Dear Family and
Friends—
Well, officially three months left,
so much to do, so little time.
We have smelled spring in the air
this week as it got to 60 one day and in the 50’s another. There are still mounds of ice in the shady
places which will be there for a while, but, generally, it’s easier to get
around driving now and that’s been good.
Last Monday I wrote to mention how
awful I was feeling. I “bit the bullet”
and called the Millers for a reference for a doctor. Much to my amazement I called and they said
they could see me in the afternoon so off Lynn and I went, out to the boonies
we were thinking, a good 20 minute drive away.
When we found the office it looked rather run-down and we thought there
was no way it could be the office, but there were the doctor signs. So, we went inside to the run-down waiting
room which desperately needed new chairs.
It was so scary. I filled out all
the paper work and then we waited for an hour to get in, while patient after
patient went in front of us. Finally
Lynn talked to the staff—they had been trying for an hour to get ahold of DMBA in
Salt Lake and no one was answering the phone.
Without the insurance information, I couldn’t be seen. Lynn just gave the doctor a credit card, paid
for the visit and will get reimbursed later.
So far, everything I have told you
would make you think I was getting into a bad experience, but, Dr. Howard Orkin
was a gentle, kind, thorough, knowledgeable man who gave me tests, figured out
that I had a severe sinus infection (I’ve never had one of those before) and
got me going with some good solid medication to take care of the problem. The staff was very kind and helpful; we went
away rejoicing and feeling bad that I didn’t go to a doctor much sooner.
I did not go to FHE that night since
I was still feeling rotten. Lynn came
home and said it was the worst FHE ever.
Oh, dear. Won’t go into the details,
but one of the problems is a lot of the missionaries were missing—transfer day
the next day.
We were supposed to go to transfer
meeting on Tuesday but instead loaded up the car with the missionary’s luggage,
left it in the car and we took the train to downtown Brooklyn. We got there at 9:15 am and were supposed to
meet with Carline Pierre at that time at Family Court. She did not show up and Lynn eventually
called her cell phone and found out she was still walking to the court house
when she should have been putting her name on a list to see the judge. We got there early so she could put her name
first on the docket. She and her
neer-do-well son came a half hour late.
So, we waited for four hours (instead of like the just 1 hour wait from
our last experience with her) and it finally came to lunch time and the bailiff
explained to her because she was not there on time she would have to stay
through lunch and see the judge later. I
think it finally dawned on Carline’s angry son who felt like his mother was
being treated badly, that it was HIS fault (he made her late) that this was
happening. Actually, Carline needed to
understand this was HER fault for not telling son she wasn’t waiting for him
and she had to be on time. We see so
much irresponsibility here. Zebb’s (Carline’s
son) father also showed up, knew he was responsible to help the boy financially
but said he wouldn’t pay. OK, case to be
reviewed in six more months, still dragging out the process. Father gets court appointed attorney, Carline
gets nothing. This whole thing was very
exhausting and deeply frustrating for Lynn and me.
We then went to Rego Park to deliver
the luggage and get the luggage from the new missionaries coming back to
Midwood.
J.D. called and said he was going to
make travel plans to come to NY sometime in the spring. Yay!
The next day I was really feeling
terrific since the medication I was on was working as it should. Lynn went to a seminar that a lawyer was
conducting about transferring money and estate to others. Elsie Behar was there to learn about the
process. She had hired this lawyer to
have Alfonso’s estate transferred to BYU on his death. When Alfonso dies, Elsie inherits his estate
in exchange for her taking care of him.
Lynn was very impressed with the lawyer and persuaded Elsie to use him
for her own estate.
I was back at the apartment doing
mission history, all day long. There was
so much to do!
We had Institute that night, missing
a few people, but still had a good experience.
I had assigned people to review parts of the lesson. I ended up doing one page myself because the
assigned person didn’t come, but Elva Knight did her part and she did a very
thorough, well thought out presentation.
I was so proud. : )
Thursday, back to mission history
for the two of us—got to get this thing done and the end is in sight. Lynn had thought all along that we needed to
go to the mission office and get all the pages copied there so that the mission
office would incur the expense of copying.
The secretary then told him that he should take the papers to COSTCO
(there is a lot of color copying for the history) because they could do it
cheaper. He thought that through
carefully and finally made the announcement that we would just do the copying
on our machine, buy the ink from our local COSTCO and just get that reimbursed
and that is exactly what has happened.
The pages look great.
Lynn told me Thursday morning that
he was going to go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Mid-town Manhattan (right by
Rockefeller Center) for a special St. Patrick’s Day concert. I felt comfortable enough by the late
afternoon with what I had gotten done, that I announced at the last minute I
would come with him. Off we went and got
there just as the program started. The
head Cardinal, His Eminence Timothy Dolan, was hand to greet us. What a gentle, sweet and welcoming man—I was
so impressed. The Cathedral choir was
brought in to sing the first part of the program—they were outstanding, many of
them professional singers. It would have
been nice to have had a different situation for them, the acoustics weren’t all
that great and there was a lot of construction going on because of extensive
remodeling. However, despite the
problems, it was a beautiful, beautiful experience. They sang Mack Wilberg’s version of “The King
of Love, My Shepherd Is” but although the choir director talked a little about
the composers of the other songs, she didn’t say anything about Mack! ; ) We as an audience got to sing four songs too,
so that was nice. The second half of the
program was an outstanding group of musicians who played the authentic Irish
instruments and also included singing to some songs. When they finished, another large group of
instrumentalists came and added their music to more songs. We finished the evening by singing the Irish
National Anthem and the Star Spangled Banner.
I can’t tell you how glad I was that I chose to go to this!!
On Friday, went shopping, then Lynn
and I went to see Lynda Vancole—we are her home teachers and haven’t seen her
in three months; she makes herself sparse.
I had made some bread for her but we still didn’t have a set time to
meet with her, so the bread was given to some missionaries and I made some more
in the afternoon and took a loaf over to her (she doesn’t live very far away).
Saturday was more shopping,
housekeeping chores, more history and Lynn took off for a bike ride which he
very much needed to do. But, in the
evening, Lynn and I took off for Greenwich Village to listen to Adam Johnson’s
threesome perform at a Bistro there.
I’ve never been impressed with the quality of Adam’s performances around
the church and didn’t want to go, but I knew this would be my last opportunity
to hear him perform with others and besides that nagging little voice inside me
said “You have to go!” So, we got there
about nine, discovered they weren’t quite ready, took a walk to Washington
Square (a large nearby park) then walked back to the Bistro. The trio was in full swing, I got me a Sprite
and then a young man from our ward came in, also there to hear Adam before he
went to Scottsdale, AZ with his mom.
Anyway, there was a bass player and a piano player to help Adam out with
his saxophone and, oh my goodness, what a change when others are there to keep
you on rhythm. They were very, very
good. It was without question the best I
had ever heard him play and we really enjoyed the music—Lynn and I were
especially grateful to get to know Spencer Ellingson who is a young married
with an eight month old girl. He was
also put on the high council a few weeks ago.
He said he was told that this was the first time ever in the Brooklyn
stake that they had a full high council!
We stayed for an hour and then went home—didn’t get to bed till
two—yikes!
Lynn and I made it to church—he was
supposed to be in a meeting (which got cancelled) and I went to choir
practice. The interesting thing about
this Sunday is that I gave a talk in church using Elder L. Tom Perry’s talk on
the Thirteen Articles of Faith as a base for the talk. I got lots of compliments on it after the
meeting was over, so that was nice. I’ll
have to send a copy of it along, but first it needs to be redone a bit.
Interesting—Lynn gave a blessing to
a young woman in our ward, a very faithful person, who is openly gay and
struggling with that problem. I feel
such sorrow for her. Lynn said it was a
struggle for him to know what to say. We
may have our problems, but…….
Talked to Kyle last night along
with his family. The kid is 15 as of
yesterday—boy, he’s got a big year ahead waiting for that time when he’s 16 and
things REALLY change in his life. He had
gone to a stake fireside that evening and was one of the speakers—yay!
Kyle. He was given the assignment to
talk about family history work and what the ordinances in the temple were, just
earlier that day in church. Thanks,
Kyle, for stepping up and volunteering!
I know this Church is true and
I’m grateful for this mission experience—it sure has helped me grow in so many
ways. It’s especially been a great blessing to teach
Institute—you learn the most by being the teacher. Love to you all---Kathy/Mom
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