Elder Tyler Newbold NY NY North Mission: Week 23

March 16, 2016
Wednesday, Day 155
Day 142 in NY

PDAY!
I should start charging people haha! After laundry and groceries, we came back to the apartment and I began emailing.. The other day Elder Casper asked if I could cut his hair. So he and his companion came over around 1:30. After him, I cut Elder Bells hair, because he asked me yesterday if I could. I was planning on cutting my own hair, but I didn't have time. So I will cut it next week and Elder West said yea me too. Haha! Serving my fellow Elders and saving money,cutting hair! It's a win win!

OOPS:
Got so caught up in cutting hair and finishing my emails that I forgot to eat lunch and dinner! Not sure how that happened, so I grabbed some crackers and headed out the door at 6pm to visit Brother Ford. When we met with Brother Ford, we discussed the Priesthood with him. We talked about the importance of it and the blessings from it. We shared with him the video "The power of God."

COPS:
When we left Brother Fords, we thought we should stop by an investigators home. Walked into the building, got in the elevator, went up to the floor she stays at, knocked on the door, and she answered. She said she was making dinner so she was busy, but it looked like she was telling us to come in... So I asked if her brother was home, well instead of answering me she left the door and went to get him and she didn't come back, but Jason, her brother came to the door, said he just woke up. We just told him we wanted to show them both a video. But he was sleeping and she was cooking so they told us
to come back. Not that any of that was important or at all did it pertain to cops… But as we left the building, we walked past 2 guys who said, "they are everywhere, cops are circling the block" as they hurried into the apartment. As we made our way out, a few cop cars made their way around the block. It just makes me laugh at how scared the people here are of the cops and they know that they are doing illegal things, yet they do it anyway.

I think I forgot to mention it a couple of weeks ago, but we were walking up to the same apartment building and there was a group of teenagers gathered in the lobby. As we stood in the window knocking to get their attention to open the door, they all flipped out, none of them came to the door. But as a lady came from behind us and unlocked the door a kid came running out the door and ran into this lady. After she gave him a few words of her own.. We went into the building where about 8
teenagers gathered, all staring with frightened faces at us as we walked by. Getting into the elevator, the kid that ran outside said "Bro I thought y'all were cops." Responding I said "why are you afraid of the cops?" His idiotic response was "cause we be doin illegal stuff" the few, simple words of wisdom I gave him were, "maybe you shouldn't be doing it if it's illegal".

March 17, 2016
Thursday, Day 156
Day 143 in NY

INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT:
Today was a great day! We had interviews at the church with President Smith. Every time I've been in an interview with President Smith he says something very similar in each one. While I’ve been in interviews with him, he has said something along the lines of "I need you as a leader in this mission, Keep doing your best to be obedient and an example."

The first time he said this it wasn't as clear to me, maybe because as a brand new missionary he didn't want to overwhelm me with the idea of being called to a leader position. I don't know. In my 2nd interview with him again he said something to me like, Elder Newbold I need you to be a leader. Well at that point I think I caught on and was starting to think I'd be called to some calling in the mission.

Well just a couple months later is when I received the phone call that the Lord was calling me to be a trainer. In this most recent interview, today, once again, he said, I need you to be a leader in the mission. Are you willing and ready to be able to accept a calling from the Lord at any time? If He came up from behind you and placed his hand on your shoulder and asked you to be a leader would you accept it? My response, without hesitation was, Absolutely!

So, keeping in mind that the last time he said that, it wasn't long before I accepted the call to be a trainer. I'm not expecting him to call me by the end of this cycle to recall me to anything, but I'm on
my toes ready when the Lord knows it's best.

ZONE STUDY:
Man this was great!! I've never been a part of or really even heard of a zone study till just a few days ago. After President got through most of the interviews we began our zone study. In preparation for this we studied Preach My Gospel pages 39-40 & 110-111 and studied from the Book of Mormon as well.

Something that stood out to me in this discussion was really what President focused on for part of the study. He talked about never looking back. Which reminded me of a Mormon message video, "New Years: Look not behind thee". The past is the past and we MUST leave it behind us. We are human; we have memories, and not always are we capable of forgetting something that happened in our life. But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, it can be forgotten and moved past; we need not to look behind. We must forgive and forget, and be forgiven and move on. The memories we have of experiences in our life are great! Whether they are good or bad. With out evil, we know not good.

Genesis 3:5
5 "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

This scripture in the Old Testament is referring to Adam and Eve partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But what I also have understood from it, when relating it to my self personally is that without our bad experiences in life, the wrong decisions and choices we've made, we would not be able to know for ourselves what's good and bad. People have told us, our parents have warned us. But we chose not to listen, we made our own choices and we need to pray for forgiveness and move on. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much!! He really does loves us and He wants to forgive us, but in order to be forgiven we need to make the steps first and as we take those steps, he will have forgiven us much faster than we will forgive ourselves. So look not behind thee, know that you can be forgiven, and move on in life making positive and righteous decisions.

March 18, 2016
Friday, Day 157
Day 144 in NY

ONE OF THOSE DAYS:
It's true, it happens more often than we would like. But it helps us realize we need to be more prepared and accountable. Not the best day, we taught 2 lessons. And they weren't until the last 2 hours of the day. But they were great and it made our day feel more successful. We had a well planned out day. Had about 4 set appointments and a lot of finding events. Our first 2 appointments of the day fell through, we called to confirm our first appointment and they told us they were tired and didn't get any sleep. When we went to go to our next appointment, we text Divine and asked her if she was still available at 6, she responded yes. When we got there... We knocked and knocked and knocked... And no answer, then we called and again no answer...

Then later in the night around 8pm, we were walking to an apartment building to do some look-ups and we ran into this guy AC. At first we just walked by and said hello. But after we passed him we heard something so we turned around and he had said something so we walked back towards him and he asked, "what y'all do?" We told him we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we invite others to learn more about Jesus Christ and help them develop a relationship with him and our Heavenly Father. He seemed interested or more desperate for some help. But either way we were willing to help him. He said he's Muslim and that he's just looking for a new life... Which was perfect to what our focus message is this month. Finding New Life through Jesus Christ. So we talked and showed him the new Easter video #HALLELUJAH. He really liked it. We exchanged information and told him we would love to come by and talk more.

March 19, 2016
Saturday, Day 158
Day 145 in NY

APF: (Area Proselyting Focus)
Super legit! We met up at the church to have a meeting before our APF. We talked about goals and accountability. We wrote our goals up on the board of what we wanted to achieve in the time we were out talking to people. Not taking into account the amount of time we were given, we set some high goals. The Sisters had taken time to make these sweet signs to grab attention. Which they did! It was so inspired! At first, I honestly pre-judged the idea. I saw the signs they made and made the silent comment to myself that they probably wasted a lot of time and money making them. After putting the sings into action we didn't achieve our goals but we did get a lot done in the time we had. Our efforts combined with Elder Casper and Elder Clark and Elder Davis's and I, we had shown the #HALLELUJAH video 15 times, received 5 peoples contact information, and gave 9 people a Book of Mormon.

ELSA:
On our way back to the church after our time came to an end we were holding the sign up on the platform of the train and across the tracks a lady stood there looking at the sign and she shouted to us "Is that about Jesus" we shouted back "yes" and she gave us a thumbs up! I felt that someone needed to go talk to her. Since I was holding up the sign I naturally just told the other Elders to go, but quickly changed my mind. Having 3 minutes until our train arrived Elder Davis and I pushed the sign over to Elder Casper and Elder Clark and we ran down the stairs and across to the other side of the tracks where the lady stood. I clicked on my speaker and pulled up the video. We introduced ourselves and we showed her the video. She was wearing sunglasses, but she took them off during the video because she began to cry. The Spirit was strong and she, after the video, expressed her gratitude and love for the Savior. She bore her testimony to us about the Savior and how through him she's finding new life. She shared with us her plans to come to New York and get a job, go to school, and start a life here. She said she had been robbed and all these things had happened since she'd been here and she told us that Jesus had a plan for her. She said she's moving back to San Diego, California to pick up her new life and try again. With our time running short, our train came and left, and with very little time left with her we got her number and she quickly boarded her train… Making our way back to the other side of the tracks to wait for the next train. The misjudgment I made about the signs was proven to me, that it was inspired for the Sisters to make them. We sent a text to Elsa and asked if she would be interested in having the missionaries meet with her. She agreed and we hope to get her address soon to send some to her.

March 20, 2016
Sunday, Day 159
Day 146 in NY

ISAEL:
So we've been going through and cleaning out our area book. We found this less active member Isael. We stopped by his house a few days ago and told him we were trying to get to know the members and he let us in. He said he hadn't been to church in about 8 months. We asked if there was any particular reason, he said that, that was a question he asked himself often but could never answer. He said that he never had a doubt that the church was true or that he regretted being baptized. But he told us he just doesn't know why he just stopped going one day. Well we talked and go to know him and he has a great testimony of the church and he wants to come back, but he expressed his fear of being embarrassed of what the members might think if he showed up one day after not being there for so long. We expressed the love we developed for him as we talked and explained to him that the members won’t do anything or say anything to you for not being at church for so long. We told him that they might ask where he's been out of care of missing him for so long but that there's nothing to worry about. He felt comfortable with that and said he'd like to come with us. So this morning we got up called Isael and it turns out he was already up and getting ready. We too got ready and headed over to his place. We met him outside and walked to the BX4 bus and took it over to the church. We got Isael to church! It was awesome.

ELDER BRO'S FUNNY STORY:
First things first, Elder Davis, talking to me has said "Elder, Bro...." So it's kind of a nickname now. "Elder, Bro". So I’m Elder, Bro and here's my funny story. Isael came to church! We sat in the back rows because that's just where he sat down with his walker, so we sat in the row in front of him with an empty seat between Elder Davis and I. Well after the sacrament was passed... "Someone" (Isael) behind us fell asleep... and began to snore pretty loud… Elder Davis reached back and tapped on
his leg and he woke up. Sweet awesome, he's awake. No more snoring, problem fixed! Nope, just kidding, here comes round 2. He starts snoring again so, one again Elder Davis reached back and woke him up. Once, okay no big deal. Twice, okay that's funny, but really he needs to stay awake, because people keep looking back at us. Alright, alright, he's awake. No worries… But round 3 begins! Elder Davis gives me the "it's your turn" look. So I reach back, tapping him and dropping my pen a couple times on his led and whispering "Isael, Isael wake up." Again he wakes up. Okay no more right, 3rd times a charm? Wrong! Well time after time, switching off waking Isael up during sacrament, it became a real irritant... I'll be honest; I wasn't enjoying church so far... Well, sacrament meeting ends and we get ready for our gospel principles class, everyone's up and moving around so Isael is awake and that's awesome! We begin the class and not to long into the lesson the snoring once again begins. At this point, again I'm trying to have a good attitude towards the situation. We tell him to wake up and stay awake but that doesn't seem to work well at all but we want him at church so we don't want to do anything or say anything to ruin his experience. Well his sleep at this point. Lol! So for the final round, towards the end of class, the snoring continued. Between Elder Davis and I was an empty seat. On the seat sat 2 Hymn books... Now, I know this isn't the best idea. Well not a great idea at all. But my level of annoyance was at its peak… I placed my hand on the top hymnbook and just kind of, (maybe more forceful than anticipated) the book was tossed back into the chair behind us where Isael was sitting. Casually I reached back to pick up the book as Isael woke up and stayed awake for the remaining time.

Hearing the story is much funnier than reading about it. Because reading it, gives it a more rough idea of what happened. Elder Davis of course was laughing at the situation; unaware of my intentions with the book he thought it just fell off the chair.

ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE DAYS:
1 lesson was taught today; the only person that didn't fall through on us was Ricky. Always-faithful Uncle Ricky! Everything else didn't go as planned but a good day over all!

March 21, 2016
Monday, Day 160
Day 147 in NY

16 FINDING EVENTS:
Today we had planned to go look up a lot of people... We planned in 16 finding events and 3 were men... We don't teach very many men. There are so many women in our area. So we had just today 13 women we planned to go see.

MIRACLE:
Our first miracle for the day was when we went to look up this lady who had been taught by missionaries in the past. When we knocked on the door she answered and slowly but surely expressed other gratitude for coming by. She loved the missionaries and all that she was learning she was really interested and slowly they just stopped visiting her. Through time, as transfers happened she was just put on the bottom of the pile and we finally found her. She told us she would love to have us over. So we shared a quick message with the #HALLELUJAH video and told her we would keep in contact to set up another appointment.

MIRACLE #2: HOW DO THEY KNOW?!
It was about 8:45pm and Elder Davis and I were out walking with this guy we met a little while ago and this lady from across the street yelled out and said, "Are you Mormons?" May I remind you it's dark outside, there aren't many lights out, and we are wearing black jackets and dark slacks. How people can tell who we are amazes me! We stopped and she came to us, she asked if we had pictures of Jesus we said of course and gave her a few. She said she would put them up in her home. We talked for a little bit and she told us she met with missionaries before and she would love to meet again. We got her information and we continued on our way with Amaney, the guy we were walking with. After we parted ways with Amaney, we headed home but on our way went to see if we could find that lady's apartment. We saw her on the steps out front smoking so we stopped and talked some more. We then shared the #HALLELUJAH video and headed back home.

March 22, 2016
Tuesday, Day 161
Day 148 in NY

ROY:
Belgium missionaries... One of the members in our ward called us and asked how we were doing. We told him we were well and he said good, good, I just wanted to inform you about what happened in Belgium. A couple missionaries had been injured in an explosion. Obviously we don't watch the news and whatever so we don't know what happened but that's our brief summary of what we were told..

ORLANDO:
We've got this property manager who I guess has "big problems" with missionaries. He's been renting this apartment for years to the mission. And he called us and while we were in a lesson and text us that he needed to speak with us immediately. Well the last time he said that we set apart time, rescheduled appointments just to meet with him and he never showed up. I've never met this guy, but he already bugs us because he tells us he has problems with us because of certain things that we are still unaware of. So tomorrow, PDAY, we are taking time out of our preparation day to meet with this dude. Hope all goes well, because while we were on our way to another appointment the ASL Elders called him for us and talked to him. They said he didn't sound happy and again he wants to meet with us. When he never showed up to the first time he set up with us.

Well to end on a good note.

I love NEW YORK! What a blessing it is to be serving the Lord here, having the opportunity to be on a mission, strengthening my own testimony as I assist in helping others find and strengthen their own
testimonies!

Happy Easter! Watch and share #HALLELUJAH Love you all so much! Pray for the missionaries and their families in Belgium. Elder Davis and I are doing well! Till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Homemade Strawberry Jam! I love Sister Smith!

This dog was Massive! Probably should have asked the owner
if it was a nice dog before I stick my
hand out to pet it.. Fortunately nothing happened.
But this dog easily could have took my whole arm off!
My head could've fit in its mouth.