Our dear sweet Aunt Fern passed away this past week at age 87.  She has been a very big part of our life.  Every time we would travel to Levan, Utah over the years of our marriage to see Linda's parents, Aunt Fern and Uncle Marion would visit us and help us in so many ways.  Our kids truly love Aunt Fern.  She is one of a kind.  For over 70 years (that's right, 70 years), she served as ward organist for the Levan Ward. We don't know of anyone who has served in a church calling for that many years.

She was a great cook, had a great sense of humor, and made you feel that you were her favorite person, whether you were a blood relative or married into the family. She took very good care of her widowed brother, Heber Taylor (Linda's father) for the several years he was in an assisted living facility in Levan, visiting him every day.

She and her husband, Marion, farmed and gardened and enjoyed a beautiful, simple life in Levan for the approximately 65 years of their marriage. She passed away in that same facility where she ministered to Heber for so many years.   Life was sweet and simple for them.  Aunt Fern will truly be missed by so many.

We're learning that, even we are away on a mission, life does not stop back home.  Friends get sick, some pass away.  Some go on missions.  Some graduate from school. Some get married.  Some grow up.  Life is like that, you know.  It does not stop.  We are learning to enjoy each day that we have here on earth.  Our time here is precious.  The Good Lord knows our days, and they shall not be numbered less.  Let's make them count for something good.

Visit from Cindy and Amy

We just concluded a wonderful week.

We had a one week spring break from institute classes.

Two of our lovely daughters, Amy and Cindy, paid us a visit for five days this past week. In addition to a temple session, we also took in the Lion King Broadway musical. It was wonderful.

We also got to see many wonderful sites in Manhattan.

Even though it rained a bit, we had a great time. 

One of the most touching things we did was to visit Ground Zero.  We saw the reflecting pools and viewed the names of the nearly 3000 victims of the terriorist attack on September 11, 2001. 

We enjoyed the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn botanical gardens.

The girls seem to enjoy the subway rides and got pretty good at getting around the city. 

All in all, it was a wonderful week. We love it when our family and friends come to visit us. 

Supporting the young missionaries

Before our mission, we did not realize how much time and effort we would spend supporting the young elders and sisters. We are truly like the "Ma and Pa" of the district and the zone. The young missionaries in our area rely on us a lot, and we're glad to help them.

In our district currently we have three elders from Utah, one Elder from Henderson, an elder from Peru, and an Elder from the Virgin Islands. We have a sister from Orem and a sister from Las Vegas.

Our closest relationship currently is with the sister missionaries. They are assigned to work with the young single adult branch, which we also serve. They attend our institute classes in the area every week. They're both wonderful lady missionaries. One is a life time member and the other is a convert of about two years.

We support the young missionaries by attending the weekly district meeting and giving suggestions and help, by feeding them, by giving them rides in our car, and by sharing our testimony and example.

A happily married "grandfather and grandmother" couple is a rarity out here. We serve as an example for not only the missionaries, but also for the members.

An increasing percentage of church members are single, and remain single for much or all of their adult life. The institution of marriage seems to be under some assault or diminished importance in our culture.

We want to do all we can to be good role models for eternal marriage and quality family life.

We are truly enjoying this work.

The land of freedom

On Monday of this week we had the opportunity to take the ferry boat to liberty Island and Ellis Island. 

Ferry boats shuttle visitors all day long to these two important historical sites. We were able to go on a beautiful day.

Lady liberty is most impressive up close.  The pedestal holding the statue is 10 stories high itself.

The statue was donated to the United States as a gift from France. Construction was completed in 1886. Mr. Eiffel, who later designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, also designed Lady liberty.

Ellis Island was also most impressive. From 1892 to 1924, it serves as the main gateway for immigrants coming to the United States from Europe.  The site is now used as a history Museum, which depicts the ways and times people came to this country. 

First class passengers were dropped off directly on Manhattan Island, but second-class and third class passengers had to go first to Ellis Island to be sorted out and then set for us to the new land.  The "sorting out" process occurred in this large room.

It was known as the registry room.

The famous poem, "give me your poor, your huddled masses. . . " was penned in honor of the Statue of Liberty.

It was truly a day to remember.

Mission leadership

The success of a mission is heavily dependent on its leadership. Here in the  New York New York South Mission we are blessed have a wonderful mission president. Pres. Kevin Calderwood and his wife, Sydnee, have led the mission for almost 2 years now. They hail from Virginia where President Calderwood was a successful business executive. In his business career he and his partners did the same work that Mitt Romney and his partners did. That is, they bought companies, fixed them up and sold them for a profit. We are sure he did very well in his work. 

In addition to being well organized and a great executive, President Calderwood has a great spiritual dimension in his life. It is clear that he loves the gospel and loves the Lord. Sister Calderwood is also a wonderful example for all the missionaries. Everyone loves her and their cute 11-year-old daughter who accompanied them to the mission field. 

There is great enthusiasm for the work here. At this week's transfer meeting the mission expanded from 10 zones to 12 zones to accommodate the growth. We are now receiving more sister missionaries than ever before. The short term goal is

to have two sets of elders and one set of sisters in every ward or branch in the mission. We are almost there.

It is a joy to be a part of such a marvelous work. 

The growth of a diverse church

Sunday, April 13 was a historic day in our 
New York New York South Mission. As mission historians we were able to attend a special stake conference held at Queens College in Queens, New York.  Over 1000 members were in attendance. 

Thr purpose of the conference was to create a new stake out of the last remaining district in the mission. The Lynbrook Stake was created taking The old Lynbrook District plus parts of the old Queens Stake and parts of the Plain View Stake. 

The Queens Stake was renamed the Woodside Stake to more accurately reflect its geographical location. 

The new Lynbrook stake

presidency, with names of De Rosa, Shin and Anderson, reflects the diversity of the area.  At least one stake presidency member speaks English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, French, and Italian. They will need all of those languages and more to serve the needs of the stake members. 

The new state president reported that there are approximately 140 languages spoken in New York south area, with approximately 10 million residents.

A special choir at stake conference sang a hymn in English, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese. 

The church here is quite different than the white, Anglo-Saxon, English speaking church we find in the Rocky Mountain West. 

We enjoy the diversity. A lot of the growth of the church here is among people with a different race, culture and language then we bring. We like that. This is truly a worldwide church, and New York is a great melting pot. 

Teaching the youth

Our primary assignment on our mission is to teach institute classes. We presently teach three classes per week at three different chapels in the Brooklyn Stake. One of the classes is at Staten Island, a different island than the one on which we live. We actually live on Long Island, but the people here refer to Long Island as only the part of the island which is east of  Brooklyn and Queens, which are two of the five boroughs of New York City.  So, technically, according to the locals, we live in Brooklyn but not Long Island. 

Our largest institute class is the Park Slope class in Brooklyn near our apartment which is featured in this weeks picture. 

The young man with sister Tenney is a recent convert to the church. His name is Jouvanni. The missionaries knocked on his door at the right time and he was ready to listen to the message. It was fortunate that the missionaries could even knock on the doors in Jouvanni's apartment building, since generally the buildings are locked at the front door and missionaries are not able to enter the building without a specific invitation from a tenant. 

On that one day in January the missionaries were walking by the front door of the apartment building when they heard a loud buzz indicating that the front door was unlocked. They stopped and discussed it for a minute and then decided to enter the building and knock on every door. That is when they found Jouvanni. It was almost like the Holy Ghost was beckoning the missionaries to come in. Such is the nature and joy of missionary work!