Paella-fest!

One of the highlights each year for the young single adults, is attending the "Paella-fest."  Every May, Brother Bean invites all the YSAs to come to his home in Annandale, NJ where he personally makes a huge paella dinner for all to enjoy.  Brother Bean is the CES Coordinator over all the seminary and institute classes in this mission area.  He served his mission in Spain where he learned how to make and love a rice and chicken dish called "paella." He invites all the YSAs and those who work with them to come and eat and play at his beautiful home.  This is a great opportunity for the young single adults to meet YSAs from other areas.

Since many of our YSAs have no way to get around other than by the bus system, we advertised in our classes that we would be happy to take them to this activity and then also bring them home.  Brother Bean's home is in the northwest part of the state and is a good hour or two from many of their homes. We got permission from our mission president to borrow the mission van that seats twelve.  We left our apartment at 3pm.

Nuria, Penelope, Casey, Issamar, Alan, and Jose

Here is some of our group on their way to have fun!  It was just like riding with children again.  They were enjoying each other and would get loud, but also, this van felt every bump and it was fun to see those in the back almost hitting the ceiling on some big bumps.

The activity began at 5pm with the dinner being served at 6pm.  There was a 60% chance of rain that day.  The rain did come but it waited until the dinner and some fun volleyball games had been enjoyed.  Some even stayed outdoors and played volleyball in the rain and said that that was the funnest part of the evening.

Here are pictures of our groups as they came and served themselves:

We believe that there were about 75-80 young single adults at this activity.  It was great!  When the rain (and heavy humidity) arrived, we served food in the garage and headed indoors to play games.

The activity ended around 10pm because many had a long drive home.  It took us four hours to get home that night.  We dropped our students to their homes in Jersey City, West New York, Union City, and New Brunswick.  We got home at 2am.


Caldwell YSA Ward

The day after the "Paella-fest" (May 17), a new young single adult ward was organized in Union City. Brother Bean asked us to be in attendance that day.  There was much discussion in our Friday night class in Union City.  They were excited to be part of a young single adult ward.  It is to be a bi-lingual ward.  The talks and testimonies given that day were in English, but they are looking to translate into Spanish in the future.  There were no English hymn books in the chapel (maybe not even in the building) so when hymns were sung, the English speakers were asked to use their smart phones if they needed the words.  It was great to hear both English and Spanish being sung together.

For this new ward, all the records of those of young single adult age (18-30) in the stake were moved to this new YSA ward.  The wives of the new bishopric were called to be stake missionaries so they could "legally attend" the YSA ward.  There are 650 names on the records of this new ward.  On this first day of organization, there were maybe 20 to 30 YSAs in attendance.


Longwood Gardens

The Monday following this busy weekend, we had a planned CES outing to Pennsylvania to visit the Longwood Gardens.  The day was warm and humid but the gardens were beautiful.  The property that is now Longwood Gardens originally was owned by William Penn in the late 1600's.  Industrialist  Pierre du Pont purchased the property from a Peirce family in 1906 in order to save the trees from being sold for lumber.  DuPont made this his private residence and added extensively to the property.  Today Longwood Gardens is one of the nicest botanical gardens in the nation.

             Beautiful water fountain gardens along with a beautiful young lady standing near by :)

        So beautiful!!! Green leaves, purple flowers, wonderful sweetheart!

Natalie Bean, Sisters Young and Toy, me, Marshall, Rachel, and David Bean

Classes

These last few weeks in classes we focused lots on church history as we talked about the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and the events following.  This last week in class we showed the movies, either "17 Miracles" or "Ephraim's Rescue" so that the young adults could get a feel for the sacrifices of our pioneers and that they are modern day pioneers as many are the first in their families to join the church.

From this week's lesson...
    Years after the arrival of the Martin handcart company, a Brother Francis Webster sat in a Sunday School class, he listened to some Church members criticize Church leaders for the handcart tragedy. Unable to constrain himself, he arose and testified of the blessings of being in the Martin handcart company.
    “I ask you to stop this criticism for you are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historical facts mean nothing here for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it. . . . We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation. But did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? . . .
    “I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the Angels of God were there.
    “Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor one moment of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come to Zion in the Martin Handcart Company” (in William R. Palmer, “Pioneers of Southern Utah,” The Instructor, vol. 79, no. 5 [May 1944], 217–18).

May...FLOWERS

The wait is over!  Spring has sprung!  It is BEAUTIFUL!!! 

Flowers are everywhere.  Many trees flower first and then the leaves appear. Two weeks ago not many trees had bloomed.  But as they do, each tree takes its turn. First the magnolias appear, one of our favorites. They are only in full bloom a short time then another tree takes front stage.  Also, the vegetation among the trees has filled in and it is a paradise everywhere we look. Every time that we get to take a drive or a walk around a park, we marvel at the varieties and the beauty of the world around us.

Last year we called the magnolia tree a tulip tree.  When the blossoms first appear, they do look like tulips.  These pictures below were taken at the end of the magnolia season.

 Here again, we were at this park right as spring was coming in.  It would be more beautiful now. New Jersey truly has some beautiful areas.  We keep trying to remind ourselves that we are not here on vacation, but it sure feels like it.

May Young Adult Devotional

On May 3rd, Elder Lynn Robbins of the Seventy addressed the young adults of the church.  We have three young adult devotionals a year now that comes from Salt Lake for all the young adults in the world. The stake leaders have been encouraged to make these devotionals a big deal. Since we work with young adults in three stakes and one district, this time we went to Paterson to support the district with their devotional.

Paterson District has three branches; an English and two Spanish branches. We have loved working in this area and with these young adults.

The Paterson YSAs had a potluck dinner at 7pm before the devotional started at 8pm.  Fanny Morales is the District YSA Rep and she makes sure things are organized well and that the young adults have rides to class and the activities.  She is wonderful!  We wish that we could clone Fanny and have her influence in all the groups.

When we arrived that night there were a couple of missionaries there to help get the satellite system set up. By the time we were ready to eat, many more missionaries arrived, so we invited those who could stay to eat with us.

 Starting at front left:  Shantal De La Cruz, Drakenny Jimenez, Melquisedec Perez, Dorca Encarnacion, Secundino Anastacio, Issamar Birdie, CaseyAndino, ?, Christian Jimenez

Fanny Morales with the missionaries

Union City Institute

As we are still trying to organize our class in Union City, on May1st we went again to Union City to finally meet the young adults there.  As was posted in the last blog post, when we went the prior weekend, there was a dance in Queens and lots of the YSAs from Union City attended the dance, so we had a very small class.  This week there were ten YSAs in class.  It was a good class. We were discussing Section 132 which focuses on the subject of Eternal Marriage and is always a favorite topic for the YSAs.

 Front Row: Alan Castro, Penelope Gracia, Katherine Alvarez, Hancocks, Chris Quiles, Nuria Medina.  Back Row: Hans Brandes, Jarumi Casiano, Carmen Incarroca, Enrique Cuyuch, Jose Cedillo

Caldwell Stake called a new Institute teacher from their stake. Mario Martinez is from Jersey City and he came to our class on Friday in Union City and we all discussed some future plans for classes. Brother Martinez wants to organize a class to be held in Jersey City and to hold that class every Friday night.  We are to also hold our class on Fridays but our group is for the YSAs from West New York and Union City. This group is a close group and I know they like to go to each others classes, so we'll see how it goes.

As it turned out, when we went this last week, only two from West New York were there.  The ward there in Union City was having a Mothers Day dinner and social and that took one of our YSAs.  We had brought two girls from the New Brunswick Saturday class because there was conflicts with their class. We don't know where everyone else was. (They were not in Brother Martinez's class.) But, the four that were there that night, got acquainted and had fun. Issamar led a game of Charades that really helped to "break the ice."

Back Row:  Diego Bohorquez and Jose Cedillo

Front Row:  Casey Andino and Issamar Burdie

From this week's lesson:

“Through his personal association with the Lord, his translation and publication of the Book of Mormon, and the sealing of his testimony with his martyr’s blood, Joseph has become the preeminent revelator of Jesus Christ in His true character as divine Redeemer. Jesus has had no greater witness nor more devoted friend than Joseph Smith” (“Born Again,” Elder Christofferson, Ensign or Liahona, May 2008, 79).

 In the spring of 1844, Josiah Quincy, former mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, and then president of Harvard University, along with his cousin Charles Francis Adams, son of former United States President John Quincy Adams, visited Nauvoo. They spent a day with the Prophet Joseph Smith. Years later, Josiah Quincy wrote of his experience:
“It is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet ” (Figures of the Past: From the Leaves of Old Journals [1888], 376).

It's Coming!

Months ago I decided to just post to the blog every two weeks rather than every week because it seemed like we were doing the same thing week after week.  And, yes, even though we have the same schedule each week, there are senior activities and changes in the weather and vegetation that gives us reasons to take pictures. We live in a beautiful state and spring is on its way.

Before the trees leaf out, I took some pictures to show how some trees have to get cut way back so the telephone wires can hang properly.  We don't have to worry about this in Tucson.

The other day we went out of our apartment and realized that we have a "peeking tom cat" that lives next door!

Even though the explosion of color has not fully happened yet, we are enjoying the tulip trees and these white trees that are all around.  This was taken as we were entering the Elizabeth building last week.

Trees at Elizabeth building

Branch Brook Park

Last Friday we took time to check out Branch Brook Park in Newark. Trying to get there was trying.  The streets were very crowded and traffic moved slowly, but when we arrived at the park it was worth it.  Branch Brook Park is known for its cherry trees. It has the largest collection of Japanese flowering trees in one location in the United States, even more than Washington D.C.  The park has 360 acres that includes lakes, ponds, bridges, ball fields, walking paths, etc. The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, one of the largest Gothic-style churches in the country is right next to the park and was the first thing that we saw as we entered.  

Since we had such a cold winter and it lingered on longer than usual, we weren't sure if the trees would be in bloom yet.  The cherry trees near where we live have not blossomed as of yet, so we were not sure what we would find. We were happy to see that some (but not all) of the trees were in bloom.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Union City

At our last in-service meeting, Brother Bean asked us to take over an Institute in the Union City

and West New York area.  The former teachers moved to Texas this last week.  The only night that we had free was Friday night, so we let them know that we were coming and headed that way.  When we arrived, we found that the key to the building and garage that had been given to us, did not work.  Thankfully, some Elders were nearby and let us in.

We only had two young adults show up for class.  We knew that there was a young adult dance that night in Queens NY, and we debated whether or not to compete with the dance, but we decided to go and get acquainted with the area and any who might arrive.

Elder Hancock with Penelope and Chris

We had a great class and enjoyed getting to know these two.  Penelope Gracia is a returned missionary and Chris Quiles is preparing to serve a mission.

We heard from others that will be in this class, via Facebook, that they were at the dance.  So, we will meet all the others next week.

We took Penelope home after class.  She lives in Jersey City.  We asked her to point out to us where the church has its meetings.  As we were going through the downtown area (Journal Square) she pointed to a dollar store.  She said that they meet in the area above the dollar store.  The windows above the dollar store had nice white drapes.  She said that to enter for church meetings, they had to enter through a door behind the store.

                                          Church building upstairs from Dollar Store

We know from talking to a member here that works for the church that they plan to build or remodel a place for meetings in Jersey City.  But, it is very expensive and space is at a premium.  It will be interesting to see what is decided.


Point Pleasant Boardwalk and Beach

The activity for all the senior missionaries this month was to go to Point Pleasant and to visit an aquarium there.  This was a perfect time for a bunch of seniors to visit.  No one was there.  This a a very popular beach and walking along the mile long boardwalk is like attending a county fair at home.  There are shops, food, rides, and games like at a fair.  The temperature was in the low 60's and it was a pleasant day to be out.

Hancocks, Saunders, Sisters Young and Toy, Elder Vause

             Jenkinsons has been here on the beach since 1927.

                   "Look at all of that sand....and the water..."

                             Sis.Young off to see the various shops along the boardwalk

Allaire Village

After visiting the Jenkinson Boardwalk at Point Pleasant, we went to a Historic Village at Allaire. We had a picnic lunch and then toured the village.

The town of Allaire was built around a bog iron extraction industry.  The village is now an early 19th century living history museum that has costumed interpreters that demonstrate how life would have been back in that day.

               This row house was built in 1820...

                  Beautiful area...

From this week's lesson...

There is an Eternal Pattern...

It existed in the pre-mortal existence, it ought to and is commanded to exist here in mortality, and it can exist in the eternities. It is the very purpose for which we exist. The pattern is:

A righteous man sealed to a righteous woman...

Becoming a righteous father sealed to a righteous mother...

Raising righteous children.


And this eternal pattern comes with promises.

The closer you live to this pattern:

The happier you will be.

And the easier life will be.

And when this pattern is successfully lived in mortality, it will persist on into the eternities.

An early 19th century living history museum featuring costumed interpreters demonstrating early village lif - See more at: http://www.visitnj.org/nj-historic-sites-memorials/historic-allaire-village#sthash.55LjwcSl.x7w1iR27.dpuf

An early 19th century living history museum featuring costumed interpreters demonstrating early village lif - See more at: http://www.visitnj.org/nj-historic-sites-memorials/historic-allaire-village#sthash.55LjwcSl.x7w1iR27.dpuf

An early 19th century living history museum featuring costumed interpreters demonstrating early village lif - See more at: http://www.visitnj.org/nj-historic-sites-memorials/historic-allaire-village#sthash.55LjwcSl.x7w1iR27.dpuf

An early 19th century living history museum featuring costumed interpreters demonstrating early village lif - See more at: http://www.visitnj.org/nj-historic-sites-memorials/historic-allaire-village#sthash.55LjwcSl.x7w1iR27.dpuf

Spring Break

We arrived in New Jersey a year ago on April 1st. It is hard to believe that we have already been here for a year.  Like they say though,"time flies when you're having fun!"

April Conference

We always look forward to conference weekends!  We enjoyed listening to and being taught by our leaders.  This year, since we are now holding an Institute class on Saturday nights, we encouraged our young adults to come and join us at the stake center and to listen to the afternoon session and then we provided a dinner for them and all the missionaries that are always in the building during conference.  I baked 22 large potatoes and we served them with toppings, some Costco rolls, a salad, and a pumpkin sheet cake.  As it turned out we had only 11 or 12 elders for dinner.  Three companionships had appointments and had to run.  So, we had lots of food.  As for our young adults, as we were cleaning up, two girls showed up.  By then, other groups from the stake were gathering and serving ice cream for their young men.  Here is a picture of some of the missionaries that we fed.  We work with four of them in Perth Amboy.

Spring Break

The week after Easter was Spring Break for the seminaries.  And since the Institute program is following the seminary schedule we were told to have activities and enjoy the young adults this week.  We continued to go to the areas where we teach, but instead of having a lesson, we did what the young adults wanted to do.  In Newark we watched the movie "Ephraim's Rescue." the next night in Paterson we started off playing half court basketball and then we gathered and watched the movie "17 Miracles."

Then, the next night in Elizabeth, the young adults just wanted to play games.  We played "Farkle" and "Uno."  Every night we brought lots of snacks to share.

Our last class of the week with New Brunswick, had a major obstacle.  One of the girls received her mission call that day and instead of gathering for an Institute activity, she planned to open her call with her family.  This is the second girl in this class that has recently received her call.  We are so proud of both of them.

Issamar Burdie is from the Dominican Republic and is full of fun.  She adds lots in our Institute classes.  Her calling in the ward is the ward chorister.

Gladys Sarabia

Gladys Sarabia is quiet but she knows the gospel well.  Gladys is the only pianist in the New Brunswick ward and the Bishop is wondering what they will do without her.  She reports on July 8th.


A Wedding Lunch in Central Park

On Saturday, April 11th, Dane Morgan and Kellie Kercher were married in the Manhattan Temple.  We were invited to join with them for their luncheon in the Cherry Hill area of Central Park.  Dane and Kellie are part of the YSA East Brunswick Branch.  We attended the branch last summer and some of their activities from time to time.  The English speaking YSAs are not part of our assignment here, but we have been able to meet most of them and we do enjoy being with them.

Kellie was raised in the St. Louis area but both Dane and Kellie's families now live in Utah.  The couple wanted to be married here and they planned a nice picnic at the park.  It was different but very nice.  Thankfully, it was a beautiful day to be outside.  The days just before were both rainy and cold. I was excited to go to Central Park and to look for signs of spring.  I saw my first flowers of the season there.

The groom, Dane, is actually a distant relative of mine.  I spoke to his mother and aunt and their roots originate from the Westover line from Joseph City, Arizona.

YSAs:  Melissa Mitchell, Erin Ray, Alysa and Richard Peterson, Stephan Andersen, John Holland, with Norman Swindler standing.

Leaves and buds are just starting to appear.

Daffodils

Cloisters

The Cloister Museum and Gardens is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It is devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe and is located in northern Manhattan and overlooks the Hudson River.  The Cloister Museum incorporates actual parts from five European abbeys which were disassembled and shipped to New York City.  They were reconstructed and integrated together with new building materials and made together in the medieval style. The materials from these abbeys dated from between the twelfth through the fifteenth century.  Our CES group visited the Cloisters on April 13th.  Jeff and Wendy Bushman also joined up with us for the day.

The best part was enjoying the sun and beautiful spring like weather.

From recent lessons... Liberty Jail brought great blessings to Joseph Smith

“You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in the
most miserable experiences of your life —in the worst settings, while enduring the most
painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have
ever faced” (“Lessons from Liberty Jail,” Elder Holland, Ensign, Sept. 2009, 28).

President Brigham Young said: “Joseph could not have been perfected, though he had lived a thousand years, if he had received no persecution. If he had lived a thousand years, and led this people, and preached the Gospel without persecution, he would not have been perfected as well as he was at the age of [thirty-eight] years” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 264).