the transfer but I guess something changed because we still got more
lessons than usual! And most of them were just kind of put in our
hands haha. Either someone called us or we showed up at someone's door
and they let us in which was super cool! Well after Wednesday at
least. Monday night we had nothing set up so we got to do a little
contacting and talking to people on the street and that was decent. We
got some numbers and names so it was successful. Then Tuesday came and
we had two lessons set up which both cancelled which meant...DUN DUN
DUN...contacting! Except to finish the day Joaquin called and asked if
we could come over and I'm not ever going to say no so we went over
and talked. His brother was there too and he actually got a little
involved which was nice. That was the first time I've had to be really
direct with him and I wasn't sure how he takes correction but it
actually went really well. We talked about reverence and how you
shouldn't be on your phone during church. I invited him to stay
reverent and turn off his phone and he did it! He got to church a
little late but as soon as he got in the chapel, he turned off his
phone!
Then Wednesday came around and we had absolutely nothing again. So we
did some look ups a long with contacting and boy was that a long
night. It seemed like nothing was going to happen. It's starting to
get pretty cold so no one was outside after 6:00 pm but it also seemed
like no one was home...it was crazy. But we kept going until the very
last planned look up. We get to the door, we knock then out comes the
lady we're looking for! Finalmente alguien quien podemos enseñar! We
tell her who we are and at first she was a little taken back so she
had her husband talk with us. They both remembered talking to
missionaries before because they were former investigators. But, the
husband said they didn't really want to talk with us. So what did I
do? I shared the Christmas video! It was still technically December so
todo bien. The wife, husband and their kid all watched it and the
husband really liked it. So he invited us in to talk. He's a pretty
cool guy but has some weird ideas about religion and that's okay!
Because we're going to help him through all of that. But, we don't
have another appointment until next Monday. Entonces, tenemos que
esperar.
Thursday was a shorter day because we all had to be in by 6 and
because most people are either going to parties or setting one up,
there was much for us to do. So we finally had time to deep clean our
apartment which is supposed to be done last week and weekly planned
then had a lesson before going back home. Nothing too exciting. Until
we got a call from the sign language elders telling us they met
someone from Haiti who doesn't like speaking creole because Spanish is
better (his words exactly) and he's a member! So this guy's name is
Wilson and he's so cool. He pretty much has the same story as Joaquin
so I was super excited to meet him! He's originally from Haiti, moved
to the DR got baptized after a month with the missionaries, moved back
to Haiti and he's been in New York now for 19 days or something like
that. We went and visited him on Friday and he's solid. He gave us his
membership record so we could get his records all sent to us here and
he was so excited. The lesson went a little longer than it should have
so we could get his whole story straight and help him create an
LDS.org account but it was all really amazing. Then we had a long,
sketchy walk back to the bus stop through the most ghetto area I've
seen thus far in my mission. So that was fun! We only got lost for
about 10 minutes and saw something pretty crazy but that's not
important! We helped Wilson and we're still alive. All is well :)
Saturday was pretty boring so I'm just going to skip to what happened
yesterday because that was definitely one of my top ten favorite days
so far. Church was pretty normal for the most part up until sacrament
meeting. Valentin finally came to church again so that was cool and he
sat next to Joaquin who bore his testimony!! Yeah that was awesome. He
was so thankful to Heavenly Father for giving him a 2nd chance with
the gospel and for giving him back his smile. He also gave thanks to
Elder Wagley and I but more than half of his testimony was just giving
thanks to this gospel and to the atonement. I only cried a little.
Then I was looking around and realized that there were a lot of new
faces! Turns out that there was a lady who was baptized 30 years ago
and just moved to New York after being less active for a little while
and now wants to come back, one of the members brought a friend,
another very less active came and someone who the other elders already
had an appointment with right after church came as well. Well, me
being me I thought hmmm all of these people need to be taught. Here
comes the fun. So all four of us had to find a member to stay after
church to teach with and then we found four different rooms and had
four different lessons at once. It was one of the coolest, most
stressful and most spiritual experiences I've had out here so far.
Then we had a lesson with Valentin at his house and after him
expressing lots of concerns he finally said that when he feels it's
right, he will be baptized. So there's a little more progress there.
So that pretty much does it for this week! As for the title, we had a
really big mission meeting every transfer and it was super spiritual
and motivating but president got a letter from someone from the quorum
of the twelve and had to pull the plug on that. But it's all good. As
for transfer calls I am...IN!!! Yet again. But my trainee is
out...that kinda blew my mind. Usually it's the other way around. But
hey! I'm really excited because there's so much going on here. And
yesterday during the testimony meeting when I was listening to Joaquin
the spirit hit me so strong. It just made me realize that I really am
supposed to be here, people have been prepared specifically just for
me and I have the amazing opportunity to be the instrument in the
lord's hand during people's progression in this gospel and there is
nothing else I'd rather be doing. I'm so thankful to be a missionary.
If anybody is thinking about going, do it! I understand now why people
stress it so much. It's because it will not only affect your life more
than you could ever imagine but it does the exact same plus some to
others! Well, that's all I got for you all this week. Happy new year!
Oh!! Also, thank you to the McKeehan family, Aunt Barb, Uncle Len, the
priests quorum back home, my family and everyone else who have sent me
packages!! It means a lot to know I'm not completely forgotten yet :D
1) Ghetto (assuming custom made) "Broolklin" flag
2) It snowed this past week too! For about 30 seconds and then it stopped though
3) New Hair Cut
No comments:
Post a Comment