Week 43

August 3, 2016
Wednesday, Day 295
Day 282 in NY

PDAY!
Today was super awesome! We went to the 9/11 Museum... We spent 4 hours there, touring around and checking out as much as we could of everything captured during the attack of 9/11. It was an experience like no other! It's very humbling and a very emotional and touching experience. Especially for being too young to understand at the time it was happening and only ever hearing about it every year in school when we would take the day to "remember", which was so hard for me to do and understand why we did it at school when we weren't even old enough to know what happened. Going to the museum gave us all a much greater perspective and insight on the devastation and change that 9/11 brought to the world. I would highly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to check it out to do so. It's not a joyful experience that you imagine you would have going to any other museum or amusement park. It's an experience that will bring you to the level and feelings that you could only imagine those that went through it as they witnessed it firsthand. It
is very powerful and educational. There is a natural feeling in the museum that brings everyone that enters into a respect for that day. Everyone in the museum is reverent and very focused on their feelings as they make their way through it all, seeing clips and pictures of all that was captured in those horrifying hours of terror. It was definitely worth it and we don't think that we even saw everything there, there's a lot to see. The best Pday activity so far. The rest of the day was pretty great as well we just went out and worked hard and taught some lessons.

August 4, 2016
Thursday, Day 296
Day 283 in NY

Today I guess wasn't as eventful, we just had weekly planning, which is always so draining... When we finally finished we went about our day with the plans we had set and had a couple appointments fall through but we were able to teach a good amount. Very similar to last week in the sense that we did planning at the church and Elder Dutson synced his iPad. We had stopped by M and the Ducassas later in the night. We had some great discussions, the Ducassas fed us again. It was just another wonderful day working in the Vineyard of the Lord.

August 5, 2016
Friday, Day 297
Day 284 in NY

My favorite week day! Ice cream with Bae! Lol after lunch we left the apartment and went out to our first appointment to visit with Paul. Leaving his building without any luck of finding him, we went and got Coco Helado. Waiting for a bus we ate our ice cream, facing my companion with my head down in my ice cream and my back exposed to the public. Shortly after indulging into my Coco Helado, I felt 2 hands with force and quickness attack my shoulders. All within a moment the thought crossed my mind I was getting jumped for my Coco Helado.... What a sad day it was going to be. A short moment later, seeing that my companion had no change in his countenance I realized my enjoyment of Coco Helado was not coming to an end, then I heard the
familiar voice of Elder Forbush. He and his companion Elder Troutman had come from my back side to our front to where we could see them. (False alarm everyone! I wasn't getting jumped for my Coco Helado!) We continued on with the day going to visit a few more less active members and uplift and encourage them to come to church this coming Sunday.

August 6, 2016
Saturday, Day 298
Day 285 in NY

Today wasn't too bad either! Not as eventful but still very productive. We started off going to the church after studies to sync our area book. While there we did some more exploring on Facebook, and by that I mean figuring out more of the applications available for proselyting online. We watched some videos to help train us to use them and figured out some new things which was great! We figure by the time missionaries start picking up how to use Facebook and effective online proselyting there will be no more proselyting.. It will all be online.. Lol which really stinks, because the world has become so involved in their technology that they feel too uncomfortable having strangers over to teach them about the gospel, so lessons are going to be often taught through Skype, FaceTime, or Facebook chat. We've realized that it's more often than not that above the ages of 45 people are more willing to meet and let us teach them face to face. Ages 30 and younger have a tendency to be less open and more shy in person. And with technology the way it is, the church has decided to use it for the tool it is and use it to bless the lives of others. So online proselyting is becoming the new big thing.  Other than that, our first lesson was with this guy named T, he's a preacher or teacher at another church he studies a lot about religion and started studying the Book of Mormon on his own after meeting the missionaries and has been meeting with us every now and then. We are planning on making it a weekly thing; he has a lot of great questions about what he reads. When we saw him today he talked a lot about the sacrament and was interested in the authority we have to do so. Following T we had 5 more appointments and they all worked out, so today was a great teaching day for us.

August 7, 2016
Sunday, Day 299
Day 286 in NY

Fast Sunday!
Church as always is the best part of the week! It's the refresher. I just love making the commitment to Heavenly Father that I will do my best to be better this week and really focusing on the change I make throughout the week and giving that account to Him each night. After church we went home to make some calls and later break our fast before we went back out. We ate and took off for the night; we went to the church again for Elder Dutson to work on My Plan and his Mission Experience. We were there doing that and I made a bunch of calls to make appointments for the week and we did that for a couple hours. Then made our way out to our next appointment which was our last with James and Edwin! These guys are awesome! They are the ones with the red hair that got me all those birthday gifts and made me a cake. They are hilarious and so loving! We went to their house and they fed us dinner and we shared a message with them! It was an exciting Sunday because they came to church, they came for sacrament and went home afterwards because Edwin was getting dizzy.
But it was good to see them because they haven't been back to church in a while. What a wonderful Sunday!

August 8, 2016
Monday, Day 300
Day 287 in NY

After studies, like every Monday, we had district meeting. While there someone made the joke that we should start doing them on skype since technology is becoming a big part of missionary work, lol. The focus was towards a talk called Finishers Wanted by President Monson, when he was an apostle in 1989. It just kind of led to how we need to finish what we started and work hard doing it. We started our missions and need to go hard till the finish. After our meeting we headed home, unable to decide what we wanted to make for lunch we went and bought subway and took it home. This week started off a little rough, we had one appointment today and it was a good visit and lesson, but it was all we were able to really do outside of working online. It's weird using technology, because I've gotten used to tracting and face to face contact that using Facebook makes it feel like we haven't done much. But I'm sure it will all work out and become more comfortable and natural.

August 9, 2016
Tuesday, Day 301
Day 288 in NY

Today was a pretty good day! We started it off with some service again over at the pantry and as always it was nice! When we finished there we went home and got cleaned up, had lunch, and just as we were getting ready to head out the door there was a ring at the door which was random. So I checked the door and it was the maintenance guys. Our toilet stopper broke a week ago and we've called for someone to come fix it and they haven't come when they say they will. So they show up as we are getting ready to leave. They come in and say there is a leak in the apartment downstairs directly below us, we told them we had called 3 times for someone to come fix it and no one has showed up, we told them we were on our way out and they asked when they could come fix it when we would be home. We told them tomorrow would be best in the morning at 8:30. They left and so did we, we headed downtown to the Lincoln Square chapel to meet with President for Elder Dutson's Exit Interview. After sitting outside the classroom they were in for about an hour I read The Book of Mormon and talked with the other missionaries that were also waiting for their interviews. Soon enough they both walk out of the classroom and President says "Elder Newbold, why don't you come on in here real quick as well." Not expecting an interview, but willing I entered the room. Walking side by side with President, he says "that's a nice suit color you got there, (both of us wearing a similar blue color). We took a seat and he asked me how I was doing, I responded that I'm doing very well and that I'm loving the area I'm serving.  Harlem is treating me well President and we are staying busy with work. He liked the sound of that and asked if there was anything he could do to help me, I sat and pondered a short minute. Having nothing to big come to mind that I thought I needed help with, I then had the thought... (Elder Dutson and I had a conversation about something President had said in one of our last meetings with him, he said "Elder Nelson, of the quorum of the
twelve asked me, President Smith what are you doing to keep yourself away from pornography?" President said to us, "I thought that was an interesting question, because I'm not involved with pornography and have no problems with it because it's not a part of my life" so President Smith asked us the same question, what are we going to do to make sure we aren't getting involved or caught up in pornography? We live in a city where it is EVERYWHERE, how do we keep our thoughts centered on our purpose?) Since this conversation came to mind I just opened my mouth and told President, I said ”I don't have any problems with pornography here on my mission, but what would you suggest doing to stay clear of it, especially in a place like this where we live?"  He then took a second and asked me what I've been doing to stay clear of it already. I told him when I'm walking down the street and I see immodestly dressed women or pictures and ads on the street or in Windows I sing a hymn, whatever hymn comes to my mind first to drive any thoughts out immediately and because I desire to have the spirit with me always I do my best to stay away from places I know aren't good, I don't scroll on Facebook, I make sure my companion can always see my screen, so that it doesn't ever become an issue or temptation. It felt nice to have a simple discussion like this, although I wasn't necessarily struggling with anything, I opened my mouth to share something that I had talked about with my companion and just thought I could have more insight from President Smith. He is such a knowledgeable and inspired man. He always has a great response to questions. After our interviews we went home and we're just so happy! We felt spiritually high and wanted to go out and work, so we went to an appointment with M and had an awesome lesson, afterwards we went to look up a less active member and apparently we were in the wrong building and the wrong door. But we didn't realize that till door opened and we saw someone who wasn't who we were looking for. This girl named S opened the door and we just approached her like we were tracting, "hey we are representatives of Jesus Christ..." (I thought it was so cool afterwards, thinking about it. We didn't really hesitate when she opened up and it wasn't who we were looking for, we just went straight into teaching her about the Book of Mormon.) She wasn't religious; she said she didn't have a belief in God or anything spiritual. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Bible, she said she had and that she'd read from it just a little bit. I asked her about the Book of Mormon and she said she's heard of it but doesn't know what it is. So I went on explaining to her about the Book of Mormon, telling her it's about a Jewish family who desires to be happy and follow Christ, so they listen and heed to the council of the Lord from on high and follow his direction to leave Jerusalem and move to what was called the Promised Land. They were faithful and trusting in the Lord and did as he directed, leading them to peace, happiness, and eventually eternal life. She seemed a little open to it, but not much more from where she started. Elder Dutson bore his testimony and I invited her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and she accepted a copy. So we gave her a copy and asked for her info and she said she doesn't live here, she is just babysitting and that she isn't really too interested... We gave her our card and said she could even find us on Facebook, lol. It was an interesting experience. Today was pretty great! It's always great being with President and having success in the work.

Have a wonderful week! Love y'all! I'm finally all caught up in my journal!!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold