Lights Out!

Last night just as we were finishing the 5:00 session we had an unusual experience, one worth remembering.  I had been the follower and we had just been in the office with Sister Bean.  We were putting away the language headsets. As we walked down the steps toward the back stairs the power went off.  Jeff and I were in a hurry as we had tickets to hear the Lds group Millennial Choir sing at Carnegie Hall.  When we opened the door to the stairwell it was pitch black and no other way to get down.  The elevators weren’t working due to the power outage.  Sister Bean got her phone and we were able to get down to the 4th floor and find a few flashlights.  the patrons all had to be directed down the backstairs to an emergency exit.  While the brothers were evacuating the patron, I tried to do our cleaning on the 4th floor with the use of the light on my phone.  One of the sisters commented about the fact that there was  no emergency lighting in the bathrooms and they were pitch black, making it very difficult to find the way out.

When we finally got out of the temple we had to take the back stairs up to our apartment on the 6th floor.  I was so winded when we made it upstairs.  We quickly changed still hoping to get to Carnegie Hall.  We walked the few blocks and when we were walking the streets were flooded with people.  We bought a hotdog and water from the vendor in front of the temple, Jeff was annoyed because he had jacked the prices up on his food.  We then rushed to the concert.  When we arrived the streets were becoming packed with people.  There was no power there either.  We waited around for about an hour and then it was canceled.  The choir came out and sang to the NYFD while they were working on the street.  Jeff said they sang “I Believe in Christ” but I couldn’t make it out.  He had tears in his eyes.  After we left to return to our apartment the sang “I Stand All Amazed”.  there is aided of it on Facebook.

We walked back to Columbus Circle bought an ice cream cone and sat on a bench outside of Trump Tower until just after 9 when we returned to our apartment, up the back stairs.  We waited for the power to come on sometime between 10:30 and 11:00.

I was amazed at the friendly nature of the crowds.   And the peaceful environment. I never once felt in danger or threaten and was a little surprised at some of the news coverage.  Definitely a New York Experience.