A Week in the Life
We aren't really sure what a typical week will look like for us since we've only been here four weeks - but if it's anything like last week, we know we'll never be bored! Here's a look at it:
Sunday was Easter and we were happy to get to sleep in a little because we didn't have Ward Council before church. Sacrament Meeting was sweet, especially since our Ward Mission Leader spoke about his conversion and the blessings the gospel has brought to his life. Neil and I even tried singing the hymns in Spanish! After the meeting, a woman came up to me and, in tears, told me that she was so glad we were there because we (as senior missionaries) brought a special light into the ward. That made my day! We had an hour-long meeting with the bishopric and the missionaries after church, but we still made it home in time for me to prepare our Easter dinner. We invited both the Elders and the Sisters assigned to our ward because we are only allowed to feed them on holidays. We also invited a recently baptized young man who had just moved into our ward with his 5-year-old daughter, and he invited his daughter's mother. It was like Easter at home with our family! We all gathered in the living room after our meal for a spiritual discussion about the Savior and His atonement and resurrection, which led to Neil inviting the mother to be taught by the missionaries. How powerful is the message, "He lives!" Although we missed our children and their families, it was a wonderful Easter.
Monday started out quiet enough - just the usual hour of personal study (including Spanish) and hour of companionship study and planning - until I decided it might be helpful to go to a seminary class before I start teaching on Wednesday. I called my partner teacher to set it up and found out his family has been exposed to COVID so they are self-isolating and he thought I had taught today! It turns out that the bishop taught today and canceled the class for tomorrow, so I will teach Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday... until the end of the school year. I also made a peach cobbler large enough to feed 20 missionaries for tomorrow's zone conference.
Tuesday we had Zone Conference in New Rochelle for about 70 missionaries. It was our second time driving into New York City, so it wasn't quite as scary. This was a wonderful day of being taught by our mission president, his wife, and his young missionary assistants. I loved mingling with them and feeling their spirit and enthusiasm for the gospel. It's such a testimony to me to see the future of the Church in such capable hands. We helped serve lunch, mended clothes, pass out mail, and clean up when it was all over. It was late by the time we got home, but a very rewarding day.
Wednesday we drove to the church at 5:15 a.m. for Seminary at 5:45 (which went pretty well for the first day); again at 10:30 for District Council with the Zone Leaders at 11:00; and once more at 7:00 p.m. for Ward Missionary Council at 7:30 - good thing we get good gas mileage! In-between, we did our studying, prepped for tomorrow's Seminary, and tried to stay awake! And I got some kind of virus on my computer.
Thursday started early with teaching Seminary and ended late with teaching a lesson with the sister missionaries to the woman who was in our home on Sunday. The sisters taught powerfully about Christ's church, the apostacy, and the restoration of Christ's church and have scheduled another lesson. But Satan doesn't let such good things go unnoticed; in between, we had a little fender-bender while taking my computer to Staples for a clean-up. The good news is, no one was hurt and the damage was minimal and my computer is now back to normal - take that, Satan!
Friday was my first time teaching seminary via Zoom - which wasn't too bad once I got my screen share to work. Shortly after seminary, we had to leave to take one of the sister missionaries to the airport. Yes, we actually navigated our way to, through, and back from La Guardia Airport without getting lost! After spending almost two hours at a bank trying to tie up some loose ends from Merced, we finally had a quiet afternoon. Which was good because...
Saturday I had a Relief Society yoga activity in the morning before we drove back into NYC for a senior couples outing to Central Park. We met at a chapel in Queens (free parking!) and took the subway into the city. We started at Columbus Circle where our volunteer tour guide showed us several landmark buildings and explained how the streets are laid out.
We then entered the park and it was amazing how quiet it suddenly became. The grass was green, there were flowering trees everywhere, and it just felt fresh. We spent the whole afternoon walking through the park while our guide explained the history and significance of each area. There were 12 missionary couples in our group, so we turned quite a few heads - there is power in these badges we wear. These are all really sincere and fun people and it made for a wonderful afternoon.
After we were all sufficiently worn out, we took the subway to John’s Pizza off-Broadway – apparently, it’s pretty famous. And it was so cool to see the venues for real Broadway shows – Phantom of the Opera was right across the street from us! After eating our New York-style pizza, we walked to the end of the block and there was Times Square! So amazing! And so glad we had a guide to get us through to the subway station and back safely to the chapel. We only made one wrong turn getting on the freeway and then we made it home safe and sound.
How cool! I'm so impressed!
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