[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!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Frozen in Week 12
[Here's Ralph's e-mail from last Wednesday.]
Brrrrrr is right, happy 13 degree high temperatures today!!!! (Ick)
Anyhow, this week has been going well, Wednesday we finished up everything we needed to do, went over and read from the Book of Mormon with Alex, then went to Bro. Barrett's for correlation meeting. It went really well, we got the ward mission plan more organized as well as all of our information, and we consolidated everything down for him. Unfortunately, this took forever, so we got back really really late.
Thursday we pretty much spent the entire day at the apartment, as we did studies, lunch, then weekly planning all in a row, and then Elder Wang was getting majorly flu-ish, so he took another nap. We finally left the apartment at around 5, went to the 15th St. chapel, taught a lesson with Joseph, then went home again and Elder Wang went to sleep. I did a bit more studies and made some dinner, then went to bed as well.
Friday we finished up weekly planning, did a little online proselyting, Elder Wang took another nap, then we went and taught a lesson to Isaac, then we went to a dinner for the Young Men (on the way we taught a man named Israel on the bus), and we ate and played some basketball. Parker was there (the Chinese investigator who came to church a couple weeks back), so that was good and we got to talk with him. After that we went home, and Elder Higbee gave Elder Wang some Nyquil.
The next day the Nyquil worked a little too well, so Elder Wang was extremely tired and slept a ton. We tried to meet with a contact that the ZLs had made, but she wouldn't respond, so we went back home and Elder Wang slept some more. We then went and did service for a guy named Marcus (helped install a ceiling fan), and while Elder Higbee and Wang worked on that, ELder Potter and I taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon to read from, and he says he'd definitely be baptized if he finds that it is true! After we finished, we went to a dinner at Sister Barker's house (nummy pork sandwiches), and then we went home.
Sunday was a typical day, having ward council then church, Isaac and Parker both came to church which was really cool, and both actively participated in gospel principles. After church we went to go visit Maria and Kevin, but they weren't home (Kevin came to the Young Men's night as well). On the way there, we got to talk with a couple of members, and you'll never believe it. One of them knows/knew Roland! His name is Adam, and he lived in Portland growing up, and says he even babysat for them once when Alexander, Martin, and Karsten were still little. It was really fun to talk to someone who knows someone I know. We then were going to go to the Cannon's for dinner, but they couldn't have us over so they ordered us food, so we went home and had some very tasty quesadillas.
Monday we had district meeting, then we did our studies, then prepared our online event for Tuesday, went and did some lookups (found one that was YSA age, so we passed her to the ZLs), had dinner, did a few more lookups, then went home.
Yesterday, we had a leadership meeting, so I got to play a lot of ping pong, then we went and did some online proselyting, went and visited the contact the ZLs gave us again (her name is Yasmine, and we got to have a prayer with her this time at least), and then we had our online event on Family History. It went really well, we had around 10 people there, and we helped them get set up on familysearch, and how to use it as well as indexing, and talked about why we do family history. We had lessons with Marcus and Isaac planned as well, but they both bailed on us last minute, so we're meeting with Isaac today, and with Marcus on Thursday.
Today has been pretty uneventful, outside of coming here, so yeah. Hope you all have a great week, one week till training/transfer calls! (I won't have found out when I email, but I'll find out that day). Hope you are all healthy and happy and all that good stuff. See you next week!
Brrrrrr is right, happy 13 degree high temperatures today!!!! (Ick)
Anyhow, this week has been going well, Wednesday we finished up everything we needed to do, went over and read from the Book of Mormon with Alex, then went to Bro. Barrett's for correlation meeting. It went really well, we got the ward mission plan more organized as well as all of our information, and we consolidated everything down for him. Unfortunately, this took forever, so we got back really really late.
Thursday we pretty much spent the entire day at the apartment, as we did studies, lunch, then weekly planning all in a row, and then Elder Wang was getting majorly flu-ish, so he took another nap. We finally left the apartment at around 5, went to the 15th St. chapel, taught a lesson with Joseph, then went home again and Elder Wang went to sleep. I did a bit more studies and made some dinner, then went to bed as well.
Friday we finished up weekly planning, did a little online proselyting, Elder Wang took another nap, then we went and taught a lesson to Isaac, then we went to a dinner for the Young Men (on the way we taught a man named Israel on the bus), and we ate and played some basketball. Parker was there (the Chinese investigator who came to church a couple weeks back), so that was good and we got to talk with him. After that we went home, and Elder Higbee gave Elder Wang some Nyquil.
The next day the Nyquil worked a little too well, so Elder Wang was extremely tired and slept a ton. We tried to meet with a contact that the ZLs had made, but she wouldn't respond, so we went back home and Elder Wang slept some more. We then went and did service for a guy named Marcus (helped install a ceiling fan), and while Elder Higbee and Wang worked on that, ELder Potter and I taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon to read from, and he says he'd definitely be baptized if he finds that it is true! After we finished, we went to a dinner at Sister Barker's house (nummy pork sandwiches), and then we went home.
Sunday was a typical day, having ward council then church, Isaac and Parker both came to church which was really cool, and both actively participated in gospel principles. After church we went to go visit Maria and Kevin, but they weren't home (Kevin came to the Young Men's night as well). On the way there, we got to talk with a couple of members, and you'll never believe it. One of them knows/knew Roland! His name is Adam, and he lived in Portland growing up, and says he even babysat for them once when Alexander, Martin, and Karsten were still little. It was really fun to talk to someone who knows someone I know. We then were going to go to the Cannon's for dinner, but they couldn't have us over so they ordered us food, so we went home and had some very tasty quesadillas.
Monday we had district meeting, then we did our studies, then prepared our online event for Tuesday, went and did some lookups (found one that was YSA age, so we passed her to the ZLs), had dinner, did a few more lookups, then went home.
Yesterday, we had a leadership meeting, so I got to play a lot of ping pong, then we went and did some online proselyting, went and visited the contact the ZLs gave us again (her name is Yasmine, and we got to have a prayer with her this time at least), and then we had our online event on Family History. It went really well, we had around 10 people there, and we helped them get set up on familysearch, and how to use it as well as indexing, and talked about why we do family history. We had lessons with Marcus and Isaac planned as well, but they both bailed on us last minute, so we're meeting with Isaac today, and with Marcus on Thursday.
Today has been pretty uneventful, outside of coming here, so yeah. Hope you all have a great week, one week till training/transfer calls! (I won't have found out when I email, but I'll find out that day). Hope you are all healthy and happy and all that good stuff. See you next week!
Friday, January 17, 2014
Week 11 - A Great Week!
[Here's Ralph's e-mail from Wednesday.]
Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing well. Not too many significant things happened this week, so this'll probably be a long slog of an email to get through (I also neglected to write in my journal this week, oops, aka probably a lot less details, oh well).
Anywho, after I emailed last week, we went to the Met, were scared away by the $25 entrance fee (which turned out later to just be a recommended price, you can pay like $1 to get in. Sigh), so we went to the gift store and bought some wallet size subway/bus maps. We then went out shopping, got all the stuff we needed, then took it all back to our apartment. We then went across the street to go read with Alex (Norka's son, Norka being Anthony's roommate, Anthony being our investigator, just to remind you people). We then did a few lookups after Alex, and while we were running around, some little old lady stopped us and asked, "Have you got anything for me to read tonight?" We were rather surprised, so we then gave her a Book of Mormon and explained what it was. She then asked for our number so she could call us as well. She THEN also asked us to deliver a DVD for her and she gave us her address. So that was pretty out of the blue. After that we had dinner and went home.
Thursday we had studies, and then we had zone meeting (which had been pushed from Monday due to snow), and we talked about what President Morgan has in mind for us as missionaries. We talked about different goals, looked at some charts with mission numbers, and explained the significance of said numbers. We also went over something called The Standard of Excellence, which is basically the teaching/key indicator goals that President Morgan has for us. We then went and had lunch, then did our weekly planning. We then went upstairs and did some online proselyting until our lesson with Joseph, had that lesson with him, then went to dinner at the Kunzlers. It was great, they're some of the funniest, nicest people ever, Bro. Kunzler knows missionaries so well and their habits, what they do at certain times over their missions and so on, it was so funny. We then traveled home.
Friday we had studies, then went and had an interview with Sister Weyandt and Sister Jensen. We then did some lookups, met a less active named Jeff, talked with him about how he was doing and shared a message about the New Year. We did some more lookups afterwards, but none were home, so we then went to our appointment with Bro. Barrett. We shared dinner with him, and he talked about his experiences both as a missionary and what he's done with missionaries (he's been Bishop twice and in a Stake Presidency, so he talked about how he's worked with missionaries from both of those areas). After that we went home.
Saturday we fasted as we were doing an APF focused specifically for the Spanish Sisters, as we were going to go tracting to help them find new people to teach. We did studies, then prepared for the APF by gathering materials. We then met up with the rest of our district, Elders Monson and Longo, as well as Elder Pickard and Elder Richards (the zone leaders from Harlem), and we all split so we had at least one Spanish speaker per companionship, (I was with Elder Pickard), and we then went and started tracting in the Projects across from our building. I know that Elder Pickard and I had enormous success, we taught 8 lessons in the time we were tracting and ran out of materials to give out to people. The Spanish Sisters even got a baptismal date from someone during it! It was a great experience. We went from there into the now pouring rain to go to the Bennion's for dinner, then we went home.
Sunday we had studies, then we went to the Yamada's for lunch before church, then we went to church (there was a Chinese lady there who wanted to learn more, so Elder Wang talked with her and then referred her to the Chinatown ward). We then had the usual block of meetings, one of the talks in Sacrament was particularly interesting, it was about how Christ always sought solitude in "a desert place," and he talked about how we need to establish our own spiritual desert places for us to return to, to meditate in, and so forth. We then met with our high priest group leader Bro. Farnsworth and gave him all of our information on the lookups we did for him. We then went to Priesthood and the lesson discussed the Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith. We then met up with Bro. Runyon and went and looked up a less active family (Bro. Runyon came because he's in the Young Men's program and in the family there's a 15 year old guy), so we went over and talked with them for a while and invited them over for an event on Friday. After that, we went back to church and had our interview with the Hermanas, then participated in their online event. Then we went home and ate stuff.
Monday was pretty much full, as we had district meeting in the morning, then went from that to the temple for interviews with President Morgan as well as IPad training from the APs. They were running behind, so we started about 2 hours late, so it took quite a while. My interview was pretty short, he just checked up to see how I was doing, suggested some better ways to maximize the effectiveness of my studies, and talked about how my companionship and area are. The IPad training talked mostly about how to properly input information into the IPad area book, as well as to make inspired Facebook posts. We then gave Hermana Jensen a blessing (she'd been feeling sick all day), and then we went to dinner and went home.
Tuesday we had studies, went at 11 to a special district leader meeting that the zone leaders arranged, then we had a zone VGPA meeting, where we reestablished our goals as a zone. We then went and visited the Hermanas at their apartment (Hermana Jensen was feeling so sick that she stayed home), so we got them food. We then went to the library and got library cards, then we went home because Elder Wang was feeling sick, and he took a nap and I did some additional studies. We then went to meet Bro. Farnsworth for dinner, as well as to help him with his home teaching, then we went home.
Today, we did laundry and then came here! We're going to be playing volleyball at the Temple, so that'll be fun, and we're visiting Alex and Bro. Barrett as well (Bro. Barrett is our new ward mission leader), so yeah, my time is running out, hope you all are doing great, and I'll see you next week!
Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing well. Not too many significant things happened this week, so this'll probably be a long slog of an email to get through (I also neglected to write in my journal this week, oops, aka probably a lot less details, oh well).
Anywho, after I emailed last week, we went to the Met, were scared away by the $25 entrance fee (which turned out later to just be a recommended price, you can pay like $1 to get in. Sigh), so we went to the gift store and bought some wallet size subway/bus maps. We then went out shopping, got all the stuff we needed, then took it all back to our apartment. We then went across the street to go read with Alex (Norka's son, Norka being Anthony's roommate, Anthony being our investigator, just to remind you people). We then did a few lookups after Alex, and while we were running around, some little old lady stopped us and asked, "Have you got anything for me to read tonight?" We were rather surprised, so we then gave her a Book of Mormon and explained what it was. She then asked for our number so she could call us as well. She THEN also asked us to deliver a DVD for her and she gave us her address. So that was pretty out of the blue. After that we had dinner and went home.
Thursday we had studies, and then we had zone meeting (which had been pushed from Monday due to snow), and we talked about what President Morgan has in mind for us as missionaries. We talked about different goals, looked at some charts with mission numbers, and explained the significance of said numbers. We also went over something called The Standard of Excellence, which is basically the teaching/key indicator goals that President Morgan has for us. We then went and had lunch, then did our weekly planning. We then went upstairs and did some online proselyting until our lesson with Joseph, had that lesson with him, then went to dinner at the Kunzlers. It was great, they're some of the funniest, nicest people ever, Bro. Kunzler knows missionaries so well and their habits, what they do at certain times over their missions and so on, it was so funny. We then traveled home.
Friday we had studies, then went and had an interview with Sister Weyandt and Sister Jensen. We then did some lookups, met a less active named Jeff, talked with him about how he was doing and shared a message about the New Year. We did some more lookups afterwards, but none were home, so we then went to our appointment with Bro. Barrett. We shared dinner with him, and he talked about his experiences both as a missionary and what he's done with missionaries (he's been Bishop twice and in a Stake Presidency, so he talked about how he's worked with missionaries from both of those areas). After that we went home.
Saturday we fasted as we were doing an APF focused specifically for the Spanish Sisters, as we were going to go tracting to help them find new people to teach. We did studies, then prepared for the APF by gathering materials. We then met up with the rest of our district, Elders Monson and Longo, as well as Elder Pickard and Elder Richards (the zone leaders from Harlem), and we all split so we had at least one Spanish speaker per companionship, (I was with Elder Pickard), and we then went and started tracting in the Projects across from our building. I know that Elder Pickard and I had enormous success, we taught 8 lessons in the time we were tracting and ran out of materials to give out to people. The Spanish Sisters even got a baptismal date from someone during it! It was a great experience. We went from there into the now pouring rain to go to the Bennion's for dinner, then we went home.
Sunday we had studies, then we went to the Yamada's for lunch before church, then we went to church (there was a Chinese lady there who wanted to learn more, so Elder Wang talked with her and then referred her to the Chinatown ward). We then had the usual block of meetings, one of the talks in Sacrament was particularly interesting, it was about how Christ always sought solitude in "a desert place," and he talked about how we need to establish our own spiritual desert places for us to return to, to meditate in, and so forth. We then met with our high priest group leader Bro. Farnsworth and gave him all of our information on the lookups we did for him. We then went to Priesthood and the lesson discussed the Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith. We then met up with Bro. Runyon and went and looked up a less active family (Bro. Runyon came because he's in the Young Men's program and in the family there's a 15 year old guy), so we went over and talked with them for a while and invited them over for an event on Friday. After that, we went back to church and had our interview with the Hermanas, then participated in their online event. Then we went home and ate stuff.
Monday was pretty much full, as we had district meeting in the morning, then went from that to the temple for interviews with President Morgan as well as IPad training from the APs. They were running behind, so we started about 2 hours late, so it took quite a while. My interview was pretty short, he just checked up to see how I was doing, suggested some better ways to maximize the effectiveness of my studies, and talked about how my companionship and area are. The IPad training talked mostly about how to properly input information into the IPad area book, as well as to make inspired Facebook posts. We then gave Hermana Jensen a blessing (she'd been feeling sick all day), and then we went to dinner and went home.
Tuesday we had studies, went at 11 to a special district leader meeting that the zone leaders arranged, then we had a zone VGPA meeting, where we reestablished our goals as a zone. We then went and visited the Hermanas at their apartment (Hermana Jensen was feeling so sick that she stayed home), so we got them food. We then went to the library and got library cards, then we went home because Elder Wang was feeling sick, and he took a nap and I did some additional studies. We then went to meet Bro. Farnsworth for dinner, as well as to help him with his home teaching, then we went home.
Today, we did laundry and then came here! We're going to be playing volleyball at the Temple, so that'll be fun, and we're visiting Alex and Bro. Barrett as well (Bro. Barrett is our new ward mission leader), so yeah, my time is running out, hope you all are doing great, and I'll see you next week!
Friday, January 10, 2014
Week 10 (Double Digits!)
Hello everyone! Weird to think that I've already passed my 2 month mark and that it's already a week into 2014. Things just keep flying by (probably because of the 40 mph winds but I digress).
So yeah, after finishing up my email to you guys at the Apple Store last week, they started playing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" which seemed really out of place but hey. After that we just went and got dinner and went home.
Thursday we did studies, had lunch, Elder Wang interviewed Sister Weyandt and Sister Jensen, then we did weekly planning, set up our online event for Sunday, did a little online proselyting, then stepped outside into BLIZZARD. Snow, wind, cold, yuck, it was greeeeeat. We barely made it to a grocery store, got food stuffs, and then walked home (because buses were being silly and not showing up).
Woke up on Friday to around 8-10 inches of snow. Blech. And the temperatures were around 10 degrees, with massive wind chill as well (brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). Had studies, put on my boots, and crawled out into the winter wonderland. Looked up a few referrals (why we were walking around outside at all I have yet to find out), but none of them were home. We then went to church for some online proselyting (yay warmth and shelter), then started travelling to our appointment with Isaac. On the bus ride there, he cancelled on us, so we turned right around and went to the 15th street church for our appointment with Joseph that would happen later. Taught him about eternal marriage (the last of the new member lessons), then went home.
Saturday was good, we finally got to meet with Anthony and Norka again, had lunch with them, and taught Anthony the rest of the Plan of Salvation. We went and helped out with Elder Monson's district's APF (street contacting in Bryant Park), which went pretty well, talked to several people. We then had our lesson with Isaac, then we went to the Webb's for dinner. We had 8 lessons by the end of the day! It was really cool.
Sunday was our first day of 1 o'clock church (switched from 11), so we had studies, went and interviewed Hermana Laititi and Jensen, then had ward council then church. Anthony, Norka, and her son Alex all came, as well as Isaac! Bro. Farnsworth (our high priest group leader) taught gospel principles, and then we met with the clerks to go over the less active list. We then did online proselyting until 6 (as well as broke our fasts), then had our online event. It started out pretty slow (aka no one was there until 6:15), but it picked up pretty well towards the end. We then went home, interviewed Elder Higbee (he was on a split with Elder Longo so not really a need to interview him as well), then had dinner and went to bed.
Monday was odd, due to zone leadership training getting pushed back, meaning district meeting got pushed back as well, so Monday was pretty empty. Had studies, then got a referral so we decided to look them up later that day. We then went and did a lot of lookups, none of them were home, and then we went to Chinatown to do our weekly "how is your technology treating you" survey. We then helped the Chinatown missionaries do some contacting, and then we went and did a little shopping. I got a muchmuchmuchmuchmuchmuchmuchmuchMUCH smaller bag for myself, as I was starting to have back problems from the other one. It's so cute!!!! Herm, anyhow, we then went and visited the referral. Her name is Carolyn, and she has a pretty small family. She became interested in the church through some friends who are members, but doesn't really know much about the church outside of the fact that she feels good at our meetings as well as sees that church members are usually very happy people. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, and she took it all in. She really seemed to want to read it, and she also committed to start praying about it! We were so happy, especially because of the fact that apparently she had submitted her information online, and 15 MINUTES LATER is when we called. That's crazy, as we're used to referrals being a month old and the people no longer being interested. We were so elated as we finally had someone new to teach, and then we discovered that they'd sent the referral to the wrong area, so we passed her off to another set of missionaries. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. We then sprinted from there to our dinner appointment in the financial district with the Egan's (no relation to ours I believe). We got there just a little late, had pizza, and the Hermanas shared the message with them. We then went home.
Yesterday, we had a usual morning of studying, then went and did some lookups (and it was EVEN COLDER THAN FRIDAY AIEEE BRRRR MY FACE MY DRINK FROZE IN 5 MINUTES COOOOOOOOOOOOLD), and we actually met a less active named Jeff and shared a message with him. We then went and did some online proselyting, and went and visited Isaac. We then went and did more lookups after his lesson (with no success), then we went home.
Today, we did laundry, CLEANED THE APARTMENT AT LONG LAST (it's so pretty now), and then we went here. We're thinking about going to the Metropolitan Museum, either that or Natural History again, and then we have a lesson with Norka's son Alex at 6:30. SO yeah, that was my first double digit week! It looks like Elder Wang will be transferred next cycle to the newly opened Cantonese speaking area in Chinatown, so we'll see what happens to me in a few weeks. We'll also see what happens with Emmanuel, he appears to be getting busy with work again so we'll likely have to push back his baptismal date by a lot. Sigh.
Hope you all are doing well, I've been feeling a little under the weather (stomach/intestines are being silly). Finally responded to all of the people who sent me Christmas cards and letters, so that's good. They're also discontinuing the hard copy of the planners here, so everything will be on the Ipad after this one runs out (blech, the program for planning is super clunky), so we'll see how it goes. Hope all of you survived Christmas and New Year's, and I'll see you next week!
Love, Elder Ralph Smith
So yeah, after finishing up my email to you guys at the Apple Store last week, they started playing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" which seemed really out of place but hey. After that we just went and got dinner and went home.
Thursday we did studies, had lunch, Elder Wang interviewed Sister Weyandt and Sister Jensen, then we did weekly planning, set up our online event for Sunday, did a little online proselyting, then stepped outside into BLIZZARD. Snow, wind, cold, yuck, it was greeeeeat. We barely made it to a grocery store, got food stuffs, and then walked home (because buses were being silly and not showing up).
Woke up on Friday to around 8-10 inches of snow. Blech. And the temperatures were around 10 degrees, with massive wind chill as well (brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). Had studies, put on my boots, and crawled out into the winter wonderland. Looked up a few referrals (why we were walking around outside at all I have yet to find out), but none of them were home. We then went to church for some online proselyting (yay warmth and shelter), then started travelling to our appointment with Isaac. On the bus ride there, he cancelled on us, so we turned right around and went to the 15th street church for our appointment with Joseph that would happen later. Taught him about eternal marriage (the last of the new member lessons), then went home.
Saturday was good, we finally got to meet with Anthony and Norka again, had lunch with them, and taught Anthony the rest of the Plan of Salvation. We went and helped out with Elder Monson's district's APF (street contacting in Bryant Park), which went pretty well, talked to several people. We then had our lesson with Isaac, then we went to the Webb's for dinner. We had 8 lessons by the end of the day! It was really cool.
Sunday was our first day of 1 o'clock church (switched from 11), so we had studies, went and interviewed Hermana Laititi and Jensen, then had ward council then church. Anthony, Norka, and her son Alex all came, as well as Isaac! Bro. Farnsworth (our high priest group leader) taught gospel principles, and then we met with the clerks to go over the less active list. We then did online proselyting until 6 (as well as broke our fasts), then had our online event. It started out pretty slow (aka no one was there until 6:15), but it picked up pretty well towards the end. We then went home, interviewed Elder Higbee (he was on a split with Elder Longo so not really a need to interview him as well), then had dinner and went to bed.
Monday was odd, due to zone leadership training getting pushed back, meaning district meeting got pushed back as well, so Monday was pretty empty. Had studies, then got a referral so we decided to look them up later that day. We then went and did a lot of lookups, none of them were home, and then we went to Chinatown to do our weekly "how is your technology treating you" survey. We then helped the Chinatown missionaries do some contacting, and then we went and did a little shopping. I got a muchmuchmuchmuchmuchmuchmuchmuchMUCH smaller bag for myself, as I was starting to have back problems from the other one. It's so cute!!!! Herm, anyhow, we then went and visited the referral. Her name is Carolyn, and she has a pretty small family. She became interested in the church through some friends who are members, but doesn't really know much about the church outside of the fact that she feels good at our meetings as well as sees that church members are usually very happy people. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, and she took it all in. She really seemed to want to read it, and she also committed to start praying about it! We were so happy, especially because of the fact that apparently she had submitted her information online, and 15 MINUTES LATER is when we called. That's crazy, as we're used to referrals being a month old and the people no longer being interested. We were so elated as we finally had someone new to teach, and then we discovered that they'd sent the referral to the wrong area, so we passed her off to another set of missionaries. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. We then sprinted from there to our dinner appointment in the financial district with the Egan's (no relation to ours I believe). We got there just a little late, had pizza, and the Hermanas shared the message with them. We then went home.
Yesterday, we had a usual morning of studying, then went and did some lookups (and it was EVEN COLDER THAN FRIDAY AIEEE BRRRR MY FACE MY DRINK FROZE IN 5 MINUTES COOOOOOOOOOOOLD), and we actually met a less active named Jeff and shared a message with him. We then went and did some online proselyting, and went and visited Isaac. We then went and did more lookups after his lesson (with no success), then we went home.
Today, we did laundry, CLEANED THE APARTMENT AT LONG LAST (it's so pretty now), and then we went here. We're thinking about going to the Metropolitan Museum, either that or Natural History again, and then we have a lesson with Norka's son Alex at 6:30. SO yeah, that was my first double digit week! It looks like Elder Wang will be transferred next cycle to the newly opened Cantonese speaking area in Chinatown, so we'll see what happens to me in a few weeks. We'll also see what happens with Emmanuel, he appears to be getting busy with work again so we'll likely have to push back his baptismal date by a lot. Sigh.
Hope you all are doing well, I've been feeling a little under the weather (stomach/intestines are being silly). Finally responded to all of the people who sent me Christmas cards and letters, so that's good. They're also discontinuing the hard copy of the planners here, so everything will be on the Ipad after this one runs out (blech, the program for planning is super clunky), so we'll see how it goes. Hope all of you survived Christmas and New Year's, and I'll see you next week!
Love, Elder Ralph Smith
Friday, January 3, 2014
Week 9? Happy New Year!
[Here's Ralph's message from New Year's Day.]
Hey everyone, weekly email time, hope you all had a great Christmas!
Since I told you the gist of what I did on Monday and Tuesday in the call, I'll just start from after our call. So, after I finished talking with you guys over FaceTime, we went back to our apartment.
Thursday we helped the Sisters with an investigator (or tried, they were busy), then did some less-active lookups (unsuccessful ones), did our weekly planning, did some online proselyting, then had dinner and went home.
Friday was a good day, we taught 6 lessons! I was on a split with Elder Higbee, and we taught 3 people on buses, went over to a member named Andy's house for lunch and taught him (after getting hopelessly lost trying to get there), then we did less-active lookups and someone actually let us in! Her name is Rachel and she works over 80 hours a week (yeesh), and we visited with her and left her with a message. We then went and did some online proselyting, and found a recent convert from the YSA ward to teach! It was a great experience being able to have stuff to do all day, and I'm grateful for Elder Higbee's example. We were really blessed with the people we were able to talk to. We then went to Shake Shack for dinner, then went home.
Saturday was also good, we did some more unsuccessful less active lookups, then went and visited Emmanuel and his wife. We taught them about the Restoration, and showed them the Restoration DVD in French (his wife only speaks French), and then we taught them a bit about the Book of Mormon, read a little, and then invited them to be baptized. THEY BOTH ACCEPTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still don't understand the sheer excitement that comes over me for them when they agree to be baptized. Their date is set for February 8th, so we;ll see how it goes!
We had an appointment with Isaac immediately following that, but he wasn't there, so instead we went to church early to prepare for our lesson with Joseph and ran into the Yamadas (they were doing church cleaning). We helped them a bit, and then found out that President Morgan was going to be in our ward the next day. Yikes. We hadn't heard anything about that beforehand, so it came as quite a surprise. After that heart attack, we got to teach Joseph, we're still slogging our way through all the new member lessons and did Service. We also found out that he was speaking in church the next day, so we helped him prepare for that. We then had dinner and went home.
Sunday went pretty well, we were on the way to ward council when we were informed that it was cancelled, so we hung out at church for a bit preparing gospel principles and stuff. At sacrament, we actually had 3 people come! One of them was a man named Parker, who was a referral from another ward, then we had Judy, who was someone we had talked to when we worked at the soup kitchen on Christmas Eve, and then Isaac came out of nowhere! Elder Wang was busy teaching a lesson to Parker, so the Zone Leaders taught gospel principles for us. Oh, Joseph gave an excellent talk, although a little off topic at times. For third hour, President Morgan instructed the ward on what we do in online proselyting, and asked them to help support us. After church, we had lunch, then interviewed the Hermanas, then had an online event. We had somewhere between 10-15 people show up! Thank you President Morgan! It was great, went on for about 2 hours. We then had dinner and came home.
Monday was alright, we had district meeting, played some more ping pong, got instructed on How to Begin Teaching, had lunch, studied with the district a little, then did a split with Elder Higbee to go visit someone they'd contacted in our area, but they weren't home. Elder Marshall then split with Elder Higbee, so I got Elder Wang back. We visited Isaac and taught the first point of the Restoration, then went to the Porters for dinner, then came home.
Yesterday, we went to the Union Square chapel to prepare for our APF (drawing New Year's Resolutions in the square in chalk), then went to lunch, got mail, then did our APF. After we'd sufficiently froze to death, we went to dinner at IHOP, then went home. Happy New Year!
Today, we went to Costco (only to find out it was closed), then went to the Temple to play basketball with the zone. We then came from there to here! We have a dinner at 6, so hopefully that'll go well. I've got a cold at the moment, so I'm hoping that'll go away soon. First day of wearing contact lenses again!
Hope you all are doing well! Also, wrote out some replies to the letters I got for Christmas, but haven't finished them all yet. Hope you guys have a great New Year!
Elder Ralph Smith
Hey everyone, weekly email time, hope you all had a great Christmas!
Since I told you the gist of what I did on Monday and Tuesday in the call, I'll just start from after our call. So, after I finished talking with you guys over FaceTime, we went back to our apartment.
Thursday we helped the Sisters with an investigator (or tried, they were busy), then did some less-active lookups (unsuccessful ones), did our weekly planning, did some online proselyting, then had dinner and went home.
Friday was a good day, we taught 6 lessons! I was on a split with Elder Higbee, and we taught 3 people on buses, went over to a member named Andy's house for lunch and taught him (after getting hopelessly lost trying to get there), then we did less-active lookups and someone actually let us in! Her name is Rachel and she works over 80 hours a week (yeesh), and we visited with her and left her with a message. We then went and did some online proselyting, and found a recent convert from the YSA ward to teach! It was a great experience being able to have stuff to do all day, and I'm grateful for Elder Higbee's example. We were really blessed with the people we were able to talk to. We then went to Shake Shack for dinner, then went home.
Saturday was also good, we did some more unsuccessful less active lookups, then went and visited Emmanuel and his wife. We taught them about the Restoration, and showed them the Restoration DVD in French (his wife only speaks French), and then we taught them a bit about the Book of Mormon, read a little, and then invited them to be baptized. THEY BOTH ACCEPTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still don't understand the sheer excitement that comes over me for them when they agree to be baptized. Their date is set for February 8th, so we;ll see how it goes!
We had an appointment with Isaac immediately following that, but he wasn't there, so instead we went to church early to prepare for our lesson with Joseph and ran into the Yamadas (they were doing church cleaning). We helped them a bit, and then found out that President Morgan was going to be in our ward the next day. Yikes. We hadn't heard anything about that beforehand, so it came as quite a surprise. After that heart attack, we got to teach Joseph, we're still slogging our way through all the new member lessons and did Service. We also found out that he was speaking in church the next day, so we helped him prepare for that. We then had dinner and went home.
Sunday went pretty well, we were on the way to ward council when we were informed that it was cancelled, so we hung out at church for a bit preparing gospel principles and stuff. At sacrament, we actually had 3 people come! One of them was a man named Parker, who was a referral from another ward, then we had Judy, who was someone we had talked to when we worked at the soup kitchen on Christmas Eve, and then Isaac came out of nowhere! Elder Wang was busy teaching a lesson to Parker, so the Zone Leaders taught gospel principles for us. Oh, Joseph gave an excellent talk, although a little off topic at times. For third hour, President Morgan instructed the ward on what we do in online proselyting, and asked them to help support us. After church, we had lunch, then interviewed the Hermanas, then had an online event. We had somewhere between 10-15 people show up! Thank you President Morgan! It was great, went on for about 2 hours. We then had dinner and came home.
Monday was alright, we had district meeting, played some more ping pong, got instructed on How to Begin Teaching, had lunch, studied with the district a little, then did a split with Elder Higbee to go visit someone they'd contacted in our area, but they weren't home. Elder Marshall then split with Elder Higbee, so I got Elder Wang back. We visited Isaac and taught the first point of the Restoration, then went to the Porters for dinner, then came home.
Yesterday, we went to the Union Square chapel to prepare for our APF (drawing New Year's Resolutions in the square in chalk), then went to lunch, got mail, then did our APF. After we'd sufficiently froze to death, we went to dinner at IHOP, then went home. Happy New Year!
Today, we went to Costco (only to find out it was closed), then went to the Temple to play basketball with the zone. We then came from there to here! We have a dinner at 6, so hopefully that'll go well. I've got a cold at the moment, so I'm hoping that'll go away soon. First day of wearing contact lenses again!
Hope you all are doing well! Also, wrote out some replies to the letters I got for Christmas, but haven't finished them all yet. Hope you guys have a great New Year!
Elder Ralph Smith
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