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.