March 2014

The old saying goes, "When March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb.", unless you live in New York this winter. March came in like a lion and out like a lion. Snow, rain, cold winds are still the story; but the promise of spring is coming! The last little bit of snow finally melted in our front yard just today! It's been a good month besides the cold weather. Our lives are full of warm blessings! Sister Burton said at the recent Woman's Conference, "Hands to help and hearts to hope. Offer your willing heart and your helpful hand." This is what we try to do every day in the NYNYN mission!
The transfer this month brought us 14 new missionaries and the return of Sister Oluwalana back from home after her leg healed. We are thrilled to have her back!

It's always such a blessing to see these new faces arrive, tired, excited and ready to go.

Elder Beardall, Elder Thatcher, Elder Smith, Elder Murphy, Elder Bellon, Elder Ross, Elder Gore, Elder Barberan, Sister Brown, Sister Bush, Sister Burley, Sister Grigg, Sister Oluwalana, Sister Larson, Sister Fansler.

We had a new assistant called this month. Elder Taylor will be joining Elder Kerr as an assistant. He will be great!

Elder Passmore will finish his mission speaking Spanish in Harlem.

 Transfer meetings are always such a wonderful time for the Elders and Sisters to see each other, sustain new leaders in their specific callings, and say good-bye to those who are leaving. We all sing the hymn, "Each Life That Touches Ours For Good" to the departing missionaries.

Eight terrific young men returned home this transfer and Sister Khong. Each Elder and Sister Khong have been fantastic, hard working missionaries! We love them and will miss them.

Sister Khong, Elder Kiyama, Elder Hall, Elder Aguilar, Elder Hurtado, Elder Fragiacomo, Elder Plouzek, Elder Davenport, Elder Rutland

9 headed home on a cold and dark March morning.

Sister Khong was able to have her parents from Singapore come and get her. She has a brother in DC and a sister in California that they will all visit. What a joyful reunion for their family after 18 months!

Saying good-bye to Sister Khong

We were able to take two of our wonderful sister missionaries to dinner before Woman's Conference

Sister Dunn and Sister Skinner at Sylvia's Soul Food in Harlem

We were also thrilled when Sister Palmer got her cast off after she broke her wrist 6 weeks ago!

We are always so grateful for our assistants. They are terrific young men and great leaders in the mission.

Elder Kerr, Elder Taylor, President Morgan and pavlova!!

We said good-bye to 2 of our amazing couples. The Browns have been serving in Olmstead and the Blairs have been serving in China Town. We love our couples. They are dedicated, loving people, who serve faithfully.

Elder and Sister Brown will be moving back home to Idaho

Elder and Sister Blair are headed home to Sandy, Utah

The Browns, The Finlaysons, and the Blairs

February 2014

We are having the coldest winter ever! February brought the "Polar Vortex" to New York. We have had snow, rain, snow, freezing rain, snow, lightening and thunder, snow, negative wind chill temperatures, snow, sun, and more snow! It's crazy! But the work goes on and our missionaries have braved the cold every day! We love them and are proud of their great attitudes and warm hearts!

Shoveling snow on Valentines Day

Don't think the snow will ever melt!

We welcomed a new couple to West Point. Elder and Sister Lotz will be serving as Military Relation missionaries. We are so glad they are here.

We also had Sister Blaser and Sister Callaway come to serve in the Employment Center in Manhattan.

Sister Leslie and Sister Laycock left us to return home to American Fork Utah. They have been such a blessing serving in Goshen with the name extraction program.

Sister Pead serves in the Employment Center, Sister Laycock and Sister Leslie before they left to go home. Sister Blaser and Sister Callaway

We had 13 new missionaries join us this month. So glad they are here.

The Finlayson's are a little bit excited. Their grandson, Elder Miller has been re-assigned to our mission.

We are always so blessed to have President Greg and Sister Jill Freihofner and President Dave and Sister Maryelen Brown join us for dinner

Sister Aleccia, Sister Ng, Sister Groberg, Sister Hall, Sister Smoot, Sister Boseman, Sister Ramirez, Elder Gagnon, Elder Johanson, Elder Long, Elder Ficklin, Elder Miller, Elder Shurtleff

What a blessing it is to have Elder Ficklin back with us. We missed him and we are so grateful for his return.

The new missionaries arrived in between storms. Tuesday night the snow came and stopped our transfer meeting. We quickly put the Elders to work shoveling the driveway, then arranged rides for all 13 to head out to their new areas. We had 13 missionaries going home and had to have them get rides to the mission home to be able to leave. It snowed most of the day on Wednesday and then cleared up so that they could all fly home to their families.

These missionaries that went home have been awesome. We will miss every one of them.

Elder Heywood, Elder Gonzales, Elder Barnard, Elder Hernandez, Elder Vazquez, Elder Ordaz, Elder Picoli, Elder Matthews, Sister Richardson, Sister Lancaster, Sister McCurdy, Sister Parkin, Sister Keanini

Return with Honor

Elder Picoli and Sister Richardson's parents came to pick them up at the mission home. It was so exciting to watch out the window and wait for each family to come. Their reunions were so sweet! We don't get to see this part of their homecomings and it was a treat to be a part of them.

Brother and Sister Piccoli with their cute son.

Sister Richardson's parents

Our mission was invited to bring 12 international missionaries to the UN for a Focus on Faith Series meeting. It was great to be a part of the discussion on the World Wide Humanitarian Service that the church offers. We have so many wonderful missionaries from all around the world and it was a privledge to take them to the UN for the morning.

Elder Passmore and Elder Kerr from the USA

We have missionaries from Mexico, Spain, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, Tanzania, Kazastan, Italy, Brazil, Japan, Philippines, and the USA

It's been a very busy month. We also had Mission Leadership Council, New Trainer Meeting, New Missionary Training, Sisters Conference and Zone Conferences. We are now up to 272 missionaries in total. What a blessing it is to serve with each one of them!