Here's what's NEW in New Jersey!

We are ready to “Leaf” the Hot, Hazy, Humid days behind and “Fall” into a gorgeous, beautiful season ahead.  It was a relatively nice summer with only a few of those 3 H  days. The mornings are slightly cooler but the days are beautiful and mild.  We are all looking forward to the leaves which are starting to change already! These beautiful green trees in Jersey take on a whole NEW look when they change.  The scenery is gorgeous!

We have had a very busy month, two trips to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty along with the Russian Teardrop and two temple trips with departing missionaries.  We love spending time with all those missionaries who are ready to move on to the next stage of life, but we sure do miss them.  Thank goodness we have Face Book to keep in touch! We also lost 2 senior couples who returned home after a very successful term of service.  We will miss the Andersons and Websters.  They did so much to help our missionaries.  They truly were servants of God and were great examples of service, love and dedication.

But we welcome NEW seniors:  Elder and Sister Hendrickson from Utah, Elder and Sister Malsom from Kentucky (we love the accent!), Sister Bjorn from Montana and Sister Kelly from Georgia.  It is so fun to have seniors from all over the country come to Jersey to NEW and different surroundings. They help the mission so much and the missionaries love, love, love them!

We held interviews this month, which is always a treat for us because we get to spend one on one time with everyone.  We had everyone come to the mission home where President Jeppson laid in a recliner to do the interviews.  Now we don’t think any missionary has ever been interviewed by their president in a recliner!  Now that was a NEW and different experience.  But it did help his back in its healing process. Sister Jeppson discussed the topic of music and how you can hear the whisperings of the Spirit when you sing or listen to uplifting music. J. Rueben Clark said that “a man or women can get nearer to God through music than any other method except prayer.”  Our family put some of their favorite tunes on a cd with a fun missionary label to give to each of the missionaries. Our family is the best!!!

We have 15 NEW missionaries coming in! The weeks are flying by!  It seems like we just had transfers and they are here again.  The work just keeps on rolling along.  It is quite a missionary force to behold.

President Jeppson interviewed a young 19 year old today for his mission call, who would humble all of you if you had the chance to meet him.  He joined the church when he was 16 and since his mother was very upset kicked him out of the house.  He went to live with his grandfather who is a member, but got divorced because his wife did not want him joining the church either.  This man comes from very, very humble circumstances.  He is earning money for his mission and every expense that goes with it.  He is one of the purest, most worthy individuals President Jeppson has ever interviewed.  He walks 28 blocks every Sunday so he can attend church and partake of the sacrament.  I asked him what he does in the dead of winter and he said, ‘I walk!’. Jon and I felt very spoiled and very humbled.  We wanted to run out and buy him all NEW clothes for his mission. Christ is the center of his life!

In September we are looking forward to our Senior Night at the Mission Home. We will find out what’s NEW with everyone’s family.  We will also have a Sisters Get-Together towards the end of the month.

Well, it has been a busy Sunday.  Jon and I spoke at 3 different Stake Conferences, had 10 baptisms go through and, of course, a lot of correspondence with the missionaries!

Enjoy the last few dog days of summer with anticipation of falling into autumn with a chance of cooler weather!   That’s what’s NEW in JERSEY!