Search and rescue

Winter has arrived!!  It snowed all day on Saturday dropping about 6 inches of snow.  I know it is nothing compared to your snowfall but it is plenty for here.  I haven't gone out to clear off my car. It is 20 degrees and feels like 6.   I've decided to let Mother Nature clean it off because it is supposed to be 41 degrees on Tuesday and warming to 61 degrees on Thursday.  That will save me having to scrape ice and snow off my car.

Elders Menden and Rossi admiring my "full" refrigerator

The snow crew. Sisters Dos Santos and Bush, Elders Rossi and Menden, Sister Staker

Looking out my kitchen window

Saturday morning storm warning

After the storm Saturday night

The last two weeks have been busy!  When I try to tell people what I do all day it seems that I don't do that much.  But this week I have spent a lot of time on the phone helping missionaries (what else??) with illnesses, accidents, bumps, headaches, depression and anxiety, talking to doctor's offices and parents making insurance arrangements, and the list goes on.  I really love what I do, but because of the nature of the work, I can't really go into detail about it.  Just know it is work that I love.  I love the missionaries and get great blessings by helping them and being around them, learning from them and feeling their spirits. 

I've had a couple of excursions:  one to Manhattan to accompany a missionary to an appointment and one to Flushing to dinner with the sisters.

Coming in from the cold, windy streets of Manhattan.

Sisters Hilliard, Kim, and Yu

Sammy Muñoz, a former missionary, came to visit. A fun time!

Had trainer/trainee meeting on Wednesday.  Mostly I have been at my desk doing the previously mentioned work.  Not a bad place to be toward the end of the week when the weather was bad.

I had sisters here for dinner on Tuesday night so I made lasagna soup in the crockpot.  The crockpot is my go-to method of cooking.  Throw it in and 6-8 hours later, dinner is prepared.  Then after the missionaries shoveled snow, we had hot chocolate and left over soup on Saturday.

Sisters Bush, Albanese, Gourley, and Staker

Saturday night I made a huge crockpot (I bought an 8.5 quart crockpot right after I got here.)  of chili for Sunday dinner.  I hadn't shopped all week and I didn't want to go out shopping in the snow storm so I opened can after can from my cabinet and threw together something we called chili. It wasn't bad for a make shift meal if I do say so myself.  I wanted to make corn bread but I only had two little boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix.  I mixed them up according to the directions.  Then I got the bisquick and mixed up a coffee cake. I put the two batters together and baked it.  It was not bad - corn bread with a cake like texture.  There were 11 of us and we nearly ate it all.

Monday Laura, the new convert from Colombia, came to tell me good-bye.  She is leaving to go back to Colombia Tuesday morning.  Sister Morales was one of the first missionaries to teach her.  She and her companion came to my apartment to tell Laura good-bye.  Sister Staker and Sister Bush have been fellow shipping Laura and teaching her English, so we were all here to wish her well.  It was a tearful time but we all promised to meet in Utah at some point in the future.

Farewell hug

Bottom right picture:  Sisters Morales and Staker and Laura

To share some of my thoughts:  I was reading Alma 11 in the Book of Mormon one day this week.  As I read in the study guide, a phrase jumped out at me. The paragraph in the study guide reads:  "Even, the Omnipotent One, the Lord Jehovah, cannot save his people in their sins.  He came on a search-and-rescue mission to save people from their sins.  But no one, not the least and lowliest of mankind or the mightiest Apostle and prophet, can be saved in sin."

The phrase "search-and-rescue" grabbed my attention and gave me pause to think.

Perhaps it caught me because my son Jake, a lieutenant on the Unified Police Department in Salt Lake County, was over the search-and-rescue division for a few years.  I have heard some of his stories of the heroic ventures of his men and volunteers in finding and saving people.  I have heard of some of his searches that have not been as successful as hoped for.  I've seen him elated at times and devastated at other times.

The thought of the Savior on a "search-and-rescue" really made me ponder his mission and feelings.  How happy it must make him when a soul is found and returns to him.  How sad he must feel when one is lost.  Because this is a new concept for me, the search-and-rescue phrase, I wondered if others have made this connection.

On lds.org, I found a talk given in 1993 by President Monson, then the 2nd counselor in the first presidency, titled Search and Rescue:

"During the seemingly never-ending years of the Vietnam conflict, we frequently heard through the media's blaring voice the term search and destroy. This phrase helped explain to the public the peculiar nature of combat in that area of dense jungle, oppressive heat, and debilitating disease.

This war was not marked by large-scale battles on open terrain. Rather, the enemy was often not visible-but nonetheless highly dangerous-thereby leading to the concept of search and destroy. Casualties were high, suffering rampant, and destruction everywhere to be found. We will never know how many cried out their own expression of the biblical question, "Is there no balm in Gilead?" The world sighed profound relief when conflict ceased and peace prevailed.

I was thinking of the term search and destroy this past winter as I visited with a neighbor and friend in beautiful Heber Valley east of Salt Lake City. Snowmobile adventurers had been lost for a several-day period in the backcountry of high winds, penetrating cold, and eerie silence. My friend Johnny told me of the desperate plight of the lost and referred to the anxiety of their families. He mentioned that he was a member of the county search and rescue force, whose members left their businesses and farms and went in search of the lost and missing.

The searchers had prayed for a break in the winter weather, knowing the critical element of time in such a rescue. Their prayers were answered; the weather cleared. Surveying each grid of the vast area through the use of high-powered field glasses as the helicopter flew back and forth through the mountains and the ravines, the lost party was finally spotted. Then came the difficult task of reaching and retrieving the courageous group. All was well. The lost were found. Lives were spared. Worry and fear yielded to joy and jubilation.

Johnny, with heartfelt emotion, said to me, "I love to search and rescue. Just to look into the faces of those who could have died and feel, as well as see, their profound gratitude fills my body and soul with compassion and thanksgiving. I've never before experienced anything quite like it."

Perhaps he was witnessing the personal understanding of the Lord's pronouncement, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." Or maybe Johnny was feeling the penetrating declaration of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who said, "It is better to save the life of a man than to raise one from the dead."

My thoughts turned to that favorite song from Sunday School, the one that always brings tears to my eyes and compassion to my heart:

Dear to the heart of the Shepherd,
Dear are the "ninety and nine";
Dear are the sheep that have wandered
Out in the desert to pine.
Hark! he is earnestly calling,
Tenderly pleading today:
"Will you not seek for my lost ones,
Off from my shelter astray?"

The next verse reflects our response to the Shepherd's plea:

Green are the pastures inviting;
Sweet are the waters and still.
Lord, we will answer thee gladly,
"Yes, blessed Master, we will!
Make us thy true undershepherds;
Give us a love that is deep.
Send us out into the desert,
Seeking thy wandering sheep." "

President Monson was speaking in the Priesthood session but his words are applicable to all of us.  He goes on to say:

"Brethren, in our priesthood callings I am confident we at times wonder if we are affecting the lives of others in a favorable manner. The instructor in the quorum who prepares so diligently, the home teachers who put aside their own convenience and carry a message to the families upon whom they call, and the quorum officers who reach out to rescue perhaps will never fully know the far-reaching influence of their service. This is particularly true of the faithful missionaries who day after day carry on in the service of the Master. Never complaining, ever serving, always sacrificing for the benefit of others, these noble servants deserve our undying gratitude and our fervent prayers."

If we are to follow in the steps of our Savior, we will want to be on a daily search-and-rescue mission to help our neighbors, family members, ward members, anyone who is struggling in any way.  We can be "true undershepherds". What great joy we will have if we can help but one soul to find their way to the Savior.  To help in times of need.  To lift and support those around us.

We can faithfully fulfill our callings in the Church and be kind and compassionate to those we meet regardless of the circumstances. We can have an effect on the lives of people; perhaps an effect that we will never realize we have had.

I love you my family and friends.

Visitors to my yard at home in Utah. My daughter, Deanne, tells me there are tracks all over
the yard-front and back. She has seen deer several times. She saw 5 this night but only got 3 in
the picture. One is across the street-difficult to pick out of the shadows.

Sisters Bush and Staker. They were taking mattress overlays for there beds. I took them to their
apartment but couldn't get right in front because I came at a one way street from the wrong direction.
It gave me a good laugh to watch them maneuver those mattresses across the street. It is not
uncommon in the city to see people carrying televisions and all sorts of furniture and other bulky
items along the streets. Some have carts. Others do not. When you don't have a vehicle.....

"Peace among men"

I have decided that being busy is better than being idle.  Around here there is little idle time, but this week has been super busy. 

Lots of colds and stomach virus cases.  I’ve had increased phone time and documentation time.  Much of it is repetitious except for names and times, but each is important so even though it seems I am repeating myself, each new missionary with an illness hasn’t heard it before and needs the reassurance that all will be well if he/she will follow my instructions. 

Tuesday (transfer day) I welcomed in the new missionaries by giving them their medical ID cards and then went to a cardiologist appointment with a missionary. The appointment was at noon but we were not seen until close to 2:00.  By the time we finished and got back to the office, it was 4:00.  I help Anthea at the mission with laundry and dinner on transfer day but I didn’t arrive at the home until a little after 5:00.  They were already eating dinner.  We had 24 missionaries leave this transfer so it was a large group to feed.  I was able to help finish the laundry and help clean up.  I usually stay for the testimony meeting to hear their departing testimonies but because it took so long for dinner and clean up, it was time to take Anthea home before they started the meeting.  I felt bad because I didn’t even get time with them to take the traditional one last picture I like to capture.  LONG day!!

Wednesday morning early I received a call from President Reynolds.  One of the departing missionaries was sick and the plane left without him leaving him stranded at the airport.  The assistants to the President picked him up and brought him to the office.  I went to visit him there and got permission to bring him to my apartment.  The sisters upstairs were home so I wasn’t alone with him.  Poor person just couldn’t hold down anything.  I took him to an UC and he was given anti-nausea medicine.  I tried to give him sips of ginger-ale and Gatorade so he wouldn’t get too dehydrated.  And of course, chicken noodle soup, the cure-all.

When I went to Urgent Care with the missionary,  look who I ran into there.

That night he stayed with some other elders and was good as new (almost but well enough to fly) the next morning so he could be on his way home. 

Thursday I invited some elders to lunch with me at Nur, the Thai Restaurant.  I had pad thai.  I’m in a rut.  The curry I had last week was good and I will have it again, but the pad thai called my name:  “Foodie, eat me.”

Elders Sakurada and Barton

Laura from Equador called me Thursday morning to tell me her older sister who lives in Iceland was visiting and wanted her to meet me.  I asked her what time she wanted to come over and she asked if I could give them dinner because she wanted her sister to have my food.  Flattered as I was, I accepted.  So I invited the hermanas and the sisters from upstairs so that they, Laura and her sister, would have someone who speaks Spanish to be here.  Even though Laura is learning, her sister speaks little English.  It was a nice evening.  I opened a few cans of beans and threw in some chicken breasts for white chicken chili with corn bread.  I love the challenge of fixing a meal with what I have on hand.

Friday I was invited to lunch at Olive Garden. The sisters were so gracious and would not let me pay.  I am spoiled!! 

Saturday I woke to about 3-4 inches of snow.  Beautiful!  I went out to shovel the area in front of my home but all I managed were the porch and steps.  The snow was wet and HEAVY!  I left it for the elders who finally arrived in the afternoon.

Hermanas Staker and Bush couldn't resist making a snowman.
(Taken through the window and screen-I didn't want to go help them!)

Sunday it was 60 degrees and the snow was gone!!  What a waste of energy.  If we had all just waited, Mother Nature would have taken care of it for us.

Sunday was our ward Christmas choir Sacrament Meeting presentation.  The whole meeting was music and narration/stories/scriptures.  Very nice.  In Primary we did a similar thing with the children. No rehearsal.  Just gave them lines to read and we sang songs. The president and a counselor told stories.

A sister sang I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day in our Sacrament Meeting program.  She sang it a capella and with such feeling and emotion that I could hardly sing the next song.  Good thing I was singing with the choir so it didn’t matter that I was tearful.  The message that the carol brings caused me to think of the despair and hate that exists in the world today just as it did in Longfellow’s day of civil war and how grateful I am at the end of the song as the bells carry renewed hope for peace among men.

1. I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

2. I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along th'unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

3. And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

4. Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

5. Till, ringing, singing, on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

I love this season when everyone is focused on the Savior.  I miss sharing the season with my family and friends but knowing that we have common desires to be close to the Lord and to be united as a family, no matter the miles between, makes it a little easier.  I wish you all the greatest of blessings this Christmas time and always.

I love you my family and friends.

Jake sent me this picture from a hike he took along the Bonneville trail.
I love how gorgeous the icicles are and how blue the sky is behind the snow covered trees. Had to share.

I just found this picture Kristin took when she and Jake came for my birthday. Jake told me that I carried
him for 9 months so he was going to carry me. We made quite a ruckus in the subway!!

The missionaries found my kazoos.

My nativity set under the tree

Many Thoughts of Kay This Week

I have friends and family who have lost their spouses and they tell me that they often dream about their loved one, or see them, or feel them.  I actually sensed Kay's presence with me twice soon after he died, but I feel him, or maybe remember him, on a daily basis. This week for some reason, he has been in my thoughts more than usual.  For example, as I crossed the bridge over the train tracks on our walk Tuesday morning, it was cold and the lady going down the steps ahead of me had her hands in her pockets, as did I.  I distinctly heard Kay's voice in my mind saying "Get your hands out of your pockets.  If you fall, you won't be able to get them out fast enough to catch yourself."  He has said that so many times as we walked across the ice or down the embankment while fishing or at other times walking across fields hunting pheasants or in the mountains deer hunting. I loved those times and the advice!! 

Someone gave me a piece of chewing gum the other day.  My go-to flavor is peppermint.  Kay's was spearmint.  The gum I was offered was spearmint.  Instantly Kay was with me.  I was rummaging through the car console looking for something and found a wintergreen lifesaver.  Wintergreen lifesavers are synonymous with Kay.  The grandchildren used to come into our bedroom to Grandpa sitting in his chair asking for candy (wintergreen lifesavers).  I hope they will always think of Grandpa when they see or smell wintergreen.

Wednesday morning I went to an area of Queens across the river from Manhattan to see if I could help a missionary with an insurance problem.  While there I walked passed a high school.  No football field.  No parking lot.  No outside area.  Just one big building in the middle of the city surrounded by a 6 foot fence.  As I stood on the corner across the street about to take a picture of it, a man told me that he worked there.  He informed me that it was the Aviation High School and if I walked down the street I could see a WWII plane and a jet fighter behind the fence. Interesting place. I walked all the way around it. Had to Google it when I got home.

Aviation High School looking across the street.

Jet engines behind the fence.

More school pics.

Art on the outside of the building. Looks like wings to me.

Wall art

More wall art

Wall murals

"Aviation High School, official name Aviation Career & Technical Education High School, is public high school #Q610 owned and operated by the New York City Department of Education. Formerly known as the School of Aviation Trades (SAT), Aviation High School has operated since 1936. It is ranked by US News and World Report as a 2013 Best High School in the Bronze Category.
It is located in Long Island City, which is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens.  As of the 2013-14 school year, the school has an enrollment of 2,244 students. It also received an "A" rating for the seventh time in a row in the 2012-13 school year.

Educational Emphasis

Aviation High School is certified by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the training of Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMTs). Students who successfully complete the school's rigorous technical programs are allowed to take their FAA certification examinations without further qualification.

In order to achieve this, students at the school spend about three to four periods every day in "shop," technology related classes that concentrate on every aspect of an aircraft's structure, systems, and components, as well as more general aviation subjects such as aerodynamics and Federal Aviation Regulations. These specialized classes are taught by FAA-certificated AMTs, many of whom are themselves alumni of the school.

School Property

Aviation High School is one of the largest high schools in the city of New York. The school occupies a whole block right next to the 7 train and Queens Blvd. It is composed of six floors, as well as a basement, a hangar with multiple general aviation and World War II aircraft, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, and a dedicated ROTC area. The school is divided into two parts, the main part where most administration offices and academic classrooms are located, while a separate wing is dedicated to shop classes that runs from the first floor up to the sixth. An elevator and escalator also runs throughout the six floors of the building."
I was interested to note that the school has an extracurricular activities list just like most other high schools:

After School Activities

  1.    Science Leadership and Robotics
  2.    National Honor Society
  3.    Student Government & Leadership
  4.    Pegasus Society
  5.    Color Guard Drill Team
  6.    Skills USA
  7.    Muslim Student Association
  8.    Christian Club
  9.    Mural Club
10.    Journalism Club
11.    Photography and Arts club
12.    Aviation Bhangra Team
13.    Health Corps
14.    Computer Technology Club
15.    Key Club
16.    Anime and Comic Book Club
17.    Yearbook

Kay would have wanted to go in and visit the school and "hang out" with the students.  He enjoyed that.  I think I may have mentioned in a previous blog that I accompanied Kay and others in 1991 or 1992 to visit a high school in Brooklyn as we escorted several Academy of Finance students from East, Highland, and West.  The host high school escorted us into Manhattan where we visited the Stock Exchange and the markets in the World Trade Center.  We went to the top of one of the towers but I don't remember which tower it was.  That was a memorable experience.

As Kay and I traveled though out the states, Kay was always ready to tour a school at every opportunity and to talk to the students.  We visited schools in several states from Arizona to Washington and across the country.  I'll never forget his astonishment at finding a "smoking room" for the students in a North Carolina high school we visited.   That was before the no smoking in public facilities law. Great memories for me.

We had a little snow storm beginning last Thursday night and into Friday.  Put a damper on morning rush hour traffic.   We had a leadership training scheduled for Friday but it was moved to Saturday because of the bad roads.  About noon, the sun came out and much of the snow was gone by evening.

The Friday snowstorm.

The wind blew the snow into our front door.

It has been a routine nursing week.  It is the time of year for coughs, sore throats, runny/congested noses, nausea and what comes with it, and a few carryover neck and back and shoulder complaints left from shoveling snow during the BIG snow storm, Jonas.  I was going through the list of 197 or so missionaries in our mission to look for something and I noticed that there are few complaints from foreign born missionaries.  I am not sure if it is because they don't get sick or they just deal with it.  I rarely get a call from one of them.  Perhaps they have never had the kind of medical care available that we are accustomed to so they don't expect it.  

We have had two new senior missionary couples come into the mission to replace people who have left.  I overheard two of them talking about driving here in the city. It made me think of when I first came and began to drive these crazy streets.   I want to report that I am becoming a much more aggressive driver here in NYC. If you snooze, you sit there all day and the cars behind you honk endlessly.  Hence, I accelerate frequently which doesn't give one good gas mileage.   Again, I hear Kay explaining to me how to drive the Prius for the best possible gas mileage.  I can do it but I have chosen to join the "jack rabbit" starters off the line when the red light changes to green.  I am off like a shot and my gas mileage shows it!!  I seldom have anyone honk at me now and I can change lanes with the best of them. I haven't resorted to honking yet but perhaps with time…….

As my week draws to a close and a new one begins, I like to think of the things I've learned this week.  I've reaffirmed that the Lord directs His work on earth. I am grateful that I can be an instrument in His hands to help the missionaries and the people about me.  So many people don't have the opportunity to know and feel the love of our Savior.  I have had time to reflect on my family and the blessing that each of them is in my life.  My thoughts of Kay make me even more grateful for eternal families and the knowledge that Kay and I will spend eternity together with our children and grandchildren. 

I want to do everything in my power to assure that I will be worthy of eternal life with my ancestors, my husband and our posterity, Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.  I want to follow the example of my Savior. I have a testimony of His Atonement.  I believe that He loves me and helps to carry my burdens.  He is my rock.

I read a talk in the Ensign by Elder L.Tom Perry that he gave in conference October 2014:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall" (Helaman 5:12).

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that provides this foundation upon which we can find lasting peace and build eternal family units.

I love you my family and friends

Sister Anderson one year anniversary pic.

Sister Jenkins one year anniversary pic.
They were in the MTC and came to the mission together.

Got a hair cut.

I treated myself to flowers and a dear friend, Irene, sent me
the valentines pillow case.  Cute old fashioned valentines.

Looking into Long Island City. The subway is not "sub" here.
It runs above ground down the middle of Queens Blvd.

This guy was waiting outside CVS for his master. He was so cute.
He wouldn't talk to me but as soon as his owner came, the dog became my best friend.