As you can see from these two pictures, the big social event of this week was a short visit with Sheamus and Carolyn Dike.  Carolyn surprised him Thursday morning when she woke him up and asked if he would rather go to school or go to New York with her.  It is an early birthday present.  He turns 12 next week. 

He surprised his friend Jack Breinholdt when he knocked on his door.  That was fun to watch on video. 

They came to visit us on Saturday morning and we had breakfast together.  Spencer left early to go to the temple.  These two pictures are taken from up on the roof of our apartment building. 
Park Central is in the background and then another view of the Upper Manhattan skyline.

This week I met a wonderful French woman at the temple.  They live in Austria right now.  Her husband had responsibilities with the UN General Assembly so she came to the temple everyday and he joined her in the evening hours at the temple.  It was impressive and beautiful to hear her pronounce the names of her ancestors.  She took one name on a session that was born in 1638 and it is her direct line ancestor.

One day she was in initiatory and we had another sister from Taiwan there at the same time.  The Taiwan sister gave each of us a tutorial on how to pronounce the name before we could start an ordinance. It was very important to her that we say them correctly.  They were close relatives of hers.  The family file cards were in Chinese, but the names were also written our in Pin Yin (Chinese in Roman characters).  I could not have said the names correctly without the help of both of those sisters.

I don't have a lot of other news, but I think I will share with you a scriptural thought I sent to our kids today:

This week in our Book of Mormon reading I noticed 2 Nephi 33:1
"... for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men."

A study guide we are using pointed out "There is a subtle misquote which is often used in place of the last part of verse 1... The misquote is "carrieth it into the hearts" instead of "carrieth it unto the hearts" as it is written in the verse.  ....there could be an important lesson taught with the correct wording.  The word 'unto' implies that the Holy Ghost will carry the message right up to your heart, but you must let it in."

That spoke to me.  We had the wonderful Women's Broadcast of conference last night and this coming weekend is General Conference.  The men and women who spoke and will speak to us speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.  It is an opportunity for us to let it into our hearts.

Sometimes we need a reminder that we bear a responsibility to actually hear the message and apply it in our lives.  Sometimes the Holy Ghost brings a message unto our hearts that doesn't even apply to the speaker.  It is a message just for us.  I pray you will have that experience this weekend.

I'll end with that thought.  I hope all of us prepare to be spiritually fed and have specific questions we are seeking answers to.  It helps you listen more attentively.

Love to all of you--Jeanine

From Spencer--
I want to share a few experiences from the temple, that I want to get recorded so I don't forget them.

I also met a lady who was here for the UN Conference.  She comes from the country of Figi.  When she finished one evening she came as quickly as she could on public transportation and arrived too late for the last session.  She couldn't find her recommend buried in her purse.  She sat on the chair and began to weep.  I called the temple recorder to come down and help with the recommend, but he said it was too late since all the ordinances were shutting down for the night.  The next day I was serving there and saw her again.  She was overjoyed to be in the temple.  Those who find it difficult to get to the temple really appreciate it.  It is like a drink of water or fresh air to come to the House of the Lord.

I was working when the woman from Taiwan that Jeanine mentioned came to the end of a session.  When I heard her pronounce the Chinese name I thought it was going to be difficult, but I quickly realized she spoke perfect English.  She was very tearful.  It was a spiritual experience.

Yesterday (Saturday), I went three hours early to be around the Spanish speaking Dominicans.  I loved performing ordinances in Spanish. I was quickly asked to officiate a session these same Dominicans attended along with a new missionary from our ward who was coming for the first time.  I had a deep emotional feeling as I watched them come in that I couldn't love any people more deeply than I do these Black members from the Caribbean.  Today I taught many of those same members in our priesthood group.  I know my love for them is reciprocated. 

Last week I started with a shopping picture--well, I'm doing it again!

I want you notice how tight it is to check out your food at Western Beef--where we do most of our shopping.

The aisles are just as crazy.  No symmetry and no ryhme or reason to how it is laid out.  It is an adventure to find food!  We take our shopping cart and fill it up and then use the same cart to get the food home.  I was glad that Spencer was with me so he could push it up the hill.  That can be a challenge when it is loaded with heavy things.

It is handy to have a willing and buff husband.

We buy most of our fruits and veggies from a street vendor name Mohammad.  He likes the missionaries and often puts in some extra pieces of fruit.

We have new missionaries--Paul and Ellen Schoenburger.  They live next door.  I knew her when I was a youth in the Flagstaff Stake.  Also, their son, Eric was best man at the wedding of Janae and Stephen.  So it will be fun to become acquainted with them.

Last Sunday we had a great visit with Ben and Kelly Brown.  They were in town for a quick trip.  Foolishly, I didn't take any pictures, but it made our Sunday evening the best one we have had since we arrived in New York.

We always love to visit with family--in person is best, then facetime and then phone calls.  We'll take whatever we can get.  We especially appreciate knowing you are praying for us.

All four of our missionary grandchildren are serving diligently.  We are touched by their diligence and obedience.

We will be missing two upcoming weddings--which makes me sad, but we are so pleased that they will be temple weddings.  Nathan Judd and Mallory will be married on October 28th in AZ and Quinn Crawford and Niki will be married in St. George, UT on November 11th.  There are many new experiences ahead for both couples.  We love them and wish them well!

Our latest challenge is the toilet in our apartment.  In the last week they have changed the flapper twice and the valve twice, but it persists in either "singing" to us when the flapper doesn't seat properly or just running excessively.  Spencer took the like off and told me all I have to do is to stick my hand in the tank and seat the flapper correctly after flushing the toilet.  I told him I'm just not going to do that! :) I think they may have to give up and get us a new toilet.  Sigh.  But hey, we at least have a toilet--not like some missionaries in the world!  We also have clean water and reliable power--not like the hurricane victims.  We recognize that we are very blessed.

Friday night we had a scare at the temple.  Ironically, the topic for preparation meeting this week was dealing with emergencies. We talked about medical emergencies and/or accidents.  On the last session, Spencer and I were leading it.  We have a cute, funny, little handicapped Hispanic man who loves Spencer.  He uses a cane and doesn't have much use of his hands or one leg.  When it was time to pray, he jumped up and didn't grab his cane.  He took about two steps and then he lost his balance.  He started tipping and couldn't put his hands out to catch himself.  He went straight down, face forward and the first thing to hit the floor was his head.  He laid so still I thought he was unconscious.  But it was that he could turn over.  He had a terrible carpet burn on the side of his face and eye and there was blood on the carpet.  He also hurt his leg.  We had to use the emergency light.  The men in the room helped Spencer get him up and sit him in chair in the front of the room.  The coordinator and president offered to help him leave.  But Art was determined to finish to session.  We had him be last out because he was shaking so much and limping and rubbing his leg.  Spencer got him changed into his street clothes and got him onto the bus to go home.  I am anxious to see him again and know he is okay.  I'm sure he was stiff and sore and there was probably swelling by his eye and down the side of his face on Saturday morning.

We had some other really interesting situations with family file name cards, that I caught an huge oversight and error on.  I can't really go into details, but I was glad I noticed and listened to the Spirit about what to do.  We know that we are involved in the Lord's work and we are glad to be here.

We love you all.

 I'm sharing a couple of pictures from previous experiences.

This is the day we went to Costco.  Spencer had on a backpack and two insulated bags to carry home.

Appreciate being able to hop into a car to go shopping.  It is a blessing we rarely think about.

These are the three sisters from Mexico that I ended up visiting with for 10-15 minutes while we stood in line for the bathroom in a pizza place near the 9/11 memorial.

They have family members living and working in NYC.  One of the sons noticed and came to ask if he could take our picture together.  The family was intrigued with our long conversation.  They reminded me of the people in Guatemala.  I was able to visit with them in Spanish for the entire time.  They were darling.  We compared numbers of grandchildren and great grandchildren.  I had the most!  Surprise, surprise.





Now for our post from this week.  No photos though--and you will understand why!

September 10, 2017

From Spencer:

After a very slow week at the temple because of Memorial Day, families starting school, tourists returning home, etc. there hasn’t been much to do at the temple.  We recently made the shift from day shift (9 AM to 5 PM) to the afternoon shift (3:30 to about 10 PM).  In the evening there are more local temple workers, so there are more people to share the limited work.  Jeanine and I had the assignment of “last couple out” this past week.  We were responsible for all of the close down activities such as making certain the trash is emptied, supplies are restocked, lockers are closed, clothing is returned to the laundry and sorted to be washed the next day etc.  The last couple out checks to see that there aren’t any patrons left in the building so that a member of presidency can lock the doors for the night.   

The adjustment to the later shift caused me to be a little tired.  But two events have re-energized me.

While serving at the recommend desk, I was checking recommends when a creepy guy moved into the flow of people and sneaked by me.  He moved toward the elevator.  I saw him has he moved quickly ahead.  Seeing what he was trying to do made my adrenaline run high.  I rushed over and headed him off and escorted out to the street.  He seemed frightened of me.  I felt pretty tough.  I’m glad I didn’t put my hands on him because I was really pumped—I’m sure that wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.  He had a hippy head band on his head with a bird feather in it.  He had a cigar stub in his fingers and ragged clothes.  That reinforced to me the sacred importance of serving at the recommend desk.

Then, later as the last session was ending, I was preparing to close things down for the night, when I heard the 4 minute bell alerting me it was time to head to the veil area.  The coordinator told me I would be presenting at veil six.  When I went in to room I saw our temple president seated in the session and thought, “I need to be attentive to the guidelines we have been given for this responsibility.”  I moved to my assigned spot and then here came, none other than Elder Russell M. Nelson, president of the quorum of the twelve.  You realize he is next in line to become the prophet.  I just tried to be calm about it.  It seemed to go OK.  I learned from that experience the sacredness because he spoke every word slowly and clearing with feeling and spirituality.  What a great experience.  He is a spiritual giant of a man.

Then next came the temple president to my veil.  Just before I started, I gave him an elbow and said, “I can get through anything after that.”  He was chuckling at me.  Maybe that was a good thing, because I was having to pull it all together.  Following President Bench there were two church security brothers to present.  Then came Bishop Waddell of the Presiding Bishopric.  He was followed by Elder Gong of the Presidency of the Seventies.  Oh my goodness!

I headed to the dressing room to finish the clean-up procedure and here all of them came, returning from the Celestial Room.  I directed them to their lockers and took their temple clothes.  I noticed that all of the brothers traveling with him were attentive and reverent.  President Nelson is older and was definitely the presiding person.  Elder Gong was very personable even while being reverent.

All of them were in town for a special Priesthood leadership training that was occurring all day on Saturday.  

Elder Gong was the guest at our Westchester Stake Conference today.   I was uplifted by the conference as well.

From Jeanine:

On Saturday morning there was a Stake RS conference with the wives of the General Authorities.  We heard from some of the local leaders first, such as wives of all of the mission presidents and Sister Bench the Temple Matron.  Then we heard from Sister Waddell, Sister Gong and Sister Wendy Nelson.  Sister Nelson was the keynote speaker.  She has been a motivational speaker in the past—and she was amazing.  I had a seat on the second row, so I didn’t miss any facial expressions or anything.  It was a beautiful experience.  The temple missionaries on the afternoon shift went to it together.  We had to leave a few minutes early in order to get back before our shift started at 1 PM.  We were already floating high before we even arrived at the temple.  I figured out/learned part way through the afternoon that the General Authorities and wives would be in our 5 PM session, but I never saw Spencer, so I wasn’t able to share that information with him.  It had been kept very quiet—I’m sure they didn’t want all of the ordinance workers gawking or anything.  As Spencer explained, everything went off without a hitch. 

However, I had a really odd experience as the temple was closing.  The temple elevator is not accessible from the 2^nd and 3^rd floor under normal circumstance.  The chapel is on the 3^rd floor and Distribution Center, and other church offices are on the 2^nd floor.  When the temple is closed, doors close the elevator off from the temple, another door opens and suddenly, the elevator is a 2^nd elevator for the chapel and access only floors 1, 2 and 3. 

One sister was very late changing because she had been visiting with Sister Wendy Nelson.  Everyone else was out.  The assistant to the matron and I were waiting.  When she finished changing, I gathered up the temple clothes.  The patron stopped in the restroom.  Sister Bean said she would wait for her so I could go on down to the 4^th floor laundry.  I sorted clothes and the temple matron said that the Recorder was waiting for a patron to come pick up a family file card.  I said I would go back up to the 5^th floor and see if she was the one and if she was still there.  I normally use the stairs, but thought she might come down the elevator, so I opted to use it.  I entered the elevator and pushed the 5.  But the elevator went to the 3^rd floor instead.  I was so confused, since it normally doesn’t go there at all.  The door opened to the foyer to the chapel.  I pushed 5 and 4 again.  But the elevator would not go back up. I realized that the elevator had been switched from temple mode to chapel mode and I was locked out of the temple the minute the elevator doors closed!

 I went to the 1^st floor and tried to figure out how to get back into the temple.  The front door was locked and no one was at the recommend desk anymore.  Some other temple missionaries were in the building lobby visiting and we used their phone to call the temple office—it went straight to the recording.  We called both President Bench and President Bean.  I knew they wouldn’t answer their personal phones because they were in the temple.  Finally, we called the other counselor, President Nixon at home.  He said he would come help me.  He called a secret number to talk to the presidency member in charge and see if they could come to my rescue--as I stood at street level all dressed in white.  

 In the meantime, Spencer came down and was so confused about where I had disappeared to.  He LEFT ME there and went home.  I’m not sure what he thought I would do.  My street clothes and wallet were in my locker in the temple.  I needed my MTA card to ride the subway to stake conference.  After a while, President Bean came down the elevator and we went back up the stairs where he had unlocked the gate to the 4^th floor.  I changed faster than you can imagine since they were waiting for me and then headed home.  I met President Nixon on the sidewalk as I exited the temple.  What a night!

While I was so frustrated, and a little frightened, I couldn’t help but think this must be the beginning of a good sacrament talk about what it felt like to be at the door and locked out of the temple.  I wouldn’t want to make it to the door and be locked out of the Celestial Kingdom!  It was a nerve wracking feeling.

I suspect there will be a review of the policy of the elevator being switched before the “last couple out” is truly “out”!  We live and learn in life and hope that all experiences promote growth.

Even with getting locked out of the "Celestial Kingdom" I have to say that this has been a truly marvelous weekend.  Rarely do we hear the wives of General Authorities speak "off the cuff" and share personal, entertaining and inspiring stories.  It was beautiful!!

9/5/17

I head to the temple in a few minutes, but I have time to tell you that our weekend was great!  Our first company visited us.  Dave and Rachelle flew in on a red eye flight, arriving Friday morning.  Dave took the subway to the US Open and Rachelle took the shuttle to our apartment. 

I had traded shifts, so I worked during the day.  Spencer was here to start the day with Rachelle.  She visited the Museum of Natural History and especially enjoyed the Mummy exhibit .We haven't been there yet.  I am anxious to go there. 

She met me here at the apartment.  There wasn't time to visit the Teddy Roosevelt home, so we headed down to Grand Central Station.  That is an amazing place all on its own.

 We visited the Empire State Building and took some fun pictures.  It was chilly, but the day was clear enough to get a great view.

We ate pizza afterwards until Dave texted to say he was at the apartment.  Spencer was at the temple.  We hurried home and visited with Dave.  Everyone went to bed a little bit early.

Saturday was Dave's birthday.  We had a cake for him and he had presents from home.  While I worked Rachelle and Dave took a harbor cruise around Liberty Island and Ellis Island.  They wandered to some other points if interest at the end of the island. 

I hurried when I finished and took the subway to meet them.  We visited the 9/11 site.  It was very sobering.  Our hearts we

touched to know of the sacrifices made to save as many people as possible prior to the final collapse of each building.

Dave wanted pizza and calzones so we ate at a fun pizza shop.  I made friends with three cute ladies of Mayan descent from Mexico.  We had a long line to wait for the rest room, so we chatted for a long time.

That night Spencer and Dave were in the apartment and watched the BYU football game.  It didn't turn out to be the best game ever played and was sort of disappointing to them.

Rachelle and I went to see a Broadway Show--Wicked.  We really enjoyed in immensely.  We rode the subway to Times Square and walked back up to 51st St just to see the sites.  It was a simple ride to get back home.

I forgot to say that Rachelle and Dave came to the temple Saturday morning.  I loved introducing them to some of the other missionaries.  I believe this is the 25th temple they visited this year--the year of their 25th anniversary.

Dave enjoyed a great birthday dinner.  Pizza and calzones.

On Sunday Spencer was the wonderful dutiful missionary that went to the Concourse Ward.  I was the sloth that only attended Sacrament meeting with the Crawfords in Manhattan 1st ward.  Then we took Dave to Time Square.  We had a fun time showing him downtown.

After that we went to Central Park and saw some beautiful areas.  It would take many days to see all of Central Park.

It was a beautiful few days--and I didn't miss any shifts at the temple.  I was sad to see them leave at 3:40 AM on Monday morning.

August 27th

We have been here three months and one week now--crazy.  We change shifts this week.  We will be basically working 3:30--10:30 PM Tuesday thru Friday, and 1-8 PM on Saturdays for the next three months.  It is hard to believe we finished a three month rotation.

We have a new missionary couple--Luann and Delmar Gray.  Spencer and I were asked to be their trainers.  That was actually a lot of fun.

Last Monday the missionaries rode the new Q train on the area that has been under construction for 100 years.  Lots of rock, but I don't know what else made it such a project.  It is clean and beautiful in that station!  We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant.  We had entertainment on the train.  I'll see if I can attach the video later.

You can see the pristine conditions.

We always enjoy these outings.  But then we still have all of our work to do.

I can't get the pictures to work right, so I hope Spencer writes enough to fill up this space!  :)

Love, Jeanine

Hello Dear Family,
I don't have much of an excuse for not communicating except that the three hour difference at the beginning of the and the end of day makes phone calls more difficult.
There other thing is that we are very much engaged in the temple and there isn't much that can be said about it except that that is our life.

There are so many things about New York that are unique.  And, there's much about the city that isn't exactly wholesome. The styles of clothing are lewd and inappropriate in some cases.  On the other hand, there is a wonderful diversity of nationalities and colors and life styles.  What a great place and what a terrible plae, all at the same time.  Money determines what you are in the public eye.

 This morning I was asked to teach the High Priest class.  I love those black pople.  All you have to do is throw out a couple of ideas.  They are so dramatic and talkative that you can't shut them up.  Those people are as knowledgeable and faithful as anywhere in the world.  They are good people.  They look after their brothers ans sisters in a remarkable way.  They just happened to live in the Bronx.  I'm telling you that you're going to be seeing them in the councils of the church.  It demonstrates that this is not an English speaking church anymore.

Love, Spencer

August 20, 2017

Hello to all of you out there in blogger land who love us enough to read this,

This week was very busy in the temple.  I think many people were making up for the lost time when the temple was closed for the maintenance break and then again last week for our emergency A/C break (pun intended!)

Thursday there was a couple from Guyana (South America) at the temple.  They attended a session that I was in and later they were sealed.  They were completely bilingual.  I had the opportunity of visiting with the husband later while he was waiting for his wife.  In Guyana he was an Evangelical Pastor before joining the church.  He also drove taxi and that is how the missionaries met him.  He loved the Lord and His gospel so he was very interested in knowing what the missionaries had to say.  It didn't take long to be converted.  I inquired about how his congregation reacted to his conversion.  He said that was a very difficult day in his life.  He still demonstrated a lot of emotion when he talked about it.  He loved his little flock and it was hard to tell them goodbye.  He bore testimony to them and explained that once the Lord testifies to you, you have to listen and obey.  He went from being the "head honcho" of his own congregation to being the least experienced and knowledgeable new convert in the Lord's church.  It was a truly humbling experience.   A few members followed him, but not many. 

We all need to be humbled in life.  For most of us, it is not that dramatic.

For King Lamoni it was being taught by the Spirit and for his wife it was falling beside him and learning also.  
For Enos it was praying in the forest for many hours when he went to pray.

For Helaman it was discovering that NONE of the stripling warriors had perished in battle--in spite of serious injuries.

For the young stripling warriors it was going to war to defend their adopted country and putting the teachings of their mothers to the test.

Sometimes I think that for parents of adult children it is "letting go" and realizing that you are extremely limited in how much you can do for your children who have special challenges and struggles.  As parents we would like to "kiss their hurts, and make it all better".  But we all have to use our agency and we all have to suffer the consequences of our choices.  We pray that you will make correct choices.

Living in NYC, we see the consequences of the choices of others all the time.  It is really heart wrenching at times and almost annoying at other times.  Here is the camp of some homeless guy less than a block from our apartment.  He has two cats and spends the day combing them.  Then on Saturday, he doubled the campsite when another guy "moved in" with all his junk and his dog.

It makes me wonder what choices they made that led to them living on the street like this,

On a happier note.  We love working in such an international temple.  I already told you about the couple from Guyana.  The day before within about 1 1/2 hours I worked with two couples visiting from Paris, France, (speaking French) two sisters from Brazil (speaking Portuguese) and of course Spanish speakers and Mandarin speakers.  It definitely keeps us on our toes.

We love the Lord and we love His temple.
Spencer and Jeanine

Hmmm.... apparently my video didn't post.  I'll try it a different way!  Bear with me once more....

That looks more like it.  I hope you enjoy it.
Love,
Jeanine

8/13/17

Before I start on this week's activities, I have to share a video that I forgot last week.  When we were at Cassie and John's we went to a museum.  Outside there were "trompas" to ride on.  Rachel loved them.  Then she decided to give her parents a ride.  It was a lot of work, but she kept it up for quite a


while.  I would title this "The Trooper Pushing the Trompa".  I hope videos work on a blog.  :)

Now, I will tell about this crazy week.  When we returned to the temple we discovered (rather quickly) that they hadn’t been successful in repairing the A/C unit.  Long story short—they’d fix one thing, only to discover a new problem and have to order a different part.  Unfortunately the floors affected were 5^th and 6^th:  initiatory, endowments, sealings, etc.  It was really tough during sessions.  On Wednesday one of the workers had symptoms of heat exhaustion.   They were monitoring the temperature.  When Spencer and I finished a session on Wednesday we learned that the rooms were 92 degrees—hotter than outside, but just as humid.  President Bench called SLC and told them he was closing the temple for the rest of the week.  I hope it is fixed when we return on Tuesday.  If not, they may have to replace it—but that is an enormous hassle with city permits to bring in huge cranes and shut down the street. 

 

It actually took most of the next day before we felt like we had recovered from the draining exhaustion.

Thursday afternoon we rode the subway to the tip of the island and took the ferry to Liberty Island.  It is overwhelming how large the Statue of Liberty actually is.  It was educational and

informative.  There is a free audio tour. 

From Liberty Island we rode the ferry to Ellis Island. We could have spent many, many hours there, but it was too late in the day.  I can see why this is a favorite spot for our grandchildren Daimon and Ellie.  There is history dating back to the beginnings of settlers coming to America, not just the years that Ellis Island was in operation.

Hmm, I seem to have lost Spencer's picture here.  I'll try once more.

We definitely will be returning to spend more hours there on another day. 

Neither one of us had ancestors come thru Ellis Island.  It opened in the 1890's and (sometimes centuries) before the pioneers crossed the plains.

Friday night I went with several other missionaries to visit the Morgan Library (as in Pierpont Morgan and J. P. Morgan).  I wanted to see the Gutenberg Bible on display.  I astonished at the beauty and the collections there. The library, which was part of the private home previously, has three floors of books in one room.  There are 15,000 books there and another 5,000  in other rooms--primarily the den.

 I kept thinking how much Rachelle would love to have a library like this! Many of the books are rare and very old.  There are only 150 Gutenberg Bibles and the Morgans own three of them.

There is a library vault off of the den where precious documents were  extremely protected.  The library is filled with statues and precious relics and archeological finds.  I loved the vaulted ceiling of the rotunda.  It was 3-dimensional with sculptures and paintings intermingled.

There were other exhibit areas dedicated to Henry James, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson and some that I'm not literate enough to recognize.  There were original paintings of Rembrandt and others I didn't recognize.  Original scores from Mozart, Bach, etc.  It was pretty amazing.

While I was doing that Spencer had a delightful evening doing things he enjoyed!  He worked on his lesson for priesthood and he watched a ball game on TV.  So we were both happy campers!  But it was nice to get back home and be together.

Last week I also forgot to mention that Spencer Raymond is now in Sierra Leone (out of the MTC in Ghana) and Caleb Alexander is a trainer in Taiwan.  Jacob Dike is enjoying the work in Branson and Ashley Judd is a great missionary in Oregon.  They are great examples for both of us.  We love and miss all of our family and friends.  We appreiate your prayers.  And we ESPECIALLY LOVE EMAILS OR PHONE CALLS.

August 5, 2017

We were on the road last weekend and didn't make a blog entry, but we made lots of memories!  I will blend Spencer's comments, my comments and photos so you will know what we did during the temple closure time.  Our break didn't really start until Tuesday, July 25th since the missionaries help with the cleaning on Monday.

Spencer:  During our break we had a great experience of traveling in this part of the country.  I owe it to Jeanine for master-minding the whole thing, including the rental car, the navigation and her ability to make things happen.

Jeanine: Our trip northward through Pennsylvania was amazing.  For some reason I do not understand, the GPS sent us on the byways and scenic roads for most of the trip.  We traveled on one lane roads, farm roads between corn fields and saw beautiful farmlands and scenery we would have never seen otherwise.  But it was a little nerve wracking--Spencer was asleep--I didn't really know where we were and the conditions just kept getting more primitive.  Here is a few views we encountered.

Our first stop was Susquehanna, PA (formerly known as Harmony during the time of Emma and Joseph Smith).  It is a cute little town.

Spencer: Our visit to the Susquehanna Visitors' Center was very meaningful for me.  I had recently given a talk in the Concourse Ward about the restoration of the two priesthoods and the importance of the priesthood keys.  To then have the privilege of going there and feeling the special spirit associated with that location is a highlight for our mission.  I wandered off in a grove of trees at the end of our visit and felt really moved about that event in our history.

Jeanine: We learned some new things--John the Baptist didn't visit on the banks of the river. It was in the Sugar Bush up on the hillside and the baptism occurred later that evening.

The next day we visited the Philadelphia Temple and were privileged to do a session before traveling on to Gettysburg, PA.

Spencer: Our visit to Gettysburg was a good experience.  It helped me to rekindle my understanding of the development of this great country..  It reminded me of the issues of slavery then, and now the growth of the church with the Blacks here and all over the earth.  We could have spent days there.

We associate with wonderful Blacks here in our ward whose ancestors came to the Caribbean or USA as slaves. The difference between those who have embraced the gospel and those who have not is striking (and that is not to say that most Blacks aren't good).

We had some good times at Jon and Marjon's with their family.  I guess the two events that stand out is our trip to the zoo (which is owned by a member of their ward) and the trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains where we took a hike.  It was like climbing Mt. Baldy near Big Lake in the White Mountains.  It was fun to see them.

Jeanine:  I didn't make it all the way to the top on the hike.  My knee was starting to give me problems.  I waited and had a beautiful place to meditate and pray.  I loved the pictures of those who did make it to the top.

Jeanine:  We celebrated Spencer's birthday there.  We went out to eat at a Mexican Restaurant and we had a birthday cake that honored both Spencer and Brynly.

Spencer:  The last leg of our trip was to see Cassie (Crawford) and John Kidd and their family.  They live in a beautiful place in North Carolina (Chapel Hill).  John is working on his doctorate degree.  They have a cute little family.  I was personally enamored with little David.  I'm so moved by being around him and feeling of his spirit.  I'm going to keep his name on the prayer roll at the temple for months to come.

Jeanine:  Rachel couldn't understand why we had to leave.  We assured her that we will visit her again.  We talked about working in the temple and helping people.  On the day before we left she told me "You are going to help the people get married in the temple and then you are going to come back here and live forever!"
We visited an Arboretum and another day we rode the city bus to visit a museum.  Rachel loved pulling the cord so the driver would know when we wanted to stop.

Spencer:  Somehow we made it back into this city and returned the car having new memories that will last for a long time.
I love our choice assignment here, and what we are learning about the temple, its patrons and the place called NYC.
I have had members from Utah quiz me at the front desk about the strategy of getting a mission assignment here.  They want to come here.  Sorry, its not likely to happen...

Jeanine:  Today we attended a ward BBQ in a park in the Bronx.  We rode a different train and we saw some interesting tenement housing apartments.  The subway came up out of the ground for awhile.  That was sort of interesting.

Jeanine: I agree with Spencer, this is a choice assignment.  The variety of people we see and languages we hear spoken is overwhelming--but fun.

We love you all and miss you.
Jeanine