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. 

Changing and growing

One of the good things about a mission is that you're always changing and growing. That is true for us as a senior couple as well as for the young missionaries.

We are continually being challenged to do more and to learn more. Each week we learn more about the wonderful resources the church has to help us teach the Gospel.  We love studying the Gospel together and teaching it to the young people out here.

We recently had another transfer meeting which always brings great excitement and many changes. Pres. and Sr. Calderwood are great inspirational leaders.

We are so blessed to have them as leaders.

We love working with the young missionaries in our district and zone as well as with the young single adults and institute classes.

We also love our temple work on Friday of each week. Last Friday we were able to enjoy a cold ice cream cone on a cold New York night. It makes a lot of sense doesn't it!

On a recent P day we were able to take in the Disney on ice performance called Frozen. 

The performance was held at the new Barcklays Center in Brooklyn. We greatly enjoyed the performance, but would have loved to have seen it with some of our grandchildren.

It was a great show.

We enjoyed our Brooklyn stake conference this past weekend. Our presiding officer was elder Anthony Perkins of the first quorum of 70. 

This stake is very racially and ethnically diverse. There are probably more Hispanic members than any other culture. We also have a large contingent of Chinese and African-Americans. Some conference talks were given in English and other talks were given in Spanish. we enjoyed them all.

Fall season in New York

We have had an enjoyable fall in New York. We have enjoyed the changing colors of the leaves.

On one of our recent preparation days we strolled through Central Park.

A Japanese man took our picture. Most of the people in the park are from some other country. This is truly an international place.

The colorful leaves were in full bloom.

It is remarkable how you can have nature in the middle of a large city. Central Park is truly a major gathering place.

After our walk in the park we of course developed an appetite.  We had to get something at this famous ice cream shop.

It looks like we were well fed doesn't it.

We saw more beautiful leaves on our trip to West Point with senior couples.

Our group had a special tour of the Academy given by Major Cook, a friend of the church. We got to see things that most visitors do not get to see.

The large mess hall which feeds 4400 soldiers at a time was truly amazing.

The cadets are taught a strict on a code which we should all follow.

West Point is a strategic location in the Hudson river which was very important in the Revolutionary war. We were able to prevent the British from taking over the river and thus dividing the colonies.

It was a great outing. We really enjoy the senior missionary opportunities. We have an active group of senior missionaries in our mission. We look forward to our monthly activities together.

A beautiful fall

We enjoyed a beautiful fall day last Saturday traveling to West Point, approximate 50 miles north of New York City.  The leaves were changing colors and they were beautiful.

We also enjoyed visiting the stately West Point military Academy.  These stone buildings are approximate 200 years old.

The view of the Hudson river valley was also gorgeous.

The Hudson river has been very strategic river in the history of the United States.

Control of the Hudson river was of vital importance to the colonists in the Revolutionary war.  The British wanted to control the Hudson river to divide the colonies in half. Efforts were made to prevent that, including placing a large chain across the river. The river makes a sharp turn at West Point thus making it the ideal spot to gain control of the river.

Halloween is in the air.

We always enjoy it when people take time to decorate their home or business for the holidays.

We also enjoyed a Halloween party and chili cookoff with the family ward which meets in our building. And it's good to be in church with little kids on occasion. We miss that interaction in our YSA branch.  Most of the members of the family ward are young professionals who have one child.

Sister Tenney took 2nd place in the chili cook off with her mean summer vegetarian chili. It was yummy!'

Happiness is sharing the mission experience with the one you love - your sweetheart. Being missionaries is great fun. And a great experience for both of us. 

More fun visitors and activities

No sooner had Amy and her friends left New York a little over a week ago when we were blessed by the visit of Harold And Kitty from Arizona. 

They arrived by bus from Washington DC.

We all enjoyed a session of the New York City temple in Manhattan. That is always a highlight for people who come to visit us in NYC.  We love the temple.

 

Kitty and Harpld enjoyed riding the subway with us. The subway system is always something unique about New York City.

We also enjoyed the Cinderella Broadway musical together. 

A sobering part of their visit was our visit to the 9/11 memorial site. We were able to observe the reflecting pools which marked the spots where the twin towers once stood.

They were also able to observe the newly constructed one World Trade Center building. 

Harold And Kitty also enjoyed the view from our "10E" apartment. We have a great view of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. 

After we reluctantly said goodbye to Harold And Kitty on Saturday, we took part in another senior activity. The senior missionary couples traveled to the east end of Long Island to Montauk lighthouse.

It was a cold, blustery day, which reminded us that winter is soon on the way. 

We even got to see the Atlantic Ocean, which was pretty cool.

We topped off the week by viewing a special devotional fireside broadcast from the Lincoln Ctr., Chapel in Manhattan featuring Elder L Tom Perry. The occasion was the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Mormon pavilion at the New York City worlds fair in 1964. That pavilion marked the first effort of the church to use media to feature the church. The film "Man's search bfor happiness" was first shown at that world's fair.

In all, it was another busy and eventful week. We taught all of our institute classes during the week, and Harold and Kitty accompanied us for most of the classes. They were able to see the diverse students we work with.  Our students come from different races, countries, cultures, and church backgrounds.  We really enjoy sharing the gospel with all of them.