New York

New York

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Week 6



November 18, 2015
Wednesday, Day 36
Day 23 in NY

PDAY! Waddup!

MIXED FEELINGS: (sad/happy/relieved)
During our morning companionship, we were talking about how our days went the other day on our split and about our appointments. Elder Tabor said he met with Brother Ford... He told me that his Aunt had passed away on Sunday morning. As sad as it was to hear that I had just given this poor helpless women a blessing, it was relieving to know that the Lord had plans for her soon. Looking back at the blessing and trying to think of what I said, I remember that I said these words "your Heavenly Father wants you to know that everything will be okay from this point on, that whatever happens he will take care of you and that everything will happen according to his plan". Then the comfort came and helped me realize that she's no longer suffering and she's now being taken care of.

PDAY:
We went and took care of laundry in between washing and drying we went grocery shopping across the street at this place called Deals super legit, everything's super cheap or cheaper than what it usually would be. So sometimes hard to resist buying things just because it's so cheap lol! But we manage haha. Like I said before, I shop with a grocery list and my companion wishes he was organized like me, it's so funny! Then we just stayed home and took care of emailing home and I was 3 days behind in my email journal so I had to finish that before I sent it.

GETTING BEHIND:
Once you get behind it gets tough! It's so hard to catch up. Elder Tabor is about 2 1/2 weeks behind... It sucks! His goal is to get caught up, so I'm going to work on helping him fit in time during lunch and dinner haha.


November 19, 2015
Thursday, Day 37
Day 24 in NY

Today is the one day of the week that we weekly plan, this day isn't too fun, because we are in the house most of the day.. Really the only time during all of this, we leave the house, is during ward correlation before lunch and after dinner.

WEEKLY PLANNING:
We get up, get ready, have our personal study, comp study, then we have ward correlation (where we go to the church and meet to talk with the ward mission leader about how our investigators are doing), by this time its 12 so we have lunch, after our lunch its then 1 o'clock. Then we begin weekly planning which usually takes about 3 hours. This time it took just about 4 hours, because me being me (I'm VERY forgetful, so I need things to be organized.) so during our planning I took time to set up a chart that shows us who our investigators are, our members, less actives, our goals to see who is coming to church, who we need to call and check up on, and so forth. So for about 9 hours of the day we are inside.. Then it's close to dinnertime, so we either set an appointment to go out and see someone during that time, or we decide to eat an early dinner and then go out for the night to our appointments. (But because I'm always hungry I eat before and after.)

BUMMY DAY:
This day usually feels like the longest day, because of our schedule... But after all our planning is done and we are ready to go out we figure out who we are going to look up. So we go to the persons home, and there’s no success.. So we look up names of people that live around and try all of them... again no success... This is what we would do till we had to be back home.

OUR SUCCESS:
Came from inspiration to go look up this lady, she answered her door and we've met her before but she’s been busy with school and what not so we haven't had time to meet up with her. She at this time was in the middle of cooking dinner, so very briefly I gave her a pamphlet of the restoration, I invited her to read it and write down any questions or answers to questions that she may have or find, and when we have time we will come back and talk about it. She agreed to it and we left with that.

MIRACLE:
We were making our way home when this 11-year-old boy, Roscoe, came up to us with a leash in his hand and his pit bull behind him and said "Who are you? What you guys do? I seen you walk around here talking to everyone all the time" We have never seen this kid before, he says he sees us all the time though. He said we've even talked to him before, but we think he talked to the other missionaries in the area. We answered his questions; we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We teach people about Jesus Christ and how we can come closer to him and out Heavenly Father. We also teach how we can be happy and bring our families closer together. Immediately he says, "I’m not happy, but I want to be." We started talking to him and listening very closely... It was really weird to hear someone so young say they aren't happy.. We asked him why he thinks he isn't happy, while he responded to our questions and listened to our words, we could tell something wasn't right.. This poor kid wasn't safe... He would look around when talking to us as if he thought someone was watching him... He told us about his family and about himself, he said that his family is apart of gangs, his 18-year-old brother is a gangster and he referred to his brother as "The Devil" saying he just does bad things all the time. He said that if he gets into a fight or kids pick on him, that he has to stand up and fight back, if his family finds out he ran to protect himself he said he'd get a beating. The miracle in all this is that this kid was willing to open his mouth to ask us about what we do, so after we talked to him. I gave him a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon I told him to read this pamphlet, it will tell you how to be happy, if you have any questions you can look at these verses in The Book of Mormon. We got his number and we gave him ours. Feeling scared for this kid, I asked Elder Tabor to stop at this next corner. There we prayed and asked Heavenly Father to protect Roscoe
and to help guide us in a way to help this kid. Then we continued on our way home to retire for the night.


November 20, 2015
Friday, Day 38
Day 25 in NY

Same old, same old, morning routine. I honestly love mornings, I love personal study. I really wish I had more than 1 hour a day to study the scriptures. I could be in them all day.

MIRACLE:
We were out looking up people in the area. We checked out this address that brought us to this apartment complex. Most apartment buildings have a call in gate because the doors to enter are always locked. (It’s just how they monitor who's getting in.) So you push the call button of the room you there to visit. When we got to the door to call in the door was shut but Elder Tabor pushed on it anyway... and it opened! We didn't even think anything of it. We walked in and up the stairs to the room. We knocked on the door and this young looking woman came to the door (she looked about late 20s) we asked if she was the lady whose name is on our area book. She said no, we asked if she knew the lady, she said, "no, we just moved in here, so it must have been the previous owner." We said okay well are you interested in learning more about the message we share of Jesus Christ. She said yes but she was just about to leave, her husband just then came up the stairs and said what’s going on, we explained that we are missionaries and that we'd like to share a message. He accepted but told us that they are busy; they were moving into their new apartment. We offered to help but they said that it's okay, they had other help and most of what they had to do was unpack. The miracle in this is after we got their information and headed out of the building we noticed that the gate we came in through was shut and locked like the first time, but when we turned the handle that’s when we realized that we should NOT have been able to get in. It was meant to be!

1 IN 100:
We went into this project (apartment), and as we got to the door of this girl we were going to see, we saw her getting into the elevator, so we stopped her really quick to see if we could make an appointment, so we did. As we were leaving the floor on our way down to the next floor we squeezed by this man who was sitting at the bottom of the stairs smoking. As we walked by he said "good luck getting anyone to listen to your message!" I stopped and asked why do you say that? He responded, "no one here is religious, they are all crazy crack heads". Elder Tabor said, well we just talked to a lady who's interested, the man responded "1 out of 100 people might listen to you" so I said
“well we just found 1, would you be another?" He said "me, no. I mean I love Jesus but I don't need to hear your message." Then he went on about something about his family, and how they are all trying to get out of here because everyone here is a bunch of crack heads. After he said that, I said well one of the messages we share is about families and how they can come closer to each other and be happier, is that something you'd be interested in? That caught his attention and he agreed to listen, so since we were on our way out and he finished smoking and had to start dinner. We exchanged numbers and information then told him we would keep in contact.

2nd HAND SMOKE:
I’m not a smoker, but everyone in New York is. So there’s a chance I'll come home with 2nd hand smoke lol. But I'd give up my lungs for anyone’s salvation.

SUBWAY EXPERIENCE:
I thought I was getting the whole subway experience from the month I've been here... I was wrong, there was 1 thing I was missing... Pole dancers... Standing opposite to each other, Elder Tabor looks at me and signals me to look through the window of the train cart behind us. So I leaned forward and not to my surprise, but to my surprise, with out watching, but within 5 seconds of looking I caught a full show. These 2 guys were pole dancing! It was hilarious!

CARLITO:
So in my last emails I may have talked about Carlito, Carlito is so legit!! Every time I see him, I picture him in temple clothes! Haha he’s going to get far in this world. I can see him really accepting this Gospel. We went to his store and checked up on him. "His girl" (not sure if its his girl friend, fiancĂ©, or wife.. I don’t think he’s married) She works at this place like a men’s wear house of clothing. In her store, if people pull out the pins and tags to try on clothes, (even if nothings wrong with the clothing) it becomes "damaged clothing" so they collect all that clothing in boxes, when it gets too much her manager tells her to get rid of it. So she takes is home and brings it all to Carlito. So when we got there he told us to go through the box and he let us take all the things that were our size. I got a new white button up shirt, a striped button up shirt (for p-days), and a pair of slacks. Super Dope! He is so awesome! When things are close to expiring or get knocked off the shelves and cant be sold he gives us stuff! The Lord takes care of us!


November 21, 2015
Saturday, Day 39
Day 26 in NY

Elder Tabor and I, after our studies, went to the church for a meeting and then after stayed to have 12 week. During 12 week I was prompted to grab some chalk and walk up to the chalkboard. As I did that Elder Tabor had asked me a question, he said something like "how could you set up someone to ask you a specific question?" So as I stood at the board I started writing things that came to mind. When I was done writing on the chart board I had a whole diagram draw out to answer his question. It was such an inspired answer it was so cool!!

ADVICE:
All who are going on missions, Ask each of your companions this question, "Why did you come out on a mission?" This will hopefully open them up and tell you the truth of why they are here, which will help bring you both closer together in a companionship.

The other piece of advice of many things I could share is, Learn to love everyone. Yes it sounds hard.. and for some it will be, but as long as you tell yourself all the time that you love everyone. It will eventually become true out of habit. Then it will become unconditional for everyone you meet.


November 22, 2015
Sunday, Day 40
Day 27 in NY

Today was a really awesome day... Your prayers worked! Earlier in the week we told Ricky he should come to church because Elder Tabor is giving a talk. He said he would. So that was awesome! Like last time he said he would come he didn't so we were a bit worried he wouldn't show up. We had text him this morning and he didn't respond. So we hurried to get ready and started speed walking to his apartment. When we got to the intersection of where he lives we saw him walking down the sidewalk, he yelled to us "don't you dare cross the street, don't you dare come over here!" He's just funny like that, so we crossed the street to walk with him anyways haha. It was awesome! So Ricky came to church!!

2nd DINNER APPOINTMENT:
After church we were invited to over for dinner by the most awesome couple in the ward, The Fryers. He's been home from his mission for a couple years (he served in Madagascar, he's heard about Chad Burton, Brother Fryer said that when he had just come into the mission that Elder Burton at the time was leaving) so that’s cool! Brother Fryer is about 28 I think he married a Dominican Republic girl he met. They are so awesome! They made the most delicious meal I've had since I've been here!


November 23, 2015
Monday, Day 41
Day 28 in NY

Sorry that each day is getting shorter, I’m just telling the more important events that occur.

FUNERAL:
Today we went to support Carlito, we went with him to a funeral home. His buddy had passed away a few days ago. So he asked us to come with him. We went and were there a couple hours. We just comforted him the whole time we were there. It was an interesting experience. The family of the man that had passed away was Puerto Rican, so they have this tradition where they play instruments and sing prayers around the casket, to make the ceremony a more happy event. Then before we left, Carlito asked me if I would say a prayer with him. So I said of course, thinking just with him and Elder Tabor right there between us 3... I was wrong, he stood up in front of everyone and said can I have everyone’s attention, Elder Newbold is going to have a prayer with us, can we all stand in silence and join him in this prayer for Eugenol Reyes (who was the man that passed)... Holy cow, so I stood up looked at my companion with the expression "oh boy" Elder Tabor smiled and said "you got this" as he laughed to himself.. So I stood in front of maybe 50 people, who I have never me, and offered a prayer.. Then Carlito gave me a hug and thanked me and as we left everyone else shook my hand and thanked me as we left.


November 24, 2015
Tuesday, Day 42
Day 29 in NY

This morning, after all our studies we had to get on a conference call with President Smith and all the other missionaries of the zone, so that was pretty cool. He just spoke and shared experiences that had happened during the week that were miracles to him. Then he bore his testimony and it was really cool. So there’s always something to start off the morning really well!


I can’t really remember much else of what happened yesterday. My mind is so boggled as I’m rushing to write about these last 4 days in the hour and a half of sitting here haha.


Love you all so much, thanks to all those who sent me letters and packages, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Enjoy the week!



Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold





Elder Newbold, Carlito, and Elder Tabor

Bobby the hobo and Elder Newbold
I love HONEY!!

Elder Newbold and Elder Tabor

Week 5

November 11, 2015
Wednesday, Day 29
Day 16 in NY

PDAY! I always look forward to this day!

REGULAR DAILY ROUTINE:
Wake up at 6:30, try to limit my prayer to 10 minutes instead of 30,
so I have time to work out. Then I stretch, do my 50 push-ups, stretch more. I'll be honest I hate working out in morning. No amount of stretching can take the stiff muscles away at 6:30 in the morning. Well after we work out, depending on who showered 1st the day before we switch, (that way the other person can "nap"). So I showered, got ready, went to the couch to wake up Elder Tabor ha ha and then he gets ready. Then I "nap" while he gets ready. Then when he's done we both start personal study on time at 8. After all our studies, we finish about 10 AM and we head over to the laundry mat to do laundry. While we are waiting on laundry we will go across the street and buy some groceries or snacks. Then we come back, switch to the dryer. Then go out for lunch. We ran into the Spanish Elders (Elder Rankins and Elder Guerra) while we were doing laundry, so we met up with them for lunch at this super good pizza place!
Then we came home to email... And we had issues with wifi… So we hurried over to the church, had better luck there with wifi. Sent and received some emails, then changed into PDAY activity clothes for the 1st time in 2 weeks! Ha ha we played this game called Gator ball! Soooo fun! (And as missionaries, we can't let games get competitive because people get hurt, but people get hurt doing anything) so even tho I wasn't getting "competitive" I still played super hard so I should probably repent. Lol.

GATOR BALL:
So gator ball is a game of 2 mixed sports. Football and soccer. There's 1 chair on both sides of the court or (playing field; where ever you play). There are 2 teams. Amount of players can be how ever many. You can start with the ball in your hand; you can walk, run, move, jump, whatever you want with the ball in your hand. But if someone from the opposite team tags you with the ball in your hand you have to drop it. (You keep possession of the ball, but the ball gets placed on
the ground) then you have to kick it to the other side for your teammates. The other teams goal is to keep you from scoring or steal the ball from you. The goal of the game is to touch the chair on the opposite side of the field (court) with the ball. Then that's a point and the other team gets the ball. If you are holding the ball and you get tagged the ball gets put on the ground, if you pass the ball from your hands to your teammate and they miss it or drop it and it touches the ground it stays on the ground and it becomes soccer until you either kick it up to another
one of your teammates. You can't kick the ball up to yourself. But you
can kick it up to your teammates. When scoring a point, you can either touch the ball to the chair, kick the ball at the chair, roll the ball to the chair, anyway you want. As long as the ball touches the chair, at any point during the game.
Such a fun game!
(If clarification is needed please email me questions, I'll be glad to help!)

THAT NIGHT:
We went home after our PDAY activity (gator ball) and ate dinner, got ready for our appointment, then took off to do some look-ups. "Look ups" are people we look up, that are either investigators or referrals in the area around where ever we are. So we had a set appointment but he wasn't home... Or didn't answer, so that's when we usually do look ups. So we just did that till 8:30 then went home. Did our nightly planning. Then got ready for bed, did our nightly calls.

NIGHTLY CALLS:
Because Elder Tabor is the district leader. Each night after our planning, he/we make calls to the other companionships to make sure they all got home safe and we just ask them how their day went. Maybe share some stories or experiences. Then we ask them if there's anything we can do for them. If anything, their response is usually just "pray for so-n-so", so we do. It's one of my favorite parts of the day.



November 12, 2015
Thursday, Day 30
Day 17 in NY

Same old same old morning routine, get up, make my bed, pray, "nap" (sit on the couch with my eyes closed while my companion showers), get ready, personal study, companionship study, then we had missionary (ward) coordination.

MEETING AT THE CHURCH: (Ward coordination) We go to the church in Parkchester to meet for this meeting. We take the train over there. Then walk a quarter of a mile or so. Talk to Bobby the Hobo every time that we see he's awake. Sometimes Bobby is sleeping with all his blankets pulled over him like a taco. I told him I'll bring him a big bag of Doritos, so I owe him Doritos. Since I brought him Doritos twice before, he jokingly asked where his next bag was. Then that's what I said I'll bring you one.

WARD COORDINATION:
Our meeting at the church consists of the missionaries in our district. (Sister Morgan, Sister Ballou, Elder Buckley, Elder Sorensen, Elder Gallardo, Elder Dominguez, Elder Tabor and I, Elder Newbold) We all meet up in the relief society room. Our ward missionary leader is always there to conduct out meeting, His names Michael. This meeting SHOULD take about an hour like I've mentioned last week. But because Michael is a jokester and story teller, we usually take about 2 hours or so.  We just go over our Progress Reports, which are Reports we write about our investigators, and how they are doing, when and how often we've met with them, are the progressing or not. Just things like that.
Michael, (when he actually takes the time to get serious lol) he reads our reports and we talk about them. We get information as to how we can maybe do better, or help a certain person or situation.

LOVETH:
Loveth is an investigator, I'm not sure how long she's been an investigator. But we went to her apartment, (and this was the first time I've met her) we ring her bell, through the speaker she says "who is it?" We respond "the missionaries" she buzzes us in and we met her right there at the front of the apartment on the lobby floor.  I think she's a single mother, she said something about her kids going to stay with their dad. (It's so hard to understand people sometimes, because they either don't speak good English or they don't speak English at all, in this case her accent was rough) Anyways, we didn't have a 3rd male for our lesson so we just stood in the lobby and taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught from the pamphlets, so we gave her one to follow along with. After talking a little bit with her we began with a prayer. Then we went right into it, in the beginning of the lesson she didn't seem very in to it, she looked tired, not very interested or focused. When Elder Tabor asked her questions she just kind of nodded and answered with something brief. Not much meaning. So I wasn't quite sure what was happening, was I not doing anything? Was I doing something wrong? Is Elder Tabor talking too much? Or maybe she thought she already knew this stuff? Because she's nodding and saying she has faith in Christ. These were just questions that came to mind as we taught her. We went over Faith in Jesus Christ, The atonement and repentance. But it was when I began to read the section of Baptism and the Holy Ghost, she became more attentive. She looked more interested.


November 13, 2015
Friday, Day 31
Day 18 in NY

This morning around 11 we had an appointment with Chef Bean, his real name is Melvin Bean, but we call him Chef Bean, or Bean; Chef Bean cause he's a chef.
So we met with him, this was my second time meeting with him. He already has a Baptism date for December 5th, he's excited but still wants to find peace. Elder Tabor told me I was going to be the one to lead the discussion... so I did, we talked on three very important commandments. Prayer, (praying often), reading the scriptures, and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy; then we talked about obedience over all. It was a really good lesson! He had come to church a couple times before I think.. I know for sure he came once, but that was before I got here to NY. But since the last time he came he has had things come up, which kept him from coming. Two weeks ago he didn't come cause he had to take his brother to the ER the night of Halloween so he was in the hospital for a while. Then last week he didn't come because every year he does this thing for charity and he couldn't give that up, which was understandable.  But the lesson went super well, we had him read sections from Preach My Gospel, powerful stuff!! Then we would ask him what stood out to him or how he felt about it. He really liked all of it and shared some awesome input. The spirit was strong! So when the spirit is strong that’s when we get inspired to invite our investigators. "Chef Bean, will you commit to follow Jesus Christ's example by being obedient and keeping his commandments, by praying often with a sincere heart, reading your scriptures daily, and coming to church on a weekly basis?"  Nodding his head, and with a sincere smile, he said he will commit to doing the things which we discussed and will be at church this Sunday.

GOAL:
I want to be a Preach My Gospel missionary! I’m going to teach from, follow, and live by Preach My Gospel.

LUNCH:
We went to this awesome pizza place, ate pizza, and these things called Zepolies. They are like scones, and they just cover them in powdered sugar! sooooooo goood! So if you’re wondering, my lunch was pretty awesome!

AFTER:
By the time we got done it was probably about 2:30-3:00 ish, that was with the hour it took to get to his apartment have the lesson and come back to eat lunch. After lunch we walked home and got ready for our next appointment.

BROTHER FORD:
Brother Ford is this new member (convert) who was recently baptized and is in our ward. He's an older guy, 60's I think he said. Single,no kids. Has some kind of issue with his foot so he is in pain a lot, (he has gout). He lives in an apartment with a cool muslim roommate.  But we didn't meet with him in his apartment this time.  He had asked us to meet him somewhere at a certain bus stop. So that he could take us to the hospital, he wanted us to give his "auntie" a blessing. It's such a sweet/funny thing to hear him call his aunt, "auntie". (Sweet and funny?? haha I know 2 very different things. Sweet because he's a grown man and he calls her auntie. Funny because he's a grown man, who acts like a kid.) He's so funny! I wish you all could meet this guy! Crackin' jokes always!


MY 1st CRAZY:
So we finally meet him at the bus stop, the bus he was on, was taking forever to get to us. Then the 3 of us all got on a bus and went from one stop, to some other bus stop, transferred buses. Brother Ford was leading the way; tall, black, 60 year old man, limping with his cane, begins loudly telling these Bronx people to move so we can get off. He got off about 3 people ahead of me and my companion, he sees the bus ahead which we need to get on so he starts limp-jogging. By the time he got to the bus ahead I was just getting off the bus. I hear, as I'm making my way to the bus, Brother Fords voice; exclaiming, "CALL THE COPS, SOMEONE SPRAYED THE BUS DRIVER!" Apparently someone getting off the bus that we needed to get on, sprayed the bus driver with something unknown.. and took off running.. there was some white foamy substance all over the seat and window where the driver sat. (my guess is that is wasn't pepper spray, because the bus driver would not have been able to chase after the man.) So I guess the bus driver took off after the guy leaving a bus full of people. I see it as a blessing that I was too far behind to catch the action, because if you know me, my natural instinct would have been to catch the guy... Then leading into more trouble.

HOSPITAL:
We had to wait for the next bus on that route, so we waited for about 10 minutes and a bus showed up. I guess the bus drivers all are aware of what just happened because there was an MTA worker (Metropolitan Transit Authority) standing at the front of the bus just kind of making sure everything was under control.  Finally we get to the hospital, the hospital was called Calvary Hospital, I guess it's a normal thing to have religious hospitals. (I said something about it to Brother Ford and he told me there's a number of hospitals like this) There’s crosses and things hung up all over. It was interesting.

THE BLESSING:
We took the elevator up to the floor his aunt was on. Walked into the room she was in and found her sleeping, he tried talking to her and shaking her a little just to wake her, (YES SHE WAS BREATHING, don't worry) she stayed asleep, so we decided to go on with the blessing.  Brother Ford asked if we had oil, we responded yes, assuming he would give the blessing.  We asked him what he would like us to assist or help with. He said "you both figure it out, that’s why you’re here" So Elder Tabor said he will anoint.. so I looked over at Brother Ford
and said "she's your aunt, would you like to give the blessing?" he said "no, you do it, I trust your authority more than my own." I kinda laughed to myself and said "okay". I took off my jacket and met Elder Tabor at her side. She was still sleeping... But we proceeded. (I will say that I was a little nervous at first... When I saw this poor old lady I just had this feeling that her time was soon, I didn't know when but soon.. I wasn't sure about me being the one to give the blessing.. but I
remembered what Grandpa Babcock told me right before I came out on my mission, he explained to me that when we give blessings we shouldn't be afraid of what to say or what we end up saying. If we give a blessing with the spirit present then what we say is just what was needed to be said. He said that the Lord has a plan for everyone, he may not reveal to us what the plan for them is, but the spirit will be there to comfort those in that time for whatever may be in store.) I stepped up to her bedside, placed my hands on her head. Elder Tabor
then placed his on mine and with a few seconds of silence I began to speak, I don't remember exactly what I said but peace filled my heart. I just felt good about everything. Elder Tabor gave me the look, that he felt that one was strong. Brother Ford thanked me and was so glad we could come do this for him and his aunt. Right after the blessing we gave a short spiritual thought. Then we started on our way out. When we got to the lobby he offered us a drink or something from the snack bar. We said we were okay but he really insisted that he buy us something, so he got us a Gatorade each. Which was nice of him.

TIME:
Most of our day was taken up from being with Brother Ford, which was a good and successful time! It was just a lot of traveling time. So we didn't have time for anything else because we had to get home so I could pack for our split.

SPLIT:
We walked to the train, rode to Parkchester to go to the church. When we got to the church we got a call from the other Elders, they said they were running late so we just walked to their apartment.


November 14, 2015
Saturday, Day 32
Day 19 in NY

RUNNING:
Woke up and went for a run with Elder Buckley. Elder Buckley ran cross
country and track in High School. He runs a 4:15 mile, the kid’s an animal! What’s super dope about his companion Elder Sorensen is that they were friends before the mission! They both competed against each other in track and cross-country.  So he wanted to go for a run, surprising enough that was the first
 time he had ran on his mission, haha he's a big runner but for some reason wanted to now go for a run. So that was fun! It was nice and cold this morning lol. Thank goodness for thermals.

MAIL:
He's a zone leader so we left the apartment at 10 after comp. study, to go to the church and get mail! So of course I was pumped! I haven't gotten mail since I’ve been in NY. We get to the front of the church and see the Office Elders in their van. We got over there and one of them said, Oh speaking of Elder Newbold. He opens the trunk and there were boxes on boxes... I had so much mail because it all finally came at once.  Then we took all the mail and dropped it off inside the church.  Then Christmas began, I went through all my mail, haha it was so fun to see these packages and the letters. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

TODAY THE SPIRIT TAUGHT ME:
Study the lesson, don't plan it, trust the spirit. I find that I try to plan a lesson too much, when I should just trust the spirit and what he wants me to teach.

LONG STORY SHORT:
We had lunch then, 12 week. After all our studies and planning, we finally left the house. We had a couple referrals we looked up. So we went to see one guy, he ordered a Bible from one of our LDS websites.  So we gave him the Bible and he was really excited and wanted to talk more. We set an appointment with him and went to the next person.  This kid named William was a referral from the sister missionaries, they met him and his sister on the bus. But he's in Elder Buckley's
area so we rang the bell and this William comes to the door. I think this kid is like 12 but he's interested in learning more about Jesus Christ. So we set an appointment to come back.  We picked up and went to the corner of the street, we stopped and Elder Buckley said.."okay we have someone else we can see, but it will be a gamble. We don't know if they are home and it takes an hour to get there and if they aren't home we've gone all that way for nothing" Now at the moment he said gamble my mind said take it. I wasn't sure if that was just me wanting to gamble or the spirit.. so I stood there in silence to pray in my mind.. and I felt good about going so that's what I told him. LETS GO! So he said okay.

Elder 1:1-2
1 Nevertheless we Elder's started our journey, in such we walked for the course of 6 blocks and got on the train.

2 And it came to pass that in as much as we did sit for the space of fifty and three minutes we did travel no more, for we Elder's did settle in the ghetto promised land.

When we got to our destination we had no such horrible feelings as to this trip being a gamble. We took the elevator to the floor and walked down the hall, knocked on the door and just the kids we were looking for opened the door. These two kids were about 11-12 years old... and man do they have mouths. They just have a horrible vocabulary filled with profanity. Elder Buckley did tell them to not say those words, so they watched their mouths but my,oh my. They are punk kids lol one loves Jesus and the other needs Jesus. But the one that loves Jesus talked his buddy into wanting to learn about Jesus. So from us just
standing there in the hall talking to them, became a lesson it was really cool! We taught them the restoration. (You’re probably wondering where their mother was.. she was just in the other room busy with something, but when we were just about finished she came to the door and we set an appointment to come back.

TWO OTHER LESSONS:
We met with this one guy named Cameron Craig, we taught an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation. It was perfect because his wife had recently passed so he was at ease because he believes he will see her again.

Our next lesson was crazy cool. We got to this guys house (Joseph was his name apparently this guy is a recent convert) and before we knocked on the door. Elder Buckley said, we will teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So I'm thinking, alright sweet! Fast forward into his home. We are sitting on the couch, we opened the meeting with a prayer. Then I guess we somehow started talking about what he had been reading about in Jacob he was in chapter 5, it was talking about the olive tree. He had some questions. Elder Buckley then leans over to me and says this is what our lesson will be about. I freaked out for a bit inside because I knew nothing really about that story... I've read it but I didn't know what the symbols were and how to answer any questions... So I put down my "Gospel of Jesus Christ" pamphlet.. (Then I remembered a very important principle I learned about "teaching people not lessons" Elder Holland once said "sometimes its more important to listen then it is to speak" so I applied that.
Brothers and Sisters, TRUST IN THE SPIRIT. This lesson we taught him was inspired. Elder Buckley had recently found a symbolism chart with very minimum explanation. But he passed his Ipad over to me and said "here Elder Newbold will explain the next couple symbols of the tree" ...I whispered over to him, dude I don't know anything about this.. He responded in whisper "fake it till you make it"... at that moment I felt hopeless, but I did my part in listening to the lesson this far... so I looked at the chart and saw the only words for that part, "Branches" and next to it said "group of people" in my mind during the few seconds it was quiet I heard my self say open your mouth, my mouth opened up and I started off with "okay so the branches..." everything else that I said only made sense to Joseph. I had no idea what I was saying, but even Elder Buckley thought I knew what I was talking about. The spirit works in mysterious ways!!

SPLIT ENDS: (not referring to hair)
We made our way back to the church to split again back to our original companions. It was an awesome successful day!






November 15, 2015
Sunday, Day 33
Day 20 in NY

We had I believe 4 people committed to coming to church, when we called all of them to check/remind them. None of them answered.. The night before we did get a text from Bean saying he'll be there..

EARLY MORNING:
The sisters set us up for an appointment at 7 AM! So I was a little upset because they didn't ask, they just set it up and told us to go. So we got up at 5:30, we didn't even get to do personal study or comp study... So my day starts off horrible with that... And of course it can only get worse, we get to the appointment... The lady doesn't answer... We call the number we had and apparently we were given the wrong name. So what a waste!!!!  We then had a meeting at the church at 8 we had to be at.. So we got back on the train and went to Parkchester, got to the church...
And no ones there... We were 15 minutes early... But still, 8 o'clock rolls around and the bishop wasn't here, neither were the counselors... So by 8:30 the meeting starts, we had things to do by 9:30 so we left the meeting early (we didn't even need to be at the meeting, we weren't directly talked to or anything it didn't involve us) so still upset about the whole morning so far.. We left, went home got home about 10, did a little bit of studying, planning and ate lunch around 11:30, got ready and had to be back at the church 45 minutes early.

WHY SO EARLY:
We had to be early to everything and nothing benefited us from doing that, everyone else either bailed or were late.. So we get to church early, the sisters had asked for a blessing, just for Sister Morgan. So Elder Buckley, Elder Sorensen, Elder Tabor, and I went ups stairs to an empty room with the sisters so we could do the blessing. Elder Tabor said who would you like to be involved and who to a anoint and who to do the blessing. She said Elder Tabor will you anoint and then Elder Newbold will you give the blessing. I said of course. (Surprised but willing) Elder Tabor anointed then I stood in and placed my hands on her head then he placed his on mine, and I began the blessing. During the blessing I heard sister Morgan sniffling, she's sick but I wasn't sure if that was why, I guess the blessing went well, which made my whole day better, because when she stood to shake my hand and thank me she had tears down her cheeks.
#PriesthoodPower

BLESSINGS:
So that was legit! 2 unexpected blessings this week. Always on my toes, ready for the next one haha.

November 16, 2015
Monday, Day 34
Day 21 in NY

We had district meeting this morning. Last night during our studies Elder Tabor asked me to give a lesson on inspired questions. And what's the difference between regular questions and inspired questions. So I spent my whole personal study on that topic.. We went to the church and during district meeting, I could really tell that Elder Tabor’s lesson was really inspired and that even though I ended up not giving my lesson that it was also inspired for me to make a lesson, because I was then impressed to share a short thought of my lesson at the end. And it was super awesome! I invited everyone to read Preach my Gospel chapter 5.  When we finished district meeting it was about 2, then because Elder Tabor is the district leader, he has interviews throughout our 6 weeks, so we had an interview with Elder Nalaza and Elder Hughes. We just made sure everything was going well between their companionship and their area. Gave some good inspired advice, because today's just an inspired day! It was all so good! It was about 2:30 and the four of us went to lunch, got some Chinese food! Which was super good!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:
You are to build up the Church by finding “them that will receive you” (D&C 42:8). Such people will recognize that you are the Lord’s servants. They will be willing to act on your message. It's so true!! We were walking home and these 2 guys sitting on the steps of a store saw us walking by and stopped us saying "hey we
respect you" we both were like well thanks! We appreciate that! We respect you. Hey kept saying that we are good people. They could just tell we were missionaries, one of them was Mexican and spoke little English so I did my best to speak Spanish and he did his best to speak English it was pretty cool! We invited them to church and they were super excited they said yes, we gave them our number (because he didn't know the number to his phone) and the address to the church and then we went on our way.

FHE:
When we got home after lunch, we planned our family home evening for a family. This lady Jean Smith, (Sister Smith) has a couple young special needs kids, so we prepared a really fun game, sang an opening song and taught them the actions to the song "the wise man and the foolish man" (they loved that!) and an awesome and simple object lesson. The lesson was on Prayer, reading he scriptures, and going to church. They loved it so much! The spirit was strong! I loved it! So we plan on going back for another next week. Her kids are 18, 8, and I think 6. The little girl is the youngest. We will soon be going back to talk about baptism. Super stoked!

CARLITO:
Carlito is the guy we met at the grocery store, he works there, his father owns it. His store is where I found my 99¢ simply lemonade, so we stopped by to check up on him. We talked for a bit, he said that his buddy just died.. His buddy has been doing drugs for a long time, and then Carlito was able to help him out for awhile, got him into rehab.  He told his buddy that he's not like other drug users, he was a very good guy, just confused.. He had a really good job, worked really hard in construction was super detailed, cleaned up everything while he worked so there was no mess, he said that if he was doing floors, and noticed something wrong or crooked about it that he would take it all apart and redo it till it was perfect. He sounded like a really good guy, he just had a bad habit. Well it turns out he eventually relapsed and ended up dying from it... The whole time we talked to him I was being told to make an appointment and teach him about the plan of salvation.. It was awesome! So we asked if there was anything we could do for him.. He said nothing at the moment... So we talked about getting together some time he agreed and invited us over for lunch on Thursday.  So after our conversation I realized I needed some things from the store, went looking around and ended up finding some TruMoo chocolate milk, with a stamp that said (Best sold by Nov. 16) well that's today, so I grabbed it. When I got in line Carlito was checking items, so I said hey Carlito I found some milk that needs to be gone by today, so he marked my $4 half gallon of chocolate milk down to 99¢ ! Score!!
This guy is so awesome! He's been telling us that he's been acting in a new movie but that he can't tell us much about it so he didn't. But this guy is so dope,
he's girlfriend I guess has money and she works at this really nice clothing store. So when people try on white button up shirts and stuff they put in a box to get rid of because it's "damaged" (meaning they took all the pins and cardboard out of the shirt and didn't buy it, and they don't want to re pin it, so they out them in boxes and she takes them home to give to Carlito) they also do that with ties and
stuff so he said he will hook us up with shirts and ties!



November 17, 2015
Tuesday, Day 35
Day 22 in NY

Today is the day of our split! We were out looking for houses of referrals. And on our way to a house this black lady from across the street saw us, and I don't remember what she said but she got our attention. I think she was about 20  something. She said where are you from? The church? Elder Hughes responded yea The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She said "ha! I knew it looking back at the man she was talking to earlier" she was saying how much she loves people like us and appreciates what we do. She said its so awesome to see such young and handsome boys like you out here doing is kind of work!
I guess she really thought we were handsome... Because when we finished talking to her, she said "okay have a wonderful day sexies" haha ummmm. Well that was that. Lol

TOUGH LUCK:
I was in Elder Hughes area serving with him on this split, so he had a full day planned for us. Their area is so tough!! The referrals they get are also a lot of fake addresses, or people they previously met with don't come to the door, aren't home, or aren't interested anymore. They don't get a lot of action out in their area. It's a tough place to find people.  The very 1st appointment we did have set was successful though. It was a couple that had special needs, they were slow and had such different personalities, the husband was a member but hasn't been active. The wife was not a member but was interested. But we talked to them about the restored gospel, and before we had finished the lesson, the wife just said out loud, "I want to be baptized!" It was so legit! Haha so we restated her comment of being baptized at the end of our lesson, (we talked to her alot about how baptism is important and such in the lesson) she was excited!

BUS RIDES:
They remind me of a ride at Disneyland, like the Indiana jones ride or something haha. The bus drivers are crazy.

#KEEPTHEHYPE:
We always say Keep the hype, because we get this spiritual hype and we want to stay on it. After the split we met back at the church at 8:00PM to un-split. While we were there since it's Tuesday we got mail, our order of Book of Mormons came in and so I opened it up to make sure it was right, and it was. So I grabbed it and met Elder Tabor in the front of the church. We started home with the Spanish Elders because they were also at the church and they head the same
direction as us. So we went to the train and talked. The Hype was so strong!
Elder Tabor at first questioned why I brought the Book or Mormons, as he reached down into the box and grabbed one. He looked up and asked the lady to his left if she wanted one, she politely said no thank you. So he asked the lady in front of him she said sure, what is it? BAM!!! Missionary moment! So he began to explain the Book of Mormon, she was thrilled and grateful, he exchanged numbers and address with her. He referred her to the sisters since she lives in their area, but that was awesome! So the Spanish missionaries and me were just
laughing to each other and admiring Elder Tabors boldness, at the next stop the lady had got off. So then he offered the man to my right a Book of Mormon, he didn't speak English, so the Spanish missionaries got their opportunity to talk to him, they ended up giving him one of their Spanish Book of Mormons. Then Elder Tabor grabbed another and walked up to this teen girl and asked if she wanted one, she asked what it was and he said The Book of Mormon, he asked if she was religious she said no, she doesn't belong to a church, but she has read the Bible, long story short, she got super excited and accepted to read it pray, about it, and to be baptized when she receives an answer if it's true. We had given 2 Book of Mormons with in 10 minutes of being on the train. It was so cool!!! #KeepTheHype

The church is true!!

November 18, 2015
Wednesday, Day 36
Day 23 in NY

During our morning companionship, we were talking about how our days went the other day on our split and about our appointments. Elder Tabor said he met with Brother Ford... He told me that his Aunt had passed away on Sunday morning. As sad as it was to hear that I had given this poor helpless women a blessing it was relieving to know that the Lord had plans for her soon. Looking back at the blessing and trying to think of what I said, I remember that I said  these words "your Heavenly Father wants you to know that everything will be okay from this point on, that whatever happens he will take care of you and that everything will happen according to his plan". Then the comfort came and helped me realize that she's no longer suffering and she's now being taken care of.


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold