"A Backyard Delight!"

You may ask: What? Another senior activity?

Let me clarify. Senior missionaries do have activities. But we do work - very hard. It's just that when we're working, we don't take pictures. Therefore, it seems like we are involved in more activities than we are in missionary activities.

There! Now I can share our latest senior activity:-)

It was so fun!

Visiting.
Eating.
Laughing.

Chatting, eating, and enjoying the cool mountain-like chill of a Long Island evening was such a pleasant respite from the rush of our missionary labors.

And it all started here in the Goepfert's kitchen:-)

Can you smell the chicken, pork and sausage on the BBQ? Yum!!

The setting was beautiful.

People rotated through the clusters during the evening and all had a chance to visit with one another. We really do enjoy each other as senior missionaries.

The Goepferts live on Long Island - in a beautiful community with much greenery. In fact, there are so many trees on their property, they had to remove something like 57 trees from their back yard in order to plant a lawn and landscape!

What a beautiful setting, wonderful people, and of course, delicious food! Thank you for being such gracious hosts Brother and Sister Geopfert. And you senior couples...what spectacular salads!

We particularly enjoyed the entertainment. Each couple shared their most embarrassing moment while dating. It's surprising that some are actually still married:-)

It was a delightful evening.

August 23 - Happy Birthday Matt - the BIG 30!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

"Some Things We Love About Our Mission..."

This post is about some of the things we love about our mission. These particular things took place within three days. They are varied and personal. That's why we love them.

We love Zone 8 - farthest east in the New York New York South Mission. Our young missionaries work so hard. This mission is not easy for many reasons, but our young elders and sisters stay focused, remain dedicated and serve well. They also love a special P-day activity held occasionally at the Roush "ranch" out east on the island in Riverhead - that's about 40 miles before the east end of Long Island in beautiful farm and fishing country. Elder and Sister Roush are the "other" couple who serve in Zone 8. We love them.

The two senior couples fixed a BBQ dinner for the whole zone on Monday while the young missionaries played football on the huge church property near the beautiful new chapel. Afterwards there was a short, spiritual thought of gratitude about our mission fast the previous day. We love the strength of our young people!

Just being on Long Island is a beautiful adventure. We love the people, the wildlife, lakes, trees...and now the sunsets.

On the way to teach our Institute class at the Marine Academy on Monday night heading east on I-495 going 65 mph, I got these sunset scenes out the dirty windshield of our van. The sight nearly took my breath away. Even driving to class can be a blessing.

We love young single adults!

These are friends of our student, Dave Weidler, whose family hosted a backyard BBQ in honor of his upcoming mission. As it turns out we did find a young woman who will be joining our Stony Brook University class. Yes! (That class started out seven months ago with one student and there are now thirteen on the record:-)

We love our students! David was one of our two students at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY when we first arrived, and then at the Stony Brook class. He left the academy to serve a mission and entered the Provo MTC August 20, serving in California Sacramento. Dave is a giant of a young man in every way.

We love the neighborhoods!. The drive to Port Washington is beautiful. Weidlers live in a lovely, quiet, gated community nestled in the trees.

And...we love our missionaries!

Yes... we really love our great missionaries of the Bay Shore area! After a regular weekly district meeting on Friday, we enjoyed an outdoor BBQ at the Bay Shore Ward Chapel. What a treat!

Check out some of our Elders playing master chef at the grill:-)

Above at top are Sisters Balimuttajjo & Goldthwaite with the church as a backdrop.

Above right are Sisters Peterson and Ditto on the beautiful church grounds.

...and there are many more things we love about our mission!

"Senior Missionaries Have More Fun!"

Pictured above are Bennions, Wilsons, Smiths, Edwards, Wests, Roushs and de Paulas - gathered on Edwards' front porch after our Lobster Boil!

Isn't this the most adorable train stop you've ever seen? We decided to hop on the Long Island Railroad and take a leisurely 1 1/2 ride to our P-day outing instead of fighting the traffic for three hours on the freeways and on the slow winding surface roads. Perfect choice!

Amagansett is just about as far east as one can go on Long Island. Wow - the trip was wonderful - and all for $3.25! Weekends are a special rate. We'll be making good use of the trains on Saturday:-)

Summer + Ocean + Weekend + Fun-loving senior missionaries =
an outing at the Edwards' in Amagansett, New York.

Lobster and all the trimmings! It was a real feast - a' natural fresh from the sea. Looks like Elder de Paula has cracked a few lobsters before:-)

Senior missionaries really do have more fun!

"Preach My Gospel - USMMA at Kings Point NY"

It is our privilege to teach an Institute class at the United State Merchant Marine Academy at the tip of a tiny peninsula in the quiet little hamlett of Kings Point, New York. Our travel time from our apartment is about one hour. Since we began teaching there in January, at the beginning of our mission, we would have one or possibly two students. One of those is now leaving for a full time mission and the other is out to sea. We have recently met three new young men - Garrett who had been out to sea until now, and two new plebes, Josh and Jon, who just arrived at the academy in mid-July.

It was just a day or two before we began teaching again at the academy that we happened to notice a Princeton University publication online about colleges in the USA. Of particular note was that the USMMA was the #1 college with the "most unhappy students." We had a pretty good idea why, but asked our young men. The first year is extremely difficult! Some things they mentioned were:

• No phone privileges - just one 5-minute call per week on Sunday for the entire first year


• Intense course work and an overload of homework


• No leaving campus - even to attend Church on Sunday


• No food or treats in the dorms


• The upper-class men can taunt them, even force them to serve them, etc.

Especially under these circumstances, it is important for us to help them realize who they are and whose they are - to help them stay positive and focused on spiritual things in the midst of great opposition. These young men have chosen to discuss the missionary manuel - Preach My Gospel. We have felt their goodness and their deep spiritual awareness as we have discussed together this course of study, their plans and their goals. Institute is a marvelous social and spiritual event - with food!

The campus is in a stunningly beautiful setting at the tip of Kings Point looking toward the Throgs Neck Bridge. The above pictures were taken on our first class of this term - August 4 - just before sunset. It was good to be back with our students after a six-week hiatus because of their "out to sea" schedules.

USMMA students G. Heaps, (visitor) K. Petrano and students J. Miller and J. Porter stand in one of the chapels on the campus at Kings Point, NY where we hold our Institute class each Monday evening. They are a small group in comparison to other ecclesiastical groups on campus, but these young men are select and strong. The spirit is always present.

"Missionaries Work Hard & Play Hard!"

A STRIKE for Elder Hales - our district leader.

A special P-Day activity for the Bay Shore/Brentwood District was held at the Farmingdale Lanes on August 4. The missionaries still had to clean their pads, do their laundry and their grocery shopping - in addition to their scripture study before they could have a P-day adtivity. Yes, they do work hard. And for a few hours they played hard! We were so happy to be invited to join the young, vibrant elders and sisters for this activity.

They are so much fun to be with:-)

Some mighty good bowlers for sure! Elder Bird eyes up those pins.
And those french fries were really good, aren't they Sister Ditto and Sister Goldthwaite?

Bowling brings out the very best in people - right Elders Wiggins and Duce?

We all had such a great time at our P-day outing. The ability range was from non-existent to semi-professional. We won't be discussing the scores:-) We were thrilled to have even been invited by the young missionaries! We love every one of them and feel it an honor to mingle with them in every setting.