Week 22

March 7, 2016
Monday, Day 146
Day 133 in NY

SPLIT:
After district meeting. Elder Davis and I split with Elder Casper and Elder Clark. Elder Clark is the new missionary in our district. He's from Idaho. Elder Clark and I were together and Elder Davis was with Elder Casper in the Co-op city area. Before we split up and went to our areas, we all went over to Cross Bronx Pizza and grabbed a slice, since Elder Clark hadn't been yet. We talked with Joe for a bit while he made our pizza. Joes super awesome, he's been working there over 20 years. I think he likes the missionaries; he's always giving me little discounts on my pizza. About 10 minutes later we grabbed our pizza and headed back to the church, we ate and then we went back to our areas.

BEGINNING TO END:
When we got back to our area, Elder Clark and I started 12 weeks. Around 4PM we left and went to go see one of our investigators from a while ago, Nelson Gomez. We haven't met with him for a while, because the last time we did we sent him over to the Spanish missionaries since he seems to understand more Spanish. One of Nelsons employees, Will, was at the train station the other day and ran into our sister missionaries. They showed him a couple videos and that was that, they got his name and where he works. So when they told us that they met Will, I was pumped cause I already knew him from teaching Nelson. When we got to Hunts Point and checked on Nelson, we saw Will riding around on a hover board out on the street. Before we left, I yelled out "Aye Will, come 'ere!" He rides into the garage right next to me and he hops off and stands between Elder Davis and I with Nelson on my left. I pulled out my iPad and my speaker and played the Mormon message "Daily Bread: Pattern". It's an awesome video that tells us that our body needs sustenance, such as food and water to make ourselves well. But our soul also needs sustenance, such as spiritual readings and Church. As our bodies are starved or dehydrated we desire sustenance to fill those feelings of absence. The same goes for our spirit, when we have withdrawn ourselves from regular doses of spirituality we become weak spiritually. Our spirit is starved and it too desires to be filled of its absence. After the video we invited them to take care of themselves to feed their bodies and souls.

When we left we headed back to the 6 train from Hunts Point, uptown to 149th St. From there we walked to this lady's home. The lady's name is Marissa. She was a referral we received from another set of missionaries from Florida. The missionaries in Florida had been teaching her and her family. They sent her information to us because she moved. When we looked her up she was home with her 2 little boys. She's a married woman, they have a 7 year old boy, a 2 year old boy, and one on the way.
That was an awesome conversation starter because I immediately thought of Courtney and was just like, oh how awesome! Congratulations! My Sister is pregnant also! It's crazy because when I get home her baby girl will be about a year and half. She was like wow! That is crazy! So that was a fun conversation, her kid was at the door too and just loved talking to me too, asking questions and throwing out random sentences to get my attention on him haha. Hope to get back over there soon.

This split was a miracle day. Elder Clark has been out in the mission field 1 week and he had only 4 lessons taught in his area, that whole week... So when he came with me to my area I took him out and we went and taught 5 lessons in a day. The whole time he was like "holy cow! We taught more lessons in a day then I've taught in a week!" It was a great experience for the both of us, I was so grateful to have been able to share that experience with him.

March 8, 2016
Tuesday, Day 147
Day 134 in NY

UPDATES:
Not always but every now and then, when we go to see Ricky he tells me about what my family has been doing all week. He's on Facebook a lot I guess so he sees what everyone's doing and he gives me an update! Haha I love it! He will tell me about it as if he was just on the phone with them it's great! It's almost like he's apart of the family and just knows what's going on.

MEETING UP... ON A TUESDAY:

Since our ward mission leader is going to Washington, he won't be here on Thursday for our regular correlation meeting so we had an early one today. And instead of having it in the morning we had it around 2:30 PM... I don't know what happened to us that day, but it was as if we walked into a room of laughing gas… (I am not a morning person, so usually in the morning at 10:30, when we have our meeting, I don't say much. But I guess since I was already awake and it was the middle of the day, we all were just having too good of a time! Jokes were told and things that weren't even funny were said and we were all laughing!

2ND CHANCES:
So we met the sister of one of our investigators earlier last week. We met briefly and I didn't even catch her name. But we went to go look this investigator up and her sister answered the door, we had a nice quick "reunion" if you want to call it that and we introduced ourselves fully this time. We asked about her religious background and she said that she wouldn't mind meeting with us. We got her number and we told her we would send daily scriptures to her. Before we left we showed her a Mormon message-Daily bread: Pattern. She liked it and we tried to set up a next appointment, she told us that she's not always there because she works and what not... But we told her we would stay in contact to let her know when we plan on stopping by to see her sister, so she could plan on being there. That makes a potential investigator, but we will see if it becomes a real interest of hers.

NANCY:
There's this lady Elder Tabor and I met a little while back, she was a referral from a member in another stake somewhere. She had been and still is, in and out of the hospital daily going through her chemotherapy. Every now and then we would stop by to see if she's home, more often then not she wouldn't be but the times that she was home she was exhausted from her treatments, and we could see her exhaustion, so we always made her aware of the time that we wanted to take from her. We would let her know that we understand she's going through a lot and that we don't want to take much time but that we just want to share something with her that we know will be uplifting and every time…
Every time, she is much happier then she was when she first opened the door. No matter how exhausted she may be, since the first time we stopped by she has always allowed us to take a few minutes to testify of our Savior and she's never turned us away. She is just the sweetest, she always tells us how much she really appreciates us coming by, calling her during the week to check on her,
and sharing uplifting messages with her. She's also in the process of trying to find a new apartment so we told her when she does we would be more than willing to load her trailer or U-haul. I know she sees the light of Christ when we visit her and she knows that we care about her.

March 9, 2016
Wednesday, Day 148
Day 135 in NY

PDAY
After our studies, we go on with our day. We do laundry and in between loads we grocery shop. After a long day of chores and preparing ourselves for the week we began our evening with visiting Brother Ford.

BROTHER FORD:
This is one man you absolutely have to meet. One of my favorite things that he has said after saying something somewhat intelligent is "...Don't take my word for it, I'm nuts!" He is absolutely hilarious! He just says the funniest things! And the way he says things just makes everything so much better!

RICHARD:
The father/husband of the Nation family. We stopped by to see if the Nation family was home. They hadn't been answering our phone calls or getting back to us. Since they don't live far from Brother Ford, we stopped by. Richard answered the door, when the door opened I noticed the huge blow up mattress in the living room, immediately we could tell they were busy with company staying the night. I guess they were babysitting again or something. Richard had told us they were busy, so we just asked for a few minutes of his time. We started asking them if they had been reading and praying as a family. He gave his usual answer, "well I can't speak for them, but I haven't been reading. I won't lie to you." It's a funny answer because he didn't answer our question directly. I mean obviously from his response, they aren't reading together. But he doesn't just flat out tell us. We hope that they soon recognize fully, the importance of our visits. We hope to see them progress someday soon.

RICKY:
At the end of the night like usual, we ended on visiting Ricky! I absolutely love Ricky! I mean, I'm not picking favorites, but I wish I had the same love that I have for Ricky, for every one else I meet and teach. Since the first day I met Ricky, I was so easily able to love him. I have sincere love for this man. He's become an uncle to me. Every night I leave his house I say "I love you Uncle Ricky." And he says, "I love you too, now watch your step out there." Uncle Ricky and I have some big plans for after my mission. We've been planning this for months! I believe that he's already been saving money weekly to afford our trip. But when I come home from my mission, I'm going to fly back out to NY or something, then Ricky and I will take our time driving back to California.

I don't remember when, but sometime in his life his leg was amputated... So he has a prosthetic right leg. Beside it being a trial itself, Ricky LOVED driving and with out a right leg he can't drive a regular car. He wants to take classes to be able to drive left footed. (I guess there are cars made for people with functional left feet, so the pedals are fixed to where the left foot can "comfortably" be used to push the brake and gas). Either that, or possibly having to get a car with a hand pedal for gassing. When Ricky was able to drive he told me about all the things he would do, the places he would go. He says that he would just fill up and drive and drive and drive. He just loved to get out and see places. I told him when I return from my mission I will take him places. So that's something we both look forward to. Driving from NYC to California, stopping along the way, seeing places we both haven't seen yet.

March 10, 2016
Thursday, Day 149
Day 136 in NY

SAD TEXTS:
This morning we received a text from an investigator we started meeting with again… Elder Tabor and I met him a while back, also a referral. He ordered a Bible, so we met him when we delivered it to him. His name is John, he's a junior in High school, and he claimed to be very interested.

Well the text we received said something like this; Hey Elders, my family and I would appreciate if you wouldn't come to our home anymore. We haven't felt the Holy Ghost and I don't want to become a Mormon any longer, we would just like it if you didn't come back.

Well I'm sure you’re feeling at least a little bit of the way I felt... It's not the greatest thing in the world when you receive a text like that from someone who really was interested and he claims to not have felt the spirit. Sadly, we believe that he and his family weren't actually reading from and praying about the Book of Mormon. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and the last time we went to see him he told us he hadn't read the Book of Mormon. It's sad to see him drop us like this, but we've done what we could, and we just hope he finds interest in the church again.

GOTTA BE newBOLD:
It's become very clear to see that the only way to make it or break it with people is by being bold. If you’re short with them they have too much room to get lost in.

Elder Davis and I are in the process of clearing out our area book. We are calling people daily; members, less actives, potentials, progressing investigators, new investigators, and so on…
While we were on a split the other day, Elder Clark and I looked up this guy who ordered a Bible. Since we are out of Bibles... (Which I don't understand how) we've been giving out more Books of Mormon instead. So we got to this guys apartment, went up to his floor, knocked on the door, and this lady answers, opening the door just enough to see her. We asked if Melton was home. He heard us and said come on in; we came in, and went to his room where he sat in his wheel chair. We introduced ourselves and confirmed that he ordered a Bible, he said yes. So we talked about how he found the website Mormon.org he said he saw it as an ad somewhere. We told him we didn't have any Bibles at the moment but we introduced him to the Book of Mormon and he agreed to take it. We invited him to read it and we set up another time to come by. He said come by the same time next week. Today was that day; Elder Davis and I came by to see Melton. We knocked another lady answered the door and Melton was behind her in his wheelchair watching TV. Both Elder Davis and I could see very clearly what he was doing. Watching TV, he wasn't busy at all. But when he saw us he faced the door and said "come back later, I'm busy. Give me a call before you come." Now, I've heard this too many times, I know what that means... He wants us to leave because he's not interested and instead of telling us he's not interested he wants us to call ahead of time so he can give an excuse. I replied, "Okay, well, are you even interested at all? Because I don't want to waste your time and I don't want to waste our time." He simply replied "No... Not really." I said, "Okay thank you, have a blessed night!" And we went on with our night.

We get a lot of people like this, where they really only want a Bible or a Book of Mormon but they really aren't interested in having us come by. So instead of telling us that, they set appointments with us on days they aren't home. In this case Melton is confined to his wheelchair and home. So he's not going anywhere, so I knew we would be getting excuse after excuse from him and we have other people we could be teaching. So we set it straight by making sure he was interested or not. And that's how it's done!

MAKING FRIENDS:
Walking home from an appointment, we were stopped by a group of kids chill in out on the steps of an apartment building. "Are y'all customer service?" Elder Davis and I were like "naaa we are missionaries". So we stopped and talked for about 40 minutes with them. There were 6 kids, a 19-year-old girl (this girl had a kid in a stroller, and she was trying to get my number lol, I said you got my card it's on there). Then there was a 17-year-old girl who was pregnant with her 15-year-old boy friend. One of the other boys was 15 and their friend who was about 18. The whole time we were talking, they would ask questions all over the place. We told them who we are, where we are from, what we are doing. "No we don't get paid, we pay to do this." In between 3 different conversations Elder Davis and I were having with these kids, we just bore testimony on simple principles of the gospel. It was super great; they were calling us their homies. One of the kids was looking at the Jesus pass along cards we gave him and he asked "where do I get my free Finding Faith in Jesus Christ DVD." We told him we would bring it in a couple days. They were some pretty cool kids. A couple of the kids were siblings and their mom was not a religious person at all. She apparently hates "Jesus People" they say if she walked into a church it would burn down around her. Which is very extreme, that obviously wouldn't happen.

SISTER GARDNER:
Received a call from Sister Gardner, a senior couple missionary. She called us later at night making us aware that because Elder Davis came 2 weeks late he missed the new missionary meeting. So she told us we would need to show up to Scarsdale for the meeting tomorrow morning.

March 11, 2016
Friday, Day 150
Day 137 in NY

NEW MISSIONARY MEETING:
Woke up at 4:30 and got ready quickly but quietly so that we don't wake the other Elders. We prayed at the door and left the apartment. We took the 6 train over to Harlem-125th station. We got there about 30 minutes early, so we got our tickets and waited in the station till about 5 minutes before our train arrived. Then we went up the stairs to the platform and got on the train and we took the "fancy train" to Scarsdale. From there we waited for the Office Elders to come by with the van and pick us up. When they got there, they then drove us to the Scarsdale Chapel, which is the church right behind the Mission Home.

While the New missionaries, "New" lol, Elder Davis at this point isn't so new; he's been out 6 weeks! (Man time has FLOWN by) so while the New missionaries have their Tiwi/Driving instructions, we, the trainers have a training from President, Sister Smith, and one of the APs. It was, as always, so awesome! President Smith was asking about miracles and one of the Elders raised his hand and shared an experience that him and his companion had. They did this thing called "prayer tracting". (So here in NY tracting isn't too affective, well at least in The Bronx it's not… So when we go to an appointment or after we go to look someone up, if they are home, perfect, after the lesson we go tract that apartment floor). The experience these two Elders had was one I'd never heard of. They had gone to look up an investigator and this investigator wasn't home. So they decided to prayer tract. They chose one of the doors on the floor and knocked on it. A college girl opened the door and they introduced themselves "Hi, we are the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Could we have a prayer with you?" If you’re lucky, you'll get the response she gave, "yea sure." These two Elders asked her the question "what specifically could we pray for?" She responded, "well I'm in college and I have some tests coming up and I would like to do well on those." As one of these Elders prayed specifically to the needs of this young lady, she was touched. After the prayer they asked her "how do you feel?" She said, "I feel much better, I feel at peace with the tests coming up. Thank you". (Now keep in mind this is the first time they have met this girl). The Elder that had prayed for this girl, then sad this, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the proper priesthood authority of God." The end of this story is unknown to me, but I believe that they did schedule another appointment to meet with her.

But how amazing is that?! To just simply take the time to understand the needs of someone and pray for them specifically, then directed by thee spirit to invite her to be baptized.

LOVETH:
Well, the experience above inspired me so much I wanted to get a feel for it and try it. So after the meeting I told Elder Davis about it because he wasn't in that part of our meeting. I told him when we go to visit Loveth we will try it. So we stopped by Loveth’s and she was home so after seeing how she was doing and making arrangements to see her again, I asked her if we could have a prayer before we left. She agreed and I asked her what we could pray for, she responded with "I want to find peace in my marriage." So standing at the doorway, in the hall of the apartment floor. We bowed our heads and I began to pray, I personally felt good about it and when we were done she said that she felt good as well. (We had met with her a few times previous and she hasn't made any attempt to attended church and I didn't feel it right to invite her to be baptized but the experience was great).

March 12, 2016
Saturday, Day 151
Day 138 in NY

WHITE PEOPLE:
Last night we got a call from the Spanish Elders, they had a referral for us. They were out last night walking home and this guy approached them. I guess he's had some incidents in his life that has made him come to the realization he needs to find a church. So he started talking to them and the Spanish Elders said he was pretty legit. So we got ahold of him this morning, his name is Kenneth, and he said he desired to meet with us. So we met up with him and his wife. We hadn't met them before so we didn't know what they looked like. When we met them we were surprised to see that they were white. They currently live in a shelter, so we met at a McDonalds. We sat down, talked, and got to know them a bit. They did seem super legit, very interested. We talked about them coming to church and they agreed strongly, we showed them routes to get to church and we had it all planned out. They said that they would see us at church tomorrow. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and gave them a copy. We invited them to read and pray about it. Then we ended our discussion in a prayer and left.

CONCLUSION:
The rest of our evening was good, we went and looked up some people and taught a few more lessons!

March 13, 2016
Sunday, Day 152
Day 139 in NY

SABBATH DAY:
Went to church and as always it was great! After church Brother Ford asked if we could go with him to his home teaching appointment. So we went with him and shared the New Easter video #Hallelujah.

#Hallelujah Look it up!!! Watch it. Share it. Share it. & Share it! Go on Mormon.org or look it up on the Gospel Library app.

March 14, 2016
Monday, Day 153
Day 140 in NY

HIGHLIGHT:
While I was in the Spanish program for two weeks I met this member family and they love the missionaries. So walking on the street the other day they stopped Elder Davis and I, why we hadn't visited them. We told her we hadn't scheduled anything, so she told us to come over for dinner with the Spanish Elders! So we did we went over at 7:30 and waited for the Spanish Elders. While we were waiting, for the first time ever... Someone who wanted to talk to me like I was nothing actually did it to my face.

People in the Bronx have no courage, in all honesty, MOST of the time the people are under the influence of something. And when they are, they go off about unimportant things that they believe are very important. Well, I've had multiple experiences where people have wanted to say something to me. But instead of speaking to me face to face, which I so strongly prefer. They talk to my companion to tell me whatever it is, they go on a rant about.

So this lady comes out of the elevator cussing up a storm about how she lost her money and her weed. Her friends next to her said "yo, shut up, there are missionaries behind you. They don't want to hear about your problems." The lady then went off about how she doesn't give a dang and this and
that. So I reached out and gave her friend a Jesus pass along card. Well the lady in a bad mood didn't like that. (So you have to know that everyone I'm around is black. Even my companion, so it's actually really weird talking to white people when you see them because it's rare). As this lady sees the picture of Jesus she just starts screaming about how Jesus is black, and to my companion she says "don't let him (pointing at me) fool you, Jesus is your color not his. I simply said, "Have you seen Jesus?" She honestly replied "no". I said, "then how do you know what color he is?" (Obviously she's racist and didn't want to say anything nice to me. Which is fine with me). She said, "It's a fact! That's how I know!" I told her, it's not a fact, and I went on to say that "Jesus was a Jew and the Jews were darker then me but they were lighter than you." Of course then my companion backed me up, Elder Davis is black and he doesn't believe in a black Jesus, so he went on to explain some more. Then her attitude was sweet to him, but with me haha! She had nothing good to say the whole time. So I'm getting yelled at, I'm being told that I can't be calling my self an Elder because I don't know anything. Ya-da-ya-da. Blah- blah- blah. After we made our points, we just explained that our purpose as missionaries is just to invite others to follow Christ; we aren't here to teach deep doctrine or to teach people about the color of Jesus Christ. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what color Jesus is, he's our Savior and if we love him for who he is and what he has done, it doesn't matter what his skin color is. He could be purple for all I care. Jesus Christ is my Savior and has died for me and for you.

What a night that was. I mean besides the points she was trying to make, weren't valid whatsoever, she was drinking her alcohol from the party she just stepped out of and wasn't at all straight in the mind. Elder Davis and I were trying our best the whole time to keep our chill, but at the same time Elder Davis is busting up laughing! Lol

March 15, 2016
Tuesday, Day 154
Day 141 in NY

LOOK UP:
Like I mentioned before we have been trying to clean up our area book. So we have been calling investigators and less actives. Well, we decided today we were going to look up this less active, named Isael. When we got to his door and knocked, he opened up, we introduced our selves and told him we were kind of new to the area and just wanted to get to know the members. He then let us in and he began to tell us about how he got into the church and how he decided to be baptized. Which were some pretty cool stories. He told us he wasn't too sure why he stopped coming to church. But he did say, because he hasn't come in so long he would feel embarrassed to show up because he's afraid of what the members will say. We told him that the members would welcome him like he never left. He felt comforted by that and told us he wants to come to church. We told him we could come by and get him on Sunday morning before church and go with him since he's shy. As we talked about all the people and members he remembers, we feel that once he comes on Sunday he will be able to come to church on his own, often with out us. We may have found us a solid reactivation! We are super stoked to have someone so solid want to come back to church.



Well that's it for this week! Hope that's entertaining enough for you all! I don't like reading so I'm glad I have big fans that will read for me and correct my spelling or grammar errors! Love you mom and dad, haha.

Love you all. The Gospel has been restored and our Savior lives! #HALLELUJAH #FINDNEWLIFE #MORMON.ORG


Till next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Elder Newbold and Elder Davis

Standing on a rooftop

Eating crickets

New Missionary training for Elder Davis

Add caption

Week 21

March 1, 2016
Tuesday, Day 140
Day 127 in NY

5 MILE DAY:
It doesn't seem like a lot... Because it's not. But when all you do is walk, walk, and walk because the trains aren't running on local tracks, due to construction and the busses are NEVER running and if they are, they are NEVER on time, then yea 5 miles seems like a lot... But I guess it's nothing to complain about, I'll have some buffed out legs… If I can get my metabolism to slow down, completely.

I guess really the only down side of walking all day is that no one was available, until we went to go meet with a member. Then we were able to teach some lessons. All in all, 'twas a good day!

March 2, 2016
Wednesday, Day 141
Day 128 in NY

PDAY!
Whoop whoop! After our PDAY routine we went to go find a referral "deep in the Point" (in Hunts Point). The gate outside of the apartment was locked so we waited and prayed... And then someone walked by with a key and opened it, so we followed them into the apartment building. We went up the stairs and passed a couple guys on the stairs, they were sitting and smoking, and when we passed them of course they were startled because we "look like cops". After looking up our referral and finding that she wasn't home. We walked back down the stairs and the guys said, "did you ride bikes here?" (Elder Davis thought, why did he ask us that? Did he want to steal our bikes if we did?) We told him we don't have bikes, I asked him if he had seen any missionaries riding bike out here? He said no, in Manhattan. So I asked if he had met with missionaries, he said no but that he knows a little bit about us. I asked him to tell us what he knew and he responded, "Well, no I really don't know anything..." We asked if he had heard about the Book of Mormon he said he had but didn't know anything about it. We told both the guys about the Book of Mormon and Lu was the older guy we were talking to. He pointed to Josh, the younger guy, and said he needed Jesus so, we, talking to both of them talked about the Book of Mormon and we gave one to Josh. He was looking through it whole time we talked about it. Then before we left we gave one to Lu.

It's so cool to look back and think about how shy of a kid I was growing up. And too see where I'm at socially now, is incredible to me.

"All worthy, able young men should be preparing to serve a mission." Missions will change you! They will change you to be the person you will appreciate to be.

March 3, 2016
Thursday, Day 142
Day 129 in NY

JUST ANOTHER DAY:
Another day of planning! Not much happened today, we had taught 2 lessons. We were on our way to look up an investigator and one of our less actives David, saw us walking in the night across the street so he called us on our phone and asked if we were walking down Prospect. We answered and said yes how did you know he said that he could see us. Confused and unsure whether to be worried or not we looked around and couldn't find him. He then started waving his hands above his head and we saw him across the street under the streetlight. He asked us to meet him at the light so we cross the street and he asked us if we could come by tonight. We told him we are on our way to see someone, but we could stop by after. He said he wasn't having a good day; he lost $100, of course that put him down.

After going to look up an investigator who ended up not being home we went over to see David. He was telling us all about his YouTube channel and how he had been making work out videos. He said he was inspired by my Red Bull party video and wanted to inspire others with his workouts. His channel is something like..."the average joe." Lol super great. He was then asking about some pointers to recording better video. After telling him what I thought would help, we began talking about him and how he's been doing. After our little discussion we felt the need to show him the awesome Mormon message "Lift".
Go and watch it! It's amazing!

March 4, 2016
Friday, Day 143
Day 130 in NY

GOLDEN REFERRALS? :
Around 4 pm we contacted this guy named Aaron. He had requested a bible. We stopped by the address he gave us, which was the address to his fiancé's apartment. Elder Davis and I walked into the apartment building stood at the front desk for a few minutes signing in, showing our ID, and what not. Then Aaron and his fiancé Carolin came down the elevator and we went to a lobby room or something off to the side of the sign in desk. We asked how he found the website Mormon.org he said he found it online looking for free Bibles. After talking to them for a while, getting to know them better, we shared with them the Book of Mormon. They loved it! We invited them to read and come to church. They seemed really interested and willing to come to church. Hopefully we can meet with them again next week and continue meeting weekly.

March 5, 2016
Saturday, Day 144
Day 131 in NY

LONG TIME NO SEE:
There is this investigator I met during my first couple months with Elder Tabor, since then we hadn't met with her, Elder Davis and I finally had the opportunity to stop by and see her. She was home thankfully. We talked to Agnes, (the investigator) and she was telling us about being how busy she'd been and how a lot has been going on. So I shared with her one of my favorite scriptures John 14:18 "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." She liked that a lot and felt comforted. We invited her to read from the Book of Mormon to find comfort and peace. We prayed at the door way and went on our way.

March 6, 2016
Sunday, Day 145
Day 132 in NY

PURE GENIUS:
We stopped by this lady's apartment, Blanca, she wasn't home but her man was. (I say "her man" because people here, most often live together but are not married. And they will tell you that they are
husband and wife.) So I'm not sure their relation. But we stopped by to see Blanca and we talked to Edwardo instead since he was home. Some how we got into the conversation of all the inventions he's made. He showed us this book he made of all these inventions he's designed to help the blind, the deaf, and to break the barrier of other languages. His designs were incredible and totally genius. Whether they were legit or not, they seemed very well thought out and researched, he just financially can't afford to produce his ideas. He told us that if we find anyone who can make his dreams happen, to tell him. He said he doesn't even care if his ideas get stolen or if someone else takes his work and puts their name on it he just wants it made to help people. This guy was so sincere and awesome to talk to. We shared with him John 14:18. It is such a perfect scripture to share with anyone. Everyone loves it!


So earlier this week we had a zone meeting and goal setting was brought up... I've made the goal to be more obedient. I want to follow the daily schedule better and be able to write in my journal each night so I don't have the problem of sending short summaries of my days.

Please forgive me this week! I will do my best to be better next week! I love you all!

P.S. Read John 14. And watch the Mormon Message "Lift".

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Putting the fire place together

The finished fireplace

 

Week 20

February 24, 2016
Wednesday, Day 134
Day 121 in NY

PDAY! (10AM-6PM)
After hours, 6:15 PM Elder Davis and I were going over to Brother Fords to help him move all his furniture to the middle of his living room so that the guy coming to paint the apartment could paint the walls. Elder Casper and Elder Nalaza mentioned that their appointments had fallen through so we told them they could come help us. We were probably there for about 2 hours. Brother Ford, he is so great! Haha this man cracks me up. He had a couple turn table record players. Of course I wanted one, so when he happened to say that he will have to find a place for them one day, I told him "I got you Brother Ford." After helping Brother Ford, we shared a quick message and went on our way.

PDAY LESSONS:
After serving Brother Ford, we had another lesson. It was later then we expected it to be and we still had our PDAY/service clothes on... So we made the decision not to waste time and just go how we are to the lesson. The people we visited were less active members. Magdalena and her son Santiago. It was such an awesome lesson, we talked about the scriptures and they had been reading together. It's so awesome to hear that the people you are teaching are progressing and keeping their commitments.

February 25, 2016
Thursday, Day 135
Day 122 in NY

Had ward correlation at the church, got there early so we could be on the conference call with president. President talked about being prepared. He shared some miracles with us that had been noticed and shared by a few missionaries during the past week.

After correlation we came home and had weekly planning! Whoop whoop, always a great time with planning haha. Naa it's not really that fun, but it's just nice to get planning for the week over with, so you know what needs to be done throughout the week.

MISSIONARY WORK:
We went over to teach Ricky and after the lesson with Ricky, I remembered something that I had been meaning to ask him. Across the street from Ricky’s apartment there's a little 2 family apartment building and on the bottom floor we have an investigator named Nancy. We met her during Christmas; sometime in December while we were going around sharing the Savior is born video. She had explained that she had been going through a lot recently because she was in and out of the hospital daily for chemotherapy and that we had made her night because of our visit. So after meeting with Ricky we asked him if he would come with us to be a 3rd male in a lesson with Nancy, he said that he would like to so now we need to just set up an appointment with Nancy.

SPLIT:
Went on a split with Elder Sorensen in his area. Met at the Castle Hill stop and split. Elder Davis and Elder Li went to our area. So that was Elder Davis's first time taking over the area.

February 26, 2016
Friday, Day 136
Day 123 in NY

SPLIT!
HAVE YOU EVER TAUGHT A PASTOR?
Well I have… So, our first appointment of the day was at a church with this pastor of the church. He said that he wanted to be able to answer questions of those in his congregation that ask what we believe. So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and we even gave him one. We did a little bit of How to Begin Teaching, which is something you can read about in PMG. (Preach My Gospel) It was really cool. We thought that we were going to get thrown all this crap about false doctrine and such, because that's usually what happens from pastors or strong believers from other churches. Turns out he really was just interested. I can’t really remember the exact questions he asked, but they were really good questions. After answering his questions and bearing testimony on the things we knew. He asked us to come back and meet with him again.

SERVICE:
Elder Sorensen was telling me about the plans for the day and about all the people I'll meet. He said that they had plans for service, he said it should only take abut an hour and 45 minutes. Elder Sorensen said that the member said we would be "moving" a fireplace. She never mentioned that we would be putting together one. So we put it together and had a blast doing it... We ended being there for about 5 hours... She even fed us so of course that added some time. But over all it was super awesome!! I've never set up a fireplace heater thingy.

The rest of the day went well! Our appointments fell through, during the time of the service we did. So we went around the area and just started looking up people. We ended up teaching like 6 people, so it was a great day!

February 27, 2016
Saturday, Day 137
Day 124 in NY

REFERRAL:
We looked up this lady Denise Scott, when we got to the apartment she sent her older sons down. We talked to them for a bit, their names were Hercules and Donavon. We taught them about the Book of Mormon. Ended up leaving the apartment with 6 less books of Mormon! (One for each of the family members.) Hoping that when we stop by again next Saturday that they will be home and available to teach.

February 28, 2016
Sunday, Day 138
Day 125 in NY

REFERRAL-INVESTIGATOR:
We stopped by this lady that ordered a Bible, she's a single mother with a son who's 4. She said that she's interested in getting into church and finding a religion. She asked the question "what makes our church different then others" we pulled out the Book of Mormon and explained to her what it is. We told her we would love to come back and share more with her about our church. We invited her to come on Sunday and she said she would love to, but probably not this week. We are praying that she is one who has been prepared. We would love to be able to continually meet with her and get her to come to church.

Another slow day but here the good in it!

February 29, 2016
Monday, Day 139
Day 126 in NY

THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL:
Peace and Joy! Having knowledge of the restored Gospel can and will bring peace and joy to those who learn and apply the teachings. My example for this is, Elder Davis and I called this referral the other day and she was so excited to meet with us. She was referred to us by one of her co-workers who is a member of the church. She wasn't looking for a Bible or anything she just wanted to meet with the Missionaries. We had her planned in to see her on Tuesday of last week. When we stopped by, she didn't answer... We heard a dog barking from inside but no one seemed to be home. So we called her and left a voicemail. We were bummed because we were looking forward to meeting with her.

When Elder Davis called Gladys (the referral) today, her daughter answered the phone, he asked if Gladys was available and Jennifer (the daughter) responded with, "I'm sorry, my mom passed away on Wednesday...” This totally threw us off... We had just talked to this lady a week ago and the day we went to see her she didn't answer and to find out that she had passed away was sad and totally unexpected. But the great part about this experience is that we know where she is. She's being taught the gospel in the spirit world. We are giving the daughter a little time before we go over and visit her to take this opportunity to teach her and help her be comforted.

BUS RIDE:
We were on our way to an appointment and we were on the bus, facing this girl. Elder Davis made eye contact with her so he said hi and it went from there, we introduced ourselves, and asked her a couple questions like, where she was coming from, where she was heading. We talked about the church and she said she was interested in coming to church. We invited her to come to ours and she said she would like to, but that she will let us know, we got her number and hope to be able to meet with her soon.

Teaching people left and right! It's so great! I love my mission! I love being a missionary!

That's all I've had time for this week! Till next to week! Love you all!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 19

February 13, 2016
Saturday, Day 123
Day 110 in NY

BAPTISM:
Woke up and right after studies went to the church to attend a baptism. The Sisters’ investigator was being baptized! How awesome! So that was super exciting, baptisms are the best! After the baptism, we un-split so Elder Davis and I went home and began weekly planning.

February 14, 2016
Sunday, Day 124
Day 111 in NY

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
I had to be reminded that it was Valentine's Day by many people today; 1. I'm not good with dates, I can't remember when holidays are, nor is my memory good in the first place. 2. I'm serving a mission, as every other missionary, we don't really celebrate holidays, we work everyday. Inviting people to come unto Christ. The only thing we celebrate is Jesus Christ.

AIDA:
So like I said before I didn't realize it was Valentine's Day, neither did it cross my mind that other people may celebrate Valentine's Day. So when we talked to Aida about visiting her today, like we visit her every Sunday, she said that today wouldn't work for her because she wouldn't be home, after telling someone that she, for the first time has rescheduled our appointment, they said maybe she really isn't home, it is Valentine's Day. Then of course I realized, you’re right it is Valentine's Day and I hoped that was the case.

After we had text Aida about another day we could reschedule... She responded with "I'll just call you when I want to take the lessons again." Missionaries never like to hear that, because really that means "I don't want to meet with you anymore". We keep praying that she continues to read the Book of Mormon and has a desire to follow the Savior Jesus Christ. But for now all we can do is wait on her to be ready.

February 15, 2016
Monday, Day 125
Day 112 in NY

SNOW DAY!
Went out tonight and looked up a referral, he wasn't home…so we walked home in the snow and passed out Jesus pass along cards to EVERYONE we saw... Well everyone that took them... Which was like 15 people out of 20. People just don't understand that holding Jesus pass along cards is just like holding hand warmers! They should be asking to have one card for each hand! It was snowy and getting late and we had the goal to pass out 1 Book of Mormon before we went back to the apartment.
We saw this lady standing under an overhang. We came up to her and asked if she'd like a picture of Jesus, her response was completely unexpected. "Oh yes, he's my boyfriend, my hubby! I love him". A
little out of the ordinary, but its New York, it's really not that weird here. Well we started to talk to her about Jesus Christ and we talked about church, she shared some interesting experiences that she had when she first went to church. She explained that she "was overcome with the spirit and fainted to the ground while talking to the pastor". She described it as a feeling that she would like to have again. Elder Davis pulled out a Book of Mormon and we told her that she could have this book because when you read this book you can feel the Holy Spirit and you can have many more experiences to share. She seemed interested in it and took it. She said she was going out of town the next day and would be gone for about 2 weeks, but would definitely give us a call when she gets back. Her name was Anna, so we pray that she does call us.

LANGUAGES:
Same night, within about minutes after that conversation with Anna, we ran into this guy named Junior.
We didn't know him, but we wanted to see if he wanted a card. I said, "Excuse me sir" (he turned around) "would you like a picture of Jesus?"

So since I was in the Spanish program for 2 weeks, when I would talk to people and they didn't understand me, I, out of habit would begin speaking whatever Spanish I knew to try and talk to them...

Junior responds, "huh?" So who knows for what reason, instead of repeating myself in English, I repeated my self in Spanish... "¿Te queres un foto de Jesu Cristo?"

He then says, "What language do you want to speak to me in, English or Spanish?" (Trying so hard not to sound like a smart A) I said, "Which ever you prefer." He then responded with something I couldn't understand, but sounded close to Spanish.

Me: Was that Italian?
Junior: No! It was French!
Me: oh that's cool! I don't speak French…
Junior: Oh you don't do you? (With attitude)
Me: Nope, I only speak English.
Junior: (Holding the Jesus Card in his hand he said) Can I call you?
Me: yea of course.
Junior: Good, I'm gonna call you about my personal problems.
Me: (wishing I said nothing I said) sounds good.
Junior: (looks to Elder Davis and says) You see, you gotta be confident in yourself to be able to talk to people, I don't like that guy (referring to me) but we connected.

Well he straight up told me he doesn't like me, which made me laugh. We walked away and wished him a good night!


February 16, 2016
Tuesday, Day 126
Day 113 in NY

BISHOP:
We got a text from bishop asking if we would be available tonight to give him a blessing. We told him of course. We didn't have any set plans for the night.

So right after dinner we went to the train station and got on the 5 train and headed over to Bishop’s house. When we got there we talked and asked about how he's doing and what he would like the blessing for.

He said, he had been having some odd thing going on with one of his eyes. It sounded like, a curtain being dragged across one of his eyes, blurring his vision to a great extent. So the bottom half of his eye was loosing vision. (Bishop, going to school to become some kind of Dr. Says that he remembers learning about what it was) realizing it was something that needed immediate attention he looked up some eye doctors and found a really good one. Then he made the soonest appointment he could, when he was seen by the eye doctor, he was told that a nerve in the back of his eye had come "unplugged" he would need to go into surgery ASAP. The next day he was scheduled in, the expert Doctor that diagnosed his issue was a fan of Mormons and paid off the $80,000 surgery and bishop only had to pay $1,200 for anesthesia. WHAT A MIRACLE!!

He said that he wanted the blessing to help him be comforted and that he will be able to heal and recover quickly to return back to school. So after we talked we gave him the blessing, then we sat and talked for a little more as he shared his gratitude for us and the gospel. I love Bishop Jessop.

February 17, 2016
Wednesday, Day 127
Day 114 in NY

PDAY!
These days really do come so fast! It's insane!

Same old Same old.
Laundry. Groceries. Home. Lunch. Church. Gator ball.

PROGRESS IN THE HOOD:
We met with these less actives who have been meeting with missionaries for a while. They love missionaries they just DO NOT like church. They have refused to go since who knows when. But missionaries have been trying to get them to church since at least 2014. As soon as Elder Davis and I met with them they agreed to come to church. It was a miracle that they even agreed to come!

February 18, 2016
Thursday, Day 128
Day 115 in NY

We had coordination then came home for lunch. After lunch but before weekly planning we had 20 referrals... So we decided that we would just take the time to call them all. We set up appointments with about half of them. We had a packed and set schedule for the week just from our referrals. That helped weekly planning go by.

WEEKLY PLANNING:
Always takes time... But it's good; with out weekly planning we would be nowhere near as busy as we are each day. We would probably have like no plans at all. It would be horrible.

DIVINE EARTH:
We have this investigator who requested a Bible. Her name is DivineEarth. How cool of a name! Haha I've never heard of a name like that. She's 18 and she's apparently interested in coming to church. We
are teaching her lessons and have met with her a few times. We pray that she will make an effort to attend church.

February 19, 2016
Friday, Day 129
Day 116 in NY

REFERRALS:
We had an appointment with one of our referrals this morning. Sophia, she ordered a Bible. So we gave her the Bible and she set up another time with us that she could meet, when she doesn't have work.

We met with DivineEarth again. Before we left her house yesterday, we asked when would be another time we could meet. She said that tomorrow would be good. So here we are again with her. We were able to come in the apartment because her older brother was home, and we got to meet her mom. She says her mom might be interested as well. So we will see, we should be meeting with her again on Sunday if she doesn't come to church.

February 20, 2016
Saturday, Day 130
Day 117 in NY

RAMDHANS: (readers discretion is advised...I warned you)
So, I am not a fan of eating at other people’s apartments. After a few of my first dinner appointments I decided I wouldn't eat anywhere else but my own apartment. The Bronx, is NOT a clean place, never has been. NY buildings/apartments have been around for about, forever! And I guess people don't like to clean. Well, there's this member who cooks for the missionaries every Saturday. But she asks each companionship to help her on a different week. Before this time, I had only been over there once. And I was hoping I would keep it that way… I love helping people. But I'm NOT a fan of Indian food or dirty
plates and utensils...

Since I've been out here, I've cleaned so many dishes. My own and even other people's dishes who have claimed that they are clean..

***Hair is NOT an ingredient in preparing food!!!!! Please keep it on your own body***
*Nuf' said*

February 21, 2016
Sunday, Day 131
Day 118 in NY

CHURCH:
Guess who came to church! The less active members who claimed they hate church and don't want to come. Showed up to sacrament! When we got to church we received a call from Magdalena, the mother. She asked, "How did you get to church?" We told her that the local trains aren't running on her side of town, but that we took the BX 19 bus to the Hunts Point stop and rode up to Parkchester. Her response was short, "okay, we will see you soon". I thought okay great! Less than 15 minutes later, they show up! Which was unexpected. I asked how they got here and they're response was "we just took a cab” that made my heart warm! Because these members never wanted to come to church and then all of a sudden decided they do and they made the perfect effort to get there.

February 22, 2016
Monday, Day 132
Day 119 in NY

CHARITY IS ABOVE ALL:
In Moroni 10, it's said that if you have not charity, we can in no way be saved in the kingdom of God.
I always look for opportunities to serve, not to boast in that way, but I love service and if you don't know that by now, let me serve you. For if you deny charity how can we give charity. For if we don't
give charity how can we be saved?

So, all our plans for today fell through so hard! It bit us bad today... We just didn't know what to do, so we started by going to an investigators apartment and see if they were home. Well, just as I had my hand up to knock on the door the neighboring door was opened and suitcases were pushed out. Elder Davis and I immediately reached forward and offered our service. For the first time, someone has accepted our charity. We helped her carry out all her luggage down the elevator to the taxi out front. She continually thanked us over and over again, in between short moments of silence between our conversation. She told us she was going on vacation to Santiago for a month, we gave her a card and told her to give us a call if she ever needed any help. With a day of fallen through appointments it was so nice to be able to serve someone.

February 23, 2016
Tuesday, Day 133
Day 120 in NY

FUNERAL:
The day we went to give bishop a blessing, he told us that a family who lived in our ward my first week in the mission, the mother of the family had passed away from a heart attack. To represent the ward and to show our love and support to the family, Elder Davis and I were asked by President to attend the Funeral. Earlier in the week, I received a call from Elder Tabor and Elder Moss (the ZL's of the Kingsbridge Zone) informing us of the funeral time and date. They said that they too would attend the funeral. So I was excited, not for the funeral but too be able to see Elder Tabor and introduce Elder Davis to him. We were at the funeral from 1:30-4. We didn't get home till 5.

But the funeral was very interesting. I don't really think it's the funeral that's so interesting but the people who attend the funeral. This is the 2nd funeral I've attended on my mission so far... And they
are so different. This funeral was a member family, with MANY nonmember friends and family.

A member from our ward offered to drive us home; since it was raining we accepted their invitation. They took us to McDonalds lol, even McDonalds is more expensive then McDonalds back home. There isn't a dollar menu and drinks aren't a dollar!! How crazy!


Well that's all for this week!!! Love you all; I'm working on writing letters back! Enjoy your week! Peace out!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Guess what?! I ordered a Spanish name tag while I was in the Spanish program, and I finally got one!


Macho passed out on my lap during our lesson with Ricky.


Posterity Picture ("my son" on the left and "my father" on the right)


We caught this rat under our sink!


Elder Avenue


Selfie cause I know y'all miss my smirk!


Brother Ford and Sister Barbara Jean (the funniest members in our ward)

Week 18

February 10, 2016
Wednesday, Day 120
Day 107 in NY

PDAY!
It's PDAY again! Man these days come out of nowhere! It makes me laugh because I know that everyone at home is excited for this day to come, but as missionaries we are excited for it to be over haha. Well, at least I feel that way... It's just the busiest day of the week.

GATOR BALL?
So today after we did laundry and grocery shopping we came home, put everything away, and stayed home till 6... Which was nice because we didn't have to worry about rushing over to the church, email, and get dragged into gator ball. Trust me, I love gator ball! But I need my journal writing time more than exercise.

NATION FAMILY:
Met with the Nation Family at 6:30, after PDAY time. It was the first time that Elder Davis had met in the nation family. Like I mentioned last week, the only thing they could talk about was how much they
loved Elder Tabor, well when they saw Elder Davis; they thought he was a black version of Elder Tabor. (I'm really starting to think they don't like me, not that I need them to talk about how much they love me in order for me to understand that they like me, but they've never said anything about me...)
After reading Moroni 10 with them, we invited them to read as a family. Prior to the appointment with the Nation family I had given Elder Davis a little bit of background on the family. I told him that Elder
Tabor and I have invited them to church several times. Each time they've turned us down. Well, after our lesson Elder Davis had the impression to invite them to church on Sunday, without too much they agreed to come to church. (At this point I'm now considering them to be a bit racist, LOL. Because two white boys have invited them to church, and out of the blue Elder Davis comes and they agree to come to church). Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing, if all it takes is Elder Davis to invite everyone we meet to come to church and be baptized then maybe we should keep him here for a while!

BIBLE REFERRAL:
We went and looked up this lady named Amada. She was super excited to see us with a Bible in hand, but oh boy, you should have seen her reaction when we gave her the bible. When she held the Bible in her hands, she was like a kid on Christmas, all giddy and excited! But wait Christmas isn't over, we gave her the Book of Mormon and told her about it, and that just about sent her overboard! She couldn't stand still! Which was so great to see! She told us about how she collects Bibles and compares them to each other; she said when she compared the Bibles that she had to the Kings James version she said that the Kings James Version just felt right. She asked where our church was
and we happily gave her the address. We are hoping to see her at church soon.



February 11, 2016
Thursday, Day 121
Day 108 in NY

NEW MISSIONARY MEETING:
Woke up this morning at 5, we had the New Missionary meeting at the mission home. It was an amazing meeting! It was just President Smith, Sister Smith, AP Jimenez, AP Wulff, 2 Sister missionaries, Elder Davis and I. When we got there they made us waffles for breakfast! And since President Smith and his family and Elder Davis are from Texas they made Texas shaped waffles so that was super cool haha. During the meeting I received the confirmation that I needed to work
with ward members more. Earlier in the week, when I took Elder Davis to Bishops, I felt the need to discuss what we could do to help the members become more active in the ward and in missionary work. Sitting in the new missionary meeting Sister Smith said something along the lines of; work hard with what you have, but don't make more work then you have. She continued on talking about how the membership here need more work. Well whether she actually said anything like that or not, that's the
revelation that I had received.
February 12, 2016
Friday, Day 122
Day 109 in NY

A CONTINUE OF CONFIRMATION:
This morning our district met at the church to discuss and go through our area book to assign members and less active members to each companionship so that we could work together on the ward. So that's super awesome, that yesterday I heard that I needed to work with the members more and today we acted on that. We went through what seemed like a lot of people, but the amount we
went through didn't make a dent in the total amount. Slowly but surely we are trying to clean it all out.

SPLIT:
After the meeting we went to cross Bronx and got pizza! Came back to the church and ate lunch then we split. Elder Casper stayed with me and Elder Davis went with Elder Nalaza. It was a great day! We had an appointment with Brother Ford, and Elder Casper said that he's heard a lot of good things about Brother Ford so he wanted to take a picture with him. Now I've been in Hunts Point long enough to know Brother Ford and his tradition with Elders who take pictures with him, so I kept my mouth shut to surprise Elder Casper. After our lesson with Brother Ford, Elder Casper asked for a picture with him. So Brother Ford stood up and buttoned up his shirt to stall, as I got the iPad from Elder Casper and Brother Ford started the count down "ready? 1...2...3 MUAH!" He gave Elder Casper a nice kiss on the
cheek! Greet every Elder with a kiss he says haha. So that was exciting! For him! Haha

Sadly but fortunately, our appointments for the rest of the night fell through and we were then available to help Elder Buckley and Elder West. They asked if we could run home and get Elder Buckley's things
because they were on a split as well, we were on our way home when they called, so we went home and they were trying to catch a bus in co-op city, which is about an hour trip away from our apartment. So we got his things and took off to the train headed towards Pelham bay parkway. When we got there, they got there. So we gave them their stuff and got back on the train and headed back home.



Sadly I took the time and played Gator ball today so I haven't finished my journal this week, but it's Elder Nalazas Birthday today, so I played for him!

Love you all! And I'll finish my journal and you'll get it all next week!

Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

"My pants felt like they were stuck completely under water. So I took them off so we could have nightly planning."

"I guess this sign fell off in the rain, wind storm and I carried it home.  People stared but it's New York, so it wasn't weird."

"We have this joke, we ask "how far is that plane?" and you respond the amount of months left in the mish, so it's 20 months away.  How crazy! That's 20 fast Sunday's left!"

Elder Casper bring kissed by Brother Ford!
"Greet every Elder with a kiss"

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)