Week 63

June 7, 2017
Wednesday, Day 440
Day 80 back in NY

We quickly got groceries this morning and bagged up our laundry. We began driving to Poughkeepsie to hang out with Zone Leaders. We were driving for about 15 minutes when I looked off to the side of the road and saw this FAT 20lb-snapping turtle. I pulled off and we went over to it and took some pictures and stuff. This time of year the turtles lay their eggs and so a lot of them are migrating to water. So we have been stopping every time we find one to get it out of the road, because sadly people don't care enough and they run them over. And this snapping turtle would have wrecked some cars if it got in the road. So very carefully, knowing I could loose some fingers or worse, if this thing caught a hold of my hand, I grabbed toward the back of the shell above its hind legs. It's neck is extremely long and would snap back to try and get me. But I got it out of the road. Elder Murray, being the nature boy that he is wanted a turn with it lol. So I put it down and he picked it up and we took some pictures. (He said he was taking a video of me when I had it, but it apparently never recorded) so he's got pictures of him with it. We then made our way to the car and we started back to Poughkeepsie. We started our laundry when we got to the Zone Leaders beloved abode and then we went to a park and played Spike Ball and Football 3 on 3. We were probably there about 3 1/2 hours. It was a good pday! After our laundry we made it home and went to the church to help out with Scouting. It was Brother J (who's our 1st counselor) and Q (the only scout) lol. We unfolded a flag and put it up the pole. We also recited the scout Oath and Law. It was kind of fun to relive the short Scouting moments of my “youthier” youth haha.

June 8, 2017
Thursday, Day 441
Day 81 back in NY

When we finished our studies we called onto the conference call and listened to it as we drove to Sister P's. President shared some miracles and he shared ours of finding the apartment (35C) while looking for B (who we have yet to find). But it was cool to hear him share the miracle to the mission. Sister P had a window replaced in her house and so new wood was put in around the window and it needed painting so we painted that part of her house. She fed us pizza for lunch, (I'm just now starting to realize that we are being fed pizza more often) Wahoo! We then rushed home to get cleaned up and ready for an APF. We drove down Main St. and found a spot to do our APF, so we stopped there, set up our table and began talking to people on the street. It was much more effective than last week at the campus. We will probably do it here more often and continue to look for more popular places. After the APF we had companionship study and then went to Brother H's to give him a blessing, he went into the hospital the other day for a procedure and asked if we could come by. He had dinner ready for us, so we gave him a blessing, ate dinner and spent some time with him so he had company. Toward the end of the night, our last look up for the day we talked to this guy who has had missionaries stop by in the past, he loved to talk and to listen to our message but we weren't too sure he had much of a desire to have us over often and apply the gospel to his own life. He said his family lives nearby and that we could stop by them and share a message. After leaving his home it was about time to head home.

June 9, 2017
Friday, Day 442
Day 82 back in NY

Yesterday we would have had weekly planning but because we were at Sister P’s we scheduled to plan today. We planned for a few hours, had lunch, and continued planning till we were done. Then we went to Lowe’s and looked to see how much it would cost for Plywood, paint, brushes, etc. for our Book of Mormon board project. That didn't take more than 15 minutes. We went to the car and had companionship study. We then had planned to do some tracting near a former investigators home. We knocked a few doors and the last door that we talked to someone was a very interesting experience… the man came out in a bikers outfit and immediately said “let me guess, your Latter Day Saints” Elder Murray “jokingly” said “how'd you know” the man responded “I can read” as he pointed to our tags. Well about 10 minutes later we walked away with wide grins on our faces with the thought of, what a waste of time. (Every now and then you find a person so “devoted” to their faith that they, right off the bat begin “teaching” you... more or less telling you, that you’re wrong and that their religion is the true religion and that no matter what we say we won't convert them and that it wouldn't matter anyway because “they are already saved”. Then when they finally take a breath we say that we 1st off aren't here to convert them and we begin to testify of the Savior to find a common ground… more often than not it seems that the majority find that they'd rather not listen to anything we have to say, for whatever reason. So we testify and leave with that.)

We came home for dinner and then went to the church for weekly correlation with Brother W.

June 10, 2017
Saturday, Day 443
Day 83 back in NY

After studies we wrote up our progress report for the branch council. We had a couple people we wanted to contact on our way to an appointment toward the top of our area. We made contact with both of them then made our way to Brother B’s home. He lives way “out of the way” from everyone else. On our area map there isn't anybody that lives very close to him. The next closest member to him is Brother K, we drive over to Brother K’s and helped him prepare for his lesson tomorrow. He's blind but has an incredible memory. So we read him the lesson outline and he gave a great lesson summary and was able to teach off of it, he will be ready for tomorrow! Around 2pm we went to the H’s to help chop wood. We loaded their truck bed twice with wood from trees they cut down, chopped them up and stacked them in their shed. We were finishing up and Sister H came out and said she had burgers ready for us. When we were all done, we went in and washed up and ate dinner with the family. This was our first meal of the day… I think I had a snack for breakfast but we skipped lunch since we were behind a bit in our schedule. We made our way home to shower and change, then we went back out and did some look ups and met with Brother E and his family.

June 11, 2017
Sunday, Day 444
Day 84 back in NY

Church was great, after coming home for lunch we went to take the Sacrament to Brother M. We visited with him for a bit and shared a message. We talked about prayer and building our relationship with Heavenly Father. We had companionship study in the car, and then did some look ups on our way home to dinner. The rest of the evening was look-ups; we were able to make contact with some people finally, which is always good.

June 12, 2017
Monday, Day 445
Day 85 back in NY

This morning before district meeting we called Brother R to see if he still wanted us to come by tonight and help him with his refrigerator. He answered and told us yes that would be great, so we planned to see him at 7:30pm. After our district meeting, we met up with a member, Brother W, for lunch. We met him at their Indian food restaurant near our apartment.  We talked about the scriptures with him and invited him to read daily. He's a very interesting guy. Today has been ridiculously HOT and gross… it was 96° with 100% humidity… heat+humidity=Death. And we made the dumb decision to begin working on our Book of Mormon board… we drove to the church quickly laid down the board and began painting it blue... by the time half of it was painted and we moved on the other half, the first half was completely dry… we loosened our ties, unbuttoned our collar and finished the 2nd half. Then we went inside the church for a break, some water, and gave it a few minutes before we did another coat. We finally cooled off enough and went back out to finish… when we finished the 2nd coat, back inside we went to take a break and wash off the brushes. We then went out again, grabbed the board, brought it inside the church and stuck it in a storage room, till we come back to work on it again. 

Then we had an appointment at a nonmember family’s home. We met the son of the C family for the first time; we talked with him for a bit, he had a Mormon friend in Honduras who served his mission in Brazil. We continued to talk about him and his family, and then we briefly taught the restoration. His mother doesn't speak a lick of English, she can understand less than I can in Spanish. So her son, C, and her friend who speaks a little bit of English and Spanish translated for her. Because of the language barrier it was hard to keep the focus on the teaching to help them understand. C seemed to understand fairly well because he speaks English very well for studying/speaking it for only 5 years. But overall it went well. They live just a few apartments over, so we walked home to eat dinner. Leaving our apartment we got a text from O, a Turkish girl we met during our last APF. She found interest in the church because of The Book of Mormon play. She wanted to know if the things they said and made jokes about the church were true of not. So every now and then we've talked with her to clarify some things. We think she will get baptized! She leaves at the end of July to go back to Turkey. So we met with her to answer some of her questions and she is just so great and sincere! 

We made our way to Brother R’s and ended up stopping by this other investigator named J. Elder Murray said he doesn't have much interest because he thinks he knows what he needs to from researching our faith on google (which by the way for anyone who thinks that's a good idea, ITS NOT. We have websites like www.lds.org & www.Mormon.org for a reason, they have truth. Google is not reliable for ANY religious information.)  So we stopped by, introduced myself, got to know him a bit, and his family. (The whole time we met outside we were getting eaten by mosquitoes…) Well a short expected visit turned into an hour on his front lawn trying to help him understand that we don't believe in the trinity. (I had just studied about it his morning to, so luckily the scriptures were fresh on my mind). But he didn't care, he told us we would never convince him… which made me mad that he said that, because that's not what we are about, we don't go around convincing people that we are the true church, and he even asked us to share what we believe. Lol some people man… well I finally saw the sun set below some trees and told J we needed to go, so we left and went to Brother R’s.

On our way we called him and told him we were a little behind, Brother R said oh yea I forgot you were coming. When we got there it was still light enough outside, but it was going to be dark soon. We went inside, cleared out the fridge and freezer in his basement than wheeled it to his back door, set on the bucket of his tractor and he drove it to his front door. We got it up to the first step and tied some straps around it, so we had something to hold onto…and it wouldn't budge much, we got it up a few steps but at this rate it wasn't really going to make it into the house before midnight (and this fridge was massive…) he called his son and about 15 minutes later he showed up. Another 15 minutes later, we had the fridge inside the house. When we finished it was just after 9:15 so we started home.

June 13, 2017
Tuesday, Day 446
Day 86 back in NY

Yesterday was 96° today wasn't much cooler I think it was about 94° and still 100% humidity… we try, every Tuesday to go to Sister M's and help her with her yard or anything she needs… well we unknowingly chose the 2nd hottest day of the year to wear pants, long socks over our pants, and move her burn pile... I love helping people!! I promise!! But just to give you an idea of what it was like, imagine taking a HOT shower with all your clothes on. When we came in for water we were drenched in sweat. I was afraid I would loose weight! When we finished we went inside and made sandwiches. We had lunch and shared a message with her and her daughter L. Tired and gross we went home and cleaned up so that we could then go to the chapel to help the Bishop’s storehouse and fill orders. While we were wrapping up, it started pouring rain outside, still 90° and raining. Around 5pm we finished up and went to visit the H family then went home for dinner. We did some look ups and ended the night with daily contact!

I have this week to write about and then I'm caught up! Love y'all!

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,

Elder Newbold