Home Again, Naturally

I got home from Kent at 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning after several delays on the ground in Seattle and again on the ground at JFK.  I miss my kids and grandkids but it is so great to be back with my companion. It feels weird to think of going from Kent to New York as "coming home".  I realize that "home" is were Marc is.  I feel complete again. It is taking a little time to readjust to the time change combined with the late night arrival and late morning sleep-in the next day.  Many thanks to those who kept my husband entertained/fed while I was out of town.

Kennedy Jo Martin. 1/2 day old.  7 lbs 1 oz.

I find that I keep looking around for a baby to hold.  New little Kennedy is quite a sweetheart.  I don’t care what anyone says, any mother or grandmother will tell you that newborns really do smile.  I was holding her and she looked up intently at me and smiled.  Her mouth hasn’t figured it out yet but her eyes were definitely smiling.  The song "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" kept running through my head.  It was the highlight of my trip.  Although, I felt truly blessed to be able to see all five of my kids and all but three grandkids.  Angie’s youngest ones weren’t sure what to think when they first saw me.  They are used to seeing me on the computer screen and I think were surprised that I was a real person.

2 weeks old.  It was tempting to stay a couple
more days just to hold her.

Favorite animal at the zoo.

I got to spend one day with Austin at the zoo.  The one-on- one time was great and I found that 2 hours is about perfect for both grandma and 3-year-old.  He kept telling everyone his favorite animal at the zoo was the zebra.  Here’s a picture of the zebra he was talking about:  

It was good to be back at Flushing 1^st Branch this morning, and especially to be with the Primary children.  We had a puppet show as we sang Nephi’s Courage that went over quite well—maybe too well, it got quite rowdy but a wonderful time was had by all.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about coming back after being home but I find that I love it here just as much as I did before I left and I'm very much looking forward to getting back to my desk in the office (which by the way was "heart attacked" by some sweet sisters while I was gone.)  Marc says the office elders had to keep moving the hearts out of the way to use the desk and computer, and he made them move them back each time.  

I know these next 7 months will fly by.  I love my mission and feel that the Lord's tender mercies toward His missionaries are too many to count.  

Got to attend our Empty Nesters group while I was home.
This was supposed to be the "silly face" pic but some
were not cooperating.  Love these people.

Marc went to the DMV and was pretty impressed. 200+ people were waiting in line 10 minutes before opening time, and the inside is HUGE.  36 booths and a separate room for people taking tests.  This was taken at 0900, well before peak time!

Home Alone 2

This is my second week WOW (without wife), and I’m ready for it to end.  It’s a little fun at first because you can sit anywhere you want and watch anything you want on TV and eat anything you want (as long as you cook or buy it), but it gets old fast and it’s officially old now!  Last week was an eventful week, with four megazone conferences (with the requisite car swaps, car inspections and training sessions), a good HT visit with the Darcy family, and the NY Philharmonic in the Park concert. (And cleaning the sofa and washing the bedding, but they didn’t make the list.)

Jay and I had a good sit-down visit with the Darcy family finally, after four months of drop-byes, phone messages and food drops.  We sat and talked to them for about 45 minutes, just getting to know them.  We are very hopeful this kind of visit will be the norm now, but you never know.  After 20 years without the church in their lives, what we hope to do is help build a bridge they can find when they are ready.  He is Roman Catholic, the three kids all went to Catholic schools, and she did mention going to mass during the conversation. Their three ‘children’ are 15, 18 & 21.  

On Thursday, WOW, Jay and I went to the local ‘concert in the park’ put on by the New York Philharmonic at Cunningham Park.  The Philharmonic puts on one park concert in each of the five boroughs each year, and this was Queens’ week. It was a great experience and event!  That’s probably my quota for classical music for the year, but I was sure impressed with how GOOD they were! It reminded me of the MOTAB to see and hear that many instruments in perfect synchronization even during the very fast parts!  They played Dvořák’s "New World Symphony” (all four movements), Bernstein's “West Side Story”, and Gershwin's “An American in Paris”.  After the concert (about 10PM) there was a pretty spectacular fireworks display.  Neither of us expected to be very impressed, but it was as close as I’ve ever been (Maybe with the exception of the summer I was grounded for sneaking too close when I was about 12…thanks Mom!), and it was a pretty amazing 10 minute show! All in all another good memory of NYC!!

Cunningham Park, about an hour before show time. The crowd filled in pretty well later.

On Saturday afternoon we had one of those rain storms where it was 80 degrees and the rain was coming down so hard it bounced 5 or 6 inches in the air.  I don’t remember ever seeing that in Seattle.  Diane I have often talked and speculated why Seattle is so well-known for rain, even though NYC gets 20% more rain on average than Seattle!  Even when you look at the number of clear days per year, Seattle and NYC are not that far apart. Both cities are really beautiful when the skies are blue, though, just in different ways!

Rockaway 'Chapel' (fourth floor)

Sacrament Meeting room

Entrance just outside elevator on the 4th floor

Rockaway district correlation meeting & birthday party

(All these missionaries support one branch! Except Diane...)

With the birth of Kennedy Jo Martin on June 9^th to Courtney and Tyler, and seeing all the Facebook posts from the different families, I’ve been thinking a lot about the different phases of family life and how much each phase causes you to grow and increases your ability to love!  There’s the new marriage phase, the new baby phase, the kindergarten/preschool phase, the grade school phase, the teenage family phase, the young adult family phase, and the grandkids phase.  Wow! (Not ‘without wife’.) Each phase has things you love and things you definitely don’t love, but they all help you grow and mature and become what Heavenly Father wants you to become, as long as you move forward with faith.  I am so thankful for the guidance of the gospel, and so thankful for the refining influence of priesthood callings in my life!!  If not for those 53 years of priesthood assignments and experiences, I don’t know what kind of person I would be.  Probably not a horrible person, but certainly not where I am now—on a mission with my wife (assuming she comes back Friday) learning to love and serve even more! 

Walking home from dropping off a car at body shop. Pretty typical

double-park scenario. The truck was there for 45 minutes that I saw.

No big deal--everyone just flows around it!

Home Alone

This is the first of two blogs while my companion is gone home to Kent to help with grandchild #10, Kennedy Jo Martin.  She was delivered Friday, 6/9/17 by cesarean, so she is doing fine and mom is a little slower to recover! They are coming home from the hospital this afternoon (6/11).  Kennedy weighed 7lb 1oz, so she is 3lb more petit than her older brother, Austin, was!  She looks really cute and sweet from the pictures!  (They aren’t good for much else at that age…)  Diane is excited to hold her and take care of her and her mom.  I’m sure she will love it, and be totally exhausted and happy to come to NY and recover after two weeks. 

Meanwhile, the Kent stake had a big meeting today where the boundaries of all the wards were adjusted to even out the priesthood holders, youth and children.  Diane’s comment to me after the meeting was, “Wow, they (Kent stake) don’t know how good they have it, and how much strength of leadership they have!”  They talked about wards currently in the Kent stake with incomplete presidencies, and that is often the norm here. Few presidencies in the Lynbrook stake wards and branches seem to be full, and even our branch presidency went three months without a counselor recently. We only know what we experience, and we are so thankful to be experiencing so much here in NYC!!

Yesterday I went for a walk down to Forest Hills and back.  It was a beautiful day for it, and you notice so much more when you are walking!  However, I didn’t think to take any pictures until on the way home, at around 8PM, so they are a little dark.

Neighborhood a block or two off Queens Blvd. These 1700sf

homes are $600,000-900,000.

Looking west down Queens Blvd towards the Manhattan Skyline

at sunset

Still amazes me to walk by these buildings that could hold

as many people as Kent!

Tonight, as usual (only usually with my companion) I went to Sunday dinner at Sister Petersen’s house along with eight of the local missionaries.  It’s always fun to just listen to them relate to each other, and see what they talk about.  Unfortunately, tonight the topic ended up on zombie movies and TV shows, and everyone but Sister Petersen, Me and Elder Afoa (from Samoa) seemed to enjoy the conversation!  (Diane and I mention often, and I was again impressed with how different the elders and sisters are when they have their missionary mantles on, than when they have their teenager personalities going!  With the missionary mantles on, you can see so much easier how strong they can be and what they can become in the Lord’s kingdom!!) We sure love them!  (BTW, I’m doing well on my transition to becoming a hugger. I probably do the hug thing 70% of the time now.  Still working on it…)

I love my mission!  Thoughts of my Sunday School class, the people I home teach, and Jay are never far from my mind and are always in my prayers.  I want so much for them to be happy and do the things that lead to happiness in the eternities!!  All I can do is do my best to be a positive influence in their agencies, and I try.  Thoughts of Diane and my family are also always on my mind, and I know this is what my Heavenly Father expects—for me to learn to love and serve others more fully and more often. I know He lives and loves me!

So Much to Do, So Little Time Left

Branch Social, Tug of War

Last week was fairly eventful.  Monday was our Branch Social for Memorial Day.  We love Branch Socials!  It gives us a chance to mingle with the Branch members that we don’t get to talk to on Sundays due to other responsibilities, and also gives us a chance to learn a few Latin dance steps (there is always dancing!)  Our new Branch President, President Garcia, is awesome and likes games.  So we played a lot of them.  And of course there is always so much food!!

Some of the people we love.  

Branch Social.  L to R Brother Novac, the Fairbanks, Elder Williams

Tuesday was Transfers, so there were new missionaries to get to know and departing ones to say goodbye to.  Many tears were shed.  I got to take Sister Talaboc (from Philippines) to the airport because her flight was in the evening.  Some missionaries we get extra close to and Sister Talaboc was one of them.  She has a little tiny body and a great big spirit.  We also said goodbye to one of our former office elders, Elder Reese.  It was a hard transfer! 

Elder Reese at the airport.  We love our Office Elders!

Marc tweaked his back lifting all those 50 lb. suitcases but, being Marc, healed quickly and is about 98% now.  He had 3 accidents to deal with this week—all rear-end collisions so not the missionaries’ fault.  Marc is good about asking first if the missionaries are OK, then asking if the car is OK (since she trained me...Marc).

I keep asking myself why I love being a missionary so much.  I have decided there are two reasons:  first, I love being useful and the missionaries are so very appreciative for all we do. And, second but more importantly, we love the people!  Maybe not so much the people in general—the ones who honk at you for no good reason and are pretty aggressive when it comes to getting a parking space—but the people that you get to know.  Not just the missionaries but the people of the Branch.  We just love them so much.  For me, I especially love the children!! I admit that it is kind of good for my ego when I stand up to do Singing Time and they yell, “Yay, Sister Williams!!” or run up and hug my legs when they see me in the hall--not so much the older ones because they are way too cool but even some of the older boys will follow me and ask if they can carry books for me or ask if they can help me.  I love teaching them and they seem to love learning.

It’s hard to believe we only have 5 transfers left!  It makes feel a little anxious and I wonder if I couldn’t have done more to serve and to help others and what can I still do in the short time I have left.  Marc loves it here too but admits that he is looking forward, just a little, to actually being retired.  We are so grateful for the opportunity to be living this whole other life that we didn’t even know existed and to be serving the Lord at the same time.  I only hope when it is time to go home that we can feel good about what we have done here and that we can say we have done our best.