He's HOME!

It can't put into words how amazing it is to have Tyler home with us. Watching his growth and his love for the Savior over the last 2 1/2 years has been such a special experience. I'm so grateful for his willingness to serve. I'm grateful for his example. I know that he will go on to do many wonderful things. We are so happy to be a whole family once again, even though it will only be for 7 weeks, as we are preparing to send Joshua off on his mission to Missouri, St. Louis. I will be a missionary mom once again and I am so happy! Thank you to all of you who love and support our family. We feel it and we are grateful for it!

NYNY North Mission accomplished!

He's home and in my arms! 

So happy!

Family at the airport

The boys are back together

Cousins 

Big sister Courtney got to finally tell the world she is expecting #2, and it's a BOY! We are all so excited! 

Elder Newbold with his Stake President 

Last picture with the tag!

Final email

February 21, 2018

Well this is it. These last 2 weeks have been a wonderful conclusion to my full time service. I had been training a new missionary and have truly enjoyed that privilege. I was afraid this would happen, AND it did... I don’t remember what happened these last 2 weeks, but I know they felt rewarding and that I accomplished what needed to be done. Something I’d love to share is this:

The last few days we had in the cycle before transfers we spent a good amount of time out side, in front of the church, contacting people. We felt, as we were contacting people on the street, to bring them in just through the front doors and stand directly in front of a picture of Christ (the one with him ascending from heaven with the angels around him). Each of the people we brought in stood directly in front of the large painting. As they stood there for a short moment we would ask, “what comes to your mind when you look at this? Or what feelings might you have toward this painting?” I can’t tell you how many people we brought in through the front doors of the church that day. But I can tell you how I felt, how each of them felt. Each response to the questions we asked were all very similar. They would say something like, “It’s very welcoming” “He is welcoming me to heaven” “He wants me to be closer to Him”... etc.

We did this for a couple hours and the feeling that filled my heart and that room in those moments was so precious. I could have continued it all day and I would have loved to. It truly was such a special thing, each person we brought in, we focused on, individually, one by one. As they shared things with us that were personal we testified to them, one by one. We enjoyed this so much and found such great success we continued doing it and planned to do it again each day. I find it hard at the moment to articulate each of these experiences or even remember the fine details of them, but I know for a surety it was through the simple act of testifying of My Savior, Jesus Christ that the spirit was most definitely present and He bore witness of truth as we testified.

My simple invitation to those who read this is: First, take a few minutes and look at this very picture.
Second, look deeper, say to yourself the things you notice, and third, ask your self this; What would I like Jesus Christ to say to me if I stood before Him, with His arms extended outward, inviting me to come to Him and showing forth His hands? What would I like to hear Him say to me?

I’d like to conclude this brief message with my simple testimony, that I Know that the Savior lives. That He is very real! That He cares, even about the very details of our lives. I know that He is so personal and that each of our relationships with him can be personal. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ I can be healed. I know that, I have experienced it. He desires to come close to you and He will, as you come closer to Him. Take the time to know the Savior, He is waiting for you. This I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 97 Final 2

This week has been wonderful, I’m enjoying every possible moment of my time in New York, and time is becoming more and more precious to me, being that my time is very limited.

January 31, 2018
Last week Wednesday we finished up pday and went over to the church so Elder Stokes could conduct a couple baptism interviews for two 10-year-old twin brothers. They are so awesome and understanding so much of what they’ve learned. They are so ready!

February 1, 2018
Thursday morning we were heading to MLC, we got to the Metro North station at the Botanical Garden Stop, we met this guy waiting for the same train as us, named K, and he’s 20. We began talking to him, finding out his religious background. He was really interested in what we had to share; he even mentioned his mom and brother who he knew would also be interested. He sat just a seat behind and one over from us, Elder Stokes sat next to him and taught him the Restoration, every 3 minutes or so Elder Stokes leaned over to me, asking for a pamphlet, then a Book of Mormon, and a pass along card. He taught the first lesson and got his contact info and then we had to get off the train. But it was a pretty sweet experience.

Elder Stokes and I had just finished the meeting we had for MLC and we were eating lunch. I had gotten up from my seat at the end of the table and went to throw away my plate. While away from the table I began talking to another missionary, President Smith took my seat and asked Elder Stokes “where is your companion, I have some news for you both?” Elder Stokes pointed me out and I then heard “Elder Newbold!” I looked in his direction and he waved me over. I quickly went and sat next to Elder Stokes in front of President Smith. President then said “I have a special assignment for you.” Before he even continued we accepted the assignment. He said “we will be receiving a new missionary on Tuesday, he’s been visa waiting in Finland (where’s he’s from) for 2 months. He will be arriving in the mission Tuesday afternoon and I feel to have you both continue his training. He is on week 10 of the new missionary training so you will continue from there for the next 2 weeks of his 12 weeks.” That was pretty much all the info we were given. President asked if we had room for another missionary and we do, so we will just need to rearrange our room to fit him but it will work great!

February 2, 2018
Friday, we had a sweet little experience. Last week we were out looking up an address that didn’t exist, where we were looking. We went to the street of the address and spent maybe 25 minutes walking up and down and back and forth looking for what seemed not to exist. We asked some people around and no one could tell us where it was. We about gave up, then my wonderful and inspired companion thought to look up the address on maps to see if just maybe there was another address similar but spelt different or something like that... lo and behold, there was another address very similar. We planned to look him up another day, being that it was late and the address was far out of the way. So we retuned home.

February 2, 2018
Friday, Elder Clark and I were on a split. Planned in our schedule was to try looking up this other address, which we hoped would be where he actually lived. We found the building, but had no way in the building. We waited for about 15 minutes, when finally someone was coming into the building; we followed in behind them and went to the floor where the address was listed. We knocked the door and a young lady answered, we showed her the name and asked if he lived here by chance. She responded, S. Yes that’s my Father; he lives here but is at work right now. I was pretty stoked! We found the right address! It was a miracle! Now we are just praying to find him home some day. We’ve called multiple times and has yet to answer or respond.

February 3, 2018
Saturday was one of those days! Man we had 7 set appointments and all of them fell through, we were able to make 1 of the appointments worth while by teaching the roommate to one of our investigators which was cool! But literally everything else fell through.

February 4, 2018
Sunday, we had a great sacrament meeting! 2 of our investigators came, A and D. They are both so great! After church we stuck around for a few minutes, Elder Stokes and I did a mini split with the ward Clerk, Elder Stokes stayed in the clerks office helping the clerk transfer a handful of records of members who we found out moved, while I went out on an errand with the 1st counselor of the bishopric. Later that evening, we went towards the bottom of our area to look up a guy who the clerk said he thought had passed away, but I told him I had met him recently. Our objective for the night was to find this member and figure out whether he was alive or not. Well, we found a guy who fits the profile, has the same first and last name but the last name is spelt “Leavy” and not Levy, but the birthday matches. So we are trying to figure out what happened to this guy.

February 5, 2018
Monday, we had a great district meeting this morning, we had a great time making plans as to how we can best help one of our investigators. He hasn’t been progressing so we are trying to decide how best we can help him or let him know he isn’t ready and to let him go for a little bit.

Also during district meeting we set a goal as a district to pass out 80 copies of the Book of Mormon this week, but meaningfully. We want to find people who are interested and share a scripture with them before giving it to them. Today as a district we passed out 12 copies. We found this awesome guy named E just before we went to FHE at the church. We stood at a bus stop for about 30 minutes with him, teaching him about the church and the restoration. We were able to find out his mother was a member of the church, but we believe he said she passed away. We also got his contact info to send him over to another area where he lives, he was so cool, and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon as well.

February 6, 2018
Tuesday, after studies we went to the church for interviews with President. I didn’t have an interview because I will have my exit interview this cycle, but Elder Stokes had his interview, following his interview we had a district leader meeting about how to make district meeting more effective and help the district be more involved and excited. It was a very helpful meeting now that more recently a meeting outline has been made.

We went out for a few hours and did some contacting and then came back to the church to meet President, after he finished interviews we got in the car together and drove straight to the airport to pick up our new companion! We talked on the way about going home and preparing for it, whenever President wasn’t on a very important phone call, lol (sounds like my Dad).

Our new companion’s name is Elder Ihalmo (E-halm-mo), he’s from Finland. Being from Finland it is mandatory to serve at least a year in the Army right out of High school. So he served a year and came out on his mission. He waited for his visa for 7 months and began the first 2 months of his mission in Finland. His birthday is February 21st, so he will turn 21 the day I fly home.

We were running behind and his plane already landed. When we got there, Elder Stokes and I talked with a man from Jamaica; we talked about the Book of Mormon. President went and found our companion and joined us after our discussion with this man H in the airport.

I am so grateful to be apart of this work, I know that the Lord leads His church and qualifies those He calls. He sure has trust in His children. I’ve now had the opportunity to be apart of training 3 missionaries. And this time is also special, Elder Stokes has trained once before and we get to train together! We are so exited!

See y’all in 2!
Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Elder Newbold is wearing the Armor of God for the FHE lesson 

Week 96 FINAL 3

January 24, 2018
Wednesday evening after all preparations were made we had an appointment set with a single lady from our ward so we had planned to have this awesome member Brother W come with us so we could go in and meet with her. On our way there we called to make sure she was still expecting us. When she answered she apologized and said her family had just shown up and surprised her from out of state so she asked to reschedule. Brother W had already made it there before us and was waiting. When we got there we told him she had rescheduled and that we had a few people in the area we could look up instead. After trying to find an apartment of a member, we soon found it didn’t exist. We then went and looked up another member and found that they had moved at least 5 years ago. We then decided we would stop by a potential investigator we’ve had trouble getting in contact with. Soon after knocking the door we were let in and met D, our investigator and his wife and daughter. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and Brother W was so awesome and was able to relate to them by sharing his experience of when the missionaries 1st found him and invited him to read from the Book of Mormon when he was 16. His life has changed from that moment. It was really neat to hear him testify to this family about his experience.

January 25, 2018
Thursday, we did our weekly planning and then all our appointments fell through and so we did a lot of contacting and calling people.

January 26, 2018
Friday morning we met with D, he is so awesome! He’s just so willing to learn and live the gospel. We are aware that a family from his country loves 5 minutes from him and they are members of the church but attend the Inwood ward, in Manhattan. Our goal is to get them introduced to each other so D can make a friend in the church and have someone to relate to. The problem right now is their work schedules are about the opposite, when one of them works the other has off and is sleeping. We have some options we are considering to help D continue learning in a better way.

January 27, 2018Saturday after correlation we went to A’s home to meet with him. We had a great lesson with him, teaching him about the plan of salvation. E, his older brother who is a member, came in a few minutes into the lesson and helped A understand some things, and then he left and came back again at the end and testified more about the plan of salvation. It was really sweet to see him be apart of helping his brother understand the teachings.

E leaves in 4 days to Florida to go to school and work. But after a conversation E and I had after a family home evening this week he came to me at the very end of meeting with A and told me he was praying about serving a mission. We talked a little more about a mission and we headed out to our next appointment.

Our next appointment fell through and on our way to our final set appointment we received a text that he needed to reschedule because an emergency with work came up. We were very close to his home and decided we would stop by, I could use the bathroom and Elder Stokes would have an opportunity to talk to him for a few seconds. When finished I joined them in his room and was able to reschedule a day to meet.

January 28, 2018
Sunday was great! We had a great Sabbath; unfortunately our appointments were falling through again so we decided to just street contact for a while. We stuck around a particular spot on Grand Concourse and talked to everyone that walked by. After some time we met this guy named S he seemed a little interested in our message. We talked about church and the importance of it; he said he had been thinking about going to church a little more often. We invited him and will hopefully see him around soon. We took down his information and hope to meet sometime soon.

January 29, 2018
This morning we went to the church for leadership and district meeting, which were great. I gave a spiritual thought in leadership meeting. What I shared was this, “Attaining what the Apostle Paul described as “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13) requires far more than acquiring knowledge. It is not even enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we are converted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ challenge us to become something.”
(General Conference April 2017 - Elder Dallin H. Oaks)

We need to stand above the world and it’s teachings of thinking it’s everything to KNOW something and do as Christ invites us and BECOME something.

Later this evening before FHE started we met with this kid named K who the sisters have been visiting, we went and played some basketball in the gym while we waited for FHE to start. E and A came a few minutes after we started, we listened to the message shared by Elder Richards and then played a quick game. A ball was passed around the room and who ever caught it had to say a name of a person in either the Bible or Book of Mormon, without repeating any names. After the game we had treats and mingled with each of our investigators and members.

January 30, 2018
This morning right after our studies we went down the street a couple blocks and helped Sister M move from her apartment to her new apartment. We did 3 loads with the large mission van, it took us about 4 hours. We had to go up her 2 story walk up and get everything from inside, outside to the van, then walk and meet the van at her other apartment 10 minutes away and unload the van and carry everything into her other apartment on the 2nd floor. Afterward she took us down the street to Little Cesar’s pizza and got some food and took it to the church for lunch. We shared a large pizza, crazy bread, and a 2-liter and waited for Emmanuel, our investigator to come to the church so we could meet during his break from work.

A very simple experience but an important lesson was learned. Before we left Little Cesar’s we called E to see how he was doing and confirm our appointment at the church, he said it would still work great, we told him we would be at the church in about 6 minutes. We quickly walked and found an open from where we started our lunch it was 2:20pm and we started eating. Assuming when E, got to the church would either ring the bell or call us to let him in, we continued eating. Twice that I recall during our lunch I had the thought, E is at the door, but I then thought well if that’s true, he will call or ring the bell. Again this same thing went through my mind and I decided I would check, to my surprise E had been standing at the front of the church.

It wasn’t anything major, we had a very limited amount of time with E, because he only has an hour break and we were already 30 minutes into his break. But with the simplest thing, the Spirit places in my mind, E is at the door. When I came to the realization that he may actually be at the door and the Spirit was trying to tell me so, I stood and went out to check and there he was.

Again, a simple experience with an important lesson learned. I am never to assume others choices. “Let the Holy Spirit Guide.”


I’m grateful for the experiences I have been blessed with in my service to the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m grateful to be able to recognize even the simplest promptings of the Holy Ghost and I know these simple moments are but practice for larger and more significant opportunities of service in the future. Christ led His church in His ministry and He leads His church today.

May I invite you all to never allow yourselves to be too busy to recognize the promptings of the Spirit.

Have a wonderful week!
Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,

Elder Newbold

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