June 19, 2017

Dear Family,

We’ve been here a full month tomorrow working at the Manhattan Temple has been a rich learning experience with lots of new expectations. Each temple has its methods of accomplishing the patron experience and we have to learn their procedures. The shift coordinators are local members as it should be. Some are limited in their experience as well as educational levels. Many are from Hispanic communities with different management skills. The temple patrons are about 50% Spanish speaking and there seems to be an effort to help them grow and develop.

On Saturdays we stay busy working with the non-English speakers. I am thrilled to use our talent to help them with our communication skills. It’s like being in Guatemala for a little while.
Today, Sunday, we attended our ward and I was able to teach the priesthood lesion. Our ward is predominately made up of a Black Spanish speaking people from the Dominican Republic. There are people from Central America and some from Ecuador and Peru.
The Bronx, where we meet, is considered by the church as a 3rd world country. They are very poor people. I’m not surprised that we were sent here to serve.

In the temple there is a sister who is from India. When she was baptized there were six members in the whole country (and two of those were a missionary couple). Now there are two stakes. She has a write-up of her conversion story which she shared with us. It should be printed in the Ensign magazine. Maybe we should send you the write up. [Note from Jeanine—I’m not sure I want to re-type six pages!] She truly seems to come from a miraculous background.

I hope that each of our combined family members find solutions to their problems and has joy in their journey. I’m thinking at age 75 that this mortal experience is brief, but, oh so necessary and that one day we can be together on the other side where we will continue to find our way. Oh, thank goodness for the Savior!

Spencer

PS [from Jeanine—I get to do this because I am the one typing!] When Spencer mentioned the number of non-English speakers, I wanted to share an example. One afternoon this week, in one session we had 11 sisters who spoke five different languages. In descending order, they were—English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and French (from Haiti). That was interesting in name issue and at the veil!

Pictures are worth 1000 words

Finally you can see a good shot of Manhattanhenge, sometimes referred to as Manhattan Solstice. This was taken right on the street in front of our apartment.

Last Sunday we had a very different experience in Sunday School. The bishop came in and stopped the class (which was just getting started) and said we were taking a break for an expression of love. Then a brother on the front row dropped to one knee and proposed to his girlfriend and put a diamond on her finger. I haven't seen that happen before in Sunday School. And I'll bet you haven't seen it either!

Another interesting cultural difference--LOTS of people bring substantial snacks to church as well as water bottles. Our meetings are right at lunch time (11:30-2:30), but I've never seen so much food being shared on a Sunday. That is probably not a tradition in your wards either.

Last Monday on P-Day we took to Hop-On-Hop-Off bus around Manhattan. It was interesting and I'll include some pictures. I won't try to label them since I can't remember all of them! Carl and Linda--HELP! The one building that is built at an angle is truly tilted--and the building on the other side of that bridge tilts the opposite direction. Pretty fascinating architecture!



Wednesday night I joined a couple and two other sisters and went to a New York Philharmonic Concert in the park. The second half focused on music from West Side Story. That was really a lot of fun. Incidentally, West Side Story was filmed just a few blocks from here--but the slum has been torn down and other buildings are there now. Spencer was dealing with an earache and opted to stay home. I missed sharing it with him. It was really fun. We took our lawn chairs and had tickets for an area near the front. One of the temple workers gave us the tickets. We enjoyed it--but I wasn't prepared for the temperature to drop so much as the night progressed! We left about 10 PM since we had to work the next morning. We had a treat on the way home--a fireworks show in honor of Flag Day. It was beautiful and none of us knew it was going to happen.

This morning I went over to the Manhattan 1st Ward prior to us leaving for our meetings. I wanted to say hello to Jason and Deborah Breinholdt who were visiting (and planning to move here in a couple of months). I was hanging out in the foyer and in walked Jeff Flake (our senator from Arizona). He and his family were in town because they saw Hamilton last night. I greeting them and we chatted about Chad and Ann Marie's family (since they are in the same ward in Mesa) and also because Ann Marie's brother is married to Jeff's sister. That was a fun coincidence.

I'm toying with the idea of attending that sacrament meeting quite often. I'd finish in time to catch the subway to the Bronx. I miss hearing the gospel in English--besides it is really hard to understand the Spanish in Concourse Ward because they talk so fast!! I'm sort of lost a lot of the time.

We hope all of you are having a great Fathers' Day. We wish we were with some of you. I have been thinking a lot about what a great father I was blessed with. I'm also grateful for the father my children will have in the eternities.

I love my family and extended family in all directions! !

Jeanine

June 5-11, 2017

Hello all!
I'm sending photos so you will know that in between working long and rewarding hours in the temple we have had a few other adventures.
Last Monday night the most of the missionaries enjoyed a dinner cruise on "Spirit of New York" as it sailed on the Hudson and East Rivers on the two sides of Manhattan. The skyline was amazing and we enjoyed it in the daylight and then in the dark.


During the week, Spencer made several forays into Central Park and didn't get lost. I had a great walk there one day. I thought I would explore a little further north. There are many twisting paths and when I came out I was at Columbus Circle on the SW corner! Oh well! Easy to find my way home from there.

On Friday morning I went with three other sisters to an area on the east side of the park where Good Morning America films on Fridays. The band was the Chainsmokers--crazy name, but their music was fun! We were too far back to be in any of the photo ops of the audience.


It is Sister Holloway's last week here so she wanted to do lots of things. So on Saturday night, as soon as she and Sister Miyashiro finished their shift, the met up with Sister Nabors and me and we went to a Broadway musical "Beautiful". It was absolutely wonderful!! I really didn't know who Carol King was--but discovered that she wrote the music to many, many songs from my youth. It was the perfect show for my generation--and indeed we didn't see any young adults there. It was crazy in Times Square when we came out, but we had to get home because Sister Holloway hadn't packed yet and they leave early Monday morning! We had such a delightful time.


We can't share lots from the temple, so you get to see the pictures of our "extra curricular activities". But I hope you understand that the highlight of our week actually occurs inside the sacred walls of our Heavenly Father's temple. It is an amazing place to spend our days. We are very busy and feel very needed. We get to participate in sessions frequently, which is very different than our time in the Phoenix Temple. We have initiatory and sealing sessions going on almost all the time and many people come per plans and unannounced to the baptistry. We love the fervor there is for the ordinances of eternity.

Today we met with the bishop and he has big plans for keeping us busy on Sundays. We will start out with a missionary prep class. We'll get more details as it develops.

Tonight we are headed to the chapel next door to attend a fireside on addictions and what they do to the neurological system. It should be very informative. Almost every family deals with this problem in one way or another. We want to be better prepared to both understand and help.

Love,
Jeanine

A report from Spencer

We struck out on our this morning to find our way to our assigned ward. By the way we were assigned to the ward because we requested a Spanish speaking ward before we arrived. We were assigned the Concourse Ward because it was one that President Bench had been the stake president over and one he was particularly concerned about. We found that it was a fascinating mixture of people of African descent from the Dominican Republic. They are an enthusiastic people. They understand the gospel and are very vocal in their opinions. They like to express themselves on gospel topics in a dramatic way. They seem to chop off words (shorten them) and they talk really fast. They are very loving.

It is amazing how we could leave this jungle of wealthy people and in 45 minutes come up out of the subways into a third world country where poverty is the norm. The bishop is a custodial worker and his wife is a cleaning lady. He told us in his testimony that when he was called to be the bishop that he was faced with the challenge of getting his family of five to church for $20 and $20 to return home. After much prayer, he was drawn to a trash can with some sacks in it. He felt like pulling the sacks out of the trash. While examining it he found a sack of partially used subway tickets and after digging through it some more, he also found $80. It's not hard to imagine that wealthy people could discard their partially used subway passes and if they were drinking and lost $80, they would not bat an eye. Finding that in the trash got them over the hump for a couple of months. It was his testimony that the Lord will provide when we are in need and when we are asked to do his work.

I was asked to teach the priesthood lesson on the 18th, two weeks from today. I don't know if I can talk like them. They might not understand me when they hear the n's and s's at the end of the words.

This is an ominous place with buildings of 20, 50 and 100 stories high. I haven't met "Donald" yet, but his towers are just a few blocks away. We pass right in front of it on our way to Columbus Circle to catch the subway.

We look across the street at the ABC Broadcasting Co. and there is an ESPN building one building down from us. That building is in a cute castle.

We are GLAD TO BE HERE!

Pictures of recent activities

Spencer is "busy" taking a nap, so I guess it is up to me to do a post again.



This was our first visit to Central Park. As you can see, there are a lot of vendors behind Spencer. I had fun looking at and reading about a lot of statues on my Central Park app on the phone. We are still figuring out the apps. And it can't happen soon enough. A few days later, Spencer went for a walk/jog in the park, but got diverted for a race that was happening. Dusk hit and he was a long way from anything that looked familiar. He asked a policemen who was working traffic control for the race. He told him which direction to go for 66th--but it was East 66th not West 66th. He called and I helped him figure it all out, he got on the street that cuts thru the park and found his way home. I even figured out the "Find My Phone" app and checked to see where he was and that he was indeed headed in the right direction to get back to the apartment. It is easy to get turned around in this concrete jungle!!



I have been searching for some wide white temple shoes. I rode the subway to Macy's and when I came up out of the subway I was at Penn Station and the Empire State Bldg was right there. I didn't find shoes, but enjoyed venturing out a bit.



We finally received a copy of the group picture taken outside of the SL temple with all of the departing temple missionaries. You know "Where's Waldo?" Well, in this case, "Where are Elder and Sister Brown?" Can you find us?



And it is much easier to find us in this picture of the temple missionaries currently serving here in the Manhattan temple.



I tried to take a picture of the Manhattan Henge (Google it), but I didn't catch the light right. Oh, well, I'll try again or just steal a picture off the internet.

Now to share one special experience. Saturday I was in the baptistry again. This time a group of deaf people came in. There was one hearing priesthood leader with them. The other Melchizedek priesthood holder was African American and completely deaf. He did the confirming. I was able to observe it. It was amazing. The words on the card are in a little different sequence and include some instructions to the person signing. I can't begin to explain it, but you just try to imagine. :) He was also going to do the baptizing. I had to leave for a different assignment and missed that part.

I have been amazed at how many TALL women there are among the temple patrons. Having served in Guatemala with Mayan women who are about 5' tall, it is strange to have several women in any given day who are between 6' and 6'2" tall. I'm not accustomed to looking up at patrons in initiatory or at the veil. It is a cool experience. It is also strange to see many different hair styles among both men and women and even different colors of hair in the temple. There are a lot of tattoos as well. But they are all worthy and love the Lord, so it is good!!

I hope the paragraphs separate this time, but if not, oh well! We love you and miss you and hope some of our kids call to visit. Just a not so subtle hint. We'd love to Facetime as well.

Cultural Differences we've found

Cultural Differences: I need to tell you a little more about the stake conference we attended. The ward choir that performed was so much fun to watch. Ten of the 28 people were African. I don’t mean African/American. The missionaries that are assigned to that ward say that there are members from 10 different African countries in their (very impoverished) ward. Some of the women were dressed with the long dresses and matching wraps around their heads. It was fascinating. In the temple we have lots of Spanish speaking people. We love that. I was able to be in a Spanish session on Friday night and I loved that. The second most common language we have encountered is Mandarin. I’ll include an excerpt of an email I sent Caleb (who is serving his mission in Taiwan). “I was assigned to work in the baptistery this afternoon. When I arrived at the side of the font, I immediately realized that all of the participants were Chinese and the ordinance was being performed in Mandarin. Not only that, but the "cue" cards were written in Chinese script. It was so-o-o-o cool. About half of the cards were family cards. The older woman and the young woman identified them as their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers (and the female relatives of course). It was so amazing. One of the baptizers (who looked Chinese) said he would prefer baptizing in English. But he wasn't doing the family names, so no one minded. When they came to the confirmation room, I saw that he was a missionary, so he probably just doesn't know how to read the Chinese characters. He spoke Chinese without hesitation. But his companion read the Mandarin without any difficulty--so he obviously had a different background. One of the young women apparently doesn't speak English because she couldn't follow my instructions on where to go next until someone translated for her. On the name cards, on the top line it was written in Chinese characters and on the line right under it, it was written in the English alphabet. Names that included Lin, Tang, Lun, Nang, Chen, Woo and a lot of other names that I can't remember. It sounded like during the baptism the name of the person whose work was being done came at the end, but I couldn't be sure -- because it was all Chinese to me!” Then today we had a Korean lady in the session. When we have patrons who speak different languages they use language cards. It was great—she was presented at the veil where Spencer was receiving. I was at the next one and could hear the exchange. Spencer spoke English and she responded in Korean. Fascinating conversation. Spencer says it was hard to do when there wasn’t really any communication (from his perspective). But it is good that the Lord understands all of the languages  without any difficulty. As you walk down the street you see all kinds and colors of people and hear a multitude of languages being spoken. It is a fun adventure! In two weeks we should have a couple arriving from Singapore, Elder Tan and Sister Tang. He used to be an Area Authority. That will make the missionaries multicultural as well. What fun.

Our temple training in SLC was wonderful--just as you would expect it to be. There were 23 couples. In April there were eight and in March there were 11. So it was a large group for our trainers to accommodate. Five couples left a little early in order to arrive in Paris in time for the temple dedication. How fun would that be--to help open a temple?! There were three couples going to Nauvoo--including two sisters and their husbands. There were two couples going to Palmyra. But our group covered the globe--Manhattan, Washington DC, London, Frieburg Germany, South Africa, Bolivia, Paraguay, Samoa and Japan. One of our biggest thrills was seeing President Fotheringham from our first mission in Colorado. He was one of the sealers to work with our group and he requested that we be switched so that we could participate in his sealings. It was such a special highlight. We flew out on Friday morning. Getting our luggage packed and weighed was a challenge--but we made it. Our flight was 1 1/2 hours late leaving, but we were able to get the word to President Bench and he forwarded it along. President and Sister Bench are out of town and we haven't met them yet. President and Sister Nixon picked us up in Newark, NJ. He is a counselor in the temple presidency. We barely squeezed everything into the back of their CR-V. Our apartment is small, but it is manageable. The other temple missionaries had stocked us up with food to prepare several meals, homemade brownies, fresh cut flowers and laundry supplies. It was great. We only shopped a little on Saturday, which was a good thing, because the stores were crowded, the aisles are crowded and small and it was hard to get around. But at least we learned where a few stores are located. Sunday morning we lucked out. We are assigned to the Councourse Ward (Spanish) in the Bronx. It happened to be their Stake Conference, so the Nixon's rode out on the subway with us. Now we know how to get there for next Sunday. We came back on our own. We surfaced in an unfamiliar spot (we should have walked a block underground), so we had to navigate four intersections in a round-about to get to Broadway Street. But we are better informed for next time! :) Monday night we went out to eat with the other missionaries and we watched the "Fantasticks". It was "off"-broadway. It was just okay, not great. Tuesday we started in the temple. There are a few proceduaral differences, but we are learning them. It will take a while to learn all of the names of ordinance workers, missionaries and volunteers. We miss all of you, but we are excited to be here.

I feel bad that we didn't get group pictures last weekend when we were with our Brown kids and grandkids at Ben's house in Queen Creek on Saturday night and with the families of my boys, Chad, Nathan and Adam, along with Ron and Marilyn Tenney and Diane Timothy on Sunday afternoon at Chad and Ann Marie Dike's house in Mesa. It was really nice to be there when Jacob received the Melchizedek priesthood. Those goodbyes with kids and grandkids are always tough. But, we have faith in the promise that our family will be blessed if we are willing to serve missions. We left home bright and early on Friday morning. We had been so busy it was actually with a sign of relief that we were able to get in the car and leave! :) We connected with Kathy and John Palmer in Kanab at a diner. We visited and enjoyed lunch. We were on our way to spend the night at their house and they were on the way to spend the night with Emily in Prescott Valley. They had a grandchild being baptized in Tucson. I will miss my close friends and of course my family. But we are excited about this new adventure. Saturday morning we left Alpine and joined the Crawfords at Liberty Park in SLC. Rachelle tried to explain tennis to us while Dave was coaching the last team in the semi-finals. We missed out on seeing Gibson play, which made me sad, but it was so nice to be with him. The day turned out to be very windy and cold, but we were tough and enjoyed the time together. Sierra was at cousins. She gave us sweet, tender good-byes. We enjoyed a lunch with Dave, Rachelle and Sierra and had to part ways. That is always tough. Later, we had another fun meal at Terra Mia with John and Lynda Tenney, Carl and Linda Tenney, Dennis and Sandy Tenney and Tom and Cheri Sweetland. We LOVE our family and friends. We feel very blessed by the love and support we receive. We spent Saturday and Sunday nights in Hooper, UT at the home of Carl and Linda. We had a wonderful Mothers' Day with their family and attended their ward. We enjoyed playing games and driving around the Ogden and North Ogden area. And of course I really enjoyed the phone calls, texts and cards I received for Mothers' Day. Being a mother is the most wonderful and eternal calling of my life.

Mission #4 is about to begin!

Tomorrow we head out for mission #4! We will be serving in the Manhattan New York temple. We go to Salt Lake for three days of training in the temple. We are very excited about this new adventure. It will be very different to learn to get around on subways and walking! We will be there for 18 months. I hope that if you received the blog posts automatically, you will receive them again. Let me know if that happens or not!

Saying good-bye is hard to do...

We are exhausted. The last couple of weeks have been very tough. The most excrutiating good-bye for me was Hna. Herrera. She is my 87 y.o. friend who has adopted me. She is my "Mama" and I am her "hija". Friday when she finished in initiatory, she cried and cried. She said "You are my heart", "I am so, very, very sad". Other farewells have been very touching. It has left both of us drained!