Season to Celebrate!

 We had so many reasons to celebrate during the month of April!  Of course, General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the opportunity to hear the words of living prophets always brings great joy and is a wonderful way to start the month.  The Waveny Park YSA Ward that we support celebrated with a little Family Home Evening game of Conference Jeopardy - it really took me back to my seminary-teaching days! 

We celebrated Easter, the celebration of the atonement and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by both of us speaking in church - Neil in the Stamford Ward and me in the Waveny Park YSA Ward.  For the first time in my life, Easter fell on my birthday, and since the YSA Ward was having an Easter Dinner, they added a cake and sang Happy Birthday - a perfect way to celebrate because I got a full Easter dinner without having to cook it all and we had plenty of help to clean up.  After we got home, the Lopez family in our ward called with an urgent request for us come pick something up.  When we got there, they had prepared a little spur-of-the-moment surprise party for me, complete with decorations, delicious food, and mango mousse cake with candles!  I haven't done this much celebrating in years! But the best part of the day was our monthly family phone call when we all get on Zoom and share our recent adventures.  I love and miss my family!

 

We had another opportunity to celebrate with half the missionaries in the NYNYC Mission at a Mission Tour with Elder Allen Haney.  He started by telling the missionaries what a great job they are doing - the highest baptizing mission in the United States!  But then he challenged them to keep doing what they have been doing and add more to it, to keep increasing their goals and bringing even more people to Christ's church.  There's no resting on your laurels in this mission!

The senior couple missionaries also had the opportunity to enjoy dinner and a special fireside with Elder Haney.  He was very personable and came over and visited at our table for a few minutes.  He taught us to be covenant focused as we work with all the new members the missionaries are baptizing, and to set goals based on the Church's key indicators, then gave us counsel on how to accomplish those goals.  

The following Saturday, we were blessed to accompany three new members to the temple for the first time.  Because we went to the Manhattan Temple, the missionaries who baptized these members were able to join us.  It was a very reverent celebration of moving forward on the covenant path.

The Elders and Sisters assigned to our wards were blessed to help three wonderful people take their very first steps on the covenant path through baptism in April.  When we speak of the covenant path, we are referring to all the covenants we make with God during our lives, including baptism and confirmation, the sacrament, and the ordinances and covenants we make in His holy temples.  Our covenants bind us to God and help us receive of His strength and return to His presence.   

 

Jhonny, who was baptized by his son, Jhonny

 

Victor, the first baptism in the YSA ward in the past year 

Marcus, who joyfully celebrated the start of a new life

Neil's sister Lori and her husband Carl came and visited to help us celebrate Neil's birthday.  They explored Fairfield County for a day, then took a road trip to many historical sites before joining us again for three days of sightseeing in New York City.  Highlights included the 9/11 museum, the Empire State Building, and the fantastic production of Camelot at the Lincoln Center.  It was a 3-day celebration!

Possibly our biggest celebration came on the last day of the month in our weekly Sunday night devotional.  The mission's goal for baptisms for the month was 161, but their vision for the month was 200 (which has been Pres. Holmes' vision since he got here). Here are our results for the month:

The chart shows the key indicators for the missionaries, monthly statistics on the top, weekly statistics on the bottom.  Baptisms are a total, the others are averages per companionship per week.   Baptisms = # of people baptized and confirmed; Baptismal Dates = # of people who have accepted a baptism date; Sacrament Meeting Attendance = # of New People who came to church that Sunday; New People = # of people who accepted an invitation to come to church and talk with the missionaries (also called "Finds"); Recent Converts = the number of people baptized in the past year who came to church that week; Members Participating = # of lessons the missionaries taught with a member present for at least part of the lesson.  If you multiply it out by 100 companionships and 5 weeks (April was a 5-Sunday month), you can see that the missionaries had to get 2,380 people to commit to come to church in order to take 200 to the waters of baptism.  They are worth celebrating!  🎉🥳😄  But even more worth celebrating are the 200 people who changed their lives by coming to Christ.  This work is the best!