Two Lessons and a Party

Some color to brighten your life!

What a week we have had.  We feel so blessed when things come together.  We love how the Spirit works and for the lessons we learn along the way.  Once, every six weeks, we have the chance to share our Preparation Day with the missionaries in our District.  Monday, the 6th was that day and boy, did we have fun with our amazing young missionaries.  We went to the Energy Zone, a free little hands on museum that teaches about electricity.  The missionaries learned how to make a light bulb, get electricity from where it is generated to local homes and businesses, the best ways to make reusable energy, and why wind, sun, and water are so important to generating power.  Afterwards, we just had to go to lunch, because, you know, these young missionaries are always hungry. They voted on 5 Guys Burgers and so off we went.  The Elders can really put the food away-and then go back for milkshakes.  We had a great time.

Back row L-R Elder Ryan Zimbaur, Elder Austin Alvi, Elder Park, Sister Jacie Erickson, Sister Gracie Curzon, Elder Elijah PaoPao, Me, Mike, Elder Bryan Winn

Front Row L_R Sister Park, Sister Ashlynn Christensen, Sister Alissa Maw

Mike is having some dental work done so while he was at the dentist office I worked a bit at putting my lesson for Sunday and our Book of Mormon lesson together.  We had the opportunity to run one of our members to the hospital where he was having a test done that would put him under anesthesia and kept him from being able to drive home.  While he was there we busied ourselves around the area.  We had some packages to mail so we ran to the post office in Oneida.  What a quaint little place.  It was like stepping back in time.

And, of course, when we are driving through all the little towns we come across the cutest little churches. I had to have a picture of the Blossvale Union Church.  It looks a little abandoned and I thought it would make a cute little home if it was for sale.  Have you ever thought about living in an old church?  Or do they seem a little "haunted" to you?  Maybe I think that because when I was a kid I was told that our church was haunted. 

I made roll out cookies (what we call sugar cookies) for the missionaries for a little Valentine treat.  We have transfers coming up so I wanted to give them a Valentine before then because there are a couple we probably won't see again.   They turned out great!  Course, we don't know too many people who don't like a great heart cookie.  We put each plate out on the table where they would be having lunch and wouldn't you know it, a couple of the Elders ate them before their lunch.

We had the chance to watch our brother in law, Lynn's, funeral on a big screen tv at our Stake Center right after District Council.  What a blessing technology is.  A few years ago we would have just missed out.  We are so thankful for the ability to watch his sweet funeral.  We saw many faces that we haven't seen in a very long time.  We love Lynn and will miss him.

We also had the chance to play a little volleyball with the youth that evening and then we had them help us set up and decorate for our Valentine's dinner and dance on Friday night. And guess what?  I made Rice Krispie treats for the kids.  It seems like all I do is bake, cook, make treats.

Before we headed to our Book of Mormon class we went to our YW President's home to help her make meatballs for the party.  This is a very Italian influenced area-everything is about the pasta.  It's pretty funny how most people don't eat green anything. But they will have Mac and cheese, pasta salad, and spaghetti on the same plate.  It was fun to experience the meatball making adventure.  We made 120 good sized meatballs-bigger than a golf ball but not as big as a tennis ball.  She fed us dinner-what else? Pizza.  There is some pretty good NY brick oven pizza in these parts, but again, they eat their pizza pretty basic-one topping and that is usually it.  We love mega toppings but pizza is so expensive here that they usually eat it basic-probably the way they like it.  (1 large pepperoni and 1 large mushroom for $44). 

Book of Mormon class was so good.  I know that I say that every week, but it just gets better and better.  We talked about 1 Ne 2, which is totally back to basics, but we talked about why Heavenly Father gives us commandments and how blessed we are when we live the commandments. 

Friday-the big day!  We walked and then we had mission wide training on Zoom.  We love when we are with the missionaries.  We always do breakout rooms so we can real play (that's what they call role play) with another set of missionaries.  You never know who you will end up with.  After training I made more roll out heart shaped cookies for our party.  Our ward supplied the meal and it was a potluck dessert bar.  Wow.  Some of the desserts were pretty fancy.  Our new RS President had her niece, who is a culinary pastry chef, visiting.  She made the most beautiful cupcakes.  I stashed one away because I figured they wouldn't last long.  Look at these masterpieces.

What we didn't know until the next day, when we shared the one I had stashed, is that I should have had three of them as my dinner and forgot the pasta.  Oh my goodness.  I don't know that I have tasted anything quite so good.  They had a chocolate ganache on top and vanilla pastry cream in the middle.  They were like eating manna from heaven.  The party was super fun.  We had the meatballs, hot sausage in sauce, sweet sausage in sauce, a green salad that we insisted on and put together, and homemade rolls, courtesy of our bishop!   After we ate, we put the tables away and had the most wild and crazy dance.  I had told the Bishop to make sure there were line dances on the play list because we have so many single people in our ward.  Well most couples only danced the slow songs and we didn't get a crazy amount of singles that wanted to dance-but those of us that did-Man did we have a blast.  We danced to the Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Macarena, YMCA, Boot Scootin Boogie, The Electric Slide, a Congo line, and then some fun couples dances.  It was such a fun evening. We had a few people there who don't come to church and that is exactly why these parties are so important.  Anything we can do to get people in the door.

I love how the Spirit works.  On Sunday I was still stressed about my RS lesson! I couldn’t seem to pull it all together, but as I prayed, I knew that the Spirit would be the teacher.  We started the day early with Mike in Bishopric meeting, then we had ward council, and then our two hour block, and then I had a RS presidency meeting for 2 hours.  It was good though.  My lesson was from Elder Montoya's talk on The Eternal Principle of Love.  We talked about how we show love to God, how we show love to people, and how God shows His love to us.  The discussion was full of comments and it turned out so great.  I love teaching the principles of the gospel.  It is just so fulfilling.

Sunday evening we had the Sisters come for dinner.  We try to have a little correlation meeting when we eat together so that we stay on their purpose.  We love having them.  I gave them some raspberry pavlova for dessert.  (The pavlova was left over from the party so I thought we should use them). They were so yummy!

We love these sweet Sisters.  Sister Curzon will be leaving and we will miss her.  Sister Erickson will stay and we are so glad.

L-R Sister Erickson, Sister Curzon, Me, Mike

We get pretty attached to these missionaries.  We are thankful for their boldness, their goodness, and their love for our Savior.  They make us smile, feel loved, and like we make a difference.  We love them. We are thankful to be missionaries for our Savior.  It is quite an adventure but, we are so thankful to be smack dab in the middle of it.  We hope you have a wonderful week!  We love you!