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