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!