Spring finally sprung but so did the
rain. The heavens are cryin! No wonder
they call this the Garden State. It is
green and lush because we have torrents here.
You almost have to pull over when you are driving because you can’t see
out of your windshield no matter how fast your wipers are going. We continue to receive Emergency alerts on
our phones because of flash flooding in the area. The raindrops are huge. The clouds here seem so close to you because
we don’t have any mountains to make them look higher in the sky so it seems as
though they are right above your head.
We also have Jersey’s mists and fog.
They are beautiful, but it does not help the hair. The humidity is on the rise.
It
has been a blessing this month to
interview 250 missionaries one on one.
Jon and I took 2 weeks straight from 9 to 4 every day to visit with each
one of our fantastic missionaries. Even
though it was exhausting, it was a good tired because we so love being with
them. We will miss feeling their warmth
and love and hearing about their experiences and opportunities they have to
hasten the work here in Jersey.
As
usual we are blessed every six weeks
with another group of excited missionaries entering the field and missionaries
who have completed successful missions returning home. We will be blessed with 540 young men and
women to have in our lives as we return home in the following months.
Every
Sunday Jon and I have had the blessed
privilege of seeing Heavenly Father’s children enter the waters of
Baptism. We love seeing families
especially. It is a tender blessing when you see husbands and
wives hug each other in the font with tears and smiles and then hug their
children who then were baptized. The diversity of new converts is amazing here
in New Jersey. People from Ukraine,
Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Phillipines, Saipan, Haiti is just a start of the
nationalities we see every Sunday in one way or another. In one of our baptisms recently a man from
Russia, 50 years old, was baptized and asked President Jeppson, “Why couldn’t I
have had this earlier in my life?” He
realized the blessings he had been
missing all these years. There was such a diversity of nationalities in that
room that Jon and I thought we were in the United Nations during this baptismal
service. We have rubbed shoulders truly
with saints from all over the world. A huge blessing for two white Americans from Mormon filled Salt Lake
City. Today we attended a Spanish Branch
where a near convert of two months baptized his friend and they both hugged in
the font. It is just sooo heart
warming! We love it and feel so blessed to witness this weekly. You all better be hastening the work when we
get home so we can continue to see this happening each week! Your life will be blessed as well!!
Our last month is upon us!
Bitter, sweet feelings are entering the heart! What an experience. True blessings
for a lifetime!
We love you you so! Thanks to all for being a blessing to us, Dad and
