Monday-Thursday we just did work and visited lots of our less-active members. I can't remember if anything cool happened but I'm sure something did. On Thursday night I started an exchange with Elder Doyle. He came into our spanish pool for Friday, starting at Thursday follow-up. So that went well, we taught a couple of less-active families and I got to talk to Elder Doyle so that was fun. He's really cool. And It turns out that he sold Security Systems with Siron and he knows Jared and Paul. He met Jared when he was selling in California. Elder Doyle is an awesome missionary and we've become good friends in the past couple of weeks. He's 23 and he and I both came to New York at the same time but we have never served around eachother until now. Anyway, so it was a good exchange.
Then on Saturday morning we went to the Falcon's home for lunch/breakfast at 11:00 sister Falcon is from Northern Chile and her husband is from Peru. She made us empenadas and pancakes. It was nice. Also on Saturday the English ward had an activity that the Relief Scociety pres. put on. They had a lunch for all of the investigators and all the missionaries and some members were invited. We stopped in to say hi to Bob Tut. He is doing great. The elders visited him the other day and he wanted to be be baptized that day, but they told him he has to learn some more first and they set a Bap. date for the 30th. I talked to him about when I talked to him on the street during the "street sweep". I had tried to talk to him in spanish but didn't know what I was saying and told me he didn't speak spanish. It was fun to talk to him at the party. It will really cool to see him baptized. He's the coolest Egyptian soon to be mormon in the whole world.
Sunday was a really great day. We normally have about 80 people at church on Sundays. But almost every less-active family that we work with came to church! Elder Gamez and I counted the people and there were 124! We felt like we had really accomplished something amazing, with the help of the Lord. It was awesome! And the Ramos family from Little Neck came to our branch this week and they said they are going to start coming every week because they can't go to Little Neck at 9 so they will come to Flushing at 1:00. After Church we went over to the familia Carpintero for a family home evening. It was really nice and they had invited a less-active family as well. It was great. We talked about the stripling warriors. Then we had some hot chocolate and some taquitos.
Today we are going to go to the Queens Center mall. and we are going to go teach 2 less-active families later tonight.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
January 10, 2011
January 10, 2011
We had a really good week this week. We visited a lot of less-active families and lots of them came to church! One of the families has a 9 year old daughter that has not yet been baptized and she told us that she wants to be baptized. Her parents are not very active but they said it was ok and her and her older sister come to church each week. She will be baptized on Jan. 23.
My new Egyptian friend, Abdulwahab Ahmed(Bob Tut) came to the english branch this week and he has already read almost half of the Book of Mormon. The english elders are going to his house to teach him today. We went to the english/chinese ward's sacrament meeting because a Spanish high councilman was giving a talk and they needed us to translate to english then the chinese elders translated to chinese. pretty cool. I sat next to Bob Tut and answered his questions. He's pretty much my best friend... well I'm his best friend.
My legs are getting accustomed to walking all day but yesterday we had to run to an appointment and my lungs hurt a lot after. I think is the "bubble asma" from the bad air quality at the AFFC.
We had a really good week this week. We visited a lot of less-active families and lots of them came to church! One of the families has a 9 year old daughter that has not yet been baptized and she told us that she wants to be baptized. Her parents are not very active but they said it was ok and her and her older sister come to church each week. She will be baptized on Jan. 23.
My new Egyptian friend, Abdulwahab Ahmed(Bob Tut) came to the english branch this week and he has already read almost half of the Book of Mormon. The english elders are going to his house to teach him today. We went to the english/chinese ward's sacrament meeting because a Spanish high councilman was giving a talk and they needed us to translate to english then the chinese elders translated to chinese. pretty cool. I sat next to Bob Tut and answered his questions. He's pretty much my best friend... well I'm his best friend.
My legs are getting accustomed to walking all day but yesterday we had to run to an appointment and my lungs hurt a lot after. I think is the "bubble asma" from the bad air quality at the AFFC.
January 3, 2011 Queens NY
I've been very lazy about posting any of Stephen's letters. Rather than trying to catch up I'm just going to start with January 2011. A couple of days before Christmas Stephen was transferred to the Flushing Queens area. It is the first time in his mission that he won't have a car. He will be walking or riding the bus. He hasn't sent any pictures of this area yet but I will post them when we get some.
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This week we spent a lot of time walking to peoples apartment to see if they were home and they were NEVER home. So we just kept walking and walking. Luckily I bought some nice boots on Monday and they kept my feet dry as I tromped through all of the slush and snow. We had a lot of good visits with some less-active members this week and two of the families came to church this week.
For new years eve we had to be in our apartments before 6:00 p.m. So we worked until 6 then went back to our apartment to update our area book and make plans for the upcoming week.
On Saturday, new years day, we had a "Street Sweep" with the whole zone. I spent the whole morning boiling water and pouring it into a big cooler for our free hot chocolate stand.
We filled it up with about 8 gallons of watter and then dumped 2 buckets of cocoa and I don't know how many little packets we put in, but it was a lot. I will show you a picture of the kitchen full of cocoa boxes and little cocoa packets. The street sweep went pretty well. It actually turned out to be a pretty warm day. We started at about 11:45 and it was probably 45 or 50 degrees outside. but it cooled down and everybody started taking the hot chocolate and we talked to lots of people. I talked to a man from Egypt for about 45 min. He told me that he was King Tut's great grandson but I wasn't so sure about it. He said you could tell because of the shape of his eye's...Anyways he has been in New York for about 2 months. He was interested in a book of mormon so I gave him a pass along card to call and order and he call the number right there and handed me his phone. So I talked to some girl in the referral office and we decided that it would be easier if I just gave the man a book of mormon right there. So I found one that another missionary had and gave it to him. He wanted one in Arabic so I picked up an Arabic copy from the church yesterday and we'll bring it to his house today or tomorrow. Then the English elders will hopefully start teaching him. He said his country is Muslim but he believes that we all worship the same God. He was very nice and he told me that when his daughter comes from Egypt that I can be her "friend"... Supposedly she is a gymnast and has the best grades in her Egyptian college. I told him I was leaving in July so it probably wouldn't work out. He gave us his number and told me to call him Bob Tut because his first name was Akawhajadab or something and it was to hard to say. The cool thing about New York is that there really are people from all walks of life and from any country you can think of.
My companion and I don't have too many investigators right now that we are teaching but we are really trying to do work with the less actives and all of the members so we can gain their trust and teach their friends and family. At the same time though we have to keep talking to everyone and trying to find people on our own. But there are lots of great members here and I have high hopes for the future. There are a couple of Chilean families in our ward so that's pretty cool. One of the Chilean members, Hermana Falcon, told me she was going to make me some empenadas so I'm excited for that.
Today we are going to go get some food from target for the week and we have a zone activity. For the zone activity we are going Ice skating, hopefully I don't hurt myself. I'll let you know if i do. I also forgot to bring my camera so I won't send any pictures this week. Next week I'll send you some pictures so don't fret.
Everything is going great. It's a little cold, but I got the package from and Ann with my Thermals in it so hopefully they will help keep me warm. Have and awesome week and have fun and all your camp outs!
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This week we spent a lot of time walking to peoples apartment to see if they were home and they were NEVER home. So we just kept walking and walking. Luckily I bought some nice boots on Monday and they kept my feet dry as I tromped through all of the slush and snow. We had a lot of good visits with some less-active members this week and two of the families came to church this week.
For new years eve we had to be in our apartments before 6:00 p.m. So we worked until 6 then went back to our apartment to update our area book and make plans for the upcoming week.
On Saturday, new years day, we had a "Street Sweep" with the whole zone. I spent the whole morning boiling water and pouring it into a big cooler for our free hot chocolate stand.
We filled it up with about 8 gallons of watter and then dumped 2 buckets of cocoa and I don't know how many little packets we put in, but it was a lot. I will show you a picture of the kitchen full of cocoa boxes and little cocoa packets. The street sweep went pretty well. It actually turned out to be a pretty warm day. We started at about 11:45 and it was probably 45 or 50 degrees outside. but it cooled down and everybody started taking the hot chocolate and we talked to lots of people. I talked to a man from Egypt for about 45 min. He told me that he was King Tut's great grandson but I wasn't so sure about it. He said you could tell because of the shape of his eye's...Anyways he has been in New York for about 2 months. He was interested in a book of mormon so I gave him a pass along card to call and order and he call the number right there and handed me his phone. So I talked to some girl in the referral office and we decided that it would be easier if I just gave the man a book of mormon right there. So I found one that another missionary had and gave it to him. He wanted one in Arabic so I picked up an Arabic copy from the church yesterday and we'll bring it to his house today or tomorrow. Then the English elders will hopefully start teaching him. He said his country is Muslim but he believes that we all worship the same God. He was very nice and he told me that when his daughter comes from Egypt that I can be her "friend"... Supposedly she is a gymnast and has the best grades in her Egyptian college. I told him I was leaving in July so it probably wouldn't work out. He gave us his number and told me to call him Bob Tut because his first name was Akawhajadab or something and it was to hard to say. The cool thing about New York is that there really are people from all walks of life and from any country you can think of.
My companion and I don't have too many investigators right now that we are teaching but we are really trying to do work with the less actives and all of the members so we can gain their trust and teach their friends and family. At the same time though we have to keep talking to everyone and trying to find people on our own. But there are lots of great members here and I have high hopes for the future. There are a couple of Chilean families in our ward so that's pretty cool. One of the Chilean members, Hermana Falcon, told me she was going to make me some empenadas so I'm excited for that.
Today we are going to go get some food from target for the week and we have a zone activity. For the zone activity we are going Ice skating, hopefully I don't hurt myself. I'll let you know if i do. I also forgot to bring my camera so I won't send any pictures this week. Next week I'll send you some pictures so don't fret.
Everything is going great. It's a little cold, but I got the package from and Ann with my Thermals in it so hopefully they will help keep me warm. Have and awesome week and have fun and all your camp outs!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, March 8, 2010
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.
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.
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