"Goodbye" Elder Loftin..."Hello" Elder Low

We can only imagine Elder Loftin's homecoming. We visited with his parents and they were so excited to welcome him home. We have a terrific new Astoria elder, Elder Low, from Perry, Utah. He has five sisters and loves cookies and cream ice cream! His release date is September 3rd, so we are hopeful that President Bennion will allow him to "die" here with us! We are happy to see Elder Patton and Elder Low working very well together and they are being blessed in finding and teaching. Elder Patton was "born" in Astoria, and so he is "our baby" too. What a blessing it is for us to watch him learn and grow. He is a great young man, very supportive, helpful and kind with a most infectious sense of humor. Elder Patton and all of the elders we work closely with in the Astoria Ward, will always hold special places in our hearts.

Our New District Leader

We were sad sending Elder Warner out to Zone 8,(the end of Long Island) but thrilled that Elder McLean was called to serve as our new District Leader. This fine Elder is such a wonderful example to all of us as he is very humble and Christlike. He's been in our district for the last 14 weeks and during that time we have grown to respect and love him a great deal. His goals are lofty and we are all working hard. He is also uniting us in many different ways as the entire mission is surpassing the goals set by the APs and President Bennion. Last week we held a successful FHE here at our home with less-actives and investigators. Also, a street sweep at a busy subway stop, Steinway and Broadway went well last Tuesday. Elder McLean (L) is pictured with his new companion, Elder Teerlink,(R) who arrived in NY the end of January. He's from Holiday, Utah, has 5 sisters and loves to water ski. We look forward to getting to know him.

Souls and Goals

Our great Zone Leader, Elder Bell, directed "Souls and Goals." It's one of our favorite things about Zone Meetings. We list all those that have committed to a baptismal date; Jamie, Wendy and Jose on June 22nd, Kumar, Kshtiz and Omar on June 29th and Elerky on July 6th. The prayer rainbow (usually a prayer box) is above, listing those we all need to pray for; they need some extra help in making their commitment. There were 8 individuals listed. As you can see, even the best leader has a hard time keeping Elder Crisanto out of the picture! He's quite a character.

Happy Father's Day...The INSIDE SCOOP!

We celebrated then, October 14th, 2005, and there's reason to celebrate again! We just learned that Will and Krista are having their first little Hasler! So Happy Father's Day, Will and congratulations to all of us. Krista reports that she's having rough evenings, but managing. That's really good news all the way around. We love each of our sweet grandchildren and can hardly wait for another expected to arrive the first of 2009!

Grandkids Make Our World Go Round

Our two favorite artists from Fallbrook, California, Jacob and Shelby Nye, sent their fabulous creations. We think they are so terrific we had to post them on our blog! Jacob has had a talent for drawing temples for several years. We think this one of the San Diego Temple is so well done. Jake served as Class Representative this year. Way to go! Shelby has always been fascinated by creatures. Her impression of a colorful, animated, dolphin is very fun. Her last day of school is tomorrow! Our oldest grandson, Johnny, emails us to tell us about how well he is doing in school. He likes math best and staying on the top of the honor roll for his class. Congratulations, John. Lincoln auditioned for his class play, Peter Pan, and got the part of Captain Hook! All it takes to keep Annahlise happy is glue, paper, scissors, and marking pens. She designs books and doll clothes! Now that it is Summertime, we hope they will all have a memorable break from school and enjoy lots of playtime and storybooks. That's what we remember most; sand, surf and Summer reading clubs!

True Love...on the Steps of BYU's Allen Hall

58 plus years ago my parents fell in love! The rest is history. We just celebrated their 78th birthdays (just 10 days apart). They are the parents of 5 children, 24 grandchildren and 20 great- grandchildren with 3 more on the way! Thanks Dad for making me think of you, along with the great father of my children, Chas and our wonderful sons, Jeff, Shane, Zach, Will and Sean, when I read this poem.

You're head of our whole family, you see to all our needs.
You listen and you hear with love, you smile and praise good deeds.
You shoulder your own heavy loads and share our burdens too.
Armed with patriarchal power, God blesses us through you.
Your hands hold our smaller ones when calming childish fears
or touch to gently reassure and wipe away our tears.
As you walk forth in righteousness, we want to follow you.
And on our knees we humbly pray to God, just as you do.
We're walking in your footsteps, secure in loving care.
God bless you fathers, everyone, is our most humble prayer.

by Mary Jane Davis

Anna and Jason, Baptisms in Flushing

We met Anna Liu when she came to our home for a Family Home Evening where we celebrated Jimmy and Eva Hawkes wedding. Yesterday, just two weeks after coming to church for the first time, she was baptized. She has a real excitement about learning all things spiritual and will attend our Queens College institute class. We are so happy for her, and glad we will be able to teach her and get to know her better. She's also working hard to learn English. In the meantime we will produce our handouts in English, Spanish, Italian and now Chinese! Anna is pictured (L to R) with Elder Xie, her uncle, and Elder Toronto who baptized her.
Jason Yu was so thrilled to be baptized by Brother Eric Lowe, a returned missionary who served in Flushing, and knew his family well. Jason asked him to travel back to New York from his home in Ohio to baptize him. Jason is smiling with his cute sister, his Mom, Qian Chen, and Eric Lowe. Attending these happy occasions is one of our favorite things to do on Sundays.

The Power of the Word

For the past 5 weeks we have been teaching The Power of the Word. Our testimonies have been strengthened as we have been able to teach and testify about the importance of daily scripture study. So many of our students are very new to the gospel of Jesus Christ and so it's been meaningful to include some of the sharing time ideas they missed in Primary, like the Article of Faith songs. If one can memorize them as a song they are hard to forget! In 1969, President Harold B. Lee said, "All that we teach in this Church ought to be couched in the scriptures. It ought to be found in the scriptures. We ought to choose our texts from the scriptures. If we want to measure truth, we should measure it by the four standard works, regardless of who writes it. If it is not in the standard works we may well assume that it is speculation, man's own personal opinion; and if it contradicts what is in the scriptures, it is not true. This is the standard by which we measure all truth." We know this is true, and we are grateful for the students we teach and the opportunity that we have to serve as missionaries. Each day we like to think of the scriptures "as a letter from home." We are excited to read and study from them and learn what our Heavenly Father wants us to know.

BYU Plays Carnegie Hall

Our first concert at Carnegie Hall, featuring the BYU Chamber Orchestra, was to a packed house of New York Latter-day Saints and international diplomats from many nations. We took this picture from our box just before we learned that we aren't to take pictures! My favorite work was Copeland's Appalachian Spring. I had a hard time staying in my seat, and wanted to get up and swish my skirt a little! I also like the familiar Shaker hymn"Simple Gifts," which Copeland infused into the piece. Chas enjoyed Gioachino Rossini's Overture to La gazza ladra, featuring the stereophonic snare drums. We remember hearing it at an Italian concert we attended in a park when we were in Venice one summer. It was a lovely evening at an incredible place.

Backyard Barbeque

Monday night, Family Home Evening, was our first evening to enjoy eating outside with a fun family that joined us. Flory Pazmino, was baptized last Fall along with her children Flory and Brandon Skerret. Her youngest son, Bryand Pazmino is preparing to be baptized soon. He is studying the scriptures to strengthen his testimony about the truthfulness of the prophets. Elder Loftin worked with this family and so we celebrated his birthday together and fortunately we had the opportunity to get acquainted. After I took this picture Yasmin also was able to join us. Elder Patton gave a great lesson on the power of prayer in our lives. It led to a discussion and sharing of personal experiences from all. Pictured (L. to R) Fory Pazmino, Flory, Brandon, Elder Patton, Elder Loftin, and Bryand.