Week 27: First week with new companion & Helping out at charity run/walk

[Here is Ralph's e-mail from last Wednesday.]

Hey everyone! Hope everything is going well. Anyhow, into the record of my life.

On Wednesday after emailing, I got together with my new companion Elder Edmunds and we talked with people for a while at transfer meeting, and then we grabbed his luggage and went down to our apartment. It was positively pouring rain outside, so we got drenched (the umbrellas helped next to none due to too much wind). We then ended up having to walk over to the grocery store because no buses were coming, so by the time we got there, every step I took made a gloosh sound (my shoes were plenty waterproof, it's just that when the rain soaks your pants, and then your socks, the insides of your shoes aren't too safe at that point). And then we had to walk back for part of it as well. Lots of wet. So we got home, hung our everything up to dry, and then did our planning and headed to bed.

Thursday, we had studies, then traveled to the chapel to go teach Vlad (I got to break in my new shoes because my usual ones were still soaked through despite having blow-dried them for around an hour). It went pretty well, we got him introduced to Elder Edmunds, reemphasized our purpose and invited him to read certain chapters. We're debating possibly passing him on to the MTC missionaries (there are missionaries there whose whole mission is spent online proselyting from the MTC), so that'd be better for him since he wants to meet pretty often and we really don't have the time to keep talking with him (plus we've been out of new material to teach for almost a month now). After Vlad, we got lunch, and then did our weekly planning for 4 1/2 hours. Blech. It was really good, it was just super duper long. Afterwards, we headed over to Roosevelt Island for dinner with Brother Brown, and then came home.

Friday, we left at about 8 to go help out at something called the Revlon Run/Walk. It's an annual thing that we help out at apparently (it's a 5K run/walk for breast cancer), so we got to take all of the little medals out of their packaging and get them in piles of 25. And we did about 10000 medals. I have much more sympathy for people who work in sweat shops. We did that for quite a while, and then we had lunch (it was provided by them). After that, they asked if Elder Edmunds and I could stay and help them put together signs, which we did. Lots of stapling. We went from there (up in Central Park) all the way back down to where we live to go teach David (the blind less active guy). That went really well, we got to talk with him and see how he's doing, and we're going to see if there's any way we can arrange for him to get a ride to church (first step, finding someone who owns a car). After his lesson, we went back to our apartment and started compiling a more organized less active lookup list, as well as entered in a lot of our media referrals to go lookup, and put in a lot more information on former investigators from our hard copy of the area book. We had dinner afterwards, ran over to the library to sync up all the information, and then went back home for the night.

Saturday, we got up at 4 in the morning. Ew. The reason was that we needed to be at Times Square by 6 for the Revlon Run again to pass out the aforementioned signs to the teams they belonged to. We were there from about 6-9, got some cool T-Shirts and then we traveled over to the 15th street chapel for correlation meeting. Brother Barrett was out of town, so Brother Hanlon kept it nice and short, so we got done with that pretty quickly and then went back home for studies and lunch. I decided to take a nap after I finished lunch (I only took about 10 minutes with lunch, and then went and slept for the rest of the lunch hour). Unfortunately, I was tired enough that I slept through the alarm I'd set and woke up 45 minutes later. Whoops. Apparently Elder Edmunds had tried to start personal study, had knelt down to pray, and then woke up half an hour later still on his knees. Ouch. So after that, we finished our studies, prepared for our lesson we were to have with Andre, and then traveled to said lesson. We talked with him for a bit, his social security thingamabob got changed so he didn't end up getting money until Monday, meaning he was without food for a while. We then decided to run home and grab one of our free food places in Manhattan maps and text him some of the information, and then rushed down to the Financial District for dinner at the Cannon's. We went to a really good burger place, and had a lesson with them, and then traveled up to the 15th street chapel to pick up mail and to put in some more information. We called a few more referrals, and got in contact with several of them, one of whom we ended up passing on to the Sisters. After we finished with that, we went home.

Sunday, we did our studies, and then headed over to Andre's to actually teach our lesson this time, but he wasn't there. We waited around for a bit, and then headed up to church. Testimony meeting was super good, and then we went to Sunday School and Priesthood (Priesthood was especially good as well), and then after church went and entered in yet even more information. After that, we headed over to dinner at the Myres', talked to them a lot about missionary work, and then went home.

Monday, we had studies and then went to zone meeting, which was on revelation through church attendance. Afterwards, we had lunch, and then were going to have a lesson with Vlad, but through a combination of the internet being dysfunctional and the fact that he wasn't there (to our knowledge), we didn't end up having it. So afterwards, we went back to the apartment because Elder Edmunds had forgotten his iPad there that morning, and once we got there I started feeling pretty sick. I called the doctor, who told me that I needed to relax for the rest of the day, so we went on a split since we had an appointment with Julia later that evening, so I stayed home with Elders Aston and Filoso while Elders Edmunds and Marshall went to the appointment. We cooked up some dinner, and then waited for them to get back. They got back and we unsplitted, and then we planned and headed to bed.

Tuesday, we got up, did studies, went to church and had lunch, and then had our interview with Elder Marshall. After that, we went to Doctor Nixon, and that went well. We then went downtown and had dinner at Yanilsa's, then went to see how Andre was doing, ran into a former investigator who was taught about 10 years ago, and got a call back from someone we gave a card to on the bus. We then went home.

Today, we cleaned our apartment, and then went to Chinatown to get some dumplings for lunch, and then came here!

Hope everything is going well!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 26: Six months already?

[Here's Ralph's e-mail from last Wednesday.]

Woohoo 6 months! It went by super super quickly for me, I'm not sure about how fast it went for all of you. Anyhow, here's the stuff that happened this week.

So, after emailing all of you people, we (as in, Elders Kroff, Berryman and me since Elder Potter was in the temple) went shopping at Century 21 (I got myself a nice looking tie), and then went and got lunch at Subway. We then came back to the temple for a while, played some basketball, a game called gatorball (basically soccer + if the ball goes into the air and someone catches it, you can run with it and throw it to other people until you get tagged), and we did that for pretty much the whole time until they got out. Once Elder Potter was done, he wanted to go to the NBA store (again) to go buy himself a hat, so we went, and ended up spending half an hour there without him actually deciding on a hat. Sigh. We then headed over to our dinner appointment at the Engs, and were late (stupid nonexistent hat), and had some nummy food there. Their daughter also made some super good cupcakes (they looked like hamburgers, vanilla cupcake on bottom and on top with different colored icing and a brownie in between), and after that we headed home. No one in the zone got training calls (really odd), but I heard that Elder Jensen got one, kind of to make up for not being able to do it the last time I guess.

Thursday, we did our studies, and then headed to the chapel for a lesson with Vlad, which went pretty well (we avoided swimming in super deep doctrine by reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him), and then we headed to lunch at a place called Katz's Delicatessen (apparently super famous New York place) with a member from the YSA ward named Jessica. She brought one of her friends (a member named Eric), and we had lunch and a lesson there. They're renowned for their sandwiches, and the one I ended up getting was pretty much 5-6 inches thick. Yeesh. It was pretty good, but REALLY BIG so I didn't quite manage to finish all of it. After stuffing ourselves, we went back to the chapel and did some weekly planning, and then headed down for a lesson with Andre. We went over the Plan of Salvation, and he remembered pretty much all of it from the last time he was taught it (however long ago that was), and didn't really have any concerns about it. We then went from him over to Isaac, and read some from the Book of Mormon with him. After we finished with him, Elder Potter decided to go to some place called Flight Club (another place that sells hats), and still didn't decide on one, so then we went home.

Friday, we did our studies, had lunch, and then went over to a less active named Petra's apartment to help her move a TV (it was enormous, I'm surprised I still have a back), and then we talked with her a little bit. She is what the mission refers to as a "Hajje Special," due to the fact that she was converted by an Elder Hajje. The reason why there's actually a distinction between those he converts and regular ones is because he was so charismatic that people would get baptized, but not actually have a testimony. And apparently this happened enough times for them to have their own category. So anyhow, that happened, and then we went and finished weekly planning, and then went out to dinner with Brother Barrett at a place called brgr. He then treated us to Magnolia's cupcakes again, and I got some delicious banana pudding. After that, we headed back to the Flight Club place and once AGAIN, indecision defeated Elder Potter. I, on the other hand, got a nice $10 Mariners hat, interesting colors, but nice. After that, it was home for the night.

Saturday morning we went over and helped someone from the YSA ward move (the zone leaders had two people that needed help moving so they asked us if we could help), so we did that, and then we went and grabbed lunch, and then did some more service over at Andy Lam's (he's in a wheelchair and needed some stuff moved off of his balcony), so we did that (and of course it started raining), and then we were going to go do some service for Andre, but he had to go help his sister with something, so we instead went and got dinner, and then went up to the NBA store one last time and Elder Potter finally got a hat, and then went home. Transfer calls came that night, and I found out that I was staying again and that I'd be getting an Elder Edmunds, who trained Elders Fronk, Thompson, and Filoso (all of whom are still in our zone). So we'll see how that goes.

Sunday, we got up and went to the YSA ward's sacrament meeting (for Potter's sake), and then did our studies. We then went up to ward council, and then had our church. Apparently it was the ward's one year anniversary of being a ward, so we had some cake afterwards. We then attempted to have an online event, but nobody came. After that, we went to dinner at the Hanlon's (they're always so fun to go over and visit), and then we went home.

Monday, we did our studies and then went to district meeting, had lunch, took zone pictures, and so forth. We then did some online proselyting, and then went over for a lesson with Andre. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, once again pretty much review for him, and then took pictures with him for Elder Potter. We then went over to Grand Central and got our shoes shined (they did/can do a better job than I ever could), and then we went over to a lesson with Yolanda and her kids. It went really well, and the kids (who are mostly less active) seemed really engaged and seemed to really enjoy it. We then went home (also, I've never eaten more rice in my life, easily never that much in one setting).

Tuesday, we did personal study, and then went over to the temple for Elder Potter's exit interview. After that, we went over to visit a less active named Renee who we'd set up an appointment with, but she juked us. So instead, we went over to Shake Shack and got lunch (I got some nummy custard). We then did some planning, and then we went on a small split with the zone leaders, and I went with Elder Kroff. We went over to an appointment we had with the Winders, as well as Fletcher and his fiancee (who is not a member), so we had dinner and then had a lesson. It went really well, she seems super interested in what we had to say and we're going to see if we can meet weekly! She's from Ukraine and is super nice, so hopefully we can start teaching her more. We also found out that Fletcher is the one who sold that ride in Disneyworld called Mission: Space to Disney, that one Roland talked about the last time he was here, so that was really cool. We went home after that and got Elder Potter all packed.

Today, we got up, got ready, and then came up to the chapel for transfers, and now Elder Potter's elsewhere and I'm waiting for my new companion to come down from upstate! Hope everything is going well for all of you, and I'll talk to you later!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 25: Food, food, and crazy old men

Here's Ralph's e-mail from last Wednesday:

Hey everyone! Hope your week has been good. I've decided to start getting a little more descriptive so that my emails are a bit more entertaining, so hopefully I do a good job.

So Wednesday after we finished talking, Elder Potter decided to go shopping, so we went to all sorts of sports stores (which I had no interest in whatsoever, and we also ran into that member who took our picture and sent it to you guys), and then we went and taught Alex, and then went home.

Thursday, Elder Potter went and got a haircut in the morning while I sat around and twiddled my thumbs for about an hour, then we went over to the Hermana's and helped them move out of their apartment to one just up the stairs. It was a tiny little Chinatown closet apartment too, so we had to take a lot of stuff apart to get it up, getting the couch up took us pretty much an hour on its own. So that took up a lot of the day, and we went to lunch with the ASL and Sisters afterwards to this really good dumpling place (got 15 a-little-bigger-than-eggs sized dumplings for under $5, I feel super fat), and then Elder Potter and I went over to the Chinatown chapel to get some weekly planning done. We started heading to an appointment with Andre, but on the way there he postponed it due to him having thrown out his back, so we went back to the chapel and did some more planning. After our planning, we had an appointment with Isaac, so we walked up the east side to get there. We were a bit late (we'd tried to take a train initially, but they were being really weird service wise so we ended up walking quite a ways), so our appointment was pretty short. We showed him that Because of Him video that's been going around and talked about it, and then traveled over to Union Square to go treat ourselves to a dinner at a place called Max Brenner's. This place had super nummy food, and the whole place smelled like chocolate (they're apparently famous for it), so we had some nice dinner (I got some kind of chicken wings with waffle fries, Elder Berryman got an enormous sandwich, and Elders Potter and Kroff got some amazing macaroni and cheese), and then we all had milkshakes for dessert (Elder Potter got chocolate hazelnut, Elder Kroff coconut cream pie, Elder Berryman cookies and cream, and I got banana hazelnut).

We then traveled home from there, and ran into some crazy old man who talked to us kind of like this "My brothers, you don't need to pray for me, because you already prayed the prayer, cause God knows the heart and prays the prayer. So don't pray the prayer because you've already prayed the prayer when you think about praying the prayer," and this went on for about 15 minutes. So after that, we finally got home.

Friday, we did personal study, and then traveled over to Andre's for a lesson. We taught him about a lot of the commandments, focusing mostly on the 10 commandments (with a little bit of the law of chastity thrown in), scripture study, prayer, sabbath day observance, and following the prophet. He had a knowledge of all of these already and is keeping them and says he will continue to keep them, so that was good. Andre is super solid doctrinally since he's been taught a lot over the years, and I think it was just mainly getting him over his word of wisdom problems that was needed, which he also has been doing. We also talked about moving up his baptismal date again, and he said he prayed about it and was willing to, so his date is now set for May 17th! We then headed up to church for a lesson with Vlad, but our lesson with Andre had run a bit long, so when we got there (about 20 minutes late), Vlad was already offline. We managed to reschedule for this Thursday though.

So instead, we finished up planning, did some online proselyting, and then had an APF at Union Square. It was a pretty big one that we'd been planning for a while, so I'll break it down a bit. So, it was another chalk drawing one, where we drew out "Faith is Like a Seed," and then the process of a seed maturing into a tree, and on the bottom area just a bunch of random spring stuff (this was soon intermingled with random stuff random people were drawing as they stole our chalk while we weren't looking, but it was still good), so I was one of the people drawing because apparently I'm good enough at art to be worth it, so yeah. I drew pretty much the whole 2 hours, while some of the other people in the zone contacted. There were a few members who came out (mostly from the YSA ward, though an Area Seventy was there, Elder Gary S Price), and Jason came as well so it was cool. I think we then went to Subway for dinner and then went home, but I'm not exactly sure at this point, so I'll just say that's what happened.

Saturday we had personal study, and then went to correlation meeting with Brother Barrett and Brother Hanlon, and we talked a lot about how the members can get involved in the Spanish work (so much Spanish discussion), and then we went to lunch with them at a place called Giovanni Rana's, where I had probably the best pasta ever. So, cool story, apparently Brother Barrett is in charge of the food stuff for all of the public schools in New York City (possibly all of New York, not entirely sure), so he's been working with Rana's to make a deal to use their pasta in public schools (makes me wish I'd been going to public school here when that happens, sigh), so not only did we not end up having to pay the check, they also gave us free desserts, but also took us on a tour of the facility and gave us about 4 pounds of pasta to take home. For free. So we've been living pretty well the last few nights for dinner. After that, we went back to the church for an interview with Elder Marshall and talked about our area and stuff. Elder Potter then worked on his mission experience a bit more, and then we traveled up to a baptism. So that lasted a while, then we stayed at the church and organized our referral information, and then went home and cooked ourselves some of that pasta we'd gotten.

Sunday, we got up, I got ready, did a little studies, and then we went off to church. We got there a bit early to help set up, due to it being a special "Come and See" Sunday, in which we have an hour and a half long sacrament meeting, and then a dinner afterwards (so none of the regular block meetings). So we set up in the gym for afterwards, and then went to the main meeting. Andre was supposed to come, but wasn't showing up or responding, so we figured he'd skipped again. We got to bless the sacrament, and then waited outside in the lobby for Andre to possibly arrive, as well as friends of two of the members. One of the member's friends came, but there was no sign of the others, so we went back into the chapel. After the meeting we went upstairs and had dinner, and we also helped a member get his instrument out of one of the bishop's offices, and then went back up. While eating, we got a text from Andre saying that he was stuck in a bus about 30 blocks away, and so the story goes that he'd been stuck in awful Easter traffic on a bus for about 4 hours. Ew. So he got there just as the dinner was beginning to wrap up, but he still got there, and was able to meet Brother Barrett, Bishop, Brother Winder, and others. That one guy Alan also came again, so we got his information so we can refer him to the New Rochelle Elders.

After the dinner was done, we helped clean up and then had a lesson with Andre, answering some of the questions about the things he'd been reading in the Book of Mormon and such. After that, we traveled downtown a little and looked up a few of the referrals we had (mostly addresses that didn't even exist, but hey, we tried), but we saw some interesting things while we were out and about. We saw some guy getting tackled to the ground by five police officers, got yelled at by some random person in a taxi about we're trying to take away their birth control, saw two performers in the subway have a sort of turf war (one was a little old man playing a violin with a microphone attached, the other was a drummer and they were both trying to drown out the other), and then saw some crazy old man trying to chase down some poor fast food delivery guy on a bike. Fun stuff. After all that excitement, we then went home and had dinner.

Monday we got up early, got ready, and went to a "specialty training" that was being held by President Morgan. There'd been a mission president training in Washington DC over the weekend, so this may have been part of that. The theme of the meeting was "Focused Faith Generates Power," and so we discussed a lot about faith and how we exhibit our faith. The first speaker was one of the AP's Elder Kerr, and he talked about the resurrection and Easter and examples of faith in his life that stem from the belief in the resurrection. We then heard from Sister Morgan, who shared a scripture (Moroni 7:33) and then expounded on it for a little. That was then followed by President Morgan, who talked about the faith that we as missionaries should have. He used the missionary purpose as an example, and talked about that if we're inviting others to come unto Christ, wouldn't it make sense that we should already be there? He also talked about how our faith is exhibited in our goals we set and the plans we make. The goal that he's set for us as a mission as well is by the end of May to have had 100 baptisms. Eek. That's apparently about 40 higher than the highest the mission's ever had in that period of time, but if we do what the Lord has asked us we can achieve that and more. It was really invigorating and got us all really excited for the upcoming month.

After that, we went to lunch at Steak & Shake and took our food to Central Park and enjoyed seeing grass again, and then Elder Potter and I headed to my doctor’s appointment. After that, we did a survey based on the training we received in the morning, and then worked on the less active list for the ward, putting in our information and sorting out which ones we need to go visit again. Afterwards, we went out and did some lookups, then picked up my medication from a CVS pharmacy, and then came home for dinner.(more pasta).

Tuesday, it was Elder Potter's 21st birthday, so he'd received a large amount of balloons in the mail so we blew all those up, and then we did our studies. We then went and helped someone get out of a treatment center (they needed an escort to show up just for formality's sake, so we came and dropped by and got him to his bus), and then we got taken out by one of Elder Berryman's friends from back home to Max Brenner's again (so much chocolate, I had the mac and cheese and a caramel milkshake this time), and then we went over to the chapel to do some online proselyting (mainly planning online events, we got new training saying we're supposed to do about 3 per week, each focused on conversion, retention, and reactivation respectively and to have target audiences as opposed to kind of a blanket invitation), and then we went out and did some lookups (none of whom were home, one of which had moved, and so on).

We then went to dinner at the Smith's (the one who's grandfather's name was Ralph, don't think he's related though), and had some nummy pulled pork sandwiches as well as chocolate banana muffins (and they gave us bread made out of the same stuff, yumyumyum), and then we went to a place called Magnolia's Bakery (apparently super famous for its cupcakes), and we all had some red velvet cupcakes (we as in us and the zone leaders) (they were also quite rich and delicious and fluffy), and then we came home.

Today, we got up, did our laundry, then headed over to the temple (Elder Potter, since he's going home in a week, gets to go with all the other dying missionaries to a temple session with President and Sister Morgan, and then go out to lunch afterwards), so now I'm upstairs emailing!

Hope everything is going well for all of you, training calls are tonight (hope I'm not training), and we'll find out Saturday if I'm leaving/staying as well. Woohoo. I'll have hit 6 months as of next Wednesday too. It's so crazy to think that I've been out for this long already, I'll never get used to how fast time goes out here.

I heard about Max's call to Las Vegas Spanish, hope that goes well and congratulate him for me! Also got Papa's letter saying Jacob's call is pretty much on its way as well, so we'll see where he ends up.

Anyhow, talk to you all later!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 24: Stake conference and the Statue of Liberty

Hey everyone! Hope everything's been going well. Things have been pretty good over here, though weatherwise life has been strange. Anyhow, onto what I did this week.

After emailing, we went off to the park and played some frisbee stuff, had food, and so forth. We then went back to the temple and waited for Elder Potter to get out of his play (he went to go see the Broadway version of Les Miserables, since it's the end of his mission), and then came back to get changed. We then went out for groceries and came home for the night.

Thursday, we did our studies in the morning, and then went to 15th street chapel and had a lesson with Vlad. We then had lunch, and then did a bit of weekly planning, and then went to my doctor's appointment, and then we went to the Farnsworths for dinner. We then walked home from there (got a pretty good tour of the city in the process and talked to several people).

Friday, we did our studies, then went and had a lesson with Andre, and then had lunch, did a little online proselyting, and then had a lesson with a media referral named Stephanie. After her, we had a lesson with Joseph, and then we went home for dinner.

Saturday, we had studies and then went out with Andre and walked his dog with him while teaching him. He's given up on his Word of Wisdom breaking habits, so we asked him to pray about moving up his baptismal date! We then had an APF at Union Square where we talked to people about what they think of Easter and Christ. I got mildly sunburned (thankfully mildly), but it went pretty well. We then had the priesthood leadership and adult sessions of stake conference, and the stake presidency gave some good talks, as well as President and Sister Morgan. The visiting authority was Elder Gordon Smith of the 6th Quorum of the Seventy, and he was also formerly a US Senator from Oregon, so he had some pretty interesting and funny stories. After conference, we went home.

Sunday, we went to conference in the morning, and then we had lunch/correlation meeting at Bro. Barrett's apartment.  We then went to an appointment with Anthony and co. and talked with them about service and general conference, and then went home for dinner.

Monday, we did studies and had district meeting, lunch, and then a lesson with Vlad. We then went and did some less active lookups, and actually taught one whose name was Millie. We then trekked over to the west side to check out how we would get to the Statue of Liberty, and passed through a really pretty park to get there. It was also around 70 degrees so it was super nice out, which was fun. We then went home for dinner.

Tuesday, we headed down to the same place we were Monday night to pick up the tickets for going to the statue, and then went up to the 15th street chapel and did studies. After that, we had another lesson with Vlad, did some online proselyting, had lunch, met with the ASL and Spanish sisters, got mail, and then went to dinner at the Gibbons, after which we went home.

Today, we got up and headed to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which were both really cool and I took lots of pictures. I'll see if I can get to a computer to get those off at some point. Anyhow, hope you guys are having a great week and I'll talk to you later!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 23 - Fun with Justin, Jordan, and General Conference

Hey family! Hope everything is going well. Anyhow, onto my week.

So on Wednesday, after emailing we went to Chinatown and bought some fun looking fake designer glasses as an apartment, and then we went up to the temple to celebrate Sister Jensen's birthday. We then went off to Central Park and wandered around the southern part of it near what's called the Pool of Bethesda. We took lots of pictures, and then we went to our dinner appointment, which we were about 10 minutes late for and the member had already left, despite us calling him and saying we'd be a little late. Sigh. So Elder Potter and I ended up just going back to our house to have dinner.

Thursday, we studied, and then went to the church for our lesson with Vlad, and then after that started preparing materials for the APF we were doing that afternoon. We went as a district to a place called Tompkins Square Park and did some contacting there for about an hour and a half, then Elder Potter and I headed off to a lesson with Andre. On the way there, he called us and said he wasn't able to meet with us today, so we went over to a train station, and headed over to the west side for dinner. We got there a bit early, so we went to a nearby library and Elder Potter was able to help out with a Portuguese online event. We then went to dinner at a place called Blue Smoke (it's with the YSA member again), and had some barbecued stuff. We went from there to home.

Friday, we did our studies, and then went to the 15th street chapel and I went on a split with Elder Marshall. We then went back to the apartment and dropped off his stuff, and then went back to Union Square for lunch with (drumroll please) Justin Heftel! He's been doing well, is having fun at college, so it was great to see him and be able to talk with him. After lunch, we called some media referrals (and actually got an appointment with one!), and then went and checked to see if Karlyn and Aleta were home, which they weren't. We then went to dinner at Sis. Foreman's, and while we were there we got a call from President Morgan that there was someone in the CCU who needed a blessing, so we immediately went over there and gave her one. After that, we went home.

Saturday was fun, as we had general conference. We did studies, went and unsplit at the chapel, grabbed some lunch, and then went up to 87th to watch conference. I loved the talks, I have lots of notes that I'll send in a separate email just so you guys can see what stood out to me, but I think some of my favorite talks from Saturday were Elder Holland's, Elder Anderson's, Elder Hale's, Elder Zwick's, and pretty much all of priesthood session (poor Pres. Uchtdorf not getting to fly the President's plane). Watching conference here was interesting, since the times are 12-2, 4-6, 8-10 for the Saturday sessions, so Morning Session wasn't even in the morning and we got home super super late. Anyhow, in between morning(ish) and afternoon session, we watched the World Report as well as everything else they showed (they showed a cool video which talked about the testimony of John the Revelator, which was done by the same actors and such who did the Bible videos), and then in between afternoon and priesthood, we flew (I wish literally) down to the financial district for dinner with the Cannon's, and then ran back up to the chapel (thankfully not literally) with equal speed. After priesthood, we went home for the night.

Sunday, we got up and did our studies, then went off to conference. I liked a lot of the talks from the Sunday sessions as well, including pretty much all of Sunday morning, and President Packer's, Elder Corbridge's, and Elder Aidukaitis'. In between sessions, Sister Yamada made us lunch, so we stayed at the church and ate lunch with the people there. After conference, we went on a mini split with Elders Fronk and Longo because they had two places they needed to be at the same time, so Elder Longo and I went off to a dinner appointment with some of their members, and then we unsplit and went home.

Monday, I did nothing. Literally. As in, Elder Berryman was sick, there was zone meeting which Elder Kroff had to go to, and thus I was elected to stay home with Elder Berryman all day. I got some sleep in, read some of Jesus the Christ (again), watched pretty much every church movie in existence, slept some more, and so forth. Then towards the end of the day, I started getting sick. Whoopdeedoo.

Tuesday I was coughing up a storm, but we went out and did stuff anyhow, so we went to church at about noon to go pick up mail, had lunch, did some online proselyting, got weekly planning done, and then went to dinner at the Winder's, after which we came home.

K, so, a bit of a story. I think you guys have heard me talk about my friend Jordan before (the one from my group of friends at home). So, last P Day, I got an email from him! He was interested in how I was doing, and then started asking questions about what I do. This eventually led to him asking what we believe, so I gave a shortened version of the Restoration lesson, and then didn't hear back, so I wasn't sure whether he was just not interested or what. So, I got a reply at church yesterday, and he found it super interesting, but even cooler than that was this weekend, missionaries knocked on his door. While he was with a friend who's a member (who didn't refer him either). And they'd just happened to go back home to grab something when they stopped by. So yeah, he now has a Book of Mormon and wants me to keep teaching him, and I may get the opportunity to Skype into lessons when the missionaries over there do them. Super super super super super super cool!!!!!! He said he's been praying a lot in the last few months for guidance in his life, and it seems like he's taking this as his answer (which it is!). So yeah, fun stuff going on.

Today, we got up and did laundry, and then came here. Anyhow, hope you're having a good week, and I'll talk to you all next week!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 22 - Comings and Goings

So as you heard from me last week, I got a new companion named Elder Hansen. Well, as of Friday, Elder Hansen went home with medical issues. So anyhow, storytime I guess.

So, Wednesday we played basketball/ping pong at the church, thus why I had wifi for so late into the day, and then afterwards came home and changed, then went over to Alex's and taught him a little. We then had to run up to Roosevelt Island for dinner with Bro. Brown. After that, we took the tram over the river, and then went home.

Thursday, Elder Hansen and I got to talking and I found out that he's already been home and came back (due to his medical issues), so had originally come out December 2012, went home about March, and then came back in October. So that was the situation he was in, and recently he started having problems with it again. So we talked about that for a while, and then went and taught Vlad (didn't go quite as deep for once), and then afterwards had lunch with the ASL and zone leaders. We then traveled over and had a lesson with Andre, we read Ether 12 with him and had a super solid discussion about it. We then went and talked with the zone leaders about the problems that Elder Hansen has been having, and I had the opportunity to give him a blessing as well. We then went out and got supplies and groceries, and then came home and started ransacking the apartment to get it into better shape. We then had dinner and went to bed.

On Friday, President Morgan called, and told us that they'd be picking Elder Hansen up at 1:30 (it was about 11 at the time) to take him to the airport for a flight at 4. Welp. So we went back to the apartment, he started packing while I tried to find something to do. Anywho, Elder Hansen finished packing, then we talked for a little while, then the zone leaders came (they were my companions until my new one arrived), and then President and Sister Morgan pulled up and we loaded his stuff in and sent him on his merry way. We found out from President Morgan that my new companion would be Elder Potter (at least I know him), and that he'd arrive around 6. My only concern with being with him was that he goes home at the end of this transfer, meaning I'll probably stay here for yet another transfer. So after we sent Elder Hansen home, we went to teach a lesson to Njod (pronounced Najood), the zone leaders' soon-to-be convert. We then did a bit of online proselyting, and then went back to the apartment to wait for Elder Potter. He got here, we all talked for a bit, he unpacked a little, and then Elder Potter and I went to the chapel to go teach an online lesson to some people in Brazil (well, he taught and I gave input which he translated every once in a while), after which we came home.

Saturday, we did our studies and then went and helped with the Spanish Area Proselyting Focus (APF), which went pretty well. We were advertising for "Clase de Engles Gratis" (if that's how you spell it), and so we went tracting looking for Spanish people who didn't know English so that we could teach them English. Woo. We did that for several hours (oh, did I also mention that it was pouring rain the entire time), then met back at the 15th St chapel, went and got lunch, and then we went and did weekly planning (finally). We went from there back into the ever-increasing pouring rain to head to our dinner at Yolanda's. We ate too much food, and then came back home.

Sunday, we got up, did our studies (which now also include language studies for Elder Potter), then went off to ward council and talked about how the Spanish APF went. We then had church (fast Sunday shtuff), and then in Sunday School we talked about the Exodus, and then in third hour we were combined due to it being the 5th Sunday and we had a big group discussion on prayer. We then went upstairs and had lunch (Fletcher made us two loaves of bread, yumyumyumyumyumyumyum), and then we met up with the Hermanas and Elders Fronk and Longo and talked with them for a bit, then headed off to dinner at the Hanlon's. After that, we went home for the night. Oh, and it was my 5th month mark.

Monday, we did studies, and then went off to interviews with President Morgan, which went pretty well, and he told me that unless the Lord says otherwise, I'll be getting transferred at the end of this transfer, which'll be interesting. We also talked about how I'm doing, which was really great so that I could get a little of what I've been feeling off my chest. After interviews, we went to Steak and Shake for lunch, and then Elder Potter and I went down for a lesson with Andre. We talked with him about what had happened at church, and then helped emphasize the importance of prayer in overcoming temptations (since he wants to quit using certain things, and needs all the help he can get). After our lesson with him, we went to dinner at the Secrist's, and then went home.

Tuesday, we did studies, then went to district meeting, where we discussed the goals and plans our district should have. We then had lunch, and then had our interview with Elder Marshall. After that, we took Elders Fronk and Longo to go do service for Andre, as his apartment is super cluttered, so we helped him get stuff cleaned up a bit. We then called a bunch of referrals, and then stuck around for ASL class since it was happening right where we were, and then we went to dinner at the Egan's.

Today, we did laundry, and then studies, and then came here. So yeah, that's my week, things look like they'll calm down for a bit. We're going to go wander through Central Park as it's a super nice day today (high of 63!), so that'll be fun.

Anywho, hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you again later!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 21 - I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Be a Vegetarian!

So, Wednesday, after transfer meeting and whilst I was emailing, we went and got lunch. We then helped the Sisters with their luggage on the way back from transfers (Hermana Hoyos' suitcase I swear weighed over 100 pounds), came back to our apartment for a little bit, and then went to our appointment with Alex and broke the news to them that I had ended up staying. After that, we went home for the night and I got to meet Elder Berryman (the guy who came down to replace Higbee).

Thursday, we had studies, and then we were going to have a lesson with Vlad, but the internet went down at the church for about 2 hours, so that royally messed that up. We then met up with the zone leaders for lunch, and then did our weekly planning. After that, we went and met up with Alex again and played some basketball with him and some neighborhood kids, and then went to dinner at the Williams', and went to home from there. While we were home, we received a call from someone who we didn't know but who was registered in our phone as Andre. So anyhow, he asked us if we would be willing to come over on Saturday and visit him and of course we accepted (it's not very often that you get appointments handed to you on a silver platter like that).

Friday, we did studies, and then were supposed to have a lesson with David (the blind guy), but when we got to his complex, he wasn't there, and he wouldn't respond to calls, so we kinda stayed around for a little bit just to make sure he wasn't there and taught his doorman Brian in the process and left him with a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. We went from there to an interview with Sisters Roberts and Matthews (Sister Matthews is 6'2", super duper tall), and then we went out to Union Square and did some contacting based on asking people to write down things that they were grateful for. I was pretty much universally rejected except by this one little old lady named Lisa who felt sorry enough for me to talk to me. We then went down to Chinatown for our dinner at a restaurant called "Vegetarian World" (a lot of promise in that name right there) as Hermana Hoyos is a vegetarian. Let's just say that that restaurant traumatized me out of any chance that existed of me becoming a vegetarian. It was literally the worst meal I've had yet on my mission, everything just tasted awful (even the stuff that I thought that was more on the safe side, like broccoli, I have no idea what they did to it) and most everything had the strangest (strange in a bad way) consistency. So that was a delightful meal of turnip cakes, mock ham, spring rolls, tofu, and more. Sigh. Afterwards, we went home and hoped we wouldn't die overnight.

Saturday, we did personal study, and then went to correlation meeting (Bro. Barrett was surprised to see me around), and talked even more about the Spanish Area Proselyting Focus. He then took us to lunch at Chipotle (I'm still not a fan of Mexican food), and then we went back to the church for our online event, which turned out to be us just teaching Isaac since he was the only one to show up. After that, we went down to the financial district to go see Andre (the guy who called on Thursday, and then proceeded to call us Friday and Saturday to make sure we were still coming as well), and we got to meet with him. He used to be in the Marines, is 53, and was being taught last summer by missionaries, and even had a baptismal date, but had a family emergency that he pretty much had to drop everything and go help with so it fell through, and then lost contact with the Elders due to that. He was super ready for us to come though, he wanted to read from the Book of Mormon with us (we read 2 Nephi 31, which he said he'd read before and liked), and then he asked us if he could be baptized on June 15. Blink blink. He also asked us about the addiction recovery program, due to having troubles with coffee, tea, and cigarettes. We barely had to even bring up anything, this guy was so ready. We set appointments with him for Tuesday and Thursday, and then went off to help the Engs disassemble and reassemble a loft bed. They then bought us pizza, which we took home and shared with the zone leaders.

Sunday, we did our studies, and then went to the 15th street chapel so Elder Jensen could interview one of the ASL Elder's baptismal candidates. We then went to church (boy, was everyone surprised to see me). Alex and Joseph were there, and sacrament meeting focused on family history. We then went and made a new dinner calendar, and then helped Bro. Webb fill up the baptismal font (one of his kids just turned 8). We went to priesthood after that, and then went to the baptism. It went really well, and the Webbs had actually invited one of their non-member neighbors to come with their kid, so we got to talk with them. Her name is Joy, and she loved it and was very touched by the love she felt there. Her son fell in love with the chorus from "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" and wants his family to sing it every morning and evening. It was really cool. Afterwards we traveled down to the Myres' for dinner, and then came home.

Monday morning we had our studies, and then went to district meeting, had lunch, and then went off to Elder Jensen's doctor's appointment. He filled out some insurance forms and stuff, and then he went into the appointment while I sat around and twiddled my thumbs. The doctor said that there was nothing wrong with his knees and that there was nothing that he could do to help. Great. So we called President Morgan and told him what the doctor said, and President Morgan decided that the best idea would be to transfer Elder Jensen upstate. So we, innocently thinking this meant we'd find out where he'd be going in the next few days and then leave after that point, went on with our business and went down to the 15th street chapel and met up with the Hermanas to go to dinner. While we were there, we got a call from one of the APs telling Elder Jensen where he was going, and that he'd be leaving the next day, and that I'd be getting an Elder Hansen. Well. Um. Yeah. SO we went to dinner, and then came home to pack.

Tuesday, we got up and did laundry, then finished packing up Elder Jensen, and then went with the Zone Leaders to the temple and met up with the APs and sent Elder Jensen on his merry way. We then went to an appointment with one of their members and talked about patriarchal blessings, and then went to meet up with Jason. We found out that he's moving on the 5th to South Carolina. Great. We then went back to the apartment, where the APs dropped off Elder Hansen about 20 minutes after we got there. We helped him unpack, and then went to Taco Bell for dinner.

Today, we did our studies, and then came here. We're planning on heading up to the chapel for some basketball/ping pong, and then going and getting groceries and such, and then have a lesson with Alex and dinner with Bro. Brown on Roosevelt Island.

So yeah, fun week.  Sigh.  So, also, I feel pretty guilty having you people send all these letters and I keep forgetting to respond to them, so I'll respond to the latest ones now (at least some of the stuff that was brought up).

So, I was not near the buildings that exploded in Harlem, we live down in the Lower East Side (the corner of East 6th Street and Avenue D), so don't worry, I'm still here! Yeah, it was gas explosions.

Glad to hear most everything is going well on the homefront (hope the car stops being weird and that the new apartments don't cause too much trouble, thanks for the map but I remembered the spot). To address Papa's, I've actually been in contact a little with Justin Heftel and we're seeing if there's a time that he could come down to the city and hang out sometime. He lives up near where my almost new area was, at least in the same stake.

Sounds like you all have been having fun. Hope you have a great week!

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 20 - Transfer time! But wait. . . .

Hi, people. Hope everything is going well for everyone. So, I'm going to go with what I wrote originally, so you don't have to worry about anything yet.  

"So, I guess this should be news to all of you, but I got transferred. Elder Jensen got a training call on Wednesday night, so I knew I was going somewhere at that point, but didn't find out where I was ending up until Saturday night (meanwhile I was super impatient about finding out where I was going). So, I'll tell you where I ended up at that point mwahahahahaha I'LL MAKE YOU ALL WAIT.

Ahem. anyhow, Wednesday, after emailing we went to the 9/11 memorial again and enjoyed that, and after that . . . it apparently wasn't particularly significant so I think we next went to Alex and read with him as well as helped him with his English.  We then went home and started planning and then the phone rang with the caller ID of "Mission Office," so Higbee and Kroff came running out of their room while Jensen picked up the phone. "Hi President!" "I sure hope that you're wanting to talk to Elder Smith." ". . . Well, ok then."  So yeah, I'm not training, but he is! So then I started getting super anxious about where I was ending up.

Thursday, we had studies, and then had a lesson with David (the blind less-active guy), and found out that he suffered from a stroke at one point, which led to him losing his sight as well as some memory loss. He's actually an endowed member, but has forgotten most everything that's happened and a lot of the gospel-related stories and some doctrine. So that'll be the missionaries’ job for a while, helping him to relearn what he already knew. We left there, and then started on our way to the 15th street chapel, and we talked to a lady named Dina along the way and got her phone number at least. We then got to the chapel and did our weekly planning, and then went out and played basketball with Alex up at 87th. We then trekked back down, had dinner, and then went home.

Friday, we got up at 5:00 (blech), and left by 6 to head up to Harlem to split with Elders Rutland and Kia (Elder Jensen needed to go with someone to the trainer's meeting, and Elder Kia was the closest one), so we did that. Elder Rutland is going home tomorrow (he's all done with his 2 years), so it was fun being able to be with him relatively close to when he was leaving. He's super nice and funny, so it was an enjoyable experience. We had studies together, and then went to a lesson with Vlad (poor Elder Rutland), and then we went to two lunch appointments back to back (so much foooood), and then we came back down to the West Side of Manhattan and visited one of his converts, then went to an appointment at a McDonalds, then met back up with Elders Jensen and Kia. We then went over to the Winders for dinner, and then went home.

Saturday, we had personal study and then went to correlation meeting (guess what we talked about). We then went over to our lesson with Anthony and broke the news to them that I was leaving (Norka was NOT happy), and then we took a little bit of a break because Elder Jensen's knees are killing him (hereditary knee problems aggravated by the walking/stair climbing, he may have to go home for scans and stuff as we found out yesterday), and then we went over to the 15th street chapel to interview Sisters Jensen and Roberts. After that, we went down to dinner at the Bennions, and then came home. Once we were home, we found out where everyone was going. I'll start off with other people first (make you wait even longer bwahahahaha), anyhow, Elder Higbee got released as a zone leader (he's been one for over a year) and is “whitewashing” (aka both he and his companion are new to the area) in Monticello, a podunct little town at the opposite end of the mission, and he'll also be teaching English to a freshly trained missionary from Spain named Elder Lopez (thank heavens that wasn't me). Sister Jensen (not Hermana) is being sent up to Harlem, and Hermana Laititi is getting sent to Grand Concourse in the Bronx. Ok, that covers pretty much everyone I've ever talked about, so onto me. I'm going up to New Rochelle (the place that Elder Jensen just was) to be with Elder Jessee, who is actually younger in the mission than I am (he just finished training, and he was trained by Elder Kroff). So this'll be fun. I'll talk more about it once I'm actually there though!

Anyhow, Sunday we had studies, then went to church, went to ward council, then both Elder Jensen and I got to bear our testimonies in sacrament meeting. We then went to Sunday School, and then to Priesthood. We also helped a little bit in Primary, as they were having a lesson on missionary work and they used us kind of as an object lesson, and had us answer questions. It was pretty fun. After church, we went to the mini correlation meeting that we have, and then interviewed the Hermanas. We then went to the Kell's (Sister Kell and her husband are German!), and their oldest daughter is about to leave for her mission in Santa Rosa, California (Spanish speaking). We then traveled home.

Monday, we had a district breakfast of chocolate chip waffles with Nutella, whipped cream, strawberries, syrup, and so forth (yum). We then had district meeting, which was about how we can receive help from prayer and such. We then had lunch and took pictures as a zone, and then we went over to Norka's to say goodbye and get fed one more time (sheesh), took some pictures there, and then went from there back home to start cleaning the apartment and packing. We did that for a while, and then went to dinner at the Dickens' (they made some homemade sort of spaghetti Bolognese tasting sauce over big spinach ravioli along with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, it was soooooo good), and then we came home.

Tuesday, we got up, did our studies, packed some more, did laundry and then packed that, and then Elder Jensen had some back and forth calls between himself and President Morgan over his knees (Elder Jensen has pretty bad knees), and then we met up with the Hermanas and went to dinner at the Gibbons'."

OK, so now that you've read what I had originally, here's what occurred last night. So, last night, we got a call from President Morgan. Elder Jensen has an appointment for his knees on Monday of next week. After they prayed about the situation, the decision was made that I'm remaining in the area for at least another 6 weeks if not longer. Elder Jensen is no longer training, Elder Jessee is receiving his trainee, and if Elder Jensen has to go home, I get Elder Filoso from the ASL program. So basically, everything just got thrown in a blender. Sigh. So sorry to kinda fake you guys out with the beginning of the email, I was just too lazy to rewrite the entire thing.

So, hope you all have a good week, so I'll talk to you all later.

Elder Ralph Smith

Week 19 - Busy, busy

[Here is the e-mail we got from Ralph last Wednesday.]

Hey everyone! Hope everything has been going well.

So last week after I finished writing, we went off to Times Square and did some shopping at H&M, Toys R Us, Hershey's World and other assorted locations (well, other missionaries shopped, I only bought a couple of things), so yeah. We did that for foreeeeeever, then went back downtown to visit with Alex, and then we went and got groceries and dinner and then came home and ate, loaded up the fridge, and so forth.

Thursday, we did studies, then had lunch, then we did weekly planning, and then had the interview with Sisters Jensen and Roberts. We then did a little online proselyting, went out for dinner, and then went home.

Friday, we did our studies, went to the chapel and had lunch, and then had a lesson with Vlad (swum a little less deep than usual into doctrine). We then went out and did some lookups, tried visiting Aleta (the Christian Scientist we visited back in January), and a couple other media referrals, but no one was home. Whilst we were traveling around, we ran into this man named Grahambell who we talked to and taught for a bit, and said we were free to come back and contact anytime. We then went to the 15th St. chapel to meet up with the zone leaders for contacting. After that we went out contacting in Union Square (I went with Elder Higbee), and we just went around the Square talking to people and giving out Books of Mormon. We actually ran into some members from Gilbert, Arizona (the place where the newest temple was just dedicated), and they gave us money for dinner!!! That was super nice, because we didn't have a dinner that night either. We also managed to give out around 6 Books of Mormon, and more pass-along cards, so that was really great. We also got a new investigator from it (her name is Cindy)! We then went back to the chapel and had an online event on baptism, which Jason came to (the cancer patient I mentioned last week), so it went really well. We then went to dinner (McDonald's for life), and then went home.

Saturday, we had correlation meeting in the morning in which we discussed moving the Spanish work forward again for the umpteenth time. We then had lunch and did some online proselyting, and then went and visited with Jason. We got there a little late, so we didn't have too long with him, but we got to talk to him about the online event, see how he was doing, and so on. We then went uptown to the temple for a baptism (Schneider & Steiner's), and then went back over to the east side for dinner with Bro. Russell. After that, we went home (with lots of Chinese leftovers).

Sunday, WE HAD DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME WHICH IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE MY POOR AMOUNTS OF SLEEP, and then we had studies, and then went to lunch at the Yamada's (bacon, fruit, the most amazing homemade muffins I have ever had the pleasure of devouring, etc.), and then we went to church. Anthony, Norka, and Alex were all there. Elder Jensen and I went to go pick up David from the train station (the blind less active who was Kim's friend), and we got him in just as they started passing the sacrament, so he was super happy. He also got to meet Bishop Yamada, and we're getting his records transferred to our ward. We then went to Sunday school (Anthony and company actually stayed for the first time!), so Norka went to the Spanish class with the Sisters, and Anthony and Alex came with us to Gospel Principles. We had to take David back to the station in the middle though since he lives in a care center that either doesn't let him be out too long, he has to be back by a certain time, or something like that. We then went back to church pretty much just in time for priesthood, and then Anthony picked me to give him the Aaronic Priesthood. The spirit was so strong, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to do that for him. Norka then invited us over for dinner (which was really nice since we didn't have a dinner that night due to lunch), so after we had a mini correlation meeting and then an interview with the Hermanas, we went over and had some spaghetti and got to talk with them. We then went home for the night, and had happy happy number collecting. We taught 14 lessons that week! That's the highest we've been at for a long time, so we were super grateful for how The Lord had blessed us.

Monday, we had personal study, and then had district meeting (it was on Prayer), and then we had lunch. After that, we helped the Hermanas get a calendar established (Bro. Barrett wants a 3 month calendar from us, it's very strange planning for things when you might not even be there anymore), and then did some online proselyting, and then went out to Union Square again and did some more contacting. We gave out 5 Books of Mormon in half an hour. Yeesh. It went super duper well, and it was very warm out so there were lots of people out and about. We then traveled up to 47th St. and had dinner with the Daytons (which was filled with far less awkward silence than our last dinner, not sure why), and they gave us ICE CREAM YAAAAAAAAAY. Ahem, Anyhow, we then went home.

Tuesday, we did our studies, then went to the church to do some online proselyting, and then went and picked up our mail (nothing for me this week).We then went out and did another Kindness Cards Area Proselyting Focus in Union Square (like the one we did in Decemberish), though I only talked to one person for an hour and a half. His name was Donald, and he was quite the talker, and also happened to be a theologian (man, I just have a way to pick them don't I, professors of religion, pagan druids, sheesh), and so we talked a lot about the Bible, stuff from the Apocrypha (good heavens), and the Book of Mormon, and I ended up teaching the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Gospel of Jesus Christ. He also gave me a really cool quote from a New York Pulitzer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, that went something like this: "We are duty-bound to consider our notions of who and what God and the devil are to us." It was pretty profound in the way that he explained it, as he talked about how important it is to consider and remember who God and Satan are, and how acknowledging that both exist is something that we should all do, especially as the devil is trying to convince people that both don't exist. It was a really cool discussion, and he's a sailor so he's been pretty much all over the world, and was heading back to Istanbul for the second or third time next week. We left him with our information, he says maybe we'll see him in the park again sometime, since he's gone for most of the time. So after that, we went back to the church and put in the lessons we had, and then went to the Runyon's for dinner. After that, we went home.

Today, we did our laundry, and then trekked up to the Temple to eventually meet with Elders Longo and Fronk and then head down to the 9/11 memorial again. We also have a lesson with Alex, so we'll see how that goes.

Hope that you all are doing well, and hope you all have a good week!

Week 18 - Fun Stuff

[Here is Ralph's e-mail from last Wednesday.]

Hey everyone! Hope you all are doing well. It's been pretty cold these last few days, but it's supposed to warm up soon (thankfully).

So anyhow, last week after we got done with emailing, we went to that rec center place which had ping pong tables, pool tables, and a golf simulator (and a gym which we didn't use yet), so we spent a lot of time there just playing around. After that, we went shopping and also stopped by a McDonald's to help us find stuff via the wifi (Shamrock Shake season has started, yum). We then went from shopping back home super quickly, as we had to change out of our everyday clothes into our white shirts and ties, and then went quickly back to the train station after that. It was SUPER COLD as the wind was just awful, so we did our best not to freeze to death. We then hopped on the train to go to Roosevelt Island to meet with Bro. Brown for dinner, and it was even colder on the island. We finally got to the restaurant he was taking us out to, and we got to talk with him and his kids while we ate. We then went back to the same train station that we'd been at earlier and made the trip between it and home for the third time that day (all of which we were speedwalking, blech), and then we got home for the night.

Friday we did studies, then went to the 14th St. chapel for some online proselyting, and then we had an interview with Sisters Jensen and Roberts. We then went out for a small lunch, then raced uptown to get to a hospital to give a lady a blessing. She had just had surgery to have a pacemaker installed, so it was mainly to help out with her recovery. We then went from there (about 68th St. on the east side), all the way down to the west side of the financial district for dinner, so pretty much the opposite corner of Manhattan. We got taken out to dinner with our roommates by the member in their ward, and we went to a restaurant called The Palm. Apparently it's pretty famous. So for appetizers we had kalimari, bacon wrapped scallops, and mussels of some sort. We also had a variety of soups (I had the best chicken corn chowder to have ever walked the face of this earth, I'll never be able to eat the one from a can again), as well as some lobster macaroni and cheese. Then, for dinner, I had what was termed a "14 oz. Prime New York Cut" of steak with béarnaise sauce. The others had chicken parmigiana and filet mignon. We then had cheesecake for dessert. Anyhow, after having yet another one of the best meals of our lives, we went home.

Saturday, we had personal study, then went off to ward correlation meeting at 10. We mainly discussed how to get the Spanish work moving forward (seems to be all we talk about these days), and then we had a zone "learning how to better contact people" activity, which pretty much involved twenty thousand role plays with other missionaries. We then went out to lunch at Chipotle with Bro. Barrett, and then went back to church and did some online proselyting. We then proceeded to call an army of media referrals, potential investigators, less actives, and others to see if they were interested in being taught, anything they needed, and so on. We then went back to our apartment (the Hermanas had an appointment on Avenue D so we just went back there with them) and we did a few more calls. Once their appointment finished, we went down to the Bennion's together for dinner, and the Seacrests were also there (other members of our ward), so we talked with them for a while. Afterwards, we went home.

Sunday we studied, then went to church (oh, and we were fasting), and then we went to Sunday school (lesson was on the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham), and then we went to Priesthood. Some fun stuff I discovered at church, so you remember that one guy I told you the conversion story of? The one who lived off of pears for a month? Guess where he's from. SPOKANE!!!! Guess what stake he's in? OURS. Guess what ward he's in? Ok, not ours, but he's in Greenbluff and was baptized 4 1/2 years ago. So if Papa wants to tell whoever the Bishop of the Greenbluff ward was at that time that I've met a Fletcher Macbeth in New York, he might remember him. Also, our Sunday School President (Bro. Smith) came up to me today and said that he just realized that my first name was Ralph via Facebook, and told me his middle name is Ralph and his father and grandfather's names were Ralph Smith. Fun stuff. So after church we had a mini correlation meeting, and then we had an interview with the Hermanas, and then we went to dinner with the Price's. We then came home and had our happy happy numbers night. That also involved a hug between me and Elder Higbee turning into a wrestling match on our couch (that was fun).

Monday, we did personal study and then went off to zone meeting, where we focused a lot on how our trials help to make us stronger, and how prayer is one of the best tools we can use to both receive revelation and to be able to receive strength and comfort. After that, we had lunch, and then we went off and taught Isaac (read some more out of Preach My Gospel from the Book of Mormon chapter), and then we had a lesson with a man named Jason. He is/was an investigator of Higbee and Kroff, but since he's not YSA they're passing him off to us. He's 50, from Africa (not sure which part), and is currently going through treatments for cancer. We talked with him for a while, he's super funny and has a really positive attitude despite the fact that he's in nearly constant pain between the cancer and its treatment, it's really cool to see how he can still be so positive despite all the problems he has. After our lesson with him, we hauled ourselves all the way uptown to 70th St. (being pretty much at negative 3rd St. beforehand) and had dinner with the Smiths (the one I talked about on Sunday). We then went all the way back downtown to home for the night.

Tuesday, we had studies (oh, just so you know what I'm studying, I've read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, part of Joshua, the book of Moses and the book of Abraham, as well as additional study for our investigators and parts of the Book of Mormon just to fulfill the "read the Book of Mormon every day" challenge), and then we went to the church and did some online proselyting. We then helped the office elders to bring in all the mail, I got a letter from Mama, Oma, and then the package from Mama as well, so I read through all of those. We then had a lesson with Vlad (question of the week is why there is no beginning and no end, and how come no one in Outer Darkness will ever have the desire to change and if God is so merciful why can't he let them, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah), so always a learning experience. After Vlad, we went to lunch/interviews with the ZLs, and then went back to church and set up our online event. We then went to dinner at the Soffe's (Bro. Soffe and Bro. Ford are business partners in the photography business), and then we came home.

Today, we got up early for laundry, had some weird game of tag involving throwing a sports shirt at one another whilst running around the apartment, and then traveled up to here! So today Elder Jensen wanted to go shopping some more, so I'll probably just be window shopping most of the time. Then we have a lesson with Alex, then dinner, then back to home. Not too much going on, but hey, such is life. It's weird to think that I've almost been with Elder Jensen an entire transfer already (I mean, it's already only a week until training calls again). Time is flying so fast!

Anywho, I guess I'll talk to y'all next week, and hope everyone has a great week!  

Week 17 - conferences are nice

[Here is Ralph's e-mail from last Thursday.]

Hey everyone! Hope everything has been going well.

This week was pretty average. After emailing last week, we went to teach Alex, and Norka gave us dinner (it was big sub sandwiches with like, three sausages in them with an interesting mix of onions and bell peppers as well, it was good), and then after that we went home.

Thursday we did our studies, then went out and had a lesson with Vlad over Skype (he still asks super deep questions and I'm learning a lot just by studying specifically for the things that he keeps asking us about). Then we had lunch, then we started weekly planning. We did some online proselyting mixed in as well, then traveled to the temple to prepare for the family history Area Proselyting Focus that was going on (basically inviting people in to come discover their ancestors, it was really successful), so that was fun. Then we went over to Brother and Sister Harns' for dinner, they were really cool and it was fun to talk with them and they also made us some very tasty food! I'll have some stories to tell once I get back that they told us, some of them are a little outlandish for telling at the moment (long, whatever, I just felt like using outlandish). We then went home.

Friday, we studied and then went to the 15th street chapel to do some online proselyting and to set up our online event. We then had lunch/interviews with Sisters Jensen and Roberts (it was also Sister Jensen's birthday, so we pseudo-celebrated that as well. We then did some lookups of referrals, then went back to 15th chapel and had a lesson with Joseph about the Melchizedek Priesthood, then did our groceries (finally) and then came home for dinner. Elder Jensen decided to have a tuna sandwich (the monster), and so he pulled the tuna out of our cupboards . . . only to discover the best by dates on the cans were 2009 and 2011. He ate it anyhow after praying over it for 5 minutes. I, on the other hand, passed. He's still alive so I guess it couldn't have been too awful.

Saturday correlation meeting got bumped to Sunday afternoon, so we got to do studies (I've been on a conference talk binge). We then went and dropped by Marcus as well as a referral, but neither were home, so then we went to Anthony's for lunch. We taught him about the priesthood as he was getting the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday. We then had a lesson with Kim (the blind lady we met with on Tuesday), and the lesson was super amazing. We taught about the Restoration, and she was so ready to agree with everything, and then told us she'd even prayed about the church and had received the answer that it would be what was right for her. The spirit was super strong the whole lesson, and then Elder Jensen and I bore our testimonies and we were all blubbering like babies the whole time (I inherited Papa's weepyness). Sadly, she's moving to Brooklyn next week (ugh, why does she have to go to the South mission, the missionaries there are pretty disreputable according to pretty much everyone), so we'll probably teach her one more time. I don't doubt that she'll be baptized, here's just hoping that the missionaries in Brooklyn actually do something with her. We then went from her lesson to the 15th street chapel to do some online proselyting as well as to meet with the Hermanas to go together to give a less active Spanish sister a blessing. We then went from there to go do lookups, but as usual nobody was home. We then went and got dinner, and then came home.

Sunday we got to do studies, then we went to the Yamada's for lunch (brunch really, since we ate crepes with nutella, strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream, bananas, etc.), and then we went to ward council, then had church. Nobody from our teaching pool showed up for various reasons, so we got to enjoy a Sunday school lesson on Sodom and Gommorah and some of the details about it. Priesthood was good as well, and we learned about things that distract us from living Christlike lives. We then had ward correlation with all the ward missionaries there (that's a first), and then we had an interview with the Hermanas, then had our online event (people actually showed up this time!!!) We then went home and had dinner.

Monday we did personal study, then went off to district meeting and learned about recognizing the Spirit. We had lunch, then we did some online proselyting as well as worked on our talks for zone conference the next day (not that we were necessarily giving a talk, but since it's a random picked out of the audience sort of affair, then we needed to have talks prepared). We then went to dinner at the Egans (pretty sure no relation to ours), and then we went home (we do that a lot).

Tuesday we got up at 5:30 (blech), so that we could be ready and at the temple by 7:30 to set up for zone conference later that day, then we had breakfast (bagels with homemade chocolate chip cream cheese [I love Sister Morgan]), and then zone conference started. President Morgan started off the conference with how we need to work on becoming more consecrated as missionaries. We then got to hear from Elder and Sister Aldous, Elder Aldous being the mission doctor, so he talked about how we need to be healthy in order to be able to then focus on missionary work, and the main points mostly involved not doing completely idiotic things on P day so we don't kill ourselves. Sister Aldous talked about how to make sure our feet don't get entombed in fungi (always an entertaining subject). We then heard from Elder Kerr and Elder Passmore (the APs), Elder Kerr talking about how we need to focus on consecration as a companionship, while Elder Passmore spoke on how we can't straddle the line between the mission and home, and that we just need to lay everything on the altar of sacrifice and come completely into the mission. We then heard from 2 Elders (one being Elder Jensen and not me!!!!!), 2 Sisters and a Sister from a senior couple, who all spoke on how they personally are working towards becoming consecrated missionaries. We then had a talk from Sister Morgan, who talked about the blessings of turning to The Lord and focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We then had some breakout sessions, the first one being with the APs and how to conduct inspired online events, and then the latter being spearheaded by one of the senior couples on how to help investigators with family history. We then all went to lunch (sandwiches!), then we gathered together for one last talk from President Morgan on holding nothing back (from Acts 4-5). Once that was all over, it was 5 o'clock, so we just did a little online proselyting and then went to dinner at the Foreman's (the place I went to on my first night in the field!) We then went home after that.

Wednesday was NOT P day (sadness), we had personal study, went and tried to visit Kim before she moved but the care center she lives (lived rather) in is goofy so they wouldn't let us up because apparently blind women in wheelchairs can be too busy packing to have five minutes to say goodbye. Anyhow, we then went to the church and had a lesson with Vlad (the deep question he asked for this week was what sort of position are we as Christians supposed to take in wars, pacifism or whatnot, it's complex, this ranks among his questions such as the need for both the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods, why the Aaronic Priesthood was not done away with along with the Mosaic Law, why we use water instead of wine [and if we are allowed to use anything, why don't we use wine], why blacks didn't receive the Priesthood until 1978 or whatever when Joseph Smith was giving them the Priesthood, and so forth *Ralph goes and sobs in a corner over having to think too much for this man*) SO ANYHOW, we then had lunch, did weekly planning, then went to Alex and read Book of Mormon stories, and then went to the Sorensons for dinner, they've been to Mittenwald because Bro. Sorenson served there (or near enough to visit it when he came back to Germany to visit) at one point on his mission, so that was fun to talk about. After that, we went home.

Today, we got up and did laundry, then cleaned up the apartment a bit, then came here! Today we're going to a rec center our member has to have some fun, then we have a dinner with the Browns.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Week 16 - Baptism!

[Here is Ralph's e-mail from last week.]

Hola people! Everything this week has gone very very well!!!

Last Wednesday we went back to the natural history museum, and explored and took more pictures and stuff like that. We then had a lesson with Alex, dinner at the Kunzlers, and then we went home.

Thursday we had a lesson with Vlad in the morning (he is super mentally exhausting to try to teach, he asks really deep questions), then had weekly planning, tried to have our online event again (no one showed up, bleh), and then we ate dinner and went home.

Friday we had another lesson with Vlad in the morning (my braaaaaaaain) - Happy Valentines Day - went to lunch/interview with sisters Roberts and Jensen, then we went to Marcus who wasn't home AGAIN, and then had a lesson with Joseph, then had dinner and went home.

Saturday was exciting!!!!! We went to Elder Higbee and Kroff's baptism, which Elder Potter came back down to see. Then we did all the preparations like making programs, filling the font, getting clothes, etc. Elder Wang and Elder Porter both came down for the baptism (Elder Porter is Elder Wang's new companion if I hadn't said), and I got to baptize Anthony!!!! The baptism went super well, the water was actually warm (woohoo), and the speakers were great and there was a good turnout. It was all around so great. The spirit was practically thick as pea soup, it was easily one of the best experiences of my life. We were all just so happy, especially Anthony. We then went to Anthony's for dinner with the Hermanas and celebrated in a sense. We then went to the Bennions for second dinner (we will be super fat if we keep getting fed like that). Then we went home.

Sunday was pretty great as well, Anthony got confirmed by Elder Jensen, and is receiving the priesthood next Sunday! He wore a white shirt and tie for the first time as well! The rest of church went pretty well, and then we had an interview with the Hermanas, then did some online proselyting, then went home for dinner and numbers and stuff.

Monday we went to district meeting, then we went on a split and I got to go with Elder Kroff. We wrote up a letter for Anthony to take to work so that his boss wouldn't fire him since his boss didn't believe we existed and that the baptism was just an excuse of why he didn't come to work. So yeah. We then we went to deliver that to him, and then Norka stuffed us with dinner. We then went to dinner at the Deans (too many double dinners, aiieeee), and then we went home.

Tuesday we did studies, finished our split, and then took a nap because Elder Jensen was feeling super sick. We then went to an appointment with a blind less active named David, who when we went to the center he lived, as we walked by him he called out to us. Just confirming, this man is blind. He knew we were there. That was weird. Anyhow, he took us to another room where we could talk, and he brought in his friend, who is also blind and in a wheelchair whose name is Kim and is not a member, She was very interested in the church, so we're visiting her again on Saturday! After that, we went and gave a blessing to Isaac because he's super sick at the moment, and taught him as well. We then went to a dinner at Yanilsa's (primarily a Soanish speaker) and the Hermanas were 20 minutes late, so that made for a great lack of conversation. The food was great though!

Today, we went and got haircuts, and then we had zone Olympics with a bunch of events like leap frogging, catching whipped cream, scripture quizzes, and a few other things. Elder Jensen and I won!!!! That was what we were doing all afternoon, thus why I wasn't writing much. Then we played some volleyball, and now I'm here! We're going to Alex tonight, and Norka is planning on feeding us, so that'll be fun.

Anyhow, hope you guys had a great week, and see you later!

Week 15 (week 14 didn't really exist)

[Here is Ralph's e-mail from last Wednesday.]

Hi everyone! Sorry about the big phooey last week that prevented me from being able to write you guys! Not too much important stuff happened that week (let's just go with that).

So last Wednesday was when we kinda just sat around hoping transfers would happen, but they got postponed till Thursday, so we went from the temple to dinner at the Dickens', which was really nice.

Thursday we went up to Inwood for transfers, and since transfers had been delayed, there wasn't really a transfer meeting, it was just a "here's your new companion, go back to work," sort of affair, so that was fun. We had several appointments lined up, but transfer meeting kind of quashed a couple of them, then one guy completely dropped us and hasn't responded since (a guy we met and started teaching during the nonexistent week), so we went to church and did some online proselyting. We then had yet another appointment cancel on us and get delayed till next Tuesday. Bleh. We then did our weekly planning, then had a lesson with Joseph, and then we had dinner and went home.

Friday we had a lesson on Skype with Vlad (the guy from Usinsk, Russia that we've been teaching after he reached out to Elder Wang because he lives 2000 miles from the nearest chapel), and we taught the Restoration.

We then met with the APs and they fixed my iPad!!! That was nice. Then mail arrived, and so we helped distribute that and met with the sisters and set up our online event and stuff. We then went back to our apartment to work on stuff (cards, unpacking, etc.), then we went to dinner, then had a lesson with Isaac, then we went home.

Saturday we had correlation meeting with Bro. Barrett in the morning, then helped out with the hermanas' online event, the went over to Anthony/Norka's and finished teaching him the rest of the commandments (10 commandments, law of chastity, word of wisdom, and tithing all in one lesson, phew), and then committed him to keeping all of them. Norka is deadset on fattening us up, so she keeps giving us massive amounts of food. Oof. I have never eaten so much in my life. After that we went to go visit Marcus, but he still wasn't around. We then went to finalize what we were doing for our online event, and then we went to the Webbs for dinner.

Sunday was good, Elder Jensen did his first baptismal interview as a district leader for Elder Higbee and Kroff's investigator, while I went to ward council and reported on Anthony. His baptism is set for this Saturday, so we had a lot to get ready. We then had church (Anthony, Norka, Alex, and Isaac came!), and we had an Area Seventy visiting named Elder Jeffrey Olson. I got to talk with him a little bit before the meetings (not realizing he wasn't just some random visitor since he was just standing in the foyer), and we talked about how our work was going between iPads and regular work and stuff. He gave a great talk in sacrament on service, and how one of our baptismal covenants is to serve others. I really enjoyed it. Anthony got to meet with Bishop Yamada in the second hour, and Bishop talked to him about the priesthood. We started to outline the baptismal program, and then we went to priesthood, which was on faith. We then went to Anthony and Norka's again after church to go through the interview questions with him to help get him ready, and then practiced the baptizing motions with him. We'll see how it works out, and he wants me to baptize him!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited and I'm so happy for him making this decisions till and just AHHHHHHH SO MUCH HAPPY! Anyhow, we stayed there for most of the evening between getting stuffed and doing baptism stuff, so we went home after that.

Monday we had Anthony's baptismal interview at 8:30 so we could get it done before he went for work and before we had district meeting, and Elder Kroff interviewed him. Anthony passed! Norka also fixed us breakfast (I'm legitimately surprised I'm not like 20 pounds heavier than last week), and then we went to district meeting. We then had lunch, wrote up some pass along cards, did a little street contacting and lookups, went to dinner, then went home.

Yesterday, we had studies in the morning, went to go do mail pickup in the afternoon as well as give Sister Laititi another blessing, then we went to go deliver some hair cutting stuff to Elder Schneider, then we went and did our online event (but since no one but Isaac showed up, we just taught him), and then we went to the hospital to go give an older lady a blessing. She was the grandmother of the little girl we gave a blessing to on the Sunday of the week that didn't exist. We then came home from there.

Today, we did our laundry and came out here to email, and then we're going to the museum of natural history, and have an appointment with Alex and then dinner with the Kunzlers.

Hope everything is going well, it's kinda warming up here, I've been in New York 3 months as of today, so yeah. Have a great week!

Bad weather, photo, and transfers

Ralph has been having trouble with his iPad "AreaBook" app where he keeps his journal on what he has been doing during the week, so he hasn't had a chance to put together his usual weekly summary to send to us. They have been having lots of snow and freezing rain. Transfers were this week, but got delayed by a day because of the weather. Elder Wang got transferred to Yonkers to serve with Elder Porter, who was with Ralph in the MTC. Ralph's new companion is Elder Jensen, who had been working in the mission office. One of my companions in Germany was an Elder (Mark) Jensen; I'll have to ask Ralph if they are related (very unlikely). Ralph did manage to send us a couple of photos, of his zone and his district, shown below. He looks great with his new haircut.

Week 13 - Hit the 3 Month Mark!

[Here's the e-mail from Ralph from Wednesday.]

Well, I hit my 3 month mark tomorrow!

Last Wednesday, we went out shopping with the Hermanas ( just for fun, didn't really buy much [not us at least]), and then we had a lesson with Alex, then we went home.

Thursday we had studies, weekly planning, and then Marcus bailed on us AGAIN, so we went and did some online proselyting and some less active lookups in Chinatown. We then went to the Fords for dinner (he's our Elder's Quorum President), and had a fun discussion with his family, then went home.

Friday, we had studies, taught a lady on the bus, and then had an interview with Sisters Jensen and Weyandt while we waited for mail to arrive. We then went downstairs and did some online proselyting with a couple other missionaries, then went and did some lookups again. We then had a lesson with Joseph, went out to eat with him, then went home.

Saturday we had correlation meeting bright and early at 9:30 on Roosevelt Island, had breakfast with Bro. Barrett, and talked about getting the ward mission more organized. We then went to lunch at Norka/Anthony's, and Anthony wants to be baptized on February 15!!!!!!!! We were so excited because he'd been praying and received a confirmation that he should be baptized, so he asked us whether that date would be good! We then went and did studies after that (we taught Anthony the Restoration), and then had a lesson with Marcus, and he's been reading the Book of Mormon, and he's committed to praying about it! He says if he finds out that it is true, then he'll be baptized! We then went and did some online proselyting and helped out with the Hermanas online event, then we went to the Bennions for dinner, then went home.

Sunday was pretty normal, had church in the morning, some really good talks by Sis. Webb and Sis. Gibbons, Isaac and Joseph came to church (Isaac is now officially reactivated!), then we found out we had stake general priesthood meeting again (it's only been 2 months since the last one, weird), so that was really cool, it was all about spiritual gifts, and two bishops spoke as well as the actor for Adam in the newest temple video (like, newer than the one I've seen), and then we went home.

Monday we had district meeting (our last one with Elder Wang (possibly)), then went to Sis. Soto's for lunch/dinner, and talked with her for a while, then went and did lookups with no success.

Yesterday, we were on a split, I was with Elder Potter, so we went out to go get mail, but then the other Elders texted us saying they forgot stuff at the apartment that the office Elders needed, so we went all the way back (the office Elders drove us though, and we got to talk with them), and then they drove us to Chinatown so we could do lookups! We went and did lookups, and actually met with someone for once!

His name is Arcangel, or Al, and he joined the church back in 1990. He had been in a heavy metal band before then, and was the typical sort of musician for one of those. Once he was baptized, he changed his life completely around, and is still keeping the Word of Wisdom and all the commandments. He still has extremely strong faith, it's just due to some health problems he has that he can't go to church. He is schizoaffective, meaning when he gets too far from somewhere familiar, he loses his memory and forgets who he is, where he lives, and so forth. He also has an extremely powerful phobia of crowds, to the point of which that he throws up, faints, etc. (definitely someone who should live in New York). Then on top of that, in 2003 he caught walking pneumonia, went into a coma for 4 months, then was in a wheelchair for 5 years after that. He still walks around with a walker outside of his home, so it's still a problem. We decided he's probably one that could use the sacrament delivered to his home (like, how on earth would he ever be able to go to church), and his mother also went into the hospital about 2 hours before we got there, so we're going today to give her a priesthood blessing. He was very grateful for us coming by, and asked for us to visit again in the future!

We then went to lookup a member referral, but they gave us the wrong address, so we talked with the superintendent of that building (Sam), and taught him for a bit. We then found the right address and taught a lady named Karlyn, who is very interested in the church, wants to be baptized, wanted a Book of Mormon, and is coming to church on Sunday. Blink blink. She also is a smoker (she came down to the lobby because she knows we don't smoke and didn't want to kill us by taking us into her apartment), and she even asked if we have an addiction recovery program. Wowzers.

So after that, we went to the 15th St. chapel to teach Joseph, but he never showed up, so we talked with the ASL Elders for a while, then we went upstairs to help in the Hermanas online event. While we were doing that, one of my Pokemon friends messaged me on Facebook asking what we believe. I was awestruck that anyone I know from there would be remotely interested, so I taught him a brief version of the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. I also referred him to mormon.org and told him if he wants to be taught more to put in his information so he can be taught where he is (he lives in Britain). That was really cool.

After that we went home, and then today we pretty much just came here after doing laundry. So yeah, Met today, as well as teaching Alex, we'll see how it goes, and then training calls today as well. The office Elders told us there are only 2 English Elders coming in this transfer, so I'd have to practically win the lottery to be training, but who knows. We'll find out! Transfer calls are this Saturday, so we'll find out where everyone goes at that point as well.

Anyhow, hope you all have a great week, and I'll see you at transfers!