Around the Hood...

A couple weeks ago, as part of our calling as ward missionaries, we had what they call a shepherding activity after church. We, the ward missionaries and full time missionaries, went out in couples to visit some of the less active members of the ward to see how they were and invite them to church. Brian and I got to go to a few homes close by our apartment. The first bell we rang was of a little 74 year old Bulgarian lady who lived in this tiny, cramped apartment. She lived in a basement apartment around the back side of the building. We met her at the door where there was growling and barking coming from inside. After inviting us in she had to go inside first to get her dog on a leash (where she kept him the whole time while we were there) so he wouldn't jump all over us. She lives all alone, with most of her family in Utah. It was hard to understand her because her English was so bad, and she had the TV and radio both on and blaring while we were there. I think she was flirting with Brian because she sounded pretty disappointed when she learned that we were married. And she kept saying things like "I still like the younger guys, but they only like young girls" while looking him up and down. It was pretty funny. She seemed nice enough, although maybe a little out of it. We shared a brief message and talked to her for awhile before leaving. It was an interesting experience for sure.

The other people we looked up on our list were either not home or had moved. While we were walking around locating apartments we found this lovely little bit of street art.

Today, we went to help clean our church building again. The young men and women had a temple baptism trip scheduled this morning so we switched our next turn with some of the adults in the ward so they could attend with them. It was such a nice sunny day today, although still chilly, that we decided to walk home. It was a nice walk and when it warms up even more I think we are going to start walking at least one way from church.

We walked through a park not too far from our apartment. It was called Doughboy Park and had a statue and plaque in memorial of neighborhood members who died in World War I. There was also a plaque honoring those from the community who died in the attacks on 9/11. This park seemed nice, at least it will be when things start growing again. There were large trees, expanses of grass and benches. It will be nice to go and hang out there when it warms up.

There was this compass inlay in the brick along one of the walkways. I am standing on the West arrow, where my thoughts always are! I can't wait until we can relocate back West again. :) Although I'm getting attached to a few things here in New York that I will miss when we are gone.

Here are a few pictures of what our neighborhood looks like.

This is a picture of the above ground subway. It is super close to our apartment and every 3 or so minutes a subway train is rattling past. At first it drove us nuts, but we're so used to it now we don't even notice.

It was such a great Saturday. It has been a few weeks since we've had nice weather during the weekend and nothing planned. It was so nice to just stroll home with nothing causing us to rush around. We've always taken the subway to church and have never really explored down that way before, so it was fun to wander around. I hope there will be many more bright sunny days ahead!