July 15,
2013
Dear
Family and Friends—
How’s
everyone this nice day which will end up being about 96 degrees with high
humidity. Thank you air
conditioning! We’ve had overcast
skies with rain of various natures this past week so it was nice to see blue
sky for a change this morning.
Been
a far more boring week this week but nice to get the essentials done.
Let’s
see, a week ago I did the last letter, erased it and started again. Still haven’t recovered emotionally
from that mistake. : ) But, the next day was completely
different, being temple service day.
Lynn was the officiator and I was the follower first thing in the
morning. I knew what I was doing
and there was a good sized group there.
So peaceful! At lunch got
to get to know Elder Jorgenson much better. He and his wife are doing MLS in a ward way out on the east
side of Long Island. Financially
and time wise it is a big sacrifice for them to do service in the temple so
they only come twice a month. That
day I got to be in the Celestial Room just as a worker there to make sure
everything went ok and to open the door when the patrons leave. It is so quiet and peaceful; all
troubles seem to melt away in the peace.
Then I went to initiatory and because there were a lot of ladies that
showed up and workers were being called to the baptistery because it was being
overrun with scouts that would end up at Jamboree in W. Virginia, I needed to
stay longer than I was scheduled for.
It was ok though as this was a chance to get to be with old regulars and
some people that came to do temple work as part of their vacation to NY. Working with people whose hearts are in
the right place is such a pleasure.
Wednesday
was strictly “get ready for Institute” day. The more I went over the material the more ideas and
concepts popped into my head. I
believe it went quite well though sometimes having too much material was a
problem. Only three showed up, one
more came 45 minutes later, and one more came 50 minutes later. All the work was worth it though, even
for a small group because the teacher is always the winner with what she gains
from all the preparation.
The
next day was finances and beginning prep for this Wednesday’s Institute. I need to get ahead of the game there
since my MO is now to hand out a study sheet to go along with the talk we will
discuss. Also, and I’m not
kidding, I believe I made 25 trips up and down the elevator to do a lot of
laundry. I felt like a yo-yo. One of the washers wasn’t working and
there was more than just me competing for the use of the other three
machines. I was worn out by the
end of the day and spent it finishing up the last part of “Return of the King”
(Lord of the Rings series).
Friday
went shopping using my new shopping cart and it was every bit as handy as I
hoped it would be. Instead of
making multiple trips up and down from the garage to get the groceries into the
apartment everything fit in the cart for one trip. Hallelujah!
In
the afternoon it started to rain, well it’s been raining in the afternoons just
about all week. This rain was more
of a problem because we were going to the Soletas to celebrate their youngest
daughter’s birthday. The house is
too small for the party to be inside, there were somewhere about 30 people at
the party, so we ate outside under the porch covering next to the house. Hummm, stayed mostly dry. But, a good time was had by all and a
lot of food was had by all, when the Soletas throw a big party they fix a lot
of food!!! (There were five women
to do the cooking).
Oh,
forgot to mention that on Thursday Doug Lee went by some service van to a
hospital at the extreme northern end of Manhattan that is quite the
distance. He had same day hernia
surgery. We had every intention of
visiting him that night and taking some food over and warming it up for
him. But, are you ready for
this? His landlady refused to
allow anyone to see him. She refused
to allow ANY ONE to bring food to him.
No one could come inside that building. And because she’s a particular kind of Muslim that hates
whites, she’s told Lee (who’s the only white man in this half-way house) that
he’s got to find a new place to live by September 1st! I was stunned, completely stunned. Also, there is no air conditioning in
the house, despite the fact that this lady is making a fortune off these men,
and if Lee wanted a fan he’d have to pay extra for the electricity.
So,
when he called Lynn yesterday(Sunday) early in the morning and asked him to take him back to his
hospital in upper Manhattan because he was having problems recovering from the
surgery I was glad that he had problem.
At least he could be admitted, be in air conditioning, get food to eat
and be taken care of. When I
described to some people at church his situation and the landlady woman, I was
asked “what kind of woman is this?”
My answer could only be “Wicked”!
Saturday
I did a lot of prep for next week’s institute lesson plus other things which
kept me working at a desk all day.
In the late afternoon Lynn suggested that we go for a walk and I was so
all in favor. We drove to Prospect
Park and parked the car along the street and walked in the light rain (no
umbrellas) but it was not a problem.
The humidity was a problem.
We went some places I haven’t been to and at the end stopped at the
carousel. Lynn went to the ticket
booth and started to talk to the ticket lady like they were old friends. Turns out that they were! She knew all about the fact that Lynn
was waiting to ride the carousel when his wife was there, and now I was finally
there. There weren’t a lot of
takers for rides that day so we had the pick of the horses to ride on. The colors on the Prospect Park
carousel are much more subdued than the one in Central Park and that’s because
they were restored to as much of the original paint colors as they could
find. The man who did a lot of the
restoring of this carousel is from Italy and he was the operator that day. What a delightful man. What a treasure he has restored. What an incredible job was done on this
carousel right down to the restored organ with its accompanying instruments. Please go and type in “Prospect Park
carousel” in the Google search bar.
It will tell the story of this carousel.
Yesterday
was church as usual except for the fact that Lynn taught the S.S. lesson—did a
nice job. He sure put in the time
to prepare for it. Our
bishop made an announcement that there was going to be a special missionary
Sunday in two weeks so bring friends and neighbors for music and a simple
explanation of the church. After church
Lynn went to PEC and found out that Lynn and I were being asked to talk that
day. That’s fine, but we assumed
the missionaries had the meeting all planned out and they didn’t tell us about
any talks. We talked to the Zone
leader today and he only thought the missionaries were responsible to do some
music. Well, will be interesting
to see what ends up happening.
In
the afternoon we went to visit and have dinner with the Williams family. They are from Jamaica and are stalwarts
in this ward. Turns out that Carol
and Rainford Williams own a townhome, use two floors and rent out the top
floor. It was, hands down and far
away the best kept residence that we have come across in this ward. They were so gracious and fixed a
delicious meal. Had just a wonderful
time.
That’s
the news. I’m so grateful for the
opportunity to serve this mission.
Grateful for the chance to teach Institute because I learn so much. I’m grateful for the gospel and its
truthfulness. When I observe the
people that come to the temple I am filled with awe for them because they are
committed covenant keepers, they choose the gospel in their lives, they choose
to keep all the commandments to the best of their ability, not perfectly, but
to the best of their ability and that are remarkable. I see too much of the opposite side of this. I love the Lord and I am grateful for
the
Atonement. I sure love my family and others that I
know and hold dear. Have a great
week everyone; we should, we’re planning on going to Palmyra this Thursday
morning!
Love,
Kathy/Mom
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