Two Temple Trips!

We went to the Temple twice this week, the first one was Wednesday when we worked a 6 hour shift and the second was Friday when we helped escort a group of missionaries on their semi-annual temple trip.

These are pictures of the Manhattan Temple, in the second one you can see the statue of the Angel Moroni if you look at the right hand corner of the front building then go about halfway up the tall building next to it, you'll see the angel!

On Wednesday it was our experimental trip, parking at the church building in Flushing, then taking the subway from there in to the Temple.  That evening we teach a class in Great Neck which is closer to Flushing so we would have less traffic to deal with.  The walk to the subway is a half mile or so ... not so bad unless the weather is sketchy.  It worked well but it gives us a couple of hours before we have to be at class, so we walked around Flushing a bit and went into an Asian Mall where we got these lovely meals of Teriyaki Chicken and Shrimp!  We found a place that sells our favorite CalRose rice, too!  Next time we think we'll spend our extra hours in Manhattan and look around there. 

This is where we teach on Wednesday evening.  It's the Mariner's Chapel at the US Merchant Marine Academy, it's a multi-denominational chapel that we use one room in for our class.  The light at the top blinks on and off and makes it a lighthouse, it's right at the shore.

This is the view from in front of Mariner's Chapel, looking over the water to Throg's Neck Bridge.
                          

This is the traffic coming home from our Friday Temple trip.  It was pretty slow going, but we made it home in plenty of time to teach our Friday class in Plainview which is only 10 minutes from us.

Happy New Year!

Here it is ..... Times Square on New Year's Eve!!  We weren't there but it was really fun for us old fogies to realize that we were only 40 or so miles from where it was taking place.  We had fun helping with the Stake activity that was happening that evening then went home where it was cozy and warm!!

We made a trip to Flushing (part of Queens) to check out a new route to one of the places we teach.  They have a large Asian population there and it was fun to see all the stores.

We had a fun "Minute-to-Win-it" activity for FHE.  The 2 people in this event have panty hose on their heads, there is a tennis ball in the toe and they try to knock over the water bottles swinging their heads around.  Pretty fun to watch!

This one is balancing M&M's on 2 pencils glued together, placing the attached yarn over your ears and pulling the balanced candy up to your chin.  There were several other games, all fun and creative!

We'd been having unseasonably "less cold" temperatures until that all changed.

We've had a couple of snowstorms that drop an inch or two each time, but we've had some really cold temperatures with pretty stiff winds that make me glad I brought some warm clothes!!

We started working in the Temple a couple of times a month and decided we wanted to try and take the train in.  It's convenient but pricey so we won't do it often, but it was fun to try.  The train station is right by our house and while we were waiting here for our train the temperature was about 16 degrees with 25-30 mph winds.  It was not fun!  Thankfully there was this little enclosure and we didn't have to wait long.

This is looking through the back of the enclosure at our apartment building.

This is in Penn Station, after our Temple shift we took the subway here to catch the train.  This picture doesn't capture the vast numbers of people there.  They're all watching an electronic board and when the train they are waiting for is assigned a track they take off toward that track.  Elder Bushman was in his "let's get there fast" mode and when our track number was assigned he wanted to RUN, but we restrained ourselves and just walked fast!!

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.