Zone Conference and Saying More Goodbyes

We love Zone Conferences. Our mission has three different ones. We attend the conference in Ossining, as it is on our Preparation day, and we don't have any responsibilities. So, we drove up to the conference and spent the day there. All the missionaries dress in their suits and wear them during the meetings. However, when it's time for lunch, they can all take off their jackets and leave them in the chapel. I liked these pictures.

Our two awesome AP's, Elder McMullin and Elder Hellberg.

Eating lunch.

Missionaries who had or will have birthdays in July or August. We sang Happy Birthday to them.

It's time to send more missionaries home. Elder Dos Anjos is one of our very favorite missionaries. He has always been so loving and kind to us. He is just a sweet, pleasant person. He has a health issue that needs to be taken care of, so he is going home to Brazil early. We will truly miss him. He only had four months left. We pray for his speedy recovery. It's not serious.

Sister Adjei and Sister Wilson are also going home on August 4th. They came to visit the temple last Friday, because the temple will be closed for the next two weeks, so they wanted to come before they went home. Sister Adjei is from Ghana and will be going to BYU to attend school. Sister Wilson is from Rexburg and she is going home to work and then begin classes at BYU-Idaho in January. Two fine missionaries.

I had to take a picture of this Primary, who came to visit the temple, or outside of the temple. President and Sister Carter took them up to the Cultural Hall and talked to them about the temple. I thought they all looked so nice. This picture was taken outside the Family History Center. This is a hispanic ward from Brooklyn.

On Friday, there was a wedding in the temple. The day before, when we were working in the temple, this man and his wife and their son went through the temple, preparatory to the son getting married. Dick got to talking to the man and found out that he was a Pack. His ancestry lines come through the Ruth Moesser Pack line, which is the same line Dick comes from. Dick says he looks quite a bit like his Grandfather Burbidge.

Family history is awesome. We have so many interesting experiences with people that we meet. It is really interesting how many of them really get excited when they find their ancestors. We've decided that working there is more public relations, because we interact with so many non-member people. Most of them have a really good experience. I even had a black man kiss me on the hand when he said thank you and goodbye.

Happy 42nd Birthday, Scott D.

Yesterday, I reflected on having Scott 42 years ago. In some ways, it seems like yesterday. In other ways, it seems like an eternity ago. One of Scott's first words was "shoes." He loved all shoes and took great joy in straightening all of our shoes and those of anyone else he visited. Scott has given us happiness as we have watched him as a father and husband. He does both very well. We are very happy that he is our son and that he is in our family. Hope you had a FANTASTIC birthday. We love you. This picture is when Scott was set apart as a high councilor.

This picture was during the same time frame, as we enjoyed a meal with the Texas Dalebouts.

It's interesting that our children become our equals. We are so glad that they are our friends. They bring us great happiness.

Celebrations, 4th of July and More

Last week was the 4th of July. It's really interesting that New York doesn't do too much with parades for July 4th, so it's a little different. But, we feel that we pretty much celebrated for about a week and a half with the 4th and other celebrations. Of course, we continued to run the Family History Center and spend one day in the temple. But, after that, the partying started. Sister Miller and Sister Cannon were leaving to go home from their mission, so we all went out to eat at a restaurant in Harlem called Sylvia's. Sylvia's is run by black people and serves "soul" food, which is basically home-cooked-type meals. It was Sister Cannon't birthday, so some of the servers sang a spirited "Happy Birthday" song to her. The food was very good.

The next night, after working in the temple for six hours, we went home, ate, and then went over to Chase Park in Scarsdale to hear the community band concert. Of course, most of the program was patriotic music. We really love sitting in the park and listening to the band. We did it last year and enjoyed it very much, so we were glad that we could be here for one more season. Our friends, Jay Steele and Elder and Sister Merrell, joined us for an entertaining evening.

Two days later, on July 2nd, the Merrells came to the Family History Center and then we went with them to eat and to a concert at the Avery Fisher Music Hall at the Lincoln Center. We heard the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corp. It was a wonderful concert of spirited patriotic music. Lincoln Center is right across the street from the Family History Center.

We spent a rather quiet morning of July Fourth at Sunnyside, which was Washington Irving's cottage and grounds. They had various kids of entertainment, which we enjoyed. We watched a juggler do many tricks. Workers were dressed in clothing from the time period that Irving lived.

There were three fiddlers who played music for people to dance. But, it was way too hot for me to dance.

The evening of the 4th, we had four young missionaries and Elder and Sister Merrell over for barbequed beef sandwiches, corn on the cob, potato salad, jello salad, veggies, and banana splits.

Elder Hellberg is a great piano player, so he played some patriotic songs while we sang.

Here is Dick sporting his new shirt he got for Father's Day. He was enjoying listening to the missionaries.

Here are the cute missionaires. L-R: Sister Beck, Sister Dunagan (they work in the office four days a week), Elder Hellberg and Elder McMullin (they are the AP's). I gave them each a flag and they were being patriotic. Afterwards, we played "Mad Gab" and had a really fun time laughing and enjoying each other.

As a side, since we've been traveling, we have become friends with Craig (the conductor). He's very friendly and always has a kind word for us.

Yesterday (July 9th) we had a really wonderful day. We worked at the Family History Center. I was able to teach a missionary discussion with an Italian gentleman, who just came in and wanted to know about the church. It was a good experience. Then, Dick and I went to a temple session. Dick escorted a man (Teddy Thomas) from our ward who was taking out his endowment. There were about forty members of our ward who attended the temple. Afterwards, we took a walk down to the Hudson River, where we went to Pier i and ate hamburgers with our friends who work at the Family History Center. L-R: Dick, Kem and Pat Nixon, me, LeAnn and Steven Bang.

Then, we took a walk along the path by the Hudson.

Pat, LeAnn and me.

Kem, Dick and Steven

LeAnn and Pat, along with two of their biking friends. Actually, they were sculptures.

Sunset on the Hudson.

So, our week and half of celebrations is over. We work hard every day, but we also have some great extrcuricular activities after work. Needless to say, we're tired by the time we get home. Last night, we got home at 10:15. Whew!