New York, New York City Mission

It is hard to sum up the month of September. There was so much going on–several groups of missionaries arriving throughout the month, a big group that went home who we will miss, transfers, zone conferences, service opportunities, Grace starting school and cross-country meets, a trip to Bermuda, more things on my “to do” list that did not get crossed off than did.  For some reason it makes me think of this lyric from September Song–especially the last line, “these precious days I’ll spend with you.”  It truly is a blessing to spend precious days here in New York with these missionaries and all the people we are meeting.

Oh, it’s a long long while
From May to December
But the days grow short
When you reach September
When the autumn weather
Turns leaves to flame
One hasn’t got time
For the waiting game

And these few precious days
I’ll spend with you
These precious days
I’ll spend with you

Departing Missionaries

This photo is from the temple trip with the missionaries departing in September. It happened to be on September 11th. Here is what I posted about it on our mission Facebook page:

9/11 
I am humbled to be in NYC today, this day of remembrance and reverence. I was also humbled to spend time in the Manhattan temple with this group of missionaries. It felt like a really meaningful and empowering way to spend a sacred day here in the city. The temple stands for everything that a few people tried to destroy on 9/11. It is the antidote to all that is wrong in this world. In stark contrast to the horrors of that day 17 years ago, a temple is a place of refuge, of safety for the soul, of beauty, knowledge, understanding, acceptance, and peace. The kind of knowledge and peace that heals and has the power to make even the most difficult and damaged parts of our lives whole. This kind of peace and understanding are available to all and these missionaries (who were just toddlers 17 years ago) have spent the last two years of their lives sharing that message here in NYC. They are wonderful! You should listen to them!

And here is your chance to listen to them singing “How Firm a Foundation” at the close of the testimony meeting which was the night before leaving to go home after completing their missionary service.

While at the mission home this group of elders found a copy of the old “New York Mission Song” written in 1989.  They sight-read it a couple of times and here is their final performance!

And just for fun…this is what the garage looks like for a couple of days as we host the groups of arriving and departing missionaries at the mission home.

Arriving Missionaries

We had quite a few different arrivals this past month which is always fun. It made for a lot of trips to and from the airport, which means extra opportunities to practice being patient with NYC traffic 😊

Greeting the new missionaries as they get off the plane is the best! They are full of anticipation and excitement mixed with the nervousness that comes with any new situation that requires you to step outside your comfort zone in a big way. Well, we didn’t want to make them wait too long to experience being a missionary in NYC so we took this group straight from JFK to a busy street in Queens and let them go out for a little while to do some good old-fashioned street contacting! They were super nervous, but did great! Then we came back to Scarsdale where we had a delicious dinner prepared by our office couples, took more photos, had a testimony meeting and then finally let them get a good night’s sleep at the mission home. They are a great group and we are excited to see all the good they will do and all the growth they will have while doing it!

Elder Dill is with us until his Visa for Australia arrives

Loading everyone into the vans at JFK. That poor guy with the blond hair wearing the beanie–he looks a little uncertain about being surrounded by a group of missionaries.

Finally, time to eat!

Sister Young, Sister Tintle, Sister Palmer and Sister Carlin (probably in the kitchen during this photo)  are the best (so are their companions) They are so wonderful to prepare a delicious dinner for the arriving missionaries one night and then do it all again for the departing missionaries the next night.

Our Tetris master office elders, Elder Sanders and Elder Meliza somehow were able to add bags of bedding in with all the luggage they had previously tightly packed in the van. Good thing for side view mirrors!

Temple Square Sisters

We are blessed to have Sisters Kurokawa, Deighton and Yang from the SLC Temple Square mission join us for a few months.

Haitian-Creole Missionaries

We are excited to have Elder Sullivan and Sister Zornes join us to serve the Haitian population here in NYC. They are blessed to be training with Elder Morency and Sister Hosea. (I didn’t get a photo with their companions  when they arrived, but there should photos of them at the next zone conference)

Korean Elders

Elder Monk and Elder Mensching arrived next. It was fun to drive them to their area to meet Elder Jarman who will be their trainer and to hear the excitement in their voices as they started seeing the first few signs on buildings and streets written in Korean!