New Callings

This has been a wonderful week for us. In addition to our three institute classes, and possibly a fourth class starting in couple of months, serving as a counselor in the Young Single Adult Branch, we are busy doing other things as well.

On Thursday on mission president Calderwood called us to serve as mission historians. We will keep the mission history record, sharing stories and information about new missionaries, out-going missionaries, major meetings and initiatives of the mission.  We will be closely involved in all of the happenings in the mission. It should be a wonderful assignment. We need to be "tech savvy" to get this done, so pray for us.

On Friday we received another wonderful blessing. We went to the Manhattan Temple where we interviewed with Pres. Steve Bennion. He called us and set us apart as temple ordinance workers. We will work the Friday day shift. That would be a wonderful addition blessing. As president Bennion mentioned in the setting apart blessing, this will be the "frosting on the cake." It will give us something to look forward to every week. 

There is much need for senior missionary couples and this mission, and in every mission.

Transfer meeting

Every six weeks certain missionaries receive a new companion and are transferred to a new area. This happens in what is known as "transfer meeting". About one half of the 300 missionaries icome together for transfer meeting at the chapel attached to the mission office. Only missionaries who are receiving a transfer and district and zone leaders are invited to attend.  As a senior couple we are invited to attend any transfer meeting. We attended our first transfer meeting today and it was a delightful experience. We first assisted one elder in our district who was being transferred. He and his companion road in our van with their luggage to the mission office. That was a great benefit to them as they did not have to lug the suitcases onto the train or subway.

At the transfer meeting all the missionaries enthusiastically sang the mission song especially prepared for the New York South Mission.  They all then recited from memory the mission vision and mission goals statements in English and Spanish. French Creole, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, and American Sign Language elders and Sisters then recited the mission statement and goals in their mission language. 

Our mission president and sister Calderwood both give excellent talks. Missionaries provided wonderful musical numbers. We said hello to new elders and sisters just arriving and goodbye to those going home.

Then the transfers were announced and were

greeted with much enthusiasm. We also sustained by vote of hands the district, zone and mission leaders. Then missionaries gathered with their new  companions and left for their work areas.

We greatly enjoyed the spirit and enthusiasm of the day. It is wonderful to be associated with this great work.

Working with the young missionaries

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We are finding that part of being senior missionaries is to work closely with the young missionaries in our area. We can serve as mentors and role models and as "mom and dad" away from home. Most of them need a bit of "mothering" from time to time. We enjoy that role very much. We hope that some other senior missionaries in other missions will do the same for our grandchildren as they go out to serve. We are confident other couples will be available to provide viable service.  We have wonderful young elders and sisters in our area. This week the sister missionaries surprised us with a box of goodies to show their appreciation for our arrival in New York.  What a wonderful time we are having!  

The Manhattan Temple

Perhaps the highlight of this week was the opportunity to go to the Manhattan Temple on Friday. Periodically senior couples are asked to accompany the young elders and sisters who are allowed to go to the temple at a certain milestone month. When they reach the six-month, the 12 month or the 18 month mark in their mission, the young missionaries are allowed to go to the temple. 

They go as a group and must be led by a senior couple so they don't get "lost". The temple is in Manhattan, which is not part of our mission. Since we're still new, we accompanied another senior couple who led the group so we could "learn the drill" for the time we might lead a group.

We drove to the mission office and then traveled by subway to Manhattan. There were approximately 20 missionaries in our group.

Taking the subway is definitely the best way to get around Manhattan.  We made one subway transfer, but we did okay.

The Manhattan Temple is beautiful. It is a tall building in the middle of Manhattan. The angel Moroni stands on top of the building. We come out of the subway on 66 street and look directly at Moroni, right across the street from the Lincoln Center.

The temple is beautiful and very quiet.  We enjoyed going there and look forward to going back often. As senior missionaries we are allowed to go to the temple as often as our schedule permits. 

This week we were also privileged to meet with our mission president and the CES

coordinator. They both gave us wonderful advice to help with the CES missionaries.  We are enjoying the work and love to meet the fine young people here.

Staying fit and healthy

A lady missionary needs to stay fit and healthy by eating well and exercising. Sister Tenney does this well on a daily basis. We have an exercise room two floors above our apartment. We enjoy going there every morning except Sunday to start the day off right. 

A snowy second week in NYC

Well, we have now finished our second week in New York. We are getting a bit more familiar with the neighborhood. Thank goodness for GPS systems! We would be totally lost without our GPS. Even with GPS, we must get the street name correct. On Wednesday we wandered all over Staten Island on Richmond ROAD instead of the Richmond AVENUE that we were trying to reach. We saw some pretty country though. 

We had a large snowstorm late Wednesday night which caused us to cancel institute class on Thursday. We did not want to do that but we felt it was a prudent thing to do. None of the students have cars. They must use the subways to get to cLass. They often have to walk a long distance to the chapel.  It is almost impossible for the young adults on Staten Island to participate in a stake activity on Long Island, where Brooklyn is located. To get to Long Island these young people would have to take a bus to the ferry, then take a ferry boat to Manhattan Island, then take a subway to Long Island. It would be costly and would take about two hours to get there. They would then have the same challenge getting home. So it is just not feasible for them to participate in a Brooklyn Stake activity. 

Also, there's somewhat of a cultural divide between the Hispanic students who live in Staten Island and the Anglo students who live in the park slope area of Brooklyn.  Each of our institute classes has its own cultural climate. But we love them all. 

Maybe next week will talk about something besides the weather! Everyone around here us getting anxious for spring due to a long cold winter. Hope you are all warm and dry. 

Our first week in New York

Well, we have arrived in New York City. We arrived about a week ago on a very snowy day. Driving through Manhattan was just funny. We made several mistakes and met a couple of police officers. They were very nice to us, though, as they helped us get out of jams. We have now arrived in Brooklyn and have begun our missionary work. We are working with young adults throughout the Brooklyn Stake. Each week we teach three institute classes in three different chapels in the stake. Two classes are mostly Hispanic students, so I get to practice my Spanish. I have also been called as the first counselor in the Park Slope YSA branch. So we will be busy. We love working with the young people and sharing the gospel. We have a wonderful apartment on the 10th floor with a good view of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. We will also like to get to work in the temple one day a week. If we can just know which subways to take to get there! We have met many nice people and love to work with them. The young elders and sisters also really sharp. There is a lot of enthusiasm in this mission. We love the work!