The Jolley's in Upstate New York

 We had a totally fun week with family here.  Adam and Kristen and their three kids came and spent a week with us.  We about ran their legs off.  There is a lot to see here in New York but it's a lot of time in the car.  We had a blast learning about the Maple Sugar industry on New York Maple Weekend. We tasted incredible maple cotton candy and yummy maple cream.  The maple syrup is delish!  We also had such a great time in Lake Placid.  While we were at the ski jumping venue, they started jumping and we had the chance to watch.  It was pretty incredible.  They are so brave to jump at such heights and they nailed the landing every time.  We also ran to Mt. Van Havenberg to see the bobsled run.  Well, guess what? They were running bobsleds as well.  We watched several bobsled and skeleton runs.  It was so cool.  We also went on a horse-drawn sleigh ride in Paul Smith's and had such a great time. We loved visiting ...

We are seeing miracles all around us.  The hand of the Lord is ever present with His missionaries.  There are some lows, of course, but there are some beautiful things happening.  The most incredible thing is to tell you about Robert.  Have you ever watched a person's countenance completely change in front of your eyes?  I would say that is Robert. I especially noticed it in the last couple of days.  Not that he was dark but maybe heavy in spirit.  His face is almost glowing.  Not only has he agreed to let his little girl be baptized with her mother, he has been asking more and more questions and we have loved teaching him with the Sisters.  We have covered quite a bit in a very short time.  On Sunday, after church, he texted all of us and said that they are thinking of moving to Utah.  Wait! What?  He asked where we all lived and where they should look. We told them that Utah is way more expensive for housing than New York, bu...

 Well, the weeks just keeping marching on.  This week has been amazing as we have spent time with our new friend, answering questions and teaching doctrine. We spent a couple of days with Robert and he has a ton of questions-mostly about the Book of Mormon.  He is feeling the spirit touching his heart.  He is reading and re-reading ,wanting to understand.  We answered questions from "was Lehi a Jaredite, did Lehi land around Manchester-close to where the plates were found, do we believe baptism is a statement of our belief in Jesus Christ or a step needed for salvation, do we know when the sealed plates will be revealed, how did the people in the America's know that what they were being taught was from Heavenly Father instead of a snake oil salesman."  And the questions go on and on. He has been in church the last two weeks and at our Book of Mormon class.  He is moving forward at a fast pace and we are super excited-he is even talking about letting hi...