New Sights; New Places

Rheumatoid arthritis stopped
her from many things she 
enjoyed, but she still had a
sharp mind and sharp wit. 

 

She was a teletype operator
in the WAVES during WWII

August 22, 1923 my mother was born in Vernal, Utah. She died just a few months prior to her 91st birthday in March of 2014. Had she lived, she would have been 100 this past week. She taught us to appreciate high expectations, and to respect fine work of all kinds. She was kind and seemed to know what to do with most hurts, illnesses, and even heartaches. She loved to read us stories and re-read the ones that touched us most (how many times did we read Pierre and the Orange Tree Lady from the big Readers' Digest volume?). She was a natural when dealing with any kind of animal, but refused to allow us to keep a stray dog or cat (until we children begged and promised to take care of it ourselves). So much more I could write. I miss her and think of her almost every day.  Love your bones , Mom! What an odd thing to say, now, but that was her line.

Well, on Tuesday our company left us with wonderful memories of their visit. On Monday we took them to the American Natural History Museum so they could take advantage of our resident price for admission, but left right after they got in. Abby stayed behind so she could properly get ready for the concert Monday night, so Dallin went with Elsa. That night, Dallin went with Abby to the concert, and Elsa stayed home. He was a classic big brother; we came to appreciate him so much as we got to know that side of his personality.

T. Roosevelt and his family were great contributors
to the museum and to its ongoing research. People 
of his caliber come rarely to a country.

There is so much to see in this magnificent
museum. As Abby suspected, they stayed
much longer than they thought, so it would
have made her late for the concert.

We didn't have any pictures of the concert, we just left the door unlocked and gave them the code to enter our apartment building, so we could sleep while they were screaming and loving the band. I guess girls still scream and faint around their favorite performers. They have since Frank Sinatra.

Bags packed and ready to go. 

Sun in my eyes, so I didn't notice that Abby's arm
blocked Elsa. LaGuardia Airport.

Dallin got to do some sightseeing in
Manhattan before catching his train
back to Baltimore.

Not much of a trigger finger in our work this past week. We took hardly any pictures, but had some adventures. 

On Wednesday, we had our usual meeting with Brother Chris George. We were joined by a missionary couple whom he had introduced to us before: Elder and Sister Carson. Their calling was originally to serve as Humanitarian missionaries in Vietnam. There was a glitch in getting their visa renewed, so they had to be reassigned, and ended up in Maine as self-reliance missionaries. They came onto our meeting to kind of get an idea about what we do that can help them get started there. They also attended our facilitator training on Sunday, which seemed to give them a great deal more insight. It was fun comparing their experience in Vietnam with mine 59 years ago. You never know what will happen in this world.

On Thursday we were in the Union Square Employment Center where we met a man and woman who had recently come from Brazil. They spoke Spanish, so I don't know where they had originally come from. Some missionaries from Flushing had told them that we could help them get work permits and a job. We did our best to help, and got them over to Henry Street Settlement with a little help from Chris George who could speak their language. 

In all the confusion, we were late leaving the employment office, and I grabbed my computer case, locked the door to the office and closed it, only to realize that I had locked my keys to the building inside the office and had no way of retrieving them. We knew that the American Sign Language sister missionaries have keys, so we arranged to go early the next day, Friday, to pick up my keys. That made us quite early for our English class in the El Salvador Consulate, so we did some sightseeing as well. The consulate is near 5th Ave., so there are some places we wanted to see that are nearby.

We didn't go inside the Empire State
Building. It costs $40 each for the
privilege of riding the elevator to the top. 

The front of a dirty building.

We pass this quilt shop twice a week, but Olivia
thought there are people who would like to know
it's a thing even in NYC. It's hard to read, but
it says, GOTHAM QUILTS. Holy gingham, 
Batman!

Seems like a good idea for someone
who can keep calm while sewing.

We also visited the Scandinavia House, but all that was open was a very overpriced gift shop and café. Nothing to take pictures of, really.

We taught our English class, but only 2 came and one had to leave before we finished. We are trying to find a more convenient time or day, so more can take advantage. It did allow us to get to know Kathia better. She is married, and has three children. Her husband teaches Spanish, so he and the older children are speaking English all day. She is motivated, but she only speaks Spanish at work all day.

We were able to attend the temple on Friday, as well. It turns out that it was an ASL session. It was very interesting to see how they performed the prayer circle and veil ceremony. We know the senior  missionary couple assigned to that Branch. They helped in the temple on our session. They will be missed when they return home.

We have started inspecting apartments again. The new housing couple want them done right away. We were assigned 6 apartments, and did 3 on Saturday. The others need to be done before Friday this week, and it will be a challenge. Because we were kind of in a hurry, no pictures...ugh! 😖 Nice, clean apartments, though.

We traveled to Staten Island for church on Sunday. We have never been out there before and thought it would be a good idea. We were not able to meet with the bishop who was out of town, but met with the elders' quorum president and RS president. They are kind of distant from the stake center in Brooklyn, so even though there will be new Self-reliance classes starting in the next week or two, they seemed not to be aware of them. It was good for us to be there.

We were happy to see Elaine, one of Olivia's
employment candidates who was baptized just a 
few months ago.

We were able to stay for two baptisms.
This man was so very excited to get
into the font.

 

At first this man seemed afraid to make the commitment.
He bore his testimony in priesthood meeting, and was very
sincere, so I was glad to see the sisters take him to a room
where they could testify and they could have a prayer. He
came out relieved and happy.

 

They confirmed immediately after baptism. Some
can be baptized before the Sunday meetings, so
they can be confirmed in Sacrament Meeting, but
if it follows the two-hour block they confirm then.

Someone brought cake, but no one
was brave enough to cut it. I volunteered
Olivia for the job. Perfect, of course.

When someone saw that Olivia wanted to take a
picture, everyone wanted in. L to R: the man who
was baptized, his wife (baptized 3 weeks ago),
the woman who gave the only talk, the married
couple's roommate, Elaine, another friend.

We ended the day with a meal at the Barnes who had a friend visiting from Utah, our facilitator training, and the mission devotional. In all a busy, rewarding week. We are happy, healthy, and feel rewarded to be doing what we hope our mission should be doing. We are often frustrated, and wondering if we are doing all we should or even what we should. That feeling is always replaced with calm assurance and a realization of the blessings we enjoy. We wish the same for each of you

Some random pictures:

Even the Relief Society has a quilt.

 

It is hard to capture the magnificence of the
Verrazano bridge. The structures are so high and 
large it is always and inspiration to me. This bridge 
gets you from the bottom of Brooklyn to 
Staten Island

Olivia loved seeing this ocean liner. I told her to
take a picture because I could only look at the 
traffic around me.