Week 15

January 17, 2016
Sunday, Day 96
Day 83 in NY

BE NewBOLD!
We went to church! And we walked with Ricky! It's Elder Tabor’s last Sunday, so we were taking pictures and saying goodbyes. When church ended I went up to Ricky and said "yo, Ricky, you making us dinner tonight?" Haha he said "yea come over, I'll make you dinner!" Thanks to all of you praying for members to feed us! Shout out to Brother and Sister Musick for their prayers! We have been getting fed.

Not the response I was expecting from Ricky, but definitely the response I was looking for! Haha so be bold! And (if people are praying for you) you will get your way!

DINNER:
Went about the rest of the day, had lunch, and went to a couple appointments. Then we went over to Ricky's and dinner was ready! So we ate and visited with Ricky and Joel. Joel is so cool, he thinks of us as his older brothers, which is super cool! Cause he doesn't have any. But he's got us!

After dinner we watched 17 Miracles with them, super awesome! That's the best movie! It's been a long while since I've seen it so it was a nice way to end the night.



January 18, 2016
Monday, Day 97
Day 84 in NY

NO GO:
No go… Meaning NO we didn't GO out and do much today... With Elder Tabor leaving we had to use our day to pack up everything of his.

We went out and saw a few people so that Elder Tabor could say goodbye and take pictures. So we did that for a couple hours, then came home and pulled out the suitcases.

Not productive the way a missionary would like his day to be, but it was good. It gave me an idea of how we should have planned our week. So now I know for when I get transferred... You need to spread out the time you pack...



January 19, 2016
Tuesday, Day 98
Day 85 in NY

DAY 2 PACKING:
Saw a couple more people today, and came home like yesterday. Had lunch and packed till 2 AM....

Like I said yesterday, we should have spread out our packing. I didn't realize how long it would take… But there was so much to do and to pack. We went out and did laundry so that his clothes would be ready for his next area. So that took some time.

It was a weird feeling day haha we just packed and got Elder Tabor ready for his next area.



January 20, 2016
Wednesday, Day 99
Day 86 in NY

TRANSFERS:
Yo soy en la programa de españo. Pero no hablo español. So this will be interesting and fun. Stay tuned!

MIRACLES:
Just kind of recognized the miracles in my life... I wish I would have remembered them during the days that I recognized them first. But after watching 17 Miracles with Ricky, it made me want to recognize more often the miracles in my life.

I've witnessed and have had the privilege of being apart of so many miracles. Since I've been out on my mission, the miracles just keep coming.

Josh has been able to join the level 5 team without having to practice on Sunday's. Which was something that I had been specifically praying about since I came out to NY.

Mom is starting to do FHE (Family Home Evening) again and study Preach My Gospel with the family. Which is also something I've been praying for. As I have had the opportunity to prepare many FHE's for less active and active family members of our church, I've come to realize the importance of them and wished it upon my own family.

Dad has been having a lot of experiences and doing more missionary work. He, now having a son on a mission, has more opportunities to bring up the gospel. I've seen it become easier to discuss things of the gospel when someone you love is doing it.

Each of my family members, Courtney, Dillon, Zach and even some very close friends of mine have had experiences since I've been out, that have strengthened their testimonies.

WELCOME TO THE SPANISH PROGRAM:
It begins! Another experience with a different language. 1st it was having the ASL Elders in our apartment. Now I'm in a trio, in the Spanish program. Looking forward to learning some Spanish!



January 21, 2016
Thursday, Day 100
Day 87 in NY

PDAY:
Primero dia en la programa de español. Well the first full day.  I had already done my laundry the other day with Elder Tabor so, I didn't have much laundry to clean. So we went to do laundry since Elder Guerra and Elder Hilton had laundry. Then of course after laundry we went grocery shopping.

SPANISH:
Due to transfers and the chaos from it, I had no lessons planned, so we went to a couple appointments and I got to experience the Spanish side of things. And..... Wow! I don't understand anything! They say "welcome to the life of a new Spanish speaking missionary, this is what it was like for us new missionaries our first day in the mission" wow... Haha Spanish is fast and I don't understand any of it.. Occasionally words will be said where immediately it translates to English in my head so I understand,
but very few times did that happened.



January 22, 2016
Friday, Day 101
Day 88 in NY

ESPAÑOL:
Not even sure what happened today haha, it's been crazy, taking over the Spanish area and English at the same time, we are ruining around the Bronx teaching in English and Spanish... I think I'm starting to forget some English words... But that doesn't mean that my Spanish is getting much better haha.



January 23, 2016
Saturday, Day 102
Day 89 in NY

STORM THOMAS:
Woke up this morning to snow passed my knees, cars blocked in, and the sound of scraping shovels in the snow.

I've never had no snow one day and the next day snow. So I thought waking up to 2 feet was awesome and 100% normal... Well the snow didn't stop there and I was horribly wrong... The snow carried on and we pressed forward with our morning, got ready, had studies, then began our weekly planning since transfers were too crazy to do it Thursday or Friday. By the time we finished it was after dinner. And we then took off into the snow...

As missionaries we don't watch TV and we don't have a TV. Obviously this means we don't watch the news... Which is totally okay with me... I don't watch it anyways nor would I if the opportunity presented
itself. Well, with out the news, we are oblivious to the alerts and important new reports, such as: It being illegal to be outside during this "storm". Anyone caught outside of their home would be arrested.

No, thankfully, we didn't find that out the hard way... We had made our way through the blizzard weather and made it to an appointment where, they had not expected us because of the weather… This investigating family had informed us through their concern of our well-being and "possible arrest" that we needed to be careful walking home because if we were caught we could be arrested. So, being missionaries, we did the right thing... We left.... After teaching them a lesson of course!



January 24, 2016
Sunday, Day 103
Day 90 in NY

CHURCH OR NO CHURCH:
Well sure it snowed and snowed and snowed, and snowed... But who has the right to cancel the only day we partake of the Sacrament. I don't think anyone does. And that's why it didn't happen... We had planned for the trains, buses, and taxis to all be out of service. So we mapped out the way to church and it was a 3-mile walk in the snow. Which would have gone from an hour and so many minutes, to maybe just over 2 hours. But we were determined. I had kept in contact all morning with Aida, she at first told me she didn't want to go because she didn't want to walk that far. Well that wasn't going to stop us from going to church, so we walked and we walked. On our way, we passed a train station about 45 minutes into our walk. The trains began working and we hurried on up into the station and
made it to church, I told Aida that the trains were working and she told us she would be there.

We made it to church and for about another hour or so we shoveled the walk ways around the church.

When we were told that church would began at 11:30 instead of 10 it didn't. 20 people were at church 9 being members (a family of 5, 1 single man, and 3 priesthood holding young men who were brothers) 9 missionaries, and 2 investigators... How cool! The father of the family of 5 was a counselor to the bishop, so he conducted our sacrament, us missionaries prepared the sacrament, and our meeting consisted of bearing our testimonies. It was a spiritual meeting for sure.



Sorry to all who I have yet responded too, when I came to the church today to send all the emails I had responded to in drafts, they were some how deleted.... I'm working on responding but may not send them till next week...

Love you all so much! Enjoy your week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Elder Tabor, Ricky and Elder Newbold (Tabor's last Sunday before transfer)

Week 14

January 10, 2016
Sunday, Day 89
Day 76 in NY

Wonderful Sabbath day!
CHURCH:
As usual we walk over to Ricky's and pick him up. Then we walk to church. We sent Aida a text letting her know we were on our way to church and 10 minutes later she responded that she was already there. SHES SO AWESOME! So we called the Sister missionaries and asked if they were at church, that way they could introduce themselves to Aida and keep her company till we get there with Ricky.
When we got ahold of the Sisters they told us that they were already talking to her!! So that was awesome! When Elder Tabor and I got to the church with Ricky, we gave her a tour of the church. (Ricky took a seat in the foyer). We started up stairs where all the classrooms are. She thought it was so cool that we get the kids all involved in learning the gospel. Then we took her back down stairs, on our way down the hall we passed Ricky and we were talking about showing her the baptismal font. Ricky heard us talking about baptism and Aida asked, "How does it feel to be baptized?" when Ricky heard her say that he began describing the feelings he had when he was baptized. (It was so sweet!!! Ricky's a missionary!) He described how when we stand in the water we are, who we are at that moment, but when we go under we are cleaned, and when we come out of the water we are clean, we are born again. He said when I was baptized I had a permanent smile on my face for weeks! Aida just melted from the experience that Ricky shared with her. She is so excited to be baptized! After that conversation, we walked her to the baptismal font, she stood back, and Elder Tabor and I opened the doors to the font. She then came forward and just stood there, just in love with the vision she was drawing in her mind as we explained the process of baptism. After we let her soak in the experience, we continued on. We took her over to the chapel. We came in through the side doors and she walked
up and sat down in the front row staring up at the pulpit. We explained to her the sacrament and the things that take place in the chapel during the meeting. She had this glowing smile on her face all throughout church. She can't wait to be baptized!

AFTER CHURCH:
After church we went home and ate, we had some appointments scheduled and we went by each home to teach these people and each appointment fell through... So after dinner we went on over to Ricky's and visited with him. We talked about faith and invited him to continue reading the Book of Mormon.


January 11, 2016
Monday, Day 90
Day 77 in NY

GOOD MORNING:
We got up and went about our Monday morning schedule. Headed over to the church for District meeting. It was windy this morning, which made the chill weather even more chill. District meeting was great as always! Elder Tabor always teaches a great lesson by the spirit. After our meeting we needed to go home. We had boxes of Book of Mormons to carry, so we asked Michael (our ward mission leader if he would drive us home). So Michael drove us home. It's so nice being in a car... It's a luxury to be in a car. After lunch at home, we headed out for our lessons. We had 3 lessons planned...All fell through, once again. We then felt impressed to go visit Elder Hughes and Nalaza.

SICK & AFFLICTED:
It was later in the night, about 7:30. It took us a while to get over to their apartment because they live in Co-op city, which is about 30 minutes by transit. When we got there we just talked with them, to see how they were doing. We had an uplifting conversation and we kept telling them how much we love them and how awesome they are! Because they are awesome! Then we felt impressed to have a quick lesson. We started off with a song, and then we had an opening prayer. After we prayed, I shared a few scriptures, 1Nephi 17. It talks about traveling to the land bountiful. Nephi makes an account of their journey. He shares the trials and obstacles, but he points out that they murmured
not. They went on with their journey with no complaints. I related this story to them and their trials, telling them that although you’re sick, you’re hurting, you feel useless because you aren't doing much
work that you need to focus not on the trial itself but the blessings you’re receiving from this trial. It was awesome!
[1 Nephi 17:1-6]
"1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness;
and our women did bear children in the wilderness.

2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.

3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing, which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.

5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which, being interpreted, is many waters.

6 And it came to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of its much fruit."

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED:
So we ended up staying at the Elders apartment later then we hoped but as expected to. But because of our promoting to do so, we didn't feel as bad coming home late. For a little bit of background, we were texting President about us visiting the Elders so he knew about the situation. Anyway! We are on the train heading home it's 9:32 PM (2 minutes passed our extended time limit to be out late) and the phone rings...
"President Smith" appears on the caller ID, nervously Elder Tabor answers the phone. Elder Tabor after just a couple seconds of being on the phone hands the phone to me and says it’s for you. "Hey President!" "Elder Newbold! How's it going?" "It's going well President, how are you?" "I'm well, how's your mission been?" "Ahh, President, it's been the best experience of my life." "That's so good! Glad to hear it. Elder Newbold, you've been out just about 3 months now right?" "Just about, 3 days until 3 months" "Wow, time goes by so quick doesn't it?" "It does President, it's crazy." "Well Elder Newbold, the Lord has called you to be a trainer!" "Ahh man, no way! That's so awesome!" "So Elder Newbold, will you accept this calling?" "Absolutely, President. Thank you!" "That’s great, thank you for your service Elder Newbold."

I wasn't supposed to receive this phone call till Friday. So how cool, President must have been very inspired to tell me. He usually doesn't know who trainers or leaders will be until, sometimes the night
before.


January 12, 2016
Tuesday, Day 91
Day 78 in NY

PASS OFF:
This morning we met up with the Spanish missionaries, Elder Guerra and Elder Hilton? We had a pass off lesson, which is a lesson where a set of missionaries passes an investigator over to another set of missionaries. So Elder Tabor and I met this Spanish lady who wants to learn more so we went with the Spanish Elders and introduced her to them. Well she wasn't home but her mother was so they taught her mom a lesson and invited her to schedule another appointment.

LOOK UP:
We looked up a guy after 2 of our appointments fell through and we gave him a Book of Mormon.

LESSONS:
Then we went over to Jermaine’s and taught him, after Jermaine’s we went and visited/taught Brother Ford.

FINDING FAITH IN CHRIST:
After our lessons we went home and had dinner. Then we went to Uncle Ricky’s and watched finding faith in Christ. Then we broke the news to Ricky that Elder Tabor would be leaving and that I know I would be training. (The sad news is that Elder Tabor is being transferred)


January 13, 2016
Wednesday, Day 92
Day 79 in NY

Last PDAY with Elder Tabor ...

SHOTS:
Started off doing laundry and grocery shopping. Last week we started a tradition, we bought Danimals yogurt and while waiting for our clothes to dry we would take "yogurt shots"

Due to being in a hurry to just get home and unload and be ready for our last game of gator ball, we skipped the yogurt shots and went straight home.

And of course played a wonderful game of gator ball!!

LESSONS:
Then went home, picked up a large print Book of Mormon and took it to Aida. Then taught the Nation Family.

BLESSINGS:
When we came home, I just felt overwhelmed with the exciting/nervous feeling of being a trainer and having the possibility of becoming the District Leader, so I asked Elder Tabor if he would give me a
blessing. We invited the ASL Elders to join and after they gave me the blessing, everyone wanted one lol so we went around the room giving each other blessings.


January 14, 2016
Thursday, Day 93
Day 80 in NY

Today didn't seem like much happened, we looked up some referrals and had some lessons. Taught 3 lessons. One was with David Urbina, he's super cool. It's always a great lesson with him.


January 15, 2016
Friday, Day 94
Day 81 in NY

EARLY DAY:
Woke up early, took off to the training for trainers meeting. Elder Tabor went on a split with another Elder because he's not training anymore so he doesn't need to be there. The training meeting was super awesome, it made me feel so much better about training.

NEW ZL:
Elder Tabor has been called to be a ZL (Zone Leader). Won't find out where he will be serving till tomorrow..

SPLIT:
Came home and got ready to split. I again took over the area.


January 16, 2016
Saturday, Day 95
Day 82 in NY

We had a well planned day, but not much seemed to be happening. The first thing we did was look up Jermaine, but his shop was closed. So we went across the street, tried to get wifi. Then this guy came out of nowhere and we talked to him, he said we could come over. So we scheduled to see him next in a couple weeks.

THREATS:
Today was very interesting. We were waiting at a station for a train and we were looking at the schedule to see where this person lives. And we looked up because we heard some guy rapping. He was super into his rap, he was jumping around and throwing his arms around and we looked at each other and just kind of laughed and went back to looking for the address… When all of a sudden he started "rapping" about really deep threats and super bad things. So we looked up again and he
was looking at us this time, walking towards us at the same time... Turns out he wasn't rapping. He was threatening us… Shortly after, he apologized and told us he was just expressing his feelings.

PEOPLE IN NY:
We were heading back to the castle hill stop on the train to unsplit and this man who was like 60 came out of nowhere, looked at my name tag, looked me in the eyes and said "Elder Newbold, you are gay." And walked away, I said, "I’m gay??" He said "yep" as he walked away. Elder Sorensen and I just couldn't help but die laughing in confusion.


Behind in my journal a little bit, you'll understand why next week. (This transfer has been crazy, I have no companion... I'm now in a trio companionship, yo soy en la programa de español. Its super cool but I've had to pack and go to another apartment for next 2 weeks).

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

District Meeting

District Meeting

Elder Newbold with his Spanish Trio

Week 13

December 31, 2015

Thursday, Day 79

Day 66 in NY

It's January 12, and I'm trying to catch up in my journal that I haven't been able to write in since December 31st... So, just a quick over view of this day. From the little notes I took of this day it looks like we found some investigators.

LESSON:

Then we had a lesson with Ricky, we shared the scripture Ether 5:5. "5 And if it so be that they repent and come unto the Father in the name of Jesus, they shall be received into the kingdom of God." We all need to strive to be like Jesus, and this is how we can be like him. Humble our selves to repentance

January 1, 2016

Friday, Day 80

Day 67 in NY

CONFERENCE CALL:

Received a message that we would be having a conference call this morning. So we got on the call after studies. President Smith made the announcement that Elder Holland has decided to come to the New York New York North Mission to speak to us. Usually when an Apostle comes to speak to a mission, he usually does because he's got some other business or meeting he's taking care of in the area. This trip that Elder Holland was making for us, was inspiration. He had no other reason to come to New York than to speak to us. So we are all so stoked!!

LESSONS:

We went by and taught Jermaine and His buddy Kenneth in his shop. (I don't remember much of these lessons since I'm way behind in my writing) but after Jermaine and Kenneth we went down a few blocks to see Brother Ford.

After Brother Ford, we went home, and had lunch. When we finished lunch we went to look up a referral. Then we had a lesson with Aida.

AIDA:

This lady is so awesome! She really understands everything we teach her. She asks questions and she studies on her own after each appointment we have with her. She even set her own baptism date! February 13, 2016.

BLESSING:

Elder Nalaza has been really sick and just down in dumps from it... As much as he wants to go out and work his companion keeps him inside, because he throws up a lot. On top of his sickness, he hasn't been getting any sleep… With all of this happening, we received a call asking if we could come over and give Elder Nalaza a blessing. So after Aida's lesson, we left and went straight over to the Elder’s apartment. When we got to the apartment, they let us in and we talked about what was going on, then Elder Nalaza asked if I would give the blessing.

After the blessing he thanked us and he walked on into his room, into the dark, and laid in bed.

DIAZ'S:

Leaving the apartment hungry, we stopped by a near by 7-11 and grabbed a pizza. We ate on the way to the bus stop, and began waiting for a bus. Finally a bus came, we got on, and headed over to Sister Diaz's. The lady who's apartment caught fire. They still needed help. So of course Elder Tabor and I went and helped out. Sister Diaz's family is inactive. And her son gave us a ride home, which was super awesome. (It's been a while since I've been in a car, and didn't have to walk home). On the way home we talked to him and got to know him a little. We talked about our lives and being missionaries, we shared a little about our stories as to why we came out on a mission. His name is Gio and he's 21. He told us that he wanted to serve a mission and that he still would love to serve a mission. He was explaining how, his family just hadn't gone to church in a while, and this girlfriend of his isn't a member and he just doesn't think he'd be able to serve a mission still. (This guy is super awesome!) Elder Tabor and I, having similar insights and experience, we explained to him that he could still serve a mission. We talked him up about how cool and fun it is! He got super hyped about the idea and all the stories we told him. By the time we got home it was about 9:30. So we didn't have time to finish talking but we hopefully will see him again sometime.

MYSTERY NOTE:

While cleaning out the Diaz's home, I found some cassette tapes (if that's how you spell it) they were being thrown out so I took one. When we got home Elder Tabor and I wrote a note on it. "When found... Facebook us, Jordan Tabor & Tyler Newbold January 1, 2016" then I tapped it to the top of the doorframe inside the closet. Now I just have to wait till I leave the area and see how long it takes for someone to find it.

January 2, 2016

Saturday, Day 81

Day 68 in NY

WEEKLY PLANNING:

It usually takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours, if you do it right haha. So sitting around planning for that long drains you! We can't wait to get out and do work! We have a really quick meal and take off to our appointments.

INVESTIGATORS:

Had some good work planned and found success! We met some people who became new investigators!

RED BULL

It's been 2 months! Finally got one! And yes, it was good! Elder Tabor and I celebrated for a good day.

RICKY:

After a long day we went on over to Uncle Ricky's. Ricky was going through the Mormon channel on his tv and came across Two Brothers Two. (I remember watching this movie years ago as a family) and I explained a little bit about it and he was interested. So we started watching a few episodes and it was super cool, Ricky liked it and it reminded me of my brothers and I. Ricky told us he was coming to church, he said "I can't miss the 1^st Sunday of the month, testimony meeting is my favorite part."

January 3, 2016

Sunday, Day 82

Day 69 in NY

Woke up this morning, worked out, got ready. Started our studies. And just after we finished personal studies we got a text. It said, "I'm not coming to church, I'll see you next Monday." ...guess who, Elder Tabor said. Ricky. I said no! Hurry up lets go, we will show up to his apartment and get him. We called him, he didn't answer. So we finished getting ready and took off over to his apartment. Then Ricky called us and said, "where are you?! I'm at the train station!" Haha He changed his mind, he told us he was laying in bed and God wouldn't let him lay there so he got up and got ready. We hurried over to the station and walked with Ricky to church.

TESTIMONY MEETING:

People one by one began testifying about how the devil is at work and all these evil things and it was super weird. Then all of a sudden Ruby, one of the recent converts in the ward, got up to the stand and began preaching to everyone about her testimony of Jesus. She called out everyone talking about the devil and said they needed to start testifying of Christ. It was so great!

JESUS IS THE WAY:

We were standing out side the chapel waiting for someone to come out of a meeting and this little Spanish girl was being a little irreverent and she wasn't listening to her mom. The little girl came my way and was making some noise and making weird faces, so I pulled out a picture of Jesus and handed it to her she stopped everything she was doing and held onto the picture. While she was staring at picture I asked her "who is that?" She responded "Jesu Cristo". It's so amazing to me, the impact that Jesus Christ has on us all. For a little girl she stopped the things she was doing and just stood in silence looking at Jesus.

January 4, 2016

Monday, Day 83

Day 70 in NY

DISTRICT MEETING:

Monday morning routines, get up, work out, get ready, and have studies. After studies then we head over to the church for district meeting. That's where Elder Tabor (the District Leader) would give a lesson or some kind of instruction to our district. When our meeting is over we then would go home and eat lunch.

CLEAN:

Sometime during the previous week, we received a phone call from one of the AP's (Assistant to the President) AP Leashman called and told us that we would be having 2 ASL missionaries moving into our apartment. They would be moving in on Tuesday. So we took Monday, today, off to prepare to house these 2 missionaries. (One of the missionaries would be a brand new missionary and the other is his trainer from the ASL program.) We didn't understand why this was happening but we just needed to accept it with out question. We finished up lunch and began tackling the apartment. We started in the living room and just threw out everything that we didn't need or use or that was left from previous missionaries. We vacuumed and arranged the furniture so that we could bring our bunk bed into the living room. Then we rearranged what was our room, and turned it into the new missionaries room/study room. It sounds easy but it literally

took all day... We had to take apart furniture and reassemble and etc. Finally we finished and then realized we planned a split on this day, so we rushed over to the train station and switched companionship switch the ZL's (Zone Leaders). Elder Tabor and I were exhausted... Completely drained, once again. And guess who was taking over the area... Me! So Elder Tabor was happy about that haha. It was a well planned day, but it was a busy one, so I wasn't too excited for the

morning.

January 5, 2016

Tuesday, Day 84

Day 71 in NY

SPLIT:

The split begins... Our first appointment was with Jermaine... 1. I love Jermaine, but he loves to talk, and he loves to talk about history of religion. 2. I don't understand 90% of the things he says because he studies so much about these religions. 3. Jermaine has a buddy named Kenneth and Kenneth is also knowledgeable in other religions and likes to add his input, which then get carried too far off subject. So I was hoping that Kenneth wouldn't be there this morning. (The last time we met with him, he told us he wasn't interested in baptism anymore).

JERMAINE:

So we get over to Jermaine’s shop and Kenneth wasn't there. So we got right into it. We answered some questions that he had. Then about half way into the lesson, Kenneth walks in. Now I'm just praying Kenneth is just hear to listen, because if he said anything we wouldn't finish our lesson. (Kenneth walked right in and sat right down without saying a word). When he came in I caught a hint of a lil something something. Towards the end of the lesson Kenneth finally looked up and made one comment. Right then, we knew. Kenneth was baked! Haha he was just chill’in. No questions asked, haha it was a good lesson!

MAIL:

Right after Jermaine we went over to the church and picked up mail and grabbed some more Book of Mormons.

NEW COMPANIONSHIP:

Around lunchtime we received a phone call while inside the apartment. It was the Mission office Elders, they called to see if we were home, and we were. They asked if we could come outside and help them because one of the ASL Elders was here. So we went outside helped him bring in his stuff. I guess only one came, because the NEW missionary was needing to be picked up from the airport, so they left to go get him and came back later on in the day.

NEXT APPOINTMENTS:

Nelson and Ricky were our next appointments; Elder Buckley and I showed them the New Years video. They both really liked it; it talks about how it's a new year and we need to forget about the past, forgive ourselves and move on, and try to be better. Then we went to go look up Grace, a referral who we've tried getting in contact with but hasn't been home. She was finally home and we were able to give her a bible. On our way to our next appointment we came across this pier. It was a beautiful view!

Sister Smith, the member we see each week for FHE (Family Home Evening) was our next appointment. We taught her and her kids about choosing the right.

That concluded our day, so we headed back to the station and split again back to our companions. When Elder Tabor and I got home that's when we met both the Elders. Elder Bell (the trainer) and Elder West (the trainee).

January 6, 2016

Wednesday, Day 85

Day 72 in NY

PDAY!

1 bathroom... 4 Guys...

We skipped the math and began our experiment. One companionship started the morning off in the bathroom, one in the shower and the other shaving at the sink, while the other companionship worked out. Then we switched. It worked out pretty well.

We then went on with the day, laundry, grocery shopping. Came home and had to reorganize the whole kitchen to accommodate for the division of our companionships. Then we went out and had to make a copy of our apartment key for the other Elders. It was so fast and cheap! It took maybe about 45 seconds after handing the key to man on the other end of the desk and it only cost $1.25 for the key.

1LESSON DAY:

This week has been rough; we only had one lesson today because we've just been so busy getting the apartment ready for the ASL Elders. After our only lesson, we headed home, and stopped at C-Town to see Carlito.

January 7, 2016

Thursday, Day 86

Day 73 in NY

Today also was a long day, we started off as usual, then had weekly planning which takes up most of the day after lunch. But it was a good day; we had 5 lessons after weekly planning. Long day, and not much to say about it.

January 8, 2016

Friday, Day 87

Day 74 in NY

STUDIES:

We have changed up our studies in a very effective way; I guess personal study isn't really supposed to be for yourself. Lol we started studying for our investigators and our lessons have been really good lately. We planned an awesome lesson about faith for Jermaine. Planned to ask some really great inspired questions and gave some really good insight.

LUNCH:

We had lunch, which is always great. Missionary work gets me hungry!

After lunch we took some time to finish up our weekly planning from yesterday.

After lunch we received a call from President, which was very uplifting! He was talking about how he picked up Elder Holland and that it was so cool to be in the car with him and talk to him! An Apostle of God! How cool! We get to hear from Elder Holland but President had the opportunity to talk to him!

January 9, 2016

Saturday, Day 88

Day 75 in NY

Oh man!!! Today was the best!!! We got up and went straight over too the Manhattan Temple! My first time ever seeing this temple! Oh it was soo awesome!! There's a chapel inside one top story of the temple. So we went in and sat down and waited for Elder Holland to show up.

I'm running out of time, but I hope I'll have an opportunity to share more about the experience. Here are my notes from this wonderful experience.

[Having the privilege to sit in the presence of an Apostle of God, I felt learned by the inspired words that were drawn from the lips of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. The items he spoke on; he spoke in such a way, sharing an abundance of passion, with heavy boldness, he touched my heart and allowed me to understand so much more of my calling.]

(We aren't just dedicating two years to BE a missionary, we are dedicating two years to BECOME a missionary, because once we become a missionary, you shouldn't want to go back to the life previous to your mission.)

My goal: to always be a missionary

Plan: Continue the habits I have formed. NEVER GO BACK to the life before.

Elder Holland’s words:

You do not have the right to damage the image of a missionary! Not now on your mission, not ever! Not even when you get home! You can never go back, you shouldn't want to! No matter how good you thought it was. You have to do it for those nieces and nephews, little brothers and sisters... They think you're superman and Wonder Woman out here.

My own:

We are all examples. To the children; we are superheroes, to the youth; we are role models, to adults and our parents; we are what they dreamed we would be.

We are where we need to be. We are doing what we need to be doing. Because of the example we have set up to this point. Why? Why, would we want to change that? We should only strive to perfect the examples that we are.

I hope you were able to get something from what I have shared; I took notes by pen and paper. So I haven't transferred all my notes to my iPad yet.

Love you all so much!! I'll again continue to try and make my journals better.

PS.

I received a call from President, the other day. He said, "Elder Newbold! How’s your mission?!" I said, "President, it's been the best experience of my life!" He then said, "oh good! Elder Newbold, you've been out about 3 months correct?" I said, "Yea, on the 14th it will be 3 months" President said, "Awesome, it's, amazing how time flies, well, Elder Newbold, the Lord is calling you to be a leader. You’re going to, be training!" I exclaimed, "Oh man! Really President?! That's so awesome!!" He said, "Isn't it?! Elder Newbold, will you accept this calling?" I responded, "Absolutely! Thank you President!" He then told me "Love you Elder, have a great night!"

That was the best phone call from him! It was so awesome! Next week I'll let you know about it! I go to training on Friday and find out more about it!

Enjoy your week! Can't wait till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

Sent from my iPad