NEWS FROM NEW YORK

Hola Everybody….
 
I have to quit calling the Sisters “Hermanas!” 

It’s a hard habit to break.  Wow, has this week flown by! 

Tomorrow night we will have been here for 7 whole days….

we get up in the morning and before we know it, it’s time 

to go to bed.  We're going to try and get into the habit 

of writing every Sunday night or Monday morning which is 

our P-Day.  
 
We’re settled in and off and running.  We drove to Utica 

last Wednesday and were part of the new missionaries coming 

into the mission home only we weren’t nearly as scared and

anxious as they were.  What was fun was we remember at the

MTC always seeing the missionaries off the night before 

they left the MTC and last Wednesday we got to see what 

happens the very next day.  One of the new missionaries 

in our group was the one from our stake but I forgot 

his name….I think he’s in the same ward as Maddie, Cade. 

President and Sister Wirthlin are awesome…..more energy 

in their little pinky fingers than I have in my whole 

body…..plus really funny.  The missionaries seem to love 

them a lot.  Our first institute class was totally different 

than what we’d expected.  It was in Owega at the home of 

the Albujas.  Sister Albuja is from Puerto Rico and her

husband is from Ecuador.  So they were there and a member 

of the stake presidency and his wife and her brother who’s 

in his 80’s and 4 missionaries (including Garth and Bonnie 

Prestwich’s nephew….they’re in our ward).   We had a great 

time getting to know them and having a little Gospel discussion. 

They’re trying to get Institute off the ground here with 

some young single adults.  So the other really fun thing 

that night was the Abujas had family visiting from Ecuador 

so they were downstairs in the family room while we talked

and then they came up for treats and to talk about who we 

were and what we were all doing there……they are non-members 

and Dad loved talking to all of them in Spanish  Too bad 

they were going home the next day!
 
I probably should make a new paragraph…..have a habit of 

just typing one giant one.  You don’t want to read a day 

to day account of our activities….that would be boring 

so maybe we’ll hit the highlights.  We love the Cornell 

Campus!!!!!  We were there a couple of days last week getting 

our affiliate cards and meeting people that we’ll be working

with there.  The place we meet in, Anabel Taylor Hall, is amazing! 

It’s where all the religious groups on campus have rooms 

and meeting places and it’s a big old building that looks 

like the inside of a church in Europe.  There’s so much 

history there and it almost feels like we’ve stepped back 

in time in some of those buildings.  Everyone we interacted

with on campus was so kind and helpful.  Maybe that was because 

it’s Spring Break at Cornell and there were no students there!
 
So our ideas of a quiet Conference lounging around in our pj’s 

watching all 4 sessions never materialized!  On Saturday, the 

2 sets of Elders came to watch the morning session with us 

and eat….and eat…..and eat.  Then that afternoon they came 

back and the sisters came too and were pretty relaxed and after 

conference they all ate some more and we went through nearly 

the whole 2 giant bags of M and M’s that we brought with us. 

We dressed up on Sunday morning and went to the Branch President’s 

house for the Sunday morning session with some of the members 

of the Young Single/Adult Branch which has some married couples 

too.  Then back here to change into pj’s to watch the afternoon 

session…..Hah!  Missionaries called and wanted to come back again 

and so we got dressed and they came and watched and ate again and 

it was great!  And we’ll probably have to go grocery shopping 

again tomorrow!  They’re such earnest, hardworking, faithful 

missionaries who are a bit discouraged right now so we try to 

pump them up as best we can.  And we (actually Dad) had a 

“missionary experience this morning.  We’d gone out walking and 

on our way back ran into a young man looking for an address. 

We showed him where we thought it was and then went on our way. 

We passed the apartment he was looking for and an older man who 

had just come out of that apartment.  I went on home to get ready 

to go to Conference and Dad went back to find the young man and 

show him where the address was.  Long story short, the older man 

was the father to the younger man who was a student at Cornell 

majoring in plant pathology (or something like that)  The older 

man and his wife had just come from China to visit their son 

for a few months.  They invited Dad in, fed him fruit, and talked 

all about plants and then invited us to come for lunch one day soon. 

The older couple only speak Chinese and we just got a new sister 

missionary who was born in China and speaks 2 Chinese languages 

(she’s a temple square missionary on a 6 week transfer out here) 

so we’ve got 6 weeks to get to know this family better and get 

the missionaries there.  Wow!!
 
Time to quit writing and head to bed……we’re already up past 

our bedtime!  We miss you all and love you all and hope you will 

keep writing to us and keep us up on all that is happening at home.
 
XOXO  Grandpa and Grandma