"Feasting upon the Word"

(Book of Mormon study class - Bay Shore Ward)

Thursday evening is a highlight in our week. Elder de Paula and I lead a Book of Mormon study class to any and all adults of the ward who want to stop by. Sometimes we have four or five - sometimes a room full. And it's always an enjoyable, uplifting experience.

We often draw from the CES Seminary and Institute materials available online to make the learning very "hands on" and specific for newer members and recent converts. There is quite a diversity in the class with respect to experience. This adds dimension and understanding for all who attend.

What a blessing to have been assigned to this ward. We've learned so much.

"Hymns Invite the Spirit of the Lord"

(Bay Shore Ward keyboard class setting up to begin.)

The First Presidency said: "Inspirational music is an essential part of our church meetings. The hymns invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord."

"Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns. Hymns move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end."

The Bay Shore Ward is working on just that! Each Thursday evening following our Book of Mormom study class, music students of all ages set up their electric keyboards and begin naming notes, counting rhythms, and playing simple hymns. Before advancing this far, they successfully completed a conducting course, which covered note values, musical terms, conducting patterns, the preparatory beat and cut-off beats, tempo markings, etc.

The missionary committee watches for phrases like "piano teacher" "music teachers" "taught keyboard" because they want these skills taught and learned in the struggling areas of the Church. A generous donor, through the Church, has provided the keyboards that now help our Bay Shore Ward learn music.

See beautiful Eliza in the picture? She is eight years old and has been one of the faithful class members. It has paid off for her. She played a lovely hymn solo in Primary after only four weeks on the keyboard. A teacher's dream! :-)

Bay Shore, New York 1708-2008

(Picture taken on Bay Shore main street June 12, 2008.)

In our mission, senior couples are asked to live in a specific area for their entire mission. We had no idea how lucky we were to find Bay Shore! Bay Shore is a hamlet, located in the town of Islip, County of Suffolk, New York. This beautiful, quaint, seaside town celebrates its 300th birthday this year.

Bay Shore is in stark contrast, and distance, to the five boroughs of New York - Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island. While the boroughs are congested and "big city" in flavor, Bay Shore is very rural, with wildlife, open spaces, lakes, and only a smattering of tall buildings. Our nearest subway station is in Jamaica (Queens), 45-60 minutes away. To get to Manhattan, we plan on 1½ -2 hours by car, then subway.

Before the late 19th century, Bay Shore was known at different times by the local Native American names Penataquit and Awixa.

The oldest house in town is the c. 1697 Sagtikos Manor, which functioned for a time during the American Revolution as local headquarters for British forces. George Washington used the Manor as a stopover during a 1790 tour of Long Island.

To reach the Manor from our apartment on Penataquit Avenue, we turn right onto main street, passing lovely shops, light poles with hanging flower baskets and tricentenniel banners... reminding us what an historic town we are blessed to serve in.

Summer Institute Classes on Long Island

We're just having a wonderful time teaching!

That's a good thing. After all, we're CES (Church Education System) Missionaries and it's written on our name tags. We just love studying for several hours, preparing the handouts and games, getting the food ready for the students, driving usually 45 minutes to the classroom and leading a class discussion. It is a joy to meet with these vibrant young people! A CES mission is a great mission. (Officially, this assignment is now called S & I for Seminaries and Institutes, and the new senior couples coming out now show that on their name tags.)

For our summer course of study, we chose Scripture Study - The Power of the Word. The course is a real hands-on approach to scripture study - read, apply, cross-reference, analyze, etc. Our students have enjoyed learning the many valuable resources in the scriptures - the Bible dictionary, Index, Topical Guide, Footnotes, Maps, etc. Meaningful scripture marking was a favorite topic. This course encourages daily, individual scripture study so students may learn to apply the truths therein to their personal lives.

In Lesson 5, the importance of memorizing scripture is discussed. There is a story that President Spencer W. Kimball tells about memorizing the Articles of Faith "word-perfect." Committing these to memory means that "you are always prepared with a sermon."

Because our students are in the 18-30 year-old age group, we thought it would be a good review, and in some cases a new experience for the converts to memorize them. So, using my "in-the-mission-field" craft skills and what I had lying around the apartment, I created an Articles of Faith bookmark (pictured above) for each student. I love doing stuff like this!

And...there will be an Articles of Faith crossword puzzle quiz next week! :-)

The Lovely Diaz Family

Just a few weeks ago, two missionaries were out in the yard by there apartment and noticed a woman and her two beautiful children across the fence. They approached the family with polite conversation and found out that the children had just received their first communion in the Catholic church. That brought up the subject of the gospel, the nametags, the white shirts and ties.

Elder Shawn Walsh, the mild-mannered, people-loving missionary with almost two years experience in the field began the conversation. At the end, he and Elder Bird had invited them to the Bay Shore ward for the following Sunday "just to see how it is." Ella (who was born in Peru), with her children Kathy 12, and Tony 8 embraced the gospel immediately and were welcomed into the ward with loving arms the minute they walked through the door of the chapel. The children wanted to be baptized the very next day! They received the missionary lessons in English, but do speak both spanish and English.

The Diaz family was baptized Sunday, June 8.

At District Meeting Friday...

...we spotted this!

















Elder Shawn Walsh brought some ties. To District meeting? Yup! He's heading home next week and he bought 300 new on his mission. Because he won't have room in his suitcase for everything, he's letting some of them go "for a great price." That's not like money changers in the temple, is it?We just love this mild-mannered, witty elder. He's got three more baptisms set for Sunday in our Bay Shore Ward.

Good-bye Elder ...















Elder Tevita Stevens will leave us next week. He's been here two years and has served valiantly...now he'll go home to California, then on to the University of Utah to play football on a scholarship. He had his choice of BYU or U of U. We're willing to drive north from our home in Highland to see this fine young man play!

"Souls and Goals"

"Souls and Goals" is an activity that focuses on finding, teaching and baptizing. The chart on this chalk board lists dates across the top and the names of people who have committed to baptism on those dates.

There is a "Prayer Box" on the right side near the bottom where names of those investigators who need extra help are placed. All the district missionaries who want to are asked to pray for these prospective members.

The names of the three areas on Long Island where this district works are shown at the bottom right - Bay Shore, Terryville, and Riverhead. These young sisters and elders are so devoted!

One Whirlwind Adventure!

Frank and Nicole Do New York City!

They were almost sleep walking, but they didn't want to miss a thing, so they kept going. Five days to see 5000 sights. Our daughter Nicole and her husband Frank loved it all! Central Park, Harlam, Battery Park, Broadway, 5th Avenue, Canal Street, Park Avenue, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty Island, Coney Island, Long Island, the beautiful bridges, the shopping, the people, the flowers and trees, and the wonderful Bay Shore Ward..."is there anything we missed?"



Chance Reunion in the Subway!

Remember the story on this blog about Elder Caramia? (See May 20 entry about how Elder de Paula and I met him quite coincidentally at a mission conference. Read that story first.)

My last conversation with Elder Caramia was on May 16 when we escorted some missionaries to the Manhattan Temple. He happened to be in the mission office at the time. I got his cell phone number and said I would call when Nicole and her husband, Frank, get to town.

No time seemed to "work out" or be an appropriate hour to call a young missionary, so up until Saturday evening we had done nothing. After touring around all day, we were returning to the Rego Park Church (also the mission office) where we park our car before boarding the subway to head into Manhattan. It was about 10:00 pm. Nicole called out "Look, two missionaries just got off our train!" Elder de Paula yelled "It's him!" We dashed to catch up.

There, underground at the Woodhaven subway station in Queens, New York, the once Italian missionary "Sister Nicole de Paula" met and visited with the once eight-year-old Samuele Caramia from Rimini, Italy whose baptism she attended twelve years ago. They reminisced about members, missionaries and his family. Nicole began speaking in Italian, but Elder Caramia would only speak in his "new" language - English - which is very good! He has about a year left as a missionary, then he will go home to Italy, and return to BYU in the fall of 2009.

Another "chance" meeting. Another blessing from heaven.


Coney Island - Famous for Hot Dogs

On Saturday we took a very long train ride for a hot dog. And that's about all Coney Island has to offer besides the new subway station. Save your money...and mostly your time and go somewhere else. This place is very run down with nothing to do. But this picture of Frank and Nicole is surely cute!

"In the Heights"

The night after they
arrived in New York
City they saw
"In the Heights."
This is the hottest new musical on Broadway and is nominated for 13 Tony Awards.

Frank and Nicole just couldn't stop raving! Nicole texted me at intermission "...it's totally awesome, we don't want it to end!!"

We were across the street at "The Little Mermaid" and both musicals ended at about the same time. That made coordinating subway and car travel back to Long Island easier.

When we arrived back at our appartment, we got online and re-watched all the videos we could find about the creating and promos of "In the Heights." It's just too fun! We flopped in bed at 2 am. What a day!


Nicole and Frank arrived at JFK on Thursday May 29 at 7:00 am and off they went to see the sights... with no sleep.

"We'll sleep later, but we can't waste a minute while we're this close to Manhattan!"

That was five days ago...and we haven't paused a moment, except for Church on Sunday, until now - Monday, June 2. What a wonderful whirlwind. Dining in "Little Italy" was relaxing after shopping on busy Canal Street. Below, it was so peaceful to sit near the lake in Central Park and enjoy a calm Spring day.

Nicole, along with her sister Tiffany and sister-in-law Rachelle will be back in about six weeks and she'll be the tour guide then. For now, Elder and Sister de Paula - the break is over. We are preparing for teaching three classes with three different subjects this week - and so looking forward to our meeting with our dear students.