Sorry that I'm late on posting this one as well; Ralph sent it on Weds., 12/11:
Hey everyone! Hope you all are doing well and not freezing to death or getting snowed under.
I'll have been in New York a whole month as of tomorrow (good grief time flies). This last week was amazing, so I'll start from where I left off.
We did go to Times Square, explored a bit (went into a couple stores including the giant Toys R Us and M&M World), and I got myself a I <3 NY shirt (you know, the very typical one), as well as a new tie (you can sorta see it in the picture with my district on Facebook). Our appointment with Joseph fell through, so at that point we went to dinner, then went home and did weekly planning. We woke up on Thursday to major fog and everything was pretty wet, the basketball court was pretty much a slip and slide (wasn't even icy, just wet). Had an interview with the ZLs, got a package with food (in my journal I write that "I have enough food to last till the Second Coming"). We did our practice for our online event (went pretty badly, too many people goofing off, but we did learn a lot).
We got to teach Joseph about baptisms for the dead as well as family history work, and we're working on getting him a temple recommend so we can take him to the temple for baptisms for the dead. We went to the Porters for dinner, took Joseph along as well, and I tried eggnog for the first time in like, 8-10 years or some ridiculous span of time, and I found that I like it (I really need to be more open to trying things, I keep finding I like stuff). Had everyone in our apartment try one of each of everything I've been sent (looks like most of the German stuff is all mine bwahaha, they don't like it at all).
Friday was a fun day, we had our mission-wide Christmas Party/Devotional, so we took the Metro-North up to Ossining and met in the chapel there (the train didn't derail!) I got to meet up with my MTC district and catch up with them. Had lots of food (turkey, ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc.) The devotional was really nice, the missionary choir was really good and the individual singers/players were great as well (violin players, flute players, piano players, and the like). After all of that, Sister Morgan and President Morgan both gave talks about Christmas. We got home pretty late (left at 9ish in the morning, got back around 6:30), then came to the 87th street chapel and interviewed Sister Weyandt and Jensen (well, Elder Wang interviewed them), then went home.
Saturday was an interesting day, as we got a call from a less active inviting us over for breakfast/lunch, so we went. We visited her as well as two others in her household. Her son Alex (also less active) and her roommate Anthony (a nonmember) were both there. We looked up Anthony in our teaching record and discovered that he'd been taught in 2011 and 2012, both times getting baptismal dates, but then the record would end with no reason given as to why lessons stopped (and thusly I have been inspired to keep good records because it was so FRUSTRATING not knowing why he stopped getting taught both times). It appears as if every time, he just got lost between transfers, which is really dumb. So we'll be teaching him more, we have an appointment with them for this Saturday.
After that was the highlight of our week, we went to Rie's baptism! She's been investigating the church for 2 1/2 years and is the wife of our ward mission leader, so it was really cool for that choice to have finally been made! There's pictures of us with the Sisters and their family on Facebook (the one I'm using for a profile picture at the moment). After that we had an interview with Hermana Dunn and Laititi about how we can better help out our ward (we're feeling a bit disconnected from them at the moment). After that was our Stake Christmas Concert at the temple. The songs were really good, I think we did well too. The concert ended pretty late, so we got home pretty much just before 10:30. At this point we got a call that the Hermanas had left their keys back at the 87th St. chapel, meaning they were locked out of their apartment. We called the zone leaders (who hadn't arrived home quite yet), and they went back to the chapel to look for them. Elder Wang stayed up and made dinner for the zone leaders for when they got back, and I was asked to go to bed, so I did. I found out the next morning that they hadn't managed to find the keys, so the Hermanas went and slept on the kitchen floor in Sister Weyandt and Jensen's apartment, and the zone leaders got back at about 1 AM, so they were very very very tired the next day (so was Elder Wang).
Sunday was fast Sunday since we had ward conference the week before, so we started our fast (ended up doing a 21 hour fast all told). We went to ward council, talked a bit how we can better assist the ward, then had fast and testimony meeting. Rie went to Sunday School, and there was no one else there for Gospel Principles, so we just went to Sunday School as well. Went to Priesthood and apparently we're doing some singing as well (not sure when), so we practiced What Child Is This. Talked to a lot of members, got to know some better, and then went and did online proselyting until the time of our event at 5. The event went well, we had us, the Hermanas, a member (Bro. Price), and Joseph there for our Word of Wisdom discussion. It went great, the lesson really helped Joseph. We then went to the Prices for dinner, and we shared a message on member missionary work. It was snowing when we got out of that appointment, so it was fun to walk around on our way home.
Monday we were going to meet with Sister N. and Anthony again in the morning, but Anthony had a business meeting he had to go to so we stayed and shared a very quick message. After that we had zone/district meeting (learned about How to Begin Teaching).During lunch I played ping pong with Elder Longo and beat him 5 sets of 21 to 4. We did some online proselyting after that, and then did some inactive lookups. I think it was this day that we ran into a less active named Rebecca who was baptized in 1997 but left the church a few years later because some Sisters in her ward started telling her to change things she did, such as her career (she worked in Rock and Roll), as well as her hairstyle and looks and so forth, thus she got offended and left. Talked with her for a while, and then left her with our information (she didn't want to be taught at that time).
After all this, we were invited to dinner by a member(along with Elder Higbee and Elder Monson, they were on a split). We went to a place called the North End Grill. I have never in my entire life seen a more posh, expensive restaurant. We had both appetizers and a main course (they insisted we do), so for an appetizer I had quail (it was like a whole fried chicken, but it was a quail), which had fried pineapple and bacon as a side. For the main course I had an 8 oz. medium-well done beef tenderloin.
Tuesday was weird, as I woke up at about 5 AM (probably some noise woke me up), so I kinda stretched as I was about to roll over and go back to sleep. As I stretched, I must've done something funny with my right leg, because as I stretched, I think I pulled something in my leg or something similar and I then went through the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life (to my memory). It was bad, and the pain really didn't go away much, so I was limping around all day as if I used that muscle in any way, it would flare back up, so that was interesting trying to do anything.
Did indoor exercises (sit ups and stuff) because it was snowing like CRAZY outside (only stuck to the cars though, I was hoping it'd pile up). Had an interview with the ZLs again, and then had apple slices with pumpkin butter for lunch (I improvised with my stuff in the fridge). We helped the Sisters pass out flyers for their Ward Christmas event, and then we got a call from the mission office that one of Elder Wang's friends from Hawaii wanted to see him. We met up with him and his dad at Grand Central and went to Shake Shack for dinner. Elder Wang enjoyed it (they all three were speaking in Chinese so I just quietly ate my food and answered any questions they asked me, which didn't happen too often), then we went to the chapel to help out the ZLs, but they didn't need us. Both of our appointments (one with Isaac, the other our dinner appointment) fell through (thank you Elder Wang's friend for coming and taking us out for food), so we went home.
Got laundry done today, it's pretty cold. We're planning on going to the Rockefeller Center today, as well as a place called the Hong Kong Market (apparently it's pretty notable). Not too much else planned for today. My leg is feeling a bit better, but still hasn't entirely recovered, so I'm still being careful with it.
Hope you all are doing well, I've been praying for all of you! I'll send the pictures in another email following this one, so for now, hope you have a good week and I'll talk to you all next week!
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