18 December 2016 - MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

18 December 2016

Christmas in New York has brought out many friends and activities that has kept us rather busy this last week and we have had the opportunity of seeing new things and places. One of my goals was to take a walk down 5th Avenue to visit Macey's Department Store. It covers a complete square block with nine floors to see. We walked inside to see what it was like and the decorations were beautiful.

Golden across the street from Macey's Department Store

Front entrance to Macey's Department Store 

This is the Wish view of the revolving display

Diane in front hall of Macey's Department Store

Ceiling decorations in the hall and the display between the two escalators going up and down

Golden in front of Macey's Department Store

Christmas tree display up on the 9th floor

The window displays are like taking a walk through Disneyland with their quality and animation. Here are some images from their windows.

Diane in front of the Pinball display. You could actually play pinball from outside the window

Golden in from of the Window with the character seeing Santa

Book display of kids reading and hearing Christmas stories

Child's imagination with reading a book

 Not far from Macey's Department Store is Saks Department store. This is also a very popular store on 5th Avenue in New York. Here are some of their displays.

This is the light display outside of Saks Department Store that kept changing

 These following pictures are of the windows from Saks Departrment Store helping to promote the Nutcracker Ballet being shown in New York.

Scenes from the Nutcracker Ballet being featured here in New York

Scenes from the Nutcracker Ballet being featured here in New York

Scene from the Nutcracker Ballet being featured here in New York

Scene from the Nutcracker Ballet being featured here in New York

 Nutcracker Ballet being featured here in New York

 These next pictures are of the famous Christmas tree that it put up in Rockefeller Center. In order for them to get the tree in they after to cut off all of the branches before loading it on to the truck. Then they build scaffolding around the tree and drill holes to put the limbs back onto the tree after it is standing. It is a beautiful tree to see.

Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center - Diane and Golden

On December 16th, the New York New York Mission Christmas Devotional was held in Ossing, New York ad the Yorktown Ward.  President David Smith and Sister Smith's family had memorized "The Living Christ - Testimony of The Apostles" and presented it. Selected missionaries also gave a personal story from their lives and bore testimony of the Savior.  Afterwards, we had a very delicious Christmas Dinner, served by the Senior Missionaries.

Arriving early, we helped the Elders and Sisters prepare the cultural hall for the missionaries.

Ham, Green Beans, Potatoes, and Pie were served to the Elders and Sisters by the Senior Missionaries.

Elders and Sisters of The Best Mission enjoy Christmas Dinner and Celebrating together.

Sister Missionaries in front of Family History Center with Elders preparing the Christmas Initiative Campaign "Light The World - Serving in 25 Ways Over 25 Days.

These are the Elders that come and stand outside the Family History Center showing the Christmas campaign "Light The World" - Service in 25 Ways over 25 Days. "Jesus read the scriptures AND SO CAN YOU!

These are members of the Blind School that came around and did some Christmas Caroling. The Public Affairs Missionaries were giving out hot chocolate in support of their activity and everyone really enjoyed it.

There are always Security Guards just outside of the Family History Center that have become good friends to us.

This is Albert, one of our steady ones who is always there when we are

With all of the fun things that we have been able to enjoy here in New York, my most cherished memories will be of all your love and Christmas wishes. After working with so many people that do not have families, I have truly come to appreciate the great family that I have. Everyone is so special to us in their own way and I want all of you to know just how much I love and appreciate each one.

Here are the Christmas wishes that I have been able to get pictures of. Some of the pictures I have not been able to figure out how to get, but I will.

This is a Nativity picture that Melanie Made in Relief Society and sent to us for our Apartment.

This is a picture of left to right Melanie, Enoch, age 3, Jocie, age 1, and Daniel

These next pictures are  from Aaron and Lori's Family. I can't believe how everyone is changing so much.

 Cameron, age 11

Zach, age 9

Katelyn and Camille, age 1

 This is a book that they sent with a story from Russell M. Nelson along with some notes from the family.

Garrett, age 6

Aaron and Lori's family from left to right Zach, Cameron, Lori, Katelyn, Cameron, Aaron and Camille

Here are pictures from Paul and Jenny's family in Wyoming.

Jenny with Ammon singing into some music box they got for Christmas

Riley Ashlynn, Ammon, Jenny, and Kyler singing

Paul and Jenny's family left Riley, Ammon, Paul, Kyler, Ashlynn, and Jenny

Here is a PaulMark original:

These others are letters and pictures from Jenny and each of their children.

I love Christmas and the cards and pictures have meant so much to me in bringing the Spirit of Christmas into our little apartment. The testimonies shared and the thoughts that were sent from the ward back home were so special and my heart was filled with the love and gratitude even though I do not know many of them now since they changed the ward boundaries. It is amazing to me how love can touch a life when the people have never met. I give my gratitude to those that took the time to share a little something with us.

These are some of the thoughts and cards that will be a special part of my life and memories as I continue to serve our mission here in New York.

Joyce and Will Inlow

Lana Parker

Nicholas, age 5

Rick and Jody Adams

Ryan Rhodes my grandson

This is the season to celebrate and remember the greatest life that ever came to this earth, our Savior Jesus Christ. So as part of my gift to the Savior, I will leave the message that he has entrusted to me as I bear his name while serving this mission. The message is that families are forever and they are a major part of our Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness. He wants everyone to help gather Israel through missionary work and through Family History. The gathering of Israel is real. It is moving forward in ways that are staggering. As the programmers up in Salt Lake have stated, "The Lord is  hastening his work and we are just trying to keep up with him." This work is a miracle that is happening every day and what a joy it has been to be a part it.

11 December 2016

Well another week has gone by and life and its challenges are great to learn by. I think my best experiences this week was with Pedro. He is a patron that comes in each week to have help with his family history. The problem is that he does not listen to much about how to do it properly but wants to tell us his story of how he came about finding a record and then trying to figure out how he is related to the people in that document.

The other missionaries in the center have pretty much written him off and refuse to work with him any more. They tell him that he already knows what to do and they are there to just teach the how to's of Family Search and then he was to do it on his own. 

When I was working at the Family History Library in Salt Lake three years ago I remember how difficult it was for several months because of no training and lack of confidence. I went to a class and the trainer made one comment that I have never forgotten and I decided that I would treat Pedro with this counsel. It was that some patrons come to the center but they really don't know why. She said to live by the spirit and it will direct you what to say and do and things will always work out.

From what I was picking up with Pedro, he just wanted someone to talk to and to listen to his story about finding his family. As I watched him, I found that he knew FamilyTree pretty well. I also knew that he was always very willing to help translate in Spanish when we needed it. I decided to ask Pedro if he would be interested in being a volunteer at the center to help us with translation. I told him that he knew FamilyTree well enough but that he just lacked confidence in flying his wings. He smiled and said that he would be happy to learn how to be a consultant with the patrons. His whole demeanor changed and he had a purpose to look forward to and felt needed and accepted.

When the other missionaries came in to relieve us, Pedro immediately said that he would go home now and stayed away from them as much as possible. It was really sad. I hope that he can become a really good asset for us as we do not have any spanish translators and I really like Pedro and maybe the other missionaries will begin to enjoy him.

When Pedro came back the next week, he started off the way he usually does by saying "let me show you something ok." He then tells how he found this record and thinks that it is his relative somehow, then he says "what do you think, or what should I do now." So, I started my first lesson. I asked him to show me where he thought that the record might belong in his family. When he showed me I asked him if the people in the document, born in 1848 could be descendents of the family of children all born in the 1840's and he could see that it would be impossible for them to be descendents. I then asked him if he could see if it were possible for them to fit into the earlier generation and they would not fit in that family either. His conclusion was that they were not his family.

I then suggested to Pedro that he had two options: One was to disregard the source and go to another one or two, he could create a family with the information on the source and then attach the source to that family and all the generations that were listed on the document. When we were through he had created three generations of a family and had attached the document to each member so that the family would never be split because of the proof he had attached. He was happy and wanted to do more. 

I think after a few weeks in doing this process with him, he will know how to analyze documents, create families with them, and then document the family. I told him that somewhere, someone was going to love him for the work he was doing and he gave me a big smile. I hope that I can change the attitude of the other missionaries as he gains his skills and confidence in family history. This process is also helping me get my confidence.

I took some pictures of our everyday life at the family history center.  I took pictures of the missionaries that come everyday and stand on the street and invite people to come in and take a tour of the art gallery we have covering stories from the Book of Mormon. These pictures are beautiful and all original. The artist lives in the stake here and has agreed to keep them on display for two years. 

Albert, our Security Guard just outside the FHC

Missionaries outside of the FHC and Temple 

The the church's building, they have security guards on duty at all times. This is the post just outside of the Family History Center.

Public Affairs Missionaries supporting the Blind School Christmas Carolers

Blind School Christmas Caroling outside the Temple and FHC

Golden in front of the Trump Tower

Police Cars surrounding the Trump Tower where President Elect Trump stayed during the election night.

27 November 2016

[Melanie] True to form, part of every family get together inevitably includes some discussion or action that takes us down memory lane. Well, Dad (true to form) fell asleep on the couch for his mid-day nap. Mom and I had just finished a lovely conversation and talk was turning to what to make for lunch. I saw Dad on the couch and knew his nap would be coming to a close soon, and I just couldn't resist. I ran to the bathroom and got a dollop of shaving cream on my finger. I transferred it onto his hand and began to gently tickle the hairs of his nose. I nearly snorted with laughter at the thought of what was about to happen - almost waking him and ruining the whole event - but I gathered my wits about me and tickled a little more deliberately. Sure enough, the shaving cream hand raised to his face to address the tickle and smeared the cream all over his glasses and nose.

Sleeping Goliath

"That Don't Be Funny!"

Mom and I were in tears with laughter at the sight. Dad even got a laugh, though he said, "that don't be funny!" We all begged to differ.

[Golden] "What a way to wake up!"  I had no idea that the tickle of the nose was reminiscent of my son Aaron's prank.  And then I had the mess to clean up, as well.  When one is awakened from such a sound nap, the realization doesn't sink in for a time.  Deja vu.  Some things just don't seem to change...whether in Utah or in New York City.  Oh, the memories!

4 December 2016

Melanie and Daniel and their family, Enoch and Jocie, arrived at NY Penn Station on November 21st from Bedford, Virginia where they live.  To make this a special Thanksgiving week, they came to spend the week with us and since the Family History Center was closed all week except Tuesday it gave us time to spend together.  It was also a welcome break from the regular day-to-day activities in Virginia and the kids did well traveling the Amtrak Crescent.

It was a challenge to share our tiny NYC apartment with them.  Thanks to inflatable mattresses on loan from some of our missionary senior couples who had come with cars so they could transport more than we who traveled to the mission by plane, we had accommodations that took up the entire living room/dining room floor.

We visited the Manhattan Children's Museum one afternoon and Enoch and Jocie really enjoyed the time there.

Enoch in the "Oval Office"-Manhattan Child's Museum

Enoch and Melanie in the "Dollar Bill" display-Children's Museum

 

Melanie and Jocie next to the VW Bus Display - Manhattan Child's Museum

Daniel and Melanie were able to watch a Broadway Show "Fiddler on the Roof" and walk through Times Square.  Not knowing that characters use the photo shoots as a way to generate income and being "harassed" to have their photos taken (they use the tourists' camera and ask $10 for the privilege of a photo), Spiderman kept asking to have his picture taken with them.  So they did, and when he asked for money they hadn't taken any with them but they already had the photo.

Spiderman and Daniel

Spiderman and Melanie

Melanie & Daniel Jean at Times Square NYC

Daniel and Melanie were able to visit the Manhattan Temple while they were here and we did the babysitting.  But one of the highlights enjoyed was the 90th annual Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving Day.  Thanks to the temple missionaries who hauled 30+ chairs and set them up on the corner of 66th Street and West Central Park and our being able to help watch the area, we were able to enjoy front row views of the parade.  And the clowns had a hay-day "dripping" confetti on Enoch and Jocie.

Early Thanksgiving Morning Awaiting Macy's Parade

Thomas the Train - Balloon

What is a Parade without a Marching Band?

Famous Tony Bennett, Singer - age 90 in the Macy's 90th Year Parade

In keeping with our regular family Thanksgiving traditions, Thanksgiving day was a time to prepare for a great meal.  Daniel fixed duck with all the trimmings, and the grandkids had fun helping create oreo cookie-candy corn turkeys and cut out sugar cookies.

Oreo Cookie - Candy Corn Turkey

Jocie, Melanie with sugar cookies, Enoch with "turkey".

Sister Adams (Diane) and Enoch fully engrossed in the process.

The Jean family took a day and went to see the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, but the tours were booked so they opted for a Ferry Tour and were able to see many of the sights of the City from waterways, which turned out to be a great opportunity for them to see NYC.

Before they left to go back home, Melanie wanted us to have a tree, so Diane went to Lowes and purchased a live tree grown at a tree farm in New Jersey.  Then Melanie and Diane with "help" from Enoch and Jocie made decorations and a paper chain.  Family members' photos were put on cardstock to adorn the tree and Melanie designed a 3 D Star for the top.

Our 'REAL' First "Homemade" Christmas Tree in NYC

Since it was Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to attend church in the Lincoln Square building where we live, the temple and FHC being part of the building, rather than our assigned ward Uptown at Inwood 1st Ward.

On Sunday afternoon, we walked through part of Central Park with Melanie and the kids to Belvedere Tower [Castle] the highest elevation of the park.

Jocie, Melanie, and Enoch at Central Park Boating Club

Enoch, Jocie, and Melanie atop one of the many gneiss rocks in Central Park, NYC

Adjacent to Belvedere Castle, New York Central Park 

Belvedere Tower, Papa, Enoch, Melanie, Jocie

Enoch at the inscription of Beveldere Tower, highest elevation in Central Park

Monday afternoon, Melanie and her family returned back to Virginia via Amtrak (about a 7 hour ride).

Tuesday evening, Diane served at the FHC but things were so quiet that no patrons came.  Because I had the 24 hr. flu and had been down all day, I stayed in the apartment.  Linda Martinez, the wife of our Area Medical Advisor, serving here with 6 Stakes helped in the Center.  This gave Diane the opportunity to help Linda with some of her family history and clear up questions and problems that she had with her family.  They are from Kentucky and Linda is a convert, but she was afraid that the entire section of her family history in question would have to be started from scratch.  However, they were able to fix many of the problem areas.  It is so interesting to see how the Lord works and how He guides the work.

Tuesday, Diane decided to focus on how she could do one good deed each day for the 25 days preceding Christmas - Light the World Campaign.  So today she worked with Edgar Herrera who is homeless but spends time at the temple helping with baptisms and he occasionally comes into the Center for help in charging his phone.  I check his email for him as he is trying to get help in retrieving his house in Guatemala and is promised emails from attorneys that that never come.

This week really seemed to be one of the busier ones as we served at the FHC.  We had microfilm room challenges, sent back three boxes of microfilms that had been ordered by patrons and were due for return, and quite a few people coming at the same time.  It is a challenge when I need to work with a patron with family tree problems that require a lot of concentration and Diane gets several others that all come in at once.

 On Friday, I worked with a patron who came in having a question about a common ancestor she had found in her free account at My Heritage (no idea who had submitted it).  Inspiration came to find the ancestor in the Institutional account we have at FHC and see if we could follow descendants in reverse of what we usually do in tracing ancestry back in time.  In a very short time, she added the information to her Family Tree and when we added the surname of the person who had the tree in My heritage to a marriage of one of her relatives, FamlySearch populated the entire family.  She exclaimed that it was miraculous for that to happen.  I just love when the Spirit is doing the directing!

On Saturday, It was a crazy busy day.  Among others, Diane worked with a black man who wanted to tell her his history of being in prison and trying to find information.  I worked with a member whose parents were members (as was she) born in Domican Republic.  When we finally got into her account, there was quite a bit of clean-up and merging of dupicate and adding other information.  She had come in just to print two Family Ordinance Cards for an aunt and another family member.

Ana Mercedes Hernandez had a copy of the baptism and confirmation record of her mother, Natalia but that information was not in FamilySearch.  Her father's work had been done in 1998 shortly after his death in Washington DC but she also had a family group (in Spanish) that was used to do some temple for her mother in 2001 for both her parents, as well as for a brother who had died.  But the information didn't match what was on her Family Tree in FamilySearch.

In calling a Support Missionary, we found that scans of these needed to be uploaded to memories and attach to her mother's detail page along with the information we gave to clear up the records.  But we weren't able to do it from the scans she had on her iPad.  Thankfully, her daughter Anatalia (13 years old) had her cell phone and took photos of the document and we uploaded the certificate from the mother's iPad.  All these were attached to Ana's mother's page so the Support Missionary could create a case.  We also requested approval from permission request for her to do an aunt's temple work given by her mother, the aunt's sister.

I love the way the younger people can maneuver around with today's technology!

Saturday evening, New York Stake (the 15 units on the island of Manhattan) presented a Christmas Concert "Carols on Columbus", an annual tradition here.  It was a great way to begin the holiday season and focus on the Savior of the World, as well as some of the more traditional music.  President Buckner, stake president spoke and bore his testimony to end a very full day and week of service.