June Jubilations

 

Now we know what happens in Up State NY in June, it rains and rains and rains! The good news is that it kept the temperatures down. The bad news is that the rains came down and the floods came up!  We have wide spread flooding along the Mohawk River where we live, Oneida where we attend church and near by Herkimer.  The missionaries are out with their yellow "Helping Hands" T-shirts this weekend, cleaning up the mess and the Church has come to the aid of these communities with shipments of food and other emergency items.  I've never seen so much water. It doesn't just sprinkle, it comes down in sheets. We live and work on "higher ground" so personally we have not felt the affects of the flood?

Elder's Jones and Borgia woke up and saw some alerts for flash floods on their cell phone. They didn't think much of it until they opened their door and saw this.
The car on the right is one of our brand new mission car's. Elder Barlow is not smiling. The entire town of Herkimer was under water. Where is the ark when you need it.

We started out the month with a visit from our dear friends, the Gilstraps. Elder Barlow served in a bishopric with Bishop Gilstrap and Luana introduced Sister Barlow to Family History in the Brentwood Ward many years ago. Howard attended Hamilton College in nearby Clinton. They were celebrating his 50th anniversary at Hamilton.  They gave us a tour of the beautiful campus and stayed a couple of nights. We love these good folks! 



Places we visited this month were the Adironacks on the right and and Sylvan Beach at Lake Oneida on the left. Beautiful country.










I thought I would share a letter I was asked to write to our ward RS describing our mission. It gives a general description of our life in the mission field.

Dear Sisters of the Rock Canyon Ward,

Hello from beautiful up state New York.  Elder Barlow and I are enjoying our mission very much. Today marks six months out and the time is flying bye. Our decision to serve a mission was one of the best decision we ever made. We love the people we serve especially the great missionaries in the New York Utica Mission. When we arrived here last January there were just over 100 missionaries in the Mission, now we have close to 180.  It has been a busy six months and we are grateful to be involved in the "hastening of the work".

I thought I would give you a run down of our responsibilities. We are senior missionaries working as office staff. Our mission president is Joseph B Wirthlin Jr. and his wife.  Our main responsibility is to be a resource and help to the missionaries and to aid President and Sister Wirthlin. We serve with another office couple, Elder and Sister Cutler from the St. George area. We love these people.

We work at the Mission Office from 8am to 5pm.  I am responsible for the in-coming and out-going mail which needs to be forwarded to the missionaries each day. I am also the referral secretary and order the supplies for the office. I take care of correspondence and preparation for the out-going missionaries. We help Sister Wirthlin with upcoming zone and district meetings and assist her with the luncheons that are given in conjunction with those meetings.  Elder Barlow is responsible for a fleet of 71 cars, their maintenance and insurance claims. Together we have helped set up about 40 new apartments. We both help do training at various meetings. I know this doesn't sound much like a missionary but we have been told that the missionaries couldn't do there work with out someone looking to the details. The spirit is in all the workings of the mission.  It is a privilege to be at the hub of things and to feel the power that fills the room when a large group of missionaries are there.

We have also received the assignment of working with the members of a small branch (twig) in Oneida New York. We travel 25 miles each Sunday to worship and to serve the 20 or so in attendance. I am the organist, Primary Teacher (we have from 1 to 6 children in the Primary each Sunday), Primary Sharing Time Chorister, Family History Consultant and Visiting Teacher/Home Teacher to several. Elder Barlow acts as Branch Ward Clerk, Sunday School Teacher, Family History Consultant and often teaches Priesthood as well. We have the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Mtg. often.We work closely with the missionaries in the Branch to assist in fellow-shipping and visiting investigators. Today we visited with Tony and Janet, a part member family. We have become very attached to Tony who is investigating the church.

We are being blessed with good health and vigor beyond our years. We love this great work. We come home each night tired but satisfied that we are doing the Lord's work. We miss our family and friends but would never want to miss the experiences that we are having. Thank you for your support and love. See you in a year.

Sister Mary Lou Barlow

P.S.  President Wirthlin is looking for more Senior Missionaries to serve in the New York Utica Mission as Member Leadership Support. They work in different area's where their is an urgent  need for seasoned members to assist in the branches and give support to the younger missionaries.  If any one is interested please contact me and I will give your information to President Wirthlin so he can request your service.  Come join the fun.

 

This is the baptism we had at the beginning of June. McKinsy 12 and Zac 10. They are members of the Oneida Branch and I teach Zac in Primary. Their father will be joining the church soon.


We said good bye to Sister Smith, Elder Tibbitts and Elder Olson. Sister Smith was one of our favorites. They were all awesome missionaries.

We welcomed 21 new missionaries into the field in June.  On the first row on the far right is Sister Lloyd from Windsor, CO near Ft Collins. I understand their family recently moved to Utah.

Until next month, we send our love to our family and friends. Please keep in touch.  Missionaries love to get mail. We get ours at PO Box 149, Whitesboro NY 13492.  Love you.  Elder and Sister Barlow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May Flowers

 

 New York weather is tricky in May. The colors of spring are in full array as shown by this beautiful tree just outside the front door of our Mission Office. The next moment we are caught in a hailstorm so powerful that we have to pull off to the side of the road and find shelter. A few minutes latter, at the end of the storm,  a magnificent rainbow appears. One day it is hot the next it is freezing.  The landscape is beautiful and lush now that the leaves are on the trees. We have almost forgotten what New York looked like in the winter.

 

Now that the weather is better, we are venturing out to see this beautiful mission area. Elder Barlow needed to install some T-wii units in the mission cars this month. A T-wii is an electronic device which monitors the driving of our missionaries. It warns them if they are going over the speed limit, have aggressive driving, use of the car after hours (10pm) or leave the mission area. A report is given to Elder Barlow and President Wirthlin for review. If they appear on the report consistently, they may have their driving privileges taken away. The studies have shown this keeps our missionaries safe.

 

We traveled over to Albany Zone and met the Sisters at a farm, While Elder Barlow installed their T-wii, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. After, Elder and Sister Barlow traveled to Albany to see some sites.  Our first stop was at the center of the State's capital. In the heart of downtown is a beautiful complex which includes the State Capital Building (which looks like a castle), offices and the New York State Museum. We were excited to learn that the Museum housed a wonderful display of the Mohawk Indian Tribe, one of the six tribes of the Iroquois federation. This is the place and the tribe of which Sister Barlow has a special connection.

 We love that we were sent on a mission right where our ancestors lived. On Granny Andrew's side we have a line that is shrouded in family folk lore and mystery. Sylvanus Hulet, who was from Connecticut and then Massachusetts, was a soldier in both the French & Indian War and two campaigns in the Revolutionary War, one against Burgoyne in 1777 and another against Arnold, who burned his home town in South Connecticut in 1780. After the war the Hulet family returned to Massachusetts. Sylvanus mustered out of the colonial army in New York. He married Mary Lewis who is believed to be from Albany, New York. Mary Lewis was five years younger than Sylvanus and the search for her origins has plagued generations of Hulet Family genealogists. Mary Lewis was one-quarter Indian. The name of her grandmother was remembered in the family as Running Deer. That's all that is known. Assuming that Mary was from the Albany area, we learned from our trip to the Capital that this is Mohawk territory.  There are hints in the names of her children and grandchildren (Lewis, Francis, Schyler-- all New York Colonial names) that hers was a New York family and her Indian relations may very well have been Mohawk of the Iroquois Confederacy. We also know that Sally Hullet, daughter of Mary Lewis and Sylvester Hulet, visited with her Mohawk Indian relatives about 1814 in New York, north and west of Albany along the Mohawk River.

 



Philip Schuyler was a major-general in the American Revolution, a United States senator and a delegate to the second Continental Congress. He had a mansion in the heart of Albany. We were able to visit that mansion. Here, Benjamin Franklin visited, George Washington dined, and British General John Burgoyne stayed as a prisoner of war. Schuyler would have lived here when Mary and her family were in the area. It is interesting that Schuyler or Shyler was a family name.


Another interesting figure we learned about, who lived earlier, along the Mohawk River near Albany was Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet.  He was an Anglo-Irish official of the British Empier. As a young man, Johnson moved to the Province of New York.  He would have lived at the time of our Running Deer who was three years his junior.  Johnson became closely associated with the Mohawk and learned their language.  The Mohawks saw in Johnson someone who could advocate their interests in the British imperial system.  Sometime around 1742 (about the time Mary's mother was born), they adopted him as an honorary sachem, or civil chief.  He was named Warraghiyagey, which translated is "A Man who undertakes great Things". In his lifetime, Johnson gained a reputation as a man who had numberous children with European and Native American women (are you my grandaddy?). At the time, men were not ostracized for having illegitimate children, as long as they could afford it and supported them. So we see that our Mohawk and the British, whom the Mohawk aligned themselves during the early years, interacte with each other.  Their main interaction was the fur trade.





As we followed the highway back along the Mohawk River to our home, we couldn't help think what it must have been like for our ancestors who lived here. We decided to get out and take this picture. Sister Barlow approached the river's edge only to begin slipping on the moss covered shore. Elder Barlow grabbed her before she slipped into the river. He said, "Your not much of an Indian, are you."

On Memorial Day weekend, Elder and Sister Cutler and the two of us, decided to visit Ft Stanwix which is in neighboring Rome. Before arriving at Ft Stanwix we stopped by the battlefield where the Battle of Oriskany was fought on August 6, 1777. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolutionary War. Early in the siege of Fort Stanwix, an American relief force from the Mohawk Valley under Genertal Nicholas Herkimer, numbering around 800 men approached in an attmept to raise the siege. During the battle, Herkimer was mortally wounded. The battle cost the Patriots approximately 450 casualties, while the Loyalists and Indians lost approximately 150 dead and wounded.

Because of Memorial Day weekend, there was a very realistic reenactment of the events at Ft Stanwix. This is how we were greeted at the entrance and then were taken to the General's quarters to be questioned as to our intentions. These are Scottish colonial soldiers who were some of the earliest inhabitants of the fort which was built by the British. Fort Stanwix was abandoned in 1768 and allowed to go into ruin. The fort was reoccupied by Colonial troops on July 12, 1776. They began reconstruction and renamed it Fort Schuyler, although many continued to call it Fort Stanwix. After it was no longer being used it once again fell into disrepair and the City of Rome grew up on the site. Many years later, a fire destroyed an entire block where the fort stood and between 1974 and 1978 the fort was reconstructed. Here are some additional picutures:

 



 

 We actually had a couple of slow weeks so you can see that we took advantage of the time. We are once again as busy as ever. Elder Barlow just set up nine more apartments and received another eight new cars. We had Return and Report and Zone Leader Council last week and are gearing up for twenty one new missionaries to enter the field next week.  As busy as we are, we feel that our Father in Heaven is giving us the strength and health to carry out our responsibilities.  We love our mission, our missionaries and President and Sister Wirthlin.  We are having the time of our lives.  We pray for each of you every day. We pray for your families and for your happiness.  Until next month.....

 



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.

 

 

March Adventures

Several weeks ago our grandson, Gabriel Williams, asked if we would participate in a school project. Gabe sent us "Flat Gabe" (a hand colored picture of himself) to take on an adventure. Our assignment was to take a picture with him when we visited any place interesting. At the end of our adventure we returned "Flat Gabe" to our Gabe with the adventures written on the back, along with pictures. So what follows in this blog are the adventures we had with "Flat Gabe" We are excited to hear how his assignment was received at school.

Early in the month we went on a Temple Trip with our friends in the Oneida Branch. It had been a hectic time for us. We were busy learning our new responsibilities and working with President Wirthlin to prepare for the increase in missionaries. We had little free time to explore our surroundings.  This was to be our first adventure away from the mission office. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Snow was still on the ground and the temps were low.  We enjoyed our time in the temple performing baptisms, inititories and an endowement.
 
We visited some of the sites around Palmyra such as Joseph Smiths home and the Sacred Grove. Palmyra is a special place. To think that God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy Prophet in this very spot is truly humbling. Not far away is the Hill Cumorah, where Moroni appeared and gave instruction and eventually gave Joseph the plates of gold.

..Our day was soon to take an interesting turn. We decided to visit the Grandin Building, where the first Book of Mormon was published. It is on the main street in Palmyra and the Church has restored it. As we walked into the building we were greeted by the missionaries and invited to tour the facilities.  As we rounded a corner a cute family, also on tour came toward us. As I looked at the mother I realized that it was my niece, Amy Barlow and her family visiting from Texas. Now what are the odds of "Flat Gabe" finding cousins in New York? I called this my "tender mercy" from a loving Heavenly Father that knew, even grandma missionaries get home sick. "Flat Gabe" made another discovery while at the Grandin Building, it was hiding under a white cloth. Can you see what it is? He was very perceptive and curious.

Next, we took a stroll to the Erie Canal. We learned that one of the largest achievements of the early 19th century was the completion of the Erie Canal. What a lot of people don't know is that its construction helped to spark the fires of religious revival throughout the state which set the stage for the restoration. Palmyra was right on the Erie Canal. Joseph Smith's family arrived just when the Erie Canal opened the west for trade and travel. Many of our early Saints used it for transportaion.

After a quick trip to the fudge store and to the Hill Cumorah we started back home with "Flat Gabe".  We have often thought back on that wonderful day and the sites seen and friends we made along the way.

We returned home and continued preparing for the 23 new missionaries who entered the New York Utica Mission in March. We are enjoying an increased numbers of missionaries due to the announcement made by the church concerning the change in age. We love our missionaries. It is amazing to me how fast we become attached to them.  Notice one of my favorite Elder's standing in the back row, Elder Oloapu from New Zealand. These are all wonderful, dedicated Elders and Sisters.


On another cold but beautiful day, Elder and Sister Barlow, Elder and Sister Cutler and Flat Gabe went on another adventure. Up State New York is Maple Syrup country and for a very short few weeks in March, the conditions are perfect for the liquid to flow from the Maple trees which are in rich abundance.  We traveled about a half hour away to Ben and Judy's Sugar House where they actually gather and process Maple Syrup from their trees. As part of the yearly celebration they open their sugar house to the public and show how they process the yummy sweet syrup. They also serve a delious breakfast of hot cakes and home made maple syrup. The picture at the left is Ben, the owner.
 
"Flat Gabe" enjoyed the pancakes and I noticed he wasn't quite so flat after that.  He enjoyed meeting the family members who helped at the sugar house and tasted of their Maple candies, jellies and even cotton candy.




The conditions weren't right for the Maple liquid to flow that day, it was too cold, but we became educated on the art of producing that declicious product. Here you see Flat Gabe showing off a bucket which, in the olden days, held the liquid which drained from the tree. They would then have to collect all the buckets and place them in the horse drawn wagon and brought to the Sugar House. Today they drain the trees by inserting tubbing which runs down hill to the Sugar House.

Well, our adventures with "Flat Gabe" were over so we shipped him off, along with the pictures and a sampling of the maple syrup back to our Gabe in Utah. I'm going to miss the little guy.

The month of March was not over. Elder and Sister Barlow celebrated their 44th anniversary on the 29th. What wonderful years they have been. How blessed we are. But the crowning event was an all Mission Conference where we met with Elder Bednar of the twelve apostles, Bishop Davis of the Presiding Bishopric and two members of the Seventy's. I will never forget that day. What follows are excerpts from that meeting written in our "Harvester" mission news letter by our wonderful AP, Elder McKay Tingey:

Elders and Sister,  We send our love and appreciation to all of you. This month we experienced the blessing to have Elder David A. Bednar instruct us. During the confernece we discussed with him key principles of teaching, moral agency and faith.

Teaching: We are to teach in a manner that will enable others to feel the knowledge that comes through the spirit.  Teaching is observing, listening, and discerning; not "what do I do?" but "what do they need?"  As we receive by the Spirit what they need, we must "[follow] courageously the Spirit's guidance" in teaching others (PMG pg, 97).

Moral Agency: "Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other" (2 Nephi 2:16). We must be agents unto ourselves to act and not be objects to be acted upon.  We have never felt the Holy Ghost by being an object or by taking away one's agency.

Asking in Faith: In order to ask in Faith, we must ask with a determination to act. As Moroni says we must "ask with real intent."  Joseph Smith went to the grove to ask in faith and he was determined to act upon the answer he knew he would receive.  Elder Bednar said, "Action alone is not faith in the Savior but acting in accordance with correct principles is a central component of faith." The power comes after we exercise our agency. He then challenged us: "Based upon what I have observed, felt and learned today, what will we do?"

Durting the month of March we experienced fun, hard work and spiritual uplift.  It is a great opportunity and honor to serve our Savior, Jesus Christ.