30 October 2016

Time seems to be flying since we moved to the tower in Mid Manhattan. We love not having to take the subway so much and it is just a hop, skip, and jump to get to the temple or to the FHC. It has been cold and windy this last week, so we have not had a lot going on in the FHC. I, Nana, worked with a patron to show her how to make a readable copy of a document and another sister was a beginner on FamilyTree and with research, so I went through the basics to get her started and she seemed excited to go home and try it out.

On Tuesday, we usually try and go to the temple to do some of our own temple work and we were able to do an endowment session and a sealing session. On Thursday, it was President and Sister Roberts' last day for their mission. The new mission presidency took over in the afternoon. We have President and Sister Bench as the temple president with President and Sister Bean and President and Sister Nixon as counselors and assistants to the temple matron. They all seem really friendly and welcoming. It seems so nice to work directly with the presidency of the temple. They are like one of the workers with us because there are so few temple workers. Everyone does a bit of everything and we never know what we will do until our shift is over.

I took a walk in Central Park to just relax and enjoy green space. The trees and grass are beautiful and it is fun to watch everyone enjoying the park. It is so nostalgic from movies when I was a little girl. The horse drawn buggies really put a touch to the scenery and environment in the park.

 One of the Ice Skating Rinks in Central Park

Gift Shop Cottage in Central Park, NYC

By the end of the week, I was in need of groceries, laundry, and cleaning our apartment. That way, we can enjoy a clean house on Sunday. Whenever we need to get groceries, it is not hop in the car anymore. It is get your cart out and walk about a mile to get groceries. Then it is  a mile walk back home with our little cart full. When doing laundry, it isn't open your washing machine and put the clothes in, but get to the service elevator between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 and then after 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. We have to take our cart full of laundry down 8 floors to run the washer for 40 minutes and the dryer for 60 minutes.

At least here, so far, we can leave the laundry and run up to the apartment and do some things up there until we have to shift the laundry. Then it is back to the elevator unless we miss the 11:00 a.m. time and then we must take the elevator to the 4th floor and walk down two flights of stairs to the 2nd floor so we can get off and get into the laundry. I did that once four times in one morning because the washing machine did not work and all of my clothes were soaking. The spin cycle did not work so I had to run the clothes through two cycles which put me past the 11:00 a.m time by ten minutes. That gave me the opportunity of hiking up and down two flights of stairs 4 times before I could get my laundry done. So be grateful for having your own washer and dryer in the house.

We went to our first Broadway musical on Friday night. It was "Fiddler On The Roof." It was really enjoyable and we had a fun night. We are learning that even the cheapest seats cost a lot -- $47.00 per ticket, so we try and space them out quite a bit.

We had two days of rain this week, and Friday was really cold. By the time we got about four streets away from the theatre where "Fiddler on the Roof" was playing on Broadway, our hands and face were fairly cold.  We stopped on Broadway and 57th Street at a hat vendor's street table and with Golden's bald head needing some protection, he purchased a winter fur-lined hat.  It was $15, but we only had $13.00 and the seller said we could bring the other $2 when we were back that way, in his words, "Maybe next year."

Is "13" a Lucky Number? This is the $15 hat

Diane on Broadway- Brrr, It's Cold!

Also on Friday, we voted our absentee ballots and sent the back to Utah.  Pray for our country and the morality of our people.  Next week is Fast Sunday and an opportunity to exercise our faith in behalf of our freedoms and inspiration as to make our vote really count!

King, Queen, and Princess

On Saturday, we saw lots of "Little People" who were dressed up in their Halloween Costumes for Trick-or-Treat at some of the businesses around Lincoln Center.  At the church, there were rooms being decorated for ward Halloween party and Trick-or-Treat and lots of work went into decorating the Cultural Hall for the 2-hour event.  It was interesting to see that even lots of "grown-ups" were dressed up.

"Construction Workers" and Cowboys on Lunch Break

Sunday was the "Come and See" Sacrament Meeting which is held annually at our Inwood 1st Ward.  It is the Primary Program and everyone is invited to bring their friends, investigators, etc. to "Come and See".  Then a light lunch was served.  After that, we stayed at Inwood for another hour working with Emily Davis, a ward member, on her husband Bryan's line.  Using the marriage she had already found and the 1920, 1910, 1900 and Florida State 1885 Census, most of the family (except one child who would have been born and died between census years) was identified for Bryan's great-grandmother's parents and siblings.  This provides 11 more family members that can have their temple ordinances done.

The changes in FamilySearch continue to make it easier and easier to find our deceased relatives' records and provide their temple ordinances.  It is very apparent that the Lord continues to hasten his work, and we just need to be obedient and do our best.  As we try our very best, we testify that the Lord will accept our efforts and we will be good enough to make it to the Celestial Kingdom.  We will never earn it because it has already been paid for by the Savior's Atonement. and we constantly see the challenges around us.  But the key is to follow the living prophets and we will be all right.

On our way back on the subway, we went one more stop to Columbus Circle (the south end of Central Park) and walked about three blocks hoping to find the hat vendor from Friday night, but he was not set up, we will will try again later.