Monday, May 24, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Monday, May 3, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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