The super secret meeting

Well this week was pretty slow up until the weekend. We were able to go and see Maycol (aka Michael. I just didn't realize that's how you spelled his name) and speaking of him, for those who didn't hear, he got baptized last Sunday! And because some drama has to happen with baptisms, we had quite a story. We started filling the baptismal font, came back about 45 minutes later to check it and it was flooded....and to make things even better the only way to pull the plug was to get in and pull it yourself. Doesn't sound too terrible. But then you realize that there was more cold water than warm and you have to get in about chest deep. I mean it could have been worse but I went in, pulled it quick and we had a little mess to clean up. It was all good though. Now we just have to keep getting members to bring him to church because yesterday was stake conference so this Sunday he's going to get confirmed. I'll get to what happened yesterday in a second though.

As for the rest of the week, it was just finding and teaching. Trying to figure out who is most likely the next closest candidate for baptism. As of right now it's Dory because her intentions are definitely the most pure but unfortunately she just hasn't been to church. So we are motivating her the best we can right now. We also talked to someone who, according to the definition, had a lot of psychopath qualities. That sounds worse than it really was but it was pretty interesting. The other thing that was kinda funny and sad at the same time was that on Saturday I lost my glasses...I stuck my head out the car window as we passed another mission car and next thing I knew there went my glasses. Then yesterday was a pretty cool experience. I mean no big deal but Jeffery R. Holland came to the mission to talk to us. Yeah it was kind of a big deal haha. We got to shake his hand and introduce ourselves and he talked to us about the Book of Mormon, the restoration and of course about working hard and not going less active after these two years. It was a super cool spiritual boost that is definitely going to help me for the remainder of my mission! That pretty much does it though! Take care!!

Macol- 10-10-16

Another week without a Mass update, so here is what Tyler sent to me:

Maycol was able to be baptized and everything was going really
smoothly too! Like too smooth. We taught him every day this past week
and with each lesson he was like yeah that totally makes sense. Except
for baptisms for the dead...he was a little confused at that but I
mean most people are haha. Then Saturday rolled around and he had the
interview and he passed with flying colors. The only thing we thought
would be in the way was work but he was just like if they make me work
Sunday I'm just not gonna go. Sadly he's fired now but just about
every member yesterday came up to him and told him about a bunch of
job opportunities they have for him so that was really Cool! So we
were just like man this is going too well...then the craziness starts.
The font filled up WAY faster than we thought it would and ended up
flooding the girls bathroom, leaked into the primary room and got the
carpet pretty wet near the entrance to the font and the changing area
was pretty wet too. And to make things better the only way to pull the
drain was to actually get in the font which was filled with mainly
cold water....and because I'm the district leader I just volunteered
as tribute. And man alive was that water cold. I just threw on a jump
suit and went for it. It was almost as if I was swimming again! But I
was also really really cold 😂 but now we have a really funny story to
go with our baptism!
We saw Dory but she's pretty much in the same
spot...so now it's back to grinding and trying to get people to
progress

They pranked the Sisters!

Them just being them!

10-3-16

Tyler didn't send a mass email, but he asked me to pass this info along!

So this past week if you remember correctly Michael said this church grabbed his attention. Well we didn't realize exactly how much but apparently a ton because he now wants to be baptized this Sunday! He came to conference and loved it, watched it at a members house and had a great time and has felt nothing but love and happiness from being a part of this already. And it's been amazing. It's really hard to see his living conditions because it's very very humble and sad but we are helping put as much as possible. We've made him food, we found a chair for him, a mirror and now we found a clothes rack he can use because his clothes are just in piles. But it's been so cool to see him so happy and feel so loved. It's awesome! And that pretty much describes my past week. It was revolved a lot around him so we can really prepare him for this Sunday. So please send some prayers because he needs it and so do we so we have enough time to get this all done!

God works in mysterious ways (9/26/16)

Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to get this one out. So I'm
still in westbury but I have a new companion. His name is elder
Caballero and I was super happy because we've literally been wanting
this to happen since my 2nd transfer and now he has two left and I've
got 3 so it looks like I might be killing him. I'm pretty happy about
that

As for the week, I could go into detail about it and I probably owe
you all that but I just want to talk about one experience I had this
week. So the past 2 or 3 weeks now we've been teaching these two
investigators named soña and Michael. Soña is a little older so we
were thinking Michael was related to her somehow but weren't exactly
sure. So Friday, elder caballero and I go and talk to them again, and
invite them both to church. As it turned out, soña wouldn't be able to
but Michael could. The only problem was that he didn't have a ride.
After a little bit of scrambling around 9:45 at night we finally got a
hold of someone and they were willing to take him. He seemed pretty
chill during sacrament meeting but after wards things kind of changed
a little. A member introduced himself and I was like oh okay cool but
I still wanted to keep a close ear just to see what was going on. All
of a sudden I see Michael starting to cry and I didn't hear the
conversation perfectly but I did hear something about his family. As
it turns out, he's here in America without his family just trying to
do what he can to get by and feels really alone. We had a little
lesson after everything and he really opened up and it was just cool
to see that we were able to give him a little more hope. We talked
about how the branch can really be a support and a second family to
him, explained eternal families and how he's able to obtain that. And
the funny thing was that our main focus was on soña. Now, Michael has
already read the first two chapters of 1 Nephi, we're meeting with him
tomorrow and he's willing to do whatever he needs to in order to draw
closer to God.

So! That's pretty much the big spiritual highlight of the week. In
other news, we went to service this week in suits because why not and
got attacked by bees. Well, some people did. But not me. Because
blessings. And I don't have any pictures from this week but since I
didn't do a weekly last week because laziness, here ya go! Hope you're
all doing great!

1. You know you're in a white neighborhood when...
2. A member's son who was really excited he built a tower taller than him

9/11/16

Hey there everyone! So this week was a pretty busy week. We had a good
amount of lessons and knocked doors a ton which was fun since we were
just walking in the sun and knocking doors. Plus we got in with a
couple people so we will see if that goes anywhere. So far nobody
super solid though. This past week we focused a lot on the
investigators that really listen to us and some less actives who we
can help. As for some highlights, we finally got a lesson again with
Victor! The guy who's been investigating the church for like 10 years.
We also have been talking to this other investigator who's son and
wife are members about how his son can get the aaronic priesthood and
what that could mean for the family so we are hoping that'll happen.
But they almost never come to church so it's gonna take work still. We
also went to Dory again this past week and she seemed like she was
struggling with something
pretty badly so we talked about tests and trials and invited her to
church again...but sadly she doesn't have a car so we have to get
members to take her and that's the most ridiculous chore. So she
didn't get to come. We also found someone who seemed pretty solid
Monday night and he told us to come back on Sunday so we went by again
last night and he wasn't home. Nor did he answer his phone. So that's
how second lessons usually go 😂 but it's all good! One pretty funny
thing that happened was on Saturday, when elder Parkinson and I were
knocking we saw these Hispanic guys doing some yard work thinking that
it was their house but apparently they were actually working...and so
the owner of the house came out and wasn't too happy. So we got yelled
at for do I service and I thought it was pretty funny...and then to
make things even better I even thought of just telling the guy I don't
speak English and putting it all on Parkinson. Shoulda, woulda, coulda
right?

So since yesterday was 9/11 and I'm in New York I thought I'd just
talk a little about that. I know I did last year too but I mean hey,
who really remembers that? I mean congrats to anyone who even made it
this far in reading. I appreciate it! Anyways, I'm not in the city
anymore but luckily I was still able to very faintly see the light thy
shoot up and that's always way cool to see. But how awesome is it that
we have the knowledge that this life isn't it. To the ones who passed
on that tragic day and everyone since, we will be with them again.
Elder Parkinson and I were even talking about how interesting it is
that those who don't believe in God tend to not be as optimistic at
times. At least that's what we have seen from the people we talk to.
But that's okay because God still loves them. And they're still our
brothers and sisters! So that about does it this week! Hope you're all
doing well!! And like I said, I'm not in the city so you can enjoy
this little throwback to last year! And some other pictures
1) 9/11 last year
2) cool sunset last night
3) Parkisnon and I
4) Parkinson threw pudding at me...
5) Crazy nice house we knocked...definitely white people
6) Another cool sunset

Hello again! (September 5, 2016)

Well here I am again! And this week was literally filled of pretty
awesome miracles. No lie. The first one happened Wednesday night when
elder Parkinson and I decided to do some look ups and knock in a white
neighborhood and just hope for the best. The thing is that on just
about any street you'll find some Spanish people. So we did those look
ups with no luck but then we did some knocking and at this point it
was about 7:45. The first person we knocked into was a Hispanic lady
and she let us in, we shared the message of the restoration with her
and now we have a return appointment tonight. Then it was roughly 8:15
and at that point out here on Long Island nobody likes to talk but
somehow we got to talk to two more people that night. And I had your
typical late night miracle lesson to top it off.
You know those stories you hear of missionaries getting spiritual
impressions the same time as their companion and they go knock that
house even though it probably was time to go home? Yup you can add
this story to that collection. Elder Parkinson and I were walking back
to the car because it was 8:45 and we were about 15 minutes from home
but we both looked at this house across the street and we both felt we
had to go knock it and it turned out the owner of the house had talked
to missionaries two other times and we basically told him that the
lord is preparing him to accept this message and it seemed like there
was a difference made in his life after talking to us this time. At
least I think so...I wasn't there those other times but it seemed like
he was touched by what we were saying!
Another miracle we had was the fact that we had enough time last night
to talk to enough people to match the weekly goal since nobody would
actually let us in there house haha. But yeah the goal is 105 and we
were at like 70 so we just went hard with knocking and ended up with
two more lessons and finding some solid people. Just gotta hope they
give us a second lesson now. That's another miracle that needs to
happen more haha.
So yeah that pretty much sums up my week! I also had chicken hearts
for the second time and that's always fun.
Have a good week!


🇲🇽 Elder Rossi 🇲🇽

I'm alive!

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm so bad at writing 😂 but here's some updates!
I'm still in Westbury with elder Parkinson which makes him the first
one I've gone more than two transfers with since we were also together
in Brooklyn. We also divided the area among the district so we got all
the people the other elders were working with in Westbury and some
other areas so our teaching pool has increased a ton. So we are
working with that and still trying to see what we can do. And in other
news, I went to the temple today for my 18 month mark! Super
crazy...can't believe I've been out this long. The sisters I came out
with are now home which is kind of weird to think about too. So yeah!
I just thought I would kind of give a small little update but still
nothing too big has happened out here. Hope all of you are doing well
though! Here's some pictures from today at the temple!!