May Days

Back: E Cleveland, E Barlow, S Barlow, S Nicolas, E Nicolas, E Cleveland,
Front: E Eliason, S Eliason

The Oneida Branch has four sets of missionaries. The full time Elders find and teach investigators. We have had wonderful missionaries serve in this branch throughout our mission, Elder Jones, Elder Meidell, Elder Gutierrez, Elder Black, Elder Houston, Elder Wankier, Elder Wilson, Elder Cleveland, Elder Klima and Elder Dansie.  Elder and Sister Eliason from Orem are here for six months and are serving as Missionary Leader Support. Elder Eliason is serving as a counselor to President Micah Colbert and Sister Eliason is the Young Women's leader.  Elder and Sister Nicolas are serving for the next six months as Temple missionaries in the Palmyra temple and are assigned to the Oneida Branch to give support. This missionary force is the life blood of the branch. They give much needed experience and service to the Branch members.

Teddy and Sister Sanders

We so enjoy each month's Fast and Testimony meeting in the Oneida Branch.  The spirit is strong even though our numbers may be few.  We have a young man who seems to get up before anyone else to bear his testimony, who, unbeknownst to him, sets the tone for us.  His name is Teddy Nicholson. He was adopted by his Uncle and Aunt, Brother and Sister Sanders who lovingly care for him. This is what he shared:
"I have been diagnosed with autism, I am legally blind and am mentally retarded and I can't read. I feel I am a voice for those who don't have a voice and help those that are less fortunate than I am; I know I am a son of God and a brother of Jesus Christ and they love me."  He can't read the words of the Hymns, but he sings the words he has heard over and over again.  His testimony is always simple and short, but his heart is large and strong in his willingness to help and be of service.  He melts our hearts.

Elder Jones, Meidell, Elder Barlow, Becky Matthews, Amy

Sister Becky Matthews is another member of the Branch who's example of service, especially to the missionaries, has blessed many lives. She is a single mother raising her daughter Amy. She is always feeding the missionaries and lending her support. She served in the Los Angeles mission as a young missionary and at one time served in the Mar Vista Ward. Here we are in her kitchen with Elder Jones and Elder Meidell once again being fed.

Oneida Museu

This month we visited the Oneida Nation museum. Two families in our branch are from this Indian Nation. The Oneida are one of five tribes that make up the Haudenosaunee or People of the Longhouse. We know them as the Iroquois. In the early days they made up the most powerful native confederation in the Northeast, perhaps in the whole country.  The five tribes making up the Iroquois were, Mohawk (people of the flint also Keepers of the Eastern Gate), Oneida (People of the Standing Stone), Onondaga (people of the Hills), Cayuga (people at the boat landing) and the Seneca (People of the Great Hill, also the Keepers of the Western Gate). The tribes stretched from Albany, New York on the East to Rochester New York on the West.  Sister Barlow was very much interested in this history having ancestors who were Mohawk. We are very proud to be a part of this history.

May departures

May transfers came and once again we said our good byes to Elders Atwood, Bloomfield, Cleveland, Gabbitas, Hougaard, Huebsch, Jensen and Neville. We found that the sadness was not quite so poignant this time as we will be following them soon. Many of our missionaries live in and around the Provo area so they have promised to drop by for cookies and milk or a meal. What fun we will have.

Ann Brady

The young lady on the right is Sister Ann Brady. Ann was converted to the church by listening to the "\Music and the Spoken Word" with Richard L Evens. She loves that man! Ann has assisted us with getting out the mail every Monday for many, many years, long before we came on the scene. She is 90 years young and we love her.





When the AP's save up enough plastic bottles, we have a pizza party. Here are the Utica missionaries and Office missionaries partying it up.

Elder Rymer returned to visit the mission field with his parents. He attends BYU where we expect to see him perform in Men's Chorus or Performance Choir. He is very talented.

May is graduation time. One of our investigators, Felisha Teska, graduated from Onondaga Community College. Felisha and Dan will be married in August and  baptized on my birthday in August. Felisha has shown much interest in Family History and is looking forward to doing temple work for her deceased ancestors.

 

CONGRATULATIONS to our granddaughter who graduated from Ft Collins High School and will be entering BYU in the fall. We are proud of her many accomplishments, she even spoke at the graduation. We love you Tara!!!

Well, after a very long winter, Spring did return to New York. I noticed that I took a picture of this tree last May. The blossoms returned but the tree lost a few branches because of the heavy winter snows. We are grateful for the return of warm weather. We send our love to family and friends that might see this blog. Have a wonderful summer.

April Surprises

 

April promises the hope of Spring and new beginnings. Much of April in New York has been cold but near the end we saw the buds begin to show and daffodils finally poked their heads out of the ground. 

Will Spring ever come?

  

Barby Palmer

April Fools Day

April Fool's Day brought with it a surprise from our Utica Sister Missionaries who offered us some homemade Brown E's. We attended the Temple in Palmyra where we were surprised to see  Barby Palmer, one of our beloved returned missionaries.

      

Transfers came the first week of April. Elders May, Black, Gibb and Sister Heggem departed the mission. We love  these great missionaries and hope to stay in touch.

Sister Heggem & Elder May

Elder May, Elder Black, Elder Gibb

  

Good bye Elder May

 

Next came two weeks of Zone Conferences. Elder and Sister Barlow remained at the office while Elder and Sister Cutler experienced the round of conferences.

                                                                               

Utica Zone Conference - April 2014

 



CADEN!

We didn't have meetings at Oneida Branch for three weeks, the last week of March the road leading to the chapel was flooded so they canceled all meetings. The following week was General Conference and the next week was Stake Conference. The last week the Branch Presidency was gone so Elder Barlow conducted and spoke in Sacrament Meeting. The last week we were surprised when a young family with two children showed up. The Nishimoto family have just moved here and will bring much needed leadership. Brother Nishimoto is a returned missionary. He took classes from Uncle Steven Smith at UVU and is a Golf Pro at the local resort, the Turning Stone. His wife is a darling energetic Sister.  Caden (3yrs) is in Primary. He came right up to Sister Barlow and announced, "My name is  C-A-D-E-N --- Caden and I'm 3 years old." It was love at first site.











 



Sam & Marinne

Tara - Prom 2014

Now for some family news. Tara (left) and Sam (right) attended LDS Prom.  Tara is graduating next month. We will miss that but hope the family will take plenty of pictures of this important day. We are proud of our grandchildren and their many accomplishments. Tara will be joining us in Provo as she attends BYU. What fun!!!



Drew, Tisha, Jill, Wendy

Melinda Barlow was married in Salt Lake City. Wendy and Jill traveled to Utah and with Tisha and Drew were able to reunite with many of their cousins and celebrate Melinda's big day.  April is truly a time of new beginnings for Andrew and Wendy. We are grateful for the support the family has given them. Heavenly Father has truly blessed them through difficult time. We love our family and can see how much they love each other.

 

 Elder Barlow in one of his creative moments wrote the following:  

Gate Keeper

 

You are the 'gate keeper' of your heart,

To allow what comes in or cast it apart.

There is hope in truth to light your way,]

You can bring it in or 'come what may'.

 

Do you have fences that are high and strong

To close out the truth, to admit you're wrong?

Is your heart so hard and your mind so blind

That truth can't come in, whatever its kind?

 

So knock down the walls and open your 'gate'

Let the 'still small voice' of truth penetrate

Your heart, mind and soul - make a start,

You are the 'gate-keeper' of your heart

 Elder Joel Barlow April 2014

 

Elder Barlow 2014

We are grateful for our mission. We feel apart of a much greater quest as we strive to follow Christ's admonition to go into all the world to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."