Elder Tyler Newbold NY NY North Mission: Week 33

May 25, 2016
Wednesday, Day 225
Day 212 in NY

PDAY!!
MORNING SPORTS:
Elder moss and I had been on and off with getting up early and going to work out. We knew that our only motivation would be if other missionaries wanted to meet up with us and do an activity. So we planned to get up at 4:45 and go to Central Park and play kickball at a field. It was so epic! We had the whole zone show up and it was so fun! We played for about 45 minutes and headed back home to get ready and study.

SOHO:
Elder Moss had his temple trip day with all the missionaries going home this cycle. During that time I was in a trio with Elder Richards and Elder Burton and 2 other Elders were with us, it was pretty fun,
we all went to SoHo. Fun fact, I guess since Manhattan is an island and it's one big city, they break it up into neighborhoods. So we went to this area called SoHo, there are a lot of different stores just everywhere out there. We stopped by and checked out the Nike store, we went to Vans, Levi's, Stance, Patagonia, Ben Sharman, etc. It was pretty cool, but what made it all worth it was we started this thing called sticker hunting.

STICKER HUNTING:
New York is covered in stickers. Light poles, mailboxes, and bus stops. There are stickers everywhere, so we look for ones we like and pull them off and keep them, so I've got a nice collection of them now.

May 26, 2016
Thursday, Day 226
Day 213 in NY

EARLY LESSONS:
We got ready for the day and went to the church around 8:30 and met with a recent convert Ezekiel. He's a member in the Bronx, Kingsbridge area, where Elder Moss served before coming to Manhattan. So we met with Ezekiel for a bit and just read some scriptures together and talked about the Temples and family history.

AWKWARD:
We did some weekly planning. Then went out for the day for an APF. After a couple hours, we headed back home. On our way we did some sticker hunting. Then we met with a member in our ward. She met us at shake shack and we had dinner together. While waiting in line with a member in our ward, another member from Utah that was visiting came in and saw us. She came up to us and gave us $20 she said she has 3 daughters who have served missions and she wanted to buy our dinner. It's awkward because a member is taking us out for dinner already, we are in line with the member that's buying our dinner, and this other member comes up to us with $20. We tried to explain, but she insisted and put it in Elder Moss's hand. We were so grateful for the kind lady giving us money for food. It was just weird since we already had a member buying us dinner. Caitlyn, the member with us, told us we could use it tomorrow. She was still going to buy our dinner. The members here are all so nice!

May 27, 2016
Friday, Day 227
Day 214 in NY

MORNING SERVICE:
Meals on wheels! So today was one of those really hot days... It's been getting really hot. Like its 70 something outside but it feels like you just ran a mile in 100 degrees. If that puts it into perspective enough as to how humid it is here. Our apartment has 3 little AC units sitting in the Windows in each room. Even with them on at 66 degrees it's never enough during the day when it's hot out. It cools the air but only very little of it. Since it was so hot we called our roommates to see if they were available. They said that they were and could come help us, so we split up the route for delivering meals and we went on our way... Thank goodness we had help because the apartment we were in had no AC.... So we were melting.

APF:
After service we came home, had lunch and went to the Mall and put our board up against a wall and began our APF. We contacted a lot of different people but didn't get much from it. But we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people during the time we were there. We ran into some members while we were there. A member came up and took a picture of us, she said she was going to put it up on Facebook and see if anyone recognizes us. When we were finally through with creating a pond with our sweat we decided to pack up and go. We started leaving the spot we were at and these guys came up to us with some snakes and just put them around our necks. Elder Sanford didn't seem to like it very much. I asked what they were doing with the snakes and they said they are just their pets and they decided to out with them to the park.

May 28, 2016
Saturday, Day 228
Day 215 in NY

WEEKLY PLANNING:
Today I don't remember doing much besides finishing up weekly planning, so I don't have much to say about today. Actually, since Elder Moss leaves to go home on Wednesday we did a lot of packing and cleaning. I think we sent a package home for him to. He didn't have a whole lot that he wanted to take home, but he just didn't want his suitcases to be packed full.

May 29, 2016
Sunday, Day 229
Day 216 in NY

SURPRISE:
After setting up chairs in the overflow we walked out to the front doors of the chapel and waited for people to come in. We greeted members as they came. Someone walked in that I hadn't seen here
before, but looked familiar. When he came out of the elevator and approached us he stood in front of me and said "do I look familiar?" going through a list of names in my head thinking of who he may be or where I've seen him before, he then said his name, Kevin Smith. His name didn't sound too familiar but he looked very familiar. Once he told me about whom his family was then it all clicked. I had seen him in my home wards, but I personally never met him before. He told me that he has lived in NY now for about a year. He came to our YSA ward this Sunday because my mom told him to come see me. It was his lucky day, because I was giving a talk.

GOAL ACHIEVED:
My goal this Sunday was to meet different members then I had been talking to previous Sunday's. Since I gave a talk, it gave me the opportunity to talk to a lot of different members. After my talk a lot
of members came up and complimented me. So as they came up and talked, I was able to meet different members.

PARTY AT BISHOPS:
After church we were invited to bishop’s home to have an ice cream social. Super crazy apartment, the elevator in the lobby opens up right into his apartment. There are no halls to his apartment, you walk into the lobby, the front desk uses a special key and sends you up to his apartment and when the elevator opens, it opens up right in his apartment. They made homemade ice cream and it was so good! We invited Mia, one of our investigators to come. She said she had some errands to run but
would try to make it. By the time it was over she was done with her errands so she didn't show up. But it was a good time and we got to meet more members.

DINNER:
I know, I know, we did it backwards. We had desert first... Elder Moss and I were invited to Julie's apartment with Mike, her boyfriend. So after bishops we walked over to Julie's apartment with Mike and her. They made us chili and we shared a message with them before we left. I just love the YSA members. They are all young and fun to be with!

May 30, 2016
Monday, Day 230
Day 217 in NY

DISTRICT MEETING:
I thought district meeting went great today! Mia our investigator wanted to come take photos of us for her project. So we invited her to come when she got to the church we asked her if we could have her do us a favor. I asked her, since we, as missionaries always want to improve our teaching skills, if she would be willing to let us "role play" teaching her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was awesome, she agreed to help us and the Sisters helped us out and went to another room with her and taught her.
When they finished teaching her they came back to the room we were meeting in and we asked some questions about how it went. They gave each other a little bit of an evaluation and Mia gave some advice about how she thinks they could improve. It was such a great experience for them.

Today was Elder Moss's last full day so we did our final cleaning and packing and got him ready to go home.

May 31, 2016
Tuesday, Day 231
Day 218 in NY

TRANSFER DAY:
We met in Inwood around 11 for a technology meeting. After the meeting Elder Moss and I went on splits with different missionaries. I was with Elder Dominguez and Elder Moss went off with Elder Prestwitch. For about 2 and half hours we went out and contacted people on the streets. Around 3 o'clock we wrapped up and waited for the upstate missionaries to arrive. Once they arrived a little after 4 I met my new companion and we got his stuff together and said our goodbyes. Elder Moss went on his way and so did we.

My new companion and is Elder Tatafu. That's right, he's Tongan! He's super awesome! He's from Alaska, but was born in American Samoa. He's only served upstate so far, so this is his 1st area in the city. He came out on cycle after me, so he's been out about 6 months.

That's it for this week! Hope it's goods ought for you. Enjoy you week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold