September Surprise

Elder and Sister Barlow - New York Utica Mission

Hello from beautiful New York. Autumn is here and all the stories we heard about the beauty of this area in the fall are absolutely true! We send our love to all our friends and family who read this blog. We just hit the half way point of our mission and are looking forward to the next nine months. We love this great work. We have been so blessed with good health while here, not one sick day!

Fall in the Adirondacks

Bed Bug

Mission life is always full of adventure and excitement. This area of the country has it's challenges and one of the challenges our missionaries are having comes in the form of a little insect called a "bed bug". I thought a bed bug was just a part of a cute little phrase my father used to tell me when I said "good night". He would say, "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite." Well, there is nothing cute about "bed bugs". I thought I would include this picture that one of our sister missionaries took. Often our missionaries bring them home from places they visit. It doesn't take long for these little critters to multiply. They lay hundreds of eggs and pretty soon you are infested. They get in your clothes, floors, drawers and of course your bed. You know that they have had a good meal if they are red in color. Although they don't cause disease, they do leave welts and sores all over your body. They seem to be attracted to A+ blood. Fortunately we haven't had them in our apartment.

Wendy and Elder Barlow

The highlight of our month was a surprise visit from Wendy and John. We didn't expect to see any of our family while on our mission but were so excited when we heard that they would be coming. Wendy came on Wednesday night and we picked her up from the Syracuse Airport. After taking her out to dinner we arrived back to our apartment. The next morning we went to the mission office and Wendy got a hands on look at what goes on in our office. She helped sort the mail that comes each morning. At noon we took off to see some sites. First we went to the Oriskany Battlefield where an important Battle was fought in the American Revolutionary War. Although the Patriots from the Mohawk Valley suffered

Elder Barlow at Hamilton College

many casualties, it turned the tide of the revolution. Next we traveled to Rome, New York, where we visited Ft Stanwix. Elder and Sister Barlow had visited these sites before and wanted Wendy to have a taste of the rich history that is here. We then traveled to the beautiful little town of Clinton. We visited the farmers market in the town square and then went up the hill to Hamilton College and walked around the campus which is named after Alexander Hamilton, established in the late 1700, early 1800's.

On Friday we spent the entire day in the mission field. We had Special Training where the missionaries that have been out for a month, return for additional training from President Wirthlin.  This is my favorite meeting. When the new missionaries first come out, they are so scared and shy. When they return for Special Training they are transformed into powerful missionaries full of confidence. Sister Wirthlin's helper was not able to come that day so Wendy stepped right up and helped with the luncheon. Wendy was able to meet many of our missionaries and listen to the counsel of President Wirthlin. That evening we were invited to the Mission Home for a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Walker who have completed their mission.

John and Wendy

All Aboard!

Boarding the Cruise Ship

Lighthouse on the lake

The following morning John arrived and we drove to Utica to catch the train up to the Adirondaks where we spent the day seeing the fall colors and taking a cruise around four connecting lakes. We had perfect weather and enjoyed seeing the sights in and around Old Forge. The

Old Forge

next day we attended Oneida Branch for Fast and Testimony Meeting. The Spirit was strong as these humble people bore such powerful testimony. Wendy and Elder Barlow also contributed. Elder Barlow fixed
a delicious meal and we spent the rest of the day visiting. Wendy and John left early Monday and made their way up to Niagara Falls before catching their flight back to Colorado. The visit went by so quickly but the memories remain. THANK YOU JOHN AND WENDY!

The architecture in our area is so unique. Of course most of what we see dates back to the 19th century. I love the beautiful barns and farm houses, the churches with their red doors and Victorian houses. The house to the right is one that we recently rented for a new senior couple arriving in our mission today. I want to live in a gingerbread house! One of the features that I am particularly curious about is the house below. See the little room on the very top? I'm not sure what it is used for but someone told me they are prayer rooms. I think it would be cool to have your own Celestial room on top of your house. I hope to be able to go in one of these houses before I leave to take a peek.

Celestial Room

A little family news.... Uncle Don and Claudia arrived safe and sound in Recife, Brazil, where they are serving their 6th mission. We wish them well. Congratulations to Ben Williams for earning his Eagle Scout award and to Sam Arnett for heading up a very successful Eagle Project at Liberty Commons School. Pictures of Jeff Arnett and Madeline McKinnon were in the Church News this month for helping with the floods that struck their area. I know Jill and Kim were also involved in the volunteer efforts. A high-five goes out to Tara Gover for getting a 31 on her ACT's. Way to go!

Wendy and Tara

Pizza Arch

To the left is a picture of Elder Black and Elder Call under the pizza arch in one of the apartments. Our current AP, Elder Tanner, started the arch when he lived there and the tradition has continued. Our Elders LOVE Pizza. Next week we welcome a new batch of missionaries and once again say good bye to some that we have grown so close to. We will be saying "hello" to four sisters including a Sister Barlow from Burbank, California (I already found out that she is related) and Sister's Barley, Ladd and Miller and three elders, Elder Villejo, Thompson and Kunzler (a visa waiter assigned to Curitiba Brazil). We will have to say "good bye" to Elders King, Portella, Simmonds and Sister Palmer. This is the hazard we experience as we give our hearts away but we wouldn't have it any other way. Until next month, I leave you with this quote from Elder Holland which gives us purpose for our mission. We love you all so much.

"I promise you will do things for your grandchildren in the service of the Lord that, worlds without end, you could never do if you stayed home to hover over them. What greater gift could grandparents give their posterity than to say by deed as well as word, 'In this family we serve missions!'"

Happy Halloween

August Daze

Cutlers and Barlows at Birthday Dinner

I'm late getting this month's blog out but I have a good excuse. It was our birthdays!!  All I asked for my birthday was a letter from each of our grandchildren. I got my wish and so I have been answering each of those letters. With as many grandchildren as we have, that took a very long time. Thank you, children and grandchildren for making our birthdays so special.

 

Sister's Lloyd and Steward surprise Sister Barlow

August was our "slow" month. We didn't have transfers in August because they fell on the first of September. I said that it was a "slow" month but not really. We still had MLC (Mission Leader Council), ZTM (Zone Training Meetings) and R&R (not rest and recreation but Return and Report). We also held a Sister's Conference and a Senior Missionary Conference.

Elder Barlow in Corn Field

Upstate New York Summer

We have watched the corn grow from just a seed to stalks "as high as an Elephants eye". Where ever you go there are miles and miles of corn fields. It still amazes me that this is all done without irrigation. The rains continued through August and into September. Although we had some days of humid weather (not my favorite), they didn't last too long. 

Cameron and Zach future Missionaries

Oneida Primary

 

Our little Oneida Branch continues to move along. Here are some pictures of our Primary with Sister Sanders, our Primary President and two of our boys, Zach and Cameron. Our investigator, Tony, is still coming out regularly with his wife, Jan. We have been assigned to be their home teachers and we love teaching them. Jan is excited with her husbands progress. He is not going to be jumping into this quickly but we all feel it will happen in his own time. He gets up early in the morning and reads his scriptures and the Ensign. Jan says he underlines all the articles. He then saves his questions and asks the elders or us. He asks all the right questions and is very thoughtful, a seeker of truth. We have grown to love them very much.
The mission's first Sister's Conference was a great success. We held workshops which were taught by our five STL's (Sister Trainer Leader's) and had a nice luncheon. Sister Cutler put together a cookbook which included recipes from the sisters and mission staff which included their pictures. I prepared Plan of Salvation visual aids for them to use in their teaching. It is wonderful to be with these sweet sisters. There was a lot of hugging going on that day.

 

Seniors Conference

Sister and Elder Barlow



Wirthlins own Sacred Grove in backyard

The Senior Missionary Conference was a great time to meet with the other Seniors and hear what they are doing. Each Senior Mission is so different. They use their talents to individualize their mission. For example, we have a couple who are ex-military. They are assigned to a base and support the LDS families who have spouses deployed over seas. They hold Family Home Evenings, Temple Prep classes and give moral support. Two couple are CES and run the Institute programs at Cornell and Universities in and around Albany. We have three couples in the north country where the branches are small. They are MLS (Mission Leader Support) who provide priesthood leadership. They are Branch Presidents and lend support to the members and make themselves known in the community. Then there are the Cutler's and the Barlow's who make up the Mission Office Staff. We all met at the Mission Home where we enjoyed a Bar-B-Que and fireside. President and Sister Wirthlin are both wonderful cooks. It is a good thing because they are always putting on luncheons or dinners for the masses. President Wirthlin's background is in meat production and he knows all there is to know about cuts of meat.

Pres. Wirthlin mining diamonds

Barlow find

The next morning we took off for Herkimer to explore the Diamond mines. We were able to go with hammer in hand and find the Diamonds. Anything we found we were able to keep. The "Herkimer Diamonds" is the name given to the doubly terminated quartz crystals found in Herkimer County, New York and surrounding areas.  These crystals have the typical hexagonal habit of quartz, however, instead of having a termination on one end they are doubly terminated. This is a result of the crystals growing with very little or no contact with their host rock. Such doubly terminated crystals are very rare and this is part of what makes Herkimer Diamonds so popular with mineral collectors. Most of us were able to find a few, all be it very small.

The Last Supper

Dinner with outgoing Elders



Sister Barlow was asked to teach a Family History class to the youth of the Rome Branch. In October she has been asked to return and teach the Relief Society there. We continue to enjoy our experience here in New York. The people are so warm and friendly and we continue to make friends wherever we go. We love our missionaries and feel sad when they leave us. Last time we said good bye to several that we had become very close to. Elder Rymer is a fine musician and is back in Provo attending BYU. He made it into Men's Chorus and we will be following his career when we return home. Elder Baird is another that we became close to. He lives on the Indian Reservation in Arizona. Although he is white (red hair), his mother was raised by the Navajo and Elder Baird was raised by his Navajo Grandmother. He had to cut off his long red braid to go on a mission.

Until next month (which is just a week away) we will sign off. Love you all. We love our Savior and grateful we can serve Him in New York.  Elder and Sister Barlow

Temple Trip

New York in July

Hi Family and Friends.

Oh what do you do in the summer time, when all the world is green?   In New York we have enjoyed fireflies (amazing, we have never seen one before), a trip to Hill Cumorah to see the Pageant, a round of Zone Conferences, a Bar B Que at the Oneida Branch and many opportunities to serve.

I'll start off with where we left you last month, the floods.... On Fast Day we held a brief Fast and Testimony meeting and then we were dismissed to go help the flood victims. Here are a couple of pictures of Elder Barlow and our Elder Black serving in the low lands of Oneida. Sister Barlow helped a young Mother of three pack up the belongings that were salvageable while Elder Black, Wankier and Elder Barlow helped haul off all the other possessions to the side of the curb to be hauled away. We love Elder Black and Wankier. Elder Black has moved on to Syracuse now to served as a Zone Leader in Syracuse. Things have dried out now and people are putting their lives back together.  One of the less actives that we helped that day is back in church so some good has come from that experience.

Elder and Sister Barlow were privileged to tour the mission with President and Sister Wirthlin in July. Sister Barlow presented training on how to use Family History in Missionary Work. It was received well and several missionaries have reported back that they are using it with some good results. First we had a Zone Conference in Albany. Dr Aldus, the Doctor who oversees the medical issues in ten missions on the East Coast joined us along with his wife. I thought our job was busy. His phone was ringing constantly while they were with us.  Next we traveled to Owego Zone and stayed at a lovely hotel right on the Susquehanna River. The drive between Albany and Owego was absolutely breath taking. After driving back to Utica we caught our breath until the next week when we held three more Zone Conferences at Utica, Syracuse and then Pots Dam.

 

We drove along the St Lawrence River to the North Country. Although I haven't been outside the United States (or does Tijuana count?) I got a glimpse of Canada on the other side of the river.  After the Zone Conference in Pots Dam we traveled down through the Adirondacks. So many beautiful lakes, too many to count. I think they ran out of names and started calling them Lake 1, Lake 2.... etc. The Adirondacks are known for their unusual chairs. Here are some samples of what we saw along the way.





We visited a museum where we learned of the history of the area(rt). One of the last stops in the Adirondacks  was a short hike to Buttermilk Falls (lft). We don't want you to think that all we do is sight see but as we drive from one area of the mission to another, we do get out and stretch our legs. 

Next we were off to Palmyra where we were privileged to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. First, we returned to Mendon, New York, where the Barlow's were first introduced to the gospel. We stopped at the Tomlinson Cemetery where Heber C. Kimball's father, Solomon, and Brigham Young's first wife are buried. Solomon Kimball's house stands next to this old barn that is covered in Ivy. We were told that two huge turkey vultures with wing spans of 6 feet live inside.  We were not able to visit the mill pond where Brigham baptized Israel Barlow because it began to rain. We'll have to return and do more exploring. We were able to see the property where Israel's home stood (it no longer stands).

 

The pageant was rained out the night before so we were praying the rain would stop, and it did. We revisited the Sacred Grove, this time it had leaves. At the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center we bumped into Brother Richmond and it turned out he was from Ft Collins and
worked with our son-in-law, John Gover, at Intell. His children are friends with their children. Just before the pageant started we ran into Sister Blanchard from Wendy's ward who's family was in the pageant. It is amazing what a small world it is. While at the Pots Dam Zone Conference I met President Francom, the Stake President there who turned out to be a cousin. I had to travel all the way to New York and a small town to find him.

Transfers were last week with thirteen new missionaries entering NYUM and five leaving. There were an unusual amount of changes in leadership and companionships, well over 80. Each of those changes mean hours of work for the mission staff. After this weekend we should be back to normal. This next week we will have a Sister's Conference, the first one that the mission has had. With the addition of all the new Sisters, President felt it important for them to meet and discuss concerns that are unique to them. Along with this change five of the sisters have been called as Sister Leader Trainers who help train and advocate for the Sisters in their Zone and attend and participate in all Zone Leader training meetings. The President feels strongly about giving opportunities to many missionaries to serve in leadership positions so AP's are changed about every two transfers and Zone Leadership is changed frequently. We said good-bye to our AP, Elder Tollefson who went to the North Country and we welcomed Elder Tanner who will serve for his next two transfers along with Elder Lewis.

Today, two of our grandchildren were baptized, Owen McKinnon and Maggie Barlow. We have never missed a grandchild's baptism before but this is part of the sacrifice we make. We are proud of the the decision that they made to be baptized and to "Come Unto Christ".  We love our family and are grateful for their support. I will end this post as President Wirthlin, "Eternally in the Lords Work"
Elder and Sister Barlow

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