A Week of Firsts and Lasts

 We are now getting down to doing some things for the last time. We still have a couple of candidates for employment from the time we assisted that department, keeping the offices open until Elder and Sister Taylor arrived to take over. These people are now being contacted by the Taylors, but Elaine has such a fondness for Olivia that they had to meet in person, so the transition was more personal.

Elaine got to meet Sister Taylor...

...and say good-bye to Olivia. We realized
this would be the last time we would 
enter the Union Square building.

We had to go into lower Manhattan a
little early so we could have lunch 
before meeting Elaine. This was a
Chinese restaurant like no other. They
make their own noodles 2"X2' long.
The meals are very spicy and delicious.

We were less successful that evening with our facilitator training. Only one person attended; we expected four. Tonight will be our last training meeting and some have agreed to come to it, having missed last week.

We were assigned to inspect missionaries' apartments which took us to a couple of places we have never been before. One apartment was the worst we have seen in this mission (we saw a couple of really bad ones in Sweden). The sisters' apartment in Brooklyn's Chinatown was by far the best we have seen.  Brooklyn's Chinatown was even more Chinese than Flushing. The streets were exceptionally narrow and we saw no one, other than one of the missionaries and us, who were not oriental. 

Sisters DeMille and Clark (who was born and raised
in Bountiful, Utah)

Typical street scene. Once in a while something is
in English, even if it is meaningless.

Another street shot.

Elders Cheng and Wong who are both Chinese. 
They and the sisters serve in the Brooklyn 8th
Chinese Ward.

Elders Alder, Changobalin (Ecuador)
and Echaves (Uruguay) work in the
Woodside Spanish Ward.

With Elders Aguilef (Chile) was on exchanges with
Elder Echaves. Elder Winters would normally have
been in the apartment. They serve the Richmond
Hill Spanish Ward, near where we live.

On Friday, we met with our manager, Chris George, in person at one of our favorite restaurants, Max Brenner Chocolate Restaurant. Surprisingly, none of us had any chocolate. We asked the server to take our picture because it would be our last time there. A young woman had worked with him in the past who was a member and (it sounded to us like) a returned missionary, so he was happy to accommodate us. 

There are places we will not miss in NYC, but
this place we will definitely miss. 

The famous Brenner Burger and waffle fries.

Union Square with the statue of
George Washington in the center.

From the restaurant we went to the El Salvador Consulate where Chris and Jon Ammon, the Church Public Affairs manager for this area met with the Consul General regarding the future of continuing the English Connect courses for their people. The Consul General was very complimentary of our work and wanted to have courses taught in the other consulate on Long Island. He said we were very professional and friendly, and that the staff was much more willing to talk to people who came into the office speaking only English. We were not in the meeting because we were teaching at the time, but were very pleased that our efforts were perceived in that way. 

I don't have to put everything on
PowerPoint anymore, now that they
have the manuals

Kathia and Flor are picking up the language and
pronunciation. We are proud of their progress.

On Saturday, we finally made it to the Vessel. I have no idea why it has that name, it cannot hold liquids, and it has really no purpose except to provide an interesting vision. I guess the views going up and from the top are great, but it is closed until this summer. It is visually interesting (but I can think of a better use of $200 million). We then walked the High Line, a walking trail along the old rail line connecting the former factories in midtown Manhattan. We walked a few miles and left the trail to go to Chelsea Market. We had been there before with Elder and Sister Packer, but this time it was absolutely packed. I was surprised that there were so many people in a non-tourist season.

We are on the steps of the old part of Penn Station.
Behind us is Madison Square Garden and the
Empire State Building. We were on our way to
see the Vessel.

The old post office inside Penn Station
is still functioning, We were looking for
Elder and Sister Barnes, who were looking
for friends from home who had come to 
the City to see Billy Joel at Madison
Square Garden

The Vessel (our family will want to know
that the vessel has no pestle. The brew
is not true).

The Group: Barnes, Taylors and us.

There is art all along the High Line. Here a ballerina
is coming apart. I'm sure there is deep meaning that
is lost on me.

More art. A fish band with a shark biting a missile.

The High Line crosses several streets
that are hidden until you get past the
buildings on either side of the trail.

The triangle jutting from the high point
is called The Edge. You can walk out to
see the City on a glass platform. We haven't
tried it.

In Chelsea Market is a lengthy line for
Tacos No. 1. The food lives up to 
their reputation.

Only two people filling the orders speak English.

The women wanted their picture in 
front of the budding pussy willows. 

We went from there with the Taylors (Barnes had to return home) to the Inwood Ward building, which is very near the Cloisters. The Taylors looked for a restaurant that would be close to the Cloisters where they will host the senior missionary activity  in March. We met in the church with the two young women who were missionaries with us in Sweden. It was so nice to see how mature they have become in the gospel of the Savior. We will truly miss them even though we only saw them a few times while we were here. It was just nice to know they were close.

Sophie Christensen and Lydia Judd
(whom we knew as Sister Trotter)

Sophie came to see us in Nevada after
our return from Sweden.

All the former Sverige missionärer.

Lydia was related to a couple in our ward in Sparks,
Nevada, so we followed her progress all during
her mission. Here with husband Jacob and children
Lova who thinks her baby brother Hal is the best.

This little girl came right up to the 
statue in the bench next to me and
gave it a big hug, then kissed the 
money bag. So cute.

We finished the week by attending church in the New Rochelle 2nd Ward. The Elders Quorum instructor was Japanese, the friend sitting next to me was African, one of the speakers was from El Salvador. A man from the Spanish ward stopped to talk to me in the hall. He was a missionary in his home country, Guatemala, and knew our son Jordan's mission president and family. Every ward we visit is equally diverse and faithful. I can't count the number of times the friends who have been invited to church by the young missionaries come out of priesthood meeting or Relief Society expressing how spiritually uplifted they feel. It is one of the many things we will miss about this mission. 

Some random photos:

These clever little statues are all over
the 14th street E and F stations.
A comment on greed and scofflaws,
I suppose.

We drove through the center of Brooklyn all the
way to the opposite end to get to the missionaries.
The GPS took us home on the South Shore drive,
under the Verrazano Bridge that connects
Brooklyn to Staten Island. Lickety split.

This is their newer facility that we passed by on
our drive to inspect missionary apartments.

 

The Woodside chapel is an old Bulova training
facility. It is a beautiful building.