Wow!! Whirlwind week. But I’ve loved every minute!!!

Wow!!  Whirlwind week.  But I’ve loved every minute!!!

The stomach virus is still going through the mission leaving sisters and elders weak in its wake.  Also some other interesting cases.  Blood clots in leg, multiple symptoms of unknown origin for which we are doing tests, the usual colds and stress related illnesses.

The best part of the week was a visit from Katie, Jeremy, Shea, Jake, and four of my handsome grandsons.  They arrived Thursday, the 14th, late afternoon and I was blessed to enjoy their company until the following Monday.  We ate, played, ate, went sightseeing, ate and cried when they had to leave.  My family is my world.  I miss them terribly but at the same time I am blessed to be here in New York.  Love that they can come to see me!!

So happy to see these beautiful people.

The clan

Playing in the park after a long bus ride to Grandma's place.

Off to find pizza in Long Island City

Petersen hungries and fatigue set in. He couldn't/wouldn't take another step.

Watching the pizza being made

Riding the subway

Chinese Restaurant (in China Town)

Jacob is showing you his chopsticks

Kissing the fish - Chinatown

Ugly fish in Chinatown

Top of the Rock

Manhattan in the back ground

Watching the Long Island Railroad trains pass under the bridge.

Central Park - my boys on the rock.

Carousel in Central Park

Carriage ride through Central Park

Has his finger on the tower of One World Trade Center.

Times Square

Carnegie Deli

I did go to two zone training meetings while they were here so it wasn’t all play.  They took a circle line tour around the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River while I was in my meetings. 

On Tuesday I was in Staten Island again for a follow up doctor visit with a missionary.  I may soon know my way there without using Joan, my GPS.  I must admit I still rely on her a lot.  We decided to go early so that we could go to lunch.  One of the sisters had been on Staten Island for 4 transfers so we let her choose the place.  It was a treat:  authentic Korean BBQ.

This is what I ate GALBI-GOPDOL-BIBIMBAB
(Steamed rice in hot stone pot with black angus beef and vegetables)

The stone pot

This is a soup served in a 'hot pot'. The stone bowl is literally so hot that the soup is boiling.

I had to cool it on a plate so I could eat it.

At the Korean restaurant the water is a barley steeped hot drink. Interesting.

Menu

Taking the missionaries home to Flushing we went by way of the Belt Parkway which follows the coast onto Long Island.  The day was clear and cloudless so we enjoyed our view of the Atlantic Ocean.   We then took the Cross Island Parkway to Flushing which took us to Bayside where the French Workshop Artisan Bakery is located.  Total coincidence! (Not)  We had to get a Duke. No way around it!  Even with all of the goodies I ate with my family, I couldn’t resist a Duke. I analyzed it as I ate it and I am going to attempt to create my own Duke.  We will see….

Views of the Atlantic from the Belt Parkway. Coney Island across the bay.

Verrazano Narrows Bridge from a different perspective.

Duke

I laugh when I pass the sign along the parkway announcing that I am leaving Brooklyn.  See the pictures.  Makes me smile every time.

This makes me smile.

fuhgeddaboudit
1. Forget about it - the issue is not worth the time, energy, mental effort, or emotional resources.
2. Definitively "no."
3. The subject is unequivocally excellent; further thought and analysis are unnecessary.

Often heard spoken by Robert De Niro, characters on the Sopranos, and people trying to sound hip and tough like a goomba.

There are many spelling variations. The consensus online is that it should be phonetically either "fu-ge-da-boud-it" or "fu-ge-da-bout-it."

The weather here has been beautiful.  It is a little warmer than ideal for me but everyone else is ecstatic at the high 70’s we see in the day time. Tuesday as we were in Staten Island there were warnings of possible closure of expressways because of a grass fire in New Jersey.  The wind was blowing smoke across the river into Manhattan and also toward Staten Island.  Luckily they were able to put out the fire before we had to leave the island.  There were road closures in New Jersey near the fire but not in New York.

The spring weather makes me want to work in the yard. The garden in front of my apt was full of weeds.
I found some tools in the basement so I scrubbed out the weeds and pruned the rose bush.

Tulips in Central Park

Lights and lilies in Rockefeller Plaza

More flora of Central Park

Tulips in Central Park

A boulder wedged in the roots.

Look how far the roots extend.

Magnificent!!!

This huge tree growing out of the edge of this rock fascinates me. It is awesome.

Having my family close to hold in my arms and to hug and enjoy made me realize once again how very important families are.  Our Heavenly Father certainly understands us and wants us to be as happy as we can be.  He has created eternal relationships that provide us with hope and great expectations.  I am looking forward to having any and all of my family come to visit me.  My dear friends are welcome too.  My apartment is smallish but I have really good air mattresses in queen and twin size and lots of floor space.  It is not the Hilton but you are welcome.  The price is right and my porch light is always on.  How blessed I am!

I have a bed for you so come on over!!

I love you my family and friends.

Yum!!

Transfer Week, Port Washington, & Eternal Families

Transfer week is always difficult.  The week before all apartments are to be deep cleaned.  No one knows whether to buy groceries or not since usually you don't take your store of food with you.  Everyone is up in the air for a weekend until Monday when all find out if they will be transferred or not.  (You will be surprised to hear that I am not being transferred.  Imagine that!!)  If you get notice Monday morning that you are being transferred, you pack up all of your worldly belonging and prepare for the move which is accomplished on Tuesday, transfer day.

The new missionaries arrive on Monday and spend the night at the mission home and then are brought to the church to meet with their new trainers.  The departing missionaries are picked up at the church and taken to spend the night at the mission home before flying out Wednesday morning.  All of the coming and going causes a domino effect.  The mission president and his two assistants spend many hours in prayer and consideration the week or so prior to transfer day.   What a job they have!!!  And all of this while they must keep the mission functioning well.  I believe that we now have 205 missionaries.  Not and even number so we have a few "trio" companionships which can be difficult.  You know, 2 is company…

Sister Lewis and Sister Mejia came to see me before I left for the mission home Tuesday.
Sister Mejia was about to plant a kiss on my cheek. I shocked her when I turned my
head and puckered up my lips. We died laughing!!

Sister Clifford departing

Sister Ewell departing

Sister Gonzalez departing

I'm going to miss my friends, the Dukes. They worked in the office and left this week for their home in California.

We had 13 new arrivals and 12 departing missionaries.  It always saddens me to see the missionaries leave.  I enjoy helping with laundry and cooking at the mission home on transfer day because I get to see the missionaries one last time and I also get to hear them bear their testimonies.  It is a spiritual high for me.  They are such marvelous spirits.

Mission home in Port Washington

Anthea - I'm her helper

Sister Reynolds, mission president's wife

The mission home is Port Washington about 30-40 minutes from Rego Park.  I don't think I have ever told you about the area there so here is my Google report:

"Port Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2010 Census, the community population was 15,846.

Port Washington is a hamlet within and directly governed by the town of North Hempstead. With rolling hills and a serpentine coastline in the northwest corner of Nassau County, Port Washington is studded with marinas, parks, yacht clubs and golf courses. The Great Neck peninsula is across Manhasset Bay to the west; Manhasset and Plandome are to the south; Roslyn lies southeast. Besides an unincorporated area of the Town of North Hempstead, Port Washington is home to four incorporated villages: Baxter Estates, Manorhaven, Port Washington North and Sands Point, plus part of the village of Flower Hill. According to Forbes, Port Washington is ranked 348th wealthiest place in the United States as of 2015, with a median sale price of $1,191,865.

In the 1870s Port Washington became an important sand-mining town; it had the largest sandbank east of the Mississippi, and easy barge access to Manhattan. Some 140 million cubic yards of local sand were used for concrete for New York skyscrapers like the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, according to Jon Kaiman, the Town Supervisor until 2013. The sand mines were later redeveloped as Harbor Links, a golf course for North Hempstead residents.

Port Washington is depicted as the area of East Egg in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby.

The Thomas Dodge Homestead, Execution Rocks Light, Gould-Guggenheim Estate, William Landsberg House, Main Street School, Monfort Cemetery, Sands-Willets Homestead, and John Philip Sousa House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Knickerbocker Yacht Club was a yacht club in Port Washington for over 100 years"

On Thursday, I took the sister missionary who lives in Flushing to Staten Island again for tests and blood work.  While I was waiting, I walked out to see the turkeys.  I found them by a memorial for a firefighter who lost his life on 9/11.  Beautiful art.

Memorial in front of Long Island University Hospital -and the turkeys.

The firefighter is rescuing a baby in his arm. Hope you can read the plague.

Friday was leadership training.  I helped with lunch.  It is a great experience to interact with the missionaries.  I know I've said this a million times already but I'll be here a long time so you will probably hear it again and again.  I talked to them briefly about getting information out to the missionaries about ticks and poisonous plants.  I want to attend the zone training meetings but most of them are held on the same day so I put together information and will email it to all of the missionaries.  I will attend as many training meetings as I can to stress the importance of protecting themselves and then if they get tick bites about letting me know so they can receive a dose of antibiotic as a prophylactic measure.

Slow moving traffic gave me a chance to enjoy the clouds and the skyline.

This is a tank tower on top of a building along side the river.
My guess is it used to be a water tank but now the tank is made of stained glass.

Sunset.  The traffic was slow so I had time to enjoy the scenery.

With the departure of the missionaries, including the Dukes - a senior couple, and the sudden and unexpected death of Chase Richards, the young son (also a husband, and father)  of friends at home, it has been a tender week for me and has given me pause to once again rejoice in the faith and knowledge that families are forever. That even though they are gone from this life, we will meet again. I know that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our bodies and spirits can be reunited for all eternity.  Kay, my parents, my grandparents, and all of my family can live through eternity in love and harmony.  This brings me peace in times of missing Kay and a renewed determination to live my life in a way that I will be worthy to be reunited with the people I love.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. 

I love you my family and friends.

Places I've been this week

Nothing says spring like yellow daffodils.

The office elders found this critter in the basement. They had to call me to come down and
see it because it is stuck in a "standing" position. In the top left pic you see the shadow of its erect body.
Gross but fascinating.

Thought this is cool in the sunset. The sphere is actually on a stand but because of the hill you only
see part of the globe. You can see the tall, new high-rise apartment building in Manhattan in the bottom right pic. 

From Google:

The Unisphere is a 120 ft, spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth. Located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens,New York City, the Unisphere is one of the borough's most iconic and enduring symbols.

Commissioned to celebrate the beginning of the space age, the Unisphere was conceived and constructed as the theme symbol of the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. The theme of the World's Fair was "Peace Through Understanding" and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence. It was dedicated to "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe".