It is Thanksgiving weekend, and we have much to be grateful for in this blog posting. First, we are grateful to be on this mission and to enjoy good health (except for minor illnesses and body aches). Our family is healthy and safe, and all are well. Secondly, our good friends were married and baptized this past weekend. Ramon and Cynthia live here in Lowell. We’ve known them for several months now as they began attending our Spanish group and being taught by the young missionaries. On Saturday, November 19 they were married in a ceremony conducted by our bishop. It was a lovely wedding that the members of the Spanish group decorated for and made very special for them. They are from Peru, so it was arranged for their family to view the ceremony via Zoom from Peru. Elder Zollinger was asked to escort Cynthia down the aisle, that was reminiscent of our daughter Vika’s wedding. We were able to talk to Ramon’s parents and sister via Zoom and congratulate them on their son’s wedding. Ramon’s parents have been receiving the missionaries in Cuzco and have been attending church there.

​The next day on Sunday, November 20, 2022, Ramon and Cynthia were baptized and confirmed members of the church in a very special service. The couple have two young sons, David (4), and Josue (3). The whole experience was special for the Spanish group as they have become beloved members of the group over the past few months. Now they will work towards making temple covenants in the future as they grow and progress in the church.

Reflecting on these events and what it means to follow the word of God, I wrote a poem that reflects my thoughts and feelings:

​Each day I live and walk with God
I grasp with faith His iron rod
It leads along a narrow path to guide me through life’s wheat and chaff
The rod is long and straight and sure and leads me to His distant shore
It is His word the scriptures say; forged in fire to guide my way
Most times I walk straight with care; the rod lightly clasped but always there
Sometimes I stumble and lose my grasp; my spirits sag and my hopes are dashed
On my knees I tearfully seek the rod’s close comfort on my dampened cheeks
Then, I’m up again with my grasp renewed; my tears now dried my journey not through
His iron rod cannot be seen with mortal eyes by you and me
Instead it enters in our hearts and with fire emblazoned on our inner parts
For then this iron from His rod unseen strong bones for mortal men will be

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that even though life might be hard at times, we can count our blessings still the same.

We had a Zone Conference in the few two weeks, and we are constantly amazed at the ability of these young missionaries. They are awesome! We are also amazed at our mission leaders, President and Sister Hayden. They are incredible! The amount of work and effort they put in for this calling is incalculable. They are always on the go traveling to all corners of the mission. We respect them so much!​​
​There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 18: 8 that has always had great significance for me. It reads in part, “… and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light …”
When I think back on my life; I have been aided in good measure by those who were willing to “bear one another’s burdens that they may be light.” When we lived in California I was called as a bishop of the Oakley Ward. We had four children at the time and the pressures of a demanding job, being father, and those of a bishop were crushing at times. We had a small home that needed some additional soil brought in for the back yard to fill the flower beds along the back fence. My wife arranged for soil to be delivered to our driveway so we could use a wheelbarrow and move it to the back. Then we had some emergency and she needed to leave town and I stayed at home to take care of the boys. We had forgotten about the delivery of the soil until it was dumped in front of the garage door effectively sealing our car inside. When I looked at the pile of dirt in the driveway it seemed to grow larger and larger before my eyes. How could I ever move this mountain on my own. The pile seemed to represent all the pressures in my life, my job, my family, and my calling as bishop. I felt paralyzed as how to even begin to move this mountain. Then I heard the sound of a wheelbarrow coming around the corner. It was our home teacher (ministering brother) Rich Tumin coming toward me. “Bishop, I saw this pile of dirt and thought you could use some help.” Together we visited as we moved the dirt to the back yard and into place. It seemed that it was done in no time at all. The emotional mountain in my mind was also lifted and removed and my burdens seemed to be bearable once again. Rich was willing to bear my burdens and make them light. He probably had no idea of the other burdens that were pressing so heavily on my mind when he came to help. But I knew he had been sent to help me. In my time as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have had many earthly angels who have lifted burdens. Rich Tumin is one and Ed Kettering the other. Ed Kettering became our home teacher in Los Alamos, NM during a time with other heavy burdens. He and his wife Barbara became adoptive grandparents to our children. Ed solved innumerable handyman catastrophes and is another great example of lifting burdens on too many occasions to describe. They are great men who I love immensely.

​​We have now been on our mission for nine months. Last night we had the first snowfall in Lowell, MA. But it was all gone by morning with a steady rain washing it away. It is getting colder, and I have finally broken down and started wearing a jacket outside. The fall colors are gone, and the leaves are now brown or on the ground.

“What do member and leader support missionaries do?” That question often comes our way. Last Sunday evening we were invited to attend an adult fireside in the Worcester Massachusetts Stake and participate in a panel discussion about senior adult missionary service. To answer that question, we shared what our normal day was like. We teach English on MWF evenings. In the mornings we study and then take time to look for members who have not been contacted in a while. But our daily activities vary. For example, on 10/31 we received a call from a member who had been referred to us by the elder’s quorum president. This member was going to have a job interview via Zoom but had some trouble with his laptop and needed assistance doing the interview from the church. He is a native Spanish speaker and asked if I could help him. I said yes and drove to the church and stayed there during the interview at his request in case technical issues developed. While I was at the church Lynn received a call from a member in Arizona who had somehow gotten our phone number. They wanted us to check on a family member in Lowell because their father had died, and they were not answering the phone so that the family could inform them of his passing. We went to the house but could not get anyone to come to the door. When we reported this to the family member, we were requested to call the police to do a welfare check on the individual. There were concerns that they might be incapacitated. This we did and the police came, and the individual was seen and evaluated. In this example you can see that we do whatever might be needed.
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​We have many covered bridges in New England. They too serve as an example of helping us cross over difficulties in life. Rivers of trial and rapids of chaos. Here are pictures of the shortest bridge we’ve encountered; and the longest dual carriage covered bridge in the United States. 

One of our weekly pleasures is to give a ride to Mutual to a young man named Francisco Nerio in our Spanish Group. A few weeks ago Francisco asked me to ordain him a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. He is an outstanding young man and has a wonderful family. It was a privilege to ordain him. Something I have not done since my boys were teenagers.

Thanksgiving is next week. I have to remind myself that we are in New England, the birthplace of the Thanksgiving celebration. We have much to be thankful for and more blessings than we deserve. We hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

I am guessing that you have thought that we have dropped off the face of the earth. Fear not! We are still here. I have just not been terribly faithful in writing this blog. We have now been here on our mission for eight and a half months and the past six weeks have gone by in a flash. The beautiful fall foliage of New England has come and nearly gone at this point.
We have become well acquainted with some of the students in our English class and have been impacted in a meaningful way by their stories of how they have come to America and sacrifices they have made to get here. It is quite different from what you might think when you listen to the stories in the press and the so-called experts on the nightly news. One of the most dedicated students in the class recently told us his story. To protect his privacy, I will call him Carlos. His story begins in Ecuador where he was serving his compulsory military service. His job in the military gave him access to places and people and information that ultimately led him to know things that his superiors did not want him to know or to reveal. When he left the service, he realized that his life was in peril if he stayed in the country. He made the difficult decision to leave and try to enter the United States and ask for asylum. With three friends he flew from Ecuador to Peru and then to Central America. He traveled by bus and then crossed the border to Mexico on foot and then walked the entire length of Mexico. When he crossed into the United States he spent three months in a border patrol facility in Phoenix, Arizona. He was granted temporary resident alien status while his petition for asylum goes forward. One of his friends was deported and the other has since gone back to Ecuador. It has now been seven years and his case has still not been heard. During this time, he is gainfully and legally employed and works in the construction industry. He respects the laws of this country and is working to better himself for his fiancé and his family. He works hard to learn and study English. If you met him, you would be struck by his wonderful attitude and gratitude of the opportunity to be in America. Many in the class have the same story and experience. One woman has a house cleaning business and is here legally. She asked for advice on how to tell her clients that due to inflation she need to raise her fees for her service. She has not raised her rates in eight years! With a bit of coaching that I gave her she successfully communicated her need to increase her rates without losing her customers. All these experiences cause to think and ponder the scripture, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;” (Ephesians 2:19)

Like this lighthouse in Gloucester, this country has served as beacon of hope for as long as it has existed as a nation. And also like this lighthouse, the gospel of Jesus Christ shines forth to all corners of this earth.
Another person we have a weekly experience with I will call Sarah for the purposes of this blog. Sarah is about our age. She has been here in the United States for just over a year. She is from Ethiopia. Sarah met the young Sister Missionaries along the river walk along banks of the Merrimack River. She speaks very little English; her native language is Amharic. But, in spite of the communication barrier she meets regularly with the missionaries desiring to be taught the gospel. To illustrate the modern global reach of the missionary effort, a friend of one of the sister missionaries is serving a mission in Ethiopia. The missionaries serving in Ethiopia have Zoom sessions with the Sarah and the English-speaking Sister missionaries so Sarah can be taught the gospel in her native language. Sister Zollinger and I have the happy task of picking Sarah up for church each Sunday and taking her to and from church. Sarah radiates joy each time we see her. She greets Sister Zollinger with a kiss of gratitude. She is grateful to be with fellow believers even when she understands very little of what is being taught. She is walking proof that the language of the spirit transcends all communication barriers. She has expressed the desire to be baptized. Today I saw the relief society president and my wife sitting with her during the Sunday School hour, each of them using the Gospel Library app set to display the Amharic language for Sarah so that she could read and understand the lesson being taught.

My brother Kevin and his wife Kathy visited us for a few days in October. We were able to take them to the local museum, Gloucester, and Minuteman National Park. It was good to see them and show them a bit of our adopted community. We stopped to see the memorial in the photo above. Gloucester is the oldest seaport in America. This memorial contains the names of all the men who were lost at sea between the years of 1623 an 1923. It is a sobering reminder of the perils of the deep. At the memorial a scripture is quoted in Psalms 107 : 23 - 24 which reads,
​"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep."
This perfectly describes a fisherman and his work. How we take their work for granted!

This past month we had Hispanic Culture Celebration sponsored by the Lowell First Ward Spanish Group. It was well attended, and different countries were represented with booths that proudly displayed the flag of the nation, and food from that region. There was music and dancing for all. Sister Zollinger proudly represented England at this cultural event and served sausage rolls and English candy. You may be wondering at the rich Hispanic culture in England. It didn’t matter, the Spanish Group has taken a real liking to Sister Zollinger and adopted her as their own. And for her part, she diligently studies with Duolingo every day to learn Spanish. I am very proud of her efforts. All that British grit and all. She played pass the parcel with the primary children, and it was the hit of the party.

We went to Maine to inspect missionary apartments in the far north of the mission. We stayed two nights in Bangor, Maine. Went to Machias (the northernmost area in the mission), and Newport, Maine. Sister Zollinger’s Aunt Jo Ellen lives in Jones Port, Maine and were able to meet her for lunch and Machias and then visit her beautiful home that sits across from the harbor waterways. Lobster boats bobbed in the water as we visited. Maine has taken a place in my heart, and I really do love it there. Pictures just do not do it justice. You really must see it someday if you have not.

We continue to attend the English classes and help where we can. We are in between sessions in teaching the temple preparation class but will pick that up again soon. We help the younger missionaries where needed. I teach the Spanish elder’s quorum from time to time, and we give rides to mutual and activity day for a Spanish group family. We are the “minutemen” of the ward, ready to pitch in where needed. And that is just perfect for us. Transfers occurred and things are very different now. Here is a picture of our district as it was. We love these missionaries and miss them when they move on.

Until next time gentle reader and I promise to post more often. And so I leave you with some fall foliage pictures from several locations for your enjoyment.

It seems to take me a long time to update this blog. Part of it is my constant procrastination, and part of it is due to a nagging injury to my right elbow that makes typing a chore and painful at times. I have been diagnosed with a forearm strain (tennis elbow) and so I limit my time at the keyboard. If only I had really injured it playing tennis! Instead, it was just from hauling luggage last year on our trip back from England. Since the last blog entry, we have had a Zone Conference and we are heading into transfers again next week.  Here is a picture of our last zone conference gathering.

​I love being on the water, in particular on the ocean. We recently spent a day in Portland, Maine and were able to take a short boat ride to see a few lighthouses in Casco Bay. It was a gorgeous day to be out there. Here are a few pictures.

We continue with our normal activities that we have talked about before. We finished another round of temple preparation classes with three class members this time. We will be happy to go with them to the temple when the time comes. We love the members of the Lowell First Ward! It is a wonderful diverse set of people who care about each other. The ward has a tradition of having a “Linger Longer” during the summer months after the block of meetings on Sundays. Here are some pictures from the most recent gathering.

A few weeks ago, we met a wonderful family from Guatemala who are members of the church. We were able to visit them in their home and get to know them a little better. Part of the challenge for the Lowell First Ward is that they have approximately 1400 members on their records. It is a deluge to keep up with and keep accurate. This particular family was not on the records, so we are helping to get the records transferred here.  In all my years of church service I have never served as a clerk of any kind.
We continue to enjoy the English classes three nights a week. The attendance goes up and down, but in my reckoning since we have been here, there have never been fewer than about ten students in attendance. I think it is safe to say that these are the most successful English classes in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission. My wife teaches an advanced student, and he never misses a class. I am proud of his work ethic. I am usually taking care of administrative functions during the class, but occasionally I participate in conversations. One night, a student asked our advice on how to tell her clients that she needed to raise her rates for her cleaning services due to inflation. It was fun to give some coaching on how to approach the problem. The next time she came to class she reported that it went well, and the client agreed to pay more. She had not raised her rates in almost ten years!

Recently we had a missionary celebrate a birthday. Here we are in our apartment with most of our district celebrating Sister Nickel's birthday:
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Our preparation days usually find us out exploring New England. I had read that Littleton, New Hampshire had one of the longest covered wooden pedestrian bridges in the USA. So, we decided to check it out. The drive as about two hours into the heart of the White Mountains. My readers may remember my failed attempt to drive up Mount Washington. Fortunately, my PTSD did not stop us from driving into the Mount Washington region again! Littleton is built along the banks of the Ammonoosuc River which the 350-foot-long wooden bridge straddles. What we didn’t know until we got there was the Littleton, NH is the birthplace of the writer Eleanor H. Porter, the author of Pollyanna. The town has a statue of Pollyanna in front of the public library on Main Street in her honor. There are testaments to the spirit of Pollyanna along main street with phrases like, “be glad!” and others. On Main Street we found pianos at regular intervals on the sidewalk for tourists to play as they desired. We enjoyed this small town and the homage to the innocence of Pollyanna and a bygone era, where life was simpler and seemingly more beautiful. Here are some pictures of that journey.

​We’ve also found more time to visit more lakes which we found to be a peaceful way to spend our time. Here are pictures of Lake Pawtuckaway.

The Young Single Adult (YSA) ward sister missionaries had a baptismal service not long ago. A young man was baptized and warmly welcomed into the ward by the young people. These YSA ward members are comprised by mainly college age single members. In speaking with some of them they travel long distances to be together. I sometimes marvel at their dedication in traveling long distances just to be together for an hour or two. 

And finally I end with a picture of some sister missionaries who were formerly in the Lowell District that we ran into in our travels to Worchester. It was great to see them again. Also, we have transfers next week, so here is one last picture of the Lowell District before changes are made next Thursday.

We love New England! Even more so since the weather is starting to cool and the leaves will start to turn soon!

​The month of August is the anniversary of my parents wedding in the Logan Utah Temple. They were married for time and all eternity on August 11, 1950, in that beautiful sacred building. In my early childhood I could look out my bedroom window and see the temple lit up at night. I knew that the temple was a sacred place and that someday, I would also enter that building and make sacred covenants. What is the significance of the temple for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
It is a place where members of our faith make sacred covenants with God. The covenant of baptism and the covenants we make in the temple comprise what we are taught today as the "covenant path." In the temple is where we receive greater knowledge of the eternal nature of mankind and the nature of God and his son Jesus Christ. That gift of knowledge is referred to as the temple endowment. It is where couples are married in a sealing ordinance by the priesthood of God for not just this life, but for all eternity. Children are also sealed to their parents for eternity. And all these ordinances are not just performed for the living, but for our dead ancestors, by proxy, as well. In this way, the hearts of the fathers are turned to the children and the children’s hearts to the fathers. The great work of family history unites families together for generation upon generation.
This work is part of the gathering of Israel. President Russell M Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints taught, “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It is as simple as that”
My wife and I have the great blessing of teaching the Temple Preparation Class for the Lowell First Ward on our mission. Our first class had two participants. Both have now gone to the temple to receive temple ordinances. We are now in the middle of another class with three participants. This is one of our ways of gathering Israel.
Two weeks ago, we attended missionary lesson taught by the Portuguese speaking young sister missionaries, as they taught a young man, member of the English classes and from Brazil, as evening came in a park alongside the Merrimack River. My wife did not understand a word of what was being said. I have been studying Portuguese to complement my Spanish. I could understand more than I thought I would be able to understand. This young man suddenly declared, “I want to be baptized!” He had been taught the lessons for a few months off and on. Even though my wife did not speak Portuguese she could feel the spirit of the moment. He not only wanted to be baptized he wanted to be baptized in just four days from then. These young sister missionaries had the great honor of seeing him baptized and confirmed a member of the church. So, in just a few weeks of time, we have seen baptismal and temple covenants made along the covenant path that will bless these individuals for the rest of their lives and for that matter eternity.
I wrote a poem recently about the first step of the journey on the covenant path.

Here are some pictures of recent experiences with those who have gone to the temple to make more covenants along the covenant path. What a beautiful experience it was to help them make this journey and to see the support from their ward family as they went.

I also wrote a poem recently about temple covenants and how I feel about them:

​We were able to visit nearby Walden Pond made famous by Henry David Thoreau on a preparation day. What a beautiful place, although I think Thoreau would be disappointed by the large number of people who have invaded his place of solitude. 

I will end this blog entry with the an observation. It has been warm here and everyone who knows me will understand just how much I love "humidity." It keeps me humble. Instead of a motto of "steadfast and immovable," my motto is "sweat drenched and irritable." 

​This past week brought us good experiences in our regular activities of teaching English, Temple Preparation Class, and helping members with family history research. We are loving New England and the people here, and the many beautiful sights to see. We sat in a few lessons with friends and enjoyed meeting the people that the young missionaries are teaching. This week I gave a friend from Guinea a ride to church. He was a very polite young man of the Muslim faith. I was able to introduce him to a few members of the Lowell First Ward who speak French. He has happy to be able to speak French with them, although his English is quite good for someone who has been in the country for just a few years. I was able to help him look for new work and training opportunities this week and he was grateful for the assistance. In the past week I was also able to assist in giving a blessing of health to a young four-year-old boy of a family that the Hermanas are teaching. It was a great experience to be able to explain about the priesthood to them. We hope that they will be baptized soon. They have been to church every week for the past two months. They are from Peru.

On preparation day we drove to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to see Mount Washington, a place I’ve wanted to visit for quite some time. When we arrived at the ticket booth to make the drive up, Sister Zollinger, who was already a little concerned over the road we would travel, heeded the warnings on the signs and from the booth attendant, that “if you are afraid of heights, you should not travel up the mountain,” and told me I would have to drive alone. So, I dropped her off at the gift shop, paid my admission fee of $39.00, and began my ascent. At first it was a beautiful experience. It is about a 7-mile drive to the summit. The road is narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other in most places. It is well maintained for a mountain road. Mount Washington, according to Wikipedia, “is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288.2 ft and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The mountain is notorious for its erratic weather.” I scoffed to myself that it is only 6,288.2 feet in elevation. Los Alamos, NM is at about 7500 feet. What could be so scary about driving to the top of this mountain when I was used to driving the main hill road in Los Alamos? Now people who know me well know that I do not like heights very much. In fact, when we visited the Grand Canyon, I yelled at our boys constantly about playing too close to the edge. My wife told me to go sit in the car so I would stop embarrassing the family. I did and had to stop looking at them to calm my anxious heart.

So as the car climbed higher through the trees I reveled in the wonders of nature. The signs on the road warned you to keep the car in drive on the ascent and in low gear on the descent. There were pull out parking areas so you could stop and allow your brakes to cool when drove back down the hill. I thought to myself, “this road must get really steep, but how bad could it be?” At the bottom you are warned that there are no guardrails. “But I am driving so I will be in control and there are no other passengers to distract me and make me worry.” I thought the warnings were a bit overblown. “I can handle this,” I declared firmly to no one.

Then, I left the cover of the trees and found myself on narrow steep road with a sheer drop off to one side. No comforting guardrail as a safety net. I decided that I needed to sing some comforting primary songs to keep my attention focused straight ahead. Soon I was singing “I am a Child of God,” and then “Teach Me to Walk,” and then “Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam.” I kept my focus riveted straight ahead. Now I was driving on steep switchbacks. The view would have been stunning if I could have calmed down my anxious heart. “Why had I not heeded the warning signs like my incredibly smart wife?” Now with my pulse pounding and my palms began to sweat. I began to sing full blown hymns like, “I Need Thee Every Hour,” and “Jesus Savior Pilot Me.” I wondered out loud, “do they ever have to come rescue someone who is too frightened to continue?”

As my pulse began to pound, I realized that for the first time in my life I might have been experiencing a panic attack. Could there really be a transporter beam from the starship Enterprise that could beam me off that mountain? Now hymns were not sufficient. It was full blown prayer and bargaining with God to somehow keep me safe and alive to get back down the mountain. At about 5500 feet in elevation, or about a mile from the summit a parking area magically appeared on my side of the road. Gratefully I pulled off and parked, making sure to fully set the parking brake. I sighed in relief and got out of the car. It was not the summit. Rain clouds had moved in, and it was starting to rain. It was supposed to rain heavily that day at the summit. A clear impression came to mind that said, “this is far enough for you.” I don’t disregard promptings anymore. I enjoyed the view for a few minutes and took a few pictures. Without any hesitation I started back down the mountain. This time, I heeded the warning although slightly chagrined for the embarrassment. It was still somewhat frightening to drive down the mountain, but I knew that my wife was waiting, that we would laugh about the experience. When I started the drive I was given a bumper sticker that says, "This car drove to the top of Mount Washington." Lynn altered it at my suggestion to say, "This car almost drove to the top of Mount Washington." How like life, I thought, when we don’t heed the warnings we receive from God about the danger ahead of us. Many people travel up that mountain every day without any problems. But some people like me and others don’t handle heights well. God knows each of us and our abilities and he can make us capable of doing much more than we think. But he also knows our limits and will warn us when we are exceeding them. Could I have made it to the top? Probably. But I know that it was “far enough” and felt warned to turn back. In the Doctrine and Covenants 1: 4 it reads, “And the voice of warning shall be to all people, by the mouths of disciples, who I have chosen these last days.” Those warning signs and admonishments by the park rangers should have been enough for me if I had examined my inner heart fully. Lesson learned. I had a teacher in 7th grade who taught us, “A word to the wise is sufficient.” I guess I forgot that lesson.

​As we drove back to Lowell, we passed by a beautiful, covered bridge in Jackson, New Hampshire. Here are some pictures. Out west you don’t see covered bridges like you see here in New England. This bridge was covered bridge number 51 in New Hampshire. Here are some pictures.

​On Thursday night, we were at the chapel when the fire alarms went off in the building. We had just finished teaching the temple preparation class and evacuated along with the college age institute class that was there. The fire department arrived with five full fire engines no less. There was no smoke and after investigating it determined to be a water leak in the attic that had caused a smoke detector to fail. 

​Finally, here is a picture of the missionaries in the Lowell District. Two of them are finishing their missions in the next few days, Sister Wilkins and Sister Taylor. There will be transfers this week and others will probably be moved to new areas. After five months we get attached to these young people and it will be a bittersweet moment saying goodbye.

​Lowell Massachusetts was established in 1826 and used to be East Chelmsford. It was renamed for an early industrialist, Francis Cabot Lowell, who sought to imitate the success of England in the textile industry. We learned all this from a visit to the Lowell National Historic Park a few days ago on our preparation day. Lowell Massachusetts is the first planned factory city in the United States, and used water powered textile machinery to create the first factories in the USA to take in raw product, cotton, and produce finished dyed cotton fabric. This process was very innovative, and the manpower at the beginning was woman power. The original workers were the daughters of New England farmers, who became the “mill girls.” Later, the immigrant population replaced the mill girls, and now the city of Lowell, continues to have vibrant and diverse population. We enjoyed a morning of touring and learning about the textile industry and the innovative approach to manufacturing undertaken here. Our niece, Rachel Scott, visited us and we toured the museum on that occasion and earlier with the two Spanish speaking sister missionaries, with whom we enjoyed a canal boat tour of the Lowell canals. ​The resulting cloth is a tightly woven and durable fabric, useful for all types of clothing. Here are some pictures from the our museum and boat tour.

We were able to see a demonstration on machinery from the early 1900’s as it used weaving machines to create the versatile cotton textiles that were the product of the mills. ​As I thought about the process of weaving and how important it is to have the right type and color of thread to create fabrics and cloths, I thought of how important it is to have the right thread and colors in our lives to create a durable and lasting tapestries. We were able to visit the Boston Massachusetts Temple yesterday. In that holy house we make covenants with God to follow him and be a disciple. One of our callings here is to teach the Temple Preparation Class. One of our students was able to go for the first time and make these sacred covenants. Her tapestry of life is now starting to be woven with threads of rich colors that will over the years endure for eternity. Her weaving will be tightly woven and able to endure trials and tribulations that will come, and despite these trials will remain vibrant and distinctive. We are all “woven” tightly to the Savior as we live like him and seek to help others to do the same and make and keep sacred covenants.

​Here are some pictures from these experiences of the past few weeks as we continue our mission here. We have now served five months of our mission. Time seems to flow quickly now. On the 4th of July we sponsored the sisters and elders in our district in the 2-mile Chelmsford 4th of July Race. They enjoyed it and we enjoyed that they enjoyed it.

We are working primarily with the Spanish group in the Lowell First Ward. Recently we had a group barbecue and it was well attended. They know how to grill very well these folks, especially our group leader who is from Uruguay. It was all very tasty and we had a group picture afterward.

Lastly, we received new mission leaders at the end of June. We had a meet and greet with them for  our Nashua Zone. President and Sister Hayden are from California and we know that they will do a terrific job here in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission. Here is our zone and they are on the far left.
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And so the work continues. We are starting to help more people with family history. Sister Zollinger gave an outstanding youth fireside on the subject and it was a great success. One adult leader said that it was the best fireside he had ever attended on the subject. If you know Sister Zollinger, you know that it is her passion. In my very biased opinion it was outstanding.  The youth were engaged and participative. As always, thank you for your prayers. I felt it keenly in the temple when prayer was offered for all the missionaries world-wide. This time it was personal.

We also took a short trip to Portland, Maine, about two hours from where we are and visited the cost. There is no other adjective to describe Maine other than spectacular! It is simply beautiful to see. We enjoyed seeing a few lighthouses, which remind me of my favorite hymn, "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy." Here are those lyrics and then some pictures to put them into perspective:

1. 1. Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
   From his lighthouse evermore,
   But to us he gives the keeping
   Of the lights along the shore.
   
2. [Chorus]
   Let the lower lights be burning;
   Send a gleam across the wave.
   Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
   You may rescue, you may save.
   
3. 2. Dark the night of sin has settled;
   Loud the angry billows roar.
   Eager eyes are watching, longing,
   For the lights along the shore.
   
4. 3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
   Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
   Trying now to make the harbor,
   In the darkness may be lost.
   

We all have a need for a "lighthouse" in our life to show us the way past danger, and to light the right way to go. Many have provided that for me in my life, parents, teachers, church leaders, co-workers, managers, etc. And even now I have great examples for me in the way of the young missionaries of our Lowell District. I will close with a picture of them.

​These has been an eventful few days since our last entry.
First, we’ve been able to continue teaching our Temple Preparation Class that will soon be drawing to a close with two members of that class. Both are eager to attend the temple and make sacred covenants there. We are also eager for them to be able to attend and hope to go with them. We also had the opportunity to attend the stake conference of the Nashua New Hampshire Stake this past weekend. Nashua is only about ten miles from Lowell. We were able attend with a member of our temple prep class and her young son. She also had the good fortune to receive her patriarchal blessing that same day and it was a choice thing to help her receive it.
Secondly, we hosted our first family history workshop and had a friend of the young sister missionaries attend. This young man was very happy to see that in FamilySearch there were records of his grandparents and great-grandparents. He later reported that he stayed up until 2 AM viewing what he could of his ancestors. The next day he was able to show them to his father, who was amazed at the records that were available. The spirit of Elijah is very strong with respect to genealogy work, and it is a great service that church performs in making these records available for free to anyone who wants to be able to see them.

Lastly, we were able to visit one of the great historical sites of the American Revolution in Concord, Massachusetts. The Minuteman Historical Park is just a short drive from us. The park is beautiful with trees and the river. Near Lexington, is the site where the British forces fired the first shots at colonial militiamen. Five miles north at the North Bridge at Concord, is where the “shot heard round the world” was fired when the colonial minutemen first fired at the British Army on April 19, 1775.Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1837 poem "Concord Hymn" says in the opening stanza:
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood/Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled/Here once the embattled farmers stood/And fired the shot heard round the world.”

At the visitor center we met member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Heber, Utah. They are friends of some of our fellow senior missionaries serving in Romania that we came to know in the missionary training center. It is a very small world in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We meet people that we connect to in someway all around the world.
The American Revolution is a watershed moment in the history of the world, and we are blessed to be serving our mission in a place of such historical significance. It is also not lost on me that Joseph Smith, the prophet of the restoration was born in Sharon, Vermont just 30 years after the “shot heard round the world.” His life was just as revolutionary in terms of Christian doctrine as the early patriots of the American Revolution were in terms of democracy. Those revolutionary teachings included the nature of the godhead, the principle of ongoing modern revelation, the restoration of the priesthood, the translation of “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ”, the need for temples and the restoration of temple covenants, and the doctrine of eternal families. These are just a few examples of the revolutionary teachings of Joseph Smith. There must be something in the soil and air of New England that produces such extraordinary men and women.   
Here are some pictures from that day:

We ended this week with our district preparation day. We love spoiling these young missionaries! We had a BBQ in a park in Nashua. They ate and then finished the day with pickle ball. These young people have become our adopted grandchildren to some degree. 

The past two weeks have brought many experiences that have been rich in meaning and significance. In addition to our normal labors of teaching English and visiting members in the Lowell First Ward, we’ve taught a youth fireside discussion, taught our temple preparation class, and Elder Zollinger gave a talk in the Spanish group. They were all great experiences. We enjoyed teaching the youth (age 11 – 18) regarding entertainment and media and internet safety. It was an engaged group of young men and young women. We will do the same next month on the topic of Family History.

​We also visited the New England Quilt Museum in downtown Lowell, MA. Quilts are an interesting study and truly an art form of creative tapestry. Most often they were created from spare bits of material as early American societies made do from nothing and wasted nothing. The result are creative patterns from the smallest pieces of material that intricate and often breath taking. Here are a few pictures from that experience to illustrate the creativity. 

Those quilts remind me of my mother who has made quilts for almost everyone of her descendants over the years, including her great-grandchildren. On May 15th she celebrated her 90th birthday and 67 of her descendants and close friends gathered in Chandler, AZ to help her celebrate. All her six children and their spouses were in attendance, in addition to almost all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Elder and Sister Zollinger received permission to travel to Arizona and attend this reunion. All our eight children were able to attend and all but two our grandchildren. Members of my mother's book club and work mate were also able to attend. It was a terrific experience to honor the great Matriarch of the Zollinger Clan on this occasion. Quilts remind me of Forever Families. We are stitched together with love and care just like these quilts. Each of us is a different shape and sometimes a little worn around the edges, but the resulting family despite some of its blemishes and weaknesses provides incredible warmth and is beautiful to behold. The tapestry of our lives all joined together is worthy of the most prestigious art galleries in the world. I am grateful for the doctrine of eternal families and the knowledge I have that my family is a "Forever Family." Here are some pictures:

​Last Thursday we held another Zone Conference, this time in Manchester, NH with five zones all meeting together for instruction, and to edify each other. These young missionaries continue to amaze us.
 
Take care!