Report on the last ten days or so...

The day after conference I went on an outing with other missionaries to visit "The Little Red Lighthouse".

It is right under the George Washington Bridge.  What a great view of the Hudson River.  It is impressive to see how fast the current actually is.

 Thanks to the Grays who spotted an article in the Boise, ID paper we learned about a great area of stone art work a five minute walk further down.  Check it out:
http://ireader.olivesoftware.com/Olive/iReader/IdahoStatesmanPress/SharedArticle.ashx?document=ISM%5C2017%5C09%5C24&article=Ar02500

Manhattan mystery: No stone unturned

 We happened to visit the one day a week the artist was building more statues.  He was amazing to watch.

 The children's book about the lighthouse helps children learn that we all have an important contribution to make in life.

We also saw a marker for a redoubt that supported Fort Washington during the Revolutionary War and a marker for Fort Washington.  I always love to see sites from our history.  We live in a great country.

It was a great day!

After our visit there we went out to eat Indian Food.  We went to the highest point of Manhattan Island--265.5 feet.  I conquered the summit--can you believe it?

Saturday night after our shift we went out to eat at "Kung Fu" an authentic Chinese restaurant according to Elder Gray who served his mission in Taiwan.

Sunday on the way to the subway we saw a program going on by the statue of Columbus in Columbus Circle.  Or course demonstrators showed up as well. 

It is one of the statues under scrutiny for removal.  It makes me sad.  They need to read 1 Nephi and know that he was inspired by the Lord.

But our real miracle of the week happened Saturday afternoon in the temple.  I arrived early to take care of some things in the office.  But immediately I was asked to help at the veil for the session that was just ending.  When I arrived, they sent me to the Celestial Room instead.  About the third sister to come into the room looked so much like Carolyn Vance Merrill.  But that thought was totally out of context.  She had a puzzled expression on her face as well.  But as she got close enough to see my name tag she broke into a big smile and I knew it was her!  She is the youngest sister of Susan, Spencer's first wife, and one of our dear sisters-in-law.  She had come to NYC with a friend from the Gilbert temple.  She had forgotten that this is the temple where Spencer and I were serving.  We embraced and figured out what was going on and immediately the sister assigned to the Celestial Room arrived and it was time for me to go to my assigned area.  The Lord truly is in the details of our lives.  I was only in the CR for less than 5 minutes--but that was enough to make the connection.  There were actually several other little miracles surrounding her visit, but I won't describe them in detail here.  Just a short list:  how she was invited to come, locating the temple via the Angel Moroni, reconnecting a temple missionary with her first companion of 50 + years ago, finding an old friend of Sister Davis' (her traveling companion).
It was all such a bunch of tender mercies.  We met for dinner on Monday evening--we had all been out in the wind and rain that afternoon.  I had such fun finding
Spencer in the temple so he could make connections.  I felt like I was levitating the rest of the afternoon/evening.  The Spirit was strong and I was so-o-o-o happy at this unexpected surprise.

Monday Spencer and I were the coordinators for the Columbus Day opening of the temple.  It was a lot of fun to do -- and more work than we expected.   It was hard to pin down who would be there for the two sessions other than temple missionaries.  We were able to get a lot done in just a few hours.  It was a great day!

We love our work.  The Lord's work moves onward and upward!
Jeanine and Spencer

Addendum:
Just so you know that Spencer does occasionally attend outings :) I am including a couple of pictures we finally have from the Yankees game a few weeks ago.