Week #16 Letter

Daily Summaries:

1-11-16
"Somebody once asked could you spare some change for gas so I could
get away from this place? I said, yep. What a concept. I could a
little fuel my self and we can all use a little change." Preparation
day!!! It was a different one from what I am used to but still
awesome. We had studies and then cleaned the apartment a little while
we waited for the superintendent to come unclog our toilet... It has
been clogged for the past 2 days... We were a little busy yesterday
and we have no plunger. Yeah... Then we did laundry and went to New
World mall and ate lunch. Went shopping and I got a sweet sweatshirt
and shirt from Adidas for really cheap. Best sweatshirt I ever bought.
I'm going to wear it to bed perhaps. Haha:) then we went shopping for
food and now I have a bag of rice to eat all my food with. I got fried
rice, sesame chicken and rice, chicken and rice and lots of other
stuff to make now that I have rice again. Went and dropped it all off
and went to the church and emailed and played ping pong. I'm getting
pretty good with top spin and back spin now. Then we were going to go
to Roberts for a lesson but he rescheduled so we ate dinner and then
contacted by the library and Dunkin. It was so cold I only handed out
2 cards. Then we went to Anthony's. Talked about the importance of
reading the Book of Mormon. Fun day and I'm excited about the
sweatshirt and shirt:) haha
1-12-16
"Boom boom boom, muffins!" Let me start off by saying I slept in my
sweatshirt. It was so soft. Also, it snowed, barely snowed, today. I
wasn't in the nest of moods then but I guess it was going to come
eventually. Funny part is it didn't even stick to the ground. It just
was cold enough for it to snow but not stay. Well today was average,
we had studies and planning before lunch. We then had district meeting
and did some look ups around. Tried visiting Daniel but he didn't
answer. Then had dinner and a lesson with Adrian and then a lesson
with Albert. Both were really good lessons and Adrian still doesn't
have a baptismal date confirmed yet. I guess it won't ever be
confirmed until the day of.
1-13-16
"In between the line there's a line of obscurity. I'm not inclined to
resign to maturity. If it all right, then you're all gone. Right now,
I'm singing the same song. Grab and run when you can't run. I know,
that you know, that I'm not telling the truth. I know, that you know,
that they just don't have any proof." Well today was a pretty ok day.
It was good how we taught Hill and John. But we went to do some
knocking around Fresh Meadows and look ups. No one answered except one
who wasn't interested. Sad for 3 hours. But hey, we got a baptismal
date out of John!! He is around Feb 20 now. Hopefully I will be here
next transfer as well!!!! That's all for today. Not a whole lot but a
pretty good day with that baptismal date!
1-14-16
"Full acceleration."
"Engine damaged."
"What's not damaged?"
"Air conditioner is fully operational."
Today was awesome. We had the meeting with Lee Donaldson and Brother
Watson. To give some background, Lee Donaldson and brother Watson are
from the missionary department and brother Donaldson was the mission
president for district 2 videos. For those of you that don't know
these videos, go to gospel library app, missionary, then 3 folders
over is district 2. These are example videos for new missionaries to
watch on how to be a missionary. Then brother Watson has been with the
missionary department for 30 years and works very closely with 3 of
the apostles over missionary work. He's high up there. And they made
some big changes. First off, exchanges, we are flipping them entirely.
We used to have the leaders stay and their companions go to the other
pool for the day. Now, the leaders stay and have the younger
missionaries come to their pool, both of them. So zone leaders go to
the assistants pool for the day and watch them. District leaders go to
zone leaders pool and regular missionaries go to district leaders
pool. All 4 or 5 missionaries are then spending the night at that
apartment and do work outs and studies there as a group. The younger
ones watch the older ones plan and make notes on how to improve. Then
during the day, the senior companions go together and the junior
companions go together to proselyte. It will be very interesting with
sleeping arrangements and work outs as our apartment is so tiny. And
for our district, it is just the 4 of us, so it is literally a
district sleep over:) Heavenly Father does bless us for following the
rules. Next big change is weekly planning and daily planning. They
outlined a new format the quorum of the 12 apostles have received
revelation for. We are to take each individual investigator and less
active and 1. Pray, 2. Review progress, 3. Set goals, 4. Make plan, 5.
Pray. Repeating this process for each individual person until we have
a solid plan and vision of where we want them to be this week and how
are we going to get them there. They said this could take a couple
hours too. The next change is a little more exciting. They talked
about how they filmed a district in Arizona with online proselyting.
Just like district 1 and 2 with training missionaries, that is what
this will do but to train them on how to proselyte online. We got a
new app today as well, named Oovoo. Not Facebook. But we have been
told that is coming with in February but not for sure on that. Oovoo
is skype but it can have multiple people join in to teach lessons to
investigators over it and have members present from the comforts of
their own home. So cool and we are now authorized to use it today.
This will really help so we can have members present 100% of the time.
I am so excited for this opportunity we have to use these devices for
the hastening of the work. I get to use the device to the fullest and
help others come into Christ. It is a double win here. The meeting was
truly inspirational and I took a ton of notes on it. Let me know if
you want to see them and I will send them to you. Too many to include
in the daily summaries. But after the meeting, we had dinner and
taught Adrian and Robert. Both really good lessons and already I was
trying to find ways of incorporating our devices to use a member
present with Oovoo or iMessage. I'm excited for this work which is
about to come forth.
1-15-16
"It's a shilling to tie up your boat."
...
"And I shall need your name"
"How about we make it 5 shillings, and we forget the name?"
"Welcome to Port Royal Mr. Smith."
"Thank you"
*shake* *cling cling*
Today was a pretty good day. We had a lesson with Hill this morning
and we finished the commandments. Then we had lunch and went into our
weekly planning. The new format took us an hour to plan for Adrian but
then it wasn't so long with the others but we ran out of time so we
have to come back to it later. And yeah, we went from lunch to dinner
and ran out of time. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and tried a new
pizza, Mediterranean specialty. Pretty good. Then went to the church
and had a lesson with Adrian and then coordination. Or correlation. I
don't know what it is called anymore. But we had that and then we were
going to go visit a referral but didn't have time so we contacted at
Dunkin. We actually taught a lesson after 3 min of being there and
that took up our time so we were on our way home when we talked to a
man sitting on some step and got talking and ended up teaching him as
well. Have both of them Book of Mormons and got their contact info so
we taught 4 lessons in total today!!! My most ever I think. So pretty
good day and we celebrated by getting Yogo Vera drinks. Elder Mitchell
loves them now.
1-16-16
"I was able to better myself through learning at a place called,
'shool" Today was very inspiring at Zone Training Meeting. We had
workshops given on how to plant seeds in people, how to work with ward
leaders, and how to be a consecrated missionary. It was overall
inspiring. But the rest of the day wasn't. We had a lesson with Hill
before it which was good. But after the meeting, we traveled places
only to have the person cancel at the last second on us. It happened
twice and a third time we tried to visit a referral but they weren't
home. So just a lot of time wasted it felt like but we did plant 4
really solid seeds today which is better than what we have done
before.
1-17-16
Cause baby tonight! The dj got us fallin in love, again." Today was
church day. We contacted after studies and then went to go pick up
Anthony but he had to go to work so then we went to church. Adrian and
Hill came today so they are like regulars now and they even
participated in the lesson during second hour! During church, it
started snowing a lot and after, we saw it covered all the cars and is
still there tonight. So now the snow comes. My luck ran out. After, we
went contacting in the snow until we went to a members home for
dinner. They fed us empanadas which are really good:) then went to the
church for a lesson with the Korean sisters but the person didn't show
up. That is the 8th time a handoff lesson has fallen through. They say
I am the only one this happens to. No other lessons fall through that
are handoffs but every time I participate in it, it falls through. So
funny. So we went contacting more in the snow. Fun times in Flushing.

So Lee Donaldson was awesome and very inspirational. I learned a lot
and want to use the tools we are given to the fullest extent to hasten
the work after that meeting.

Love you all and have a great week. I will see you in the next email, bu-bye!

-Elder Heaton