"Beautiful Savior! Lord of the Nations!"

When the bishop asked me to prepare the choir to sing for ward conference on March 15, I heard one simple, quiet phrase in my mind - "Fair is the sunshine. Fairer the moonlight and all the stars in heav'n above..."

That's it... we would sing "Beautiful Savior" a children's song, a simple Silesian folk song, with lyrics written nearly 1000 years ago.

The Savior of the world was simple. He restored His gospel to a young, unschooled farm boy in upstate New York. And He spreads that gospel today to the world, not by means of learned ministers, but by worthy young missionaries.

"Thee will I honor, praise, and give glory, give praise and glory evermore!" The ward choir was angelic. They followed every crescendo, every sotto voce, every diminuendo. Elder Maughan did a beautiful job at the piano. We "became His" because we "became one."

"God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" 1Corinthians 1:27

Becoming a Citizen - a Lifelong Dream

Adela is one step closer to her lifelong dream. Wednesday we took her to the immigration attorney about an hour away to process her documents to becoming a citizen of the United States of America. She was so nervous and so excited, but things look very good for her.

Ellis Island

The prints from a museum hung in the waiting room. As we waited, I thought how long those who came and were detained at Ellis Island had to wait. What their cost must have been. How difficult the conditions were for them. I thought of what the Book of Mormon says about this "land of promise." They came to be free and haven't stopped coming.

As we sat in the outer office waiting for her, we could hear the muffled voices of Adela and her attorney. There were quiet moments as well as frequent laughter. It felt promising. This woman had waited so long and done everything required of her to now become a legal citizen. We were happy to be part of her joy.

Celebration Lunch at Mi Tierrita

Delicious Columbian Food

After a successful hour or so with the immigration attorney, Adela knew right where she wanted to go. She'd heard of a good restaurant around the corner, so off we went.

It was a Columbian restaurant - and word had it that the food was good. Well...the food was marvelous and the place was just beautiful!

Fish, plantains, salad on a huge platter and rice & beans on a separate plate - way too much food for one!

It was a good day, helping a dear church friend whose life is devoted to helping so many people in our little congregation. Adela prepares dinner for all the missionaries every Sunday, or any other time they have a moment for a quick meal. She teaches the gospel essentials class at church and shares a powerful testimony of the Savior. She works two jobs and she loves and serves the Lord endlessly.

Today was a little moment for us to serve her.

Institute - Spiritual and Physical Food

The Spiritual Food

Institute Class is winding down for this semester and we will miss this class so much. Studying the New Testament has been remarkable with young men and women like these! We know we are in the presence of, as Peter describes, "chosen, royal, holy, peculiar" young people.

The Physical Food

Corned beef & cabbage stew with red potatoes and carrots just seemed to hit the spot with the students at Institute on Tuesday, March 17 - St. Patrick's Day.















There's something about homemade cornbread that satisfies the taste buds like no other...and topped with honey butter helped out just fine.

It was a great evening of spiritual and physical food in generous portions at Stony Brook!

Sharing the Gospel at Applebee's

A Charge from Our Mission President

In our effort to fulfill the recent request of our mission president, we are seeking out families. We seem to have our best success on Friday evening at family-friendly restaurants.

Last Friday evening went to Applebee's and were seated across from a couple with three young children...perfect! It's so easy to strike up a conversation about someone with kids:-) After asking about them and their twins and baby, we told them that we missed our five children and twelve grandchildren because they were all in Utah.

Then the questions came. Why are you in New York? Are you LDS? (Now that was different - not Mormon - but LDS.) The young woman said she belonged to two book clubs and had just read a book (gave the title) and asked if I had read it. I responded with a question, "Is that an anti-Mormon book? (Smiling...)Well...I probably wouldn't have read it." Then we both laughed and she replied, "Of course not."

I told her we were very impressed with their curiosity, with them as a couple and with the love they show their children. We chatted briefly about being a family for eternity and general things about life. We could see they were packing up to go.

It was about this time I said that after having read the anti-Mormon book, she deserved to know the truth. It was then that Elder de Paula went to our car to get a copy of Book of Mormon. I wrote a short note in it, asking them to take the Prophet Moroni's challenge on p. 529, chapter 10:3-5. We wrote our name and phone number in the book and on the pass-along card, then hugged eachother and said good-bye.

We felt such love for them. We had been obedient. We went to our car and had a prayer for this precious family, asking Heavenly Father to open their hearts.

Senior Activity - A Feast Fit For the Irish!

Whether you're Irish...or a senior missionary in the New York New York South Mission, you wouldn't have wanted to miss the Irish fest at the Bennions on the March 16.

It was our turn to "host" the senior activity and corned beef & cabbage is one of our specialties... so it seemed a natural. Seated with President Bennion, above, are Elder & Sister Smith and Elder de Paula.

Elder & Sister Comer, below, show us their smiling faces and yummy food.

Above are Elder & Sister Wilson, left, busy eating, with President & Sister Bangerter, pausing for a picture.

I never could capture Sister Bennion with her companion for a picture.
At left, meet this remarkably wonderful hostess!

Elder & Sister Hess, above, didn't want their food to get cold, but gave a quick grin:-)

President Goepfert and Elder & Sister West, above, enjoy visiting and eating at one of the two tables that accomodate the 10 couples.

Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner

We love our senior missionary couple activities each month and were so glad to plan our turn on March 16th lovely home of President and Sister Bennion.

Corned beef & cabbage, baby carrots, red potatoes, three salads, Irish soda bread...it was a feast St. Patrick would have been proud to eat! Everyone brought the most wonderful dishes. What a beautiful and tasty variety of food! Is there a place on the missionary application for "specialty cook"? ...because this mission got all of them! Sister Bennion's tables were so beautifully decorated for our St. Patrick's Day party. She always adds just the right touches!


Elder & Sister Roush, below, smile for the camera...
"but hurry, we're hungry!"













Fun and (One) Game...

Our Trivia Quiz 1st Prize winner was none other than our dear President Bennion. He must have known so much about Ireland because he served a mission in his younger years next door in Scotland!

Congratulations President:-)





















The desserts were in typical senior missionary form - plentiful and decadent!

"Patrick, A Christian Missionary"

We gave each person a paper entitled "An Overview of Patrick, A Christian Missionary." Patrick was a Christian missionary to Ireland who lived from around 373 AD. It is believed he died in 460 AD on March 17th - the reason Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated on that day. He served as a missionary from around 433 AD to his death.

What appears in his own letters was that Patrick held firmly to the fundamental Christian doctrines of the early apostolic church including the keeping of the Ten Commandments, the keeping of the Sabbath (7th Day) Holy and without labor, the divinity of Jesus, the Christ, baptism, atonement through Christ, inspiration and prophecy. This is not what the Roman church of that day was teaching or if they were teaching it, it was only in part and tainted with pagan rituals and beliefs. In his letters Patrick never mentioned a connection with the Roman Church of the time.

Centuries later, however, the Catholic Church chose to honor him with sainthood in 17th century on March 17, the day of his death, although Patrick’s beliefs never did correspond to Catholic doctrine.

"Oh Danny Boy, I Love You So..."

The evening ended with Elder de Paula singing the favorite Irish Tenor arrangement of "Danny Boy" (I, of course, was on the piano bench accompanying:-)

Spaghetti Dinner with Competition Rules

There's a little "healthy" competition going on in our ward. It's not in sporting events... but in cooking. This time it was a spaghetti dinner - complete with a set of rules! It turned out delicious...and fun so with three prize winners.

The sister missionaries could hardly contain their composure during the reading of the "competition rules."

It was a fun evening at the Ward where we enjoyed good food, good friends and good fellowship.