[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!
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
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!
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.
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.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
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.
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