Week 95

January 17, 2018
Last pday around 1pm, we went to a member’s home to help him move his old bed out of his apartment. We went over with our roommates; it was one of those heavy-duty hospital like beds with a motor attached to the frame so it was heavy. We carried it out his room and into the elevator, then down to the basement. He flipped on an LDS movie said he’d be right back and took off and came back 15 minutes later with a bucket of Chicken. We had lunch at his place and then we had to head out to finish our pday plans.

January 18, 2018
A day to remember!
We had weekly planning at the apartment and around lunchtime Elder Stokes said we would go out to eat. I was down to go out, and then he said, “Where do you want to go? I got some money as a gift, it’s on me.” We talked about places we could eat; I told him down on Fordham Rd was where some nicer places were, like Chipotle and Applebee’s. He said okay we can walk there and look at places on the way.” We walked for about 25 minutes and pointed out places to each other, nothing really stood out to us that we wanted. Then when we got to Fordham we made our way over to Applebee’s and Chipotle, I was thinking Chipotle and then saw a sign in the window for a deal at Applebee’s, so Elder Stokes said okay Applebee’s it is and quickly walked to the door. I followed in and was going to wait to be seated, but Elder Stokes kept walking and said over here, we can sit here. Not paying too much attention but then following my companion, I was surprised by Ray Smith sitting in the booth where my companion pointed! 

They had planned a surprise to meet up with Ray before I head home next month! We sat down and talked and ordered lunch. We continued catching up and in our conversation Ray brought up something I wasn’t expecting to hear... he informed me that a member in New Paltz, R R, had passed away. He was in his home while it caught fire and was able to call 911 but when they got to him he had been unconscious in his stairwell. They believe because of his older age his lungs couldn’t take the fumes he was inhaling.
He was a well-known and wonderful man! He was the first member and person in New Paltz that I met after arriving in the area. I remember parking the car in his driveway, walking up to his front door, and knocking. When he came to the door I introduced myself right away and shook his hand. He expressed to me right there that he knew I was a good and confident man by the way I was quick to introduce myself and the way I shook his hand. He brought even more confidence to myself that day with his comments and I appreciated very much the time we spent together that day. He made us a steak for dinner and we shared a message with him in his front room. There was something about him that reminded me about my Gramps and it may have just been his personality.
Throughout my service in New Paltz Brother R would share with me poems, some of which he wrote on his own. One Sunday, I believe it was my last, he approached me with a poem in his hand, he said read this one. And I did, when I finished with a smile on my face he said, you like that one don’t ya? Keep it, it’s yours.
I truly enjoyed the time spent in New Paltz and getting to know Brother R. It’s nice to know he is now reunited with his wife.

Brother Smith, Elder Stokes and Elder Newbold

We continued on with our lunch surprise talking about experiences we’ve had in our service as missionaries. Then Ray asked me the question, “what is one or two take-aways from your service in this last year since you’ve returned, that you could share?”

I thought about it till the end of our meal and while dessert was being served, I was ready to give my response. I said one of my take-aways I feel to share is “having an eternal perspective”. When we can understand our purpose here on earth and the plan our Heavenly Father has for us, individually, I feel we receive a determination to work hard to serve him and his children.

The second thing I shared was “obedience brings forth blessings & miracles” as we are obedient to our Father in Heaven we receive promised blessings. When we choose, because we have a choice, we decide whether we want to accept or deny opportunities to be blessed.

It was a great question that gave me the opportunity to reflect on my life and service in the mission field. 

I’m so grateful for people who are diligent in serving Heavenly Father’s children. Brother Ray Smith most certainly has blessed my life spiritually and physically. Each time we meet he blesses me with food for the body and food for the soul. I’m uplifted and inspired by his example and inspired questions.

Talking to the Hostess

We finished up with our visit and dessert and made our way out one set of doors where we were stopped by one of the workers. Her name was T, she asked what church we were from, we told her, and she got excited and said she was given a copy of the Book of Mormon by a Sister and was given a card but she said she can’t find the card with the church information on it. So we gave her a card and told her about the church and when it starts services. It was a pretty sweet miracle; we were there for a reason other than to surprise me!

Later that evening we met with some members, Brother J took us out for dinner and we had a sweet discussion about his mission! Then we met with Brother and Sister K

January 19, 2018
This morning we had a miracle line conference call, which we listened to on the way to an appointment, to see D. It was Elder Stokes first time meeting with D so it was nice to get to know him a little more. We then began to ask him questions about what he remembered from our first visit, as we tried to review he said he couldn't remember. There’s a very obvious language barrier and it makes it hard for him to remember since he’s still learning English. So we introduced him to the Book of Mormon stories and we read together from the book and he seemed to get the concepts and story much better, but being able to retain what he learns is what will be a little tricky at this point, but he’s just so awesome and willing to learn.

Around 1pm we went to the church and had another Hot Chocolate and chapel tours APF. It was pretty fun like last time! We talked to a lot of people and were able to show them inside the church. Then once they were in the building other missionaries would get them a cup of hot chocolate and offer to show them the chapel. It was pretty effective! We did that for a few hours rotating with different missionaries.

January 20, 2018
This morning we had correlation meeting at the church and then about half way through we got on a conference call with the mission. President Smith informed us of some news from the Prophet, that our mission would be reorganized, that the name of our mission would change to the New York City Mission and the boundaries would be remade and we would combine certain areas with other missions around. These changes would take place after I’m home and just before President Smith and his family leave in July.

While we were out and about today we came across 2 different groups of kids who we challenged to play some basketball with. We were pretty sure the first group wasn’t going to show. But the second group seemed promising. We set the game for Tuesday at 7pm.

January 21, 2018
This Sunday was pretty great! I loved the talks that were given. It was centered on the new ward mission plan, which simply is to encourage members to find opportunities or recognize the opportunities they have throughout the week for “friendship moments” where they don’t necessarily need to share the gospel, but be a friend to someone, an investigator, other members that they usually don’t associate with, etc. our ward doesn’t do too much missionary work, so this is the plan the ward council came up with to help members out.

January 22, 2018
Monday morning we had leadership and district meeting. After lunch the couple appointments we had set fell through. Around 7pm we had FHE at the church it was pretty great. We had a brief message shared by Elder Richards and then a game (we had to match a few questions to certain scripture references), and then we had treats after.



January 23, 2018
Last night we had an appointment planned with D because he wasn’t at church on Sunday. So we planned to go over and see how everything was, he ended up not being home. And forgot to tell us. But we felt while we were in his area to look up someone, who by the name wasn’t familiar, but after getting to the door we realized who Sister P was. She’s a wonderful member, very active, and absolutely loves the missionaries and being involved in the work. We asked if she had any friendship moments since Sunday and she did! She shared with us 2 different experiences where she befriended one of the people Elder and Sister Richards had invited to church and she sat in during a discussion with the Sister’s investigators. It was so awesome! We shared a brief scripture with her and said a prayer for her. It was a very short and simple stop by visit, but we felt lifted by it.

Later in the afternoon we met with E A, he’s so freaking prepared! He understands the Restoration so well! He’s an investigator Elder Patterson and I taught twice but due to his work schedule with the MTA it was near impossible to meet and for him to come to church. So we let him go for a bit and then all of a sudden he was showing up to church on his own every now and then. So we called to meet with him today during his break to catch up and see how he is and what we can do to help him continue learning. We didn’t even ask about the teachings we last taught, but he shared with us an experience he had recently when he invited his mother to our church, she was hesitant because she had heard “things” about our church that weren’t true and E knew they weren’t true, so from memory he taught his mom the Restoration. It was so awesome! He’s so great and we look forward to him continuing his journey in the gospel! We pray his schedule will become more flexible.

That evening at 7 we went to the church and the kids we challenged on Saturday showed up. Elder Stokes and I changed and met them in the gym. We gathered the seven of them together and laid out some rules. (When we approached them on the street that night they were smoking and swearing). We told them, “this is a church so we won’t tolerate foul language, smoking, inappropriate behavior, or trash talking. We are here to have some fun so keep it a clean game. Before we start we are going to share a video with you all about Christ and then we will teach you all how to pray.”

We shared the video and proceeded to teach them to pray, after which we asked who would volunteer to open this game with a prayer. Immediately the oldest one (J who’s 16) threw his hand in the air and said I will. He offered a great prayer!

And we played some ball! We had another one of our guys show up who we invited earlier that morning (A). So we played 5 on 5. We had a lot of fun!

It was a great week! Y’all know better than I when I’ll be home so I’ll see y’all soon!

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,

Elder Newbold

Week 94

This week was pretty great! We’ve had some great experiences and have been working on helping the ward and future missionaries by recreating a list of all the members with simple and helpful information. For example, we have over 800 members in our area. Not all of them are still living or currently living here, contact info has been changed... etc. so we’ve been reaching out to members and trying to find them all to make it clear where people are and how we can continue to help them each make it to church or have their records moved to their local church.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018
We visited Brother C just to share a brief message and get to know him a little more. We shared a video of the Last Supper and talked about the sacrament and focused on why it’s important to each of us. It was great to hear his response in making it clear that it’s personal and is similar but different for everyone. We had a great visit with him. He’s been returning to activity recently so it’s been great to have him around at church more.

After meeting with Brother C we decided to go to another place in our area close by to look up some members and make contact with them. We felt to look up this guy named M, he lived in one of the apartments underground behind the building so it took a little bit to find it. We then gave him a call, while I was on the phone with him and trying to communicate with M (who speaks mostly Spanish) my companion met this young lady opening the gate to where we needed access to get to find M’s door. While he was talking to her he was able to find that she was interested in coming to church and they exchanged information. Meanwhile I was still trying to let M know we were coming by to visit. On the phone he said he wasn’t home, but we tried to knock his door anyway. He opened the door and he was home! He invited us in and we did our best together to speak with him. We sat on his couch and Elder Stokes offered a simple sweet prayer in the little Spanish he knew. We then shared a video in Spanish and testified of it. We invited him to allow the Spanish missionaries to stop by, he agreed and set a time for them to come tomorrow.

Thursday, January 11, 2018
We’ve been meeting with a young converts younger brother. A, he’s 14 and has shared with us his interest in being baptized. He’s young and doesn’t understand much of the commitment of baptism but we’ve been working with him to learn. We had a great little discussion on the Book of Mormon and it’s importance. We left him with a little assignment to read the introduction. We then scheduled another time to come back and talk about it. He also said he would come to church on Sunday.

Later that evening we visited a man named N, he is from Africa and was interested in receiving a Bible. I had called him some time earlier in the day or even yesterday and set the appointment. Soon before we arrived at his apartment I realized I didn’t pack a Bible with me. So we got to his door, he invited us in. We talked about what inspired him to order a Bible, he shared with us why and we then talked about the Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy and told him we would come back and deliver a Bible. We ended up teaching him the whole Restoration very briefly and setting a return appointment. We will see how he feels about the Book of Mormon and find whether he has real intent to continue learning.

Friday , January 12, 2018
Today was a special day and one to remember. We had the opportunity to watch at the chapel the funeral of President Thomas S. Monson. It was really neat! The speakers were great and I just loved hearing about their experiences serving with President Monson and testifying of how Christ leads His church.

After the funeral we stuck around waiting for a guy named C. He is one of our recent Bible & Book of Mormon referrals. We met at the church in a classroom, we opened up with a prayer and then we asked some questions to get to know him and find out why he felt to request the scriptures. He then spent the next half hour sharing with us his life story. Which was just, wow. It was so personal and he said he had never opened up to anyone about his life. We testified to him of the love his father in Heaven has for him and scheduled another day to meet and he committed to come to church on Sunday.

Saturday, January 13, 2018
Today we had correlation for the first time in about a month since our ward mission leader had been gone in Utah for the holidays.

Early that afternoon we went to Bishop Ferguson’s and visited with him for a bit. We wanted to speak with him about his goals this New Year for the ward and how we can help him to achieve them. It was a pretty great meeting as helped us make a plan to know where we should focus.

Later in the evening one of the members, Frank brought us dinner at the church, a box of pizza for each of us. It was very nice of him!

Sunday, January 14, 2018
Elder stokes gave a talk today, his topic was focused toward general conference and the importance of reviewing the messages given. We are led by a prophet today and how important it is that we not only read the scriptures of old (because they were written for our day) but how important it is that we listen to the current prophet today and what they have to teach us. We should most definitely be viewing conference both times a year but also in between, be reviewing and studying them.

Later that evening we met with a man named S, he was a referral from the sisters in Manhattan. They met him while they were meeting with one of their investigators. Right after a lesson S walked into the room and they met him and talked to him. He’s recently become sober and is working on changing more in his life to follow God. He told the sisters he would love to meet with us. So we met with him that evening and he told us his story about he was and what led him to make changes in his life.

We introduced the Book of Mormon and taught him a little bit about it. We were running short on time and set an appointment to come back next Sunday.

I find it so amazing how people we don’t know are so comfortable telling us their lives to the very details without us even asking them too because they recognize us as Christ’s representatives.

Monday, January 15, 2018
After district meeting we went on a split with Zone leaders and Elder Murset and I met M & M. They are members who haven’t been to church in some time. We talked a bit and got to know them. We asked what they remember about their baptism. They both said they were baptized at 16 and 14 (they are now 31 and 29) and they were very nervous, but excited. They said in the moment they were baptized they recognized the spirit strongly. We asked them if they had felt that way recently? One of them made a face and said naa it’s been a while. While the other one said yea, whenever I feel down and I open up the scriptures or pray, I feel the spirit. It was a nice experience and they enjoyed being with us, as did we with them.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018
We had a great experience this evening!

We had just stepped out of an appointment when I answered the phone to a call from President Smith last night. After ending the conversation with him, I felt great about the decision I made to just wait and hear from my family later about Josh’s mission call and was determined to find a miracle. Very soon after my call with President, Elder Stokes and I found ourselves on a train ride to deliver a Bible; while on the train we met a man named R, he actually started the conversation. “You both are getting off at Kingsbridge right?” We replied saying “actually we are going to deliver a Bible to someone, but we do have a church over on Kingsbridge.” He said “yea I know, I had a friend drag me there a few times in the past to play basketball and stuff, I’ve never gone there for the right reasons though, just to play basketball and goof around with some friends. But hey, take down my number so we can get together another time, maybe sit down and talk more about what the church is like, I’m interested in learning.”

I just love that! Had I made a different decision on the phone that night, Elder Stokes and I would have missed that opportunity.

Grateful for these wonderful experiences that I’m having here in NY and pray that I may “Never slow down and Never stop”.

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,

Elder Newbold

Week 93

Well I’ve got to be honest, the closer I get to coming home the less motivation there is in me to write home... I love you all dearly and am so grateful for the letters, emails, and support. I appreciate ALL who have sent me packages and letters during the holidays. As much as I would love to reach out to you individually, with the time I’m limited to it may not happen while here in NY. So I thank you all and I truly appreciate your support and kindness!

With that being said, it’s been a wonderful week! They all have been and I know they all will continue to be wonderful, I’m doing my absolute best each day and we see the success and miracles from our obedience. I do apologize in advance, I do not plan on writing too much today.

A lot has happened this week just as you’ve seen in the last handful of weeks but I’ll just write about a couple highlights.

Last Wednesday night we experienced a wonderful miracle. We had been doing some look ups around the area by our church. When leaving a building Elder Stokes said, “Who’s H W”? I explained that he’s a member we’ve been trying to get in touch with since Elder Davis came to the area and prior to our efforts Elder Richards had been trying since early April of 2017. We hadn’t had any success trying to find him, but we decided to try anyway. We got to his building and stood outside, we waited for someone to let us in. In the past we’ve usually waited for about 2 minutes or so until someone either walked in or out and we could then get in. So we waited and maybe it was just over 2 minutes but before we decided to leave I said “we will give it another 30 seconds” (I don’t know why I said that, but I did) Elder Stokes actually started to count aloud, “30, 29, 28, 27 ... 10...” then he stopped at 10... in the moment we weren’t sure why, but looking back we felt that we were both stopped in time, we didn’t leave, we stopped counting, we just waited. And what might actually have been a couple minutes later, felt like 10 seconds. But all of a sudden, someone came waking up the street and into this building, without hesitation we followed in behind. We knocked Hubert’s door and found very quickly that he was home! He opened the door and said, “come in” as if he was expecting us. We walked into his living room and sat on the couch. He sat with us and we had just the best time with him. We learned so much about him. He got so excited to talk about when he served a mission in Manchester England. He went to find his mission photo album. He sat between us on the couch and just went through and talked about nearly every photo. It was so cool to watch his excitement about his experiences.

We’ve had a handful of meetings this week. On Friday last week we had MLC and met as the mission leadership. We met in the Scarsdale chapel and discussed the needs of our zones and what we could do to help the missionaries and the areas we are serving.

Saturday morning we went to the church for the baptism of B. He’s a guy our roommates have been working with for about 8 weeks. He is so awesome!

Sunday was great! Other than the fact that our chapel was 25°! The heater in the chapel broke but everywhere else it was working.

Monday was great as well! We had district meeting in the morning and then Elder Clark and I went on a split and went up to Scarsdale for our “What’s Next Meeting”. As we sat around the living room of the mission home President leaned over to me and asked if I would conduct this meeting. He left and came back a few minutes later. In that time I picked someone to play the piano, a hymn to sing, and a prayer to be given and I conducted the meeting. It was pretty sweet! Not too many people came with questions to ask. So it wasn’t as focused in too many different topics but the first thing that was brought up was dating. Missionaries asked questions about dating. We came prepared by studying a talk called Meeting the Challenges of Today’s World and we focused on the future events of our lives; dating, career, schooling, marriage, finances, etc. it was pretty cool to be able to hear from President and Sister Smith about their experiences and what council we received from them as we discussed these nearing events in our lives.

After the meeting I went to the garage of the mission home to get my shoes, when I came back in President asked if I would conduct Zone Conference tomorrow.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference! It was a pretty great meeting and I can’t believe it was my last one. It was special to me, I felt more involved and willing to participate than usual. I wanted to make it a great one.

In the beginning I stood and welcomed the missionaries, recognized President Smith who was presiding in the meeting and Sister Smith’s presence. I informed everyone of the first few items of the agenda for this meeting and we went about it. It was such a great meeting, the Spirit was very recognizable and a lot was learned. Elder Stokes and I were asked on the spot by Elder Chaz, Davis and Elder Aurich to participate in doing a role-play with them during the conference. It was a pretty good role-play for having no preparation. I feel like this conference proved to me my growth since serving as a full time missionary. It was definitely a meeting I will remember.

We’ve been so blessed this week and I’ve recognized through practicing this and doing my best, “ALL blessings are predicated off of obedience.”  As we strive our best to be obedient and as we are obedient, we are blessed. That’s inspired me to be obedient and continually strive to be more obedient. 

I’m truly grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Grateful for the wonderful privilege it has been to serve in the Lord’s Vineyard. My time is coming quickly to an end as a full time missionary, so I will be doing ALL that I can to be my best.

Hope this was enough for you all to make it to next week! Ha ha love you all!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love, 

Elder Newbold 

Week 92

What a fast cycle it’s been! It felt like Elder Davis and I were only on a 2-hour split. It’s crazy to look back and think it’s been 5 weeks and how much we accomplished together in that time.

December 27th, we met with this guy named K. The Spanish Sisters ran into him some time recently and they sent us over to meet with him. He met some missionaries in the past and looked forward to meeting with us. We came by around 6:30pm and talked to him a bit, he told us that he enjoyed meeting with the missionaries before. We simply taught a short version of the Restoration since he was starting his online course soon. As we came to the conclusion of our discussion, he said, “I look forward to meeting with you next week”, before we even talked about scheduling another appointment. He seems like he has potential to progress and continue learning.

Later that evening we went to M’s home and visited with he and his wife G. M again asked how we came to know Joseph Smith was a true prophet. We talked about the spirit and shared our experiences of how we’ve come to know the truth of the things we know. We invited G to sit with M and read the Book of Mormon together then to kneel and pray about it. They accepted and we told them we would follow up the next visit.

On the 28th we just met with D early in the morning. We shared a message with him and focused on committing him to read the Book of Mormon daily and as he does Heavenly Father will bless him to be able to understand English and the scriptures. He committed to do so and we invited him to be baptized on February 10th.

We came home and did weekly planning and then went out and visited members and others around the area.

Friday the 29th we went to M’s again and met with him. We followed up with him and his wife reading together. He said they read together and they prayed and they had a neat experience. He really enjoyed that with his wife, he said they haven’t done that before.
Well about half way into our visit, P (M’s Mom) came in and had all these other unrelated questions and misconceptions about the church and so we helped her understand those and then tried to gain control of the environment.
M’s wife had called while we were speaking and he was getting a little upset because P was interrupting him on the phone... so things got a little out of hand. We finally were able to gain control enough to say a prayer and get out.

When we returned home that night we received a text from President informing Elder Davis that he has felt that he and Elder Pina should go on a split tomorrow for a special assignment. We weren’t given much information then but were told we would receive a call tomorrow from someone who would give us further information.

On the 30th we went about the day and around 3pm I split with Elders Clark and Windsor. Elder Davis split with another Elder and went to Harlem for a commercial the church is making. I don’t want to share too much about it, but one day I’m sure we will see it completed but he said he thought it was really cool.

When he finished they came back to the church around 6pm and we went home to eat and then went to P’s to visit him. When we showed up he seemed really out of it and we noticed just above his eyebrow his head was split and had a nice cut parallel to his nose and a couple teeth missing. The blood looked recent like it must have happened earlier that day. We asked him about it and he didn’t say anything, we asked if he had fallen or something and then he hesitated to respond and then said he fell and hit his head on the table. He wasn’t really in the right state of mind to speak to him. So we prayed with him and we left.

Sunday the 31st we received a call from the Spanish Elders saying they met with a kid who wanted to be baptized, he even set his own date to be baptized. We messaged him and invited him to church but he couldn’t come, his mom needed his help with setting up a party for New Years.

Elder Davis was giving a talk on one of our favorite topics! REPENTANCE! He gave a great talk and we had a couple investigators show up during it.

After the sacrament meeting we came down from the stand and talked with some members, the Ardinez family invited us over that night for dinner. (Since it’s New Years Eve and The Bronx gets a bit crazy. We’ve been asked to be in a couple hours earlier tonight to avoid getting caught up with the partiers.)

After church we came straight home and changed out of our suits and got on our coats and dressed warm to go back out, we did a couple look ups and then went to the Ardinez families home. This family is so great! They are from the Philippines and are just so sweet. They have 3 boys and 2 twin girls. For dinner they cooked a lot of food! Since it was New Years they went big. The entire dinner table was covered in food. Everyone ate either on the floor or the couch. Elder Davis and I were fed 6 difference typed of meat! Chicken, goat, pig feet, beef, liver, fish, and tripe, along with all the meat we had Filipino spaghetti and rice. Elder Davis is a pretty fast eater so he finished pretty quickly and was sitting around. While I was finishing up and trying to hurry so we could leave. They thought it would be fun if Elder Davis sang karaoke while I finished eating... to save him from doing that I tried to eat as fast as possible. I finished and we ended up having to sing, “imagine”. Then we fast walked home!

Monday, the 1st of the New Year, Elder Davis was taken from me by the assistants at 8am and I spent the rest of the day with Elders Clark and Windsor in a trio till transfers. We spent all day in their area.

Tuesday the 2nd was transfers. We went to meet with D that morning and taught him the rest of the Plan of Salvation. Then we went to Inwood for transfers. My new companion by the way is Elder Stokes! (He was trained by Elder Davis!) We are gonna rock this area! After transfers we had enough time to get home have lunch and head to the church for district meeting at 2:30. After district meeting we went home for dinner around 5pm and then headed out for the night. We had an awesome experience looking up people. We met this lady J who hasn’t been attending church for the last year. She explained why and we testified to her how personal salvation is and that when we attend church it must be for ourselves and not for anyone else. The Savior knows us personally and we must strive to know him personally and to accomplish that we must attend church to partake of the sacrament. It was a neat experience to stand there in her doorway and testify to this daughter of God.

We look forward to this wonderful last cycle together!!


Elder Stoker and Elder Newbold serving their last cycle together.

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,
Elder Newbold