Kathy 12/2/13

December 2, 2013

Dear Family and Friends—

            Although we’ve had some very cold weather here in NY, right now it’s pretty nice outside, and doesn’t feel at all like Christmas.  Lynn has been listening to some Christmas music though and the decorations in the apartment (what few there are) lend a Christmassy touch.  Manhattan, in some places, has really decked their halls.

            Well—let’s see.  Last Monday night we had a good group for FHE but seeing a pattern of “if I came the week before, I won’t show up the next week.”  We do our best.  A family from the Philippines did the FHE and did a game that emphasized how the destruction of the Typhoon affects families.  We didn’t know until the very end of the game where the game was going and what it was about.  The mother told the story of the two missionary sisters that managed to escape rising water in the home they were living in and save themselves from drowning by Divine intervention. 

            Temple service in the morning was very nice because I had a lot of responsibility in the baptistery.  Two families showed up with kids, one from Texas, the other from the Beaver, UT, area.  I like these opportunities because it allows me to have a chance to interact with kids, and these were great young people.  The rest of the day was too quiet for me.  But I will tell you a story that I heard while eating lunch.  One of the temple missionaries told those of us that were there about a young man, black, from the hood that joined the church in his early teens.  He lived on the NE side of New Jersey. When he got to be about 16 he left the church and its ways and got heavy involved with gangs, complete with a LOT of tattoos, some of which were gang tattoos.  At some point he became disenchanted with the gang style and returned to church.  He desperately wanted to serve a mission—the problem?   All those tattoos.  So, members of the church took pictures of his tattoos and sent them to Salt Lake.  The powers that be said certain gang tattoos had to go, the others could stay.  He went through a very expensive and painful process to remove those tattoos.  But, he was so committed and anxious to serve, to repent, that he went a step further.  One Sunday, the lady who told the story saw him with blood coming through his white Sunday shirt.  When she confronted him he confessed to trying to remove some of the tattoos by himself with a knife.  At this point the lady telling the story broke down and cried.  She said he was so completely committed to serving the best possible mission, that he did and had an incredible experience.  When your heart is changed through Christ, miracles can happen.  He now still has the scars on his back from the tattoo removal to remind him of his commitment.  It was a sweet and tender experience.

            Wednesday Lynn and I went to Grimaldi’s Pizza place under the Brooklyn Bridge.  We had heard about how great this pizza place was when we got here.  They do not sell pizza by the slice.  But, we were going to visit Carol and Wight Jensen and thought a pizza from Grimaldi’s would make a nice lunch.  Lynn called the order in early; we double parked while he went to get it, then we were off.  We did have a nice lunch with the Jensens.  They are going home from their 18 month mission tomorrow afternoon and they invited us to take some things from their apartment so we could use it in ours.  Some of their things they didn’t want to spend the money to ship home, so we were kind of helping them out.  : )   After eating, we put what we could into the car (which included an overstuff chair and floor lamp to go with it) and then they took us to a discount rug store and we bought (well, the mission will pay for it) a beautiful 8x11 rug to go in our living room area.  I am tickled with the rug.  BTW, in our apartments, we’re supposed to have about 80% of the floors covered with rugs—it cuts down on the noise in the apartment below you.  The Jensens suggested a different way home so I got a new experience by going on the “Belt-Way”.  It has no interstate number; it’s just called the Belt-Way.  We got home in the dark, so it was an all-day event.  There was no Institute that night.   The pizza? Neither Lynn nor I cared for it that much, not enough sauce, crust too thin, and they used fresh mozzarella slices which meant there wasn’t enough cheese.

            That night, while I was in bed, the doorbell rang.  There were two young Jewish men who wanted to know if we were Jewish and they wanted to light our Hanukkah candles if we were.  Lynn brought them inside and talked doctrine with them.  He thought they were pretty confused about the doctrine of adoption into a tribe of Israel when we get baptized.

            I got to bed early that night, woke up at 4:45 and got ready for the parade.  We made it out of the apartment at a little after 6 and got to the place where our chairs had been set out (by kindly temple workers that we knew) by 7:30.  It was perfect, and it was a perfect day, cold and clear.  I need to tell you that about 2/3 of the way on the train, at a place where we were getting out for a transfer, we and everyone else in our car looked out and saw staring at us all kinds of teenage girls, with make-up, cheerleader type costumes, wrapped in those silver metal blankets to keep you warm.  Everyone in the car said “Oh, Wow” at the same time.  They got on while we got off.  The girls eventually showed up on the parade route, hundreds of them. 

            We had seats right on the curb with great company—temple workers and for those that showed up, their families.  Lynn sat next to the man who was the general contractor (head guy) for the Conference Center, so it was interesting to hear him talk about his experiences.   The parade reached us at 9:15 and it was the best regular type parade I have ever seen.  There were thousands of Macy employees dressed in costumes and make-up to go with a float or balloon that they were associated with.  They were more excited than the audience.  Many of them had bags of confetti and would throw that on the crowd, so, being right on the curb, we got quite a bit, plus conversation and “Happy Thanksgiving” and hand slaps.  The balloons were low to the ground because the wind was a little too strong to let them go high, but all scheduled balloons went.  My favorite thing—the Cirque de Soleil float with their acrobats doing all kinds of stunts on the float.  The parade lasted two hours and then we collected our stuff and went back home.

            Then, we pulled the left-overs from the missionary luncheon a week before out of the freezer, heated it up in the microwave, had some fresh things, and had a grand feast.  In the late afternoon and evening we Skyped with the kids.  What a great day!

            Found out from Ken that he’s having his tonsils out tomorrow and will be home two weeks for recovery.  Hope all goes well, Ken.

            Oh, forgot to mention that we talked with Pres. Calderwood and have an official 6 month extension on our mission.  Yay!

            Friday afternoon we went to the Soletas for lunch/dinner and stayed for three hours.  They are a terrific family.  The mission has so many rules about missionaries eating with members now that they just told the missionaries to show up between noon and 7 that night.  You can only have one set of missionaries eat with a family at one time.  (We, however, can get the entire group over to our place).  We brought a relish tray that Lynn made up—good thing, nice to have veggies with all the other yummy heavy stuff.

            Saturday night Lynn and I went to Manhattan to the Hammerstein Ballroom to see the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker.  It’s not officially the Nutcracker Suite since this Moscow Ballet company made some changes.  The music was the same (not a live orchestra, just pre-recorded music) but the story line was changed a bit, and the dances were changed a bit too.  Some of the dancers were extremely good, but most of the production was just nice, nothing extraordinary.  I loved the costuming—that was outstanding.  We had excellent seats and enjoyed the evening.  One thing I did notice, I believe most people were there because of Groupon and Gold Star—that’s one way to bring the bodies in.

            Next day was church which went quite well.  Lynn wanted to go to St. Thomas Church, an Episcopal church in Manhattan, for their 4 pm Advent service, which would feature their magnificent organ and outstanding boys’ choir.  Both did due diligence and were truly beautiful.  I only said I would go if I could work on my Institute lessons on the train and in the church.  I did both—but I made sure the part done in the church was extremely quiet—when there was no singing or playing or reciting, you could hear a small pin drop.  (I saw one boy—looked about 10—all others were adults).  Lynn loves English choir music so I said I would go with him for this particular performance.
            Today I got caught up with prep for Institute and spent quite a bit of time studying.  I found a piece by Pres. John Taylor about the Atonement and Christ’s role in the overall scheme of things that was so excellent that I plan to type it up and send it along.  It will be a good addition to any discussion on Christmas, although it does read like Easter.  : )

            We are glad Sean and Julianne got back home safely.  We wish Meriden and Jim God-Speed in their move to Missouri  (tell me again, Meriden, why you are moving further away from us?) and hope all goes well for you, Ken, tomorrow. 

            The Church is true.  Love the Book of Mormon and it’s clearness in explaining the Atonement.  Grateful for Christ and His Great Gift.  And, love to you all.  Hope you enjoy the upcoming Christmas season. 

Love,    Mom/Kathy