April Showers

Oh what a difference a few days make.  We thought old man winter would never leave. The picture on the left was taken from our front window a couple of weeks ago. It reminded me of a scene from CS Lewis "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe". The picture on the right was taken today, April 28th. I've never been so happy to hear birds sing and to feel the sun on my face. Things are greening up nicely and people are out planting their gardens. Having lived in a dessert all my life, I've never seen so much water, rivers, streams and the ground is saturated with moisture. Every where you look is green and lush.  I hear that all that moisture will soon turn into humidity but for now I am enjoying it.

This has been a great month, the home sickness is gone and we are understanding our duties in the office. Sister Barlow is now the "mail merge queen" and we are learning the mission language (ZL's, DL's , Return and Report, ZLC, ect). We are ready to receive 21 new missionaries this week. Elder Barlow set up five new appartments, processed 21 new vehicles and we tried to meet the needs of about 175 missionaries. LIFE IS GREAT.
We were able to make another temple trip to the Palmyra Temple with our Stake. Sister Barlow is helping a branch member, William Capron, with his Family History. He is a recent convert to the church and yearns to have his family members sealed but he is too ill to do the work himself. We were able to research and perform 22 temple ordinances for his family.

John Young's Barn

Sister Allred and Sister Harris in front of John Youngs Home

We met up with Sister Allred and Sister Harris in Palmyra. They are two single Sister Missionaries that were in our District at the MTC. They are office Missionaries in the NY Rochester Mission. After our Temple session we took them out to lunch and followed them to Mendon, New York where they reside in the John Young home. John Young is the father of Brigham Young. The Young family, Kimball family and Israel Barlow family all lived in Mendon at the time of the restoration. Israel Barlow lived just down the road from this house (it no longer stands). They were members of the Reformed Methodist Church which had broken off from the Episcopal Methodist faith in 1814. They believed in revelation and gifts of the spirit. A few of Brigham's brothers and Israel Barlow were traveling preachers for that faith.


Tomlinson Inn, Mendon, New York

During the month of April 1830, Brigham Young's brother, Phinehas, returned home to Mendon after preaching in a near by town. He stopped at the Tomlinson Inn and while engaged in conversation with the family Phinehas said, "a young man came in, and walking across the room, to where I was sitting, held a book towards me saying, 'There is a book, sir, I wish you to read.'...I hesitated, saying 'Pray sire, what Book have you?' 'The Book of Mormon, or as it is called by some, the Golden Bible.'"

The young man was Samuel Smith on his first mission, just days after the gospel had been restored.  Phinehas accepted the book, as he explained to "make myself acquainted with its errors, so that I can expose them to the world." However, he reluctantly admitted, "To my surprise I could not find the errors I anticipated, but felt a conviction that the Book was true."

John Youngs Property. Brigham's Pond
is in the background

Two years later, missionaries arrived in Mendon and the entire Young family was baptized. At the time Brigham had a mill and home on his father's land. He was a furniture maker. He damned up the mill pond and was baptized in April of 1832. Israel Barlow was also experiencing his own conversion along with his friends the Youngs and the Kimballs and was baptized by his good friend, Brigham, in that same pond exactly a month later on May 16, 1832.
 

William Capron



YMCA Health Fair

Yesterday we experienced our first "real" missionary experiece. Along with our Elder's in the Oneida Branch, we set up a booth at the local YMCA health fair. We had a wonderful time visiting with those attending and sharing with them our message. Elder Barlow and I handed out information on how to start their Family History. We also had Family Tree's for the children to fill in. William Capron is the member we are helping with temple work. Brother Sanders, on the left, is in our Branch Presidency. Elder Black and Gutierez are the wonderful missionaries in our Branch.