Farewell to Winter

We are both ready for spring. However, the groundhog

upon seeing his shadow on February 2nd declared a
long cold winter. In defiance Lane has given up wearing
his coat...even though it is 28 degrees.

New York City street vendors took a more drastic approach.
They rounded up all the little groundhogs
and decided to make them pay!
This year Spring in NYC means Yankee baseball,
clear blue skies and the aroma of groundhog-on-a-stick!

Cathy and Anecia giggle with delight at
the mere mention of the hog-kabobs!
You know it is nearly Spring when the mannequins
at Macy's are "dressed" in fresh cut roses.
-Macy's 2008 Annual Flower Show-

As temperatures rise the Elders offer
investigators a cool dip in the baptismal font :)
Harlem Ward is growing rapidly. Pictured are 6 of the 8 Elders assigned
to the Ward. Down in front is a stalwart member of 16 months, Christian
Vitalien of Trinidad. Lane escorted him to the temple in March. He arrives
early for meetings, welcomes visitors, prepares and passes the sacrament,
provides security for the building, returns hymnals to the shelf, shares
his testimony, goes on splits with the Elders, has memorized the title
page of the Book of Mormon and happily recites it on request. The woman
in black is one of the Grand Dames of Harlem Ward, Polly Dickey, proud
grandmother of the first missionary from Harlem, Elder Joseph Bosket
serving in Atlanta until December.

It's been a tiring winter. Lane naps in the evenings as he relaxes
with soothing lavender and mint herb packs. The grin on his face
means only one thing...visions of hog-kabobs dance in his head!

May you have a great week doing what you do best,
being the best you can be, watching the best
General Conference yet and remembering
that we think you're the BEST!

Tesila Rose Hansen officially received her
name and a father's blessing today. xoxo

He is Risen!

The most beautiful words that I have ever read:
"He is not here for he is risen!"
It was great to attend Church services today,
topped off with an Easter Concert at Lincoln Square.

Here are photos from the past week:

We hosted a social following Harlem 1st Ward temple night.

A record number 2 dozen friends mingled

over ice cream and/or fresh fruit.

Earlier in the week (St. Patrick's Day) we
mused over various types of green menu items.

The "pot of gold" jigglers added a splash of color.

Speaking of green...Lincoln, Carrie and boys

arrived in time to try the Saturday evening

lottery for "Wicked" tickets. Carrie won!

...which means that 'Gama and Gampa' get
to play with 3 adorable grandsons.

Scott closely examines his pepperoni pizza.

Earlier in the week we opened up one of the

Manhattan church buildings for the crew of

a local taping. They needed a large indoor

space to eat lunch. You may have heard of

the TV series. A little production known as

"Law & Order: SVU".

It was another super week in the mission.

Capped off with a traditional easter dinner......and on the lighter side...

SomeBUNNY loves you!

Harlem African American Genealogy Conference

It was the 4th Annual
Harlem African American Genealogy Conference,

(or HAAGC for short).
Paul Nauta from SLC Family History, Pres Buckner-NYNY Stake,
Christian Vitalien-Harlem Ward.....at the World Famous SYLVIA'S
-- pre-conference Soul Food

Registration central, with Carolyn's display board as back-up.
The tree is her chalk drawing extraordinaire.

Amber, Bishop Pabon, Paul Nauta, Dr Howard Dodson,
keynote speaker from the NYC Library, Schomberg
Center for Black Cultural Studies. His entrance was
heart-stopping. He arrived 25 minutes late! Next is
Elder H & then State Senator Perkins (making a political meet 'n greet)

Beautiful Sister Howell, Amber-the chairperson, Ahmad Corbitt and Christine, an attendee

If you gotta get old, you really need a campaign chairperson like Carolyn to draw attention to the milestone and make you feel like a million bucks. Cards, letters, emails and sympathy notes from all over the country. I was stunned and moved. Thank You, everyone, for being so thoughtful. I will never forget you, until the allzheim....now, what was I saying?

Now, Lane, don't spit on the cake when you try to blow out all those candles!

The laugh of the evening....Carolyn brushed by the card on the end, and the entire card display went down like rows of dominos. I wonder if there is a hidden meaning in that? One of the cards said if all the 60-year-old people in the world were laid end to end......most of them wouldn't be able to get up again! :}

Happy Birthday to wonderful sister, Charla Jean, on the 20th!
Lincoln and Carrie with our 3 grandsons arrive for Easter weekend!
St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow-the day we color milk and
alfredo sauce green in honor of leprachauns. Enjoy your week.
7 days until Easter!!!!!! Spring is near...and we love you :)

After You En edits my blog...I then edit my blog, so there!

Hi. A two week conference was recently held. Thousands of

women from throughout the world met to discuss
ways to defeat violence against women and provide
empowerment opportunities generally.

The Shumways leveraged their connections

and we were able to sit in on the opening session.

It's always interesting to see the inner workings here.
Side or Parallel Meetings occur over the course of the conference.

The Shumways proposed and organized a side meeting
to discuss the highly successful Perpetual Education Fund.
Here N. Shumway introduces the panel members...

They are: Rose N, fund contributer;
Dr. Karen H, BYU research team;

Elder C, Administrator of PEF for the Church;

and A.C., panel moderator
and director of our office.

We were pleased with the turnout for the event.

And while Elder C was in town he offered

to speak Monday evening if the Shumways would

organize it. They did, planning a potluck meal and

fireside for the senior couples serving in the temple

and NY NY North Mission.

There is so much to learn on a mission that can
and should be applied in our lives.

Just while waiting 3
hours in line for our photo ID passes we learned popular
international names. They are much more unique than
the USA names. Read on and see if you agree. Looks as
if the Hansen's are determined to keep the much overused
"Tesila" but it's not too late for Meredith and
Tyson to come up with a fresh name.

Most popular USA Female names
1. Emily
2. Hannah
3. Madison
4. Ashley
5. Tesila
6. Alexis
7. Samantha
8. Jessica
9. Taylor
10. Elizabeth

Most popular USA Male names
1. Jacob
2. Michael
3. Matthew
4. Joshua
5. Christopher
6. Nicholas
7. Andrew
8. Joseph
9. Daniel
10. Tyler

Popular International Names
Females (must end in A):
1. Zilpha
2. Faouza
3. Tishka
4. Husniyya
5. Galina
6. Zhanna
7. Liudmila
8. Lada
9. Arthelia

10. Fekita (short for Fekitamoeloa)

Males:
1. Crispin
2. Fuad
3. Yury
4. Sergei
5. Ilgar
6. Fatma
7. Selwin
8. Ogtay
9. Pavel
10. Nafi

...AND we have plenty more great suggestions.

Until next time,
Lane Aboubacar Howell
Carolyn Ruheena Howell

PS
For a fun evening we invited Amy S.
and darling sons over for dinner.

We love you Amy!

Shout outs...Robert turns teenager tomorrow,

Mary Lou and Lane share a March 12th birthday,

Steph and Jer celebrate a dozen happy years on the 14th :)

Museum of Natural History

If you had a free day in Manhattan what would you do? Easy choice for us. We've been looking forward to a big block of museum time. A brisk one mile walk up Central Park West and we enter another dimension...The American Museum of Natural History

Twins! Of these two creatures one is very old
but the other is very scary (and cute)!

Among the special exhibits we
enjoyed The Butterfly Conservatory...

Open wide...wider! Meredith, does this
big mouth remind you of your patients?

Leaving the museum we followed Teddy Roosevelt's
advice to explore the great outdoors.

A common site in NY...dog-walkers

...and the New-York Historical Society
keeps the street free of rabble-rousers.

The famed Cheyenne Diner,
(made more famous in "It Could Happen to You")
located just one block from...

Madison Square Garden...

which, by the way, is not square.

Thought we'd slip in one photo of us working with the media:

...because next p-day this is what we hope to be doing...

Shout outs...Welcome to Baby Tesila-leap day; Happy Birthday Curtis-March 3rd; two year old Emeline-March 6th; teenager Robert-March 10th; Lincoln and Carrie celebrate 7 years on March 7th! Callie and Rayson moved to Medesto, California last Saturday. Jerry restarted his work in Salt Lake City- March 5th.

Better late than never...

All of a sudden...winter came visiting.

We loved seeing Central Park covered in a blanket of snow yesterday.

Last week the Senior couples in the NYNY North Mission met at the Mission Home for lunch. I placed my little camera on the fireplace mantel and this is what I got. It's not important that we got sliced off but one couple is completely missing :(

Our dear friends, the Clements gave us a personal tasting menu as a gift for valentine's day.

Since Duaine is a busy French chef at the Four Seasons he came on his day off, Feb 13th, bringing Gil to serve (she works 3 jobs, one of which is catering).
The first of 8 courses was "Wellfleet oysters w/ pickled kiwi mignonette". Hard to imagine but neither of us had ever had an oyster...down the hatch.
Following super descriptive courses of king crab, carrot bisque, cavatelli and flounder we were served our third entree of "Australian lamb, legume mille-feuille, and potato puree". Lastly we had two dessert courses. (Pictured is the lamb)
It was absolutely the nicest meal we had ever had - anywhere, ever. Magnifeek!
The best we could do was to treat them to Carnegie Deli and cheesecake. They actually split this one sandwich. We still owe them big time.
This attractive couple was married last July and Gil was baptized in November. They start our temple prep class next week! Find yourself in the temple whenever possible. And if you think it's not possible give yourself a little more credit. Your potential is limitless. We love you.

Happy Birthday to 25 year old Britni!!!

Manhattan Meeting Houses

Elder & Sister Davis, two of the hardest-working missionaries we have met....getting ready to depart for Riverton. They worked with the deaf members from all 5 boroughs of NYC, building the deaf branch from spotty attendance of 30-50, to over 80 on a regular basis. Champions!
Until 2-3 years ago, this was the meetinghouse where everyone in Harlem went to church. The roll-up security doors led to regular doors, and a large, long meeting room. 7 years ago, the Harlem Branch had half a dozen priesthood and a lot of spirit.

Now, as a result of great missionary work, Harlem has a new building, a Spanish ward, and the Harlem 1st ward. At a recent priesthood meeting, I counted over 80 men and boys in attendance. This building has 5 floors, an elevator, parking for 13 cars underneath (ground level), folding chairs in the chapel, and more spirit than you can imagine. Pay no attention to those two missionaries blocking the view.

Five years ago the Church dedicated a new meetinghouse in downtown Manhattan. It is a former Catholic Convent that runs all the way through the block. This is the pretty side. The 4th and 5th floors contain the chapel (very normal-looking), and the floors below house ward offices, classrooms, CES, and the Stake Employment Center. 2 wards and the deaf branch live here.

We couldn't find any steeple, but looking up at certain angles, and with a great deal of imagination, ......... well, it's New York !!

From the roof of the still-existing convent side of the complex, you can see the Empire State Building on the left and the Chrysler Building on the right (the pointy ones). Inside the old structure is like a haunted house....crosses, statues of Mary, stained-glass windows, stairways to everywhere, bedrooms and dorm-type bathrooms at every turn, and all in decay. All, except for the rooms where the senior missionary couple lives. Up 39 stairs, down some spooky hallways, and voila...Elder and Sister Carpenter.

On the northern end of Manhattan is a new building in the Inwood community. Right across from a park you don't want to go through at night, this unique, new structure houses 2 wards.

This spectacular new 6 story meeting house recently appeared on the upper East side of Manhattan. It houses the stake offices, two wards and a branch. For those in the "know", a building lot in the upper East side of Manhattan will cost more than the entire state of North Dakota. Prior to all these new structures, everyone in Manhattan met in.......

....the Lincoln Center building, better known now as the Manhattan Temple. This is a multi-use building, housing 2 wards, NYC Public Affairs, a mini Distribution Center for temple clothing, and of course, the beautiful Temple. It sits at the intersection of Leonard Bernstein Way, Columbus Avenue and Broadway......this intersection is also home to the NY Metropolitan Opera Hall, NYC Opera Hall, NY Symphony Hall, and Julliard Music School. (And Elder & Sister Howell's apartment)

A few streets away is 11th Avenue....home to every auto dealership known to man. As we walked along, we couldn't resist stopping to look at some of the smallest places of worship in Manhattan.

There's room for a growing congregation.

And enough flair to catch the sports enthusiasts for Sunday School. We LOVE NEW YORK. The fascination of interesting places, people and activities never ends. And to be missionaries here is a blessing we will never forget.