Happy Birthday Stephen - June 10th

I had a good birthday week. We taught lots of people and found some new investigators. On my birthday we taught a man named Hector in the morning. The lesson went very well. Later in the afternoon we went to sis. Martinez' home for dinner. It was a good day in the mission field, but it didn't feel much like a birthday, but it was a good day. I got your package that night so we put the hats on and took some pictures at our apartment.
We started teaching a Dominican girl that I think is really going to progress quickly. We've only met with her 2 times, we teach her on her front porch in Queens Village. Last time we read the Intro and 1 Nephi Chp. 1 with her. I asked her what it would mean to her if the Book of Mormon was true, and she said something to the effect that, It would mean that there really was a prophet and that this would be the only true church. For some people it's hard to get them to make that connection. So i was super excited when she said that. She is going to keep reading as far as she can until we see her on Friday. We'll probably stop by the McDonald's she works at and say hi, sometime before Friday. So i have high hopes for her.
We have some other investigators that are interested but are kinda busy. And they call and cancel appointments. We know that they are interested because they call and tell us instead of just not being home when we come over for our appointments. Elder Reyes and I have been working hard and I think we're going to see some success very soon. Bro. Stephen Allen, who is over all of the missions in the world, and he also headed the making of Preach My Gospel, came to visit our mission. He said that our mission was the most prepared place he had seen and he believes that we can baptize a lot more that we are. We just need to "Consecrate" ourselves as missionaries. I myself have been trying to be better and always talk to people wherever I go. It's easy just to walk passed people on the street and not say anything, but all i have to do is open my mouth and that person might be willing to except the Gospel and gain eternal life. I have discovered that me feeling kinda stupid for stopping someone and trying to talk to them really doesn't matter. Because if they listen it could change their life and the lives of their family, for eternity. It's not fun to be rejected, But its worth it when you find someone willing to listen.

I hit my 11 month mark tomorrow, that means i need to get to work before time runs out! Time just keeps on going even if we don't pay attention to it. I wish you all a wonderful week, and Dad, A Happy Fathers Day on Sunday!!! Your the best dad a boy could ask for. Have a great week!

Well we had a pretty good week. We didn't teach a million lessons but it was a good week. We met some cool people and had some good lessons with them. We are teaching a lot of people that haven't really had much of a religious experience in their lives. So we've been helping them understand who Heavenly Father is and that they can communicate with Him through sincere prayer.

The end of the Transfer is July 6. Next transfer I get to go to the temple for my 1 year mark. I'm excited for that. Elder Reyes and I are pretty sure that one of us is leaving. We will know for sure on Saturday. I hope I stay here. I really like the ward here in Little Neck.

I will probably take the Subway for the first time on my mission on our way to the Temple next transfer. It's kinda funny that I have been in New York for almost a year and still haven't taken a Bus or a Train! I will some day.

June 21st Little Neck

On Friday we had a good lesson with our investigator Roberto. He told us that he asked his boss(who is jewish) if he could have sundays off and he said yes! and he told us that he prayed about the book of mormon and felt peace in his heart. so we're excited for him. He told us he wants us to keep teaching him and he will come to church and that he eventually wants to be baptized. So that was great to hear.

We had a good Sabbath day yesterday and it sounds like you guys had a good father's day. Have a great week, and try to share the gospel, even though most people are members in Utah.

Coming up on the 1 year mark...

Over a year ago, Stephen lost his wallet somewhere on the property of his BYU roommate's home in Heber. They looked for hours for it. This spring his roommate's father found the wallet while working in a pasture. Stephen was so excited because it had a $50 PF Changs gift certificate in it and...there is a PF Changs near his apartment. He had us send it to him. You can see from the photos that he was excited about it!




There's not too much to report this week, but everything is going fine. I realized this week that in a little over a year I am going to have to take my name tag off, and i won't be able to wear it again. This is the only time i will ever have to walk the streets of New York preaching the gospel, so i can't waste a minute. I feel re-motivated to work hard and to always be looking for people to teach.

Memorial Day 2010

Elder Reyes and I saw a lot of success.Elder Reyes and I have been really working hard and we found some new investigators this week. And we taught the most lesson that we have ever taught together.

Thursday was an interesting day. We had an appointment with a old Potential investigator and we visited them in the late afternoon after weekly planning. It turned out that they were not interested at all. It was a puerto rican family that only spoke english, they had two teenage daughters that had their boyfriends over when we came. The fact that they only spoke english made it so everything fell on me. I could tell that they were not going to take anything seriously so i did my best to share a short simple, uplifting message. The mother sat down and listened a little, but they really didn't care. It was awful. They really didn't give a hoot about what we had to say and it was sad. after we left i felt terrible inside. I really didn't feel like doing anything. I felt like Lehi when the Jews mocked him, or something like that. It was no fun. But we kept working and ended up teaching 2 other lessons and setting up return appointments with 2 people that seem very prepared. I felt very happy at the end of the day and will always remember that day. I felt sooooo discouraged. but kept going and the Lord provided the miracle.

Wednesday was 98 degrees outside and we spent the morning looking up former investigators in Queens Village. we walk a lot and it was really hot. And after a while a man an woman from Guyana let us in. They were hindu but like all religion, we taught them the restoration and then she made us Curry and Rice. I was so grateful to get out of the sun and have a home cooked meal. it was really cool. I didn't even know that Guyana is in South America. They were very kind and we gave them a book of mormon and they plan on reading it. At least the Husband, but he just wants to read not have the english elders come and teach them.

Something kinda funny happened the other day. We talked to this guy who was having a BBQ in his backyard and his first name is ELDER. I almost started laughing when he said it, but luckily i was able to hold it in. At first he was excited to meet two people with his same name, but we crushed his hopes when we told him it was just a title that meant missionary. Elder Reyes and i think that his mother must have known some missionaries and decided to name her son Elder. Anyway we are teaching Elder, and who knows what will happen if he gets baptized.

Stephen's companion & photos from Concepcion

Stephen's current companion is from the same area in Chile as our daughter-in-law. When Jeff went to Concepcion this last week to visit them, he went to Stephen's companion's home and met his parents. Here are some pictures of earthquake damage and pictures of Jeff's his visit with the Reyes family. They are very proud of their son.

Good Food

Pictures:

1: Here's a picture of the 4 of us at an activity
2: Elder Furlong and I eating a Hallepeno pepper
3: Some food. The things that look like tortillas are pupusas, and they're AWESOME!

May 24, 2010

This was a good week. I forgot to bring my daily planner with me today so I probably won't be able to remember everything. But I'll try. Nothing too exciting happened until Friday, nothing I remember at least. On Friday we had our Zone Conference with Elder Michael Ringwood of the Seventy. The conference was really good, but really long. We got there at 8:00 to practice a musical number. The conference started at 9:00 and finished around 4:00. There was also a fireside at 7:00 and he spoke to the members of the surounding areas.

The Conference was in Woodside, Queens, About an hour drive with traffic, so we stayed after the conference to wait for the fireside instead of driving and hour there and back. We went and got a gatorade and a little snack and then we went out on the streets and talked to some people while we waited for the Fireside. We were just going to stay inside and study because we missed personal and companionship study in the morning because we had to be there at 8. But Elder Ringwood sugested we do some work, even though it wasn't our area. His idea was better than ours, so we went out and "fearlessed" people on the streets of Queens. The road we were talking to people on had a train that ran above it. Like a subway, but above you. And it was crazy loud whenever the trains came over. Anyway, we talked to some people and I met my first spanish man that doesn't beleive in God. Also we found a less-active member from the Little Neck ward. She stopped us and asked us where the church was on Long Island. She told us she lived in Great Neck, and thats like 10 min from the Church. I was hoping to see her on Sunday, but she didn't come. Maybe next week. I really like talking to people on the street in the city, I kinda wish I could go to the city some time. But for now I'm staying in Little Neck, at least for 6 more weeks, and Elder Reyes is staying as well. All 4 of us are staying actually.

On Sunday, the less-active member we have been working with, and his wife came to Church. Just the last hour though, he has to work sunday mornings. Around 5 at night we went over to their house for dinner and we taught a really good lesson about the importance of the Restoration and how the gospel of Jesus Christ has brought happiness to our lives. She made us Pupusas, and they were soooo goood. She's going to teach me how to make them and I'll make them for you when i get home. They're probably my favorite spanish food. The brother used to be the 2nd counceler in the bishopric about 10 years ago. He has been inactive for a while but he is awesome and now is married and has a 6 month old daughter. He is a really great guy, but he has to work on Sundays. I'm really excited that they came to church and we have developed a great relationship with them.

We didn't find any new investigators this week, and we had a hard time getting in contact with lots of the investigators we have. But I have high hopes for this next transfer. There are lots of people that great investigators, but they're suuper busy with work.

Ayway, this was a great week. I'm excited for my wallet and PF Changs card. I found out there's a pf chang's about 15 min from our appartment. WOO HOO!
I love you and i hope you have a wonderful week. I'll attach a picture of Me, Elder Furlong, Elder Stewart and Elder Reyes.

Little Neck, May 2010

We started visiting a less-active member and his wife. His wife isn't a member and they just had their first baby about 6 months ago. He is really cool but he has been less-active for quite a while. He was a very active member before, been to the temple and everything. His wife is really nice and she has started to feel more comfortable with us and more open to learn. I'm excited for them. He is really cool, but he has to work on sunday, but still comes to the 2nd our or 3rd hour of church if he gets of work in time.

I'm not sure if i told you about Junior yet...We received a media referral that requested a Missionary Visit. We went to the house to contact them and talked with him and his wife. He has been out of jail for about 6 months now. while he was in jail he became friends with another inmate. His friend told him that someday, after he was out of jail, he would send two people to his house from his church. To make a long story short, Elder Reyes and I are those two people. We taught him the first lesson and gave them a book of Mormon. He has had a really rough past, but he has been clean from drugs and alcohol for 6 months now. We have an appointment with them this week. They seem really awesome and he told us he wants to come to church.
On Wednesday of this week we were on our way to service and a member called and asked us if we could go to the hospital to give a member a blessing before his operation. We drove back to the pad and got back into our proselyting clothes and headed over to the hospital. After driving around for 45 minutes looking for a parking spot we found one and eventually got to the hospital room of the member. He is 87 years old and his wife passed away about 4 years ago. He was about to have heart surgery to put in a pace maker defibrillator. We gave him a blessing and talked to him for about and hour and a half. He seemed very nervous, but the blessing went well and I felt like the surgery would go well. We left before he went into surgery. From what I have heard, he is doing very well, we are going to go visit him asap.
On Saturday the Korean Elders had a baptism. The baptism was at the Beach. pretty cool.
We all drove over to the beach in Port Washington and the girl, Sarah, was baptized. It was cool, my first beach baptism. She has a lot of member friends going to Collage with her and she is dating a returned missionary who served in South Korea. Her boyfriend baptized her.
This transfer has really gone by very fast. We are starting week 6 already. It's definitely the fastest transfer of my mission.
Elder Ringwood from the Seventy is coming to visit our mission and talk to the members in NY this week. On Friday we have Zone Conference and a Elder Ringwood Fireside in Woodside, Queens.

May in Little Neck

This week went well. Elder Reyes and I had a lot of apointments with members and we found 7 new investigators. Since Elder Jacobs showed us around we had a lot more people to look up and now lots of them are investigators. On monday we visited the less active members who has been listening to the Jehovahs Witnesses. We had him start reading the book of mormon starting at 1 nephi for the first time. He's been a member for alomost 10 years, but i don't know if he's even been to church 10 times. I wouldn't bet on it. But he's a nice guy and we're doing our best to help him out.

Tuesday we went and visited our Recent Convert sister Maria Lopez. Her Daughter is coming to visit from El Salvador and plans to come to church on Sunday with her. Maria has a little dog named Perla that goes crazy when we come over, she loves us. She made us some lunch while we visited. We taught her about Temples and Baptisms for the dead, she said that she would like to be with her (Viejito)( little old man) again. Her husband passed away a few years ago. She saw a picture of the temple and she wants to go do baptisms for the dead. we're going to set up a time to go to the temple with the ward. We also taught a great lesson to a former investigator named Roberto. He is a really cool guy. He is 29, married and has 2 little kids. and they are the cutest little kids ever. They are an awesome family and i am excited for them. They really seem prepared.

Wednesday we contacted a Media Referal who had ordered "Finding Happiness". We watched it with him and his mother. Then spoke about God and that He is our father and has a plan for all of us. It was great and we set up a time to come back to teach him about the Restoration. He seemed interested and truely wanted to learn more about what we had to share.
Thursday we had dinner at the Castillano family's home. He is from Argentina and his wife is Ecuadorian. They have a very sharp 9 year old daughter. They are a wonderful family. We talked for a long time and had a really good time. They have some friends that they are going to try to share the gospel with. We trying to help them feel comfortable talking about the gospel with there friends.

Friday we taught a lady named Vidita. She is an older woman and she was locked out of her house for some reason. So she was waiting for her friends to get back home and let her in. Anyway, we taught her on the stair case leading up to her apartment room. It was kinda dark, but it was really good lesson and think she felt something. She seemed very receptive and we set up an apointment for next Saturday.

On Saturday we helped a member move into a new apartment. We got there at 8:30 and left at 3:30 it was a lot of work. It was fun though, they are a really funny family and the time went by really fast. And she bought us Pizza afterwards.

On Sunday Maria came to church with her Daughter. It was fast and Testimony meeting. I translated. It was a very nice meeting, only 1 weird testimony and i didn't translate it all. I not only translate, i also filter out false doctrine and other inapropriate stuff... ha ha.

We have our Zone Activity today at Flushing MEadows Park. We are supposed to play frisbee and soccer and have a BBQ. It's kinda rainy so we'll see what happens. It was 85 yesterday and 85 on Saturday as well. ITs been pretty stinkin hot. But the rain came down last night and it was pooring this morning.

Little Neck week 2

My second week in my new area, Little Neck, went pretty well. We got to know some of the members a little better by going to mutual on Wednesday night and looking up some less-active families to teach. On Friday we had our Combined District Meeting in Flushing, Queens. Flushing is almost entirely Chinese. The CDM went really well. We talked about setting personal goals and improvining ourselfs not only as missionaries but as people. I really got a lot out of it and have set some good personal goals for the next 6 weeks.

After the meeting we went on a "Street Sweep" on Main St. They gave us a bunch of little flyers for free english class in Chinese. There were about 30 missionaries and half of us went on one side of the street and half on the other side and we just handed out flyers and talked to people for about a half hour or so. The chinese elders taught me how to say "free english class" in Chinese, and i would just walk up to Chinese people, make a weird noise or two, and they understood me! and took the flyer almost every time. The english classes work really well in the Chinese program. The people really want to learn eglish and are willing to put the effort into learning. The street sweep was a lot of fun and i fearlessed the only 3 spanish people i saw the whole time. The verb To Fearless means: to go up to and talk to that person, just para que sepa. Anyway i really like the street sweep and it made me want to serve in the City where there are always people to talk to, EVERYWHERE. They're are so many people its crazy. My area is just outside of the city, we have about 10 blocks that are Technically part of Queens, but it's almost all Korean people. But we're working on finding some spanish people there as well. There are quite a few less-active families that live in that area.

There is an elder serviing in Flushing Spanish named Elder Jacobs and he served in Little Neck for 6 months. He is in a Trio right now, so he came with elder Reyes and I into our area on Saturday. We spent the whole day looking up old investigators and less actives. It was really awesome. There are a ton of people that we didn't know about and now we have appointments with lots of them. Por lo menos we have tons of addresses of poeple to look up now. Sunday went very well. I confirmed Maria Lopez in sacrament meeting and she seemed very happy. She is a 67 year old El Salvadorian woman, not sure if i told you already.

Little Neck

I was really stressed on Tuesday evening. Elder Reyes and I have been "blinded in" to our area. Which means that they took out both of the missionaries in this area and put two new ones in. On Tuesday night i was just worrying because i had no idea where i was and how we were going to work, and i didn't know where to get started. It turns out that the area isn't too hard to figure out, at least getting around in a car isn't to hard. Where in Nassau County. Its almost in the city. Queens Village is in our area. It's a lot different from Riverhead, but i think I'm going to love it here. The ward is a spanish and english ward, and i Translated on Sunday. It went very well and this little spanish grandma told me that she understood everything and was so happy that I'm here, So that made me feel good about myself. My spanish isn't really that good though, but it should improve as i spend 24-7 with a native who only speaks a little bit of English.
Although we got blinded in i think we'll do just fine. We've just been looking up investigators that are in the "area book" and contacting some former investigators, as well as knockin some doors. We've already found some people to teach. We plan on visiting a lot of members as well. A woman was baptized on Sunday, and we will be visiting her at least once a week to review all of the lessons and keep her excited. She is really cool, she a 67 year old woman from El Salvador. She's great.
Our pad is a Little apartment above a Domino's on a pretty main street. There's plenty of honking and things that go on during the night, so it's a little harder to sleep. But Ive been sleeping well enough.
On Wednesday we went to Flushing Meadows Park to do service with the gardener there. That's where the World Fair was held, with the big globe and the Flying saucers from Men in Black are. Also Met's stadium is right there as well. It was cool. I forgot my camera though, but i'll take a couple pictures next week.

Rain rain rain

On Monday night and all of Tuesday it rained and rained and rained. The round about by the church has a pond by it and the pond over flowed. There are about 6 houses or so that the water came up and around the homes. A couple of the Families were investigators. It was pretty crazy, most of the water is gone now, but the road is still full of water. I'll send you pictures next week. I forgot to bring my card reader to the library today. Our basement flooded as well, but its just concrete down there and there's a pump that pumps the water out of the basement and into the yard. It's still pumping water out. At one point there were about 6 inches of water on the basement floor. We had to turn of the hot water heater and have FREEZING cold showers.

Yesterday was the last day of "Suit Season" so its out with the jacket and in with the short sleeves baby! I'm excited to where short sleeves and no jacket.

Fabiola helps. March 29

This was a good week. We found a lot of new people to teach this week. We found a litte appartment building in hampton bays that looks like it used to be a motel. There are about 25 doors and all of them are hispanic families. We went by on a tuesday night I think. We knocked on most of them and almost all of them invited us to come back. A litte girl named fabiola was following us to every door and telling us if they were home or not. Me and elder Mosman would knock the door and me and him would be standing at the door and little fabiola would stand right between us at every door and just smile at the people when they anwered. Then we would go to the next door and she'd follow us. It was funny. We have an appointment to teach her family in a couple days. He mother seemed very kind and interested in the gospel. We found a lot of potential investigators and hopefully we will teach all of them this week.
Sunday moring we went and visited a family before church and invited them to come. And they actually came! it was great. they really seemed to like it and asked us if we do this every sunday. They'll be come to general conference next week.
On Saturday we did some "Soccer Finding". We have a big field behind the church that the church owns and every Saturday we play soccer to find new investigators and have a littel fun as well. We had 16 people show up and the only members were the 4 missionaries. We're hoping some of them will come to general conference next week.
We tried something a litte different this week. We gave our investigators reading assignments and we gave them 3 or 4 questions to answer as well. questions regarding their reading. All of them did their homework and it was clear that they understood the reading much better. It was cool to see such a big difference by just giving them a couple questions to think about while they read. We are doing our best to leave homework for our investigators from now on.

March 8th new companion

The first week of each transfer is always pretty crazy, especially if you get a new companion. On Monday Elder H and I visited a couple members and an investigator so He could say goodbye and share a message. Tuesday we headed to tranfer meeting around 8:30. And I came back with my new companion Elder M. Elder M has been in Brooklyn for all of his mission, and hasn't driven a car for a year. So it was a little scary the first day that he drove, but now he's used to it again.
On Friday we had a really great lesson with a family that we have been teaching. A member works with the father of the family. The member Brother K invited the family to come over to their home for dinner and then we came over afterward and we had a really great talk with the family and the K family. It was amazing. It's incredible to see how much easier it is to share the gospel when the members are sharing the gospel with their friends.
On Saturday we taught 2 lessons to investigators and visited 2 less actives. And both the less actives came to church on Sunday! One of them just needed a ride and the other has to go with her husband around 1 so she's going to the 1st branch which starts at 9, that's better than not coming at all.
Last night we talked with Z and W. W's baptism is scheduled for the 13(this Saturday) and Z told us that she wants to be baptized on the same day. So next Saturday we are going to have 2 baptisms. They are awesome and they love the Gospel. They are reading the Book of Mormon and they love to come to church. I'm so happy for them. We taught them the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Tithing in the same night, and they accepted it like it was no problem at all. Z had been wondering how to pay tithing... now she knows :) they really are amazing and I can't wait for their baptism, it will be great. Hopefully our investigators will come to the baptism. It's almost an 85% chance that you will be baptized if you attend a baptism. Crazy.
Elder M and I get along great. He's from Moscow, IDAHO. He translated Sacrament meeting on Sunday and I finally got to take a little break. But I still had to translate Relief Society. A Spanish member was teaching the lesson, so I translated it into English. It was weird because i am used to doing it the other way around. A couple of times i started speaking in Spanish... they all laughed at me. ha ha. It was kinda fun to go to relief society, I'd never been before.
So... everything is going well. The area I'm in is THE BEST and the work is moving forward. I am excited to see what the future holds for us. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes i feel like I'm tracking in Sodom and Gamorah. But then you find a family or someone who's been prepared by the Lord and it makes it all worth it.

Be happy and make sure you follow the Prophets counsel to do something, for someone every day.
I love you and I'll talk to you soon.

March 1 Last week of Transfers

This was a pretty crazy week. The last week of every transfer is a little crazy. Everyone in my pad found out where they were going on Friday morning, but I had to wait until Saturday night for "Transfer Calls".

I'm staying here for the next 6 weeks for sure. I'm happy because we have 3 Baptismal commits for this next transfer, March 13, and on April 10. And we have a lot of investigators that are very close to being baptized. P comes to church every Sunday and He and I are good friends. He's 23. He likes to sit next to me while i translate in the back and whisper words to me that I don't know. Sometimes he's wrong and it confuses me - ha ha. But he is really cool and wants to be baptized, just has a couple things to take care of first.

I'm a little nervous to see who my new companion is. But Elder P and J are staying here in Riverhead, so I'm REALLY happy about that. Elder P is one of the elders from American Fork and Elder J is from Sandy. They are both great missionaries and really cool people.

We went out to East Hampton on Saturday and we taught a really cool guy and a family that lives out there. The family drives an Hour to Church every Sunday and they have come 4 or so times. It's hard to go all the way out to East Hampton very often, but we need to do it more often. Hopefully we will be going out there more often with my new companion.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is OK, for the most part, in Chile. I've been worrying for the past few days. I hope that everything will be OK. Keep me updated on EVERYTHING. I'll keep them in my prayers. I haven't had the chance to talk to Sister S, the Chilean member, but she is from northern Chile, an hour north of Santiago, but I'll ask her when I get the chance.

It's been raining for the past week and it snowed on Wednesday and Thursday, it was a lot of snow but it's almost all melted. Supuestamente its going to snow on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. I'm ready for spring. I want to go run around and play some soccer, get some of this flab off of me, ha ha. I'm definitely sick of winter and ready for spring.

For now, we still have Suzy, my new car, but when the little green girl car gets fixed we will get it back and had Suzy over to some other missionaries. This might happen at Transfer meeting. We'll see.

Tonight we have a couple of appointments with members and investigators,so Elder H can say goodbye. He has served here for 6 months so its hard to say goodbye. But he's doing fine.

I think that's everything, let me know if anybody wants to buy the house and what the game plan is.. If Dad is still planning on going down to Chile anytime soon, stuff like that. Just let me know. I will be sure to inform you about my new companion and everything next Monday.

Feb 22nd The New Car

I got the letter on Tuesday of last week, the 16th. (this letter was explaining to him that our house is for sale) Don't worry about me, I'm fine. When I was a little surprised, but I feel like its what the Lord wants. It's a little sad to think that I won't see my home again, but I'm OK. We had a really busy week and I didn't even think about it really. I have noticed that your mind doesn't really have much room for anything else when your on your mission. It takes everything you've got.

The car is still being repaired, but we went to the office on Tuesday and received a new car. A brand new car. The Fleet Coordinator just bought 2 2010 Subaru Impreza's to replace the two oldest cars in the mission. We have one of them until our car is repaired. When I drove the car home from Queens it had 24.2 miles on the entire car. I haven't ever driven a car that is that new. It's really nice, and I get to drive every day! woo hoo!

We had M's baptismal date for the 21, but we've ran into a little snag. She wants to wait for her boyfriend to get back from Guatemala before getting baptized, more or less. Its a little more complicated, but I don't want to tell you everything. But we set a new date for the 10 of April. Her daughter on the other hand Z, and her friend W, have baptismal dates for the 14th of March and they are both awesome. They love the gospel and have both received a witness of the truthfulness of our message. They come to church every Sunday and are very excited to be Baptized.

This is the final week of the Transfer. Elder H has served here for 6 months so we think he will leave, but you never know. President didn't tell me much in my interview. But we will find out either between Thursday and Friday if one of us is going to be a leader of some sort, or Saturday night.
On Wednesday we had our DEEP CLEAN of our house. It looks nice now, mas o menos.
It's a pretty old house. President Nelson bought a CO detector for every missionary pad, so there's no need to worry.
I went on exchanges with Elder F on Friday. He's a swimmer from Utah, I think we may have raced against each other before, but we haven't ever talked until the mission. He's a cool kid. His little brother swims as well. It was nice to spend a day with a swimmer and talk about stuff that no one else understands... ha ha. He's my zone leader and a really good missionary.
On Saturday we went and visited a less-active in the ward Hermana S. She is Chilean and she lived about 1 hour north of Santiago, by Vina Del Mar. She is super cool. we talked for a really long time. I was on exchanges with elder J and he speaks no Spanish so he fell asleep. ha ha. Just for a minute or two. But it was really great, and she came to Church Yesterday! Her Husband and Daughter are in a rock band and they are going to make their first CD in a month or two. They are really good, her daughter is the lead sing and guitarist and her husband plays the bass guitar. You should look them up and listen to their music, most of their songs are in Spanish but a few in English as well. The name of the band is "MR. NO-SHAME". She's way cool. Her husband is a member i think, but i'm not sure if her daughter is baptized, they all live together, so maybe we can teach them all one of these days.
Sunday was the 1st annual Branch Conference of the Riverhead 2nd Branch. So that was exciting. There was a lot of good talks and we had 4 investigators at church and they all really liked it. The translating went OK in sacrament meeting, but the combined priesthood-relief society meeting went really well. He talked slow and the talk was really good. I felt like i was saying exactly what he was saying and it felt really good to know that i was doing a good job. I feel really dumb when i don't know what to say. Not too dumb though, I just laugh at my self and the members do too... No they don't laugh at me, but they do look back and smile sometimes, when I seem like I'm struggling. I do my best, and it's getting better each week.

It sounds like we are all pretty busy. Keep me updated on the house situation and where everybody is. What are you going to do with Kodah and Bella when you move out? Just let me know whats up, and I will worry less if i know. As long as I'm working hard I don't seem to worry too much about home. I Pray for you, but then I go to work and focus on the people that need me most. You guys already know why were here on earth and what the game plan is. So I don't worry too much about ya. But I do love you and miss you. Thanks for all of your love, support and example for me.

Feb 15th Fun in the Snow

This was a pretty crazy week. On Wednesday there was a really big snow storm. Wednesday night Elder H and I taught a lesson to one of our investigators in Flanders then we started on our way to Hampton Bays. On the way there we were driving on the 24 highway. The speed limit is 55 so hatch thought that 40 would be OK, but there was quite a bit of snow on the road. We slid of the road to the right and we hit a fence post, the front left corner of the car hit the post and it kinda swung us around and parallel parked us on the side of the road.(this was at 7:00 pm, mas o menos) We were fine, but the front left tire of the car was pushed back into the car a little. I think it bent the axle or something. Anyway... I got to call 911, so that was fun. Then about 25 minutes later an Officer came and he was a really nice guy. He gave us a ride home and I had a really good talk with him. Elder H didn't really say anything, he was just sitting in the back thinking... but he's OK, just bummed that he probably won't be able to drive for the rest of his mission, and now we have to walk everywhere. We should be getting a new car sometime soon, but we still don't really know when exactly.
Don't worry though, we're all good and nobody got hurt or anything, it was a little scary though for the 5 seconds that we were sliding of the road heading for a fence post.
The translation equipment worked really well this Sunday, I translated and all of the Spanish people had there headphones on for the whole meeting. and they all told me that they could hear really well. One of the members got sick of the bad antenna and brought us a new one. so that problem is solved, but the speakers still talk too fast and i can't translate everything. But this was probably the best Sunday in a while for the Spanish members.

I'm doing just dandy! I'm pretty darn tired from walking from appointment to appointment, (occasionally we have gotten rides from members and investigators, and when the other elders can, they drop us off in an area). But its been a lot of walking. We walked about 6 miles on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. I didn't keep track on the other days. But it's kinda fun. Not super effective, but a little bit fun.

A Very Good Week

This was a very good week. On Tuesday we committed two of our investigators to Baptism! We committed them for the 14th of Feb., we might have to push it back to the 21st because we still have a lot to teach them. His family in Guatemala are members, and his son has decided to serve a mission. So now he is starting to turn his life around. He used to be a successful businessman, but started drinking and his life kind of fell apart. But the Savior is helping him put it back together. He is awesome and loves to read the Book of Mormon. His cousin is also a great person, she has a less-active member friend who started coming back and now they both come together.

We almost committed the another family to baptism as well. They are almost ready. they just need to get to church. The dad is pretty much ready but the mom still isn't sure if she needs to be baptized again. she was baptized in the Pentecostal church about 10 years ago. But we have another family we have been teaching and they came to church this week and stayed for the whole 3 hours.

The fact that everything is in English and the Translation equipment doesn't work half the time makes it really hard for the Spanish people. The equipment wasn't working so i just sat behind all of the Spanish people and talked loud enough for them to hear. I think the english members get annoyed too, just from the noise of two people talking. It's rough, but we are supposed to be getting new translation equipment soon. And if we can get a few more active Spanish members we will be able to start a Spanish branch.

I got your valentines package in the mail on Friday, I believe. Thank you so much, the little card was super funny ( good work Jennie). Elmo woke everyone up last night when i rolled over on top of him, ha ha ha.

Everything is going good. Its been pretty stinkin cold the last week or so. And we were supposed to get some snow, but we didn't. supposedly we are going to be a lot on Wednesday.

I was talking like Donald Duck to the other missionaries and they told some of the members that I can talk like Pato Donald, so that's been great. Everyone always asks me to do it now. But, what can i say...who am i to deny them my talents? ha ha no, but it's funny.

Missionary work is super, super tiring. I am dead every night, but I usually feel pretty good in the morning.

I'm having lots of fun, learning a lot, and working hard.

Life in Riverhead - at the end of Long Island. Living in a house with a river in the back yard! The sunset photo is off our back porch.

It was a good week. We had a lot of people to teach and we found a few new people as well. My favorite part of the week was probably one of the lessons we taught to a family. We taught them the the first half of the 1st lesson then we watch "The Restoration" on their computer. It was just cool as I was sitting behind all of them while the mom, dad, and 3 kids were sitting on the floor looking up at the computer and watching the story of Joseph Smith. It was a really awesome lesson and I feel like this family will progress to baptism.

Another fun lesson we taught this week was in someones car. We were trying to meet up with a media referal in East Hampton, which is about an hour drive from our home. We met him at the train station and we just hopped into his little hispanic truck and taught him the restoration. It would have been really funny to see. we were really smashed in there and i was pretty much sitting on his lap.

On sunday I translated sacrament meeting, well I did my best, and for our combined priesthood/relief society meeting. I'm pretty pooped by the end of the meetings and my head hurts just from all of the thinking i have to do, and listening. But its been fine.

We live in a little house in Riverhead with 6 Elders. I sent some pics from when i left Patchogue and a couple from a sunset in my new backyard. This morning we went out to the Light house at the end of Long Island and we took some pictures there as well.

I'm having a great time and all of my Pad-mates are awesome. Elder Paulson and Cotrell both went to AF and we have a lot of fun together.

January 25, 2010

On Monday night I visited Eliana and Danny and had Danny give me 1 last hair cut before I left. We visited a few other investigators before heading back to the Pad.
Tuesday was Transfer Meeting in Queens. And...I am serving in Riverhead. It's in zone 8, the same zone as Patchogue. I was super nervous at transfer meeting just sitting in the chapel waiting for my name. It's pretty intense. My companion is Elder Hatch. He's from Arizona and I'm not sure how long he's been out on the mission. I think he has 8 months left or something close to that. My new area covers a HUGE area, it includes the Hamptons. There are some pretty big houses and some filthy rich people out here. East and South Hampton are where most of the rich people live and it's about an hour drive from our house so we don't go out there too often. But we have an investigator who lives out there and they have come to Church twice, and it's an hour drive. There is a lot of potential here in Riverhead. We have a lot of good investigators that are progressing and we found a really awesome family this week from El Salvador.
I've had to use my spanish a lot. It's been really hard this first week, but I think this is going to force me to really study hard and my spanish is going to get better fast. I have to Translate during sacrament meeting as well. This sunday we had a woman visiting that was from another branch and she spoke english and spanish fluently, so she translated. But next week, it's on me... I translated during priesthood and by the end I was starting to get the hang of it. It hard. Because while you are saying what the person just said, the speaker keeps talking and you have to listen while your translating the previous sentence.
There are 6 elders that live in our little house. Elder Paulson and Cotrell,(who both went to AF High), Elder Judd and Mong, Me and Elder Hatch. It's awesome. Elder Hatch has been in Riverhead for 3 and this is his forth, he will probably leave at the end of this transfer or the next, then I will be here for at least 1 more after that. So we're lookin at about 4 or 5 Tranfers in Riverhead.
Our car is a very feminine SEAFOAM GREEN Mazda 3...Its pretty queer... There are always dudes that look over as they drive by, assuming we're chicks. Pretty fun eh?
All is going well. I'll send you some pictures next week. Have an awesome week and I'll talk to you next week.
Love,
Stephen

January 18, 2010

ok...This was a great last week. Elder Mathusek and I had our best numbers that we have had together. We got Tranfer calls on Saturday night and............................
I'm leaving. I'm a little sad, but I'm mostly just excited. I was pretty sure that I was going to go. I made sure to write down all of the member's information and tonight we are going to visit Eliana and a couple other members for 1 last time :(

But we had a really good week and our investigator Juan is still progressing and he plans to come to church this sunday. Sadly I won't get to be there. But I'll make sure to keep in touch with him. I really think that he will be baptized this next Transfer.
Anyway, all is going great. I'm excited to find out where I am going and who my new comp will be. I hope that you all have a great week. I love you and I will be sure to let you know where and who I'm serving with as soon as I can.
Love,
Stephen

January 11, 2010

It was a great week! Elder Mathusek and I taught a ton of lessons and got 8 new investigators. Juan, and his wife are both progressing and we are going to commit them to Baptism this week.

We had our interviews with Pres. Nelsen on Tuesday. He asked me if I wanted to stay here for 1 more transfer or leave. I told him that if he wants me to stay here for 1 more I would love to, but if he needs me to go somewhere else then that would be fine. Elder Mathusek and I are for sure not staying together though. Either I leave, He leaves, or we both leave, we'll see. But we have good plans for this last week together and we plan to commit 5 of our investigators to baptism. We have a lot of appointments set up with investigators, less actives and recent converts. I will make sure to have them write their info in my little journal that I bought, in case I do leave at the end of the week.
But all is going well. I'm happy and having fun serving the Lord.

I love you and I'll let you know what is happening in a few days.
Love, Stephen

PS I forgot to mention how the Baptism on Saturday went. It went well...
It was my first time baptizing anyone so i was nervous, but everything went very well.