November 2014

November is time for being thankful, and we are certainly thankful for our mission and missionaries. The NYNYN has  been blessed this month with new missionaries coming, faithful missionaries returning home, many many lessons taught, and we saw some wonderful people join the church.
We attended the American Jewish Council Westchester / Fairfield Interreligious Thanksgiving Diversity Breakfast.  We loved talking with many people of different faiths who are working together to build stronger relationships of goodness together. Mr. Cliff Wolf is with the American Jewish Council.

We were thrilled when President Richard and Sister Jill Smith called us and wanted to come visit the mission home. They served here in the NYNYN right before us. It was wonderful to see them and talk about how the mission has changed in the last 2 1/2 years.

We are so thankful for President Greg and Sister Jill Freihofner, Greg is the first counselor in the Mission Presidency and they have become our wonderful friends.

We have been so blessed to have the McNairy's serving for the last 2 years. They began their service in the Bronx and then moved up to Monticello, NY as an MLS couple. Their presence in our mission will be greatly missed.

We had a reverse transfer this month as we had our returning missionaries leave on Monday before Thanksgiving so that they could spend the holiday with their families. Elder Wang and Elder Garibay have been wonderful missionaries. Sisters Hansen, Barker, Oluwalana, Toone, and Westlund have served so faithfully. Each one will be missed. We love them and are so grateful for their service.

Elder Wang 1 (as we call him)

Elder Jesus (Cowboy) Garibay

Sister Westlund's mom came to get here and spend Thanksgiving in NYC

We are forever grateful for our assistants. Each young man has brought us so much happiness. We love to work together, serve together and laugh together.

Elders Staheli and Coleman

A true missionary lunch!!

On November 25, 2014 we welcomed 10 new missionaries. Sister Garn, Sister Gardner, Sister Moe, Sister Torres, Elder Maxwell, Elder Essler, Elder Michia, Elder . Elder Casper DeGraw, Elder Wulff.

We love our little Westchester County Airport

Here we go!

We are thankful to be in New York and we are so grateful to serve together.

Each new missionary brings a renewed excitement to our mission.

 

We are blessed to welcome Elder Karch Smith as a new Assistant to President Morgan. He is a happy and dedicated young man.

We are so thankful for Elder and Sister Hunt. They have been called to serve in the office and are such a great addition to our mission team.

November 2014 Zone Conferences

We had a GREAT round of Zone Conferences in November. Sister Morgan asked the question, "Do you know the shepherd?" President Morgan was able to answer dozens of questions that missionaries always have like..."What is the real mission rule on music?" "How come mission life is so hard?" "When do I know that I really feel the spirit?"  President Morgan always knows how to address everything in a very loving, kind way.
After our morning session, we divided the missionaries into different groups of 8, and we gave them 45 mins. to script a video on, "Why do I believe?" They ate lunch in their groups and then ran off to make a video. The missionaries had to do 4 things in each video.
#1 Include everyone in your group
#2 Use 3 scriptures
#3 Use the theme in your video
#4 Have fun!
After an hour, everyone came back to the cultural hall for popcorn and sodas and we watched each movie. This was such a positive activity. It was wonderful to watch missionaries work together with a common goal in mind. They met new people in the mission and recognized each others strengths. They were very creative. They began with a prayer, made a plan, had a purpose, had an end goal in sight and accomplished their goals. Sounds a lot like every day missionary life!! It was a huge success.
We are ever grateful for these amazing Elders and Sisters, young and old, who bless the NYNYN every day!

Juan Pina from the Bronx loves to be around the missionaries. He loves zone conferences and we  love him!!