We had the most wonderful week filled with adventure and the Spirit. We feel so blessed to be in this beautiful part of the country and more blessed to rub shoulders with some of the most amazing people. We started out our week with a drive to Lake Placid. We had an entire day and thought, why not! Driving through the Adirondacks is a treat, to say the least. It is full of lakes and little villages. Of course we stopped at a few. My favorite shot of the day was from a hillside, overlooking a church on Lake Placid. It feels a little European to me-must be why I fell in love!
While the other churches might not be as picturesque as the others, we still grabbed pictures.
As we were driving home, an appointment that we were trying to get back for, cancelled. So what did we do? We drove a little further to see if we could find Stockbridge Falls-a place about 25 minutes the other direction from our home. We found a teeny tiny little falls with no trespassing signs all around it. Mike turned around and went down another road and found a turn in that we parked at and hiked down to see some pretty little falls. What we didn't notice is the "posted" sign so we got out of there fast but not without this.
While I was shooting, I noticed a bridge down stream so we jumped in our car and headed down to the next road to find the bridge and this is what we found!
For the win! There are more waterfalls to explore so stay tuned.
The best part of our week was what is called a Mission Tour! We have been blessed to experience two Mission Tours while we have been serving. A Mission Tour is a glorified Zone Conference because we are taught by a General Authority. This time was Elder James W McConkie III and his sweet wife, Laurel. To start off, we met up for dinner at Elder and Sister Park's home with three other couples who traveled down from the North and were staying over night. We fixed taco salad and cookies and ice cream. It was so wonderful to get to know these couples. (We meet once a month on a Zoom call but there are some who have never met each other in person). We ate and visited and then we had them all help us put together our table decorations for Zone Conference.
L_R Front Sister Diane Richardson, Sister Beckie Allred, Sister Marty Rudd, Sister Monica Park
L_R Back Elder Brian Rudd, Elder Gary Richardson, Elder Allred, Us, Elder John Park
Wednesday was beautiful! From start to finish. We fell in love with Elder McConkie. One of the coolest things about him is his ability to listen to what the missionaries were saying, and draw an entire lesson out of their comments. I don’t know if he forgets anything. He is an attorney by trade, and he taught us about witnesses and how all truth is established when two or more witnesses testify. He taught about what makes a credible witness, such as truthful, reliable, confident and bold, authenticity, sincere, unchanging, consistent, etc. He taught how the Book of Mormon is, in and of itself, a witness of Jesus Christ. But he also taught of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was one, Mary Whitmer was two and then we had two of the three witnesses which became 4, and then Martin Harris, one of the three which became 5. We then had the 8 witnesses which became 13 and it multiplies over and over until we have 17 Million. We are all witness to this amazing work. And to stand and sing "Called To Serve" with over 100 missionaries on fire, UNBELIEVABLE!
We were also taught that the Spirit of Revelation is a language. The Spirit speaks to us in the language that we understand and it's different for every person. Our job is to figure out how the Spirit speaks to us. Elder McConkie taught us how our heads and our hearts are both part of the equation of personal revelation. An idea comes into our mind and then we feel something in our heart. That is what we figure out-how we feel the confirmation of the Spirit. Super enlightening.
After Zone Conference, we had the chance to meet with all of the Super Couples, as our Mission Leaders calls the Senior Couples, and have dinner with Elder and Sister McConkie. We had soup and salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden. It was so fun to be with these amazing couples. After dinner, Elder McConkie opened up a Q & A. It was so beautiful to just hear him explain things in such a sweet spirit of understanding.
L_R Jorgensen, Podwys, Park, Us, Gentry, McConkie, Ladel, Rudd, Warren, Allred, Richardson,
Spjute, Connolly
Our Book of Mormon class was Thursday evening and it was awesome. We learned about personal revelation and then we did a deep dive on The Condecension of God in 1 Nephi 10-11. The discussion was fabulous and we learned so much about Jesus Christ and how much He loves us to do what He did for us.
After all of the spiritual highs of the week-we weren't done yet. It was our Stake Conference with none other than Elder McConkie and his wife. We had two meetings with him and then the Single Adult potluck which is usually on the fourth Sunday. Afterwards we had President and Sister Clay, from our temple presidency speak to us. And then on Sunday we had more time with the McConkies. We rounded out the day with dinner with our Sisters. We were tired, but such a wonderful high.
We are so thankful for the many blessings that come our way. We are most thankful for our testimonies that continue to grow. We love the temple! We love the young missionaries we serve with! We love all of you! Thank you for your support of us. Have a wonderful week.
Comments
Post a Comment