Week 45

August 17, 2016
Wednesday, Day 309
Day 296 in NY

Pday!
We decided we would just chill for the day. We headed over to the Church after taking care of groceries and laundry. (I keep meaning to take a picture of how we do laundry, to save money). Elders Nielsen and Gonzalez, Elder Gonzalez replaced Elder Chambers, so they went into the church to get haircuts from Jay. Elder Gentry and I went to Modell's, this sports store just around the corner. We broke the Ping-Pong ball last week and needed to buy more; freaking Ping-Pong balls are a dollar apiece! Ridiculous! And they don't sell them individually or of course, so Elder Gentry and I split it and bought a pack of 6 balls for 3 hours worth of Ping-Pong lol. After purchasing these ridiculously expensive Ping-Pong balls, lol we went over to the church and wrote emails and played Ping-Pong. A little after noon we left to get lunch and we went to Chipotle! Came back, ate, wrote, and played. As Pday came to an end we made our way back home. We had dinner and got ready to leave for our appointments. D wasn't home like we hoped so we went to the S's. When we got there it was just M(16) and J(12). We followed up with M to see if he read Omni. He said he didn't, but that he needs to start reading again. We started talking about the scripture and then we started talking about Moroni. So we invited him to read chapter 10 of Moroni. We talked about praying to know truth and receiving answers and confirmation through reading and prayer. He seemed pretty into it and we committed the both of them to read the chapter and talk to each other about what they read. We will see how that goes with them next week. When we left their apartment we walked through the Polo Grounds, near Rucker Park, to the subway station to head home.

August 18, 2016
Thursday, Day 310
Day 297 in NY

Today was a pretty great day! We started the day with weekly planning around 11 am at the church. After a couple hours of weekly planning and a lunch break in between, we went out and began our day. We were making our way to the east side of the island and realized we would be a little early for M so we went and looked up a lady not to far from his apartment. When we got to the door, we knocked, and she quickly answered. We gave a short introduction of who we were and she said she didn't have time right now for us to talk because she was just heading out the door with her kids so we told her we could come back another time and she gave us a date and time. We asked if she had a Book of Mormon, she said she does but she shares it with her son, so we gave her a copy for herself. We went on our way and went to M's. It was awesome! We caught her just in time! After meeting with her we went over to see M's. While at M's we talked about how he's been doing with certain things he's been going through. He said he's been smoking again. He said he's been smoking daily, not as much as before but he's back into it. So we also talked about over coming addictions and priesthood blessings. We told him to pray and ponder on the priesthood so he can decide if he feels like it would be something he would like.

When we left M's we headed over to a members apartment. Before we got there we assumed that they were both members. I had just met them 2 weeks ago when they moved into the the Ward and last week we got a text from R and she asked if we had a night available to come over for dinner. So we scheduled tonight and like I said, assumed they were both members and came over to visit with them. While eating, R made a comment about D (her husband) not being a member, surprised, she then said something along the lines of, will you teach him? They have been reading the Book of Mormon together and had some questions, it was a sweet experience. [Here's a little background I had written about them after we left the appointment: We planned on sharing D&C 88:81. But quickly found out that D isn't a member. Turns out R invited us over for dinner because he is interested and wants to learn about our religion. He grew up with a Catholic background. But as he got older he drifted away from it because he felt that because he didn't make the choice to be baptized Catholic that it wasn't right and not for him. He met R and they got married. She's a convert and has been wanting to get him involved in the church. He went to YSA with her before they got married and he attends church with her now. He started reading the Book of Mormon with R and he had some questions. So we started from the beginning and taught him about he Book of Mormon and taught simply the restoration. Due to time, we needed to leave but he wants us back every week to teach him so we set up an appointment for Tuesday.] Today was great! We placed a Book of Mormon with the first new investigator we found today and then met another.

August 19, 2016
Friday, Day 311
Day 298 in NY

Since I'm training again! Which I love so much! I'm going through 12 week, the new missionary study program, for the 3rd time! Whoop whoop! It's been updated since my first time so I'm still learning as we go through it. So part of our companionship study each morning we do 12 week. When we went out after lunch today, our first 2 appointments fell through. One of them was set last night in the elevator with a guy named J W, he was drunk so we kind of expected him not to remember. Our next 3 appointments were solid and the first 2 lived in the same building right next each other. It was super convenient. After them we started looking up and going to visit the less active members that we usually see each Friday. We finally stopped by and were able to meet with P, this older guy who we haven't been able to meet with for a month now. We shared some scriptures with him, gave him an Ensign magazine and just talked about how he'd been doing since we haven't seen him in so long. One of the members we visit just happened to be asleep when we stopped by, which was too bad. But she's a busy mom and is home with her kids everyday so she was finally getting some rest, which was good for her. When we finished seeing the members we had planned to see we made our way home for dinner and went back out to do some look ups and find some people. It was a great night!

August 20, 2016
Saturday, Day 312
Day 299 in NY

Today from his morning till late afternoon was slow... We didn't have any appointments set so we had time to call people in our area. Tried to contact referrals, people we haven't seen in a while, or things like that. Around 4 things started to pick up a little. We met with M again; he decided that he would like us to give him a blessing on Sunday like we talked about last time. He's doing great, he's come so far and hasn't given up. He’s changing so much and it's the greatest thing for us as missionaries to witness. When we left his apartment we came home for dinner and then went back out and met with D and B. We stopped by D's and did some catching up. Haven't seen him since Sunday. We talked about prayer and how his praying had been he said he did pray once since Sunday. We then decided to share 3Nephi 19:9 and we talked about how to pray and what to pray for. We talked about the chapter and how the people desired the Holy Ghost to be given to them, so they prayed for that to be done and they were then baptized and received the Holy Ghost. Then we invited him to continue praying. We didn't have much time but we stopped by B's and had to make it quick because we had to be home soon. So we quickly shared a scripture with him as well and left with a prayer.

August 21, 2016
Sunday, Day 313
Day 300 in NY

Today was pretty great as well. We left the apartment earlier than usual on Sundays, to help a member set up for an event Harlem does each year. The church participates in it to promote and help people with family history. We started making our way to the church in our suits and clouds begin to surround us. We got on a bus and made our way to the stop we needed and as we got off it began dumping down rain. Our suits now soaking wet we kept walking to the church. We found a room to take off our jackets and let them dry. We then went downstairs and helped this member load tables and chairs into a van he rented.

We went up to 135th and helped set up the booths for the family history. By this time the clouds were gone and the rain ceased. We finished setting up in about 30 minutes and went to church at 11 for the Sacrament and planned on going back to the booth to help with this event. M was at church so we stayed and the Sisters went to the booth and helped out. Within an hour of the event starting they had 40 people working on family history. We stayed at church and after 2nd hour gave a blessing to M. Before we did it, we just talked for a few minutes to make him comfortable and to let us be aware of things he is struggling with and desires help with. After the blessing he had the biggest smile and just said thank you. If you were there you could just tell he was more than grateful. You could feel the love that the Savior has for him. It was incredible!

After finishing out church, we went home for lunch and after eating we passed out on the couch for the rest of the hour. Then we quickly made our way back to the Harlem Days event. We planned on helping out the last hour, but the member was ready to clean up so we started taking it all down... So Elder Gentry and I didn't have any part in it but we heard from the other missionaries that helped out that there was a lot of success. They had 65 people on computers during the event finding family members and stories and obituaries of them while doing family history. What a great success! By the time we cleaned up and made it home we had just enough time to eat dinner and plan.. It was a crazy day but it was a good one!

August 22, 2016
Monday, Day 314
Day 301 in NY

Due to transfers our current District Leader was transferred and I was shortly after called again to be District Leader. So this morning I prayed, studied, and planned out our meeting. Before District meeting at 11 we had a conference call for DL's and while listening to it all I felt like I learned some great things, and as I pondered the things I heard in that call, as we began District meeting my thoughts and ideas began changing and so did the plan for district meeting. The spirit redirected some of my initial plans and with the time we had left from after the call and a quick Zone meeting, I was lead by the spirit to discuss each investigator with a baptismal date of the companionships in my district. I felt like as we discussed each person and their needs and concerns and their strengths and great things about them, without knowing any of them, I felt that I had known them and could help them. While discussing each of these investigators I left it open for discussion for companionships to jump in and give any insight or suggestions they had. I felt as if it was very productive and appreciated by the companionships present. I felt like it was one of my favorite meetings. After district meeting we went downstairs and the sisters were gathered by the front door with coupons in their hands. They had all these coupons from a nearby restaurant, so they gave us some and Elders Nielsen, Gonzalez, Gentry, and I went and ate there. After lunch we made some phone calls and had a couple lessons over the phone.

Then we left the church, where we brought our lunch to eat and went to M's. M had a lot to talk about today. It was good tho, each time we visit, he has an update of something in life he shares with us, it's awesome! We get to know him more and more. When we got into our discussion he opened up the word of wisdom pamphlet and said that there wasn't really anything in here that he didn't already know. We went to page 11 and began talking about "Giving up harmful substances" he said his last cigarette was Saturday night. So today means 2 days without and he says he feels strong. We went over the bullet points and discussed with him about making a plan to avoid temptation and making an escape when it comes. He seems to be doing great so far! We pray he can keep it up. When we left M’s we quickly made our way back to the west side of the island where we visited with T and D, before going home around 8 to have dinner and begin planning. Starting the week off strong!

August 23, 2016
Tuesday, Day 315
Day 302 in NY

My favorite morning! Tuesdays we go to the Common Pantry and do some service! We usually unload trucks and stack 50lbs of carrots and potatoes and corn. But when we got there, they only had one truckload today and they showed up early; so when we got there we didn't start off like usual. We went to the back and broke down some boxes, after that we begin sorting good carrots from bad carrots and put them in individual bags. Then another truck showed up and we were asked to help unload that. So Elder Gentry and I went out with the hand- trucks and started bringing in boxes of eggplants and bell peppers. For about 2 hours we helped out before we headed home. When we got home we ate and got ready again for the day. Before we went back out we did a little bit of 12 week.

Another quick day, but we met with W, this older guy we teach and shared the video Daily Bread: pattern. After talking about it for a bit and inviting him to read from the pamphlets we left him we went over to D’s and talked with him for a bit he told us about his reading and that he read from Moroni 10 he started off saying that Moroni said a lot of exhorting. We then invited him to read chapter 7 of Moroni. After making some calls, we made our way over to the church to send some messages on Facebook and then go to R and D's again! They are so awesome! We love them! They are just a few years older than us so it's fun visiting them. They ordered pizza and we ate, after eating we shared the plan of salvation with D and R. Some great questions were asked and our best answers were given. It felt like a great lesson! Before we left they loaded us up with mango juice! Soooo good!

Sorry it's a slow and short email this week. I keep making the goal to do better but I just haven't achieved that yet, haha one day!

Love you all thanks for the love and support and prayers! They are felt! See you sooner than 2!

Patience. Love. Faith
Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 44

August 10, 2016
Wednesday, Day 302
Day 289 in NY

Pday!
Today is Elder Dutson's last Pday, we tried planning an awesome day! We planned on going to the bottom of the island and play mini golf. Not having wifi in your apartment sucks because you can't check the weather, so not being able to do that for so long has led me to be more aware of the weather and make a pretty accurate weather forecast each day. So this morning the Elders asked what our weather would look like for the day. I opened up the window, leaned out side, and with my
fingers in the air to feel the temperature and direction of wind. While doing so I noticed the dark clouds over Jersey coming over the Hudson and eventually making their way to the island, not of course all that fast. But I came back in the window about 10 seconds later and said “we will have a light sprinkle in about an hour and it may get worse for a little while longer and then it'll get hot again...” Well we took that into consideration and decided to get lunch first and see if my predictions came true. We went to chick fil a (thanks again for the gift card!). We grabbed ours and went upstairs, sat down at a table, and began eating. While we were eating Elder Chambers had some friends show up from home. They came and sat down with us and ate. Then about 10 minutes later another lady came over and sat with us, she must have been with his friends. We all started talking and quickly found out that she lives in Folsom and asked if I remembered Elder Black. I said I did and she said she would be seeing him soon after she returns home, so she asked to take a picture and send it to him. Chick fil a was a pretty exciting lunch. While wrapping up our lunch we noticed people outside, with umbrellas... Which means, it was raining, but more specifically it was a light sprinkle. Checking the time, Elder Chambers said, “dude you were right it's been an hour and it's sprinkling.” As we finished eating and headed out, saying goodbye to his friends, we made our way to the train station for cover from the rain because now it started to get worse. We hid in the station, but it was like 110° underground… Not too long after we went back out in the rain and decided there's no chance for mini golf. So we did that next best thing! And went across the street to H&M! Whoop whoop! About 30 minutes later, Elder Neilsen had a new suit. Lol. After this adventure we came home where we just hung out and finished writing emails. A planned Pday quickly became a chill day.

When 6pm rolled around we went out to look up T... She ended up not being home and we had all this time to figure out what we should do next. With little thought, the word Facebook appeared in my mind. Elder Dutson and I decided we would quickly get to the church, and Facebook video chat T. Luckily when we logged on, she was logged on, and she quickly answered! It was awesome! We haven't been very lucky lately, as we've tried to get in contact with T. We were so grateful that we have been blessed with technology to be able to contact those who we can't always catch at home. It was really cool since she answered we just talked to her right then. We explained that we came by and didn't see you at home. So we thought we'd give you a call on Facebook. It was such a great experience to use the tools we've been given for the purpose they were given to us, by using social media. By the time we got off our chat with T we didn't have much time left to go see the S Family like we usually do. So we gave M a call and followed up with him on the phone about reading the scriptures, he said that he didn't read this last week but that he would tonight. We shared Omni 26 with him and talked about how to gain salvation we need to follow Christ by fasting, praying, and enduring to the end, and then we invited him to read the chapter. He agreed and said he would read it tonight.

All of this being done at the church, we finally finished and got done just in time to make it home on time. We left the church and set off on our 30-minute journey homeward. We had a good day!

August 11, 2016
Thursday, Day 303
Day 290 in NY

After our morning routine we went onward to the church and left our humble abode... At the church we went to the 5th floor and began weekly planning. Meanwhile, Elder Dutson needed to back up his iPad to icloud. So while his iPad was plugged in and off and not in use, we just used mine. I just figured I would plan for the week since Elder Dutson wouldn't be here and my plans wouldn't match his any way. So as I planned this coming week, for my new companion and me. Elder Dutson began planning his week of being home before he jets off to school. After about 2 hours of planning we were hungry and stopped where we were with planning and headed down stairs down one block and bought some sandwiches from Pioneer deli. We came back to the church and ate, then continued with planning.

When the time came, we left the church and made way to see M. We stopped by and had a good conversation with him. We asked him about reading with little M (his son) and he had done it! He was actually able to get little M to sit down and read with him. It was awesome! He was able to read the first page of it with him last night! So we encouraged him to keep reading! After we talked a little bit about prayer and how his praying has been going. M is doing so well, he has come so far and is working so hard toward baptism. Our time with him went a little over than we had planned so we went home and had a 30-minute dinner before we went over to the D famlily. At the Ds house we had a good discussion about their reading of the Book of Mormon. A had already finished it, she didn't say when but she said she had read it twice all the way through. L said A has always been into learning and reading about religions and so she said she had read it already. L is still working on it which is super awesome, he has just been really busy with trying to pass his tests so he hasn't been reading as often or as diligently as before, but he says he should be able to read more soon. When we are with them we are usually there for a good hour, we love talking to them! They are so great! As it was getting close to us needing to leave we ended with a prayer and went on our way. Made it home about 15 minutes later and planned our night away!

August 12, 2016
Friday, Day 304
Day 291 in NY

Today was super hot and we worked nonstop… We had brunch at 11am and left the apartment and didn't come back till 8pm for dinner. While we were out we had 8 appointments and we were able to make 6 of those! One of the other 2 people weren't home and the other, they were heading out the door when we came. So after our very short brunch we hit the pavement in 98° weather with humidity up the wazoo. We started up the hill to catch a bus and after waiting 20 minutes.... It finally came. We hopped on and headed over to see Gramps who wasn't home... Having a full planned day and not wanting to waste time.... We made the hardest decision... And skipped.... Ice cream with Bae... We then went straight to Sister R's apartment and visited with her for a little bit. When we left her apartment we made our way over to brother K's apartment and visit him one last time before Elder Dutson leaves. After visiting these members we went back closer to our apartment and visited D, A, R, R, and S.

I thought it was pretty funny the way we taught 3 separate lessons with them. They usually are all together. But we caught R, the mother of R, with out him and his friend S. So we were following up with her reading and she said she hadn't been reading. After coming to the end of sharing a scripture with her, R shows up with S. So R says, “R come talk to them! They are here for you!”  So we chatted with R for a little bit as well and followed up with him. He too hadn't really been reading but says he will. We then turned and talked to his friend S, she was saying they just got back from the library. Elder Dutson asked if she got any books, she said no because it was closed. She was a little upset about that, so I told her I had a book for her. I pulled out a Book of Mormon and I told her what it was. She said okay and accepted it. What I think is so cool is that these kids are like 14 years old. We then ended our night coming home at 8pm for dinner where after we began nightly planning.

August 13, 2016
Saturday, Day 305
Day 292 in NY

Today was just as busy but twice as hot. I cannot wait for winter. We had 5 appointments that worked out today. We had appointments everywhere! We started close to our apartment, on the far west side of Manhattan and visited T. After him we then went across the island to the east side and visited M and his son then left to go see another investigator. After those appointments we came back to the west side but went up closer to the top of our area to see E again! We met with her at Sister D's. It was such a great time; she's still reading from the Book of Mormon. She even said she would be coming to church this Sunday! She told us that, before Elder Dutson even said anything about him going home. When we left that appointment we went over to D's then also visited B who lives right across from our apartment. With all of this running around we actually skipped dinner, and came home at 9 for planning and ate afterward. A lot of running around but mostly to let Elder Dutson see everyone he wanted to see before he left.

August 14, 2016
Sunday, Day 306
Day 293 in NY

Elder Dutson's last Sunday… We had 5 investigators at church! D, T & A, E, and M. I just love this Ward. There are over 600 members in the Ward but I've only seen about 50 members at church since I've been here. From what I've heard it's mainly because it's summer and members are all on vacation but even with all those members here I think we have about 150-200 active members, roughly. Every Sunday that I've been here we, the missionaries, have had some part in helping sacrament meeting function. Elder Dutson and I both have been preparing or passing the sacrament, due to few priesthood holders. My first week in Harlem Elder Dutson was asked to give a talk the day before he needed to give it, because someone canceled and bishop needed someone to speak. This Sunday, today, I gave a talk. Which we are both more than willing to do at any time asked to. I too, was asked the day before. So Bishop Day called yesterday while we were on the bus, I answered and he asked if I could speak. He said the topic that had been on his mind was "Why we serve in the church?" I thought it was the perfect topic. I got excited and accepted the invitation to speak. I felt like the talk went well. After church we talked to M, D, and E we followed up with them and the commitments we've extended them and set up appointments to come back this coming week. Then we came home and Elder Dutson packed and we cleaned up for the new missionary coming in. The last visit we had today was with J and E. We went over there like we do every Sunday for dinner. Then ended our night and came home.

Here is what I had written up for my talk:

"Why we serve in the church?


Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I've been given to speak to you all today.

Brief introduction:

Elder Newbold, from California, I've been a full time missionary for almost a year now. And I've been here in this Ward for about 5 weeks and I pray that I may get to know all of you during my service here.

I am so blessed to stand before you all today and speak on a topic that I have such a strong testimony of and a deep love for.

Now the topic that was given to me was service, but more specifically "Why we serve in the church?"

When I think of the word service, a lot of wonderful experiences come to mind. As I was preparing for this talk, I started to let my mind wander through all the different experiences that I have had doing service, within the church and outside the church.

As I let these experiences flow through my mind, I began to recognize that a very great amount of these opportunities and experiences that I've had were manual labor.

Many of them projects, such as; cleaning up an elderly woman's home inside and out, painting a families gutter, digging a 3 foot trench a 100 feet long for a neighbor, restoring the foundation of a barn for a widow...or moving a member out of a 5 story walk up...

While thinking of these experiences and remembering the way I felt during them and after completing such a task, a question came to my mind, what about the service in My house?

Not my own house, but His house, the house we are in right now, the house of our Lord and Savior, the meetinghouses and temples. What about the service done there?

Even though a large number of the service projects I've been apart of were for members of the church. I began thinking about service done within the church.

Again many experiences came flowing through my mind. Callings, responsibilities, leadership positions.... All things I've had the opportunity and privilege of being a part of.

To give you more of an idea of service within the church I'll list some the ways I've given service in the church along with my family.

When I turned 12 I took on much more of a responsibility than I previously had since being a member of the church. I received the priesthood and was extended a calling within a very short time after receiving the priesthood. I was called as a 1st counselor in the deacon’s quorum presidency.

Something my father had taught me and continuously reminded me of was to ALWAYS accept a calling when asked to. No matter what it is. Each time he did this he reminded me of my baptism and the promise I made there with my Father in Heaven.

As the years went on I served in every calling within the Aaronic Priesthood. Each quorum I moved up to, I received a new calling and often times that calling changed as other brothers in the quorum aged
out.

Having this privilege of serving in each of these callings, president, 1st & 2nd counselor, and secretary, alongside my brothers as they too were serving as members of other quorums. I came to realize on my own that each of these callings was no more important than the next.

My brothers and I were each called to a certain position in the church, but having similar responsibilities and commitments. We felt that as important as these callings were to keep the young men's program within the church running smooth, these responsibilities were given to us so that we could serve others, help members of the Ward grow, and build up the fellowship and delegate other responsibilities to members in the quorum as well.

These callings allowed us to grow as well because of the responsibility and seriousness of our callings. I believe that a big part of how we grow within callings we serve in is by our attitude. When we have positive attitudes we allow ourselves to grow. When we have a negative attitude we refuse and neglect that opportunity for growth, turning away many wonderful blessings.

A scripture in the Book of Mormon comes to mind when I think about service, this scripture is in Mosiah 2:17
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that
ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye
are only in the service of your God.

This scripture helps me remember that service needs to be a selfless act, when we serve others, we serve God. We shouldn't have negative thoughts towards service in any circumstance because when we serve others we serve God. If we love him keep his commandments.

The day I was baptized I made a promise with God. As did all of you who have been baptized in this church, we all made the promise that we would always TRY our best to serve as much as we can.

Another scripture in the Book of Mormon I'd like to share is Mosiah 18:8-10
8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the
waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are
desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people,
and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and
comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses
of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may
be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be
numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have
eternal life--
10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have
you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness
before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will
serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit
more abundantly upon you?

I found this reference in preach my gospel, on page 87, in the section called service. After this scripture it reads, "We are to become aware of others’ physical and spiritual needs. We then give of our time, talents, and means to help meet those needs."

When we truly love those we serve its much easier to become aware of their needs, both physical and spiritual. Service is one of the greatest blessings of membership in the church, as we serve our fellow
beings we will learn to love them.

This section in preach my gospel is such a great section I'm just going to read from it.

"Soon after baptism new members receive from priesthood leaders the blessing of a responsibility to help in the Church. This is referred to as a calling. All of the work in the Church is voluntary. No one is
paid for such service. When we accept callings, we are sustained publicly in a Church meeting so that other members can acknowledge our calling and provide support. We are also set apart by a priesthood leader and given special blessings to help us fulfill our callings. The Church needs the talents and abilities of every member to fill a wide variety of callings. All callings are important and help build God’s kingdom. We are to accept such callings and work diligently to learn and fulfill our duties. As we do so, we grow in faith, develop new talents and a greater ability to serve, and receive numerous other blessings."

Not always is service in the church easy... There are sacrifices that need to be made, but that's just part of life.

Many of the members in the church have full time jobs that sacrifice time at home, with family, other opportunities of income to serve diligently in the church.

My dad works for a company full time, he also runs a business he and his brothers own, and just a couple years ago he was released from a calling in the bishopric he had been serving in for 10 years. During those years of full time work and service my family and I saw him few nights of the week and on Sunday's.

Serving in the bishopric there are many meetings he attended both very early in the morning and late after church on Sunday's. And never did I ever hear or see my dad complain, but I did witness and receive many blessings in my family as he served in the church diligently.

As I'm sure many of you know and some of you have been part of, serving in the church isn't always easy, but it's worth it.

Following the example of my father I too have been blessed with many opportunities of service in the church, both in the church and temple.

After receiving my own endowment, I was called to work in the temple, where I had the beautiful privilege of working with members and helping them perform the ordinances in the temple. At 18 years old I worked a full time job for a member’s business, worked for my dad’s business on weekends, and any open hour of the day
I worked for a neighbor, with all this work going on I had little time to work with. So I chose the early shift and woke up most days at 4 am to be at the temple to work a 6-hour shift.

I would say it was the best way to start off the day!

Brothers and Sisters, we serve in the church because we love our Savior, because we love our Father in Heaven. We serve because it shows our commitment to follow them."

August 15, 2016
Monday, Day 307
Day 294 in NY

After District meeting today we came home for lunch. We didn't get much time today to visit people for very long, we had a lot of packing and cleaning to do. So we went across the island and stopped by M's again to say goodbye and take a picture. Then made our way back to our apartment and stopped by D's again to do the same, share a quick scripture and thought and take a picture. When we finished all our visits we came home for a few hours, had dinner, packed, cleaned, wrote in our journals, shined shoes, etc. it was a good day. Not as busy and eventful as I'm used to but it was good. At the end of the night we went over to say goodbye to the D's Family for the last time, chatted with them for some time and made our way back home.

August 16, 2016
Tuesday, Day 308
Day 295 in NY

Transfer day! Super crazy, so we got up, got ready, caught a bus and took off to the 125th Metro North station here in Harlem. Where we met up with our good old friends Elder Forbush and Elder Troutman. Both Elder Forbush and Elder Dutson are going home so we did a split. Elder Troutman and I said goodbye to our companions and bought our tickets up to Scarsdale and waited for our train. Meanwhile our companions left, they went back to our apartment, where they hung out and killed time till their meeting at 11am for their transfer meeting going home.

We made our way up to Scarsdale on the train and were picked up by the APs, Elder McBride and Elder Macintosh. They then drove us to the Scarsdale chapel. We walked in and saw all 17 new missionaries sitting in the pews studying. Quietly the 17 of us trainers came in and sat behind them in the back rows. When President Smith walked in he told us to join the new missionaries in the front pews. We all got up and sat in the fourth and fifth row. Then the new missionaries all got up and sat amongst each other in the first 2 rows. After a quick introduction by the APs, President stood at the
pulpit and began pairing new missionaries with their trainers. One by one each new missionary stood as their name was called and followed their trainers name. When both stood, each trainer ran to their new companion and embraced them! Sitting, waiting patiently, the name Elder Gentry was called and he stood then following his name president said "and Elder Gentry will be trained by, Elder Newbold!" I quickly stood up out of my seat and quickly embraced my companion with a hug. We grabbed his stuff and made our way back to a pew where we sat and watched as the rest of the missionaries received their companion. After receiving my companion we were spoken to by President, Sister Smith, and instructed by the APs. Then making our way into a room outside the chapel we grabbed the new missionaries luggage and made our way outside to the vans. Filling the vans with luggage and missionaries we were driven to the station to catch a train back to Harlem. When we got home we had some time for Elder Gentry to unpack a little and have lunch. When we finished we went out to work. We first went to the church and worked online for a couple hours. We sent some messages on Facebook to investigators. Then while there we called a handful of people and ended up teaching a lesson on the phone. After that we came home for dinner and then back out for some look-ups and appointments. It was a good day! We taught 3 lessons; not knowing what today's schedule would be like because we didn't know how long the transfer meeting would be. But over all a great day! Elder Gentry is awesome! He is a great missionary and is going to do so well out here in NY. Looking forward to the next 2 cycles. With 2 cycles of training that means I will be here in Harlem till I hit my year mark. Which also means I will have been in the city for a year! How crazy! I'm a city missionary, I'll be here for another year I'm sure. Lol


Well what a great week! Thanks again to everyone for your patience, I've been slacking on my journal emails so I take all Pday writing them... Love you all!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 43

August 3, 2016
Wednesday, Day 295
Day 282 in NY

PDAY!
Today was super awesome! We went to the 9/11 Museum... We spent 4 hours there, touring around and checking out as much as we could of everything captured during the attack of 9/11. It was an experience like no other! It's very humbling and a very emotional and touching experience. Especially for being too young to understand at the time it was happening and only ever hearing about it every year in school when we would take the day to "remember", which was so hard for me to do and understand why we did it at school when we weren't even old enough to know what happened. Going to the museum gave us all a much greater perspective and insight on the devastation and change that 9/11 brought to the world. I would highly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to check it out to do so. It's not a joyful experience that you imagine you would have going to any other museum or amusement park. It's an experience that will bring you to the level and feelings that you could only imagine those that went through it as they witnessed it firsthand. It
is very powerful and educational. There is a natural feeling in the museum that brings everyone that enters into a respect for that day. Everyone in the museum is reverent and very focused on their feelings as they make their way through it all, seeing clips and pictures of all that was captured in those horrifying hours of terror. It was definitely worth it and we don't think that we even saw everything there, there's a lot to see. The best Pday activity so far. The rest of the day was pretty great as well we just went out and worked hard and taught some lessons.

August 4, 2016
Thursday, Day 296
Day 283 in NY

Today I guess wasn't as eventful, we just had weekly planning, which is always so draining... When we finally finished we went about our day with the plans we had set and had a couple appointments fall through but we were able to teach a good amount. Very similar to last week in the sense that we did planning at the church and Elder Dutson synced his iPad. We had stopped by M and the Ducassas later in the night. We had some great discussions, the Ducassas fed us again. It was just another wonderful day working in the Vineyard of the Lord.

August 5, 2016
Friday, Day 297
Day 284 in NY

My favorite week day! Ice cream with Bae! Lol after lunch we left the apartment and went out to our first appointment to visit with Paul. Leaving his building without any luck of finding him, we went and got Coco Helado. Waiting for a bus we ate our ice cream, facing my companion with my head down in my ice cream and my back exposed to the public. Shortly after indulging into my Coco Helado, I felt 2 hands with force and quickness attack my shoulders. All within a moment the thought crossed my mind I was getting jumped for my Coco Helado.... What a sad day it was going to be. A short moment later, seeing that my companion had no change in his countenance I realized my enjoyment of Coco Helado was not coming to an end, then I heard the
familiar voice of Elder Forbush. He and his companion Elder Troutman had come from my back side to our front to where we could see them. (False alarm everyone! I wasn't getting jumped for my Coco Helado!) We continued on with the day going to visit a few more less active members and uplift and encourage them to come to church this coming Sunday.

August 6, 2016
Saturday, Day 298
Day 285 in NY

Today wasn't too bad either! Not as eventful but still very productive. We started off going to the church after studies to sync our area book. While there we did some more exploring on Facebook, and by that I mean figuring out more of the applications available for proselyting online. We watched some videos to help train us to use them and figured out some new things which was great! We figure by the time missionaries start picking up how to use Facebook and effective online proselyting there will be no more proselyting.. It will all be online.. Lol which really stinks, because the world has become so involved in their technology that they feel too uncomfortable having strangers over to teach them about the gospel, so lessons are going to be often taught through Skype, FaceTime, or Facebook chat. We've realized that it's more often than not that above the ages of 45 people are more willing to meet and let us teach them face to face. Ages 30 and younger have a tendency to be less open and more shy in person. And with technology the way it is, the church has decided to use it for the tool it is and use it to bless the lives of others. So online proselyting is becoming the new big thing.  Other than that, our first lesson was with this guy named T, he's a preacher or teacher at another church he studies a lot about religion and started studying the Book of Mormon on his own after meeting the missionaries and has been meeting with us every now and then. We are planning on making it a weekly thing; he has a lot of great questions about what he reads. When we saw him today he talked a lot about the sacrament and was interested in the authority we have to do so. Following T we had 5 more appointments and they all worked out, so today was a great teaching day for us.

August 7, 2016
Sunday, Day 299
Day 286 in NY

Fast Sunday!
Church as always is the best part of the week! It's the refresher. I just love making the commitment to Heavenly Father that I will do my best to be better this week and really focusing on the change I make throughout the week and giving that account to Him each night. After church we went home to make some calls and later break our fast before we went back out. We ate and took off for the night; we went to the church again for Elder Dutson to work on My Plan and his Mission Experience. We were there doing that and I made a bunch of calls to make appointments for the week and we did that for a couple hours. Then made our way out to our next appointment which was our last with James and Edwin! These guys are awesome! They are the ones with the red hair that got me all those birthday gifts and made me a cake. They are hilarious and so loving! We went to their house and they fed us dinner and we shared a message with them! It was an exciting Sunday because they came to church, they came for sacrament and went home afterwards because Edwin was getting dizzy.
But it was good to see them because they haven't been back to church in a while. What a wonderful Sunday!

August 8, 2016
Monday, Day 300
Day 287 in NY

After studies, like every Monday, we had district meeting. While there someone made the joke that we should start doing them on skype since technology is becoming a big part of missionary work, lol. The focus was towards a talk called Finishers Wanted by President Monson, when he was an apostle in 1989. It just kind of led to how we need to finish what we started and work hard doing it. We started our missions and need to go hard till the finish. After our meeting we headed home, unable to decide what we wanted to make for lunch we went and bought subway and took it home. This week started off a little rough, we had one appointment today and it was a good visit and lesson, but it was all we were able to really do outside of working online. It's weird using technology, because I've gotten used to tracting and face to face contact that using Facebook makes it feel like we haven't done much. But I'm sure it will all work out and become more comfortable and natural.

August 9, 2016
Tuesday, Day 301
Day 288 in NY

Today was a pretty good day! We started it off with some service again over at the pantry and as always it was nice! When we finished there we went home and got cleaned up, had lunch, and just as we were getting ready to head out the door there was a ring at the door which was random. So I checked the door and it was the maintenance guys. Our toilet stopper broke a week ago and we've called for someone to come fix it and they haven't come when they say they will. So they show up as we are getting ready to leave. They come in and say there is a leak in the apartment downstairs directly below us, we told them we had called 3 times for someone to come fix it and no one has showed up, we told them we were on our way out and they asked when they could come fix it when we would be home. We told them tomorrow would be best in the morning at 8:30. They left and so did we, we headed downtown to the Lincoln Square chapel to meet with President for Elder Dutson's Exit Interview. After sitting outside the classroom they were in for about an hour I read The Book of Mormon and talked with the other missionaries that were also waiting for their interviews. Soon enough they both walk out of the classroom and President says "Elder Newbold, why don't you come on in here real quick as well." Not expecting an interview, but willing I entered the room. Walking side by side with President, he says "that's a nice suit color you got there, (both of us wearing a similar blue color). We took a seat and he asked me how I was doing, I responded that I'm doing very well and that I'm loving the area I'm serving.  Harlem is treating me well President and we are staying busy with work. He liked the sound of that and asked if there was anything he could do to help me, I sat and pondered a short minute. Having nothing to big come to mind that I thought I needed help with, I then had the thought... (Elder Dutson and I had a conversation about something President had said in one of our last meetings with him, he said "Elder Nelson, of the quorum of the
twelve asked me, President Smith what are you doing to keep yourself away from pornography?" President said to us, "I thought that was an interesting question, because I'm not involved with pornography and have no problems with it because it's not a part of my life" so President Smith asked us the same question, what are we going to do to make sure we aren't getting involved or caught up in pornography? We live in a city where it is EVERYWHERE, how do we keep our thoughts centered on our purpose?) Since this conversation came to mind I just opened my mouth and told President, I said ”I don't have any problems with pornography here on my mission, but what would you suggest doing to stay clear of it, especially in a place like this where we live?"  He then took a second and asked me what I've been doing to stay clear of it already. I told him when I'm walking down the street and I see immodestly dressed women or pictures and ads on the street or in Windows I sing a hymn, whatever hymn comes to my mind first to drive any thoughts out immediately and because I desire to have the spirit with me always I do my best to stay away from places I know aren't good, I don't scroll on Facebook, I make sure my companion can always see my screen, so that it doesn't ever become an issue or temptation. It felt nice to have a simple discussion like this, although I wasn't necessarily struggling with anything, I opened my mouth to share something that I had talked about with my companion and just thought I could have more insight from President Smith. He is such a knowledgeable and inspired man. He always has a great response to questions. After our interviews we went home and we're just so happy! We felt spiritually high and wanted to go out and work, so we went to an appointment with M and had an awesome lesson, afterwards we went to look up a less active member and apparently we were in the wrong building and the wrong door. But we didn't realize that till door opened and we saw someone who wasn't who we were looking for. This girl named S opened the door and we just approached her like we were tracting, "hey we are representatives of Jesus Christ..." (I thought it was so cool afterwards, thinking about it. We didn't really hesitate when she opened up and it wasn't who we were looking for, we just went straight into teaching her about the Book of Mormon.) She wasn't religious; she said she didn't have a belief in God or anything spiritual. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Bible, she said she had and that she'd read from it just a little bit. I asked her about the Book of Mormon and she said she's heard of it but doesn't know what it is. So I went on explaining to her about the Book of Mormon, telling her it's about a Jewish family who desires to be happy and follow Christ, so they listen and heed to the council of the Lord from on high and follow his direction to leave Jerusalem and move to what was called the Promised Land. They were faithful and trusting in the Lord and did as he directed, leading them to peace, happiness, and eventually eternal life. She seemed a little open to it, but not much more from where she started. Elder Dutson bore his testimony and I invited her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and she accepted a copy. So we gave her a copy and asked for her info and she said she doesn't live here, she is just babysitting and that she isn't really too interested... We gave her our card and said she could even find us on Facebook, lol. It was an interesting experience. Today was pretty great! It's always great being with President and having success in the work.

Have a wonderful week! Love y'all! I'm finally all caught up in my journal!!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 42

July 27, 2016
Wednesday, Day 288
Day 275 in NY

Pday!
This morning, like every other morning we went for a run. Elder Dutson and I ran a different route today and found another park to work out at. So we did pull ups on the monkey bars, dips on the slides, and before we left... Of course, we used the swings for a minute! Then we ran back to the apartment and got ready for the day. As our laundry was going we went out to get wifi to get some emails then we went across the street to C-Town. All I have left on my card for the month is $0.69, which usually happens on the first cycle of transfers. I had gone shopping in my last area thinking I wouldn't get transferred but I was wrong and left all my food behind. Thankfully my family sent me food for my birthday! I'll survive till my card gets filled again. After following my companion around as he filled his cart with groceries, we came back up stairs to our apartment and started writing emails. During this time we once again, went back and forth and asked each other what do we want to do today? Why this happens I don't know. Eventually we decided to play catch with a Frisbee at Central Park... When we got there we had trouble finding an open enough area where people weren't in our way and there was enough shade... It was way too hot. (It's hilarious to walk around Central Park in the summer, people dress up like they are at the beach and they lay out on the grass and sun bathe). Soon enough we decided to just go to the 87th St. chapel and play ping pong and email. Not too exciting but we went home afterwards and went back to work. Before we came back home to nightly plan, we were able to teach 5 lessons! It seemed like Pday wasn't today because we were working so hard. It felt like days ago that we were playing ping pong.

July 28, 2016
Thursday, Day 289
Day 276 in NY

I woke up this morning and got down on my knees. As I prayed and thanked my father in heaven for another day I thought I'd ask Him if He would wake up Elder Dutson for me. Sure enough as I prayed Elder Dutson arose out of bed. Skip forward a couple hours and during companionship study Elder Dutson asked how I slept I told him I slept well and I asked how he slept, he said "I slept pretty well too, I just don't know how I woke up this morning. I didn't hear the alarm or anything." I kind of laughed and said, "That’s awesome. While I was praying this morning I just thought I'd ask if Heavenly Father would wake you up this morning instead of me."  He thought it was pretty cool too, lol! My alarm hasn't been very loud lately, so after I wake up Elder Dutson has told me just to wake him up. So I thought to switch it up this morning, lol.

Today seemed so slow. We did some weekly planning then took a break for lunch and got back to planning.  Elder Dutson after planning started syncing/backing up his iPad. So while waiting for that to finish we kept planning and rearranging our schedule since one of our appointments let us know they needed to reschedule. By the time we got through all that we traveled home and had dinner. After an hour for dinner we went back to the church to meet with E. (We were on the phone with her the other day and she was telling us she had been struggling with her faith and struggling a little with repentance. We didn't question it then, but we explained to her that it would be much better to speak to her in person about her questions and struggles). Flash forward to now; we are at the church, sitting all together in one of the classes we let her explain to us what was going on. We had a wonderful discussion on faith and repentance. We talked about how she has great faith in Christ and just needs to remember that she's gained a testimony of Him and the Book of Mormon. We talked about repentance and explained that even through the process of and after repentance we still face consequences. We can always be forgiven but we still need to face the punishment of our actions and often times that punishment is the guilt we feel. So although you may have repented or are still in the process of repenting, Heavenly Father will forgive you, but he will let us face our consequences. She expressed that she felt very relaxed and happy after meeting with us. Afterwards we talked about meeting again, we set a time to get together once more before church on Sunday. When we left the church we made our way to the Ducassas. We had an appointment with them and planned to talk about temples and eternal family. They are the sweetest and always prepare a snack or dinner for us when we come, so we eat and talk about their week. When we finish our plate we slowly get into the lesson. They are just so awesome!

July 29, 2016
Friday, Day 290
Day 277 in NY

My favorite week day! Ice cream with Bae! Lol after lunch we left the apartment and went out to our first appointment. We visit this older man, who we call gramps. His name is Paul; he is a member but is unable to attend church very easily because of his health and things like that. Since I've been in the area we've only been able to catch him at home once. Since then we haven't been able to see him, when we stop by on our scheduled days he isn't home. We know he has DR appointments in the day so he told us to come by around 3:30 so that's when we got there and he just hasn't been home. Leaving his building without any luck of finding him, we went and got Coco Helado. Waiting for a bus we ate our ice cream. When finished with our Spanish ice cream we continued on with the day going to visit a few more less active members and uplift and encourage them to come to church this coming Sunday. Three visits later we went home for dinner and made an end to the night soon after.

July 30, 2016
Saturday, Day 291
Day 278 in NY

So, last Sunday during 3rd hour some announcements were made, one being that Sister Lopez in the Ward would be moving to North Carolina in a couple weeks. Following this announcement was the voice of another member, sarcastically speaking, "Elders be sure to be there". I was excited! It's not as often as I hoped that we would have opportunities to do service like that. So of course we put it in our schedule to go and let Sister Lopez know we would be there. So 9am rolls around and we show up at Sister Lopez's apartment. We got straight to it. For 4 hours we brought boxes and other items in the house including bed frames, mattresses, and couches down a 5 story walk up. Imagine a full size couch fitting down 5 stories of stairs and rotating it every which direction to fit it down each set of stairs with 3 feet to work with. The whole time we were there Elder Dutson and I were walking up and down the stairs. For the first 3 hours we were there another member, Brother McKenna, was with us helping. His phone was tracking his steps and how many stories he walked up. After wards he told us how many stories his phone said he climbed and the total for him came to be 80. After Elder Dutson and I figuring out the math, we came to the conclusion that in those 4 hours we walked up at the very least 120 flights of stairs, and boy did we feel it... When we got home we realized that if we were to walk up that amount of stairs we would have walked much higher than the freedom tower. That's not even counting the stairs we had to walk up to get home crossing through a park. For lunch we quickly cooked something to eat and collapsed on the couches for 40 minutes to rest before getting ready and heading out to continue the day of work we had ahead of us. We finished the day off accomplishing our goals and came home to plan. During our nightly planning our phone went off and was vibrating like crazy, when we checked it, we had 5 messages, all from E. This broke our hearts, in summary, she texted us that she would no longer be coming to church this Sunday, nor would she be meeting with us, or be baptized... Elder Dutson and I looked at the texts and about cried in devastation to loose our friend E. We got down on our knees and prayed, we prayed that whatever it is E is going through that she may find peace and comfort and that we may be guided in what to respond. In some other texts she sent she said that she will continue to pray and read the Book of Mormon but she just can't move on from there because of the situation she's in with her family. We responded to her texts, just reminding her that we love her and that we care about her and her progress that she has made. We reminded her of the testimony she gained from the Book of Mormon and we told her she's welcome back anytime and that we would love to stay in contact with her. She didn't respond after that. But we felt as if everything will be okay. Our hearts were hurting due to the situation but we knew Heavenly Father was mindful of her. After nightly planning we crawled into bed after our long physically and emotionally draining day, and slept like babies.

July 31, 2016
Sunday, Day 292
Day 279 in NY

This morning we met before church and had a correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. We talked about the progress of our investigators and other things about members and people we had been working with.  The kids and babies are all soooooooo loud during sacrament; it's a bit of a pain in the butt. After church we had a linger longer and Sister Lopez came up to us, she thanked us for all the help yesterday since it was only Brother McKenna and my companion and I, she then asked if we were sore, with a big grin on my face, I responded "nana, not really" she laughed and thanked us again. (We waited for her to be the first one to walk away so she didn't see us walking with jell-o legs, lol). Sunday's seem pretty relaxed and not quite as busy. But we met with this awesome investigator named A, we found him in our area book just a few days ago. We caught him just as he was winding down after work. He was pretty tired but very nice; he said we could come back Sunday, today. So we showed up today and he opened up the door and let us in. We gathered in his living room, just the 3 of us, and talked about his experience with missionaries previously. He said he just briefly spoke with them; they gave him a Book of Mormon both in English and in Spanish. He said they never met with him after that. He said that he read the whole Book of Mormon in Spanish. He said he was really into religious texts and wanted to learn more. He later explained more of his background in religion and said he doesn't practice anymore because he didn't agree with some of the answers they gave him to his questions. Out of the blue, he asked the question "what are your personal opinions with gays and where they go after this life?" After we both gave our personal responses, both being similar to, "well first we love them just as the child of God they are, we look at them as God does, another one of His children and with the potential they have. After this life they will have the same opportunity to learn and be taught the gospel as we all will, they too
will have an opportunity to repent and change and come closer to Heavenly Father. They will not automatically be thrust down to a hell." After each of these responses were given he had the biggest smile on his face and said, "I have asked many religions this question and all of them have given me a similar answer if not the same answer – being [they will go straight to hell]. But never have I ever heard that from anyone! I love that, I agree with you." We then moved onto explaining more about the plan of salvation and it was a great lesson! The spirit was there and his questions were answered. After leaving A we headed to the church so Elder Dutson could work on My Plan, the program set up for missionaries going home. Following that we came home for dinner.

August 1, 2016
Monday, Day 293
Day 280 in NY

Usually we would have district meeting today, but instead we had a 3 hour training about online proselyting. We have iPads in our mission and they are so helpful! We also have Facebook, but most missionaries are too afraid to use them because there has never been any rules or guidelines as to how we can use them. So today our zone leaders and our sister training leaders gave some training on Facebook and how we can be using them. Recently a mission this last July was chosen and trained on Facebook proselyting. Some videos were out on how they have been using Facebook to help further the work. They had been using it to have daily contact with investigators and members, Facebook chat/video call to teach lessons or Skype in members for fellow shipping purposes, and make posts to encourage, help, and uplift those they've been teaching. This training definitely opened our eyes to a whole new outlook on Facebook. I think about 3 months ago I logged onto my Facebook and made a post, but to be honest I chose not to use it again after that because it was too much of a temptation to get on Facebook and just scroll through the news feed and that's not my purpose. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and
enduring to the end. With that being said, as a missionary, if you have no purpose or focus on what you want to achieve when using technology, you will do nothing but waste time. When we left the church after having that training I felt so much more confident and comfortable with Facebook and how I can use it for missionary work. For lunch we went up a block to a supermarket called Pioneer and bought some sandwiches. For $5 I got a sandwich about a foot long and a free drink and chips. We took it back the church and ate there. After lunch we went to M's and talked about beginning family home evening, to get him and his 3 year old son Little M to read and pray together. Due to the training and travel time we didn't have a whole lot of teaching time but we went out, worked hard, and accomplished out goals!

August 2, 2016
Tuesday, Day 294
Day 281 in NY

This morning after personal study we went to The Common Food Pantry and did some service. I love it! These semi trucks pull up outside the building and Elder Dutson and I go out with hand trucks (dollies) and unload these trucks and load up all this produce onto these hand trucks and pull them up into the building. The produce comes in big 50 lbs bags, big carrots, potatoes, and corn. Its super fun, I really enjoy it. We only stay about 2 hours and help but it's awesome. Afterwards we came home, cleaned up, and had lunch. Then we went to the church and did some online proselyting, we got onto Facebook and added some of our investigators and sent them messages and just started to learn how to use it, it's been a while and everything is so far updated. Afterwards we had a few appointments to get to, so we went out and worked and came home for dinner and went back out again till 9pm. Short and sweet but a great day! I just love working! Service, teaching, whatever keeps me busy... Keeps me happy.


Sorry it's a week late! Love y'all! This week’s should be sent by the end of Pday!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 41

July 20, 2016
Wednesday, Day 281
Day 268 in NY

Pday!
We went to the 87th St. chapel to email and play some Ping-Pong. Elder Dutson and I played for a good hour and a half. Meanwhile other missionaries were in the gym with Jay getting haircuts. President Smith’s son, William, was also in the gym-playing ball with the missionaries waiting for haircuts. Around our hour and a half mark of playing Ping-Pong, President Smith showed up. He brought some pizza for everyone. But we kept playing Ping-Pong. He came into the room we were playing in and chatted with us for a little bit. Just to talk about our investigators and such. Soon after we left and went to go to Burlington to do some shopping for Elder Dutson's return home. After about an hour of shopping we needed to head back home to have dinner and get ready for our appointments. Being unsure of transit getting us home in time and being tired and lazy, we paid for another cab to take us home. It took us 15 minutes, which saved us like 30 minutes, so it was definitely worth it. After getting home we ate and got ready to go to our appointments. We met with a family at 6:15. It's always so interesting meeting with them. We can NEVER get the whole family home together in the same room. All we want to do is get to know them and share a quick message. But instead the mother wants to sit on the computer playing games like a 5 year old, the father isn't home, the oldest son sits in and is one of 2 participants, his younger brother reads with us and has questions, and the rest are too young. It tests our patience for sure because they know we are coming but they don't do anything to prepare for our visit. Our next appointment was with Tiffany, an investigator who has a baptismal date. She's seems to be doing well, but with her it's hard to tell because we will meet with her and invite her to church, then she won't come and for 4 days she won't respond to us. Then we end up catching her some time and talk then she disappears again for a while. But it's Patience. Love. & Faith. that will help us through.

July 21, 2016
Thursday, Day 282
Day 269 in NY

Planning day... After studies we do half an hour of daily contact. Where we call/text our investigators and people we meet with to see how they are doing and to follow up with them and the commitments they accepted. After that we send in any orders we need for this coming week, like copies of The Book of Mormon, pamphlets, pass along cards, etc. Then we begin planning; our planning can take up to 3 hours, which is normal, but it gets so boring and tiring so we usually take quick little breaks in the middle to get us through it. Because our apartment doesn't have Wi-Fi we either stay and plan then head to the church to sync or we just go to the church, plan and sync our iPad’s there. After planning we had lunch then got ready to go see Michael. Michael is doing so well! He's been cutting back on smoking and has been reading the Book of Mormon. He's learning a lot from it and it's so cool to see the change he's making! He is so great! When we finished our appointment with Michael we had to catch a bus home. Which takes us a little over 30 minutes to get home. Meanwhile standing under a tree for shade we feel weight escaping our bodies as we wait there sweating in 95° with ridiculous humidity. It's been so hot lately. When we finally got home we changed out of our drenched clothes and ate dinner. After an hour we changed back into our clothes and headed out to see this awesome family. The Ducassas, they are so sweet. This time I got to meet the wife. Last week she was at job training. They are both Doctors and are working through getting licensed since they came from the Dominican Republic. They are just the sweetest; when we come over they make little snacks for us. They put out fruit, crackers, and cheese and some juice. It's the couple and their daughter who I don't think is older than 8. They both love the Savior and have so much faith in him. They are both Catholic and aren't necessarily looking for change but they are so open minded and willing to hear our message. This visit we invited them to come to church sometime and we could give them a tour. They said they would love to come check it out sometime. We didn't rush them and set a date to come but we kept it open for discussion in the future. Afterward we went and stopped by this kid Rhamelo's apartment and followed up with his Book of Mormon reading. He said he reads a little bit but has a hard time remembering all of it. We explained it will all come but not at the exact time. He told us what he could remember and from what we could tell he had been reading from the testimony of Joseph Smith in the front of the book. It was a quick visit and we headed home to nightly plan.

July 22, 2016
Friday, Day 283
Day 270 in NY

Happy birthday to me!
Birthdays on the mish are so different. All throughout this week I didn't think much of my birthday coming up. In fact this morning I woke up and had totally forgotten it was my birthday till companionship study, which is about 3 hours after I woke up. We were in our living room/kitchen and before we sang an opening hymn the guys sang happy birthday. Then shortly after I forgot again. We just have so much more important things to be doing than my birthday. (So when I get home, we can have 2 birthday parties for me to make up for the 2 on the mish). After studies we called some peeps for daily contact then we had lunch. Thanks to Jen we went and got chipotle and we came back to the apartment with chipotle for the apartment, our roommates gave us money to grab them stuff while they did language study. By the time we got back they were done and we celebrated. Afterwards we went out to do some look ups around the church and since it's Friday that means "ice cream with Bae". Ice cream with Bae is how we strengthen our companionship unity. Every Friday we go to McDonalds or a near by "coco-helado" (Mexican ice cream stand). Since McDonalds was out of ice cream on the hottest day of the freakin year (99° w/ humidity) we went and got coco-helado, which is cheaper and so much better anyway. After ice cream with Bae, we did some more look-ups before we went and met with crazy Willy. Crazy Willy is this guy we met with, with the Sisters. They passed him off to us. He just talks the whole time about random things and most the time hasn't made sense haha. He says he appreciates our visits but he really hadn't showed any interest, we will see how this goes. We had a few more appointments before we came home for dinner and went back out again. By 9pm we were back in the apartment for nightly planning.

Happy birthday to me!

July 23, 2016
Saturday, Day 284
Day 271 in NY

Today was slow but we made the most of what we could. We had 8 lessons planned, but only had 5 work out. It was like every other lesson worked out. After lunch we had an appoint man with Ellenia it was awesome, we gave her a church tour and she had so many awesome questions. As we got to the next room her question always had to do with what we planned on talking about next. So as we left the primary rooms upstairs and came downstairs she asked about tithing. It was perfect, we were just around the corner coming up to the clerks office and so we grabbed a tithing envelope and taught her about tithing, as we moved forward to the next room she asked about the baptismal font which was where we were heading next. As we opened the doors we explained where we were and then we opened the doors to the font. She stood back and in awe just loved the scene in front of her. It was such a sweet experience; the room was the quietest room we had been in. Everything felt still and the spirit was just so strong. After the baptismal font we entered the sacrament room and she began asking questions, so we one by one answered each of her questions. Then we went to our next appointment, which cancelled so we continued on to our next appointment. After a short visit we headed home for dinner. After dinner we worked on planning our lesson for third hour of church. Our subject was service. We planned to talk a lot about what service means to us and experiences we've had while serving. We think it would be a great lesson.

July 24, 2016
Sunday, Day 285
Day 272 in NY

Church was great! Daryl, our investigator, who at first had a problem with organized religion, but ended up coming to church! It was awesome to have him there. He said he enjoyed it he came and stayed for all 3 hours. We had our lesson the 3rd hour and he said he really enjoyed it. We talked about service, asked everyone what came to their mind when they heard the word service after all the great responses we read some scriptures and then we watched the Mormon message "Lift" and let people think about their feelings. It felt like such a great lesson! Everyone was really into it and participated.  After church we made our way home and had lunch. Then prepared for our next appointment. Was a bit of a slow workday, afterwards we came home for dinner. It was pretty hot today to. This week has been above 90°... With no Wi-Fi in our apartment I can't check the weather but I've noticed after a few days of hot weather it starts to pour down rain the next day. Even though one day it's bright out and the sky is blue. Then the next it's grey and rainy. So I'm thinking tomorrow will be the day!

July 25, 2016
Monday, Day 286
Day 273 in NY

District meeting this morning was good! We have a zone conference tomorrow and we are supposed to have a 5-minute talk written and study why and how the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost are the most powerful tools in teaching. During district meeting we discussed some things along the lines of our zone conference subject. So we read through parts of the Book of Mormon and talked about Lehi's dream, while talking about his dream we compared his dream and his reaction to how we should act. When Lehi partook of the fruit of the tree he DESIRED that his family should come and partake. The scriptures say that he beckoned to his family, calling for them. Then with a loud voice he yelled for them to come and partake. It shows the desire he has for his family to partake of salvation and that's the desire we should have. We should go out and desire salvation for everyone by talking to everyone we can and inviting them to partake of the fruit, to learn of the words of God. After our meeting we went home for lunch and cleaned out the area book, contacting people who hadn't been taught in a while, calling referrals, and so on. We then went out to meet with Michael. We talked more about his reading with the Book of Mormon. He's been doing well with it, he reads and understands it for the most part and has great questions. When we finished answering his questions we talked about the restoration for review and invited him to answer the questions in the back of the pamphlet. He accepted. Like I had predicted! In the middle of our lesson with Michael it began dumping rain! It was crazy! Full on thunder/lightening storm. When we got outside we got lucky it stopped pouring and was lightly sprinkling. Once we had finally caught a bus it began pouring again… Because of the rain and traffic, it took us an hour to get home. Once we got home it was time for dinner. The rest of the night it lightly rained and eventually stopped. Our lesson fell through this evening so we came home and looked someone up that lived in our apartment building. She was home luckily and we were able to teach her we shared a scripture and invited her to read before we left. Then we went down to the 8th floor and went inside our apartment and nightly planned.

July 26, 2016
Tuesday, Day 287
Day 274 in NY

This morning we woke up at 6am and got ready for the zone conference. We met at the Temple chapel at Lincoln Square. Got there at 8 and didn't start till 9. The meeting went till 4:30pm, but it was a great meeting. I didn't end up giving my talk but I'll share it here. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the spirit being the most powerful tool especially together. It was awesome, 2 talks were given and they were great, full of awesome insights. Around 1pm we had lunch and about 2 we came back together for the conclusion of the meeting. The meeting was so awesome, the spirit was so strong and the entire time the spirit bore to me over and over again that the Book of Mormon is true and never will I doubt it. I feel that President Smith could feel my testimony grow during this meeting, because at the end of it he asked me as well as 2 Sisters to bare our testimony. When he concluded his council to us with his testimony, one by one we shared our testimonies with the other missionaries. It was such a powerful experience, I learned so much about how we could be using the Book of Mormon to teach and other ways of doing so that I haven't yet done. It was such a great conference! It took most of our day and left us with time to take mail home, eat a bowl of cereal, and make it to 3 appointments. Thanks all for the packages and letters! It means a lot! Thank you family! And 2nd family (Halls)! Love you all!


Here's what I wrote for my talk:
Talk - The Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is our most powerful tool.

" Our purpose is to, "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel though faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."

So if this is our purpose, how do we fulfill it? We can't, but through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Having faith in Christ and His Atonement we can know that it is the ultimate place of healing and hope and growth and purpose, which leads us to repentance.

Because of our faith in Christ and His Atonement, we recognize our sins, we recognize His power of healing and we repent knowing that we can be healed and forgiven as Enos did.

[Enos 1:4-8] "4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. 5 And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. 6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away. 7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?
8 And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole."

When we recognize the power of the Atonement in repentance it will drive us to the waters of baptism as we come to know that after baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost we become purified.

As we feel the Saviors love and the love of our Father in heaven during this way of life, we accept its goodness and desire to share it with others as we continue up the spiral ladder.

As said in PMG
As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase. You will feel, as Lehi did, the “great … importance to make these things known unto the
inhabitants of the earth” (2Nephi 2:8).

And how is it that we make it to all these things, the Holy Ghost bares witness to us of truth, the truth of the Book of Mormon. As we study the Book of Mormon to help others understand and recognize the goodness of the Book and Christ and His Atonement the spirit will "carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." (2Nephi 33:1).


Elders and Sisters, it is only by helping your investigators recognize the spirit and teach them to accept it that they will have truth born to them by the Holy Ghost. "



Thanks again for everything! Y'all are awesome! Thanks for the prayer, love, and support! Love you all! Have a wonderful week!



Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 40

July 13, 2016
Wednesday, Day 274
Day 261 in NY

PDAY!
So today ended up being one of those days everyone has over summer. You’re at home chillin with your friends (or fellow Elders) and one of them asks the question, "What do you want to do today?" And we each give the answer, "I don't know, what do you want to do?" This went on for about 45 minutes... Even after deciding to go to the MET. Sitting on the bus on the way to the MET we continued to ask what we wanted to do today. I guess we expected to do more than just go to
the MET. Having gone to the met 3 or 4 times now and seeing the same exhibits I walked around following the Elders as I tried to finish typing my journal. After the museum we went and got Chipotle for dinner then took it to the 87th St. chapel and ate. When we finished eating we went and played Ping-Pong. As soon as we stepped into he room to play Ping-Pong the fire alarm went off. So the 4 of us checked the rooms up stairs and went down the stairs to the 4th floor and checked the rooms there after not finding anyone we went down one more and found a lady at her desk, I think it was some kind of public affairs office or something or other. We asked if she knew why the alarm was going off, she said since it's gone off before we got there she thinks they might be testing them. But she asked if we could go down the stairs again and ask to make sure. After doing that we were told that they were just testing the alarms so we went back to playing Ping-Pong. After Pday we went and met with this amazing lady named Ellenia. Before I came to Harlem she showed up to church on her own. No one knew her but the members of the church had met her when she walked in and when they found the elders they told them that they needed to come meet her and teach her. So they did and now we are meeting with her for the second time I believe. She is so faithful and willing to accept and learn everything she needs to. She's committed to baptism and can't wait! Her date is August 13! After meeting her we had another appointment with this family who we are teaching 2 of the kids because really they are the only ones who stay and listen. I believe the father is less active but I'm not sure whom or if anyone else in the family are members. But I know none of the kids are. When we got there everyone was in the room listening while we talked to them and taught them more about reading the scriptures and it's importance. Minute after minute each family member walked out of the discussion and never came back. From having 5 in the beginning we were left down to 2 by the end. After this appointment we came home and had our apartment cereal. (The four of us come together and have a nightly bowl of cereal.)

July 14, 2016
Thursday, Day 275
Day 262 in NY

After studies we had an early lunch and started cleaning the apartment. Our roommates, the zone leaders, told us they were bringing home this kid from Texas that's visiting President Smith and his family. They will be going on a split with him. So, after they went to a meeting they came home with this 16-year-old kid named Nathan. He spent the whole day with them. We stayed home and weekly planned for a couple hours. After wards we went to meet with this investigator named Tiffany. She too is so awesome! She has come a long way from what I know; she's changing habits that she has and she has been meeting with missionaries. She has a baptismal date for the end of this month and she's looking forward to it! She says she's happy and can't wait to be baptized. Shortly after meeting with Tiffany we met with Michael, another awesome investigator with a baptism date for the end of the month. He is also excited and getting ready for the date. From what I know so far, he has also come quite a way from where he is today with the missionaries. I'm looking forward to continue meeting with these people. After wards we came home for dinner and later went out to meet with a family. When we got there it was just the husband and his daughter, he let us in. Since his wife wasn't home we changed our plans and just went over the scriptures with him. When we left the appointment I could see potential and Elder Dutson’s thoughts were the same. I just love seeing the change people are making out here in NY.

July 15, 2016
Friday, Day 276
Day 263 in NY

This week has gone by quick and it has been so busy! We've been going from appointment to appointment. Our goal is to get 24 other lessons this week. We are getting pretty close to it. Today we had 6 appointments. We were just running all over the city teaching! It felt good to be out and just doing work. Finding young single adults last cycle was tough. But now that I'm in a family Ward again it's been so packed with teaching.

July 16, 2016
Saturday, Day 277
Day 264 in NY

Elder Dutson picked up the phone after getting a missed call from Bishop Day, and called him back. When bishop answered he then asked Elder Dutson if he could give a talk tomorrow. Haha Elder Dutson almost asked me to call him back but he called instead and he got asked to give a talk. So our plans quickly changed half way through the day so that Elder Dutson could write a talk. After a couple appointments we went to the church and he wrote his talk while I called some people in our area book. During the hand full of calls I made I was able to teach a lesson over the phone and set up a few appointments during the week. When Elder Dutson got most of his ideas written out we went on with the day and made it to our next appointment before going home for dinner and having nightly planning.

July 17, 2016
Sunday, Day 278
Day 265 in NY

1st day in the Harlem Ward! A very interesting Ward. A lot of families were on vacation so there weren't enough priesthood holders to pass the sacrament so I helped out. Elder Dutson had to give a talk, so he was already up on the stand and couldn't help. But it was just me, this kid, and 2 other guys passing the sacrament. After joining the congregation I sat next to Ellenia. When the meeting ended one of the Counselors, who's actually Walter Rane, the artist who painted the Book of Mormon paintings hanging in the temple building, stood up at the pulpit and announced to the congregation "we would like to have all the visitors or new members joining our Ward to stand and introduce themselves." I thought that was odd, but I stood anyways and introduced myself. After my short introduction, the entire congregation in unison said, "welcome!" I love New York; no matter where you are you'll have an interesting experience. After church we came home and had lunch, finished studies, had dinner, and then went out for the night to some appointments. After our nightly planning we had our nightly cereal session. Eating as an apartment.

July 18, 2016
Monday, Day 279
Day 266 in NY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH!! Can't believe this kid is 15. Time is flying by. Had district meeting this morning and it was nice cause I didn't have to prepare for it since I'm not really a district leader anymore. So Elder Arines is our DL here and we just went over our numbers and talked about how our investigators are. We read from the scriptures and PMG for a bit. It was a good meeting. Afterward we came home and had lunch, after lunch we went back out and went to some appointments. Then we came home had dinner and went back out again. We taught like 3 lessons and then came home. Had nightly planning and once again had our nightly cereal party. Our days are packed with things to do so we stay busy but nothing too exciting happens, just some awesome people and lessons all day.

July 19, 2016
Tuesday, Day 280
Day 267 in NY

This morning we got up at 6 and by 7 we left to meet some Elders for a split since Elder Dutson had his "What's Next" meeting. All the missionaries going home this cycle go to this meeting and talk about their concerns for going home and any questions they have about life after the mission to help prepare them for the day. So me and this new stud missionary Elder Murray went back to our apartment. When we got home we had studies, after studies we changed into service clothes and headed over to The Common Pantry where we helped out and moved produce around and helped clean. It was super awesome, we got assigned to sort through the lettuce and it was disgusting! All the lettuce was rotten so it didn't need sorting at all; it just needed to be thrown out. So after filling big black bags and bags we made a pile for them to take out to the dumpster. When we finished up there it was about 12:45, we headed home for lunch ate some food, got changed, and was out the door around 2:30 when we made it to the bus to do some look ups and got a call from our companions, their meeting was over and were on their way to the Metro North station. Before we got there they called again and said they were already there. So they met us half way and we split back to our companions. Elder Murray is an awesome missionary hopefully we will serve around each other more. Once Elder Dutson and I were together we went to the church, dropped off his suit coat, went to a pass off lesson, went home to eat and then came back to the church to get mail and head home. It's about 9:00 when we left the church and we needed to be home by 9:30. So after waiting about 15 minutes for a bus, we decide to take a cab home and be on time. So I flagged a minivan cab and we threw in the huge carpet rug we ordered for our apartment and the other house appliances and got in. We gave him our address and were home by 9:26. It was great!

Had a wonderful week and we exceeded our goal of 24 lessons this week we reached over 30 lessons.

Have a great week everybody! Love you all!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Week 39

July 6, 2016
Wednesday, Day 267
Day 254 in NY

PDAY!
Today was crazy! This morning we left quick to start our laundry and when we finished we came straight home, folded clothes, put them away, and got ready to leave again. Our next objective was to exchange the shoes dad sent me. So we headed out the door with this Macy's box with 2 pairs of shoes in it. As we got out the door we took into consideration how long it may take, so we decided we would go eat lunch really quick and then exchange the shoes. We went into a near by deli grabbed some sandwiches and headed back up to the apartment.  After eating we went back down stairs and grabbed a train to Macy's, where we then exchanged the shoes and went back home, again. When we got home we changed our clothes and went to the church to play gator ball. There were supposed to be a lot of missionaries there, but it was just Elder Tatafu and I for a while. So for about a half hour we played one on one. Eventually everyone showed up and we started playing gator ball. About an hour later we needed to leave to go home, change and head over to the freedom tower! We left with enough time to get there on time. Got home, changed really quick and we were out the door in minutes. We hit the pavement and made our way to the train. Knowing we have to be there at 5:15 for our session to go to the top, we waited for the train for 15 minutes, which was okay we started on the train and made about 5 stops and around the 5th or 6th stop the train stopped at the platform and we waited... We then waited for 25 minutes! Which made us extremely late and we missed our session and we still had to make 4 more stops before we got there. While on the train I just knew we wouldn't make it, so I just prayed and prayed to be able to somehow make it there or get our money back. After the train finally started moving we got off about another 10 minutes later. After a five-minute walk we found our roommates waiting for us... When we got them they said they got out session time changed and we could still go up. We were so grateful to have our prayer answered that although we were 30 minutes late we were still able to make it to the top. It was such an awesome view! The elevator ride was sweet! You go up to the 102nd floor. I've got tons of pictures for you
all to see.

July 7, 2016
Thursday, Day 268
Day 255 in NY

Weekly planned. Met with Mia had a very uplifting and spiritual lesson. We didn't really have lunch, I had a couple quesadillas but we took like 20 minutes to eat so we could get back to planning. Then we got a call from Elders Richards and Burton saying they wanted to take us out to Johnny Rockets so we did that then went to dinner with a member at 8. We met at chipotle and he had a friend with him from work. I had so much food today it was wonderful! When we got home we planned and when we finished planning we received one of the best texts ever! Sister Smith, President Smith’s wife, text us and said "I heard you Elders gave a blessing to a girl visiting for dance camp. She is the friend of my childhood friend. It meant so much to them and they were touched by the blessing. She is doing much better and has been able to perform. Thank you for being worthy to be called upon at a moments notice. Love you both!" Usually missionaries don't get to hear the ending story of what happens to people they meet. So I just thought it was so cool to get this text. Later tonight when my iPad connected to some wifi I got an email from mom with a similar update on the same girl!

July 8, 2016
Friday, Day 269
Day 256 in NY

I can't remember anything about this day... Because of transfers I don't have my original schedule to remember. I really wish I could remember what happened today because in my little notepad I carry I wrote, "This week we have been so blessed especially today." Not sure what happened but it must have been a wonderful day.

July 9, 2016
Saturday, Day 270
Day 257 in NY

Weird day... Transfers are among us. We are supposed to be getting calls today about what's going to be happening this transfer. Elder Tatafu and I went out tracting today. We tried looking up some less actives and we looked up this one guy who we've tried to find for a while now. We stopped by and his dad was home. He said his son Ivan, who we were looking for, wasn't home, but that if we came back tomorrow he would be home after 12. At the end of the day we received a call from president. Elder Tatafu grabbed the phone and answered it, president told him he was being transferred and that he would be going to Samford Connecticut, which was totally unexpected. Elder Tatafu has only been in this area with me for 1 cycle, (6 weeks) and he's already leaving. Then he gave me the phone and I spoke to president, he told me that I would be getting transferred also and that I would be going to Harlem with Elder Dutson. Completely unexpected! We have 2 days to pack and get out.

Tonight was so crazy! After going to bed at 10:30pm. I'm woken up at 12:30am by Elder Richards shaking me and telling me I needed to get up. He said "Elder Newbold, Elder Newbold! Get up! You gotta get up, there's something big in the kitchen!" Half asleep I roll out of bed thinking there's someone in the apartment. I slip on my moccasins and grab a flashlight. We get into the kitchen and I'm looking around and see nothing, so I turn to Elder Richards and I'm like dude there's nothing here what's up? He said "I got up for my 12:30 pee and when I got to the kitchen I heard something really big so I flipped out and got you." With both our companions passed out asleep, Elder Richards quickly goes to the bathroom now that the coast is clear and at this point we are both wide awake. We just stayed up and chatted for a about 15 minutes. Then Elder Richards offered me some ice cream so of course I'm like why not. We get into the kitchen he opens the freezer and grabs his ice cream. I walk over to the sink where our dishes are in a drying rack and reach for a spoon. Just in time my eyes are locked on the cockroach sitting on my spoon before my hand reached it. Fishing around for this cockroach with a fork in the drying rack, after scaring it off, I stab at it, thinking I got it I move around some silverware to confirm its death when all of a sudden, it jumps straight out of the silverware right at me! With our hearts beating at a million miles an hour we decided to take a minute to recover... Deciding there's an easier way to finish off this cockroach, I walk out of the bathroom and up to the dish rack with Raid in my hand and drench the dishes in Raid as I spray the roach. After that little exciting adventure we went back to the other room and chatted some more. About 30 minutes later we heard something big coming from in the bathroom. We grabbed our flashlights and quietly came to the doorframe of the bathroom when all of a sudden we see the trash is hopping
around. With Elder Richards filming behind me I walk up closer to the trashcan and stop. After a moment of stillness and suspense... Out of the trashcan hops a mouse and darts straight for my foot! Surprised I lift my foot to step back and instinctively stepped down. Now with a mouse under my foot, there was no other option but to press down and put it out. After a crack of some bones we thought it was over for the mouse. Lifting up slowly and relieving pressure with my foot I could feel it start to move again. Pushing down again, Elder Richards places his foot on mine and drops all his weight down and that was the end of that. What a crazy night! Woke up at 12:30 to Elder Richards and ended the night at 2:30am after our crazy adventures.

July 10, 2016
Sunday, Day 271
Day 258 in NY

Not falling asleep till about 3 I woke up about 2 and a half hours later and began getting ready for church. Once we were at church we set up chairs and welcomed members. After sacrament we began saying goodbyes and telling the members that we were both getting transferred and the area would be getting white washed. After church we came home, had lunch, finished some studies, and went out for the day. After getting to 100th St. we went and looked up Ivan again. Waiting at the door for a few minutes after knocking a few times Ivan's mom comes to the door. We talked to her and she said he wasn't home (even though his dad said he would be) we told her we would come back tomorrow. We explained to her that we would be getting transferred on Tuesday so we would love to come back and sit down with Ivan and her. We then decided to knock a couple doors before heading home. The 1st door we knocked a couple answered, they were on their way out the door so we walked out with them. We found out they just got married and returned the other day from where ever they went for their honeymoon. After we left and went our separate ways we had this crazy guy approach us and ask for a Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy and talked for a bit. He took us to his apartment, which was so weird, haha he soon explained that he was on some medication. After that weird little event we met up with a member from our Ward. Jeff Derricott, (Clayton Fox served around him on his mission. [You can literally meet everyone in NY]) When we met up with Jeff we went back to the same building we were at to look up Ivan and we went to a random floor and tract the whole floor. After a few doors we met 2 people! We taught 2 lessons with him. It was awesome, we could tell he was and still is such a great missionary. He had so much to share with us as we spoke and even just by watching him. It was great getting to know him while we were there. After about 45 minutes with him we needed to head home. So we went on home and ate and finished off our night.

July 11, 2016
Monday, Day 272
Day 259 in NY

we had our last district meeting today! We talked about change and how it's only through the atonement we can fully change, change our nature. It was a good meeting. After district meeting we went down to the 15th St. chapel to meet with Elders Casper and Casela for our last lunch together. We went down the street and got some dollar slice. After retiring to the chapel we ate and chatted. After lunch we went to the Lincoln center chapel to meet a member for a lesson. We sat down in a nearby park. He told us that he is giving a talk on Sunday on prayer and asked if we could help. He's a convert of 2 years and this will be his 1st talk in church. We told him how exciting that is and that we wish we could be there for it... We shared some scriptures with him on prayer and showed him some resources on LDS.org about preparing for talks. As we discussed the topic of prayer he said something that was very profound. Something that made me think more about prayer. He said that as he pondered on this topic he realized that with prayer there's meditation involved. As we pray we communicate with God but when God communicates with us it's through our part of meditation. In order for us to recognize and receive answers to prayers we need to meditate. We sit, wait, and listen. He went on and explained more of his thoughts and it was awesome! After meeting with Scott we made our way back to Ivan's place for the 3rd day in a row. When we got there Ivan and all of his family were home, all sitting on the couch ready for us. It was so awesome! We sat down and just talked, we got to know the family and share a message with them. Ivan is the only member in his family, so we invited them all to come to church and they all agreed. We told them that we wouldn't be there because we were being transferred but that 2 other missionaries would be there. It was such a great experience. After meeting with them we rushed home to start packing so we could be ready to leave tomorrow.

July 12, 2016
Tuesday, Day 273
Day 260 in NY

Transfer day! Woke up at 6:30. The usual. Got ready and put our suitcases out by the door. Did a quick run-through with the apartment. Made sure we weren't leaving anything behind. My suitcases were ridiculously heavy... I'll be needing to send things home. And one of my suitcases broke... A set of wheels came off... So dad, if there's no warranty on them then let's pray I stay in this area the rest of my mission. Haha I hate packing and unpacking. We went to the Inwood chapel with our suitcases and said goodbye to our companions. Grabbed my new companion and headed to my new area. Harlem! It's the top of Manhattan so I'm in between my last 2 areas, the Bronx and South Manhattan. My companion is Elder Dutson he's awesome he served with Elder Richards so I was excited to be with him. When I got home I unpacked for the most part and got ready to do some look ups and visit an investigator. I already love the area! I'm excited to have a busy schedule every day. I'll now be in a family Ward again, so there's no focus for YSA age people. The interesting part is there's a district leader here who ended up staying in the area and then there's me who got transferred here and is a district leader. I haven't been released so we are in the process of finding that out. Looking forward to a great cycle. Elder Dutson goes home at the end of this cycle and it's a short cycle so we have 5 weeks together.

Sorry it's been a short letter and that I've been busy. I'll get to responding as soon as possible! Love you all! Have a wonderful week!


Patience. Love. Faith

Much love,
Elder Newbold

Freedom Tower

The view from 102 stories up