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