Another Week, Another Stake Conference

 I spent a lot of time this week trying to prepare PowerPoint presentations for various events that are coming at the end of the month (yikes, this week!) and in November. On Saturday we have been given 30 - 40 minutes to speak to a combined group of Relief Society sisters and bishops in the Plainview Stake. WE WILL TRY TO TAKE MORE PICTURES! We met some really important, wonderful people and forgot to take pictures. More on that later. Anyway, the stake Relief Society President really wants us to explain the courses available in Self Reliance, but also discuss English Connect and BYU Pathway. So I have built quite a presentation for that. We will try to impress the attendees, especially bishops and stake leaders about the relationship between retaining all the new members and Self Reliance, including English Connect and Pathway.

The idea is starting to resonate with several leaders with whom we have talked recently. We attended a 7:00 AM breakfast meeting for elders' quorum and Relief Society presidencies on Saturday morning. Besides being a superb breakfast, the speakers included the stake Relief Society President, Sister Baxter, her counselor, Sister Wong, the Regional Manager of Welfare and Self Reliance Services, Christopher George, the BYU Pathway Area Operations Manager for North America NE & SE, Matthew Maughan, and the stake president, President Peguero. They discussed the accountability for ministering by the EQ and RS presidencies and what Self Reliance and Pathway can add to improve the lives of their people. President Peguero ended with a strong testimony of the desirability of the flood of new members coming into the stake. He emphasized the need to love them and keep them active. We talked to him afterward and pointed out the availability of SR  courses attended by a new member and ministering brothers or sisters in making retention a reality. He had already thought of that and is planning to have courses start right away.

From one of the presentations. Note the
last item.

President Peguero is highly motivated in seeing
this work progress in his stake

Christopher George, Matthew Maughan and
The amazing Sister Baxter. A few weeks ago
she handed me an envelope with the invitation
for this meeting addressed to Brother and Sister
Anderson. Remembering we were missionaries,
she wrote Elder above Brother without marking
out Brother. I told her I was proud to be her Elder
Brother. She found that quite hilarious, so now it
has stuck.

In our weekly Zoom meeting with Chris George, we mentioned the idea of Self Reliance being a tool for retention. We told him of our conversation with a member of the stake presidency in the Brooklyn Stake, who is anxious to apply it to his stake. We were able to give Brother George some statistics, which were not exact, but adequate. Of 150 baptized, only 1 or 2 received their temple endowment after a year, for instance. 

The NYNYC Stake held their conference this weekend. We were invited to all the sessions, including the Leadership Session. The entire session revolved around welfare and self reliance. They had one speaker with special expertise in meeting immediate needs, especially regarding immigrants coming by special transport from border states, many of whom are Church members. Another wanted to start a kind of writing/family history club for new members to be with more established members to capture their conversion stories, testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and the like. President Weinberg, a counselor in the presidency introduced us to the audience and promised to forward our contact information to the attendees as a resource for retaining new members. 

President Holmes, our NYNYC Mission president took questions, the majority of which centered around, "Why are your missionaries baptizing so many who are coming into the Church without knowing enough?" He addressed the objections powerfully, reminding them that the missionaries are giving these new members all 5 lessons before baptism and again after baptism. He was voluntarily joined by an elders' quorum president who had spoken earlier, who said, "President, do you mind if I can approach this more directly?" I thought President Holmes had been pretty direct, but this president told the group that if they are not holding their Missionary Coordination meetings, they are not going to be prepared for the new members. Much more was said on the topic including member-present lessons, getting new converts to the temple for baptisms, assigning ministering members, and generally having members involved from as close to the beginning as possible.  

After the meeting, I approached President Holmes and reminded him of the retention power of the Self Reliance courses, to which he heartily agreed. He felt that he should recommend it to the Area Presidency with whom he will meet in Palmyra all this week.

NOW DON'T YOU WISH WE HAD TAKEN PICTURES?! That was a lot of writing - and I'm not finished. Sorry.

On our way to the meetings, Olivia sat down by a couple of teenaged boys, one of which immediately starting practicing his English with her. Soon a third crossed the isle and joined the conversation. I was on the other side of her, so I couldn't be involved very much, except to remind her of certain Spanish words from time to time. They had walked from Venezuela to Mexico with their family and then went by bus through Mexico to the US. She wasn't able to get much more from them because our stop was imminent, but she got a phone number, which we have passed on to the missionaries. She is an amazing missionary companion.

In the Sunday session of conference, we sat behind and were later able to talk to Walter Rane, the famous artist.  Of course, we mentioned that our daughter is an artist with a very successful business of teaching art. When he learned that she does water color, he said he couldn't do water color because you can't make mistakes. He admires those who can. He was sustained to be a new Stake High Councilor during the meeting.  

This seems to be a fairly
current picture.

One of the pictures we see
in many of the chapels in
New York. We love his work!

Gethsemane, another of my favorites.

As we were leaving the session a young woman saw us and came running over with her husband and baby. She took Olivia a little by surprise, as her attention was elsewhere, when she hugged her so tightly, for so long. It was Lydia Trotter, now Judd, whom we had grown quite close to while  serving our mission in Sweden. She is studying for a masters degree in family counseling and her husband is finishing his studies to become an endodontist - root canal therapy. It was so good to see her again. They have been here 4 months and are busy, away from their home towns and not yet used to New York. They also introduced us to his father, who also served his mission in Sweden. AND WE DIDN'T GET A PICTURE😒. Here is an old one from Sweden.

One of the hardest working,
sweetest, most accident-prone
missionaries we have known.

We did manage to get in some sight seeing and site seeing during the week, as well. The senior missionaries in the Fairfield Connecticut Stake invited as many other seniors as could make it. They had set out a route for seeing the leaves and seeing some interesting places. We went to a church in the little village of Ridgefield.

 

By the church. The leaves were more
red than this photo renders them.

Kind of self explanatory

The building is still used and has been kept in
superb condition.

One of several stained glass panels

They have a Christmas concert the first week
of December that we are tempted to go to.

We left from the church building in New Canaan, where we attended stake conference a few weeks ago, took a scenic road to Ridgefield, and did the same to a little farmers' market at an apple orchard, where, again, we took no pictures, but managed to buy Indian corn and gourds. Everything was a little pricey (wonderful looking pies were $20).

The lake behind the restaurant where we had
lunch.

 

Some of the foliage along the way.

And more. We were about a week
late for the best displays, but it was
still quite pretty.

We ended our little trip outside of Katonah, NY at the John Jay homestead where the first US Supreme Court justice had lived. It is owned by the government, so everything closed at 4:00. We managed to get a fridge magnet and a map of the grounds before the shop closed. This part of the country is loaded with history of the founding of the nation, which is fascinating to me.

The meadow and surrounding trees on the
Jay homestead.

The house is closed for renovation, but
the little school for Jay's children is open

The little school house.

The homestead.

Jay was a masterful negotiator with the British, avoiding a second war in 1894. He contributed to the Federalist Papers, along with Hamilton, and Madison. He was ambassador to Spain until Benjamin Franklin called him to Paris to be the primary draftsman of the treaty to end the Revolutionary War. 

My favorite companion.

As we were getting ready to leave, Olivia went to the opposite side of the house to get a different angle for her photos. Elder and Sister Shiley rode with us and needed to get back, so I drove up to where she had walked. and found her talking to the gardener. I said to the Shileys, "That lady now knows why Olivia is wearing that badge and why we are in New York." It always ends up like that. A man noticed my name badge and said, "I thought those were just for the young bloods." I said something brilliant, "Well, it does say 'Elder.'" She, on the other hand always takes advantage of the moment to be a missionary. When she got back into the car she told us that she had encouraged the lady to become a master gardener, and said that the lady thought what we were doing was marvelous - especially in New York City. What'd I tell you.

Blow up this picture and you will see the gardener
who knows about the Church and is ready to become
a master gardener.

Well, if you made it this far, you are a trooper. We do love what we are doing, we love the people with whom we work, we deeply love the gospel of Christ, and we love each of you. We hope your lives are filled with as much joy as challenges.