December activities and transfers

The There is a lot going on in the mission field during December.

Last week the zone missionaries sang Christmas carols at a local hospital. We were very well received and everyone seemed to enjoy the singing.

The sister missionaries hand made a beautiful Christmas wreath for our "10E" door in our apartment building. Christmas in a small apartment is a little different than what we are used to, with family and friends get around. Our Christmas tree this year is about 18 inches tall and hangs on our wall!

We always love it when our family and friends come to visit us in New York City. We were very pleased to have dinner with our cousin Cindy Parry Coleman and her two boys Shane and Cody last week. They were in New York City to see a Broadway play and the Rockettes Christmas show.

This was the week of transfers in our mission. We always invite the missionaries from our district to our apartment for a special meal a few days before transfers to say goodbye to them. Apparently Sister Tenney's wonderful meal made a few of the elders quite sleepy! They seem to feel comfortable in our apartment and we love having him over.

We lost five of the six young missionaries in our district with the latest transfers. They were a good group and will be missed. Getting all their luggage in our van was also a trick!  We take luggage to and from the mission office on transfer days. We also welcomed five new missionaries to our district, including the niece of Monte and Julie Nevitt our dear friends from our old Prescott days in the 1980's and 1990's. We will enjoy serving with Sister Nevitt and her new companion sister Christiansen.

Our institute classes are going well. We really enjoy teaching the young Hispanic students. They seem to carry a special spirit with them. This is our Sunday night class on Staten Island.

We had the wonderful opportunity on Monday night the 15th of visiting the Lincoln Center in Manhattan and singing Handal's Messiah with approximately 1500 other people. It was marvelous.

The Manhattan Temple is right across street from the Lincoln Center. Not was beautiful late Monday night with all the Christmas lights lit up.

At this special time of the year we are particularly aware of the great life and mission of our Savior Jesus Christ. We are so grateful He came to earth and completed his mission including the atonement, which opens the gate for us to return to live with our Father in Heaven. May we all rejoice and remember that He is the Gift!

Holiday Activities

This is a busy and wonderful time of the year. One of our privileges as senior missionaries is to take young elders and sisters to the temple when they reach their six months, 12 months and 18 months milestones. It is a trip there really look forward to. We were able to lead a group to the temple this past week.

We all rode the subway train from the mission office to the temple. The challenge is to not lose any of them along the way!

We had a good group.  They enjoyed being photographed outside of the temple.

There were 10 of us in our little apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. We fed four missionaries and four young single adults plus ourselves. Sister Tenney cooked a wonderful traditional meal. They really enjoyed it!

We opted to watch the Macy's parade from our apartment tv, rather than going to the parade site on sixth Avenue and standing around for several hours. That morning we were busy cooking food.

We did watch the Macy's parade on TV, however.  We really enjoyed Harold the policeman.

He looks just like Harold, don't you think?

Some of our friends were in attendance.  They said the balloons and bands were spectacular.

As CES teachers we were invited to a special lunch at the temple building on Monday, 1 December (to the chapel portion).  There were about 40 institute teachers and spouses from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut in attendance. We had a very good program and meal.

We even reconnected with Elder and Sister Lotz and Sister Young,  who were with us at the MTC last January.

It is fun to run into old missionary friends.

We topped off the day by visiting the Rockefeller Center.

We saw the huge Christmas tree which was not lit today we visited. It was lit two days later. It was still beautiful even though unlit. 

We also saw the famous ice skating rink at the Rockefeller Center.

We finished the day vby visiting the Christmas spectacular performance of the radio city music Hall Rockettes.

 They were amazing.

They perform 12 fantastic numbers. A "must see" if you come to New York during the holiday season.

It's a busy and full time.

We are also enjoying teaching about the Savior Jesus Christ to our institute classes. 

We are presently studying the visit of the Savior to the American continent after his resurrection. We enjoy our institute classes very much. We are connecting well with our students. They are sharp and quick and we have to move fast to keep up with them!

Enjoy a beautiful time of the year, and remember that He is the Gift.