Week 47

August 31, 2016
Wednesday, Day 323
Day 310 in NY

Pday!!
We went to Chick fil a for lunch then roamed around the city for a bit. We didn't really have any plans, so we just kind of did whatever. After all the fun and games we got in contact with Bishop Day to figure out some last minute plans for M's baptism. Well... Because I'm a missionary, holidays are the last thing I'm thinking of. So, completely unaware of Labor Day being among us, we over looked the thought of who could attend the baptism. Immediately after getting in contact with Bishop, he tells us that he won't be in town this weekend, meaning he wouldn't be able to attend the baptism. He then asks us if it was possible to have M meet with him tonight at the church. We told M and he came and met us at the church. Since Bishop was going to be out of town for the baptism, he wanted to meet with M to help him feel comfortable and explain some things to him about the baptism and shortly thereafter the ordinance is preformed. He briefly spoke about the baptism and its 2 parts, the baptism itself (immersion of water) and the confirmation (receiving the Holy Ghost) to help Michael be more prepared and comfortable with what will be taking place. Perfect teaching opportunity! Bishop brought up some things about service in the church and we explained what callings in the church are and that he would be receiving a calling in the Ward soon after baptism. He also told him that they would like to, when he gets back from being out of the city, to ordain him with the priesthood so he could begin passing the sacrament. We also talked about Family History and getting started on that, so sometime soon he could go to the temple and do baptisms!

It was such a great meeting! The whole time I was just seeing M sitting there in white! It was so wonderful! He's so ready and excited to be baptized.

But in all the chaos of getting this double baptism planned (both M and the YSA Elders investigator P) we still needed to confirm if one of the bishopric members would be present AND we needed a baptismal record! Unable to find one in English we filled one out in Spanish... Lol it's been so long since I've even used Spanish on my mission. Thankfully it wasn't too hard to understand! After the meeting with bishop we filled out the record form with M.

September 1, 2016
Thursday, Day 324
Day 311 in NY

Weekly planning day! We went to the church to plan. Before we went in, we went down the street one block and grabbed lunch from the deli. We then came back to the church. We ate half our sandwiches then planned for 2 hours. When we finished planning we then quickly finished our lunch and made our way to M's. When we got there we decided we would go over the things Bishop talked about in our meeting last night and explained more about the callings in the church, we talked about passing the sacrament, we also talked about his baptism, and just helped him feel ready for it all. He was excited and so willing to accept everything that would come his way. It's been so great meeting with M! He's been changing so much and is so strong. When we finished with M we traveled back over to the west side to go home for dinner. We ate at home and went over to the D’s. On our last visit with them we left them with a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and asked them to read through it before we come by next. They read through it and then we went through and discussed it with them, it was great! When we finished and got home we did nightly planning!

September 2, 2016
Friday, Day 325
Day 312 in NY

This week is just flying by! It's already Friday again and today was BUSSSSYY! We woke up, got ready, had studies, ate lunch, did 12 week... After 12 week, we started making some phone calls to meet some appointments. After about 8 calls we got in touch with 4 of them. While we had them on the phone we were able to set our appointments with them and share a message. It's funny to me that people will answer the door or in this case they answer the phone, they will say they are busy when we ask to set an appointment, but when we ask to share a message over the phone they have enough time. So we take about 10 minutes with each call to share a message to test how busy they really are. Lol, we were able to share a message with the 4 and set appointments with each of them.

After about 45 minutes of making phone calls we left the apartment around 1:30pm. We went to visit a guy named W. When we got to his apartment a lady answered and her name was D, I believe she's the daughter of W. She's probably in her 30s. So we knock on the door and she answers and says, "you just missed him, he went down to the cleaners again". We then asked her if she would be interested in learning more about Jesus Christ. A little hesitant at first she said "no... Wait I have a question, are y'all Jehova Witnesses?" Responding, “no we are "Mormons" from the church of Jesus Christ, she responded and said "oh okay! Well you've got my interest now! “ (I respect other religions and everyone's beliefs, but it is so funny to me when people say stuff like this! It happens so often while tracting and the moment they realize we aren't JW they listen to us). So we ended up teaching her briefly about the priesthood and the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy, a restoration pamphlet, and a few Jesus cards because she loved them lol. She said she would like to sit in during our next discussion with W. So that was pretty awesome! She has a couple kids too so hopefully we can teach them all. The rest of the day was pretty great as well. After teaching D,we went to the next door to visit a less active member, T. He let us in and we read through the Book of Mormon with him. When we left there we made our way to the east side and visited with P, C, N, and then M! After seeing M we went toward the church since home was another 30 minutes out of our way, near the church we went over to the supermarket Pioneer and bought some sandwiches from the deli. We went quickly inside the church, scarfed down half our sandwiches in about 6 minutes and had to then make our way to a lady's apartment with the sisters and this member from the YSA Ward to give this lady a blessing. So today was a pretty busy day!

September 3, 2016
Saturday, Day 326
Day 313 in NY

"Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday." And it's also M's baptism day!! We had a couple appointments to start off the day, then the Zone Leaders called and asked if we could be present for a little meeting with another companionship in my district. So at 4:30 we were at the church for the little meeting we had. Then we began setting up for the baptism. Today we have a double baptism, the YSA Elders have an investigator named P, who I was able to interview and our investigator, M, whom I didn't interview, but he's getting baptized. The baptism was awesome; M was baptized by a member in the Ward, Brother K Pena. They were good friends in the Ward and M asked him to baptize him. It was such a great experience to be apart of. He came out of the water glowing and with just the biggest smile! Because it was Labor Day weekend we didn't have many members, maybe 4 or 5 total, from our Ward. There were a lot of YSA members though it was good they all talked to and congratulated him. President Smith came and it was just awesome! After the baptism we left around 7:30 after cleaning up, the baptism started around 6:15. On our way home we were walking to the train and a bus pulled up right in front of us. We saw the YSA Elders in side so we waited to talk to them really quickly right behind them was this lady and her daughter. She came off the bus and stood in front of us and asked what church we belonged to, we told her and she asked where it was, we told her where and she said she'd like to come. We walked with her the opposite way we were going and taught her a little as we talked. We got her information and then parted ways, after doing so Elder Gentry looked at me and said, "We didn't give her a Book of Mormon!" I said, "You’re right! What were we thinking.." I turned around and just a few hundred feet behind us she was walking away from us, I said come on let's give it to her. He said, wait really?? I told him yes! Let's go, take your book out, your going to teach her about it. So we run up to her and quickly walk behind her so we didn't scare her and Elder Gentry went up to her and said hey S, this is the Book of Mormon, it's a book we know to be true and we want to give it to you so that you can read it a little before we come see you next. She accepted it and said thank you. Then we made our way home! What a day!

September 4, 2016
Sunday, Day 327
Day 314 in NY

Today M was confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost. He asked Brother T McKenna to confirm him and we stood in. It was again, such a cool experience! Sometime after sacrament meeting we met this guy the sisters invited to church. His name was E... And boy this guy was a character. He had just the funniest way of talking. His enthusiasm was literally through the roof. Interesting fellow. We quickly found that it was very hard to communicate with him because he just didn't understand the things we would ask him. But by the end of church we found out he was YSA age, so we gave his information to the other Elders. After church we had a correlation meeting with our award Mission Leader. We discussed our investigators and the members we had been visiting along with those we've been trying to contact. For dinner we went to J and E's, like we do every Sunday.

September 5, 2016
Monday, Day 328
Day 315 in NY

I've learned from my companion, Elder Gentry, that he really enjoys district meeting. Which makes me happy and exited for district meeting, so I do my best to make them a great and spiritual learning experience for everyone. For lunch we came home and cooked then made some phone calls. We cleaned the apartment a little bit and had 12 week. A little after 3 we left to our appointment with M at 4. After wards made some more phone calls when we came home for dinner. We didn't have a very full planned day. But we were able to achieve our goals so that was good! We don't like being in the apartment for so long so we left and went around looking up people closest to us. Around 9pm we received a call from our zone leaders. We were walking down 135th coming up to our apartment. I answered and they told me about what was going on.

That little meeting we had on Saturday before the baptism was to help a companionship in our district. They had been struggling a little bit with some things and needed help. The next day they discussed their problems and struggles with each other to try and solve their problems. Well it ended up that they stayed at the church all day trying to figure out what to do. They called the zone leaders and the zone leaders called me and told me all this. After getting off the phone I called them and suggested going on a split. 10 minutes later after the call we were on with the zone leaders, we got home and I packed a bag. We left the apartment and went to the 125th station near their apartment. I went to their area and one of the Elders came to our area with Elder Gentry. It was about 9:50pm by the time we got to each other's apartments. We had nightly planning and got ready for bed.

September 6, 2016
Tuesday, Day 329
Day 316 in NY

It was a great split we got up, worked out, went through the schedule, had lunch, then went to the church and did some work on Facebook. Sent messages to keep daily contact and sent some videos to our investigators. We then had a couple hours before a lesson with their investigator J. So we went to a project building and went to the top and started tracting. We got down about 2 1/2 floors before we needed to head back to the church to meet with J. After meeting with him and teaching him about the priesthood we had a dinner appointment on the other side of their area so we went up and across town to see this member and visit with him, it was awesome. He was really cool and we shared a message with him at the end. I just love how the spirit works. It wasn't like most amazing experiences or anything but just the tender mercies of the Lord. He allows us to really connect through the spirit. I don't know this Elder super well, but we shared a message with him that we didn't expect to really share. We didn't role-play or plan out as well as we could have, but by being together and working hard I know that the spirit needed us to share this message with this member and so we did and it was great! We were on the same page the whole time and were able to teach and testify together as if we had been companions for a while.

After being able to go out and work hard on the split it seemed to help the Elder feel a lot better about things. They still had some things to work out together but it was a good break for them to split up and work in different situations. When we came home after the appointment we decided after getting permission from the zone leaders to not unsplit when we usually would. So I stayed the night in their apartment again and we would split in the morning on Pday.
Great week! Full of great work and events! Have a wonderful week everyone!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Elder Newbold found PVC pipe in a closet in their apartment so he made a shoe rack! He's so creative and organized! I just love it! 

M and P after their baptisms.

M and little M at his baptism 

M, days before his baptism.  

Week 46

August 24, 2016
Wednesday, Day 316
Day 303 in NY

Pday!

Today wasn't the greatest Pday but we got done what was important. We did laundry and went grocery shopping; the worst part of it was that I had to use my personal money for groceries again. This time it was because I had to buy two $20.50 train tickets to get from Harlem to upstate in Scarsdale. Which if you can do the math is $41 in traveling in just 2 weeks. We get reimbursed for them but it takes 2 weeks... So I used the last $40 I had in my account for traveling and had to use my own money for groceries. But that's life and a temporary problem. After coming back home and putting our groceries away we went downstairs and grabbed our laundry, came up and laid our clothes out to dry. While having lunch our roommates left to Best Buy to get something. We were planning on going with them but they finished up before us and left. When we finally finished eating we left to try and catch them there. To get to Best Buy we need to walk past the temple, so since it’s Elder Gentry's first time in NY-Manhattan, we went to the temple and I showed him around the building. When we finished there we went over to Best Buy and looked around. Then headed back home to just eat and chill.

August 25, 2016
Thursday, Day 317
Day 304 in NY

Today we did our weekly planning; we went to the church and planned for a few hours and got it all done. After wards we had some lessons planned. The first one was on the east side of the island. We got to the apartment and no one answered... Due to the time remaining we left and went straight to M’s to meet with him.  While talking to him we noticed very clearly how much happier he has been. He hasn't been smoking or drinking for a couple of days. And he says he loves the way he feels. He has been going through a lot of family issues and he recognizes that Satan is trying to tempt him from all directions, but he is staying strong. We are very excited and love to see how happy he is becoming! Around the time we finished up with him we headed back over to the west side and taught D. We sent D a video that we were going to discuss during this visit. But he didn't get it. So we started to talk to him about what the video was. The video was called Daily Bread Pattern and we talked about how just as we need to feed ourselves physically we also need to feed our selves spiritually. We talked about it for a while, sharing scriptures here and there. And then we assigned him 2Nephi Chapter 31 about baptism and then we left. Trying to be quick we went over to the D’s Family. They always feed us, every visit, and trust me, we love it! And we appreciate it more than they will understand. We started off just asking how his studies have been he said he had been reading for a few days and stopped to be able to focus more on his work. But he (the father) had been reading. He said he likes The Book of Mormon, and that's great! We gave them the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and invited them to read and study it before we come back next week. We talked briefly about faith, repentance, Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Left it short and sweet and dipped out to make it home on time! We made it! With a full stomach we ran, desiring only to get home on time with out puking.

August 26, 2016
Friday, Day 318
Day 305 in NY

Woke up this morning a little earlier than usual. Skipped studies and our work out and quickly got ready to make the Metro North Train upstate to Scarsdale for the new missionary meeting. The meeting was awesome, the first 45 minutes we split up, trainers with President, Sister smith, and the AP's. And the new missionaries with the senior couples to be given instruction as to driving rules, for those who were serving upstate. We talked about any concerns or challenges or anything great happening in the first week of training. Later we came together, trainers and trainees, to receive and be part of the discussion. We talked about being HERE, in NY and leaving behind all other affairs. We focused on trusting the Lord and his promises. We read Doctrine & Covenants 100:1 and replaced Sidney and Joseph's name with our own and our companions. D&C 100 1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my friends Sidney and Joseph, your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power.

I personally have come to know the truth of this. I have no worries for events at home or what my family is doing. I'm in NY and I know I'm not leaving here till the work is done. I know that as my faith and obedience is toward my efforts here and nowhere else during these 2 years that my family will be and are in good hands. It was a great meeting I took some notes in my little note pad as to what I felt the spirit was telling me. After getting home and changing out of our suits we went out and met with P, one of our members who is home bound. The rest of our plans for the day kind of went down the toilet, as some Elders needed help getting into the church to grab baptismal suits. They were way later than they said they'd be, so we waited around for them and wasted a lot of time.... Wasn't fun.

August 27, 2016
Saturday, Day 319
Day 306 in NY

Today after studies we quickly went over to the church and did some 12-week before we had our first appointment with T. This is what Elder Gentry wrote up about the lesson for record sake lol, "We went to T's house. We then talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it contains a fullness to the gospel. We invited him to read about it and pray and told him if he would, then the spirit would make it known unto him if it was true." We definitely did our best.

We then met with M and today makes it 2 full weeks sober from smoking and drinking. He's been doing so well. He read all the pamphlets we've given him and we've talked about some of them briefly and he understands them all so well. He's changing so much! I love it!

After meeting with M we went to the church to meet with one of the investigators that the Elders in our district had been meeting with. His baptismal date is for next Saturday as well. He ended up forgetting about our meeting but needed to meet with me for an interview. So we waited around. They went out to his apartment to find him and finally came back with him. While they were gone I was searching for a baptismal record form and found only one and it was in Spanish... Well we needed it filled out before we could do the interview. So while they were out looking for P, their investigator. I was in the church trying to read and understand the Spanish form. After receiving help from google translate and later, Hermana Derzon I was able to understand the form and remember it well enough to fill it out with the investigator during the interview. I just love the privilege of being able to meet with these people and help them come closer to Christ, by interviewing them and finding them ready for baptism. It's such a special experience. By the end of the interview and eventually making it home for dinner, there wasn't much time in the night but we quickly went out and taught a close-by investigator and came home to nightly plan.

August 28, 2016
Sunday, Day 320
Day 307 in NY

Today was another interesting Sunday. It was a 2-hour sacrament service. The program was planned to help visitors understand our church and the way it runs. It was titled "come and see". It was a way for all these visitors to learn about the church and for it to be taught to them over the pulpit, through explanation by Bishop Day and the following speakers listed in the program as well as the 3 musical numbers. It was a really cool and interesting Sunday. We had some investigators there and the Sisters did as well. We were able to meet them and one of them was really interested. After the sacrament meeting there was a Linger Longer upstairs for the members and visitors to mingle and get to know one anther. We went up and took the time to meet some new members who moved into the Ward, and meet some visitors as well. We then left to go home for lunch then went over to P’s again to take him the sacrament. He was so grateful because he hadn't been to church in some time because he is home bound and no one has brought him the sacrament. With M’s baptism coming up we've decided to meet with him everyday till then to make sure he's comfortable and ready. Afterward we came home for dinner, late enough to where we stayed home to have nightly planning right after.

August 29, 2016
Monday, Day 321
Day 308 in NY

District meeting was pretty good today too; we talked about goals and accountability. We set some goals of our own and can't wait to see how it all works out. This week, as part of our goal, is to find investigators. All this week we will look for new people to teach. When we left the church we went home for lunch and back out. We went to go visit M and see how he was doing; he had some questions about some things we had been teaching him so we did a little review. When we finished teaching M we went home for dinner and the rest of our plans fell through.

August 30, 2016
Tuesday, Day 322
Day 3 in NY

Today was pretty crazy... We as a zone had interviews with president. In between the morning interviews and the noon interviews he stops and we have a zone study. Prior to this study, we as a zone individually studied Joseph Smith History 1-20, which I highly recommend you all do. As the study began he started off addressing some questions he had for us, we made a little discussion out of it and then about 45 minutes later he started the actual study. He had originally planned on taking no more than an hour. But as usual, and as I expected, he took 2 hours, but I have to say it was the most inspired and spiritual experience I have ever had. It is because of this meeting and study of Joseph Smith History, that I KNOW that Joseph Smith, with out a doubt! Saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. It is a fact, that he saw them in person and there is no one on the face of the earth that can tell me otherwise, because of the confirmation I received along with 18 other missionaries, and Sister Smith. After reading his testimony, his own words, of his very own experience, there is no way I can deny his truth. When President Smith began to conclude the study he felt impressed to leave the remaining time to those who felt the need to share. One by one, each of us, all 18 missionaries stood and briefly stated the fact of their testimony of Joseph Smith. The room was so filled with the spirit that it felt as if there wasn’t room enough for us. I couldn't help but know, I couldn't help the tears, and I now know with out a doubt that this church is the church of Jesus Christ, the true and only true church of Jesus Christ.

With the duration of this meeting we ended it with the last testimony, sang the first verse of I Am A Child of God and ended in prayer. Directly after, President continued on with interviews. Around 2:30 we met with President and M together. President asked him some questions about how he came to meet with the missionaries and how he's changed since then. Soon after a short conversation President excused us from the room and began a baptismal interview with him. When they came to the end of their interview we were expected to have our interviews, but President came out of the room with his stuff gave us a hug and said we will find a time to meet with us for our interviews. Just by looking at him you could tell how spiritually drained and exhausted he was from the study and all the interviews he did. We then headed home and walked into the apartment at 5:03pm. We have been at the church since 10 and got home at 5. It definitely wasn't planned that way, but it happened that way.

It has been a great week! And this week has started off so great with this zone study! Love you all and thank you for everything! Have a wonderful week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

Week 45

August 17, 2016
Wednesday, Day 309
Day 296 in NY

Pday!
We decided we would just chill for the day. We headed over to the Church after taking care of groceries and laundry. (I keep meaning to take a picture of how we do laundry, to save money). Elders Nielsen and Gonzalez, Elder Gonzalez replaced Elder Chambers, so they went into the church to get haircuts from Jay. Elder Gentry and I went to Modell's, this sports store just around the corner. We broke the Ping-Pong ball last week and needed to buy more; freaking Ping-Pong balls are a dollar apiece! Ridiculous! And they don't sell them individually or of course, so Elder Gentry and I split it and bought a pack of 6 balls for 3 hours worth of Ping-Pong lol. After purchasing these ridiculously expensive Ping-Pong balls, lol we went over to the church and wrote emails and played Ping-Pong. A little after noon we left to get lunch and we went to Chipotle! Came back, ate, wrote, and played. As Pday came to an end we made our way back home. We had dinner and got ready to leave for our appointments. D wasn't home like we hoped so we went to the S's. When we got there it was just M(16) and J(12). We followed up with M to see if he read Omni. He said he didn't, but that he needs to start reading again. We started talking about the scripture and then we started talking about Moroni. So we invited him to read chapter 10 of Moroni. We talked about praying to know truth and receiving answers and confirmation through reading and prayer. He seemed pretty into it and we committed the both of them to read the chapter and talk to each other about what they read. We will see how that goes with them next week. When we left their apartment we walked through the Polo Grounds, near Rucker Park, to the subway station to head home.

August 18, 2016
Thursday, Day 310
Day 297 in NY

Today was a pretty great day! We started the day with weekly planning around 11 am at the church. After a couple hours of weekly planning and a lunch break in between, we went out and began our day. We were making our way to the east side of the island and realized we would be a little early for M so we went and looked up a lady not to far from his apartment. When we got to the door, we knocked, and she quickly answered. We gave a short introduction of who we were and she said she didn't have time right now for us to talk because she was just heading out the door with her kids so we told her we could come back another time and she gave us a date and time. We asked if she had a Book of Mormon, she said she does but she shares it with her son, so we gave her a copy for herself. We went on our way and went to M's. It was awesome! We caught her just in time! After meeting with her we went over to see M's. While at M's we talked about how he's been doing with certain things he's been going through. He said he's been smoking again. He said he's been smoking daily, not as much as before but he's back into it. So we also talked about over coming addictions and priesthood blessings. We told him to pray and ponder on the priesthood so he can decide if he feels like it would be something he would like.

When we left M's we headed over to a members apartment. Before we got there we assumed that they were both members. I had just met them 2 weeks ago when they moved into the the Ward and last week we got a text from R and she asked if we had a night available to come over for dinner. So we scheduled tonight and like I said, assumed they were both members and came over to visit with them. While eating, R made a comment about D (her husband) not being a member, surprised, she then said something along the lines of, will you teach him? They have been reading the Book of Mormon together and had some questions, it was a sweet experience. [Here's a little background I had written about them after we left the appointment: We planned on sharing D&C 88:81. But quickly found out that D isn't a member. Turns out R invited us over for dinner because he is interested and wants to learn about our religion. He grew up with a Catholic background. But as he got older he drifted away from it because he felt that because he didn't make the choice to be baptized Catholic that it wasn't right and not for him. He met R and they got married. She's a convert and has been wanting to get him involved in the church. He went to YSA with her before they got married and he attends church with her now. He started reading the Book of Mormon with R and he had some questions. So we started from the beginning and taught him about he Book of Mormon and taught simply the restoration. Due to time, we needed to leave but he wants us back every week to teach him so we set up an appointment for Tuesday.] Today was great! We placed a Book of Mormon with the first new investigator we found today and then met another.

August 19, 2016
Friday, Day 311
Day 298 in NY

Since I'm training again! Which I love so much! I'm going through 12 week, the new missionary study program, for the 3rd time! Whoop whoop! It's been updated since my first time so I'm still learning as we go through it. So part of our companionship study each morning we do 12 week. When we went out after lunch today, our first 2 appointments fell through. One of them was set last night in the elevator with a guy named J W, he was drunk so we kind of expected him not to remember. Our next 3 appointments were solid and the first 2 lived in the same building right next each other. It was super convenient. After them we started looking up and going to visit the less active members that we usually see each Friday. We finally stopped by and were able to meet with P, this older guy who we haven't been able to meet with for a month now. We shared some scriptures with him, gave him an Ensign magazine and just talked about how he'd been doing since we haven't seen him in so long. One of the members we visit just happened to be asleep when we stopped by, which was too bad. But she's a busy mom and is home with her kids everyday so she was finally getting some rest, which was good for her. When we finished seeing the members we had planned to see we made our way home for dinner and went back out to do some look ups and find some people. It was a great night!

August 20, 2016
Saturday, Day 312
Day 299 in NY

Today from his morning till late afternoon was slow... We didn't have any appointments set so we had time to call people in our area. Tried to contact referrals, people we haven't seen in a while, or things like that. Around 4 things started to pick up a little. We met with M again; he decided that he would like us to give him a blessing on Sunday like we talked about last time. He's doing great, he's come so far and hasn't given up. He’s changing so much and it's the greatest thing for us as missionaries to witness. When we left his apartment we came home for dinner and then went back out and met with D and B. We stopped by D's and did some catching up. Haven't seen him since Sunday. We talked about prayer and how his praying had been he said he did pray once since Sunday. We then decided to share 3Nephi 19:9 and we talked about how to pray and what to pray for. We talked about the chapter and how the people desired the Holy Ghost to be given to them, so they prayed for that to be done and they were then baptized and received the Holy Ghost. Then we invited him to continue praying. We didn't have much time but we stopped by B's and had to make it quick because we had to be home soon. So we quickly shared a scripture with him as well and left with a prayer.

August 21, 2016
Sunday, Day 313
Day 300 in NY

Today was pretty great as well. We left the apartment earlier than usual on Sundays, to help a member set up for an event Harlem does each year. The church participates in it to promote and help people with family history. We started making our way to the church in our suits and clouds begin to surround us. We got on a bus and made our way to the stop we needed and as we got off it began dumping down rain. Our suits now soaking wet we kept walking to the church. We found a room to take off our jackets and let them dry. We then went downstairs and helped this member load tables and chairs into a van he rented.

We went up to 135th and helped set up the booths for the family history. By this time the clouds were gone and the rain ceased. We finished setting up in about 30 minutes and went to church at 11 for the Sacrament and planned on going back to the booth to help with this event. M was at church so we stayed and the Sisters went to the booth and helped out. Within an hour of the event starting they had 40 people working on family history. We stayed at church and after 2nd hour gave a blessing to M. Before we did it, we just talked for a few minutes to make him comfortable and to let us be aware of things he is struggling with and desires help with. After the blessing he had the biggest smile and just said thank you. If you were there you could just tell he was more than grateful. You could feel the love that the Savior has for him. It was incredible!

After finishing out church, we went home for lunch and after eating we passed out on the couch for the rest of the hour. Then we quickly made our way back to the Harlem Days event. We planned on helping out the last hour, but the member was ready to clean up so we started taking it all down... So Elder Gentry and I didn't have any part in it but we heard from the other missionaries that helped out that there was a lot of success. They had 65 people on computers during the event finding family members and stories and obituaries of them while doing family history. What a great success! By the time we cleaned up and made it home we had just enough time to eat dinner and plan.. It was a crazy day but it was a good one!

August 22, 2016
Monday, Day 314
Day 301 in NY

Due to transfers our current District Leader was transferred and I was shortly after called again to be District Leader. So this morning I prayed, studied, and planned out our meeting. Before District meeting at 11 we had a conference call for DL's and while listening to it all I felt like I learned some great things, and as I pondered the things I heard in that call, as we began District meeting my thoughts and ideas began changing and so did the plan for district meeting. The spirit redirected some of my initial plans and with the time we had left from after the call and a quick Zone meeting, I was lead by the spirit to discuss each investigator with a baptismal date of the companionships in my district. I felt like as we discussed each person and their needs and concerns and their strengths and great things about them, without knowing any of them, I felt that I had known them and could help them. While discussing each of these investigators I left it open for discussion for companionships to jump in and give any insight or suggestions they had. I felt as if it was very productive and appreciated by the companionships present. I felt like it was one of my favorite meetings. After district meeting we went downstairs and the sisters were gathered by the front door with coupons in their hands. They had all these coupons from a nearby restaurant, so they gave us some and Elders Nielsen, Gonzalez, Gentry, and I went and ate there. After lunch we made some phone calls and had a couple lessons over the phone.

Then we left the church, where we brought our lunch to eat and went to M's. M had a lot to talk about today. It was good tho, each time we visit, he has an update of something in life he shares with us, it's awesome! We get to know him more and more. When we got into our discussion he opened up the word of wisdom pamphlet and said that there wasn't really anything in here that he didn't already know. We went to page 11 and began talking about "Giving up harmful substances" he said his last cigarette was Saturday night. So today means 2 days without and he says he feels strong. We went over the bullet points and discussed with him about making a plan to avoid temptation and making an escape when it comes. He seems to be doing great so far! We pray he can keep it up. When we left M’s we quickly made our way back to the west side of the island where we visited with T and D, before going home around 8 to have dinner and begin planning. Starting the week off strong!

August 23, 2016
Tuesday, Day 315
Day 302 in NY

My favorite morning! Tuesdays we go to the Common Pantry and do some service! We usually unload trucks and stack 50lbs of carrots and potatoes and corn. But when we got there, they only had one truckload today and they showed up early; so when we got there we didn't start off like usual. We went to the back and broke down some boxes, after that we begin sorting good carrots from bad carrots and put them in individual bags. Then another truck showed up and we were asked to help unload that. So Elder Gentry and I went out with the hand- trucks and started bringing in boxes of eggplants and bell peppers. For about 2 hours we helped out before we headed home. When we got home we ate and got ready again for the day. Before we went back out we did a little bit of 12 week.

Another quick day, but we met with W, this older guy we teach and shared the video Daily Bread: pattern. After talking about it for a bit and inviting him to read from the pamphlets we left him we went over to D’s and talked with him for a bit he told us about his reading and that he read from Moroni 10 he started off saying that Moroni said a lot of exhorting. We then invited him to read chapter 7 of Moroni. After making some calls, we made our way over to the church to send some messages on Facebook and then go to R and D's again! They are so awesome! We love them! They are just a few years older than us so it's fun visiting them. They ordered pizza and we ate, after eating we shared the plan of salvation with D and R. Some great questions were asked and our best answers were given. It felt like a great lesson! Before we left they loaded us up with mango juice! Soooo good!

Sorry it's a slow and short email this week. I keep making the goal to do better but I just haven't achieved that yet, haha one day!

Love you all thanks for the love and support and prayers! They are felt! See you sooner than 2!

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 44

August 10, 2016
Wednesday, Day 302
Day 289 in NY

Pday!
Today is Elder Dutson's last Pday, we tried planning an awesome day! We planned on going to the bottom of the island and play mini golf. Not having wifi in your apartment sucks because you can't check the weather, so not being able to do that for so long has led me to be more aware of the weather and make a pretty accurate weather forecast each day. So this morning the Elders asked what our weather would look like for the day. I opened up the window, leaned out side, and with my
fingers in the air to feel the temperature and direction of wind. While doing so I noticed the dark clouds over Jersey coming over the Hudson and eventually making their way to the island, not of course all that fast. But I came back in the window about 10 seconds later and said “we will have a light sprinkle in about an hour and it may get worse for a little while longer and then it'll get hot again...” Well we took that into consideration and decided to get lunch first and see if my predictions came true. We went to chick fil a (thanks again for the gift card!). We grabbed ours and went upstairs, sat down at a table, and began eating. While we were eating Elder Chambers had some friends show up from home. They came and sat down with us and ate. Then about 10 minutes later another lady came over and sat with us, she must have been with his friends. We all started talking and quickly found out that she lives in Folsom and asked if I remembered Elder Black. I said I did and she said she would be seeing him soon after she returns home, so she asked to take a picture and send it to him. Chick fil a was a pretty exciting lunch. While wrapping up our lunch we noticed people outside, with umbrellas... Which means, it was raining, but more specifically it was a light sprinkle. Checking the time, Elder Chambers said, “dude you were right it's been an hour and it's sprinkling.” As we finished eating and headed out, saying goodbye to his friends, we made our way to the train station for cover from the rain because now it started to get worse. We hid in the station, but it was like 110° underground… Not too long after we went back out in the rain and decided there's no chance for mini golf. So we did that next best thing! And went across the street to H&M! Whoop whoop! About 30 minutes later, Elder Neilsen had a new suit. Lol. After this adventure we came home where we just hung out and finished writing emails. A planned Pday quickly became a chill day.

When 6pm rolled around we went out to look up T... She ended up not being home and we had all this time to figure out what we should do next. With little thought, the word Facebook appeared in my mind. Elder Dutson and I decided we would quickly get to the church, and Facebook video chat T. Luckily when we logged on, she was logged on, and she quickly answered! It was awesome! We haven't been very lucky lately, as we've tried to get in contact with T. We were so grateful that we have been blessed with technology to be able to contact those who we can't always catch at home. It was really cool since she answered we just talked to her right then. We explained that we came by and didn't see you at home. So we thought we'd give you a call on Facebook. It was such a great experience to use the tools we've been given for the purpose they were given to us, by using social media. By the time we got off our chat with T we didn't have much time left to go see the S Family like we usually do. So we gave M a call and followed up with him on the phone about reading the scriptures, he said that he didn't read this last week but that he would tonight. We shared Omni 26 with him and talked about how to gain salvation we need to follow Christ by fasting, praying, and enduring to the end, and then we invited him to read the chapter. He agreed and said he would read it tonight.

All of this being done at the church, we finally finished and got done just in time to make it home on time. We left the church and set off on our 30-minute journey homeward. We had a good day!

August 11, 2016
Thursday, Day 303
Day 290 in NY

After our morning routine we went onward to the church and left our humble abode... At the church we went to the 5th floor and began weekly planning. Meanwhile, Elder Dutson needed to back up his iPad to icloud. So while his iPad was plugged in and off and not in use, we just used mine. I just figured I would plan for the week since Elder Dutson wouldn't be here and my plans wouldn't match his any way. So as I planned this coming week, for my new companion and me. Elder Dutson began planning his week of being home before he jets off to school. After about 2 hours of planning we were hungry and stopped where we were with planning and headed down stairs down one block and bought some sandwiches from Pioneer deli. We came back to the church and ate, then continued with planning.

When the time came, we left the church and made way to see M. We stopped by and had a good conversation with him. We asked him about reading with little M (his son) and he had done it! He was actually able to get little M to sit down and read with him. It was awesome! He was able to read the first page of it with him last night! So we encouraged him to keep reading! After we talked a little bit about prayer and how his praying has been going. M is doing so well, he has come so far and is working so hard toward baptism. Our time with him went a little over than we had planned so we went home and had a 30-minute dinner before we went over to the D famlily. At the Ds house we had a good discussion about their reading of the Book of Mormon. A had already finished it, she didn't say when but she said she had read it twice all the way through. L said A has always been into learning and reading about religions and so she said she had read it already. L is still working on it which is super awesome, he has just been really busy with trying to pass his tests so he hasn't been reading as often or as diligently as before, but he says he should be able to read more soon. When we are with them we are usually there for a good hour, we love talking to them! They are so great! As it was getting close to us needing to leave we ended with a prayer and went on our way. Made it home about 15 minutes later and planned our night away!

August 12, 2016
Friday, Day 304
Day 291 in NY

Today was super hot and we worked nonstop… We had brunch at 11am and left the apartment and didn't come back till 8pm for dinner. While we were out we had 8 appointments and we were able to make 6 of those! One of the other 2 people weren't home and the other, they were heading out the door when we came. So after our very short brunch we hit the pavement in 98° weather with humidity up the wazoo. We started up the hill to catch a bus and after waiting 20 minutes.... It finally came. We hopped on and headed over to see Gramps who wasn't home... Having a full planned day and not wanting to waste time.... We made the hardest decision... And skipped.... Ice cream with Bae... We then went straight to Sister R's apartment and visited with her for a little bit. When we left her apartment we made our way over to brother K's apartment and visit him one last time before Elder Dutson leaves. After visiting these members we went back closer to our apartment and visited D, A, R, R, and S.

I thought it was pretty funny the way we taught 3 separate lessons with them. They usually are all together. But we caught R, the mother of R, with out him and his friend S. So we were following up with her reading and she said she hadn't been reading. After coming to the end of sharing a scripture with her, R shows up with S. So R says, “R come talk to them! They are here for you!”  So we chatted with R for a little bit as well and followed up with him. He too hadn't really been reading but says he will. We then turned and talked to his friend S, she was saying they just got back from the library. Elder Dutson asked if she got any books, she said no because it was closed. She was a little upset about that, so I told her I had a book for her. I pulled out a Book of Mormon and I told her what it was. She said okay and accepted it. What I think is so cool is that these kids are like 14 years old. We then ended our night coming home at 8pm for dinner where after we began nightly planning.

August 13, 2016
Saturday, Day 305
Day 292 in NY

Today was just as busy but twice as hot. I cannot wait for winter. We had 5 appointments that worked out today. We had appointments everywhere! We started close to our apartment, on the far west side of Manhattan and visited T. After him we then went across the island to the east side and visited M and his son then left to go see another investigator. After those appointments we came back to the west side but went up closer to the top of our area to see E again! We met with her at Sister D's. It was such a great time; she's still reading from the Book of Mormon. She even said she would be coming to church this Sunday! She told us that, before Elder Dutson even said anything about him going home. When we left that appointment we went over to D's then also visited B who lives right across from our apartment. With all of this running around we actually skipped dinner, and came home at 9 for planning and ate afterward. A lot of running around but mostly to let Elder Dutson see everyone he wanted to see before he left.

August 14, 2016
Sunday, Day 306
Day 293 in NY

Elder Dutson's last Sunday… We had 5 investigators at church! D, T & A, E, and M. I just love this Ward. There are over 600 members in the Ward but I've only seen about 50 members at church since I've been here. From what I've heard it's mainly because it's summer and members are all on vacation but even with all those members here I think we have about 150-200 active members, roughly. Every Sunday that I've been here we, the missionaries, have had some part in helping sacrament meeting function. Elder Dutson and I both have been preparing or passing the sacrament, due to few priesthood holders. My first week in Harlem Elder Dutson was asked to give a talk the day before he needed to give it, because someone canceled and bishop needed someone to speak. This Sunday, today, I gave a talk. Which we are both more than willing to do at any time asked to. I too, was asked the day before. So Bishop Day called yesterday while we were on the bus, I answered and he asked if I could speak. He said the topic that had been on his mind was "Why we serve in the church?" I thought it was the perfect topic. I got excited and accepted the invitation to speak. I felt like the talk went well. After church we talked to M, D, and E we followed up with them and the commitments we've extended them and set up appointments to come back this coming week. Then we came home and Elder Dutson packed and we cleaned up for the new missionary coming in. The last visit we had today was with J and E. We went over there like we do every Sunday for dinner. Then ended our night and came home.

Here is what I had written up for my talk:

"Why we serve in the church?


Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I've been given to speak to you all today.

Brief introduction:

Elder Newbold, from California, I've been a full time missionary for almost a year now. And I've been here in this Ward for about 5 weeks and I pray that I may get to know all of you during my service here.

I am so blessed to stand before you all today and speak on a topic that I have such a strong testimony of and a deep love for.

Now the topic that was given to me was service, but more specifically "Why we serve in the church?"

When I think of the word service, a lot of wonderful experiences come to mind. As I was preparing for this talk, I started to let my mind wander through all the different experiences that I have had doing service, within the church and outside the church.

As I let these experiences flow through my mind, I began to recognize that a very great amount of these opportunities and experiences that I've had were manual labor.

Many of them projects, such as; cleaning up an elderly woman's home inside and out, painting a families gutter, digging a 3 foot trench a 100 feet long for a neighbor, restoring the foundation of a barn for a widow...or moving a member out of a 5 story walk up...

While thinking of these experiences and remembering the way I felt during them and after completing such a task, a question came to my mind, what about the service in My house?

Not my own house, but His house, the house we are in right now, the house of our Lord and Savior, the meetinghouses and temples. What about the service done there?

Even though a large number of the service projects I've been apart of were for members of the church. I began thinking about service done within the church.

Again many experiences came flowing through my mind. Callings, responsibilities, leadership positions.... All things I've had the opportunity and privilege of being a part of.

To give you more of an idea of service within the church I'll list some the ways I've given service in the church along with my family.

When I turned 12 I took on much more of a responsibility than I previously had since being a member of the church. I received the priesthood and was extended a calling within a very short time after receiving the priesthood. I was called as a 1st counselor in the deacon’s quorum presidency.

Something my father had taught me and continuously reminded me of was to ALWAYS accept a calling when asked to. No matter what it is. Each time he did this he reminded me of my baptism and the promise I made there with my Father in Heaven.

As the years went on I served in every calling within the Aaronic Priesthood. Each quorum I moved up to, I received a new calling and often times that calling changed as other brothers in the quorum aged
out.

Having this privilege of serving in each of these callings, president, 1st & 2nd counselor, and secretary, alongside my brothers as they too were serving as members of other quorums. I came to realize on my own that each of these callings was no more important than the next.

My brothers and I were each called to a certain position in the church, but having similar responsibilities and commitments. We felt that as important as these callings were to keep the young men's program within the church running smooth, these responsibilities were given to us so that we could serve others, help members of the Ward grow, and build up the fellowship and delegate other responsibilities to members in the quorum as well.

These callings allowed us to grow as well because of the responsibility and seriousness of our callings. I believe that a big part of how we grow within callings we serve in is by our attitude. When we have positive attitudes we allow ourselves to grow. When we have a negative attitude we refuse and neglect that opportunity for growth, turning away many wonderful blessings.

A scripture in the Book of Mormon comes to mind when I think about service, this scripture is in Mosiah 2:17
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that
ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye
are only in the service of your God.

This scripture helps me remember that service needs to be a selfless act, when we serve others, we serve God. We shouldn't have negative thoughts towards service in any circumstance because when we serve others we serve God. If we love him keep his commandments.

The day I was baptized I made a promise with God. As did all of you who have been baptized in this church, we all made the promise that we would always TRY our best to serve as much as we can.

Another scripture in the Book of Mormon I'd like to share is Mosiah 18:8-10
8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the
waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are
desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people,
and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and
comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses
of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may
be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be
numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have
eternal life--
10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have
you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness
before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will
serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit
more abundantly upon you?

I found this reference in preach my gospel, on page 87, in the section called service. After this scripture it reads, "We are to become aware of others’ physical and spiritual needs. We then give of our time, talents, and means to help meet those needs."

When we truly love those we serve its much easier to become aware of their needs, both physical and spiritual. Service is one of the greatest blessings of membership in the church, as we serve our fellow
beings we will learn to love them.

This section in preach my gospel is such a great section I'm just going to read from it.

"Soon after baptism new members receive from priesthood leaders the blessing of a responsibility to help in the Church. This is referred to as a calling. All of the work in the Church is voluntary. No one is
paid for such service. When we accept callings, we are sustained publicly in a Church meeting so that other members can acknowledge our calling and provide support. We are also set apart by a priesthood leader and given special blessings to help us fulfill our callings. The Church needs the talents and abilities of every member to fill a wide variety of callings. All callings are important and help build God’s kingdom. We are to accept such callings and work diligently to learn and fulfill our duties. As we do so, we grow in faith, develop new talents and a greater ability to serve, and receive numerous other blessings."

Not always is service in the church easy... There are sacrifices that need to be made, but that's just part of life.

Many of the members in the church have full time jobs that sacrifice time at home, with family, other opportunities of income to serve diligently in the church.

My dad works for a company full time, he also runs a business he and his brothers own, and just a couple years ago he was released from a calling in the bishopric he had been serving in for 10 years. During those years of full time work and service my family and I saw him few nights of the week and on Sunday's.

Serving in the bishopric there are many meetings he attended both very early in the morning and late after church on Sunday's. And never did I ever hear or see my dad complain, but I did witness and receive many blessings in my family as he served in the church diligently.

As I'm sure many of you know and some of you have been part of, serving in the church isn't always easy, but it's worth it.

Following the example of my father I too have been blessed with many opportunities of service in the church, both in the church and temple.

After receiving my own endowment, I was called to work in the temple, where I had the beautiful privilege of working with members and helping them perform the ordinances in the temple. At 18 years old I worked a full time job for a member’s business, worked for my dad’s business on weekends, and any open hour of the day
I worked for a neighbor, with all this work going on I had little time to work with. So I chose the early shift and woke up most days at 4 am to be at the temple to work a 6-hour shift.

I would say it was the best way to start off the day!

Brothers and Sisters, we serve in the church because we love our Savior, because we love our Father in Heaven. We serve because it shows our commitment to follow them."

August 15, 2016
Monday, Day 307
Day 294 in NY

After District meeting today we came home for lunch. We didn't get much time today to visit people for very long, we had a lot of packing and cleaning to do. So we went across the island and stopped by M's again to say goodbye and take a picture. Then made our way back to our apartment and stopped by D's again to do the same, share a quick scripture and thought and take a picture. When we finished all our visits we came home for a few hours, had dinner, packed, cleaned, wrote in our journals, shined shoes, etc. it was a good day. Not as busy and eventful as I'm used to but it was good. At the end of the night we went over to say goodbye to the D's Family for the last time, chatted with them for some time and made our way back home.

August 16, 2016
Tuesday, Day 308
Day 295 in NY

Transfer day! Super crazy, so we got up, got ready, caught a bus and took off to the 125th Metro North station here in Harlem. Where we met up with our good old friends Elder Forbush and Elder Troutman. Both Elder Forbush and Elder Dutson are going home so we did a split. Elder Troutman and I said goodbye to our companions and bought our tickets up to Scarsdale and waited for our train. Meanwhile our companions left, they went back to our apartment, where they hung out and killed time till their meeting at 11am for their transfer meeting going home.

We made our way up to Scarsdale on the train and were picked up by the APs, Elder McBride and Elder Macintosh. They then drove us to the Scarsdale chapel. We walked in and saw all 17 new missionaries sitting in the pews studying. Quietly the 17 of us trainers came in and sat behind them in the back rows. When President Smith walked in he told us to join the new missionaries in the front pews. We all got up and sat in the fourth and fifth row. Then the new missionaries all got up and sat amongst each other in the first 2 rows. After a quick introduction by the APs, President stood at the
pulpit and began pairing new missionaries with their trainers. One by one each new missionary stood as their name was called and followed their trainers name. When both stood, each trainer ran to their new companion and embraced them! Sitting, waiting patiently, the name Elder Gentry was called and he stood then following his name president said "and Elder Gentry will be trained by, Elder Newbold!" I quickly stood up out of my seat and quickly embraced my companion with a hug. We grabbed his stuff and made our way back to a pew where we sat and watched as the rest of the missionaries received their companion. After receiving my companion we were spoken to by President, Sister Smith, and instructed by the APs. Then making our way into a room outside the chapel we grabbed the new missionaries luggage and made our way outside to the vans. Filling the vans with luggage and missionaries we were driven to the station to catch a train back to Harlem. When we got home we had some time for Elder Gentry to unpack a little and have lunch. When we finished we went out to work. We first went to the church and worked online for a couple hours. We sent some messages on Facebook to investigators. Then while there we called a handful of people and ended up teaching a lesson on the phone. After that we came home for dinner and then back out for some look-ups and appointments. It was a good day! We taught 3 lessons; not knowing what today's schedule would be like because we didn't know how long the transfer meeting would be. But over all a great day! Elder Gentry is awesome! He is a great missionary and is going to do so well out here in NY. Looking forward to the next 2 cycles. With 2 cycles of training that means I will be here in Harlem till I hit my year mark. Which also means I will have been in the city for a year! How crazy! I'm a city missionary, I'll be here for another year I'm sure. Lol


Well what a great week! Thanks again to everyone for your patience, I've been slacking on my journal emails so I take all Pday writing them... Love you all!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 43

August 3, 2016
Wednesday, Day 295
Day 282 in NY

PDAY!
Today was super awesome! We went to the 9/11 Museum... We spent 4 hours there, touring around and checking out as much as we could of everything captured during the attack of 9/11. It was an experience like no other! It's very humbling and a very emotional and touching experience. Especially for being too young to understand at the time it was happening and only ever hearing about it every year in school when we would take the day to "remember", which was so hard for me to do and understand why we did it at school when we weren't even old enough to know what happened. Going to the museum gave us all a much greater perspective and insight on the devastation and change that 9/11 brought to the world. I would highly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to check it out to do so. It's not a joyful experience that you imagine you would have going to any other museum or amusement park. It's an experience that will bring you to the level and feelings that you could only imagine those that went through it as they witnessed it firsthand. It
is very powerful and educational. There is a natural feeling in the museum that brings everyone that enters into a respect for that day. Everyone in the museum is reverent and very focused on their feelings as they make their way through it all, seeing clips and pictures of all that was captured in those horrifying hours of terror. It was definitely worth it and we don't think that we even saw everything there, there's a lot to see. The best Pday activity so far. The rest of the day was pretty great as well we just went out and worked hard and taught some lessons.

August 4, 2016
Thursday, Day 296
Day 283 in NY

Today I guess wasn't as eventful, we just had weekly planning, which is always so draining... When we finally finished we went about our day with the plans we had set and had a couple appointments fall through but we were able to teach a good amount. Very similar to last week in the sense that we did planning at the church and Elder Dutson synced his iPad. We had stopped by M and the Ducassas later in the night. We had some great discussions, the Ducassas fed us again. It was just another wonderful day working in the Vineyard of the Lord.

August 5, 2016
Friday, Day 297
Day 284 in NY

My favorite week day! Ice cream with Bae! Lol after lunch we left the apartment and went out to our first appointment to visit with Paul. Leaving his building without any luck of finding him, we went and got Coco Helado. Waiting for a bus we ate our ice cream, facing my companion with my head down in my ice cream and my back exposed to the public. Shortly after indulging into my Coco Helado, I felt 2 hands with force and quickness attack my shoulders. All within a moment the thought crossed my mind I was getting jumped for my Coco Helado.... What a sad day it was going to be. A short moment later, seeing that my companion had no change in his countenance I realized my enjoyment of Coco Helado was not coming to an end, then I heard the
familiar voice of Elder Forbush. He and his companion Elder Troutman had come from my back side to our front to where we could see them. (False alarm everyone! I wasn't getting jumped for my Coco Helado!) We continued on with the day going to visit a few more less active members and uplift and encourage them to come to church this coming Sunday.

August 6, 2016
Saturday, Day 298
Day 285 in NY

Today wasn't too bad either! Not as eventful but still very productive. We started off going to the church after studies to sync our area book. While there we did some more exploring on Facebook, and by that I mean figuring out more of the applications available for proselyting online. We watched some videos to help train us to use them and figured out some new things which was great! We figure by the time missionaries start picking up how to use Facebook and effective online proselyting there will be no more proselyting.. It will all be online.. Lol which really stinks, because the world has become so involved in their technology that they feel too uncomfortable having strangers over to teach them about the gospel, so lessons are going to be often taught through Skype, FaceTime, or Facebook chat. We've realized that it's more often than not that above the ages of 45 people are more willing to meet and let us teach them face to face. Ages 30 and younger have a tendency to be less open and more shy in person. And with technology the way it is, the church has decided to use it for the tool it is and use it to bless the lives of others. So online proselyting is becoming the new big thing.  Other than that, our first lesson was with this guy named T, he's a preacher or teacher at another church he studies a lot about religion and started studying the Book of Mormon on his own after meeting the missionaries and has been meeting with us every now and then. We are planning on making it a weekly thing; he has a lot of great questions about what he reads. When we saw him today he talked a lot about the sacrament and was interested in the authority we have to do so. Following T we had 5 more appointments and they all worked out, so today was a great teaching day for us.

August 7, 2016
Sunday, Day 299
Day 286 in NY

Fast Sunday!
Church as always is the best part of the week! It's the refresher. I just love making the commitment to Heavenly Father that I will do my best to be better this week and really focusing on the change I make throughout the week and giving that account to Him each night. After church we went home to make some calls and later break our fast before we went back out. We ate and took off for the night; we went to the church again for Elder Dutson to work on My Plan and his Mission Experience. We were there doing that and I made a bunch of calls to make appointments for the week and we did that for a couple hours. Then made our way out to our next appointment which was our last with James and Edwin! These guys are awesome! They are the ones with the red hair that got me all those birthday gifts and made me a cake. They are hilarious and so loving! We went to their house and they fed us dinner and we shared a message with them! It was an exciting Sunday because they came to church, they came for sacrament and went home afterwards because Edwin was getting dizzy.
But it was good to see them because they haven't been back to church in a while. What a wonderful Sunday!

August 8, 2016
Monday, Day 300
Day 287 in NY

After studies, like every Monday, we had district meeting. While there someone made the joke that we should start doing them on skype since technology is becoming a big part of missionary work, lol. The focus was towards a talk called Finishers Wanted by President Monson, when he was an apostle in 1989. It just kind of led to how we need to finish what we started and work hard doing it. We started our missions and need to go hard till the finish. After our meeting we headed home, unable to decide what we wanted to make for lunch we went and bought subway and took it home. This week started off a little rough, we had one appointment today and it was a good visit and lesson, but it was all we were able to really do outside of working online. It's weird using technology, because I've gotten used to tracting and face to face contact that using Facebook makes it feel like we haven't done much. But I'm sure it will all work out and become more comfortable and natural.

August 9, 2016
Tuesday, Day 301
Day 288 in NY

Today was a pretty good day! We started it off with some service again over at the pantry and as always it was nice! When we finished there we went home and got cleaned up, had lunch, and just as we were getting ready to head out the door there was a ring at the door which was random. So I checked the door and it was the maintenance guys. Our toilet stopper broke a week ago and we've called for someone to come fix it and they haven't come when they say they will. So they show up as we are getting ready to leave. They come in and say there is a leak in the apartment downstairs directly below us, we told them we had called 3 times for someone to come fix it and no one has showed up, we told them we were on our way out and they asked when they could come fix it when we would be home. We told them tomorrow would be best in the morning at 8:30. They left and so did we, we headed downtown to the Lincoln Square chapel to meet with President for Elder Dutson's Exit Interview. After sitting outside the classroom they were in for about an hour I read The Book of Mormon and talked with the other missionaries that were also waiting for their interviews. Soon enough they both walk out of the classroom and President says "Elder Newbold, why don't you come on in here real quick as well." Not expecting an interview, but willing I entered the room. Walking side by side with President, he says "that's a nice suit color you got there, (both of us wearing a similar blue color). We took a seat and he asked me how I was doing, I responded that I'm doing very well and that I'm loving the area I'm serving.  Harlem is treating me well President and we are staying busy with work. He liked the sound of that and asked if there was anything he could do to help me, I sat and pondered a short minute. Having nothing to big come to mind that I thought I needed help with, I then had the thought... (Elder Dutson and I had a conversation about something President had said in one of our last meetings with him, he said "Elder Nelson, of the quorum of the
twelve asked me, President Smith what are you doing to keep yourself away from pornography?" President said to us, "I thought that was an interesting question, because I'm not involved with pornography and have no problems with it because it's not a part of my life" so President Smith asked us the same question, what are we going to do to make sure we aren't getting involved or caught up in pornography? We live in a city where it is EVERYWHERE, how do we keep our thoughts centered on our purpose?) Since this conversation came to mind I just opened my mouth and told President, I said ”I don't have any problems with pornography here on my mission, but what would you suggest doing to stay clear of it, especially in a place like this where we live?"  He then took a second and asked me what I've been doing to stay clear of it already. I told him when I'm walking down the street and I see immodestly dressed women or pictures and ads on the street or in Windows I sing a hymn, whatever hymn comes to my mind first to drive any thoughts out immediately and because I desire to have the spirit with me always I do my best to stay away from places I know aren't good, I don't scroll on Facebook, I make sure my companion can always see my screen, so that it doesn't ever become an issue or temptation. It felt nice to have a simple discussion like this, although I wasn't necessarily struggling with anything, I opened my mouth to share something that I had talked about with my companion and just thought I could have more insight from President Smith. He is such a knowledgeable and inspired man. He always has a great response to questions. After our interviews we went home and we're just so happy! We felt spiritually high and wanted to go out and work, so we went to an appointment with M and had an awesome lesson, afterwards we went to look up a less active member and apparently we were in the wrong building and the wrong door. But we didn't realize that till door opened and we saw someone who wasn't who we were looking for. This girl named S opened the door and we just approached her like we were tracting, "hey we are representatives of Jesus Christ..." (I thought it was so cool afterwards, thinking about it. We didn't really hesitate when she opened up and it wasn't who we were looking for, we just went straight into teaching her about the Book of Mormon.) She wasn't religious; she said she didn't have a belief in God or anything spiritual. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Bible, she said she had and that she'd read from it just a little bit. I asked her about the Book of Mormon and she said she's heard of it but doesn't know what it is. So I went on explaining to her about the Book of Mormon, telling her it's about a Jewish family who desires to be happy and follow Christ, so they listen and heed to the council of the Lord from on high and follow his direction to leave Jerusalem and move to what was called the Promised Land. They were faithful and trusting in the Lord and did as he directed, leading them to peace, happiness, and eventually eternal life. She seemed a little open to it, but not much more from where she started. Elder Dutson bore his testimony and I invited her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and she accepted a copy. So we gave her a copy and asked for her info and she said she doesn't live here, she is just babysitting and that she isn't really too interested... We gave her our card and said she could even find us on Facebook, lol. It was an interesting experience. Today was pretty great! It's always great being with President and having success in the work.

Have a wonderful week! Love y'all! I'm finally all caught up in my journal!!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold