Today we both spoke in the Hoboken YSA Ward. We felt good about what we said and hope all there were uplifted and edified. Afterwards there was a small linger-longer dinner and then the monthly YA planning meeting. I think between Elder Cherrington and Elder Hancock, all got the message that there ought to be a monthly dance for the Young Adults somewhere. We will see what happens now.
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| Linger Longer after church today. We are in the back. |
Yesterday we went to the temple with the CES "family", the Kellers, Cherringtons, Beans, Kramers, and Hancocks. Benji Kramer also came along. It was a full session and a joyful/tearful greeting of all afterwards. Then we went to lunch. We ended up at a small (always in NYC) French restaurant, La Boite en Bois. Not sure what it means, but it was tasty and fun. Here's the picture of us there.
I decided to include a picture of where cars park next to the temple in Manhattan. We drove into the city with the Kellers this time and we were glad that we did not have our big car. I couldn't see where they could put one more car. The valets take it and park cars very close together. When we come back to retrieve the car I'm sure they had to move other cars to get it out. It is crazy in the city.
Our replacements, the Woodlands, enter the MTC tomorrow (Jan. 18) and will be on their way here on the 27th. They ought to arrive in New Jersey about the 31st or 1st. We'll do a quick dump of our information and then probably be on our way out of town on the 2nd. Of course, all depends on weather.
Speaking of weather, we saw our first falling snowflakes today! Wow, it is the 17th January and it is the first real snow to arrive here! It snowed about 1 inch on the grass and mostly melted off of the roads. The cars had an inch or so. As we drove back from Union City, it looked like the car dealerships we passed were only selling white cars...:) Here's a picture coming out of the Union City chapel.
Last weekend was an eventful weekend. Elder Holland was in the area and spoke to the recently organized Liberty Park Stake. For weeks before his arrival, groups gathered to give the Newark building a good cleaning. It was great to see kitchens, bathrooms, and every room spic and span.
All the young adults in the stake were invited to be in a choir that would sing the prelude. Half of the hymns sung were in English and half were in Spanish.
Since we had a class that night in Perth Amboy we got permission to bring our young adults to Union City to participate there. As it turned out though, the audio was only in Spanish and very muddled. We later were able to hear a recording of the talk and it was excellent!!!
The very next night was the Worldwide Devotional for all young adults. We met in Maplewood with the youth there. Like usual, we had a potluck (where only the adults usually bring food) and then listened to Elder Nelson speak. Another great talk!!!
We have started to clean out and pack up a few things. In fact, we have already sent two boxes on their way to Tucson. When coming home from UPS it started to feel real that we will be leaving soon. We are starting to feel a lot of mixed emotions. :( We truly love the wonderful Young Adults we have come to know here. We will miss them lots!
We can't close the blog without including some pictures of a couple of our classes taken this week.
Union City Institute: Front row- Emily Quiles, Virgdant Breton, Penelope Gracia;
Back row-- Alan Castro, Dan Breton, Elliot Perez, Ovidio Aragon, Jose Cedillo, Chris Quiles
Newark Institute: Us with Ronald Rodriguez, Gabriel Asitimbay, Andrew Smith, Reina Arevalo, Rahameen Foote, Rosa Benavides, Ilan Cartillo, Theresa Diez, Samantha Munoz,
Bishop Patricio De La Torre, and Austin Vargas
From this week's lesson...
The book of Judges teaches that because the Israelites did not destroy nor drive out the iniquitous people in the promised land, that their false gods became a snare unto them. They continually following the Cycle of Sin and Deliverance as described in the Book of Judges.
>>The Israelites sinned by worshipping false gods.
>>The Israelites are afflicted by their enemies.
>>The Israelites cry unto the Lord for deliverance.
>>The Lord raises up judges who deliver the Israelites from their enemies.
But we learn also that the Lord would not help them until they had cleansed the inner vessel by destroying the images, groves, and alters where they worshipped the false gods of the people they were to have driven out.
The same principle applies to us. As we plead with the Lord for help in our lives, we must first drive out our false gods or make changes (repent) before we can expect the Lord to help and bless us.
