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.
Monday, March 8, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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.
Monday, January 25, 2010
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
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.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving
11/30/2009
Thanksgiving was great. We went to an English member's home at 1:00 and ate a massive thankgiving meal. Then at 7:00 we went to President Hurtado's home for dinner. He is a great Branch President. He really encourages the members to give the missionaries referals and to be involved in missionary work.
This week was a good week. Until Friday. Thursday we had a Turkey Bowl in River head and played flag football for a few hours. It was really fun and I did really well. It's always nice to play sports and just have some plain old fun. Then we ate food like crazy. My legs are pretty sore from all of the football.
On friday we had a good day and went to the Hurtado's house for dinner. On the way home, i used the phone, talked to Elder Hunter to tell him we were on our way back to the pad. When we woke up saturday morning the phone was no where to be found. It had to be in the pad or the car, or i dropped it on the way from the car to the pad...
We've looked EVERYWHERE. and we can't find it. so we've been struggling without a phone for the past couple days. The worst part is that we can't answer the phone calls of people asking about english class. or anyone else that needs something. We'll get a new one in a couple days. But it REALLY REALLY stinks. The phone had all of the members numbers and our investegators numbers in it. we have our investegators numbers in the area book, but the members - no. we'll have to get a ward list.
Most of the members in the branch are Colombian. And apparently i speak spanish with a Colombian accent... Some of the members think so. My spanish is getting better. Sometimes my mind just goes blank, when I'm really tired and my head can't understand what people are asking me. But i am improving. I need to have more effective language study so i can speak whenever i want to, not just in situations when i actually understand what they want and i know how to respond.
I'm excited for this last week of the Transfer. I can't believe how fast this tranfer has gone by. President told me that he is going to keep me and Mathusek together, so I'm really happy about that. We are really good friends and we're happy and working hard. We didn't really have any investigators when we started, and now whe have a lot, this week we are going to commit a few of them to baptism and this next transfer our Branch is going to grow a lot! I can't wait.
It sounds like everything is going great. esspesially because BYU won!
Thanksgiving was great. We went to an English member's home at 1:00 and ate a massive thankgiving meal. Then at 7:00 we went to President Hurtado's home for dinner. He is a great Branch President. He really encourages the members to give the missionaries referals and to be involved in missionary work.
This week was a good week. Until Friday. Thursday we had a Turkey Bowl in River head and played flag football for a few hours. It was really fun and I did really well. It's always nice to play sports and just have some plain old fun. Then we ate food like crazy. My legs are pretty sore from all of the football.
On friday we had a good day and went to the Hurtado's house for dinner. On the way home, i used the phone, talked to Elder Hunter to tell him we were on our way back to the pad. When we woke up saturday morning the phone was no where to be found. It had to be in the pad or the car, or i dropped it on the way from the car to the pad...
We've looked EVERYWHERE. and we can't find it. so we've been struggling without a phone for the past couple days. The worst part is that we can't answer the phone calls of people asking about english class. or anyone else that needs something. We'll get a new one in a couple days. But it REALLY REALLY stinks. The phone had all of the members numbers and our investegators numbers in it. we have our investegators numbers in the area book, but the members - no. we'll have to get a ward list.
Most of the members in the branch are Colombian. And apparently i speak spanish with a Colombian accent... Some of the members think so. My spanish is getting better. Sometimes my mind just goes blank, when I'm really tired and my head can't understand what people are asking me. But i am improving. I need to have more effective language study so i can speak whenever i want to, not just in situations when i actually understand what they want and i know how to respond.
I'm excited for this last week of the Transfer. I can't believe how fast this tranfer has gone by. President told me that he is going to keep me and Mathusek together, so I'm really happy about that. We are really good friends and we're happy and working hard. We didn't really have any investigators when we started, and now whe have a lot, this week we are going to commit a few of them to baptism and this next transfer our Branch is going to grow a lot! I can't wait.
It sounds like everything is going great. esspesially because BYU won!
Delivering Answers
11/23/2009
Hey everybody! It was a good week. We have 4 more investegators from our english classes now. We were knocking doors on Tuesday and we knocked into a man who told us that he had been praying to God lately and asking Him to show him the way. He told us that he thinks that we are the answer to that prayer. AND WE ARE!
As far as Thanksgiving goes, we are going to eat at a couple of members houses that day, as well as having a Turkey Bowl in Riverhead. We had a Thanksgiving activity on Friday in our Branch. It was great. The spanish people all cooked turkey and mashed potatoas and everything. And it was actually good. The 4 elders (Me, Mathusek, Johnson, and Anderson) sang a song. The members really liked it. We made up a song about Hispanos being better than Gringo's. They like it a lot.
Hey everybody! It was a good week. We have 4 more investegators from our english classes now. We were knocking doors on Tuesday and we knocked into a man who told us that he had been praying to God lately and asking Him to show him the way. He told us that he thinks that we are the answer to that prayer. AND WE ARE!
As far as Thanksgiving goes, we are going to eat at a couple of members houses that day, as well as having a Turkey Bowl in Riverhead. We had a Thanksgiving activity on Friday in our Branch. It was great. The spanish people all cooked turkey and mashed potatoas and everything. And it was actually good. The 4 elders (Me, Mathusek, Johnson, and Anderson) sang a song. The members really liked it. We made up a song about Hispanos being better than Gringo's. They like it a lot.
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