On Tuesday the 16th, we got to attend the Manhattan temple
with President and Sister Reynolds and all the missionaries leaving for home on
2/6. It was wonderful to be with them in
the temple! Then after the session,
President Reynolds had arranged for us all to do some sealing work, for people
who the sealer (President Fox, I believe, from the temple presidency) said were
his ancestors. It was a choice
experience, and one we will remember forever!
Upon returning to the Mission office, we had the traditional meal (catered
by ‘Pio Pio Restaurant’) for missionaries returning home. It was fun and
nostalgic! (I’ll see if I get any photos in…the lack of internet at home and
the fact that I left my phone at home today are impediments.)
Last Wednesday we went to ‘Phantom of the Opera” at the
Majestic Theater on Broadway. It was
great!! We had box seats in the closest
box on stage left. We really enjoyed
being able to see the actors’ faces, and I really enjoyed looking down into the
orchestra pit and seeing them do their work.
(It was interesting that several would play like crazy for a few
minutes, then put their instrument down and read a book until they were up
again.) Once again, I was just so impressed at HOW GOOD everyone was!! The pinnacle of success is Broadway, so they
get the best! What made it even more fun
was being able to go with several of our senior missionary friends, Sister
Conger and Sister Postma. (I thought
sometimes that I probably looked like a fine Mormon man with his three wives…)
Diane spearheaded a primary activity on Friday night, which
turned out to be wonderful! Pretty much
all the kids that are active, plus a few (and a number of parents and other
adults) were there. She had the American
Sign Language sisters come and teach the kids more ASL words and phrases, then
had some activities that required them to use their new ASL skills. We have a little deaf girl that was baptized
recently, and Diane said she was just glowing!
I’m proud of Diane for going out of her way to teach ASL songs to the
kids in Primary over the past year, and I don’t doubt that was one of the main
reasons Arianna made the decision to be baptized. (Diane was even the ASL interpreter in her
baptism interview…in the interview there was Arianna (speaks only ASL), Arianna’s
mother (speaks only Spanish), Diane (speaks a little ASL and a little Spanish), Brother Lopez (BP1C, speaks English &
Spanish) and President Garcia (Branch President, speaks only English and
Tagalog)) AMAZING, but so Queens!
I begged off going to the Primary activity so I could keep
cleaning the apartment, getting ready to move out Monday. It’s amazing how long it takes to pack and
clean a 750 sf apartment after you’ve been there 2 years!! I think the results speak for themselves and
it’s something we are proud to turn over to our replacements, the Palmers! We moved to a newly rented apartment in
Jamaica (NY) last night, which we will camp out in until we leave in a
week. The Palmers are driving to NYC
today from their home in Lexington, Kentucky, and will be here at 9PM or so
tonight. We remember our hazy memories
of doing the same thing 2 years ago.
Everything was just so strange, and you are in a fog the first several
days!
The apartment we are staying in this week was just rented
and furnished by the mission for the Zimmermans (records preservation) who will
arrive on the 2nd. The
apartment is larger than ours, and will be great once it’s upgraded by some
senior couples. Our old apartment had
had couples in it for 6 or 8 years, so the quality and quantity of provisions
was pretty nice. We old people are used
to a standard that is a little higher than the young missionaries, so we tend
to replace things as needed. (We
replaced the bathroom light fixtures, the kitchen faucet, the TV, the
microwave, and the vertical blinds, along with towels and linen and a few other
things.) It will be an interesting week camping
out in a strange apartment, and roughing it with no internet! The Congers, one of our favorite couples,
lives in the same building and dropped by last night, which was fun! I’m sure the week will fly by!
It’s sad to think of our time here ending, and we will sure
miss a whole bunch of people we’ve grown to love! One of them for me is Jay. In SS class a couple of weeks ago, I was
talking about something Jay said or did, and Nicole (15) said, “Is Jay your best
friend?!” And I said, “Certainly one of the top two!” It’s kind of amazing that in 2 years you can get
to know someone and love them so much (which we don’t talk about because we are
men…). It will be sad to leave because I
know what kind of long-distance communicator I am, and it’s not good. I’ll try to tempt Jay to come out west and
visit, and hope he will give me a good reason to visit here, too! The relationships are the thing you miss when
you leave somewhere, and luckily we know that they are eternal.
