Our Last Stake Conference for the Season

This coming week includes transfers, and a few of our young missionaries may be leaving the district. We thought we should take a picture before the mix changes. Last transfer, none of them had been in the area long enough, so no changes. This week there could be a few. Elder Asay is the district leader and has a very natural way of counseling with his council. The missionaries all feel quite comfortable contributing because they know their thoughts and suggestions will be heard respectfully. They easily brainstorm because they see the need for constant improvement. You have to love this group of dedicated men.

Back: Elders Moser and Summers
Front: Elders Larsen, Huerta, Asay, and Fairchild

Much of the week was taken by employment candidates and working to meet their needs. It seems that I am the designated résumé reviser. I seem to get not only the ones from my assignments, but Olivia's and now, Sister Yamada's as well. It's fine, I enjoy it, but I tend to get behind because it is time consuming.

We were able to help a young woman, whom I have written about earlier. She has a much more positive outlook on her job search, now. She has sent out numerous applications including her résumé without receiving an invitation for an interview, but she is more confident than when we first met her. We were called on to help a sister who is a self-reliance specialist get home after a procedure at the hospital. We got to assist a counselor in a stake presidency when he discovered that the in-person self-reliance group needed to be converted to a Zoom group. Lots of opportunities to serve.

The weekend was wild. We have been looking forward to seeing Johanna Holiday since she called a few weeks ago to let us know she was going to be in the City. She has been a special friend of our children's (especially Hannah's) and a guest in our home many times. We met her on Saturday morning for an early lunch, knowing we had to be in Connecticut for a stake conference by 4:00 PM. What a joy to see and have a conversation with her. She expressed her appreciation and affection for us over and over. It was a true joy to see her again.

She chose a very nice Italian restaurant
in Little Italy. Great food and conversation.

The Connecticut Fairfield Stake Conference sessions were all held in the New Canaan building. We noticed how well it is maintained and kept clean. Some of the other buildings are difficult for the members to maintain because of the time and expense of traveling to them. We were able to meet President Herget, who introduced us to the visiting general authority, Elder Ricardo P. Jimenez. Olivia made sure Elder Jimenez knew how personally President Herget has taken self reliance. He not only took the class, was available by phone while traveling, but also took charge as facilitator when the regular facilitator became seriously ill. We were also able to meet the new self-reliance specialists. The stake now has three.

Elder Jimenez is from Santiago, Chile.
but is living in Salt Lake City for his
current assignment.

Between the Saturday sessions we went to a quiet room in the building and joined a Zoom call from Sister Ashley Miller, who was trying to get the devotional video into its (relatively) final form. We talked until it was almost time to start the next meeting. They had served a meal between, so we went into the cultural hall and found them just putting things away. There was still plenty of food, but little time to eat it. We had a small wrap and I had to have some of the watermelon, then went into the meeting. We were pleased to see President and Sister Holmes. When they visit and speak, it bolsters the principles we try to express when we meet with the stake and ward leaders.

Even though we left immediately after the meeting, and we got home at 9:30 PM, we had to prepare for our meeting with the Lynbrook Stake Council early Sunday morning. We hoped to be finished in time to make it to the Fairfield Stake Conference at 10:00 AM. Sister Miller had apparently stayed up late finalizing the video, because it was in my email the next morning. Thanks to Sister Baxter, the stake RS president, we were able to show it to the council and they were very impressed. President Peguero, his counselors, the high council and some of the organization leaders were present and had lots of questions. The hope is that they will encourage the wards to make it available for the 2nd hour on the 5th Sunday in July. By then the Spanish version and maybe the Mandarin version will be available.

Sister Baxter

President Piguero

Some slides from the current and upcoming video presentations:

English

Spanish

Mandarin

We are very hopeful that our vision and that of the stake and ward leaders match up and that it is as successful as we hope it will be.

We did manage to get back to the New Canaan building on time, even a little early, so we met more people and heard some extraordinary talks; many from children and youth. We were able to talk to some afterward and thank them for their contribution to the meeting. We encouraged one young man who is a mature 15-year old boy to serve a mission. I hope he will. We were also pleased to talk to one of the two  new Self Reliance Specialists, and we sent an invitation to them to attend our correlation meetings; both agreed.

We got home and Olivia made some salad because we were scheduled to eat with the Barnes. They had leftovers from the Senior Missionaries' activity they had hosted, but that we had to miss on Saturday. We had a nice visit and an indoor picnic. As we went back to the apartment, I got a call from Ashley Miller who was working with a man who was trying to record the Spanish version of the video. He was having trouble downloading the PowerPoint. I agreed to create a script by cutting and pasting from the PowerPoint to a Word document. It meant having to discern enough Spanish to know when it was giving directions and when it was actual dialogue, so it took a while. I think we got it, now.

When I drive, I am totally focused on the road because there is always, even in the countryside, a lot of traffic and you never know when someone is going to crowd in front of you, or when you are going to hit a pothole that will rip off one of your wheels. Olivia saw so many beautiful sights along the road. It is a beautiful drive with all the trees leafed out and a sky filled with clouds. The weather was especially cool this weekend, so we went from cloud cover to a magnificent sky. Here are a few of her pictures.

Preparing to cross the Whitestone Bridge.
On the left is the flag on Trump Links. 
Above is one of the cameras that capture your
license plate and send you a bill for the fare.

Typical stretch of highway. Green 
everywhere.

The dogwoods are full and make a
beautiful break in the forests. This one is
in the church parking lot.

There are some interesting and exceptional bridges
along the way. This is a parkway, which means the
bridges are too low for commercial trucks to pass
under.

One of the golf courses owned by Donald Trump

Cityscape from the Whitestone Bridge.

These are the highlights from our adventures this week. We love where we are and what we are doing. We see the hand of the Lord in our calling and are witnesses to it in the work of all the missionaries we meet - young and not so young. We hope you feel the same in your lives.