Last Wednesday (like, the 11th), we went to the Rockefeller Center and saw the big official Christmas tree, then went to the little Lego store that's in the Center. We then went to Chinatown and went to a place called the Hong Kong market, which is basically a very large grocery store with pretty cheap prices. We bought groceries, then went to the Dennings for dinner, and read some Christmas scriptures with Rie (Luke 2 and a couple of Book of Mormon scriptures), then came home.
Thursday had a typical morning (exercise, studies, etc.), then we had a quick lunch and went and did a practice online event. That didn't go too well, but it was alright. After that we did weekly planning, and then a bit of online proselyting. We then got the chance to take the tram/gondola thing over to Roosevelt Island to meet with Bro. Brown from our ward to give him baptismal invitations we had made for his son's baptism. He was running a little late, so we looked up some former investigators while we were there, but none of them were interested. We finally met up with Bro. Brown, had dinner (yummy pasta), then went home.
Friday the 13th (ick) went alright, we had interviews with both pairs of Sisters, and then since Joseph bumped our appointment with him to Saturday, we went to an APF (Area Proselyting Focus) in Harlem and handed out hot chocolate at a Christmas tree lighting. That took a pretty long time due to the fact that we had to set everything up, as well as carry it up and down from Harlem to 87th street, so things got a little crazy.
On the way home, we stopped and got dinner, and then on the bus home, I did a terrible TERRIBLE thing. I left my retainer on the bus. Now, the reason you have not had me screaming that at you guys since practically two weeks ago is that I probably ran the world's fastest 400m to catch back up with the bus. Mind you, I was in slacks and my big poofy coat, so being able to run in and of itself was an impressive enough feat. Thankfully, he let me on, I got my retainer, and then got off. Phew. I don't think I've ever sprinted faster in my entire life. Then we went home!
Saturday was a really cool day. We got up, and it was snowing like crazy, we had about 3 inches on the ground by the end of the day (maybe more), so I broke out the winter boots, I really should've broken them in, I was getting chafed all around my ankle by them, but it was alright. Anyhow, we did studies then left early to get to Anthony and Norka's by 10. They fed us breakfast (nummy pancakes), and then we taught Anthony about the Plan of Salvation. We then got to the part about the Atonement, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and all that stuff, so we got onto the topic of baptism. We discussed it for a bit, and then I invited him to be baptized. HE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so ridiculously excited, and I still am. I think it's probably the best feeling I've ever had. We set the date for the 25th of January, so hopefully he will be ready by then to be baptized!
After that lesson, we went to go look up a former investigator who actually got referred to us by the mission office, so we went to visit him, but the doorman wouldn't even call him on their phone to tell him we were there, so we tried (in vain) to get him to pick up his phone, but he didn't. Sigh. Sadly, we just had to leave at that point. We then went to an appointment we had with a member for lunch, his name is Bro. Runyon (served a mission in France, is really cool and funny and a great guy to be around, going to school up here and is married), so he took us to Costco for lunch. Then we went to meet a girl named Naomi, who Elder Wang and Higbee had contacted when they were on their split. She wasn't home and wouldn't answer her phone, so we went over to our appointment with Isaac early.
The lesson went well, and then on the way to our dinner appointment they cancelled on us, so Elder Wang decided that we'd do what his former companion had termed a "miracle walk," aka walk around until we think of something to do. It was snowing and cold, so we decided to go to a Subways. After about 10 minutes, we pass this guy carrying a laundry bag. Huh, he looks a lot like Joseph....*Double-take* That IS Joseph! "HEY, JOSEPH!" So yeah, we had a lesson with Joseph in Subways. Guess miracle walks are actually miracle walks! We then went home, and the zone leaders were actually early for once! Very good day.
We also got the calls for everyone who was training a new missionary, and no one in our zone got one, so we're all unencumbered for another cycle. We also got transfer calls (now that I think about it, training calls were on Wednesday), and Sister Dunn got transferred to Olmstead in the Bronx, and some of the ASL district got shuffled around, as well as since Elders Fuhriman and World were going home on Monday, we got two new companionships to come in and replace them (one pair of Sisters, one pair of Elders).
Sunday was pretty normal, studies, ward council, then church. Elder Wang taught Gospel Principles, then we went and filled the baptismal font for the 2 Primary baptisms that were happening that afternoon, and then attended those. We then had our online event, but since no one showed up, we watched the Christmas Devotional. We then went to the Cannons for dinner, then went home.
Monday was a typical morning, then we went to district meeting, learned how to do a better companionship inventory, and then played a ton of ping pong (I beat poor Elder Longo 11 games to 0). We went and got lunch, finished our studies, and then went and did some unsuccessful less active look ups. We went to IHOP for dinner (since Sister Dunn was leaving), and then went home. Oh, slush is a horrible thing.
Anyhow, Tuesday was the day of the eternal walk, as we were looking up a referral who lived on this street that splits and disappears like, 6 times, and got hopelessly lost trying to find it. We walked for probably around an hour and a half (an hour past the appointment we'd made, we tried calling but he wasn't answering), and we finally gave in and went to a McDonald's to use our IPad maps. We had been panicking, because the street goes into Brooklyn and we were like, "Oh no, the address is going to be in Brooklyn. Bleh." It finally turned out it as two blocks from where we were at the time, so we went and of course, he wasn't home. It had also been snowing/raining sharp frozen ice chunks/raining up to that point, plus we'd done stair running exercises in the morning, making this out to be a very enjoyable experience. Ick.
After that, we went to the Yamada's to drop off some pass along cards for them (Sister Yamada made us yummy cookies), then went back out into the rain to go visit Isaac. After his lesson, we went to the Gibbons' for dinner, which was fun (they're a fun young couple, and they make a mean vegetarian curry), and Sister Dunn taught the lesson since it was her last day, then we went home.
Wednesday was pretty hectic, getting up to the transfer meeting, helping all the new missionaries get back, waiting for all of them, and so on. That's pretty much what we did all day. Sister Laititi's new companion is Sister Jensen (not the one that came out from the MTC with me), and all the new Sisters and Elders came down, I'll probably send their names when I get pictures of them. Elder Wang bought a Christmas tree and decorations, so that was fun, we got to decorate it once we got home!
Thursday we got up and pretty much went straight to the Dennings once we were ready to help them move. This took from about 8:30 to about 2:30, so we were doing that most of the day. He then took us out to lunch, and we got to talk with them for a bit. We then went and did online proselyting, and then had dinner with a member named Fletcher. He is probably the funniest, most eccentric and lovable person I have met. He's been a member for four years, and he has a really amazing conversion story, so I'll try to tell it as best as I can remember it.
So, he's an engineer and works with computer chips and stuff like that, so he has a lot of different places that he works for at different times. At this particular time, he was actually working for the military, designing a type of underwater laser (he says it was really cool being on the bottom of the ocean with marines and submarines all over the place). The commander of the unit he was working with was a guy named John, who was a really gentle and kind person, which he didn't expect from a military commander. They were finishing up this particular project (he was a year into about a 5 year contract) and so he took them all out for dinner (John that is). They all got to the place, and all the marines starting drinking alcohol and such, and Fletcher was the type who didn't drink, smoke, didn't drink coffee or tea or anything like that, as well as didn't swear, so he was just standing there with a root beer "watching humanity regress," when John walks up to him with his root beer. He said to Fletcher, "You must be a Mormon," and Fletcher was so surprised he didn't know what to say. The second thing that John said really struck him apparently which was, "I haven't met anyone like you who wasn't."
He says that these things really hit him that one, he appeared to others as if he was a Mormon (he knew of us but not about us), and two, that there were people who were like him, as he'd usually always been the odd one out in a crowd with his personal beliefs. So he kinda tucked that into the back of his mind, and went on for a few more months. Then one day he got called into his boss' office, and was told that his contract no longer existed due to funding being pulled (thanks to the big crash in 2009), so he was without a job, and many like him as well. He says things really went downhill from there, losing his house and moving into a small apartment, his wife left him, then eventually running out of funds so he no longer had electricity and water, and he lived solely off of pears for about a month. He was going to a church that had it's fancy lights, stage, singers, speakers, and all that, and his pastor and the pastor's wife would feed him 1-2 times a week, but they told him they really didn't have the money to do it since they were paying for all the above things.
He then remembered about our church, as he passed one every day to get to his to use their internet, electricity, and get water, so one Sunday he went at about 10:30 to see what services they were having. When he got there, the whole church was empty, and the lobby was dark. He was about to leave when one of the family history sisters came up and asked him what he was doing there, so he told her, and she got really excited and ran off. He got a little worried at this point, and was debating leaving while she was gone, when she brought the missionaries to him. They taught him for a while, and the bishop ended up taking him to the Bishop's Storehouse (he says it was like heaven for him, actually having food), and he was baptized a year from the time that he'd lost his job.
This is really paraphrasing (it's still really long), but it was really powerful when he told us it. We shared a wonderful dinner with him (he makes our sacrament bread which is SO GOOD), and then we went home.
Friday was pretty simple, went and bought gift stuff for our district/zone, got stuff for our district APF and made some posters, and then went around town and passed out about 125 pass along cards for our Christmas sacrament meeting. Had an interview with the Sisters, then had a lesson with Joseph, had dinner, got mail (cards from Mama and Sis. Alley Sr., as well as the card from Teddy), then went home.
Saturday was alright, I wasn't feeling too great, it was pretty warm (50s-60s), had a typical morning, did our APF (something called Kindness Kards), did online proselyting, went to the Bennion's for dinner (yay grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup with bacon), then went home.
Sunday (yesterday) we had the big Christmas program, a former investigator named Emanuel came and we're teaching him and his wife on Thursday, and we had a great time. Some of the Sisters' investigators came as well, and Joseph got to pass the sacrament. Yesterday was like walking through a tropical house in a zoo, it was in the 70s and very very very humid. It was GREAT I LOVED IT SO MUCH!!! So yeah, afterwards we did some online proselyting, went to church, did weekly planning and numbers, visited one of the sisters' investigators with them for a little, then went home.
Today we had district meeting/P-day stuff and we had a waffle lunch. Now I'm here!
Hope you guys are having a great week!
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