Pro Commuter!

Riding the 'R' subway home along with a few others.  I was doing my job and chatting with another man a few feet away...

Central Park, May 25, 2016

The game is the same, but the outfield view is unique!

We took a twenty minute walk along both dirt and paved paths.  Beautiful evening and lots of people!

Lots of ball fields, playgrounds, other kids attractions, and just big fields like this to relax in...

Getting used to city life

We have commented lately how much this seems like this is our real life now.  We don't feel quite so temporary.  I have grown braver and braver when it comes to driving.  There are still a few places I won't drive but I no longer will only drive early on a Saturday morning. The couple of weeks after transfers are generally slow once we get all our transfer work done.  For Marc that involves getting drivers for various cars worked out and testing new drivers.  For me it mainly involves working out the new mailing addresses and getting letters sent out to missionaries, parents, bishops and stake presidents regarding new callings as zone leaders, trainers, etc.

As I mentioned before, one of my jobs is to forward referrals to the right missionaries or to other missions according to addresses.  I was laboring over a particular difficult one that was to be sent to Guatemala (it was written in Spanish), Two elders walked in.  I asked them what language they spoke.  They were Spanish speaking elders.  Yay!  I don't believe it was a coincidence.  I am grateful for the many small tender mercies that we experience here.  I try not to take them for granted because they happen so often.

On Wednesday we met with a girl who had been in our Young Adult Ward when Marc was Bishop.  She was here for business (seems everyone comes here for business at some time or other).  We went into Manhattan to meet her for dinner at the "Burger Joint."  It is located in the lobby of a fancy hotel near Central Park.  When you walk in the lobby there is a big curtain over in the corner and the restaurant is behind the curtain.  It is very small and quaint with cardboard handwritten menus but the hamburgers are wonderful (and the prices reflect Manhattan)!  While there, a man and his wife came up to talk to us.  They were church members from Harlem.  Interesting how often people come up to us when they see our name tags.
After dinner we went to Central Park and walked around.  We were both tired after but are determined to still do things even when we get tired.

Summer has come to New York and we can see it will be hot here!  Marc mentioned that he keeps getting excited about the 3 day weekend but then remembers that we still work.  Apparently we work in the office on all the Holidays (maybe not Christmas--not sure yet.)  Church was interesting today.  I guess they don't do patriotic songs and talks in the Spanish Branch.  It was like every other Sunday except that the kids were pretty wild, probably because they are excited about no school tomorrow.  The branch does have a picnic planned for tomorrow and Marc challenged a couple of his Sunday School kids to a ping pong match.  We'll see--he may be sorry.  One of them is quite good.

I've decided that missionary work is often quite hard--my feet hurt from wearing dress shoes all the time and from all the walking we do, but the work is always rewarding and we love the multi-cultural experiences and interactions we have here.  We really do love it even if our recurring motto seems to be "We can do hard things."

With friend, Jamie, in Central Park

Another Interesting Week...

We had our second transfer day this past week, and it definitely helps knowing what to expect. (Seemed smoother to me, but it was probably just me knowing the dance.) Transfers are always on Tuesdays. On Monday afternoon, the new incoming missionaries come in at LaGuardia Airport. Sister Williams and I meet them there in a bright yellow rental van and pick up all their luggage (except an overnight bag).  We take the luggage back to the church, and all the new missionaries go to the president’s house for dinner and a devotional, and they spend the night at the mission home.  Tuesday morning back at the church/mission office, the new missionaries meet their new companions, pick up their luggage, get fed pizza (Diane’s job), and then head to their areas by around noon and are supposed to go right to work and not unpack until they come in for the night.  The second wave (everyone else affected by the transfers) gets to the church at noon, gets fed pizza (Diane again), meets their new district and zone leaders, finds out their new companion and area (and sometimes car), and then heads out to their area by 3:30 PM.  Lots of people and luggage filling the building! During the afternoon, we load the out-going (going home) missionaries’ luggage in the van and lock it up for the night.  They all then go to the mission home for a meal, devotional, testimony meeting and to stay the night.  The next morning, we meet them at JFK Airport (~0730), unload their luggage and participate in all the hugs and goodbyes.  (Pretty emotional with all the love and good friends separating for maybe the last time!  Usually not a dry eye, even mine!!)  The Diane and I then fight the rush hour traffic back to the office, return the van, and then start trying to straighten out all the records to show the new locations, companions and vehicles for the next six weeks.  That is transfers in a nutshell!  TMI, I know…

We went to the 9/11 Memorial and museum yesterday, and I thought it was outstanding!  I had definitely forgotten most of the detail, and being reminded made me a mixture of sad, angry and proud!  I didn’t see any middle-eastern people at the memorial, and it isn’t fair but I can see why.  I had mostly forgotten about the pentagon plane, and also learned for the first time (I think) that 4^th plane was not successful in reaching the capitol building because it was delayed a while before take-off, and as people called friends and relatives they learned of the other 3 hijackings, so they recognized their subsequent hijacking for what it was, and took matters into their own hands to attack the hijackers.  There were definitely lots of heroes that day and the next few days!!  The memorial and museum are underground around the bedrock foundations of both towers, and the reflecting pools with surrounding waterfalls are in the exact locations of the twin towers.  We really enjoyed it, although we were ready to get off our feet after three hours there!  I’d love to go and spend another several hours there to see everything we skipped over, but I may be too cheap to pay another $92 for the two of us.

9/11 Memorial Pictures

Us by one of the reflecting pool waterfalls. Waterfalls are in the exact location of the walls of each tower.

The skyline 15 minutes before the first plane hit. Couldn't have been a more beautiful day! Note the radio tower on one tower.

Section of the radio tower from top of west tower.

Above Diane is the outside wall of the pool waterfall above.  Directly below that are the cut off box-beams of the tower foundation.

Looking up in front of a really tall skyscraper near the towers. It's not pointed-- it's the same cross-section all the way to the top!

Lessons Learned

I love that as 6o-something-year-old missionaries we are still learning lessons that we somehow missed in all our previous years.  We came here thinking we would be the ones doing the teaching but in reality we are doing the learning.

One thing I never ever wanted to do was to be Primary Chorister.  After watching the sisters here struggling with singing time I felt impressed to call and offer to help a couple of times a month.  Actually, I couldn't believe I was offering.  Of course the Primary President and her counselor jumped at the chance for help.  In fact they were more than happy to have me do it every week.
We may need to negotiate that since they really do need to learn how to do it.  I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at how fun it was.  I realized that the Spirit was prompting me to get past my attitude of "I just need to get through these 2 hours a week" and have more of an attitude of "how can I help these sisters."  We are always told that in order to enjoy our mission we need to forget ourselves.

We had a baptism today of an 9-yr-old girl that is in my class.  The first speaker was a Korean-speaking missionary, speaking in English which was translated into Spanish by a sister in the branch while being translated into Chinese for an investigator by a sister missionary sitting in front of me.  It was amazing and the Spirit was quite strong.  I love this branch!

Yesterday we went to Queens Museum at Flushing Meadows.  Last time I was there was for the '64 World's Fair and I was 11.  Little did I know back then that I would be living here one day.

Speaking of living here, the city of New York has a new driver--yours truly.  I'm getting a little more confident in my ability and, I might add, a little more assertive in my driving.  I like the feeling of freedom it gives me to not be dependent on Marc to take me shopping.  (He likes not having to go wait in dress stores for me.)

We love and miss our family and friends but are so grateful to be living here and learning new life-lessons at our "advanced age."

Flushing Meadows- Unisphere

Elder Williams and Sister Shapiro (aka Aunt Debbie)

Sisters at the Flushing Branch Mother's Day 'Breakfast'

Sister Williams was in the other room teaching a discussion to a nine year-old investigator with some full-time elders when this picture was taken, so she missed out.  The sister in the front is a recent convert's mother, and some brethren carried her up and down the stairs to get her in the church for the first time. She seemed to enjoy it!

May 8, 2016 Mother's Day!

My turn to write this week.  (If it wasn’t, my companion would probably invoke the Mother’s Day excuse, and I’d be writing anyway…)  This past week was a busy week at the office, and the time flew by!  Unfortunately, what made it busy for me was four accidents, plus the regular monthly reports that are due by the 5^th.  Thankfully, none of the accidents involved injuries! 

It was an especially bad week for one set of elders-- last week I noticed that their car went through a set of rear tires in under 5000 miles, so I had them take it in to find the root cause (turned out another accident last July had bent the rear axle causing horrible alignment).  That was the first thing. Then a day later, they drove too close to a double-parked car (a normal hazard in NYC) and tore off their passenger side rear view mirror.  Then, on the way to the body shop to get an estimate for the axle and mirror, a car pulled over from the adjacent lane and side-swiped them, causing extensive damage to the car.  They told me it’s enough to make them not want to drive, but they need their car to do the work further east on Long Island where they are.  Now I just need to figure out how to get them a car for the next two weeks, so they can get something done! 

On a different note, yesterday morning was our branch Mother’s Day breakfast. It was scheduled to start at 10:00AM, so Diane and I went at 9:00, so I could help with the cooking and prep.  It turned out to be an interesting comedy of errors and men cooking and cultural differences—the food was 30 minutes late due to traffic issues, then men got busy cooking the easy, quick foods, only to discover that the rice would take 50 minutes to cook , and the rice ended up getting started cooking at 10:10.  Meanwhile (as usually happens (maybe they know?)), the women started arriving at about 10:15 and were mostly there by 10:40, and ‘breakfast’ didn’t actually start until 11:30.  It started with hot chocolate (a special blend that one of the men had been working on for several hours), then proceeded with bagels, tacos, fruit, bread, orange juice, chicken, and a couple of pastry-type items (one with chicken/ham/pineapple filling, and one with cheese filling), followed by brownies.  I probably got the order wrong, but there was a lot of food! And it was all interspersed with little talks and a song by four missionaries, too.

I was embarrassed and frustrated by the apparent lack of organization, but then as I watched the sisters of all ages (including six investigators from 12 to 89 y/o) talking and enjoying each other’s company and getting to know each other, it came to me that my frustration was because I was thinking about myself, and I’d better get over it!  No one other than me seemed to mind that the meal started late and didn’t finish until 1:00 PM! And afterward everyone (as far as I could tell) stuck around and took pictures, and helped clean up.  I thought how in an Anglo ward, people (anyway me) seem to want to get in, eat, get out and get on with their day, with as little disruption as possible.  In comparison, it seems like we tend to value organization over the interpersonal relationships, and that’s probably one of the reasons why so many more converts come in the non-Caucasian wards and branches now.  It was an important learning for me!  (Although I must admit, I’d still like a happy medium.)  We are loving the work here, and I know that it is part of the Lord’s plan for us to grow and learn!  I wish everyone could do it!!

40th Anniversary!

   We love working in the office.  Sometimes it is slow and we finish our work early and have time to work on our Sunday lessons, do genealogy, etc.  But once the missionaries start coming in they bring an energy with them that we love!  We love to hear the stories of people they are teaching.
  We had our 2nd Training Meeting this week.  Marc has the biggest part of training, teaching the new missionaries how to stay alive and how to not wreck the new mission cars.  I have the smallest part of the training--explaining how to be sure they get their mail, fill out baptism forms correctly, and how to order name tags.  (Although I do have the most important part--feeding them!)
   As I was waiting in the kitchen for the missionaries to come get their pizza I noticed, to my dismay, that there was a roach crawling around inside the soap dispenser.  I later called the facilities people and they told me to be sure and get rid of it because it would be bad if it made a nest in there. "You're telling me!" I thought, "no way am I opening that dispenser!"  Fortunately, one of the local elders (who is always asking if there is anything he can do for us) walked in the office.  I said, "There's a roach in the kitchen soap dispenser, and there's a reward . . ."  He and his companion were off like a shot to get a can of Raid before I could finish the sentence.  The conquering heroes came back in a few minutes to report that they had killed 18 cockroaches!  They even brought back 16 of them in a paper towel as proof.  The heroes received their reward (whoopie pies) the very next day.
   Yesterday (Saturday) Marc and I finally got to celebrate our 40th anniversary.  We went to Oheka Castle for lunch.  Oheka is the 2nd largest private residence ever built in the US and, like Old Westbury, is the sight of movies and tv shows.  The food was amazing and as we ate, the owner, Gary Melius, came by and talked to us.  We had just seen him on the show Mega Mansions.  He was very nice and we told him a little about our mission.  He said he was sorry Mitt Romney hadn't won the election, so we bonded.
   After strolling the grounds at Oheka, we drove a few miles to 'Sagamore Hill', the home of Teddy Roosevelt.  When we got there, the first thing we noticed was the bus from the BYU TV show "American Ride" in the parking lot, and after walking the grounds for a while, we saw the crew near their bus.  They noticed our name tags and came over to talk to us.  We didn't get to talk to the star, Stan Ellsworth, as he was on his bike talking on his phone, waiting for them to get around to shooting. It made us feel (almost) like we were the celebrities.
  Sundays are harder because our teaching situations are difficult. (My primary class is too noisy and Marc's 12-18 year-old class is too quiet.)  But it makes us feel needed and we keep reminding ourselves we did pray to serve where we were needed!  The best thing about Sundays, though, is that the following day is Monday and we get to go to the office again.

In the office.  My desk is to the right.

My favorite place to be.

Oheka Castle

Oheka Castle courtyard

Oheka Castle Gardens

Teddy Roosevelt's home

Makes me miss home

We saw this bus in the parking lot.  When they noticed our name tags they came over and talked to us.  It made us feel (almost) like we were the celebrities.

We didn't get to talk to Stan Ellsworth.  He was posing, waiting for the crew (who were over talking to us) to start shooting.