remembered the real meaning of why we celebrate it. The presents are
so nice and loving, but the greatest gift of all is the Savior
Himself.
12-19-16
"And he's talking with Davy, who's still in the Navy. And probably
will be for life." Preparation day! I am feeling much better today but
I was really hungry most of today from throwing it all up yesterday.
We did laundry and shopping in the morning and took it all home
quickly and then went to Jamaica to practice our song/skit for the
Christmas Devotional we are going to have this Friday with the whole
mission. Just like we did last year:) It was really fun and we are
looking forward to seeing how it all turns out this Friday:) We then
finished emailing there and headed home in traffic so we headed
straight to the Lilly's, a senior couple in Lynbrook's area but
attends the Far Rockaway branch. We helped give a blessing and then
headed to pick up dinner from a member to take home and then had a
lesson with Charlie and Dave. That was a good lesson and a fun one.
Then headed home to plan and go to bed as I am really tired. Which you
wouldn't think I would be tired after sleeping for 14 hours last
night.
12-20-16
"And I didn't even qualify I thought. I'm too self centered, don't
play with others, that sort of thing." Today was about an average day.
We had our studies in the morning with lunch. Headed to district
meeting and had a good district meeting with everyone there, including
the assistants. We went to knock an area where we were going to drop
off a Bible and got to talk to a few people there but wasn't able to
drop off the Bible. We rescheduled it with them for Thursday morning.
Then we picked up a member to go see Eddie. It was a great lesson and
the member really helped out. Dropped off the member and had a quick
dinner at home. Went to Freeport and tried to have a messenger lesson
with Will but he never responded back. Then president Reynolds called
Elder McCulloch and talked to him for a bit about medical history.
Then we went up to Hempstead and looked up a less active Bishop wanted
us to go find and he was home and we got to talk to him for a bit but
couldn't stay long as it was already really late. So we gave him our
card and headed home.
12-21-16
"I'm a sailor! Look at me, I'm a sailor, I like to sail!" Pretty
average day once again. Our morning was interesting though. We went to
Rego Park early so elder McCulloch could do his driving test to be
allowed to drive on the mission. That was pretty fun to sit in the
back seat and hang out. We then got packages and supplies and drove to
Freeport and dropped off the Spanish elders supplies and then headed
home to eat lunch. Then back to Freeport to do daily contact stuff and
try to have a messenger lesson with Delano but nothing came out of it.
Then the sisters asked for a blessing and we gave them one. Headed
down south to go see Charlie and Dave but today Dave wasn't there. He
was off doing something else the nursing home had him do so we had our
lesson with just Charlie. It was an ok one but the hard part is
Charlie doesn't want to change so now we are wondering what to do.
Then tried to visit Josh Brown but couldn't get in and so we tried to
visit Will and Sherrell, but they weren't home either. That's when it
was time to head home for the night.
12-22-16
"Dave, listen up please!" Well today was a slow day but it was super
amazing with Eddie. We had our studies in the morning and had to leave
early to go drop off bibles for that lady that we visited earlier this
week. We were able to drop them off but not able to teach her as she
had some appointment soon. So we then visited another referral in the
area and we got to teach the mom and her 2 kids. The dad we in and out
taking in groceries but didn't want to stop and listen to the
Christmas video. We introduced them to the Book of Mormon. Then we
went to Freeport and weekly planned for Eddie and then went and met
him at a restaurant in Lynbrook and had an amazing lesson with him
while we ate lunch. Then planned for a few more people and went to
visit a referral in Hempstead but nothing. Ate a quick dinner and went
to Freeport to do some daily contact for people and got a call form
Eddie how he received an answer to his prayer and a concern he
expressed to us earlier today with his girlfriend! It was awesome to
see him so excited to receive an answer to his prayer. :) Then tried
to contact around the chapel but nothing much came out of it. Headed
home. We are very close to Christmas now:)
12-23-16
"Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. But the very next day, you gave
it away, gave it away. So for this year, to save me from tears, I'll
give it to someone special, special." Today was an amazing day. We had
our Mission Christmas Conference today and had a lot of fun and
inspiration. We started off with an intro and then we went into the
Christmas skits each Zone prepared. We went in order of zones 1, 2,
3... and we are in zone 7 so one of the last. We had a Santa showdown
of white Santa which was very formal looking and acted, vs black Santa
who was gangster style. It was all around them and I was an elf for
the black Santa. I went in there with another elder and had snap backs
on and threw out jolly ranchers trying to act gangster. Then the show
down was an arm wrestle but we staged the assistants to to come up and
get mad at us for this and rebuke us. Elder Pothier got mad. It was so
funny. He stood up on the table and yelled directly into each santas
face at the top of his lungs. I was in shock it was so funny. That was
our skit. There is a video of it, I'll try to get it and send it. Then
we reviwed the year of 2016 and what we accomplished and had lunch. We
then heard musical numbers and talks given by president and sister
Reynolds and ended with our new 2017 goals and vision. Instead of 567
it's now 365 as in 365 days in a year. The goal is 365 baptisms and
temple trips in 2017. And then we had the smaller goals to achieve
that but it was pretty cool to see the new "567". Then we got our
packages and cards and headed home. We got home to eat dinner quickly
and go pick up a member to come with us to a lesson with Will and
Sherrell. It was a great lesson and we then dropped off the member and
headed home. It was a great day:)
12-24-16
"It's the most wonderful time, of the year!" Merry Christmas Eve!
Today was an awesome day of fun. We had our studies in the morning and
went to drop off a gift to a struggling family that the sisters
received from a family full of clothes and they wrapped them all up
nice and pretty, we delivered them. Then we tried to pick up a member
to go help give a blessing but the person we were giving a blessing to
wasn't home yet so we decided to wait till later to take them member.
So we visited referrals and our investigators. Did a little bit of
knocking and picked up the member and went to give the blessing and
then headed to the Malinkas for Christmas dinner at 3. We had dinner
and then talked for a bit and played games with each other. Then they
gave us gift baskets full of food and pajama bottoms for all the
missionaries in Lynbrook. Then we headed to our second dinner
appointment at the Andersen's. We had dinner and then went into the
family/missionary tradition of jeopardy. It's the Andersen family vs
missionaries and missionaries haven't won in 16 years they said...
we'll make it 17 now. We got creamed but it was a very funny loss. We
had a good laugh about it. Then had a spiritual thought and headed
home.
12-25-16
"Merry Christmas and a happy new year." Merry Christmas everyone!
Today was an amazing day full of the spirit, like usual. We woke up
and got ready and opened our gifts. Thanks to Grandma Marcy, the
Parkins, and mom and dad for the gifts you all sent and to everyone
that sent a card! It made my Christmas special and memorable. It was
so fun and I started playing with my small logo sets:) I was a child
on Christmas morning, literally. Then we got ready and headed to
church. It was a great sacrament meeting and we took part in the
program with the YM because they were a few short. Then headed home
and ate a quick lunch and Elder McCulloch started his call and then I
started it 30 min later. It was so much fun to talk to the family and
to talk to some of the extended family. I heard one of my cousin's
voice and he hit puberty. It sounded so weird. We talked for a little
over 2 hours and hung up. We headed straight to the Carters and had
dinner with them and had fun playing a card game. Then taught Dave and
Charlie which was great to be able to teach someone on Christmas. Then
we headed in.
Not much progression from investigators this week due to the holidays.
But we got to teach a few lessons. We got to teach Will and Sherrell
about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and got them
started on this thing we call the 18 Day Challenge. Elder Mitchell and
I came up with it back in Flushing to help people read the Book of
Mormon everyday. So they are now doing that. Eddie is amazing and
doing well. We had a great week with him and look forward to
continuing his progression. We are working to get his girlfriend Kim
involved in the lessons so she can learn with him. Charlie we are not
focusing as much on him. We are dropping him for the time being as he
said to us last week that he is not changing religions or anything, he
wants to go back to his church. So we are falling back and will check
in every few weeks but won't be a priority anymore. Delano we finally
got back in contact with Saturday and his house rules are still in
play of no guests right now so we are trying to find an alternative by
meeting at a member's home. That's it for our investigators.
Christmas was so much fun though and talking home was the best present
of all of them! But I got other good presents. Hope everyone else had
a merry Christmas as well!
-Elder HĘÅTØÑ
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