August 30th 2017~Another Awesome Week From Kingston! Thanks So Much For The Card!
Hello my dear and amazing family! Wow! What a great email! I enjoyed reading every word as usual and loved looking at your pictures! It's so awesome to have a weeks worth of events all in 1 email! Today for P-Day we are both getting haircuts! We get to go to a really pretty area of Kingston right by a bridge that goes over the Hudson River so that will be lots of fun! We want to look sharp for President Nelson! I can't wait to get a nice haircut! I also have some exciting news! Transfers are a week from yesterday and so we will get transfer calls this coming Saturday. We are pretty sure that Elder Howard and I will stay but you never know. Also, some more exciting news about today is that tonight anywhere from 6:00-10:30, the Assistants and President Smith will be calling the new trainers! So I won't be able to tell you what happens until next week if I am called to be a trainer! Thst would be so, so cool but thst means Elder Howard would be leaving. I would be honored to train! We will have to wait until tonight to find out about trainers and the new leadership calls! It will be so interesting to see how things turn out because Elder Howard may stay with me here until the end of his mission or he could get transferred on Tuesday. So by next week, I may have a new companion. Crazy huh!! Also, the guy that was going tomtake us on our temple trip couldn't make it because he is on a trip to Utah and so we had to reschedule. It was going to be next P-Day but he couldn't take us. We understood and we know that there will be another time to go soon! He will definately take us another time! Well, I'm so excited for the next week and some changes that could potentially happen. I can't wait to tell you all about it!
We had a great time last P-day! We got our usual laundry done and then we headed to Poughkeepsie to go bowling! We had a really fun time and we even got to play 2 games for $6.00! It was a very great deal! We had our whole Zone there which made it even more fun! I got to drive and so I got lots of good practice! One cool thing that I forgot to tell you about is something that all of the missionaries have in their cars! We have a device called "Tiwi" and it's like a driving helper. It uses the GPS to tell us if we are going to fast, don't have our seatbelt on, or if we take a turn too sharp. So far, I haven't gotten any violations so that has been so nice! I have made it a goal to have a big fat goose egg on my record! I wasn't the best at bowling but I definately had lots of fun! Then after our 2 games, we drove back to Kingston to do our shopping and by that time, it was time for dinner! I couldn't beleive how fast our day went. I had so much fun emailing you and hearing all about your week and day! It was such a great P-Day and we got to see so many cool sights of New York! It was a very pretty drive! I love P-Days!!! Then after our P-Day ended, we went to go pick up a member who really wants to serve a mission. His name is Alejandro and he has cancelled on us the last 5 lessons that we have had with him. It has been so hard because we will have a lesson set with him up until it is time for us to pick him up, he is a great kid but has a hard time keeping commitments. So we went to our lesson with the Lopez family but unfortunately, they weren't home. So we went to plan B for the evening. We were driving down the street and we called one of our new investigators, Dorette. We wanted to check up on her and see how she was doing. She said that she has been sick recently and it won't go away. We asked if we could come by and see her for just a couple of minutes and say a prayer with her. She said yes and so we drove over to her house and then asked her ifnthere was anything that we could do for her. We even asked if she had some dishes that we could do! She didn't have anything for us to do and so we said a prayer with her and then she got back to resting. It was a great opportunity to give her some comfort! Then we drove just down the street to Wayne Nichols and Sharon Robertin's house. They were so glad to see us and then we scheduled a longer visit with them for Tuesday night. We had a nice talk with them and shared a quick message and then we drove to downtown Kingston to go visit Joshua and Adal! First of all, let me tell you about Adal. This poor kid has to sit in the break room of his parent's restraunt the whole day and they don't give him much to do. He is such a funny kid and loves it when we come visit him because he gets so bored. I would be too if I just had to sit in a break room all day! So we talked with him and he is very friendly and will talk your ear off. He is probably a little bit younger than Parker so I would say, 9 or 10. So after our visit with Adal, we drove to David Salas' house to see if there is any chance that he would be home. David is the guy that Elder Hughes and Elder Howard set a baptisimal date with right before I got here. Well, his baptismal date is for this coming Saturday so that cant happen. We have tried, and tried, and tried some more to find him at home but he hasn't answered his door or phone ever since I got here. I haven't even met him and yet he had a baptismal date. So we tried again and we drove up......and......the lights were on!! We knocked on the door and he was finally home after over a month of trying! He is a very nice guy and so we chatted with him for a little while and then it was time to head back to the apartment for the evening! It was a great way to end an awesome P-Day!
Thursday was awesome! Sorry that I usually don't have much news on Thursdays. We spend our whole morning up until lunch planning for our whole week and so there isn't anything really exciting. We planned for our whole next week and actually got a few more dinner appointments! We really appreciate all that this awesome ward does for us as missionaries! They are so nice to always feed us and take care of us! So after our weekly planning session, we drove over to Isaac Blue's house to pick him up because he wanted to come with us to our lesson with Ryan! So we picked him up and then drove to Ryan's house and we had another really great lesson with him! Isaac shared pieces of his talk that he gave this last Sunday and Ryan really enjoyed it! It was on developing Christlike attributes. It was a great talk and we all really enjoyed getting a sneak peak for Sunday! We had a dinner appointment scheduled for 4:00 with a member and her family but when we got out of our lesson with Isaac, she called and said that she couldn't get our phone number and so she couldn't call us to let us know that she had to go to a funeral. Her friend's aunt passed away and so she was helping the family out. She felt really bad about our dinner because she was going to make us steaks and potatoes so she made us some homemade chili with rice! We were so appreciative and thankful for her dinner! There was enough that we even invited Isaac to eat with us and so we drove over to the church and then had our dinner there and then we drove Isaac back home! It was so great to have him come with us! Here comes some more dinner trivia! So I asked him where he grew up and then he told us that he went to a few years of school at the University of Pittsburgh. So I of course said: "Nice! You were a Panther!" Then he told me that he loved Texas A&M, and Penn State. "Aggie and a Nittany Lion!" He thought it was pretty cool that I knew all 3 of those! I love doing that! I even got a picture of him and Ryan just after our lesson! Now you can seen the infamous Ryan that I keep talking about! So after we dropped Isaac off at home, we headed back to the Church because we had a lesson with Brigham Young's Great Great Great Grandson, Michael Young! He and Bishop really love to go to the Church on Thursdays to do some family history! We decided to use that opportunity to teach Michael! Unfortunately, Michael had family in town this week and so he wasn't available to meet but we did get to talk to Bishop Woottan because he had a few interviews. So after that, we went to go visit Lisa Martin for the little bit of the evening that we had left. We did a few lookups and then had a great lesson with Lisa Martin! She is a great lady but has a lot on her plate right now. Her and her husband don't get along well at all and just constantly fight. They argue over almost everything and it is just sad to see. Lisa is a member and comes to Church every once in a while with her 3 little kids all under the age of 5. Her husband isn't a member and doesn't want anything to do with us. We always try to be friendly but he is a pretty intimidating guy. So after our lesson with Lisa, we drove back to the apartment after another great day of missionary work! I was so excited to get your email!
Friday was AWESOME! We had such a great and busy day! It was really jam packed with lots of good lessons and visits! So first, after our exercise, studies and getting ready for the day, we had a Conference Call miracle line at 10:00 and so we really enjoyed listening to that! It's always really cool to be able to hear from President Smith so often and be able to hear his guidance! Then, we headed right over to the McClure's house for some service! We are always so glad when people call us and schedule appointments for us to come over and help out! So we went over and finished listening to the conference call and then headed inside to help them! Sister McClure had us go up into their teenie tiny attic crawlspace and organize a few boxes and put some space saver bags filled with blankets and stuffed animals into totes since she can't get up in there because of her bad knee. We were so happy to help and then we had another service project right after that! We drove over to the Parks' house and did lots of different things around their house! First, we got a gas powered blower and blew some grass clipping and rocks out of their garage and into their driveway. Then we went inside and had a really good sandwich that Sister Parks made for us. It was like a grilled cheese on Italian bread with pesto sauce and ham. It was really good and then she had some hot chocolate chip cookies for us. It was so nice of her! Then we went back outisde and helped her boys put away a tent that they had been sleeping in for their last few days of summer. Then we weeded and then tried to start up their lawn mower but she thinks that the battery might have been dead because the engine wouldn't even turn over. I'm so grateful for you and how much you taught me how to work and do things by myself. It has helped me so much and I have been applying everything you have taught me! So thank you! Then after our service project, we had to hurry back to the apartment and change because we had a lesson at 3:00 with Manny Styles but he wasn't home. His Mom said that he wouldn't be back until this last Monday. So we went to our backup plan and drove over to the restaurant where Joshua and Adal Velasco's parent work and so we went to go share a message with them. They always just have to sit and entertain themselves all day every day and so they are always very excited to see us! Joshua is Dubbie's age and Adal is 6. They are really funny kids! We taught them about the story of Ammon and then showed a video! It went really well and then we headed to our next appointment! We were so excited because it was a lesson with Bill Smith! He has been doing so well and is getting really excited for his Baptism coming up in a few weeks! We are too! So we went over to his house and our lesson went really well. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and when we told him that it was kind of like Heavenly Father's health code and what we should and shouldn't put into our bodies, he cut in and said that he doesn't smoke, drink coffee, tea or alcohol, or other harmful substances. We couldn't beleive that he just listed off everything that the Word of Wisdom encompasses! It was pretty cool because he just explained the Word of Wisdom right off the bat! We had a great discussion about the Word of Wisdom and he understood everything and committed to live it! Then we talked to him about following the prophet and then showed him a video of President Thomas S Monson talking about the Word of Wisdom. He really enjoyed it! Then it was time to go back to the apartment and have dinner! We were very tired but so excited for how well our day went so far! Then after dinner, we drove over to our good friend Richard Dahl's house. He is a member but hasn't come to Church in over 10 years. He was baptised when he was 10 but has fallen back into some really bad habits like smoking and drinking. When you look at him, you wouldn't think he is a member of this great church. He has just lost his way andnso we are trying to help him by being there for him and doing service for him. We had a great discussion and lesson with him and talked about his family. He was holding a beer and then later smoked a cigarette. It is sad to see such a good guy struggle with the Word of Wisdom. He really doesn't even have a desire to start coming back to church. He cuts and sells wood for a living and so he is always trying to make ends meet. He has a wife and a little 2 year old daughter. He wants them to have a good future but just fell into some bad habits. After our lesson, it was time to head back to the apartment for the night but we stopped to get gas before driving home. It was a really awesome and jam packed day!
Saturday was so awesome! We had our usual lunch with Sister Wootton and then a couple of days ago, Sister Cross invited us over for a Mexican food night! We were stoked! So we woke up, excersised, did our studies, and then headed over to the Church for our weekly Ward Correlation meeting with Brother Lopez. I've got some pretty bad news though...... We texted Alejandro Duran that morning to confirm our appointment with him and his younger brother Felix, who was on baptismal date for September 2nd which is this coming Saturday! He was right on track to be baptized but we got a text back from Alejandro and he told us that he and his Mom had a discussion the night before and she doesn't want Felix to have anything to do with us or getting baptized. Alejandro defended Felix because their Mom is a strong member of the Catholic Church and Alejandro is a member of our Church. So our Baptisimal Date and our contact with them is pretty limited. She doesn't want him to study with us anymore or get baptized. So that baptism thst we were getting really excited for is now not going to happen. I wish I had some better news for you about it. So sorry! We will still try to go over and see how he is doing from time to time but he isn't old enough to make his own decisions. So we were a little disappointed about that but we know that things like this happen and their Mom just wants what's best for her kids......even though him getting baptized would most definately be the best thing for him! So we mostly talked about Felix and how sad it was that his Baptism wasn't going to happen anymore. Then we shifted our focus over to Bill and then talked about him and what he needs. I have some very exciting news about him! We have been calling around to find someone who would be able to give him a ride to Church but we haven't had any luck. We asked Brother Lopez if he had any ideas and he told us that he would call around. He called us back a few minutes later and had some great news! He said that he called Brother Monterroza and said that he would be happy to pick him up! We were so excited that Bill was going to be able to come to Church! So after ward correlation, we drove to the Mid Hudson Buffet and had a great lunch with Sister Wootton! They have a huge variety of food and I still haven't tried everything that they have to offer! Then, we drove to the dry cleaners to pick up my suit that I had dry cleaned just for President Nelson's mission tour! I wanted to have a nice clean suit for when we meet him! It was so nice to get it dry cleaned and have it clean for the mission tour! We are all getting so excited for when President Nelson comes! I also have some really cool news about our mission tour! So President Nelson will be here a week from this Saturday but guess what day that is??? HIS BIRTHDAY! So we will get to shake hands and meet him on his birthday! It is going to be a once in a lifetime experience! Since he is next in line to be prophet, it will be really cool to say that I've met the prophet! I just can't believe ghat we actually get to have him come! So after we picked up my dry cleaning, we went to go visit Joshua and Adal again because they really wanted us to teach a lesson and then show us around the farmer's market that they had going on down main street in downtown Kingston! Adal is a really funny kid and had fun showing us some of the farmers stands that they had set up. They had a really coll street with tons of old fire trucks from the area set up and so I took a few pictures. Since it wasn't P-day, we couldn't stay for very long but it was a good time to spend with Adal since he isn't a member and making sure they both have a friend! It was really awesome! Then, we headed back to the apartment and did our companionship study and then Sister Cross wanted to bring some drinks for our dinner! So we drove over to Walmart and bought a 2 liter of Orange Crush and A&W Root Beer. Then we drove over to Sister Cross' house and had a great dinner and lesson with her and her family! She made us some really good enchiladas with sour cream and guacamole! Then after dinner, we all went outside and looked at the van that she won! Unfortunately, she took it in to get inspected and apparently there are quite a few things wrong with it and it might cost an arm and leg to get everything replaced. She told me that when she brakes, she hears grinding metal on metal. I told her that was exactly the problem that blacky had. She loves her van though! It is so nice for her to be able to put Logan in his chair and have it rotate and come out of the van. She has a little remote control that lower the chair in and out of the van! Pretty cool huh! Then, it was time to leave and so we thanked her and said goodbye. We are always so grateful for her and everything that she does for the missionaries! Guess what?? She was wearing a Utah Utes shirt! I thought Parker would think that was so cool so we all got a picture in front of her van! I'm not sure if you can see her shirt but I thought it was pretty cool! Then after that, we drove over to visit Knowledge and see how he is doing. It has been getting darker and darker sooner and so we can tell that fall is in the air! This time of year reminds me of going to school at Utah State, getting my mission call, watching football and so much more! It has made me miss home a little bit more just because of how awesome a time that was. I loved going to school at Utah State and watching Dubbie tear up the field! I just can't believe that we are already to September almost. I really can't! Pretty soon, before I know it....I will hit my year mark and we will be in the holiday season! I'm so excited! We drove to Knowledge's house and then we wrote him a note. We really like Knowledge but apparently he doesn't like us because when we walked up to the door, we could see him sitting playing Madden on his couch and when he saw us, he quickly got up and ran, and hid. He's almost 18 years old. It was really crazy! We gave the note to someone who was sitting there and told them to give it to Knowledge. Then we did a few lookups and then looked at the clock and it was time to drive back to the apartment for the day! It was a really awesome day!
Sunday was so great! It was a really busy day which is always great! In the words of Dad: "Can't complain!" It was a very awesome day and I enjoyed it very much! I woke up and was really excited to see your email! I really love to get emails throughout the week!! I was so sad to hear that Brandon lost his game. It sounded like they played great even though it was a tough team! We were very excited for Church because we knew that Bill was coming! So we drove to the Church for our Ward Council meeting and it went so well! We got some great ideas on how we can best work with the ward and some of the member who need some extra help. Then after our meeting, we went with Brother Monterroza to pick up Bill. We aren't allowed to use our car to bring investigators but we can go with members to pick them up. So we drove to Bill's house and brought him to church. He was very excited to be there and enjoyed church very much! We introduced him to a lot of members! Sacrament Meeting went really well and we had some great speakers. Elder Howard and I passed the sacrament and then taught the Gospel Principles class and Elders Quorum class. It was so busy but a great opportunity to serve! We taught about President Monson's recent conference talk about the Book of Mormon. It went really well! Then after church, we took a picture outside of Bill and us so you can see him! He is a really great guy and is excited to make this step in his life. So then Brother Monterroza took him home and Elder Howard and I drove back to the apartment and had lunch and changed out of our suits. I will wear my gray suit this next week so I can keep my black suit all nice and clean for President Nelson! We had lunch and did our companionship study and then drove over to visit Richard and his family but unfortunately they weren't home. So we did a few lookups of some teacher and priest age boys that we had in our records. None of them were home either and so by that time, it was time to drive over to the Parks' house for dinner! They are always so nice and we love going over and sharing a message with them! Sister Parks made us some really good fish tacos with coleslaw and tilapia fish. I'm not going to lie, they were really good even though "fish isn't my favorite!" Hehe! We had a great discussion with them and then got talking about Brother Parks and his mission. He met his wife on his mission to Poland and was telling us about how crazy it was over there and how much his mission has blessed his life. They are a very great family! Then we had a lesson with them and their 3 kids, Ryan, Brandon, and Isabella. We talked about the Holy Ghost and based it off of Elder Stevenson's talk from this last General Conference. They really enjoyed it and it went really well! Then, we drove over to visit Bob Costello. He is a less active member who got offended years ago and hasn't come back since. Thst seems to be the biggest problem in this ward with people just "being offended." We have a talk from Elder Bednar about people getting offended and how much they are missing out. It is really sad to see. So we talked with him for a while and then we drove over to the Church and had a great 1 on 1 discussion with Bishop Wootan. He has been so busy and so ever since I got here, we haven't been able to sit down and just talk with him! We had a great discussion about the members in the ward and who needed us to come over. He gave us lots of great information and we wrote it all down to be sure we remembered everything! It was such a busy and jam packed day! We had such a great Sabbath and I was thinking about you guys all day! I was thinking about you Mom as you went back to school the very next day. I was sad that you had to go back but I just wanted you to know that I was thinking about you and wishing the kids a great 1st full week back!
Monday was a really awesome day as well! I was thinking about you all day mom as you started your 1st day or work! I was wishing you well and hoping you enjoyed your day so much! We woke up, excercied, did our studies and then drove to New Paltz for District Meeting. It seems like the weeks are just going by faster and faster. I really can't believe that it is already football season and you are back in school! It's so crazy to think that you dropped me off all the way back in January and here it is almost September. It really is hard to believe! District Meeting went so well and we got to talk a lot about our investigators and how the work in our zone is going! I was SO VERY EXCITED to get your letter! It meant so much and was a lot of fun to get! I always feel bad that the mail takes so long to get here. I didn't want you to think that I forgot to thank you for it last P-day. I am so excited to see the Aggies' schedule! It is so weird to not be there and be a part of the action. I didn't even know when or who the Aggies were playing and so know I feel right in the thick of it! Thank you so much for thinking of me and for your thoughtful card!!! I got a few pictures of me and my study desk so you can see my magnet displayed loud and proud! We had a really great District Meeting and covered a ton of topics and investigators! Then after District Meeting, we drove over to the church and taught the guys who play basketball with the 2nd councilor in the Bishopric, Brother Larin. Brandon and Puck would really enjoy watching them because they are very good and really intense. I always think of them when we go over there! We taught them about keeping the Sabath Day Holy and partaking of the sacrament each week. None of them are members and so it is a great opportunity to talk with 12 people at a time and ask them questions that help them feel the spirit. We invited them all to Church this Sunday so hopefully they will be there, especially because they already know where the church is! So after we taught them, we drove back to the apartment and had lunch and did our companionship study and then had a lesson with Ryan again! Last week, I we took a picture with Ryan and Isaac who is the member thst comes with us to teach Ryan. Hopefully you saw it! I'm really excited to say that we also got a picture with Bill Smith so now you can finally see what he looks like! I really like to have you visualize where we are and who we are teaching. Isaac was so kind and even came with us to this lesson as well. Ryan had a lot of great questions and we enjoyed answering them! Ryan even teared up a little because he just kept saying "I want to know if this is the right path for me and this of the true Church". It was a really cool moment because he really is searching to know for sure which church is true. We assured him that this was the only true church upon the face of the Earth and that Joseph Smith really did restore the Church back onto the Earth. He them told us something that we didn't know about him. As missionaries, we try to establish a good enough relationship with people that they open up and are comfortable talking with you. He told us that the only reason whynhenwas having a problem with committing to baptism or coming to Church was because we have church on Sundays and not Saturdays. He told us that if we would have invited him to Church on a Saturday, he would have joined our church right them. He told us that was the main thing that was holding him back from thinking this is the only true church on the Earth today. It was a pretty silly reason but it meant so much to him to find outnfor himself that it was really holding him back. He went into a very deep reason why Church and the Sabath Day is on a Sunday and why it should be on Saturdays. We answered the best we could and he accepted our answer. Elder Howard went into some scriptural reference and answered his question that I didn't know the answer to so I was grateful for that! After our lesson, we drove Isaac back home and then headed back to the apartment and had dinner. Then we headed back out and did a few lookups that Bishop Wootan wanted us to go see and then it was time to head back to the apartment for the evening. It was such a great day! The weather has been so beautiful and the temperature has gone down quite a bit the last few morning. It even got down to 49 degrees!!! We can both tell that fall is in the air!
Tuesday was another really great day! Time flew by and I was SO excited for your email! I always get so excited to read your amazing emails and looking through your pictures! We woke up and after our studies, we went over to fix a laptop for Brother Monterroza. He bought a really nice Asus laptop at a yard sale for $25.00. It retails for around $300.00. The only reason why they were selling a brand new laptop was because the guy forgot his password and so he didn't have the time to fix it. Well little did he know that Elder Howard is really good with computers. Brother Monterroza got the deal of a lifetime and we were able to erase the whole computer so it was practically brand new! We enjoyed helping him and then after we did something really fun! He took us to Pizza Hut but this specific store has a buffet from a certain time each day. So we got unlimited pizza and breadsticks and it was awesome! Then, we did lots of lookups! The weather has been cooling down even more and the weather feels so much like fall already! We had a really great rest of our day! After our lookups, we drove to Saugerties New York which I can't remember if I told you but it is the very tip top of the mission. We are litteraly on the very edge of the entire mission which is pretty scary because I was driving and I had to be careful to make sure I got off on the right exit. The exits are so far apart that if you miss one, you will have to drive the 15-20 miles before hitting another one. We had a great Restoration lesson with Sister Nanci Shambo and her friend Anne. Then we drove back to the apartment and had dinner and then went to go visit our good friends Wayne and Sharon! We shared a quick message with them and then we drove to Manny, Janice, and so many more! We had a great time driving around beautiful Kingston and talking with lots of people! Then we drove over to the church and shared a message with the guys who play basketball every Tuesday night with Brother Larin. We taught them about prayer and how we pray in our church. It went really well and for the rest of the evening, we played basketball with them! It was such a great day and I couldn't wait to read your amazing email!
Well my awesome family! It was so great to email you all today and hear that you are all doing well! I hope that I remembered everything that I wanted to tell I'm so happy that you are all having a great time at work and school and that you are adjusting to the non-summer lifestyle! I think and pray for you all the time and I'm so proud to be your son! I appreciate you all so much and everything thst you do for me! I hope you all have another great week at work, school, and all of your other activities! I hope you have a great game on Saturday Brandon and that you guys play your hearts out like you always do! I am always your number 1 fan and cheering you on! Thanks so much for answering all of my questions and thanks again for the card! I miss you guys SO much and pray for you every single day! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
August 23rd 2017~HAPPY BACK TO SCHOOL!!! VERY EXCITING NEWS!!
Hello my dear Family! Wow, what a great email! You guys had a really awesome week! That makes 2 of us! I can't even tell you how excited I was to hear all about you week and everything that you got to do! What a great and fun way to end the summer! I have some VERY exciting news that I can't wait to tell you about! I just really want you to know how much I appreciate you and your emails, pictures, and videos! They are always so detailed and I appreciate it very much because it makes me feel right at home! Today for P-Day we are doing something really fun! Our Zone Leaders arranged today to go bowling in Poughkeepsie! So after we get our laundry done and email, we will drive over to Poughkeepsie which takes about 45 minutes so it's about from Nibley to Farmington. It is such a pretty drive! So I will get to see lots of different sights from New York! So that is going to be very fun and we are all excited for that! Well everyone, I can't wait to tell you about my week!
P-day last week was so great! We had a really great and fun time emailing you and talking back and forth! We had a great time at Sister Cross' house and eating Taco Bell! She bought a ton of food and it was a really great time! Then after we had our lunch, we headed to Aldi's to do our weekly shopping! Then we came back to the apartment and cleaned and then I emailed pretty much every single family member which is awesome! I enjoyed chatting back and forth with you all, Grandma Evans and Grandma and Grandpa Lindberg! Then, after our P-Day ended, we drove to a ladies house named Linda Buley. Her husband was a member but she isn't and he passed away this last April. It has been so hard for her but she is staying strong. She is in her 60s and moved out of thst house the very next day to North Carolina. Elder Howard told me that she had been trying to move for a very long time and she finally decided that was the best thing for her to do. Then, we headed to our awesome dinner appointment with Pete and Cheri Sagazie! They are some really cool people and have lots of cool stories to tell! We enjoy going over there especially because they have a really long history with missionaries. They aren't members but know a few of the ward members. They made us a really good mountain man type meal for us and it was all so good! They made us grilled pepper pork, grilled potato wedges, and corn suqatash! Then we read with them the introduction and Testimony of the 3 and 8 Witnesses. We all felt the spirit and had a great lesson with them! It was such a great P-Day and I couldn't wait to get your next email!
Thursday was another great day! We had our split that night and so it was really fun to go to New Paltz! I got to go with Elder Wallace who used to be in the ASL sign language area and now he is companions with Elder Newbold who is our District Leader! We woke up, did our studies and then headed over to the church to do our weekly planning! We planned lots of lessons and called lots of people and then after weekly planning we had an awesome lesson with Bill! He is doing so great and is really looking forward to his Baptism! The only problem with him is that he doesn't have a way to get to Church each week. That has been quite the challenge but we are working through it the best we can. We taught Bill about the Law of Chastity and being obedient even though we may not understand why something is a commandment. We taught him how commandments are meant to protect us not restrict us. It was a great lesson and then we came back to the apartment and had dinner! I have been so grateful for your cooking skills even though we don't have much time to cook so I try to make simple versions of food! I really miss not cooking with you! Then after dinner, we headed out for the rest of the evening and then we drove to New Paltz to split with our District Leader! New Paltz is such a pretty area and we have been having some really good weather! I also like to check the weather too and it makes me feel close to home! We did a few lookups and knocked on some doors and then it was time to drive to New Paltz. We made it to the Church and then I went with Elder Wallace to the New Paltz area and then Elder Newbold went to out area with Elder Howard. We started with a prayer and then we headed back to our apartments for the evening. I haven't ever started a split that late at night and so it was weird to go straight back to the apartment. It was a great and productive day! I got to know Elder Wallace pretty well! He is from San Diego California and has been out on his mission for 11 months now so he hasnt been out for much longer than I have. He was in the sign language area before coming to speak English here in New Paltz. It was a really great day!
Friday was another crazy busy day!! It was a full day of a split and so I got to spend the day in New Paltz! Elder Wallace and I woke up, got ready for the day, did our studies and then headed out the door to do some service for a lady that lives right across the street from the Church! So we drove over there and she wasn't home but luckily she already explained what she wanted done and so Elder Wallace just told me what she wanted done. We stabilized a huge stone that she is using for one of her steps on her wooden deck and now it is really steady! So after we got that done, we had to change at the Church and then we had a lunch with the Goodin's planned! So Elder Howard and Elder Newbold drove to the Goodin's house and then we met them there after our service project! We taught them a lesson and then had a really great lunch. Then, we headed back to New Paltz which is a quick drive and then we did something really cool! We did an APF where we talk to people on the street! The New Paltz Sisters came with Elder Wallace and I and we talked to as many people as we could on a street corner. The Sisters brought a really cool idea! They had little slips of paper that had 1 good deed that someone could pick up and do. They asked a whole bunch of people to pick one and go do that 1 good deed that was on the paper. We had lots of people stop and tell us that what we were doing was pretty cool and that the world needs a lot more good deeds and kindness. We agreed! We talked to lots of people and then just as we were ready to pack up and head out, a really nice guy named Todd walked up and I asked him how he was doing. We was surprised that someone would ask him that. We got talking and he believes almost everything that we do! We got talking about the Plan of Salvation and how blessed we are to have the knowledge thst we do. He said that he had never heard anything like it and really enjoyed talking with us. He told us that he was a stage 4 cancer survivor and is now running and doing triathlons at age 69. He was a very kind man and very respectful. Then Elder Wallace shared a very personal story about him. He got talking about how his Mom had stage 4 cancer and recently passed away from it. It was shocking to hear. I can't even imagine what he is going through being on a mission and having to go through something like that. It was unbearably hard on him as you could imagine. We had a great talk with him and he told us that he already has a Book of Mormon but hasnt read it much. We invited him to read it and he said that he may come to church in New Paltz this Sunday! So after our APF, we headed over to the Church to do language and companionship study. Then we had an appointment with a really cool guy named Jack Klix. He just turned 81 and works on fixing cars and loves every second of it. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a ton and has lots of great questions! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he asked why there couldn't be a simplified version because he was having a really hard time understanding it an applying it to himself. We read some scriptures with him and then headed to have some dinner! I have to tell you something really cool! We have Jack's lesson in his garage that had a nice couch and area to relax. So we walked into his garage and I couldn't beleive what I saw! He had two 1950s dark blue Volvo cars sitting in his garage. Volvos are pretty rare since they are from Sweden especially that old. I told him that my last name is Swedish and he thought that was pretty cool! Then we went to McDonald's for dinner since it was so close and that's what sounded really good to the both of us. Then after dinner, we went to the Church for ward correlation meeting. I wasn't any help because they talked about investigators and the ward member and since I didn't know any of them, I wasn't much help. After ward correlation, we headed back to Kingston to unsplit. Elder Howard and Elder Newbold were at the Parks' house having a late dinner and invited us to come unsplit there. So we drove to their house and had some really good papusas and tamales! It was just a quick visit because it was almost 9:00 so we headed back to the apartment for the night after a great and busy day! One cool thing that I have noticed about upstate is that there are SO many different license plates! I have seen TONS of different and cool licence plates! I have been keeping track my whole mission of the licence plates that I see. Get ready for a crazy statistic! So far, I have seen 33 out of the 50 license plates! Crazy huh! I have seen tons of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, Delware, Connecticut and of course New York license plates. It has been really amazing! The greenery up here is so cool as well! There are lots of winding roads and beautiful trees and hills. It has been so cool to serve here! While we were on our split, Elder Howard and Elder Newbold told me that they had a great lesson with Manny and that he was getting really excited for his baptism! That night, it was SO humid outside. I have never felt so much moisture in the air before. It was so sticky outside and really wasn't very nice to be out in. It had rained a little bit off and on which made it even more humid. It was a very great day!
Saturday was a really great day as well! I woke up and was thinking about you Dubbie all day as you started your season! I was cheering for you and hoping you were crushing the other team! Look out for big #41!!! I really was thinking about you all day and wishing so much that I could see you play! I know you will have a great season! Know that I miss being there for you and that is very hard to miss but there will be lots more seasons to come! So we woke up and did our studies and then we headed to go visit a member named Alejandro Duran! He is Felix's older brother and is a ward missionary. We schedule lessons but then he just won't even be at home when we come by. It has been very hard to get a hold of him and schedule lessons. So then after we knocked on a few doors, we went to lunch with Sister Wootton and it was so yummy! She is always so nice and I will be sure to get a picture with her so you can see her. They have lots of good food and I never get tired of eating there! We had a great discussion about how our investigators are doing and then as we were getting up, we noticed Brother Van Etten sitting down but he didn't see us so we went and talked with him for a good 15 minutes and then the 4 of us paid and headed our separate ways. Then, I noticed a huge group of people so I held the door open for all of them and told them to have a great day! Then..........something crazy happened. A guy who was going into the restraunt, stopped and said: "what are you trying to prove??" "Your nametag says Jesus Christ on it but your church isn't Christian. Quit trying to act like a Christian by holding the door open." He was very angry......that I was holding the door open for a group of people!?!?!?! I couldn't beleive it! Does that make much sense? He then got into a big argument with Sister Wootton and she handled it so well. This guy wasn't all the way with it and was just attacking our Church even though he didn't know anything about our church. Mostly just rumors that he had heard. He kept saying: "You guys say you're Christians but you don't even beleive that Jesus Christ is the son of Heavenly Father." The 4 of us were thinking: "Of course we do!" He then went on a "Bible rampage" is what I would call it. He got right up in my face and just started ranting off scripture after scripture. Like: "What does Exodus such and such say?" I obviously am not a scriptorian so I didn't know but I said: "I'm not sure but I'd be happy to read it with you and explain it." He just kept going on and on about our church and the 4 of us just testified and told him what we KNEW to be true! It was 4 against 1 and he wanted to prove that he was right. He then turned around and went into the restraunt. It was pretty crazy but we are told when someone like that approaches, we are just suppost to bear our testimony and listen. It was really crazy! Then after that we had a really great rest of our day! We headed back to the apartment and did our companionship study and then we headed back out to visit Knowledge and Lorenzo. Then we did lots of lookups and talked to lots of people. We then had dinner and then headed back out for the rest of the evening. During dinner, Elder Howard made a loaf of zucchini bread and then we took it to Sister Miller and her kids! We had a great lesson and then went to downtown Kingston and went to go see if Joshua and Adal who are 6 and 10 years old. Their parents work at a Mexican restaurant and these poor kids have to sit, and sit, and sit some more while their parents work. Joshua who is 11, is a member and comes to Church whenever his Mom or Dad takes him. We always like to go visit them because they are always so board. Luckily, they were out having some fun at a Birthday party and so they were able to get away from the restraunt for a while. We did a few more lookups and then e needed to get some has for the last 15 minutes of the evening. Then Elder Howard had a great idea! Since it was a great week, he thought it would be fun to go to a really good ice cream shop called "The Milk House". So we quickly stopped there and got us some really good shakes. I got cookie dough and it was so good! Then we went to got get gas and then came back for the evening after a great and busy day! I just want to say how grateful I am to be out here on a mission! It has truely blessed my life so much to dedicate all my time and effort toward serving our Heavenly Father! I am so grateful for the sacrifices you have made to get me to this point! I can't even imagine doing anything else with my time right now. I mean sure, it's extremely hard to be away from you and everything going on but this really is where I'm supposed to be at this point in time and when I get home, we will continue to make many more memories together! I got thinking the other day about some of the people that I graduated with that got married right out of High School or just didn't go on a mission. They may have chosen a different path but I know that this is where I am supposed to be and I know that this is the most rewarding thing I could ever do! I know it is very hard for you to have something missing from your lives but I'm always with you and life still goes on! I'm so happy to read your emails each week and hear all about the fun stuff that happened! I have been thinking about you all a lot and just how grateful I am for each one of you. I have also been thinking about you and Puck especially and how he has adjusted these last few months without me. I felt so bad that he had such a hard time and was questioning why I had to leave. I just hope you all know how much I miss you and wish I could be a part of every single day! You are all in my every thought and prayer and I work as hard as I possibly can each and every day. Some days go better than others, and some days are easier than others. But after studying about this Gospel and applying the teachings of Jesus Christ in my life, I have found even more love, peace, joy, and happiness in my life. Some days, it's not easy to get up and sometimes I just feel out of it but with your love and prayers, it makes me jump out of bed with vigor and I'm ready to tackle the day! But then there are days where I can't wait to get up and get working! I KNOW that it is because of your love and support! I just want to make you proud more than anything and "Return with honor" as they say! I can't believe how fast time is flying by and I will be home before we all know it. I just can't believe that I hit my 7 month mark!! I also can't believe that I'm already almost done with 5 of my 17 cycles! It really does go by so fast! I know that when I get home, I will be so happy to be home but I will always miss doing missionary work because I pour my whole heart and soul into it because I was raised by you to do that. I am most definately not the perfect missionary but I am perfect at trying to be the best that I can. I always take pride in having good conversations with people and connecting with everyone that I meet. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I appreciate, miss and love you guys SO much!!! I am so lucky and blessed to have the best family ever! It just still amazes me that I'm actually here on a mission and already 7 months in!!
Sunday was so awesome!! I woke up and I was SO very excited to see that I had an email from you! Your emails always make my day! I was SO excited to hear that Brandon won his game!!!! It was really weird not to be there but I knew that he was having a good time! GO DUBBIE!! Congrats on the "W"!! I was so curious and anxious to find out about what the surprise was. I kept thinking: "Just do it, the waiting is the worst part!" I couldn't wait to find out about it! We had a great Sabath! We headed over to Church at about 9:35 and welcomed everyone! There was a great turnout and we almost had 100 people in Sacrament Meeting! This ward has been so great! There are tons of different people with different backgrounds and it has been so fun to get to know them all! The bishopric is really great and they love the ward! We had the Newburgh Stake President there and then we had the historian for the West Point Army acadamy come and he such a great talk! Bishop Wootan spoke about family history then Brother Fleeck spoke about the Restoration! Both were very good and interesting talks to listen to! I think I have told you this but it is mostly for Dad and the Boys but the West Point Academy is not too far away from here. That is where the Army Black Knights are located. Parker and I would always play the Army vs. Navy football game on the PlayStation in our cool camouflage uniforms and so I think it is really cool that they are so close! College Gameday was here a few years ago so that is so cool! Then after church, we had a dinner appointment scheduled with the McClure family at 5:00 but Sister McClure moved it up to 4:00 and so we were really excited for that! It has been so weird to not come home and have a nice big Sunday meal with you guys. It has been pretty hard because Sunday meals are truely so important to me and making Sunday dinner with you is my favorite! It just doesn't get any better than that! We had a lesson right after Church with a couple named Carrie and Josh. Carrie was very busy and so we just taught Josh the Restoration and invited him to Church and read the Book of Mormon! It was exciting because after we were done testifying, he said that he wanted to come to Church! It is pretty sad because Josh has to have a cigarette break every 3-4 minutes. I'm not kidding when I say that because he had a cigarette or 2 just in the 5 minutes that we taught him. We had a great lesson with him and then we drove to the apartment and had a quick companionship study before driving over to the McClure's house for dinner! They are great people and take care of us missionaries so well! We had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon with them and then Brother McClure bore his half hour long testimony and didn't stop until he said everything that he wanted to say. It was a really great testimony and we all felt the spirit but It was just a tad bit long especially because we couldn't get a word in. We had rice, green beans, and seasoned pork for dinner and it was all really good! Then Brother McClure asked us if we wanted to go take the Sacrament to a lady who lives in a brain trauma center. We told him that we would be glad to! We are always so happy to help out! We said goodbye and then we followed Brother McClure down the street to the care center. He has been going to visit this member, Lacey, for a few years now. Lacey has Lou Gehrig's disease and can't talk very well and is a very nice lady! We visited with her for a few minutes and then gave her the sacrament. It was a great time and then we went to go visit a few more people. Then we met a guy who knew the missionaries and had been in contact with them before many years ago. It was great to get to know him more! Then we went to Carmello's house and taught him the Restoration! As I was telling him the story of the first vision, I could see tears in his eyes as I said the words of Joseph Smith. He speaks mostly Spanish and so it meant a lot to me that he was getting something out of what we were teaching. The spirit was very strong and we enjoyed teaching him so much! Then we headed back to the apartment for the evening because we were told that there was going to be a conference call that evening and so we knew that it was going to be something big!!! Well we got ready for the call and then at 8:58.......they rescheduled it until the next day during District Meeting. It was a really awesome day and I was SO excited to hear about your surprise!
Monday was such an amazing day!!! I have some incredible news and I can't wait to tell you all about it!! First of all, Happy Eclipse everyone! Elder Howard's parents sent him a card and it had 2 pairs of eclipse glasses for us both to watch the eclipse. His Dad told him all about it and what time we could see it. We woke up, did our studies and headed off to New Paltz for District Meeting! We were really excited because usually when we have a conference call at a different time other than Thursdays at 10:00, then it's usually something really exciting and important! So we had a great District Meeting and then we all anxiously waited for the Conference Call to start. It was rescheduled from the night before and so we were all really.......REALLY anxious! Then President Smith called in and told us some incredible news!!! He said: "Elder and Sisters, we are so grateful and blessed to be welcoming in another Apostle to our mission! We are pleased to have Elder Gong and Bishop Waddell from the Presiding Bishopric touring our mission!" Which we were told a week ago so we were excited about that! Then he announced that.....wait....for.....it!!! He told us that President Russell M. Nelson would be touring the mission in a few weeks!!! How cool is that!! I can't believe all of the amazing people that I have been able to meet! So in a few weeks, President Nelson will come tour our mission just like Elder Gong did my first month here. It will be so exciting! He has always been one of my favorites! I looked up when he was born and he turns 93 on September 9th. I can't believe that he is still touring missions and traveling at the age of 93. It really is amazing! So we are all very excited and the whole mission is buzzing with excitement! Then after District Meeting, we drove back to Kingston and and went to the church to share a message with the guys that play basketball but they weren't there. We then drove back to the apartment and got to do something really cool! We looked at the eclipse and it was so amazing! Then we went inside to have some lunch and then we went to a lesson that we had with Ryan! We talked with a really great member named Isaac Blue and we invited him to come with us for our lesson and he gladly accepted! So we picked him up and drove him to our lesson! We had a really great lesson with Ryan! He is such a great guy but is always so hard on himself. He always tells us that he isn't good enough to come to Church or get baptized. We were really excited because we were going to set a baptismal date with him but he still just won't accept the invitation. He feels like he has to be 100% perfect and make absolutely no mistakes. We always tell him that is why we have the atonement because we are all not perfect and we all make mistakes. It was a very good lesson and he felt a lot better. He struggles with self confidence issues and so he beats himself up for making a mistake and he thinks that he has to be perfect. Brother Blue had some great comments and shared lots of cool personal experiences. Then after our lesson with Ryan, we brought Brother Blue back to his house and then did some lookups before going back to the apartment for dinner. We were both really happy about how the lesson went even though we didn't set a baptismal date with him. It was a really great and packed day! It is always go, go, go and we are always busy which is awesome!
Tuesday was a really great day! I was so very excited to get you email last night! I have been looking forward to it all week! We had a very busy and great day yesterday with lots of appointments! We woke up, excercied, did our studies and then we drove over to visit lots of people! Something really fun that happened is that Elder Howard got a package on Monday from his family. It said to wait and open it yesterday. He had no idea why he got a package and why it needed to be opened on a certain day. It was his 100 day mark until he goes home! It's so crazy to think that he is so close because 100 days go by so quick. It had tons of treats in plastic baggies that had 100 of everything like 100 Cheetos, 100 fruit loops and then he got a card saying that they put some money on Elder Howard's personal debit card for us both to go eat out! It was funny because his Mom found a restraunt called "The 99 Pub" and it is a restraunt in downtown Kingston to go out to eat today since he had 99 days left. So after we did our lookups and scheduled a few lessons, we drove back to the apartment really quick since we had a service project to help Sister Falatyn in her garden by weeding and doing yard work. So we changed into our service clothes and had lunch and then drove down the street to her beautiful house. We helped her dig out 5 little bushes roots and all and then we transported them into buckets so she could water them and replant them in a different spot. She is a very nice lady but is still very offended by the ward and so she hasn't come to Church in over 10 years. It is so sad that such a great lady isn't partaking of the blessings of coming to church and taking the Sacrament. We dug up her little bushes and then gave them a drink and then she had an ice cold Sprite for us. It was a great reward for a few hours of hard work out in the humidity. It was such a pretty day and the skies were as blue as could be! Which reminds me, the weather has been so nice the last month. There hasn't been any extremely hot days but most days are so nice and pleasant to be out in! We had a great discussion with her and her son Bill who was home since we have to have a 3rd male with us at every visit. Bill lives in her house and he is about 30 years old. We had a really great time with her and she was just so appreciative of our work and desire to help her. Our whole goal is to show love and support to her and remind her that people do really care about her. Our goal for yesterday's visit was to invite her to come back to church. We read a talk during our companionship study called: "And none shall get offended" by David A Bednar. It was such a great talk and he basically just tells everyone to stop being offended and just come back to church. He says thst it is hurting you and every generation that follows you for not coming to church and choosing to be offended. It was a great talk! Sister Falatyn was talking to us and she said that she was going to Florida and would check out the Church there since every ward is different and so we didn't even have to invite her to Church! The spirit was telling her before we even came over to come back to Church! It was perfect and we were so happy that she wants to come back! So we drove to the apartment to shower and change because we had an appointment at 4:00 with Sister Nanci Shambo and he friend, Anne. Sister Shambo was the lady who fell and we helped back up. She always makes us really good milkshakes every time we come over. It's pretty funny because she is very proud of her milkshake recipes and is always trying to make them better. We always look forward to having her delicious milkshakes every time we go over! We went over and taught the Restoration to them and it went really well! She had a delicious chocolate milkshake for each of us and then we headed for our dinner! We had a great time and the restraunt was really cool! It had lots of sports memorabilia from the Kingston High School football team and lots of amazing pictures, paintings, and signs from Kingston. I got some really good honey mustard and ranch buffalo wings! They were amazing! So we had dinner and I thanked Elder Howard and he said not to thank him because it was his parents that paid for it. It was a fun treat thing to do since he only has 99 days left! Then after our dinner, we quickly drove over to the Church to share a message with the guys who play basketball! Then we went to a lesson with Carmello and read the 1st chapter of the Book of Mormon with him! It was a really awesome day!
Well my amazing family! It has been a blast to email you and read your emails and look through your pictures and videos! I just want to send my love your way as you start a new year fresh of school. It was so wierd not to have a summer and work. I feel like I should be in school right now. You are all in my every thought and prayer and I always pray for blessings in your lives. I appreciate all of your love and comfort! Your emails always make me feel so much love and I appreciate your words of comfort as well! Good luck at school!! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!
