More September Highlights

The highlight of this week was definitely our son Chris’s visit!  He came for a wedding/parent visit/friends visit/business trip, and it was great to see him!!  (Chris is 39, and we had a bit of a rude awakening this week, when Elder Opfar told us that his father is 42.  Sister Williams said, “We like to think of you missionaries as our kids, but I don’t think I want to think of you as our grandkids!”)  On Chris’ one week trip he hits Philadelphia (where he served his mission), NYC and Boston, and we caught him in the middle for a few hours.  Avery didn’t come because of a competing friend’s wedding in Seattle, and we missed seeing her!   Chris came to our apartment via bus for breakfast, and then after a little tour of the mission office, we drove over to Long Island City and caught the East River Ferry for a trip down East River to Governors Island, had lunch there, and then caught the ferry for the trip back up-river.  It was a beautiful 75 degree sunny day, and it was neat to see the New York skyline from many different angles!  This trip has been on our bucket list since we got here, and just like at home, we tend to do more things when we have visitors!  The best part, of course, was talking to Chris and see what’s going on in his life.  He and Avery just bought their first home a couple of weeks ago, so that will fill their lives (and rule their pocketbooks) for the foreseeable future.  We are excited to see it and Avery when we go to Seattle in October for Darci and Jeremy’s wedding!!  We are excited to have more family members visit us, so don’t hesitate to come!  We have lots of blow-up mattresses and bedding for visits!

Looking ahead, transfers and associated work will fill this week! New missionaries come in Monday afternoon, Tuesday everyone (new missionaries and the rest of the mission) gets their area assignments and meets their new companions, and Wednesday the departing missionaries leave for home. Then we spend the rest of the week getting all the systems and records updated with the new information.  Like we’ve said before, everything in the mission field cycles on the six-week transfer cycle, and transfer week is one of the busiest!

I still teach the 12-18 year-old YM & YW for Sunday School, and an awful lot of my spare thoughts seem to go towards finding the best ways to teach the 12 of them.  So often, what would work great for the 17/18 year olds wouldn’t work well for the 12/13 year old students, and I get a little frustrated having to water down the activities to work semi-well for both.  I have gotten to know the kids well enough that I can (with some serious work) get a pretty good discussion going with the older kids, but then the younger kids are a little left out.  I can only hope they will learn from watching and listening to the discussion!  It’s taken me 7 months to get to the beginning discussion point.  Previous teachers (and maybe some culture issues) had let them get so intellectually lazy that they just wanted (and often still do) to sit there and be talked at, so they can zone in and out.  I want to use the ‘Come, Follow Me’ discussion process to teach these wonderful young people, and it’s coming along slowly, but it is coming!  They still have a very difficult time pulling gospel principles out of stories and talks, and seeing how it applies in their lives.  Some of it is vocabulary—the general authorities and the scriptures have pretty advanced vocabularies for second language students… On the other hand, the standard desired for Come, Follow Me is very high (much like the standard in Preach My Gospel, for missionaries), and most adults in the church aren’t there fully either as students!  I love these kids, and will keep working with them until those who are willing catch the vision!  We love our mission!!

East River Ferry with Chris!

Chris and Diane waiting for the ferry

We passed under three bridges...Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

(Brooklyn Bridge in the background, Manhattan Bridge in foreground.)

The only picture I have with all three of us!

Waiting for lunch while Diane searched for a table. (Others
had the same idea of how to spend a beautiful Saturday
afternoon, including a number of bees and wasps.
They like picnic food here, too!)

Good Times and Good People

It has been a couple of weeks since we (meaning I) have written. We generally write Sunday nights but that is when we often come home and crash.  

Yesterday as we got to church I saw something that for some reason touched my heart. There on the steps was a young Chinese girl.  She looked about 10 but was probably more like 12 since she is not in our Activity Days group.  She was sitting there, amid all the chaos of people coming and going, with her marking pen in hand and scriptures open on her lap, intently immersed in them.  She was round-faced with glasses--not particularly attractive, but a beauty emanated from her that is difficult to describe.  I wish I had a picture to show.  Maybe it was the former seminary teacher in me that found it so touching.  

Our stake is trying to get cub scouts going in the wards and is having a difficult time. Guess who they want to lead cubs in our building!   We are having difficulty deciding when to say "enough!" Right now we each have 3 callings in the ward that are fairly time consuming.  Actually I would love to start up a cub scout den.  I enjoyed it the first time around (years ago) and I do love the boys in our Flushing Wards. We're just not sure we have that much time to give.  We think the Ward really doesn't have any idea what we actually do and that we have responsibilities outside the Ward.  We think they often turn to the missionaries to do things when it gets hard to find anyone else.  We would really like to help in an "advisory" capacity.  We'll see what happens.  The boys do deserve a good program.  We would love to see some of the parents become "scouters."

Ferris wheel built in early 1900s.  I tried not to think
about it.

We finally got to go to Coney Island last week with another senior couple, the Johnsons. The 90 minute subway ride each way was worth it.  We sure picked a good day.  Because of Hurricane Hermine that was headed our way (but which fizzled before it reached us) the weather was cool and pleasant but there were no crowds!  We had a blast and even rode the ferris wheel.  New York is proving to be much more fun a place than I had imagined.  So much to do and so few p-days.  We have a bucket list.

Sister Shapiro and I have started working on Christmas, emailing parents to remind them to mail early.  We will keep track of who receives packages as they come in so we will know who receives them and who doesn't.  It has surprised me how many missionaries we have who are here with no support from home or don't even have parents.  It makes me even more impressed with their dedication to serve.  We have had parents email us back offering to send extra gifts for those who have nothing (even though we hadn't mentioned it).  It melts my heart to know what good people there are in the world.

  

I have been missing my family today. (Maybe I shouldn’t have their pictures plastered all over my desktop screen.)  So I’m so excited that Chris will be coming to see us this weekend.  Can’t wait!

We love all our family and friends.  Our mission makes us realize how important they are to us and how supportive they all are.

The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.  Lots of bridges here.

From the Ferris wheel at Coney Island.

Took a stroll through Astoria Park along the East River.

East River from Astoria Park.