Week 52

October 5, 2016

Wednesday, Day 358

Day 345 in NY

PDAY!!

Today we woke up at 6am we were planning on going to the church to play sports like the Spanish Elders said we would. We got up and we're putting our shoes on to head out the door when they texted us and said "abort, we will not be playing sports this morning!" So we stayed home, I sat back on the couch and closed my eyes, the other 2 Elders, Elder Hoskins and Elder Rocha went upstairs to work out. At 6:30 I got up and went upstairs and worked out till 7am.  Elder Rocha is from Spain and is learning to speak English, he speaks really well but during companionship study he said he would like to study deeper vocabulary. For some random reason he wanted to study financial terms. So both Elder Hoskins and I gave him 15 words together that he could learn. When we finished studies, we went to the store! Elder Hoskins hates driving and Elder Rocha doesn't have a license so he asked me to drive, so from now on I'm the DD lol. When we finished shopping we came home, our apartment has a washer and dryer so we don't need to worry about laundry. After putting away our groceries we went to the church to email. After an hour of that we drove over to meet the Spanish Elders at a park and played basketball, we had an appointment after so we stayed in our pros in stead of going home first to change. It was a pretty good Pday.

October 6, 2016

Thursday, Day 359

Day 346 in NY

This morning we went to a food pantry and did some service, I was going to meet with President again so I wore my suit and helped out till he showed up. After we left we had a wonderful day together. We went to the Stamford chapel and sat in the sacrament room and talked, after receiving news that I would need to return home for a short time to work on righting my wrongs. This was always a known consequence to me, but I’m still willing to do whatever it takes to make that true change. I accepted the fact that I would be returning home, but I know what I'm doing and I know it's the best thing for me. Shortly after we left the chapel and without knowing where we were going, President Smith and I drove for some time. We talked and talked it was really great, I'm so grateful for him. We came up to a McDonald's so we stopped in and had a late lunch. When we got back on the road we again drove for another long time, not knowing where we were going but just enjoying the feeling and conversation we were having. It must have been at least an hour and a half drive. But while responding to a question President Smith asked, he stopped me and said isn't that beautiful, pointing up to the left of where we were... The Hartford Connecticut Temple stood right before us… immediately my heart was filled with an overwhelming feeling of joy. This temple has just been opened up for a limited time to visitors. It's a month long open house. We together got to tour it for our first time, and it was absolutely beautiful. I learned a lot from him and from the Spirit.  After our temple tour we talked to some of the Sister missionaries from our mission who were actually on assignment to come serve at the temple open house. President Smith was talking to one of the companionships and needed to get their car and take it somewhere. So after leaving the temple, we drove to where their car was another half hour or so away. When we got to the chapel where their car was, President asked me to drive it and follow him home. He said to have a conversation with Heavenly Father and just talk about what's going on.  So for the 2 hour drive home to white plains NY I prayed aloud and just talked to my father in Heaven, seeking guidance and love.

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

Sent from my iPad

Week 51

September 28, 2016

Wednesday, Day 351

Day 338 in NY

PDAY!

I don't remember what we did today but it probably was mailing and just hanging out. Nothing much, but it was good. At the end of Pday we went to do some look ups, we didn't have success with any of them, but we, on our way to the church to make some phone calls, we street contacted and found this woman who we had seen before one night. We stopped her and talked and invited her to conference. She's seemed great and very nice. We hope to see her there. After talking to this woman named B we went to the church and called some people. Then made our way home.

September 29, 2016

Thursday, Day 352

Day 339 in NY

We decided to save time and stay home for weekly planning so we did.  Towards the end of weekly planning we received a text from President Smith, he wanted to meet with us at the church in an hour, so we cleaned up, put our suits on and went to the Harlem Chapel. We had a follow up interview and it was great and so helpful. And he told me before transfers like he always has done, that I'm going to Westchester, which is actually his Ward in Scarsdale. Which is pretty awesome. So he also said that Elder a gentry would be followed up trained. During the interview we had to cancel some appointments and after the interview our appointments fell through. So home for dinner we went and continued on cleaning area book.

September 30, 2016

Friday, Day 353

Day 340 in NY

This morning we called some people on our list, we did 12 week, had lunch, and went to visit this guy named M. (Well, his nickname is M, R is his real name). Following M we visited P said my goodbyes to him since I just found out I was leaving. Then we went to see N and Y. Took us about an hour to get home from there so we had dinner at home continue cleaning our area.

October 1, 2016

Saturday, Day 354

Day 341 in NY

General conference

I've never been so excited for general conference, this time I came prepared. I had questions and things on my mind that were answered through out conference; it was so wonderful for me. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a true Prophet of God and that we have living Apostles and they are inspired and guided by the Spirit.  Today was pretty crazy, we attended 3 sessions of conference so we were at the church for 10 hours. We got there around 11:45am and didn't leave until about 10:30pm. Went home and went to bed Spiritually and physically exhausted.

October 2, 2016

Sunday, Day 355

Day 342 in NY

General conference

Day 2 of conference! We had some technical difficulties with the satellite and its connection so in the very beginning we missed President Monson’s talk. I was in the back of the room trying to fix the connection and sound.  But the remainder of the talks were working most of the time. We stayed for the 2 sessions today and went to dinner at J & E's. After our visit there we came home.

October 3, 2016

Monday, Day 356

Day 343 in NY

Today I took time to pack. But first we went to the church and had Zone meeting! We took Zone pics and went off on our separate ways. We went to go say goodbye to M really quick, afterward we came home for lunch and then I began packing, I wouldn't say I like to pack, but I think I'm pretty good at it. I had far too many things in weight. It honestly didn't look like I had a lot of stuff, but it sure felt like it... I mean my suitcases shouldn't way 75 lbs each lol. There was some sorting that needed to be done. After about 3 hours of packing I think I finished packing around 9 something in the evening.

October 4, 2016

Tuesday, Day 357

Day 344 in NY

Last minute transfer call

This morning I got a text at 8:35 from President saying, "call me at 8:55" when I saw this text it was 8:52. And knowing President he is very busy and expects that you call him when he gives a specific time. I waited, watching the clock and called him at 8:55. He told me that there are some changes in this transfer. I will now be going to Stamford Connecticut where I'll will serve with Elder Hoskins and Elder Rocha (Haw-sha).  We got to the Inwood chapel around 12 o'clock. When the U-Haul showed up we helped unload it and then we began loading the upstate missionaries suitcases. Instead of loading my stuff on the U-Haul President Smith said to stick with the AP's till further notice.  It's definitely been an interesting transfer. I rode around with the AP's (Elder Macintosh & Elder McBride) and William. We drove up to the Ossining chapel where we dropped off some missionary’s suitcases. Afterward the four of us went & grabbed some sandwiches for lunch. William and I split a sandwich, I told him he could order what ever he would like. He said how's turkey and cheddar cheese. I said sounds good to me, haha so that's what we ate just turkey and cheddar cheese on bread. I love President Smith and his family; William is so fun to be around. About the time we finished lunch, it was around 3:45 and we needed to meet up with my new comps. We met halfway, I don't remember where we were, but the AP's dropped me off with my comps and we made our way to their apartment. When we got home I took in my suitcases and started to unpack just a little bit. A couple hours later we had some appointments. It's so nice having a car!! No more walking!

Week 50

September 21, 2016

Wednesday, Day 344

Day 331 in NY

PDAY!

Natural History Museum.

I think that sums it up pretty well... lol we did the usual, laundry, groceries... when we finished lunch we went to the NHM. Where we stayed for most of Pday, came home for dinner and went to work! My sickness/cold whatever it is seems to be getting worse. But the work must go on!

September 22, 2016

Thursday, Day 345

Day 332 in NY

Weekly planning

Again, another routine day, feeling a little worse this morning we stayed home and planned and rested and went to go see M, and I felt even worse after that, so we came home and I slept... I hate staying home and not being able to work.

September 23, 2016

Friday, Day 346

Day 333 in NY

Now my companion is sick and my roommates, the ZL's are starting to get sick, and we have all day planned today. So we went with it, we hurt and ached and probably shouldn't have gone out, but we needed to, so we did! We visited this guy name H B in Central Park, and then met this kid walking away from our appointment, we taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. We then made our way to go see P then N.  After these visits we went to Sister D's and ate dinner. Still feeling so sick we went home and passed out early.

September 24, 2016

Saturday, Day 347

Day 334 in NY

During lunch we checked the phone and missed a call from the elders in my district. I listened to the voicemail and it was one of the elders, he said something along the lines of "we need you to come over as soon as possible,"  For about an hour we talked and we made goals and plans to help their situation, and everything seemed to be a lot better after that.  A couple hours later we left their apartment and went to the church for an appointment. A pass off lesson with the Sisters in our Ward and their investigator J. That was pretty interesting, he says he prefers English, when we struggled to understand what he was saying, we told him about the Spanish missionaries and that they could meet with him and that would be best, but he insisted that he met with us. Again still feeling pretty sick and Elder Gentry getting worse we called it a day and went home for the night.

September 25, 2016

Sunday, Day 348

Day 335 in NY

After church we met with M just briefly. After coming home for lunch, we wrote our testimonies in a couple copies of the Book of Mormon for a gift to J & E. When we finished that, we had dinner and began cleaning out area book. We did that and made a lot of people we contacted and did this to the end of the night.

September 26, 2016

Monday, Day 349

Day 336 in NY

Our focus this week was on cleaning out our area book and starting fresh with our teaching pool, we felt that seeing the same people each week on a routinely schedule was getting no where. So we had an appointment with an investigator the YSA sisters passed off to us and found that he lived in the Bronx so we set him up with the Missionaries over there. After this appointment we came home for lunch, cleaned out area book for a couple hours had dinner and went to go see D to end our night.

September 27, 2016

Tuesday, Day 350

Day 337 in NY

Mommas birthday!

We started our day off by going to Columbia University and did an APF. We planned on only being there an hour and a half, but we ended up having more time than we thought, we worked from about 3-5:30pm. Our APF was done with the world map, but the sisters and the other elders had appointments they needed to get to so Elder Gentry and I got stuck carrying the board home. And at this point, I've been without a metro card for the last week... because the barcode was scratched and wouldn't read my card, so we walked a mile home carrying this 5'x8' board up and down the street till we got to our apartment, where we thought we could put in in the elevator with us... turned out, it's too big... so up the stairs, 8 flights we went... weaving in and out of hallway doors to each floor trying to get this board upstairs. After about 15 minutes of this we made it up the stairs and we put it in our apartment. Being sick and completely out of energy once again, we were home bound...