41 Years of Wedded Bliss

I was told (by 2 people) that I needed to get going and write the blog since I didn’t write last week.  Can I blame it on the fact that we were having too much fun?

Entrance to Vanderbilt Estate

Last Saturday we celebrated our 41^st Wedding Anniversary.  It was one of those days when we just got to relax and have fun.  Marc was so good to me and catered to my every whim.  First we drove around and explored the north shore or the “gold coast” where all the early 20^th century wealth was.  We ended up touring the Vanderbilt estate.  Then we splurged and went to Peter Luger’s Steakhouse and spent more than we’ve ever spent on a meal.  But it was so worth it!  We got a huge porterhouse for two.  Since I like mine done a little more than Marc, they brought the steak to the table on a sizzling plate and put my slices on the edge of the plate then flipped them over and they were done just right.  For dessert I wanted something light so I ordered strawberries.  They came with a whole big bowl of fresh whipped cream—which I ate straight with a spoon.  I feel blessed to have such a wonderful companion that I get to be with forever!

Anniversary dinner at Peter Luger's

Vanderbilt Estate.  The Spanish style seemed a bit out of place.

We had more Mega-zone conferences this week and we senior missionaries are getting more efficient at feeding the missionaries.  It’s hard work but we love it because we love the missionaries and they are always so appreciative.

I’m finding that as I get more and more responsibilities, at first I am reluctant but then I find that somehow I am given the energy I need and am not only able to do the things I need to but I actually enjoy the work.

Yesterday was another day where we got to just kind of relax for the day (other than working on our lessons).  Our friend Jay took us on a tour of Forest Hills park. It is just a couple miles away but we had never been there.  It was so nice.  First we toured the greenhouses where they grow plants for the various parks around Queens.  Then we walked around the park and sat in the amphitheater (where Jay had his high school graduation ceremony) and talked.  It was nice to be cut off from the hustle and bustle of the city for a while. 

At the greenhouse

Jay and Marc at Forest Hills Park.  Marc & I were a
little over-dressed.

It’s nice when people in the Branch like Jay are no longer just people we know and like, but become people we truly can call friends!  It is the same with the other Senior Missionaries.  We are so grateful for every new friend we make here!

At times I feel guilty because I am loving it so much.  It seems like it should feel like more of a sacrifice.  But I’m not complaining.

From a couple weeks ago--Sunday Drive home from Church in Flushing

Another week!

Once again, not too much unusual or exciting has happened, so I’ll just start writing and see what comes out. 

Last week during general conference I was writing down comparisons the general authorities used to teach gospel principles, and there were many.  I had told my Sunday School class of 12-18 year olds during the last lesson on “How Can I Use Comparisons to Teach Others About the Atonement?”, that I would give a prize to anyone who could tell the class a comparison used during General Conference.  (Unfortunately, the prize went unclaimed -- teenagers’ memories being much like senior citizens on that kind of assignments…)  Anyway, I shared Elder Valeri Cordon’s comparison on foreign language-loss with each generation, comparing it to gospel knowledge-loss by generation if there is no scripture study at home.  I thought it was a great comparison and lesson, but what really struck me when I asked the students how many of them have a parent or grandparent that came to the US from another country, was that every single one of them raised their hand!  Eleven students, all of whom are 1^st or 2^nd or 3^rd generation Americans!!  (9 from various Latin countries, 2 from Japan.) Within the class, about a third speak English perfectly, a third understand English very well but are uncomfortable speaking it, and the other third understand only the barest fundamentals of English. (Michiko has been here from Japan less than a year and spoke no English at home, so she’s probably the furthest from being fluent. Luckily, May is 3^rd generation from Japan, and speaks a little Japanese!) The challenge for me as a teacher is to teach at so many different levels, and to tell what is getting through to whom!!  I really love them, though, and work as hard as I’ve ever worked as a teacher to get through!  There’s usually a good feeling in the class, and I know the Spirit will touch each when they are ready, and when they allow it!

Yesterday, we were at a primary activity waiting around for people to get there.  As often happens, the two leaders got there 30 and 60 minutes late, but everything turned out great in the end! During the wait, I taught Nicole (15, in my SS class) and her younger brother Joel (9) how to play ‘PIG’ (the basketball game), and it was fun.  I found I was so horrible at shooting that I didn’t even have to take it easy on them…!  Then, after the primary kids were in the other room, I had a great talk with Nicole for 30 minutes or so.  She is an absolutely gorgeous girl, but she thinks she’s dumb and is afraid to speak up because of fear that any answer she gives will be wrong.  I encouraged her and focused on what she can do to be a good older sister to her brother Keller (13, also in SS class).  As often happens, he has the opposite personality.  These are good kids and I love them!! 

This coming week is transfer week again, so it will be fun, busy and exhausting.  Only 7 new missionaries coming and 5 going home, so it should be easier than it is with the big groups of 24!  One car was totaled a couple of weeks ago and no new cars are here, so one set of missionaries will lose their car to another area that needs it more.  I hate to tell them when they just got a car a transfer ago and are so thankful!

Monday we will do last minute preparations, work on lessons and food (Diane) for upcoming MegaZone conferences, then pick up the new missionaries from LaGuardia in the afternoon (usually during rush hour, so the 5 mile trip to the airport takes an hour each way).  Tuesday, transfers are made, so there are missionaries coming and going all day (and Diane feeds them). Wednesday, we drop off the outgoing missionaries at JFK between 6 and 7 AM, then the assistants huddle most of the day in the office to get all the changes into the system. Thursday we make all the changes in the downstream systems (phones, addresses, vehicles, areas). (Oh, and we also have an all-day MegaZone conference.) Friday, there is another MegaZone conference, then again the next Tuesday and Wednesday.  I have driving tests set up before each MagaZone conference, just to make sure the days are full…  The days seem to fly by!!!!!!!!!!!

On this Easter Day, let me close by bearing my testimony of the Savior of mankind.  Anyone who knows me knows that I’m more of a worker than a spiritual person, but if there’s anything this mission has done for me, it’s helped me see the hand of the Lord in all things!  I know He is aware of the missionary work in the NY NY South Mission!  I know that He knows me, loves me and died for me!  I know that through His atonement I can be saved and live with Him again!  I know that through His resurrection, I will be resurrected with a perfected body (thank goodness!).  Since I have been lucky enough to have already received the saving ordinances of the gospel, all I have to do is keep trying to be a good person, follow the commandments, repent of my sins (not one of my strengths, but I’m improving…), and endure to the end.  I’m so thankful for this missionary experience!  Like anything confining or hard, there are times I wish it was over, but most times I want it to go on forever!! I’m so thankful for good parents who showed me (and continue to show me) the way to be happy, and I’m so happy to be married for the eternities to someone I love more each week!  What more could I ask?!!!

History, and the Making of History

Today was Stake Conference.  We love Stake Conference because it gives us another chance to see so many more of the missionaries that we love.  Elder Calderwood of the Seventy spoke.  He was the Mission President here before President Reynolds.  As I listened to him and to the other speakers, I realized what a special stake Lynbrook, New York Stake is.  We love the diversity here.  I looked around and saw people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Colombia, Philippines, El Salvador, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Dominica, and many other countries.  People there spoke Spanish, Chinese, Mandarin, Korean, Creole, Tagalog, and even English!  I think it’s so cool that the new Branch President of our Spanish/English Branch is Filipino.  We realize more and more that the gospel will be brought to all the world not only through missionaries going into other countries but by people from those countries coming here and being converted and taking the gospel back to their own countries.  I’m so impressed with the Chinese here!  Every week the Chinese-speaking elders bring me at least one baptism record. 

Yesterday for our P-day we went to Park Slope, one of the more upscale areas in Brooklyn.  The Adamses, our CES senior missionaries live there and they showed us around.  They said “We want to take you to this beautiful place.”  They took us to Green-Wood Cemetery!  It truly was beautiful.  Many, many of the gravestones had mid-eighteen hundreds dates on them but the stones were brand new.  Apparently they are replaced and kept up by the families down through the years.  We had never seen a cemetery with so many mausoleums.  These were very elaborate, some built into the hill with stain glass windows and even skylights.  They were like mausoleum condos!  So many of the stones were very large and elaborate.  We couldn’t help but wonder what the “residents” thought when they got to the other side and realized their money was no good.  It is a lovely place and is very peaceful.  Many famous people are buried there including Horace Greeley and Leonard Bernstein.  On a historical note, the cemetery is on the sight of a Revolutionary War battle.  We laughed about going to visit our friends and them taking us to a graveyard, but we thought it was great!

 

Italian Bakery.  There was one right next door and one
across the street

There are way too many restaurants here in New York.  Within just a couple of blocks of our apartment there are Peruvian, Greek, Italian, Indian, Chinese and many more types of restaurants.  I’m not sure we can eat our way through all of them before we go home.  There are also many bakeries.  New York has more bakeries than Seattle has Starbucks! These are real bakeries.  We’re not talking bran muffins and bruschetta like Seattle bakeries but eclairs, cream puffs napoleons, knishes and more.  It’s very dangerous!  No wonder their cemeteries are so large. 

We look forward to a somewhat quiet week in the office.  The week before transfers is usually pretty slow.  Some days are hard and the pace gets to us (well it gets to me anyway) but most days are invigorating and exciting.  We can’t imagine doing anything else in our “golden years.”  

One of many mausoleums at
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn

Mausoleum Village

Main Gate of Green-Wood Cemetery

Temple Trip.  We love it when it is our turn to
escort the missionaries.

Daily Stuff (and we still love it!)

It has not been a very interesting week as far as things to write about—just the normal things associated with working in the mission office, training new missionaries, picking up a car from a body shop and getting it back to the missionaries, and preparing for the beginning of the month vehicle reports. 

Three weeks into each missionary’s mission, they and their companion come to the Rego Park church for a full day of training. In the morning, the Assistants to the President take care of the training, giving instruction and doing a number role plays with them.  Then, after feeding them pizza (Diane), the senior missionaries take over the training for the afternoon.  This last week, the Johnsons went first and spent about half an hour talking about various aspects of taking care of their apartments.  (Most missionaries have never had any kind of place of their own, and with the younger missionary ages, most have never even lived in a school apartment with roommates, and have always had mother to clean up after them.  Apartment/cleaning training happens at every zone conference also, and I know the Johnsons feel like most training “goes in one ear and out the other”. We don’t envy them!  The church spends $2500 a month on most NYC apartments, plus utilities, and they are too often not taken care of like they should be.)

Next, Sister Petersen, the mission nurse talked to them about how to maintain their health.  A lot of her emphasis, of course, is on eating properly and relieving stress.  (As you may know, many more missionaries now go home early because of emotional issues than because of moral or physical health issues.)  Sister Petersen is wonderful!  She is creative in her teaching, funny and loving, and the missionaries love her, and we wouldn’t trade assignments with her either!

After that, Diane talks about mail (please tell your family not to use nicknames (stud muffin, twinkle-toes, Aunt Jillian, etc.) and include first names), ordering name tags (can only order in languages you speak (and none for your future wife or husband-whole other story)), the referral process, and filling out baptismal records fully and correctly (also a never-ending battle!). 

After, that, I bring up the rear with 90 minutes of hard work on vehicle training.  By that time, most just want to get out of there, so I try to spice it up with videos, a couple of two-companion exercises and a written quiz.  It can be tough teaching, but mostly it goes pretty well and there is a good spirit there!  After their first three weeks in NY traffic or on the transit systems, many of the new elders and sisters really would prefer to NEVER drive here, so I work hard to convince them that it isn’t our place to counsel the Lord!  I always use my story of (unsuccessfully) lobbying hard to be a ward clerk for 20 years, and tell how many times I told people I was excited for my senior mission “as long as I didn’t have to be the car guy!”  The Lord knows what we need (and what we will love!), and He knows what He needs to help in the kingdom of God.  It’s our duty to prepare ourselves to serve wherever we are needed!  I can tell the spirit helps it get through by the written comments on their forms, where it asks, “How do you feel about, and how will you act if you are assigned to drive a mission vehicle?”(My words.)  Many say something along the lines of, “I really don’t want to drive, and I would be nervous, but I will do my best in whatever assignment the Lord gives me, including driving a mission vehicle if that’s what is needed.” 

These are wonderful young women and young men!!  They are the cream of the crop, and, in spite of their lack of experience, limited worldly knowledge, and sometimes even ‘bonehead decisions’ (as my dad would say), I know they are called by the Lord to gather His sheep in the last days!  I’m so thankful that for this brief period in my life, I can use my priesthood keys to help, support and guide them in their work!!  I love it!  I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is found in its fullness in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I will do anything I can to help it move forward!  (And I’ll still never catch up to my wife, who is pretty much perfect…!)

Elder Wickham, Elder Williams. Portadown, Ireland 1972

Portstewart, Ireland 1971

Belfast, Ireland 1972, Williams, Locke, Reed?, Jack Forsythe, Sorensen, ?