Week 47

August 31, 2016
Wednesday, Day 323
Day 310 in NY

Pday!!
We went to Chick fil a for lunch then roamed around the city for a bit. We didn't really have any plans, so we just kind of did whatever. After all the fun and games we got in contact with Bishop Day to figure out some last minute plans for M's baptism. Well... Because I'm a missionary, holidays are the last thing I'm thinking of. So, completely unaware of Labor Day being among us, we over looked the thought of who could attend the baptism. Immediately after getting in contact with Bishop, he tells us that he won't be in town this weekend, meaning he wouldn't be able to attend the baptism. He then asks us if it was possible to have M meet with him tonight at the church. We told M and he came and met us at the church. Since Bishop was going to be out of town for the baptism, he wanted to meet with M to help him feel comfortable and explain some things to him about the baptism and shortly thereafter the ordinance is preformed. He briefly spoke about the baptism and its 2 parts, the baptism itself (immersion of water) and the confirmation (receiving the Holy Ghost) to help Michael be more prepared and comfortable with what will be taking place. Perfect teaching opportunity! Bishop brought up some things about service in the church and we explained what callings in the church are and that he would be receiving a calling in the Ward soon after baptism. He also told him that they would like to, when he gets back from being out of the city, to ordain him with the priesthood so he could begin passing the sacrament. We also talked about Family History and getting started on that, so sometime soon he could go to the temple and do baptisms!

It was such a great meeting! The whole time I was just seeing M sitting there in white! It was so wonderful! He's so ready and excited to be baptized.

But in all the chaos of getting this double baptism planned (both M and the YSA Elders investigator P) we still needed to confirm if one of the bishopric members would be present AND we needed a baptismal record! Unable to find one in English we filled one out in Spanish... Lol it's been so long since I've even used Spanish on my mission. Thankfully it wasn't too hard to understand! After the meeting with bishop we filled out the record form with M.

September 1, 2016
Thursday, Day 324
Day 311 in NY

Weekly planning day! We went to the church to plan. Before we went in, we went down the street one block and grabbed lunch from the deli. We then came back to the church. We ate half our sandwiches then planned for 2 hours. When we finished planning we then quickly finished our lunch and made our way to M's. When we got there we decided we would go over the things Bishop talked about in our meeting last night and explained more about the callings in the church, we talked about passing the sacrament, we also talked about his baptism, and just helped him feel ready for it all. He was excited and so willing to accept everything that would come his way. It's been so great meeting with M! He's been changing so much and is so strong. When we finished with M we traveled back over to the west side to go home for dinner. We ate at home and went over to the D’s. On our last visit with them we left them with a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and asked them to read through it before we come by next. They read through it and then we went through and discussed it with them, it was great! When we finished and got home we did nightly planning!

September 2, 2016
Friday, Day 325
Day 312 in NY

This week is just flying by! It's already Friday again and today was BUSSSSYY! We woke up, got ready, had studies, ate lunch, did 12 week... After 12 week, we started making some phone calls to meet some appointments. After about 8 calls we got in touch with 4 of them. While we had them on the phone we were able to set our appointments with them and share a message. It's funny to me that people will answer the door or in this case they answer the phone, they will say they are busy when we ask to set an appointment, but when we ask to share a message over the phone they have enough time. So we take about 10 minutes with each call to share a message to test how busy they really are. Lol, we were able to share a message with the 4 and set appointments with each of them.

After about 45 minutes of making phone calls we left the apartment around 1:30pm. We went to visit a guy named W. When we got to his apartment a lady answered and her name was D, I believe she's the daughter of W. She's probably in her 30s. So we knock on the door and she answers and says, "you just missed him, he went down to the cleaners again". We then asked her if she would be interested in learning more about Jesus Christ. A little hesitant at first she said "no... Wait I have a question, are y'all Jehova Witnesses?" Responding, “no we are "Mormons" from the church of Jesus Christ, she responded and said "oh okay! Well you've got my interest now! “ (I respect other religions and everyone's beliefs, but it is so funny to me when people say stuff like this! It happens so often while tracting and the moment they realize we aren't JW they listen to us). So we ended up teaching her briefly about the priesthood and the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy, a restoration pamphlet, and a few Jesus cards because she loved them lol. She said she would like to sit in during our next discussion with W. So that was pretty awesome! She has a couple kids too so hopefully we can teach them all. The rest of the day was pretty great as well. After teaching D,we went to the next door to visit a less active member, T. He let us in and we read through the Book of Mormon with him. When we left there we made our way to the east side and visited with P, C, N, and then M! After seeing M we went toward the church since home was another 30 minutes out of our way, near the church we went over to the supermarket Pioneer and bought some sandwiches from the deli. We went quickly inside the church, scarfed down half our sandwiches in about 6 minutes and had to then make our way to a lady's apartment with the sisters and this member from the YSA Ward to give this lady a blessing. So today was a pretty busy day!

September 3, 2016
Saturday, Day 326
Day 313 in NY

"Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday." And it's also M's baptism day!! We had a couple appointments to start off the day, then the Zone Leaders called and asked if we could be present for a little meeting with another companionship in my district. So at 4:30 we were at the church for the little meeting we had. Then we began setting up for the baptism. Today we have a double baptism, the YSA Elders have an investigator named P, who I was able to interview and our investigator, M, whom I didn't interview, but he's getting baptized. The baptism was awesome; M was baptized by a member in the Ward, Brother K Pena. They were good friends in the Ward and M asked him to baptize him. It was such a great experience to be apart of. He came out of the water glowing and with just the biggest smile! Because it was Labor Day weekend we didn't have many members, maybe 4 or 5 total, from our Ward. There were a lot of YSA members though it was good they all talked to and congratulated him. President Smith came and it was just awesome! After the baptism we left around 7:30 after cleaning up, the baptism started around 6:15. On our way home we were walking to the train and a bus pulled up right in front of us. We saw the YSA Elders in side so we waited to talk to them really quickly right behind them was this lady and her daughter. She came off the bus and stood in front of us and asked what church we belonged to, we told her and she asked where it was, we told her where and she said she'd like to come. We walked with her the opposite way we were going and taught her a little as we talked. We got her information and then parted ways, after doing so Elder Gentry looked at me and said, "We didn't give her a Book of Mormon!" I said, "You’re right! What were we thinking.." I turned around and just a few hundred feet behind us she was walking away from us, I said come on let's give it to her. He said, wait really?? I told him yes! Let's go, take your book out, your going to teach her about it. So we run up to her and quickly walk behind her so we didn't scare her and Elder Gentry went up to her and said hey S, this is the Book of Mormon, it's a book we know to be true and we want to give it to you so that you can read it a little before we come see you next. She accepted it and said thank you. Then we made our way home! What a day!

September 4, 2016
Sunday, Day 327
Day 314 in NY

Today M was confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost. He asked Brother T McKenna to confirm him and we stood in. It was again, such a cool experience! Sometime after sacrament meeting we met this guy the sisters invited to church. His name was E... And boy this guy was a character. He had just the funniest way of talking. His enthusiasm was literally through the roof. Interesting fellow. We quickly found that it was very hard to communicate with him because he just didn't understand the things we would ask him. But by the end of church we found out he was YSA age, so we gave his information to the other Elders. After church we had a correlation meeting with our award Mission Leader. We discussed our investigators and the members we had been visiting along with those we've been trying to contact. For dinner we went to J and E's, like we do every Sunday.

September 5, 2016
Monday, Day 328
Day 315 in NY

I've learned from my companion, Elder Gentry, that he really enjoys district meeting. Which makes me happy and exited for district meeting, so I do my best to make them a great and spiritual learning experience for everyone. For lunch we came home and cooked then made some phone calls. We cleaned the apartment a little bit and had 12 week. A little after 3 we left to our appointment with M at 4. After wards made some more phone calls when we came home for dinner. We didn't have a very full planned day. But we were able to achieve our goals so that was good! We don't like being in the apartment for so long so we left and went around looking up people closest to us. Around 9pm we received a call from our zone leaders. We were walking down 135th coming up to our apartment. I answered and they told me about what was going on.

That little meeting we had on Saturday before the baptism was to help a companionship in our district. They had been struggling a little bit with some things and needed help. The next day they discussed their problems and struggles with each other to try and solve their problems. Well it ended up that they stayed at the church all day trying to figure out what to do. They called the zone leaders and the zone leaders called me and told me all this. After getting off the phone I called them and suggested going on a split. 10 minutes later after the call we were on with the zone leaders, we got home and I packed a bag. We left the apartment and went to the 125th station near their apartment. I went to their area and one of the Elders came to our area with Elder Gentry. It was about 9:50pm by the time we got to each other's apartments. We had nightly planning and got ready for bed.

September 6, 2016
Tuesday, Day 329
Day 316 in NY

It was a great split we got up, worked out, went through the schedule, had lunch, then went to the church and did some work on Facebook. Sent messages to keep daily contact and sent some videos to our investigators. We then had a couple hours before a lesson with their investigator J. So we went to a project building and went to the top and started tracting. We got down about 2 1/2 floors before we needed to head back to the church to meet with J. After meeting with him and teaching him about the priesthood we had a dinner appointment on the other side of their area so we went up and across town to see this member and visit with him, it was awesome. He was really cool and we shared a message with him at the end. I just love how the spirit works. It wasn't like most amazing experiences or anything but just the tender mercies of the Lord. He allows us to really connect through the spirit. I don't know this Elder super well, but we shared a message with him that we didn't expect to really share. We didn't role-play or plan out as well as we could have, but by being together and working hard I know that the spirit needed us to share this message with this member and so we did and it was great! We were on the same page the whole time and were able to teach and testify together as if we had been companions for a while.

After being able to go out and work hard on the split it seemed to help the Elder feel a lot better about things. They still had some things to work out together but it was a good break for them to split up and work in different situations. When we came home after the appointment we decided after getting permission from the zone leaders to not unsplit when we usually would. So I stayed the night in their apartment again and we would split in the morning on Pday.
Great week! Full of great work and events! Have a wonderful week everyone!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Elder Newbold found PVC pipe in a closet in their apartment so he made a shoe rack! He's so creative and organized! I just love it! 

M and P after their baptisms.

M and little M at his baptism 

M, days before his baptism.  

Week 46

August 24, 2016
Wednesday, Day 316
Day 303 in NY

Pday!

Today wasn't the greatest Pday but we got done what was important. We did laundry and went grocery shopping; the worst part of it was that I had to use my personal money for groceries again. This time it was because I had to buy two $20.50 train tickets to get from Harlem to upstate in Scarsdale. Which if you can do the math is $41 in traveling in just 2 weeks. We get reimbursed for them but it takes 2 weeks... So I used the last $40 I had in my account for traveling and had to use my own money for groceries. But that's life and a temporary problem. After coming back home and putting our groceries away we went downstairs and grabbed our laundry, came up and laid our clothes out to dry. While having lunch our roommates left to Best Buy to get something. We were planning on going with them but they finished up before us and left. When we finally finished eating we left to try and catch them there. To get to Best Buy we need to walk past the temple, so since it’s Elder Gentry's first time in NY-Manhattan, we went to the temple and I showed him around the building. When we finished there we went over to Best Buy and looked around. Then headed back home to just eat and chill.

August 25, 2016
Thursday, Day 317
Day 304 in NY

Today we did our weekly planning; we went to the church and planned for a few hours and got it all done. After wards we had some lessons planned. The first one was on the east side of the island. We got to the apartment and no one answered... Due to the time remaining we left and went straight to M’s to meet with him.  While talking to him we noticed very clearly how much happier he has been. He hasn't been smoking or drinking for a couple of days. And he says he loves the way he feels. He has been going through a lot of family issues and he recognizes that Satan is trying to tempt him from all directions, but he is staying strong. We are very excited and love to see how happy he is becoming! Around the time we finished up with him we headed back over to the west side and taught D. We sent D a video that we were going to discuss during this visit. But he didn't get it. So we started to talk to him about what the video was. The video was called Daily Bread Pattern and we talked about how just as we need to feed ourselves physically we also need to feed our selves spiritually. We talked about it for a while, sharing scriptures here and there. And then we assigned him 2Nephi Chapter 31 about baptism and then we left. Trying to be quick we went over to the D’s Family. They always feed us, every visit, and trust me, we love it! And we appreciate it more than they will understand. We started off just asking how his studies have been he said he had been reading for a few days and stopped to be able to focus more on his work. But he (the father) had been reading. He said he likes The Book of Mormon, and that's great! We gave them the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and invited them to read and study it before we come back next week. We talked briefly about faith, repentance, Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Left it short and sweet and dipped out to make it home on time! We made it! With a full stomach we ran, desiring only to get home on time with out puking.

August 26, 2016
Friday, Day 318
Day 305 in NY

Woke up this morning a little earlier than usual. Skipped studies and our work out and quickly got ready to make the Metro North Train upstate to Scarsdale for the new missionary meeting. The meeting was awesome, the first 45 minutes we split up, trainers with President, Sister smith, and the AP's. And the new missionaries with the senior couples to be given instruction as to driving rules, for those who were serving upstate. We talked about any concerns or challenges or anything great happening in the first week of training. Later we came together, trainers and trainees, to receive and be part of the discussion. We talked about being HERE, in NY and leaving behind all other affairs. We focused on trusting the Lord and his promises. We read Doctrine & Covenants 100:1 and replaced Sidney and Joseph's name with our own and our companions. D&C 100 1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my friends Sidney and Joseph, your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power.

I personally have come to know the truth of this. I have no worries for events at home or what my family is doing. I'm in NY and I know I'm not leaving here till the work is done. I know that as my faith and obedience is toward my efforts here and nowhere else during these 2 years that my family will be and are in good hands. It was a great meeting I took some notes in my little note pad as to what I felt the spirit was telling me. After getting home and changing out of our suits we went out and met with P, one of our members who is home bound. The rest of our plans for the day kind of went down the toilet, as some Elders needed help getting into the church to grab baptismal suits. They were way later than they said they'd be, so we waited around for them and wasted a lot of time.... Wasn't fun.

August 27, 2016
Saturday, Day 319
Day 306 in NY

Today after studies we quickly went over to the church and did some 12-week before we had our first appointment with T. This is what Elder Gentry wrote up about the lesson for record sake lol, "We went to T's house. We then talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it contains a fullness to the gospel. We invited him to read about it and pray and told him if he would, then the spirit would make it known unto him if it was true." We definitely did our best.

We then met with M and today makes it 2 full weeks sober from smoking and drinking. He's been doing so well. He read all the pamphlets we've given him and we've talked about some of them briefly and he understands them all so well. He's changing so much! I love it!

After meeting with M we went to the church to meet with one of the investigators that the Elders in our district had been meeting with. His baptismal date is for next Saturday as well. He ended up forgetting about our meeting but needed to meet with me for an interview. So we waited around. They went out to his apartment to find him and finally came back with him. While they were gone I was searching for a baptismal record form and found only one and it was in Spanish... Well we needed it filled out before we could do the interview. So while they were out looking for P, their investigator. I was in the church trying to read and understand the Spanish form. After receiving help from google translate and later, Hermana Derzon I was able to understand the form and remember it well enough to fill it out with the investigator during the interview. I just love the privilege of being able to meet with these people and help them come closer to Christ, by interviewing them and finding them ready for baptism. It's such a special experience. By the end of the interview and eventually making it home for dinner, there wasn't much time in the night but we quickly went out and taught a close-by investigator and came home to nightly plan.

August 28, 2016
Sunday, Day 320
Day 307 in NY

Today was another interesting Sunday. It was a 2-hour sacrament service. The program was planned to help visitors understand our church and the way it runs. It was titled "come and see". It was a way for all these visitors to learn about the church and for it to be taught to them over the pulpit, through explanation by Bishop Day and the following speakers listed in the program as well as the 3 musical numbers. It was a really cool and interesting Sunday. We had some investigators there and the Sisters did as well. We were able to meet them and one of them was really interested. After the sacrament meeting there was a Linger Longer upstairs for the members and visitors to mingle and get to know one anther. We went up and took the time to meet some new members who moved into the Ward, and meet some visitors as well. We then left to go home for lunch then went over to P’s again to take him the sacrament. He was so grateful because he hadn't been to church in some time because he is home bound and no one has brought him the sacrament. With M’s baptism coming up we've decided to meet with him everyday till then to make sure he's comfortable and ready. Afterward we came home for dinner, late enough to where we stayed home to have nightly planning right after.

August 29, 2016
Monday, Day 321
Day 308 in NY

District meeting was pretty good today too; we talked about goals and accountability. We set some goals of our own and can't wait to see how it all works out. This week, as part of our goal, is to find investigators. All this week we will look for new people to teach. When we left the church we went home for lunch and back out. We went to go visit M and see how he was doing; he had some questions about some things we had been teaching him so we did a little review. When we finished teaching M we went home for dinner and the rest of our plans fell through.

August 30, 2016
Tuesday, Day 322
Day 3 in NY

Today was pretty crazy... We as a zone had interviews with president. In between the morning interviews and the noon interviews he stops and we have a zone study. Prior to this study, we as a zone individually studied Joseph Smith History 1-20, which I highly recommend you all do. As the study began he started off addressing some questions he had for us, we made a little discussion out of it and then about 45 minutes later he started the actual study. He had originally planned on taking no more than an hour. But as usual, and as I expected, he took 2 hours, but I have to say it was the most inspired and spiritual experience I have ever had. It is because of this meeting and study of Joseph Smith History, that I KNOW that Joseph Smith, with out a doubt! Saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. It is a fact, that he saw them in person and there is no one on the face of the earth that can tell me otherwise, because of the confirmation I received along with 18 other missionaries, and Sister Smith. After reading his testimony, his own words, of his very own experience, there is no way I can deny his truth. When President Smith began to conclude the study he felt impressed to leave the remaining time to those who felt the need to share. One by one, each of us, all 18 missionaries stood and briefly stated the fact of their testimony of Joseph Smith. The room was so filled with the spirit that it felt as if there wasn’t room enough for us. I couldn't help but know, I couldn't help the tears, and I now know with out a doubt that this church is the church of Jesus Christ, the true and only true church of Jesus Christ.

With the duration of this meeting we ended it with the last testimony, sang the first verse of I Am A Child of God and ended in prayer. Directly after, President continued on with interviews. Around 2:30 we met with President and M together. President asked him some questions about how he came to meet with the missionaries and how he's changed since then. Soon after a short conversation President excused us from the room and began a baptismal interview with him. When they came to the end of their interview we were expected to have our interviews, but President came out of the room with his stuff gave us a hug and said we will find a time to meet with us for our interviews. Just by looking at him you could tell how spiritually drained and exhausted he was from the study and all the interviews he did. We then headed home and walked into the apartment at 5:03pm. We have been at the church since 10 and got home at 5. It definitely wasn't planned that way, but it happened that way.

It has been a great week! And this week has started off so great with this zone study! Love you all and thank you for everything! Have a wonderful week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold