"Astoria's Got Talent"

As missionaries we should be able to be two places at once. Imagine our sadness when we learned (after promising that we would speak in Jamaica last Saturday night) that our ward scheduled, "Astoria's Got Talent," for that same night. We begged Ann to change the date just for us...not so. We know how much talent there is in the Astoria Ward and so we also knew we were missing out on a memorable activity. On Sunday we heard all about it from our ward friends, "It was outrageously amazing,... a lot of fun and very uplifting,... and so much diversity!" We love the group we join with, the Astoria Ward of the Queens New York Stake. Well, Sunday we were privileged to witness as Phillip blessed the Sacrament for the first time. It was not an easy thing for him, but with the help of the greatest young men's president in the Church, Rob, he did it. The whole ward was joyful! We could just feel it. Our friend, Charles, sits by us and gave him two thumbs up. I wish it had been appropriate to give him an American Sign Language cheer...we all wanted to cheer! Philip had the biggest smile on his face, it displayed pure joy. Pictured above (LtoR) are Philip, Rob and Gabriel. We hope we never forget the thrill we felt with that important accomplishment.

We also had the Hughes Brothers who perform six nights a week in the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre in Branson, MO with us on Sunday. They had a show in Amsterdam, NY on Saturday night and chose to join the Astoria Ward on Sunday. Three excellent talks were given and then with a few remaining minutes Bishop Glass asked them to sing. They sang a melodious hymn medley and then joined us for the remaining meetings. We had a chance to visit with them and learned that they are a family from Taylorsville, UT, who moved to Branson and began performing there in January of 2000. The five brothers, their wives and 24 children put on an exciting show and have won many awards. All five brothers, Marty, Jason, Adam, Ryan and Andy, served missions and have select abilities that contribute to their family business. They parked their bus in the Woodside parking lot and rode trains through the boroughs, seeing NYC till Wednesday when they pulled out and headed South. We enjoyed meeting them, feeling of their brotherhood, as they added to Astoria's talent last Sunday.