'm back again and what a week it has been. We had some eventful days this week and it went by super fast. Of course, Mother's Day was the highlight as I got to talk to the family and this was the last one before I'm home! Crazy but here's the week in a nutshell:
5-8-17
"Happy birthday to Dylan!" Happy birthday bro:) Today was an off day because of the not emailing thing and the half preparation day but also felt a little like preparation day as we got haircuts. So it was a weird day. But we did laundry and went shopping. Ate lunch at home with the new food we got and made phone calls to investigators. Went to visit Howard near by but he wasn't home so we changed and went to the Spanish chapel for haircuts from Jay. Always great to see him and it is getting to the point of thinking when my last haircut from him will be. Sad thought. Then we cleaned up but didn't have enough time to eat so we went and taught Banjo and we had a really good lesson with him actually as we got to address the church attendance. He was on his way but he took the bus that went the opposite direction of where he wanted to go. But we will help him Wed as we are replacing our lesson with a church tour so he knows where the church is. Read the Book of Mormon with him to start him from the beginning and then we had to go home as I forgot my iPad and went to look up a potential investigator we haven't heard much from. And sent Margaret a few messages about lessons this week and headed home.
5-9-17
"Oh-oh, It's just me, myself and I. Solo ride until I die." Preparation day finally! And we got up and going to get to Rego on time. Got there a little early and emailed and talked for a bit. Ate the leftover bagels once the temple group left and I went with my temporary companion to his doctors appointment he had in Brooklyn so we drove there in his car and it was just a quick one as he needed a doctors prescription to get rid of an infection he has. Then drove back to Rego and spent the afternoon emailing and playing volleyball. Once the temple group got back, we went and ate dinner at the mall getting Panda Express. Then drove home in traffic for more than 2 hours. I didn't end up giving a baptismal interview I was planning on to give as the baptism got moved so we went home and dropped off a few things. Didn't have much time so we walked around our apartment and street contacted till the end of the night.
5-10-17
"Can I just say if I'm kidnapped, I don't want to hear any of this: 'Well, you know, we don't give in to kidnap-demands.' Just pay; I don't want to beheaded on the internet." Wednesday and it was an interesting one. We went to the church for our tour with Banjo but he never showed up again and we called and he answered and said he was on his way but from Manhattan? Waited for an hour and never showed up so we called again and didn't answer so we left to eat lunch and then went to look up a former investigator. Our areabook got updated to have this "smart view" of former investigator where it puts those that progressed a lot before high on the list and those that were taught like once at the bottom. So we started with those high up there and tried a few but since it was in the middle of the day, they weren't home. Then tried teaching Margaret but she again didn't get on so we are now having trouble keeping up with her. We heard late tonight in the middle of a lesson so we couldn't respond but she has a lot going on. Then James showed up and we talked for 2 hours about and it wasn't all on his situation, that was more for like 30 min tops but we had a really good discussion on his questions he has with the church and doctrines. We basically covered most of every lesson from PMG by tying it all together and showing how they all correlate together. Super good lesson and we got to know more of James as an individual. He took up our entire night so next time, better time management.
5-11-17
"I'm on him Jerry! I'm on him like stink on a monkey!" Today turned out to be a really good day overall. Started off slow as we tried to have our church tour again this morning since Banjo asked to reschedule to today but he then asked for 3 pm. So we did studies at the church and then went to district meeting and it was a very distracted district meeting but we got done what we needed to. Then we went to the church for our tour and Banjo was on his way but was having difficulty with the buses and how slow they were going so we went and ate lunch/dinner as I hadn't ate in 27 hours at this point. Then went to Costco for correlation and more food which I ate. Finally Banjo called and was at the church so we went to the church and showed him around. Didn't take long as he knows an LDS church but we wanted him to know how to get there from his home and how long it would take so he could be here Sunday. Fulfilled that goal. Then we spent some time sending off stuff via messenger before James showed up for our lesson and this time we focused more on distinguishing his relationship and his testimony and we can say he is getting baptized for himself. It was a great lesson and we got to set a baptismal date for June 24.
5-12-17
"You're hot." Today went by super fast to the point we felt like we almost didn't do anything. But we did. We got up and had our normal morning. We were going to have our district leader training meeting this afternoon but due to district meeting next week being different from normal, we decided to move it so I could teach the district with the stuff still fresh in mind. So next week at some point we will have the meeting. Instead, we tried a few look ups but since it was early afternoon, not much success. Then we went home to pick up a baptismal record and headed to the church for an interview for the ZLs' investigator getting baptized tomorrow. Funny story on the way there, every single road was traffic as school was just getting out. So on one of the roads we were sitting there with the windows rolled down as it was sunny. Two girls were walking by when one of them walked past our car saying, "You're hot." Honestly can say no one has said that to my face. So moving on, we got to the church and had the interview and he passed! We did some things on messenger and found out we were like trapped at the church as the police blocked off the road the church is on and there were 2 police helicopters in the air. So we waited around and it sort of cleared a bit and they let us through so we went and ate dinner at Papa Johns getting a deal for $6 medium pizzas. Ate them at the Spanish chapel outside on their benches when there was a deer chillin there like 20 yards away from us. He just sat there eating while we ate as well then members showed up and gave us more food they had. Went to the church and tried to follow up with investigators and contact referral. We tried visiting but the dad, I think, answered and basically told us to go away and not to bring "bible" stuff around his son. Tried visiting Howard near by but not home. Funny though as we drove by him as he was pulling into his neighborhood and stopped briefly to talk. Then headed home. Eventful day now that I typed it all up. I can see why it went by so fast now.
5-13-17
"Oh, look at that fluffy unicorn! It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!" Its Saturday and that means baptisms! We had 2 today, 1 english and 1 spanish. So the english one was in the morning and James came to the baptism and got to see it and then talked for a while after the baptism. He ventilated to us his frustration on the situation for a while. Then we went to lunch, later than usual, and went back to the church to work on the progress record for a few hours and got it done just in time for dinner. Seriously, that thing takes forever to do. But we went to the Spanish baptism at night for support and it was awesome. Talked afterwards what was said as it was in spanish and then headed home. I forgot about Spanish Standard Time where we got there on time for it to start but they said that so everyone can show up at least 30 min late. Haven't served around a Spanish ward/branch for a while so I forgot about that. So it was a fast day but everything just took forever to do!
5-14-17
"It's, the little people!" Mother's Day and that means calls home! We got up to go to ward council today but then they sent the text it was cancelled as I got out of the shower. So we studied and went to church. We had 2 investigators at church; James and a new one we haven't met before named Harold. He is another one that just showed up randomly and was super cool and upbeat. He even got a little emotional during one of the talks and sad he would be coming next week for sure. We are going to set something up this week for us to go by and see him to teach. We have gotten lucky with our investigators just randomly showing up to church and being interested. Then during church, James was having a. Rough time and so we gave him a blessing during second hour and he vented again for the entire hour and then went to Elders quorum and he participated a ton. After church, we ate a quick snack and called home. Took up until dinner as I finished and then an hour later Elder Stewart finished. I took a nap in that hour. Ate dinner and went back to the church to teach James and he was much more upbeat as he met again with our bishop for 2 hours and bishop was able to give much better council than us and so the lesson was fun and upbeat. James learned how much we get paid a month for food as missionaries and now has decided to feed us a lot to help feed us. He is feeding us starting tomorrow! But he really is awesome. He is just going through really difficult times at this point in his life that are tearing him up inside. But the gospel keeps him going.
So to address the "Another James" part of the subject of this email, Harold was the another James as he randomly showed up to church, interested in investigating it, and agreed to meet this week. Oh yeah, and he has a very, very, very similar situation to James' situation but Harold didn't have much trouble as James is having. So it is just an older version of James. Harold is like in his 60's and James is low 30's. Then James is doing wonderfully as far as his testimony but not so hot with his situation. But it was better Sunday night as you read and had a great lesson. I love teaching him as we can teach whatever he has a question about and his questions go so deep that it really makes me think and put pieces together I didn't now go together. I love it. And I can really expound the scriptures to him and show him all these references in the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, or Pearl of Great Price. Then Banjo had the church tour so we thought for sure he would come to church but no. He now claims it is too difficult of a journey to make as it takes 2 hours to get to the church for him. So we are going to try to either build his faith enough to make the journey or find a ride for the next couple months.
Im very sorry about this but I have a really long email and hardly any pictures. Sorry.
Police helicopter on Friday over the church
Police barricade
Eating dinner with the deer at the spanish chapel.
Hope everyone had a great week and a happy Mother's Day! But have an even better week this week! See you next week or tomorrow for me as these weeks go by like days. Peace ✌️
EJH
🔥🔛
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