26 March 2017

26 March 2017

This was one of those weeks where we had a lot of activities scheduled that were really fun and interesting. We will have to send pictures in a few emails but I think you will enjoy them.

On our P-day, the temple missionaries invited us to attend the Natural History Museum with them.  

Manhattan Temple Missionaries-(l to r) Sr. Grimley, Elder Richards, Elder & Sr. Huntington, Sr. Mumford, Pres. & Sister Bench, Sr. Nabors, Sr. Richards, Elder & Sr. Holloway, Elder & Sr. Adams, Sr. and Pres. Bean, Elder & Sr. Young, and Elder Mumford  

We spent the day there, viewing the 3D Imax Theatre production of "Humpback Whales" and the planetarium show "Dark Universe."

Outside the Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History

We visited the new exhibit "Mummies" that just opened and showed various mummies and preservation techniques in Egypt and Peru.  One of the more interesting exhibits was how they were able to use 3D Printing in conjunction with x-ray to build up the facial features from skeletons to show what a teenager and young woman may have looked like from the mummies cranial skeleton.

Before we grabbed a bite to eat in the Natural History Museum Cafeteria, we were favored with a person tour by Elder Rick Huntington, one of the CES-YSA Missionaries who is a gemologist in Las Vegas, Nevada.  He is also a docent in the minerals exhibit area of the museum.  He told of different ways gemstones have been made more valuable and how gemstones are much different from a gemologist point of view than from a geologist's point of view, but it was interesting to note that Mohs scale of hardness is one of the physical properties important in both fields of study.

One of the gems exhibits at the Museum of Natural History, NYC.

We really enjoyed the exhibit on Butterflies.  Going into a warm room where several butterfly types were flying around, or "eating" from oranges, we got some close-up views as butterflies landed on Elder Adams' head and phone as we stood watching their activity.

Butterfly loves smartphones, too!

Butterfly on Golden's head - Nat. Hist. Museum

I have been reading scriptures quite a bit while serving and have had some wonderful experiences. This week I went for a walk through Central Park and I put on my headphones and turned on the Book of Mormon to listen to 2nd Nephi. As I was listening to Lehi talk to each of his children and giving them counsel before he died, I realized in a real way that he was giving counsel to me as though I was one of his children. It put so much more meaning into his counsel and I thought of my parents and what they might have said to me before they died and it created an incredible experience for me. I remember when all my father could do was give me a hug and my mother was able to touch my hair and rub my face. I told her that it was Diane and then I just enjoyed my time alone with each of them just before they passed away.

Over the last year I have had a sister, Jeanette Cherry, that comes into the family history center and just wants to talk. She loves to talk real estate or budgeting with me and she shares all of her dreams of working with attorneys for finder fees or working real estate. I learned that she was homeless and just wanted to get warm and have a friend to talk to. This last week was pretty cold when she came in and she stayed for almost three hours. I was able to work with her in her family history for a while and found a marriage and a death record to help verify her line. It is small but she just wants a family. It has made me so grateful for my family and the love and unity that we have. I hope and pray that we will always be able to give strength to each other. It is what life is all about, strengthening our families and bringing our Savior into our home and everyday activities.

On Thursday, our friends and temple missionaries Brother and Sister Holloway, invited us to Carnegie Hall for a concert that was being put on by students from the Crescenta Valley High School  performing Orchestra and Band groups from California. They had a jazz group perform first and their music was not our favorite but they had amazing music skills. The Orchestra and band groups, when they performed, did an outstanding job and we really enjoyed their performance.

Crescenta Valley High School Band from La Crescenta, California 

2017 Directors Award - Crescenta Valley High School Symphony Orechestra

On Saturday, we took a walking tour of of New York City and how the church became established in this area over the last 150 years. They started off at 9 West and 57th Street where the church planned to create a chapel and a broadcasting facility, but it never worked out.

We then went to Steinway Hall on 109 West and 57th Street where LDS meetings were held in the 1920's. It was not the best situation as when they would hold church services, other individuals would walk through the back of the room that were going to work on dance or art classes and made it difficult for Sunday Services.

Steinway Hall is being replaced with an 87 story building; Pres. Gonzalez Chief Construction Engineer

The old Carnegie Hall was our next stop at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. The church was not liked very much at this time in New York but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed there at several events and helped to break the ice with the Mormons.  In the early 1900s, Church meetings were held here and the music practice rooms were used as classrooms for the Church on Sundays, like they were later at the Music (Carnegie) Hall.

The Music Hall - Andrew Carnegie; Later named Carnegie Hall

The next location that the Church tried hold services in was at the Stillman's Gym that was used mostly for boxing. This is where the first stake (New York Stake) was created in New York City in 1934 and covered several states.

Our last location was in front of Lincoln Center looking across the street to the temple. This area use to be a rough area with a lot of drug problems. Before Lincoln Center was built and the people had been moved out of the slums here, the movie "West Side Story" was filmed here using the buildings as the exterior set.

President Harold B Lee was assigned to come out and try and find a good place for the church location. After taking him all over at some of the more impressive areas of Manhattan East Side, he asked if there were any other sites. He was taken to the Manhattan west side.  He left the group and went off to be alone, walking the site.. He went over to the corner of the property and stood there in meditation for awhile. When he came back he announced that this was the place that the Lord wanted the church to be built.

The first chapel site in Manhattan.  The temple is a retrofit.

At the beginning, the Church made a co-op agreement with a developer and they built the church with the apartment building attached. There was a breeze way in the middle of the project that was declared public land so in order to make things work, the Church has leased it to the American Folk Art Museum for $1.00 a month for twenty years. The chapel existed for several years before President Hinckley came out to find a place to build a temple. The place they originally wanted in Westchester County, further north, received so much contention, that they backed out of the deal. This brought them back to the building they had purchased on 125 Columbus Avenue where they decided to modify the building to facilitate the temple. Because it was a temple, the building had to be totally owned by the Church so the church bought out the developer after much negotiation and in 2006 after putting the Angel Moroni on the temple, the building was dedicated with no major obstacles.  The normal construction problems with permits with NYC that the Church expected never materialized and work commence very smoothly, presumably since the City Commission considered it just another city remodel project.  

We went to church today at Manhattan YSA Ward and during our testimony meeting we had three individuals get up and talk about how they had been touched by the activity that has been going on in their ward regarding family history and the power of prayer. Our hearts were so full because we could see the Find, Take, and Teach program starting to spread like a stone rolling down the mountain. People are beginning to ask for their FH experience and the lead consultant is overwhelmed with the excitement right now. I hope that we can keep it going. It is so exciting!  Since only one of the TFHCs was present, we were asked to teach the Temple and Family History Class in Sunday School today.

The Mid-Singles at Lincoln Square building were all out of town, but we had a great group of LSq YSA consultants today.  Aya Watanabe, the lead TFHC, gave two "Helping Others to Love Family History" experiences in the YSA Relief Society Meeting prior to Women's General Conference last night.  She and one of the consultants who had the experience were very excited about how it went, and their ward sisters are excited to be looking forward to their own experience provided by Sister Watanabe's group. It was fun to work with her in helping her prepare her first two lesson plans prior to the presentation yesterday.

We have been asked to work with some of the TFHCs of Manhattan 2nd and 3rd Wards on Tuesday at the 87th Street Building with a FamilySearch.org orientation prior to the training Susy Yamada will be providing for them in the Find, Take, and Teach process..