Week 28

April 20, 2016
Wednesday, Day 190
Day 177 in NY

Pday!!
Laundry was great! We got to the Laundromat and I realized I forgot my towels... Again. So that was awesome! Haha While our load was going we went to get some groceries. So we started walking. We were walking down this road, on the sidewalk, and Elder Moss was on my right. Then all of sudden he disappeared! He turned a quick right into this hole in the wall fresh produce market. For the fastest second I for real, thought my companion, had been abducted. He disappeared so fast. The market was pretty sweet tho. The veggies and fruit were nice and ripe and affordable.

LUNCH:
Then! This member from our YSA ward took us out to lunch at subway! Super awesome! Her name is Lyndi, it was just super cool to be able to talk to someone close to my age again. Being in the YSA ward there's a lot of members, young people. The areas are just so diverse! But I love everyone I'm meeting!

So subway was great! Apparently we get fed a lot here in this ward because everyone has a lot of money and time to give us. I'm so excited to be serving here.

GAMES:
Short and sweet we went to the chapel, which was super dope because we meet in the Temple! It's awesome! We played gator ball and chair soccer. I'll have to explain chair soccer sometime. It's fun to, but gator ball will always be better!

LATE NIGHT:
So this is Elder Moss's last cycle in the mission. Elder Richards and Elder Burton are our roommates and I love them all, we have had such a blast. (Due to previous cycles and companions some missionaries have had it rough, so President has made it a note to us to make this a fun and memorable cycle for the apartment roommates and us as well). So after Pday we came home had our nightly planning and we were just hanging out talking, telling stories, getting to know each other and
we all just kind of got the munchies. We then decided we would go down stairs and pitch in for a pizza. We all jumped up threw some clothes on and prayed at the door, then headed out down stairs. Grabbed a pizza and came back up to the room. We ate and continued to enjoy our night as we talked.
#WeChillin'


April 21, 2016
Thursday, Day 191
Day 178 in NY

I JUST CANT GET ENOUGH:
I am just in love with temples... And I am absolutely in love with the fact that I live just blocks from the temple. Since our apartment doesn't get WIFI we go to the church/temple for WIFI. So today we needed to do weekly planning so we walked down the street about 10 minutes to the Temple and had weekly planning!

BEST LESSON:
We've got this investigator named Joey. He's super legit! Elder Moss was telling me about him before we met with him since this was my first time meeting him. We were going to meet at Johnny's, a member in our ward to have the lesson. Elder Moss was telling me about how; recently he has just been saying that he doesn't really believe a lot of what they've been teaching him previously but that he still wants to be baptized. So that's kind of a minor problem, to have no testimony but want to be baptized anyway. So, we met with him and he talked about a lot of different things. Things he's realized on his own, things he had questions about, and so on. Our plan was to teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So due to his talking and explaining and such, we just had to involve the things he was saying, in what we were bearing testimony about according to the gospel and helping him apply it. (Which is what I [we as missionaries] should be doing). I guess I didn't catch on very well until now.  But because I was able to listen with my heart along with my ears I was able to develop a real sense of love for this guy I just met, which made teaching him so much easier. It was probably the best lesson I've taught my whole mission. The Spirit was there, we had a member present to help fellowship and answer questions, and we taught so well in unity.

April 22, 2016
Friday, Day 192
Day 179 in NY

MEALS ON WHEELS:
This morning after studies we walked down to this place where we wanted to do some service. It's called meals on wheels. It was pretty cool; we were assigned to take a dolly with 2 bags one with frozen foods and another with warm meals. People in the neighborhood had ordered these meals, so we had to deliver them all to each person on our list. Walking all around the area, going in and out of buildings, and up and down stairs. It was awesome to finally be able to do some service! There's a lot of opportunities here in Manhattan too, so I'm excited to be here serving.

LESSON 2:
Mia, is one of our recent converts. So we reteach the lessons to help recent converts continue to learn and strengthen their testimony. We had planned to teach her at Bryant Park and go over chastity and
the temple. It was such an awesome lesson! I just know these people we teach have been prepared and are truly seeking for truth. They listen so well and have great questions and insight to our teachings. The Spirit has been so strong as well because the people we teach are sincere and have testimonies. Again, Elder Moss and I taught so well together, it just feels so natural with him.

YSA:
In our area, we teach the Young Single Adults, so when we do finding, we keep an eye out for the young people and anyone else we meet we would refer to the other missionaries in our area. We don't have a lot of investigators here in our area, but the ones we have are usually pretty solid, as Elder Moss says. So far it's true. We have 3 investigators that we are working with. And so far they are all progressing it's so awesome!

April 23, 2016
Saturday, Day 193
Day 180 in NY

BLESSING:
Yesterday sometime, we received a message from Sister Gardner (senior couple) asking if we would be available to give a sister a blessing. There's a less active member in the hospital in our area that is
pregnant, but with the news the doctors are giving her she's afraid the baby may not make it... This breaks my heart, I love babies, and I love families… After telling her we would be available, we arrived to the hospital in the morning. This poor sweet woman, siting in her hospital bed, with red water eyes, as if she had been crying for a while. When we walked into the room, she began to tell us about her situation with the baby. She then asked about the blessing, wondering how it worked. After explaining it to her, she seemed to be comforted. We explained that, everything has a purpose and if it's of Gods will, as hard as it will be to accept if things don't quite go our way, we need to understand its of God. We also explained that the blessing would work according to the faith of the receiver of the blessing as well as the giver of the blessing. As I finished the blessing, Elder Moss and I knew that the Spirit was there and that she had felt it. She recognized the sense of peace that was there as we ended the blessing. She gave thanks and showed much appreciation through her words and we left her with a smile on her face. Not knowing whether I'll see this woman again or not, I will have her in my prayers.

SAIT:(Sigh-eed)
Sait is a member, he's less active, but he's super legit, he lives in china town so he's far from the church. He's overall just an awesome guy! He's not big into us teaching him, but he likes the visits and what not. So what we did when we saw him today was just like what we did with Joey a few days ago. We just talked, listened, and simply bore testimony on principles of the church. He likes our visits and us. And I guess he's moving out soon so he needs to ready his apartment before he leaves, so we offered to come help him paint. We set a date and I can't wait! There are just more and more service opportunities.

APF: (Area Proselyting Focus)
We went to Washington square and did another APF. We carried the big plywood from the church to Washington square and posted ourselves at a light pole and let people come to us. We had this big piece of plywood that had been painted. It was a map of the world and people would come up and we would let them mark where they where from. We were getting to meet all kind of foreigners and local people from all over the world! (When Australians came over, we talked and my accent would adapt to there's). Lol It was a great activity it gave us the opportunity to talk to a lot of people and teach them a little about family history and that even though people are from all over the world, we are still apart of one big family, Gods family.

CHIPOTLE IS MY LIFE:
One of our members took us out to chipotle! I haven't had chipotle in 6 months lol! It was awesome, his name is Scott. We met with him at the church and we had a quick lesson, then he took us over to chipotle! It was a great day!!

April 24, 2016
Sunday, Day 194
Day 181 in NY

CHURCH:
First day in the YSA ward. I felt closer to home haha, there are a lot of members, and they are all so involved in the ward. In the Bronx there weren't many members, they weren't very involved, and the missionaries did just about everything. (I'm not complaining, I loved my last ward. I’m just helping you all get an idea of the difference). The missionaries said openings and closing prayers, we gave talks, taught classes, gave announcements, and so on. In the YSA ward, they are all young, independent, reliable; they would say the prayers, give talks, teach classes and so on.

Well, making these observations prior to church starting, I spoke to soon. 5 minutes before we started Sacrament, one of the members came to me and asked to give an opening prayer. Haha! I agreed to pray and laughed to myself for thinking I would get away with just sitting in the congregation. It was a great day at church!

$100:
On our way out of the church these 2 members approached us and they talked to us, they said they just sent off a son to Chile for his mission. After talking with them for a while, we made our way down the elevator and out to the front of the building. As we went our separate ways and crossed the crosswalk, we were hit from behind, a big pat on the shoulder from behind me, as I turn around it was the husband of the couple we were just talking to. He ran up to us, slapped $100 in Elder Moss's hand and pushed us forward as he ran back the way he came yelling out to us, buy your selves a nice lunch!  Well that was pretty awesome! Haha since it's Sunday we didn't go out to lunch but when we got home we split the money between us and will have lunch later this week. These members out here are so great! Not just because they're all wealthy and feed us, but because they are just so nice and love they missionaries. They are always checking on us.

BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW:
I forgot to mention! But my first day as a district leader in this area I received a phone call from a Sister in the district asking if I would be able to do an interview for baptism. We scheduled to do it Sunday (today) after my ward and before theres. So, Elder Moss and I just got out of church and went home. About an hour later we needed to make our way back to the church so I could conduct the interview. (To be honest, I was so nervous! And I didn't know why!) I felt no different after getting off the phone with Sister Standage when she asked if I could give the interview, but right before I gave the interview I felt nervous. Well, we got to the church and I was perfectly fine. The Sisters realized they didn’t have a baptismal record with them, so Elder Moss and I hurried back home grabbed one and came back and it was great! The sisters’ investigators name was Po, she is so prepared, and the interview went great. It was such a cool experience, nothing like it! Being able to give a person permission to receive their way to salvation, there's nothing like it. I am so happy and excited to be serving here in NY, in Manhattan, in the YSA ward, as a DL (District Leader)

MISSION DINNERS:
So, what I realized today was that people sign up on a calendar to feed us. Each Sunday we are supposed to bring the Meal Calendar if we want to get fed. Well I didn’t know about it till today and... Elder Moss forgot it at home lol! But beside that, we talked to a member, David, our ward mission leader and he said he was sorry he forgot he signed up for this Sunday. He said we could still come over tonight and have dinner. He said he doesn't know what kind of food he has at home, but he will check, and we could just eat whatever he has. So we went over at 6:30 and he let us in. When we got to his place, he laughed and said I hope you like it. He had made Taquitos and peas! Elder Moss and I laughed with him and said it was great. David said, "It's like I'm on a mission again, cooking these kinds of meals." It was too funny, then he brought out some chips and salsa and a bowl of carrots. And we began our feast!

April 25, 2016
Monday, Day 195
Day 182 in NY

DISTRICT MEETING:
Gave my first district meeting today! Oh man, everyone seemed to like it and think it was good. But I hope I can get to know the district more so I can be more of myself as I give trainings and teachings to everyone. I don't really know anyone in the district so it's hard for me to be fun and give teachings to people I don't know. So hopefully I get to know everyone more before we have next district meeting! But it went well, I think it was all right, everyone said it was good and I shouldn't worry about it. But I just want to do my best so everyone looks forward to it. It was great! We talked about goals and accountability and it was great!

LUNCH:
We left the church after district meeting and Elder Richards, Elder Burton, Elder Moss, and I went to Chick fil a!!! Whoop whoop! So with the money we were blessed with yesterday after church we went and bought lunch. Chick fil a out here is fake, but it's awesome! Lol By fake I mean that they don't say "my pleasure". But this one we went to was great because as you stand in a LONG line, the workers come to each person in line and take their orders on iPads and by the time you get to the front of the line, you get sent to a register and they have your food ready for you! It's super fast and awesome! Not too long after eating lunch we all got hungry again and went to another chick fil a out here and this one had a much smaller line, the workers actually did say "my pleasure" and it was 2 stories. So we grabbed our food and went up stairs to eat!

Manhattan is awesome! It is its own experience!

April 26, 2016
Tuesday, Day 196
Day 183 in NY

SPLIT:
Since Elder Moss has only 5 weeks left. There are meetings he has to attend prior to going home. So he, along with all the other missionaries going home this cycle go to this meeting called "what's next" basically President Smith goes over the goals and plans that these missionaries have after they get home. Schooling, jobs, marriage, and so on. Elder Moss said he really enjoyed it, so I'm happy for him!  But while Elder Moss went to this meeting I went on a split to Inwood with Elder Shaffer. It was great we went home to his apartment had studies and planned for lessons. Our first and only planned lesson of the day fell through so we went and looked up 2 people and taught them. So it was a successful day. Time well used during Elder Moss's meeting. For lunch, Elder Shaffer and I went to this bodega and got Philly-cheese steak sandwiches! And those were awesome!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
I think I've come to the conclusion that I wouldn't necessarily WANT to live in NY. But if I did I would know how to enjoy it. There's just so much to do around here. Each part of NY has its differences as does any other state or place in the world. But the experiences on a mission I guess make everything so much more fun and memorable. I’m having the time of my life here, serving the Lord and making the best of it. He has blessed me so much, with comfort, peace, an abundance of the world’s experiences and opportunities, with people I love, with the ability to love, with amazing companions, with opportunities of service, and so many other things that I just dream of the day I kneel before my Savior and bathe his feet in my tears as I weep with gratitude for all that he's done for me.


I love you all. I love my Savior. And I pray that you all find joy in this life, as that is our purpose here. Make the most of what you have and love, love everyone. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have
here in NY to serve a mission. I'm not even at the end of my mission, but I know that I would never regret the decisions I've made in my life to get me where I am today, the sacrifices and atonement that our Savior made are real, they are so real! NEVER diminish the thought of the atonement’s existence. It's for us, it's for us all, and we can use it! We can be forgiven; we can rid the feeling of guilt, and pain by the atonement. Plead with Heavenly Father for forgiveness, be sincere, and repent. You will never know its power till you've experienced it.

Enjoy your week! Till next time!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Above the temple, see Moroni

Inside the building of the Temple

Another picture from above the temple.  Look at all those taxis. 

China town

The temple and church building in Manhattan

Not sure where this is but he found it interesting.  

Week 27

April 13, 2016
Wednesday, Day 183
Day 170 in NY

Pday!! (ELDER BELL’S BIRTHDAY!)
Today was by far the best Pday I've had! After studies we quickly knocked out laundry and groceries. Elder Davis and I planned with our roommates, Elder Bell and Elder West to just go to Manhattan and check it out. So we celebrated Elder Bell’s birthday on Pday, in Manhattan, and ate at this place called Shake Shack!

9/11 MEMORIAL:
So to show how amazing it was, I will say I know very little about 9/11, but to be at the site of the towers and see the memorial waterfalls with the waist high borders around the waterfall covered in
the names of those who were lost in the tragic incident. It was really cool! Knowing very little of it, I felt its importance. It was really fun to be able to experience more of NY. After the memorial we went to Century 21 and looked around. Well I ended up finding bow ties... 1. I love how ties 2. They were on sale and 3. I love bow ties.... So I found as many as were visible to me and bought them all. I can't wear them on my mission so enjoy my brothers! There were 10 of them and they were being sold for $2.59 each! Originally $45 each! I ended up saving $479.12! How nuts! Super legit tho!

Shake Shack! So since it was Elder Bell’s birthday we went to this restaurant called Shake Shack, there burgers are small but totally filling, super good place! We had a blast this Pday! This is all we had time for so after we ate we got back on the subways and headed home.

TRAINER CALLS!
So, we make it home with about an hour till 6 and we start emailing. During this time we get a phone call from President Smith. So I answer, "Elder Newbold and Elder Davis" and President said, “Elder
Newbold how's it going?” We talked about Pday for a bit and he asked for Elder Davis, so I threw the phone to Elder Davis and he looked a bit confused maybe nervous and he answered the phone and President asked him about his day and said "well Elder Davis, I was in the temple today... And the Lord is calling you to be a trainer" Elder Davis didn't know how to react so he semi causally said "let's do it, l get'er done" it was so great! So by this phone call I knew that I would be transferred because he would be training.

April 14, 2016
Thursday, Day 184
Day 171 in NY

SAME OLD SAME AS OLD!
We had ward correlation, lunch, then we had weekly planning. So we went about our day. We had some time with Brother Ford so he came out with us and we had some plans to look up people, and we had plans to teach people. But our appointments fell through and nothing went as planned. So we thanked him for coming with us and we went our separate ways.

THE CALL:
Later tonight we went and visited Ricky we had to tell him the exciting/sad news... We told him that yesterday we received a call that Elder Davis would be training... Which means that I'll be leaving... He wasn't too happy about that... But, we told him we would come by each night before I leave. So during this time with Ricky the phone rings and I pick up the phone and it's President again. I answer and he says "Elder Newbold! Guess what!" I said "what?" He said, "I need you to be a leader in this mission, so I'm calling you to be a District Leader, are you willing to take this calling?" I said, "absolutely President! He said, "that’s great, you will be transferred to Manhattan, you'll be serving in Lincoln Square, and will be in the Lincoln YSA ward. Your companion will be Elder Moss!" I just about had a heart attack! This is a dream transfer! Haha I'm going to serve in Manhattan and I absolutely love Elder Moss so I'm totally stoked! President said, "How does that sound?" I said "wonderful! That's perfect!" It was really cool to get that call! And I put it on speaker for Elder Davis and Ricky to hear, so it was nice for Ricky to be apart of it!

April 15, 2016
Friday, Day 185
Day 172 in NY

DUE TO TRANSFERS:
Life gets even busier! So today we got a call from the AP's and they informed us that they would be shutting down our apartment. We don't know why, but we are being told to move out completely… So now with transfers and closing down the apartment, we had very little time to go teach and make appointments. So we had to pack our stuff, deep clean the entire apartment, and be ready to leave by
Tuesday morning at 6am. So, today Elder Davis had the train the trainers meeting, so we went and
met up with 2 Elders and we went on a split. Elder Davis went with Elder Howard and went to Scarsdale, while Elder Brown and I stayed in the area.

Elder Brown and I went to the church, had ward correlation. We went to that and they surprised me, because I didn't know what area I was in exactly, Elder Tabor walked in to the room we were waiting to start ward correlation and so I got to be with Elder Tabor and his companion Elder Pulu. Thinking I'd only see him during the meeting they then told me we were going to do service together! So we went to their apartment we got changed out of our Pros clothes (proselyting clothes) and put on service clothes. We then went over to this place; I'm not even sure what it was. It was this property owned by someone… There was this big building on it and a huge tree that had snapped and they had it cut up. So we went around picking up wood! Lol it was fun, Elder Tabor, Elder Pulu, and I got to be together again!

April 16, 2016
Saturday, Day 186
Day 173 in NY

HOME BOUND:
We got up this morning, had studies and began packing up the apartment. We stayed home most of the day; we were home from 6:30 AM to 2 PM. Then we did have a couple people to see, but after that we were home again from 3:30 PM to 8 PM.

Rough day, stayed home most of the time but we got a lot done. It was so hard to stay focused on cleaning one thing. When we had to clean the kitchen we had to clean and pull things out of cupboards. So it's like while we were cleaning, we were making more of a mess, because the kitchen counter was just covered with food that we had taken out of the fridge and cupboards.

We had our suitcases out and we were just packing as much of our stuff in them as we could. I ended up having no room for some things so I put them in boxes so I could send them home.

April 17, 2016
Sunday, Day 187
Day 174 in NY

GOODBYE TO THE BRONX:
Woke up, got ready for church and by 9 we were out the door. Our ward starts at 10 but we like to be 30 minutes early to help out and greet people. Church was good! It was weird because as I started saying goodbye to people in the ward, I started to realize how much I actually love these people... And how much I'm really going to miss them. I didn't think it would be so hard to say goodbye to everyone… But it was, and in a way it was good because I really did recognize how much love I have for the people here in the Bronx.

BROTHER FORD:
So Brother Ford has this traditional way of saying goodbye, to Elders. I asked to take a picture with him before I left and he said yes. With Elder Davis at the camera, Brother Ford says, "ready? 1...2...(Muah!)" and gives me a big kiss on the cheek! I'm going to miss the Olmstead 2nd ward.


April 18, 2016
Monday, Day 188
Day 175 in NY

PACKING:
We woke up, had studies and began to finish packing and cleaning!! This is all we did, till 8pm. When I got my suitcases as tight as they could be without them exploding open. I realized I had extra things I had no room for. I filled up 3 boxes to send home.

FEDEX:
FedEx in the Bronx? Never again! After packing and cleaning as much as we could, Elder Davis and I left the apartment I believe around 6:30. We carried the 3 boxes and started our ride on the train. We rode down to the bottom of our boundary and there we began our wild goose hunt for the FedEx building… After 20 minutes or so of walking we found it! But wait! Where's the entrance... I see the FedEx building but no entrance... It surrounds itself with other large company buildings and gates.
We started walking to this fence that we thought maybe we could see a way in when 2 guys stopped us from inside another building. We asked how we could get to FedEx and he told us we would need to walked down a few blocks more and make a left...

After doing so we later found ourselves at an entrance... But was it FedEx? It advertised itself as FedEx, but was it? I don't know... We began walking to this security guy for directions, he said "make a left at the corner and go all the way down to the office. So we began walking to the corner, took a left, and saw no FedEx. So once again, we continued our journey. Not knowing how far down we had to walk, we began to speed walk, hoping that if it were far we would save some time. After about a 10-minute speed walk we saw FedEx. We then made our way to the office and I was able to send home my packages.

By the time I finished sending them home it was a little after 8pm. And we had an appointment to see Ricky one last time before I left. He said that we were still good to come by; he made dinner for us. So we rushed back to his side of the area and visited Ricky and had dinner. Oh man! Ricky makes some goooooood food! So that was an awesome way to finish off the night.

April 19, 2016
Tuesday, Day 189
Day 176 in NY

EARLY START:
Woke up at 4:30, got ready and was out of the apartment with my stuff by 6. Then we made our way to the train and went to Kingsbridge again to meet with Elders Brown and Howard. Elder Davis and Elder Howard went to the church and picked up their new companions and Elder Brown and I, along with their other two roommates, Elders Olsen and Allen stayed at their apartment for a couple hours before we left. Elders Olsen and Allen still had some packing to do so Elder Brown and I just talked and ate breakfast. When we were all ready we started our way to the door... Apparently the building management planned on painting apartment doors today... So the door was all wet with paint so we one by one passed each suitcase very slowly through the tiny door way. After some time of passing 60-80 lbs. suitcases through a 2ft door way we were on our way to load the elevator with 10 suitcases and 4 Elders. (Wish we had a photo!)

Well, after a long journey of suitcase dragging. (Meanwhile, I'm wearing my suit in what feels like 90°). We made it to the train. Trying to find a spot on the train for all of us, my companion, Elder Brown and Elder Olsen’s companion Elder Allen both hopped on somewhere and Elder Olsen and I were stuck behind as the doors closed and the train left the station… With our companions on their way, we waited and waited. Another train finally came and we rode that to the next stop, fast forward, then we made it to the church where I then received my new companion. ELDER MOSS!

ELDER MOSS:
I've known Elder Moss from sometime in the beginning of my first cycle as a missionary. Elder Tabor knew him for a while and he introduced me to him in our next meeting. We hit it off so fast! The three of us together is just too much fun!
Well long story short! He's awesome and I'm so excited to be companions with him. The crazy part is, he goes home in 5 weeks... And so that means I'm now most likely going to be taking over the area. So, I have 5 weeks to get to know the area, members, and investigators! Whoop whoop! I'm stoked it's going to be a great cycle!


Sorry I missed you all last week with my email... Transfers took too much time this week and I had no time to write.


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

Doing service with Elder Tabor

Birthday lunch for Elder Bell

Good Bye kiss from Brother Ford

Elder Newbold's drawing of the Plan of Salvation

Yankee Stadium

9/11 Memorial

Manhattan on Pday

Getting left behind at the train station

Saying goodbye to the Bishop in the ward

Saying good bye to "Uncle" Ricky

Week 26

April 6, 2016
Wednesday, Day 176
Day 163 in NY

PDAY!
ZONE ACTIVITY:
Our zone met up at the church and played gator ball, then we had dinner. Elder Dominguez BBQ'd hotdogs and everyone else pitched in food. We brought chips and people brought fruit and stuff. It was a party! Lol, we just played gator ball and enjoyed the day.

After our activity Elder Davis and I came home, changed, and went out to visit Brother Ford and uplift him. Brother Ford came out with us to teach a lesson on Tuesday, yesterday. It was awesome, he answered questions that Maryanne, our investigator had. At the end of our lesson Brother Ford shared how he came to find the church and bore his testimony, it was a great experience for us all.

POWER OF PRAYER:
Like I said last week, prayers are answered. What's cool about this experience is it’s the opposite of last weeks. We thought we would go stop by Kimara and see how's she's been. Before we knocked on her door we said a prayer. After we knocked, a guy came to the door and told us she wouldn't be home for an hour. So after asking if he would be interested we moved on… I thought, let's go see if Eric is home. (Eric was the guy we taught last week). His door was cracked open so when I knocked it pushed open a little bit. He came to the door and he let us in. We came in sat down and asked if he had been reading the Book of Mormon, he said he had, but not much. As we started talking more about it he began to describe the experience Joseph Smith had while being visited by Angle Moroni in his room. A bit surprised and excited we acknowledged his great effort to read. (Since usually when we invite people to read, they rarely get passed the introduction). So it was another great lesson learned on prayer. We asked to be guided in what to do if Kimara wasn't home and we definitely received our answer.

April 7, 2016
Thursday, Day 177
Day 164 in NY

After studies we had ward coordination then came home and had weekly planning… Today wasn't too special; we had a good turn out for lessons even after 2 canceled on us. We visited Heather K. and then went and looked up the Nation Family, we talked to Richard. After speaking with Richard and showing him a quick Mormon Message we went to Ricky's!

EVERY DAY IS SPECIAL:
Okay I lied, today was pretty special! When we went to see Ricky he had a bag on the table. He reached into the bag and pulled out a brand new white button up shirt! He said, “I'm now ready to go to church.” Oh man, we were so excited to hear that he was ready for church! He has been in and out of the hospital for a problem he's had with his foot. But it's been healing very well and he's ready to go to church!!

April 8, 2016
Friday, Day 178
Day 165 in NY

DAILY SCRIPTURE:
Jacob 3:2 "O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever."

Every morning Elder Davis and I try to remember to send a scripture to all our investigators. So, this is the one we decided on for today.

TODAYS HIGHLIGHT:
We met up with the Sisters, Sister Zelaya and Sister Gardner. They aren't allowed in our area, Hunts Point, without an escort. So Elder Davis and I met with them because one of their recent converts claims to live there and they have been trying to get in contact with her but couldn't. So we brought the Sisters with us. When we arrived at the address, it wasn't even an apartment... It was a storage place! Lol so that was nice… But thank goodness for back up plans. The Sisters, since this was their plan, planned a back up plan.

Back story:
So last night the Sisters called us to follow up and see if we were still good to escort them. We told them yes and they asked us for a favor. They asked if we had colorful construction paper, we did, so
they asked if we could cut out hearts. Restating the favor as a question to make sure I heard them right. "You said cut out hearts?" Sister Gardner responded, "Yea, you’re a cheerleader you can do it." (She said it jokingly) and I died lol… she had me laughing. So, I cut out a bunch of hearts and had them ready for the day.

Story continued:
So, the Sister’s back up plan was to "Heart attack" Aida. (Our investigator that was just about ready for baptism) we haven’t been able to contact her in over a month. Heart attacking is when you cut out hearts and write little notes on them. So, we wrote, "we miss you", "we love you", we wrote scriptures, and uplifting notes on them then we taped them to the door. After we had all the hearts on her door. We "doorbell ditched her"; we knocked on the door and ran down 5 flights of stairs out of the apartment building. It was pretty fun, we hope Aida gets in contact with us, if not we hope she at least knows we care about her and really do love her.

April 9, 2016
Saturday, Day 179
Day 166 in NY

DINNER APPOINTMENT:
I don't think I talked about this, but we met this lady named Gloria a few days ago. We knocked on door and she answered behind the shut door "who" we responded "the missionaries, is this Gloria?"
She said, "did my mother send you?!" We replied "no?" And she opened up. We talked and introduced ourselves. She told us that she loves the missionaries; her mother and all her cousins are LDS but that she's not. She loves to cook though so she told us to come back on Sunday to have dinner. So we set up the appointment and we were on our way. Later in the week, we ran into her again, she told us to come on Saturday instead because she ended up having to work on Sunday.

We show up at 6:30PM, she opened up and was covering a big tin of lasagna in tin foil. Handing us a Tupperware of salad, a bag of garlic bread, and a tin of lasagna, she said, take this home and heat it up and your good to go. Very nice and sweet lady! But she's hilarious in the sense that she invited us over for dinner, we show up, and she's kicking us out as fast as she can with food in our hands. With the idea that we would come over, sit down and talk, eat dinner, share a message and be out. I wanted to talk to her and get some information from her. Trying to speak, she wouldn't let me as she continued to tell us the directions for cooking it. At the door as we were heading out I just threw out the question "why? Are you so nice?... What got you into cooking for the missionaries?" Ha ha it was he only thing I could get out of my mouth. She went on to tell us, her mom is a member of the church and her cousins are all members and she attended their baptisms. Well, when she went to her first baptism, I guess they had a party or something to celebrate after or whatever, she got to talking with the missionaries and she found out that, we as missionaries leave for 2 years or a year and a half for sisters, to serve and bring souls unto Christ. She loved that young people like us would do something like that. She also felt sympathetic to us being away from home for "so long" that she wanted to make us a homemade meal and make us feel at home. She told us, she knows how we work and that we could come back in 2 weeks when her house is finished being painted and share some messages with her. She is so awesome!!! So we came home right after, set the oven, and stuck in our lasagna! 30 minutes later we were in heaven just loving our dinner!


April 10, 2016
Sunday, Day 180
Day 167 in NY

CHURCH:
Woke up this morning, got ready, had personal study, then we called Ricky to see if he was up ironing his shirt. He didn't answer... So we waited and waited, maybe 15 minutes then decided to walk to his apartment. We got to his apartment, buzzed in, and he answered "Quit bothering me! I'm ironing my clothes!" Ha ha he let us in. We took the elevator to his floor, walked to his door, and walked in. We sat on the couch talking while he finished getting ready. When he was done, he got up looking around for his stuff and I was standing by the door with his cane and his keys in my hands. Pacing back and forth, he said I need my keys and my cane... He looked up at me and I laughed as I handed him his things.

Together we walked to the train and rode the train to the Parkchester stop, then walked to the church from there.

Ricky loves fast and testimony meeting, so when we walked into the chapel, we sat in the very front row, and remained there till the end. During sacrament meeting, I looked over at Ricky he was sitting up and forward in his seat nodding in agreement to those who bore their testimonies. It was so awesome to have Ricky at church again!

April 11, 2016
Monday, Day 181
Day 168 in NY

DISTRICT MEETING:
During district meeting we reviewed our goals for the week and compared them to our goals for the month as a district. Then we put in our actuals and compared our results to our goals. Elder Davis and I had set the goal to teach 77 total lessons for the month. Which is a mixture of how many member present lessons we teach, other lessons, and recent converts and less active members. To achieve this goal we would need to teach at least 2 lessons a day… which isn't hard, the tricky part is achieving the goals to get a certain amount of members to our lessons or getting a certain amount of lessons taught with investigators.

But, we compared our goals and our actuals and it showed that we at the minimum, to achieve our goal would need to teach 14 lessons in the week... And we taught 21! So it was a great week!

GET TO WORK:
After our meeting we went about our day with lunch and looking up investigators and going to lessons. It wasn't till tonight after dinner around 7 pm that we went to an area to look up a potential investigator who then became an investigator! His name is Sal. Elder Casper and I, a while back were on a split and we were just tracting a floor in this project building. We knocked on this guy’s door and we were just going around sharing the video “A Savior is Born”. He was a little hesitant at first to watch; he just didn't express much interest. But we showed it to him any way and he liked it, we bore testimony about the Savior and talked about him and his religious background. He seemed to be more interested by the end of the conversation so we took down his information and went on our way. We didn't set an appointment with him or get his number but we marked down his address and decided we would look him up again sometime. After a couple months we came back again Elder Casper and I were on a split. We knocked on his door and he wasn't home, it was earlier in the day this time, and his mom said he was still at work, but that we could come back any day after 6pm. So, Elder Davis and I looked him up and he was home! He recognized me but Elder Davis was a new face to him, so we introduced our selves again and started talking, we asked if he had read the Book of Mormon since we last came by. He said that he hasn't but that he wants to get around to it. We then shared a video with him #Hallelujah, and he seemed to really like it. We asked how he felt and he said there was a peaceful feeling to the video as he watched. THAT WAS THE SPIRIT! So we asked about his interest in religion, he said he hasn't practiced in years but he was Catholic. He then told us something along the lines of, I respect people's beliefs in Jesus Christ but I don't quite understand why people praise him. We invited him to read from the Book of Mormon and we scheduled another day to come back and discuss more about his question. He seems to be more interested!

April 12, 2016
Tuesday, Day 182
Day 169 in NY

AWESOME DAY:
We had 6 planned lessons.... And all of them happened!!! No one fell through or canceled on us! Miracle day!

MIRACLE:
Yesterday, We went to stop by and look up an investigator, turns out she wasn't home. So then we were walking out of a building and this young guy, about 20 years old stopped us and said, "Do you guys go around teaching people about Jesus?" We said yea we do. He said, "When are you coming over to teach me?" We said whenever you’re available. His response was quick "tomorrow? Can you come tomorrow? With the tight schedule we had we agreed to see him at 7 pm.

All day our appointments were all on point! It was awesome! So we get to Julio's apartment, (he's the guy we met last night.) He lets us in and we sat down at the table and just talked, asked about his religious background, asked him what made him stop us last night, and he gave some awesome responses. He told us that he has been looking for a church to go to because he used to go with his grandma, but he wants an English church to go to, because his grandma takes him to Spanish churches. He's super awesome and he wants us to come back on Friday!


Super great week! Love you all! Thank you for your prayers! I'm going to Manhattan today, talk to you all next week!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Their lasagna dinner

Heart attacking Aida

Mom, I totally get it now... I clean up after my companions...
BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

Week 25

March 30, 2016
Wednesday, Day 169
Day 156 in NY

PDAY!
Came home after groceries and laundry and I cut Elder Wests hair. I think I've cut 4 different missionaries hair since I've been out. Which is great haha I'm doing pretty good, they all like their hair cuts and I haven't heard any complaints yet so thumbs up on that. They've all seen each others hair cuts from me and they trust me so I guess I'm doing well! I actually want to learn how to cut hair and to scissor cut. Could make some easy side money when I get home.

The only "problem" with today which was a minor problem, was emailing. Our wifi was deciding to be slow and my iPad keeps saying I have no space so it would shut me out every time I got on the Mail app. So I apologize for not being able to respond, I'm sure you all were just DYING to hear from me lol. I had 50 emails from this week! I think that's a new record! Great day over all.

PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED:
Never doubt the power of prayer. Never think twice about whether you should pray or not. We had a set appointment with this guy named Eric. When we got to his floor we knocked on his door and knocked and knocked, no answer so we called him and it went to voicemail. Well realizing we wouldn't have any way of getting in contact with him, I thought, let's go see Kimara. Kimara is an investigator, who lately hasn't wanted us to visit her, she said that she has just been down and depressed so we've sent her uplifting scriptures during the week and stopped by just to leave a note, without her knowing we came by. So we went to her door and before we knocked I felt the need to say a prayer, having the impression that it would allow her heart to be softened for a time. After saying a prayer at her door, asking that her heart may be softened and that her attitude may be well, enough to let us speak to her. We knocked on the door and she answered, she opened up the door just enough for her head to be seen. As the door opened and she realized who it was, the words that came from her mouth were, "I'm really not in the mood right now, I'm still depressed.." Letting her know that we cared about her, I responded, "I know you’re not well, but you've been on our minds and we wanted to stop by to see how you’re doing." Immediately her attitude changed and she was willing to open up a little and allow us to share some time together. Bearing testimony on how I know that as she takes the time to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know its truth that she will feel peace. She responded that she had been reading a little bit and she said, "it will? It makes you happy and at peace when you read?" And I said, "yes it does, and I know, that as you read it and pray to know its truth, you too will feel that way." With her not feeling well, I didn't want to keep her too long, but enough for her to feel the spirit and then we could leave. I felt the need to show her the #Hallelujah video. After shortly explaining what the video was about, I invited her to watch, listen closely, and pay attention to her feelings. After the video and to share how she felt, in that moment she began to cry.. As she explained to us that she really needed that, her mother, father, and brother had passed away and it was the anniversary of one of their passings… All I knew to say was, "I know where your family is and I know that you will be with them again." As simple as that was, she took it to heart and seemed to be more receptive to us visiting her. After realizing that she had felt the spirit in that video, we bore testimony on it and left her with that.

"Never, never, never postpone a prompting." - Thomas S. Monson

March 31, 2016
Thursday, Day 170
Day 157 in NY

SUM IT UP:
Ward coordination meeting this morning. Weekly planning. About 3 hours later we met with some less actives. Visited each of them for a few minutes and shared some scriptures in 1 Nephi 8, then we showed the Follow Him video and invited them to read the rest of the chapter.
Not much to say about today.

April 1, 2016
Friday, Day 171
Day 158 in NY

CALL WINNER:
Award goes to Heather for the person to call you the most and stay on the phone the longest. Heather is this less active member that we found in our records. We've been going around trying to meet all the less active members and bring them back to church. So we had reached out to this lady and one day she called us back and our first conversation with her was on the phone and it lasted it at least 20 minutes. This poor lady just had so much going on in her life recently she finally felt the need to tell
someone all about it. As missionaries and as representatives of Jesus Christ, we are automatically noticed as someone to talk to about anything. Which is absolutely true, whatever it may be we are willing to listen and we will give input when prompted. Because this is so true, since I've been on my mission I can't even tell you how many stories I've heard from people, about all the things that have happened to them in their life or of the things that they have done in their life. If you could imagine it, I've met a person that's been through it or that has done it.

In this case Heather’s issue isn't as intense as most cases here in NY but it is a common one. She's been living in a shelter with her 9-year-old daughter and they have been trying to get out, well they finally got someone to move them out and a place for them. The day that the moving van was supposed to come, it didn't come, until hours later than they were told. Over the course of a few days Heather had been dealing with the moving people screwing with her. When they finally came they took her stuff and left with out her... When she was again finally able to get ahold of them they brought the stuff back and left. The plan was, they would move her and her daughter to a new apartment away from the shelter. When they came back they packed all their stuff up into the van, took Heather and her daughter, in the middle of the night to the apartment that they had. When they got there, no apartment was available for them. So once again they took them all back to the shelter. With all of her belongings packed up in bags, waiting to be moved, her and her daughter have been living out of their packed bags. Sleeping on nothing but a mattress in their empty apartment.

(Reading this may not seem as chaotic, but from the many calls and long conversations, of the same story over and over, you would be sure to recognize that she's really hurt inside that no one is treating her or the her situation right.)

Elder Davis and I, as strange as it may seem from what you now know, have grown to love Heather. Even though the only interaction we've had with her was over the phone. We pray daily for her and with her on the phone to help her through her rough time.

ROSITA:
"About a week ago" lol. We met this lady who stopped us on the street one night on our way home and asked us if we were Mormons and if we had pictures of Jesus. We gave her a couple pass along cards with pictures of Jesus on them.

Well, today we got in contact with her once again and she invited us to come over. We came by and there was another male in the home, so we came in and sat down at the table. As she shared her life with us and showed us pictures of her and her family I noticed on her living room display table, she had framed the Jesus pass along card. When she caught me looking at it she got excited and grabbed it, she told us that this was the card we gave her that night we met, she loved it so much she wanted to frame it. It was so awesome to see her love for the Savior.

SCOUTS:
After all our plans for the day we had dinner and headed to the church at 6:30. We were asked to help the scouts at the church. When we got there the scouts all had in their pine wood derby cars. (Yea I kind of relived my child hood through these kids tonight). One of the kids came up to me, he was 6 years old, he said, holding his future derby car, "I named my car Flash!" Asking why he named it flash, he said, "Because Flash is my favorite". Very excited with the dream of making his car Flash, I wanted to help him paint it. I grabbed his shaped wood car and cut the shape of a lightening bolt out of tape and stuck it to the wood. Went outside and sprayed in the lightening bolt yellow, then spraying around it red. While talking to this little boy, I asked him "do you like Flash?" (Kind of as a joke, because he was talking about Flash the whole time). With his eyes wide open as if I were Santa and knew what he liked, he responded with "how'd you know?!" With a little laugh and a smile I said "lucky guess."

The best part was of course seeing how happy this boy was to have the car he dreamed of. Such a simple idea and a simple task, but the happiness that came from this little 6 year old brought the most joy to me in those couple hours.

April 2, 2016
Saturday, Day 172
Day 159 in NY

GENERAL CONFERENCE:
Watching conference on a mission in NY. Looking back, trying to picture what conference was like at home. I could remember, naps on the floor/couch, general conference bingo, and French toast.

For general conference here, the sessions were 12pm-2pm / 4pm-6pm / & Priesthood was 8pm-10pm. All day we sat at the church from 11:30 AM to 10:00 PM.

I don't know why it was so difficult for me to love general conference before I left. I'd listen every now and then to the talks given but never got anything from it, I never took notes and really I don't think I tried to understand its importance. Looking back I feel horrible for never being excited for conference in the way that I should have been, for never preparing myself to be taught by the spirit as the Prophet and Apostles speak, and for never taking notes. This conference was by far my favorite, not only because it's the only conference I'll actually remember, but also because I truly loved conference this year. I prepared my self to be taught and counseled by the Prophet, Apostles, and General Authorities of the church. I prayed for the spirit to teach me and help me understand. After today I grew a greater love and appreciation to the Prophet and Apostles. It's so sad to see President Monson in his condition, but his talks were to the point and what we needed to hear. I love President Thomas S. Monson, I know that he is a true Prophet of God, and I do sustain him in his calling.

April 3, 2016
Sunday, Day 173
Day 160 in NY

SUNDAY SESSIONS:
We usually have church at 10 AM, but since it's General Conference, there's no church, so we didn't need to be there until 12 for the first session. But we still had to go to the church building so we got there about 15 minutes early and soon after, began the 1st session. Again I just loved watching conference, there was so much said that just gave me a greater understanding. I now have a greater knowledge of my purpose and what it is I need to do.

Lol! During the Priesthood session yesterday a topic that was brought up a lot was... marriage. Specifically to the missionaries it was said that we must be thinking about marriage before we come home, we should have an idea as to what our plan should be. When we return home, they didn't make it seem to be an obligation to get married immediately but they did stress marriage in itself and its importance. While the talks were given we each looked at those who would be leaving to go home soon, with a comical smile. Imagining some of the missionaries in my zone married in the next 8-12 months is weird.

Thankfully that's not a subject on my mind very often, it is weird however when the thought of life in reality sinks in and I do have those thoughts of marriage and family. But hey, I've still got a year and a half to go before that's my next step!

April 4, 2016
Monday, Day 174
Day 161 in NY

ZONE MEETING:
So this morning we had a zone meeting instead of district meeting. In this meeting Elder Sorensen and Elder Li talked about the announcements that they received in a meeting with President Smith. Then the Sisters gave a little training on something haha I don't really remember what it was. But then the Zone leaders, Elder Sorensen and Elder Li gave a brief training as well and talked about making a zone goal.

Our zone goal was to set a monthly goal for each of our key indicators. Which are, how many member present lessons we teach, other lessons, and recent convert and less active lessons. With the total goal lessons as a zone is 568 lessons in the month.

Which means, Elder Davis and I have to accomplish teaching 77 lessons in a month in our part to achieve the zone goal. We will see how this works out! We gotta push our selves to the max.

April 5, 2016
Tuesday, Day 175
Day 162 in NY

MEMBER PRESENT:
Elder Davis and I had our first member present since he's been here. We asked Brother Ford if he would come out with us for a quick lesson. He agreed and we met him at his building and walked to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited.... 25 minutes later a bus pull up. It was an awesome lesson, Maryanne J. was the investigator we taught and one of the first questions she asked was. "Does your church baptize?" Surprised at the question, we responded "yes!" We talked about baptism
and she asked what the process is to be baptized and we explained.

After our conversation on baptism she looked at Brother Ford and said what's your journey story of how you came to join the church. It was so perfect Brother Ford bore his testimony and told his story and she just looked at him the whole time listening. Maryanne is very set on being baptized and this was the first real lesson we had with her. The lesson was awesome and she was really into it. We told her we would continue to meet with her and prepare her for baptism. We didn't set a date yet, but Elder Davis and I are going to be praying about it. This was our miracle for the day!


Had a great week! Hope it continues as well as our success!
Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold