting a meal or not having a place to sleep. We pray for the Lord’s blessings on them and on all of you and your families.
One of our sad things is that Rob’s sister
passed away about a week ago after a five-year battle with colon cancer, Rob has a
brother and his wife who are serving a self-reliance mission in Houston Texas,
and his sister and her husband who are serving a public affairs mission in
Manchester England with responsibilities including the Scandinavian countries
as well as the British Isles. Carolyn asked us all to stay on our missions and
not come home for her funeral to which we agreed. We are so grateful for the
technology that allowed us all to watch it over the Internet and to feel that
we were right there. But it was still
hard.
Everyone talked about what an angel Carolyn was and still is. A day did not go by without her doing some service for someone whether she knew them or not. Her two daughters played beautiful musical numbers and three sons spoke. The boys all mentioned that their mother often made cookies to take to other people and not for them! They said they never knew who would be there on Thanksgiving because of someone that Carolyn had met and didn’t want to have be alone for the holiday. A day did not go by without her doing some service for someone whether she knew them or not.
She started an amazing program called Angel Watch which was a perinatal hospice. In other words, her organization gave comfort and support to parents who knew that they would either lose their child before birth or shortly after because they could not live outside the womb. The organization touched so many lives, and many of the families gave their stories for her to include in a book that was published through many miracles just before she passed away. (By the way, Carolyn gave birth to a little boy who only lived about 10 months but never left the hospital, so she understood the pain of these parents.)
She had baked cookies ahead of her funeral for all who attended and wrote her testimony in Books of Mormon for those in attendance to give to others. We talked about her funeral afterwards and how it gave us such a great desire to live better lives and be more of service to others. And we want to do a better job of listening to those promptings that encourage us to contact people who need cheer or to bake cookies for someone.
We are so grateful for the plan of happiness that was prepared before we all came to earth where we could learn the things that we needed to do in order to return to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, as well as our loved ones who have gone before.
So, our wish for all of us in this post is that we can each try to make a greater effort to do an act of kindness every day, to love other people unconditionally, and to keep the commandments.
It is so amazing to know that next week on the July 6th, we will have been out for seven months!
We continue to stay busy teaching an online
Spanish class on Tuesday night for Rob and an online English one on Thursday
for me. We are always amazed how things that we have done in the pasts or
skills that we have are applied when we have gone on missions. I believe that I have mentioned that there
aren’t any online Spanish Institute classes in the northeast, so this has been
a little bit of an experiment to see if it meets a need. And Rob is so fluent
in Spanish that he does a great job. In
spite of lots of advertising and personal invitations, there are about five in
both our classes. We have a great time
with our students who have such strong testimonies though, so we are grateful
for the privilege.
Besides our CES work and our mission assignments, we haven’t had “Fun Fridays” for a few weeks. We have started visiting the four city parks that were part of William Penn’s plan for Philadelphia with broad streets that run north/south and east/west between the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers.
In the northeast quadrant is Logan Square, which is now called Logan Circle, just five minutes from our apartment. We love the beautiful fountain with the statues representing each of the rivers here. Kids can play in it in the summer.
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| Outside Rittenhouse Park with beautiful azaleas |
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| Lovely pond in the park |
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| “Lion Crushing a Serpent” |
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| Bronze Goat |
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Eden, Stephen, and Tessa spent the night here on their way to Boston where he will be professor at Harvard |
July 6 to July 20, 2022
We have a sweet story to share. As you know, Elder Dunford is in charge of referrals for the mission. He sends them along to the missionaries in the proper area, but we don’t know what happens to them. This changed recently. He received a phone call from a woman from out-of-state who was hoping that she could find ASL missionaries to teach her son’s girlfriend (He is also deaf.) We sent out a request to the mission and learned that, although there are several missionaries who do know ASL, there are ASL missionaries in New York who teach friends all over the area on zoom. We were glad that the sister missionaries where this girlfriend lives were able to connect her to them.
Then several months later, as I am gathering the photos and conversion story for those who have recently been baptized, you can't imagine how pleased I was to see that she had joined the Church, and her boyfriend performed the ordinances in ASL.
We are enjoying our summer online classes, although they aren’t the same as in-person. Our lessons this week are “Selecting and Becoming an Eternal Companion.” Because this lesson manual focuses on self-improvement, the lesson includes preparing oneself to be the best companion we can and seeking someone who shares similar values and interests. Since many of our students are in graduate studies here, marriage is really not in their sights right now, but there are important principles that we hope will prepare them for the future.
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| The museum included some of my favorite quotes, including Thomas Paine who urged the patriots to not be “summer soldiers.” |
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| There was a group of drum and fife students from York, VA, who performed just as they might have done in Washington's time. |
It was just another reminder about the gratitude we feel for those men who gave everything in order for us to have the freedom that we have today.
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| We also discovered a sweet little garden and meditation spot on the second floor of the temple visitors center. |
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| You can see where it is in relationship to the temple itself. So sweet. |
“Faith in its true signification is more than the moving cause pursuant to which men and angels act. It is also a principle of power. Faith is power. And where there is power, there is faith; and where there is no power, there is no faith."
With Institute not meeting during the month August, we have been spending a little more time helping with mission needs. One of the nicest parts of this mission has been the greater interaction with the young missionaries than we have had in our two earlier ones. Of course, we are texting them all the time to gather their baptismal information for the mission history. But it is fun when we see them when we are out, and they know who we are. We often get a call to go open the ward building next door when someone has forgotten the key, and they have a meeting scheduled or want to play volleyball or pickle ball on a p-day (Preparation Day when they clean their apartments and do their washing, go grocery shopping, and sometimes just hang out together in an activity) We will really miss this.
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| Here is a screen shot of one of three pages from an All Mission zoom call. |
We have been able to help some of the ward Young Adults as well. One of the young men needed to replace a damaged door in his apartment (we never asked how it was damaged 😊), and Rob picked up some chisels, so we could go to the apartment to help. One of the things that impressed me the most was that Rob had Jacob do the work under his instruction. I think that after chiseling some new sections for the hinges and then screwing in all the screws, he will probably be more careful with his place in the future….
One of the things that we have learned is that the Church is putting greater emphasis on the Young Adult wards or branches as the center of activities with Institute being an arm going out from there, rather than just the opposite. We don’t know exactly how this will change our interactions, but we are just carrying on at this point.
We will be passing out a survey at Church today asking the Young Adults what their fall plans are, including work, school, etc., and where they would like to attend Institute (at the ward building across the street, on one of the nearby University campuses, online, etc.) That will determine what we will be doing. Regardless, Rob’s online Hispanic Institute class was successful, so that will continue in September. He is planning an event for all Hispanic Young Adults the end of the month to introduce the fall course.
We had an interesting Friday. The Free Library of Philadelphia, chartered in 1891 as “a general library which shall be free to all” is located a couple of blocks away, but the whole system has more than 50 branches around the city. Their Rare Book Department has more than 100,000 books and manuscripts that you had see and carefully examine there. They have a lot of “Mormon” memorabilia, including an original Book of Mormon, called the Palmyra version, subsequent printings, many other books, and William Clayton’s journal which Rob is interested in because William Clayton was his third great grandfather.
We had such a special visit, including being able to hold and open that Book of Mormon.
In addition, they have first editions of all of Beatrix Potter books, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and many others.
This is Charles Dickens pet raven Grif. Supposedly, Edgar Allan Poe had great admiration for Dickens, and Grif was the model for Poe’s poem “The Raven.” Apparently, someone purchased the stuffed bird at an auction, and then it eventually ended up in the Free Library!
As a former English teacher who loved teaching Poe and Dickens, I was in heaven. When I was a teenager, I would read every book by an author. For instance, after reading A Christmas Carol, I went on to read every Dickens book – what a nerd, I know!
My mother loved Peter Rabbit so much as a little girl that she carried the nickname Petey her whole life. And there we were seeing a number of her original drawings and notes for books. We are planning on returning in the future to explore more.
And finally, in our last lesson “Facing Life’s Challenges” that we taught this summer, we shared this quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell:
“Since there was no exemption from suffering for Christ, how can there be one for us? Do we really want immunity from adversity? Especially when certain kinds of suffering can aid our growth in this life. To deprive ourselves of those experiences, much as we might momentarily like to, would be to deprive ourselves of the outcomes over which we shouted with anticipated joy when this life’s experiences were explained to us so long ago, in the world before we came here."
We are grateful for the knowledge that the Lord loves us and truly plans our lives where we will have the opportunity to grow in our trust of Him. May the Lord bless you and your family.
It is hard to believe that August is nearly over! It has been a busy time for us, even though we haven’t been teaching.
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| We dressed up a little to advertise it at zone conferences last week. |
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| The missionaries in this mission are just amazing, and we are always so impressed when they teach each other. |
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| Our ward missionaries when they came to dinner. |
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| Brittany and her family came again for an overnight and a temple trip. We took the kids to the Franklin Institute again and saw some other areas, including machines and exercise. |
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| We walked through a field of soybeans to a large tree and a grove of smaller trees surrounded by fallen logs to protect the area when the fields are being plowed and planted. |
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On the far side, we were finally able to enter the grove which was totally overgrown as you can see. |
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| But we did find Christian and Susannah Barr’s grave because it was the largest (Christian was buried there in 1816 and Susannah thirty years later). We took pictures of other headstones that we hope to be able to identify. |
We continued on our journey trying to find other relatives and other cemeteries. Unfortunately, some of the ones from find-a-grave which identified the graves at certain places were actually not for Rob’s ancestors.
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But we did find another one to mark Melchior and Anna although their actual burial location isn’t known. |
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| The men don't stop shaving until they are married, so this was a couple out "courting." |
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The Three Amigos (Two of the students in his class this summer – both recent converts!) |
They were asked to bring a favorite dessert from their country, but we mainly had main courses, including homemade tortillas, a delicious chicken soup, and hotdogs covered in guacamole and salsa! They played some getting-to-know-you games and taught some dances. And a number signed up for Rob’s Spanish Institute class.
Our great YSA ward bishop and his wife - Brian and Krista Rogers are are old friends of our daughter Heather from when she lived here, so that has been extra special for us to work with them.
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| We bought these as snacks for our train ride - all local products! Birch beer tastes a little like root beer if you haven’t ever had it. |
We are now in the thick of our busy Institute fall
semester. We continue to have different
numbers attending our classes, not always the same students because of work and
school challenges. Even though it has
been over 50 years ago, we still remember trying to attend Institute classes at
the University of Utah, so we empathize with all that they are trying to
accomplish.
Here is a little update
about our four classes. Rob teaches a
Spanish class studying the book by Elder Neil Andersen, The Divine Gift of
Forgiveness. He has the same core
group of three to four that he had during his summer class in spite of trying
to advertise and encourage students to attend, including the Hispanic party
that they had at the end of August. It
has also been difficult because the material is hard for many of them to read
and understand.
My Tuesday online class “Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel,” has about the same crazy attendance of 2, 5, 1, 2 – and not the same every week. The Drexel class from last spring semester is really just get started with the third class this Thursday. We had three of our class members graduate or complete internships and move away. And then, much to our surprise, we have several UPenn law students who we thought would attend the UPenn class at noon on Friday who find the Thursday night to be a better fit timewise. So, we will see how that class gels in the coming weeks.
We didn’t know that the University of Pennsylvania was established by Benjamin Franklin. It has been really special to be walking on the quadrangle which includes the Wharton Building where our son and a former son-in-law did their MBA’s, and the nearby Huntsman Building. I love the fraternity and sorority buildings which remind me of going to school at the University of Utah.
One of the things that we have noticed has been the great diversity of students, both in our classes and in our YSA ward, including China, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ghana, India, Mexico. And it is so fun to watch them interact with each other.
And we have learned how much they love to eat. There is a munch and mingle every Sunday after church, prepared by a great YA committee. When it’s cereal, there has to be a lot of sugar cereal and Pop Tarts!
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| One of our great young adults Taylor Larsen who is an amazing artist, and who I would like to adopt, took this gorgeous photo of the temple the other night. We have beautiful sunsets here in Philadelphia. |
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| Our dear friends Bob and Lynda Pritchard from our ward in Sugar Hill joined us for Philly Cheesesteaks while they were up here visiting family. |
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| Watching General Conference. It was such a choice weekend, with every message teaching us about Jesus Christ. |
First, we will share the good. Our classes continue to go well. The students aren’t always the same, but they participate a lot, and we have some great discussions.
We had some dear friends, Alan and Eileen Bridge, here for three days. The had visit the Washington DC temple driving up, and then helped us with Wednesday Institute dinner. On Thursday, they visited the Free Library to see Beatrix Potter first editions, an original Book of Mormon, and one of only three copies of the Deseret Alphabet, while we had an interview with the mission president.
We served with the Bridges on our second mission in Salt Lake City, and they live in North Carolina by the beach. One of the things that we have learned through the years is that there is a special bond with those senior missionaries with whom we have served. Forever friends.
So that was all the good, now to the bad. This seems to be an appropriate time to write to all of you and let you know that we have had a number of medical challenges during the past six months.
In March, I started to have shaking/tremors in my lower arms, hands and toes. I was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder which is sort of where all of the electrons in your brain aren't connecting. I have been on medication now since May, and the problem has not really improved… I continue to have tremors which sometimes cause me to drop things like a bowls of brownie mix in our kitchen (thank goodness that I was using an aluminum bowl), bottles of spaghetti sauce and mayonnaise in several grocery stores, etc. Plus, some balance and walking problems.
I also have had a problem on my lower right calf which, after four dermatologists, multiple cortisone shots and two biopsies has been diagnosed as Lipodermatosclerosis or an inflammation of the fatty tissue under my skin. It has been quite painful. Besides having to start wearing stronger support stockings, I now have compression pumps to wear on my elevated legs twice a day for an hour at a time. I also am on a special medicine for that now which has to be taken three times a day. Sigh.
Rob has chronic kidney disease (CKD), with his kidneys functioning at about 30% of normal. The cause was diagnosed after a core-biopsy as Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) or scarring of the parts of the kidneys that filter waste from the blood. The doctors say it is serious, is not curable, and can only be treated with dialysis or kidney transplant. It does not seem to interfere with his daily functioning, except with the crazy highs and lows in his blood pressure.
So, these problems have now led to the “Not So Great!” After consulting with the mission doctor, a member neurologist, the mission counselor, and our mission president, we will be going home the last week of October. This has been so hard, and we are very sad, but we know that this is what we are supposed to do. This is an example of our quote from Elder Maxwell, “Having faith in God includes faith in His Timing.”
So, what are our future plans? Since we sold out home before our mission, and because of some family needs, we will be back in Georgia November 1, and will begin giving away and selling more things from our storage unit. We have made arrangements to ship the rest to Utah, where we will follow it. We will be living in Lindon, in an over-the-garage apartment owned by Rob’s nephew. We will then be meeting with some doctors there to better diagnose and direct treatment for our health issues, and also helping our siblings and our two children, Bryan and Heather, living in Provo.
Again, we feel that we are on a roller coaster, and we don’t see the end of the ride as yet. We are going to miss our dear friends in Georgia, and especially Sugar Hill Ward, so much. But we know that this is the Lord’s timing.
We will let you know our address when we get a post office, and we will post a few more blog emails to keep you informed with our new adventure. Thank you so much for all your support and understanding.
October 16 to November 20, 2022
I am so embarrassed that we have let so many weeks go by without an update on us. Oh, we have been busy since we last sent a post, but we should have written before. So here is what has happened.
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| Our last night, we brought extra treats including ghost pizzas, seven layer salad, and Rice Krispy treats |
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| We were grateful to be able to join the Bryan and Krista Rogers (he is the bishop of the young adult ward) for dinner before we left. They have been such amazing, loving examples to the YA’s.. |
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| The next day at Church, Bishop Rogers invited us to the pulpit and presented us with a beautiful framed paining of Washington kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge - so perfect. We will cherish it! |
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| Sunny Thorley* |
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| Spencer Duncan* |
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| Cai Marsh* |
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| Taylor Larsen |
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| Diane Pak* |
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| Megan Wynne |
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| John Frandsen |
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| Angel Hernandez |
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| Deanna Constantino |
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| Gigi Zhang* |
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| Nicole Infanzon |
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| Kaydee Zoerio |
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| Jacob Minter |
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| Brandon Anderson* |
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| Eddy Hurtado |
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| Alex Moulder |
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| Scott Talentino* |
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| Dahlia* & Tyler Simpson |
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| Kimerly* & Eric* Jackson |
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| Bryson & Ali Dang Sicotte |
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| Clara Moffitt* |
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| Rachel Ericksen |
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| Sully Mori |
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| Sylvia Vallejo |
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| Oscar Gutierrez |
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| Edgar Maldonado |
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| Jose Gomez |
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| Daniel Garcia |
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| As we were getting ready to be released, we were grateful to be able to join with other departing missionaries this transfer and participate in the activities that President Harding planned. |
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| These included going to the temple and having dinner at the Mission home. There were two sisters and four elders also being released. We have worked with several of them in different assignments during our mission, so it was a special time. |
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| Two days later, we managed to get everything loaded into our car and the cartop carrier, finally heading down to Brittany‘s in Harrisonburg, Virginia. |
When our stake president released us, he told us that our homecoming talk should be bearing our testimonies in our ward Sacrament meeting on Fast Sunday. So that was what we did.
For the next two weeks, we were organizing our storage unit to move everything, staying with our sons and their families, and also being able to visit other friends.
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| Clay and Amie |
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| and Faith and Lia |
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| Matt’s family |
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| and Pizza at Georgia Tech with Preston |
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