The Work Moves On

Posted on by gayleteuscher

Wow! We have already been home from our mission for two months! It is hard to believe we are at this point! I remember so keenly the day we arrived in NYC a little over 3 years ago and met President & Sister Smith and President & Sister Reynolds. In some ways it feels like yesterday and in others a life-time ago. Time is funny that way. 3 years ago we were excited, a little nervous, a lot out of our comfort zone and completely unaware of all the trials, joy, growth and learning that was waiting for us. From combining two strong missions into one even stronger one, and figuring out how to continue the work and keep hundreds of young missionaries physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually safe in the midst of a global pandemic to welcoming over a hundred re-assigned missionaries–we can never say it was boring but can always say God helped us with every challenge and we were blessed with amazing missionaries and senior couples who served and loved tirelessly (well maybe they were tired, but they always hid it behind a smile).

The time we had to serve in the NYC Mission will always be sacred and precious to us! We are so grateful for the opportunity and also grateful that President and Sister Holmes will now get this experience. This is the Lord’s work and we are blessed to be a part of it! I am so grateful he uses ordinary people and works with us despite all of our shortcomings and weakness.

Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward.

Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. . .

Let the mountains shout for joy, and all the valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King!

Doctrine & Covenants 128:22-23
  • Welcome to the NYC Mission President and Sister Holmes
  • With the Assistants: Elder Webster & Elder Money
  • With the kids who are in NYC with us currently, Adam & Grace and Patrick Holmes

The Final Transfer

The week before the Holmes arrived was our transfer week. Transfers were great! It is always so much fun to see each other and to see former companions or other friends from your previous districts! We had gorgeous weather and were able to gather outside in larger groups now that a large percentage are vaccinated, so it just added to the fun.

Below is the last group of new missionaries we picked up at JFK! I wonder how many trips to this airport we made over the past three years? We should have kept track! Each time we pick up new missionaries or see them off as they complete their service we are filled with gratitude. We like to say that we have a deal with the missionary department that they will only send the very best missionaries to the NYC Mission and so far they have done just that! 😉 Even though we only got to serve in NYC with these missionaries for 1 week, we can already tell they are going to be amazing missionaries!

ARRIVALS-JUNE 2021

  • Elder Nicholson
  • Sister Garner
  • Elder Ong
  • Elder Read
  • Elder Ericksen
  • Elder Redd
  • Elder Flynn
  • Sister Dennis
  • Sister Tsai
  • Sister Stephens
  • Sister Stout
  • Sister Hilmo
  • Sister Garner
  • Sister Robison

TRANSFERS-JUNE 2021

  • Sister Avondet & Sister Tague
  • Sister McCurdy & Sister Erickson
  • A line up of our most recent assistants: Elder Money, Elder Webster, Elder Webb, Elder Walters, Elder Davis

DEPARTURES-JUNE 2021

What a group! We are incredibly grateful for the blessing of serving with each of these amazing missionaries. We couldn’t ask for a better group to be our last departing group! I remember so distinctly picking this large contingent of Elders up at the airport two years ago, and a few of them just a year ago when they were reassigned to NYC from their previous missions. We could tell even then that these were going to be some outstanding missionaries and we were right!

  • Back Row: Elders Keele, Giles, Covey, Webb, Steele, Pauni, Bradfor, Kerby, Davis (Grant), Skinner, Fawson
    Middle Row: Elder Davis (Noah), Harris, Craythorne, Stanford
    Front Row: Elders Steiner, Hopkins, Holley, Ward, Hoopes
  • Sisters Warren, Simmerman, Allen, Jensen, Barrett, Cheney, Chan
  • Sister Chan, Sister Yan and Sister Zhang saying goodbye to Sister Clifford

SAYING GOODBYE

We had a “Farewell Tour” and over the course of 4 days we were able to meet with all the missionaries and share some final thoughts and testimonies and take photos. As I looked out into their faces I was filled with so much love and gratitude for each and every one of them and for the blessing of serving with them. President Teuscher and I have been so blessed to have a front row seat and watch the conversion process take place over and over again in the individual hearts and minds of these young men and women. It is a remarkably consistent and yet entirely individual process. I love the story of Jesus turning water to wine at the wedding in Canna. Luke records it as “the first

These photos aren’t in any particular order but are grouped by the building that we met those particular missionaries at: New Rochelle, Woodside, Lincoln Square, and Flushing.

New Rochelle

  • Hermana Ahrens
  • Hermana Alger
  • Sister Bailey
  • Sister Buckles
  • Hermana Burke
  • Hermana Carranza
  • Hermana Cheney
  • Sister Church
  • Hermana Deakin
  • Hermana Dickson
  • Hermana Dimmick
  • Hermana Felsted
  • Hermana Hanna
  • Hermana Hughes
  • Sister Mather
  • Hermana Nielson
  • Sister Sadler
  • Sister Snow
  • Hermana Stubblefield
  • Hermana Tauelia
  • Hermana Taylor
  • Sister Wu
  • Elder Anderson
  • Elder Coray
  • Elder Covey
  • Elder Craythorne
  • Elder Dahl
  • Elder Grant Davis
  • Elder Noah Davis
  • Elder Duke
  • Elder Edwards
  • Elder Fanning
  • Elder Filimoe’ulie
  • Elder Frost
  • Elder Garns
  • Elder Hale
  • Elder Hall
  • Elder Hancock
  • Elder Harris
  • Elder Harrison
  • Elder Hennessy
  • Elder Hopkins
  • Elder Horton
  • Elder Hwang
  • Elder Jones
  • Elder Keele
  • Elder Klingler
  • Elder LeFevre
  • Elder Manwell
  • Elder Martin
  • Elder Mortensen
  • Elder Oviatt
  • Elder Pak
  • Elder Parks
  • Elder Perkins
  • Elder Richards
  • Elder Rogers
  • Elder Rosas
  • Elder Skinner
  • Elder Corbin Spencer
  • Elder Eric Spencer
  • Elder Stephenson
  • Elder Griffin Steele
  • Elder Hayden Steele
  • Elder Stucki
  • Elder Weller
  • Elder Wolfgramm
  • Elder & Sister Clifford

Woodside

  • Elder Biggs
  • Elder Brady
  • Elder Giles
  • Elder Goodworth
  • Elder Harley
  • Elder Lee
  • Elder Montague
  • Elder Olsen
  • Elder Pauni
  • Elder Rasmussen
  • Elder Redford
  • Elder Taylor
  • Elder Walton
  • Elder Ward
  • Elder Wood
  • Sister Adhikari
  • Sister Barnum
  • Hermana Buist
  • Hermana Burrell
  • Sister Call
  • Sister Chan
  • Sister Davis
  • Sister Green
  • Sister Jobe
  • Sister Miller
  • Hermana Morgan
  • Sister Morris
  • Sister Moss
  • Sister Reynolds
  • Sister Skinner
  • Sister Shaw
  • Sister Thompson
  • Sister Vasas
  • Elder White
  • Elder Bradford
  • Elder Chavez
  • Elder Checketts
  • Elder Chiu
  • Elder Estoque
  • Elder Farr
  • Elder Flores
  • Elder Franks
  • Elder Fullmer
  • Elder Holmes
  • Elder Hughes
  • Elder Jefferies
  • Elder Kelley
  • Elder Little
  • Elder Smith
  • Elder Steiner
  • Elder Taylor
  • Elder Waits
  • Elder Webb
  • Elder White
  • Elder & Sister Anderson
  • Elder & Sister Harrington

Lincoln Square

  • Elder Beach
  • Elder Black
  • Elder Brewer
  • Elder Call
  • Elder Call
  • Elder Cloward
  • Elder Conover
  • Elder England
  • Elder Espen
  • Elder Fawson
  • Elder Gifford
  • Elder Goodman
  • Elder Goolsby
  • Elder Hill
  • Elder Holden
  • Elder Hoopes
  • Elder Jordan
  • Elder Kasch
  • Elder Kerby
  • Elder Kitchen
  • Elder Larson
  • Elder Leigh
  • Elder Locke
  • Elder McKinney
  • Elder Money
  • Elder Payne
  • Elder Nakasone
  • Elder Neilson
  • Elder Phelps
  • Elder Roskelley
  • Elder Steffes
  • Elder Streeter
  • Elder Triplett
  • Elder Vernon
  • Elder Wall
  • Elder Walters
  • Elder Webster
  • Elder Wheeler
  • Elder & Sister Scott
  • Elder & Sister Williams
  • Sister Allen
  • Hermana Barrett
  • Sister Byrd
  • Sister Chao
  • Hermana Dewey
  • Sister Erickson
  • Hermana Flores
  • Sister Heiner
  • Sister Howard
  • Sister Jensen
  • Hermana Larsen
  • Hermana Lopez
  • Sister Luke
  • Sister McCurdy
  • Hermana Perez
  • Sister Powell
  • Hermana Sakamoto
  • Sister Shelton
  • Sister Sherwin
  • Sister Stratford
  • Hermana Winkel
  • Sister Zhang
  • Sister Zhang

Flushing

  • Sister Avondet
  • Hermana Berrett
  • Hermana Blanchard
  • Hermana Braithwaite
  • Hermana Casillas
  • Sister Freeman
  • Sister Huang
  • Sister Jensen
  • Sister Johnson
  • Sister Likiliki
  • Sister Ricks
  • Sister Simmerman
  • Sister Streit
  • Sister Tague
  • Sister Vera
  • Hermana Warren
  • Sister Yan
  • Elder Aguirre
  • Elder Anjewierden
  • Elder Barnes
  • Elder Bingham
  • Elder Blackham
  • Elder Boyd
  • Elder Bradshaw
  • Elder Christensen
  • Elder Collier
  • Elder Cowley
  • Elder Dalton
  • Elder Dicou
  • Elder Farnsworth
  • Elder Fischbeck
  • Elder Freeman
  • Elder Hansen
  • Elder Harwood
  • Elder Havenar
  • Elder Holley
  • Elder Hopoate
  • Elder Iverson
  • Elder Kang
  • Elder Kim
  • Elder Ko
  • Elder Koster
  • Elder Lund
  • Elder Moody
  • Elder Pond
  • Elder Richey
  • Elder Roberson
  • Elder Richardson
  • Elder Stanford
  • Elder Sumsion
  • Elder Valentine
  • Elder Shumway
  • Elder Cox
  • Sister Justvig
  • Sister Marshall

Heading Home

Our son Isaac finished his mission in Iowa City, Iowa just a few days before we left NYC. We loved picking him up at the newly remodeled LaGuardia Airport, spending a couple of days with the whole family in NYC and then experiencing the transition home together. He had a wonderful mission and we are so grateful to his mission leaders, President and Sister Sturm for the wonderful guidance and inspiration they provided.

When we got home we stopped to see my mom who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia, then we headed to a Teuscher Family Reunion in Idaho. The following week we were able to give our mission reports in our new ward in Park City and then have an open house and visit with lots of our missionaries who are home and meet some of their families as well. It was such an amazing day and we are still basking in all the love! Members of our new ward were so surprised to come to church and wonder what was going on because the parking lot was never so full! Then to come in and see the chapel full to overflowing and hear the powerful singing of hundreds of returned missionaries! So many members have told me that the spirit they felt was powerful and it wasn’t anything we said it was the love for the gospel and the goodness and light these returned missionaries carry with them. Later we flew to California and had a whirl-wind few days visiting friends and giving a mission report in our Alameda ward. We have been trying to get to as many weddings and receptions as our schedule allows and it’s also been so fun to get together with some of our missionaries to have lunch, get ice-cream or have them over for game night with our kids and their cousins. Even though we are home and done with our full-time mission now, I am going to try and go back and fill in some details and add a few posts about things that happened in the mission–mostly so I have a better history. We were blessed to serve with 760 missionaries over the course of our three years in NYC! And there are hundreds more New Yorkers who we are now blessed to call friends. We are so grateful to have so many people to love and stay connected to.

We are forever changed by our experience and NYC will always have our hearts! 🗽❤️🗽

We are forever grateful to God for providing this opportunity and for preparing a way for us to accomplish it.

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

1 Nephi 3:7
  • Welcome Home Elder Teuscher!
  • The whole family!
  • We got to UT and saw that the SLC Airport has a Shake Shack!
    A tiny reminder New York ❤️
  • Straight from mission attire to family reunion attire!
  • Good to see my parents again
  • Taking mom for a walk to see the neighbors flower garden
  • Homecoming Open House in Park City
  • Gorgeous day for visiting
  • Sister Yeager and Sister Snyder
  • Sister Shi, Ong, Rhoo and Chase
  • trying to feed the masses
  • The Rat Crew: Sister Halverson and Sister Mando
  • Meeting Sister Reed’s husband Josh
  • Game Night with the cousins and some RMs
  • Fun visit from the Chappell family
  • Lunch in San Diego with Elder Sutherland and Elder Lane
  • Sister Grimmer’s wedding
  • Ice cream date with Sister Lines 🤟
  • Bay Area friends: Wafa and his sweet family
  • The Neals

4 thoughts on “The Work Moves On”

  1. This is great Gayle – thank you for all of the work you’ve done and the testimony you’ve borne here. What an experience

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  2. Gayle,

    I enjoyed reading about your mission happenings over the past 3 years. Not sure where you and Craig call home now. Would love to get your address for Christmas Greetings.

    Have a great week.

    Phil Carey and family

    On Tue, Sep 7, 2021 at 11:43 AM New York, New York City Mission wrote:

    > gayleteuscher posted: ” Wow! We have already been home from our mission > for two months! It is hard to believe we are at this point! I remember so > keenly the day we arrived in NYC a little over 3 years ago and met > President & Sister Smith and President & Sister Reynolds.” >

    Like

    Reply

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