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