This past week was very memorable, since we had our first visitor from the Netherlands visit us here in New York. Mark Vander Donk came for four days, as part of his US trip. He and Elder Servoss went to the sacred sites on Tuesday, while Sister Servoss carried on at the mission office. We had a wonderful time walking through the deep leaves in the Sacred Grove. We could barely discern the trails beneath 1 to 2 inches of leaves. It was an amazing site. We stopped and sat to contemplate the wondrous event that took place there 191 years ago. President Christianson tells us that the Grove and the Hill are outdoor temples. You can feel the spirit of the Lord as you visit those places. We also had the tours of the Smith homes. We sat in the log cabin upper room where Joseph was visited by Moroni. Technically the Smith cabin and the Whitmer cabin were both reconstructed on the exact original sites and built using old methods and tools. Presidents Kimball and Hinckley both said that they were built in the same airspace as the originals. It is amazing that one can feel the spirit so strong in those cabins.
On Wednesday the three of us drove to Niagara Falls. Mark was very impressed with the falls, since Holland is so flat and they don't have waterfalls. We enjoyed our time there. We obtained permission from our mission president to make a trip into Ontario, Canada. We knew that we had Servoss ancestors who had lived in Niagara-on-the-Lake (25 miles north of the falls on the edge of Lake Ontario). We went there not having much family information with us. We knew that Daniel Servos (they used only 1 'S' then) had lived there, and that there was a Servos Burial site somewhere close. I said a silent prayer, pleading with the Lord to help us find some information on my family, since we had come so far. He listened and my prayer was answered within only a few minutes. We stopped at the Niagara Historical Society Museum to ask questions. When I asked the receptionist if she knew where we could find the Servoss burial site (pointing to my name tag), she said, "Of course, it is close to here, but we have a lot of Servos items here in the museum. Turn around and look at the display cases of Servos items." Wow, we were stunned! We walked over to the cases and looked at the uniform of Captain Daniel Servos. We then saw Servos silverware, a wooden scoop shovel, a baby bonnet, and other small items. We did not have much time, but she said that they had a lot of documents in the other room that listed histories of the Servos family. One document was a 200 page doctoral dissertation that had been written in 2006 about the Servos family in Canada. I took some notes and had a few copies made. It was very hard to leave the treasure trove there. We knew that we only had about 1/2 hour of daylight to try and find the small cemetery. We then went on a road search and after driving around a mile square area, within which was the cemetery, we found the Falk home with its fruit stand. We were told that the graveyard was back through the vineyards of the farm. We could not find anyone home, so we had to end our search. Later we learned that the Servos homestead called Palatine Hill had been located about 1/4 mile away. We will go back a few times more while we live in this area. It was an amazing place to visit.
Thursday we had to get back to the office and get caught up on the work. In the afternoon we went to the Mission Home for the MLS Senior Missionaries (Member & Leadership Support) training and dinner. Mark attended with us. We had some great training and were told by President Christianson about the great value of the senior couples in the Wards and Branches here. We then enjoyed a delicious meal and then had time to visit and share stories. It was a great week. We are so blessed to be here.
No comments:
Post a Comment