I told Diane that I’d write the blog this week as her Mother’s
Day present. (There were other presents, too, but my contribution was pretty
much just the debit card…) Yesterday, my friend Jay and I, and Elders Adams and
Conger went to the priesthood restoration site all day while our wives spent
the afternoon together, and my only communication from my bride was, “Don’t
worry, Sister Adams spent more than I did!”
(We all thought it was pretty funny except Elder Adams.)
The trip to the site was great. It rained pretty much all day, but was still
a great day! Even though everything was reconstructed in 2015, it’s still
sobering and it calms your spirit to know that 180 years ago Joseph, Emma,
Oliver Cowdery and others walked the same area and saw the same river and
woods. 70% of The Book of Mormon was translated here, in addition to the
priesthood restorations and baptisms. I didn’t take much time to think about it
while at the sites (being with 40 other boys of all ages), but as I think about
it now, I feel a surety that the things Joseph testified DID happen in the way
he said! I’m so thankful to hold the
priesthood!! I’ve held it for 53 years,
and when I look back on all the experiences I’ve had simply trying to magnify
my priesthood callings, it amazes and thrills me! (OK, I promise not to use an exclamation
point for a few sentences…) I often say
that all we really need to do to become what Heavenly Father wants us to
become, is accept the callings that come and do our best to magnify them. I still believe that.
(If I was going to use another exclamation
point this early, it would have been there.)
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| Pretty much one-room house. Always amazes us how small the beds are! This is a double. |
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70% of the Book Of Mormon translated here,
and 15 sections of the D&C received.
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River is between monument and hills. We loved the colors of trees
and the fog among the trees!
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| Susquehanna River |
While we went to Susquehanna, PA, Sister Williams, Sister Conger
& Sister Adams planned to go to Old Westbury mansion and garden to see it
while the flowers are out. However, due
to the rain, they just went out to lunch and, since there was one practically
on the way, dropped by Dress Barn to see if they had anything nice. They apparently did, although I have yet to
see what I bought Diane for Mother’s Day…
Friday evening we had our branch Mother’s Day celebration,
and it reminded me that a year ago this activity was my first exposure to our
branch socials, and it was kind of a shock to me. As I have mentioned, the socials here are all
about spending time together (and definitely not about schedules or super
organization). I think I prefer the ones
here if I’m seeing things through my gospel eyes, and not my ‘get-in, get-out
and get on with life’ eyes. Friday night
was scheduled to start at 6:30 PM. We
were 20 minutes late due to Saturday night rush hour (which we don’t even have
in Seattle), and there were only 3 cars in the parking garage under the
building. Then, the program started at about 7:45 PM, and they brought out the
food and had dinner at about 8:30 PM. We finished eating at about 9PM, after
which they started games to be followed by dancing. We had to sneak off at
9-ish, so we could get up at 5AM for the 7AM trip to Susquehanna, but I was
kind of glad because it’s hard to do Latin dance when you are so stuffed you
can hardly walk! They love being
together, and they love each other, and even the teens seem to like being there
(although on their devices, of course)!
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| May 9, 2017 |
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