Week 45

August 17, 2016
Wednesday, Day 309
Day 296 in NY

Pday!
We decided we would just chill for the day. We headed over to the Church after taking care of groceries and laundry. (I keep meaning to take a picture of how we do laundry, to save money). Elders Nielsen and Gonzalez, Elder Gonzalez replaced Elder Chambers, so they went into the church to get haircuts from Jay. Elder Gentry and I went to Modell's, this sports store just around the corner. We broke the Ping-Pong ball last week and needed to buy more; freaking Ping-Pong balls are a dollar apiece! Ridiculous! And they don't sell them individually or of course, so Elder Gentry and I split it and bought a pack of 6 balls for 3 hours worth of Ping-Pong lol. After purchasing these ridiculously expensive Ping-Pong balls, lol we went over to the church and wrote emails and played Ping-Pong. A little after noon we left to get lunch and we went to Chipotle! Came back, ate, wrote, and played. As Pday came to an end we made our way back home. We had dinner and got ready to leave for our appointments. D wasn't home like we hoped so we went to the S's. When we got there it was just M(16) and J(12). We followed up with M to see if he read Omni. He said he didn't, but that he needs to start reading again. We started talking about the scripture and then we started talking about Moroni. So we invited him to read chapter 10 of Moroni. We talked about praying to know truth and receiving answers and confirmation through reading and prayer. He seemed pretty into it and we committed the both of them to read the chapter and talk to each other about what they read. We will see how that goes with them next week. When we left their apartment we walked through the Polo Grounds, near Rucker Park, to the subway station to head home.

August 18, 2016
Thursday, Day 310
Day 297 in NY

Today was a pretty great day! We started the day with weekly planning around 11 am at the church. After a couple hours of weekly planning and a lunch break in between, we went out and began our day. We were making our way to the east side of the island and realized we would be a little early for M so we went and looked up a lady not to far from his apartment. When we got to the door, we knocked, and she quickly answered. We gave a short introduction of who we were and she said she didn't have time right now for us to talk because she was just heading out the door with her kids so we told her we could come back another time and she gave us a date and time. We asked if she had a Book of Mormon, she said she does but she shares it with her son, so we gave her a copy for herself. We went on our way and went to M's. It was awesome! We caught her just in time! After meeting with her we went over to see M's. While at M's we talked about how he's been doing with certain things he's been going through. He said he's been smoking again. He said he's been smoking daily, not as much as before but he's back into it. So we also talked about over coming addictions and priesthood blessings. We told him to pray and ponder on the priesthood so he can decide if he feels like it would be something he would like.

When we left M's we headed over to a members apartment. Before we got there we assumed that they were both members. I had just met them 2 weeks ago when they moved into the the Ward and last week we got a text from R and she asked if we had a night available to come over for dinner. So we scheduled tonight and like I said, assumed they were both members and came over to visit with them. While eating, R made a comment about D (her husband) not being a member, surprised, she then said something along the lines of, will you teach him? They have been reading the Book of Mormon together and had some questions, it was a sweet experience. [Here's a little background I had written about them after we left the appointment: We planned on sharing D&C 88:81. But quickly found out that D isn't a member. Turns out R invited us over for dinner because he is interested and wants to learn about our religion. He grew up with a Catholic background. But as he got older he drifted away from it because he felt that because he didn't make the choice to be baptized Catholic that it wasn't right and not for him. He met R and they got married. She's a convert and has been wanting to get him involved in the church. He went to YSA with her before they got married and he attends church with her now. He started reading the Book of Mormon with R and he had some questions. So we started from the beginning and taught him about he Book of Mormon and taught simply the restoration. Due to time, we needed to leave but he wants us back every week to teach him so we set up an appointment for Tuesday.] Today was great! We placed a Book of Mormon with the first new investigator we found today and then met another.

August 19, 2016
Friday, Day 311
Day 298 in NY

Since I'm training again! Which I love so much! I'm going through 12 week, the new missionary study program, for the 3rd time! Whoop whoop! It's been updated since my first time so I'm still learning as we go through it. So part of our companionship study each morning we do 12 week. When we went out after lunch today, our first 2 appointments fell through. One of them was set last night in the elevator with a guy named J W, he was drunk so we kind of expected him not to remember. Our next 3 appointments were solid and the first 2 lived in the same building right next each other. It was super convenient. After them we started looking up and going to visit the less active members that we usually see each Friday. We finally stopped by and were able to meet with P, this older guy who we haven't been able to meet with for a month now. We shared some scriptures with him, gave him an Ensign magazine and just talked about how he'd been doing since we haven't seen him in so long. One of the members we visit just happened to be asleep when we stopped by, which was too bad. But she's a busy mom and is home with her kids everyday so she was finally getting some rest, which was good for her. When we finished seeing the members we had planned to see we made our way home for dinner and went back out to do some look ups and find some people. It was a great night!

August 20, 2016
Saturday, Day 312
Day 299 in NY

Today from his morning till late afternoon was slow... We didn't have any appointments set so we had time to call people in our area. Tried to contact referrals, people we haven't seen in a while, or things like that. Around 4 things started to pick up a little. We met with M again; he decided that he would like us to give him a blessing on Sunday like we talked about last time. He's doing great, he's come so far and hasn't given up. He’s changing so much and it's the greatest thing for us as missionaries to witness. When we left his apartment we came home for dinner and then went back out and met with D and B. We stopped by D's and did some catching up. Haven't seen him since Sunday. We talked about prayer and how his praying had been he said he did pray once since Sunday. We then decided to share 3Nephi 19:9 and we talked about how to pray and what to pray for. We talked about the chapter and how the people desired the Holy Ghost to be given to them, so they prayed for that to be done and they were then baptized and received the Holy Ghost. Then we invited him to continue praying. We didn't have much time but we stopped by B's and had to make it quick because we had to be home soon. So we quickly shared a scripture with him as well and left with a prayer.

August 21, 2016
Sunday, Day 313
Day 300 in NY

Today was pretty great as well. We left the apartment earlier than usual on Sundays, to help a member set up for an event Harlem does each year. The church participates in it to promote and help people with family history. We started making our way to the church in our suits and clouds begin to surround us. We got on a bus and made our way to the stop we needed and as we got off it began dumping down rain. Our suits now soaking wet we kept walking to the church. We found a room to take off our jackets and let them dry. We then went downstairs and helped this member load tables and chairs into a van he rented.

We went up to 135th and helped set up the booths for the family history. By this time the clouds were gone and the rain ceased. We finished setting up in about 30 minutes and went to church at 11 for the Sacrament and planned on going back to the booth to help with this event. M was at church so we stayed and the Sisters went to the booth and helped out. Within an hour of the event starting they had 40 people working on family history. We stayed at church and after 2nd hour gave a blessing to M. Before we did it, we just talked for a few minutes to make him comfortable and to let us be aware of things he is struggling with and desires help with. After the blessing he had the biggest smile and just said thank you. If you were there you could just tell he was more than grateful. You could feel the love that the Savior has for him. It was incredible!

After finishing out church, we went home for lunch and after eating we passed out on the couch for the rest of the hour. Then we quickly made our way back to the Harlem Days event. We planned on helping out the last hour, but the member was ready to clean up so we started taking it all down... So Elder Gentry and I didn't have any part in it but we heard from the other missionaries that helped out that there was a lot of success. They had 65 people on computers during the event finding family members and stories and obituaries of them while doing family history. What a great success! By the time we cleaned up and made it home we had just enough time to eat dinner and plan.. It was a crazy day but it was a good one!

August 22, 2016
Monday, Day 314
Day 301 in NY

Due to transfers our current District Leader was transferred and I was shortly after called again to be District Leader. So this morning I prayed, studied, and planned out our meeting. Before District meeting at 11 we had a conference call for DL's and while listening to it all I felt like I learned some great things, and as I pondered the things I heard in that call, as we began District meeting my thoughts and ideas began changing and so did the plan for district meeting. The spirit redirected some of my initial plans and with the time we had left from after the call and a quick Zone meeting, I was lead by the spirit to discuss each investigator with a baptismal date of the companionships in my district. I felt like as we discussed each person and their needs and concerns and their strengths and great things about them, without knowing any of them, I felt that I had known them and could help them. While discussing each of these investigators I left it open for discussion for companionships to jump in and give any insight or suggestions they had. I felt as if it was very productive and appreciated by the companionships present. I felt like it was one of my favorite meetings. After district meeting we went downstairs and the sisters were gathered by the front door with coupons in their hands. They had all these coupons from a nearby restaurant, so they gave us some and Elders Nielsen, Gonzalez, Gentry, and I went and ate there. After lunch we made some phone calls and had a couple lessons over the phone.

Then we left the church, where we brought our lunch to eat and went to M's. M had a lot to talk about today. It was good tho, each time we visit, he has an update of something in life he shares with us, it's awesome! We get to know him more and more. When we got into our discussion he opened up the word of wisdom pamphlet and said that there wasn't really anything in here that he didn't already know. We went to page 11 and began talking about "Giving up harmful substances" he said his last cigarette was Saturday night. So today means 2 days without and he says he feels strong. We went over the bullet points and discussed with him about making a plan to avoid temptation and making an escape when it comes. He seems to be doing great so far! We pray he can keep it up. When we left M’s we quickly made our way back to the west side of the island where we visited with T and D, before going home around 8 to have dinner and begin planning. Starting the week off strong!

August 23, 2016
Tuesday, Day 315
Day 302 in NY

My favorite morning! Tuesdays we go to the Common Pantry and do some service! We usually unload trucks and stack 50lbs of carrots and potatoes and corn. But when we got there, they only had one truckload today and they showed up early; so when we got there we didn't start off like usual. We went to the back and broke down some boxes, after that we begin sorting good carrots from bad carrots and put them in individual bags. Then another truck showed up and we were asked to help unload that. So Elder Gentry and I went out with the hand- trucks and started bringing in boxes of eggplants and bell peppers. For about 2 hours we helped out before we headed home. When we got home we ate and got ready again for the day. Before we went back out we did a little bit of 12 week.

Another quick day, but we met with W, this older guy we teach and shared the video Daily Bread: pattern. After talking about it for a bit and inviting him to read from the pamphlets we left him we went over to D’s and talked with him for a bit he told us about his reading and that he read from Moroni 10 he started off saying that Moroni said a lot of exhorting. We then invited him to read chapter 7 of Moroni. After making some calls, we made our way over to the church to send some messages on Facebook and then go to R and D's again! They are so awesome! We love them! They are just a few years older than us so it's fun visiting them. They ordered pizza and we ate, after eating we shared the plan of salvation with D and R. Some great questions were asked and our best answers were given. It felt like a great lesson! Before we left they loaded us up with mango juice! Soooo good!

Sorry it's a slow and short email this week. I keep making the goal to do better but I just haven't achieved that yet, haha one day!

Love you all thanks for the love and support and prayers! They are felt! See you sooner than 2!

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,
Elder Newbold