Are We Trunky? Yes We Are.

Yes, indeed, we are "Trunky." The sisters below are all going home at the same time as we are. They brought their friend "Trunky." We laughed so hard and decided that we were trunky as well. So, we took a picture with "Trunky."

Sisters Hseih, Chen, Fuiamono, and Pryzbyla. They are all sweet sisters. Sister Hseih is from Taiwan, Sister Chen is from China, Sister Fuiamono is from Hawaii, and Sister Pryzbyla is from Utah. The three Asian sisters worked in Chinatown. We will miss these sisters, as well as Elder Gervacio.

Four sisters are going home and only one elder, Elder Gervacio. He is a fun elder and has been working in the deaf program. We will miss many people and things in New York.

We finally got a picture with President and Sister Smith. President Smith is a good mission president and we're so grateful to him for letting us have the privilege of working in family history and in the temple. We have loved it so much. We will miss the great opportunity to work with so many varied people. It's truly been a blessing in our lives.

We will miss the missionaries.

Here are our Chinatown missionaries (elders): Elder Faulkner, Elder Barton, Elder Near and Elder Fan.

We will miss seeing the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of our country's freedom. Lady Liberty stands as a reminder to all of us of the great privilege we have to live in this choice land of America.

We will miss seeing the skyline of New York City.

We have loved Kenya and Miguel Nunez, who are married, and are our guards at the temple. They are expecting a baby girl the first of next year. We will miss their love, concern and appreciation. They always make us feel so good. We love them.

We will miss Edward, who is another one of the temple guards. He's a postive and happy person and we love him.

We will miss seeing the missionaries at zone conference and hearing the inspirational teachings of President Smith. We will miss the missionaries singing "Called to Serve." It always makes me a little tearful.

We will miss all these missionaries, whom we have had a lot of association with.

We will miss Elder Lima and Elder Sayao. They came to the temple today so that they could say goodbye to us.

Sister Moeakiola is from Tonga and we will miss her.

We will definitely miss seeing "Mayor" Jay Steele (left) and his friend Charlie. Jay and his friend spend many hours sitting on the bench across the street from our apartment. Jay has been our good friend as long as we've been here. We will miss him popping in to visit us and going with us to various places.

We will miss our apartment, where the lowest windows are. It has been our home for 17 months, and we have loved it. We will miss our village of Scarsdale and being able to take wonderful walks all around the town. We may be "trunky" to see our family, but we will definitely miss many things about New York.

Belated Birthdays to Two Special People

Happy Birthday to two special people in our family. I love this picture of Ryan (whose birthday was October 5th) after Lyla was born. He was such a good father, as he took care of his family while Jenny was in the hospital for 10 days. He was amazing, and so I say, Happy Birthday to our son-in-law, Ryan Wood. We love you.

Two days later, Matthew (Scott's son) had his 9th birthday. Matthew is such a great kid. He has a lot of faith and is sensitive to other people. Plus, he's a lot of fun, as you can see from the pictures below. Happy Birthday, Matthew.

We love you tons and can hardly wait to see you in December.

Don't you love that cute smile. Both of them are pretty handsome.

Conference Weekend - October 2011

I love conference weekend. It's different being away from the center of the church. In the past two conferences we've been here, we have gone over to the church to see the sessions on the TV over there. This time, I had a cold, so I didn't feel well enough to go over to the church on Saturday. We just turned on our computer and watched conference at home. However, on Sunday, we had invited some missionaries over to eat traditional Dalebout pancakes for breakfast, in as much as conference begins at 12:00 noon here. The elders were the cookers of the pancakes. Above is Elder Sorensen, who did a fairly good job of flipping the pancakes.

Elder Shepherd gives a thumbs up for the pancake he just put in the oven. He was very proud of it.

Left to right: Elder Merrell, Sister Merrell, Sister Tobon, Sister Lemke, Elder Davis (AP), Elder Merrill (AP).

Elder Davis and Elder Sorensen

Here we are at the table. We also had ham and little smokies, as well as fruit. The elders really enjoyed the little smokies. I didn't get a picture of Dick. Sorry.

Not only did the missionaries cook the pancakes, but they also washed the dishes. Aren't they great!

After breakfast, we headed over to Scarsdale Chapel to watch the Sunday morning session on TV. After that session, people from the Spanish Ward invited us to eat with them. They had all kinds of interesting hispanic food, and we were happy to enjoy a meal with them. They were very cordial to us.

Another picture of the Spanish Ward. We really enjoyed conference. I am invigorated with talks and music that is presented in conference. Of course, I was particularly thrilled to learn that the Provo Tabernacle is going to be a temple. That announcement made me cry. I loved the Primary choir. It touches me when I hear children singing. Also, I loved Elder Bednar's talk about family history, Sister Dalton's talk about fathers, as well as many of the others. I am looking forward to reading the talks again.

The following week on the missionaries' "P" day, several of them came to the temple. Here is Sister Moeakiola, who is from Tonga. She is a very sweet sister and we love her. She wanted a picture with us before we go home.

Here are some of the missionaries that we have had a lot of association with, either in our Inwood Ward or in Westchester county. We inspected some of their apartments and got to know them well. Right to left: Elder Richards, Elder Rimmasch, Elder Scott, Elder Engberson, Elder Willard, Elder Beswick and Elder Laytai. We will miss them.

Sprinting to the End

We are rapidly approaching the end of our mission. Just think, three and a half more weeks and we'll be taking off. It has been a wonderful experience and we will really miss all the great things we've been able to do and see here in New York. We've been blessed to have many visitors while we've been here. The weekend of September 15th through the 18th, Billy and Amy came to visit us. They have been able to come five times while we've been here. We will really miss them when we can't see them as often. The above picture shows us on the subway going down to Ground Zero. Amy got tickets, and after we finished at the Family History Center on Friday, we were able to go.

GROUND ZERO. This is the new tower that they are building. There were actually seven buildings that came down on the 9-11 attack.

Here is one of the beautiful fountains built where one of the twin towers was. Around the fountains are names of the people who died.

This is the only tree that survived the explosion. What was left of the tree was sent either to Pennsylvania or Washington D.C. to be nourished and looked after. It was returned to Ground Zero for the 9-11 memorial. Notice where the new growth starts and where the old growth was.

Here are some roses memorializing some of the victims.

Billy and I in front of one of the fountains.

After visiting Ground Zero, we walked over to Wall Street and saw the New York Stock Exchange Building. Billy had found a little pizza place on the internet (Stanton Pizza), and we went to have some very good pizza there. It was fun.

On Saturday, we all attended "Wicked" and enjoyed eating at the "Joy" hamburger cafe. Yum, the hamburgers were great. We then went to the Guggenheim Museum, which is a museum of modern art, with a little Mannet, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. mixed in. Sunday morning, we attended church at the Inwood chapel, and then Billy and Amy left from there to go home. We enjoyed their visit.

About 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, we got a call from Curt and Melanie Johnson (two kids who are from Provo--he is working in New York now), who wanted us to go for a walk with them down the path in back of our apartment building. They brought their kids and we had a nice walk with them. They have been so fun to have around. They are a cute little family and I feel like I'm a grandmother to them, sort of.

Here are Dick, Lucy and Owen looking at a rabbit that was jumping along.

On Tuesday, we went to Charles Wadsworth's apartment, where we taught him some of the Gospel. He is 82 years old and is a musician who has done alot with the Julliard School of Music. He is a very good piano player. His wife is Jewish, and he isn't too fond of organized religion. But, he was interested in learning about our church. He was referred to us by a professor down in the D.C. area who knows Charles. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet on "The Restoration."

Charles was kind enough to play the piano for us on his beautiful Steinway piano. Afterwards, we went to a cute little Italian resturant and had lunch. Then, we were off to the Family History Center in a cab.

On Thursday, September 22nd, Bill and Dedee came to visit. They were pretty much on their own on Friday and Saturday, as we were in the Family History Center. They took the train with us both days and spent their days going to Ellis Island (in pelting rain), visiting museums, biking through Central Park, going to the Rockefeller Center, etc. When we were finished on Friday evening, we went to the Shake Shack and ate and then went to see "War Horse." It was a very dramatic play and very well done. Saturday evening, Dedee, Sister Merrell and I went to a dinner and to watch the General Women's Conference at the Scarsdale Chapel, while the men watched the new "True Grit" movie and got Chinese takeout for dinner. Sunday afternoon, we went to church and then came home to Scarsdale and took a walk around the town. This picture is taken in downtown Scarsdale.

On Monday (our "P" day), we took a beautiful trip up to see the Vanderbilt Mansion and the Roosevelt estate.

These statues of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt always make for a good picture. Bill and Dedee.

The day that Bill and Dedee left, we had a Zone Conference, which we attended. We love these missionaries.

Here are some of the cute sisters, whom we also love. I DO love the man in the back of the sisters. Afterwards, all the missionaries sang "Called to Serve." That's always a favorite of ours. We will miss meeting with the missionaries. This was our last Zone Conference.

On Wednesday (the missionaries' "P" day), these sisters came to the temple to go on a session. Afterwards, they took pictures. Three of them are going home the same time we are.

We continue to love our work in family history. It has truly been a blessing in our lives. We have also enjoyed being able to work in the temple. I loved the talk Elder Bednar gave in conference yesterday about young people getting involved in family history. What better thing could they get involved in. Time's a flyin'.