New York, New York City Mission

I know March 4th was a few weeks ago, but still, March 2019 brought lots of marching forth to serve, to teach, to lift and to love the people of NYC, Bermuda and Connecticut: some are marching into the mission field, some are marching home after a job well done, some are marching on to a new area. They are definitely marching toward all the goals they set and the miracle of bringing people to Christ and His church. Every couple of weeks in the morning we have a conference call with all the missionaries. We call it “The Miracle Line” We spend the first few minutes sharing some things we’ve been learning in our scriptures studies and then we share miracles that are going on around the mission. There is always way more to share than we have time for in the call!

It is always exciting to pick up the new missionaries. Several weeks before they arrive we get a small thumbnail photo and a little bit of information about each missionary. It is so much fun to see those thumbnail photos in real life! It is crazy (crazy in a very cool way) how every time I feel an instant connection with and love for each one of them. I guess that is part of the job description! I want them to succeed and am so excited to watch them grow and become an even better version of themselves than they already are.

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It was one of those cold & crisp but super bright & sunny days so there are plenty of squinty eyes in the photos but at least we documented their first morning in the mission.

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Marching home after a job well done

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Transfers

happening every 6 weeks at the Woodside chapel parking lot in Queens, NY

Zone Conferences

This is one of my favorite weeks. During the week we have the chance to meet with all of the missionaries and being around them is always inspiring! I love to hear about the miracles they are experiencing every day and share with them some inspiration and guidance. They are so willing and eager to learn from us and from each other, but most importantly from the scriptures and from the Lord. For the devotional portion of the conference President Teuscher talked about learning to hear and respond to the direction of the Lord’s Spirit in your life. He used the example of when he was learning to kite board and had to learn to feel and respond to the wind. He told a pretty funny “fail” story from when he was just learning that the missionaries appreciated. I think we all fail spectacularly from time to time, but the important thing is to get up and try again. My thoughts were based on the scripture in Moroni 10:32, “Yea, Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him.” So often we read this backwards and think we have to be “perfect” or that we aren’t worthy of His love because we make mistakes–sometimes we even make the same ones over and over, but Christ isn’t looking to find perfection in us, He is asking us to find perfection in Him! He invites us to come unto him, follow him and allow his perfect knowledge and perfect love to make our lives better–to heal us. I shared a very insightful analogy about a piano tuner that someone shared with me on Facebook. This woman talked about how the piano tuner slowly worked his way over the entire key board, very carefully tuning and adjusting each key, each string, and how he adjusted them all in relation to a fixed pitch and she likened his work on the piano to the adjustments Christ can make in our lives if we come unto him. It is kind of long, but worth the read (the piano tuner analogy is about 1/2 down in the talk linked below)

A couple of quotes I love on this topic are from Elder Holland:

“Come as you are,” a loving Father says to each of us, but He adds, “Don’t plan to stay as you are.” We smile and remember that God is determined to make of us more than we thought we could be.

“Many of us who are “musically challenged” have had our confidence bolstered and our singing markedly improved by positioning ourselves next to someone with a stronger, more certain voice. Surely it follows that in singing the anthems of eternity, we should stand as close as humanly possible to the Savior and Redeemer of the world—who has absolutely perfect pitch.

Manhattan & Chinese Zones

Yorktown & Westchester Zones

Plainview & Lynbrook Zones

Brooklyn & Woodside Zones

MLC

It’s been a while since I took a photo of our Mission Leadership Council. (MLC). This was taken right before the last transfer. We made a lot of changes this transfer so the group already looks different and by the end of the summer the vast majority of these missionaries will be finished with their service here and heading home. It is hard to express how much we love, admire and look up to them. Through their example they really set the tone for the whole mission. They make being obedient the cool thing to do, they make working hard fun, and loving the people they teach and serve is automatic for them.

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