tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31870402598618885332024-03-14T00:57:28.390-07:00 Elder West in New York NY NorthDaniel West is serving a 2 year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Come follow alongAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-52481097464153591072016-07-06T11:47:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.199-07:006 July 2016 - Happy Birthday to Me!!<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Dear All,</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Today is my 19th birthday, and for that reason I'm going to the temple! Yay.</span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /><br />Romans 12:12 says, "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">continuing instant in prayer." I think it's interesting that these </span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">three things are spoken of together. To be patient is to have hope that things will be better, and being willing to accept the Lord's timing on blessings we receive. But how can we be patient if we're not<br />"continuing instant in prayer"? If we want to learn patience and become more patient, then we must humble ourselves before God and pray for His divine help in being patient. I know that for me, most of the time I must rely on God to be able to be patient through things; and even then I'm not as patient as I should be. But as I rely on Him and admit to my weakness without Him, it becomes easier and I am able to be more patient.<br /><br />People often get on the trains just to sell stuff, and the most common thing is "Welches fruit snacks for a dollar". There was one guy today who was selling fruit snacks and stared at us a little bit as he walked by announcing his sale. He walked by us one more time and kinda</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">smiles and announces, "What would Jesus do? Jesus would buy some </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Welches fruit snacks". We laughed, and he laughed, and then he moved on </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">to the next train. Certainly a New York moment</span><br />
<span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />Elder Hill and I have been seeing so many miracles lately. It's simply because we're putting ourselves out there and just talking with people all the time. My companions and I haven't always done this in the past</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">because we are ASL missionaries, and we figured we should always sign </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">so we could get more practice, and so it would be obvious that we know </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">ASL. And that's a good thing for sure, but now we don't feel that it's the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">best thing. Because neither of us are deaf, we feel that we shoulds </span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">take advantage of being in NYC and just talk to people all the time.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">We had Elder Bennet from the Seventy visit our mission, and this is </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">something he talked about. He said, "If you talk to everyone, the Lord </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">will place people in your path. You may not see the connection of your </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">actions and the reward, but it will happen. Those people you talk tod</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">ay not know (deaf) people who are interested, and they themselves may </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">not even want to learn more. But the Lord will see how hard you're </span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">trying and bless you while blessing others by allowing them the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">opportunity to hear the Gospel." At first I thought, "Talking to </span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hearing people on the trains probably won't yield more deaf people for</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">us to talk with, but it can't hurt to try." Now I look back, and we've met </span><span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">more deaf people in these last weeks than the rest of my mission</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">combined. And we have two people scheduled for baptism this month! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">That hasn't happened on my mission yet. It's so awesome, and we're so </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">excited to see these people change their lives.</span><br />
<span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />Quotes:<br />"Imma be honest, I actually wouldn't mind having more than one wife."<br />"You realize that you just asked for toilet paper for your birthday, right?"<br />"Hey, you guys are Nazis".<br />"You used to call me on my videophone..."<br />"You learned that you could talk to white people without them being<br />scared of you."<br />"In all ways, be wise and mature in your conduct".</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">"I'm just like Batman except I suck at fighting, and I'm poor."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Scriptures:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Romans 12:12</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Proverrbs 14:29</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Mosiah 23:21</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Alma 5:26</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Keep on Truckin</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">-Elder Daniel West</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mkJ9ygtsxrE/V3_4S6RRdFI/AAAAAAAAP7k/BEJyGE9ihswcV_XieV5m3tmtOpJUbW4lQCK4B/s1600/Birthday%2BCupcakes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mkJ9ygtsxrE/V3_4S6RRdFI/AAAAAAAAP7k/BEJyGE9ihswcV_XieV5m3tmtOpJUbW4lQCK4B/s640/Birthday%2BCupcakes.JPG" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I came home to this from Elder Holloway</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZeV6sq-jlPo/V3_4cfdH0xI/AAAAAAAAP7s/6aQXKoVhM_IxdhCdlp2Q6GFzvZIcOUW7QCK4B/s1600/Birthday%2Bgift.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZeV6sq-jlPo/V3_4cfdH0xI/AAAAAAAAP7s/6aQXKoVhM_IxdhCdlp2Q6GFzvZIcOUW7QCK4B/s400/Birthday%2Bgift.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Birthday gift from Elder Holloway</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Subway entertainment on the way to the Temple</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-49654461941806266352016-06-29T11:35:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.195-07:0029 Jun 2016 - Finding Deaf People in NYCDear All,<br />
<br />
Tuesdays are my favorite of the service we do. This week, one of our<br />
responsibilities was taking care of the giant bags of vegetables. So<br />
one of the things was the smaller 10 lb bags of potatoes. That was fun.<br />
I stood in the back corner of a pallet with people throwing the 10 lb<br />
bags at me. I had to stack them up quickly and so that they wouldn't<br />
tumble. They do this every week with the stuff, but this isn't usually<br />
what I've done. It was super fun though. Elder Bell and I actually did<br />
this sometimes when he was here, but I would throw the potatoes at<br />
him. Well now I've seen both sides. I'll attach a picture of it too.<br />
<br />
Wow, obedience has meant far more to me as a missionary than it did<br />
beforehand. The commandments are there for our benefit: we already<br />
know that. But even knowing that, it can still be difficult to follow<br />
them. As missionaries, we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and<br />
therefore are expected to live the higher law. Obedience isn't a<br />
request, rather, it is a commandment. This can be hard, of course, and<br />
some of the commandments seem like little things, and not as important.<br />
But, something my Stake President said to me right before I left was<br />
that those "little things" are the ones that matter most. I didn't<br />
fully understand that comment before, but I've come to realize why<br />
that is. Anyone can obey the big, obvious commandments. But our<br />
obedience to the "little ones" is what truly determines how much<br />
we're willing to give up for Him.<br />
<br />
Elder Bell and I focused on how to sign differently to each person we<br />
met and talked with. Because every single deaf person signs<br />
differently, we try to change our signing so it matches theirs, and<br />
it generally works really well. That's something that's been different<br />
on my mission than it was at home: so much diversity. Not even just in<br />
ASL, but with people in general. I'm just used to Portland, and its<br />
white liberals. But here is different. I mean in Manhattan it's all white<br />
liberals, but most of our time isn't spent with them. Ah, the things<br />
we're learning in New York.<br />
<br />
We had another straight up miracle last night. We were on our way home<br />
from mail and found two more deaf people! They were right outside the<br />
turnstiles and we just barely noticed them before we went through.<br />
They are highly educated, which is super rare. They're also nice, and<br />
truly both want to learn more, which is also super rare. WE FOUND TWO<br />
EDUCATED, NICE, TEACHABLE, DEAF PEOPLE! That is the first time this has<br />
happened on my mission! It was amazing. Heavenly Father put us in<br />
each others' paths for a reason. That brings the total to 3 deaf street<br />
contacts this week. Holy cow, that's a ton of deaf people in a week.<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"If you turn all of New York Mormon could you come home early?"<br />
"Excuse me sirs, would you vote...ah too young"<br />
"Even the Mormon ones."<br />
"Yes, the raptor may actually eat us. But we will be blessed by it."<br />
"I wonder what kind of drugs he was using, maybe stupidity." -after<br />
some college student runs into a guy's cane.<br />
"If there's a deal and I'm not getting it, then I'm losing money!"<br />
"Man it seems like all we do is cook, chow down, and do dishes."<br />
"You cannot linger in temptation and expect to overcome sin."<br />
"Repentance is cool"<br />
<br />
Scriptures<br />
Mosiah 16:6-9 - But there is a resurrection.<br />
Alma 18:8-10<br />
Isaiah 1:18<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin.<br />
<br />
-Elder Daniel West<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GPAxVEWFUW8/V3_0PcQImeI/AAAAAAAAP7E/1930DfXIMncLtbcr0ss_fXSt4jvTKwMPgCK4B/s1600/Potaotes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GPAxVEWFUW8/V3_0PcQImeI/AAAAAAAAP7E/1930DfXIMncLtbcr0ss_fXSt4jvTKwMPgCK4B/s400/Potaotes.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tuesday Service</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb89HcEisOU/V3_0mpCJZeI/AAAAAAAAP7M/cnzO9GaF1jw7381kqBaI74uXtl4GEPAqwCK4B/s1600/M%2BPriesthood.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb89HcEisOU/V3_0mpCJZeI/AAAAAAAAP7M/cnzO9GaF1jw7381kqBaI74uXtl4GEPAqwCK4B/s400/M%2BPriesthood.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Talvin Staton received the Melchizedek Priesthood! Amazing member</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OLexOySTPHg/V3_0tmVIUJI/AAAAAAAAP7U/NLGyS97H-k8EtLE-MCL7grFSxZJ1b3pOwCK4B/s1600/NYC%2BBridges.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OLexOySTPHg/V3_0tmVIUJI/AAAAAAAAP7U/NLGyS97H-k8EtLE-MCL7grFSxZJ1b3pOwCK4B/s640/NYC%2BBridges.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Manhattan Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-80023867388525443502016-06-22T11:31:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.203-07:0022 Jun 2016 - 7 MonthsDear All,<br />
<br />
The Zone Leaders called us on Thursday to let us know about a service opportunity that was happening in an hour. We accepted and zoomed our way over there right after a meeting. The information they gave us was very limited, and not enough to find the place. So we just kinda walked a few of the blocks near the intersection they gave us, looking for it. We approached a guy who, unfortunately for us, only knew Spanish, so called the zone leaders and asked them to speak with him for us. He showed us the place and we walked right in. The nuns that were running it didn't want our help and said that they needed more notice, so we accepted and walked back. Right where we talked to that Spanish-speaking person was a black man that we started talking to. It turns out, he had specifically felt like he should have his Bible with him that morning and talked about how he knew we were from God. We talked for a while and it was super awesome. We knew that that's the reason we were sent to do that service. The Lord specifically wanted us to meet this Haitian man, not to do the service.<br />
<br />
We were on the train and signing to each other. There were these two little kids that started to copy what I was signing. I looked at them and signed stuff that they continued to copy. So we got out our cards with the finger spelling abc's on the back and handed one of them to each kid. The kids went ballistic and then the mom and grandmother started joining in. The woman next to me was watching and laughing along so I asked her if she wanted one: she said she would love one. Then as we exited at our stop, there was a person who stopped us and asked for one. Elder Hill then said this, "Wow those cards are a good idea. We got the whole frikin train signing." That was a funny thing, all these randoms fingerspelling together.<br />
<br />
We had another miracle find. We're just standing waiting for the train when Elder Hill jabs me in the side. I'm like, "What the heck?" He points to a guy who has a hearing aid and we walk right up to him. He starts speaking to him and the guy speaks back, but clearly with a deaf accent. So we started signing with him and taught him. We got to know more about him and it was awesome. I've noticed that the Lord has been constantly providing us with these miracle finds as we do our best to talk with people all the time. The members of the Godhead are a lot more willing to step in and help us out once we've done everything we can to help others out.<br />
<br />
We got shut down hard by some guy, which was pretty funny. He walked by us and waved and so we walked up to him and were like, "Hey man, what's your name?" with an outstretched hand for a handshake. He promptly took his hand back, and while quickly walking away said, "Ha! No. Thank you I'm good. Thank you." He muttered a few other things to himself as he walked away and it was pretty funny. It certainly hurt my pride a little bit, but it's alright<br />
<br />
We had an awesome lesson with a less-active member. We had a plan to be bold and straight-up about how things have been, because we were thinking about not visiting her so often anymore. We went in and asked her some questions and it became a completely different lesson than we had planned. It became clear that she didn't need boldness, rather, she needed love. So we apologized for not being better missionaries for her in the past and promised to do better from then on. We made it clear that we are willing to do anything she needs to help her keep her commitments. It was super cool to see how we were really the ones to blame; we hadn't been loving enough and just hadn't done what we needed to.<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"Let's pretend, Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen..."<br />
"I don't really know what they're about, but they're weird."<br />
"Oh Lord God please help me Lord Jesus thank you dear Master. Oh Lord<br />
Jesus, help Jodelle!<br />
'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'".<br />
"I'm not mean, I just don't like you."<br />
"Can you spare a cigarette, homie?"<br />
"Just for future reference, when it says 'stand clear of the closing<br />
doors' it actually means to stand right in the middle of them,<br />
alright?"<br />
"You can call me Bob the Builder. Because I got the tools."<br />
"Have a good one guys.<br />
FBI? You look like the Feds!<br />
Nah, we're representatives of Jesus Christ."<br />
"Excuse me, just let me let this sexy family by."<br />
"I'm 93 years old...they say the good die young. I must be one bad son<br />
of a *****"<br />
<br />
Scriptures:<br />
Exodus 20:7<br />
Mosiah 2<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NgebJg6BBk8/V3_xHSyePMI/AAAAAAAAP6g/0hRXZm-bMOI60peApZar8AbGQ3K7kMBmQCK4B/s1600/Elder%2BTabor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NgebJg6BBk8/V3_xHSyePMI/AAAAAAAAP6g/0hRXZm-bMOI60peApZar8AbGQ3K7kMBmQCK4B/s400/Elder%2BTabor.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Elder Tabor from my first two weeks in NYC came to our apartment on a companion exchange!</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v3ELUdv4kZA/V3_xVTlgseI/AAAAAAAAP6o/ImHHmi-4xkIVVi8NZDlMqq0TwcVZOnyhACK4B/s1600/Small%2BApt%2Broach.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v3ELUdv4kZA/V3_xVTlgseI/AAAAAAAAP6o/ImHHmi-4xkIVVi8NZDlMqq0TwcVZOnyhACK4B/s400/Small%2BApt%2Broach.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">A mid-sized roach in a project</span></span></td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-23578312929442455662016-06-15T11:24:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.181-07:0015 Jun 2016 - Running Out of Subject Lines AlreadyDear All,<br />
<br />
Middle-aged Mormon moms are the worst. So far, each time one of them<br />
has seen us they just grab my arm with the tightest grip and scare me<br />
to death with a scream of surprise, "ELDERS!!!". No joke, this is<br />
legit what happens almost every single time. On the contrary, the men<br />
that have seen us generally are just like, "Hey Elders how's it<br />
going?" So nonchalantly, almost like they planned on meeting us<br />
there. It's very funny to see the difference in reactions.<br />
<br />
We went to check on someone we had a little information on, and their<br />
"nice hearing son". The son wasn't there, but the deaf mother was. She<br />
said he was at the store, so we taught her and it was good. We left<br />
and ended up going down the wrong way,so we turned around to go the<br />
correct way and BOOM, we saw the son walk into the apartment. So we<br />
went right back to the apartment and knocked the door and talked with<br />
him. He's super interested and really wants to start taking his mom to<br />
the church. We're super excited to meet with him again. That's a<br />
potential eternal family found! So excited.<br />
<br />
We witnessed some more Bronx Mom action this week, only this time<br />
wasn't nearly as funny. This mom was just constantly nagging her child<br />
to sit down and be quiet, but then continued to encourage rowdy<br />
behavior from the child. Then, this is where the inner Bronx-Mom came<br />
out: The kid stood up out of her seat and right into the mom's swinging<br />
palm to the kid's forehead. The kid kinda fell back down into the<br />
seat. The smack sound was about equal to the closing of a car door.<br />
The kid was completely unfazed, even as a red mark developed on her<br />
forehead. She even later began to stand up again, but when the mom loaded<br />
her arm like a gun to smack the daughter again, the daughter promptly<br />
sat down. This was certainly a (Bronx) New York moment.<br />
<br />
I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. It's only real<br />
because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice. When we sin, there is no point in<br />
holding onto that guilt. The longer<br />
we wait to repent, the longer we're not allowing Christ to take that<br />
from us. By saying that we don't need help from others, we're actually<br />
being prideful in saying we don't need the help that Jesus Christ has<br />
already allowed us to receive. I am so grateful<br />
that I don't have to suffer for my mistakes. Every time I've repented<br />
of something, it doesn't bother me anymore. The guilt I once felt<br />
suddenly seems non-existent. "Behold, he who has repented of his sins,<br />
the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more" (D&C<br />
58:42). Jesus Christ is waiting for us all to allow h<br />
Him to take that<br />
from us. We just have to be humble enough to admit that we need Him. I<br />
know that my Heavenly Father loves me. I know this because I've felt<br />
His love in my life. I know that the Holy Ghost cares about each of us<br />
just as much as our Father and our Savior do. All three of them do<br />
everything in Their power to make us happy.<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"Woo woo woo! Utah Utah Salt Lake City. Ogden, Utah, Salt Lake City!"<br />
"Why lie? I need a beer."<br />
"Joseph Smith, that's the guy you guys worship, right?"<br />
"I wonder how long it's gonna be before I get married? I thought it<br />
was gonna be a year but then I thought, 'Oh wait, it's eternity.' So I<br />
think it'll be two years."<br />
"I'm willing to get fat for you, Elder."<br />
"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains."<br />
"For a brick, he flew pretty good!"<br />
"Lights will guide you home. I'll ignite your bones...and fix you."<br />
"So how do you make it two years? Well, ask for humbling experiences<br />
and then hang on for the ride."<br />
"I'm selling this candy for myself, so I can make more money to buy more candy."<br />
"Attitude reflects leadership, Captain."<br />
<br />
Scriptures:<br />
Jacob 2:9-10<br />
2 Nephi 33:10-11<br />
2 Nephi 9:39<br />
Jacob 7:14<br />
D&C 109:21<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin<br />
<br />
-Elder Daniel West<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-30431608849180181252016-06-08T10:14:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.186-07:008 Jun 2016 - Ups and Downs Each WeekDear All,<br />
<br />
There was a drummer duo on the subway and they were actually very<br />
good. There was a couple with a newborn baby and as one of the<br />
drummers passed with his hat for money he said this, "Did you enjoy<br />
it? Yeah, I know you did because it was fire...I started when I was that<br />
little...well maybe a little bigger." I just thought that was funny.<br />
<br />
I love this quote from Elder Oaks: "We invite all to come unto Christ<br />
by repentance and baptism and confirmation in order to open the doors<br />
of the Celestial Kingdom to the sons and daughters of God. No one else<br />
can do this”. The reason I like it so much is because he's so straight<br />
about it. He ends it by making it clear that we're the only ones who<br />
have the ability to open the doors to the Celestial Kingdom for God's<br />
children. This isn't because we're smarter or better than other<br />
people, it's simply because of the Restoration of the Gospel. Joseph<br />
Smith received the Priesthood Authority of God and it has remained in<br />
this Church since then. "[This] Church is not just another religion,<br />
nor is it an American church. Rather, it is a restoration of the<br />
'fulness of [the] gospel' (D&C 1:23), the same as was revealed and<br />
taught from the beginning". This is the same church as was established<br />
by Jesus Christ. It was brought back to the earth after almost 1800<br />
years from when it was taken away by Heavenly Father. It isn't Joseph<br />
Smith's church, nor is it Nephi's church. This is Jesus Christ's<br />
Church. And it's back on the earth because God loves His children and<br />
has given it back to us.<br />
<br />
On the subway a mother made a famous quote to her 6 year old<br />
daughter. The daughter wasn't eating her donut the way the mom wanted<br />
her to. So she said this, "I will bust yo head into the back of this<br />
g*****n seat if you wanna play with me. Eat it! Or I'll throw it<br />
away." What a classic Bronx-Mom quote.<br />
<br />
We had just left the meeting we had with Elder Bennit of the 70. He<br />
came to our mission on Tuesday for a mission conference of sorts. We<br />
were on our way to a Less Active's apartment and walked past a guy and<br />
said hello. He stopped and turned to ask us where we were from. We<br />
told him and just immediately transitioned into teaching the Gospel<br />
because we were still on a spiritual high from the meeting. This man,<br />
Ashton, is a less-active member who hasn't been to church in a year.<br />
He had just read the scriptures and prayed to tell Heavenly Father<br />
that he'd talk to the next set of elders he found. Then five minutes<br />
later he ran into us. It was such a miracle too, especially because<br />
the member we went to see had apparently moved. So we felt that we<br />
should go there because Heavenly Father wanted us to meet this man.<br />
Even better, Ashton knows a deaf person! He's gonna get us the person's<br />
address. Later that night we went to look up someone and wound up on a<br />
wild goose chase. But after like 20 minutes of chasing him down and<br />
asking everyone near if they'd seen the guy, we found him! A new deaf<br />
person! It was super legit.<br />
<br />
A rat fell from the sky today. We were walking back and a rat just fell from<br />
the subway tracks above us. The subway tracks are about 20-30 feet up<br />
and a rat just literally fell onto the sidewalk. It was very dead. It made a<br />
very loud clunking sound as it hit the pavement.<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"Obedience to Jesus Christ is a lifelong commitment."<br />
"God is dope."<br />
"I will bust yo head into the back off this g*****n seat of you wanna<br />
play with me. Eat it! Or I'll throw it away."<br />
"Get over yourself, get along with your companion."<br />
"I cannot go out with a black girl!" *spoken by a black man<br />
<br />
Scriptures:<br />
1 Nephi 11:16-17<br />
Jacob 6:12<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin.<br />
<br />
-Elder Daniel West<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QZcypcWMP1E/V3_iyrALeLI/AAAAAAAAP54/ladQ-fyJak8BU_Ly7GUMwCtL1dqnwBXRgCK4B/s1600/Games%2Bwith%2Bthe%2BElders.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QZcypcWMP1E/V3_iyrALeLI/AAAAAAAAP54/ladQ-fyJak8BU_Ly7GUMwCtL1dqnwBXRgCK4B/s400/Games%2Bwith%2Bthe%2BElders.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Games with the Elders</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QIG_Xk5c4MU/V3_i8j2g8sI/AAAAAAAAP6E/0ij_bwyDG2Amjm7aORv3MS_dz27TeYUZQCK4B/s1600/Mailbox.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QIG_Xk5c4MU/V3_i8j2g8sI/AAAAAAAAP6E/0ij_bwyDG2Amjm7aORv3MS_dz27TeYUZQCK4B/s400/Mailbox.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Classic NY mailbox</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OZHqS6FjZqU/V3_jdvDFuQI/AAAAAAAAP6M/ujiWlJL73xcT0HTeMZddvUrRNoFJ8dQagCK4B/s1600/Rat.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OZHqS6FjZqU/V3_jdvDFuQI/AAAAAAAAP6M/ujiWlJL73xcT0HTeMZddvUrRNoFJ8dQagCK4B/s400/Rat.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our Rat from the sky</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-35286947559749293962016-06-01T09:57:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.191-07:001 Jun 2016 - June Already?Dear All,<br />
<br />
Elder Bell has been transferred out of the city! He is now serving in<br />
the Yorktown Ward, which is Upstate. Elder Hill has been transferred<br />
down to be my companion from the Newburgh area, which is also Upstate.<br />
It will be a good experience to be with Elder Hill for his last 2<br />
transfers here in the city.<br />
<br />
As we were walking past one of the many bars outside the Yankee<br />
Stadium we passed a guy who called for us. He stopped us to get a<br />
picture as he was apparently a member, although we were very doubtful<br />
that he was active. Then about 3 stores down we passed another bar and<br />
this time two guys who walked out of the store said, "Elders!" This<br />
was a sure sign that he was a member because only members call us<br />
Elders. Most people just say Mormons or Jesus People. Well this guy<br />
was not a member: when asked, his response was, "Haha nah, I've just<br />
seen the Book of Mormon play." Go figure. Only in New York would<br />
people call us by our proper titles and then have it turn out to be<br />
because of knowledge from a Broadway Play.<br />
<br />
I really enjoy these verses in the Book of Mormon. "And he said unto<br />
me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? And I said unto him: I know<br />
that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning<br />
of all things." The reason I like this so much is because it's such a<br />
simple thing, but it holds so much meaning. Nephi doesn't need to know<br />
all things, but he does need to know that God loves him. That<br />
knowledge provides so much more. It allows us to start to understand<br />
why He's given us all that we have. I really can't explain how this<br />
scripture makes me feel, but it is marvelous.<br />
<br />
So President Smith invited us over for an FHE with him at the mission<br />
home on Sunday night. It was very surprising because Elder Bell and I<br />
were missionaries in the city, and the mission home is upstate. So<br />
long story short, we got to go and spend the night in the mission<br />
home. We even got up earlier to play basketball with President Smith<br />
and his son, William. It was really really fun and they were really<br />
nice and tasked with us for a long time<br />
<br />
It's been blazing hot lately, it's honestly just ridiculous. We're<br />
outside all day working hard with no success so far, but it's alright<br />
because we're doing our best. It's just been terrible in these<br />
clothes, certainly some of the most uncomfortable times of my life. We<br />
are dying out here, but it's alright because "There is no rejection at<br />
the door or on the street that can dim [our] enthusiasm. [We] are<br />
willing to pay the price of repeated rejection for the hope of a<br />
single conversion". I've been thinking about this lately: we work so<br />
hard and are so tired at the end of every day, but we are yet to see<br />
anyone truly progress. We keep going for one reason; in the hopes that<br />
we help one soul come unto Christ. Each day I am reminded why I'm<br />
doing this. Every time we study the scriptures, every time we go to<br />
church, every time we testify of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity<br />
to feel God's Love for us. We want others to be able to feel the same.<br />
We spend hours, days, weeks and even months exhausting ourselves all<br />
for the hopes that someone we converse with will have the opportunity<br />
to feel of their Heavenly Father's love. We know it won't be easy, we<br />
didn't sign up for something easy. But it will be worth it. We hope<br />
and pray every day that someone will able to be influenced by us. We want<br />
to have the opportunity to be the vessel for the Holy Ghost. After<br />
days of utter rejection and disappointment, we have one good<br />
experience with a single child of God, and it makes all those bad<br />
times feel as though they didn't exist. For a single moment we get to<br />
feel as though we have helped someone be happier. We will keep going.<br />
We will find those who've been prepared to meet us. We will continue<br />
to serve our Heavenly Father because He loves us and we love him.<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"If the thought is good, it is from God".<br />
"Make it a great day".<br />
"My sheets are starting to get Elder Turner disease".<br />
"People Magazine".<br />
"For 1 hour and 12 minutes, I smoked that thing Bro!"<br />
"Oh! I thought they was cops".<br />
"Repentance is more important than your mission."<br />
"One on one pleading with the Lord is not a substitute."<br />
"This is not an event on learning a language, it's a journey of loving<br />
the people".<br />
"But this time we're reloading the chamber with even more firepower".<br />
"Every day I read the Book of Mormons! Every night before bed."<br />
"You know Jesus is fake right?"<br />
"Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?"<br />
<br />
Scriptures:<br />
Mosiah 18:26<br />
Alma 26:16<br />
Matthew 11:28-30<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin<br />
<br />
-Elder Daniel West<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bfsIWF9hrJc/V3_dmqayB1I/AAAAAAAAP5c/Q8LJzItydWUnEt_TPi1Sscu6It00amZMgCK4B/s1600/Mission%2BHome.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bfsIWF9hrJc/V3_dmqayB1I/AAAAAAAAP5c/Q8LJzItydWUnEt_TPi1Sscu6It00amZMgCK4B/s400/Mission%2BHome.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mission Home</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Aw3NLJpehqQ/V3_dv8XFWtI/AAAAAAAAP5k/30GaKqd6qPAKwRihcNN4DBAOd0yK1mRfgCK4B/s1600/Zone%2BPre%2Btransfer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Aw3NLJpehqQ/V3_dv8XFWtI/AAAAAAAAP5k/30GaKqd6qPAKwRihcNN4DBAOd0yK1mRfgCK4B/s640/Zone%2BPre%2Btransfer.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">My Zone - Pre transfers</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V6Coyz8rJms/V3_d6M8WUMI/AAAAAAAAP5s/09hBdHFhaYY_5G3R77JGSdvofjGGkBCnQCK4B/s1600/Apartment%2BPost%2Btransfer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V6Coyz8rJms/V3_d6M8WUMI/AAAAAAAAP5s/09hBdHFhaYY_5G3R77JGSdvofjGGkBCnQCK4B/s400/Apartment%2BPost%2Btransfer.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Apartment - post transfers</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-10842268104554767972016-05-25T09:41:00.000-07:002016-07-08T20:56:49.176-07:0025 May 2016 - Blessing the Streets of Harlem with Crazy PeopleDear All,<br />
<br />
We ran into a crazy homeless religious man at a bus stop. He was nice<br />
to us, just really weird. He kept on talking about how we have to open<br />
our mouths and how powerful our words are. He then mentioned that his<br />
name is Michael and started loudly announcing that Michael the<br />
Archangel would defend that street corner from the devil. It was awk<br />
because there were just these two Mormon missionaries kinda confused<br />
as to what to do as some crazy guy was yelling blessings at the street<br />
corner. He then used his Crucifix to bless the street corner. Most of<br />
the people there didn't think much of it. Because...well that level of<br />
craziness is average for most the people there. Another classic<br />
(Harlem) New York moment.<br />
<br />
I was reading in the Book of Mormon at a time period where King<br />
Benjamin is speaking to the Nephites. I came across Mosiah 4:9. I just<br />
love the simplicity of the verse, especially the first phrase.<br />
"Believe in God; believe that He is". King Benjamin is just exhorting<br />
the people to believe in God. This is why I chose to be a missionary.<br />
I always think about how happy my beliefs make me. My beliefs make me<br />
always hope for something better, and they influence me to always think<br />
about the better things that are waiting for me after earth. Even if<br />
there wasn't anything more to life than our time here on earth, I'm<br />
still happier believing that there is more. It just seems like it<br />
would be so depressing to me if I thought these 80 or 90 years were<br />
all of my existence. This isn't even to say that I don't like living<br />
here and just can't wait for the next part of the plan, rather it<br />
helps me be more conscious of how to enjoy my time here and be<br />
righteous so that I may be even happier after this life. The Plan of<br />
Salvation is awesome.<br />
<br />
We were headed home and walked past a guy and girl talking and the<br />
girl said, "Well, I can't cheat on him right now because that wouldn't<br />
make any sense." I mean I guess casual conversations in the Bronx<br />
often consist of random stuff, but I don't expect it to be on how to<br />
strategically cheat on your significant other. But hey, I mean that's<br />
another New York Moment.<br />
<br />
The miracle this week came while Elder Kerr (one of my Zone Leaders)<br />
and I were on an exchange in our area. We taught Jason S. and it<br />
was amazing. The Sprit was so so strong there. The best part was by<br />
far when Elder Kerr taught the First Vision. We just kinda felt<br />
prompted to have him teach it in that moment. Although he doesn't know<br />
ASL he spoke and I interpreted. It was awesome because it was almost<br />
like I wasn't there. The attention was focused on the words from Elder<br />
Kerr's mouth and the incredible spirit we felt in those moments. We<br />
asked Brother S. how he felt afterwards. His response was so simple<br />
and yet so profound. He said, "Inspired. I want to learn more". He<br />
said he really wants to get baptized and continue in the Church. It<br />
was just such a miraculous lesson. Sadly, he did not show up to<br />
church, because he slept in. He very evidently felt the Spirit too during<br />
that lesson. So we'll just keep on doing our best to help him<br />
and hope that he sees the importance of being involved in the Gospel.<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"MLC's are basically mission-life hacks with President Smith for 7 hours."<br />
"The fire is still lit."<br />
"What about mouthwash..."<br />
"Not my responsibility."<br />
"No one lives in Montana, except for 8 people...and 18 antelope."<br />
"You wanna know who I am? I'm nobody. You wanna know why? Because<br />
nobody's perfect."<br />
<br />
Scriptures:<br />
Mosiah 4:9-11<br />
Alma 36:24<br />
"Safety for the Soul" -Elder Holland's talk from the October 2009<br />
General Conference.<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin<br />
<br />
-Elder Daniel West<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rMJC9nJOaXk/V3_ZhgNGDcI/AAAAAAAAP44/XPCAqZLn8F0Q2l9vpDKHPb5q7JIrRqxxACK4B/s1600/image3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rMJC9nJOaXk/V3_ZhgNGDcI/AAAAAAAAP44/XPCAqZLn8F0Q2l9vpDKHPb5q7JIrRqxxACK4B/s400/image3.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: large;">Brother Perez, an investigator.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_pAi8qgS9BE/V3_agZQO2AI/AAAAAAAAP5E/jN065Jpfx8Y707BHYTDWX9SkEDP-m64rQCK4B/s1600/Bridge%2Band%2Bwater.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_pAi8qgS9BE/V3_agZQO2AI/AAAAAAAAP5E/jN065Jpfx8Y707BHYTDWX9SkEDP-m64rQCK4B/s640/Bridge%2Band%2Bwater.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Outside our apartment</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5_ta1pyq19c/V3_arBu6voI/AAAAAAAAP5M/7BE7j4HhIUgL-JtzsJ-HS-icEGmyW-n8ACK4B/s1600/Pope.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5_ta1pyq19c/V3_arBu6voI/AAAAAAAAP5M/7BE7j4HhIUgL-JtzsJ-HS-icEGmyW-n8ACK4B/s400/Pope.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">New York City Wall Art</span></td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-2972933990962407562016-05-18T14:36:00.000-07:002016-05-20T14:52:18.411-07:0018 May 2016 - 6 Months Today<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Dear All,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today is my six-month mark as a missionary.
We're getting settled in at <span class="im">our new apartment. It definitely kinda stinks having so little
time </span><span class="im">for proselyting and other stuff, but it's okay because we're
preparing </span><span class="im">for something better. I love what President Smith said to us. He
said, </span>"I know that you may be thinking, 'Another move? Really?' But I am reminded of when this very mission was hit by Hurricane Sandy [I'm paraphrasing and IDK if that's even the right one.] Those missionaries<br />
<span class="im">took 6 months to do service, and that's it. They did not
proselyte." </span><span class="im">This helped me be more positive about the whole thing. The issue
is </span><span class="im">that this program already struggles, and then when we take out
entire </span><span class="im">days we struggle even more. But what this does is prepares us to
be </span><span class="im">ready for when we will be covering the entire city. It will all
work </span><span class="im">out in the end.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="im">Service at the AME church was really good Friday morning. They
really </span>needed us, especially with heavy lifting. I feel like they're really starting to warm up to us because they talk to us and joke with us now. Donna definitely trusts us now because they were out of bags and she
gave us money to go buy some from a store. That was sweet. While <span class="im">we were handing out the food, I heard Donna say to one of the others,</span>
"He can't hear," referring to one of the people getting food. Elder <span class="im">Bell and I were helping lots of people bring their groceries up
the </span>stairs, but as soon as we came down, I asked Donna if the guy was deaf, <span class="im">and she said yes. So Elder Bell and I immediately offered to help him</span>
<span class="im">take his bags up and asked if he knew ASL. Sadly, it was
apparent that</span> he did not know ASL. I then saw his hearing aid, and he
could speak <span class="im">perfectly fine too. So we're assuming he went deaf
later in life. He </span><span class="im">may not have known ASL, but it was yet another testimony to me
that we</span> <span class="im">can find deaf people. Literally as I was typing
this, we were about to </span><span class="im">cross a crosswalk and this woman told us her brother was deaf.
So we </span><span class="im">asked her about him and she said there's no way to contact him,
but we </span>gave her a card and asked her to give it to him. So that was yet <span class="im">another deaf person. It's pretty legit.</span><br />
<br />
We moved all of our stuff on Saturday. The apartment is right next to Yankee Stadium, and there was a game that had just finished. It was a nightmare. The worst part was that we had all our giant bags and carts, and
the subways were packed and everything was crazy. There was a group <span class="im">of college-aged kids who were super hammered. They were just yelling</span>
<span class="im">and acting super tight. I echo what a wise man once said to
Elder</span> Turner on a train: "They say an empty can makes the most
noise." That <span class="im">group of kids was what I like to call, "A
group of white people in the</span> <span class="im">Bronx, obviously visiting
from Manhattan."</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">(Note: Daniel wrote the following paragraph in a
separate email to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">us, but we've included it here because we found
it interesting.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">The new apartment was an absolute mess though.
It appeared that previous missionaries may not have cared much about cleanliness. There were plenty of cockroaches, which was disgusting, but didn't
surprise me. We're gonna go hard in the cleaning and organizing aspect of
it, especially because we're supposed to be here for a long time. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">I haven't put my food into the cabinet yet
because there were dead </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">roach carcasses and droppings all over it. So I
really deep-cleaned</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">
that thing. It was certainly not an experience I wish on any of my enemies because it was foul. Another interesting fact: you can almost always tell if an apartment has a roach problem the second you walk in. There is a very particular smell to it. It's not a particularly bad smell, it's just strange. The second we walked into the apartment, we knew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">We had an awesome
miracle on Monday. So for district meeting, Elder </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span class="im">Bell had us discuss the topic of testimonies and share our
favorite </span><span class="im">testimonies from the scriptures. He then had us practice the NY
Minute </span><span class="im">(it's teaching one principle of the Gospel in a minute) with the </span><span class="im">principle being the Book of Mormon. He specifically wanted us to
focus </span><span class="im">on testifying and then backing up your companion's testimony. It
was </span><span class="im">really awesome. This is where the miracle comes in, later that
day, we </span><span class="im">were VideoPhoned by a random deaf person who was legitimately </span>interested in learning more. He was asking us questions and was very<br />
educated - educated enough to understand our answers and to read <span class="im">scripture! That is very rare in the deaf community in NY: having
the </span><span class="im">ability to read English and fully understand ASL. We had a
full-on </span>unplanned lesson, and what do you know, we ended up teaching almost the exact
same lesson we'd practiced at district meeting. I'm not kidding, <span class="im">we used almost the exact same teaching for the principle of the
Book </span><span class="im">of Mormon with brother Platt - he's the man who called us. He
lives in </span>Brooklyn so we referred him to the South Elders. He's absolutely <span class="im">golden too. It was so awesome.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="im">Well we're glad to be back in the Bronx and in an apartment that
we </span><span class="im">should be in for a long time. And hey, we're living right next
to the </span>famous Yankee's Stadium. Although it is weird because there are legit giant company stores near us like Target and BJ's, and other random <span class="im">stuff. It just doesn't seem like it belongs here, but it's
awesome for </span>shopping, so it's all good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Quotes:<br />
"When life gives you anxiety, count the dimples on a golf ball...<br />
How man-<br />
There are 356".<br />
<br />
Scripture(s)<br />
-2 Nephi 33:6<br />
-2 Nephi 4<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin<br />
<br />
-Elder Daniel West<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LGQ546-Q33s/Vz-EOIbeFgI/AAAAAAAAPgk/OW_acK9vSxMqeu8LDkV3obNcQ-KEUJfkwCK4B/s1600/191st%2BStreet%2BStop%2Bon%2Bthe%2Btrain.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LGQ546-Q33s/Vz-EOIbeFgI/AAAAAAAAPgk/OW_acK9vSxMqeu8LDkV3obNcQ-KEUJfkwCK4B/s400/191st%2BStreet%2BStop%2Bon%2Bthe%2Btrain.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">191st Street Stop on the train</span></span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-64397781321944782322016-05-11T20:55:00.002-07:002016-05-11T21:20:23.428-07:0011 May 2016 - Post Mothers Day Call<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Dear All,</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was studying Elder Kevin R. Duncan's talk from this past General</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Conference, and it is an awesome talk. It's titled, "The Healing</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Ointment of Forgiveness." Although forgiveness isn't something that I</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">struggle with particularly, I still do fail to be able to forgive</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">everyone sometimes. He says some really awesome stuff. One thing is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">this: "We mistakenly think that if we forgive, somehow justice will</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">not be served and punishments will be avoided. This simply is not the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">case." I love that because it's accurate. Oftentimes we don't forgive</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">others because we think that they deserve punishment and they deserve</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">our resentment or some other petty idea. The truth is, if we don't</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">forgive someone, all we're doing is causing more bad feeling. God says</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">this in D&C 82: "Leave judgment alone with me, for it is mine and I</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">will repay. Peace be with you; my blessings continue with you."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Judgment is not ours to carry out. Our job is "to forgive all men."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Once we can find it in our hearts to forgive others, then we will be</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">free once again. Elder Duncan goes on to say, "One key to forgiving</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">others is to try to see them as God sees them." Of this I can testify.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The best way to learn to forgive others and love them is to try to see</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">them through the Savior's eyes, because as Elder Duncan says,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Forgiveness is the very reason God sent His Son." The Atonement is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">such a marvelous power. It is where we may draw power to forgive and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">be forgiven. General Conference talks are awesome.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We were walking down 125th Street (it's like the Main Street in</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Harlem) and one guy saw us pass and was like, "Hey it's Mormons,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Joseph Smith's people." Of course we just laughed, waved, and walked</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">on. Then about 20 seconds later we walked by a guy who said, "Brigham</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Young; bring them young." We have actually heard of this guy from</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">other missionaries. Apparently, all he does is stand in the same spot</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">trying to upset missionaries by saying that we marry a ton of young</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">women. Ah it's a classic New York moment.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was studying in Alma and I came upon one of the saddest moments in</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the Book of Mormon. Alma and Amulek (essentially two missionaries)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">were taken by the government and forced to watch women and children of</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the Church be thrown into a pit of fire for no reason other than to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">punish them for their beliefs. As they're watching this, Amulek asks,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"How could we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">them." He simply wants to save the innocent people, but Alma's</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">response is, "The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mine hand." He then goes on to explain that the Lord is allowing this</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">to happen because those who are killed are innocent and will go</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">straight to heaven. I love Amulek's response back. He says, "Behold,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">perhaps they will burn us also." Amulek has such great trust in his</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">companion and is so submissive to the Lord's will and doesn't question</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the decision at all. Alma then says, "Be it according to the will of</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the Lord. But behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">not." It's so awesome how they're so willing to suffer, even to death</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">if it so be that it is the Lord's will. But then he has the faith to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">be able to say that their work isn't done and so they will not be</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">killed. Although this is such a sad chapter, it's also so awesome</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">because there's so much we can learn from these two.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I think we met our first truly happy bus driver this week. He said</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Good morning," to the people who walked onto the bus, including us! He</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">then would sing into the mic every now and then. He didn't just</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">announce the next stops on the bus, but he sang them. Ah it was great.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This was a reverse New York moment.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We were at a bus stop and we saw a random guy with hearing aids! At</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">first we were unsure as to how to approach this random man</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">whom we were assuming was deaf. So we just walked up and signed, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Do you know ASL"? We figured there was no point in beating around the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">bush so we explained about ourselves. He was clearly not interested in</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the Church, but there was something about him that just made us need</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">to keep talking with him. The cool thing is that we had a Branch Party</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">the next day, so we invited him to that. But even then he said he was</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">busy and wouldn't make it. We really wanted to talk to him and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">continue but he obviously did not want to. So we got his contact</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">information and hoped for the best, planning to contact him soon. He</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">showed up to the party the next day! He was really nice and actually</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">talked with us. There has been no progression yet, but it was still</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">pretty legit.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Quotes:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Holy Bungie."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"If the gun loads, shoot it."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"I like this book called DogMan. It's a dog, but it's also a man."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"I have never seen someone eat 20 tic tacs at the same time.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Well...now you have."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Okay, I'm going out for a smoke, so please hold the door for me. And</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I'm getting coffee for everyone on this train. For anyone who doesn't</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">keep the door open for me, you're not getting any coffee."-random man</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">on the subway</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"The Lord never promised eloquence, He promised power."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Mormons here, Joseph Smith's people."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Brigham Young...bring 'em young".</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Righteousness is relative...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I wouldn't necessarily phrase it that way the first time I met someone."</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Hymn:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Nearer My God to Thee</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Keep on Truckin'</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">-Elder West</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ofktObg5dbo/VzQAv789lFI/AAAAAAAAPeg/yun8bLQOT6QpplatMN6XPm-xeJQnTK4zgCLcB/s1600/image1%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ofktObg5dbo/VzQAv789lFI/AAAAAAAAPeg/yun8bLQOT6QpplatMN6XPm-xeJQnTK4zgCLcB/s400/image1%2B%25283%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Zone Conference</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5c7eLQPjMEg/VzQAv4x9btI/AAAAAAAAPeo/hf296gNcj-0KZkdad6y6bk0qBfSDGmP9gCLcB/s1600/image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5c7eLQPjMEg/VzQAv4x9btI/AAAAAAAAPeo/hf296gNcj-0KZkdad6y6bk0qBfSDGmP9gCLcB/s400/image1.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Random Subway Sculptures</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4lzGFEMYuyQ/VzQAwUuF03I/AAAAAAAAPew/ei9n0XPHFrcEuU0dXu-gSgJOX55zec0oACLcB/s1600/image2%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4lzGFEMYuyQ/VzQAwUuF03I/AAAAAAAAPew/ei9n0XPHFrcEuU0dXu-gSgJOX55zec0oACLcB/s320/image2%2B%25283%2529.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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Top of the Brooklyn Bridge. </div>
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So couples write their names on these locks, lock them, and then throw the keys into the river.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9i-bvSKb4WY/VzQAv9vMS1I/AAAAAAAAPek/c_W2oIavRSAkMPQkw5vIv5Fh3OHo8eNfACLcB/s1600/image13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9i-bvSKb4WY/VzQAv9vMS1I/AAAAAAAAPek/c_W2oIavRSAkMPQkw5vIv5Fh3OHo8eNfACLcB/s640/image13.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Walking on the top of the Brooklyn Bridge</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNd51dQxy0I/VzQAwVW2YGI/AAAAAAAAPes/F7Zsiyq_4sgIlL-dbSlmHfGfssYahf6IACLcB/s1600/image14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNd51dQxy0I/VzQAwVW2YGI/AAAAAAAAPes/F7Zsiyq_4sgIlL-dbSlmHfGfssYahf6IACLcB/s400/image14.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">My ASL District enjoying P-day</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-88699196036578002522016-05-04T21:12:00.000-07:002016-05-11T21:26:55.100-07:004 May 2016 - The Bell and West Moving Company<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
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Dear All,<br />
<br />
At about 9:50 am today, we found out that we will be covering the<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />whole mission once Elders Holloway and Turner go home, which is</span><br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">in </span>July. We were notified that we will also get to close down this<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />apartment. We have to move out before the end of the month. Where we<br />will move to is not yet known, but it will be a much better location<br />to cover the whole city. Technically, we'll also be covering Upstate,</span>too.<br />
I guess you could say that nothing is long-term for Elder Bell and me.<br />
But it's okay, because it's gonna be fun.<br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />Something I realized during a study session is that Jesus Christ is</span><br />
literally the center of all things that affect us eternally. When<br />
we face God and are not fully cleansed from our sins (because<br />
we're human and imperfect,) it is only because of Jesus Christ's<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />Atonement that we'll be able to receive His mercy. That's the only<br />way that Justice and Mercy will both be able to be satisfied. </span><span class="im" style="color: #500050;">It's so </span><br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">profound that I cannot describe how it makes me feel.</span><span class="im" style="color: #500050;">Because Jesus </span><br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">Christ was resurrected, we will have the</span>opportunity to face God in an<br />
immortal state. Jesus Christ is how we'll <span class="im" style="color: #500050;">get there, and Jesus Christ </span><br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">is the way we will be able to have mercy during that judgement. That</span><br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">is why this church is called </span><i>The Church of Jesus Christ</i> of Latter-day<br />
Saints (italics added.) Although I always knew this, for some reason<br />
it was different for me to learn this time.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Last Thursday was really rough at first. At weekly planning meeting<br />
we had almost no investigators to plan for. It was really hard on us.<br />
We spent a lot of time trying to think of different ideas to fill our<br />
days with meaningful activities, but we were just stuck with look-ups<br />
and phone games. Obviously those aren't wastes of time, but there are<br />
so many better things we could do if we had more people to teach.<br />
We said that we need to hope and pray for a miracle this week<br />
because nothing has been happening through our own efforts.<br />
We spent tons of time trying to figure out what to do for the<br />
next day and had to resort to four hours of look-ups<br />
and one lesson, (which is a terribly slow day, just FYI.) A little bit<br />
later we were able to contact one of our newly found Less Active's,<br />
Joy B.! It was super awesome, and it was even better when we were<br />
able to set up to meet with her on Friday, which was the exact day<br />
that we needed good activities for! It was such a miracle. The Lord<br />
truly does reward us as we are faithful and learn to rely on His power.<br />
That evening,while planning for the next day, the phone started<br />
ringing. It was Donna from the African Methodist Episcopal Church.<br />
She told us that she would really appreciate it if we would be able<br />
to go to the church the next morning to do service for 2-3 hours.<br />
Of course we quickly accepted! That, combined<br />
with the lesson with Joy Brown and the other previously planned<br />
lessons, made us completely full, with no more room for anything to<br />
add. It was super awesome, and it's just so amazing that the Lord<br />
provided so much for us after we were faithful and working for it.<br />
Such a miraculous day.</div>
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<br />
On Friday, while we were waiting to start our service with the African</div>
<span style="color: #500050; font-size: 12.8px;"></span><br />
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Methodist Episcopal Church - which is the building/address Elder Bell<br />
felt inspired to go to a couple of weeks ago, by the way - there was a<br />
funeral viewing happening outside. One of the drivers for the hearse<br />
was chatting with us, and he said that he used to be a taxi driver<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />but had been working with the funeral home for 40 years. He then said<br />something pretty funny about being a driver for the car with the</span>casket.<br />
He said, "Yeah, now I don't get any complaints from the passenger."<br />
(It was a funny joke because now the passenger is dead.)<br />
<br />
We were in Relief Society upstate interpreting for a deaf member, and<br />
the teacher was crying. She asked if anyone had a tissue, and literally<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />the second she said it the entire class goes quickly rummaging through<br />their bags to get tissues. It was hilarious. That was a classic Relief<br />Society thing to happen. Although I've only ever been in Relief</span>Society<br />
two times to interpret for a woman, I could tell it was a classic response.<br />
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br /><br />That's all this week!<br /><br />Quotes:<br />"I'm not happy Bob, not happy."<br />"Dominican cake, I would highly recommend it...</span>Yeah, if you want to kill<br />
yourself."<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />"That awkward moment when you're on a crowded train and you mean to<br />airdrop something to your companion but instead you airdrop it to a</span><br />
random stranger, who then stares at you."<br />
"We were the married couple that just looked like a Mutual activity."<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />"In (insert specific city here) anytime you break up with someone it's </span>okay,<br />
because you can say, 'It's alright, we can still be cousins.' "<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />"When you don't think you can do this, you're right. Only through</span><br />
Christ can you do this."</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #500050;">Scripture:</span><br />
<span style="color: #500050;">Phillipians 4:!3 - I can do all things through Christ</span><br />
<br style="color: #500050;" />
<span style="color: #500050;">Keep on Truckin</span><br />
<br style="color: #500050;" />
<span style="color: #500050;">-Elder West</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rZruAgjoDhU/VzQDgXaaMyI/AAAAAAAAPfE/X-YSl5wiW_sVZ-_Q2zmCuiP1R_Wr0cZwwCLcB/s1600/image1%2B%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rZruAgjoDhU/VzQDgXaaMyI/AAAAAAAAPfE/X-YSl5wiW_sVZ-_Q2zmCuiP1R_Wr0cZwwCLcB/s400/image1%2B%25281%2529.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Homemade Naan bread pizza - Thanx Mom</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wZOa6YQUxiw/VzQDgHvKEMI/AAAAAAAAPfA/vm_BqhAnIhMu6wIeK6wP6vWjX0y530czQCLcB/s1600/image1%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wZOa6YQUxiw/VzQDgHvKEMI/AAAAAAAAPfA/vm_BqhAnIhMu6wIeK6wP6vWjX0y530czQCLcB/s400/image1%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dinner with the Martins in upstate</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GOvyjocNpM/VzQDgDzwQdI/AAAAAAAAPe8/80L0mgvHyGECSfJrELj3gbw5z19eauv0wCLcB/s1600/image1%2B%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GOvyjocNpM/VzQDgDzwQdI/AAAAAAAAPe8/80L0mgvHyGECSfJrELj3gbw5z19eauv0wCLcB/s400/image1%2B%25283%2529.JPG" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We ran into the West Family</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-76QbAVj7Q7U/VzQDgVykzZI/AAAAAAAAPfI/-tCCbeIDwNQDN1BUsFXBizGjQ2Zo_eJAACLcB/s1600/image1%2B%25284%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-76QbAVj7Q7U/VzQDgVykzZI/AAAAAAAAPfI/-tCCbeIDwNQDN1BUsFXBizGjQ2Zo_eJAACLcB/s400/image1%2B%25284%2529.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Companions</span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-49009324269732445442016-04-27T22:08:00.000-07:002016-05-01T22:20:36.200-07:0027 April 2016 - If only we could teleport<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Dear All,</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">I do apologize for my rather lengthy letters. I think I've figured out</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">how to shorten them so they will no longer be ridiculous lengths.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">There's been something happening a lot lately that I think is really</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">cool. Anytime Elder Bell and I are talking about one thing or another,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">oftentimes I'm thinking something and then he just speaks exactly</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">what I was thinking. These occurrences happen especially when we're</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">discussing how to help out investigators or members, or what to talk</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">about for a lesson. They also happen a lot when we are discussing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">something from our personal studies, or just discussing scripture in</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">general. It's pretty obvious to us that this is because these thoughts</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">we're having are from the Holy Ghost. It's super cool to see that as</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">we are obedient even our thoughts are able to be</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">lead by the Holy Ghost. It really is true that He can literally be our</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">constant companion and our guide. If we are worthy and doing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">everything we can to be obedient, then we have the right to have holy</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">thoughts at all times because of their influence in our lives. It's</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">just something that we realized, and it's super cool.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">My subway experience for the week was a new one. There was a</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">crazy guy on the train who was periodically rapping. Then we got to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">the Grand Central stop, which is one where many people get on the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">train. So once he noticed how crowded the train was gonna get he</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">yelled this: "No one step on my sneakers! I will knock a ***** out! I</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">don't give a **** about no cops! If anyone steps on my sneakers I will</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">crack their jaw!" It was ridiculous.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Our new apartment is in a much less ghetto location than the old one.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Better enough so that I'm no longer afraid that I'll get shanked</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">outside of our apartment when we go home at night.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Moroni 8:16-17 - It's just such a good scripture. It's got so many</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">awesome things in it. "I speak with boldness, having authority from</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">God; and I fear not want man can do". This is so so directly related</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">to missionary work. Especially as missionaries who are set apart as</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">official representatives of Jesus Christ, we must not be afraid to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">speak boldly - but not with rudeness. We must show our faith in Christ</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">by our confidence in this calling. And it applies to more than just</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">missionaries. All people should "fear not what man can do" because of</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">the faith you have in Jesus Christ. It's so crucial that we do not</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">fear man, but rather that we fear God. "Perfect love casteth out all</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">fear. And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Charity is the pure love of Christ. Christ didn't fear because His</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">love and faith were perfect. This scripture is just a good motto.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Quotes:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">"She'll just have to get used to America."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">"Suck it up."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">"Is one box really gonna be enough?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">What am I, 10?"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">"Goals: Improve Eglish."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">"They say an empty can makes the noise."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">"If anyone steps on my shoes, I will knock you out. I don't care about</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">the cops, I will crack your jaw!"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Scriptures:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Moroni 8:16-17 - I speak with Boldness</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Hymns:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">The Family is of God</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">He is Risen</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">Keep on Truckin</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal;">-Elder West</span><div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Newly Polished shoes</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rw8Rv8SdtBE/VybjEnBtkzI/AAAAAAAAPco/KrgxKflqY2k4qGv3S0iLtNMJciUaEYgJACK4B/s1600/Upper%2BEast%2BSide.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rw8Rv8SdtBE/VybjEnBtkzI/AAAAAAAAPco/KrgxKflqY2k4qGv3S0iLtNMJciUaEYgJACK4B/s400/Upper%2BEast%2BSide.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Upper East Side- View out our apartment</span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-52155976319875014512016-04-20T20:22:00.004-07:002016-04-20T20:23:41.422-07:0020 April 2016 - Moving and Cleaning - Elder Bell and Elder West edition!<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Dear All,<br /><br />Wow, this week has been so busy, but not necessarily with normal missionary work.<br /><br />We were on the subway and there was a nine-year-old rapping while his dad<br />recorded him. He was just getting up and his dad was recording him<br />multiple times. He did it again each time a new group of people got onto<br />the train. Each time they finished, they sat down and his dad would<br />give him tips on how to improve and make the next time better. It was<br />kinda strange. The kid just kept on singing, "I am a Jamaican boy." It<br />was definitely interesting though.<br /><br /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_490889338" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">On Thursday</span></span> there was a conference call with President Smith where he<br />announced a few miracles that were sent to him from missionaries. This<br />is the miracle that we sent in, written by Elder Bell: "We have been<br />praying in our area for more service opportunities for the past couple<br />of weeks, and the Lord is providing. We've been offering service to<br />everyone we visit, and in the process were able to help a less active<br />member assemble a bed frame; push another less active in her<br />wheelchair to go buy groceries; and have plans to help pick up others<br />to go to church <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_490889339" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Sunday</span></span>. This week we were praying during personal<br />study and the Spirit strongly prompted me that we needed to go to 1765<br />Madison Avenue. We had never been there before, and I didn't even know<br />if the address existed, but we looked it up on Google Maps and it was<br />a church of another faith. We were a little confused but decided to go<br />anyway. When we arrived, all of the doors were locked and no one was<br />there, but we saw a sign outside that said there was a food pantry<br />that had distribution <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_490889340" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Friday</span></span> mornings. We had prayed specifically<br />for another food pantry to volunteer at and the Lord answered our<br />prayers by the Spirit the very same day. Such a miracle."<br />I hadn't quite realized how much of a miracle that was until I heard<br />it from President Smith on the phone. It was really cool. He talked<br />about how wonderful it was that we got to experience that. Possibly<br />the thing that stuck out to me the most was the fact that President<br />Smith talked about how we were granted our desire because of how<br />righteous a desire it was and how hard we had worked for it. It's<br />just so amazing that Heavenly Father does those sorts of things for<br />us.<br /><br />So I gave a talk <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_490889341" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Sunday</span></span> and taught Priesthood with Elder Holloway.<br />Afterward, a few of the members came and complimented us on our<br />teaching, and my talk. It was nice to see them appreciate our efforts.<br />We then went to interpret for a member's temple recommend interview,<br />where she started to criticize my talk. I just kinda nodded my head and<br />watched her sign away. It was less than pleasant, but I just kinda took<br />it with a grain of salt. Oh Deaf Branch, you never disappoint.<br /><br />New Yorkers are so kind: We saw one of them allow his neighbor to<br />use his milk crate to open his beer bottle. Then we saw a guy peeing<br />on a wall in a very crowded and public place. Oh New York, you never<br />disappoint either.<br /><br />Now it is time for the main event of the week!<br /><br /> I<br /> I<br /> V<br /><br />The Assistants let us know something pretty random this week. I</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">gotta explain the background first: Our apartment is getting shut down.<br />Elder Newbold is getting transferred to Lincoln Square and becoming a<br />District Leader, which is in the legit city, and it covers the area<br />where the temple is. Elder Davis is going to train a missionary, and<br />Elder Bell and I were supposed to move into a different apartment,<br />along with Elder Davis and his new trainee. It's super close to the one<br />we're currently in. A potential problem was that the new apartment is the </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">only one in both their area and a Spanish companionship's area, and it</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">wasn't meant to accommodate six missionaries. ASL missionaries'<br />areas are so big that we generally have more options. Even so, the plan for<br />the whole transfer had been that Elder Bell and I would move in with the<br />other four, and it still had been the plan up until <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_490889342" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Monday</span></span>. However, out of<br />nowhere we received a call from the Assistants (who had already<br />confirmed with us that we were moving to this apartment near ours.)<br />They let us know that plans had changed, and we would be moving to a<br />new apartment alone. That kinda stunk to hear that we wouldn't be with<br />Elder Davis, but we knew that the call had come from President Smith,<br />which meant it really came from Heavenly Father, so of course we knew<br />we would be fine. And then we checked the address and found out that<br />the apartment was in Inwood. The ASL area splits the city in half, and<br />Inwood is out of our area, but for some reason, we were getting moved there.<br />It was about as far away from our transportation routes as possible. That<br />apartment was actually in one of the worst locations for us because<br />it's nowhere near any of the transportation we use to get to church<br />or to any of our investigators and less active members. Elder Bell and I<br />were completely at a loss for understanding why we were going to this<br />apartment. We would be living alone in an area where we </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">don't proselyte. We had absolutely no idea why we were going<br />there or how to make it work effectively, but we were gonna<br />figure it out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So because our old apartment was getting shut<br />down, we had to deep clean it. And I mean deep, deep clean. We probably<br />spent about 30 hours (combined) cleaning it. It was horrible because<br />we lost all of our proselyting time for almost 3 days, and we still had<br />to move all of our stuff. Deep cleaning an apartment that's had<br />missionaries living in it for five years is not the most fun thing in<br />the world; in fact, it's one of the least fun things in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">President Smith called us right after we had first arrived at the new<br />apartment to deliver some news to Elder Bell. He then asked about our<br />current situation in this apartment. Elder Bell explained it, and<br />President Smith's response was something like, "That doesn't make any<br />sense for you guys to be there. There's clearly been some<br />miscommunication in this situation. We'll see how it goes in the next<br />few weeks." It was a huge relief that he wasn't telling us that we<br />just moved to the wrong address or something: That would've been<br />horrible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />It literally took us 10 hours to move our stuff yesterday! We just<br />filled up our suitcases and moved it all. We had to make 3 trips back<br />and forth. We're still not even done moving all our stuff into the<br />apartment. We lugged our 60+ pound suitcases up and down countless<br />flights of stairs. Each trip took about an hour and fifteen minutes,<br />one way. So all in all, we spent about 7 hours moving our stuff and 3<br />hours putting our stuff in the new apartment and cleaning the old one.<br />We've still got at least 5 hours of organization left at the new<br />apartment and 5 hours of cleaning at the old one...oh my, it's insane.<br />We haven't even been able to do regular missionary work these last few<br />days. But hey, sometimes it's nice to do something different for a<br />while. I'm so sore today though. We legit had to carry our suitcases,<br />one in each hand, up and down the stairs. And each time, they weighed<br />about 40-60 pounds. The worst part was the first trip, where we took<br />the Bronx cart that was completely full and too heavy to carry by just<br />one person. (Note: a "Bronx cart" is similar to a grocery cart.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />We had two interesting experiences on the subway during our various<br />trips to Inwood. One involved a group of young people, and the other<br />involved an older person. The first one was just a group of kids having fun.<br />They were waiting by one of the poles near the door, and as soon as the<br />doors opened, two of them would race to the wall and then back to the<br />pole as many times as they could before the doors closed back up. The<br />conductor then came over the speaker and chastised them. It was<br />definitely a new and original activity to do with friends. The next<br />experience involved a crazy old man. Elder Bell and I were signing to<br />each other, as we do on trains, and some crazy old man started signing<br />to us. It wasn't real sign language, he was just being crazy and<br />moving his hands. He also tried to speak to us, but Elder Bell was<br />standing away from him. I was sitting near him, but I didn't respond<br />because he already thought I was deaf. Additionally, I was a little </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">afraid of what he might say - based on the weird things he had<br />already said. Undaunted, the man continued to try to communicate<br />with me via CMSL (Crazy Man Sign Language). When we got off<br />the train I shook his hand and waved goodbye.<br /><br />Yeah, this was definitely one of the strangest weeks of my mission<br />because we really didn't do that much missionary work. We didn't have<br />a ton of spiritual experiences with investigators or members because<br />we just didn't get to spend a lot of time with them. However, we did<br />have an investigator just randomly show up to church, as well as a<br />couple of people we haven't seen at church before who were apparently<br />members. That was really awesome. The week was still very good and<br />fun, just not the standard week.<br /><br />Quotes:<br />"No thank you we're Christians.<br />Okay, can we leave a picture of Christ?<br />No thank you we're Christians."<br />"No guns or drugs guys, huh? No guns or drugs."<br />"Yeah, that doesn't make any sense for you to live an hour out of your<br />area." -President Smith<br /><br />Scriptures:<br />A little bit different this week -<br />Children's Hymns:<br />Love is Spoken Here<br />When I am Baptized<br />Families Can Be Together Forever<br /><br />Keep on Truckin<br /><br />-Elder West</span></div>
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</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-11546275148986042542016-04-20T10:50:00.001-07:002016-04-20T11:09:59.008-07:0013 April 2016 - Elder Bell's Birthday<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear All,<br /><br />We did a lot of service these last few days and it was awesome. Work<br />in the deaf program with investigators has been extremely slow and<br />kinda rough, but we were able to work with a lot of our members and<br />serve them a lot too. Overall, it was a great week.<br /><br />We were over at a Less Active's house <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896294" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Wednesday</span></span>. We had originally<br />went over to teach her and hopefully her kids. But as soon as we<br />walked in, she said, "We're kinda busy right now." We immediately<br />asked if there was anything we could do to help. We've really been<br />trying to find service, especially with deaf people, so we were really<br />hoping she'd say yes. She was like, "Well I mean if y'all have time."<br />At the time she was putting together a bed frame. So the next hour and a<br />half were spent making a bed frame, and it was super fun. We also got<br />to talk with her and her grandkids, it was a wonderful service<br />opportunity.<br /><br />A man and a woman got on the train at the same time and the man<br />started talking to the woman. It looked like he was bothering her. He<br />eventually offered her a dollar for something, and I was pretty confused<br />what was going on. Then I realized that he asked her for a kiss in<br />exchange for a dollar. The woman declined and said something sassy<br />back to him; it was super weird. Then there was a guy next to him that<br />was like, "Really? I'd kiss anyone for a dollar." It turned out to be<br />a light-hearted joke so it was all good. Just another interesting<br />thing to happen in the subway.<br /><br />So as I said earlier, the work has been very slow, and so we're<br />currently looking for new deaf people to teach. Holy cow, it is hard to<br />find deaf people here. We've been doing some of the regular finding<br />activities that have always been done in the deaf program with little<br />to no success. So we decided to go old fashioned and just start<br />walking up and down every project building we were in. (It really only<br />happened on one of the days, because most of the other days were<br />filled with other activities.) So just FYI for all y'all, project<br />buildings are about as ghetto as it gets in New York. For example, on<br />one of the doors that I checked, there were multiple bullet holes.<br />They also have an overwhelming smell of marijuana, cigarette smoke,<br />and urine. Anyway, the reason we have been going up and down all the<br />project buildings is because we are looking for deaf bells on the<br />doors. They're generally a very distinctive kind of bell, but we just<br />rang every bell we found in hopes to find a deaf person. In total, we<br />checked about 1007 doors in the one day, and ran into 4 deaf bells.<br />We already knew all 4 of them would be there. We checked 8 buildings.<br />Those four bells belonged to people whom we had on record and were going over<br />to meet, but none of them answered. So it was pretty rough, but it was<br />also enjoyable because it was something new we got to do.<br /><br />One of the big service opportunities we had this week was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896295" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Sunday</span></span>. I<br />may have already described this opportunity, but I can't remember. So<br />for the next two-ish months, we will have two Elders from the North<br />Mission go Upstate to the Yorktown Ward to do interpreting for a<br />couple of deaf people. The interpreters that are normally there for them<br />have a conflict for the next while. So we'll have one Elder from each<br />of the areas go up to Yorktown each week so that there can still be<br />one Elder from each area at our normal Church building in South<br />Manhattan. This week it was Elder Turner and me. It was really good to<br />see something a little bit different from the city for a little. I<br />love the city, but I guess I forgot how much I love seeing actual<br />landscape and trees and stuff. The interpreting itself was also very<br />fun and a nice change-up.<br /><br />One of the things we studied this week was the Proclamation to the<br />World. We read it because there have been some families who have been<br />on our mind. One of the most prominent line in it is definitely where<br />it says, "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when<br />founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." A lot of people<br />don't realize how much happiness comes from the Gospel. Honesty,<br />that's just the point of the Gospel - to make us happy. His teaching<br />just helps families be closer and love each other more. We discussed<br />this proclamation with each other and it's just so awesome that we<br />have things like that to help us have clarity in our lives. It helps<br />describe how to make our families happy and how mothers and fathers<br />can support each other in their divine roles.<br /><br />So on Fast <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896296" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>, I had been fasting to find new deaf people to<br />teach. I truly desire to find some, and Elder Bell and I have been<br />working really hard to do so. I know that Heavenly Father will help us<br />find new people if that's in line with His will. The next day, we were<br />at a train stop and a deaf person came up to Elder Bell and started<br />signing to him, I was reporting on a lesson and didn't see who it was<br />at first. Then when I realized Elder Bell was signing with someone I<br />looked over and it was Jason Smith! He was my first really solid<br />lesson on my mission. He's a super amazing guy and he was very<br />interested but eventually he wasn't able to meet us, and Elder Bell and<br />I both felt that he was just brushing us off. He wouldn't respond to<br />our messages so we just decided to stop bothering him. It was so so<br />awesome that he saw us and came up to us at the train station.<br />Apparently, he is still very interested and has read the Book of<br />Mormon a little bit in the almost 3 months since we last saw him. He<br />said his life is just super hectic right now and so he really wants to<br />meet with us next week. He even said that there was a train that got<br />there before we got there but that it was really full so he decided to<br />wait for the next one. Well lo and behold, he runs into us! It was<br />sooo awesome. I'm so excited to begin working with him again.<br /><br />Yesterday we did our regular service at the Food Pantry, which was<br />awesome. We then went to help a Less Active member who's in a<br />wheelchair. She needed to go shopping and we went to Whole Foods<br />because that's where she wanted to go. It was certainly a new experience:<br />taking someone in a wheelchair shopping. It was also pretty weird to<br />be shopping at an actual store with non-ghetto stuff. Everything was<br />about 18 levels out of our price range though. It made me sad to see<br />all the stuff I wanted but couldn't afford. It was fun though, but<br />it took forever. It was also just full of rich white women: a few men<br />and a few non-while people, but mostly rich white women. The woman we<br />were helping took longer to shop than my mother. I'm serious, she<br />needed three hours to shop and it wasn't even that much food. It was<br />still really good though.<br /><br />We're on our way to South Manhattan right now as I'm typing this, and<br />there were three different performances on our train car for three<br />stops in a row. The first one was a strange dance of sorts; the next<br />one was a rapper; and the third one was a singer. They were all super<br />good too. It was nice to have a triple performance. One of the nice<br />things about traveling in the subway, so many people solicit it for<br />money. Oh, I haven't even finished typing this before another group<br />came onto the subway. This time it was a drumming duo preaching<br />respect and happiness as they drummed: too fun. They were also telling<br />jokes and stuff the whole time.<br />I haven't sent this yet and I have a couple more fun events to add.<br />For Elder Bell's birthday we went to the One World Trade Center with<br />our roommates. After about 15 minutes of pictures and stuff, we ran<br />into a member family from Australia. They were really nice. We also<br />ran into a member who was from Washington State with her family. She<br />was also very nice. We don't run into very many members in the Bronx,<br />like at all. We also ran into a member family at Union Square not too<br />long ago. They bought us dinner which was so amazing. We've run into<br />more members at tourist areas than all other areas combined.<br /><br />The last thing for this week came from studying. We were studying the<br />talk, "Behold Thy Mother" by the Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland. It's a<br />really good talk to study. He talks all about how a Mother's love is<br />so precious. The realization I had as I was reading it was this: "The<br />love that a mother has for her child is the closest thing to the love<br />that Jesus has for all of us." There is nothing else on this earth<br />that quite compares to the love of a mother. I want to add a quote<br />from that talk in here. "To all of our mothers everywhere, past,<br />present, or future, I say, 'Thank you. Thank you for giving birth, for<br />shaping souls, for forming character, and for demonstrating the pure<br />love of Christ.' To Mother Eve, to Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, to Mary<br />of Nazareth, and to a Mother in Heaven, I say, 'Thank you for your<br />crucial role in fulfilling the purposes of eternity.' To all mothers<br />in every circumstance, including those who struggle--and all will--I<br />say, 'Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and<br />like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth.’ I can pay no<br />higher tribute to anyone."<br /><br />Quotes:<br />"Hey! Yo Elderlies!"<br />"Excuse me, sir, are you Jewish?<br />No.<br />Have a good day."<br />"Well, shoot. Shoot me in the head, is that family sized Reese's Puffs?"<br />"...Church disciplinary action. That means they'll put you in time out.<br />Ya, time out from the Gospel."<br />"You kinda find out who you are and who your Jesus is."<br />"I'm Jehovah's Witness and Mormon."<br />"Only God can be this organized."<br />"I am not a domestic violence person."<br />"Marriage is easy."<br />"Pray like everything depends on Him and work like everything depends on you."<br />"I look like Buzz? Buzz freakin Lightyear?"<br />"I could keep track of our district's investigators on like a quarter<br />of a post-it note."<br />"We are essentially glorified vacuum salesman."<br /><br />Scriptures:<br />"Behold Thy Mother" - Jeffrey R. Holland<br />"<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896297" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tomorrow</span></span> the Lord will do Wonders Among you" - Jeffrey R. Holland<br /><br />Keep on Truckin<br /><br />-Elder West</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-64295374750602635482016-04-06T10:38:00.000-07:002016-04-20T11:09:59.014-07:006 April 2016 - 3 Months in New York<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear All,<br /><br />This week was full of ups and downs, but mostly ups.<br /><br />The end of last week was really slow, and both of our investigators<br />with baptismal dates dropped them. One of them was going totally crazy<br />on us about how water doesn't work for the sacrament, only wine. I<br />could see how that was a legitimate concern, but then he listed a ton<br />of other random reasons that didn't really make sense. It was pretty<br />obvious that he just wasn't ready and didn't seem interested anyways.<br />He was also just not all the way there, mentally, and even was under<br />the influence, which is never a good thing. It was getting to the<br />point where we were afraid it would become physically confrontational,<br />so we offered to come back another time and just got up and left as he<br />showed us to the door. That was severely disappointing, but he didn't<br />want to continue being taught and we respect his agency. The other<br />thing was our beloved investigator, Brother Harris, did not come to<br />conference, and we later found out he was no longer ready for baptism on<br />April 17th. We are still working with him and trying to help him<br />figure out some stuff. Those were really the most disappointing parts<br />of the week.<br /><br /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348821" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">On Saturday</span></span> and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348822" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> we had General Conference. Most of you already<br />know what this is, but for a short summary, it's a broadcast from Utah<br />where the Prophets and Apostles of God speak to members of the Church<br />and anyone else who wants to listen. It happens semi-annually, and it is<br />full of information on how we can improve as people, and other assorted<br />Gospel topics. That was super awesome. Especially because we watched<br />it at the church with our members, which meant there was ASL<br />interpretation for the whole thing! It was really cool to be able to<br />watch and listen to the talks from the Lord's servants. A couple<br />things that were mentioned many times were as follows:<br />The absolute main point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is this: God<br />loves us. We are all literally children of God. Oftentimes we don't<br />quite realize how much that means. He and His son have done everything<br />for us. They've made it possible for us to be happy. We just have to<br />be humble enough to find the path they want us to take and then be<br />humble enough to accept that we can't reach our full potential without<br />them.<br />We have the ability to have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion.<br />That's a big deal. That means we can have the third member of the<br />Godhead with us at all times. He provides a lot of protection and<br />power and He even makes it possible to communicate with God.<br />We have the ability to forgive anyone for anything. Us forgiving<br />someone does not mean that that person won't see consequences for<br />their actions. "I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of<br />you it is required to forgive all men." We do not get to decide who<br />does and doesn't deserve forgiveness. If we're having trouble<br />forgiving people, try seeing them through the Lord's eyes instead of<br />our own. If we are successful in this attempt, we will then be able<br />to love them far beyond our own ability.<br />This is Jesus Christ's Church. This is the only Church with God's<br />authority once again on the earth. Although other churches are good<br />and do help people be happier, and even bring them closer to God, this<br />is the only one that can perform saving ordinances.<br /><br />We went to go visit Sister Rivera to see how she was doing, and she's<br />been doing a lot better since the last time we saw her, even her<br />husband seems to be doing way better. Also, quick side note, there had<br />been like 3 shootings in the last week right outside of and inside of<br />their apartment complex. What the heck. I love serving as a missionary<br />here, but I would not want to raise a family here. Props to anyone who<br />has successfully done that. The city really just isn't a very good<br />environment for families.<br /><br />I've had a few times where we've been teaching a lesson and I've had<br />very clear impressions to ask a question or bring up a topic.<br />Sometimes they've felt completely random and it just doesn't make<br />sense why I would think that. So it's been pretty evident that it's a<br />spiritual prompting: it's just been obvious when I've had promptings<br />from the Spirit. The sad thing is I didn't always follow them. It's</span></div>
<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">only taken me a couple times to realize how much I don't want to<br />ignore them. All the other times that I've asked the question or<br />brought up the comment which I felt prompted to say, it ended up<br />working so perfectly. The Spirit just leads those lessons and it's so<br />wonderful. Every time I've followed them the lesson continues<br />smoothly. I've very easily learned to follow the promptings from the<br />Spirit, even when it doesn't make sense. The Spirit can teach a heck<br />of a lot better than we can.<br /><br />About a month or two ago, I had put up some pictures of family and<br />friends above my study desk. It was nice to add some color to the wall<br />and to be able to look at the people in the pictures. As time went on,<br />they stayed on the wall and they looked nice. I'd never even thought<br />twice about putting them up. I didn't and still don't feel that they<br />were distracting me from being a missionary in New York. But earlier<br />in the week, I just felt very specific prompting to take down the<br />pictures. So I did. I don't know why, it was kinda out of nowhere,<br />but it was very clearly a prompting from the Holy Ghost. I haven't<br />seen any specific blessing from following that prompting, but because<br />I was prompted to do so, I know that it helped and/or will help me in<br />some way.<br /><br />I saw a guy sit down and start eating his chicken in the subway. As he<br />was eating he would just spit out pieces of chicken onto the floor<br />that he didn't like or something. He would also throw the bones on the<br />ground every time he'd finish. This lady next to me was disgusted. She<br />was absolutely flabbergasted. Although I do not condone such behavior,<br />it didn't seem too out of the ordinary and for that reason, I didn't<br />think much of it. Oops! Another thing that happened earlier that day<br />was when Elder Bell and I were in a pizza place. We were eating and<br />some guy comes into the store with tons of different pastas and starts<br />selling pasta to the customers. It was pretty funny.<br /><br />That's all for this week. Tune in next time, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348823" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348824" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">1:00pm</span></span><br />Central Time, for more.<br /><br />Quotes:<br />"Hello Mr. Police Officers!"<br />"Be obedient to the principle, not the sentence."<br />"I think there's more ways to be good than bad."<br />"If there were a perfect woman, do you really think she would be<br />interested in you?"<br />"Um, sir, your dog's hanging."<br />"Did you just take the pasta into the bathroom?<br />Yup. It's on the sink."<br />"Easy money."<br /><br />Scriptures:<br />Moroni Chapters 7 and 10. That's all I gotta say.<br /><br />Keep on Truckin<br /><br />-Elder West</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-15088881924990013832016-03-30T10:32:00.000-07:002016-04-20T11:09:59.010-07:0030 March 2016 - Happy Easter<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear All,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Happy Easter to Everyone!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Well one of the greatest things that happened this week was with an</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">investigator. He was our only one that was truly preparing to be</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">baptized. He hadn't been going to church and just wasn't really doing</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">anything related to the gospel and was even dropping our appointments</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">all the time. So we were finally able to meet with him and he was</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">like, "April 17th, I'm getting baptized, right?" Elder Bell and I looked</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">at each other and our response was very blunt. We pretty much said,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"All right, we can't baptize you if you don't keep any of your</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">commitments. Baptism is a big deal and we just can't let you do it if</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">you're not ready. There's just too much responsibility that comes with</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">becoming a member of the church." He was distraught. He then started</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">begging for us to still baptize him. He truly wanted it, but I think he</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">just hadn't understood that it's a big deal, and that the idea of being</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">baptized isn't a joke. We let him know some things he had to do to be</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">baptized. We also asked him about why he wanted baptism, because</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">we just wanted to be sure he's doing it for the right reasons. He then</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">said some awesome stuff and continued to beg us to baptize him. It was</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a very necessary ultimatum we made with him. He has since reminded us</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">every time we've seen him that he's getting baptized on April 17th.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">He's got a true desire and has been keeping his commitments and we can</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">see that he now understands the importance of baptism and really</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">desires it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Easter </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348814" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> was awesome. Both of our investigators with baptismal</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">dates came to church! That hasn't happened in a long, long time. Church</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">was super spiritual and all the meetings and classes were very</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">enjoyable. We were able to talk with some of the Branch leadership and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">discuss how we can help support the branch. It was very sad to hear</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">how one of the members responded. They said something like, "You guys</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">are the first missionaries that have offered to help with teaching and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">scheduling. Many times before when I've asked missionaries they've</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">said something about how I need to ask the members because they were</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">too busy to help." It was just so sad to see him say that. So we</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">continued to discuss about how we can help without taking over other</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">people's callings. It was just a wonderful </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348815" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. Brother Harris</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">("April 17th, baptize me, please") got up to sign during one of the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">classes and started talking about how much he's been helped by "Bell</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">and West". He talked about how much better he is than before and how</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">much he appreciated us. It just felt so nice to see everything working</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">out with him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I was thinking about Easter </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348816" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Sunday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, for obvious reasons. Elder Bell</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and I were talking about what to teach someone for </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348817" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Monday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. It sparked</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">a thought about Easter and Christmas. I thought about how Christmas is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">so so hyped. It is by far the most hyped holiday, but obviously not</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">for the right reasons, although it is well known that Christmas</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Obliviously that's one of the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">most amazing things to celebrate. But as I was thinking, I realized how</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">overlooked the holiday of Easter is. Easter is definitely not quite as</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hyped as Christmas, but Easter celebrates the two most amazing</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">miracles that have ever occurred. The first and probably foremost, is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">the Atonement. So amazing for obvious reasons. The second miracle that</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think is overlooked is the Resurrection. These are literally the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">greatest things that could possibly happen. It's just so crazy that</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">some people don't even know about these things. Harder for me to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">accept is when people just disregard the Atonement and the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Resurrection, or just simply disregard Jesus Christ. He did</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">everything for us. His entire life was devoted to us. It's just so</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">incredible the things He did for us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We had a slightly funny thing happen to us yesterday. We went over to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">see a Less Active and then Brother Harris. Brother Harris was at the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Laundromat and when we walked up to him he looked at us, kind of</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">shrugged, and then with a very cold-hearted stare, just slightly waved</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">at us. Our first reaction was, "Oh no, what happened. He's always</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">super excited to see us but now he doesn't care anymore; what do we</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">do?" We were genuinely worried, and then he just signs, "Joking</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">joking." It was not funny for a second, and then we realized he just</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">totally played with our emotions. It was pretty funny. Earlier in the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">day we were teaching our other investigator with a baptismal date. He</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">had told us at church that he didn't want to "rush into baptism, maybe</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in like 2 or 3 weeks". We were both just surprised to see someone say</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">that. Two or three weeks is very, very fast. So when we were teaching</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">him yesterday we said that we don't want to hurry him into baptism, so</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">set him up for a date that was about 5 weeks away. Even that is very</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">fast, but he had obviously wanted to be baptized quickly. We asked him</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">what he thought, and this was his response, "I don't care. Really it's</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">honestly no good." We both were super surprised and thought he didn't</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">want to be baptized anymore, so we asked him what was up. He said, "I</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">mean, I guess I don't care if I have to wait that long to be</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">baptized." Oh man he got us good. We both thought the guy didn't care</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">anymore, but in reality he just didn't want to wait "that long."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yay! This weekend is General Conference weekend! The reason General</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Conference is so important is because of the people who are talking to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">us. They're literally Prophets, Seers and Revelators of God. They</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">can see everything that has ever happened, everything that is now</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">happening, and everything that will happen. Their warnings are for us.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Elder Bell and I were talking about this and I finally realized how</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">important their words are for us. They know exactly what is going to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">happen to us! They're warning us as to how to avoid the bad things that</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">can happen in the future. It will be extra special this time too</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">because we'll be watching Conference with our members and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">investigators in ASL.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At some point on my mission I've realized a fundamental part of this</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Church. I don't think I had ever realized that this Church is truly</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">about Jesus Christ. It's not all about Joseph Smith, it's not all</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">about President Monson, it's not even all about us. It's literally</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">God's Church on the Earth, lead by the one and only Jesus Christ. It's</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">not lead by the prophet. As I've taught people and shared my</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">testimony, I've truly started to know more about my Savior. He loves</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">us so much and He's given us this Gospel to be happy. The point in</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">having this Gospel is to come closer to Jesus Christ, and by doing so</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">be prepared to meet God and enter into His kingdom. If we don't want</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to do this, then that's okay because God's given us the ability to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">make choices. That's why He gave us this ability, but if we don't</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">choose the right path then we won't be able to reach our full</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">potential, nor will we be able to have eternal happiness. Once we come</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">to know our Savior, we will then be able to learn the ways to be</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">prepared to enter into His kingdom. I'm so grateful for this</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">opportunity to serve others and improve myself while helping others.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm even more appreciative of the opportunity to grow closer to Jesus</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Christ and show others how to do the same.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That'll all for this week. I hope everyone had a good Easter and is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">enjoying life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Quotes:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"April 17th, baptize me. Please, I'm begging".</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Ya'll sexy".</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Listen here, Chum Bucket."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Listen here, Pinto Bean."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Do you want to see a video of Jesus?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">No. I served my time."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Remember those two boxes of cookies I bought? They're gone. I ate 64</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">cookies today."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I start out with 4 cookies. And I'm like, 'wow, these are some good</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">cookies'. So I eat 4 more. And I'm like, 'wow these are so good'. Then</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I eat a row and before I know it, the box is half gone."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Mmm, there's nothing like nectar from the white cran-peaches of</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Portland Oregon."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Scriptures:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">3 Nephi </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348818" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:14</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> - Learn of Him</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">3 Nephi 11:10-11 - "I am the light and the life of the world"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">3 Nephi </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348819" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">12:44</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> - Love your enemies</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">3 Nephi 27:33 - The way to Eternal life is narrow, while the way to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">death is wide</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Mormon </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_95348820" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204 , 204 , 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">8:17</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> - The word of God is perfect</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Keep on Truckin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">-Elder West</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-29514156663582060182016-03-23T10:59:00.000-07:002016-04-20T11:09:59.012-07:0023 March 2016 - Chum Bucket<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear All,<br /><br />We had some pretty incredible lessons this week. One of them was on<br /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896298" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Wednesday</span></span> night and it was with Brother Chkheidze again: he's the guy<br />we met from Georgia. At that lesson we had the English missionaries<br />teach with us so that they could teach him from then on. The reason it<br />was so good was because he had legitimate questions and concerns. He<br />actually read the Book of Mormon and prayed and went to church and<br />everything! He also had a lot of really difficult concerns that we<br />honestly couldn't help with. It was cool to have a lesson with someone<br />who actually has the desire to learn more. He truly wanted to know if<br />this was the path he should take, and for that reason he tried to find<br />out for himself. I am yet to have an investigator who truly does these<br />things. I haven't met a deaf person who really understands these<br />things, and it's honestly because of the lack of education here. We<br />can't ask questions the way you would ask them in English. We can't<br />even do it the way I learned to do it in ASL at school or the MTC. We<br />have to just make a statement, describe it in extreme detail, and then<br />they will either confirm or deny the statement we just made. It's very<br />difficult. The other lesson that went really well was another pass-off<br />lesson with a man named Brother Tavarez. He is so prepared to learn<br />about the gospel. We will likely see him around too just because he<br />lives right near us.<br /><br />Yesterday was an off day. It was a good day, but in the back of my<br />mind it just felt kinda off. I've reflected on that and tried to<br />figure out why, and I've come to a conclusion. Our morning studies<br />were non-existent. Even our personal study time was significantly<br />reduced because we went to go do service. Not only were studies<br />reduced, but for some reason mine just weren't successful. I didn't<br />really get much out of my reading for my investigators or for myself. I've<br />related this to life before my mission. I did not study my scriptures in<br />the mornings, or very much at all for that matter. I'm wondering how<br />much different my days could've been, had I feasted upon the words of<br />Christ each morning. Now that I've studied every morning consistently,<br />I've seen the difference it makes. I've also seen the difference it<br />makes if I don't study. So, my invitation for all of you is to study<br />the scriptures and the talks from modern-day prophets. It will make a<br />difference in your days, IF you do it willingly and for the right<br />reasons.<br /><br />We had a Zone study with interviews <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896299" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Saturday</span></span>. During one of the<br />trainings President Smith mentioned that Hailey Molina called<br />President Smith and Sister Smith and said that Thomas is coming to<br />this mission, Spanish speaking. As soon as he said that, I was going<br />crazy in my mind. And President could obviously tell because he asked<br />me if I knew him. My response was something like, "No way. I graduated<br />with him. He was in my seminary class many times and he was my doubles<br />partner in racquetball last year!" It was just so random and<br />completely out of the blue, but also so cool that he's coming here.<br /><br />We were leaving Popeyes (it was my 4 month mark) and Elder Bell saw a<br />phone on the ground. He picked it up and eventually someone called it<br />and we were wanting to return it but we didn't know exactly where to<br />go. The person called and we let them know we could give it to them in<br />the next hour. It kinda threw off our schedule, which stunk, but Elder<br />Bell felt it was important to do this. I had kinda been thinking that<br />we should visit this one hearing investigator we met (Brother<br />Tavarez), but our schedule was too full to do so. Well, lo and behold<br />as we're on our way to give the girl her phone, we run into the<br />investigator that was on my mind. He said he had been really busy and<br />really wanted us to come over. He asked us to come over <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896300" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Tuesday</span></span>,<br />which we did, and it went super well. It was just so cool that we ran into<br />him on our way to giving this girl her phone. That was no coincidence.<br /><br />We got bashed on by some guy on the subway <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896301" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Monday</span></span>. It was another<br />wonderful Harlem experience. We walked onto the train and then this<br />man got our attention. He said, "Excuse me, are you guys, uh, Mormons?<br />The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?" Of course we said<br />"Yes," then continued to chat with him. Rather, he chatted at us. He kept<br />on quoting Bible verses and asking leading questions. He was a member<br />of a certain faith here that believes God is all about vengeance<br />against white people. Anywho, his questions were cunning and always<br />leading to him wanting us to answer his questions a certain way. So<br />eventually I asked him, "What do you want us to say?" Many times<br />people from this faith have asked us questions trying to put us in<br />corners. It is often tempting to respond with verses we know will<br />prove their statements wrong. But then you're falling into the trap of<br />trying to prove someone wrong and prove that you're right. So anyways<br />he continued to talk to us like that and eventually Elder Bell asked,<br />"What is your intent in talking with us?" His response was, "I just</span></div>
<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">wanted to see if you are knowledgeable about the scriptures." He had<br />already made it clear that he did not accept that our religion had<br />credibility and that we were wrong. Essentially, the whole time was<br />him just wanting to prove his scriptural knowledge and trying to prove<br />us wrong. So the best option was to just walk away from him. And just<br />like that we got to our stop and he started quoting another scripture<br />to say that we were evil because we're white. I asked his name and<br />wished him a good day to which he laughed back. These kinds of<br />experiences often happen to us, especially in Harlem. I'm sitting<br />here, trying to imagine that situation from his perspective. I just<br />don't understand why people do that. I just wouldn't call someone over<br />to me and start bashing them for their religion, especially if I don't<br />know them. There's just nothing good that comes from doing something<br />like that.<br /><br />We were walking to a subway station from a district meeting in Harlem<br />and walked past this guy singing by a store. He was singing random<br />stuff but it sounded like he was trying to get our attention. So I<br />looked at him and nodded along. Keep in mind, there are very few white<br />people in the areas we proselyte in, especially in Harlem. So he<br />smiled back at me he sings, "Look at the white guys." It was just a<br />funny thing to hear him say. That was a Harlem moment.<br /><br />We were walking out of our apartment to see Grand Central Station this<br />afternoon when a lady said something to us. We didn't quite understand<br />what she said at first so we asked again. She said it again in a less<br />than nice way, "You guys are not in my world." It was pretty clear<br />that she was saying that she didn't like us because we were Mormon. It<br />was just a funny way of saying it. Elder Bell responded, "Oh. Okay."<br />And we kept walking and she said some jibberish as we passed her. Oh<br />how I love the Bronx.<br /><br />I've realized a very basic principle in the last couple of weeks. The<br />best way to grow your testimony and your faith in Jesus Christ is<br />simply to share it. There is a particular Less Active that Elder Bell<br />and I have been visiting since I got here. In the beginning, she was<br />not welcoming to us at all. We continued to visit her because there<br />was an investigator literally 2 doors down from her. Her first few<br />visits generally consisted of her telling us that we're young and do<br />not understand. She made it clear that she was too busy to go to<br />church, and she clearly did not seem interested in meeting with us<br />either, based on her numerous excuses. So we thought about it and<br />decided not to invite her to church anymore and just to make it clear<br />that we were there to help her and that we cared; we weren't just<br />there to invite her to church. So as we continued to meet with her, she<br />very slowly became more open and willing to talk. We even brought her<br />along to the lessons with the investigator. She actually started to<br />not hate us, which was huge progress with her, compared to her past<br />meetings with missionaries. After a little while, we met her husband.<br />He's super cool but also had a ton of excuses for why he hadn't been<br />doing stuff, even though we didn't ask. Her husband was sometimes home<br />by the time we were there, but sometimes not home. We started taking<br />him to lessons when available, and he started opening up. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896302" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">On Monday</span></span>,<br />the sister asked us some deep questions, (lots of which were personal<br />so I won't share them,) but the fact that she trusted us enough to do<br />so was incredible. We promised her that we would study hard and try to<br />help find the solution to her concerns. We showed one of the Bible<br />videos and she was clearly moved. It's so awesome how far these two<br />have come. Elder Bell and I feel that they actually like us and enjoy<br />our company as missionaries. She even asked us about doing temple work<br />for her family, and family history. Even her husband really likes us<br />now, and more importantly, he likes sharing his testimony and helping<br />us teach. He's always asking us - when we see him - if we're ready to<br />go teach that investigator. All of this progress came by being willing to<br />meet with us, and even better, from sharing their testimonies. I would<br />have to say the exact same thing for myself. My testimony has become<br />dramatically more solid. And it's all from teaching others, or sharing<br />my testimony with other people.<br /><br />That's all for this week. It was one full of ups and downs.<br /><br />Quotes:<br />"I just wish there was an outlet in the shower."<br />"What? Black LDS? I didn't know that was a thing."<br />"Missionaries? I didn't think y'all existed anymore."<br />"But don't take my word for it because I'm nuts."<br />"Someone, anyone, please respond."<br /><br />Scriptures:<br />Matthew 18:4 - Humility is great in the kingdom of Heaven.<br />James <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896303" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4:10</span></span> - Humble ourselves and we'll be lifted up.<br />D&C 98:26 - If we're patient in our afflictions, then our reward will be great<br />Moroni <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896304" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:20</span></span> - Without faith, hope, and charity we cannot be saved<br />Helaman <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_102896305" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">15:13</span></span> - True knowledge is knowledge of the Redeemer.<br /><br />Keep on Truckin<br /><br />-Elder West</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Elder Easter Bunny Dan</span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-67555179250962648162016-03-16T19:59:00.000-07:002016-04-20T11:07:59.520-07:0016 March 2016 - 11th Letter Home<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">11th Letter Home<br /><br />Dear All,</span>It's the Easter season! And we all know what that means: bunnies and<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />candy. Well, that's what a lot of people think it means. What it's<br />actually about is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna add a<br />few links to videos at the bottom that I encourage anyone who reads<br />this to click on and take a couple minutes to watch. They're all</span>related to Easter and mainly about the Resurrection. I've never really<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />realized the significance of Easter. I always thought about it as this</span>awesome holiday where the Easter Bunny brings candy to me. Honestly,<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />it's about so much more than that. This has been the theme of the</span>week: "The resurrection that Christ made possible." We've been talking<br />
with people about this a lot, and it's been super on my mind. Can you<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />imagine if everything ended at death? What would be the point? The<br />good thing is, it doesn't end at death. In fact, our mortal lives are<br />so so short in comparison to the rest of time and eternity. Jesus<br />Christ made it possible for all of us to be cleansed from our sins and</span>gave us the Resurrection for free. It's just great.<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br /><br />I'll start with something funny that happened about 15 minutes ago. I<br />had a full half-gallon of milk that I wasn't gonna use and was gonna<br />be bad soon. Elder Bell loves cereal and was gonna have some, so I</span>told him he could have the milk. I sat down to eat lunch and he was eating<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />cereal. About 10 minutes later, I look over and the half-gallon is<br />almost completely gone. Also, the cereal bag was about 2/3 of the way<br />gone. We laughed hysterically once we realized how much he just ate.<br />We did the math and he ate about 2000 calories worth in that short 10<br />minutes. It was 60+ grams of protein and about 200 grams of sugar. It<br />was just so, um, ridiculous. I think that is probably the best word.<br /><br />I was reading an email from Elder Olsen, my MTC district leader, and<br />he said something really profound that I totally agree with 100%. He<br />said, "I feel as though I am a new convert to the church, out here on<br />my mission. My testimony feels so young and small, as words I've<br />repeated again and again in my youth finally mean something to me. I</span>have such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, and know it is<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />the Word of God. Whatever happens, that can't be taken away from me! I<br />am finally beginning to understand the Atonement, repentance, and why<br />the sacrament is so important. I really feel a lot of regret for not<br />really making use of the Gospel earlier in my life. But now I know and<br />have felt the strength and stability that the Gospel of Jesus Christ<br />provides." I just couldn't have said it better. I feel like I finally<br />can say that I know the things we teach are true. It's so awesome.<br /><br />We walked over to a group of kids with the intention of showing them<br />the Easter initiative video. As we were approaching them they kinda</span>scattered and backed up a little bit. They were like, "Bro, it's the<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />cops. Yo, bro come on." We were like, "No, we're not the cops; hold</span>up." It took a while for them to trust us, but eventually they did. We<br />
showed them the Easter video, and the best part was when one of them<br />
said this: "So our friend that died will be resurrected one day?" He<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />was so amazed that people will come back to life after they've died.<br />I just try to imagine what life would be like if there was no</span>resurrection: it would feel almost pointless. So our family dies, then<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />we die, and then it's all over? That would just be horrible. But<br />luckily, it's not horrible. It was awesome because we continued<br />talking and a few of them mentioned that they have family members who</span>have passed away, then they asked if they'd get to see them again.<br />
Obviously, we answered with "Yes." The way their faces just lit up once<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />we said that was so priceless.</span>Elder Bell and I have been having lots of success, and we've been<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />thinking about why we've been given the success, because it sure isn't<br />due purely to our efforts. We've thought about it and have come to the<br />conclusion that it is likely due to our planning. Let me explain. So</span>we plan to the best of our ability, and plan out every part of the day<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />to make sure there is absolutely no free time, other than meal<br />periods. So once we've done our part in planning, the Lord does His<br />part and helps us with finding people and teaching them and stuff. The<br />thing is, rarely do our days go according to plan. They usually kind</span>of follow our plan, but oftentimes our day is completely different<br />
from how we planned it. However, it also turns out to be a much better<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />day than we planned for. It's just awesome how much the Lord helps us<br />once we've done our part. As we've made planning a priority, and<br />continued in obedience, we've seen the fruits of our labors.<br /><br />On Monday we saw a guy with a giant rotating blade. It was like a</span>rotating saw people use to cut wood, but instead, it was the size of a<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />small car and was used to cut asphalt. The guy using it was across the</span>street. Then we heard him and someone arguing very loudly. The one<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />without the car-sized weapon was calling the guy with the tool all</span>sorts of names, and eventually threw off his backpack like he was gonna<br />
fight him. The first thought that came to my mind was, "If I were<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />him, I definitely would not challenge someone to a fight if they had a<br />giant rotating saw bigger than me." Just a funny random thing we saw.<br /><br />We had an amazing miracle this week. Firstly, Brother Harris</span></div>
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(a deaf investigator) came to stake conference in a suit! We </div>
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interpreted for it, and it was awesome. I wish I could remember exactly </div>
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what was said and such, but I don't. However, I do remember how I felt. </div>
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It was a super spiritual meeting. After that was over, we showed </div>
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Brother Harris to the subway, and said our good-byes. All of a sudden I </div>
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felt like someone was talking to me. Initially I thought he must have </div>
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gotten my attention and started talking to me, </div>
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but now that I'm thinking about it more, he didn't, and even if he had</div>
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it would've been too loud to hear him. So anyway, I asked him </div>
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something that I don't remember, but then he asked us about<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />a Church. He's from Georgia (the country) but knows English and will</span>be in New York for a while. He asked us where the Church was and we<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />brought him to the 65th street church, but there wasn't any service<br />because of stake conference. We proceeded to talk about the Book of</span>Mormon and just the Church in general. He's already met with some</div>
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missionaries before, and he's been reading the Book of Mormon. He said<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />he feels really good about the Book of Mormon, especially because it<br />helps him feel close to God. We then invited him to baptism and he<br />said he would if that makes him feel closer to God. We even set up a<br />lesson with him later in the week where we'll hand him off to a set of</span>English elders, since Elder Bell and I are called to teach deaf<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />people, not hearing people. It was a super legit miracle and I can't<br />help but think about how many things had to happen to make that all</span>fall into place. If even one thing hadn't happened exactly how it did,<br />
then there's no way we would've met Brother Chkheidze, the </div>
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investigator from Georgia.</div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />I'm standing here eating pizza and the phone starts ringing. My first</span>thought is, "Dang it. Some elders are probably calling about<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />something." So I go to answer the phone and it's a call from Brother<br />Chkheidze! It's funny how quickly my attitude about that call changed.</span>I went from, "I don't want to interrupt my lunch," to "Heck yes, it's<br />
Brother Chkheidze!" Elder Bell answered it and Brother C asked if we could<br />
meet him in an hour from that point. At first we were like, "Well, our<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />schedule is completely full, but we can still meet you on Wednesday."</span>But then we realized this was a prime investigator who's totally ready,<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />and we should be willing to do anything to meet with him. So we<br />ditched a couple of studies and moved some stuff around to meet with<br />him. We were actually a little bit worried about the reasoning behind<br />his interest in the Church, but during the lesson it was so apparent<br />that his roots of interest were very righteous reasons. It's just so<br />cool that we met him the day before and he calls us the very next day.</span>So we're still going to meet him tonight too, when we will<br />
introduce him to the English elders, and they'll teach him from there.<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />The discussion we had with him was awesome. He's super interested and<br />just a super cool guy.<br /><br />We were talking with Brother Harris and he was talking about how he's</span>kinda lonely and has no family or wife or girlfriend. It was kinda<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />sad, but then it became slightly comical because he started asking us<br />about our families. He eventually asked us about our girlfriends and<br />wives and our kids. We briefly explained that we don't have<br />girlfriends, nor do we have wives, and certainly not kids. He seemed</span>slightly confused, but we let him know that we could totally relate to<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />the idea of not having family with us. The reason this came to my<br />attention today was this: Elder Bell and I were on the subway on a<br />different day, and he started talking to this lady with a stroller and<br />a kid. She mentioned that it's really hard not getting sleep because<br />the baby is always waking her up. Elder Bell replied with something</span>like, "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that." Her response was, "Yeah?<br />
Are you expecting one?" I just cracked up in my head. I didn't do<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />anything more than smile but it was so funny. Now that I'm thinking</span>about it, I'm not really sure why it was so funny. But I guess it was<br />
just amusing to me that someone would think Elder Bell (as a missionary)</div>
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has kids.<br />
<br />
Last thought. One of the songs we sang at stake conference was "I am a<br />
Child of God," and it was so incredibly powerful. It was just such a<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />spiritual meeting already, and then having everyone mightily proclaim<br />that we are children of God in unison made it so touching. And then we</span>also sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," which was also so touching,<br />
especially when we all sang the part, "Oh sweet, the joy this<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />sentence gives: I know that my Redeemer lives." It's just so true.<br />It's so incredible that we have a Redeemer and that we can proclaim<br />the truth of it. I'm so grateful that we have the opportunity to learn<br />and grow on the earth. I'm even more grateful that we can use the<br />Atonement and the Resurrection for saving power. I hope you've all had<br />a wonderful week!<br /><br />Quotes:<br />"Don't forget that you're a missionary."<br />"We livin in poverty."<br />"I shall seek death among them until they shall sue for peace." -Captain Moroni<br />"That's chump business." -Elder Davis' response when talking about how<br />people try to be sassy, but can't even look you in the eye when they<br />insult you.<br />"I hate people that speak stupidity."<br />"Boldness is not the same thing as rudeness."<br />"Your grade is on effort with God, not on paper with us."<br />"because of...their boastings in their own strength, they were left in<br />their own strength"<br />"Every time you wake up in the morning you get two presents: you open<br />your eyes."</span>"I read the Bible, but I don't believe. I take from it the things I<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />agree with."<br />"Much love from the man above."<br /><br />Scriptures/Links:<br />Alma 56:44-46 - Awesome conversation between Helaman and his 2000 "sons."</span>Mosiah 16:8-9 - The Resurrection.<br />
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br /><a href="https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah?player=bc" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.mormon.org/easter/<wbr></wbr>hallelujah?player=bc</a><br /><a href="https://www.mormon.org/easter/follow-him?player=bc" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.mormon.org/easter/<wbr></wbr>follow-him?player=bc</a><br /><a href="https://www.mormon.org/easter/virtual-hallelujah-choir?player=bc" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.mormon.org/easter/<wbr></wbr>virtual-hallelujah-choir?<wbr></wbr>player=bc</a><br /><br />Keep on Truckin<br /><br />-Elder West</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-25030088226787825262016-03-09T14:15:00.000-08:002016-03-23T20:23:08.767-07:009 March 2016<div class="gmail_quote" style="font-size: 17px;">
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Dear All,</div>
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<br /></div>
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On Wednesday we saw a guy do a drug deal right in front of our house.</div>
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And then he started walking on the other side of the street and within</div>
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30 seconds did another one. And then he turned a corner and did a</div>
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third one. We're pretty sure he then did a fourth one, but we're not</div>
<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstyletallbody";">100% sure on the fourth. That guy </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">must be a master dealer. Possibly 4 deals</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">in about a minute. We were just utterly stunned and honestly confused</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">as to how he did it. That was certainly a B</span><span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstyletallbody";">ronx Moment.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
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We just went over to teach an investigator but they weren't home.</div>
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We're afraid that they actually <i>were</i> home but the person who answered</div>
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just won't let us in because (we're pretty sure) the owner of the home</div>
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doesn't like us very much. We had a person near there that we</div>
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wanted to visit so we stopped by. The person is a Less Active and we</div>
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just wanted to see how she was doing. She was super happy to see us</div>
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and said that the sisters who usually visit her hadn't been by in a</div>
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while. She said she had needed people to stop by and knew that God</div>
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sent us. We had an awesome lesson and the Spirit was totally there.</div>
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It's just cool to see that Elder Bell and I went over there planning</div>
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to go to one person's house, but God had a different plan for us. This</div>
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has been a relatively common theme I've noticed in missionary work.</div>
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We'll make plans to visit someone and the plans will just completely fall</div>
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through. We then visit someone nearby and it becomes a miracle. It's</div>
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been humbling for me because when the lesson falls through I'll think,</div>
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"Well, coming over here was useless. I guess we'll just go look up</div>
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someone." Then we do it and realize that<i> that's </i>the reason Heavenly</div>
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Father sent us there, not to visit the person we thought we were</div>
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visiting.</div>
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<br /></div>
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So you'll often see people with babies in strollers trying to go up</div>
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the stairs in subways. We commonly offer to help them with the</div>
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stroller. Some people accept and others don't, but we figure why not</div>
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ask? So we had just gotten into the subway and there was a lady who</div>
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had been carrying a stroller up some stairs by herself. We offered to</div>
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help and she accepted without hesitation. We took it up the one</div>
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flight of stairs to the turnstiles for entering the actual subway</div>
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station, but those turnstiles are still underground, which means</div>
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there are still more stairs to go up. If we left the station we'd have</div>
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to wait 18 minutes to get back in - our metro cards are monthly</div>
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unlimited cards and there's an 18 minute waiting period between each</div>
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swipe. So Elder Bell offered for us to take the stroller up the</div>
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second, bigger flight of stairs. I was like, "Wait, if we do that then</div>
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we'll be stuck outside of the turnstile for 15 minutes, which means</div>
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we'll miss our train and then some." I wouldn't have cared if we</div>
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weren't on a tight schedule, but we were. Of course we could've gotten</div>
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back in the subway without using our metro card. I'm sure the</div>
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emergency exit would've been opened by someone at some point, but we</div>
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try to avoid going through the gate because it looks like we're going</div>
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into the subway without paying. Elder Bell's response was, "Oh, we'll</div>
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get through." I was doubtful of how we would but figured we were</div>
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helping someone, so why not? As we're taking the stroller up the</div>
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stairs, right as the thought of how we're getting back in the subway</div>
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entered my mind, the woman says, "Hold up, let me go tell the woman in</div>
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the MTA booth that you guys are helping me, and to open the gate for</div>
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you on your way back." Boom, there was my answer. It was just so cool</div>
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how it all played out. We were providing service to someone, but by</div>
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doing so, we were messing up our schedule. I think that Heavenly Father saw that</div>
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what we were doing was a righteous thing and knew that we needed that</div>
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gate to open. So He did it. He did it very simply.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Church has been pretty good. The Spirit has been pretty strong,</div>
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especially in comparison to some of the other Sundays I've been here.</div>
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It was fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, so people were sharing their</div>
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testimonies. I realized that I miss the testimony meetings from</div>
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Summerlake. (Note: Summerlake is the name of the congregation in</div>
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Oregon that Daniel attended before his mission.) The meetings here </div>
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are wonderful, but in a different way.<br />
There are almost no families here, and most of the members are still<br />
searching for a testimony. In Summerlake, there are so so many<br />
families and generally stronger testimonies. Families are the most<br />
important unit to God's Plan of Salvation. The gospel thrives in<br />
families. I think one of the main reasons there's such a strong spirit<br />
in Summerlake is because of the families. The idea of family and what<br />
makes family important is very weak in New York. I believe that is a<br />
huge part of why there are so many people struggling here. A lot of<br />
our members mention temple sealings and how they want to do them.<br />
We've made it clear that we would love to help them get there: helping<br />
people get to the temple is one of the most important parts of being a<br />
missionary. The problem is a lot of people aren't willing to work hard<br />
to achieve these wonderful goals. This brings me to my next point.<br />
There is a fundamental difference between conversion and having a<br />
testimony. We cannot, absolutely cannot be converted if we don't 1 -<br />
Consistently go to Church, 2 - Pray everyday, and 3 - Read the<br />
scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon. We can certainly have<br />
testimonies without doing one or more of these things, but we cannot<br />
be converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Something to understand<br />
is that conversion is a life-long process. It's not like<br />
we're magically converted when we do these three things; we must<br />
continue doing them our whole life in order to be converted. I can<br />
promise that doing these three things makes a world of difference in<br />
our lives because this has been my experience. I used to just go to<br />
church and pray but not read the scriptures much. I certainly had a<br />
testimony and knew that the Church was true, but I wasn't fully<br />
involved nor had my conversion process really started. As I've read<br />
the Book of Mormon I've been so much more faithful and knowledgeable<br />
and happy, and everything really.<br />
<br />
We had the most epic run to make the train. We heard the train and so<br />
of course we sprinted across the crosswalk and up the stairs, and we<br />
barely made it. I literally felt the train doors closing on my bag. It<br />
was super epic and I looked back and the doors were shut. Elder Bell<br />
was looking around for me hoping I made it in and boom, we made it. The<br />
best part was I was carrying Elder Bell's bag and shoes because we<br />
were headed to a chapel for Zone Leader splits. It was so legit.<br />
<br />
You know, fasting is hard. The few times I fasted before my mission were<br />
hard. I would be starving at church and throughout the day. But when I<br />
got home, I would usually sleep or relax in some other way. So yes<br />
fasting was hard, but it wasn't that bad. Oh my gosh, as a missionary<br />
fasting has been so much harder, but so much more spiritual. I have<br />
felt the Spirit more while fasting every single time I've done it, and<br />
I've also been completely and utterly exhausted every time I've done it. I<br />
don't think I understood fasting at all before my mission, and I'm not<br />
gonna pretend like I fully understand it now. But I certainly have a<br />
better understanding of how it helps. Fasting has been an actual<br />
sacrifice so far on my mission. At home it was a sacrifice, but just<br />
not quite as much. I am pretty much dead while I'm fasting. I'm also<br />
so much hungrier than I ever was at home because it's so hard to go<br />
without meals as a missionary. But it being such a sacrifice makes it<br />
so much more meaningful. I get to show the Lord that I'm willing to<br />
give up something very important, with faith that it will reap some<br />
sort of reward. It's honestly so cool that He does that for us. He<br />
pretty much says, "If you'll give up food for a while, for a purpose,<br />
then I'll give you something in return." It's just so wonderful.<br />
<br />
So yesterday I was on a split with one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Kerr.<br />
He's super legit and we had so much success and fun. We didn't have<br />
time to eat dinner, but we were able to talk to so many people that<br />
had been shutting us down. Elder Kerr is in the Spanish Program and<br />
one of our investigators' mom is Dominican and only knows Spanish.<br />
Elder Kerr talked with her and it seems like she doesn't hate us<br />
anymore. That was just one thing that happened; it was just overall an<br />
amazing day.<br />
<br />
Alma 36 is an incredible chapter. This is when Alma is talking with<br />
his son, Helaman. Alma tells his conversion story. In verses 12-13 he<br />
explains that he was "racked with eternal torment...tormented with the<br />
pains of hell". He continues to explain how awful he felt and how much<br />
pain he was in because of his sins. Verses 18-21 are my favorites. He<br />
explains that he was without strength for three days and knew that<br />
what he had done was wrong and needed to repent. He then says, "Oh<br />
Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of<br />
bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of<br />
death...when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more...oh<br />
what joy, and what marvelous light did I behold; yea my soul was<br />
filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!" It's so incredible how<br />
even when Alma had done so many bad things, he was still able to<br />
repent. God wants us to repent. He wants us to be happy. It doesn't<br />
matter what you've done, you can repent. The best part about it all is<br />
how he explains the relief and joy that came from that repentance.<br />
"There could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains.<br />
Yea and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand there<br />
could be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy." When we do<br />
wrong things, we feel awful. Sometimes we feel so guilty and so awful<br />
that we don't know if we can continue. The level of pain and guilt we<br />
feel from committing awful sins can be completely reversed. If we are<br />
willing to humble ourselves and have faith even unto repentance, then<br />
we can be happy. Jesus Christ already suffered for every single one of<br />
our sins, he made it so we don't have to suffer. The exceedingly great<br />
joy that can come from repentance is absolutely real. I know it is<br />
real. We're here on earth so that we may improve and learn from<br />
experience. One of the most important experiences we should often have<br />
is that of repentance. Because we're humans, we are imperfect.<br />
Therefore, we must repent to become better. We must change ourselves<br />
to become more like Christ.<br />
<br />
Well, that's all for this week. "It was another wonderful week here in<br />
my little Lamborghini. I'm sure glad I had my Hollywood Hills account<br />
to drive around in my eight Lamborghinis."<br />
<br />
Quotes:<br />
"I like that outfit, Elder West. It really SUIT-s you." -Elder Bell's<br />
incredibly dry sense of humor<br />
"Yo, It's not safe here after dark...but really, all joking aside,<br />
it's not safe."<br />
"No wicked man could write such a book. And no good man would write<br />
such a book, unless he was commanded by God."<br />
"Mmm, magma pillows. My favorite snack."<br />
"It is never too early, nor too late for ghetto trap music."<br />
<br />
Scriptures:<br />
Alma 30:60 - Wicked people have no support from the devil.<br />
Alma 32:16 - Blessed are those who are humble without being compelled to be so.<br />
Alma 37:37 - Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings.<br />
Alma <a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">5:26</a> - Can you feel so now?<br />
Ephesians <a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://4" x-apple-data-detectors-result="4" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">4:32</a> - Forgive each other as God forgives you<br />
<br />
Keep on Truckin<br />
<br />
-Elder West<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 17px; text-align: start;">Post Fast Sunday Dinner:</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">New York Sized Rat</span></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-20006396664652373292016-03-02T20:49:00.000-08:002016-03-02T20:54:13.407-08:003 March 2016<div style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dear All,</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'll start off by simply explaining the final changes in the ASL program that occurred yesterday. Elder Holloway is now in the Manhattan ASL apartment with Elder Turner, who came back down to the city from upstate. Elder Bell and I are companions again and are working super hard, seeing lots of success. So I'm back in the Bronx apartment, for sure this time. Or at least for the next 6 weeks (theoretically.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So the subway trains are long enough that they have a conductor in the front of the train and one in the center of the train. I think the front one controls the speed and movement and such, and the middle one controls the doors and lets the front conductor know when he can go. The middle one usually sticks his head out the window when the train stops so he can look down each end of the train to make sure the doors don't close without leaving a significant number of people behind. We were standing where the conductor sticks his head out, and Elder Holloway just waved at the guy. He kinda ignored us but also kind of acknowledged us. Elder Holloway wished the guy a good day and handed him a pass-along-card with our names and number on it. The conductor's face was really funny when Elder Holloway gave him that. The guy was like, "Uh...thanks, I guess."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another interesting thing that happened came about while we were teaching an investigator about the Word of Wisdom. He's extremely low-educated so it makes it that much harder for him to understand it. He was very resistant but eventually I felt it was important to stop stressing how he shouldn't be partaking of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, coffee, or tea and instead just testify of how he'll be happier if he's willing to obey the commandments. He seemed to accept it, but I'm not 100% sure yet. We'll have to wait and see. It's funny because he offered us water and soda, as well a beer while we were explaining this commandment. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I realized something on Sunday. The path to eternal life is very simple. It includes five things to stay on the straight and narrow path to the tree of life. These five things are included in our purpose as missionaries and in Jesus Christ's Doctrine. They are: having faith in Jesus Christ; repenting often; being baptized by proper authority; receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost; and enduring to the end. Oftentimes we don't quite understand what it means to endure to the end. Enduring to the end includes doing the four aforementioned things all the time, as well as: going to the temple for numerous things; going to church; praying; and reading scripture. Sometimes this list of things to do seems long, but it's really quite simple. The key is to just do it. Something that's talked about in the "Adjusting to Missionary Life" booklet is if you lack motivation to be obedient to the mission schedule, the best way to gain the motivation is to just do it. Motivation generally follows action. I've certainly noticed the application of this in my life here. Sometimes I don't want to get up early and excercise. I feel like I'm just not motivated enough, but the best way to gain that motivation is by just doing it. This idea of motivation following action applies to everyone. If you don't have motivation to do your daily studies (like many people) but you want that motivation, just do it. Nike and Shia Labeof truly understand this concept. If you start studying and working hard to come unto Christ, you'll then gain the desire to continue doing it. Once you realize how much happier it makes you, you'll want to keep doing it. Daily studies was just an example, but honestly that is the best way to be motivated, by acting and showing your willingness to obey.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Elder Bell and I were signing on the train about something and there was a woman who was just watching us sign. I made eye contact with her a couple times as we were signing and I was like, "Alright, I want to know who this woman is." So I signed to Elder Bell that I would sign to her if I noticed her watching us again. So I started signing to her and she just froze and kinda freaked out: it was funny. Elder Bell proceeded to talk to her but I didn't feel comfortable talking now that she thought I was deaf. So as they talked I would sign to Elder Bell and he would talk to her, and the other way around too. So I guess I pretended to be deaf, but not because I was trying to use that in some way, we were just using sign language and it felt super awkward to start talking...anyways that was pretty fun. The funniest part was while they were talking and not looking my way I'd try to get Elder Bell's attention so I could sign something, but when he didn't notice she would yell at him to get him to look at me, even though I wasn't being demanding in my efforts to get his attention. It was just really funny to see a hearing person that didn't know anything about deaf culture and to see her reaction to ASL. That happens a lot here, like a lot. We usually sign while we're in the trains or buses so that we can hopefully run into a deaf person, and also just to improve our ASL. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So another funny thing happened that relates to the whole Dominican lady watching us sign. Elder Bell and I were signing on our way home from the temple, and these two really young girls were sitting with their mom across from us. One of them asked their mom, "Mommy, what are they doing with their hands?" The mom's response was pretty funny, and as the conversation continued it got even funnier. Her response was something about how we were communicating with our hands because we were deaf. The girl later asked, "Mommy, why don't they just talk?" The mom straight up chastised the daughter after that and in a very sharp tone responded, "Well it's not that easy when you can't speak!" Her tone of voice was hilarious. This was another funny moment when hearing people who don't know much about deaf culture try to explain deafness. Oftentimes when we talk about how we teach and serve deaf people, people ask us about deaf culture and make lots of assumptions. There's just a lot of confusion around deaf culture and the Church. That's just something I've noticed. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We met these two people on the way home that were Spanish. One of them was super drunk but interested in who we were. So we taught him, and then his friend came up, and while Elder Holloway and Elder Bell taught him (the drunk guy), I taught his friend. They were both super nice, awesome people. The first über drunk guy just started walking towards the road as Elders Holloway and Bell were teaching. He walks up to a parked car and what does he do? You guessed it, unzip his pants and starts peeing on some parked cars. It was truly a different experience, and I wasn't quite expecting it. He then came up to shake our hands and we were just like, "Uh, have a nice night," and started walking away because we had finished teaching, and really didn't feel like shaking his hand. Oh the things that happen in the Bronx.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Pray about and ponder the scriptures. The scriptures open the window to revelation" -</span><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Preach My Gospel</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(PMG.) I thought it was so awesome when I read this because it really wasn't until recently that I realized that our answers to problems don't necessarily come from the scriptures, rather they come from revelation you receive as you are reading the scriptures. It's by doing the righteous action and surrounding yourself in teachings of prophets that allows Heavenly Father to communicate with you best. Oftentimes as I'm reading, some random thought comes to my head. These thoughts aren't always connected to what the scripture says, but they do come best as I'm studying. The scriptures are so awesome, they have answers in them, and answers come as you read them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now it's time for a really long story (ha ha, as if the other stories have been brief.) We were on our way home from a lesson when a Spanish member walked by us, so we talked a little bit. At Lexington and 125th a guy stopped us and asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We explained a little bit, and then started talking with him. At first I was worried he was gonna lightly bash us, based on his comments. We found out his name was Money Mike. He explained that he was a hood guy and that he did a lot of bad stuff but still believed in God and didn't like it when people judged him. We were really short on time, about to get dinner, but he stopped us to talk. As we were talking with him some random guy comes up and shakes Money Mike's hand and was like, "Yo, you got a six?" Money Mike's response was, "Really man? Right when I'm talking to my Christan brothers?" So a drug deal almost went down right there but everything was all good. Then another person came up while we were talking. At this point Money Mike was legitimately interested. So while we're all talking this white guy comes up, obviously high or drunk or something, and starts asking who we are. We explained and when we said Mormon he flipped out. He was just going at us while we were talking with Money Mike, and we were just ignoring the guy, who's name also happened to be Mike. So we were trying to leave because we had like no time, but Money Mike had to leave for a sec and asked us to wait right there for him, then walked away. We were stuck there and then white Mike just started bashing us hardcore. He was cursing and telling us we don't believe in Jesus and just going off. At this point he was yelling very loudly. I told Elder Bell that we should leave because we're not doing any good by getting bashed. This guy was high, unstable and causing quite the scene. So we walked into a store to buy some dinner and white Mike decided to follow us, cursing at us, cursing the religion, and cursing the Book of Mormon. He continued to persecute us, and we did what we could to ignore him. We were gonna buy dinner but this guy wouldn't leave us alone. I had a very bad feeling that there was gonna be some kind of physical confrontation soon, so I felt it was best to just get on the subway and get out of there: skip dinner, whatever, just get out of there. Elder Bell didn't seem to have the same idea. I was able to convince him to leave the store, but if we left right then, we would've left Money Mike hanging. So we headed out of the store, and then Money Mike was there and realized what white Mike was doing. He told him to get out of here and to leave us alone and what not, but at this point there were lots and lots of people gathered around watching the whole thing unravel. Money Mike wanted us to keep talking with him, but white Mike wouldn't leave us alone. Now Elder Bell and I were on the stairs for the subway trying to completely avoid white Mike. Money Mike was now pushing and shoving to get white Mike to leave us alone. All the while, white Mike is flat out screaming at us. Lots of profanities and just lots of stuff about how Mormons are the devil. Money Mike kept apologizing to us on behalf of white Mike and now other people are like, "Dude, you're the devil. Just leave them alone! You're only picking on them because they're not gonna fight back!" So at this point everyone's defending us, but white Mike will not back down. There's progressively more shoving and pushing, and white Mike is trying to come down the stairs to do something to us, but people are pushing him back. After a solid 5 minutes, Money Mike comes down and he gives us his phone number in exchange for a Book of Mormon and some other stuff. The whole time I just wanted to leave because I was afraid something would happen and we would be involved, which I was trying to avoid at all costs. Elder Bell was not backing down though. We just stood there and waited and waited to try to get something from Money Mike, but white Mike was just too crazy. So it all worked out fine, but there started to be confrontation and just a really bad feeling overall. I had kind of expected to run into stuff like that in New York, but I hadn't expected it to be as bad and truly scary as it was. White Mike was trying to hurt us, and then people started threatening him with other stuff. It was just all one big mess. Never in my life have I been attacked so much because of my religious beliefs, and I've never felt in so much danger. I'm so so grateful that Elder Bell and I got out completely safe, without any bad impressions on other people. We were being protected by Money Mike, some random people, and most importantly: Heavenly Father. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So we were at 125th Street waiting to head home. The 2 and 3 trains stop at 125th Street but only the 2 train will take us back to our apartment. Elder Holloway jokingly got on the 3 train and was like, "Oh I'll just go to the next subway and get off at the next stop." Of course he was joking though because that would mean he was separated from us, and alone, which is totally not allowed. So he turns around to walk back off the train to complete the joke, but the doors closed on him. There's glass on the doors so we saw him get stuck in the train and I signed to him and asked if he and a phone so that we could still be in contact for the short time that he would be alone. He didn't. So Elder Bell and I are just laughing as Elder Holloway rides off into the distance on the train, without a companion. We ended up being able to take the train to that stop and it was only a couple minutes. The look on Elder Holloway's face was just priceless. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On Sunday we were standing in the subway and there was a guy preaching very loudly. He was preaching about how we must have a relationship with Jesus Christ to be saved. So his basics were totally right, he was also saying lots of other stuff though. One thing he said is that he's not preaching about a religion, but rather, about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He started yelling about how there are so many founders of religions and so many religions, but that they don't matter because it's all about your relationship with Christ. He is partially right: it</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">is</span></i><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">all about the relationship with Christ, but that is</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">why</span></i><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">we have churches. That's why we have the Book of Mormon, and that's why we congregate with others of our faith: because it helps us feel even closer to Christ. Anyway, he announced that he could name off so many religions and their founders and how evil they are. I had made eye contact with him a couple times to show that I was listening, but of course I will never try to Bible bash, nor will I publicly preach. The man listed off a couple of foolish churches and he threw Mormons in there. Quite honestly, it didn't upset me that he was trying to bash on us, it actually felt good that he knew that we were Mormons. That was a fun moment in Harlem. Harlem's got so much religion and hardcore preaching.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I already mentioned this scripture in a previous letter but it came up in my personal scripture study and I wanted to share some thoughts that came to me. It's Alma 26:11-12 - this is such an amazing scripture, it talks about how Ammon is glorying in the greatness of the success they've had with the Lamanites. Eventually his brother rebukes him and tells him to be humble. Ammon's response is this, "I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." This took on a much different meaning for me this week. We are absolutely nothing compared to the power of God. When people become converted to the Gospel, it's not because of the missionaries. It's because of God. It's the Spirit that they felt, and they want to keep feeling that peaceful sense of relief. It is so wonderful that God gives us happiness and success and everything. He's so merciful to us, even though we continuously rebel and reject Him. How incredible it is that God can do all things, and will do all things to help us once we've done everything we can. This then leads to the fact that God will help us once we've done our part. "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." It's so great how Heavenly Father will always hold up His end of the deal, even though we are imperfect humans and don't always hold up our end.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Anyways, that's another really long letter from Elder West. Just before I got into the MTC I thought my letters would be really short paragraphs or something because I just didn't think I'd have much to write. I was so wrong. I didn't realize how many awesome experiences would occur on my mission. I would feel guilty not to share a lot of the things that I have the pleasure of seeing. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father allows me to experience these things. I like to think that these letters home aren't just ways for me to communicate with my family and friends. Rather, it's just another way I can share the Gospel. I'm also so grateful that we have the technology to communicate across the country. "Whatsoever is good cometh from God". All good things, technology included, come from God. The ultimate purpose of these things is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". We've got to take advantage of all these things to spread the gospel. The end is near; don't let yourself be wicked when judgment comes. Also, don't hold back your knowledge of the Gospel of Happiness from your friends and family.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Quotes:</span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"But that's just how life works, I guess."</span></span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"The only difference between the statements, 'I'm perfect' and 'imperfect' is an apostrophe and a space."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"That's your 5th bowl of cereal...</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">This is nothing. Absolutely nothing. I could eat 11 bowls of cereal and not even think about it, not even think!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Don't set outrageous goals. Yeah, that would be great if we could achieve perfection, but we can't. Set realistic goals."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Remember, Christ numbers his sheep. That's the reason the Church and the mission do statistics. Christ numbers his sheep, but He remembers them as people."</span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"One foot in and one foot out fills the heart and mind with doubt."</span></span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"It's not about whether or not the train is moving, it's about whether or not we'll be riding it." </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Reading is fundamental." </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Girls are dumb. They don't like food or dirt. They won't eat dirt for a million dollars." -Elder Bell's little brother.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Alma 7:11-12 - "He shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions of every kind".</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Alma 19:29 - We must have faith and gratitude towards God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Alma 29:6-7 - "Why should I desire more than to perform the work with which I am called?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Alma 29:9 - I glory in God, and in being an instrument in His hands.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Mosiah 23:11 - I am unworthy to glory of myself.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Keep on Truckin</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"></span><br />-Elder West</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zDMXmvy7HsQ/VtfBdKVGjOI/AAAAAAAAPS0/TLAnkJoi1uA/s1600/zone%2Bbb%2Bball.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zDMXmvy7HsQ/VtfBdKVGjOI/AAAAAAAAPS0/TLAnkJoi1uA/s640/zone%2Bbb%2Bball.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Zone</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7Hnkb-rPJk8/Vtes5nuXywI/AAAAAAAAPSQ/F1mfkaQC1pA/s1600/IMG_0212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7Hnkb-rPJk8/Vtes5nuXywI/AAAAAAAAPSQ/F1mfkaQC1pA/s640/IMG_0212.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy Missionaries</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mdH6QHemRfg/Vtes57JlcTI/AAAAAAAAPSI/X8UWIy88xrM/s1600/IMG_0204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mdH6QHemRfg/Vtes57JlcTI/AAAAAAAAPSI/X8UWIy88xrM/s640/IMG_0204.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manhattan New York Temple Trip</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w09FJijZ-74/Vtes5x6nU8I/AAAAAAAAPSE/QvFv5FtaZC4/s1600/IMG_0203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w09FJijZ-74/Vtes5x6nU8I/AAAAAAAAPSE/QvFv5FtaZC4/s640/IMG_0203.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manhattan New York Temple</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-42086189147940049752016-02-24T18:10:00.000-08:002016-03-02T20:54:48.306-08:0024 February 2016<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To start, we have a semi-permanent solution to some of the issues in our program. Elder Bell, Elder Holloway and I are now a trio for at least a week longer. We don't know what will be the long-term solution at the moment, but something will likely be figured by the time transfers comes up.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We got a cigarette thrown at us on Tuesday. We also got offered a "reefer" by a guy we taught on the subway. He offered it to us twice, and he was so high on potenuse (did you notice the attempt at wordplay?) when we were teaching him. He was pretty cool though. He also said he was on his way to 65th Street to panhandle, where he once made $3000 in one week and spent it all on, and I quote, "drugs and women". So he had some obvious personal problems, but still a good guy. The first/second New York moment of the week.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We went to teach a less-active member on Tuesday and check up on him again. This was the same member that Elder Bell and I visited on my third day in New York, the one we ended up committing his mom to baptism even though we didn't plan on even meeting her. So on our way up the elevator a man walked in with us and we started talking. We eventually realized he was going to the same floor as us. We then realized he lives in the same apartment as the less-active member. We taught him and he mentioned how he was thankful, and how he knew God had sent us to him to help him. He's been struggling a lot in life, like hardcore struggling. We taught him specifically about prayer and the Book of Mormon. It's so incredible that Elder Bell felt inspired to go to the member's house last time, and we committed Evelin, his mom, to baptism. Then we go on an ET (emergency transfer) together and Elder Bell feels inspired to go see how the member is doing again. Boom, we meet another person and I sorta committed him to baptism. He said that once he learns more he'll do it. Oh my goodness another miracle and it's just so legit how it happened in the exact same way! Every time that Heavenly Father inspired Elder Bell to go visit the less-active member it lead to meeting someone else in his apartment and teaching that person instead. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sometimes we think people aren't ready for the gospel, or for the missionaries, until they've gone to church and read the Book of Mormon and want to be baptized. This is a very false assumption. Something we learn as missionaries is how to relate the gospel to all people. If you get to know someone a little bit, there will be a part of their life that will truly relate to the gospel. I remember the few times when missionaries came to our house and would ask if we knew anyone who might want to know about the gospel. My thought was always, "Well let me think: which one of my friends is ready to be baptized?" And usually I'd have nothing for them. Here, I've quickly realized that a referral is someone who a member cares about and knows would benefit from the gospel. Just by being a good example to your friends they'll be a heck of a lot more ready to hear from missionaries. The Lord is preparing people to learn about the gospel, specifically the gospel principles missionaries are ordained to teach. This has been humbling as a missionary. Missionary efforts to find people are only so successful. Member referrals are far more successful and honestly, just generally more meaningful. I have absolutely loved teaching people with members: it's just super fun and far better than without. Honestly it strengthens their testimonies just by going out and doing missionary work; it strengthens ours too.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You know, Elder Bell and I have had so much success. We had similar amounts of success when we were companions at first too. Elder Holloway and I didn't have nearly this kind of success, but Elder Buckley and I did. I think it's a direct correlation to our motivation and obedience. Elder Holloway and I weren't quite as motivated, and to be quite honest, we didn't follow the schedule with exactness because he had issues that affected us. When I've been with Elder Bell, and when I've been with Elder Buckley, we've been much more obedient and way more motivated, therefore eliciting far greater results. I believe Heavenly Father is much more willing to help us because we're showing our desires by our actions, so He then allows us to have more success in helping others come unto Christ. Once we've done our part, He does His part. Heavenly Father is bound when we do what He asks. When we don't do what He asks, He is no longer bound.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We were on the subway and all of a sudden a guy asks me, "Hey white boy! How much was your jacket? Was it expensive?" My response was something about Jesus, trying to avoid the answer. In my head I said, "Well it definitely wasn't expensive so I wouldn't steal it if I were you." It made me a tiny bit nervous, but I was just amused that he called me by the name "white boy." Another thing - we're standing on a different train and some Asian guy gets on with a massage chair hoping someone will want to pay him for a massage on the train. I've seen people playing all sorts of instruments, singing, begging, selling movies or headphones, you name it. But that was the first time I'd seen someone offer a massage on the train. Just another New York moment.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Random thought: I've had 5 different companions in 45 days, which is the most legit thing ever. I've averaged a new companionship every 8 days. Now that I've been with Elder Bell and Elder Holloway for 4 days, maybe it'll change in another four days... </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We were walking to the church in Harlem and we walked right past two people who were loudly preaching to the public. They were members of a particular religion that believes all white people are going to hell and that Jesus Christ is about vengeance rather than forgiveness. That's the first time I've seen people preaching to people that they need to hate others, especially when it relates to Jesus Christ, who we know is all about love. In John 13 and 15 Jesus teaches, "Love one another, as I have loved you." Jesus Christ loves everyone. He's made it possible for everyone to return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. It's all based on charity, which is "the pure love of Christ." Paul describes charity as the greatest gift of all. "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." Paul also taught, "Charity never faileth." This is something I've never understood: how can religions preach hate upon other people? You are not becoming a better person by learning to hate other people. The best way to become a better person is to become more like Christ. If you're learning to hate other people, then you're becoming</span><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">less</span></i><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">like Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I'm gonna end with two radically incredible miracles. Both of which happened when I was on a split with Elder Burrell, one of my zone leaders. This was another planned split, which I think is mainly so the newer missionaries can get to know their zone leaders.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So I was riding to Elder Burrel's apartment with him for a zone leader split and I had a thought, which was: "I'm going to find a deaf person when I'm with Elder Burrel." I wasn't sure when or where, but I had faith that we would. So I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help us know how, when and where and lots of other stuff. We didn't run into any deaf people all the way past 5:00 pm, but I honestly wasn't discouraged. I was willing to accept that it may not be His will for us to find a deaf person, but I hoped that it was. So we ended up not being able to leave the apartment for a while because the bishop was talking to Elder Burrel forever. This turned out to be the reason for the miracle happening. Eventually we got out and when we got to the subway I was focused on our next lesson. (Just a side note: on each bus we rode I would sign a short sentence to myself hoping a deaf person would be on the bus and they would know that I knew ASL. Nothing came of it, except for me making myself look crazy.) So back to the subway. We were standing there waiting for the train and I don't remember why but I just turned around and noticed a young kid with two hearing aids. I was like, "Oh my goodness. This is gonna happen. Miracles on every split." So I told Elder Burrel to follow me and he just did it. The kid was with two older kids and he was walking away from us so he was never looking at me. I wasn't too sure how to approach him, and honestly, here in the Bronx there's no guarantee the kid will even know how to sign at all. I just started signing to Elder Burrel hoping that the kid would notice me. After about 3 seconds he looked at me and I stopped signing to Elder Burrel and started signing with the kid. It turns out, he's super educated and knew lots of ASL. He knew more ASL than most of the adults I've met so far. He also knows Spanish and English. Elder Burrel spoke Spanish with the older two kids, and so now he's gonna go talk with them and we ASL Elders are gonna talk with the deaf kid. It was such a legit miracle. </span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Later that night I texted President Smith and asked if he had time to hear a miracle from Elder Burrell and me. He had time and he was so stoked about it. I've had so many miracles happen, and it's not because I'm this awesome person or something, but hopefully my faith and obedience play a role. It's amazing what God does for us when we show our willingness to obey and love Him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other one has to do with being in a lesson with Elder Burrel. We were teaching one of their investigators (in Spanish because they do Spanish proselyting) and I had previously hoped to be able to help in lessons even though I don't know Spanish. It was so incredible: I understood most of what was going on. Like I legit was able to contribute. I didn't just start speaking Spanish, but I would tell Elder Burrel what I wanted to say and he'd translate. The Spirit helped me understand what was going on, which was so super cool. The lesson went baller too. He was super educated and super willing to get baptized once he found out for himself that what we were teaching was true. Honestly I know almost no Spanish. I've been learning a little bit here, but still almost none. When they were speaking Spanish it's not like I knew each word and each sentence, but I knew almost exactly what they were talking about at all times. It was super awesome and incredibly crazy cool. I DON'T KNOW SPANISH, but the Spirit transcends different languages. The Holy Ghost allowed me to contribute in the lesson and simultaneously made the lesson flow super well. If it weren't for Elder Burrel's preparation and our worthiness and our obedience to the mission rules then I may not have understood anything and the lesson may have gone horribly wrong. I'm not saying that the reason the lesson went well was because I understood what was going on, but the understanding of what was going on was just an added bonus. It was so amazing. The Lord allows us to have miracles when we work hard for them and then show our appreciation for them by sharing and/or recording them.</span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Have you ever vaulted a barrier with a banana and a water bottle in your pocket? Because I have."</span></span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Maybe she likes big hoodies, I don't know."</span></span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"So, when can I get baptized?"</span></span></div>
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<span class="im"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Have you ever been in a district of three people? Because I have."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Wait, is that man a member? Yes he is. Does he even know what that means? It's up for debatable."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I think the reason Apostles are the way they are is because they're so good at repenting."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Have you ever looked in your 'murse' and seen an iPad, applesauce, and popcorn?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Because, whatever."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"My only question is; on a tandem bike, who holds the javelin to fend off the bears?"</span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></span></strike></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Scriptures:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">John 13 - love</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">John 15 - more love</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alma 11:23 - O thou child of Hell, why tempt ye me?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alma 11:40-41 - The Lord has redeemed us, but we will still be judged for our actions.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alma 12:14 - We will not want to be in the presence of God if we are wicked.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alma 12:35 - God will not allow the wicked to prevail</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alma 13:3 - We are pre-ordained for certain things.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Alma 3:19 - We bring condemnation upon ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Keep on Truckin</span></div>
<span style="color: black;"><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;" /></span><span style="background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font: 12.8px arial,sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;">-Elder West</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TOuvlK93YCM/VteqjgVo7QI/AAAAAAAAPRU/z4uT4q7Xr2M/s1600/IMG_0188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TOuvlK93YCM/VteqjgVo7QI/AAAAAAAAPRU/z4uT4q7Xr2M/s640/IMG_0188.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel, his companions and and M. Harris</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade Pizza - West style</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6jvVTtWT1gc/VterBtoF0sI/AAAAAAAAPRk/qnRyCCS8j1Y/s1600/IMG_0191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6jvVTtWT1gc/VterBtoF0sI/AAAAAAAAPRk/qnRyCCS8j1Y/s640/IMG_0191.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look what was sleeping under the sink - RATS!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taco Bell!</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-59795514965957682112016-02-17T21:52:00.000-08:002016-03-02T20:56:52.390-08:0017 February 2016<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Note:"Taco Tuesday" is a group of friends from Daniel's high school racquetball team who all went to Taco Bell </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://1/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleTallBody; font-size: 17px;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">after Tuesday night</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> practices.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">Dear All, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">It has been yet another crazy week. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">I've been on two emergency splits this week and one planned split. For those who don't know what that means, a split means I am companions with someone else for 24 hours. It's generally with the missionary's leaders so they can just spend a day proselyting with them to see how everything's going. So Friday was a planned split with Elder Buckley, who's one of my zone leaders. It was awesome. We had seven lessons that day and met a ton of people. We worked super-hard and just honestly went hard in the paint. We had a ton of success, but were completely exhausted by the end of the day. It was nice to have a day like that because it reminded me that even in this ASL program, which is struggling very badly, we can have success. Elder Buckley serves in the Spanish Harlem area, so one of his major purposes in splitting with me was to learn more about the ASL program. So I gave him a lot of information about it. It helped him realize why our program has been struggling so much. There are some personal issues, and our branch really struggles. I bring this up because I've gained a strong testimony of why I've been called to this specific mission. Our branch needs a lot of help before we can go find a ton of investigators. This is not to say that we shouldn't be finding people, but we want to make sure that when people are baptized and they join the church, they have a strong group of people to support them. However, we can't help a lot of other people if we can't even help ourselves. We've got to work hard to make sure our district works well together and functions before we can help others. Again, I want to emphasize that I'm not saying, "serve yourself before you serve others." What I'm saying is that maybe a successful mission starts with companionships who get along well and work well together. President Smith and my district and zone leaders have involved me a lot in the potential changes and have asked me to voice my opinions many times. In these moments, I do everything I can to allow the Spirit to speak through me rather than just say what I think. I have felt a strong witness from the Spirit that this is a huge reason I've been called to this mission. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Now let me explain the whole emergency split and district problems thing. So </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://3/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">on Saturday night at 8:00</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> we were called and asked how quickly I could pack my bags. As I'm sure anyone can imagine, that phrase made my heart drop really fast. Eventually he explained that the other companionship needed an emergency split, hopefully for 24 hours but possibly for multiple days. I will admit that I did not have the best attitude about this. I really didn't want to leave the East area to go to the West area, I also didn't want to leave my companion. I didn't want to be at the other apartment for multiple days. There were a lot of things I didn't want. But I reminded myself, "It's not about you," from Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ" talk. So I was on splits at the other apartment for a couple days. I don't want to explain any of the details of who, what, when, where, or why so I'll just keep it at that. Now this may sound a little rough in the beginning, but it gets good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Lots of people come on the subways playing music with their instruments and asking for money or just straight up selling stuff. It's illegal, but no one really cares anymore, nor do I know if anyone ever cared. So we got on the train and there were 6 cops on it. This is something that has been pretty common: lots of cops on a train usually searching for someone. On the same train there's a guy playing the guitar, the way people do it asking for money. The cops didn't care, at all. I think it's funny how this guy doesn't care that there are cops, and he just continues to play, and on the flip side, the cops don't care either. Although it's a very minor law and really not a big deal, it's still a law. Just a funny thought I had. New York cops seem pretty relaxed as a whole.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SVLM4aKerDg/VsgQsUqJhzI/AAAAAAAAPOg/cXq2JK-ZUiM/s1600/0185a1ea70b5038ffe6ed661ce6779592bab78228b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SVLM4aKerDg/VsgQsUqJhzI/AAAAAAAAPOg/cXq2JK-ZUiM/s400/0185a1ea70b5038ffe6ed661ce6779592bab78228b.jpg" width="298" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Taco Tuesday, this one's for you! <img src="webkit-fake-url://f3a6e9cf-a75b-444e-b876-8075599cfbf2/imagejpeg" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleTallBody;" />I WENT TO TACO BELL ON FRIDAY WITH MY ZONE LEADER. It was so awesome. It had been almost three months since I had Taco Bell. That's got to be some kind of record for me. Going every Tuesday and usually another time during the week for a few months, and then going almost three without it makes it taste so much better. That was definitely one of the highlights of the week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Oh my goodness there was a straight-up miracle this week, although sadly, there wasn't the immediate happy ending I had hoped for, but I have faith that there will be a happy ending ultimately. So we (Elder Buckley and I) were supposed to meet at the Harlem Chapel at 8:30 pm on Friday to end our split, but then the bus didn't come to co-op city until </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://8/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="8" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">8:45</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">. The bus was scheduled to arrive </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://9/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="9" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">at 8:05</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">, and we would have been late even if it came at that time. At the time I wrote this, "There's either a really good reason for this craziness or some bus driver decided not to show up for work." But wait, there's more. Elder Buckley and I got on the bus and within a few seconds I realized that there were three deaf people signing to each other. What the heck! Elder Holloway has been out for 18 months and he's only run into like 3 deaf people his whole mission. I tried to join in the deaf people's conversation but they weren't very welcoming. I almost gave up but Elder Buckley was like "Dude, this is why the bus was super late, don't give up." I thought the same thing so I just inserted myself into the conversation, thinking that if they really didn't want to talk to me then I wouldn't bother them, but I had to at least give it a shot. One of them really didn't like me, the other was just super ticked off for whatever reason and staring at the corner, and the third was completely refusing to give me her contact info. I taught her a lesson and gave her a card and also gave the other girl a card. I continued to try to get her contact info but she swore she would call us at some point. I have no doubt that the reason the whole bus thing happened was so that I could meet one of those three people. Something is going to come from it, I just don't know when or if I'll even have any more of a role in it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">So we get on a train and I sit down, I'm looking forward and there's a very inappropriate advertisement, which I've seen on a lot of other trains. I just move to the other side so I can look forward without seeing that ad. I move to the other side, look forward and there's another inappropriate advertisement for something else. So my only option is to look down. That happens pretty frequently here, which kinda stinks. You know, I've talked with a lot of the other Elders here about New York. We all agreed that before we got here, whenever we thought of New York, we'd think of the famous pictures of the skyline from Roosevelt Island. That's the only kind of stuff they really show on TV and movies. It's always Manhattan, and it's only parts of South Manhattan. It's always a ton of rich people walking around in these beautiful areas and so it portrays New York as the American Dream. Let me say something, most of New York is not that. Most of it is pretty ghetto with garbage everywhere, unhappy people, lots of crime, and just a general awful environment to live in. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love serving here and this place is super legit, but I would never want to raise a family here. These awful things that I see help me appreciate what I have, and it helps me just love it here even more. It makes me realize that I've been unhappy at times for silly reasons, like because a hotel wasn't as nice as I wanted, or something else wasn't exactly the way I wanted it. There are plenty of people here who are extremely happy with what they have. The Bronx is a very popular place for immigrants, specifically from the Dominican Republic. We commonly ask what made these people come here, and it's always how they wanted a better life. These people are usually very grateful for the better life they have here, which seems to me that they must have come from a truly awful life. I cannot imagine how growing up was for them. It makes me sad to think about, but it's incredible how awesome these people are. So hey, the American Dream is still alive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">We've got a few members/investigators with Usher syndrome. I'm not exactly sure what Usher's is, but essentially it means you slowly go blind. The members that have it are getting worse, rather than getting better. One or two of them have it so bad that they're pretty much blind, so they have to hold your hands when you're signing to them. They'll understand what you say as long as they're holding your hands as you sign. So one of the deaf/blind members is here, and Elder Brown (from the South Mission) would sign everything the speakers and teachers signed, while the member held his hands. It's really incredible to watch. He's selflessly serving her to make her experience at church better. Through Elder Brown's service, she is able to learn the Gospel. And signing nonstop for three hours isn't always the most fun thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Luke </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://10/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="10" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">22:42</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> - "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." This is when Jesus Christ is suffering for our sins in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus Christ is suffering so much pain that he asks God the Father to remove his burden, but then follows it up with stating to only do it if it is His will. This has kinda been a theme for my mission so far. A lot of things happen that I don't want, I often ask Heavenly Father to help me, and sometimes I even ask to be removed from the trial. But if I am going to be the best missionary and person that I possibly can be, then I need to be submissive to His will. The sign for the English word "submissive" is "willing to give up" in ASL. That is exactly how we need to be. We must be willing to put aside our wants and think about His wants. I may not want to go on emergency splits or want to get up </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://11/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="11" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">at 6:30</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> each morning, but it's not about me. It's about Heavenly Father, about his children. I will do whatever He requires of me if it hastens the spreading forth of His Gospel. As imperfect humans, we often believe that we know what's best for ourselves. God knows us better than anyone else and better than we know ourselves. Also, his purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." He wants us to be as happy as we can. Therefore, every commandment we are given and every prompting we receive from Him will help us. The commandments are not limitations that stop us from having fun. Rather, they're instructions on how to live a happier life. To be submissive would be to be willing to obey all the commandments with exactness, even when we think we'll be unhappy by doing so. This has just been on my mind so much because it's so true and so important. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Holy cow it got below freezing this week. The cold never bothered me before. But there was a windchill of -17 and humidity of almost 90%. It was awful: I felt like my face was on fire from the freezing cold. It was not something I expected. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">So on Wednesday we had plans to visit a deaf less-active member and her hearing son, who is a new investigator. The thing is, we knew that if that were the case then we would have to do an English and ASL lesson. From what I've heard, that does not generally work out too well, but we were optimistic going into the lesson. It was super successful. So Elder Bell and I started, and another one of our deaf investigators was at the house too! We kind of expected that, but it was still awesome. Also there was a man whom I have met at Church, so I assumed he was a member. We didn't know much about him though. So the point is, we had 3 deaf people there to teach and one hearing person. The son was kinda tuning himself out, and I was a little bit worried that he wasn't really that interested. So Elder Bell and I started teaching in ASL and I was like, we need to teach the son too. So I tried to include him a lot and started teaching the full Restoration lesson out of the pamphlet. Elder Bell continued teaching the deaf people and I decided to focus on the son. I was kinda lost as to where Elder Bell was in his lesson because I wasn't able to talk with the hearing kid and watch the ASL at the same time. Eventually I just removed myself from the ASL lesson and went to talk with the hearing kid. It was super legit. I was going hardcore with the kid and the lesson went really well. Every now and then I'd watch Elder Bell for a few seconds and try to gauge where he was at and I'd add some stuff in ASL. It felt super cool to have the two lessons happening simultaneously, but it was also kinda tough for each of us not having a companion in our lessons. It gets even better: I had my first dinner appointment! We didn't even plan it. At the less-active member's house we were going hard teaching multiple lessons and it was super legit, and then her Dominican mom just totally made us fried chicken, white rice, and beans in some kind of tomato sauce. It was super nice of her and totally unexpected. I'm super grateful they did that for us. She just came up to us mid lesson and was like, "(insert Spanish here)". Her son translated and said it was about chicken. We were totally stoked and it was pretty dang good. That was probably the actual highlight of the week. Two amazing lessons, two people committed to baptism </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://13/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="13" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">on April 17th</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">, and free dinner. So legit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">One scripture I read last night was super awesome. Alma 26:9-12 - it talks about how Ammon is glorying in the greatness of his life. Eventually his brother rebukes him and tells him to be humble. Ammon's response is this, "I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." That was super legit when Elder Bell shared that with me. I asked him to help me remember to be humble and not be thinking I'm the best missionary because of our much success recently. His response was if I'm glorying in the greatness God is rewarding us with, then that's wonderful, but to not be giving myself the glory for any success. That was just something that stuck out to me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Anyways. That summarizes this last week. It's been crazy-busy and awesome but also hard with all the transfers and so much uncertainty. I'm hoping everyone else is enjoying life too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Quotes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"If you don't take the time to be well, you take the time to be unwell."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"I can tell you things about the Book of Mormon that you never thought about. I can tell you every detail about the great apostasy. But none of that matters if I haven't been converted."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"And the Elder Bell keeps splitting, with Elder Hollowayyyyyy and you." -a new version of "Happy Holidays".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Jesus Christ loves you."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">"Some bus drivers are happier than others."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Scriptures:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Alma 26:9-12 - I don't boast of my own strength.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">John </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://14/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="14" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">6:38</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> - I'm here to do the Father's will, not my own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">D&C 121:7-8 - If we endure, we'll be blessed greatly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Isaiah </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://16/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="16" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">1:18</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> - You can be forgiven of your sins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">D&C </span><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://17/" x-apple-data-detectors-result="17" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">6:36</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> - Go your ways, and sin no more</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Keep on Truckin</span></div>
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-Elder West<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-46604326660402518082016-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:002016-03-02T20:57:59.194-08:0010 February 2016<div class="gmail_quote" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dear All, </span><span class="im" style="color: #500050;"></span><br />
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<span class="im" style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">This week was incredible. It was extremely difficult and trying, but incredible nonetheless.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My Zone</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So in my personal studies from the Book of Mormon I am currently in Mosiah. At the beginning of the week I was struggling a little bit, and I had been depending on the scriptures and prayer for strength. I felt beat from the weeks prior and I was just depending on our Heavenly Father. Let me testify of something real quick: The Book of Mormon is where we can get true revelation and answers to everything. I know I've said that before, but it's just so true. I can't get over how amazing it is that God communicates with us as we show Him efforts in our studies or just our lives in general. One thing that popped out to me was in Mosiah 4:11 - we must remember "the greatness of God, and (our) own nothingness and his goodness and long-suffering toward (us), unworthy creatures, and humble (our)selves even in the depths of humility". This scripture comes off a little bit blunt, but it gets the point across. He is all-powerful and we are nothing without Him. We owe Him everything. When we're struggling or just not feeling satisfied, the best thing to do is just pray and show God that we need Him. Depend on the Lord, not on your own strength. Proverbs 3:5-6 has got it right. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." My goodness, the scriptures are so true.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Is there some kind of drug that makes you fall asleep super-fast? Another guy seemed to be in a similar situation on the train this week as the guy last week. He kept on dropping his phone but he was sitting down this time, whereas the guy last week was standing up. I would watch this guy wake up and check his phone, turn it on, and then fall asleep as he was doing something on it. He didn't seem all the way there, so that's why I ask about the drug thing. Yeah, he was definitely on something...he kept on saying random stuff out loud and responding to random people's conversations. He continued doing his falling-asleep thing, and this Dominican guy next to him would chuckle every now and then. We'd make eye contact, and he'd laugh a little bit too. At some point the Dominican guy tells the other guy he should probably put his phone in his pocket (just trying to help out.) The other guy just slurred his words back and looked super confused. The Dominican guy suggested it again, hoping he'd understand, but the other guy was still confused, kinda like an "I'm too high to understand you" kind of confused. The other guy looks and is like, "OH!" and answers his phone (it wasn't ringing) and just goes, "HELLO!?" and continues to have a jibberish conversation while also yelling, "Hello!" every now and then. The Dominican guy and I exchanged chuckles a few times. Eventually the other guy just puts down his phone and thanks the Dominican guy, and then proceeds to fall asleep. Ah, the New York moments just keep rolling in.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">You know, it's funny. You can pretty much always tell when people don't belong in the Bronx. I just see some people and am like, "What are you doing here?" Their clothes are too nice, or maybe they're white and seem too happy. Idk what exact things make it obvious, just general stuff. We walk by someone and I just think, "Yeah, you don't live here. I wonder why you're here." It's funny that I think that because I wonder if people think the same thing about me and other missionaries: two young guys or girls in nice clothing, smiling and happy, usually white. Although I will say, it's pretty legit how many people recognize that we're "Men of God". A lot of people will mention something about us being just that. They generally respect religion, and it's really nice. That makes it a little it easier to talk to people about stuff related to the gospel. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">One of the miracles for this week: We went to visit a less-active member of the Church, which went well. The cool thing is that afterwards, when Elder Holloway and I were walking down the stairs on our way out, Elder Holloway just stops, turns around and walks into the 4th floor. I was thinking, "Oh he's got some prompting, probably." I asked him what we were doing, and then voila, we walked right into a door with a deaf bell! Deaf bells are semi-hard to come by. If you go into a projects building your chances of running into a deaf bell (they just look like cheap door-bells attached to the door frame, and instead of making noise they flash a light in the house) are slim-to-none. Out of every 100 doors you might run into one bell, and even that's unlikely. So yeah, he just stopped, turned around, and walked to a door he felt prompted to walk to and boom, it's a deaf bell, dang. Nothing came of the lesson but it was super cool to see that happen. Straight up miracle. He just listened to the s</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Spirit and started walking, I'm not too sure why we were lead to that door, but there must be some reason.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sacrament meeting was Testimony meeting, and there were a couple interesting "testimonies". One sister explained an experience she had where she had to call 911 or something and eventually related it to how hearing people are less than deaf people because this hearing person couldn't or didn't call 911 or something like that. She then bore her "testimony" about how blessed she is. It made me kinda sad that those are the things she chooses to say in the name of Jesus Christ. This just occurred to me as I was typing this; our testimonies are in Christ's name, that's kind of a big deal. Knowing that, we need to make sure that our testimonies are solid and have a firm foundation "whereon if (we) build (we) cannot fall". So our testimonies should be based on Jesus Christ, not on an experience we had once, nor should they be built on something negative. Sometimes people will dwell on negative experiences they've had and make it their testimony about how Satan is real and that he's ruining the world. Although these things may be true, why would you want that to be the focus of your testimony? It seems to me that our testimonies should be built on positivity and love, and just Jesus Christ in general. Kind of a strange comment from Elder West, but it's just something that stood out to me this week.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I've noticed a problem I've been having recently, and in the MTC it's something that I'd worried I might struggle with. I seem to get caught up in having lessons with people, but not always for the best reasons. Sometimes the entire purpose would be so that we could report on having more lessons. One of the fundamentals of missionary work is, "We teach people, not lessons." I believe this is something I sent back in an email my very first week in the MTC. The point in me bringing this up is that I was getting caught up in teaching lessons, and oftentimes it was so that I could report high numbers. It's not because I want my leaders to think I'm a better missionary based on numbers, but because I just want to see my work and efforts pay off for myself. Part of the requirement for something to be classified as a lesson is you must teach a gospel principle. So in pretty much all my conversations I would try to involve a gospel principle, especially the Restoration. This is a very good thing, but I wasn't always doing it for the right reason. So I realized that I need to have the desire to teach more lessons simply because my purpose as a missionary is to help others come unto Christ, and helping people know about the Restoration will allow them the opportunity to do so. So my whole point in this is that I was making the mistake of just trying to teach teach teach, but I'm learning that I should teach. The thing is, I should teach to help the person, not to have high numbers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Members are so very important to this work. Missionaries can do stuff, members can do stuff, but missionaries and members together can create miracles through the power of God. I'm serious, if we had a member for every single one of our lessons, I'm pretty sure we could baptize the whole state of New York. Okay maybe not the whole state, but a lot more people. To all you members at home, please please be willing to go along with the missionaries for lessons and refer them to your friends who might be interested in the Gospel. It's so amazing when members combine with missionaries, members add a whole new perspective that is commonly lost among missionaries. I love our members very much, but it's sometimes hard to get them interested in missionary work. Something from Adjusting to Missionary Life mentions this, "motivation generally follows action. If you lack motivation for something, just do it." Ah Nike, you've done it again. As members, I can promise you that you'll be more interested in missionary work if you just do it. Going to lessons and sharing your testimony strengthens it. If you've got the knowledge, you've got the responsibility to share it. The interesting thing is, this thought came to me on Monday. It was so obvious to me that I needed to show our members more love so that they would trust me more. If they don't trust me, and know that we missionaries love them, why would they want to help with the work? So our goal as a district is to involve the members more for many reasons. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Lord works so many miracles through our families. My sister, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Rachel sent this to me on Monday, and I really needed it: </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The other day I was doing my personal study. It hit me that we've had a lot of success lately. I started to wonder why that was. Have I become more obedient? Does God all of a sudden love us more? (ha, jk.) I feel that the Spirit whispered to me, 'It's because Daniel is working hard.' Dan. Way to go! I know that as we give our all and do our best, our missions can bless each other's. So, keep going! Stay awesome! I promise to do my very best for you, too."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My companion and I have been working super hard but we're just not having success and I do not understand it. I just kinda accepted that we're doing what we can and other people are using the beautiful gift of their agency, but then my sister sent this to me. Is she just saying it to make me feel good? It's possible, but I'd like to think it was revelation. When I told Elder Holloway about it he was clearly touched in a similar way that I was. This happened the day right before the Zone Conference and this leads into my next thought.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We had a zone conference yesterday and it was pretty sweet, President Smith was talking about how we don't always know the results of our missionary work. He was giving examples of people who met with missionaries and then stopped, or didn't seem interested, but then down the road they'd remember that or want that feeling again and be baptized or whatever. It was awesome, especially because he just randomly threw my name in there and said, "Yeah, this one time Elder West came and said this thing". He just randomly threw in my name, but I'm pretty sure that was inspiration, which I know may seem silly, but I think it was because that's totally something I needed to hear. I don't see a ton of direct results from my work here, and I often wonder if there are results, and if I'm really doing any good. But I got the email from Rachel about feeling prompted that she was being blessed by my work, and then President Smith just happens to throw my name in there as an example. I believe the Lord is telling me that people will be blessed, and that good will come of my work, even if I don't see it. This can totally relate to all people. This concept of not seeing the results of my work and being disappointed is pretty much me wanting immediate gratification. If we can learn to be patient and learn to not always expect instant gratification, then we will be happier. </span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So this week was full of miracles and just straight up joy. There's a poem that I don't have and can't remember the name of. But it's from a missionary and just mentions that a mission is so so much harder than he expected. Yet it was so much better, he learned so much more than he expected. Most importantly, he came to know his Savior and love him more than he possibly could've imagined. This is already accurate of my mission. Truly, I love my Savior so much. We had that question asked at our Branch Party for Valentines Day. "Why do you love Jesus Christ?" I thought about it and realized the reason I love Him is because He loves me. He loves each of us, enough that he gave His life for us. When someone shows that much love, how can we not return it? </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I hope everyone is still doing great.</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Quotes:</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"if we don't know what we've done, then we don't know where we're going."</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"learn to love the Lord, then you will have a desire to serve with all your heart, might, mind, and strength"</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"others don't know. They need to know. They need to know this!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"I don't care what your reasoning is for coming on a mission. You're here, so it was a good reason. But why you will stay here is up to you."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Scriptures:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">2 Nephi Chapter 31 - Amazing representation of the Doctrine of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Keep on Truckin</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />-Elder West</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meeting the mission president and his wife</td></tr>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-39335769281336883272016-02-03T16:55:00.000-08:002016-02-11T18:22:09.884-08:003 February 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 12.8px;">Dear All,</span><br />
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This week was kinda tough again.</div>
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I woke up with a 103.2 fever and that was after resting on Wednesday. So we stayed inside most of Thursday and all of Friday too. We went out on Thursday to do some interpreting for a deaf person, but by the time we got back I was completely exhausted. The worst part was that we had to get up at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1206608951" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5:30</span></span> the next day for another New Missionary training meeting in upstate. But I must say, that meeting was with President Smith again and it was pretty sweet. There were two big things I took away from it. Elder Wulf, one of the assistants, made one of those comments that stuck out to me. He said something like, "When you get home and people ask you about the coolest experience you had on your mission, that experience won't have happened on a P-Day. It won't be when you were writing home or when you were doing your laundry. That experience is gonna come on a day when you were working your butt off for the Lord." That was something I needed to hear, because I generally enjoy my P-Days. Getting to write home and getting food for the week is nice, because it's just a little less tiring. The thing is, these two years I'm here aren't my time. This is time I'm giving up for the Lord, and I need to make sure I remember that. If I'm getting too distracted by my life in Oregon, then I'm not truly serving with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. So far, the best experiences I've had have been on days when I'm exhausting myself in service to my God. Really, that's why I'm here; to serve my Heavenly Father. The other thing that really stuck out to me was something President Smith said. He said this, "Oftentimes missionaries come up to me with a giant list of weaknesses. You better have a list of your strengths with it, and it better be twice as long. Don't you dare be ungrateful for all the numerous gifts of strengths that God has given you. You should have more strengths than weaknesses, because God doesn't create junk. He didn't create junk." That was another great thing to hear. I think it's very common for people to classify that as being humble. I was actually studying humility at some point and one thing stuck out to me, "Humility isn't saying you have no talents, humility is acknowledging that your talents are gifts from God." This is so true, just beating yourself up can't get you anywhere. But we are human, so we can't accomplish much of anything on our own. I believe that the only way we can accomplish miracles is by working as hard as we can to do something, and only at that point will God come in and make the task accomplish-able. It's really confusing when I type it out. Kinda like something I've said before: without the help of God we can do very little. The power of a human is pretty insignificant, especially in comparison to Heavenly Father's power.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDpxYsWOBcM/VrlDinaaI7I/AAAAAAAAPHA/baTYfCUm0G0/s1600/014f897338448b8751f363eceb6f79d587ebf0dcdf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDpxYsWOBcM/VrlDinaaI7I/AAAAAAAAPHA/baTYfCUm0G0/s320/014f897338448b8751f363eceb6f79d587ebf0dcdf.jpg" width="320" /></a>Our lesson with one of our investigators fell through. So we wanted to stop by this other person's house but no one answered, so we went to a sister's house and she was sleeping. I was sad that we had no lessons again, so I was like, "Alright we're finding someone to teach on the subway." We got on one and it was almost empty...I was like what the heck. So I looked around for someone or something that caught my eye and nothing. Eventually at one of the stops a woman walked on and I felt like I should talk to her. I said, "Hello, how's your day going?" She responded, "Fine, thanks." She seemed to be totally uninterested. So I just kinda sat there thinking about how I could continue the conversation. And then she starts reading a book. The book was titled, "The Everyday Life of a Normal Christian". I was in luck. How could I not try to chat with her about Jesus now? So I waited for a time when I wouldn't be interrupting her reading. The problem was I couldn't gather the confidence to just be like, "Yo, so you love Jesus?" But I was thinking, "If I don't ask her then I may miss an opportunity to help her know about the Restoration, or to just know who the Mormon missionaries are. Ugh, why do I have to be nervous at all?" Then I realized that by not opening my mouth, I was fearing man more than God. I knew that if I opened my mouth with the right intent, then my mouth would be filled with some kind of words to help this woman. So eventually I said, "So, judging by the book, I'm guessing you believe in Jesus Christ?" We then had a real conversation about Jesus and religion and church and other stuff. She let me know that she was actually searching for the right Church and that she felt it was time to move on to a new one. She said she had a Book of Mormon and loved it. She said she reads it often, and I was like, "Well, come to church!" We found the church that would be nearest to her and she said she'd definitely show up. It really was a great experience. I learned that sometimes I just need to open my mouth. I also learned if my day or week seems slow because we haven't taught many lessons, to find someone and teach a lesson. It's not that hard. Nike's got it right: "Just do it."</div>
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Sunday was crazy because the classes at church got super off-topic and honestly, the Spirit just wasn't there. People were arguing and there was a lot of confusion, and it was just no good. But something that happened outside of church was interesting. (By the way, crazy people really like to shake the missionaries' hands.) So, on the subway a guy was reading a magazine about some guy coming out that he was gay. There was something different about this man but I just couldn't put my finger on it. I wanted to talk to him but for some reason I just didn't. Eventually a man with a suitcase sits down next to him and after like 15 seconds says, "I hate the subway because of nosey people like you." (He actually used many choice words but I took them out.) The strange man was kinda looking at the guy with the suitcase but then immediately stopped once the other man flipped out. The guy continued to rant about the subway and how annoying people are and whatever. He was just yelling curse words on the quiet train. He seemed drunk, or maybe just not all-there mentally. The strange man seemed nervous and I noticed him looking at our nametags. At the next stop Elder Holloway and I got off the train, and the sad-looking guy reaches out his hand for us to shake, kinda looking like he needed saving. So of course we each shook his hand and as he shook mine he kissed it too. I wished him a good day because the other guy was still just screaming a ton of curse words. It was kinda funny because he said, "I hate how people can't just keep to themselves! It's just so annoying how people can't mind their own business and be quiet!" By the way, he was screaming this out loud. It was quite ironic. People just really like to yell and scream on the subways here. This was one of the New York moments for the week.</div>
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Later in the day we went to a fireside. Elder Holloway and I got to interpret, and one thing we interpreted was very interesting. There was a musical number with two people, so we decided that I would be one character and he would be the other. I interpreted as the prophet, Mormon, who was being chosen to lead the Nephite army. Elder Holloway was interpreting as Mormon's mother. It was actually very touching for me because it made it all feel so real - how it must have been for Mormon to be chosen to lead an army of wicked people, and to imagine how his mother must have felt! It may be hard to watch your child leave on a mission or to college, but imagine sending them off to lead an army destined to fail. In Mormon 8:3-7, Moroni (Mormon's son) writes about that group of people that Mormon lead. It's very sad to read: "And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not." Can you imagine being the last person of all your people alive? And the Lamanites were looking to kill Moroni too! Moroni goes on to say that he has no friends or family left, but he still has the task of hiding the records (Book of Mormon) so that they can be found again at some point in the future. Pretty much Moroni's sole purpose at this point is to "preserve the record of (his) people". Can you imagine how much different life would be if Moroni had been slain before he could hide the records? We would have no Book of Mormon! And to those of you reading that think, "so, what's the big deal? It's just like another Bible," think again. The Book of Mormon is convincing evidence of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. As I continue to read it, I learn more and more. It applies to our lives so, so much. It contains the fullness of the Gospel within its covers. That book will show you the way to happiness. As missionaries, we're told that our main tool in our work is the Book of Mormon. If someone is interested in the Mormon religion and reads that book with an open heart, they will know that it is true. By reading that book, you're allowing the Spirit of God to testify to you of the truthfulness of this Church. It's just so amazing I could go on and on, but I've got more to write. Just read the book, it will make you happy. I promise.</div>
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We saw a guy at the subway with a Denver Broncos hat on, AND he was reading the Bible. I looked at Elder Holloway and signed, "Yeah, we're gonna teach this guy on the subway. He's probably an awesome guy based on what I've seen so far." I'm really trying to focus on opening my mouth to everyone, and I figured this was an easy opportunity to have another lesson for the week. So I started asking about the Broncos, and we talked about them a tiny bit. Then I asked him about the Bible. We got to talk for a little and talked about the Restoration and such. It really helped motivate me, kinda like re-energize me to open my mouth. His name was Henry and he's an awesome guy. This is something that I didn't think I'd struggle with, opening my mouth to all people. It's a lot harder than expected. But what's the worst someone can do, tell me I'm wrong and mock me for being a missionary? Okay, cool. So I figure that's the worst that can happen, so why not just always open my mouth? The more people I talk to, the more likely I am to find someone who's been prepared by God to meet me. That's kinda been the theme for this week. </div>
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Oh my gosh, you don't know what it means to be on a crowded subway until there isn't even room for your bag. Your entire body is being pressed up against numerous other people's bodies. Yeah, there was a subway that was packed so much that no more people could fit on it, and then it broke down. It got delayed hardcore. Like enough where we were stuck on the track for a solid 20 minutes, so we just got off at the next stop and started walking. I'm sure we were traveling faster by walking than by train. Oh yeah, and on the stop before the train that was super-crowded, something interesting happened. There were two older men, one had a suitcase. The one with the suitcase was kinda pushed onto the train by the other one. The guy's like, "Come on, you can make it! There you go man! Now don't fall asleep! Get off on 125th, and do not fall asleep!" It sounded like he was gonna die if he fell asleep, super dramatic. And then the train started to move and the suitcase guy starts falling over onto people (lucky for him, at this point it was crowded enough that he was falling into people.) After falling into them he'd apologize and stand back up, only to fall back asleep and into a different person 5 seconds later. I have no idea what was going on with that guy. He just kept on falling into people and apologizing and standing back up, then doing it all over again. Eventually someone offered him their seat and he just fell asleep on the seat. It was super-weird: just another New York moment.</div>
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Yet another crazy Subway experience! The subway ride home was even more packed than the other ones. So packed, in fact, that I was pressed up against the railing. I really didn't think there was more room, but a mother of 6 sure did. She squeezed her way in with her kids and people were not happy about it. At this point there wasn't a part of me not being touched by something or someone else. By this point, every time the train slowed down, the momentum from the crowd of people behind me would just slam me into this barrier-type of railing. Even if I had wanted to say something to this lovely mother of 6, I wouldn't have been able to move my lungs to get the air to speak. So obviously the train was ridiculously packed. And then a woman gets on, and there really just wasn't enough room for her, but then she must've pushed up against a person because she starts flipping out. She accused the guy of touching her inappropriately, but the guy denied it continually. It escalates and she's talking about how the guy needs to back off because the last time she was in court it was for hitting some guy with a hammer, so yeah, she's wacko. At this point people are all looking in my direction because this fight-thing was happening right next to me. People are telling the woman to quiet down and to have dignity and telling the man to quiet down, and he stops talking but the woman just keeps on going. She yelled about how she values her personal space, and then some random yells came back from the crowd: "Yeah, well, welcome to a crowded 2 train during rush hour". She didn't appreciate that and just continued acting like a child. She was screaming all kinds of profanity and people were like, "Yo, there're kids on the train, relax." Luckily, Elder Holloway and I were getting off at the next stop, so we didn't have to hear much more of that. Just another New York moment. You know, people here are sometimes super prideful. They often try to prove their dominance or how they're right and someone else is wrong. It's really hard to talk to someone about anything when there's a screaming wacko on the train, or when someone is doing illegal drugs on the train, which we also saw today. Oh New York, you never disappoint.</div>
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I'll end on a spiritual note. This is something that I'm sure many of you have heard or seen before. So there was this amazing demonstration of the Atonement that I saw a couple years ago in a Seminary class. There was a person chosen to do some push-ups. There were also some Twinkies, and a lot of hungry teenage boys. So the class leader asks a boy, "Do you want a Twinkie?" And of course the boy responds, "Yeah, I do." So the leader says, "Alright. (Name of the person chosen to do push-ups, who we'll call John for now), do ten push ups." John then does 10 push-ups with ease. The leader asks the next person, "Do you want a Twinkie?" "Yeah, I do." So again, the leader says, "Alright. John, do ten push-ups." John does 10 push-ups with ease again. This process continues for a while and eventually John is starting to get tired. At some point people are saying, "No I don't want a Twinkie because John's obviously tired out." But the leader still responds with, "Alright. John do ten push-ups." This continues for another long while. At this point John is really struggling. He's sweating pretty bad and needing to take breaks and clearly in pain. Boys are now saying, "Come on, I'll do the ten push-ups, John is in pain. Just let me do it for him." The leader responds with, "No. John is the only one. He volunteered. He's got to do this for every single one of you." It didn't matter if the boys wanted the Twinkie or not. They couldn't take John's place. John had to work for every single person in the class. It was an extremely powerful demonstration of the Atonement. Jesus Christ has already suffered for our pains, afflictions, sins, and every other bad thing that happens to us. "Here I am, send me". Can you even begin to imagine how much He did for you and me? It's incredible what He's done for us. He knows each of us and our struggles better than we know them. He wants us to take advantage of the wonderful gift of repentance. Just do it. All the guilt and pain we feel is known by Jesus Christ. I hope everyone is happy and ready to change, because we all need to change all the time. We are not perfect, but we sure can try. The way to do that is by becoming more like Jesus Christ. We need to be humble. We must humble ourselves before our Father in Heaven and accept His love and grace. We must acknowledge how imperfect we are, but how much better we can become. President Smith always says, "Don't let 38 seconds of embarrassment stop you from the powers of the Atonement." Show Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ your love by doing what you can to come unto Them. They love you. I can promise everyone reading this that you will be happier if you are willing to change your life to be in harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. </div>
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Anyways, keep on being great! I hope everyone is still happy.</div>
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Quotes:</div>
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"The tiwi made me cry."</div>
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"Mmm, hydrolyzed corn protein."</div>
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"There's nothing like that sprint down the stairs to the subway when you hear the subway through the grate from the sidewalk."</div>
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Scriptures:</div>
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2 Nephi 33:1 - when we speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, He will testify of our words.</div>
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Jacob <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1206608952" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">2:18</span></span> - Seek God before you seek money.</div>
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Omni <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1206608953" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">1:26</span></span> - Come unto Christ</div>
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Enos 1:4-8 - Beautiful representation of the repentance process.</div>
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Enos <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1206608954" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">1:27</span></span> - Our Redeemer has made it possible to live with God again.</div>
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Keep on Truckin</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">-Elder West</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-65519814886510082852016-01-27T22:08:00.000-08:002016-02-03T22:12:39.098-08:0027 January 2016<div style="color: #454545; font-family: uictfonttextstylebody;">
Dear All,</div>
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This week was crazy but also kinda slow at the same time. </div>
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I'll start with a funny thing that happened. We went through the turnstile to get to the train (just FYI, you have to swipe your metro card to get in.) Three cops were at the subway and as they left, they exited out the emergency exit (the emergency exit is a door, and if you open it from inside the subway you can get outside, and vise versa,) and it's free to get into the subway. The purpose of it is really so that people with strollers or other large carts can get to the subway with their carts. So the three cops opened the door and a man was coming down the stairs to the subway. The cops look at the guy and motion him to come through the emergency exit: essentially they were letting him come in the subway for free - they were being bros to this guy. Now this isn't the first time I've seen that happen, but this time was very funny because the man comes over and I'm like, "That was nice of them." His response was, "Yeah man! They arrested me last Tuesday!" Just another New York moment. </div>
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We walked past a guy handing out pamphlets about saving the earth I think, like being green. He stopped us and said what's your guys' cause? Are you Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses? And we explained that we're Mormon and missionaries and such. His response was pretty funny, he said, "Yeah, I figured you were one of those two. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are all that care anymore." He was a really nice guy and respectful too. It just reminded me that some people will know who we are just by looking at us, so the way we act and what we say or do really matters. People will judge The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based on how its members/missionaries act. It's extremely important to make sure our conduct is always in line with Church standards.</div>
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We had a lesson with Luis V., one of our less actives. He obviously didn't understand a lot of what we said , so we super simplified everything and he still struggled. It really makes me sad because of how many people here are like that. The education rate, especially for deaf people, here is super low. We try so hard to help these people understand our message of Jesus Christ, but a lot of times we try our best and they just don't understand. They'll often nod their heads and go along with what we say, but then respond with something completely random or unrelated, and oftentimes we try again to explain and they just don't get it. This is really hard for me because I think about how their lives must be, their friends and family trying to communicate something but they can't understand each other. How hard that must be, how sad it must be. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but honestly there's just so much from their lives they must be missing. But it helped me remember that we can teach and teach and teach as much as we want, but if we don't invite the Holy Ghost into our lessons and conversations then that lesson is pointless. Our job as missionaries is to allow people to have spiritual experiences, that's what they'll remember. They're not likely to remember what Elder West said about the Book of Mormon that one day in January, but they will remember how they felt. As long as we are being obedient and living righteously, that's all we can do. I seem to be happier and more successful once I've accepted that my role in the conversion process is pretty insignificant, and I don't mean to say that I can just do whatever I want because of that. I also don't mean that I'm useless, but that the amount I can help someone vs. the amount the Holy Ghost can help someone is just not comparable. The Holy Ghost is the messenger of God. I am the vessel for the Holy Ghost. </div>
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More New York Moments: </div>
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We had another strange train ride on Friday. We were just sitting there signing, and in walks a blind guy. He had a make-do blind cane and honestly looked like he was faking it, then I saw his eye. He got on the train and ran into a guy and was super apologetic to everyone and announced his story. He said he was recently stabbed in the eye and robbed,. He later said that his other eye has started to go blind and it was fully closed and didn't look too healthy either, so it seemed believable. I just felt so bad for the guy. Judging by how his eye looked, I wouldn't doubt that his story was true. He was probably in his mid-to-late 20's. As he was walking down the train with his jar of money hanging around his neck, the famous DVD woman came by. There's an Asian woman who comes down the train pretty often, always selling pirated copies of the latest movies. A lot of the movies aren't even out of the theatre yet, so I have no idea how she has them. She's always selling those as well as some other random stuff for super-super cheap. I think I've seen her 5-ish times by now. Elder Holloway and I have decided to call her Dee Vee Dee. Then once she moved on to the next train car, an argument started between two guys pretty close to us. I'm not really sure what happened, but it sounded like one guy was sleeping and the other guy accidentally hit his foot and woke him up. These two guys were talking like "Oh you wanna see some hands?" "Nah man I don't wanna go back to the penitentiary." "Come on man, you don't just kick someone when they're asleep; what are you doing?" It was pretty much two 35-ish year-old men wanting to argue and act like 12 year-old boys. I'm surprised they didn't get in a fight, because the guy sleeping stood up and was like, "Come on man, let me see some hands. You're all talk. Let's go." The guy eventually was just like, "Alright I'm finished." Eventually he just walked off the train and his wife or gf or whatever got off with him.</div>
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I've seen quite a few people come on the trains and announce their stories, begging for money or food or something to help them get by. I just realized how generally, they say something like, "If you can find it in your hearts to help me then God bless you. If not, God bless you too." These people are so humble and obviously life's not going too great for them. I always just wanna yell back, "We can't give you money, but we can give you salvation!" But often times they don't care much about their salvation, probably because they don't realize that the statement is true. Man, I've seen the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor here. In fact, this mission has the richest and the poorest zip codes in the nation, as of 2014, or so I've been told. New York is so, so diverse. It's so different from what I'm used to. I think Heavenly Father wanted me to be out of my comfort zone when he sent me here. But hey, I've already learned so much that I wouldn't trade it for the world.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iGWD9LSKeog/Vqq6gi8N0BI/AAAAAAAAPAs/wwyarBcjSQs/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iGWD9LSKeog/Vqq6gi8N0BI/AAAAAAAAPAs/wwyarBcjSQs/s320/image1.JPG" width="239" /></a>So the big event for the week was certainly Winter Storm Jonas. It was super, super awesome. There was actually anticipated to be about 5-8 inches in our area, so I was certainly excited for that, and then later in the day on Friday the predictions kept on going up. There was about 5 inches of snow when we woke up. For exercise we decided to shovel snow out from the walkway. That's something I've never gotten to do before and it was a pretty good experience. Then about 3 hours later we were heading out for correlation meeting and our work was all covered up in snow again, another 6 inches or so. So we shoveled again. The branch president for our branch let us know that the buses would be shutting down at noon and all above-ground trains would shut down at 4;00. The problem was that we needed to go to the Olmstead Chapel at 6pm, which is about 35 minutes from our apartment by train. So we went early in order to have the train take us, but we knew that we'd have to walk back. It's about 3.5 miles from the Olmstead Chapel to our apartment. It's supposed to be an hour's walk, but that's calculated in ideal weather situations. I was super not looking forward to walking home in the blizzard, but I knew it would be something I could tell as a story for a long time: "That one time in 2016 on my mission when I walked home through the biggest blizzard in New York in years." It was super intense. The wind was crazy and cars were stranded. We even experienced fire raining down on us simultaneously with snow pounding down upon us. A train came over the top of us (we were under an elevated train rail) and as it did, giant sparks started falling down right above us, so we moved over so we wouldn't burn alive. It was a fun thing that I will never forget. It totally felt like one of those surviving-the-storm movies because of all the chaos. So all in all, there wee about 2-3 feet of snow in less than 24 hours.</div>
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On Sunday we went out to see if we could find people to help shovel their sidewalks or driveways. We met one of our neighbors, Samuel. We helped him clear his driveway. He's from The Dominican Republic, has been here for 5 years, and is a super nice guy. He offered us coffee or juice, and he then later tried to give us money, which we couldn't accept. We also helped a family get their car out of the snow completely surrounding it. I must say, when we were offered money, I really wanted to accept it, because well, money. But we didn't, and it honestly felt even better not accepting it. It helped me remember that Christ served all people, and He did a lot more than some snow shoveling. He never accepted money or any kind of praise. He did it just to do it. That's something that I am leaning on my mission, I need to just serve. That's the best kind of help, serving people out of love for them. </div>
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I finally used my Jamba Juice knowledge today! I made a spinach drink. Holy cow it's expensive to make. I calculated it at about $1.55 which, is more than my average meal! Just a fun fact I thought to throw in there. I made the drink because we were teaching a lesson to one of our members, Sister Q. She was sick and decided it would be a good idea to cough in my direction without covering her mouth. I was worried that I would get sick, and that worry was justified because I started to feel it last night, and then this morning I woke up feeling destroyed. I'm just happy I'm sick on a P-day rather than on a day where we have a ton of appointments. </div>
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It's amazing how much your schedule can be effected when you get on the wrong train. We got on one wrong train because we were so pre-occupied and ended up being about an hour late to an appointment: it stunk. On the way to that train we saw a mother with what appeared to be her three kids. She was probably around 25-30 and the kids were like 4-9. She was legit getting in the youngest one's face and cursing at her, she used a lot of choice words and was very loud. That kid was wrecked. I've seen plenty of examples of parents I don't want to become out here. </div>
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Now I've got a long story:</div>
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On the way home we were on a train and sat down across from some guy. Elder Holloway says to him, "That's a good book." He was just trying to start a conversation about Jesus, I'm sure. The guy was reading the Bible. His response was, "Yes it is. But you guys don't know as much about it as you think you do." At that point it was pretty much game over. I was curious as to what he meant by that so I asked him, "What do you mean?" He wanted to share a scripture with us, and then he proceeded to tell us about how our ancestors enslaved black people and that the Bible says how the captors will become captive and that we're gonna be destroyed because we're white (he was black btw). He just went on and on and on about how we're evil and that we don't actually follow the words of Christ. He never really allowed us to respond or even talk at all for that matter. To be honest, it's better that we didn't talk. He would ask us about a scripture or about what something meant, and we just couldn't or chose not to respond, because we knew that responding would only make the outcome worse. He just continued about how white people are evil and will be destroyed because they have enslaved in the past. He kept on saying, "Oh you guys are young, you don't understand." It honestly didn't bother me, like at all. At first I wanted to respond with this scripture or that scripture proving my point, but as we went on I realized that that would only make things worse. It was best to just allow the man to continue about how racist and evil we are, as he is mocking us because of our skin color...this went on for about 15-ish minutes and we just bore it patiently. It definitely crossed my mind to try to help people see that he was crazy (he mentioned that the government killed JFK because he was trying to solve racism), but I think he was doing a mighty fine job himself. A woman probably in her 20's sat down next to him and I don't think she knew what she was in for. He continued to just throw stuff at us as we never responded. She would kinda roll her eyes every now and then and she gawked a couple times. We made eye contact at some point and she looked annoyed. I just smiled back. At some point the man just threw this in the mix, "Oh and Jesus was black too. Does the Pope teach you that? No. Because that doesn't get him any gain." I mean we're not even Catholic but I mean it's cool. Once he said that, the girl did a double-take. She never joined in, just kinda sat there in disbelief. Eventually Elder Holloway decided there was no reason for us to be on the train so we got off at a stop. As we left I apologized to the man and said something like, "I'm sorry if we said or did anything to offend you, I promise if we did, it was an accident; that's not our purpose." He responded, "Apologize to Jesus, not me." So as I left I said, "I'm sorry again, have a good day." That was my first time experiencing real mocking for being a missionary. Elder Holloway and I discussed it a little bit and we were very proud of how we handled it. Of course part of me wanted to retort with something, but I'm glad I didn't. Elder Holloway reminded me how Jesus Christ composed himself as he was in the process of being crucified: </div>
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Mark 14:61-62 "But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am".</div>
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Now I'm not saying that Elder Holloway and I are equal to Jesus Christ, I'm simply saying that we did our best to follow His example. It was actually an awesome experience because I felt totally good afterwards. I didn't have negative feelings towards him and I didn't feel bad for anything really. I was sad that he was so anti-white people and I felt bad because of the anger in his heart, but I felt no animosity towards him. It made me wonder how Jesus could've felt with so many people hating Him when He knew the truth. He is the truth. He loved those people and had to watch them in the midst of their sins. He had to watch them bring damnation to themselves! How much more painful that must have been than the physical pain he was enduring. Oftentimes I meet with someone or see someone who is not interested in what I have to say. I almost want to force them to be interested because I know without a doubt that the message I have for them can bring them happiness if they are willing to listen and get to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. When they tell me they're uninterested or don't care I almost want to weep for them because they have no idea what they're missing. But once I gather my senses I feel a sense of relief because I realize they will have another chance. Heavenly Father loves His children enough to give us each multiple chances at salvation. It's just so incredible to me.</div>
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I hope everyone is having a good week, because I am. The Lord loves us all, and He wants you to find that out for yourselves. I highly recommend it, it makes life a lot better. Goodbye now!</div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">"The past, present and future walk into a bar. It was tense."</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">"If at first you don't succeed, try again. If you fail again, try again."</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">2 Nephi 24:16-17 - We'll see Satan one day and wonder how he could've done so much damage to the world</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">2 Nephi 25:29 - How should we lead our lives?</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">2 Nephi 28:28 - Have a strong foundation or else you will fall. What should your foundation be upon? Helaman 5:12</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">2 Nephi 4:17-19 - Even Prophets are imperfect </span></div>
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Keep on Truckin</div>
<br />-Elder West</span></div>
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<span class="im" style="color: #500050;">A Car :)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #500050; font-size: 12.8px;">Enjoying the Snow</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15940176773574907210noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3187040259861888533.post-56921870294263542982016-01-21T22:05:00.000-08:002016-02-03T22:13:24.557-08:0021 January 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Dear All,<br /><br />This week was full of ups and downs, but hey, I had one companion for the whole week, so that's a big positive! Well, I hit my two-month mark as a missionary on Monday! I feel like I've been a missionary for a long time, but I also feel like I'm new, especially when I realize that I got to the MTC only 9 short weeks ago. It's crazy how much being a missionary changes my perspective on life in general. Something that I've truly come to realize is that, "You determine your own happiness." That's something President Burgess said in the MTC. It's so true too. Yes, there are outside factors that can affect your mood, but honestly, you can decide whether or not that will affect your happiness. I used to wonder about the idea of controlling your mood, but I've seen people with seemingly nothing going well in their lives, and they're still happy. Honestly, I've seen many people who own nothing but the clothes on their back, and those clothes aren't even enough to keep them warm! But guess what, they're still happy. These people are homeless, and their families disowned them, and they have no friends, but they're still optimistic. If people like that can be happy, what should be able to stop me from being happy? My challenges throughout the day might be that I'm tired and cold and hungry, and maybe our appointments fell through. A lot of other people's challenges - right in my zip code - include not having a home, not having food for the day, people mocking them, having no place to sleep, or not having enough clothing for the weather. How can I be unhappy when I am so blessed; have I forgotten why I'm here? Things like that help me remember to be happy and not to complain.<br /><br />I'm really learning how to live within a budget, which is certainly a useful life skill. I was able to live off of $20 in meals last week. It really helps me appreciate all the food my parents would buy me at home. I keep a budget on my iPad and I generally spend around $3.25 on meals a day. Oh my gosh, I would spend about $5 for one meal at Taco Bell! I can't afford to do that now; that's more than my food all day! Just a funny thought I had this week.<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br /><br />New Yorkers really like to perform on the subway trains or in the subway on the way to the trains. I saw a guy performing while playing at least 9 instruments. I'll attach a picture.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I also saw some other things on one train at the same time on Sunday this week. All of the things I saw are technically illegal, but most people here don't seem to care. There was a beggar, there are often beggars, who was just yelling a mixture of Spanish and English about her life story. I'm sure it was sad, but honestly I couldn't understand it. All I know is she walked by me and Elder Holloway and said, "Can you help? I'm trying to pay for a funeral". Something that kind of stinks is how many people are beggars, whether that be on the train or just on the streets. It's hard to see people struggling that much. Missionaries here aren't supposed to give them money. I think it's because the money we have isn't actually our money to spend, it's the Church's money and it's specifically for our food and other everyday items. At the same time this woman was yelling, there was a person who was so, so, so intoxicated on who-knows-what and was just yelling a conversation back and forth with himself. He was yelling and I think he was trying to be a man yelling and then a woman yelling back. He honestly looked and sounded like he was possessed. Normally I would think that kind of thing was funny because of how weird it is, but I just felt bad in that train. To add to that, there was also a British guy with a little bird, which was tied up by a string and attached to his neck. It would just rest on his head and every now and then it would try to fly away, but it would only go about a foot because of the string. While his bird was flying he was arguing with an older woman about some random stuff. That was a very strange train.<br /><br />I've taken it upon myself to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days. It was a challenge issued out to the missionaries here before me, but someone had the schedule to do it, and so I decided to do it myself. I've noticed that the Book of Mormon has so much awesome stuff in it. I think most people already know that, but seriously, it has the answer to everything ever. My Book of Mormon is all marked up with notes and stuff because I receive so much revelation as I read. I know that this is possible for everyone that wants it. I invite all of you to read the Book of Mormon everyday and have an open heart as you do so. Think of a question you want an answer to, and you will find it. Don't just underline stuff and write down what it says, write down what you feel. Those feelings are almost always inspired from the Holy Ghost, who is God's messenger.<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br /><br />We were walking home from a meeting and passed two college age guys. We heard something hit the sidewalk and noticed that one of them dropped a prescription medicine container full of, you guessed it, marijuana. So Elder Holloway and I just kept walking by. We wondered if they would come back to pick it up but they didn't even notice they dropped it. It just sat there on the sidewalk. Until eventually some guy walked by it and then turned around to see if someone nearby was watching, or maybe to see if the person who dropped it was there. So he just picked it up, put it in his pocket, and walked away. Just another Bronx moment.</span>Oh my gosh, milk here is $4 a gallon, and that's cheap! I'm so not used to milk being that much. Speaking of food, we had an awesome experience while doing weekly planning at the chapel this week. Elder Bell came by and let us know that the party on the fourth floor could use some help cleaning up. So we said, "Yeah, we can take a break." We went over to the room, and there were still people there, eating at this party-ish thing. So we started walking back to our floor but a woman stopped us and was like, "Where y'all going? Eat the food!" We're like, "Oh no, we're not part of that ward. We just came to help clean up because we thought it was over." Her response was, "Okay then, go clean up a plate!" And so we did just that. You know I'm not one to turn down free food when I'm hungry.<br /><span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br />We have some awesome investigators. One of them is name Jason Smith. He had promised to show up to Church on Sunday so I was really hoping to seem him there. He didn't show up at first to Priesthood and I was super sad because none of our investigators showed up...and then at like 11:15 He walked in! I was super happy and excited. He was participating and everything, he even stayed for all three hours! So we've been trying to set up appointments for him but he said he's too busy this week and will next week, so I'm excited to meet with him again! Jason is homeless and doesn't have many friends, he actually missed two of his meals on Sunday because of Church, which stunk a lot. So I'm hoping he can continue to come to Church so that he will stay on track for baptism.</span>Sacrament is really awesome because during songs, everyone is signing, but I sing and sign together. I'm like a soloist who no one hears, since they're deaf of course. The deaf people here are so unique and individual. There is no normality. In fact, two members who use ASL have cerebral palsy, which can make it really hard to understand them. But they're so awesome; all of the members are awesome in their own ways. But one thing that kind of stinks is that gossip is really big in deaf culture, so there's lots of gossip about members and missionaries too. So that's something we try to get rid of. But during meetings the members all participate and are super in-tune with the Spirit. The meetings are so spiritual, or at least when they stay on topic.<br /><br />You know, people in Oregon use their car horns when they're angry. People in New York use them when they're angry, when they want to get someone's attention, when they want you to get in their car, when they want to say "Hi," when they want to say "Bye", when they're frustrated, when the bus cuts them off, when the police cut them off, just generally when they want to, and when pedestrians cross the crosswalk. It's like a symphony. The city sounds like a mixture of police sirens, fire engines, ambulances, car horns, yelling, people advertising for companies, bands trying to get noticed, and preachers. Oh my gosh, preachers, especially in Hunts Point and Harlem. Actually, recently in Harlem we saw two guys riding motorcycles doing wheelies and having all sorts of fun. So much fun that the street wasn't enough for them. They decided to just ride right onto the sidewalk past Elder Holloway and me. They then proceeded to ride by some guy who held out his hand and they gave him a "high five" as they drove by. I'm sure it was a high five full of drugs. Another New York moment.<br /><br />It turns out that my first day was special, since I was the only missionary to arrive on that day - it has something to do with the fact that ASL missionaries don't follow each mission's individual transfer schedule. Instead, ASL missionaries come into their mission partway through the transfer. Normally all the new missionaries come to this mission on the last Tuesday before transfers and spend their first night in the mission home, rather than in their apartment. They don't do missionary work on their first day, instead they have study periods and other random stuff. Then on their second day they do a training with all the other new missionaries. The training includes the handing out of iPads and medical cards and some "welcome to the field" kind of stuff. But I came in on a Tuesday in the middle of the transfer, and I was alone. Because of that, I got special treatment, but I also missed the regular training stuff. So two weeks late, I got to witness some other missionaries on their second day, and I got to see this training meeting. Except for me it was two weeks late. Although, to be honest, I'm glad that my first and second days weren't like the regular ones. I got thrown right into the work on my first day. We did tracting in a project building, which was really hard and kinda tough at first, but it helped me get more used to the missionary work very quickly. Of course, I also greatly appreciated the Cheesecake Factory meal, especially because I didn't realize at the time that I would not be getting meals like that for a long time.<br /><br />I was in a meeting with the new missionaries and their trainers. I was asked to attend since I've only been here for about two weeks, but most of the people had only been there for 2 days. Something I've realized is that the MTC truly prepared my testimony for the field, but the field is very different than the MTC. What I've learned so far in the field really boils down to something very simple. I do not get to choose who deserves, or is ready, to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My job is to open my mouth. Here, I'm starting to learn how to see people through the eyes of Jesus Christ. When I allow myself to do this, I feel a love for them. It's a love that I can't describe, and one so much stronger than I have ever seen or felt. I'm not gonna pretend like I'm good about opening my mouth to everyone, because I'm not. To be honest, I think I expect people to just ignore me or say something rude back, and they do sometimes. But when I say, "Have a good one," or "How are you?" or something else to each person I walk by, about half of them respond with, "You too" or "God bless" or some other happy response. Sometimes they'll even say that made their day, or want to keep talking with us. It's always a pleasure, and as I continue to talk to everyone, I'm happier.<br /><br />During that meeting, President Smith asked me to share my experience with Evelin R., which I believe I wrote about in last week's letter. It's the one where I went to see a less active member and ran into his mom instead, and we challenged her to baptism and all that great stuff. As I was telling it, I realized how truly blessed I was to be able to be an instrument in Heavenly Father's work. On my third day, I was able to participate in the answering to someone's prayer. And honestly, I was able to participate in physically healing another person: she said that all her pain was gone once she received the blessing! Truly a miracle. I know that as we are faithful and obedient to our Heavenly Father's commandments we will be blessed and have much success. This applies to everyone, not just missionaries. Those commandments He has given us are for our benefit. People often think that they are limitations, and that we're "not allowed" to do stuff. But really, those commandments bring forth blessings and make us happier. I hope everyone reading this can agree with me on that. Keep being great: all you at home, or serving missions, or wherever you may be!<span class="im" style="color: #500050;"><br /><br />Quotes:<br />"Make every moment count."<br />"Miracles happen every day."<br /><br />Scriptures:<br />1 Nephi 16:2 - the wicked take the truth to be hard<br />2 Nephi 1:15 - encircled in His love<br />2 Nephi 2:6 - redemption comes through the Messiah<br />2 Nephi 4:28 - don't dwell on your sins<br />Romans 1:16 - I am not ashamed of the Gospel<br />2 Nephi 9:34 - you don't want to be a liar.<br /><br />Keep on truckin<br /><br />-Elder West</span></span><br />
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One-man Band on the subway platform<br />
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My Zone<br />
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King of the Subway (above)</div>
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We decided not to knock on this door.<br />
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