Welcome to the NYNYC Mission!

 Welcome to the New York New York City Mission!

We arrived at the address in Norfolk we'd been given and had to do a double-take - it's a beautiful townhome!  The senior missionary couple in charge of housing did a wonderful job of furnishing and decorating it, and met us there with a pair of missionaries from our ward to help move in the things we brought.  A few trips to Walmart and an Amazon order, and we're ready to go! We have really enjoyed walking around our neighborhood and driving all over Fairfield County - it's going to be so beautiful once the leaves are out on the trees!

We've been in the mission for ten days now and we have yet to get down to New York City.  But we have met with the Bishop and the Elders Quorum president, had dinner with the stake president and his family, Zoomed with the mission president and his wife, attended district meeting and Ward Missionary Council with the local missionaries, introduced ourselves at church, attended a baptism, and participated in two mission-wide Zoom devotionals.  Neil has been called to serve as the Elders Quorum secretary, I've been asked to teach the Relief Society lesson, and we've both been asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday.  We did have a bit of a surprise when we met the Bishop and found out that our ward is actually 75% Spanish speaking!  Thankfully they have several who are very proficient translators, but we've accepted the challenge to learn Spanish so we can be of more use to the ward members and leaders.  And we've definitely learned to expect the unexpected!