PINEAPPLE PIE!

Elder Bushman is so excited.  We went into Breen's Market in Palmyra and there was a pie section right by the door.  He found a Pineapple Pie!  So excited for him.  Who would have thought...the heavens are close again.  This is the pie Art's mom made him for his birthday every year...and Karen Hutto, our dear friend and excellent cook made him for the last few years.  Mary Newman made him some years ago before she went to work full time.  It's a good thing he is being watched over...I'm protected this birthday as we have no oven, and no close friends close by ;)!  Hurrah for Elder Bushman.

Today we had fresh peach cobbler.  It was way better than the store bought pineapple pie.  The peaches were grown on our new bishop's tree in his back yard!  Bishop John Scanlon and his lovely wife LeAnn invited us to their beautiful home for dinner...and since it was Fast Sunday we accepted as fast as we could.  They have four children Sydney who is 9, Colby who is 7 (he likes to make big slurping sounds with his straw & smiled as he said he is not sure he likes his school teacher), Gwyneth who is 5 ( she threw up after eating cookies in Primary and had to wear a baptismal suit home!) and Boden who is 3 (his sister Sydney had to interpret the meal prayer he said as it sounded alien to us).   Sister Scanlon home schools her children!  She is multi-tallented.

CORTLAND WARD

is our assigned meeting meeting place.  We drove the back roads to get there and cut 20 miles off the distance.  It took us 1 1/2 hours to drive there and was a distance of 80 miles.  The meetings begin at 10:00 AM.  We arrived at 9:00 A M and attended the correlation meeting.  We got to meet all the Presidencies and the Bishopric.  They have about 150 active members and about 300 members.  They have 4 full time missionaries assigned to their ward.  We arrived back in Palmyra about 7 PM after a pleasant & full day.  Having been fed by Bishops family I slept peacefully on the way back while Elder Bushman tried another suggested route on the back roads!

If any of you want to surprise us for Mother's Day, the Cortland County Airport is only a couple miles from the Cortland Ward Building....just kidding...this little airport reminds me of The Sundance Airport by the OKC Temple.

Cortland New York is down in a beautiful valley.  There are three ski hill located around the area.  

This is a picture of President & Sister Brighton our Temple President and Matron.

This is a picture of President & Sister Broadbent the first counselor and assistant matron.

The other counselor is  President Cahoon and his wife is the assistant matron.  They were not in attendance at our home evening tonight where the other photo's of the Presidency were taken.  This evening President Brighton gave Elder Bushman a letter from President Monson telling him that "authorization is hereby given for Arthur Vern Bushman to exercise the sealing power in the Palmyra New York Temple.  Since Brother Bushman was given the sealing power on June 23, 2006, for use in the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple, it will be unnecessary to confer it on him again".  So beginning this Wednesday Elder Bushman will become a Sealer in the Palmyra New York Temple.  We will serve on 6 shifts during the week, two days of which we will be serving in the office.  We will have most Saturdays & Mondays off. 

President Broadbent is giving a history of the Smith family in our home evenings.  Tonight his wife told us of President Broadbent's Great.....Great Grandfather Joseph S. Murdock.  He had been a sickly lad since he was around 10.  He met the missionaries and asked if they could heal him.  They told him they could bless him and if he had sufficient faith he could be healed.  He went to bed after his blessing and awoke the next day totally healed.  He was well for many years.  In his later years he became sick again, so had his family take him by wagon to Kirtland, Ohio where he had the Prophet Joseph give him a blessing again.  He was healed once again.  He wrote a poem to his family back in New York encouraging them to become members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Many of his family joined the church and came to Ohio to be with Br. Murdock and his family.  The poem was so powerful that music was put with it and we now sing it as one of our hymns:  "Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice"  page 21 in our Hymnal.  I hope each of you can take the time to read the words of this hymn now that you know "the rest of the story".  President and Sister Broadbent are living proof of the faith of Joseph S. Murdock for his family and their descendants.  

May each of you be blessed with peace & love in your hearts for your families and for all God's children.  "Another prophet now is sent this knowledge to restore".  Blessings to you and your's.

Elder & Sister Bushman