Christmastime in New York

These have been a busy couple of weeks and time seems to be flying by.  Elder Williams and I have been doing some of the quintissential New York Christmas things.  There is so much to do here its hard to cram it all into our Saturdays.

Last Monday we went with some of the other Senior Couples to Grimaldi's for pizza in Brooklyn. This involved a lengthy subway ride across the East River to Manhattan and back across the river again to Brooklyn.  On the way home Marc was sitting across from me next to a 20-year-old.  They were thoroughly engaged in conversation all the way home and you'd have thought they were best friends.  They talked a great deal about the Church, along with music and sports.  Marc is a much better missionary than I am.

On Thursday night we went with Sisters Shapiro and Petersen to the Rockettes Christmas show. The area around Radio City and Rockerfeller Center where the tree is was packed with wall to wall people.  Everyone was in a cheerful festive mood so no one seemed to mind the crowds.

The show was amazing!  There was a 3-D part where we watched Santa's sleigh soaring over Manhattan, lots of very impressive music and dance numbers, and a beautiful nativity scene with live sheep and camels!  It even snowed white confetti into the audience.

We feel almost guilty having so much fun. However, we do  manage to do some work.  Monday I went to the doctor's office and when I came back I was greeted with a wall of packages and mail. One of my projects now is to keep track of who gets Christmas packages so we Senior Couples can make up some gift packages for those who don't get anything. It stresses me out a little to think I might miss someone.  Last year they did 30 packages.  I had the parents put smiley faces or Christmas stickers on their Christmas packages so I could tell the Christmas ones from the ordinary ones.  A few remembered.  I love it when there is a hole in a package so I can peek inside to see if there is wrapping paper.

I have been emailing parents.  I love them!  They are great.  I was having some trouble getting a group email list generated though, but two very computer savvy elders, Elder Smith & Elder Christie came along just in time, pressed a few keys and worked their magic.  I'm learning a lot from the missionaries.

Some days it gets a little stressful.  Not the bad kind of stress but the fun kind.  All sorts of things seem to come at you at once but they usually involve helping the missionaries with something, which we love.

We got to go with the office elders to deliver some new cars to the missionaries in Riverhead at the far end of the island.  I love trips to Riverhead.  This included lunch with the office elders.  Great fun.

We continue to be amazed at how readily blessings come to us as missionaries when we need them.  I am constantly reminded of my Heavenly Father's love for us and so appreciate His tender mercies that seem to shower down on us daily.