Looking Heavenward

We have been in Rome New York for about 10 days now.  In some respects it has flown by and at other times it feels like we have been here forever.  We have had mostly cool days and we had about 10 inches of snow on this past Tuesday!  Our apartment is either too hot or too cold.  I guess that's what happens in 100+ year old houses.  I find myself wearing a jacket most of the time.

On Sunday, Easter, we went to our little branch for the first time.  I think there were 26 people there, and four of us were missionaries.  It's tiny but I think we are going to just love it.  Easter is always a tender day for us.  We love that we can celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, knowing that because of Him we will see our darling Natalie and all of our loved ones that have died, again.  Thank heaven for Jesus Christ.

After church, we had our District Leader and his companion and the two Sisters serving in Rome, for Easter dinner. It was a traditional dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes and deviled eggs, veggies, homemade baking powder biscuits and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  The missionaries ate and ate and loved the biscuits best of all.  It was a tasty meal and it was so much fun having them join us.  It helped us miss our family a tiny bit less.

L-R Sister Arkell, Sister Thompson, Us, Elder Crow, and Elder Hoffheins

We try to start each day out with a couple of mile walk.  Some of the streets are really nice with well taken care of homes.  Others are a little sketchy and even little scary.  We enjoy our walks and hope that it will warm up a bit.

There are lots of bluebells in the lawns around the homes and, of course, everyone could use a lifted hearse, right?

Have you ever stopped to think about the spires on a church or on our temples?  I believe tradition says the reason people put spires on their churches is to draw our eyes upward-toward heaven.  They remind us that our Heavenly Father loves us and that our Savior has done everything for us.  "There's a different point of view awaiting you if you just look up." - Jack from Mary Poppins Returns said that.  I think he's right! We definitely need to look up. 

We have some beautiful churches that we walk past on our morning walks.  I love churches of all kinds and have to stop to get photos

We spent a lot of time in our car this week.  Our little branch is laid out in a large geographic area so we drive a lot.  The countryside is beautiful.  It's really getting green.  There are farms all over the place and just be warned, you will be seeing a lot of them-because I can't resist.  

We have met several members of our branch. We made cookies to take to everyone that we have tried to get into.  We made chocolate chips cookies one day and snickerdoodles another day.  We gave out a ton of cookies.  I hope they like them!

We have a member in our branch that has chickens so they have been giving us eggs, which is really nice because eggs are a little expensive here.  The chickens that they have are called Easter egg chickens.  Look at the color of eggs they lay.  So pretty and really yummy fresh eggs.

We had the opportunity to go to Palmyra today, Saturday, with these same members.  It took us almost 2 hours from our home to the temple.  We loved being there.  The temple is small and beautiful.  It overlooks the Sacred Grove.  We didn't get to enjoy any of the historic sites while we were there but we'll go back and see them.  

Us and Rod and Lori Anne Jones

We look forward to the week ahead of us.  Today and tomorrow is our Stake Conference and we have already enjoyed hearing from Elder Calderwood of the 70.  He truly has brought the spirit with him.  We talked with him and he thanked us over and over for sacrificing to be missionaries!  

We will meet more people in the week and have some branch and district meetings.  We will let you know how it goes and hopefully we will have more photos and stories to share.  We want you to know that we have testimonies of our Savior and His work.  We love that we are His representatives and we love that we wear His name on our chest.  He is everything to us!  We love you all.