Thanksgiving X 3

 Like I said last week, it takes two weeks to celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, we celebrated it three (but I really count four) times. 

1. As I mentioned last week, our grandson, Dallin, came from Baltimore and we celebrated Thanksgiving with him, because he had to be back before the actual day.

A nice but too short visit with
Dallin

 2. We invited a pair of missionaries from our district  to   share the afternoon with us. They had not been invited   to Thanksgiving dinner by anyone in their   branch.  Before leaving to come for dinner, they had an impression to call one woman who, it turned out, was   not sure she was ready for baptism this Sunday, so   they arrived a few minutes late. They were elated   because, with prayer, her attitude had changed   completely. They couldn't stay long because they had   two more people to teach and contact prior to their   baptisms on Sunday.

 Even though we would have loved to have them a little   longer, we were happy that they felt so concerned for   their "friends" (investigators).

Elders Tipps and Harris with one
of three they baptized Sunday

3. We celebrated again on Friday with a young couple and their 2-year old daughter. We became especially close with Sister Trotter when we and she served our missions in Sweden. We met again when attending her stake conference in Manhattan. She is now known as Lydia Judd. Her husband, Jacob, is finishing his residency training as an endodontist and she is completing her masters degree in marriage and family counseling, both are through Columbia University. Their daughter is working on a degree in parental training. Sooo cute!

Back together - so much fun

Jacob, Lydia and Lova

4. I count four, not because we had another Thanksgiving dinner, but because Thursday morning we traveled to Manhattan to prepare food bags for the Congregation Shearith Israel for distribution in a center they have established in Brooklyn. This Jewish congregation is the oldest in the United States, having been established in New York in 1654. The New York City Stake has been assisting in this project every Thanksgiving for several years. 

The pavilion was covered during COVID.
It now serves a charitable purpose 

The server is Elder Easton who is
the Mission's housing coordinator

Elder and Sister Duncan serve in Brooklyn

Elder and Sister Preece serve in the Mission office.

Ena Fowles née Sinks was a friend of our
daughters when they were teenagers.
Next to her are her daughter, a high
 school senior, and next to her is Ena's
husband. Yep, girls, you are that old.

I don't know the hierarchy of the Jewish religion, but these two are very high in the Orthodox faith. Here they are expressing their gratitude for the help provided.

This rabbi could not say "Thank you" often 
enough. He is responsible for the food 
distribution. He said, "We do the organization
and the Latter-day Saints do the work!"

President Cropper of the New York
City Stake spoke on behalf of the
Church. Very appropriate remarks.

A small number of filled crates at the end of
the morning.

We and the others walked along the
line and servers fill our bags.

At one point Olivia saw that there
was a greater need behind the table.

This young man was very curious 
about the Church and found the
right person to answer his
questions.

Some young missionaries stacked the
cardboard boxes. Others worked behind
the tables.

The sign inside explains how the food will
be used and distributed. Of course it is in
Hebrew, so we have to trust that is what it says.

And that is why I count it as another Thanksgiving. The best kind of gratitude is giving to others. 

It happened that the synagogue is right on the path of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Because of that, our train did not stop at the station near the synagogue. Instead, we had to walk a little over 11 blocks, much of the time in the opposite direction of the crowd who had come to see the parade. The parade had not started yet, so along the way we saw several balloons that would be lifted and paraded. It is impressive.

Sinclair's Dino

Smokey Bear is still tethered face down.

Ronald McDonald just starting up

Snoopy as an astronaut 

The underside of Ronald McDonald

Random balloons that would start the
parade

Some of the workers crossing in front
of us.

They must have just finished breakfast

At one point I stepped out to see the
crowd. I don't know how anyone
saw much of the parade. Right is the
front of the synagogue

A little added interest: On Saturday we took some inflatable mattresses and bedding to another senior couple. As we were leaving, Olivia looked on Google to find a thrift store. It meant driving through surface streets for several miles, one of my least favorite activities because of myriad potholes, streets blocked by Uber, trucks, and other random vehicles and crazy streets. I had to laugh at this intersection. It did lighten the mood.

You will probably have to blow up this photo to see
what made me chuckle. The cross street has One Way
signs pointing at each other. I guess this street is the
end of that street in both directions.

The thrift store was pathetically small. We haven't really seen many such stores anywhere, here. We did manage to find an outlet store, that had a sweater she liked for a very good price, which made the trip worth it.

We finished the week yesterday with a presentation to the combined Relief Society and priesthood in the Flushing 2nd Ward in Queens. It is a Chinese ward. The members are from China, Hong Cong, Taiwan, and other countries. The services are all Mandarin, even though some may speak Cantonese. Our presentation was well received and now we are working to see that courses become available in January. It will not be easy, but we're hopeful that it will happen. The pictures below were taken before or after the meetings. During our presentation, the cultural hall was packed. There were some good questions and people seemed to pay rapt attention. We felt very uplifted as a result of the experience. 

We attended Sacrament Meeting in the
ward before our presentation in 2nd hour

It was their Primary program. We were early enough
that we could take pictures during rehearsal, which was OK by the bishop. All but one of the songs were in English, but their parts were all in Mandarin.

This is the young man's mother who speaks very 
little English, so Olivia brought over an
experienced missionary to talk to her. Neither
she nor her son are members, but she expressed
 to Olivia how wonderful she felt in
this nice church.

On the right is Leon (Anglicized, I'm sure).
With him is a university student who just
arrived in this country from Shanghai .
He learned English there, but is  not
capable of speaking it. Leon teaches
English Connect in the stake, so they 
were happy to meet. The woman between
them is Sister Olive Wang, 2nd Counselor
in the stake R. S. presidency. She served
as our interpreter. 

We are seeing answers to many, many prayers as we work our way through this assignment. We are certainly becoming acquainted with a lot of dedicated, wonderful people.

As we close I should share with you that the Mission set a goal for baptisms at 131. November has fewer weeks, so achieving that goal meant a record number per week. As of last night, they had achieved 135. They must not and will not slow down, which makes our job that much more important. Our calling is the answer to long-term retention.

We wish you all a wonderful week ahead. We love and miss you. We also love the work in which we are involved.