January News

Christmas Mail

We jumped into the new year with renewed enthusiasm. The memory of Christmas mail began to fade and we turned our attentions to one full week of transfers, two Mission Leader Conferences and five Zone Conferences all in the month of January. We have been here long enough that we have fallen into the "rhythm" of the mission. We work on a six week calendar, that is, every six weeks we receive new missionaries and returning missionaries leave. Quarterly we have Zone Conferences where President and Sister Wirthlin and the Assistants travel to each Zone to present needed training and to interview the missionaries in each zone. This month Elder and Sister Barlow were invited to present on matters concerning the cars and Apartment cleaning.  It is very humbling to be asked to accompany President and Sister Wirthlin. This is the second opportunity we have had. I felt better qualified the first time, the topic being Family History. I guess I have had a bit of experience with cleaning too.

January Arrivals

Sister Pipe

Transfers started on January 7th. Tuesday, our 12 new missionaries arrived. We received two Chinese-speaking Sisters from Temple Square. During the winter months when there are fewer visitors at Temple Square, Sisters are given the opportunity to get out in the mission field and experience mission work for two transfers. They are a great blessing to us. They were assigned two areas with large populations of Chinese such as Cornell University and Albany. Sister Pipe came last transfer, she is also a "Visitor Center" sister. She is a native American from Montana. She and Elder Barlow connected right away.

Last Supper

Elder Tollefson and Elder Houston

Wednesday of transfer week is always busy. Elder and Sister Barlow arrived at the mission home at 7 o'clock in the morning to feed breakfast to 20 missionaries while President interviewed the new arrivals. Next we ran over to the mission office to prepare for the orientation. We give training on cars, apartments, mail and other housekeeping matters. At ten the trainers and other's that are transferring to parts of the mission arrive.   At twelve o'clock we help serve lunch to everyone. At the end of lunch the outgoing missionaries share their testimonies. We were excited to see Tony Turby, our ongoing investigator, come to the luncheon to see his favorite Elder,  Elder Black. We hadn't seen him for a couple of months. Although he told us he wasn't interested in joining the church, he did comment that he missed the "comfort" he always feels when in a meeting or with the missionaries. Hummm....  The rest of the afternoon was spent in training. Around 5 o'clock most of the missionaries left to go back to their areas. At 6 o'clock we arrived at the mission home for the "last supper" with the outgoing missionaries. Elder Tollefson was one of our Assistants and we became very close to him. We worked with Elder Houston in the Oneida Branch.It's hard to say good bye.  We arrive home at 9 pm, exhausted.

Zone Conference

Zone conferences were a great success. We traveled to our five Zones, Albany, Potsdam, Owego, Syracuse and our own Zone, Utica. We loved seeing all our beloved missionaries. Sister Barlow is responsible for coordinating the luncheons. Local Relief Societies volunteer their time and efforts to provide a delicious meal. This Sister and her husband really went the extra mile and made wonderful enchiladas and beautiful home made cupcakes. They are both practicing lawyers with a young family. Where they found the time to do this, I don't know.

Clowning Around

Lest you think we only work, work, work, at times we do clown around. Here are some clowns we met at "Friendly's". They happened to be there having lunch, I guess clowns eat too. They were nice enough to allow us a photo opp.

We will close this month's blog with our Mission Slogan. To set the stage: We all stand up and when we get to the part that says "work, work, work" we yell it out like we were in the middle of a football huddle.

"I have often said that one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. Work, work, work – there is no satisfatory substitue, especially in missionary work.” Ezra Taft Benson