Hello all of my dear loved ones!!!!!! Wow!! Where do I begin!?!?! First off, thanks a ton for your fun and exciting emails and pictures! You all look so well and happy! This last week has been so amazing to say the least and there is a lot running through my mind! The Big announcement that we have all been waiting for is what mission will I be in!! I will be serving in New Paltz with Elder Lusk from Clinton Utah and I will be in the New Jersey Morristown Mission with President Hess from Farmington!!!! I'm humbled and so excited to finish my last 5 transfers in the New Jersey Morristown Mission! It will be quite the change from the hustle and bustle of the big city but I'm so thankful and grateful that I was able to serve in Manhattan and all of my other areas! Today for P-Day, we are going to pack like the wind and then we will play frisbee 1 last time before transfers! So I will have lots of time to talk back and forth!!! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve in the New Jersey Morristown Mission and I can't wait to get started! I'm really excited to play frisbee and get everything ready to roll for tomorrow! Since Elder Lusk and I are both going to be new to the area, it will be interesting to get to know our investigators and members together! I have to tell you something cool! I told President Smith that I was willing to serve wherever Heavenly Father needs me and President Smith told me that New Paltz is where I need to be! Here is a little bit more about New Paltz! We are in the Poughkeepsie Zone and we have Distirct meetings at the New Paltz chapel. It is a Branch and Elder Lusk and I don't have any roommates! I'm pretty sure that Elder Lusk is the district leader and so I hope that I can go on splits to Kingston and see my old area! We will meet President Hess this Wednesday and he will welcome us into the mission! It's all so exciting! I think that I might be able to come home in the middle of the transfer if I wanted to. I think that they can arrange for me to fly out at most 30 days before my 2 year mark. Or 1 transfer early if needed. What are your thoughts on when would be the best time to go? I'm still praying about it and so I hope I get an answer! It was such a great and busy week of missionary work! Here it goes!
LAST P-DAY WAS SO AWESOME!!! We had so much fun and let me tell ya....it was HOT! It got up to 95 degrees with over 80 percent humidity and so we were trying to stay as cool as we could! Everything seriously worked out so perfect to meet with the Stucky Family!!! I can't wait to tell you because everything fit like a puzzle piece! So I got an email the day before from Sister Stucky and she told me that they were going to ride bikes the whole time in Central Park. Then as we were on the train she told me that they got some last minute tickets to a filming of Jimmy Fallon at 2:00 and so it wasn't looking like we were going to meet. But then we got off at 59th Street and told them we were really close by to the train station. Luckily, they were up North and headed south from their hotel on a train that goes through the 59th Columbus Circle and I told them right before they passed that stop to get to the Rockefeller Center so it worked out so perfectly! We talked until 12:45 and then they walked to the Rockefeller Center for Jimmy Fallon! Another cool thing that happened is that the Sisters were over an hour late and so we were waiting around for them to get there so we could play and so we talked until the Sister Missionaries showed up at 12:45! We got lots of fun pictures and talked about Nibley and you all at home and how the ward is doing! We got to cool down a little bit and see some sights near the Temple and it was so busy and was a fun sight to see! After our fun day ended, we went to our Family Home Evening and one of the recent convert member volunteered to teach the lesson and so we all went to support her! She did a great job and the whole event was really good and fun! I had such a fun day and was just so thankful that everything worked out! We are 1 day closer to transfer call night! I hope that the rest of your day went well and that you were all happy as usual! Love you all tons!
Tuesday was another very awesome day!! I was so thankful for your email and I just love getting them from you! We had a very great district meeting and Elder Ihalmo did a cool training where he had us all practice teaching our companions and he asked us to play the role of ourselves without the Gospel in our lives and how we pictured us and what our lives would be like. It was a really weird thought to think about how different all of our lives would be without the Gospel! Then the Sister Missionaries made a pan of brownies for the district and it was so crazy to think that it was the very last District Meeting of the New York, New York North mission! We got a few pictures and then had some ham fried rice that Sister Banks made for us and we all guessed about transfers and how everything would play out! Then we got to do some street contacting and we got a few phone numbers and even knocked on a guy's door named Michael Bell. He was on the phone and couldn't talk to us and so we set up an appointment for Sunday! This weather has just been so crazy! It was another extremely hot and sunny day and the humidity was out of this world hot! It always surprises me how hot it can get and it feels like it just can't get any hotter! I have been drinking lots of water and it has been so nice to carry around the water bottle that you gave me! It keeps the water ice cold! We talked to a lot of cool people! Elder Mitonzi is just such a great and humble missionary and we love working together! He just builds my testimony because he had a tough life and knows how different life is without the Gospel. I forgot to tell you this but before I got into the area, he had his best friend pass away in a car accident and he was so thankful that he was out here serving a mission because he said that it would have been even harder for him if he was at home. He loves his Family a lot and wants to get together in Logan when we get home! We had some dinner and had a chance to cool down and talk with each other and enjoyed the cool air for a few minutes! Dinner is always a nice chance to relax and enjoy some food! We are still just in shock at how fast these transfer calls are coming up! We really can't believe that we will get a new mission President 1 week from Sunday! Like you said, when I first came out, it seemed like forever away but it's actually here! During dinner, I got thinking about you and all that you do for me! I look at the families in the Bronx and I get so excited to share this message of happiness with them because we have such a good life at home in Utah! I can't stress enough just how blessed and lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place! People live such different lives over here and really don't have the close bond that we do as a Family and I will be forever grateful for you and the bond that we have! I found that fun talk on the Gospel Library and I thought that the stories were so fun! I chose to share that on Facebook because we keep seeing lots of dishonest things happen in the Bronx. People will sneak onto busses and trains and jump the turnstiles to steal a $2.75 bus or train ride. We see people swipe other people who haven't paid into the subway by those who have unlimited MetroCards and people stealing all the time. I really loved the message that is in it and it was fun to watch! Thanks so much for commenting on my post and sending me a smiling face! You guys are the best! Thanks so much for teaching us how to be honest and loving towards others! We had a great turnout at basketball and we had 4 investigator kids come and one of the senior couple missionaries came in and she was watching the little 3 year old boy who is the son of someone who was in a class and he had a little riding bus that Parker had and we had fun pushing him back and forth in the gym. We got to teach them all about prayer and they even said the prayer and so it was fun to see them grow and develop their testimonies! Love you all so much!
Wednesday was so very awesome!! It was a little cooler and so it was nice to have a break from the heat! We had a busy and fun day planned and it was also trainer call day and so we were anxious to hear if anyone in the District or Zone would get a trainer call! I was thinking all day and realized that Elder Mitonzi only has 2 transfers left and so I was thinking that he would get a trainer call! We are getting so close to transfer call night! I was thinking about you all a lot and was hoping that you were having a really fun day! We planned our day and got to work and had lots of success! We got a call from a lady in our ward and she asked if all of the missionaries could help out with moving her and packing a few things up before she moves on Friday. We were happy to help and we always love service to keep us busy! So we had some lunch and read a few chapter out of the Book of Mormon and then headed over to help her out. She ended up having a doctor appointment but as we were in an elevator, we met a really awesome lady named Carmen and she had so many cool questions! He wanted the Sister Missionaries to come over and she was really happy that someone could answer her questions! The sisters were really happy to have someone to talk to about her religious questions and so we hope that she can progress and we can see her get baptized! We had so much success finding people at home and every door that we knocked on were home! We set an appointment with Walter and a guy who works as security at the front desk where Walter works! It was so awesome because it seemed like everyone that we talked to non the street, wanted to learn more and so we got some phone numbers and so we were on cloud 9 with how much success we were having! We had a great appointment with a member named Norberto Agosto and we watched a General Conference talk since he wasn't able to see conference and then we met a recent convert who Elder Mitonzi taught in Harlem named Michael Solti and his 5 year old son, Michael. He is a really nice guy but we weren't able to talk much because he talked and talked to us for the whole lesson. Then we had a guy ride up to us on his little motorized scooter and asked if we were the Mormons. He started to ask us about why the Priesthood was conferred to only a certain group of people and the ban just got lifted. He thought that the Priesthood revelation was just now announced but we explained that it was the 40th Anniversary of the Revelation and he looked us in the face and said "That's a lie." He asked us who the Prophet was and we both simply testified of President Nelson and how our Church has the Priesthood authority and a prophet called by God. He then told us that he had had enough of our lies and said that he needed to go find someone older to tell him the truth. Elder Mitonzi looked at him and said "My friend, if you go to someone older, they will tell you the exact same thing." The guy then rode away on his bike cackling and laughing. It's always funny to see the different things that people hear. They find a lot of false information about the Church online and so it can be hard to clear it all up. Situations like this happen all the time and I've seen plenty of people get mad at us or are confused and so I have become pretty good at handling these situations. They just make me laugh!!! Hehe!
It was such a pretty day and we went back to the apartment for some dinner before our ward correlation meeting at the Church! Then I saw something so cool! I'll be honest, I love seeing a touch of home as I walk the streets of the Bronx because the Bronx is so different from Utah. We turned the corner to go knock on a few doors and when we turned the corner, we saw a man that was leaning up against a handrail and what did I see on the back of his shirt???? One of the coolest Wyoming shirts I've ever seen!!! It was a giant American flag with red, white, and blue and had the buffalo logo that Wyoming is famous for and another Buffalo on the front. He looks Hispanic and we asked him where he was from and he said that he was from the Dominican Republic. I asked him where he got it and he said that he has been to Wyoming many times and so I told him that Grandpa was from Star Valley and Dad was from Kemmerer! He said in his broken English, "Those good town!!" It was really awesome and we got his phone number so the Spanish Elders can teach him! He was so cool and really friendly! I love being able to connect with people! Love you all tons!
Thursday was so awesome! We woke up to cool weather and our bedroom was a little chilly to be honest. It rained almost the whole night and it sounded really cool but cleared up as soon as it was time to head out! I love the sound of rain hitting the rooftop. We were excited to get up and find more people to teach! I think when I got set apart, I was able to adjust to waking up at 6:30 because I have had absolutely 0 problems with waking up that early and once the alarm goes off, I'm up and ready to roll! It has been really amazing to be able to wake up that early because at home, I would turn off my alarm without even realizing it and falling back asleep. I hope to take some earlier classes when I come home and continue waking up early and keep the habit going! Mission life is so structured and so it will be so wierd to come back home and have so much free time to spend with you all! I have heard that coming home and adjusting to post mission life is just as different as coming into the mission field! We plan out exactly what we will be doing and where we will be every minute of the day. We have things to do every minute of the day and our schedule is always full! I was thinking about you all a lot and hoping that you were excited to go down to American Fork for the reunion! After our studies, we had a really awesome conference call and President Smith asked us all to pray to have a confirmation of where Heavenly Father needs us to be. He wanted us to pray to ask Heavenly Father for guidance to where we needed to be and confirm that we are willing to go wherever we are needed! It was really exciting because President Smith announced that the meet President Teuscher meeting would be on Saturday June 30th and the Meet President Hess from the New Jersey Morristown Mission meeting would be on Wednesday June 27th! He was so inspiring and it really was fun to hear from him and talk about all of these exciting changes! I am just so excited to find out whereI will be serving and if I will get transferred or not! I keep having this feeling like I will be going to Morristown Mission but I still can't be sure. There aren't a lot of missionaries that will go to that mission but it still is so exciting! We had an awesome lesson with Jose Rodriguez and we are just so thankful that we found him! He fought in Afghanistan and so he has lost of memories about the war and found peace during those difficult times by reading scriptures and so he came out of the war very knowledgeable about Jesus Christ! We taught him the importance of the sacrament and how even though he isn't baptized, he can still feel the spirit when he partakes of the Sacrament. Then we did our weekly planning and I couldn't believe that it has been a whole week since your Anniversary and my Birthday! Time flew by! We had some really awesome things happen after dinner! We got on the bus and I had this feeling to go sit in the very back of the bus. I love those little nudges from the Holy Ghost to direct me to a specific person! I sat down and before I started talking to anyone, a lady leaned over to me and said "If you are religious, tell me what you believe!" I taught her the entire Restoration in 5 or 6 minutes and at first, she would accept a card that had the address to the Church and our phone number but by the end she said "Well that sparked my interest, I will take any material that you have" and so I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, a Restoration Pamphlet and the original card that she rejected at the beginning! She told us that she was going to tell her roommate that night about her additional knowledge that she had just learned about Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith! It was one of the coolest experiences and I'm so thankful that I had the prompting to talk to her because we were able to get her phone number! Then we taught a less active member named Gerard Mility and we taught him the Restoration and we could see the memories come flooding back to his mind and he remembered his own baptism in Antigua! It was such a great day and I was wishing you all an awesome night! I'm so almost done with reading the Book of Mormon and I have about 100 pages left! The Book of Mormon is so awesome and I know it's true! I love you all so much!!!! 
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Friday was a really great day! Only 1 more day until transfer calls and we are all excited as ever! I had another dream and when I woke up, I seriously thought that I was home. It was wierd because I was so disoriented and thought that my whole mission was a dream and that I was just remembering all of my mission experiences. It took me a minute to figure out that I was still on my mission! Hehe! Isn't that funny?? I still love the dream that I had when Parker became my missionary companion! I love dreams like that! We woke up to beautiful weather and we had lots to do! We had 2 lessons in the schedule and we were ready to roll! I helped Elder Mitonzi with his English and we read a few chapters out of the Book of Mormon and then we went to knock on some door and follow up with a few members that moved in within the last few months! We are trying to get to know our members better and see which ones still live in our ward boundaries and set up some lessons with those members that are here. It hit me that I might not even be in the city for much longer if I was to get transferred to the Newburgh Stake. It was so crazy to think that I might only have 1 more area! It's so crazy to think about! We got to look up 1 member on the list and then we got a call from Brother Gerhartz and he asked us if we could help out with a lady who is moving out of the ward and said that he really needed all of the missionaries help. So we were going over to help and ask was getting on the bus, I just about had a bad fall because I tripped on the edge of the bus that was uneven with the curb but luckily I caught myself before I fell. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh about it! We got to help her and her son wasn't there and so we weren't able to help her but the Sister Missionaries were there to help out! Then we talked to some cool people on the bus and we met a Baptist and he sang to us which was pretty funny! We were munching on some yummy dinner when I got your fun video! Wow, was it good to see and hear you all! I really appreciated you sending it to me and it gave me a burst of energy! Thanks a tons for sending it! I was so happy to know that you were all having a good time! We had a really awesome lesson with a guy who works at a security desk where another on for our investigators lives named Stanley. He is a really cool guy and loved his Family and works hard to provide for them. We taught him the whole Restoration and he told us about his religious background. He has gone to almost every Church imaginable and so he has been a little confused about which one is the true one. Then we found a really awesome Family who we were asked to go visit because they moved into the ward boundaries not too long ago and set up a return appointment with them! Funny story time!! We were sitting on the bus headed back to the apartment and there was an Indian man sitting on his phone and all of a sudden, he started yelling random numbers that progressively got bigger and bigger. He was getting so excited and could hardly contain himself as he shouted numbers! 550!!!!!!!!!! Six, Hundred and seventy five!! It was so funny and most of the bus was laughing! It was a funny way to end the day and I was thinking about you a lot! I hope that your reunion was so fun! Love ya!!!
TRANSFER CALL DAY!!!!! ARE YOU READY???? THE MOMENT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of the biggest announcements of my whole mission and we knew that there would be a lot of changes! I had no idea what would happen and I was ready for whatever would happen! We cleaned the Church again and we had 2 other members come and so we got to vacuum the whole Church and it went pretty quick because they have a giant vacuum and it got the job done really quick! I was getting really excited and even a little nervous about transfer calls! We heard that 2 Elders and 2 Sisters got called to train and so it was fun to know that 4 more missionaries would be coming in! I was hoping that your day was going really great and you were having a fun day! I wish that I could have been there for the reunion because it looked like a lot of fun! The weather started to turn a little cloudy and looked like it was going to rain as we took the bus to help the ward and the lady that was moving out of her apartment. She needed to have 2 shifts because it all couldn't get done in 1 day and so she asked the ward to help her out today as well. It went really well and we got almost everything all packed up and then went to our lesson with Emmanuel Opoku and it was wierd to think that it could have been my last lesson with him. It's always wierd to not know where I could be in just 1 week from today! We had a great lesson with him and taught him the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ and he knew almost all of the points already from his Pentecostal Church. Then we saw something crazy that lead to us meeting a really nice lady! We saw a Nissan Maxima that was loaded down to the ground with weight and when it tried to drive up the hill, the front tire rubbed up against the fender and made the car spin out of control. Luckily it didn't hit anything and the only damage was done to the suspension but we were able to talk to a lady who has seen missionaries walking around before and so the timing was perfect to meet her! Then we had a great lesson with the 3 teenage boys that we found a little while ago and we taught them the Plan of Salvation and they understood it all because it is very similar to what their Church teaches. Their Church doesn't believe in the 3 kingdoms but they thought it was a much better teaching! Then I was so excited to get your email! It was fun to have some predictions and I was so thankful for the email! In a way, I feel like it was getting a whole new mission call for the last 7 months of my mission because New Jersey would be totally different and having Brooklyn and Queens in the New York City Mission it made it seem like a brand new mission call! I was getting more and more excited by the minute! I knew that I might not even be getting transferred just because I haven't been in this area for very long but I knew that anything was possible and anything could happen! We got the call early and we both just stood there in shock! I'm so thankful that you were able to find out and I was so grateful to get your email! I've got so much to tell you and I wish that I could talk to you face to face!!! I will try my best to explain everything! First off, I'm so very excited and can't wait to start my journey in the New Jersey Morristown Mission!! We will get to meet President Hess on Wednesday the 27th which is a day after transfers. I love the New Paltz apartment and I have been on 3 splits into that area! It is a Branch and is about 30 minutes South of Kingston and so it will feel just like Kingston! Right now, Elder Lusk is in New Rochelle and so we will both be brand new to the area! He hasn't served that far North and so I will know more about the area than he does! He has been out 1 transfer longer than I have and he is from Clinton Utah! He is one of my favorite missionaries and I'm so excited to work with him! I know that this is such a shock to us all but I'm very, very excited to finish out in the New Jersey Morristown Mission!!!!!! I actually found the mission office address online! It will defitanly take some time to get used to but I'm so very excited to go back upstate and drive a car! Elder Mitonzi will also be in the Morristown Mission with me but we will be in different zones. There are 2 zones within the Stake that got absorbed into the Morristown Mission! New Paltz is such a pretty area and I already know it pretty well! Wow!!! I hope all of that made sense! As long as you know that I'm excited and that I love you so much!!! I am SO VERY excited and I can't wait to tell you all about it! Do you have any other questions because I LOVE answering them! Love you tons and tons!!!!!
P.S: Here is the New Mission office address for sending packages and letters:
New Jersey Morristown
5 Cold Hill Rd S Ste 10
Mendham NJ 07945
United States
P.P.S: We have some more big news! We will only have 2 Elders living in our apartment and Elder Palmer, will take over both areas with a missionary who also just got done being trained in Poughkeepsie!! So they will have double the area and double the work! Now there will only be 2 missionaries living in this apartment! The whole mission is being changed up! Elder Ihalmo got transferred to Long Island as a zone leader! New Paltz is where we had District meetings when I was in Kingston and so I'm very familiar with the area and I have already slept in the New Paltz apartment 3 times already! I can already picture the apartment and so I'm even more excited! New Paltz is only 30 minutes South of Kingston and so our areas border with my old Kingston area! New Paltz has SUNY New Paltz which is a fun little college town and there are some beautiful sights! The population is about 15,000! I hope that you can look it up and learn more! THINGS JUST GOT INTERESTING!!!! I'm actually not sure about my release date because the transfers in the New Jersey Morristown Mission are on a different schedule. As of right now, and this could possibly change, but they have a transfer on July 10th and then every 6 weeks after that as well. And so the transfers that fall around the time that I go home fall on Christmas Day and February 5th and so they might have a 5 week and 7 week cycle to accommodate not having a transfer on Christmas Day! It's so exciting!
Sunday was such a great and crazy day because of all the missionaries saying goodbye! I got a text early in the morning from the 1st councilor in the Bishopric and he asked me to speak for 8 minutes on the role of the Holy Ghost, the light of Christ and how it affects our lives. I was kind of scrambling to write it and figure out what to say since I only had 1 hour to prepare but I had some good quotes and so I was excited to give it! I was just so excited about all of the new changes and couldn't believe that it was actually happening! I hope each of you had an amazing Sunday! It was so exciting all day knowing that I would get your email! I couldn't wait to read it and it was the highlight of my day! I was excited about the topic because it was very easy to find some fun stories to go along with it! It was about the light of Christ and also following and listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost! I only had to speak for 8 minutes and we also had 2 other speakers so it wasn't bad at all! It's funny because I was telling Elder Mitonzi the night before how I have spoken in every ward except for this ward and since I got transferred, I would leave without speaking and then I got a call to speak so my streak remains!
We had a little bit of rain as we headed off to my very last week in the Kingsbridge 2nd ward. It was such a short time that I was able to serve here and it is crazy to think that I'm already to my 5th area! It was so fun to serve here and it's hard to believe that this is probably my last time in New York City until I come back to visit after my mission. I love New York City and it will always hold a special place in my heart! I feel like time is really going to start zooming by now that the missions are combined and I only have 5 transfers left. Thanks again for your questions! I hope that it all makes sense! I am so interested to know when I will go home because they usually buy our flight plans really early but with transfer day landing on Christmas and the next transfer being all the way in February, I'm kind of torn right now as to which one to choose. I think that we can work it out that j might be able to leave in the middle of the transfer but that means that I would fly home alone. I could potentially fly out on January 16th or even a few or 2 before that. We will see because there is still plenty of time! We called a lot of our investigators to remind them about Church and planned out our day and then went off to Church! I have to admit, it is going to be so nice to have a P-Day to pack up and be able to prepare! It was funny because I ended up not giving my talk because the guy who asked me to speak was outnof town and didn't let the Bishop know that I was speaking and so they did something really cool instead! They had everyone stand up at the pulpit and tell evefyone their favorite song and we all sang their favorite verse of that song. It was really cool and everyone wanted to stand up and sing their favorite song! I was getting so excited for transfers and all of the awesome changes coming up! I was hoping that you were all doing well and I'm so glad that you are excited for the changes too! It sounds like we were all pretty surprised that I am going to the New Jersey Morristown Mission!!! We got to go to an appointment with a new investigator named Michael Bell. On our way, I saw a guy with an Atlanta Falcons hat and I asked him if he lived in Georgia. He asked me what I knew about Georgia and how I knew that the Falcons were in Georgia and then I told him that my Dad used to live in Georgia in the early 90's. It was fun to tell him what Dad did in Georgia and how we both are doing the same thing! Shout out to Dad!!!! I was so excited to see your pictures on my Drive and couldn't wait to get your email! I saw the blog post from Sister Smith on Facebook and it was so surreal and didn't seem like they were actually going to leave! It would be so awesome if you could go to their talks in Heber! We had a yummy dinner with a member named Sister Blackwood and she made us some yummy fried chicken! Then we said goodbye to Emmanuel and he was sad that we both had to leave. I just can't believe that transfers are actually here and that I'm in the New Jersey Morristown Mission! Itnwill be a great adventure for sure and I'm so excited to see what the future holds! I'm anxious to get up to New Paltz and work hard! Especially because I have one the coolest companions ever! He really has been one of my best friends for the whole mission and I really look up to him! It was an awesome day and I was looking forward to having a nice P-Day to pack and get everything ready for THE BIG TRANSFER!!! It will be wierd to not have President Teuscher just because there has been so much talk about him coming in and having all 5 boroughs to handle and having 2 missions combine but I am just so stoked to have President Hess! He is from Farmington and is such a great guy from what I've heard! I have been having lots of thoughts about the transfers in the New Jersey Morristown Mission because they had there transfer on May 29th and they have another one on July 10th and so you can mark it on your calender that is how it will be for now. But with that pattern, transfers land on Christmas day and so I'm not sure if they will move transfers or not. I'm sure that they will accommodate both Christmas and the school year! They usually buy flight plans for missionaries returning home during our 16th transfer and I'm already to my 13th. I was so excited when your email came in and I couldn't wait to read all about your fun week with the reunion and everything going on!!!! Thanks a ton for your fun email!
Well everyone, it was tons of fun to type up this email and tell you everything! I wish that we had 45 minutes to talk about all of the changes face to face but if you have any questions, I would be so happy to answer them!! New Paltz will be so different from the city and I'm really excited to drive and work hard finding people to teach! It will be different to serve in a Branch! Oh, I've got 1 more thing to tell you! So the New Jersey Morristown Mission will be having a transfer on July 10th and so it will be interesting to see how things work out and we might have some new missionaries that I've never met come into our area! I'm also so excited to meet President Hess and his wife on Wednesday! I hope that each of you has an amazing and fun week!!!! Good luck with all of yiur camps and different activites! I think about each of you all the time and I'm so thankful for your examples and all that you do for me! I am very excited for the next chapter in my mission and I see really great times ahead! I hope that I will go to New Jersey for zone conferences or to have interviews! Have an awesome week!! LOVE & MISS YOU ALL TONS & TONS!!!!!!!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
Wednesday was so very awesome!! It was a little cooler and so it was nice to have a break from the heat! We had a busy and fun day planned and it was also trainer call day and so we were anxious to hear if anyone in the District or Zone would get a trainer call! I was thinking all day and realized that Elder Mitonzi only has 2 transfers left and so I was thinking that he would get a trainer call! We are getting so close to transfer call night! I was thinking about you all a lot and was hoping that you were having a really fun day! We planned our day and got to work and had lots of success! We got a call from a lady in our ward and she asked if all of the missionaries could help out with moving her and packing a few things up before she moves on Friday. We were happy to help and we always love service to keep us busy! So we had some lunch and read a few chapter out of the Book of Mormon and then headed over to help her out. She ended up having a doctor appointment but as we were in an elevator, we met a really awesome lady named Carmen and she had so many cool questions! He wanted the Sister Missionaries to come over and she was really happy that someone could answer her questions! The sisters were really happy to have someone to talk to about her religious questions and so we hope that she can progress and we can see her get baptized! We had so much success finding people at home and every door that we knocked on were home! We set an appointment with Walter and a guy who works as security at the front desk where Walter works! It was so awesome because it seemed like everyone that we talked to non the street, wanted to learn more and so we got some phone numbers and so we were on cloud 9 with how much success we were having! We had a great appointment with a member named Norberto Agosto and we watched a General Conference talk since he wasn't able to see conference and then we met a recent convert who Elder Mitonzi taught in Harlem named Michael Solti and his 5 year old son, Michael. He is a really nice guy but we weren't able to talk much because he talked and talked to us for the whole lesson. Then we had a guy ride up to us on his little motorized scooter and asked if we were the Mormons. He started to ask us about why the Priesthood was conferred to only a certain group of people and the ban just got lifted. He thought that the Priesthood revelation was just now announced but we explained that it was the 40th Anniversary of the Revelation and he looked us in the face and said "That's a lie." He asked us who the Prophet was and we both simply testified of President Nelson and how our Church has the Priesthood authority and a prophet called by God. He then told us that he had had enough of our lies and said that he needed to go find someone older to tell him the truth. Elder Mitonzi looked at him and said "My friend, if you go to someone older, they will tell you the exact same thing." The guy then rode away on his bike cackling and laughing. It's always funny to see the different things that people hear. They find a lot of false information about the Church online and so it can be hard to clear it all up. Situations like this happen all the time and I've seen plenty of people get mad at us or are confused and so I have become pretty good at handling these situations. They just make me laugh!!! Hehe!
Thursday was so awesome! We woke up to cool weather and our bedroom was a little chilly to be honest. It rained almost the whole night and it sounded really cool but cleared up as soon as it was time to head out! I love the sound of rain hitting the rooftop. We were excited to get up and find more people to teach! I think when I got set apart, I was able to adjust to waking up at 6:30 because I have had absolutely 0 problems with waking up that early and once the alarm goes off, I'm up and ready to roll! It has been really amazing to be able to wake up that early because at home, I would turn off my alarm without even realizing it and falling back asleep. I hope to take some earlier classes when I come home and continue waking up early and keep the habit going! Mission life is so structured and so it will be so wierd to come back home and have so much free time to spend with you all! I have heard that coming home and adjusting to post mission life is just as different as coming into the mission field! We plan out exactly what we will be doing and where we will be every minute of the day. We have things to do every minute of the day and our schedule is always full! I was thinking about you all a lot and hoping that you were excited to go down to American Fork for the reunion! After our studies, we had a really awesome conference call and President Smith asked us all to pray to have a confirmation of where Heavenly Father needs us to be. He wanted us to pray to ask Heavenly Father for guidance to where we needed to be and confirm that we are willing to go wherever we are needed! It was really exciting because President Smith announced that the meet President Teuscher meeting would be on Saturday June 30th and the Meet President Hess from the New Jersey Morristown Mission meeting would be on Wednesday June 27th! He was so inspiring and it really was fun to hear from him and talk about all of these exciting changes! I am just so excited to find out whereI will be serving and if I will get transferred or not! I keep having this feeling like I will be going to Morristown Mission but I still can't be sure. There aren't a lot of missionaries that will go to that mission but it still is so exciting! We had an awesome lesson with Jose Rodriguez and we are just so thankful that we found him! He fought in Afghanistan and so he has lost of memories about the war and found peace during those difficult times by reading scriptures and so he came out of the war very knowledgeable about Jesus Christ! We taught him the importance of the sacrament and how even though he isn't baptized, he can still feel the spirit when he partakes of the Sacrament. Then we did our weekly planning and I couldn't believe that it has been a whole week since your Anniversary and my Birthday! Time flew by! We had some really awesome things happen after dinner! We got on the bus and I had this feeling to go sit in the very back of the bus. I love those little nudges from the Holy Ghost to direct me to a specific person! I sat down and before I started talking to anyone, a lady leaned over to me and said "If you are religious, tell me what you believe!" I taught her the entire Restoration in 5 or 6 minutes and at first, she would accept a card that had the address to the Church and our phone number but by the end she said "Well that sparked my interest, I will take any material that you have" and so I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, a Restoration Pamphlet and the original card that she rejected at the beginning!
Friday was a really great day! Only 1 more day until transfer calls and we are all excited as ever! I had another dream and when I woke up, I seriously thought that I was home. It was wierd because I was so disoriented and thought that my whole mission was a dream and that I was just remembering all of my mission experiences. It took me a minute to figure out that I was still on my mission! Hehe! Isn't that funny?? I still love the dream that I had when Parker became my missionary companion! I love dreams like that! We woke up to beautiful weather and we had lots to do! We had 2 lessons in the schedule and we were ready to roll! I helped Elder Mitonzi with his English and we read a few chapters out of the Book of Mormon and then we went to knock on some door and follow up with a few members that moved in within the last few months! We are trying to get to know our members better and see which ones still live in our ward boundaries and set up some lessons with those members that are here. It hit me that I might not even be in the city for much longer if I was to get transferred to the Newburgh Stake. It was so crazy to think that I might only have 1 more area! It's so crazy to think about! We got to look up 1 member on the list and then we got a call from Brother Gerhartz and he asked us if we could help out with a lady who is moving out of the ward and said that he really needed all of the missionaries help. So we were going over to help and ask was getting on the bus, I just about had a bad fall because I tripped on the edge of the bus that was uneven with the curb but luckily I caught myself before I fell. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh about it! We got to help her and her son wasn't there and so we weren't able to help her but the Sister Missionaries were there to help out! Then we talked to some cool people on the bus and we met a Baptist and he sang to us which was pretty funny! We were munching on some yummy dinner when I got your fun video! Wow, was it good to see and hear you all! I really appreciated you sending it to me and it gave me a burst of energy! Thanks a tons for sending it! I was so happy to know that you were all having a good time! We had a really awesome lesson with a guy who works at a security desk where another on for our investigators lives named Stanley. He is a really cool guy and loved his Family and works hard to provide for them. We taught him the whole Restoration and he told us about his religious background. He has gone to almost every Church imaginable and so he has been a little confused about which one is the true one. Then we found a really awesome Family who we were asked to go visit because they moved into the ward boundaries not too long ago and set up a return appointment with them! Funny story time!! We were sitting on the bus headed back to the apartment and there was an Indian man sitting on his phone and all of a sudden, he started yelling random numbers that progressively got bigger and bigger. He was getting so excited and could hardly contain himself as he shouted numbers! 550!!!!!!!!!! Six, Hundred and seventy five!! It was so funny and most of the bus was laughing! It was a funny way to end the day and I was thinking about you a lot! I hope that your reunion was so fun! Love ya!!!
TRANSFER CALL DAY!!!!! ARE YOU READY???? THE MOMENT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of the biggest announcements of my whole mission and we knew that there would be a lot of changes! I had no idea what would happen and I was ready for whatever would happen! We cleaned the Church again and we had 2 other members come and so we got to vacuum the whole Church and it went pretty quick because they have a giant vacuum and it got the job done really quick! I was getting really excited and even a little nervous about transfer calls! We heard that 2 Elders and 2 Sisters got called to train and so it was fun to know that 4 more missionaries would be coming in! I was hoping that your day was going really great and you were having a fun day! I wish that I could have been there for the reunion because it looked like a lot of fun! The weather started to turn a little cloudy and looked like it was going to rain as we took the bus to help the ward and the lady that was moving out of her apartment. She needed to have 2 shifts because it all couldn't get done in 1 day and so she asked the ward to help her out today as well. It went really well and we got almost everything all packed up and then went to our lesson with Emmanuel Opoku and it was wierd to think that it could have been my last lesson with him. It's always wierd to not know where I could be in just 1 week from today! We had a great lesson with him and taught him the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ and he knew almost all of the points already from his Pentecostal Church. Then we saw something crazy that lead to us meeting a really nice lady! We saw a Nissan Maxima that was loaded down to the ground with weight and when it tried to drive up the hill, the front tire rubbed up against the fender and made the car spin out of control. Luckily it didn't hit anything and the only damage was done to the suspension but we were able to talk to a lady who has seen missionaries walking around before and so the timing was perfect to meet her! Then we had a great lesson with the 3 teenage boys that we found a little while ago and we taught them the Plan of Salvation and they understood it all because it is very similar to what their Church teaches. Their Church doesn't believe in the 3 kingdoms but they thought it was a much better teaching! Then I was so excited to get your email! It was fun to have some predictions and I was so thankful for the email! In a way, I feel like it was getting a whole new mission call for the last 7 months of my mission because New Jersey would be totally different and having Brooklyn and Queens in the New York City Mission it made it seem like a brand new mission call! I was getting more and more excited by the minute! I knew that I might not even be getting transferred just because I haven't been in this area for very long but I knew that anything was possible and anything could happen! We got the call early and we both just stood there in shock! I'm so thankful that you were able to find out and I was so grateful to get your email! I've got so much to tell you and I wish that I could talk to you face to face!!! I will try my best to explain everything! First off, I'm so very excited and can't wait to start my journey in the New Jersey Morristown Mission!! We will get to meet President Hess on Wednesday the 27th which is a day after transfers. I love the New Paltz apartment and I have been on 3 splits into that area! It is a Branch and is about 30 minutes South of Kingston and so it will feel just like Kingston! Right now, Elder Lusk is in New Rochelle and so we will both be brand new to the area! He hasn't served that far North and so I will know more about the area than he does! He has been out 1 transfer longer than I have and he is from Clinton Utah! He is one of my favorite missionaries and I'm so excited to work with him! I know that this is such a shock to us all but I'm very, very excited to finish out in the New Jersey Morristown Mission!!!!!! I actually found the mission office address online! It will defitanly take some time to get used to but I'm so very excited to go back upstate and drive a car! Elder Mitonzi will also be in the Morristown Mission with me but we will be in different zones. There are 2 zones within the Stake that got absorbed into the Morristown Mission! New Paltz is such a pretty area and I already know it pretty well! Wow!!! I hope all of that made sense! As long as you know that I'm excited and that I love you so much!!! I am SO VERY excited and I can't wait to tell you all about it! Do you have any other questions because I LOVE answering them! Love you tons and tons!!!!!
P.S: Here is the New Mission office address for sending packages and letters:
New Jersey Morristown
5 Cold Hill Rd S Ste 10
Mendham NJ 07945
United States
P.P.S: We have some more big news! We will only have 2 Elders living in our apartment and Elder Palmer, will take over both areas with a missionary who also just got done being trained in Poughkeepsie!! So they will have double the area and double the work! Now there will only be 2 missionaries living in this apartment! The whole mission is being changed up! Elder Ihalmo got transferred to Long Island as a zone leader! New Paltz is where we had District meetings when I was in Kingston and so I'm very familiar with the area and I have already slept in the New Paltz apartment 3 times already! I can already picture the apartment and so I'm even more excited! New Paltz is only 30 minutes South of Kingston and so our areas border with my old Kingston area! New Paltz has SUNY New Paltz which is a fun little college town and there are some beautiful sights! The population is about 15,000! I hope that you can look it up and learn more! THINGS JUST GOT INTERESTING!!!! I'm actually not sure about my release date because the transfers in the New Jersey Morristown Mission are on a different schedule. As of right now, and this could possibly change, but they have a transfer on July 10th and then every 6 weeks after that as well. And so the transfers that fall around the time that I go home fall on Christmas Day and February 5th and so they might have a 5 week and 7 week cycle to accommodate not having a transfer on Christmas Day! It's so exciting!
Sunday was such a great and crazy day because of all the missionaries saying goodbye! I got a text early in the morning from the 1st councilor in the Bishopric and he asked me to speak for 8 minutes on the role of the Holy Ghost, the light of Christ and how it affects our lives. I was kind of scrambling to write it and figure out what to say since I only had 1 hour to prepare but I had some good quotes and so I was excited to give it! I was just so excited about all of the new changes and couldn't believe that it was actually happening! I hope each of you had an amazing Sunday! It was so exciting all day knowing that I would get your email! I couldn't wait to read it and it was the highlight of my day! I was excited about the topic because it was very easy to find some fun stories to go along with it! It was about the light of Christ and also following and listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost! I only had to speak for 8 minutes and we also had 2 other speakers so it wasn't bad at all! It's funny because I was telling Elder Mitonzi the night before how I have spoken in every ward except for this ward and since I got transferred, I would leave without speaking and then I got a call to speak so my streak remains!
Well everyone, it was tons of fun to type up this email and tell you everything! I wish that we had 45 minutes to talk about all of the changes face to face but if you have any questions, I would be so happy to answer them!! New Paltz will be so different from the city and I'm really excited to drive and work hard finding people to teach! It will be different to serve in a Branch! Oh, I've got 1 more thing to tell you! So the New Jersey Morristown Mission will be having a transfer on July 10th and so it will be interesting to see how things work out and we might have some new missionaries that I've never met come into our area! I'm also so excited to meet President Hess and his wife on Wednesday! I hope that each of you has an amazing and fun week!!!! Good luck with all of yiur camps and different activites! I think about each of you all the time and I'm so thankful for your examples and all that you do for me! I am very excited for the next chapter in my mission and I see really great times ahead! I hope that I will go to New Jersey for zone conferences or to have interviews! Have an awesome week!! LOVE & MISS YOU ALL TONS & TONS!!!!!!!!!
Love You Always!
~Elder Lindberg
