23 April 2017

On the 13th Diane had the opportunity of attending a panel discussion at the UN entitled "Focus On Faith. They had five or six representatives from various faiths give presentations on what they were doing to help the refuge problems. Sister Jean Bingham, Relief Society General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints was asked to be one of the members of the panel and so we were all asked to go and support her so that we would have enough attend that it would tell the UN they it would be good to have more discussions on this subject.

Entrance to the United Nations Building

Sister and Dr. Martinez. They took Diane so she would not be alone.

Diane and Sister Martinez just inside the United Nations entrance.

Sister Bingham represented the Church very well and several people mentioned just how much they were impressed on the amount of refugee relief the church had done. They indicated how the church was always one of the first responders in most disasters throughout the world and how well organized and efficient they were.

Sister Jean Bingham giving her presentation on the Church Refugee Activities

 Inside Room 4 where the Panel Discussion took place.

Here are some pictures taken at Grand Central Station on the way home from the UN.

Front entrance to Grand Central Station

One of the main hallways located inside Grand Central Station

 
Grand Central Terminal is a commuter, rapid transit railroad terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan., New York City.

Grand Central Terminal has remained the busiest train station in the country.
People from all over come to visit, shop and take a public tour.

Grand Central Station New York Terminal  has some of the constel-lations in lights on the ceiling (left).  On the right, the grand hall at mid-day when very little activity was taking place

Grand Central Station escalators just inside the front entrance

Hallway next to the escalators (on the right)

Easter Sunday Brunch after meetings at Manhattan YSA

On Easter Sunday, we attended meetings at the 87th street chapel with the Manhattan YSA ward. On Easter, the YSA ward had a wonderful musical program with talks focused on the resurrection. We had planned to train temple and family history consultants on that day, but the family history center was closed as the Manhattan 2nd and 3rd wards had a shortened schedule so Susie Yamada, who normally opens it for us, didn't think we would be there due to Easter.  One of the ward Temple and Family History Consultants that we have been training is shown below.  Diane prepared and gave her a "Helping Others to Love Family History" experience.

Jocelyn Shaver (right) with one of her YSA friends

On Monday the 17th, we had the opportunity of visiting the Cloister Museum located near our old ward building in Inwood. Diane chose to walk up the path and Golden rode the bus up because of his bad hip. The tour was over an hour but very interesting. Most of the artifacts were from the 1100's and the museum was built with materials and in the style of a monastery or cloisters used by the monks many years ago.

The Cloisters is part of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

Our tour guide was very informative.

Some of our temple missionaries just before the garden area

After the tour, Brother and Sister Harris, President and Sister Bench and ourselves went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was delicious and the service was wonderful. We had not been able to find a Mexican restaurant that was like those in Utah so it really filled our longing for Cafe Rio or Costa Vida in Utah. To make it even more of a wonderful experience, President and Sister Bench paid for the whole meal without us knowing it.

Sister Dorothy Bench and President Mark Bench, Manhattan Temple President and Matron

Rockefeller Center Plaza

During the week, on the way home from Diane's getting an MRI, we stopped by the Rockefeller Center were Golden posed above the ice rink and in front of the golden globe.  We also took a bit of time this week to stroll through Central Park and walked around Shepherd's meadow where many people were enjoying the day.  Our apartment is only a block from Central Park on the West Side. It is really enjoyable to be able to get out after not doing so for most of the winter.