Timothy family visit

We were blessed over the memorial day weekend to have another family visit us here in New York City.

My nephew Darren, his wife Becky, and their four children visited us this past weekend. 

I finally felt confident enough to drive the car in Manhattan, so we went on a driving tour of the city. We drove by the temple, around Central Park,and even through Times Square. We also drove by an aircraft carrier along the Hudson river and we also went past the one World Trade Center building. That is presently the tallest building in the Americas.

As we travel by subway train we always enjoy the entertainment in the subway stations. The time square and 42nd St. station is a particularly popular spot. On this we enjoyed the singing of Amish young people.

Later in the day we appreciated the music of a promising violinist.

One of the highlights of their visit was the opportunity to take in a Broadway musical, Les Miserables. We had wanted to see that play before the end of our mission, so their visit give us a good excuse to go on Saturday night.

The musical was performed in the Imperial Theatre, which I believe is about 100 years old.

It was a great production.

Housing found me of six in our small apartment is always tricky. But everyone was flexible and cooperative as we turned our kitchen into a bedroom each night.

The kids seem to have a lot of energy, and we hope they enjoyed their visit.

During this month of May we also had our last zone conference with President and sister Calderwood, who finish their mission at the end of June. Each of the 10 zones was invited on separate days to the Mission home for a zone conference. We were instructed by the president, his twi assistants and President and Sister Calderwoid's son who recently returned from his mission to Russia. 

The instruction was excellent. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with young missionaries in the district and zone meetings. 

We enjoy singing and studying the gospel together. 

Family visitors

This past week we took a one week break from teaching institute classes and welcomed several family members visiting from Utah and Arizona. Our oldest daughter Cindy and three of her boys, Bryce, Spencer and Braden, as well as our youngest daughter Amy paid us a visit. It was a great week. 

We started the week by taking a two day trip to Palmyra New York, a six hour drive from New York City, to visit church history sites.

Our first stop was the visitor center at the Hill Cumorah. 

We admired the statue of the angel Moroni on the top of the hill.

In the visitor center we saw a map of Palmyra area, which helped us get oriented as to the location of the Hill Cumorah and the Joseph Smith family farm.

We also saw an aerial view of the temple, the farm and the Sacred Grove. 

We were able to visit the upstairs bedroom in the old log house of the Smith family. This is the room where the angel Moroni appeared to be young boy Joseph Smith three times in one night. This is not the original log cabin, but a restored version made to look exactly like the original. 

Being able to spend some time in the Sacred Grove was a very special experience.

We then visited the Grandon book store in downtown Palmyra where the first 5000 copies of the book were actually printed. We appreciated the work of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to bring this precious work forward. 

The sister missionaries gave wonderful tours at each church history site. 

We also visited the Peter Whitmer farmhouse whete the church was organized in 1830. 

We saw the actual room where part of the Book of Mormon translation work took place.

After visiting the Palmyra Temple, we returned to New York City.

Big city life always involves riding the subway trains. 

We were able to visit the Manhattan temple and do baptisms for over 50 family names. Our grandsons did the baptizing. That was a special event.

We were able to take in Aladdin, an excellent Broadway play.

We finished the week by touring Manhattan by bus and by ferry. 

We saw the new one World Trade Center building, which is the highest building in the Americas. 

A visit to the reflecting pools where the twin towers once stood was a sobering event. 

All in all, we had a wonderful week.

Service

As missionaries, as church members, and as parents, our main focus is to give service. That is what missions are all about. As missionaries we have the opportunity to give service to the members, to the young missionaries and others. We also stay in close communication with our family, and hopefully we give service and a good example for them. One grandson (Taylor) just received his mission call, and another grandson (Jacson) is in the process of submitting his missionary papers. A third grandson (Tyson), is currently serving, so we are amply blessed as a family. 

Cooking is a big part of what we do. We are serving food to others at least three times a week. It has been said that a CES mission means "cooking every second ( CES)". And that is just about right!

Subway riding continues to be a big part of our weekly routine. Sometimes sister Tenney and I get separated on the subway by the mass of people! It is always an adventure to ride subway trains. 

We always invite our district missionaries to our "pad" near the end of the transfer period for a farewell meal, which we did this past Saturday.  We are losing the elders, but the sisters stay in Park slope for this next missionary transfer. Good deal. We will get two new elders later this week. It is sad to let them go, but we look forward to getting to know new missionaries.

We love our families and hope that many of them will be able to share the joy of missionary service.

We are glad to be the Lord servants in this little part of New York City.

Have a spring, everyone!

Service

As missionaries, as church members, and as parents, our main focus is to give service. That is what missions are all about. As missionaries we have the opportunity to give service to the members, to the young missionaries and others. We also stay in close communication with our family, and hopefully we give service and a good example for them. One grandson (Taylor) just received his mission call, and another grandson (Jacson) is in the process of submitting his missionary papers. A third grandson (Tyson), is currently serving, so we are amply blessed as a family. 

Cooking is a big part of what we do. We are serving food to others at least three times a week. It has been said that a CES mission means "cooking every second ( CES)". And that is just about right!

Subway riding continues to be a big part of our weekly routine. Sometimes sister Tenney and I get separated on the subway by the mass of people! It is always an adventure to ride subway trains. 

We always invite our district missionaries to our "pad" near the end of the transfer period for a farewell meal, which we did this past Saturday.  We are losing the elders, but the sisters stay in Park slope for this next missionary transfer. Good deal. We will get two new elders later this week. It is sad to let them go, but we look forward to getting to know new missionaries.

We love our families and hope that many of them will be able to share the joy of missionary service.

We are glad to be the Lord servants in this little part of New York City.

Have a spring, everyone!

Visiting the City

One of the joys of serving in New York City is that we have family and friends who want to visit us. There's a lot to see and do in New York. 

We were very happy to welcome her sister Diane visiting us from Phoenix for four days. We took a bus tour of Manhattan and saw some wonderful things.

And, of course, riding the subway trains is always a novelty for someone visiting New York City.

During the week we were able to visit the Manhattan Temple and do temple work for family members. We really enjoy searching for family members needing temple ordinances using the family tree program. It gives special meaning to temple work when you can do proxy work for one of your cousins.

Another highlight of the week was the opportunity to attend the Spring spectacular show of the Rockettes at radio city music Hall. 

Radio City Music Hall is set in a busy part of the theater district in Manhattan.

We all enjoyed the production very much.

Another highlight of this past week was our semiannual stake conference for the Brooklyn stake. We do not have a stake center large enough to hold the congregation. Instead, we meet in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn, near the Brooklyn Bridge. We have a very diverse steak. There are as many Spanish-speaking members as there are English-speaking members. There is also a large group and Chinese-speaking members. There are also many single adult members and single parents with children.

We enjoyed very much serving with the members in Brooklyn. We enjoy working with Hispanic members too. Hey good number of our students are Hispanic young adults living at home and Brooklyn with their parents. They are very faithful and have good spirits.