Last Transfer

We may never see the official photo from this zone conference so here's a casual one taken after one of the departing elders mentioned wanting to see everyone's big smile as his last memory of the mission so Sister R took a photo (we are there but in the very back)

Zone Conference notes: Sister Risenmay spoke of her intense study of the proclamation on the Restoration and how she thought of 1 Ne 3:7 and the idea of preparation, how Boston area was integral to the Restoration - Joseph Smith's ancestors from here, the culture encouraged bible study and was a center of religious discussion, hearts were being prepared, early missionaries had huge success in New England and many committed, skilled, well-educated converts came into the church. In 1842 and -43 Joseph Smith visited the area and got much support - money, leadership, and manpower to strengthen the church. 

Cornerstone is the 1st placed, most accurate and strong

Elders and Sisters that gave thoughts from their study of the proclamation- the Restoration continues, spoke of a North Korean they taught who spoke of those still in danger for worshiping in N Korea, they ride a bike for miles then hike up the mountain with bible hidden in their clothing to worhip in a safe a private place. Sister Neal who served first at the Mormon Battalion said while there they all memorized the Restoration proclamation and just yesterday she used a paragraph in teaching someone they met who was very interested in the history of the church.

We were reminded of PMG p. 175-76 Refer quickly to Savior and gospel - and restoration - Reminded me of the elder at the MTC who had worked with the Quorum of the 12 and one of them taught that within three minutes, any talk or lesson should be turned to scriptures.

Pres. R - there are not just 4 accounts of the First Vision, there are also accounts of 5 more times he saw Christ, 20 accounts of visits by Moroni, he got lengthy instruction and was well schooled. George Q Cannon said Joseph had "vision after vison, fully saturated- John Taylor said Joseph was as familiar with people (in scriptures) as we are with each other - he once gave a very specific description once of Paul (during School of the Prophets). Orson F Whitney "no pain that we suffer...(would love to find quotes used!)

 DC 121:1 leads to 123:17

Joseph S had a great ability to forgive (WWWPhelps who wrote Praise to the Man was also the one who caused great problems for church, but was forgiven when he returned)

The early June zone conference finally available - still no sign of photo from late July (they happen every six weeks)

After lunch, someone realized this would be our last zone conference (our end date is just a day or so before the next so officially we are in our last transfer), so we were asked to join the departing missionaries to bear a short testimony. Sister Risenmay always includes lots of bits from trainings and speakers in her closing remarks. I'm not good at saying something worthwhile on no notice so it wasn't very interesting, but here's what I might have mentioned if it had been an hour later after thought: I'm very impressed with the missionaries' abilities to teach to needs and to counsel together (both based on understanding and knowledge of scriptures, conference talks, and doctrines). These two things will serve them well in the future. One of the things they do is work to find out peoples' needs then teach to that - figure out what gospel principle(s) will help them with their need, what invitations they can make to help the person learn and live the principle, and what blessings they can promise for carrying through with the commitment/invitation. And help them keep their commitment. This is also how to minister! and how to do family home evening, and more-

We pass by Revere City Hall when we go up Broadway, and its another reminder of all the history here.

Couldn't get a photo on the day we could see about five layers of traffic all completely full and barely moving, we do a lot of tight curving around driving here, double roundabouts (8) and cloverleafs and almost u-turns two in a row, etc. And we've seen so many cars just go through red lights this week - the intersections often are stopped every direction at the same time to allow pedestrians to cross every way, and cars decide to just go on through.

The big project for the transfer was our turn to provide food for zone conference, about 100 people. I did a lot of research into how to make salad and fruit salad for a crowd because I see how these young missionaries usually eat and its pretty short of fruit and veg. They always seem super grateful when they get some melon or very veg-full pasta salad, etc. So we made a shopping trip to get melons and pineapples and grapes and blueberries  and strawberries (hoping they would be good ones!) and various greens and veg. It took a second store because there were no cantaloupes or grape/cherry tomatoes at the first. I spent about half an hour waiting for WalMart to figure out a tax-exempt card for me from the forms and then we learned later that there is no tax on food here anyway! Durk got the worst jobs, like grating 2 lbs of carrots. We ended up with all the fruit going fast - it did look pretty and smell good (we divided into cups to make sure everyone would get some, though we may have been two-three short at the end - we didn't have enough clear short cups to spread it into extra but should have). I will have to attach an appendix with the amounts we used - we did have about 1/3 of the green salad leftover so I whittled down the numbers to record. Durk and Elder Manderino had to go pick up the subs and google took them some crazy way they gave up on, but the sandwiches were good and people liked the variety. (steak with cheese, chicken parm made with fried cutlets, turkey BLT, and ham&chs) Not the ham and cheese so much, they were last to go and possible we should have gone ahead with the spicy Italian. We had gotten some gluten-free buns and had him do one sister's separately but fortunately that was the only thing I ended up having to adjust for. The day before they had dealt with all sorts of allergies and things. So they all had plenty of chances to go back for more if they wanted (except fruit), everything but extra salad got eaten, and we gave away ziplocs of salad to some very excited sisters. Maybe one went to elders. And extra bottled waters went to the office for use. Whew! A day full of cutting and prepping then leaving at 7 a.m. to get through traffic and unload, setting up... Cleaning up was actually fast and simple with loads of help, but we were quite worn out and happy that we only have to do it once.

The next day our morning appointment canceled and the Mandarinos had mentioned that you can still see the sand sculptures so we went to Revere Beach to look at them. I admit I thought from photos that they were bigger, but it was fun to see and we had a nice walk in beautiful weather. Revere Beach has some interesting apartment buildings with the ocean view, including one very pink one we had seen from the other side.

Elder Merrell near the one really big sculpture, used in all the ads with red and blue lighting

We looked at Maps to figure out what we were seeing out in the bay and decided to try driving to Nahant. Lots of fun coastal views and we could tell the water was a different color on the north side - probably deeper. Nahant is a "tied island". 

Revere Beach looking out toward Nahant

We came home and looked up houses out there, and found a nice big one for only $7  million. There are some pretty neighborhoods and several sections where you can see water on both sides. Not sure what it would be like in a big winter storm.... There was a stone church that I thought might be a few hundred years old like some in Boston but it was built in in the early 1900's. There's a former rescue station that I thought might have some historical displays or something but it's now an event center.

Looking north from Nahant, away from Revere. We ended up not driving quite to the tip since it had residence permit and resort only signs

The sculptures are pretty close together, when they had the 500,000 people at the sculpture festival, I'm not sure how likely it would be that you could ever really get in and watch them being made. I also didn't realize we wouldn't even have to walk on the sand since they all face the wide sidewalk (and the road that would have been full of food trucks)

On the way home Durk thought we should try the sub shop Elder Manderino recommended in Revere. We'd gone past it a few times but since the name is New Deal Fruit we thought the sandwiches were a minor side note but they are a big deal! -  lots of interesting options, I should take a photo of the signs. Durk declined to get one with eggplant. They had Richardson ice cream too - for 14.99 a (3 qt??) tub. They have over 50 kinds of cheese, including some they smoke and age themselves and about 20 imported, lots of italian dry pastas. Definitely more Italian in Revere than Chelsea, though they also had several types and sizes of tortillas.

100 Fruit cups: went over really really big! But takes work.

4 pineapples

6 lb. strawberries

9 lbs seedless grapes, 2-3 types/colors

4 assorted large melons (honeydew, cantaloupe, Hemi or other golden melon, etc)

1-2 lbs blueberries

 Wash berries and grapes in vinegar water, let dry, refrigerate

Cut melons and pineapples into pieces the day before, Ziploc bags work for transport. Take grapes off stems night before, (also into ziplocs, don’t make too heavy so they don’t smash)

Day of: cut strawberries, mix all together, use clear short cups (use one as scoop) and put out on big trays (adjust as needed to make sure you get all filled evenly)

Green Salad for 100 (based on what actually got eaten by young missionaries, not big greens eaters, chopping everything fairly small helps them take and eat more than a few leaves)

6 romaine hearts

2 large containers of spring mix

1 large cabbage

1 large iceberg

1.5 lbs carrots

4 yellow bell peppers

6 cups grape or cherry tomatoes

2 English cucumbers

(if desired, 3-4 bags of croutons)

3 small ranch dressings, 2 other small bottles of dressings -Italian, honey mustard. etc

 Day ahead: wash everything, chop romaine and cabbage (chop, bite-sized, small), grate carrots (coarse not fine), chop peppers or make short slices, cut cucumber in quarters lengthwise then slice, each in separate ziplocs for storage and transport.

Day of: chop iceberg and spring mix (kitchen scissors work well for the spring mix right in the container) to small chunks, cut tomatoes in half,

Mix all greens and carrot together in 2 large aluminum trays, lay peppers, cukes, and tomatoes in rows down center (not just for looks, but allows people to avoid what they don’t like)

Tongs for serving, Have dressings opened and ready to go.