A Time of Service in New York

Saturday was a fairly nice day here in New York. It was a little rainy and cool, but not too bad. My wife and I decided to go for a walk here in the country and took along our new trash pick-up grabbers. We took a bag with us and walked down the road towards the other end of the John Young farm. We were amazed at all of the garbage that we found along the way. We returned home with a bag full, and felt good about our service in cleaning up the roadside.

I then went to the local Boy Scout Breakfast at the fire station. They were holding a fund raiser for summer camp. Other Scouts from the troop were visiting homes in the village to collect food and clothing items that had been left out by residents. So, they were involved in various types of service.

At noon I drove to the Hill Cumorah to help with an Eagle Scout project for Jared Cordon, from our Pittsford Ward here. He had a lot of help, with most of the Teacher and Priest age young men, leaders and two young ladies there to help stain the wood on the "Cast Pavilion". A week ago Jared had directed some of the boys in cleaning dirt and moss from the decking. This day all hands were directed to use paint brushes and rollers to cover the back wall, decking and railing with the brown stain. All had a good time and the rain was minimal.

On Monday night we drove to Palmyra to the Grandin Press, or Book of Mormon Publication Site to help greet hundreds of people. We dressed up in pioneer costumes for the occasion. We brought some things from Utah and other things Kae bought here. It was fun greeting people and visiting. The Site Couple Missionaries were all in costume and had scripted parts that they presented at various locations in the building, showing the processes used in printing the Book of Mormon. Some of the missionaries sang and played music. Many of them had brought non-members with them. Tom,the father of Jenna (who was baptized last week), came. He is very interested in learning more about the church and coming to an understanding of why his daughter is so happy in her new found faith.

So it was a great time of service for many here. We are sure that many of you were also busy serving others wherever you are. That is one of the reasons why we are a happy people and why we are blessed so much. The gospel is true and we are so blessed to be able to serve our fellow man. We recall the words of King Benjamin in Mosiah 2:17 "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." May the Lord bless you in all your endeavors and your acts of service.