The Week of Christmas

There are no classes for a couple of weeks so we are getting to know the area.  We went the the Temple a couple of days before Christmas, we drove to a Chapel in Queens to park our car then took the subway to Manhattan.  I had to get a picture of Elder Bushman on the train!  We felt out of our element this first time, but it will be easy-peasy from now on!!  We will work in the Temple twice a month starting in January.

We are running into so many people we have connections with, it's amazing!! The first one in the Temple was a friend who was in my ward growing up in Heber City, Nancy Daybell, then we saw these dear friends from Abilene, the Whites!!  We had a good visit with them and had lunch after the temple session.

I didn't get any Christmasy pictures for Christmas Day, but the weather was rather balmy for Dec. in New York!  Our apt. got so warm I had to open the door!!  We had all the missionaries in our district over for breakfast which was really nice, they're a great group of young people, doing lots of good things.  We had fun watching the little girls back home opening their presents.  Technology is a wonderful blessing.

The day after Christmas we went to the far eastern end of Long Island, Montauk Point.  This is the lighthouse there, I love the ocean and it was fun to see it all around.  Off to the right is the Atlantic Ocean and to the left is Long Island Sound.  It was a fun excursion, it's about 2 hours from us.  To get there you have to go through the Hamptons, it's a very picturesque area, you'll have to take my word for it since I didn't take pictures there!

The camera doesn't pick it up, but you can easily see Connecticut from here.

We had to do a selfie!

This was some kind of Manta Ray that had washed up on the shore.

The Work Begins... Our First Week!

We went into Queens for mission transfers so we could meet the mission president, Pres. Calderwood.  We promptly ran into Sis. Myers from San Angelo.

We also met the Princes, they're the parents of our daughters' good friend, Joe.  After the meeting was over we got on the road to go to Terryville to teach our first class, it's about an hour from where we live.  Queens is part of New York City, the traffic here is legendary, and I'm very thankful that Elder Bushman is good, aggressive driver ... pretty much everybody here drives like him!  I may have to up my dose of ulcer medicine!!

This is the Plainview Chapel.  We teach 2 classes and go to church here, it's only about 10 minutes away from us.  This building was built about 3 or 4 years before Elder Bushman was here on his first mission (He actually remembers playing basketball here as a young missionary).  It was made from the pavilion that the Church had at the 1960 World's Fair.

Here's the building we teach at in Bay Shore.

This is close to Bay Shore, I finally saw the ocean!

Our Young Single Adult branch had a gingerbread house making contest!  Here's the aftermath!

Farmingdale NY - Our Home Away From Home!

We got to our place on Saturday, Dec.13, 2014.  We were glad to get here!!  This is the entryway to our apartment complex, all decorated for Christmas!

Ours is the upstairs apt., we added some lights that had been left by the previous missionary couple.

Here's our very cozy, cute living room!

I had to add a Christmas tree!

Here's a beautiful sunrise from our balcony.

The Trip to New York

We left Provo and drove through Wyoming, staying in Cheyenne the first night.  The next day we drove through Nebraska and Iowa.  We stopped at this historical monument, the Kanesville Tabernacle, in Council Bluffs, Iowa where Brigham Young was made the President of the Church and from where the Mormon Battalion departed. We got to Moline, Il. the second night. 

The next day we drove through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, a corner of Pennsylvania and into New York. We decided to make a small detour and go to Palmyra to see Art and Gene Bushman, who are serving in the Temple there.  We loved spending the evening with them and visiting.  Thanks for the food and the bed!

We couldn't leave Palmyra without visiting the Sacred Grove.  The snow was a little deep so we didn't go into the grove, but got this picture just outside of it.

This is the Hill Cumorah covered in snow.  We passed it on our way out of town. We drove down through New York, back into Pennsylvania for a bit, then back into New York for the final leg of our journey.  We drove into Queens NY to meet Pres. Kauffman, who had the keys to our apartment.

We were in the MTC from Dec. 1st to Dec. 10th, 2014. It was a great experience and we learned lots of things!

These 3 all graduated from Holbrook High: Jeff, Sis. Stott (maiden name Lewis), and Dave Taylor

We were so excited to be at the MTC with these friends, Dave and Tamara Taylor.  Our lives have intersected several times through the years and we decided that we should serve our next missions together.

This is our district, the Chambers, the Bushmans, our teacher, Sis. Fisher, Sis. Chamberlain, Sis. Elia (from Molokai!) and the Morings.

It was very fun to run into Sis. Yazzie, the daughter of one of Elder Bushman's former students, Jenny Simper Yazzie.

We were able to go visit my sisters on the weekend.  It was very good to be together for a little while at least!

Here we are at the famous world map pointing to New York

We met up with Elder Conway, the son of some San Angelo friends.