14 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou
art not called to go into the eastern countries (Washington DC), but
thou art called to go to the Ohio. 15 And inasmuch as my people shall assemble
themselves at the Ohio, I have kept in store a blessing such as is not
known among the children of men, and it shall be poured forth upon their
heads. And from thence men shall go
forth into all nations. (D&C 39:14-15 with a little modification from Elder
Carmack). We believe that this quote has special meaning for our mission here
in Ohio. The information that we are gathering will be sent forth unto all
nations to help people in search of their genealogical ancestors. We recently
visited the Johnson Farm about 40 minutes away from our apartment here in
Niles. We were taken on the tour by two sister missionaries who gave us the
in-depth look at where the prophet Joseph Smith lived for a period of time. A
part of the tour is to bear testimony in the revelation room upstairs. The
Spirit is so strong there. The ward recently held a picnic on the country
property of a member of the ward. We had fellowshipping, swimming, canoeing,
food, and youth games. It was a great success and a big “thanks” goes out to
the Ward Mission Leader and all of the Ward Missionaries for their efforts in
planning and organizing and making this special event happen. The Ward did such
a great job coming together and everyone enjoyed the day. The house that sits
on the property was designed by the sister, and was built by her husband. There
are acres of ground around the house planted in grass. There is also a large
pond area that has large fish, a canoe, and a place for swimming. We had a
great time at the fishing hole. We erected canopies to keep us out of the sun.
We had plenty of hotdogs and hamburgers to eat, and all the families brought a
pot luck to share with the rest of us. Salads, desserts, ice cream and
Popsicles. If you'd like to see some pictures of the activities that took place
you can go to our blog at http://OhioCarmackblogspot.com Our Archives work is progressing quite
nicely. We are at approximately 4500 to 5000 pictures per week. In the
beginning we had rejections of our work because of blurs and out-of-focus. When
the work is rejected like that it is returned to us and the entire book, which
consists of 400 to 600 pages per book, has to be redone. It is very sad and
upsetting to have your work rejected. We didn't quite know what we were doing
wrong. We were praying daily for help with our work and one day we had a
conference call with our support team in Salt Lake and one of them said exactly
what we needed to hear. Shortly thereafter, we began having good results and
for the last month all of our books have been accepted. It is a great testimony
of prayer. We are so grateful we have this wonderful opportunity to learn so
much about taking very high quality photographs and the blessings from being
called to this sacred work on our mission. We love working in the Archives and
are becoming really good friends with the two women who work there. Another
part of our responsibilities as senior missionaries here in the ward is to attend
Addiction Recovery meetings, participate and bear witness of the Atonement in
the recovery program. Recently a nonmember has joined our group and has
attended for a few weeks now. We now look forward to the meetings with a little
more enthusiasm because we have a nonmember participating with us. We have had
several teaching opportunities this past month and have had several people come
to church that we have visited. Our FHE lesson with one of our Focus Families
was The Gospel of Jesus Christ and an object lesson on living the gospel begins at home. We have also seen an
increase in attendance by less-active members. It softens and warms our hearts
to have them with us. This work is so rewarding. We have been told by several
of our less-active members that one of our families in our Ward has visited
them occasionally since they were baptized several years ago. We can’t tell you
how much that has meant to them. It is so important to follow the counsel of
our Prophet in the Rescue efforts. Last Sunday a young man in our ward brought
a nonmember friend with him to Sacrament meeting. A beautiful young lady who
attends school with our ward member. Whenever we have an investigator in
church, we hold a gospel essentials class with our ward mission leader, Ward
missionaries, the full-time Elders and us. This meeting the Elders taught a
lesson on the Restoration. After the lesson, Sister Carmack asked this young
lady if she would like to have the missionaries come to her home and teach her
the lessons. She accepted!! The Lord is blessing our Ward for all of their
efforts in pulling together for the missionary work that is happening all
around us. Our Relief Society is focusing on Missionary Work the next few weeks
and the Spirit is so strong. Our Elders Quorum is assigning more less-active
and part-member families to each Home Teaching companionship. We are so grateful
for a great Ward to serve in. Missions are full of great days, not so great
days, and sometimes some sad days. One of the two Elders serving in our Ward
was notified that his mother had passed away suddenly. His testimony is so strong
and he made the decision to remain on his mission. Sister Carmack and I took on
the responsibility of watching over this young Elder. We called him on a daily
basis to see if he was keeping busy and that things were going well. He bore
his testimony that the Plan of Salvation or sometimes called the Plan of Happiness
was instrumental in making his decision to stay. We had a meeting with
President and Sister Sorensen to wish them farewell. Several of the Zone Missionaries
were in attendance. The day we met, a new Sister who had been out one week
learned that her brother has passed away. Sister Carmack and the other Sister
missionaries rallied around her expressing their love and testimonies to this
young Sister. Elder and Sister Carmack now had the responsibility of being
missionary grandparents. Our Mission President and his wife, the Sorensens,
will finish their mission here in Ohio June 30th. They are truly great people
and their love for the missionaries is evident in all they do. He is also a
good friend to Brother Harris. We will be
meeting our new Mission President at the end of next week as he makes his tour of
the mission. He is Michael L. Vellinga who is Aaron Davis’ cousin. “The world
is so big but the church makes it small.” We are so grateful for the gospel in
our lives. The church is true and the gift of the Atonement is real. Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, visited Joseph Smith in a grove of trees and
started the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ here upon the earth
again. The Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith with the power of the
Lord. The priesthood has been restored here upon the earth and gives us the
opportunity to perform works authorized by our Father in Heaven. Elder and
Sister Carmack know that these things are true and bear witness in the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen. We love you all!
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