Week 24

March 23, 2016
Wednesday, Day 162
Day 149 in NY

PDAY!
Another easy day, we finished our shopping and laundry came home and I cut my hair. After I cut my hair we had the meeting with the Property manager. We were preparing ourselves to take some heat from this guy.

A couple of weeks ago, Elder Davis and I, walking out of our apartment saw a note on the ground. In a hurry I picked it up and set it inside on the table and went on our way. When we came home later that night around 9 pm Elder Bell and Elder West told us we needed to pick a day to meet with Orlando, the property manager. We asked what for and they responded that he left us a note with his name and number on it. "Elders, please call me immediately when you get in." (That was the note we saw on the ground). From my last experience with Orlando; he was yelling on the phone about something completely unnecessary. I was on a split with Elder Buckley and he answered he phone and that was my first "encounter" with Orlando. That being my first encounter with him, it didn't leave a good impression in my eyes. So I was expecting this guy to show up with some attitude about something ridiculous and because previous Elders hadn't warned us of certain things we were gonna take the heat for it.
2 WEEKS AGO, SUNDAY:
Well 5 O'clock hits and we are all sitting at the table in the front ready for him. A few minutes and there's no knock at the door. So we waited and waited... Then we texted him and waited some more. Well after us siting around for an hour waiting for this guy. No response or communication to us was received to make us aware that he wasn't going to keep his commitment of meeting with us. Even after he was the one to tell us Sunday was his day off and that he wanted to meet at 5. Time was wasted, patience was lost, and we left the apartment to continue our day. Very irritated at the fact that we could have been out teaching and that the Lord’s time was wasted, a bad impression of this guy was left in our thoughts.
YESTERDAY:
We receive a text from Orlando, about 2 weeks later this guy finally gets in contact with us. Well, his message said he needed to meet with us tomorrow at 5pm. Of course I'm upset at this guy because of the time we wasted and the fact that he wants to waste time out of our Pday to discuss some of his issues. Trying to have a good attitude and give him a second chance Elder Davis and I along with the ASL Elders, agree to meet with him.
TODAY:
I finish my haircut, cleaned up, and got ready. Again, we all waited around for Orlando. The knock at the door finally came soon after 5 and we let him in. Never meeting him before we all introduced ourselves and went on to a discussion. Putting aside all past impressions of this guy, he was much more professional than we anticipated him to be. He was very nice and it wasn't a bad meeting. He just wanted to make us aware of some garbage rules, because the Bronx or NYC doesn't do garbage cans, you just leave the trash bags on the sidewalk. So he went over what was needed to be done each day for trash pick up so that we don't get fined for doing something wrong. Completely unexpected, but all in all it was good, nothing to be worried about.

March 24, 2016
Thursday, Day 163
Day 150 in NY

NO SPITTING PLEASE:
What happened this morning was not at all expected... Only have I heard of experiences like this... Never do I hope for this to happen to anyone.

Looking back, right after this experience, all I could help myself to do was laugh about what had just happened... It wasn't funny AT ALL, but to keep my self-sane in front of the people on the train and from getting even more upset about it I had to just laugh.

(The quotations will show what's being said, but exact quotes will not be written, due to extreme profanity).
Alrighty, story time…
Elder Davis and I were sitting across from each other on the train heading to the church for a meeting at about 9:40 AM. This is the first time we have left the apartment today and we just left about 10 minutes ago. Talking to each other on the train ride, a man grabs our attention with the common question "are y'all Mormons?" (Anytime this phrase is said, the next thing to happen, in most cases, is completely unpredictable).

We responded "yes". Pointing at me but speaking to my companion he says "I can see why he, is a Mormon, but you?! What were you thinking!!?? Do you even know the history of your religion??!! How could you do that?!"

In between each question being yelled at Elder Davis, Elder Davis would respond with the question "what do you know?"

The man, never taking a second to even respond to his question, went on and on, cussing and screaming about how he made a mistake to join the LDS church. While the man went on making no sense, I looked at Elder Davis and just said "don't worry about it, this won't get anywhere. He's not taking the time to answer you. Let's just switch carts."

So, as I stood up, the man charged toward me, stopped at my face, and began cussing me out "I don't need your smart A comments! I'm not even talking to you..." (Pointing at Elder Davis he said) "I'm talking to my brother!"

Holding back from completely decking this guy, the consequences appeared in my mind and all I could say was "sir, you need to take a step back." And Elder Davis immediately stood up and placed his arm between us. Pushing back the other guy. At this point he's still going off, but now he's got his hand in my face… "Sir, get your hand out of my face. I'm not talking to you." With the plan to just get off with Elder Davis and move to the next cart when we stop, we made our way to the doors. He followed and yelled, "No, I'm getting off here this is my stop!"…"Okay, get off then." The doors open, he steps off. I turn around and so did he... Thankfully I turned around because he ended up spitting on the back of my head before he left. I thank Heavenly Father for letting me walk away because if it went my way, this would be a story you would have heard in person a lot sooner.

***I had immediately emailed Tyler back after reading this portion of his email, telling him how proud I was that he was able to walk away even though he was tempted to do more, and that it showed so much growth and maturity on his part and that I was so grateful that Heavenly Father is always watching over and protecting his missionaries. This was the reply I received from him….

Mom,
Heavenly Father is definitely always right there with us in His work. It's situations like this you immediately have to "forget yourself" and do what the Savior would do and just take it. It's not at all what I wanted to do at first, but as the situation got worse and I realized the outcome could have been all of us arrested and sent home. I instantly thought of Jesus Christ and the horrible things he went through, willing to take the heat. So allowing this man to say what he wanted and spit on me was absolutely nothing compared to everything Jesus did for us.
As a mother I could only imagine how much you worry day to day, and hearing stories like this may not help you ease your conscience but just know, with out a doubt, Heavenly Father will have his hand in our life to protect us. My patriarchal blessing tells me I have Angels charged over me since I was sent down to earth. As long as I do my best to be obedient, He will protect me.
I love you so much, don't worry about me. ***


March 25, 2016
Friday, Day 164
Day 151 in NY

LEGIT REFERRALS:
We received two referrals this week, both turned out to be super legit. The first guy we looked up was Eric A. He ordered a Bible, at the moment we are still waiting on Salt Lake City to send the mission more Bibles, so standing at the door we explained who we were and what we were doing. Before we finished he invited us to come in. So we came in and we had a little discussion. We asked him what interested him in requesting a free Bible. He said that he was just on some app and it came up as an ad so he followed the link and ordered one, he said he only has the Old Testament and he wanted the combination of both the Old and New Testament. We informed him that we don't have any Bibles at the moment but we do have this book called the Book of Mormon. Have you heard of the Book of Mormon? He said that he hasn't so we explained it. While explaining it he had some questions. One of his questions, which is a common misunderstanding, was about Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was a Prophet, he was the Prophet of the Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he is not someone we worship. We believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. He took that very easy and understood quickly. He had a few more simple questions and after a few minutes we explained and resolved his few concerns. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and to meet with us again. He said he would like that so we scheduled to come back on March 30th.

At the end of the day we looked up our other referral, Nelson R. This guy is also is super legit!! He came to the door and we introduced ourselves. We probably talked for about 20 minutes at the door. He studies different Bibles to of the interest of wanting to know which he best agrees with. So we explained the Kings James Version and then of course introduce the Book of Mormon and he loved
that, he asked how much it was, we laughed and handed it to him saying, "it's all yours, it's free". He was really interested, we shared the #Hallelujah video with him and he loved that. He told us to give him a call and see when he will be around to stop by again.

March 26, 2016
Saturday, Day 165
Day 152 in NY

APF:
Today we had an APF (Area Proselyting Focus). We went to Metropolitan Oval and spread out. There was a good amount of people but everyone was sitting close to each other on benches so it was weird going up to each person asking to if they'd like to see an Easter video about Jesus Christ, as we went down the line of benches each person responded, no. It wasn't as successful or in other words as productive as we expected but the time that we were there we met this lady named Georgia. She has a cousin who's Mormon and he's talked to her about it a little bit. While talking to her she said "you know what's funny, just as you both walked up I was praying to God for help and then you showed up." We felt that it was of course no coincidence. There's no such thing as coincidences, so with Elder Davis with me along with the spirit we testified to her that there is a reason to every thing and that Heavenly Father sent us here toady at this time to help you. She seemed to agree and we talked and shared with her a message of Jesus Christ along with the #Hallelujah video. We invited her to church and she said that she would love to come but she was still figuring out if her and her kids were going to be together on that day or not. So we left her with the invitation and our card.

March 27, 2016
Sunday, Day 166
Day 153 in NY

EASTER SUNDAY:
Had a great Easter Sabbath day. The Sisters in our ward, Sister Zelaya and Sister Gardner both gave some really awesome talks. They both expressed their love for the Savior and their talks were given about his life. It was so great to be able to hear about the Savior, Jesus Christ's life. From the time He was a child He was teaching people, He was serving others, and was of course just a perfect example.

One of my favorite scriptures of Jesus is in Luke 2:41-52. In these scriptures it talks about how every year Mary and Joseph would go to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover. At this time Jesus was twelve years old. And in verse 43 it says "And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. Verse 46 "And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions."

Jesus had stayed behind to teach, to listen to them that had questions and such and he responded with questions and answers. And in verses 48 and 49 "And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, how is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?"

Jesus' mother says, son why haven't you been with us, your father and I were looking for you with sadness for we knew not where you were. And Jesus responds, saying something like, have you thought that maybe I was doing the business of my Father?

And in the next verse 50 "And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them."

His parents understood not what Jesus meant by, I'm doing my Fathers will. They knew not what he was doing or what it was he said.

But as Jesus listened and talked to people, in verse 52 "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."

Jesus, from the time it's recorded, at the age of twelve, he was doing the will of the Father. I love Easter so much more this year because of the Love I have developed for MY Savior Jesus Christ, my Jesus, has always been serving people and being the perfect example. He is love, He is charity, and He is My Jesus. 2 Nephi 33:6 "I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell."

I invite ALL, to make the Savior, Jesus Christ, personal to you. Have charity for all, love all, and follow our perfect example, Jesus Christ.

March 28, 2016
Monday, Day 167
Day 154 in NY

USING THE SUPERNAL GIFT OF PRAYER:
This morning I studied the talk Richard G. Scott gave in the April 2007 General Conference. What a talk! This talk definitely opened my eyes to prayer. Prayer is a celestial gift. A literal Heavenly gift, from our Heavenly Father. He, our Heavenly Father, commands “Thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private.” Not only are we commanded to pray, but to pray often, and we are given the chance to pray anywhere and at anytime.

"A key to improved prayer is to learn to ask the right questions." Like (what does He want for me?)

"Heavenly Father will give us gentle promptings that require us to think, exercise faith, work, at times struggle, then act...It will come a piece at a time, in packets, so that you will grow in capacity."
This talk reminded me of a Mormon Message -Patterns of light: Spirit of Revelation. Prayer is our way of communicating with our Heavenly Father and through revelation our Heavenly Father communicates with us. Whether you’re unsure of how to look for answers to prayers or not this Mormon message is one to watch and really study.

March 29, 2016
Tuesday, Day 168
Day 155 in NY

SPLIT:
Elder Casper came to our area and Elder Davis switched with him and was in Co-op city with Elder Clark. During nightly planning Elder Casper and I were setting goals. We wanted to set a goal of how many cards we could pass out in the day. We had a stack of #Hallelujah cards on the desk, so we counted them up and it was 78 cards. We made the goal to pass out all 78. As we did this through out the day, we gave out many, many cards and received a lot of no's from people we tried giving cards to. Some people stopped through out the day and we shared the video with them. It was about 7:45 PM that we were coming close to the end of our split. We were on our way to the church to un-split and about 2 blocks from the church we gave out our 78th card! Feeling great about achieving our goal, we wanted to exceed our goal. I reached into my packet and grabbed my notepad and in my note pad was a few extra #Hallelujah cards stuffed into pages. Before we got to the church we gave out the last 6 cards we had and exceeded our goal, and reached 84 cards. When you really set righteous goals that will make you stretch, you will achieve great things. We definitely did our best and Heavenly Father blessed us with enough cards to exceed the high goal we set.


Hope all is well back home! Love you all and hope your Easter meant more to you than the satisfaction of a belly full of candy! Thank you all for the updates and emails! Till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold