Week #19 Letter

Hey guys!

Some quick summaries for the week:

2-8-16
"These are not the droids you're looking for." Preparation day! Today
it was snowing all day but not too hard, just flakes. We first did our
laundry and then went to a candy store her in Flushing. Got some
Japanese candy. It's really good. Then went to the mall and got some
shirts at Nike Clearance store. I got a 49ers and Patriots shirt for
me and one from my dad as well. Hopefully he got his package before
reading this... Then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and I got another
pillow. Then Target, got a few things, and dropped that off. Went to
Hunan Kitchen for lunch and then went to the church. Played some ping
pong till mom got online to email but something was wrong with the
servers again or something cause I didn't receive any emails for an
hour. I finally turned off my email and turned it back on and then I
started getting all the emails once again. Weird. After emails, dinner
and went to a members home and had a family home evening there. It was
really nice and peaceful. Came back to Flushing and contacted by
Dunkin hoping to find new investigators to teach. #FTiF
2-9-16
"Do, or do not. There is no try." Today flew right by as soon as we
left. Studies and morning routine took forever. We left and went to
the church to plan our look ups for the day. Went and did a few then
went to lunch. Went to district meeting and it could have been our
last one together but not for sure. Went and did more of our lookups
and went to dinner. Went to the church and had a lesson with Adrian.
Then we asked him to stay for Jays lesson. He accepted and gave the
best input anyone can hope for. We are definitely inviting Adrian to
all future lessons with Jay. Did some seed planting after that and
went in for the night. Yeah.
2-10-16
"What a wonderful smell you've discovered, princess." The days are
getting harder. We are scraping the barrel looking for lessons and
trying to find people to teach. That and we are losing contact with
investigators and less actives every week. All of the sudden, we are
only scheduled to teach Jay, Adrian and Hill. That's not enough to to
fill our week. So this is starting to be the steep part of the hill
after an enjoyable ride down hill the past couple weeks. Time to grind
it out again and find new investigators through street contacting once
again. Takes like a hundred hours to get 1-2... Well today we did a
lot of look ups with hardly anyone answering. Once again, those that
answered either said they don't know the person we are looking for or
they moved. Perfect. We did teach Hill in the morning though. That was
all we did. Supper boring day and didn't feel like we accomplished
much.
2-11-16
"Flying is for droids." It was a boring day as it was freezing cold.
Even used some hand warmers today just to keep feeling in my hands. So
because it was cold, means no one wanted to stop and talk to us and no
one wanted to answer the door as it would let the cold air in... We
had no success today. Lots of look ups and contacting to just talk to
people. No one was stopping. We did do weekly planning but because we
haven't met with many people, it didn't take long. We also met with
Adrian today and we talked about temples and keeping the sabbath day
holy. Yeah, boring day.
2-12-16
"Luke, I am your father." It was a very good day today as we finally
hit our goal of planting 15 seeds in people. A seed is mentioning the
church and us as missionaries to someone not a member. Most people
don't want to talk so they don't say hi back and keep on walking. That
is why it is so hard to talk to people. Anyways, we had a lesson with
Hill this morning, went well as we addressed a concern she had. Then
went to lunch and had Zone Training Meeting. It was a great meeting as
I felt like I learned so much from it. They had workshops on Studies,
Planning, Teaching, and Willing Heart. Then went and visited a
referral we got today. It ended up being a recent convert that just
moved to New York from Cali and she didn't want to bother the Spanish
elders(whom she has been working with) about receiving another Book of
Mormon so she just self referred herself. That was really funny. The
went to a handoff lesson with the Korean sisters but as history
repeats itself, didn't happen. That is number 12 now that didn't
happen of handoff lessons. I'm never meant to have a handoff lesson as
everyone else in the zone has had one. Wow. Then went contacting till
Pizza Hut for dinner. Went to the church and made the coordination
sheet and contacted till coordination. After coordination, went
contacting to finish off the goal of 15. We barely made it as we were
walking home with 13 and talked to everyone we could to get 15. We did
it! Yay:)
2-13-16
"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Today was a weird day.
First off it was -8 degrees during the night with the wind chill. We
got an email from Jay saying as the night goes on, we might be hitting
a new record low of temp. That's crazy!! We be breakin records out
here! Then earlier, we had apartment checks and I was surprised at how
thorough it was. Like they were saying things I've never heard of and
washing this and that that I never knew could be washed or needed it.
I thought we had a pretty good apartment, but nope. We got work to do.
I can only imagine other apartments since they said ours was the
cleanest they've seen... Yikes. Then we actually had a handoff lesson
with the Korean sisters!!! Number 13 was the breaker. The investigator
is named Nira and now elder Mitchell and I get to teach her and she
sort of accepted a baptismal invitation already so... Maybe. No date
yet but we meet Friday, if we are still here after transfers. Then a
member came in half way through. He knows elder Mitchell and they set
it up for him to come in. I've never met him before but he attends the
Richmond Hill Branch not in our area but he lives in our area in
College Point. Weird. Richmond Hill was Elder Mitchell's last area so
that's how they know each other. After the lesson, we went with the
member and he bought us lunch and we talked for a bit afterwards. He
is very knowledgeable about the scriptures. He was giving insights so
deep from one scripture, it felt like an entire lesson. That was
crazy. Then we went and tried to visit some members but they weren't
home. Went to the church and prepared for our lesson with Adrian. We
talked about the commandments with him and helped him know what to say
to be a member missionary. Then he told us he is giving a talk
tomorrow in sacrament meeting!!! Not even a member a month and already
giving a talk. He's growing up so fast. Haha:) that's all.
2-14-16 Valentines Day!💐💝❤️
"Sugar! Yes please! Won't you come and put it down on me. I'm here,
cause I need, a little love a little symphony..."
"May the force be with you, always"
Had to finish off the theme for the week. Hope you all like Star Wars.
Cause I do.
Today was a fun day. It's a holiday and I love holidays in the mission
field. We did some contacting at Dunkin but it was the coldest day in
like the past 20 years members were saying. It was 7 degrees average
today with a -16 degree wind chill. That's cold! We lasted a half an
hour at Dunkin till we had to go in. Went and made some calls and then
had lunch. Went to church and gave the closing prayer in sacrament,
the lesson in gospel doctrine, and helped with the Melchizedek
priesthood class. Pretty full day. Hill, Jay, Asai family, and the
Esteva family all brought food for us and the Estevas have more to
give tomorrow. Hill got us cupcakes, Jay brought some of his cabbage
he cooks for us to try, very healthy he says, Asai's gave us a frozen
pizza and dessert, and the Estevas gave us a milk and the rest will be
tomorrow. Lots of food! We ate the frozen pizza at the church as our
oven doesn't work and we ate it with the Spanish elders. Then went to
visit referrals but none answered the door. Yeah, fun day and lots of
yummys!

So with the people we are working with:
We need to get in contact with a few people but we have a lot of
lessons set up for this week so hopefully I stay. Tomorrow is transfer
calls. I'll let you know in this email.
Hill and Adrian are great. Adrian gave a talk on the Word of Wisdom so
I don't know if we even need to teach him that one again. John we need
to get in contact with again. Just waiting on him, we have done all we
can. Katalin we set up a lesson for this week and Daniel has dropped
off the face of the earth. Valerie has a time set for Tuesday night
and Albert is tomorrow! This week we have 8 lessons already set up
from today's calls and set ups. So fun!!!

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Presidents Day everyone! I love you
all and I will see you in the next email! Bu-bye!!!