Week 10

December 16, 2015
Wednesday, Day 64
Day 51 in NY

PDAY!
Went to do laundry! We have this cart that we put our hampers in so we don't have to carry our clothes, which is nice! When we get to the laundry mat we put in our clothes then we sit and write emails until it's done, then we put them in the dryer, then we leave. We go across the street and do some grocery shopping. When we finish shopping we go back to the laundry mat and fold our clothes, put them back in our hampers, put the hampers and groceries in the cart and we start home.

PLAY IT OFF:
Sidewalks in the Bronx are horrible in many places, I'll have to take a picture, but side walks have been redone so many times not every square matches the next. They don't match up with each other, they have tons of carvings in them, cracks everywhere, uneven slabs, and some craters. So walking home with the cart a couple weeks ago Elder Tabor hit a big crack and the weight of the cart went forward, he ended up on top of the cart on the ground. I could not help but burst into laughter, of course after I asked if he was okay. We both just died laughing! (Good movie! Lol Dad we are watching that movie when I get home). So I guess karma is real? I don't know but today I was pushing the cart home and I specifically watched out for the same spot Elder Tabor fell at, so I was good I passed the test. Right after passing that spot Elder Tabor said "just watch, it's gonna happen to you" I laughed in disagreement. About 2 minutes later... I hit another gap in the sidewalk and the cart flipped and I stumbled over the top of it but kept walking. He was right, he called it. But I played it off and survived with nothing but a cut on my shin.

CHINA TOWN:
Christmas is among us and giving is what we do. So Elder Tabor and I went to china town. It's kind of like China town in San Francisco. It's located in Manhattan, it's just a bunch of mini stores that Chinese people own, and they sell souvenirs and NY shirts. Elder Tabor and I wanted to send home stuff for Christmas. So we did a bit of bargaining. Prior to coming to China town I took $30 dollars out in cash and stuck it in my pockets. When we went walking by the stores looking for a store with shirts this Chinese guy came out and asked what we were looking for. We said we wanted shirts. So we went in, we looked around. I grabbed a hand full of shirts and asked how much. He responded $12/ each. So I put them back, loosing interest. Knowing that would get his attention… And it did, he was like "whoa whoa, whoa, how many do you want?" I said I needed 8 for my family back home, but that I didn't have enough to afford $12/ shirt. So he said okay choose the shirts you want and I'll smoke you a deal. So I chose 8 shirts, and walked up to him. He said how many, I told him 8. He started doing some math in his head. And came up with a total of $30 plus he saw me eye balling the NYC Fire department shirt, and added $12. I told him I'd do the $30 since that's all I had, and he started dropping the price. So I gave him the $30 and left with my shirts.

RICKY:
We visited Ricky and some how in the conversation we were having we had brought up this question. "Ricky, will you prepare yourself to go to the temple?" He had a smile, but never quite answered the question. He changed the subject to his health and how he's been struggling to come to church and do certain things because his body has episodes and such. So we asked if he'd like to fast and that we would fast with him. He liked the idea of that. He said he hadn't fasted in a LONG time so we explained what a fast is and how we should go about it. We just left it at that and went on to our next appointment leaving him to think on that.

N….. FAMILY:
This is the family I talked about a little while ago, saying that every time we come by Richard’s wife leaves, for some reason she didn't want to be apart of our lessons. So even after inviting her a few
times to sit in with us we just stopped inviting her. Well, one day, after a lesson, we were walking home. We were both craving street meat, so we stopped at a near by bank and that's when I felt someone shove my shoulder. I turned around looking to see who it was and saw this lady standing in front of me, but she was in line so I wasn't sure who it was. (Besides the fact that there are so many
black people, I don't remember which ones I talk to everyday) she was the only one staring at me with a smile, so I looked at her and said "oh hey!?" Haha having no idea who she was. I called Elder Tabor over to save me lol, he recognized her and said hi. Later I realized it was, Richard’s wife, the one who skips out on our lessons. She asked us when the next time we would be coming over was. We asked her when would be good for her. So we set an appointment, confused, but excited, thinking she wanted to meet with us, she set us up, with an appointment for her son Darren and husband Richard.
Our following appointment with them, which was this appointment today. We walked into their apartment to a surprise, Twanka, (Richards wife) was sitting on the couch facing 2 chairs she had sat down for us. We then realized she was waiting for us to teach her and her family. It was so awesome, after 2 previous lessons of her hiding from us; she finally came around to being interested. Here's how it came to be. She hid from us every time we came because recently she's had a lot of nuns, monks, and Jehovah witnesses come by and she’d listen but she just didn't like any of them. So when we came she was just tired of listening to people come by to talk about religion. But after each visit we had with Richard and Darren (their only son, who's 11), they would share with Twanka, what they learned from us. They were being missionaries! It was awesome! So she liked what she heard and decided to sit in with us. So miracle of the day!! We invited them all to be baptized, and they've committed to be baptized January 16!



December 17, 2015
Thursday, Day 65
Day 52 in NY

Today we have correlation. So we meet at the church like we do every Thursday. But this morning before we went to our meeting we stopped by Ricky's apartment. He wanted to open the fast together. We had our prayer and planned to meet back at his house around 6PM to check up on him and break the fast. Because of his health and diabetes, instead of fasting the 24 hours he agreed to fast for 2 meals.

WEEKLY PLANNING:
After correlation, we stayed at the church and had weekly planning. So for about 2 1/2 hours we planned. We did that until we had our interviews with President Smith. As we were about to close our planning session, President opens the door and that surprised us. He asked if he could use the room for the interviews, we said of course and asked if he could give us a few minutes to close with a prayer. He sad sure as he started walking back out, then immediately, he stopped, turned around, and asked to join us. So he knelt beside us and we closed our planning session.

INTERVIEW:
When President got to me, he came out of the room and invited me in. I sat down in the chair in front of him. He offered a prayer, and then began to ask me simple questions. How are you? How's your area? How's your family? Do you miss them? Do you feel the spirit? Do you have any problems or issues you'd like to discuss? All very simple questions, and it's funny because everyone else is
intimidated by him, but I just look to him as I would my own father. During the interview, after the questions, and me giving my answers, He told me something that dad has told me. "Prepare yourself for callings", dad always told me to prepare to be able to accept a calling, whether it be a bishop or prophet, no matter the calling, prepare yourself to accept it. President had told me that same thing, he said you are a leader and you will be called to be a leader. So keep up the work and determination.
He's so awesome! I love him!

WEATHER:
POURING RAIN! ...Nuf' said.



December 18, 2015
Friday, Day 66
Day 53 in NY

CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL:
We got up a little earlier this morning because we had a Christmas devotional. We had to travel to Ossining, which is about an hour and 45 minute trip from where we live and we needed to be there at 10. The devotional was super awesome! We sat in the chapel and there were missionaries who had been preparing for this for over a month. They sang, some of them played some instruments and played beautiful Christmas songs. After the devotional, we went to the gym area where they were serving lunch, they had people who had been cooking all morning for us, turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, corn, etc. it was a wonderful meal. Then we had pie! Then President had some gifts for everyone; people from their home ward in Texas had donated a pair of gloves for everyone in the mission! We also got Christmas cards from them, and a Jesus journal!

SCOUTING:
Sister S… is a lady in our ward, she is the Cub Scout leader and requested us to help her keep the kids in control, so we went to the church and helped with that for acknowledged hours. Then went home and that ended our day.



December 19, 2015
Saturday, Day 67
Day 54 in NY

We went and visited Jermaine. Then we went to this kid named John’s house, we met him last week looking up referrals. We gave him a Bible and his uncle was visiting so we taught him too! And he's now our new investigator.

CHILI COOK OFF:
Our ward is putting on an event tonight, a talent show/chili cook off. So we went to go see Carlito cause the other night he told us he would make us chili to take. When we got to his apartment, he was sick. But he let us in and told us he'd make some. So he sent us to his store across the street to get him some chili mix. We ran across the street grabbed what he needed came back and helped cook some chili. It was super good! So we took it with us to the church.

APF:
We were on our way to the church because we were meeting the sisters and Elder Nalaza and Hughes for an APF (Area Proselyting Focus). Elder Tabor and I brought hot chocolate, so we stood on the corner of a street by the subway and asked everyone we saw if they would like free hot chocolate. It was the coldest day we have had so far. And surprisingly more people denied our free hot chocolate then those who accepted it. We stood outside doing this for about 2 hours. It was fun and a cool experience but didn't seem super effective.

CHURCH ACTIVITY:
After our APF we came back to the church and we were setting up for the talent show and chili cook off. While we did that there was a Baptism going on and it was for the Spanish ward. Elder Dominguez and Elder Gallardo asked us to stay, so we did, we showed our support to Victor, the kid being baptized. Plus the Spanish sisters there wanted to borrow my Bluetooth speaker haha it was the best thing I bought before my mission… I'm in NY, it's ridiculously loud and I use my speaker everyday.
I was supposed to preform something in the talent show. (I was just going to tumble) but the man in charge of it was an hour late so we didn't start till then and we ended an hour after, so it was rushed
and I didn't have to do anything. But everyone loved our chili so there's a plus!!



December 20, 2015
Sunday, Day 68
Day 55 in NY

Before we left for church we called some referrals. One of the referrals names was Nana he's from Ghana. He wanted a bible so we stopped by his apartment before we went to church. I knocked, he answered, Elder Tabor handed him the Bible and we invited him to meet with us some other time. He said next Sunday would be good so we are excited for that! He's another new investigator.

CHURCH:
Again, none of our investigators showed up. Our gospel principles teacher didn't even show up, so Elder Tabor and I taught the class. Then Sister S… came to us and said she has something for up us in her car, so her sons took us out to the car and he handed us both our own gifts. They were candies and snacks and random little things put into a popcorn bowl and wrapped up, it was super sweet of her. She said it was for helping out with scouting and gold us Merry Christmas.

AFTER CHURCH:
We had dinner at home; we had a quick appointment with Brother Ford, a recent convert in our ward. He loves us. We love him too so we go over and try to see him once a week. After Brother Ford we went and saw Ricky! Nothing much more to say about that but all our appointments were really good!



December 21, 2015
Monday, Day 69
Day 56 in NY

Every Monday we have district meeting so we went to the church. We had a great lesson taught by Elder Tabor about contacting referrals. Super motivational lol it got us all hyped to work! After our meeting Elder Tabor and I went to the post office to ship out our Christmas packages.

APF:
The Spanish Elders invited us to join their APF so we agreed to help them out, the miracle in that was we had a full schedule and all our appointments fell through so it was a sign we needed to be here at the APF. The confirmation came as we were standing on the sidewalk, talking to EVERYONE that walked by. By the end of those 2 hours or so of talking to people, I, just my self, I found 4 new investigators! It was super cool! Everyone enjoyed it so we are thinking we will have more soon.
Again my speaker came in so handy. We stood under a rail track for the train. A train was going every 5 minutes. So it was loud the whole time. And every time the Spanish elders were talking to someone I’d come over with my speaker and turn my iPad to Spanish and play "Ha nacido un Salvador" (Savior Is Born) video. I was the speaker guy haha.

SPLIT:
After all we did that day; we went back home for Elder Tabor to pack, we were going to have another split. I took over our area and had Elder Hughes with me and Elder Tabor was with Elder Nalaza.



Love you all so much, stay tuned for next week. The Elders are yelling for me to play some gator ball, so I'll catch you all later.

Merry Christmas to everyone!! #ASaviorIsBorn #HaNacidoUnSalvador #HeIsTheGift



Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 9

December 9, 2015
Wednesday, Day 57
Day 44 in NY

PDAY!
My least favorite PDAY, but one of my favorite days. Transfers always take place on a Wednesday, which is our PDAY. So we got up, got ready and had to skip our morning studies so that we could make it to the Inwood chapel. It's about an hour away.

TRANSFERS:
Super cool! It was neat to see a transfer meeting from a missionary point of view. You get to see the New Missionaries come in, sit down and watch them stand as president calls their name and their new companion. The training companions come running up to the new missionary and greet them with a hug, welcomes them, then grabs their stuff, and goes to take them to their seat with them. It's super fun! Elder Tabor and I are grateful to be together still.

RUSH RUSH RUSH:
The rest of the day just felt so rushed because usually, after studies on PDAY we go do laundry first. Then get groceries, go home, unload, and email. Today was much different, during the time we would usually study, we were on a train, during the time we would do laundry grocery shop and unload, we were at the transfer meeting. By the time the transfer meeting was over it was about 1, which means over due lunch! Which I'm never a fan of! I'm always wanting food! I was hungry, so we went to subway real quick, then headed home, during the time we could have been on our way home, Elder Tabor read the directions wrong and we were on the opposite side of where we needed to be. So there went another hour. Finally, got on the right bus and made it home. It's now about 2 and I was again hungry, I was bummed that most of the day was out of order, so we rushed to do laundry, came home a little after 3 and began emailing.

SPEAKING OF BEING HUNGRY:
I’m thin, always have been. Still am. But I'm a normal weight. I don't feel like I have eaten any more than I ever have back home, in fact, I'm pretty positive I'm eating much less. Plus, I'm walking 80% of the day, so as you could imagine I'm thin, in shape, but would probably be loosing weight.. But through the power of prayer, in the last 2 months, I've gained about 10lbs. According to the scale in our apartment bathroom. (Which is off by 5lbs. We stuck a 25-pound weight on it and the scale rung up to 30lbs. So we just take off 5lbs from the scale.)



December 10, 2015
Thursday, Day 58
Day 45 in NY

COORDINATION:
So it's Thursday morning, after our morning routine we go to the train station to head over to the church.

COKE:
Sitting on the train heading to the church on the bench seat in front and to the left of us about 10 feet were 2 guys and across from them, were a guy and a girl. They were talking loudly and it was only them and us on the train, so we couldn't help but hear them talking. So we listened and would look over every now and then. And one of the times we looked over the 2 guys on the one side started snorting cocaine! Ha ha these guys were like 50 years old or something, one of them had hair as white as their powder. The other, may have been younger but looked older in age. Then the dude with white hair stated talking about how if he got into a fight he'd shred the dude to pieces. During this whole thing, I'd look back and forth from the guys to Elder Tabor. Elder Tabor was looking a little nervous lol! When we got to our stop we hopped off and Elder Tabor looked at me and said "Never seen that before!"



December 11, 2015
Friday, Day 59
Day 46 in NY

MAIL:
Due to transfer meeting on Wednesday, the mail room Office Elders had to pack on Tuesday, which is mail day, so we didn't get mail. But we got the call that mail was in! Wahoo! Always so exciting ha ha I had 3 boxes, a big envelope, and like 3 or 4 cards! Every mail day is like Christmas Ha ha! It's so awesome thank you all!!! The down side with mail is that I feel bad because I don't have time to write back. So I'm trying to save a few minutes each night to write. So please be patient with me! Haha and I apologize if I don't get back to you! I'm doing my best. Since I left the MTC I probably have over 30 letters to write.. It's awesome tho! I really appreciate the mail! It's the best! It honestly makes a missionaries week! A lot of missionaries don't get much, maybe a letter or 2 during the holidays or birthdays they will probably get a box or something. Elder Tabor said the new missionaries always get tons of stuff in the beginning of their mission. Then it starts to die down. Prove him wrong! Lol

HAIR CUT:
So it's been just about 2 months since I've been out and over a month and half since my last hair cut... As you can see my hair got a little long since then... I've been trying to find time to get it cut, but really I should only go out and cut my hair on Pdays. Well I didn't have time because of transfers. So when we came home for the night we had nightly planning and finished with about an hour till bedtime, so I cut my hair. I went into the bathroom and just took her clippers to my head and cut my own hair. Doesn't look too bad! Shorter than usual, but that just means I won't need another haircut any time soon.



December 12, 2015
Saturday, Day 60
Day 47 in NY

PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED:
We were walking around after an appointment fell through. We had decided to do some look-ups. While Elder Tabor was looking at directions we turned down the wrong street. So of course he stopped and said "this isn't right, we aren't going the right way." I kept walking and said out loud “there's a reason for everything, let's keep walking.” To my self, but out loud I said "Heavenly Father, why were we led this way?" Just about a minute up the road we came across a group our people doing a service project. In sync Elder Tabor and I looked at each other and said, "This is why we're here!" We stopped by and asked if the group needed any help, they were quick to answer and gave us a rake.

SERVICE:
We went through the gate, signed into their sign in sheet, and began cleaning up this "memorial park". I guess it was an old little park dedicated to someone. It was over crowded with plants and trash. So we went hard for about 45 minutes, then people in the group started leaving until it was just Elder Tabor and I and the guy in charge of the project. He said we could leave, because they were just gonna wrap it up and take off. So we left and went home for lunch! It was so awesome tho! We got to do some service!

CHEF BEAN:
Bean is one of our investigators, if you remember. He had a baptismal date for this month. We've been trying meet with him once a week since I've been here. But lately he's been bailing on us. Coming up with excuses as to why he's not showing up at church, and he's out of our area now because he moved in with a friend until he can move into his new apartment. So we can't leave our area to meet at his friend’s apartment to get him to church, or we would have done that. He calls us every now and then, telling us about his problems, I guess he's been having a lot of chaos in his life recently with money, his job, his health (mental illness), not being able to get his meds. Then when he finally got his meds things still haven't been getting any better. He seems to think everything's getting worse and he's confused. When all of this was going on, he canceled his Baptism. When we finally had the chance to meet with him. We talked him through his problems the best we could and he was feeling better, he said he was feeling peace. Like he always does when he meets with us. We told him ways he could continue to feel this way and be happy. Then he decided he wanted to pick a new date to be baptized. So he chose a date in February, which was his birthday, so he was excited about it.

December 13, 2015
Sunday, Day 61
Day 48 in NY

SACRAMENT ATTENDANCE:
Bean yesterday told us he was coming to church. Nelson also told us he was coming to church; he also said that he was bringing his friend Nelson, who we met last time. So we were stoked! We had faith these 3 guys were coming to church! So before we left to church we got a phone call from Ricky, telling us not to come get him because he was up all night fighting his dizzy spells, so he didn't sleep. So we let him pass with that one. Then we got to church, we text Nelson, no response.. We called Nelson, no answer… We text Bean, no response… We call Bean, he answers and says his foot hurts so he's not coming... So church goes on… We hear nothing from Nelson. Church ends, no Nelson... Total church attendance... A big ZERO. None of our investigators showed up... But life goes on.

DINNER:
We came home after church and made dinner. I made an awesome suddenly salad! Lol and Elder Tabor cooked some rice and vegetables. It was a good meal!

CATHERINE:
After dinner we went and saw this investigator, her names Catherine. She moved here to NY from Ghana Africa. Her English is slow and hard to understand sometimes but we make it work. She said she's Christian but doesn't know what church to go to here. So we took that as a perfect opportunity the first time we met her to teach her and invite her to church. (We have to work around her work schedule on Sunday's but we will get her to church). So we just had a little bible study session with her. She had some questions and we had some answers. Then we went through the Book of Mormon, taught her about the book and read from it. Then scheduled another time to see her.

RICKY:
After Catherine we went over to see Ricky! Ricky has been taught most of the lessons; he's a less active. So he knows quite a bit. But he loves listening to the prophets talks in general conference and
watching Mormon messages so when we visit him we watch a few and talk about them. It's awesomeness! He LOVES Gordon B. Hinkley and Thomas S. Monson! He really enjoys listening to them.

LESSON PLAN:
After Ricky's we just came home and Elder Tabor (being the district leader) asked me if I could prepare a lesson on prayer for tomorrow. I agreed to, and so I planned my 30-minute lesson on prayer. It took me a little over an hour to plan. But it felt like a good lesson!



December 14, 2015
Monday, Day 62
Day 49 in NY

CONFERENCE CALL:
We went to the church like we do every Monday for district meeting. And when we got there we got on the phone for a mission wide conference call with President Smith. He's so awesome! I always look forward to seeing him and hearing him speak. It wasn't a long call, but he calls on a missionary to give an opening prayer for the call then he talks about whatever he feels the need to talk about. The main point he made in this call was to focus on contacting our referrals, cause we have a lot, and we keep getting more and more.

ZONE MEETING:
When we finished the call, the zone came in and we sat around the zone leaders and they talked for a little bit. After they spoke, we went around the room and did introductions, for the 3 new missionaries.
(Elder Hilton, Sister Zelaya, and Sister Payne, I think that's her name, she's a Spanish speaking sister).

DISTRICT MEETING:
This is the meeting where I gave my lesson, so our introductions went a little over time so my lesson was cut short. But it was super awesome from what everyone was saying ha ha. I guess people just love personal experiences.

CHRISTMAS MIRACLE:(Jermaine)
when we left from our meetings we were inspired to go change some plans we had for the day. So we did what President Smith said and decided we would contact some referrals. So on our way to look up a referral. These little kids came up to us with a big box of peanut M&M's. They asked us if we wanted to buy some…


1. I love kids and can't say no to them.
2. I love peanut M&M's and can't say no to them.
So they got me... I reached for my wallet and inside I had $3. Elder Tabor only had a 20. Now here's where it gets awesome! If you know me you should know money doesn't mean the world to me, yes I save it, I spend it, I'm smart with it. But I'm willing to give what I can. So I have $3. I so easily could have given the kids $2, paying for Elder Tabor’s candy and been on our way. For some reason, I didn't. I felt my self being held back in that situation and I had no clue why. When I tired to say, "I'll pay for you" I couldn't. So looking down into my wallet I pull out $1. When I looked up from my wallet to these little kids I gave them the dollar and they handed me M&M's, then realizing Elder Tabor was walking into the shop to the right of us, I followed him in, after just a couple of seconds. He had asked the man in the shop if he had change for a 20. He started pulling out money and asking the kids who then ran in after me for money. Turns out these kids (who I think are his) are out selling candy for him. The man was 1 dollar short in change so Elder Tabor said don't worry I'll just buy 2. This lead into him asking us some questions about Mormons so we stayed and answered his questions. (He runs the shop we were in and he was a little busy, but very interested) so he told us to come back in the morning. Leaving the shop Elder Tabor and I just looked at each other and just knew that this guy was prepared by the Lord to receive us.

JEAN SMITH:
This family, we have FHE planned for them every week, last week we weren't able to come by because she had something going on. But we came by today and it was awesome! We showed them the Savior Is Born videos and talked about why they think it's important that we have a Savior.

GABIN FAMILY:
The Gabin family is a member family, they have a son who's name is Nicholas he's 15 and we've been trying to get him to come out with us to teach a lesson. He's just nervous and doesn't want to, but we will probably get him to come this week. His mom really wants him to come out with us, so we will see. While we were there, we should have gone home to eat dinner, but we skipped and came straight here. Which was a blessing because she ended up making dinner and we ate there, then had cake, and it was so awesome. She even called us a cab and we took a taxi home... Which was crazy nice of her. It was raining, and we were totally fine with walking home. We insisted that she didn't call a cab, but she insisted even more. They are awesome!


December 15, 2015
Tuesday, Day 63
Day 50 in NY

JERMAINE:
So like I said, we came to his shop and in the morning, it was about 10:15. He said he's always at his shop at 8 AM so it was weird that he wasn't there... So we called him and he said he was running late and that he'd be there in 5. So we waited and he came. It was so awesome! We talked with this guy forever, we taught him the plan of salvation and his busy Kenneth came in, in the middle of the lesson so we caught him up to speed and he liked listening too, so we taught them both. They are both prepared! It was a great lesson!!! Then went home and had lunch.

MAIL:
After lunch we went over to the church, got mail! Thank you Hall, Sorensen, and Andelin family for the packages! I love all the Christmas family cards! You all are so sweet! You will be blessed!

ESCORT:
After mail, Elder Tabor and I went over to Nelson’s shop to see him. He wasn't there, so we talked with some of his workers and they said he had gone out for a minute. Then we got a call from the Sister’s. Sister Morgan and Sister Zelaya, they were wondering if we could escort them from their area to Elder Avenue. So went over and got them from their area in Throgsneck and went over to Elder Ave. Because the Bronx isn't the safest place, it's especially not a safe place for sisters, so they need male escorts to go to another area to see an investigator. We walked them to the apartment and we waited outside and just showed people the Savior Is Born video for an hour or so… Lol they told us they'd be in for about 30 mins haha but it was a good lesson, they said and it went over. But it was all good we made it to our next appointment on time.

CHRISTMAS MIRACLE:
The last hour of our night we looked up referrals, so we went and saw this kid John. He's a teenager, we knocked rang their apt. # And they let us in, we got to the door and asked for John and this kid came up to us, we asked if he was the one who had gone on our website and ordered something. He said yes, he ordered the free bible. So we game him a bible and taught them a quick lesson after sharing with them A Savior is born video. We scheduled a time to come back and we are hoping this is another Christmas Miracle family!


I love you all so much thanks for all the support and all the mail! It means the world to me!




Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Mom, look, your favorite!

Cool shoes

Week 8

December 1, 2015
Tuesday, Day 49
Day 36 in NY

LAST NIGHT:
When we split, we split the night before. So Elder Sorensen and I left from the church and headed back to our apartment. I lead the way home, got to the train station, got on the train, got off on our stop, and walked home from there.

GOOD MORNING:
As usual, we got up together, worked out, got ready, ate, then had personal study and comp study. Comp study (companionship study) we plan and study for the people we plan to meet with today. So because it’s my area I took lead in planning.

1st APPOINTMENT:
We went over to go see this investigator named Nickie, we were just going to stop by, give her the triple combination she asked for then follow up with her to see if she had been reading the Book of Mormon. Our plan for a 3rd male fell through, at the last minute he went to the hospital with a friend; his friend was having surgery and needed
someone there when he woke up. Well, turns out Nickie wasn't even home like she said she would be. We called her and she didn't answer. 1st the worst... 2nd the best? Crossing my fingers that’s the case for today.

LOOK UP:
Since the 1st appointment fell through, we looked up another lady named Milagros, she ordered a large print Bible...I didn't know they made Bibles that big, it was like a pizza box. So, we knock on her door and a man came to the door so instantly I was cheering inside because that means we were getting inside. His name is Alberto, I asked if Milagros was home, she then came around the door slowly. She had just had surgery on her knee or something and told us we caught her in a bad time. So I said, Oh, well I have your large print Bible. I don't know how that made the situation better, but she then invited us in. Which was sweet! We went in and sat on the couch, she offered us a drink and we began explaining to them what missionaries are. Who Mormons are, and other questions they had. So, after answering questions we began to teach them the Restoration. Which was awesome! Alberto really understood everything, his mom Milagros seemed to understand as well. She on the other hand, wasn't as accepting. After we had bore our testimonies and testified to them how we both came to know what we had taught them was true, we told them that we know what we know, and that they shouldn't take our word for it but should find out for them selves. I gave Alberto a Book of Mormon, (because we already gave Milagros a Book of Mormon on the first visit a few weeks ago). We invited and encouraged Alberto and his mother to read the introduction and to do as it asks. Read the book, Ponder in their hearts the words of the book, and to pray to know if it's true. Alberto said he would do it, but his mother wanted to check with her own pastor about it first, which made no sense at all because we had just told her to listen to what we have to say, but don't take our testimony and live off that, but to find her own answer, then she goes to say she wants her pastors opinion?! So in the most sincere and
appropriate way, I boldly told her I don't care that she talks to her pastor, but I told her not to take his word either. You'll only come to know the truth through your own faith and actions. She said she understood, but she was really determined to talk to her pastor.
By the end of our lesson, I had asked Alberto when he comes to know that the Book of Mormon and what we've taught him today is true, if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the proper authority of God? He agreed and said he would. So that was super awesome! We asked him about coming by again; he's unemployed at the moment and said he's free most days. So we told him we'd keep in contact and come by again sometime.

NELSON GOMEZ:
Nelson is awesome! He's a homie! He is super chill, had a bit of a rough life growing up and just wants to change and clean up his life. We've been meeting with him since I got here, Elder Tabor was teaching him just before I came in. So together we've gotten to know him pretty well. We always meet him in his auto glass shop, on the corner of a busy intersection so it's always crazy New York loud. Horns, cars, yelling. Everything. So, Elder Sorensen and I left Alberto's house and came to see Nelson, the appointment with Alberto went longer then expected, so we got to Nelsons closer to closing time. He closes at 5, we got there just about 4:50. Work was slow today so he was closing up early. So we just asked if he'd give us the next few minutes. So, we taught him very briefly about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught him about repentance and closed with a prayer.. Then just before we left we invited him to come to church. I told him to think about it and let us know Thursday when we see him again.

RICKY QUIONES:
Then we headed back closer to our apartment, we went and saw Ricky! Ricky is another one of my favorite investigators. We shared with him the Christmas Video A Savior Is Born and he loved it. We gave him a few pass along cards for the video and told him to find people to share the video with. Show Joel, his sister who he sees about once a week, or any of his family or friends. He said he would do that, so that's super awesome! And of course, if you get to meet Ricky, you WILL see how much he can talk. So, because he lives alone, we let him talk, but we try to keep it on our lesson. Sometimes we have to redirect the conversation. As we did that, time went by. And it was cutting close to the time we needed to leave.

UN-SPLIT:
So we rushed back to the apartment grabbed some food and Elder Sorensen's things then headed to the train. It was already 8PM and we needed to be on the train by then, cause it takes 30 mins to get to the church. On our way to the train this homeless looking guy, gets Elder Sorensen's attention, sadly cause we are already in a rush... we stopped and he's asking us to buy him some canned milk or something for his daughter who he didn't have with him… We quickly explained we are missionaries we have little to no money.
But when you tell people you’re missionaries, they start to guilt trip you, which never works for me.. So this guy says well if you’re a Christian be a good one and give from the heart, so I did give from my heart, I gave him 2 minutes of my time to share the Christmas video with him. He just wanted money, but he said give from the heart, not
my wallet. We tried to get away but it didn't seem to work so I asked him how much the milk was. He said $15, pffff, like I have $15 to give, So I slapped the only $2 I had in my wallet in his hand, he said I don't want your money I want you to buy me milk... Quickly I again explained... WE HAVE NO MONEY.... Frustrated he took my $2 anyway. There are some confused people in this world... It's sad, but "I want my 2 dollars!!" Ha ha (Dad and the boys should get that joke).

Well, we finally got on the train and took off to the church, got to the church, Un-Split, and quickly made our way home.


December 2, 2015
Wednesday, Day 50
Day 37 in NY

PDAY!
As usual, got up went and did laundry after our studies, and while laundry was going we went and did a little grocery shopping. After laundry we came straight home quickly put way both our laundry and groceries. We went to the church and again I was in a hurry to finish my journal email. I was 5 days behind again. Played some gator ball when I finished and enjoyed my PDAY!

APPOINTMENT:
Went to go look up this girl Alexis we've been trying to see again. She was busy, she had a maintenance worker over working on stuff so she didn't have time, but she scheduled a time with us, so that was good!

RICHARD:
So Richard is one of our "progressing Investigators" we've only met him once and we didn't even really teach a full lesson. But he's progressing because in the past he met with missionaries and those missionaries invited him to continue meeting with missionaries, so
since he agreed to keep meeting with us he's become a PI (progressing investigator). So, \ we stopped by his house, his son Darren answered the door. We asked for Richard and thankfully he was home. He let us in and we began talking about the restoration. Him and his son were interested and were smart about the subject. They seemed to really understand and even answered questions we asked them. Richard’s wife was weird, in the sense that, not only did she decline our invitation to sit in on our lesson, but right in front of us she said to Richard, "let me know when they leave, I'm going upstairs." Well, we continued to teach, and before we finished teaching them, his wife came back in. And when she did she had a strangely surprised look on her face, when she realized we were still here. Haha, so before we left I invited Richard and his son Darren to be baptized. They said yes they'd be baptized when they come to know this Book of Mormon and the things we taught them are true. So awesome!! Then we left and headed home for the night.


December 3, 2015
Thursday, Day 51
Day 38 in NY

COURTNEY'S 21st BIRTHDAY!
Happy birthday Courtney Simons! (Still not used to that) lol

WEEKLY PLANNING:
Weekly planning sessions take a few hours... So every Thursday we just plan after comp study and 12 week. By the time we finish its past 2 so we eat lunch. After lunch it was probably about 4 or so, we went over to see if Alberto was home. He wasn't, so we went home, we had dinner. Then I packed, for another split.

SPLIT:
After dinner, I packed for tomorrow because we were splitting again. What we do for splits, to make it easy on everyone; you change your clothes for the day and put on what you are going to wear the next day. You only pack your toiletries, clothes to sleep in and your towel. You basically take the place of the Elders companion; so you eat their food, use their shampoo and such. This minimizes the amount of things I would need to carry. After I packed we made our way to the church, on our way we thought we would drop by to see if Carlito was around, he was down one of the aisles in C town (where he works) he was stocking shelves, we would have helped, but we explained we were going on another split and just wanted to see if he was around, back from thanksgiving. So before we left he took a picture with us, pretty sweet pic. Left C town and headed to the church. We got to the church and then split. It was Elder Nalaza and I this time, we went to his area, so he led the way and we went home to his pad.

COVERS:
After nightly planning and right before bed, we sang together haha he loves singing and so he wanted to make some covers lol. He set up his iPad and let the video roll as we sat back and just sang hymns. It was funny! Love Elder Nalaza! Don't worry, we are singing spirit inviting songs and not taking away from productive missionary time.



December 4, 2015
Friday, Day 52
Day 39 in NY

The day begins, Elder Nalaza is awesome!!! He's Filipeano or how ever the heck you spell it. He's a great singer and an awesome cook. So we got up worked out/stretched. And he said I could get ready first, so he could make breakfast. So I was cool with that. When I got out of the bathroom, all dressed and ready he had the table set and the food
ready, it was great!


CO-OP CITY:
Elder Nalaza and Elder Hughes are companions; they serve in Co op city. Where I was in with Elder Nalaza for the day. Their area is not very easy to find people interested in the gospel. Most everyone rejects them immediately. No one gives the missionaries a chance, so they have little success. But Christmas is among us and we have this awesome video A Savior Is Born, so at every bus stop, train station, or someone we find on the street we pull out the video, Bluetooth it to my speaker and begin playing it, and sometimes it kind of forces people into watching it! Haha everyone NEEDS to see this video! So that’s how they've been more successful in finding people to teach. It's been awesome!

UN-SPLIT:
After the day came to an end, we met back at the church around 8-8:30 PM to split back to our normal companions. Then began back on our way home from there.


December 5, 2015
Saturday, Day 53
Day 40 in NY

Today was a bit crazy, sometimes we have a bit of trouble with communicating about appointments. Elder Tabor and I get along so well! And if there's ever a problem we work it out perfectly fine. We have no problems, no issues with each other or anything. There's
just something I've been working on helping him with, working on being more organized. He's a yes man, he says yes to everyone and everything. Whether he understood what you said or not. So we already have a planned day, we get a call and he answers it and says yes we will be there. I'm like wait, what?! Be where we are on our way to this appointment already. I'm like dude you have to check our schedule and check with me before you set another appointment. Now you have to call this person and tell them you have to reschedule. He's like oh yes, I guess, or whatever. So I wasn't mad at him or anything I was just explaining to him what he just did.

MIRACLES:
With all that being said, this is what happens. We are on our way to an appointment with Brother Ford, we were going to go home teaching with him. That's when we get a call from the other Elders, asking if we were available to come help this lady move. (In the chaos of NY Elder Tabor keeps the phone to his ear, because outside you can't hear the phone on speaker) so this conversation is taking place with out my witness, that's when I heard him agree to something I didn't know was being asked. So I said what did you just agree to? He said the Elders want help with service, I said awesome, but we are on our way to Brother Fords home. I said, either call Brother Ford and make sure he's still on for today, or call the Elder back and tell them we can't. So, we call a Brother Ford and turns out he canceled on his home teaching, he's not feeling well. This is why we call before appointments so we don't get there and waste time. (At this time we were at the bottom of the train station. So, we weren’t quite on our way yet.) That worked out perfectly, so it was about 1 and we needed lunch anyway. There right next to us was Giovani's Big Pizza! So we called the Elder back and said we are having lunch, we will be there right after. While waiting for our food, I'm standing up by the register paying. Elder Tabor is siting with our stuff at the table 10Ft from me, then he gets up to order leaving our stuff and phone at the table… In the time he got up to walk towards me to order, the 2 woman cops get up from their table and walk over to ours. Elder Tabor with his back to them doesn't see what's going on but I'm facing them. One of the officers grabs our phone off the table and signals me to be quiet, as she holds the phone up (showing me she has it, then sticking it in her pocket). Meanwhile, the other officer made her way up to me telling me what just happened, happened to her once. While she was on duty, on a lunch break. Her phone was stolen right there with in seconds of her getting up. Elder Tabor not yet realizing what just happened returned to the table to find that the phone was gone. Of course I then started laughing as the officer turned to him handing him the phone, "don't leave your stuff out like that". So, yes perfect opportunity to teach some cops? Right? Right! So I now have my pizza and as I walk back to my table I say to the cops, "since you taught my buddy a lesson, not to leave his stuff out, let me teach you one", that caught them, by surprise, and their ears were opened. Elder Tabor pulls out his iPad and pulls up the Christmas video. We showed them the video and they liked it. We talked a little about it and got their input. It was cool! Thinking that was the end of things they left the pizza shop. Elder Tabor and I then began to bless our food and enjoy our lunch. About 5 minutes later, I look up (I'm facing the door of the pizza shop, Elder Tabors facing me with his back to the door). I see the cops come back this time with one of their other friends, officer Lin (a cool Chinese dude). As they walked in, I whispered to Elder Tabor "uh oh, the cops are back.. Act like they are arresting us" so we look at each other and both stand up with our hands on our heads. The cops told us to sit and not to do that because they didn't want to be embarrassed! Ha ha it was hilarious, people in the shop started looking at us. So obviously the cops were interested in something, either our message or us. Lol they were young looking cops, one said she was 26 the other probably about the same. One was definitely interested in the message we shared so after
they went across the street to get coffee they came back to learn more. We talked for about 15 more minutes. Then they said we will let you eat, so we exchanged information and they went on their way, we finished eating and took off cause we had to go help the Elders, so we go to the train station right there outside the shop. And we just passed through the machine where we slide our card and walk through. Waiting for a train, the Chinese cop saw us through the crack in the door of the train station where they work. So he called us over and we went inside, to our surprise the 2 woman cops were there also. I believe there are no such things as coincidences so we took this opportunity and taught them all the Restoration of Jesus Christ! Haha it was so awesome! So we've got a cop investigator!


December 6, 2015
Sunday, Day 54
Day 41 in NY

Elder Tabors 21st Birthday!!!
It's also fast Sunday! Wahoo! Lol so no birthday cake or dinner till tonight! We have a weird church meeting set up, we get to church at 11 AM have a gospel principles class, then priesthood, then we have sacrament at 1PM it's an interesting new way of church haha.

RICKY @ CHURCH:
So we got up that morning and after studies went straight to Ricky's apartment, he was ironing his clothes, so when he finished, we walked with him to church. After church we walked Ricky home. On our way he wanted to get Elder Tabor a birthday cake and food for dinner. So he did that and we had to leave to go to an appointment really fast.

SERVICE:
This service project was the same lady who needed help moving the other day we met the cops. We didn't get to help her because we ended up teaching the police officers. So we went to her house really fast and helped her. She just wanted help setting up her bed, so we jammed over to her place, set up her bed in about 15 minutes, jammed back to the bus stop and waited for a bus, we had to get to Michaels house for a dinner appointment.

MICHAEL:
Michael is our mission ward leader, he wanted to have us over for Elder Tabors birthday, so we had dinner with them at 5 also had a cake they made for him, shared a message and left to go to Ricky's again.

RICKY:
Ricky also wanted to make us dinner so we had 2 dinner appointments and 2 cakes haha so awesome! Ricky made us dinner, we ate and then watched the 2015 Christmas devotional which was awesome, here's my notes from it:

2015 Christmas Devotional

David A. Bednar spoke about The Light of Christ, he referenced
Christmas lights to Christ, Christ being the light.

The Light. Christ is The Light.
-----------------------------------------
My interpretation with common objects of Christmas

Christmas tree (the gospel)
Lights (Christ)
Ornaments (The Children of God)
The branches (Gospel principles)
The string/hook, whatever we choose to hang by (Faith)
String (weak faith, not much support)
Hook (stronger faith, more support)
-----------------------------------------
As we (the ornaments) cling to the Gospel (the tree) we surround our selves around Christ (The Lights). It doesn't matter what Gospel principles (the branches) we cling to, to stay strong in the Gospel, The principles never change, but our faith (the string/hook, that we choose to hang by) may affect the strength we have in the Gospel. Decide now, how your faith will affect the position the Gospel takes in your life.

It was super awesome! So we watched that with him at his house. He loved it, we talked about it and shared our thoughts. Then it was about 9 o'clock so we had to get going home.


December 7, 2015
Monday, Day 55
Day 42 in NY

Zone meeting!
Sister Ballou is the only sister leaving us this transfer.. Hermana Hill is staying but only has 4 weeks left of her mission.. So that's crazy cool! Elder Rankin is a Spanish-speaking Elder who's leaving us this transfer...

FHE:
When we got home from zone meeting, we had lunch then planned our family home evening. We decided to teach the object lesson I was inspired to come up with yesterday during the Christmas devotional, so I used my notes to teach that, it was super cool! The kids loved it, because they got to decorate the tree mom sent me on thanksgiving, Thanks mom! You sent an inspired gift!!


December 8, 2015
Tuesday, Day 56
Day 43 in NY

Brief lessons with people.


We taught Brother Ford about missionary work and invited him to share gospel with someone.

Then we taught this guy about prayer, his name is Charles, we met him last week on our way home we shared the Christmas video with him and he wanted to know more.

NELSON:
Then we went and taught Nelson, we invited him to church last week, but he didn't show up, so that put me down a little bit.. His excuse was valid tho, his 16 year old daughter was on the news so he went with her to support her. But we got to his shop and it was a slow day, no work was going on so it was perfect, he sat down and we had a good 30-minute lesson with him about prayer. He felt the spirit and it was legit! When we finished teaching him we invited him to pray, he was hesitant at first, but asked if he could do it in Spanish. So we said sure, so he prayed in Spanish. We couldn't understand it but he prayed and that's what matters.

Short, slow, but productive day!

Thank you guys for all the support! I love you all!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold







Elder Newbold says, " I've only been out here 2 months and Dora is a woman?"






Laundry selfies

Week 7

November 25, 2015

Wednesday, Day 43

Day 30 in NY

PDAY!

I don't know how many times more I can say it! I just love pday! It's the best; the activities and things we choose to do during that time are so good for relieving any stress or bad vibes. It even makes sick people feel better, even if they are just at the church watching the rest of us. It gives them a good attitude and brings up their spirit.

DAILY SCRIPTURE:

We felt like it was a good idea to start sending a scripture daily to our investigators. So today we sent: Omni 1:26 "And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and prayer, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth you will be saved." We sent this scripture at 10 AM after comp study, to about 20 or so of our investigators/members. And soon after it was sent we were getting texts through out the day, thanking us for that scripture, telling us it was exactly what a few of them needed, and so on. Since that experience we've been sending a scripture every morning. This is something I encourage ALL to do! It’s so easy. Everyone knows it can be hard to bring up the Gospel to people, its "scary" or something. But it’s so easy to share something you love with someone you love. So I invite all to find a scripture this week that they love or feel that it would be perfect for one or more people and send it (just like above, the name of the book section chapter and verse(s) then quote the scripture.

1. It’s so awesome, people love this! They recognize that you care because you’re sharing something important to you, with them.

2. If you chose to send it to someone who isn't a member, it could bring up a conversation. They might love the scripture and ask where you found it. That then gives you the perfect missionary opportunity to share with them The Book of Mormon.

OBEDIENCE: (it's key to survival in the mish)

We have 1 sister companionship in our district, but 2 in our zone. The companionship in our zone has been sick on and off for the past month or so. (NOT to call them out, but just to share with you, here’s an example). They've been sick with the flu the whole time I've been here. 1st Sister Ballou was sick for a couple weeks, turns out, after going to the Doctors, she has asthma, so once she got an inhaler she was better. Then Sister Morgan got sick with the flu and has been sick for 3 weeks now. These poor 2 Sisters have been in their apartment the majority of their sickness. Rarely leaving the house because of how bad the flu is this year. I think she was almost sent home because she's been that sick and no work has been getting done in their area. Sister Smith, (President Smiths wife) said, the reason both these Sisters are sick is because neither one of them got their flu shot... "They don't like needles..." GET YOUR FLU SHOTS!! The FLU is horrible this year! We have a good handful of missionaries in NY who are sick, and the ones that are sick were the ones who didn't get their shot. So be obedient! Even the lame little things we are asked to do, like getting a flu shot. I thought about just skipping the shot. But I'm glad I got

One because everyone who hasn't gotten one, got sick really bad. Not that these Sisters are disobedient, because they aren't they are such amazing missionaries, they just chose to skip over a little rule and its caused a lot of pain and misery for the both of them.

PDAY:

After we did laundry and grocery shopping we went home changed into pday activity clothes and went to the church to play gator ball. When we got there, I was prepared to give another Elder a haircut. While waiting for them to show up, I began to catch up in my journal. During this time, other missionaries began to show up. So as enough showed up they started playing gator ball.. I was still writing my journal email, and had been for over an hour.. After about 30 minutes of hearing the missionaries yelling to me to get off and come play. I wrapped up the end of my journal, sent it off, and began to destroy in gator ball. The 2 Sisters (Morgan & Ballou) that had been sick, left the house for the 1st time in about 4 days and came to the church to get fresh air. To our surprise, one, they showed up and two, they both played with us. (Even tho Sister Morgan sat in the chair (the chair is the goal) and played goalie). Lol Her spirit was lifted and she did seem to look a little happier.

APPOINTMENTS:

We met with 3 people tonight. We came home from the church, around 5:30PM. We hurried to get ready and ate. Then got out the door by 6PM. We thought that we would go stop by this investigator’s home. So we got to the project and the lady we were there to see is standing there in the "lobby" waiting at the elevator. So we only had a few minutes with her because she was getting ready to leave. We just decided to review the Daily Scripture that we sent out this morning. Her name is Alexis, so the time that we were with her we were able to start with a prayer review the daily scripture with her, answer her question about the scripture, share our testimony on it, invite her to read some of the Book of Mormon, close with a prayer, and make a follow up appointment. The awesome things you can do in 10 minutes. After Alexis, we left and went to David Urbina home, not sure I’ve mentioned David before. But David is a very knowledgeable man. Growing up in high school he realized he was able to learn and remember things that he cared to learn about. (That makes perfect sense). So he studied a lot of different things he became interested in. Science being one of them. Around the age 18 he was converted into the church and was baptized. After some number of years he became inactive. He's now about 38 and loves meeting with us. He loves learning so he's always so open to meeting with us. We teach, he understands, we invite, and he commits, lately he hasn't kept up on his commitments to read the Book of Mormon so when we meet with him we read with him the scriptures we invited him to read and we discuss what its about. It's

super awesome! This time that we met with him he had a friend over that used to meet with missionaries. So together the 4 of us took turns reading the Book of Mormon. Towards the end his friend bore his testimony, which was super awesome and unexpected. Even David was surprised and loved it. Super cool experience! After meeting with David, we left and went to look up this lady named

Mildrige (or something like that). We knocked on her door, never met her before. So we introduced our selves and she wants a Bible so we ordered one, she was in the middle of cooking so we didn't stay long.

November 26, 2015

Thursday, Day 44

Day 31 in NY

Happy Thanksgiving!

THANKSGIVING:

We had weekly planning to do this morning so after that we went over to this lady's home. "Sister Cruz" she's a less active, she called us yesterday out of the blue! We have never met/heard of her. But she was like, hey elders, I was just wondering if you had any plans for thanksgiving we told her we did but that we were available during lunch around noon. So we set an appointment yesterday.

After we planned, it was about 12:30, so we took off and went over to her house. Met her for the first time, met her sister, and her son (who was in his 30s). We went in and she sat us at the table. We sat down and she asked us what we'd like to eat, she immediately after said I'll just give you a little bit of everything.. So of course I was nervous, because all her food was covered. So I had no clue what any of the food was... As she started uncovering the food, at times I felt relief and other times felt uneasy... To say the least it was quite an experience...

But I can't leave you with the least, so we blessed the food and in my heart I was praying to be able to eat it all... Just so I could be polite... Most of the food wasn't the best, the turkey was dry, and she had a lot of different Spanish looking food, which just wasn't good to me... So with her standing right there in the kitchen, I'm

just stuffing my face with a variety of all of it, so it didn't over power with flavor of one food. Besides the fact of the amount of food being so much (2 full plates side by side), I couldn't always swallow what was in my mouth.. So I had to drink the Coke she gave us with every bite.. The food wasn't horrible, just so much of so many different things..

I WAS WRONG:

Leaving, with disgust from never before feeling so full from one sitting. I found myself terribly wrong, as we then made our way to our next meal appointment...

THANKSGIVING#2:

To the Danquah's. The Danquah family is member family in our ward; Brother Danquah is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric. We can tell we are his favorite missionaries lol. He hasn't said it, but we know it. He always comes to us for things he needs. So as full as could be, or so we thought, we began our next meal. I don't know if it's culture or what, but they cooked a ton of food... So of course that means we have to eat a lot. Round 2 killed us... We thought we couldn't eat any more, but we managed to shove most of our plate of food down our throats. The left overs on our plate, we starting planning how to get rid of it... So thinking of the stories I've been told, I started to consider, shoving food into my bag, throwing it out the window...

1. I didn't have enough napkins to cover the food to put it in my bag.. So that didn't work.

2. I wasn't sitting by a window... So that didn't work either.

Running out of ideas, my eye was drawn towards the red solo cup I was drinking from.. So I was just barely able to drink the rest of what was left in the cup. When I finished I found myself with the perfect opportunity when no eyes were on me... So with the cup in my hand I started to scoop the rest of the food on my plate. Then stuffing napkins on top to cover it.. It worked! Mission accomplished..

Let's just say, I've never in my life, never not been able to touch my toes till this day...

THEY DIDN'T THINK IT WAS ENOUGH:

They knew that we had just gotten back from a meal appointment, but we ate their dinner too... But of course that wasn't enough to them. Well duh! What's Thanksgiving with out dessert!! After stuffing what I could into my cup, and thinking I was in the clear.. They insisted that we eat pie... But not just one slice, and not just the pie.. They wanted us to try their homemade bowl of whatever it was... So the Lord being so merciful, then answered our prayers in allowing us to eat more food.. So we managed once more to shove pie in our face..

DON'T COMPLAIN: (it's thanksgiving)

I think that was my punishment for being "ungrateful", because we never get fed by members.. Lol

RATS:

Ratatouille is not a fake movie; it's an animation of what NY is really like.. There are rats everywhere and they are huge!!!

THE BRONX:

Lying in bed we heard some gunshots and then screaming. Super dope, or so everyone else thinks lol.

Don't worry! We are safe here.

November 27, 2015

Friday, Day 45

Day 32 in NY

PRESIDENT SMITH:

He reminds me of dad, he's like the father of the mission so I look to him as a father. The reason I think of dad when I see president smith is because he restated something dad always told me. "Do your best to be the best, so when the time comes that you are called to a position in the church you can accept it. Always accept every calling you get, because the Lord qualifies everyone that is called."

November 28, 2015

Saturday, Day 46

Day 33 in NY

PRAYER:

It's impossible to go a day without prayer; it's just always necessary! I love the song Did you think to pray.

1. Ere you left your room this morning,

Did you think to pray?

In the name of Christ, our Savior,

Did you sue for loving favor

As a shield today?

[Chorus]

Oh, how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day.

So, when life gets dark and dreary,

Don’t forget to pray.

2. When your heart was filled with anger,

Did you think to pray?

Did you plead for grace, my brother,

That you might forgive another

Who had crossed your way?

[Chorus]

Oh, how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day.

So, when life gets dark and dreary,

Don’t forget to pray.

3. When sore trials came upon you,

Did you think to pray?

When your soul was full of sorrow,

Balm of Gilead did you borrow

At the gates of day?

[Chorus]

Oh, how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day.

So, when life gets dark and dreary,

Don’t forget to pray.

November 29, 2015

Sunday, Day 47

Day 34 in NY

CHRISTMAS IS UPON US:

Love the season!!!! The church came out with this new Christmas video "A Savior Is Born". It's the most beautiful video ever!!! Watch it!!!! Share it!!! Post it!!!  Spread the word!

Christ was born so we can be born again!

A SAVIOR IS BORN:

Watch it! Post it! Hashtag it!! You can find the video on

Christmas.mormon.org

Or in the gospel library app. download it!! I can't say it enough; I've literally watched it over a hundred times!! We share it with EVERYONE we see on the street, bus, train.. I Bluetooth my speaker and just play it loud! The church has promoted it in Times Square there's banners posters and signs everywhere of A Savior Is Born. This is the best time to share the true meaning.. It's the easiest way; having this video!

SURPRISE TALK:

About to walk out the door, we receive a call for, brother Danquah, he has asked us to give a talk in sacrament meeting.... So last minute! We were on our way out the door to Church, but of course we accepted. And I gave my talk on repentance and the atonement. At the end of sacrament, the sister missionaries came up to me, they said thank you so much for your talk.. It touched on exactly what

we've been teaching our investigator. (Who was sitting with them during sacrament) they said I made her cry, she felt the spirit so strong, and felt like it was exactly for her. Miracle of the day, I was asked to give a talk and inspired to talk on repentance just for that investigator who is now getting baptized this upcoming Saturday!!

November 30, 2015

Monday, Day 48

Day 35 in NY

SPLIT:

Just another day in the mish, we prepared me for a split. I was going to take over the area this time.. So I was going about the day leading. Elder Tabor helped with whatever I needed. I was more confident after today.

THE SPLIT:

We met at the church and the sisters asked us to come early, they asked if we could give the same investigator (Denise, who was at sacrament) a blessing. So we get there and out of the other 2 elders, Elder Tabor and I, she asked me to give the blessing. Haha I feel like a blessing magnet. So we explained to her what a blessing is, asked her how she was, and what she wants the blessing for. So I gave her a blessing of comfort and counsel. She loved the blessing and of course that makes me feel great! Because after giving a blessing I always forget what was said, because it's not as important for me to know, it's the words of the Spirit.

After the blessing we then split, Elder Sorenson and I. So I had the keys and the phone for the companionship. Which was different, Elder Tabor and I usually switch off, he has the keys and I have the phone or the other way. But I took on both this time. Then also had to lead the day because he doesn't know our area, but I felt like I didn't either.. Thankfully we never got lost, I just never knew where we were. Lol but of course we were always lead to the right direction.

It was a really cool experience to be the leading companion in the companionship. Making all the decisions with the input of Elder Sorenson, but he doesn't know our area or investigators. That's why I was in charge of making the decisions.

I apologize for the shortening of my emails haha I'm sure you can imagine how busy I am. But I will write about December 1st and today next week!!

Love you all thanks so much for everything!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

Ricky and Joel

Ward Halloween party