Week 17

February 3, 2016
Wednesday, Day 113
Day 100 in NY

PDAY!
1st PDAY with the new companion! Man, training is cool! It's what I compare to raising a child. (Except I didn't make this child and he came pre-trained, he walks, he talks...) Okay so I guess it's not at all like raising a child... I'm just training him, helping him learn how to share what he knows, how to get around, and so on.

After Grocery shopping and laundry we went home and unloaded then took off to the church for gator ball. Elder Davis really liked playing. Which was expected, once you start you just can't stop!

YAY FOR PDAY:
While he played gator ball I was off to the side with Elder Gallardo (a Spanish missionary in our zone) trying to figure out how to reset and fix Elder Davis's iPad… (Elder Davis didn't wait for me this morning to help him set up his iPad. So, he tried to set it up himself and didn't do it completely right). Not complaining, but it wasn't fun making calls and getting help from others to do a task that was simple and organized to do as a companionship, to avoid the problem above. Lol!

Elder Davis is a great missionary! He loves to get out and work! Which is super awesome! It helps us stay motivated to go and do.

6:00PM
PDAY Is over! Our first night out didn't go as planned and not much happened which was a little sad, but we went out and taught a lesson. We went over to see the Nation family, Tiewonka wasn't feeling well and was in bed. But Richard and Darren were home and so we came in and taught them. Elder Davis got to talk about himself for a bit, as he introduced himself. Then Richard and Darren talked about themselves as well, helping Elder Davis get to know the family. Visiting the Nation family was the only lesson we had for the night. We looked up some people but no one was home. After we came home we went straight to nightly planning and got ready to retire to bed.

February 4, 2016
Thursday, Day 114
Day 101 in NY

THURSDAY MORNING:
We had introductions so that Elder Davis could get to know everyone and meet Michael, our ward mission leader. After our meeting we came home had lunch and began weekly planning. I'll be honest, I was stressing out... It felt like I was doing it alone, only because I had to teach him and explain every one of our investigators and others that I knew. After a while of that, I just figured, with most of these people we are going to teach we will need to start from the beginning with them. A lot of the investigators in our area book are people I don't know or I don't know well. So, I, still being "new” and Elder Davis being completely new we decided to start from the beginning.

REVELATORY PROCESS:
Each of our planning sessions or discussions are taken very seriously, or they should be taken seriously. As a missionary we have the Responsibility to invite others to come unto Christ. Each person we meet that has this desire to come closer to Christ, we thoughtfully and prayerfully consider everything we know about them. -who they are -what their religious background may be or is -what
they want to get out of, when they meet with us... All these things and more are important in weekly planning. As we have these things on our mind, about each of our investigators, it becomes easier to see what their needs may be and how we can help them.

But this time, as we planned together for the first time. I didn't quite feel like any of these people really came to mind as we went through our investigators. Instead, I felt that we needed to focus more on the members of the ward. See what we could do to help them be more productive in the ward and in doing missionary work. So I called Bishop Jessop and scheduled a visit with him at 6:30 PM.

After we closed our planning session with a prayer of all the things we set out to do for the week, including our goals, and righteous ideas, we gathered ourselves and went out into the streets and began to look up some referrals we had received.

BISHOP:
So a little background, Bishop Jessop is super young! He's in his late 20's. He went to Guatemala on his mission. Went to Utah State, got married in the SLC temple. After he asked for his wife's hand, he
asked her father if they could move to The Bronx, (which made me laugh really hard, because that's a silly idea! don't get me wrong I love it here, but never would I ever choose to live here.) So after they moved here, he continued school in NY.

So we get to his home and we talked for a bit, introduced Elder Davis. We talked for a little bit about ourselves. I then told Bishop we had come over to give him the opportunity to meet Elder Davis and also to discuss the needs of the ward. We asked him some questions about what things we could do as missionaries to help better the ward. How to help the members be ready and willing to
accept callings and do missionary work. Our discussion went very well. We got some good notes. After our purpose was fulfilled, we shared with him a spiritual thought fitting to our purpose for the visit. After we had finished all our business he began to share with us some experiences he had on his mission which was super cool! I love hearing about missions! Then after he shared some experiences and after I had my "oh wait! I'm a missionary too!" thought, I also began relating to his experiences as I shared some of my own. It was a great experience to have been able to talk to Bishop and recognize the trust he has in us.

February 5, 2016
Friday, Day 115
Day 102 in NY

After our morning studies and before lunch we began 12 week. It's so crazy! Before I had even finished my first 12 weeks as a missionary, I received a trainer call. Due to Elder Davis's condition I didn't start
training for 2 weeks but it's crazy that I'm now finished with my "new missionary program" and now I'm teaching it!

On PDAY I received an email from Hermana Verdoorn, Olivia had emailed me about her receiving calling to be a trainer as well! It was super exciting, so I emailed back about my call and how the area is doing here in NY. It's so cool, being on a mission and knowing that all my friends are all over the world.

Elder Hall-Louisiana
Elder Fox-Mexico
Elder Cummins-Pennsylvania
Elder Sorensen-Philippines
Elder Darm-Marshal islands
Hermana Verdoorn-New Mexico
Elder Naef-Oklahoma
Elder Gill-New York (South)
And many many more! It's ridiculously awesome!

LOOK UPS:
We went out after 12 week and began looking up referrals, we met this lady named Amanda and she requested a free Bible, so we found her at her apartment and we gave her a Bible, we then asked her if she had ever heard of the Book of Mormon. She said that she had, we asked if she knew anything about it, she said she didn't. (Before we had sat down in the lobby with Amanda, she warned us that she didn't have much time, she had just taken her medication… And she gets tired and woozy) we told her we wouldn’t keep her long we just wanted to bring the Bible and Book of Mormon. Very briefly we explained the Book of Mormon and gave it to her. Well, as she began to speak, or trying to speak, her words were slurring and soon we understood nothing. We told her that we would love to visit her again and discuss more about the book and answer any questions she has after she reads the introduction (which we invited her to do). She responded with something that may have sounded a little something like this "shaowndjsoentjsosnshx".. Sadly, we don't quite have the gift of tongues... Or a gibberish dictionary… So we thanked her for her time and we went our separate ways. (The one thing I did hear was, "I'll call you", but that doesn't ever happen.)

After Amanda we went over to Ricky's, we taught Ricky and had a great lesson. After the lesson with Ricky we went over to another member who is considered "less active" in our ward, but she attends another LDS Church in Kingsbridge, where Elder Tabor is now serving. We shared the video "The Hope of Gods Light", one of my favorite Mormon Messages, and since Fast Sunday is right around the corner and fasting was a great theme presented in the video, so we invited her to fast.

AIDA:
We went and visited Aida and talked about her baptism! Since it's coming up on the 20th. It's so exciting to have someone be baptized! We talked about some things that she had questions about. We told her we would get more information about how her baptism will be planned and what will take place. She is so awesome and ready!

February 6, 2016
Saturday, Day 116
Day 103 in NY

MORE BIBLES:
So we get a lot of referrals, which most of the time means we go to deliver a Bible. Well, apparently Salt Lake is out of Bibles and so is our mission office... So the world had no more Bibles to give out at the moment... I just have a few left. Well we met one of our referrals and she was excited for her Bible we
then again introduced the Book of Mormon and she wanted one, so we gave her one. Then her daughter also wanted a Bible and Book of Mormon so we have her a Book of Mormon because we didn't have an extra Bible. But we scheduled an appointment to come back and teach them and hopefully be able to give her a Bible as well. We had a few more referrals that we met and gave Bibles to.

February 7, 2016
Sunday, Day 117
Day 104 in NY

"If you don't take the time to be well, you will take the time to be unwell."

This is so true! And I wish I could take that into consideration with everything I do... I had forgotten that we were having a zone conference on Tuesday, so I planned time to come home after the day with enough time to write a talk.

PMG CH. 8:
Preach My Gospel Chapter 8. "How to use time wisely"

This chapter is very important and helpful when studied over and over. Well, I need to do more studying, I planned for what I thought would be enough to time, but the people we met with today had more concerns or questions and things to discuss. So our lessons ran a little longer then they were planned for. So of course we came home and I didn't have time to write a talk… Everyone in the zone is asked to write a talk on a subject given by President. This conference focus was Accountability. So we all had to write a talk on accountability. When we get to conference President Smith, then knows who he'd like to speak. So I'm hoping I don't have to speak because I'm yet to be prepared.

February 8, 2016
Monday, Day 118
Day 105 in NY

We had a Zone Meeting this morning and I don't know what it was, but we were pumped from it. So after Elder Davis and I left we went and taught 5 Lessons! Super awesome! This past week has been very successful! Elder Davis loves to work hard and together we see so many miracles! I can tell that people are praying for our success. We feel so good and we are loving the work we have been doing!

CHASITY NOT CHASTITY:
So back when Elder Tabor was still in the area, we met this girl named Chasity. Since that day we met her we have been unable to contact her. Elder Davis and I decided we would stop by her apartment while we were in the area and... She was home! We asked, from the last time we met with her if she had read any of the Book of Mormon. She responded that she had not. She had just found a job recently and has been working a weird schedule and is waiting for a new scheduled this week. She told us she really wants to come to church; she promised us that she would if her schedule allows her too. We didn't even ask if she wanted to come, she just told us she wanted to, which is awesome! We just hope she's serious about it and able to come.

RAMON:
So we came home for dinner and realized we had received another referral, so we got a bit excited and left shortly after just getting home. We went over to this guy’s apartment and gave him the Bible he ordered. In his apartment were his friend and his brother. His brother was interested in a Bible and Book of Mormon as well. So, we gave him a Book of Mormon and held off on the Bible because we
didn't have an extra on hand, without limited amount. We taught them a quick lesson as we discussed the Book of Mormon. Ramon loved it, he told us he really liked us and appreciates what we do. He asked, "Why are you out so late?" Well 1st, it's only 7:30 PM and 2nd we are missionaries, so this is all we do. After explaining that we are missionaries and that we are giving 2 years of our life to do nothing but service and inviting others to come to Christ he just told us how much he really loves us and what we are doing.

February 9, 2016
Tuesday, Day 119
Day 106 in NY

ZONE CONFERENCE:
Woke up early, but I guess not early enough... We woke up at 5 and the 4 of us all needed to get ready so we did but instead of leaving at 6:45 like we planned we left at 6:55, then waited about 15 minutes for
the bus, (which was super late). We took the bus all the way down to the A train which is a 45 minute bus ride. Got on the A train and made it to Inwood, walked from the station to the Inwood chapel and got their at 8:05 thinking we HAD to be there at 8 I felt bad walking in late.. Thankfully it was breakfast that they were serving at 8... The conference didn't start till 9. So President walked in 10 minutes after we had all been seated. And we started at 9, when the Elder that was conducting the meeting stood up,
he announced those who will be giving their talks.. And again thankfully it wasn't me. Well the meeting was awesome!! Here are my notes from each speaker. Not much but enough to remind me of the feelings I felt and the inspiration given.

Sister Payne
Return & Report
On a daily/nightly basis pray to Heavenly Father,
Give an account of your day; your goals and plans
Tell Heavenly Father all that you did, all that you didn't do, and how
you felt.
Ask; what more could I have done? And What can I do better?

Elder Gallardo
1Nephi 18:2
If Jesus Christ accounted to God, why should we not account to
Heavenly Father as well. As Jesus Christ showed humility in all that
he did, we must follow his perfect example to our perfect effort.

Elder Bell
God is our loving Heavenly Father.
He has given us the opportunity to openly communicate with him.
Does Heavenly Father miss us? Yes, I know that because he loves us, in
an even greater amount then our earthly father, he does miss us, and
he wants us home.
We need to take responsibility in the part if the vineyard that
Heavenly Father has called us to.
As the brother of Jared, we need to make an effort in finding those
ideas that Heavenly Father can work with.


President David L. Smith
Make an accounting of everything. How many pass along cards you give
out. How many Book of Mormons you give out? Etc.
Would you go with energy and zeal?! What would you do, how would you
act if it were your last day of your mission?
(If it's a righteous act, do it because you love the Savior)

Training-(AP Jimenez & Wulff)
Planning - Mosiah 21


LUNCH:
During zone conference we had a lunch break. During the lunch break, I received another referral, well 3. But one of them, was the brother of Ramon, the guy we met last night. His brother’s name is Luis. After we had gotten home around 4:30PM from the conference, we ate, and took off over to Luis's. Well, his brother Ramon found us and took us to his brother Luis's apartment. He opened the door and the lights were off. He walked in and we followed. When he flicked the lights on I noticed a pair of jeans with a belt on them lying over the backside of the couch. I looked up and saw the bed in the corner. Ramon walked over and pulled the covers, there lays his brother Luis fast asleep at 7PM. Ramon (he's probably about 50 something) walks up to his brother and while he's sleeping smacks his head to wake him up. Lol! Luis (probably not much younger than him) leans forward and starts complaining about how he's sleeping and that he's not wearing anything but his underwear. Ramon says, "come on man! We are all men here! Who cares what you’re wearing!"

Super funny experience, when I noticed his pants and shirt on the couch I was praying he had something else on under the covers haha. We gave Luis his Bible and scheduled a time to come back and visit. So we will be back on Thursday. Ramon said he'd make us sandwiches, haha these guys are too funny!

MIRACLE:
To end the night we went over and saw Ricky and talked to him. And what a miracle! So we talk to Ricky about our day and his day. Then Elder Davis wanted to share something, so he opened up to this article "why adversity?" In the February 2016 Ensign. As he's reading it I received revelation. I felt the need to share my notes from zone conference about accountability and the atonement. I read a verse of scripture, 2 Nephi 32:16

"16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved."

After I finished reading this, Ricky looked at me and said, there's something in that chapter that I NEED TO KNOW. So I invited him to read it and find out what it was and to get back to us about it. Well he decided to read it right then and there and for some reason I let him. When Ricky finished reading the chapter... He said "That's it. That's it" I asked him what it was. He said, “It's the Holy Ghost, I don't have that.” I looked at him confused and said "Wait, you were baptized right?" He said “yes I was baptized.” I said "but you didn't receive the Holy Ghost?, they didn't lay their hands on you head and confirm you a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and confer upon you the gift of the Holy Ghost?" He said, "Nope they didn't. I was baptized in Puerto Rico and moved here to NY right after."

The miracle in this is that we had received inspiration to read and say what we did. And Ricky had told us that he found what Heavenly Father needed him to find. So apparently Ricky isn't a "member of the church" because he hadn't been confirmed one. Well that was absolutely mind blowing to me. It was a crazy thing to realize, but so cool to be a part of.

Keep praying for miracles! Thank you all for your prayers and letters! Love you all! Till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold