Thursday, September 3, 2015

It has been quite a while since I posted on our blog.  A lot has happened and I'm sure I will miss many things we have done.  On May 1, we started the summer schedule at the Palmyra Temple.  We were assigned to be the coordinators for the Monday shift with all the summer (6 month) missionaries.  We were also assigned to be the coordinators for the summer missionaries sightseeing outings every other Thursday.  The missionaries are from all over the west and one-half of them live at Zion's camp by the Hill Cumorah in their RV's.  The other half live in apartments.  We are having a wonderful time with these very special people.  Some of the outing we have done are:  Peter Whitmer Farm and Watkins Glen.
Summer missionaries in from of Peter Whitmer visitors center

Watkins Glen

We have also been to Corning Glass Museum, Genesee Country Villiage, Erie Canal Cruise (with all the missionaries), Taughannock Falls with picnic, 1000 Island boat cruise and Boldt Castle, Curtiss Museum, Skannelates moonlight boat cruise and Doug's Fish Fry (with all the missionaries) and Letchworth State Park with picnic.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Taughannock Falls                            
   

Letchworth State Park (upper falls with train trestle)

Letchworth State Park with Summer missionaries



Middle Falls at Letchworth State Park


 Boldt Castle (huge!!!!!)

Group about to enter the Curtiss Museum


1000 Island Boat Cruise

We are so happy that we are able to live a a home this summer instead of the Palmyra Inn
We also were privileged to have some of our children and grandchildren visit us this summer. We had our family stay with us at the house. 


Margo & Perry with Madison, Lesa & Steve with Lucy and Claire


Sandy with Carissa, Michael, Daniel and Ciara



The Hill Cumorah Pageant


Kerrie visited us after she brought Sarah out to Southern Virginia University

We are so very thankful each day for the time we have on our mission to the Palmyra Temple.  we serve in the temple for about 35 hours a week and then on Sunday travel to Lancaster ward (1 1/2 hrs. each way)  We love the ward members and hope that in some small way we are helping the ward.  Serving the Lord is the ultimate experience we can have.

Love to All



Friday, February 20, 2015

Winter in Palmyra


The cold of winter is getting old.  We only occasionally get above freezing the last three weeks.  Right now it is 4 degrees with the wind chill of -14.  We did not get the huge snow storms that have hit Boston but every 2 or 3 days it snows from 1-5 inches.  Last Sunday we were not able to attend the Lancaster ward near Buffalo where we are assigned to attend while on our mission. 
(It takes us 1 1/2 hours to travel to the Lancaster ward each way.)  The weather in Palmyra was snowing, blowing and extremely cold.  President Brighton told all the temple missionaries not to leave Palmyra because it would be too cold and dangerous.  We all thought we would attend the Palmyra ward, but church was cancelled throughout the Palmyra and Rochester stakes. It des not take being outside very long before the cold can give you frostbite.
                Elder McGarry in front of the Palmyra temple last week.  It was cold outside but is warm    inside both by the furnace and by the Spirit of the Lord that resides there.
 
Icicles on the front of the Palmyra Inn.  It is so cold that they can't melt and just keep growing. 



We get the parking lot of the Inn plowed out by the Lakeview company.  They show up about 3:30 a.m. with their backhoe and pickup with a blade on front.  We have our room on the second floor overlooking the parking lot.  It is so much fun being woke up at that time in the morning.

Elder McGarry helps with the dishes.  It is fun to be together working to keep our little space clean.

This is our huge, HaHa!!! kitchen.  It measure exactly 5 feet from wall to wall.  We have a tiny, tiny sink, a microwave, and a two burner stovetop.  We have 16 inches of  prep space between the stove and sink.  We have a small convection oven I put on the stove to bake with.  The cupboards above the stove are so high I have a small stool that I stand on to reach things.  Preparing meals is like going camping.  We still eat in our place most of the time though and are grateful that we are able to cook in our room.
 
We bought a little island at Walmart that sits across from the kitchen.  It has helped so much to give us more prep space and storage for food.
 
 We were able to go with some of the temple missionaries to the George Eastman House.  It was a fun home evening planned by the Dave Neeley's.  The house was amazing.


 
For Valentines day we went shopping at Walmart on Friday, where Elder McGarry bought me this beautiful bouquet of flowers and I treated him to lunch at the Macedon Family restaurant.


After serving at the temple all day Saturday all the temple missionaries went to President Brighton's basement for a Valentine party hosted by the Jon Neeleys.  It was such fun.  We had a delicious potluck dinner and then played the "old newlywed game" where the Neeley's had questions that we answered to see which couple knew the most about each other.  There was a six-way tie at the end of the game and so it was decided that we choose a number between 1 - 100.  Elder McGarry chose 22 and that was the exact number so we won the prize.  It is the plaque next to the flowers.

For our anniversary yesterday, we braved  the cold and went to a restaurant to have dinner.  Just think, we have been married 22 years.  Time certainly goes by fast.

We are really enjoying serving the Lord in His Holy House in Palmyra.  The best part of our mission is feeling so close to Him each time we enter the temple.  We both have a firm testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.  This gospel gives us all we need to return to Him someday if we make good choices and live His commandments. 

Love to all!!

Friday, January 9, 2015

I am beginning a BlogSpot to be able to reach out to family and friends to let them know what is happening to us while on our mission.  Hopefully this will be better than a mass e-mail.
We started our mission at the Salt Lake Temple on November 10, 2014, where we had training for three days.  Then on Thursday we started driving to Palmyra.  We stayed with Lesa in Warsaw, Indiana on Saturday and Sunday nights, going to church with her and family on Sunday. President Brighton called us to let us know that there was a big snow storm in the Buffalo area and to drive through Pennsylvania on I-80 and then up north.  This took us an extra day.  We arrived in Palmyra on Tuesday, November18 about 11:00 a.m. and checked into our home at the Palmyra Inn.  We went to the Palmyra Temple at 3:00 p.m. to be set apart as temple workers and started working that night.
It has been a very exciting three weeks and we are really enjoying our calling at the temple.


We are in the lobby at the Palmyra Inn after lunch with the Bushman's who are missionaries and living at the Inn too. 

One of our Home Evenings on Mondays was going to the Corning Plant in Corning, NY.  We had a fun time with our fellow missionaries.  It was fun to see how they blow glass into a beautiful bowl or vase.


We had a wonderful 2 days with Rick and Kayleen at Christmas.  We were able to talk to our children and grandchildren at the McGarry-Murdock gathering at the Pingree Church.  How great is modern technology.  We talked on the phone to those of our family who did not attend the gathering.

It was so good to be with my sister for Christmas because we have not been together for Christmas for about 30+ years.  Rick and Kayleen were able to talk to their children by Skype or phone also.














We loved November and December because the temperature was mild and we were able to get out and do things.  It is January now and the cold has arrived.  We hope all  is well with all of you and wish you all a Happy New Year.