Central Park and Beyond

I am in love with this park - we are ONE BLOCK away. You walk anywhere, and you hear and see a true melting pot of languages and cultures. I love knowing that each of them is a child of God, just like me. I saw a sign this week that NYC is America's favorite Thanksgiving destination for 4 years running! So, come see us next year. 

Statues!

Extra credit if you know who this guy was.
Babes in Toyland
or
Ah Sweet Mystery of Life

                   



                       I'm pretty sure you'll recognize
                              this one.

                                                   Moonlight

Just for fun

Amazing to see the huge structure get built for the end of the New York Marathon. It took several weeks, and at the end they were putting up bleachers along the running/biking road of Central Park. Huge effort. One of these days we'll have to go eat at the Tavern on the Green. Two blocks from our apartment!

Brooklyn 5th Ward - November 2018

Each missionary couple is assigned to a ward (a small geographical area) that the mission president feels we can best serve. Ours is the Brooklyn 5th Ward, and it's a small - fabulous - ward that we are coming to love. 

Outside our ward building

 We travel about 45 minutes on the subway each week, and since it's small, we're getting to know people pretty well. Here's HH as he helps me to know which lines to take.

The first week we were there, the bishop said he almost cried when he saw us (no worries, relieved cry!!). A sister remembered me from the temple, and asked me to play for Sacrament Meeting (the main worship service) on one of those HORRIBLE piano/organs (porgan?poooorgan ♬♭?). They had been previously mainly using the "player organ" feature. Then I played the opening hymn for Sunday School, and would have played also for Relief Society, but they decided I could use some "relief". We sang along with someone's phone accompaniment.

Here's our cute little chapel. There are two wards that meet in the building - ours and a Spanish-speaking ward. Most of the leadership is just beginning to learn to serve, and it's fun to see how they are doing as they conduct services. Don has been asked to mentor a couple of the young men leaders. The ward is very diverse - both background and ethnicities. Many wonderful people from the Caribbean, and I am in LOVE with their accents! We've been asked to speak already, so that will be fun. haha.

Sister Valeria Jones

A newfound 10th cousin, once removed! Thanks, Family Tree app

Part of our Relief Society. The sister on the left gave a wonderful lesson about love.

A couple weeks ago the Primary children spent time practicing for their yearly Sacrament Meeting program. It will be like nothing I've ever heard or seen yet. I was so happy to be able to play for them as they rehearsed. There is now an officially called pianist, so I'll sit back and enjoy. 

We've been asked to help teach a Self-Reliance Class. The bishop is really trying to encourage his ward members to improve their lives with better education, hopefully leading to better jobs.