Aloha from PA?

Aloha everyone! Who would think that we would come to Pennsylvania and attend an authentic Luau? Well it happened this past Saturday! Our friends in the Branch, the Jensens, had a son who graduated from Lock Haven University recently and the tradition in their family is to put on a big Hawaiian party. The graduate, Ben, grew up in Hawaii because Brother Jensen taught at the church college for several years. So we were invited to the celebration. A huge tent was put up on their massive front lawn and the tables were set with simple, but exotic Hawaiian flowers. The whole pig had been roasting in a pit in the backyard since 4:00 am, and a friend from Hawaii had come from Washington D.C. to help cook the many courses. First Ben was given two beautiful leis from his parents which is traditional for a Hawaiian graduation. They smelled fabulous!! Almost as good as the food!

The menu was completely authentic: roasted pig, two kinds of chicken, a hash soup, sticky white rice, silky rice noodles, raw salmon salad, creamy sweet macaroni salad, lots of fresh fruit, and Hawaiian rolls. There were only four desserts(!): guava cake (delicious, cool, light and creamy), coconut milk jigglers, hawaiian sweet rolls covered in coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk, and authentic Hawaiian shave ice with every flavor you could imagine!!! A feast!! We stayed four hours and ate and chatted which is usual for such events. It was such a nice occasion – the only disconnect was when an Amish buggy came by! I could only imagine what that Amish man was thinking as he saw all the hoopla!! Only in Pennsylvania could those two worlds intersect! Aloha to you all.

Penn State

Hi Family! It was wonderful to talk to so many of you on Mother’s Day. Thanks for all the cards and gifts. I felt well celebrated from all of you! It was great to talk to Tyler and find that he is happy and excited about Missionary Work – we had lots of common experiences to share which was pretty unique. Mother’s Day reminds me that I am a fortunate lady to have so many people in my life to love.

We have had lots of dreary days lately, so when the sun came out full blast yesterday, Dad and I decided to visit Penn State University which is about a 45 minute drive. The college is on the outskirts of the town. The campus is huge and the student that took us to see the massive football stadium told us that on game days the little town of State College, Pa grows to over 130,000 people, making it the third largest city in the state!! The football program is legendary as you know, but the school has state of the art venues for almost every sport you can think of. Each sport has its own arena – there were individual fields for baseball, field hockey, soccer, that sport that Daniel Dekker plays, an outdoor pool, a diving pool, and indoor pool (did you know that an indoor pool is called a “natatorium” (I’m a 64 year-old well educated woman that loves words and I have never in my life heard that one!), a big arena for basketball which they use for concerts throughout the year, the big football stadium which is only used for the 6 or 7 home games each year, an indoor and outdoor football practice field, and they are building an 80 million dollar ice hockey arena. It was amazing and impressive to stand at the top of the Penn State Football Arena and look out on all these other fields and buildings for every sport you can name. Oh, the school also owns its own golf course!

We walked around campus and found it very pretty, but not nearly as impressive as the athletic venues. Penn State started as an agricultural school, and they still have a renowned program of dairy science – the creamery is a favorite spot and we stopped and shared a big bowl of ice cream made on site. Yummy!! It was a great day and it just felt good to be in the sunshine out of doors.

As you know, we have been excited to teach the Hanna family. Our appointment last week was rescheduled for this Monday so that their friend who introduced them to the church can be there. We were disappointed, but that evening we decided to visit a family we hadn’t met yet, the Shears. Brother Shears is a member, Sister Shears is not. She has severe anxiety trouble, and almost got baptized but freaked out at the font and the whole thing was postponed. They were in the middle of being taught by a new set of elders before Christmas and Brother Shears and one of elders had a major confrontation that ended badly. The Shears have avoided coming to church since then. Brother Shear seemed really happy to meet us and said he would love to come back to the branch, have his children taught the gospel, and maybe get some help for his wife. Now if we had been teaching the Hanna family that night, we would have missed this visit with the Shears. We plan to go back on Saturday and meet the rest of the family and hopefully teach them.

Dad is mowing the lawn of our apartment – it sounds like it should be a small lawn,\ but it is every bit as big as our Yorba Linda yard. Front, back and two sides of grass! I am going to plant my Amish tomato plant in my self-watering bucket that we made in Relief Society last week, then we are heading to a nearby park to help with a cancer relay event. Another beautiful day in PA.

We send our love to each of you, MOM and DAD

Trip to Palmyra, New York

Last Thursday we had the chance to go with Sister Neff to Palmyra. The drive was beautiful – through Northern PA with rolling green hills, meandering streams, and acres of farmland with perfect red barns and silver silos. Once we got into upstate NY, we traveled along the Finger Lakes which were amazing. The water came almost to the highway because of all the rain we have been having. It was over three hours of driving, but it didn’t seem to take that long because there was so much to see. The Palmyra Temple is pretty – small and stately, made of gray colored granite. It sits on a big piece of property outside of the small town of Palmyra. The most spectacular thing about the temple is the many stained glass windows that depict the sacred grove. There is a large clear glass window at the back of the temple that looks onto the Sacred Grove. President Hinckley wanted it that way, and it is very beautiful. The day was cold and dreary in Palmyra, but the grove looked wonderful. I imagine it changes with the seasons, making that viewpoint a very special place. The session was nice. Dad and I were the witness couple, and I am happy to say my knees held out pretty well.

After the temple, we had a quick lunch at Subway and then headed to the E.B. Grandin Print Shop to take the tour where the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed. The sister missionaries showed us around and we saw a first edition Book of Mormon that someone found recently in a relatives garage and donated it to the site. The sisters told us it was worth $300,000. Mr. Grandin was not a member of the Church and he was hesitant to print a book that might lead to controversy, but Joseph Smith paid him cash and he agreed. It is remarkable that Mr. Grandin soon went out of business and on to another career, but he was there at the right time to print the Book of Mormon. We drove over to the Smith Farm next. As we walked in the door, a sister missionary was answering the question of another visitor who asked her where she is from. She said, “Yorba Linda” and Dad and I couldn’t believe it. We said we were from Yorba Linda and when she saw our tags she asked us if we knew Tyler Abbott. She and Ty went to Esperanza Prom together – her name is Maddie Larson and she was in seminary with Ty, Rick, Drew and the rest. She’s in the YL Ward and has been out for five months. She became our tour guide and she did a good job.

Our last visit was to the Sacred Grove where the sun came out and filtered through the trees right on cue!! It was beautiful – and that word isn’t adequate enough at all. We were the only ones there, except for Mr. Parrott, the caretaker who was lovingly grooming the trees. There was a recent talk about the grove and its symbolism given by Elder Jensen of the Seventy (click here), and Mr. Parrott was introduced as having been responsible for helping the grove come back to life after some hard years. The talk also spoke of “witness trees” that are old enough to have been witness to Joseph Smith’s First Vision. We introduced ourselves to Mr. Parrott (not a member of the church) and asked him if he could show us the three witness trees. He said he could but then he would have to kill us (joke), but he did say they would be bigger around and taller than most and he pointed us in the general direction where we should look. He said the Church wants to protect these three special trees, so the info is not given to visitors. We had fun looking and guessing, but I don’t think we found them. We really felt blessed to visit all these areas and meet Sister Larson and Mr. Parrott – the timing was perfect to meet these two, and we feel it was a specific and special event for us. We are sending some pictures for all to enjoy – wish you all had been there with us. Love, Mom and Dad

Lucky Ducks

It has been fun sharing our neighborhood with a huge community of ducks. I see them every morning on my walk, and my favorite thing is to check on the baby ducklings to see how they are growing. There are several families of Mother, Father, and eight to ten baby ducks. The ducklings are so adorable, and so funny in the water! They look like they are racing each other – their little webbed feet look like little propellers as they jet through the water. They are amazingly fast and they obviously love being in the water. Last week, Papa and I were watching the ducks in a nearby town. It was a beautiful park with lots of green grass – there was also a lovely stream right next to the grass, and a little farther down, there was a small waterfall/dam where the water was running fast under a bridge. We watched a family of about 12 ducklings with a mother and father duck trying to keep the little ones out of the water. The older ducks knew that the water was a dangerous place if the ducklings got in – they would be swept toward the waterfall and to the fast water. The ducklings didn’t know this, and they were determined to go swimming. Pretty soon, a group of adult ducks began to help the parent ducks. It was like a duck “cattle drive” and the adult ducks were dividing up and going after the determined ducklings. It was impressive to see how hard they were working for the safety of the little ones. Papa and I walked around a little bit, and as we were walking over the bridge, we saw that most of the ducks had jumped into the water, slid down the little waterfall and were having the time of their lives riding the fast water. The older ducks were all swimming behind, still keeping a close eye on the ducklings, ready to rescue them if they needed it.

Watching this all unfold, made me think of my children and grandchildren. We “old ducks” love you so much and want you to be careful and safe – we sometimes forget that life is to be experienced and enjoyed. Little ducks grow up fast and once they are ready to experience life and all it’s waterfalls, the older ducks just better hope they have taught the ducklings well and get out of their way!!!!

Enjoy those waterfalls!! We love you, ABBY and PaPa

Golden Family

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone is doing well this week – we pray for all of you, Grandkids and all, every single day. Yesterday we drove an hour to Altoona to a Senior Couples Workshop. We met with eight couples to share ideas and get to know one another. Most had been out for at least 6 months, except for us and one other couple. We spent all day sharing info about ourselves, our branches, and the unique challenge of missionary work in this area. It was a good workshop, but it pointed out how much we need to improve and how difficult it is to bring less active people back into the fold. At the same time, it was great to know that we all struggle and have common thoughts and feelings and we are all praying for one another. So today we woke up ready for success. We spent a couple of hours in Brother Leonard’s 100 year old house and mostly listened to him tell about his life, his children, and his sweet wife who is in a rest home nearby. He has been very active in the branch over the years, and still comes whenever he feels well enough. It was a nice visit. Then we tried to find a few members whose names are on the branch list – we found the houses, but no one was home. Then Dad and I both had the feeling that we needed to visit The Hanna Family. We had not met them yet, but we got a call from a friend of theirs a few weeks ago asking us to teach them. They had the first lesson from the Elders, but this friend thought Dad and I would be a good fit for them. Anyway, as we drove up, John Hanna was walking out the door. We introduced ourselves, and he said he had just spoken to that friend and was hoping we would come by soon. We met Rachel and their two little boys, ages 7 and 4. They have a daughter, older I think, who was in the house. They were all just leaving to go to a family Birthday party, and if we had not come right then, we would have missed them!! We had a nice talk, and we will go back on Tuesday for a real lesson. When we got to the car, we found that this friend of theirs had called us at the exact time that we were visiting with them. We are excited about the Hanna’s because it isn’t often that missionaries have the opportunity to teach an entire family at the same time. Both John and Rachel sincerely wanted us to come back as soon as possible. Please pray for this sweet family. They remind us of our sons and daughters in laws and we would love to see the blessings of the gospel come into their lives.

Hope to talk to you this weekend. We love you. Mom and Dad

One month anniversary

Hi All! We have officially been missionaries for one month now. Time has flown by for us – so much to do and so little time. We had our first baptism Friday evening when Millie Yoder was baptized by her husband Barry, who has only been a member for two months. Barry had a stroke a while ago and is rather unsteady, so another member, Bro. Grass, was also in the font. So many people all squashed into the small baptismal font. Bro Grass was there is make sure Barry didn’t lose his balance – his job was to pick up whoever fell down!! Luckily, no one did, but I have never seen anyone baptized in slow motion before – it took forever to get her completely underwater, but everything went well – no repeat necessary! It was Millie’s birthday too, so we had cake and ice cream afterwards at church and there was a good turnout of branch members. It took Dad over 2 hours to fill the font because we kept running out of warm water, but we were just happy that it all went pretty much as scheduled. We invited another new member, Bonnie, to come and she did. She even came to church today too. It is my hope that she and Millie become buddies and grow together in the gospel. Hey, it worked for Kathy and Fauna who didn’t know each other until I asked them to decorate together for a Relief Society meeting and the rest is history!!

The week had two major highlights. One was the baptism of course, and the second was our trip down to Hershey on Saturday. It was my early Mothers’ Day present – it was wonderful. The Hershey area is very pretty – the entire town was created by Mr. Hershey in the late 1800’s to make milk chocolate, which he pioneered in this country. He had no children and no siblings, so when he died his entire empire went to a trust that still runs the company and divides the profits among the town's schools, hospitals, etc. His wife, who died pretty early, wanted him to start a school for orphaned or disadvantaged children, and it is still running today. Completely free tuition, housing in very nice homes (there are about 25 homes just for these kids and one set of dorm parents in each house), food, clothing, and a weekly allowance for all the children, ages 4 to 18. Then the trust sends them off to college and pays for that!! I am amazed at the degree of commitment to keep this wonderful program growing. Anyway, the town is lovely, and the economy is good. Even during the depression, the Hershey company employed everyone who wanted a job, and found them a home to live in. The city had zero unemployment during the entire depression. Today, the schools in town are state of the art with indoor pools, skating rinks, etc and the Middle School is a showplace and the landmark of the town. The Middle School??? Amazing! We did not go to the amusement park at all but it has 11 cool roller coasters – Lynnie and I are going back to Hershey in September, so we will go on every one of the roller coasters! Sure we will. Just being around that much chocolate was exciting for me, and we learned all about how they make it which is pretty complex. NOTE TO GRANDCHILDREN: Milton Hershey would be a great person to write a Biography Book Report on-he is a definite pioneer, successful businessman and historical figure!! I can see everyone in class loving it and getting a piece of chocolate!! I am mad at myself for not knowing about him before this so all your Dads could report on this interesting man.

We are excited to talk to you all on Sunday. Hopefully, Ty can call us for a few minutes, and then have a chance to do a conference call with whoever can make it work. This is his last call home, so I would rather you talk to him than me if you have to choose.

Now that our upstairs neighbors have moved in with their two 100 lb dogs (honestly!), it is pretty noisy around here. The dogs only get taken out once a day to poop on the lawn that Dad has agreed to mow. They get frisky at 7:00am and start barking for some reason. The upstairs has only wood floors, so we hear them all night walking around. I am hoping I get used to it. I am making a list of all the reasons I love this little apartment – I will send it soon. The dogs will not be on the list.

Our love to every one of you. I am thinking about my wonderful, beautiful daughters in law and feeling so grateful for them in my life. They are such good wives and mothers and I love you all for the way you treat our sons. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO VICKY, SANDY, DEVON, BECKY, RACHAEL, AND HEATHER. We love you. Mom and Dad

Thunderstorms!

Hi Family! Pa and I are sort of shut in today because of bad thunderstorms. We did head out to take some nice flowery plants to two little ladies and invite them to the baptism tomorrow. They looked at us as if we were crazy – out in the weather all dressed up in missionary garb. The thunder kept me awake last night, mostly because the emergency siren kept going off and I kept wondering what it meant and what should I do. Today I asked the workers that are putting on a new roof on our little house (ironically, it is a metal roof!! In lightening land? I don’t understand that move!) what that siren meant. One said it was maybe a fire truck, one said it might mean calling the volunteer firemen to a fire started by lightening, one said maybe a flash flood warning (we are one block from the river), and the last one said maybe tornado warning. All these sounded scary to me, but when I asked what should I do when I hear the siren, they all said “Pull up the covers and go to sleep”!! Good advice?!@#$ It might work tonight since I am so tired….. Love to all, Abby and PaPa