Dear
Family and Friends—
Happy birthday Martin Luther King—a
very good man. It’s a cold, cloudy day
for this holiday celebration. I’ve not
been feeling too well since Friday since the cold Lynn shared with me made its
presence known in a runny nose and sore throat.
I’ve had laryngitis for over three months now and I was just getting to
the point where it was really starting to leave when I came down with Lynn’s
cold. If I had my way, I’d spend my day
in bed snuggled under warm covers, but, there’s too much to do, too many people
to see (and share my evil virus with).
Also, I’ve had a rash on my back that showed up seven months ago and all
the soothing creams in the world have not gotten rid of the rash, although they
helped a bit with the itching. Then, two
months ago a rash showed up on my abdomen which itched liked crazy. Then, a month ago a small rash showed up on
my left arm, another on my neck—whoa—what is going on here. So I checked out local dermatologists and
found one highly recommended that is a 25 minute drive away. Dr. Susan Bard was thorough and professional,
but next time I see her, I’ll tell her to slow down; she was in a big
hurry. But, and here’s the interesting
part, she said I had eczema, and since I’ve had asthma I was an excellent
candidate to get it when my genes said “go” at age 67. Looked it up on the internet—there is such a
thing as adult onset eczema. I’m using a
topical steroid to get rid of the rash.
It seems to be working, but I can tell it will be a slow process. So, here’s some more medical information that
you may want to store away for future reference.
We had a terrific FHE last week—the
Elders did a great job, and we had an enthusiastic large group to play
Pictionary. We had 3 birthdays that we
celebrated which is why I brought a large chocolate cake.
Tuesday was temple day. They informed us that the temple had
downloaded the newest movie just the day before. I was on a regular session but because there
was a woman who was deaf, we had to watch the old-old movie (aka the Michel
Ballam movie) since that’s the only one that has the video with people signing
and the words going across the bottom of the screen. The l2:30 pm session did get to see the new
movie and they loved it—said it gave them a different perspective. Our NYNYS returning home missionaries were in
that session with Pres. and Sis. Calderwood, so it was fun to chat with them
for a while. Lynn started coming down
with a very hoarse voice late in the afternoon, came on all of a sudden so we
took the easiest and fastest way home and settled in for the night.
The next morning, Lynn and I went to
the mission office to pick up a group of missionaries going for their either ¼
mission or ½ mission temple trip. There
were several that we knew quite well so that was fun to go to Manhattan with
them. Alas, because there was one lady
that spoke Spanish, we had to have the old-new movie (#2) instead of the
new-new (#3). The third movie doesn’t
have the translation capacity yet. But,
several Elder were happy about the situation because they hadn’t seen the 2nd
movie and really wanted to. We used to
treat the missionaries to a hot dog after going to the temple, but the office
said that had to stop because it was costing the senior missionaries too much
money, and they were right. Interesting,
when we got to the station right by the mission office, all the Elders took off
to find some restaurant food for dinner.
All the Sisters went back with us to the office. I did start up a conversation with a man on
the train when we went over to the temple and asked him about the headlines of
the paper he was reading. He was very
happy to tell me all the political news.
I was about to give him a pass-a-long card, but the train stopped, he
shook my hand and got off. Oh, well,
OK. He/She who hesitates is lost.
That night for Institute we showed
the rebroadcast of the CES fireside of this past Sunday. Elder Tad R. Callister was the speaker. We had two new people show up so that was
great. But, especially great was the talk
Elder Callister gave, a really good talk on the church now being like it was in
the days of Christ. We didn’t have time
for discussion afterwards but just answered a few questions. It was a long day.
The next day was my dermatologist
appointment and that took my entire morning, but time, obviously, well spent. The rest of the day was spent at the
apartment getting necessary things done.
Friday, bright and early, Lynn and I
went to visit missionaries—first at the Bensonhurst area of our zone. We are responsible to inspect the missionary
apartments in our zone so that is what we did.
It’s so fun to do this because relating with the missionaries at their
own pad gives you a different, more informal way of being around them. We asked them a lot of questions about what
they do have and don’t, looked at the conditions of the apartment, told them to
correct things where it was necessary, (clean!!) and asked them what their
needs were. Without question, the
Sisters apartments are the cleanest and tidiest. Some of the well-organized, leader-type
Elders that we especially appreciate working with also had their part of their
pad clean.
The next day, we inspected
missionary apartments that are in our building, and then went to two others
that we had to drive to. There are two
apartments that in our opinion are so bad that the missionaries should be moved
out, period. At one of the apartments
the Elders told us an interesting story:
At four am that morning they heard a lot of noise, so loud it woke them
up. It was the sound of cars going fast
down the street and squealing brakes with the turn on the curve. They also heard what they thought were gun
shots, then, the final loud noise was a car crashing into another. They were looking out the window at all of
this going on and saw the car crash.
They waited for a bit, and then went outside to see. By then the police started coming, five squad
cars. What they saw was a man on the
street and another man leaning over the front seat of the crashed car. They stayed outside and talked with the
police giving them statements and watching all the CSI work. They said everything they saw, heard and did
with the police was just like what you’d see on CSI on TV. Eventually, two paramedic trucks showed up
and took away the bodies. The man in the
car was shot through the neck and side and died at the scene. Don’t know what happened to the other guy--just
a little fun and excitement for your missionary day. The missionaries actually went back to bed
and fell asleep.
The interesting part of this is that
they lived in a Jewish neighborhood, solid Orthodox Jews, so there should not
have been thing kind of thing happening.
But, the Elders said that the men in the cars were from the Caribbean
neighborhood (black) and they were obviously chasing each other.
Saturday
afternoon Lynn and I went to visit people from the ward—one lady we visited
lives quite a ways away and she’s not on our home teaching list. But, someone from the ward asked us to visit
her, so we did. It was nice to get
acquainted and meet her very sick husband.
The other people we visited were our home teaching families. Just had two nice visits that day.
Yesterday
we had a lot come to church. (We got
there early for Ward Council meeting).
But, I think we had extra at church because people are finally catching
on to the later schedule. I asked
another woman to direct the music in RS for me since I’m trying hard not to use
my voice when I don’t have too—got to get rid of the laryngitis and singing
puts me back at square one. In the
afternoon we went to two families for home teaching—one was not home, but the
Neilsens and their adorable children were; had a nice visit with them.
Well,
that’s my week. Of course we are relieved
and happy that Tanner is back home with his family. Fun to see the pictures of Joseph and Emily
holding baby brother! Thank you,
Goerings, for all you did for that family for three long weeks!
The
Church is true, that I know and testify of.
Love to read the Book of Mormon and feel its Spirit when I study
it. We are grateful to be here in New
York—so many blessings being on a mission.
Hope
you have a great week and enjoy your free time today. Love to you all—Kathy/ Mom
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