Dear
Family and Friends—
Happy
birthday (208) Joseph Smith! And
Happy Birthday Uncle Jack. Julie
and Lily had birthday’s a short while ago too. And, AND, Happy Birthday this Wednesday to sweet
Bryson who will be 7 years old—is that possible, Bryson? While Maureen Goering wrote that they
had an ice storm then a lot of snow on top of that, in Iowa, we have been
sporting record breaking warmth in Brooklyn. When I went shopping this morning it was pouring rain. Can’t complain too much, we need the
water. And, went it counted, we
have gotten several small snow storms to make it look like Christmas.
It
has been such a busy, busy week, so busy that I haven’t taken time to write in
my journal—just got the essentials done, and was counting on writing this
letter to be my journal.
Last
Monday night we were responsible for FHE.
Lynn had a Christmas power point presentation that we showed after
playing three short games which involved figuring out Christmas hymns by
unscrambling letters or acting out the title of the song. By the time we were finished we had
sung the 1st verse of every Christmas song in the hymn book. Finished off the evening with cookies
and hot chocolate.
Tuesday
was temple day. I saw some young
missionaries in the temple and asked where they were from. Morristown, N.J. I asked if Elder Marchant was
there. Yes, he was in the
baptistery. I then started my
search for him and between responsibilities, finally found him. Big hug! He looked great.
We sat down and chatted with other missionaries from his mission,
comparing mission notes about his experiences and ours. I was shocked to find out that his
mission won’t be getting the mini iPads till June. Our missionaries are full into them now. Later, Lynn was with me while we
briefly said a “hello” to him in the celestial room. I hope we can see him in the temple again sometime, before
we go home.
Tuesday 24
Couldn’t
finish this letter yesterday because Lynn wanted me to make some more pulla
bread for some of our ward members.
So doing that, plus a trip to the bank, a visit to an inactive member,
then home for home evening filled up my day.
OK—so,
back to Tuesday. When we got out
of the temple it was snowing so beautifully. We looked at a few restaurants to see where we wanted to eat
and settled on “The Smith.” The
service was great, the food was incredible, and it was a short distance to the
temple and Avery Fisher Hall.
At
A.F. Hall we found our seats toward the back but were very fortunate to sit in
front of two delightful people who were happy to talk to us. They were reformed Jews and had a lot
to say about a lot of different things.
What we wondered is why they were here for a performance of Handel’s
Messiah? Answer—they loved all
good music and were opened minded.
So, Lynn and I watched and listened to the most stunning performance of
Handel’s Messiah that you can imagine.
They had a small version of the New York Philharmonic, four extremely
good soloists, and a college choir (Westminster Symphonic Choir) that has
performed the Messiah in this venue for many years. There was also a harpsichord and small organ, a timpanist,
and two trumpets to augment the strings.
It’s just impossible to explain how good they all were—at the end they
received a very long standing ovation.
Truly we were greatly privileged to listen to this performance.
The
next day (after waking up very late because we got to bed late), I spent the
day making four large quiches, pulla bread, and set up for company coming in
the morning. That was my day. So glad there was no Institute.
So,
Thursday morning, at 9:30 we had 13 Elders and Sisters for breakfast. We should have had five more, two were
very sick, the other three had to take a “going home” Elder to the mission
office. I baked bacon and sausage
in the oven, made two gallons of yummy hot chocolate, had apple slices, grapes
and OJ for fruit and celebrated my traditional Christmas brunch with my
kids. It was so wonderful because
they are grateful for any small or large thing you do for them. We finished the morning off with a
message and then sent them on their way.
Next,
I accidently wasn’t looking at my watch correctly and went to my hair
appointment early, so after I got that figured out, I went to a restaurant, sat
down and continued my study/reading of the Ensign and Conference issue. Got a lot of that done on the train
too. I met my new hairdresser,
Sophia, who took Martha’s place (she went to Texas). Sophia was eager to please and she gave a great cut—I was
much relieved after having a lot of fear.
I
had had a discussion with Lynn earlier about going into the city on Friday to
see lights and shop, but after I realized I had time to kill I called him and
told him to meet up with me (after my hair cut) to go to Manhattan so we could
go to the Spanish Ward’s Christmas concert the next day. So, that is exactly what we did. I took him where Nancy and I had gone
down on Madison Ave. Lynn was
enchanted with the windows that were made up so beautifully. We went to Bloomingdales and got some
things there. Also oohed and ahhed
over Macy’s inside and outside; got some things there too. We also went to the Empire State
Building. It was just a
great afternoon and evening—loved being together in the big city, because especially
in the city, the lights blink a bright red and green as the shoppers rush home
with their treasures. : )
Next
day, woke up late, got plates of goodies made up and went and visited a lot of
people, most of who do not come to church. Actually, we’ve been visiting a lot of people off and on for
over a week. Then in the evening
we went to the Spanish Ward’s Christmas concert. The members of the ward did Christmas narration and the
missionaries did the music. There
was such great talent there; I’m so impressed with our young people. There were some missionaries brought in
from outside our two ward area and that helped a lot. Then, afterwards we mingled with the Spanish ward, getting
to know their new bishopric and having refreshments, which we helped out with
by bringing cookies.
The
next day, I went shopping, did finances, did laundry and ironing and felt like
I had caught up with things demanding my attention.
Sunday
we had a smaller than usual group in church because so many people were out of
town. In Provo, the ward numbers
greatly increase as family comes to visit the ward, here, a lot of people
leave. But, it was a very nice
Christmas service. Lynn and I went
to Primary next to show a slide presentation but stayed for all of opening
exercises. It was great to be back
with the little ones again and listen to all their sweet answers to what they
want for Christmas. “I want my mom
to get better” and “I want to be with my family”. We are talking, with very few exceptions, very poor
children here.
After
Lynn fixed a delicious steak dinner for me that night (doing inside on our
Lodge grill set off the smoke alarm!) we went to visit more people. One young man that I love dearly, Zebb,
is getting very little for Christmas.
If we got him a ball he probably wouldn’t use it because his mother
won’t let him play at the nearby park—way too dangerous. He spends his vacation from school
playing video games inside his apartment.
He has very few friends inside the apartment building, but does spend a
small amount of time with them. Geez—count
your many blessings, people.
After
we finished our responsibilities Sunday, Lynn wanted to take me to a
neighborhood that was supposed to have the very best display of Christmas
lights in the entire NY area, so off we went. We only had to travel 20 minutes to get there, but sure knew
we had come to the right spot because there were a lot of lights on the homes
and lots and lots of people. We
found a place to park on the side streets and joined all the hundreds of others
walking around. We quickly
discovered we had found wealthy NY—big homes, relatively newly built, and many
homes had thousands and thousands of dollars invested in their Christmas
decorations. It was just, well,
over-the-top. One place was collecting
money for Make-A-Wish and had blaring music. But, we just kept finding block after block of colorful
streets that were irresistible to see, so we spent a lot of time walking. Just understand, the temperature was in
the mid-60’s so the warm weather brought the people out. We have had record breaking heat this
past week. I finally got my
wish—got to see Christmas lights—there’s sure not very many in our Jewish
neighborhood!
Monday,
Lynn wanted me to make more pulla bread, which I already mentioned, and then we
went to visit an Ariel Bankhead—Reid Bankhead is his Uncle. He doesn’t even know the cousins that
he is related to that we know very well.
Ariel (he likes to be called King) and his sweet wife live within our
ward boundaries but are on the way-far-away edge. He is completely inactive, she’s not a member, but they were
both delightful people and they loved having company. They declined our offer to say a “closing” prayer at their
place.
We
got home just in time to make it to FHE which was well attended and the
Christmas video’s that Astria showed were wonderful. Everyone in the room told of favorite Christmas traditions
and it was especially interesting to hear what those originally from the
Philippines had to say. A great
night.
Then,
early this morning, Lynn and I went to Dyker Heights chapel and picked up Gizem
and her live-in friend, Yamin. She
is seriously investigating the church.
They are both from Turkey and want nothing to do with Turkey or the
Muslim religion. They both consider
themselves Christian. She plays
the cello like an angel. She has
seriously studied for 11 years, majoring in cello performance in college. It was a most interesting experience to
talk to them about a large variety of subjects while we drove to the Plain View
chapel about an hour away.
We
got there and first mingled with all the missionaries and drank hot
chocolate. Then, went to the large
chapel and were entertained by missionaries from each zone. President Calderwood reviewed the
mission from the last year, talked about new goals and introduced the 2014
Mission Statement for our mission.
We had a catered lunch, thank heavens the
Senior
couples did not have to do the lunch or clean-up like last year. Then, back to the chapel for just a “concert”
of selected performers which included Gizem playing “Oh Come, Oh Come, Emanuel”
on her cello. Incredible. I am so impressed with the amount of
excellent talent in the mission.
Finally, at 4:30 we left to go home and instead of an easy drive home,
it was heavy traffic, but Lynn dropped me off first and then took the other two
back.
I
am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his great gifts of the
Atonement, repentance, eternal life, enabling power and agency and most
especially, love. In return for
His love, I do love Him. So
grateful to be here on a mission at this Christmas time, despite missing the
family. We will talk to you
tomorrow!
Love to
you all---Mom/Kathy
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