The Fourth in New York

On the fourth of July, I went to Ocean Grove, which was a beach in New Jersey with my friends Alina, Jeff and Elise. It was a beautiful beach with smooth sand and it seriously went on for miles. I slept on the beach, went in the water where there was some killer waves, went to this amazing bed and breakfast place where I had apple bread french toast with bananas, and had delicious chicken and egg salad sandwiches for lunch with lots of diet coke with lime (Yes I do drink caffeinated soda-- too bad if you think that is a sin). It was so relaxing. We also had a game where we all designed a swim cap. I won the game, coming up with a hilarious New York Napoleon Dynamite-esque design, complete with a gun, the McDonalds arch (since there are 97 McDonalds restaurants in Manhattan, according to the movie Supersize Me), a coffee cup, pollution, a subway train and more . At night we all went to Liberty Park to watch the fireworks. There was a big Firework show by the Statue of Liberty. There were also fireworks going off on the Manhattan skyline. It was cool because the buildings looked like they were on fire.

I also went to the Bensonhurst Brooklyn ward today for church and got to see a lot of the members when I served as a missionary there in the New York New York South Mission about 5 years ago. The spirit was so strong there and it was so good to see my convert Patrice again. She is doing so well in the gospel and is really strong. Her two sons both got baptized yesterday and I attended the baptism. Today, Patrice asked me to participate in the confirmation in sacrament meeting. I don't think I felt the Spirit so strong as I did there since my mission. It is amazing to see how much Patrice has grown and now because she joined the church her whole family is joining it too. Her sons are so excited to serve missions and I am really excited that my efforts in teaching and baptizing Patrice have now led to even more people joining the church in the future. Patrice just seems so happy.

We were both talking yesterday about my other convert, Eleazar, who is inactive and wants nothing to do with the church now. Patrice said that he needed to from the very beginning to continually nourish his Faith in order to continue to have the Spirit. It was so good to hear that from her. She has such a strong testimony and is such a strength to the church. I think she is the only one of my 13 converts that is still active, but I am eternally grateful for her.

Bensonhurst, however, has changed quite a bit. A lot of the same shops around the church have now changed and the place is almost completely different. A lot of the members have also now moved out over the last 5 years. But most of the people I got to know well and was friends with are still there, including the Lo's, the Johnson family, the Fuhrimans, and the Sorianos.

Things are going well in Manhattan too. I saw Wicked two weeks ago. I won a lottery--I put my name on a card and they drew my card and I got into the show for $25 and it was a front row seat. It was amazing. The best musical by far I have ever seen. Some of the songs were not that great, but the costumes, lighting and stage production made the whole show worth it. It also had an incredible story. I would see it again several times. I loved it. I also saw this show called "In The Heights" and miraculously got into that for $30 from this lady on the street who was selling extra tickets that she needed to get rid of from a YMCA thing. They were third row seats. It was a musical focusing on Latin Americans in Washington Heights in Manhattan and how they move on to a better life and recognize how important their home is. Doesn't sound like much, but it was amazing. The music had a Latin flavor with a English and Spanish mix to it. I bought the soundtrack because I loved it so much.

I have also done a lot of other things too. I went to the Empire State Building, an amazing dessert place (Serendipity, where the Serendipity movie was filmed) where I had frozen hot chocolate several times, Ground Zero, the Today Show twice in Rockefeller Center (saw Alanis Morisette and the American Idol winners, David Cook and David Archuleta), the financial district, 8 broadway shows, the Apollo Theatre to watch an Amateur night show where people sang and danced and the audience got to cheer for them or boo them off stage, and much more.