Goodbye, Elder McCleve

After Elder Miller left, Elder McCleve became the new assistant.  He is a nice Arizona young man and we really enjoyed having him in our home.  He was only in the office for one transfer, then his two years were up and he left us.  I had occasion to talk to him recently and he said it was getting quite warm in Chandler and he had the beginnings of a good sunburn!

As you can see, Elder Christensen is still in the office and continues there with Elder Williams who will show up in the next picture.  The picture was taken in late January, but as you can see, our poinsettia is still going strong.

Stake Conference

This weekend was the Utica Stake Conference.  What a treat!  Easter Sunday and a great conference, too!  The Saturday adult session was really great.  President Gilchrist, one of the counselors, talked about mothers and their role in the salvation of their children and the great love they have for them.  He is a veterinarian and told us that when he gets a call for help from an Amish farmer, his heart falls because he knows it is really going to be serious because the Amish try everything feasible before they will call a vet.  He got a call one night asking for help with a cow trying to birth a calf.  When he got there, he could see that the calf was just huge and he would have to do a Cesarean section.  So with the farmer helping, he prepared the cow then made a two foot incision in order to remove the calf.  After he got the calf breathing, he returned to the mother and began repairing all that he had done.  It took him over two hours to stitch her back up and when he left both mother and baby were still laying in the cow shed, both exhausted.  He said he had a very sad, gray feeling in his heart because he was sure that neither animal would be alive by morning.  The next day he went back to the farm at at time that he knew the farmer would not be in the yard because he didn't want to face him if the patients had not survived.  When he walked into the cow shed, he found the cow standing, eating hay and her calf by her side, nursing with gusto.  He walked away with a smile on his face and a lump in his throat, praising God for the great love this mother had for her offspring that had helped both of them survive.  He said he gained a greater appreciation for the love of all mothers for their offspring, regardless of the species.

President Larcher also spoke on mothers and their role in Heavenly Father's plan.  He talked about Patriarch Brokaw, who has been our Stake Patriarch for decades and will continue for many years.  He said that when Brother Brokaw was called to this position, he was told that he was never to be called to serve in a bishopric or stake presidency, elders quorum presidency, etc.  Then he said that mothers would never serve in these positions and asked us to consider why this is so.  Then he told us that mothers, like stake patriarchs, have the responsibility to be the spiritual nurturer--mothers to their children, patriarchs to their stake.  The he asked his wife to sing a song he had asked her to prepare.  The song was "In the Meantime," and I believe it was written by Michael McLean.  She had a lovely, sweet voice and the song was beautiful.  It was about a teenage girl and her dreams and potential and goals.  I really liked it.

This morning President and Sister Bulloch spoke.  This is the last Utica Stake Conference they will attend before their mission ends in July.  President talked about the resurrection and told us that he and his wife had visited the Garden tomb in Jerusalem and bore witness that the tomb was indeed empty and that the Holy Spirit had born witness to them that Christ truly had been resurrected.  Then he talked about the atonement and the fact that Christ made the atonement for every one of us and that there is no addiction, sin, transgression, mistake, omission that wasn't covered by the atonement if only we will repent.  Sister Bulloch talked about their mission and the many experiences they had, the many missionaries they had loved, the many types of missionaries they had served with, the many maladies she had nursed the missionaries through, the many places they had been in the New York Utica Mission.  It was full of many sweet memories.

The three members of the Stake Presidency also spoke.  President Larcher's sermon was so moving.  He spoke about the Atonement and how, even though we can't go back and undo the mistakes we have made, the sins we have committed, the omissions we have permitted, we can repent, learn from our mistakes and rely on the Atonement to heal us.  He told us the story of his brother and himself hauling hay when they were boys, how they had loaded the truck very full and very high so they would only have to make one trip instead of two.  To keep the hay from falling off the truck, his brother rode on top of the stack, hopefully stabilizing it while he drove the truck.  They needed to transport the hay over a distance of about a quarter of a mile over a road that was well used, so President Larcher drove as fast as he dared.  The road was full of pot holes, but because it was winter, the holes were filled with ice so it was quite smooth.  When they got close to the turn off, he realized that he was going too fast.  He also realized that because the snow plows had pushed the snow to the side of the road and across the turnout, there was going to be a bump.  He applied the brakes gently so as not to cause the hay to come shooting over the top of the cab.  He prayed that the bump wouldn't be too big, but his prayer was in vain and when the truck jolted over the bump, the hay and his brother did, indeed, shoot over the truck and into the turnout.  It took another 20 feet to get the truck stopped and he couldn't see his brother.  When he did get stopped, he still couldn't see his brother and, afraid that he may have run over him and perhaps stopped with a tire on top of him, he immediately put the truck into reverse in case his brother was under a tire.  Fortunately, he hadn't run over him, and his brother realized that he was going to back up and and rolled out of the way.  Although he hadn't been run over, he had been badly bruised and beaten and took several weeks to heal.  Then President Larcher talked about how heart sick he had been and the number of times he had wished he had been able to live that trip over again, doing things differently, driving slower, not piling the hay so high, saving his brother from the injuries he had sustained.  Then he, too, bore his witness that the Atonement is for all of us, that we can be forgiven and we can heal, both from heartache as well as sin.  I was really impressed with his sweet spirit.

Many of the missionaries from this end of the Stake were there and we got to greet them and visit with them for a few minutes and we really enjoyed that.

Blessings of Great Ancesters

A few weeks ago, I hurt my knee and it hurt really bad.  For a few weeks, I stayed home part of the day, elevated my knee and put ice packs on it.  During this time I watched a lot of TV, including several hours of BYUTV.  One of the programs I watched was stories about men who decided they knew better than Brigham Young and the Quorum of the 12 how the Church should be administered and led.  Some of these were Sydney Rigdon, James Strang, a Brother Cutler, and some others whose names I have forgotten.

I was amazed at how many there were.  I had known that Sydney Rigdon had started a church, but I had never heard of the others.  They all called their churches by names like "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Strangites)," etc.  James Strang was a convert to the Church several months before the Prophet Joseph was martyred and was a very good friend of the Prophet.  He had been sent to Wisconsin by Joseph to see if he could find a place for the Saints to gather.  He was a very charismatic man and decided that he knew the will of Joseph, so after the martyrdom  he began preaching to the Saints that he had been sent to lead them to Wisconsin.  He was very convincing, apparently, because thousands of the members of the Church followed him.  At one time his church had almost as many followers as Brigham.

This caused me to begin thinking about my family who were in Nauvoo at that time.  I realized that I had eight sets of great-grandparents living in Nauvoo who were all members of the Church and not one of them left the church to follow any of those men!  What a testimony builder that was for me.  They were all really converted to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.  They had all received strong witnesses that this Church was the one and only true Church on the earth, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Lord had designated Brigham Young as his successor.  They believed that so strongly that they followed the brethren across the plains to Salt Lake.  They believed that so strongly that they went on missions, some proselyting, some colonizing, and lived the gospel to the best of their abilities.  How blessed I am to have been born into this strong family.  How blessed I am that this great family helped establish what Elder Oaks calls the culture of the Church.  How blessed I am that all of my progenitors lived this culture and passed it down to me so that I could live it until my testimony was strong enough to sustain me through trials and tribulations.  I thank Heavenly Father for this great blessing.

Goodbye, Elder Miller

February 2, we said goodbye to Elder Jordan Miller.  That's him to the right of Elder Karlinsey.  Elder Miller was a new Assistant to the President when we arrived in August.  He was companion to Elder Kunzler, then Elder Farrens, and Elder Christensen seen above.  We have really enjoyed working with Elder Miller.  He never left the office without first asking if there was anything he could do to help us.  If we needed help, he and his companion were always willing and always took the time to do whatever needed to be done.

He was a great missionary, too.  Not long before he left, we were in President Bulloch's office and the President asked if he knew where to find a particular quote in Preach My Gospel.  Elder Miller jumped up, flipped a few pages in the book (the book was upside down) and pointed to the quote.  We were impressed, and so was President Bulloch, who complimented him on his knowledge and familiarity of the book.

We invited Elder Miller and Elder Christensen to have lunch with us a week before he left.  I left the office early and it was a good thing I did--I had started the rice and the dishwasher before I left for work and I guess the load was too much for the system, because it tripped the breaker on the GFI plug-in that the rice cooker was plugged into.  The dishwasher finished, but the rice was still raw!  So I plugged the rice cooker into the dining room plug-in and got busy defrosting some left-over turkey in the micro and warming up the electric fry pan for the Egg Fu Yung.  Next think I know, the micro, fry pan and rice cooker all quit.  So I moved the rice cooker to the living room, flipped every breaker in the box (none of them looked like they were off) and got back to work.  The rice finally got done after we finished our egg rolls and were ready to start on the Fu Yung.  We had a great time and got back to work only a few minutes late.  Does this sound like a story I might have written in Sendai?  It felt like it!


We will miss Elder Miller, but will continue to enjoy Elder Christensen and his new companion, Elder McCleve.

Oriskany

Oriskany is a small town about 5 miles north of Whitesboro.  They have an interesting museum that we decided to visit a few weeks ago.  Oriskany was the site of a Revolutionary War battle in 1777 between the Indians who supported the British and the revolutionaries.  The revolutionaries won, but their General Herkimer died when the wound he received in his leg became gangrenous.  They amputated his leg, but he died anyway.  There were many items in the museum related to the Revolutionary War--soldiers uniforms, guns, a couple of manikins dressed in Indian costumes of the time.

There was an aircraft carrier named the USS Oriskany which was built after World War II and was used during the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts.  She was de-commissioned in 1976 and then sunk in 2004 to make an artificial reef off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.  She is the largest vessel ever sunk to make an artificial reef.  Her anchor was donated to the town of Oriskany and is on display on the grounds of the museum.  There is also a fighter plane, an FA Phantom, beside the anchor, which was stationed on the USS Oriskany during her fighting days.  There are lots of memorabilia in the museum from the carrier--uniforms, personal letters, pictures of the sailors and airmen, pictures of all the captains who commanded the ship.

There are several mills located in Oriskany, only one of which is still a working mill.  The mills were located on the Erie Canal which provided the water needed for powering the mills.  The mills produced fabrics; the one still operating produces printers felt (neither of us knows what that is).  There were lots of things used in the mills in the museum from spindles to wheels.

All in all, we had a great time there.  Unfortunately, we discovered that our camera battery was dead when we got there, so we didn't get any pictures.  We drove out to the battle site, but it was closed for the winter.  We'll go back and get pictures when the battle ground is open to visitors.

Oneida Community Mansion House

Yesterday was my birthday and to celebrate, we drove to the Oneida Community Mansion house and took a tour.  We learned a lot about the Oneida Community, which was a Social Experiment in community living which was founded in 1848 and disbanded in 1880.

The mansion was built in 1862, with several wings being added as needed.  Above is the main entry to the main building.  Next is a corner view of the original house, Bill standing in front.

This is a view of the top of one of the subsequent wings on the left, the roof over the main entrance on the right.

And this is the tower on the right of the original house which housed John Humphries Noyes bedroom, the founder of the Community  (we weren't allowed to see it--not sure why).

This is a small portion of the library.  Alcoves like this lined three walls in this very large room and were all full of books of the period on just about any subject you could imagine.  The Community also subscribed to numerous newspapers and magazines--they wanted their members to be well educated.

The women in the Community were skilled in arts and crafts.  These are some crocheted dolls on display outside the library.  Interesting.

This is a gathering room in one of the later additions to the house.  The fireplace/mantel was really beautiful.  The amazing thing about this beautiful building is how well built it is.  This room is one of the newest additions, but it was the only one in which the floor squeaked!

This is the post office located in the other end of the above room, and the little cubby holes on the right were where the members of the community received their mail.  A lot of the house has been rented out as apartments and I believe they also receive their mail in the same holes.

This picture is a braided silk landscape created by the artist Jessica Kinsley, a member of the Community.  Her works are hung throughout the house, and a whole room is dedicated to her works.

This is a tray with an illuminated "B" and you can see scenes in the circles formed by the B.

I was amazed that we were allowed to take pictures of these beautiful works.  There is a drawer in a table that contains one of her works and the differences in the depth of color was astounding.  The details in the pictures hung on the walls were quite difficult to ascertain because of the fading.

The pictures were created by drawing a rough draft on butcher paper.  The silk was cut into long, even strips, then braided just like cotton is braided for a rug.  Then the silk was pinned on a board creating the pattern.  Waxed paper was placed over the pattern, then ironed onto the silk which transferred the wax, and the paper was removed.  Ms. Kinsley gave all her works of art away, but after her passing, many of them were returned to the house to be displayed there.

We learned that John Humphrey Noyes was a ministerial student at Yale.  While there, he associated with some people who called themselves Perfectionists, who believed they could become (surprise!) perfect in this life.  He wrote a letter to the head of the school, declaring himself to be free of sin.  His ministerial certificate was promptly withdrawn.  Soon, he and the Perfectionists formed the Oneida Community.  They were not a religion, per se.  They did not hold religious services on Sunday, but studied the Bible frequently and lived as John Humphrey Noyes interpreted the scriptures.  They taught that people could live without sin and be happy.  They all lived together and shared everything.  Everything.  They did not marry.  This was based on the scripture in Matthew 22:30.  There were several committees that decided important things regarding personal relationships, duties, assignments, and their vocations.  Men lived in one area, women in another and children in another.  If the committee approved, a man and woman could become partners for a period of time decided by the committee, usually long enough that if a child was produced, the father could be ascertained. The progeny were called "Stirpicults."  The mother kept the baby until it was weaned, at which time the baby was moved into the children's area.  They decreed that older men should introduce young women to the joys of sex, and older women (past child bearing age) would do the same for young men.  When the committee decided it was time to produce another baby (only 2-3 children were born per year), they would decide which man and which woman would produce the healthiest, smartest child and lo, it was done.  We were shown an "interview room" which was used by this couple.  In the room was a chair, chest and bed.  The bed was between 18"-24" wide.  There were several interview rooms located adjacent to one of the many sitting rooms.  Bill and I both wondered how the joy was experienced in these barren rooms...

The community grew their own food, were vegetarians, and ran some businesses.  The Oneida silverware or stainless flatware that you are familiar with came from this Community.  They also manufactured animal traps (does that seem strange for a group of vegetarians?) that were the best produced in this country.  The mouse traps we are familiar with that have the "Victor" logo were produced by the Oneida Community.  Even though the market for animal traps has dropped significantly since the days of mountain men, they still produce quality traps.

In the late 1870's, John Humphrey Noyes (the guide always referred to him by all three names) was being persecuted by the law--they were going to arrest him for statutory rape, so he fled to Canada.  The young people in the Community were unhappy with the marital practices, and the general public wasn't too happy about them either.  So the Community got together and decided to disband as a commune.  They founded a stock company and all the members received stock in the company.  They then went away from the mansion and build homes of their own in the surrounding area.  The mansion was converted into a hotel with a restaurant and was run as part of the stock company.

After the exhausting prelude (see "'Twas the week before Christmas") we were happy to have Christmas arrive.  Even though we didn't have shall children in the apartment, we still had to get up early--6:00 is still early.  We had a beautiful tree, as you can see, thanks to a previous missionary couple that bought a beautiful pre-lit tree and left it for subsequent missionaries.  We decorated it the day after Thanksgiving and enjoyed it all month.  We enjoyed it so much that we just may have to buy one when we get off our mission.

We opened our presents and had a fun time.  Bill got a tie organizer that lights up and twirls around so you can see all the ties in a jiffy!  It holds about 45 ties and he only brought about 25, so I think there may be some tie shopping happening in the next few months...

He also got a new watch.  The timer on his old one was getting stubborn, so he got one with an easy setting timer as well as a heart monitor!  Now he will shop for an exercise video that he can use in our apartment without a lot of equipment.  Won't that be fun?  He tried it out on his daily exercise routine and discovered that he could get his rate up into the 90s without a lot of effort, as well as drop back into the 60s in pretty short order.  Healthy man!

And here you see my lovely presents--a beautiful, sparkling ring with matching earrings!  I really love them.  Bill said if anyone asked if the diamond were real, I could answer, "Absolutely!"


After we opened our presents (including the pistacio nuts, Ghiradelli squares assortment, trail mix, etc.) we had breakfast and went to church.  We had to be there by 9:30 so Bill could get the bulletin typed up and I could get one last practice in before church started.  Church was presented by everyone--the Relief Society sisters sang, "Silent Night" while one of the sisters read Luke, chapter 2, a missionary read the story of Silent Night, the Primary children sang, "Away in a Manger," the Priesthood brethren sang "O Come, All Ye Faithful," several stories and poems were shared by others, and Elder and Sister Karlinsey sang, "Once in Royal David's City," unaccompanied since Sister Karlinsey is the only member of the branch who can play the piano/organ (we could have sung to the CD accompaniment, but the pitch was too high for either of us).

After church we joined the Bullochs for Christmas dinner, along with Elder Neal and Elder Menlove who are the elders assigned to the Oneida Branch.  Sister Bulloch was a little disappointed when we told her we had to leave by 2:00--she was looking forward to hearing some more of Bill's stories.  She had really enjoyed the ones he told after Thanksgiving dinner.

Skype was ringing as soon as we opened the computer after walking in the door.  Bill visited with Laura Dawn, Brenda and Thomas for over an hour.  In the meantime, I visited with Rachel and Scott and their girls via cell phone since they don't have Skype.  Then I visited with Cindy until my cell phone died (I forgot to plug it in the night before).  When Bill and his kids finished with their conference call, I was able to Skype with Mary, Sarah and Laura as well as Adrienne and Amy, and see their Christmas fun.  I think we finished up about 7:00.  What a great time we had!

And here we are, enjoying the rest of the day after we got home from Church.  Actually, we took the pictures Friday evening, the 30th, because we forgot to take any on Christmas day.  But six days doesn't make that much difference, does it?  On Saturday we took the tree down and discovered that artificial trees shed needles, too!  The living room feels a little bare with the tree gone, but we'll be happy to set it up again next year.