28 May 2017

28 May 2017

This past week, Diane and I had the opportunity to attend two different productions and to go to dinner with some of the Manhattan Temple Missionaries.

On Monday evening, May 22nd we joined with about 25 temple missionaries for dinner at Emmett O'Lunney's Bar and Grill (AKA Irish Pub) on 50th Street just off Broadway.  We enjoyed a great meal (with price tag to match) before going to the Broadway musical,  "Fantasticks", a popular play that has run for over 50 years and will close in June.

Front to back: Huntingtons, Harris, Grimley,  Brown, ?, Congers, and Mumfords.

Miyashiro, friend, Nabors, Holloway,  Bean, Dransfield

(Different view of top photo)

What Is the Story of The Fantasticks?
Beloved by theatergoers for 50 years, The Fantasticks is a musical allegory about the romance of a young couple, Matt and Luisa, who find their relationship tested by their meddling fathers and a bandit narrator known as El Gallo. There isn’t much of a plot beyond boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl back—but the charm of The Fantasticks is in its poetic innocence coupled with a now-classic score by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt that includes “Try to Remember” and “Soon it’s Gonna Rain.”

On Wednesday evening, we attended "Oslo" across the street from our apartment at the Lincoln Center.  We saw this Broadway Production, but must say that the language was way too "colorful".

Oslo tells the true—albeit little known—story of Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, who together coordinated top-secret peace negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in the early 1990s. Their efforts culminated in the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

We continued our assignment inspecting the apartments of the young Elders and Sisters. While Diane was at physical therapy on Monday, I walked to 54th Street (from Columbus Circle-59th) and checked one of the apartments and made our report.  On Friday, I spent the entire day at Nicholas Avenue, Harlem "babysitting" the Sisters' apartment while a new piece of flooring was installed in the bathroom where the floor had been "soft" for at least a couple of years, from what we understood from missionaries who had been involved in previous inspections.  Sister Lee, a Korean sister from Utah, and Sister Bongolto from Philippines were very cordial and made me feel right at home before they went to their appointments.


It was pretty amazing to see how the worker had to make several trips to his truck over on 7th Avenue (about 1/2 mile) each time he needed a new material, the quick-set cement, and the grout which took from about 10 am to 5 pm.  That is how they need to work in NYC for these small jobs--taking the old stuff out and bringing the new stuff in. Quite a walk, as we do a lot of here as we use public transportation.


[Diane: While Golden was babysitting the apartment, I was trying to run the family history center. For the last several weeks, the center has been full to capacity and a couple of times we had to send some home. While Golden was gone, I had three people that came in all needing help at the same time, two beginners wanting accounts and training and one wanted constant help with research in the Dominican Republic, which for me, is difficult research. Luckily, they were all very patient and were grateful for what I could do.

A few weeks ago, I had three people all wanting constant help and none of them were willing to sit and wait so I was bouncing all over the place trying to satisfy them all while Golden was working with someone needing him. By the time the center closed, I was exhausted.One of the sisters I was working with was from Russia, but in spite of not having many records for Russia, I was able to help take her family back three generations.

The miracles we have seen while serving in the family history center and several lives changed are amazing. It is such a joy to watch the light come into their eyes and watch when all of a sudden they are crying and don't know why. The Spirit of Elijah is real and is very active in touching the hearts of all who come into the family history center.]

This week, among the other things we did at the Family History Center, like preparing microfilms to sent back to Distribution (since they have been digitized and we need the room for a remodel in a small room where the microfilms are stored), and working with patrons that come in, I had the opportunity to work with a new convert while his ward was attending an endowment session in the temple.

Reynaldo Margola shared his conversion: Just after he had been kicked out of his apartment in Yonkers last fall, he began living on the streets.  A couple of days afterwards, he met Elders who gave him a Book of Mormon.  Having a cell phone, the Elders got his number.  He said that it was really boring not having anything to do so he started reading that Book of Mormon.

The Elders began meeting with him at the public library where they taught him.  He started to attend Church regularly in December and was baptized in February.  Last Sunday at Stake Conference, he was sustained to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. 

By the time the ward was finished with their endowment session, Reynaldo had set up his FamilySearch.org account, entered in his grandparents and found records in Puerto Rico to extend one more generation, he had four female and three male family file cards printed for his parents and grandparents and some other family members.  When I escorted him over to the temple where the baptismal font was readied for him and other members, he was thrilled to be able to be the proxy for some of his family!

Today, we attended church at the Inwood 1st Ward where we are assigned.  After working with some of the temple and family history consultants there with their questions, the 3rd hour we provided a "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience with a member of the bishopric, Ryan Mangum.  It was interesting to see how the family we had found had three sons and he also has three sons so it was easy to make the connection to turn his heart and give him additional experience with Family Tree.  

In June we will be training temple and family history consultants in the Harlem 1st ward and the Harlem YSA ward along with the director of the family history center there.  It is exciting to see how the initiative Find, Take, Teach and the new tools that have been provided on LDS.org make a real difference as we teach how to do one-on-one member experiences.

21 May 2017

21 May 2017

Sunday was Mother's Day but we were so scheduled for training in several wards that it was pretty much the same as any other day. My daughter Chantel sent me some beautiful flowers that I put on our dining table with my  bamboo plant. They really made my table look pretty and colorful and after a long dead winter with no colors, it helped to brighten each day as I looked at them.

Diane Opening the "FlowersWholesale.com" package

Golden putting the flowers in the vase

A beautiful bouquet for our apartment with card from Chantel

Left side F-B: Fusako Miyashiro, Marjean and Paul Lewis, Linda and Serge Martinez, John Harris, Golden and Diane Adams. Right F-B: Melba Grimley, Kathleen Nabors, Ric and Mary Huntington, Ken and Patricia Bean, Shellie Harris, and Carol and Ronald Mumford.

 Monday, we had another temple missionary outing. This time we went down to the John's of Bleeker Street - a pizza place. It is ranked number 3 place in the United States. I must say, the service was very good and the pizza was also good but I like Papa Murphy's best. We had a lot of fun just being together and enjoying each others' company.

Sitting in the booth to the right is front Elaine Holloway, Mark Dransfield, back Sister Holloway's granddaughter, and Susan Dransfield.

Wall decorations on inside wall of John's of Bleeker Street in New York.

Corner of Bleeker Street just outside of the Pizza place. The whole street is rather nostalgic and just a fun place to walk and enjoy a whole new atmosphere in Greenwich Village, New York.

We haven't been going to physical therapy this past couple of weeks awaiting what our insurance would cover, what with Golden's total hip replacement surgery coming up in July, but we were informed that unlimited physical therapy had been approved as long as the surgeon and the orthologist indicated it was medically necessary.

Columbus Circle (59th Street, Manhattan) - view from the physical therapy place we have been attending. Trump International Hotel is located to the left of the world ball on the upper left of the photo.

At the FHC this week I had my first experience of being a proselyting missionary. The sister missionaries were bringing a gentleman into the FHC to have us help him find his ancestors.
While they were at the door, he began trying to pin them next to wall with questions they could not answer so I went over and invited him to join me in the center where I could help him with his family. He was gracious to come with me so the sisters could be on their way.

He gave me some background for his family that told me there would not be very much as he was from Poland and Russia. I was able to find his family in some census records in the United States and he was excited about that. Then he started picking up the same conversation he was having with the sister missionaries. I told him that we were not suppose to proselyte in the family history center because we did not want to frighten people from coming in for fear of being preached to. We wanted them to be comfortable to know that all we would do would be to focus on family history.

I seemed to be able to answer his questions about the church satisfactorily and the more I answered him the more questions he had. He told me at the beginning that he was a theologian and had investigated many religions.

He had a real hang-up on the Greek Orthodox Church and how they did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and how they believed in the Trinity. I suggested to him that if he did not believe them just don't worry about it. He did not have to believe them and it was ok.

He asked me questions like how did the prophet become the prophet and did he know that he was going to be the prophet. He asked how they were called. He asked if our marriages were arranged or if we could choose our own. He asked about miracles and if the prophet could perform them. I told him that they had the ability with the priesthood they held but they did not talk about them much. I did share one with him about President Monson being prompted to go to a stake meeting and led to a little girl that was dying of cancer and wanted to meet the prophet before she died and prayed that she would have that opportunity.

I also shared with him that any priesthood holder could perform miracles if needed and how my husband had healed me from leukemia. He drilled me to make sure that I could have died before he was willing to accept that I was alive even 30+ years after the experience.

By the time an hour had passed, we have covered the first vision, the plan of salvation, and the three degrees of glory. I explained about our belief of burning in hell but that very few would be there. He seemed very content with what I explained and I noticed that the Spirit was able to touch him a couple of times.

I challenged him to read the Book of Mormon with real intent to know the truth, having faith in Christ that he could receive an answer as to whether or not what I had told me was true and that the Book of Mormon was true. I told him that if he were a true theologian, then he would naturally want  to know more and that he would be missing out on a life changing experience if he let this challenge go by.

I do not know if I will ever see him again, but he left with a good experience with family history and a lot of questions answered about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints. He also asked me why we were called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints and when I gave him the answer he said, that makes sense. At least I know that seeds were planted that maybe someday they will blossom and he will find the truth that was taught. It was a wonderful experience.

This week we have traveled to Harlem St. Nicholas Avenue and 125th Street to do apartment inspections with one set of sister missionaries, and two sets of Elders--one set assigned as ASL missionaries and the other assigned to the Harlem YSA ward where Bishop Walter Rane presides.  Bishop Rane is the artist that painted the original Book of Mormon paintings that are exhibited here in the Lincoln Square Building where the temple and Family History Center are located.

Today was a busy day.  We attended our Church meetings at Inwood and helped in the FHC there with teaching the Elders assigned to the Inwood 2nd Spanish Ward how to work with new converts and navigate their own Family Trees.  We made arrangements to do a "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience with a member of the Inwood 1st Ward Bishopric, Ryan Mangum.  In starting to prepare the lesson plan for his experience next week, we found that Diane and Ryan are 4th cousins, 2 generations removed [4c2r] with Thomas Adair and Rebecca Brown as their common ancestors.  After we prepare the lesson plan this week, we will meet next week-Memorial Day weekend.

From there we traveled by subway to the Stake Center on east 87th street and trained a couple of their temple and family history consultants by helping them start a lesson plan for members of their Manhattan 3rd Ward.  We ended the evening by attending a fireside given by Tom Hanson, one of the other FHC missionaries abuot his experience with Pres. Hinckley and other General Authorities as the Project director of the building of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

14 May 2017

14 May 20107

This last week has been pretty much to schedule. For some reason our FHC has been really busy. After a four or five hour shift we are pretty much brain dead. I have spent some time on the new web indexing program and it seems quite simple and user friendly. I have indexed a couple of batches but usually do not have a lot of time to do it.

This week, I worked with a family from Puerto Rico and by using census records was able to take his family that consisted of one family back six generations. From coming in and not knowing even their names, he was trilled. He was an older gentleman that was being helped by a friend who did all of the computer input. They were both rather excited about their experience and it is so fun to watch the joy that they feel when they find their family.

Another couple from Australia (New South Wales), Lindsay and Margaret Allen  came in to spend a little time not knowing what he did. We were able to get them both set up on their own accounts and trained enough that they could go back to their home and work on adding their family.  They were with a tour group that will tour the USA by bus, then fly to see their daughter in London that they hadn't seen for years, and then back to Australia.  It is amazing the people that see our sign the "Find your Ancestors" and come in to check it out!

Another sister from Puerto Rico came in and I was able to extended her family out two generations and then I taught her how to search records where she was able to find a baptism record on one of her family members. She was excited to go home and start searching. When she left she gave me a $10.00 bill and told me to take my husband out for a dinner. As we cannot take gifts, I put it in the cash box where we can buy paper and FH Center supplies.

Last night I worked with a sister from Provo, Utah. Her name was Linda and she was a professional researcher. In our conversation, I ended up telling her about the "Find, Take, and Teach" program that is rolling out from the church. I showed her how to get into it from FamilyTree and explained about how the consultant and the participant were to pray for each other for the needed inspiration and revelation to be led to those waiting for temple work on the other side of the veil.  I explained that it was a Faith based approach and a conversion tool that was really powerful. She got excited and wanted to take it back to Utah and get it started out there as she could really see the spiritual effect that it could have on the people in her ward and stake. She actually lives the our old Provo Utah Sunset Stake so it was fun spending time with her.

She let me know that she was struggling her experience with cancer and having to have a double mastectomy. For some reason, it took her identity and self esteem away and wanted me to help her find it. I can't say that I was very good at counseling her, but she left very excited about having something new to focus on and how she could change lives.

Today for Mother's Day, we spent the whole day at the Stake Center training several people. Hailey Roark, the lead Temple and Family History Consultant in Manhattan YSA had her first experience teaching Alex Wood, another member of her ward with the lesson plan she had prepared.  In the process, several family names were able to be added to Alex's Family Tree and print family ordinance cards to take to the temple for baptisms.  We had consultants from the Manhattan 3rd ward with members they were helping along with a consultant from the Manhattan 2nd ward.  We attended sacrament meeting in the YSA  ward and then we attended all of the meetings in the Manhattan 3rd ward. During Relief Society, they had made a lovely buffet for all of the sisters and we shared stories from the Bible and from individual members of women that affected their lives. It all made for a wonderful day.

7 May 2017

[Golden]: On Tuesday morning, April 25th, we had the opportunity to work with temple and family history consultant training at the New York, New York Stake Center on 87th Street.  A demonstration of the "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience was presented with Carolyn Dillard, a member of the Manhattan 3rd ward and recently called Temple and Family History Consultant.  Much of our P-day on Monday was spent preparing the lesson plan for her.  In fact, two formal lesson plans were prepared using the new Consultant Planner on FamilySearch.org.  Material for about three more lessons was also prepared in rough draft for follow-up.

When the participant and the presenter are praying for each other and being directed by the Spirit, it takes very little time to be directed to the person or family that is prepared on the other side of the veil for temple ordinances.  Such was the case with Carolyn.

In the process, she was concerned that her grandmother wasn't sealed.  I found that this grandmother was living with her mother and sisters in the household of her grandmother's grandfather. According to the census, Carolyn's great grandmother had given birth to three children, all living in 1900.  They were listed with in the census entry.  However, all had the same surname which was one of the things Carolyn wanted to determine--the maiden name of her great grandmother.

The miracle Carolyn experienced was that we could list her grandmother with her biological mother and her grandfather (as a foster parent), which allowed her to be sealed to them.  In this same process we were able to do the same for her grandmother's sisters.  In all, six people were identified and reserved for temple work!  It was a great experience for all of us, including the two consultants that were at this training.

As we prepare the experience to help people become converted to this great work and the spiritual nature of it, we are humbled to share them with the members.  Our mission president has taught that the prayers and the planning that we do are creating spiritually before the actual physical experience, as we are taught in the temple that all things are created spiritually before they are created physically or temporally.

We enjoy walking in Central Park, just a block away.  Here are some photos, now that the weather had turned warm between the rain storms we have experienced in the past couple of weeks.

Diane near Shepherd's Meadow-NYC Central Park

Flowers near the Tavern on the Green adjacent to Central Park

Shepherd's Meadow - Central Park with the skyline south of the Park.

[Diane]: The 27 April 2017 was our temple day where we take the early morning shift from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Most of the time the shift is really show, so the missionaries are asked to be patrons along with taking the various posts. It works really well, because if we have a preference based on what temple cards we have with us, they are very willing to accommodate us. I have been able to do several family file names because of being so close to the temple and they allow missionaries to leave up to ten temple file names for the temple to work through so it has been really helpful with my male names and baptisms that I have a really hard time doing.

At 12:00 noon, we start our shift at the family history center. Today, I had the opportunity of working with our director's unofficially adopted daughter the whole shift. Her name is Debbie and she is a little disabled so so she needs quite a bit of help. She has the cutest smile and English accent. She is from England and comes out to New York to stay with Lyn Wilcox for a month a couple of times a year.

I gave Debbie a choice of what she would like to do and she wanted me to guide her. I suggested that we clean up her line so that when we began to research it, she would know that what she had was correct. I noticed that she had to have me spell everything out for her, so I decided to create her a cheat sheet. I wrote all of the months out for her and then I wrote "Standardized date and place." This is a sentence you use a lot when cleaning up the records.

I showed her the cheat sheet and then I put it where she could use it when she needed to. She was so excited because she was able to do some of the work on her own with the cheat sheet. When I would go and help the other patron she would try and work on her own. When I came back she would show me what she had accomplished and I would cheer her on and congratulate her on being able to do it on her own. She would grin from ear to ear and was so proud. She was always so grateful for the little things that she could accomplish and for what I did for her that it was just a joy.

On Sunday May 30th, we were asked to teach the combined Priesthood/Relief Society time and teach them about family history. For the last two months the ward had been focusing on family history and temple work in sacrament meeting, so this was the culmination for this theme. One of our options was "Call to Action" so we played a four minute video of President Nelson calling all members to sacrifice something, preferably time, to temple and family history work. Golden then presented the priesthood responsibility and the impact that it would have if the priesthood did not fulfill their responsibility in family history.

After his presentation, I spoke about my personal family history experience and born testimony of the power of the "Find, Take, and Teach" program that was rolling out throughout the stake. I explained how it worked and that the stake goal was to have at least all of the youth have this experience before Youth Conference." When we got through the bishop came up and said "I had no idea of the "Find, Take and Teach program." All he could say was that it was a miracle the experience I shared, which I had to agree. We offered to work in their ward and train, and he was excited for the offer and has scheduled us for the month of May to work with their ward.

Manhattan 3rd Ward Birthday Photo - Celebrating their 4th birthday as a ward.

Word is starting to spread throughout the stake and we are getting calls from several of the wards wanting to schedule us to come and train. I think that we are going to be pretty busy for the next few months until youth conference. I am really excited to see the impact that this program will have on the stake. It is an amazing program and one that can create a conversion experience for both the consultant and the ward member.

Today was Regional Conference. The first half hour we had our stake business of sustainings and listening to our new second counselor in the Stake Presidency, and then a few words from Elder Buckner, the new area 70th for our area. After he spoke we sat and listened to a member of our stake play the piano while we waited for the televised session from Salt Lake to start.

We heard from Elder Gerrit Gong, one of the Seven Presidents of the Quorum of the 70 who spoke on the power of service and how to provide opportunities for our families to serve. He quoted the scripture that says "....When you are in the service of your fellow men, you are only in the service of your God." He spoke of how service can turn hearts and bind us to others. Service strengthens not only the one we serve but it also changes our heart and creates a new friendship.

Sister Bonnie Cordon, General President of the Primary, spoke on the "Light of Christ". She talked about how she loved to watch the fireflies in the evening and that they reminded her that we all have to have our own light to survive mortality. Sharing your light with someone else is good to strengthen them, but all of us at some time in our life must carry our own light of Christ.

Elder Anthony B. Perkins, a member of the Quorum of the 70, spoke of the power and blessing of the atonement and repentance. He spoke on how repentance brings joy, not sorrow, and gives us an opportunity to become more than we can become on our own. He shared four examples from the scriptures of Nephi, Alma the Younger, and Zeezrom who all came through their own experiences of repentance and became wonderful servants to our Father in Heaven. Even as bad as Alma the Younger was, he was later told that he would have eternal life. All of us can make it back home if we keep our focus on the Savior and his atoning sacrifice.

Our last speaker was Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles and he spoke on the power of faith.

It was a wonderful meeting and the Spirit was strong. We have learned so much while serving our mission and have been able to be witnesses of miracles far beyond what we thought we could have ever experienced. We both come home very tired but full of gratitude for the opportunity we have had to serve.

We have had our health challenges, but we have always been blessed with just enough good health to keep going. This is the Lord's work and he is hastening the gathering of Israel in a miraculous way and it is a great privilege to be a part of this work.