Dear Family and Friends—
Good
Veteran’s Day to you. We will not
be seeing it, but apparently NYC has the largest Veteran’s Day parade in the
country. I imagine it would be
wonderful. I wonder how many
“impeach Obama” signs there will be.
Did I say that?
Hummmm. It was interesting
that in liberal Oregon there were people on bridges on the freeway holding up
those kinds of signs. It’s a cool
day, with clouds. NY hasn’t seen
any real rain for quite a while, so people are actually hoping to see rain.
We
have taken a few opportunities to see the last of the fall colors in the
Botanic Garden and just around Prospect Park and our neighborhood. The Garden was simply eye candy—such
beauty just took your breath away.
All the annuals were gone so the show was with the bushes and trees—we
just didn’t realize it till Saturday how many “plants” were put in for the fall
color. Even the bonsai exhibit has
fall colors on its tiny trees.
There was one small tree that was 90 years old!
Guess
I’ll start where most of you know what was going on—the trip to Portland. Already told you about the scary trip
to LaGuardia where we got to one place on I-278 and came to a stand-still,
which included zero traffic going south.
But, a half hour later we were off and running and two pleasant flights
later we got to Portland, then the Comfort Inn, then Bob and Moira’s. It was great to see the family and have
dinner with them.
Next
day was picking up our kids day which Lynn was responsible for but most of the
time was spent at Bob and Moira’s.
Hannah was sad Friday and it was easy to tell that her molars were
giving her grief. To help her out
I took the two girls out for a walk and Hannah feel asleep; Joseph joined us by
riding his bike. Moira’s family came
Friday and they stayed at a hotel that night. While Lynn was picking up J.D., Sean, Julianne, Margie and I
took advantage of the swimming pool, but mostly that warm hot tub. It was nice to take a couple of plunges
into the cool pool though, to cool down. Lynn arrived with J. later on and that
meant we were all together again—so wonderful.
Saturday—the
big day. We had a nice breakfast
together, nice to catch up on chatting, and then into our church clothes. We went to Bob and Moira’s place and
had a tender experience either watching or participating in, the blessing of
Emily and Hannah by Bob. Something
had changed with Hannah because she was a quiet little soul that day and
thankfully that was a help to Bob.
He gave two very beautiful blessings.
Then,
off to the cars and a caravan to the Portland Temple. Inside different people went different directions. Moira’s family helped with the three
small children to get them dressed and settled. Moira and Bob changed into their sealing clothes. Moira had purchased a beautiful wedding
dress online and she was a knock-out!
Meanwhile, Lynn and I and our family hung out in the atrium of the
temple, took pictures, tried to decide what to do and where to go and most
importantly, Lynn and I got caught up with an old friend. Terri Fitch and her husband were
ordinance workers in the Portland temple.
We knew the Fitches from Washington DC days (now THAT was a while ago)
and it was glorious to see Terri.
(Missed her husband). We
were eventually ushered in to the chapel area, which I thought was unusual for
a gathering place for families waiting to see sealings, but that’s how Portland
does it.
Finally
all those who were there to see the sealing were ushered into a lovely room and
we waited for a while. There were
ward members who knew Bob and Moira that came and that was wonderful for them
to help support them. Bob and
Moira showed up and after some instruction (and some learning on the part of
the sealer to know how to pronounce Moira’s name) they were sealed together for
Time and Eternity. Oh, happy
day!!! Eventually three little
white dressed children showed up in the room, Joseph in white shirt and pants,
Emily in her beautiful white “flower girl” dress, and Hannah dressed in a
lovely dress they got from the temple for just this occasion. The sealer talked a little while to the
children and tried to explain what was going on. I think that was good information for us adults, it remains
to be seen how much the kids remembered of his speech. But, still, we were all glad to hear
it. Then the sealer told Joseph to
go to the alter and put his hand on his parents, Emily went to another side
when her name was called and she stood on tippy toes and stretched her hand to
put it on her parents hand, then an ordinance worker helped Hannah do the same. A sealing prayer was pronounced—they
were now an eternal family.
Yay!!! It was such a
special sweet experience.
After
that was over everyone went to the atrium and waited for Bob and Moira and kids
to show up, which they did, Bob now in a tux and Moira still in her wedding
gown, girls in their white dresses, and Joseph in his church clothes. Wendi and Bryant also were there, so
the stage was set for the professional photographer to take A LOT of
pictures. After taking family
pictures, Margie had to leave to go back to Utah. Thank you Margie, for coming. We really appreciate it.
Next
stop, we went to the stake center for Wendi’s stake. It was now Bryant’s time and he and Bob went to get changed
into their white clothes, while a large group of people—family and friends from
two wards—came to see this special event.
Ken played the piano. I
gave a talk on baptism. Then Bob
and Bryant went into the water and after carefully pronouncing the prayer Bob
dunked Bryant into the water.
Bryant came up smiling and said, “That was easy!” Then they changed, Wendi gave a talk on
the Gift of the Holy Ghost, closing song—we were done. Yay! Bryant!
After
the baptism it was time to celebrate this glorious day so we got into the car
and headed off to Sweet Tomatoes, a soup and salad bar place. The manager went out of his way, and
then some, to accommodate the large party, helped us get settled in and
going. What a feast. We need one of these places in
Provo/Orem.
After
that, Bob and Moira went to a Marriott facility that was close by to have a one-night
honeymoon and Moira’s Mom, Dad and sister-in-law, Letty, stayed at B and M’s
place to take care of the kids.
The McKell’s went back to the hotel to recover from an extraordinary,
historic day.
Next
day was Sunday and we went to church, came back to Bob and Moira’s for dinner, and
then said farewell to the Goering Family.
They were now off to their next big adventure—going to California,
cutting across the country to Oklahoma, then back to Iowa. Wow! We stayed till the evening and Lynn gave Bob a Father’s
Blessing, then we went back to hotel—our big experience was over.
Monday
presented no problems getting back to NYC. I sat next to a Muslim from Lebanon (now living in Oregon) who
was mourning the loss of good service on American airplanes. He told me how good his service was as
a driver for people going to the Portland Airport. He was going to Chicago to get two more cars for his
fleet. We discussed religion; I
told him about eternal families, missionaries, the work Lynn was doing with the
Muslim mosque in NY and gave him a pass-a-long card. Eventually we got to NY, our pick-up service guy
arrived and we got to our apartment in record time—fastest trip on 278 we had
ever taken.
What
an incredible 5 days of the Lord’s blessings—we do feel truly blessed.
The
next day was our temple service.
What a day that was. It was
also the Brooklyn Stake Temple Day so there were a lot of ordinance workers
there who normally don’t work on Tuesday, from our stake, that were there to
help. It was so much fun to be in
the baptistery and see so many that we knew. It was especially gratifying to see the young people with
their brand new baptism recommend cards, getting them taken care of. I helped a few with the plastic
covers. There were so many patrons
that we were running out of the white jump suits in what I would call the
“normal” sizes. Of course, there
were plenty of our ward members doing initiatory and regular sessions so I was
able to be with them and help them.
Almost didn’t want to go home at the end of the day—it was a day of
rejoicing. On our way back through
Central Park, two women stopped us (recognized our name tags) and talked to
us. The younger woman was 30 and
in the new single adult ward situation (31-45) and lived in proximity to
J.D. We exchanged pictures and
information.
The
Statue of Liberty was closed from July 2012 to July 2013. It was opened to the public again on
July 4th after clean-up and refurbishing.
We have already done the museum tour inside but hadn’t been able to go
to the crown and look out the windows.
So two months ago we went to the web-site and found that the next
available reservation time wasn’t till November. The day came this past Wednesday. We took the train to Battery Park and hopped on a boat that
took us to the statue. Two men
congratulated us with handshakes that we had even gotten a reservation to go to
the crown. We went through airport
type security before we went on the boat.
We went through airport type security before we were allowed to go on
the stairs to the crown. No
messing around here! So, up the
stairs we went. It was easy till
we got to the stairs that went in a tight circle with only two foot wide
stairs, going up very steeply.
Finally we made it to the top and the amazing view. Several of the little windows in the
crown were open and we were invited to touch the outside of the statue. Two rangers were there to answer our
many questions. There wasn’t much
space in the crown and fortunately not too many were up there at one time. It was eventually time to go. For me trying to go down those circular
stairs was pretty scary, and very hard; stupid knee anyway. Lynn finally suggested I go down backwards
and I tried that—it helped. It
took four days for the soreness in my legs to disappear. When we got down we went through the
main floor museum with the aid of an audio guide. Then we made it outside and used the guide again where there
were numbers at places of import.
Last, we said goodbye to the dear lady, climbed on a boat and took the
cold, windy trip back to Battery Park.
I
told Lynn that I would treat him to dinner. We went to TGIF Friday’s which wasn’t too far away from the
Park and enjoyed a great meal. We
got there early enough to have the lunch menu which saved me some money. Then off to the train and back
home.
No
rest for the weary that night—we went back to church in the evening to go to
Institute for the weekly lesson.
We had a small group that night but still had a productive time. One of my regular attenders had a
minor heart procedure so she couldn’t be there.
Thursday—finances—all
day. Just glad to get it out of my
hair.
Friday
I went to Target early in the morning. There I found out that they were selling their house brand of
turkey breasts for just $.99 a pound—a steal for NYC. The whole turkeys were $.79 a pound. Unbelievable! I just brought one turkey breast roast, cooked it, then
figured out how much turkey meat we needed for the 100 people we were going to
serve at the three-zone lunch on the 20th. I had a six pound roast, but after it cooked it
was only 2 ½ pounds. So, we
figured we needed a total of 12 turkeys (we needed 80 pounds of turkey roast). Lynn and I went back that night and
bought what they had—only seven.
The clerk said more would be in the next day so I went back to find no
turkeys. Luckily the store had
Kevin, a bright young in charge man who gave me some directions of what to
do. I went back this morning. Kevin was there with my turkeys and
voila! We are set to go. The
turkeys went into the freezers of the young missionaries. I will cook them all and make the
gravy.
I
also spent Friday on the computer figuring out the rest of the meal and who was
going to do what. We’re getting
help from Sis. Calderwood because the wife of one of the senior missionary
couples was recovering from pneumonia.
There are three couples doing a dinner for 100, which will be a big
job. It will be a simplified
Thanksgiving.
While
I was at Target, Lynn walked to church to open it up for a funeral. A woman who lived in Staten Island
wanted to have her funeral in the Midwood chapel because that is where she
spent her best church years. So,
Lynn got there early, helped the Staten Island bishop and funeral directors, stayed
a little while for part of the service, and then came home.
He
went to the mosque on Friday afternoon to do some finalizing with the Imams
concerning the parking. He decided
to stay for the Friday services and was invited to have some food afterwards,
per usual. Also per usual he ate
their raw onions which turned out to be a big mistake. He wasn’t very happy when we went that
night to Target to get turkeys. No
more raw onions! It does terrible
things to the GI tract. : )
Saturday
we went to the Botanic Gardens which I have already talked about. In the afternoon the sister
missionaries needed to use Lynn’s computer to upload a YouTube video and they
spent quite a bit of time working on that. They brought Geri Soleta, 18, with them to help them. I watched their video and it was
pretty good. They need some
practice to get a more professional looking product, but that will come. Then the sisters helped me understand
how to do texting. I will need to
spend more time and actually practice to get that to happen, but I appreciated
their help.
Finally,
yesterday. Church as usual. But, in the evening we took a train to
the temple and went to the 3rd level where there is a chapel for several
of the Manhattan Wards. There we
had a devotional where each of the new temple presidency and matrons
talked. It was a very good meeting
and a nice chance to get better acquainted with people that we already
knew. The two councilors had
already been working at the temple, one set being councilors to the previous
temple president. Afterwards they
had refreshments in the gym (a rather nice one, I might add) and spent time
talking to those we knew from our Tuesday service, and those in our ward who serve
there and other senior missionary couples who do a stint in the temple during
the week like we do.
It’s
been a full two weeks, full of blessings that we have prayed for for
years. The church is true—that I
know. Been reading from the Pearl
of Great Price quite a bit lately and you have to stop and think about the fact
that Joseph Smith would have to have made up all that book too, if he were a
fraud. Impossible. Read the little book again and enjoy
the great doctrine taught there.
Love to you all---Kathy/Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment