Day in Kirtland, Ohio

Today we went to Kirtland with the other new missionaries and President Vellinga and his wife and the mission office staff.  We drove ourselves, as did the other groups.  Arriving at the temple by 8 a.m., we were given a tour of it and learned many things that we had never known about it.  The main meeting room (one on 1^st and one on 2^nd floor) had the pulpits for the seating of the different levels of priesthood, Aaronic and Melchizedek.  There were lines in the ceiling where veils were dropped to divide the large room into 4 smaller ones.  I never knew that.  So when Joseph had the vision of the Savior and Moses, Elias and Elijah, there was a veil that was dropped down to separate them from the other people in the room.  At the close of the temple tour, our group sang “The Spirit of God Like A Fire Is Burning” and I got to be the pianist for it.  What a thrill!  I have now accompanied hymn singing in the Kirtland Temple and in the Sacred Grove (back in 1966 when the Minnesota stake went to Palmyra).

The Newell K. Whitney store was extra special.  We went to the translation room where Joseph worked on the Bible translation, and where he received 20 of the revelations now in the Doctrine and Covenants.  We also went to the room where the School of the Prophets was held, and the Father and the Son appeared there to him numerous times, as well as concourses of angels.  President Vellinga asked each of us to kneel and pray in that room about our commitments to our mission.  Then when we go there again at the end of our missions, we are to report back to the Lord about how well we kept our commitments.  It was an extremely spiritual morning!

                                                                                    

temple at night

Kirtland temple

Newell K. Whitney store

Us at Kirtland temple

Thanksgiving is Upon Us

Dear family members and friends,
We are thinking of each of you as Thanksgiving is coming. We will be spending the day and evening in Kirtland at the visitors center where another senior couple (the director of the Kirtland Visitors Center) has organized a turkey dinner for senior missionaries. Each one will contribute something, and our offering will be sweet potato pie. It tastes a lot like pumpkin pie, but actually tastes better. On the day after Thanksgiving (we are off work that day), we will be cooking our own turkey dinner so we can have leftovers--the best part!
                                                            

Thanksgiving dinner favors at Kirtland: oreo cookies, Rolos, candy corn, etc.

Kirtland is such a wonderful spiritual place--we love to go there. On Sunday evening, Dec. 1, our mission president is giving a fireside in the Kirtland Temple for all missionaries and members and investigators. What a great place for a fireside!

Our work in the courthouse is going fine. Our trainers, Elder and Sister Brumfield from Arkansaw, are very good to help us learn. We prepare the probate packets by smoothing out the paper, sometimes ironing it between two sheets of paper, and putting the documents in chronological order, for photography. It is a lot like microfilming, but is a better image. So far, all we have done has been accepted by the Salt Lake City checkers, meaning that the images we photographed are clear and properly done. We trade off every hour or so between photography and document preparation. We are currently doing probates recorded in the 1920s. Before we came here, we thought the work rooms would be chilly (temperature control environment), but they are not. So we can wear normal "business casual" clothes and be as warm as any other place. At noon after lunch, we often take a brisk walk around the buildings by the courthouse--convention center, shopping arcades, the public library, etc. The air is chilly and often very windy, so we wear our warmest coats,scarves, hats, earmuffs, and gloves.

We leave for work every morning, M-F, at 7:30 and get home about 5:30. We have found a wonderful bread bakery, so we enjoy good bread. It is across the street from another favorite, the pizza place. We decided to do our laundry at a laundromat, and we found a good one that is clean and quiet. Gas prices here are almost always less than $3.00/gallon. That's good because we do a whole lot of driving, and also like to explore around the area.

Today (Saturday, Nov. 23) I went to a Relief Society activity where we made evergreen wreaths. I made a pretty one that hangs now in our apt. and smells so good. Tonight we are going to a neighborhood theatre place to see a play: "Broadway Christmas Carol"--the story of Scrooge with music from familiar Broadway tunes--should be fun. On Sat., Dec. 14, we are having a very special outing to the Concert Hall to hear the famous Cleveland Orchestra and their holiday concert. That is our gift to each other.

We like the ward we are in, the Lakewood Ward, about 15 minutes away. They meet at 9 a.m. We don't have any callings; it is best for the members to do the callings. There is a Family History Center in our ward building, and we have gone there a couple of times in the evening. We also go to the mission office church building on Mondays after work so that I can practice the piano for an hour.  It is on the way home from our work and the missionaries in the office enjoy the music.  During this time, Larry likes to go grocery shopping nearby. This is my only time to play the piano and I miss doing it often and in church meetings. But I keep telling myself that I can do anything for a year. We are very happy here. We hope each one of you is well and happy wherever you are. Know that we love you and pray for you each day and think of you.

Apartment Photos

The pier across the street from our apartment complex.

living room and kitchen area

Sam-cat from Davy's family, in our living room

Looking at our apartment complex.  We are in the second building on the right.

The Second Day

Dear families, Attached are some photos of our second day here, the park across the road from our house, the pier and waves on Lake Erie, our apt. building with me waving (we are on the 2nd floor), and Larry sitting among the beautiful fall colors. Enjoy! Unfortunately, we lost our camera going through security at our work--it fell off of Larry's belt and he didn't know it, and we didn't discover it was gone until the next day. So we went back to security and asked (begged really), but no camera. So last night we bought 2 disposable cameras to last us until we can afford a regular one again. We need to have a camera to take on our tour of Kirtland on Wed., the 13th. 
                                                             

our pier and waves

Pat on our apt. balcony

Fall colors in park by lake

Larry in park

Our First Week In The Mission

We attended church Sunday morning and enjoyed the ward, but we are not sure we will be assigned there. The President assigns different senior missionaries to the various wards in the area.  I am not sure how many wards there are in this area, but there are five stakes in the mission, which covers the entire top third of the state of Ohio. In Relief Society, I bore my testimony at the end of the lesson—they were short on time, so I only said about three sentences. In the early afternoon we went for a long walk in the sunshine along the beautiful tree-lined streets in our neighborhood, and at 4:30 we went to the Brumfield’s apartment for dinner with them. We like them very much and they are good trainers.

Monday we began our service as family history records preservation missionaries. We drove our car, following the Brumfields, into downtown Cleveland to the beautiful courthouse where we would be serving.
Monday evening we went again to the Brumfield’s apartment for the monthly Family Home Evening of the senior missionaries in the zone area. Each one told a bit about themselves, we had a lesson of a video clip of President Monson, played some games, and had yummy refreshments. Different ones host it each month and our turn will come.

Tuesday was my 48th year as a member of the Church, my baptism being on 5 November 1965.

Wednesday was Zone Conference for our zone, so we were off work all day. It was held in our chapel which is the stake center. President Vellinga spoke twice, and taught us all about helping the investigator to set a comfortable date for their baptism, instead of the missionaries setting the date. He also admonished each one to get a flu shot to stay well and not infect the companion. We also met his wife and she is wonderful also. We stayed for the entire conference, even though the afternoon was all teaching practice sessions that did not necessarily apply to us. But the president wanted us to stay so we could introduce ourselves to the other missionaries by speaking in the meeting.

Also on Wednesday, we got our Internet set up!!! So I wrote to the families right away. On Thursday we took our laundry with us to work so we could go to the laundromat afterwards. The washer in our apartment building does not work currently. We went over to the Justice Center in Cleveland to get our security badges, and we had to go through their security check, like for an airplane flight. Larry had to take off his belt, and in so doing, our camera fell off and was apparently lost. We did not discover this until later that night at home, so we went early the next day to check at the security desk, but no camera had been found. We still are praying that it will turn up.

Friday marks one week of mission service. To celebrate, we went out to dinner at Bearden’s drive-in close to our home. It was very good food and wonderful friendly service. Saturday we shopped for groceries, looked around secondhand stores, and went into Cleveland to the Health Fair at the Auditorium by the Convention Center. We got lost trying to find the way to downtown from a different angle than we take to work. But we prayed and eventually found our way and went in to the Fair. Lots of free stuff, like pens and pencils, food, information, flu shots, etc. When we got back home, Davy called us and we talked for quite a while. They will be flying to Turkey on Monday, Nov. 11, at 12:42 CST.

Saturday evening we went to the baptism of Pauline Bradley, and I had been asked by the missionaries to play the piano for the meeting, which I was thrilled to do since I had not played since we left home in Utah. Pauline is a middle-aged black woman, very fun and interesting, taught by the missionaries.

Internet at last! and address correction

Dear family and friends,

We are truly enjoying our mission. Finally today we got Internet! It is very beautiful here. We did not miss fall color at all. There are so many beautiful trees and shrubs, all in glorious fall colors. We have walked over to the lakeside several times and out on the pier. We always find someone to talk with over there; people here are very friendly to us; they read our mission name tags and are pleasant and friendly to us everywhere.

We work in the beautiful Cuyahoga County courthouse in Cleveland. Talk about marvelous architecture! Never have we seen more beautiful buildings, carvings, statues, marble, stained glass, domes, etc. We will show you some pictures in a book about it, at least when we get back home. 

Today was Zone Conference in our ward building which is also the Stake Center. Our mission president Vellinga asked us to speak a little while. He used to live right next door to our church parking lot and was in the same ward as people in Garden Park, so we know some of the same people. He currently is from Salt Lake area. His name does not mean he is Spanish or Italian, just ordinary American, and very, very nice.  

We have done lots of shopping at Walmart and other stores, filling in the holes of things we need in our home. It is fun to live here in Beachcliff Apartments where most of the mission staff and some senior couple missionaries, single sister missionaries, and 4 elders live. It is a good place and very safe. The hardest thing is having to buy everything, food-wise. We cannot live off of our storage. But we figure we can do anything for just a year. We will enjoy it all to the hilt! 

Next week is transfer week for the young missionaries, so when the new ones arrive, all of us new missionaries will go with the President on a trip to Kirtland.  The evening before the trip, we will all have a welcome dinner at the mission home. We are so grateful to be serving the Lord here in Cleveland. There is much work to do and we are happy and fulfilled doing it. 

Please make note of our address: 22453 Lake Rd., C-209, Rocky River, OH 44116 (We had it wrong earlier.)Our phone numbers are the same as in Utah, Pat=801-362-9363, and Larry=801-362-9446.

Last days, and first days

It is now our last day at home for a year. I think we packed everything we could think of, and MADE IT FIT in the car! We drive out for Ohio tomorrow morning and are really looking forward to the trip. I have a cousin in Des Moines, Iowa, where we will stay one night, since we travel all the way to Cleveland on I-80 and that goes right by Des Moines. We expect to arrive in the mission by Halloween afternoon.  On Nov 3,  I wrote that we arrived safely on Thursday noon, Oct. 31, after 3-1/2 days of travel. We kept ahead of the storms. 

We are very close to the border of Michigan and Canada. We did not miss the fall colors here--they are outstanding! We walk across our street and we are on the beach of Lake Erie, and can walk out on the pier. The old Victorian homes here are so beautiful and are reminiscent of my home town in Minnesota. We have many new friends here and are very happy. We will start our courthouse work on Monday, Nov 4.  We had two wonderful weeks of training, one at the MTC and the 2nd one at Salt Lake City at the Church Office Bldg. learning how to photograph the documents  that we will be doing in the Cleveland courthouse. We are very excited!