Yankee's

Sights from New Jersey

The beauty of this area never ever ceases to amaze us!  Everywhere we go, we have the camera in hand.  Yesterday, as we were coming home we decided to take a new road and found the Davidson Mill Pond that is only a couple of miles from where we live.  We never knew it was there!  There are beauties of the earth hidden all over this state!  I have seen reflection pictures and when we were driving by, we knew we had to stop and get a picture.

The explosion of blossoms has passed, but, that doesn't mean that there are not still some latecomers.  These two flower bushes are here in our apartment complex. If anyone knows what they are called, please let us know. Heavenly Father is very creative! Look at the wonderfully unique details in these flowers.

A week ago when we planned an early class in Union City (due to a wedding) we were able to get some pictures of the New York skyline as the sun was going down.  The church in Union City is only a couple of miles from where we took these pictures.

We would much rather be looking at the city from afar though, than be in the city.

 Yankee's Game

For our CES outing this month we went to a Yankees Game.  It was actually Memorial Day when we attended.  It seemed like it was an extra long ride on the subway to get to the stadium.  As we were on one subway we were entertained by these great singers singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

It is common in the city, whether you are on a subway train or in the subway station or in Central Park or wherever, to see some entertainment and then the performers expect to receive tips, especially if you have taken their picture.  On another train that day some young men did some acrobatic moves using the bars.

In order to get into the complete spirit of going to a Yankee's game, we stopped before going into the stadium and bought a T-shirt. Elder Hancock bought a  Yankee's hat from someone in the subway after we got off.

 Of course, you have to have a hot dog . . .

And yes, we did "root, root, root for the home team."  They gave us quite a show!  We saw five home runs, and the ending score that day was 14 to 1.  They were playing the Kansas City Royals.

Here is a picture of our group.
(L to R) Sis. Young, Sis. Toy, Elder Pittson, Sis. Pittson, Elder Stroud, Shaz Kramer, Sis. Stroud, Sis. Hancock, Elder Hancock, Bro. Bean

Temple with YSAs

The highlight of these last two weeks, was being able to go to the temple with Issamar Burdie and Glayds Sarabia to get their endowments.  Both of these young ladies have mission calls and will be reporting to the MTC early in July.  They are both excited and prepared for their missions.

Issamar, Hancocks, Glayds

Hermano y hermana Sarabia, Gladys, Hermana Perez, Issamar, Stephanie Perez, Hermana Moreno, ?

In the same ward, New Brunswick Ward, there are two young men that recently received their mission calls also.  There is lots of excitement for missionary work right now in the ward.  The Sarabias have a son out in the mission field, so Gladys and her brother will not see each other for three years.  Stephanie Perez (in the pink skirt) just returned from her mission to Oregon.  I will get a picture of the four young adults that are leaving soon and put it in a future blog post.


Scotch Plains Stake Fireside

Every month the Scotch Plains Stake has a pot luck dinner and fireside for the young adults. They are well organized and follow the Handbook.  They have stake planning meetings with the leadership and young adult representatives.  It is working well!  We have three areas where we teach Institute in this stake:  Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, and Newark.  We are making sure that the young adults know about these special opportunities and if they don't have a ride, we help get them there.  This month, we were privileged to hear from the Manhattan Temple President, Steven Bennion, and his wife.

Kat Germosa, Nefi Contreras, Romney Campusano, Raul Hernandez, Jefrys Campusano

Kat is an investigator that came to our institute class at the invitation of one of our students. She liked what she heard, requested to view the video about Joseph Smith, and asked for a Book of Mormon. After a week, she said we could contact the sister missionaries to begin teaching her. She is scheduled for baptism on the 28th. We are excited for her. She is one of those "golden" investigators.

When we go in the chapel for the Fireside, some of the young adults need the English translated into Spanish. This group is from Elizabeth.  They sat off to the side so Marcos Dulanto (sitting on the same seat as Elder Hancock) can translate for Raul and the Campusano boys.

We meet in the Maplewood chapel for these firesides.  Maplewood has a large black population, but the blacks are English speakers.

From this week's lesson....

There are so many promises of blessings in Isaiah 58:6-11 regarding Fasting. Here are the principles to apply to receive those blessings.

Prepare: so that the time of fasting can have minimal interruptions and be a sacred time.
Purpose: choose any righteous desire - help with a decision, help to over come a problem, help for someone else.
Prayer: do often throughout the fast.
Scriptures: study, search, ponder the scriptures throughout the fast.
Meditate: think about your purpose, write down ideas, impressions, options during the fast.
Record: note in your journal your thoughts, ideas, results, etc. to help you and your family.
Offerings: an important part of the fast is a generous offering of financial help to others.

As we are generous with our fast offerings, we will be prospered temporally and spiritually.