Flushing New York

Flushing New York

Friday, May 6, 2016

Week #23 Letter

Hello everyone! How are you? I'm doing good. Pretty good week this
week. Nothing to crazy happened except Adrian got the priesthood!!! I
can remember the day he first walked in and wanted to learn more. So
long ago but only 3 months ago. He has come a long way. Anyways,
summaries of the day 21!

2-29-16
"We stole the Statue of Liberty...The small one from Las Vegas."
"Aaww"
Preparation day! It went by so fast it felt faster than usual. But
then again, we did end at 4:30 today. That makes it shorter. We had
our studies and laundry. Went and looked around some stores until we
went to GNC. Elder Mitchell got some protein and a blender. The
blender was super cheap and making me consider getting one if at
actually works. Then went and got our groceries for the month. We got
a little more than we need for this week so we are good for the next 3
weeks basically. Plenty of food. Then went to the church and played
some ping pong and emailed until 4:30 when we left for a dinner
appointment at 5. I finally beat Elder Householder in a match of ping
pong. He has beaten me every week we've played each other and finally
I beat him. Then at the dinner appointment, we did the family home
evening first and then ate dinner. It was a good lesson. Shared it
mostly with their daughter who doesn't like to come to church. Trying
to help her. Then afterwards, we went back to the church and John
cancelled on us too so we met with Adrian. We talked about the law of
chastity, word of wisdom, law of tithing, and law of the fast. Super
basic lesson. But good. Then came home. Fun day and it went fast!
3-1-16
"Cookie robots. I said cookie robots. Why, why, are you so old?" I'm
tired. It was a long day. We had some seed planting in the morning,
and a lesson with Jay afterwards. Pretty good lesson. Not too bad but
not the best. Lunch and then district meeting. That was pretty fun:)
then went to a lesson with Robert and that was good. Went over the
Restoration with him and added priesthood and auxiliary callings to
it. Also talked about service with him. Then went home, had dinner,
and went knocking in Whitestone. Planted a lot of seeds up there and
some said we could come back. We went to visit a member up there too
and they had this crazy dog. It is a baby apparently but it looked
full grown. It was so excited that it would jump on us every moment it
had. They put it on a leash and it has a choke collar on and it
sounded like it was hyperventilating when it was on the leash. It
would not settle down and was super distracting for our discussion
with the member. Ended up leaving after 20 min of this and the dog
jumping around making a ton of noise with nothing accomplished really.
Went back and contacted by Dunkin till we went in. I'm tired.
3-2-16
"Ugh, I hate that guy." To start off, my back has been hurting for a
few days now. I can't tell if it is from a lot of walking, a knot that
has built up or if something is wrong. But it has been getting worse
and very uncomfortable. So we'll see if it worsens and if it does much
more, I'll talk to the nurse. Anyways, today was interesting. We
started off usual, seed planting and met with Hill this morning. Just
talked about fasting. Then went to visit a member in a nursing home as
she asked for a blessing and she invited us for lunch... We get there
and she says we missed lunch but she still wants the blessing. As we
got the oil out and were about to do it, she says that she needs to go
and that we need to do it tomorrow and that way we can have lunch...
We tried to explain it will be quick but she wasn't having it. We then
left and planned to come back tomorrow... for lunch too. Then we went
and ate lunch, and went to the church to make calls and figure out how
to best teach family history to Adrian and Hill. We met with the new
branch president to discuss member missionary involvement, branch
mission plan, and any families he wants us to visit. He then asked me
to give a talk next Sunday in sacrament meeting on Temples to
encourage members to go to the temple. Pretty cool as this will be my
first in field talk and it also shows how much the new president
trusts us already:) it's awesome. Then we had dinner and went to do
some look ups down the street a little bit from the church. No luck so
we came home and contacted by Dunkin till 9.
3-3-16
"I shrink the moon. I grab the moon. I sit on the toilet, wait, what?"
Today was a good day. We did the usual morning with studies, seed
planting by Dunkin, and calls. But we went to visit the member from
yesterday and we gave her a blessing and talked for 20 min today. She
didn't want to talk anymore because she wanted us to go out and find
souls to save. We're like, "ok, we're going!" But we went to eat lunch
first and do our weekly planning session. The funny part about the
weekly planning was when we were planning for John, he called us on
skype... He wanted to confirm plans for tomorrow's lesson and let us
know his situation with it. Might be later or on time he said. But
weird how he called on skype and not the phone. Anyways, after weekly
planning, we went to visit a referral that requested a bible but no
one answered. So we knocked the street and went to eat dinner. Went
and did some look ups on Northern Blvd and ended up talking to a few
very drunk Spanish people. We could smell it on them and see it by the
way they walked they were drunk. So sad. And they wouldn't leave us
alone, every single one of them tried to talk to us about the most
random things ever. We just said we had to go visit someone and they
were ok with that. Not many of the look ups answered or didn't live
there anymore. That p's the usual with the look ups. Went and made a
few calls for the last few minutes and we were able to contact a
Japanese referral we received and set up a lesson for next Friday!
Pretty cool! His name is Yuki. Pretty good day after all. Back still a
little sore but changing the shoulders for the shoulder bag helped and
trying to massage it out. I got to say, I'm never wearing shoulder
bags again after the mission. It's going to be backpacks for
everything and not shoulder bags or messenger bags or satchels.
Whatever you want to call it, no more for me. I did get some good news
today though, I get to go on my 6 month anniversary temple trip on
March 16!!! Already to my first of 4 temple trips. We get one every 6
months and I'm almost a quarter of the way done with my mission! That
went fast.
3-4-16
"It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" Pretty cold day today. Woke up to snow
on the ground and I thought why? I thought we were done with this snow
thing! Anyways, that put a damper on our Dunkin contacting as we only
got 2 in a half an hour so we went to make calls as no one was talking
to us. Had lunch and did some look ups down in Pomonok housing by
Queens College. We looked up this less active named James Staiti and
he was home. He invited us in and immediately said he would come back
to church next week, start living the word of wisdom again and agreed
to meet with us Monday. All it took was meeting him for the very first
time and he was willing to change his life again to come back to
church. He gave his history in the church and his current position in
the priesthood. Obviously we were meant to find this brother and bring
him back. We will meet with him Monday! Then we did the rest of our
look ups and no success but we did meet with Robert. Very good lesson
on patience and humility. Then went to Pizza Hut for dinner and had
another skype lesson with John. It was a good lesson on prayer. Then
had coordination meeting and exchanged with the Spanish elders. I'm
with Elder Cisneros for the next 24 hours! Gonna be fun:) I am
starting to love exchanges now:) I used to not like them as I wasn't
in my apartment usually with my stuff but I'm now like whatever, I'll
see it tomorrow.
3-5-16
"No annoying sounds."
"Does this count as annoying? *click bop bop click bop*"
"Very."
The exchange was super fun! But the studies not so much as it was 4
hours long... We had personal study, companionship, 12 week, and
language study. I got to live the life of a trainer for a day and it
was pretty fun. It really tests my knowledge on how to teach and
effective ways of teaching. But I'm good with just my 2 hours of
studies. Then had lunch and were out the door by 1 pm. Already like
half the day has gone by. We went to visit a recent convert named
Vince. He was baptized last November. He is preparing to go to the
temple next Saturday and we were thinking of taking Adrian then too.
But that means preparation day would be Saturday and not Monday like
usual... I didn't tell anyone that so Monday I might get some emails
asking what is going on and I won't be able to respond till Saturday.
Then I have my temple trip next week and preparation day will be that
Wednesday. These next 2 weeks will be very unusual weeks. Anyways,
after that lesson, we went to a less active family named Camacho. We
did some service and helped hang up paintings and wrap telephone wire
around a door frame so she doesn't trip over the wire any more. Then
they fed us this vegetable soup that was super bland. No good flavor
at all to it. We were choking it down and eating salad to wash out the
taste. Ugh. The joys of everyone wanting to feed you. Afterwards, we
went and got dinner at Wendy's:) I haven't had it in forever and we
were both craving a frosty. Ate and went to visit a referral that
asked for a bible but we couldn't find his home and couldn't get a
hold of him so we went back to the church and waited for the others
elders to finish their lesson with Adrian to hold exchange review.
Then went home as we are all super tired. Elder Cisneros and I stayed
up till 12 last night talking.
3-6-16
"What? It has been disintegrated. By definition, it cannot be fixed."
It was church today and it was good. It was also fast Sunday and that
was difficult as I woke up today and realized that just as I was about
to go eat. Ugh, but then went back in bed and listened to music till
elder Mitchell was done taking a shower. Had studies and still
preparing for my talk next Sunday. So much to study from. Then went
and planted seeds at Dunkin until branch council. Then had church and
we taught the gospel principles class today on the creation. Then
Adrian got the aaronic priesthood during priesthood today! He has come
so far!!! I remember the day he walked into the church wanting to
learn more and now he has the priesthood power. And this Saturday he
is going to the temple. After church, we had a quick snack and did
some look ups but no one answered then contacted till dinner at
Hermano Sanchez's home and they made Spanish food. Super good. Then
contacted at Dunkin again till the end of the night. We will see if
elder Mitchell and I go to the temple with Adrian this Saturday as it
is now a branch temple trip and missionaries aren't supposed to go to
the temple when the branch goes. It was just going to be Vince
(Spanish elder's recent convert) and Adrian and us missionaries but
now it is a branch activity. So we probably won't go but they will
have a great time nonetheless.

So Adrian has come a long way. Almost done teaching him, got the
priesthood, and is going to the temple this Saturday. He is almost out
of our hands. Hill is a little behind him now and just needs to find a
family name to take to the temple. Then she will go. John is moving
this week so he asked us to help him tear up his carpet Tuesday and
then we will teach him. He is progressing well and is preparing for
baptism on the 27th. Then we found James Staiti this past week who is
a less active. Gonna start working with him now. Hopefully he doesn't
drop us.

Well, not going with Adrian to the temple as missionaries can only go
once a month and I have my anniversary temple trip the very next week.
Bummer.

Anyways, love you all and I will see you in the next email/post!!! By-bye!!!!

-Elder Heaton

No comments:

Post a Comment