Week One Report

With a full week under our belts, I thought I’d give some thoughts from my perspective.  Sister Williams and I probably share most perspectives, but certainly not all!  The couple we replaced was with us for four days before they left, so they showed us how Sundays work and three office days.  As always in training, it wasn’t nearly enough, but it sure helped!  They left on Thursday morning and we took it from there (trying to avoid the ‘deer in the headlights’ expressions as much as we could).  Like always in the church, there are lots of people willing to help, and mobile phones are wonderful things!  I spoke to Elder Prince (previous vehicle coordinator) on their way to Texas while they were visiting the Susquehanna River visitor’s center, the Grandin print shop in Palmyra, and nearing Kirkland, Ohio. (I told him I was trying to keep him awake and make him feel important…implying that I had everything under control.) As I said the first time I wrote, we are really excited to get past the ‘how do I do that?’ phase.  Another senior couple told us it takes about two transfers (12 weeks). 

We love the elders and sisters we deal with (both Jr. & Sr.), and the people in our branch have been extremely friendly and kind (even when we sometimes can’t understand each other very well)!!  That part of it we already love!  The part that will take longer is the traffic and horn honking and confusion and subways (although we made it to church and back today almost without incident--only one get off at the wrong station).  We went out twice this week in the car, and my co-pilot (and our marriage) will take a few days to recover.  We will now do everything in our power to avoid rush hour, including Saturdays after 2PM.  It took me over an hour to get home from Costco Saturday afternoon, and it’s about a mile away!  (Think no left turn lanes or lights anywhere, and about two cars getting through each light cycle…)  Luckily my companion wasn’t with me on that trip (we senior missionaries can do that!), and was still sleeping off the earlier trip!

The vehicle coordinator position is wild!  It seems to be pretty well understood by everyone that it’s the busiest job.  48 cars, 100 young drivers, constant maintenance to coordinate, an average of just under two accidents a week ($260,000 in body work last year just for our mission), driver training and certification and decertification, temporary loaner cars (when available) for when cars are in the shop, keeping track of who’s driving what car (changes every six weeks) so tickets go to the right person, fielding calls 10-12 hours a day when there are car issues or perceptions of issues, getting luggage from La Guardia to JFK airports and back on transfer days, monthly reports on: mileage, condition of vehicle and gas expenses.  Makes me tired to think of it, but I’m sure the time will go fast!  Then on Sunday I teach the 12-18 y/o Sunday School class and Melchizedek Prep class.  Well, we prayed to feel needed!

The apartment

livingroom

Kitchen

from the "balcony"

                             
  We love our little home away from home!
    

bedroom

Finally Arrived

It's amazing how a new morning can make everything look like an exciting adventure rather than the bad dream that it seemed the night before.

We got into Queens at about 3:30 last night (tip: Friday afternoon in NY is not the best introduction to your new life.). We met the other couples at the mission office (surprisingly it was pretty much the way I pictured the office only bigger.).

Then we moved into our apartment next door, with the help of several young missionary Sherpas.  The other couples took us to a Peruvian restaurant.  The food wasn't great but the people were nice.

Once we got back and got our clothes sort of unpacked, we sat down and Marc said, "what do you want to do now?"  I said, "go home?"  Don't worry, we were only half serious.

We really like the apartment and realize many missionaries probably don't have it as good.  It's small but has granite countertops and hardwood floors with pretty rugs.  The previous missionaries left it clean and well-stocked with towels,etc.  The bathrooms are small but we each have our own with tub and shower.  There is also a washer and dryer.

Even though we are on a main thoroughfare, it wasn't as noisy as night as I was told it would be and we slept well.

We ventured out (by car) to get groceries this morning.  That was interesting.  Who would have thought that shopping, something I am normally most comfortable doing, would be so stressfull.  We made it back in one piece (2 pieces?) though.  And luckily I had an engineer along to tell me how to arrange the groceries in the cart.  I thoughtfully informed him that since I have been loading grocery carts for over 40 years that he did not, in fact, need to help.

During our morning study time today I decided to focus on faith, as I recognized I needed a healthy dose of it.  I found some great scriptures that seemed to be written just for me.

I think we will love it here and it may not take as long as I thought it would.

Road Trip

Elder Williams at Winter Quarters

Winter Quarters, Nebraska

 

Hit rough weather in Erie, PA

Pics

The Traditional MTC Pic.  Only took us 3 tries to get a decent one.

Our MTC district with our trainer.
L to R  Elliots, Powells, Brother Wade, Williams, Reeds.

2/14/16 (Happy Valentines Day!!)

A few more comments from me...The number one thing I learned in the MTC (that I wished I had known and considered in all my church work over the last 25 years!) is that our primary purpose is to strengthen the relationship between the person you are teaching or visiting and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Everything else is less important! They kept reminding us not to get sidetracked on other issues (like anti-Mormon literature, what a pastor says, fears of what family and friends will say, financial needs, or why someone is not coming to church, etc.).  As long as a person does the things they need to do to strengthen their relationship with deity, including the saving ordinances, all other things will be addressed in the proper order!

It's been a long time since Diane and I have been in cold weather, and it will take a little getting used to!  We keep thinking, "I can't wait until we get home where it's warm!" and then we remember...  Utah was 20-35 degrees, and it's been getting colder the further east we go.  Today was 15-25 degrees, and it looks like it's down in single digits in New England!  When the wind hits you, it takes your breath away!  (I may have to stop gently complaining about the big bucks my companion spent for boots...)  Tomorrow both of us plan to wear our boots (hiking boots for me, so they won't work very well with a suit once we get started) and down coats!

We stopped today and visited the Winter Quarters visitors center and Temple, and got a great tour from a couple of sister missionaries, and met a senior couple who just started 3 weeks ago.  It brought many tears to our eyes as we were reminded of the sacrifices of the pioneers.  The first year, one in twelve pioneers died at Winter Quarters, and 75% of the deaths were children under three years of age.  Pretty heart-wrenching!!  (In following years, the death rate dropped drastically because of the preparations made the first year---like building 500 cabins and sod huts.)

Well, time for bed...we sure love you all and appreciate your support!  We wish we could share the experience with all of you!!

2/14/16 The MTC

     First chance I've had to sit down with my laptop (hard to blog on my phone).  This mission thing is taking more time than I figured (and we're not even in NY yet).

     We were at the MTC (Missionary Training Center in Provo) from Monday the 8th till Friday.  For those of you who are planning a mission, here's how the schedule goes:

-Breakfast each morning at about 7:00

-Classes (large group of about 140, or in districts of 4 couples)

-Lunch about noon

-Classes

-Dinner at about 5:00

-Back to our rooms to study, plan, workout or whatever.

     At check-in the first day, they gave us our name-tags.  I got choked up and cried (happy tears).  The sister checking us in tried asking me questions and Marc had to answer for me.  They are probably used to that.

     We loved our districts.  Generally, we practiced teaching each other, or on 2 days we taught pretend investigators.  We did have to work hard but loved it.  We became especially close to the 3 other couples we were with.  Both Marc and I felt it was worth it to serve a mission just for the MTC.

     On Thursday and Friday we had some mini classes on how to use the Gospel Library App..  About 20 20-somethings teaching about 100 old people how to use technology.  It was quite comical.

     Our rooms were very nice--very much like hotel rooms.  They even had "nap areas" in case we needed them between classes. (Like we had time for naps...)

     We were fortunate to be in the building with the workout room (about 1/3 the size of 24 hour fitness.  The first night I had the whole place to myself.  Then never had time to workout again.

     We are in Indiana now.  It's cold and for a minute I wanted to go home.  But I'm over it now.

2/4/16 (Marc)

We are excited to serve, and have those mixed feelings of wanting to get going, but at the same time being apprehensive about entering the MTC in four days!  We have faith that it will be a wonderful experience once we get past the "what do I do next" phase...

2/4/16

Angie set this blog up for me to update our activities while on our mission in the New York New York South Mission.  Thanks Angie!  We appreciate the expertise of the younger generation.  We will probably not post much before we reach Queens on the 20th or 21st.