Christmas in New York--A Mission Christmas

Christmas has come to New York. In our little apartment, we have a small tree, a decorative table cloth with a snowman and Santa Claus sitting in the middle.
Above the window, notice the garland with little white lights and white lights around our other window. It's not much, but it makes us feel like it's Christmas and gives us a nice atmosphere in our living room. We like it.

In our office, we have the spirit of Christmas. Here is our cute little Christmas tree, decorated with ornaments and pass-along cards with bows on top. Two small nativity sets are at the base of the tree.

Sorting and keeping track of all the Christmas packages has been my assignment. Here is our storage room packed with Christmas gifts for our missionaries. As of right now, we still have about 35 missionaries who have not received packages, but President Smith says that last year, alot of them came the week of Christmas. We will take some of them to missionaries in our ward area. Schoutens will take some to their ward. And, the AP's will distribute the rest in their trusty truck. If the packages don't all get out, the missionaries will receive them on Christmas day at our All-mission Christmas party.

It really feels more like Christmas with the first snowfall of the season. This picture is taken out of our office window, looking out on the golfcourse. As you can see, there's no one golfing. It's been pretty chilly here--teens. Brrrr!

President and Sister Darger hosted another couple's dinner. We love going to the Dargers. Sister Darger always decorates beautifully on the holidays and serves delicious food. She serves the main dish, and the couples bring the other dishes. It works out really well. We had very tender brisket with yams and carrots, plus mashed potatoes and the other dishes.

Some of the missionaries. President Darger is at the head of the table.

This is the Darger children table--there are four teenagers who keep things lively. The AP's managed to slip in for a little food towards the end.

Every Saturday, we go to the Family History Center and help people with their genealogy. Here is a picture of some of our patrons. Last Saturday, a man walked in off the street and wanted to do some family history. He saw our big sign outside. He came in and Elder Dalebout worked with him on getting some of his information together. Then, Sister Dalebout took him onto Ancestry.com, where we found out a lot of information. His name is Anthony, and he is not a member, but he wants to come back and do more. He asked about the church, so we took him into our chapel to see the beautiful Christmas decorations they had put up. He talked to us and the Bishop about what we believe. He wanted to come to church, but he has to go to school on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. every week. Our church starts at 11:00 a.m., so he couldn't come to our wonderful Christmas Sacrament meeting. However, he said he would come when his classes were over in a couple of weeks. He DID come on Sunday to Priesthood. We are excited.

These missionaries come to help drum up business for the Family History Center. They are so great! They've even done some of their family history.

Probably the highlight of our Christmas in New York was our visit to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. Wow! It was fantastic and worth the money. We had a great time. We took our neighbor, Jay Steele, with us. About ten senior couples also attended. We had a great time.

Elder and Sister Wilhite, Elder and Sister Schouten, Elder and Sister Dalebout. Do you love Elder Dalebout's hat? It keeps his head warm.

The Rockefeller Christmas tree. It was really prettier at night, but I didn't get a picture.

Our office staff. We send this picture out, along with President and Sister Smith's, for the missionaries birthdays. The AP's, Elder Fox and Elder Duran (two great missionaries).

We went out for pizza with the AP's.

Winter's Eve in New York City--this was in front of the temple. An ice sculpture did his thing there.

The missionaries served over 1,000 cups of free hot chocolate and pass-along cards to passersby. This was in front of the temple.

This is the poster that was on display.

Dick and I traveled up to Connecticut for a Zone meeting so that we could inspect missionary cars. It was a really nice day and we got all the cars inspected. The missionaries did a lot of the inspecting, so it wasn't just the two of us.

Here is a picture of the Yorktown Zone--some in Connecticut and some in New York. We really do love these missionaries. That's the best part of our mission--working with the missionaries.

So, that has been our December in New York so far. More to come later.