April 24, 2016

Another pretty normal week (I always seem to say that…), with several exceptions.  Friday, Kent (my brother 5 years younger) and his wife Jan came and visited!  They have been in NYC on business all week, and yesterday Kent took the day off to do some sight-seeing and come see us.  They rode the subway from Manhattan and got here at around 11 AM, and we showed them around the office, then walked to lunch at ‘London Lennie’s’, and then went back to our apartment and talked for a couple of hours!  It was great!!  Usually, we see each other at family events, and never get any one-on-one time to actually talk.  It was fun to catch up on family, work and other things, and learn more about New York City from them!  (They come here at least once or twice a year, and had some great ideas on things to do and see, plus tips on how to get Broadway show tickets at a reasonable price.)  It was a great break, and made us excited to see more family and friends!!  Our apartment is small, but there are blow-up mattresses and bedding to sleep 3 or 4 more (even a portable crib).  Just let us know a few hours ahead (Diane says maybe a day or two if you want to eat…)!

The last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions in our lives, and how important they are to all of us.  I’m sure my recent transition from working to retired to missionary has caused these thoughts, but here is a brief synopsis.  It seems so critical to handle transitions correctly (in the Lord’s way)!  If you look at life’s transitions (Aaronic Priesthood to Melchizedek Priesthood, Young Women to Relief Society, high school to college, mission to returned missionary, single to married, married to single, college to working fulltime, childless to parent, working to retired, and so forth), at every transition people can and do get lost!  The natural order of any change (at least in my life) seems to be that your life and schedule are disrupted, and the good things (like scripture reading, study, prayer, etc.) can easily go away.  I believe it’s sort of a subset of the law of entropy, which says (in my words) that everything tends to progress naturally from organization to chaos without outside influence.  With the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are influenced to get those good things back in our lives and keep them there, but it definitely takes some work!  Seems like after every big change in my life I have to work to find a time that works for the important things, and force them back in.  If I don’t, there never seems to be time to read my scriptures (which I’m not nearly as good at as my wife!) or do the other good things I need to do to progress.  Believe it or not, it’s even true on the transition to a fulltime missionary!  Even though there are times set aside for study, there seem to be more things to do than there is time.

Our 40^th wedding anniversary was Friday the 22^nd of April, and I was reminded again how extremely important it is to marry someone who influences you every day to be a better person!!  Diane does that for me, and it’s hard to imagine where I’d be without her!  I don’t think I’m naturally a bad person, but I do tend to laziness in those good things, and she is a great example to me.  It always amazes me that in her spare time, she almost always does useful things (studies, reads something worthwhile, practices another language, works on family history, etc.).  Because of her basic goodness, her influence on me and our family through the eternities is and will be immeasurable!!  I’m so thankful that (even though she played hard to get for a year or more), she agreed to marry me in the temple and be  my wife and the mother of our family!  It’s not a new thought, but I know that that one decision to marry the right person in the right place has blessed my life hugely!!!  I love you, Diane Troutman Williams!!!

More Pictures

Property is so valuable in NYC that none is wasted. This (probably very expensive) apartment is in the little wedge between the Rego Park church on the left, and the railroad on the right.  Our apartment is behind the church, and the mission office is downstairs in the church.  Our commute to the office is under 100 steps!

Elder and Sister Shapiro (my aunt) on the subway. They are the other mission office couple. We hadn't really seen them for many years, but now we will get to know each other very well! They are here for 23 months also.

Old Westbury Gardens

We are starting to celebrate our anniversary month.  Next week will be our 40th.  Today we went to Old Westbury Gardens east on Long Island.  It is a large estate built by steel magnate, Jay Phipps. This is where many films were made--most notably North by Northwest and, not so notably, Hitch.  We wanted to go early in the season to avoid the crowds.  It was "Dog Day."  Because the Phipps family loved dogs, the estate has 3 or 4 days a year where people can bring their canine friends.  There were hundreds of dogs.  Luckily, we got there early before the dog crowds. 

It was beautiful but I think we will return later in the season when there are more flowers, leaves (and people). 

Children's playhouse

Road Trip

Friday we took a trip to Mamaroneck to pick up a brand new Toyota for the mission.  We took the office elders with us and had a grand time.  One of the perks of being married to the Vehicle Coordinator is that I get to travel around him and help.  Elder Williams and I got to drive the new car back since it didn't have a TiWi in it (the device that tracks the missionaries' driving).

The new mission car had only 4 miles on it.  Seems a shame to turn it over to 19 or 20 year olds.  Fun day though.  

At Ihop with office elders, while we wait for the car to be ready.  Elder Andraeson (left) from Brigham City and Elder Peters (Pronounced Payters) from Netherlands.  Elder Andraeson said it was the first time he had been on Mainland USA for 23 months.  Guys in the back enjoyed being photographed also.

April 10, 2016

Pretty normal week in the mission except for transfers, which my companion already talked about.  It was really touching, seeing all the missionaries hugging and crying as friends they love leave the mission. I was pretty misty-eyed, even though I knew few of those leaving, and Diane was definitely affected. Can’t imagine what it will be like as those we know and love leave! Pretty sweet and sad experience!!

Saturday morning we made a practice temple-run to the Manhattan with the Shapiros, and I sure felt sorry for them!  As we wrote about before, Diane and my first practice run a few weeks ago was a failure, due to getting on the wrong train (I’m sticking with the “My app was incorrect” excuse...) We were successful yesterday in getting to the temple, but it was a drawn-out experience that was worse than it should have been due to weekend construction.  We had to head the opposite direction, then catch a different train and go back past where we started, and then catch another train to get to the ‘Lincoln Center’ stop where the temple is.  Plus, since everyone was in the same situation (and the presidential candidates were all in town at different events), the subway was as packed as I’ve seen it, and we had to stand the whole 90 minutes.  We finally got a seat about two stops before we got off, and dropped very gratefully into them!  By the time we got home four plus hours after we left, we were all ready for a nap (or in my companion’s case, dress shopping).  We did have our first NYC hot dog from a street cart across from the temple, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. (I suspect there are good and bad carts, just like restaurants…)

One of the things that is very different about NYC is what a key role transportation plays in everything we do! For example, last night the adult session of stake conference was in the Little Neck Building about 11 miles east of our apartment.  Not very far, however, there are no subways that go near there, and the buildings nearer the transportation system have very little parking (19 stalls at our church in Flushing).  We are lucky enough to have a car, but many (most?) city folks don’t, and we saw fewer than five people from our branch at the meeting. (Looked like at least a third of the people at the meeting were missionaries.)  Getting to and from is a large part of the battle for any event in NYC—something we totally take for granted out west!  Hardly anything in the city is more than 15 miles away, but it’s at least an hour on trains/subways, and that long to drive, too, depending on time of day. (Then if you drive you have to worry about parking.)  Diane and I ran to a bakery this week to get a cake for the departing senior couple, and it was a ten minute drive—but then I ended up driving around the block multiple times while she went in to look (and not buy, since small cakes were $35), then picking her up on a drive-by and finally heading to Costco. (Pretty much the same as home, except $2 for parking under the building.)

One last thing.  At the adult session of conference last night, opening and closing prayers were in Chinese, choir sang in Spanish, bulk of the program was in English (accented with Spanish, Korean, Chinese and English), and the congregation hymns were all sung simultaneously in everyone's own language!  It’s fun, and the Spirit of The Lord is the same and very strong!  We love it!!  Wish you could all be here with us!!!

Busy but Happy

conference

pre-conference from the balcony

conference selfie

We had a great weekend.  Marc's Aunt and Uncle, the Shapiros came on Friday.  They will replace the other office couple (no they didn't ask to be sent here--the Lord works in mysterious ways.)  We are excited to have them here but sad to see the Dukes leave.  They are such a great couple and we have gotten close to them in the few weeks we have been here.

We entertained for our first time on Saturday when we invited the Dukes over to watch conference.  The Dukes have been living in the "holding apartment" (or that's what Marc and I call it)--a 2 room section of what the President calls the "Frat House," where the outgoing couple stays so the new couple can move into their apartment upstairs.  The frat house is a house with 3 apartments of elders and one apartment for the senior couple.

Marc went to Priesthood session of conference next door at the church on Saturday night.  He said besides himself and Elder Shapiro and his son, Ron, there were 4 elders and 2 Spanish members.

Sunday was the best.  We attended at our ward building.  There were 4 meeting rooms with Conference broadcast in Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and English.  English was in the chapel so we attended there and got to sit in the balcony along with 15 of the young missionaries.  It was awesome! We have grown to love these missionaries who meet at our building.

Between the morning and afternoon sessions (2 hours) there was a convert baptism which we attended.  It was all in Spanish.  We couldn't understand most of the words but the Spirit is the same in English or Spanish.  One of the ward members was kind enough to tell us what was said after it was over. I'm starting to understand more and more Spanish (but still not enough.)  Two of the sisters who live near the office are kind enough to teach me a few words here and there when they stop by.   At the baptism, one of the elders played the piano.  It made me think of Hayden who is learning to play the piano and hopefully will get to play when needed when he serves a mission.

After the baptism there was a potluck lunch.  The Spanish ward (and apparently the Korean as well) love to have food at everything.  The Koreans offered us some of theirs but we were rushing off to the baptism so didn't get to taste it.  I expected more hispanic food at the Spanish lunch but there wasn't any.  They did have spaghetti and pizza and lots of chips, popcorn and cheese puffs.  We realized the respect the people here show the senior missionaries.  I got to go to the front of the line (I felt guilty) and they had me take lots of food for Marc.  When I offered someone my chair during the baptism, they refused to take it and I hope I didn't offend them by offering.  Not sure if the respect comes because we are missionaries or because we are old or both.

Today was our first Transfer Day experience.  Yesterday we drove to the airport and picked up the new missionaries' luggage.  There were a lot of wide-eyed brand new missionaries with the same "deer-in-the-headlights" look we had a few weeks ago.  Lots of energy around the office today with everyone coming and going.  The young missionaries are all so very sweet to us and are always looking for ways to help us.  It is amazing to have so many clean-cut respectful, kind young adults assembled in one building at one time.  My main responsibility was to feed them.  They love it.  Marc got to do a few drive tests with the newbies.  We were sad to see the departing missionaries leave, but excited to meet the new ones.  After all is said and done, we are beat and will probably sleep well tonight.