Week 17

February 3, 2016
Wednesday, Day 113
Day 100 in NY

PDAY!
1st PDAY with the new companion! Man, training is cool! It's what I compare to raising a child. (Except I didn't make this child and he came pre-trained, he walks, he talks...) Okay so I guess it's not at all like raising a child... I'm just training him, helping him learn how to share what he knows, how to get around, and so on.

After Grocery shopping and laundry we went home and unloaded then took off to the church for gator ball. Elder Davis really liked playing. Which was expected, once you start you just can't stop!

YAY FOR PDAY:
While he played gator ball I was off to the side with Elder Gallardo (a Spanish missionary in our zone) trying to figure out how to reset and fix Elder Davis's iPad… (Elder Davis didn't wait for me this morning to help him set up his iPad. So, he tried to set it up himself and didn't do it completely right). Not complaining, but it wasn't fun making calls and getting help from others to do a task that was simple and organized to do as a companionship, to avoid the problem above. Lol!

Elder Davis is a great missionary! He loves to get out and work! Which is super awesome! It helps us stay motivated to go and do.

6:00PM
PDAY Is over! Our first night out didn't go as planned and not much happened which was a little sad, but we went out and taught a lesson. We went over to see the Nation family, Tiewonka wasn't feeling well and was in bed. But Richard and Darren were home and so we came in and taught them. Elder Davis got to talk about himself for a bit, as he introduced himself. Then Richard and Darren talked about themselves as well, helping Elder Davis get to know the family. Visiting the Nation family was the only lesson we had for the night. We looked up some people but no one was home. After we came home we went straight to nightly planning and got ready to retire to bed.

February 4, 2016
Thursday, Day 114
Day 101 in NY

THURSDAY MORNING:
We had introductions so that Elder Davis could get to know everyone and meet Michael, our ward mission leader. After our meeting we came home had lunch and began weekly planning. I'll be honest, I was stressing out... It felt like I was doing it alone, only because I had to teach him and explain every one of our investigators and others that I knew. After a while of that, I just figured, with most of these people we are going to teach we will need to start from the beginning with them. A lot of the investigators in our area book are people I don't know or I don't know well. So, I, still being "new” and Elder Davis being completely new we decided to start from the beginning.

REVELATORY PROCESS:
Each of our planning sessions or discussions are taken very seriously, or they should be taken seriously. As a missionary we have the Responsibility to invite others to come unto Christ. Each person we meet that has this desire to come closer to Christ, we thoughtfully and prayerfully consider everything we know about them. -who they are -what their religious background may be or is -what
they want to get out of, when they meet with us... All these things and more are important in weekly planning. As we have these things on our mind, about each of our investigators, it becomes easier to see what their needs may be and how we can help them.

But this time, as we planned together for the first time. I didn't quite feel like any of these people really came to mind as we went through our investigators. Instead, I felt that we needed to focus more on the members of the ward. See what we could do to help them be more productive in the ward and in doing missionary work. So I called Bishop Jessop and scheduled a visit with him at 6:30 PM.

After we closed our planning session with a prayer of all the things we set out to do for the week, including our goals, and righteous ideas, we gathered ourselves and went out into the streets and began to look up some referrals we had received.

BISHOP:
So a little background, Bishop Jessop is super young! He's in his late 20's. He went to Guatemala on his mission. Went to Utah State, got married in the SLC temple. After he asked for his wife's hand, he
asked her father if they could move to The Bronx, (which made me laugh really hard, because that's a silly idea! don't get me wrong I love it here, but never would I ever choose to live here.) So after they moved here, he continued school in NY.

So we get to his home and we talked for a bit, introduced Elder Davis. We talked for a little bit about ourselves. I then told Bishop we had come over to give him the opportunity to meet Elder Davis and also to discuss the needs of the ward. We asked him some questions about what things we could do as missionaries to help better the ward. How to help the members be ready and willing to
accept callings and do missionary work. Our discussion went very well. We got some good notes. After our purpose was fulfilled, we shared with him a spiritual thought fitting to our purpose for the visit. After we had finished all our business he began to share with us some experiences he had on his mission which was super cool! I love hearing about missions! Then after he shared some experiences and after I had my "oh wait! I'm a missionary too!" thought, I also began relating to his experiences as I shared some of my own. It was a great experience to have been able to talk to Bishop and recognize the trust he has in us.

February 5, 2016
Friday, Day 115
Day 102 in NY

After our morning studies and before lunch we began 12 week. It's so crazy! Before I had even finished my first 12 weeks as a missionary, I received a trainer call. Due to Elder Davis's condition I didn't start
training for 2 weeks but it's crazy that I'm now finished with my "new missionary program" and now I'm teaching it!

On PDAY I received an email from Hermana Verdoorn, Olivia had emailed me about her receiving calling to be a trainer as well! It was super exciting, so I emailed back about my call and how the area is doing here in NY. It's so cool, being on a mission and knowing that all my friends are all over the world.

Elder Hall-Louisiana
Elder Fox-Mexico
Elder Cummins-Pennsylvania
Elder Sorensen-Philippines
Elder Darm-Marshal islands
Hermana Verdoorn-New Mexico
Elder Naef-Oklahoma
Elder Gill-New York (South)
And many many more! It's ridiculously awesome!

LOOK UPS:
We went out after 12 week and began looking up referrals, we met this lady named Amanda and she requested a free Bible, so we found her at her apartment and we gave her a Bible, we then asked her if she had ever heard of the Book of Mormon. She said that she had, we asked if she knew anything about it, she said she didn't. (Before we had sat down in the lobby with Amanda, she warned us that she didn't have much time, she had just taken her medication… And she gets tired and woozy) we told her we wouldn’t keep her long we just wanted to bring the Bible and Book of Mormon. Very briefly we explained the Book of Mormon and gave it to her. Well, as she began to speak, or trying to speak, her words were slurring and soon we understood nothing. We told her that we would love to visit her again and discuss more about the book and answer any questions she has after she reads the introduction (which we invited her to do). She responded with something that may have sounded a little something like this "shaowndjsoentjsosnshx".. Sadly, we don't quite have the gift of tongues... Or a gibberish dictionary… So we thanked her for her time and we went our separate ways. (The one thing I did hear was, "I'll call you", but that doesn't ever happen.)

After Amanda we went over to Ricky's, we taught Ricky and had a great lesson. After the lesson with Ricky we went over to another member who is considered "less active" in our ward, but she attends another LDS Church in Kingsbridge, where Elder Tabor is now serving. We shared the video "The Hope of Gods Light", one of my favorite Mormon Messages, and since Fast Sunday is right around the corner and fasting was a great theme presented in the video, so we invited her to fast.

AIDA:
We went and visited Aida and talked about her baptism! Since it's coming up on the 20th. It's so exciting to have someone be baptized! We talked about some things that she had questions about. We told her we would get more information about how her baptism will be planned and what will take place. She is so awesome and ready!

February 6, 2016
Saturday, Day 116
Day 103 in NY

MORE BIBLES:
So we get a lot of referrals, which most of the time means we go to deliver a Bible. Well, apparently Salt Lake is out of Bibles and so is our mission office... So the world had no more Bibles to give out at the moment... I just have a few left. Well we met one of our referrals and she was excited for her Bible we
then again introduced the Book of Mormon and she wanted one, so we gave her one. Then her daughter also wanted a Bible and Book of Mormon so we have her a Book of Mormon because we didn't have an extra Bible. But we scheduled an appointment to come back and teach them and hopefully be able to give her a Bible as well. We had a few more referrals that we met and gave Bibles to.

February 7, 2016
Sunday, Day 117
Day 104 in NY

"If you don't take the time to be well, you will take the time to be unwell."

This is so true! And I wish I could take that into consideration with everything I do... I had forgotten that we were having a zone conference on Tuesday, so I planned time to come home after the day with enough time to write a talk.

PMG CH. 8:
Preach My Gospel Chapter 8. "How to use time wisely"

This chapter is very important and helpful when studied over and over. Well, I need to do more studying, I planned for what I thought would be enough to time, but the people we met with today had more concerns or questions and things to discuss. So our lessons ran a little longer then they were planned for. So of course we came home and I didn't have time to write a talk… Everyone in the zone is asked to write a talk on a subject given by President. This conference focus was Accountability. So we all had to write a talk on accountability. When we get to conference President Smith, then knows who he'd like to speak. So I'm hoping I don't have to speak because I'm yet to be prepared.

February 8, 2016
Monday, Day 118
Day 105 in NY

We had a Zone Meeting this morning and I don't know what it was, but we were pumped from it. So after Elder Davis and I left we went and taught 5 Lessons! Super awesome! This past week has been very successful! Elder Davis loves to work hard and together we see so many miracles! I can tell that people are praying for our success. We feel so good and we are loving the work we have been doing!

CHASITY NOT CHASTITY:
So back when Elder Tabor was still in the area, we met this girl named Chasity. Since that day we met her we have been unable to contact her. Elder Davis and I decided we would stop by her apartment while we were in the area and... She was home! We asked, from the last time we met with her if she had read any of the Book of Mormon. She responded that she had not. She had just found a job recently and has been working a weird schedule and is waiting for a new scheduled this week. She told us she really wants to come to church; she promised us that she would if her schedule allows her too. We didn't even ask if she wanted to come, she just told us she wanted to, which is awesome! We just hope she's serious about it and able to come.

RAMON:
So we came home for dinner and realized we had received another referral, so we got a bit excited and left shortly after just getting home. We went over to this guy’s apartment and gave him the Bible he ordered. In his apartment were his friend and his brother. His brother was interested in a Bible and Book of Mormon as well. So, we gave him a Book of Mormon and held off on the Bible because we
didn't have an extra on hand, without limited amount. We taught them a quick lesson as we discussed the Book of Mormon. Ramon loved it, he told us he really liked us and appreciates what we do. He asked, "Why are you out so late?" Well 1st, it's only 7:30 PM and 2nd we are missionaries, so this is all we do. After explaining that we are missionaries and that we are giving 2 years of our life to do nothing but service and inviting others to come to Christ he just told us how much he really loves us and what we are doing.

February 9, 2016
Tuesday, Day 119
Day 106 in NY

ZONE CONFERENCE:
Woke up early, but I guess not early enough... We woke up at 5 and the 4 of us all needed to get ready so we did but instead of leaving at 6:45 like we planned we left at 6:55, then waited about 15 minutes for
the bus, (which was super late). We took the bus all the way down to the A train which is a 45 minute bus ride. Got on the A train and made it to Inwood, walked from the station to the Inwood chapel and got their at 8:05 thinking we HAD to be there at 8 I felt bad walking in late.. Thankfully it was breakfast that they were serving at 8... The conference didn't start till 9. So President walked in 10 minutes after we had all been seated. And we started at 9, when the Elder that was conducting the meeting stood up,
he announced those who will be giving their talks.. And again thankfully it wasn't me. Well the meeting was awesome!! Here are my notes from each speaker. Not much but enough to remind me of the feelings I felt and the inspiration given.

Sister Payne
Return & Report
On a daily/nightly basis pray to Heavenly Father,
Give an account of your day; your goals and plans
Tell Heavenly Father all that you did, all that you didn't do, and how
you felt.
Ask; what more could I have done? And What can I do better?

Elder Gallardo
1Nephi 18:2
If Jesus Christ accounted to God, why should we not account to
Heavenly Father as well. As Jesus Christ showed humility in all that
he did, we must follow his perfect example to our perfect effort.

Elder Bell
God is our loving Heavenly Father.
He has given us the opportunity to openly communicate with him.
Does Heavenly Father miss us? Yes, I know that because he loves us, in
an even greater amount then our earthly father, he does miss us, and
he wants us home.
We need to take responsibility in the part if the vineyard that
Heavenly Father has called us to.
As the brother of Jared, we need to make an effort in finding those
ideas that Heavenly Father can work with.


President David L. Smith
Make an accounting of everything. How many pass along cards you give
out. How many Book of Mormons you give out? Etc.
Would you go with energy and zeal?! What would you do, how would you
act if it were your last day of your mission?
(If it's a righteous act, do it because you love the Savior)

Training-(AP Jimenez & Wulff)
Planning - Mosiah 21


LUNCH:
During zone conference we had a lunch break. During the lunch break, I received another referral, well 3. But one of them, was the brother of Ramon, the guy we met last night. His brother’s name is Luis. After we had gotten home around 4:30PM from the conference, we ate, and took off over to Luis's. Well, his brother Ramon found us and took us to his brother Luis's apartment. He opened the door and the lights were off. He walked in and we followed. When he flicked the lights on I noticed a pair of jeans with a belt on them lying over the backside of the couch. I looked up and saw the bed in the corner. Ramon walked over and pulled the covers, there lays his brother Luis fast asleep at 7PM. Ramon (he's probably about 50 something) walks up to his brother and while he's sleeping smacks his head to wake him up. Lol! Luis (probably not much younger than him) leans forward and starts complaining about how he's sleeping and that he's not wearing anything but his underwear. Ramon says, "come on man! We are all men here! Who cares what you’re wearing!"

Super funny experience, when I noticed his pants and shirt on the couch I was praying he had something else on under the covers haha. We gave Luis his Bible and scheduled a time to come back and visit. So we will be back on Thursday. Ramon said he'd make us sandwiches, haha these guys are too funny!

MIRACLE:
To end the night we went over and saw Ricky and talked to him. And what a miracle! So we talk to Ricky about our day and his day. Then Elder Davis wanted to share something, so he opened up to this article "why adversity?" In the February 2016 Ensign. As he's reading it I received revelation. I felt the need to share my notes from zone conference about accountability and the atonement. I read a verse of scripture, 2 Nephi 32:16

"16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved."

After I finished reading this, Ricky looked at me and said, there's something in that chapter that I NEED TO KNOW. So I invited him to read it and find out what it was and to get back to us about it. Well he decided to read it right then and there and for some reason I let him. When Ricky finished reading the chapter... He said "That's it. That's it" I asked him what it was. He said, “It's the Holy Ghost, I don't have that.” I looked at him confused and said "Wait, you were baptized right?" He said “yes I was baptized.” I said "but you didn't receive the Holy Ghost?, they didn't lay their hands on you head and confirm you a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and confer upon you the gift of the Holy Ghost?" He said, "Nope they didn't. I was baptized in Puerto Rico and moved here to NY right after."

The miracle in this is that we had received inspiration to read and say what we did. And Ricky had told us that he found what Heavenly Father needed him to find. So apparently Ricky isn't a "member of the church" because he hadn't been confirmed one. Well that was absolutely mind blowing to me. It was a crazy thing to realize, but so cool to be a part of.

Keep praying for miracles! Thank you all for your prayers and letters! Love you all! Till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 16

January 25, 2016
Monday, Day 104
Day 91 in NY

It's been crazy having to work the Spanish and English area. We do our best to split up our work so that both areas are progressing but it's tough. "I didn't say it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." Working in the Spanish program has been fun. At times very stressful, but it all works out.

ESPAÑOL Y INGLES
We try our best to plan our days out where we go to a few appointments and teach in Spanish and then we have a few appointments in English. Sounds simple, but when you plan to see people sometimes they aren't home or available. So when that happens we have to figure out what we need to do next, who else lives around the area? Who else can we see to fill this time in before our next appointment.

January 26, 2016
Tuesday, Day 105
Day 92 in NY

PLANNING FOR RICKY
I LOVE UNCLE RICKY! Haha he is always so fun to visit! Planning for him is a bit tricky, we try to pack our days with people to see and teach. There's a lot of people we visit who sometimes we didn't necessarily expect to see and they happen to be the ones who talk a lot. So planning for Ricky, we have to just put him in at the end of the night where we don't have an appointment, because Ricky is one of those people who love to talk, which Is great! With him there's always a lesson taught, even tho he talks, we can get him to talk a lot about the gospel. Unlike a lot of other people, they love to talk but you can't always talk about the gospel so easily.

January 27, 2016
Wednesday, Day 106
Day 93 in NY

PDAY!
Went and did laundry this morning, did our grocery shopping, came home and put away clothes and groceries. Then I started responding to emails, well I respond to them but save them as drafts instead of sending them right away... Which I think I'm going to stop doing. Because I responded to 40 emails.. Saved them as drafts... Then we went to the church to play gator ball. We went to the church, but I was trying to develop self control for my addiction to the game, so while they all played gator ball, I sat and wrote my journal email!

POR QUE!
So I'm writing my journal email and a missionary, who decided to check his email, realized that he had been logged out automatically... Which was weird, when he finally got back on, his emails were all
gone... Then, another missionary did the same... And again with another and another... So I'm now freaking out, cause I'm writing my journal and everyone's emails were gone... So I got on mine to check... And the same had happened to me... Somehow everyone had been logged out of their email!! Luckily one of the missionaries knew what was going on or at least knew how to fix it.. So he got on his iPad and was able to re-add his email account and log back in, then all his emails appeared.
So we all gathered around and followed the same steps. IT WORKED! I got emails back and my account re-added.... But wait, where are my draft emails?! Oh yea all 40 were deleted in the process.. So here goes another week of working on emails! (Don't get me wrong I love all your emails! Keep sending them.)

TRAIN RIDES:
They are like walking through a haunted house. You have all these ideas of things that could happen, you just don't know exactly what's going to happen..

{So before we left the apartment to go to the church I had purposely left my jacket inside because I was super hot.. (Just cause there's snow outside, doesn't mean it's cold). So I left the apartment wearing a short sleeve shirt and my ADIDAS (All Day I Dream About Serving) pants.}

Now back to the story.

We are on the train heading back to the apartment to get ready for our appointments. It's now about 6:00 PM. The suns is down and the moon is out but I'm still just as warm as I was when I left the apartment at 3:00 PM. I'm on the train holding a box of bibles that I grabbed from the church. My companions and everyone else on the train were all wearing jackets. And of course I'm the only one wearing a short sleeve shirt. Well this guy gets on at one of the stops and starts walking down the aisle of the train cart. (He was walking with a cane and was wearing LAYERS of jackets). (It feels like it's about 60°, to me that's the perfect temperature). He walks by and immediately notices that I'm not wearing a jacket. He stopped right in front of me and said "can I ask you a question?" So of course I'm thinking "sweet! He's going to ask something about the gospel!" Naaa, he says " where's your jacket? You have a jacket right?" Yes I have a jacket, it's at home. He says "I know your cold, can I give you something?" Haha! I'm thinking, you have no idea who I am do you? I'm Elder Tyler Aramis Newbold, I don't get cold. So I told him, I promise I'm not cold. I'd have a jacket on if I were. He insisted that I take the jacket that he just took off of himself. Now, as nice as that was for him to give me a jacket... He was
homeless and smelt like marijuana...

NATION FAMILY:
Alright this was just absolutely great! Haha we had gone over to visit a investigating family. I'm still with the Spanish Elders, so we get to their apartment and they let us in. And for 5 minutes straight all
they could talk about was how much they loved and miss Elder Tabor. Haha it was so funny! Elder Guerra and Elder Hilton kept looks at me like holy cow, we need to get Elder Tabor back haha. So we shared a quick message with them and as we left Elder Hilton said to me, "wow, they really like Elder Tabor." No really? I hadn't noticed Elder Hilton haha.

January 28, 2016
Thursday, Day 107
Day 94 in NY

After weekly planning we went over to an appointment that the Elders had planned. We were invited in and her son who is 2 years old starts pulling his shirt down to show us his nipples, (the Elder say he does it every time they come over) haha so we kept on with the lesson lol. Then he took his shirt off and started laughing, his mom then grabbed him and took him into the other room. When she came back into the room we continued. Not too long after we continued, in came 2 year old Dillon, butt naked! Dancing in front of us. It was hilarious! The things that happen in NY!

January 29, 2016
Friday, Day 108
Day 95 in NY

Time flew by SOOO fast! I can't believe it's been 16 days in the Spanish program. I can understand more than I can speak but it's so cool, I've said personal prayers in Spanish a few times. It's sad to
see it come to an end!

January 30, 2016
Saturday, Day 109
Day 96 in NY

WML:
After our studies we went to the church and had ward correlation. We met with the Spanish missionaries. So we had a 2 hour meeting in complete Spanish...lol and I didn't know what was going on at all. So that was fun!

REFERRALS:
Later in the night before we went home we looked up some referrals, we found the address to this guy and so I knocked on the door, knocked on the window, the lights were off so it didn't look like anyone was home. Elder Guerra said try upstairs, so we went up the apartment above and knocked on the door, the man came to the window and tried talking to me, but I could hear him so I yelled for him to just open the door. So he came to the door and he said can I help you, I asked him if he was Theobald, he responded yes, I told him we were missionaries and that we were here to deliver whatever it was he
ordered on the Mormon.org website, he said a book or a bible, I wasn't quite sure, so I said "oh a Book of Mormon?" He said yea, but I knew he ordered a bible haha so I gave him the Book of Mormon and asked if he had a minute for me to share with him what the Book of Mormon is. He had family over so we set a date to come back.

January 31, 2016
Sunday, Day 110
Day 97 in NY

5 A.M
Woke up at 5 because we had a stake conference meeting. Super lame that we had to get up so early, we should have conferences after church, not before, but whatever. So we listened to the speakers and it was a cool conference one of the Bishops talked and he was loud and bold and active with moments lol. Interesting enough, he was white. Haha awesome bishop.

February 1, 2016
Monday, Day 111
Day 98 in NY

Last full day with the Spanish Elders! I really don't remember what we did this day... We had some Spanish appointments and what not.. We had district meeting. Had lunch. Oh!! I was so mad! I left my Dr Pepper at an appointment, I think it was a members home... But oh well...

February 2, 2016
Tuesday, Day 112
Day 99 in NY

DAY OF THE YEAR:
Woke up this morning and packed all my stuff from the Spanish elders apartment... Then went over to my old apartment and dropped off all my stuff and left. We really quickly went over to a lady's house to give her a blessing. On the way to the blessing we were walking across the cross walk, and this guy from a big van yells "hey!" So I turn around and he says "can I get one of your bibles?!" So I quickly walk up to the van and reach into my bag grabbed a Book of Mormon and out a pass along card with
our number on it and handed it to him. He said "Thank you so much! I can't wait to read it when I'm not driving!" We were in a hurry to the blessing and standing in the middle of the street so we didn't have
much time to say anything but he said he'd read it so that was really cool! After the blessing, we got on a train and headed over to Kingsbridge, to the Kingsbridge chapel. President Smith had asked me to meet him there, because he was having a zone meeting with the Kingsbridge zone. When we got there it was about 2:50, we walked into the church and into the room where they had just ended their meeting. They wanted a group picture so President Smith (knowing that I was a photographer) told one of the missionaries to get me a camera to take their picture, haha standing in the group ready for the picture President said "Smile, Elder Newbold knows what he's doing, he's been behind a camera
a couple times" After the picture, I said goodbye to the Spanish Elders and took off with President. I was Presidents companion for the day. We went out to his car and drove Sister Smith (His wife) and her "companion" another sister who was getting her new companion today, over to Elder Gardner's office to pick up the Sister missionaries car. Then President Smith and I drove over to the Mission home. Where his son William and daughter Lauren were. We hung out at the house for a little bit. William, who's in 6th grade, made me some mac n cheese haha, it was awesome! I got to talk to their family and President for a while. It was super cool! Then I did their dishes haha. When the time came, we took off all together and went to the Airport.

This was such a cool experience! When I got to NY I wasn't expecting really anything, I didn't know what would be going on, I thought I'd get off the plane grab my stuff and some how magically be found by the mission president. But as you come off the plane and enter the baggage claim the mission president and his family are standing right there.

It was so cool standing there with president and his family waiting for the missionaries to come off the plane. So we stood there anxiously waiting, and after about 6 minutes of waiting, here comes Elder Davis! This super cool Elder from Houston Texas! President automatically gets first dibs to greet the missionary's, lol. So I stood back a little and when he was done he turned towards me and I embraced Elder Davis as President introduced me. Right after all the excitement, President Smith took us to The
Cheescake Factory for Dinner! Yea! Super dope right?! In the car ride there, Elder Davis had mentioned to President, that he called his family at the airport, but no one answered. So he called his Stake president back home and told him to tell his family to answer their phones. Well he didn't get the chance to talk to them.

So President Smith right then and there called his step mom, "Hey it's President Smith, the mission President from New York" she replied! "Oh hey President!" President said " Guess who I have with me right now?" (She replied with excitement that only a mother would know, but a son would recognize) "MY BOY!! Let me talk to him!" So President took the phone off the car audio and let Elder Davis speak to his mom. It was the sweetest experience! So awesome! Today couldn't get better, but we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had dinner. Today was absolutely amazing!! Can't wait to spend the next few months with Elder Davis!


Love you all so much! Till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Always thinking like my Mom! She loves Circus Peanuts and being organized!!

Josh, it's lechuga!!
(Elder Newbold with his trio in the Spanish mission)

Week 15

January 17, 2016
Sunday, Day 96
Day 83 in NY

BE NewBOLD!
We went to church! And we walked with Ricky! It's Elder Tabor’s last Sunday, so we were taking pictures and saying goodbyes. When church ended I went up to Ricky and said "yo, Ricky, you making us dinner tonight?" Haha he said "yea come over, I'll make you dinner!" Thanks to all of you praying for members to feed us! Shout out to Brother and Sister Musick for their prayers! We have been getting fed.

Not the response I was expecting from Ricky, but definitely the response I was looking for! Haha so be bold! And (if people are praying for you) you will get your way!

DINNER:
Went about the rest of the day, had lunch, and went to a couple appointments. Then we went over to Ricky's and dinner was ready! So we ate and visited with Ricky and Joel. Joel is so cool, he thinks of us as his older brothers, which is super cool! Cause he doesn't have any. But he's got us!

After dinner we watched 17 Miracles with them, super awesome! That's the best movie! It's been a long while since I've seen it so it was a nice way to end the night.



January 18, 2016
Monday, Day 97
Day 84 in NY

NO GO:
No go… Meaning NO we didn't GO out and do much today... With Elder Tabor leaving we had to use our day to pack up everything of his.

We went out and saw a few people so that Elder Tabor could say goodbye and take pictures. So we did that for a couple hours, then came home and pulled out the suitcases.

Not productive the way a missionary would like his day to be, but it was good. It gave me an idea of how we should have planned our week. So now I know for when I get transferred... You need to spread out the time you pack...



January 19, 2016
Tuesday, Day 98
Day 85 in NY

DAY 2 PACKING:
Saw a couple more people today, and came home like yesterday. Had lunch and packed till 2 AM....

Like I said yesterday, we should have spread out our packing. I didn't realize how long it would take… But there was so much to do and to pack. We went out and did laundry so that his clothes would be ready for his next area. So that took some time.

It was a weird feeling day haha we just packed and got Elder Tabor ready for his next area.



January 20, 2016
Wednesday, Day 99
Day 86 in NY

TRANSFERS:
Yo soy en la programa de españo. Pero no hablo español. So this will be interesting and fun. Stay tuned!

MIRACLES:
Just kind of recognized the miracles in my life... I wish I would have remembered them during the days that I recognized them first. But after watching 17 Miracles with Ricky, it made me want to recognize more often the miracles in my life.

I've witnessed and have had the privilege of being apart of so many miracles. Since I've been out on my mission, the miracles just keep coming.

Josh has been able to join the level 5 team without having to practice on Sunday's. Which was something that I had been specifically praying about since I came out to NY.

Mom is starting to do FHE (Family Home Evening) again and study Preach My Gospel with the family. Which is also something I've been praying for. As I have had the opportunity to prepare many FHE's for less active and active family members of our church, I've come to realize the importance of them and wished it upon my own family.

Dad has been having a lot of experiences and doing more missionary work. He, now having a son on a mission, has more opportunities to bring up the gospel. I've seen it become easier to discuss things of the gospel when someone you love is doing it.

Each of my family members, Courtney, Dillon, Zach and even some very close friends of mine have had experiences since I've been out, that have strengthened their testimonies.

WELCOME TO THE SPANISH PROGRAM:
It begins! Another experience with a different language. 1st it was having the ASL Elders in our apartment. Now I'm in a trio, in the Spanish program. Looking forward to learning some Spanish!



January 21, 2016
Thursday, Day 100
Day 87 in NY

PDAY:
Primero dia en la programa de español. Well the first full day.  I had already done my laundry the other day with Elder Tabor so, I didn't have much laundry to clean. So we went to do laundry since Elder Guerra and Elder Hilton had laundry. Then of course after laundry we went grocery shopping.

SPANISH:
Due to transfers and the chaos from it, I had no lessons planned, so we went to a couple appointments and I got to experience the Spanish side of things. And..... Wow! I don't understand anything! They say "welcome to the life of a new Spanish speaking missionary, this is what it was like for us new missionaries our first day in the mission" wow... Haha Spanish is fast and I don't understand any of it.. Occasionally words will be said where immediately it translates to English in my head so I understand,
but very few times did that happened.



January 22, 2016
Friday, Day 101
Day 88 in NY

ESPAÑOL:
Not even sure what happened today haha, it's been crazy, taking over the Spanish area and English at the same time, we are ruining around the Bronx teaching in English and Spanish... I think I'm starting to forget some English words... But that doesn't mean that my Spanish is getting much better haha.



January 23, 2016
Saturday, Day 102
Day 89 in NY

STORM THOMAS:
Woke up this morning to snow passed my knees, cars blocked in, and the sound of scraping shovels in the snow.

I've never had no snow one day and the next day snow. So I thought waking up to 2 feet was awesome and 100% normal... Well the snow didn't stop there and I was horribly wrong... The snow carried on and we pressed forward with our morning, got ready, had studies, then began our weekly planning since transfers were too crazy to do it Thursday or Friday. By the time we finished it was after dinner. And we then took off into the snow...

As missionaries we don't watch TV and we don't have a TV. Obviously this means we don't watch the news... Which is totally okay with me... I don't watch it anyways nor would I if the opportunity presented
itself. Well, with out the news, we are oblivious to the alerts and important new reports, such as: It being illegal to be outside during this "storm". Anyone caught outside of their home would be arrested.

No, thankfully, we didn't find that out the hard way... We had made our way through the blizzard weather and made it to an appointment where, they had not expected us because of the weather… This investigating family had informed us through their concern of our well-being and "possible arrest" that we needed to be careful walking home because if we were caught we could be arrested. So, being missionaries, we did the right thing... We left.... After teaching them a lesson of course!



January 24, 2016
Sunday, Day 103
Day 90 in NY

CHURCH OR NO CHURCH:
Well sure it snowed and snowed and snowed, and snowed... But who has the right to cancel the only day we partake of the Sacrament. I don't think anyone does. And that's why it didn't happen... We had planned for the trains, buses, and taxis to all be out of service. So we mapped out the way to church and it was a 3-mile walk in the snow. Which would have gone from an hour and so many minutes, to maybe just over 2 hours. But we were determined. I had kept in contact all morning with Aida, she at first told me she didn't want to go because she didn't want to walk that far. Well that wasn't going to stop us from going to church, so we walked and we walked. On our way, we passed a train station about 45 minutes into our walk. The trains began working and we hurried on up into the station and
made it to church, I told Aida that the trains were working and she told us she would be there.

We made it to church and for about another hour or so we shoveled the walk ways around the church.

When we were told that church would began at 11:30 instead of 10 it didn't. 20 people were at church 9 being members (a family of 5, 1 single man, and 3 priesthood holding young men who were brothers) 9 missionaries, and 2 investigators... How cool! The father of the family of 5 was a counselor to the bishop, so he conducted our sacrament, us missionaries prepared the sacrament, and our meeting consisted of bearing our testimonies. It was a spiritual meeting for sure.



Sorry to all who I have yet responded too, when I came to the church today to send all the emails I had responded to in drafts, they were some how deleted.... I'm working on responding but may not send them till next week...

Love you all so much! Enjoy your week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Elder Tabor, Ricky and Elder Newbold (Tabor's last Sunday before transfer)