Week 77

September 13-19, 2017
Day 539-546
Week 2 in Kingsbridge

This week has been pretty good! Last week’s Pday it was raining again, so we chilled inside most of the time. We had a couple appointments set that evening but they fell through.

Thursday and Friday were both pretty mellow days, we had weekly planning and made a list of people, both Investigators and members and made a plan for each of them. We called a lot of people and set appointments.

Since I’ve come to this area we have received so many referrals, at least 2 each day. So we’ve been doing a lot of calling and look ups to find/get in contact with these people. Some of them ended up being inaccurate information so we couldn’t get in touch with a few of them but we have got in contact with a good number of them and have appointments set.

Saturday we had an appointment around 11 with a referral we got the other day. His name is Z, he is from Africa; He’s a super cool guy and is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to religion; he studied theology in school so he just wanted to meet with us to get information from a “direct source”. We talked about some of the questions he had and taught the Restoration. He’s a very nice guy, but in our first visit him we haven’t found his intent level; if he’s just curious or if he’s actually looking for answers. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and told him we would bring a French copy next time. We set an appointment with him for 2 weeks from now because of his work schedule.

Some time in the afternoon we met with a member, Brother R, he’s blind (but I think only partially). We visited with him for a little while and got to know him a bit, he’s 93 years old, I guess because of his vision he doesn’t come to church, so we take him the sacrament. Also, since he can’t read, we came prepared and brought him the Book of Mormon CDs so he could listen to them.

Sunday’s are pretty nice here in KB (Kingsbridge). We have church at 1:30pm so we get up, get ready, we can have all of our studies and planning done and then have lunch and get to the church around 12:30pm for choir practice and then we are ready for sacrament at 1:30. Today in 3rd hour no one knew if anyone was teaching… so Elder Patterson volunteered us and we led the discussion on the topic “The Power of the Book of Mormon”. It was a really sweet spiritual discussion everyone was involved and participated and it was so cool to hear the thoughts and input from everyone. Church got out at 4:30pm and we headed home for dinner.

Around 6 we were out and heading to a member’s home, Brother M. We visited with him for a bit. He had text us this morning saying he wouldn’t be making it to church today and asked if we could stop by. So we came by and he just poured out everything that he was going through right now… it was pretty crazy. (We met with him last week for a bit and so we already had some background on his situation) we were like, how can we help? He asked us to pray for him and so before we left we said a prayer.

Before heading home, we went and took the sacrament to Brother R. Our visit with him was brief but great!

We had district meeting Monday morning, which was great, Sister Muti led a discussion on “We invite, they commit, we follow up.” Afterward we went to the scriptures and read some verses together and discussed it. Then we split up into companionship’s and planned for an Investigator who is progressing and what invitation we feel they need to strengthen their faith.

After district meeting Elder Patterson and I went home for lunch then went out and looked up some people in Area Book. While looking up people and whether anyone answered or not we would then knock the doors around.

After getting in contact with one of the guys we were looking for we knocked a neighboring door, we met Tom. Tom is an older man; he very slowly came to the door with his body hunched over in what looked like the most uncomfortable way… We introduced ourselves and continued to share a message with him; he stopped us and told us he wasn’t interested in a message. I asked if there was anything we could do for him, he said pray for me. I asked what specifically I could pray for, he said “my back, I have scoliosis…” I asked how long it had been a challenge in his life, he said, “it’s always been a problem”… we bowed our heads and I offered the prayer. We prayed with a man that turned us down when we tried to share a message with him, but as we showed interest in him and a desire to serve him his countenance changed. It wasn’t some miraculous thing, but it was one of those moments where the Spirit was present, Elder Patterson was led to a door and the words that were said during that interaction were true and I believe Tom felt that.

We came home for dinner and also made some phone calls to more referrals we had received that morning! This is the Lords work, and it is busy.

Tuesday morning we had Zone conference it started at 9am and got over at 4pm. It was good meeting to start; nothing really caught my attention or anything for a while… not till the end. An experience President Smith felt to share brought the Spirit strong. An Elder in the room had received an email a few months ago from a friend he hadn’t been in contact with for a while now. She expressed to him her feelings and current life circumstance. He invited her to attend church with her older brother in Utah; where she had planned to go to school to change up her life, she accepted his invitation. (She isn’t a member of the church but her brother is a convert and recently returned missionary) In her visit to the church she met the missionaries, they had talked for a bit and had set an appointment with her shortly after. This Elder, a little while later received another email from this girl saying that she had a wonderful experience at church and was meeting with the missionaries and that she has committed to be baptized and her date would be sometime in October. She expressed in another email shortly after that she has received an answer to her prayers and desired to be baptized sooner. Her date was moved to a more recent day and she was baptized. Projected on the wall in front of us was a picture of this girl in white just before her baptism. What a beautiful and special moment for her and for this Elder. Seeing this brought feelings and memories to my mind of when Miranda had been baptized, along with other friends like Sydney and Drue years prior to serving my mission who had committed to their Heavenly Father that they were ready and willing to follow Him, what beautiful memories came back to my mind along with the feelings I had during each of these special moments that I was blessed to be apart of.

As this was being shared President also felt to share an experience of his own while with his parents recently. His mother, who isn’t originally from this country, found missionaries when she was a young girl. His mother was baptized at 11 years old and that has impacted his life tremendously. Up on the wall, he put up a picture of he and his wife with his parents at the Hartford Connecticut temple, which is a very special place to me. Having these experiences shared, these pictures displayed, and memories filling my mind allowed the Spirit to fill my heart and soul. It was a great and wonderful meeting, soon after these experiences were shared; I along with many others bore our testimonies of what we’ve felt today.

When the meeting ended we made our way to the doors to head home and watched the rain pour outside. The train station wasn’t far, so we left and quickly walked to the train. We headed home, changed out of our wet suits and into dry clothes; we had dinner and ended the night by meeting with IK and playing basketball.

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,

Elder Newbold

Week 76

Back in The Bronx!! #HomeBound

Coming into the mission and starting off in Hunts Point, The Bronx... I was confused, I walked around and questioned if I had actually made it to New York! It was nothing like I imagined and what I saw in the movies... I can look back and say that I definitely wasn't disappointed, I just kept walking with the idea that eventually these buildings would start to look a little familiar! In the Bronx, they never did.

New York looked familiar in Manhattan and only there. But here I am! Once again in the Bronx where I started a journey I will never forget. Where a lot of questions were answered and experiences unrolled. Where I gained a testimony of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon there in the first 12 weeks. It was the first time that, on my own, cover to cover that I read The Book of Mormon.

It was here that I learned the importance of obedience and witnessed the miracles and blessings that came from my effort to be the best I could be. It was where a brotherhood started that would last through the eternities. Most importantly it was the beginning of my journey to finding my Jesus.

Just as any change takes place, adjustment is expected... even serving upstate for 4 1/2 months it took me out of the city living experience and the first couple days took some readjusting. I had to start using my legs again. My butt has been stuck in a car for the last few months and it's good to be back on my feet.

I guess I am a city missionary! I've served so far a total of 14 months in New York City and I've got just less than 6 months left. I may be in the city till I'm done.

Well this week has been great!! We've got this investigator named IK, he's 21, and he's on date to be baptized this month on the 23rd. Our first lesson together with him was my first night here, it was awesome. We talked about repentance and the sacrament and how important it is to never stop trying. Never stop trying to be better. After our lesson with him we went into the gym and played some basketball. It was 3 on 3. Elder Patterson and I with IK, against Elders Clark and Matson with their investigator C. It was pretty solid; we had a lot of fun!

Pday it rained so we were just chillin. After getting groceries and laundry done we just hung out inside, took a nap, and whatever.

Thursday we had weekly Planning so we made a goal for the cycle that we wanted to increase our wards home teaching by 10% and help a few members get their home teaching done. So we made some daily, weekly, and monthly goals to achieve our cycle goal. It's going to be a sweet cycle together!

Thursday evening we went to a member’s home and helped him take out some walls in his apartment so he can remodel. So we were there for a couple hours and when we left we had sheet rock dust all over us!

On Friday we met down at the temple for a leadership meeting at 1pm and came back up to Kingsbridge to clean the chapel.

Saturday was pretty awesome! It truly was a blessing to have President Nelson, his wife, Elder Gong, his wife, and Bishop Waddell and his wife this past weekend and what a blessing it's been to have my thoughts throughout the week turned toward that experience. I loved and felt the truth of Sister Waddell’s testimony of the Book of Mormon and enjoyed Bishop Waddell’s words as he testified of his eternal companion’s words on the Book of Mormon, what a beautiful thing to see and feel their love for The Book of Mormon.

I loved Sister Gong’s invitation to pay attention to the blessing of repentance throughout the Book of Mormon and Elder Gong’s words of learning the language of the Spirit and what a blessing to hear from President and Sister Nelson as they talked about Temple and Family History and making it a focus as we contact people.

Something I really benefited from was something Elder Gong said on Sunday in Kingsbridge during our special stake conference, "Tomorrow no one has sinned." I've been thinking about that and how true it is. Keeping it in mind, that I haven't made a mistake tomorrow brings hope for a better day, "a new day" and I am grateful for that!
This week has been great! I've really enjoyed being back in the Bronx, with a relatable companion, and having joy in the work! The Lord is pouring out blessings upon my companion, this area, and me!

The last few days we've been getting a lot of referrals from headquarters and other missionaries it's been sweet, we've been contacting people left and right and visiting some solid people.

Monday was my first district meeting in this area, it was pretty good. We have 8 missionaries (including myself) and a senior couple, so 10 people at District meetings. It was great, we started off with introductions to get to know everyone a little bit, each companionship talked about 2 people they've been focusing on and their progress and or their concerns, then Elder Matson gave us a great training on the topic "We invite, they commit, we follow up". We talked about extending invitations and commitments to our investigators and members and how we can show them the importance of the things we commit them to do and that as we follow up it shows them that we care. It was a pretty solid meeting, just before we closed up, I passed out paper to everyone and had them write their testimonies/feelings about the area they are serving in and to fold the paper, tape it shut, and stick it in a jar I had labeled time capsule. The plan is to, in 6 weeks or so, do it again and review our 1st written testimony and see the change.

After our meeting we split with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Murset in his area and Elder Baker came to our area with Elder Patterson. It was a pretty cool split, they are Spanish missionaries so we visited/taught people in Spanish. It's been so long that I really didn't say much until the end, I would bare my testimony in English and Elder Murset would translate. Overall it was a great split. Tuesday around noon we met up with our companions at Panda Express for lunch and to un-split.

It's really been a great and enjoyable week! I'm so grateful for the opposition and trials that I've faced in my life, because without the bad we couldn't know the good, without pain we wouldn't know relief.

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

Week 75

Hey Everyone, 

I'm sitting in my apartment and realized... I didn't keep a journal this week... due to transfers and my horrible memory, I have no clue what happened between last Wednesday and today.

So this will be a much different entry than y'all are used to. But it will have to do.

This week I know was similar, as every day in New Paltz seemed... service here and service there. 

The only thing that was different was that transfers were among us. Knowing that, and having been in New Paltz for 3 cycles and really feeling the need for change in my life, I expected a change. I expected to be transferred.

Saturday night we got the call! Elder Newbold, you are going to Kingsbridge and will continue to serve as a district leader, your companion will be Elder Patterson. I was pretty stoked!

Sunday was great! But sad! I had told President Cooper I'd be leaving. Unexpectedly in branch council he announced it, I wasn't sure how to tell Brother Hinds, because I knew it wouldn't be an easy thing to do. But President Cooper did it and soon after I felt brother Hinds from behind, nudge me... Asking when I found out? Where I'd be going? etc. Immediately he messaged his daughter and informed her... I spent some time in the halls while members came to make arrangements for final visits and pictures. Elder Wallace and I then planned the rest of the evening and all of tomorrow to visit each of the members to share a brief and final message, take a picture and exchange contact info.

Tuesday Morning I packed all my stuff and off to Ossining we drove. We got there at 11 and loaded my stuff into a U-Haul. Then we hung out with the other waiting missionaries till our companions and ride showed up. Elder Davis showed up after 12 and I got in the van with him, (White) Elder Davis, William Smith, Sister Ho, Sister Gill, and Sister Israelsen. We drove down to Inwood where we met at the chapel. I met my companion Elder Patterson talked with a few missionaries I hadn't seen in a bit and welcomed back an ASL missionary who had left to San Diego for part of his mission and just returned, (Elder Holt, he's a deaf Elder.) We hung out till the U-Haul pulled up. We grabbed my suitcases and fortunately the senior couple in our area offered to load my stuff in their car and drop it off for us! What a blessing!!! It was HOT and I would not have enjoyed dragging suitcases on and off subway cars.

When we got home we ate lunch and waited around for my stuff to get dropped off. Then we put my stuff inside my room and I packed some sports clothes. We went to the church and taught an investigator, IK (IK is his name). He's from Nigeria. We taught him about repentance and the sacrament. We invited him to continue reading the Book of Mormon and to come to church. It was a great lesson! Then we all played some basketball in the gym. We played 3-3, Elder Patterson, IK,
and I against Charles (a member in our ward) and Elders Clark and Matson. We headed home after the game and just chilled till we were ready for bed.

I'm pretty stoked to be in the Bronx again. I really look forward to the next few cycles I have left. Elder Patterson is a great guy! Great missionary! And I know we will have a great time together!

Peace out New Paltz, Welcome back to the Boogie Down Bronx!

Love you all!!
Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 74

August 23, 2017
Wednesday, Day 517
Day 157 back in NY
Pday!

We decided as our 2nd to last pday of the cycle we would go bowling as a Zone, which was pretty fun! It's nice to “get away”, being stuck with someone 24/7 really gets old… so it was fun to be around everyone else in the zone and just hang out and bowl. We bowled 2 games and that was it. I had gotten a haircut just before bowling so after, we went to the ZLs apartment so I could shower and clean up. 

Once we finished there, we went back to New Paltz and emailed for a bit, had dinner and all that fun stuff.

Everything else we had planned this evening fell through, so we went and helped Brother W work on the house he's working on.




August 24, 2017
Thursday, Day 518
Day 158 back in NY

After weekly planning we went to Sister P's home and helped her out. She is trying to clear out her attic, which is 4 stories up. So we go up to the attic and clear off the shelves she had with wood and bring down as much as we could for 2 hours.

Then we went back to the church, changed out of our work clothes and into our holy work clothes. We had language study at the church for an hour then left to Brother H's home for dinner. When we got there he came out and took us for a ride in his car. We drove over to the S family’s house and visited them, during the visit my pocket kept vibrating… so I checked it to make sure it wasn't some emergency, it ended up being brother H’s daughter J who was making dinner… she said it was ready and that we were late and she and her husband would eat without us. Lol so knowing J, we were in big trouble... after relaying the message to Brother H his eyes widened and he knew we had to go right then, so we quickly ended our visit with a brief message and were on our way to Brother H’s home. We had dinner, and then shared a message with him, J, and her husband N.

August 25, 2017
Friday, Day 519
Day 159 back in NY

This morning on our ride over to Sister P's to continue helping her; we were on a conference call for President’s miracle line. We originally were going to help Sister P move her washer out of her house, but 1. We didn't have another man to help, 2. It was on the 2nd floor so it was going to be tricky and 3. We didn't have another man... lol so while she figured out what she wanted to do about her washer, standing in her front yard, I turned around and offered to dig out an old tree stump. So for the next 10 minutes I worked on that and found a few more things to keep us busy while she was figuring out her washer situation.

Then we drove over to Sister M’s and put together a clothing rack she just got. She tried to figure it out but she said she didn't have the patience for it. With patience and reading a few instructions we figured it out.

Later that evening we went to visit the E family. The parents weren't home, but the kids were and their uncles were watching them, so we stayed for a bit and shared a message about prayer.

August 26, 2017
Saturday, Day 520
Day 160 back in NY

Today was the day we've been waiting for, for some time. We've had a branch BBQ planned since June. And a few weeks into July it was pushed back a week. So it's finally here. We went to the church to send off our progress report for the week, then Brother J showed up and we helped set up for the BBQ. We brought out a couple grills, set up a canopy tent, put up tables in the chapel and outside. Then around 11:50 members and friends started showing up with food and games. We ate, mingled, and played ultimate Frisbee. A (he just returned home last week from his mission in France) got together a group of people for Frisbee it was pretty fun, he had a friend from high school show up and play, it was a good time! We had about 55 people show up.

By the time the BBQ was over and we finished cleaning up it was time for dinner. So we went home cleaned up and had dinner.

We went to the church for correlation at 7 and after calling our branch mission leader a couple times he finally called back at 7:30 and said he wasn't going to make it, he had a busy day and had forgotten lol. So we planned with the Sisters our next APF and talked about some other things we could put together. Then we went and visited the W. Sister W was home and of course sent us home with food. What would we do without the W's!?

August 27, 2017
Sunday, Day 521
Day 161 back in NY

Today was a pretty good Sunday! We had 2 set appointments in the evening after dinner. We visited Brother M and then the D's. The D's are wonderful and always feed us too, he had burgers made. We ate together and then shared a message. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Very short day but very good!

August 28, 2017
Monday, Day 522
Day 162 back in NY

District meeting came up pretty quick so I prepared this morning and we met at 11am. We then had lunch, comp study and then language study; which is always fun. It's a great time!

Our appointment with J.K. fell through so we went and visited the E's. They were all home, we just wanted to stop by and offer to help in anyway. They said we could come back Friday and have dinner and help them out with some stuff. So we said a prayer with them and were on our way.

After dinner we went to the church and met up with Brother J. We visited the S family and made a great contact with them, they invited us back for Wednesday evening. We shared Helaman 5:12 with them and went to stop by Sister C, she wasn't home but her husband was and he isn't a member. I've met him once a couple months ago, he's super nice and willing to talk and listen. So we were talking and felt to share with him the scripture 2Nephi 25:26, one of my favorite scriptures.

We had about 45 minutes left in the night so we went back to the church and he helped us update some records on LDS tools, we printed off some home teaching lists and we went home! It was a great productive day!

August 29, 2017
Tuesday, Day 523
Day 163 back in NY

After studies we went to Sister P's neighbor, L's home. We helped her out, trimmed her hedges and painted her doorframe. We were running low on time but offered to come back another time and talk about the Book of Mormon like she asked. We said a prayer with her and said we would contact her this week to come teach her about the Book of Mormon.

After going home and getting cleaned up we went and visited Brother H, an inactive member. We talked for a bit and then I played catch with his kids, Little D (8) and L (6). They love baseball so we played catch while Elder Wallace talked to Brother H. We went home to change again and on our way grabbed some pizza. We were supposed to help Brother W out at his home, after not hearing back from him for some time we went to the church and worked on some other things, updating more records, etc. when we finally went home for the night he called and apologized for not getting back to us, he had an emergency meeting and couldn't get out any faster.

Transfers are coming up... trainer calls will be tonight so we will figure out if anyone's training today... Saturday we will find out if anyone's leaving... so kind of excited for that... I could use a change soon. But all is well in Zion, I suppose!

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,

Elder Newbold