The second Tuesday and fourth Sunday of each month we conduct Facilitator Training. It was Olivia's inspiration that led us there, and it has been a blessing. We have been encouraging our stake and ward representatives to start classes as soon as the need is perceived and not wait for a stake devotional. She pointed out that if we want that to happen, we need to provide a method of making it easy for them.
This time we only had one, Juanita, who will not start her course until September 5th, but wanted the training right away. Unfortunately, her phone was having camera issues, so we didn't see her, even though she could see us. As part of the training we suggested that the participants need to have physical manuals, especially those who were joining by phone, rather than tablet or laptop. We remembered that the high councilor responsible for self reliance in her stake said he had found several manuals, so we suggested that they get together. We contacted Brother Guy Moran, who has become a good friend of ours, to let him know she may contact him. We decided to attend church in her ward on Sunday, to find that not only did we get a chance to meet Juanita, but Guy was the HC speaker in Sacrament meeting. Because we had already found her (rather, she found us), we were able to introduce her to him. Not only that, but he had brought a stack of manuals to hand off to her. But we didn't think to take pictures! Ugh!
We did invite Juanita, who has been a member less than a year, to attend the training again when her start date got closer and gave her our card, so she could contact us if she had questions or concerns. Then she gave us her card, in return.
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| Our friend, Brother Guy Moran |
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Yep, this new facilitator is an ordained
minister of the Universal Life Church
Ministries. It is an online service that
allows you to immediately get a certificate
so you can perform marriages and funerals
(in the religion of your choice) in NY state.
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Again, we met some very special people in this ward. It consists of more members who have been in the Church less than a year than more established members. One especially professionally-dressed woman we met told us that she had only been to church twice and is not yet baptized, but that the Church "Felt like home." It was good for us to be there.
Because, as I mentioned last week, we are going to be teaching the English Connect courses at the Consulate of El Salvador, we asked Elder Shiley to give us his insights. We made arrangements to meet with him on our usual Tuesday session at the Woodside Employment Center, as he had a break in his calendar last week. As we were preparing to leave, we got a call from Elder and Sister Humphries telling us that they had just been asked to teach English Connect and, since we are the Self-Reliance missionaries, we are supposed to know these things, wanted us to help them. We told them we were on our way to get information from Elder Shiley who, with Sister Shiley, has been teaching EC all their mission. They said they would be at the Woodside building in 30 minutes. In fact, they followed us into the parking lot.
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Elder Shiley at Woodside
Employment Center |
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| Elder and Sister Humphries |
We were told that we will start this week (tomorrow), but it looks like it will be another week, so we can prepare some more. I'm not sure what else to do, however, other than review what we have already prepared, so we feel ready.
With English Connect, Facilitator Training, and preparation for the presentation to the Bishops' Council in Lynbrook Stake, I spent a lot of what spare time I had preparing PowerPoint presentations. I enjoy it, but it is very time consuming.
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Sister Yamada with an employment candidate. In
back is Subashini. Sister Yamada is a trained
volunteer and has agreed to take our place when
family is in the City next week. |
There was a special devotional on Thursday where President Holmes asked a set of elders to train on getting new members to attend church. It was very good training, which we were happy to see. We are focused on helping wards, branches, and stakes retain the new members, and the missionary efforts are key.
Saturday we were able to go to the King Manor, in Jamaica. It is very near our apartment, so we have been wanting to visit it. Rufus King was among the founding fathers and so like many of them. He was a farmer, scientist, botanist, linguist, and statesman. The manor is in the center of a large park that his estate donated to the community. The park is nice and seems to be taken care of by the department. The manor has some interesting items and the docent was knowledgeable, but it doesn't compare in quality to Nauvoo or Kirtland.
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A dining and entertainment area. Interesting
rounded wall on the back side. |
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The library where he had, at one time, more books
than the Library of Congress. He was fluent in
six languages, so books in other languages were
a large part of his collection. |
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A statue made of some kind of resin,
that was a very excellent likeness.
Here he assumes the place where he
spent a lot of time. A microscope
and papers on the table before him. |
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The manor is four stories high, but
only the main floor and part of the
second floor are available to the public. |
From there we finally made it to Coney Island and to a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game. They were playing the mighty Grasshoppers from Greensboro, North Carolina. The Cyclones are a High-A minor league affiliate of the Mets. It was a fun game, but not as well attended as the Reno Aces used to be when we lived there. There was a 40 minute delay of game for lightning, so we got home a bit late and a little wet. We got a shirt that advertises one of the sponsors of the team and a Cyclones ball cap I can add to the collection of hats that I will likely never use.
Coney Island is like a security guard we met in Times Square told us, "It's not all it's cracked up to be." There are a few rides that are designed to make you motion sick or to get you high on adrenalin, and a long, exceptionally crowded beach. Of course, there is always Nathan's Hot Dogs, but we had a Philly Steak sandwich, instead.
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I can't find how to turn the lettering around. With
Elder and Sister Hunsaker. |
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Elder and Sister Robertson. Our son-in-law Clint
will recognize the t-shirt. |
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Our stylish new hat.
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Some of the other senior missionaries. We were
recognized on the scoreboard as the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
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There is a lot of beach, but everyone seems to
prefer crowding cheek to jowl along the water's edge. |
The Cyclones won the game 3 to 0.
Speaking of rain... One of the reasons things have been slow with the Consulate is that our manager, Chris George, has been up to his eyebrows trying to get relief to the flooded areas of the northeast, especially Vermont. Connecticut and upstate New York have also been hit. He is trying to coordinate with local leaders and his superiors in determining what is needed immediately and long term. We are kind of down on his priority list at the moment, so we are willing to be patient.
Our humidity is quite different from any I have experienced in other humid climates. Several times I have stepped outside only to have my glasses fog up. The same is true of the windshield. It looks like the defrost is needed, and sometimes it is, but more often it's the wipers that will do the trick.
We met with our district today, but I will save that for next week. Four of the seven are returning home, so the transfer meeting tonight will be very interesting for us.
We wish you a blessed week. We certainly look forward to more adventures this week.
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