June 2,
2013
Dear
Family and Friends—
This
week summer has come back and I’m guessing it’s permanent now. We’ve got the humidity along with it
but right now it is manageable. It
did get up to 93 on Thursday, that’s warm.
Writing
about a short week, since the last letter I wrote was sent just a few days
ago. I spent Wednesday working on
Mission History stuff and preparing for Institute that night. Lynn spent long hours getting the Ward
Directory that we’ve been working on forever, it seems, in a form that can now
have last minute corrections and then we’ll print it up and hand it out. A lot of people are eager to have at
least the picture page so they can put names and faces together.
We
had four people come for Institute initially, two more than we expected, and
then, surprise, Kenly, our long lost Kenly, showed up half-way through. It was a nice shock. We had asked him about six weeks ago to
do FHE because he had been coming on a regular basis, and he agreed to do
it. He did not show up for FHE and
we haven’t seen him since then.
It’s just a shock to the system how many members here will take a
“vacation” of sorts from church.
One of the pieces of discussion at ward council today was how to get
ward members to the temple. The
bishop made a strong plea for members to have a current temple recommend. Apparently they go through the temple a
few times, and then never bother to renew their recommend. Our Relief Society president said that
paying tithing is the big hindrance to getting a temple recommend. This has all come to a head because the
stake is sponsoring a stake temple day this coming Thursday.
Back
to Institute: I gave the lesson on
Elder Cook’s talk about peace and it turned out really nice. We had good discussion and a great
spirit. I gave them some things to
really think about and we dissected the talk into several parts, having class
members making strong contributions to each part, teaching it, if you will. Went home with a nice feeling,
especially nice when a member that never came before and one that returned out
of the blue, came to class.
Thursday
was finances day and did quite a few other things too, but the main activity
was getting on the train and taking the long ride to NE Manhattan to see the
“Cloisters.” It’s a newish
(built in the 1930’s by Rockefeller) monastery to house Medieval art. After getting off the “A” train,
there’s a long walk to get to the Cloisters, the walk going through a beautiful
park. But the best part came when
I discovered by looking to the west that the Hudson River was there, and very
wide at that point. Palisades were
on either side of the river, so beautiful. It was a hot day though so as enjoyable as that park was, we
were anxious to get inside.
Rockefeller
had purchased historically important artifacts, particularly, important
tapestries for the walls.
Certainly there wasn’t as much as we saw in museums in Europe, but
still, there was a very nice collection.
They had a new exhibit on unicorns, in pictures, in tapestries, in
artifacts of various natures. In
many cases unicorns were a symbol of Christ since it was believed that a
unicorn that dips its horn in water and the water goes on a person, then the person is healed. Personally I have not run into many
unicorns so I don’t know if “horn water” really can heal. ; )
We only
had an hour and a half before they told us we had to leave. So, back to the train station, but not
before getting an ice cream bar from the friendly ice cream truck in the
parking lot.
We
came home for dinner, watched the finale of “Elementary” and I got my shopping
list done. And, most important of
all, I talked to Nancy for quite a while because it was her birthday. She surprised me by saying that she and
Rick got divorced in December and I did not know that. This helped her straighten out some
financial problems and now she is looking to do some traveling, after all,
she’s got Matt’s wedding in August and a new grand baby in Alaska coming within
a month.
I
had to know what to do for shopping because I took 4 Elders with me to COSTCO
the next day. They had their money
for the month and were ready to spend.
My payoff was getting to spend time with four terrific young men, but we
had a lot of money on the American Express card, which gives us airline miles.
Friday
afternoon Lynn and I went to the Botanic gardens to see the roses. We were a week too late for the best
blooming, but the fact is a week before it was pouring rain, so…. It was another hot day so walking
through the very shady park and seeing all the new flowers was quite
enjoyable. We’ve decided to cut
back on the gardens since most all flowers are now spent so we’ll be doing
other things on Fridays. After the
visit to the gardens I told Lynn I wanted to go to Gyro King, a fast food for Greek,
Mideast type food. Our young
missionaries go there a lot and love it.
We found out why by ordering two dinners and it was very delicious. The owner of the store recognized our
name tags and told about the young missionaries that frequent his store that he
loves to interact with.
Lynn
polished off the evening by going, at 10:30 pm, to the Jewish synagogue to eat
and talk to the Jews. A very
interesting thing happened. At one
point the air conditioner went off.
Then one of the men there looked at Lynn and asked if Lynn knew anything
about air conditioners. Lynn said
that he knew a little and had installed three in our apartment. Then the man kept asking him if he knew
more about air conditioners which conversation confused Lynn until a woman quietly
told him that the man was actually asking him if he could turn on the air
conditioner. You see, it was
Shabbat, which means no work for the Jews, no flipping switches. Also, you can’t ask anyone else to work
for you. So what was the guy to
do, if he asked Lynn to “work” the man would be complicit in breaking a Jewish
law. It finally dawned on Lynn
that those about him wanted him to turn on the air conditioner and he laughed
and said he was the “goyim” there that night and went and flipped the switch to
much cheers and applause.
Lynn
has been very diligent in going to physical therapy about three times a week
and riding his bike. He uses his
bike for exercise, but he also uses it to go to stores that he needs things
from, or at least just needs to explore.
Least you think that driving a car would be quicker to get to stores,
think again. The bike is
quicker. The reason why you
take a car is so there’s room to put stuff, only so much can go on a bike. Now if you are going long distances, a
car is more practical.
We
had three air conditioners installed in our apartment this week—that is SO
yay! They work really well and I
actually feel more comfortable with them turned to 74 degrees, just about
heresy for me.
Had
an interesting day in church with our former “born agains” teaching incorrect
doctrine. It makes it really
uncomfortable for those of us who know what is right to correct a teacher or
member of the audience, but for the sake of those present who will believe
anything the teacher says is right, it has to be done. We also had a discussion in ward
council on 20 minutes testimonies in testimony meeting and coming up with some
practical ideas to help the members not talk too long and at the same time not
hurt their feelings. The Haitians
have strong sweet feelings for the church and will sing songs at the end of
their testimony. It is a different
ward!!
I
have strong sweet feeling for the church too. Despite the problems, our interactions with those who are
truly committed and eager to learn is a time of joy. I love studying.
I’ve loved being the teacher for Institute, which is technically Adult
Religion since those that come are over 30. Love the gospel and all that it means. It’s especially tender when we think of
those we love returning to the spirit world to begin a new phase of their
“forever.” Love and miss you
Lynn. And, in three days, it will
be Seanna’s birthday. Love you
sweet girl. She will be sixteen!
My love to
all the rest of you—Kathy/Mom
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