Week #15 Letter

Hello everyone!

I got a new companion this week and I'm sure you're wondering who it
is. His name is elder Mitchell and he is from Washington!

Here are the summaries:

1-4-16
"Its been a long day, without you my friend. Oh, I'll tell you all
about it when I see you again." Transfer calls were today and I'm
staying, elder Reese is leaving. He is excited to leave but I feel bad
he won't see the fruit of his labors be harvested. He is missing the
baptisms we have worked so hard for. I feel bad but 7.5 months in one
area is a long time. Well today we had personal study and then
transfer calls via conference call of all the missionaries. We found
out who was staying and who was leaving. We have Elders Wixom,
Hendrickson, Chung, and Reese leaving. The rest are staying. Then we
had companion study and laundry. Elder Reese had a doctors appointment
that we went to and then we ate at Hunan Kitchen. I just let Elder
Reese do everything he wanted to do as it was his last day here. Then
we went to the apartment and he started packing. I watched "On the
Lords Errand, Life of Thomas S. Monson" while he packed until we went
to the church to email home. We played some ping pong for a bit and
then left early to go to the Asai's home for dinner. They fed us
Japanese Raman noodles. So good. Then we went to a lesson with Adrian
and taught him about keeping the sabbath day holy. Finally, we went to
Anthony's to have a second dinner with him and his family for the last
time. Took lots of pictures today as elder Reese wants to remember all
of them.
1-5-16
"Welcome to the jungle! We got fun and games!" Today was interesting.
We had studies and then elder Reese finished packing and we went to
donate some clothes he didn't want anymore. Then we came back, had
lunch and went to the church to wait for Jay. Jay came, we loaded up
the car and went to Rego Park. We got there and immediately exchanged
companions. My new companion is...Elder Mitchell! We waited around
though as we had leadership meeting as he is District Leader. But
everyone else went to their areas and that was transfer exchange. Not
much to it now. We went to leadership meeting and then went to
flushing. Got his luggage from the church and went back to the
apartment and he unpacked while I made dinner. Went to a lesson with
Eric and Katalin. It was an awesome lesson with the spirit so strong
there. We are going to be good companions, I can tell. Went to a
lesson with Adrian and had a good lesson with him too. We just teach
really well together with and Elder Mitchell has only been her for 6
hours now.
1-6-16
"I never feared death or dyin. I only feared never tryin. I am what I
am." Today was great. We went to the church to call some referrals
after studies and update the emails, iMessage, and area book for elder
Mitchell. Then had once and went shopping. Elder Mitchell bought
everything he wanted and I bought what I wanted. We didn't split the
cost like elder Reese and I did. It was weird but something new. I
bought food to last me like 3 weeks. But elder Mitchell went all out
as he loves cooking apparently so he got so much food I didn't even
want to say how much he spent. (Hint...it's more than half of what we
get every month). But carrying all that food back... We were sweating
so much and right now as I am typing this up, my arms still hurt. So
much food to carry. Then we went to district meeting and that was
interesting. Such a different format than elder wixoms district
meetings. Not bad but different. Kinda cool. Then we went to visit a
referral and drop off a bible. Went to Halal for dinner and went to
Robert's. He cancelled on us on the way there so we ended up knocking
around there until we left to go teach Albert. We went to Anthony's
home and Anthony was home but Albert was late by 1/2 hour. So while
waiting, we talked with Anthony and elder Mitchell got to know him a
little bit. It was hard as Fast and Furious 6 was playing in the
background. But after a couple minutes of that, I remembered something
my mom said. She said the movies are just someone else's story and it
is to get away from our story. But I am living one of the greatest
stories ever right now doing the Lord's work. I didn't care about the
movie after that. Besides, it is the same as I remember it and will be
the same when I get back. So Albert got there and we were able to
answer his questions he had and made another appointment. Sweet.
1-7-16
"All right everyone, stand clear. Listen to me, that little witch is
messing with your mind. You got to fight it. You're stronger than her,
you're smarter than her, you're Bruce Banner!"
"Aaaarrrrgggghhhh"
"Right, right, right, don't mention puny Banner"
Today was more of an average day. We had studies, went and made our
new pass along cards, had lunch and we had a lesson with the Korean
Sisters where they would hand off an investigator to us but that fell
through. So we spent the time help Elder Mitchell get familiar with
the branch and investigators in where the live and then went straight
into weekly planning. Had some dinner afterwards, then went to Roberts
and taught him family history. Went to the church and taught Adrian on
Tithing. Adrian's baptism is now Feb 6 as he has other things going on
on Jan 23 and 30. Hopefully he can do Feb 6!
1-8-16
"What's with the talking raccoon?"
"Raccoon? What's a raccoon?"
"It's what you are, stupid"
"I am Groot"
"Yeah you said that. What's wrong with the giving tree?"
Today was a rough day. I was so tired today I didn't want to do
anything but I pushed through it. We had a lesson with Hill and it was
at the Library. We showed up early to find a table but didn't find one
by the time she got there so I was half tempted to give up and
reschedule but we went to Dunkin down the street and found a place to
sit. We taught her about obedience, pray everyday and read the
scriptures everyday. First 3 parts of the commandments. Then we had
lunch a can went to do some look ups in Jamaica Estates at the
farthest part of our area. We had 2 referrals down there and a less
active we tried visiting but we left a pamphlet at one of the
referrals homes and the other two had someone else living there and
they said the person we were looking for wasn't there anymore.
Perfect:( but oh well. Then we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Went to
correlation and taught Adrain about Law of Chastity. Fun fun right? It
wasn't that bad as he is an older gentleman.
1-9-16
"If I got locked away, and we lost it all today, tell me honestly,
would you still love me the same? If I showed you my flaws and
couldn't be strong, tell me honestly, would you still love me the
same?" Today was a miracle day. Elder Mitchell told me something that
Elder Burningham, one of the assistants to the president, said which
is, "the green days are the miracle days" meaning the finding days are
the miracle days. So true. So today we had a lot of finding events. We
first called a lot of our investigators this morning and set up 2
appointments. We went knocking in the afternoon and a mom invited us
in. So I'll tell the story now.
We were visiting a less active member but there was no one home so we
did some 2-2-5 around them meaning you knock the 2 houses to the right
and left and the 5 across the street. We knocked on this one house and
they answer and we introduce our selves. This dog is going crazy and
the mom opens the door to let it out. I'm like, "why are you opening
the door? This dog is going to pounce on me!". Which it did pounce on
me. It jumped up and just was pushing me on its hind legs and leaning
on me while I'm trying to talk to this lady. I get the dog off me and
the mom lets us inside and she yells/strongly demands her kids to
pause their show and "listen to the priests"... What ever, so we were
shocked we got in and thrown into the spotlight so abruptly. We just
started off with small talk and getting their background. Their oldest
son is like 12 and he says he goes to church every Sunday to go do
service else where. Like he listed probably everything I did as a Boy
Scout. Then their daughter said how she goes to Sunday school. So we
shared the video, "our true identity" since we were teaching kids. We
asked what they thought and they liked it. I then started talking to
the mom about church and the Book of Mormon. Elder Mitchell continued
talking to the kids. We asked if we could come back and they said we
could come tomorrow... Sweet.
So that was the crazy story of getting into this house. Hopefully
something comes out of it!! Afterwards, we visited a less active named
Albert, and got his update for us. Invited him to church tomorrow.
Then went back to Flushing and had dinner, then went and did some look
ups and contacting around flushing. Finally, taught Adrain again but
this time we focused on answers to prayer and how we can use the Book
of Mormon to answer our prayers. That was a really good lesson as well
with Adrian.
1-10-16
"I wanna party, I wanna samba. I wanna party, and live my life. I
wanna party, party! And fly!" Today was interesting. I dot have 12
week anymore so we actually have time to do something in the morning
besides study and go to church. So we went to visit a less active to
invite them to church. Nothing and so we went back and had lunch but
got a call from the Spanish elders saying the branch wants us at PEC
to set the unit goals. The branch set their baptisms for this year at
12... I say the branch set them because the missionaries don't agree
with it. We were pushing for like 6 or 8. They want one a month when
last year, they barely had 3. Whatever. Then we had church and Hill,
Adrian, and Katalin came. After church, we went to visit Vincent in
the hospital. He is not feeling good but should be out this week he
said. So we went and gave him the sacrament and a blessing. Then we
went straight to a lesson with a new investigator named John. Pretty
good one but we mostly talked about his questions. Then we came back
to Flushing and at this point it was 8:30 and we still didn't have
dinner yet. So we ate and the. Elder Mitchell had to go to the church
to get online for the district calls so he could fill out a form and
send it off tonight. That took 45 min and then we got back and had
daily planning quickly then to bed.

So it has been a crazy week as well adjusting to different schedules
and minor things as well. But it has been good over all. Elder
Mitchell is excellent and I have plenty to learn from him.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you just want to say hi.
Just send me an email:)

Love you all and I will see you in the next email!! Bu-bye!!

-Elder Heaton