Paul and Mar Jean Lewis: Week 21 October 18

Debbie and Mike got off early to re-see the two cathedrals and Paul and I went on the 11 am session. It was pretty big. Then off to Western Beef for a few groceries. Now it's time to go in to work. I believe I am a guide today for an own endowment.

We received wonderful letters from the Activity Day Girls in River Ridge 9th Ward. This was my response.

October 20, 2016

Dear Activity Day Girls and Your Leaders,

What a wonderful surprise to receive your letters of encouragement and love. They are so very welcome. It is hard being away from home so when we receive letters from home it helps a lot. Thanks for being so thoughtful.

New York City is a wonderful place to serve. We serve as ordinance worker in the Manhattan Temple right in the middle of Manhattan and famous Lincoln Square where we have the ballet, philharmonic and opera across the street from us and the Julliard School of Music and Dance. We live in an apartment 85 steps from the front door of the temple. The subway (MTR) is also across the street and buses go up and down our street so that is how we get around. NO CARS for us. Traffic is awful and costs $20 a half day or $40 a day to park your car. Good reason not to have one.

We serve Tuesday thru Saturday on either a day or evening shift. There are eight missionary couples and two single sisters who serve. We divide it up and half of us go day and the other half evening about 7 hour shifts. We do all the ordinances in the temple plus help with laundry and cleaning of the temple. We also work with wonderful local ordinance workers.

We are just having a change in our Temple Presidency. President and Sister Steve Bennion will be leaving next week. They have served for three years and are from St. George area. Before coming here they were Mission President of NY North Mission. Our new President and Matron are President and Sister Bench, they just served three years as 2^nd Counselor in the Temple Presidency. They are from the NY area and we love them.

We have been assigned to a Ward in the Bronx where we attend Church each Sunday. We love it out there. It takes us 50 minutes on the subway to get there and right now church is at 11:30. We have a very diverse Ward with people from all over the world, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Philippines, US. Lots of different people and how they found the Church or the church found them is so interesting. We have been helping with the full time missionaries. We have four companionships in our Ward, two sets of Sisters and two sets of Elders. We also teach a Temple Preparation class.

On our P-day we get to do fun things. Central Park is one block from us so we can go there any time we want. We can go to plays, we just saw “Phantom of the Opera”. I have been to the American Ballet and the Philharmonic, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, been to Chinatown and had great food there, Little Italy, visited some of the big cathedrals here in the city, walked down 5^th Avenue. Like I said many things to do here.

We love you all and encourage you to be good missionaries. Your example of kindness and love will draw people to you and they all need the gospel. Continue to be helpful and loving to your families. Learn to clean, cook and do laundry. It will make your life as a full time missionary so much easier.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to us. We send our love.

A baptism group from Kingsbridge 2^nd Ward in our apartment afterwards for dinner.