Welcome to the Bronx!

Hello to all! As you can see by the title of this email is I'm now in
the Bronx, in Olmstead to be exact. I've already had a fun day and I'm
excited to be here. It's sad to leave the office but I know I'm needed
here. I'm the district leader as well so it's all fun! So I'll tell
you all that we've done in the past week.

Last Thursday we... (I'm not actually sure but that's why you have a
journal!) Ok supposedly we had a conference call with the whole
mission and he talked about when we pray and how we should picture
Heavenly Father when we pray. He also talked about accountability. We
dropped off elder Beardall at the office as elder Burton and I went
down to the city to take him to the 87th street chapel. We ran into
some missionaries from the south mission. We had to reorganize the
Uhaul storage unit.

Friday we had to help with the train the trainers meeting which is
usually held in Scarsdale but president had to meet with someone so it
was planned to meet at the kingsbridge chapel. We brought the mail
with us that goes to kingsbridge and we helped sister smith create a
power point for the youth fireside they were speaking at on Sunday. We
headed to kingsbridge and the fire alarms were going off at
kingsbridge so we moved the meeting to Inwood and transported some
people. I always love the train the trainers meeting. President has
everyone introduce their trainer and something they learned from them
and then at the end he has them pretend they are their trainee and
introduce themselves.. If that makes sense. It's a very spiritual
meeting and I always learn more of how I can be better. I think of
Elder Wallace and all that I've learned from him and how grateful I am
for him to have been my trainer. It was really fun! We had dinner with
a member who cooks good food, they kicked us out before we could share
a message because they had to go see a movie.. Yep that happened but
they are such a wonderful family and I love them. We did a couple look
ups to end out the night but no luck :/

Saturday we did upstate deliveries and met brother smith in Wappinger
Falls. He took us to a Mexican restaurant which was delicious! We went
and saw Bob. He is finally starting to progress a little. He was
trying to find an easy way out of meeting with us, we didn't let him.
I'm gonna miss him. The Youngstrom family is awesome. They wanted us
to share missionary experiences for the lesson so we did that. It made
me see how prepared some of the people I've met are.

Sunday was great, it was my last Sunday in new Rochelle. I gave a talk
too, on how I'm feeling the Holy Ghost in my life. It was super easy!
Especially because I was the youth speaker. Church is always good,
it's spiritually uplifting and I always remember what Jesus Christ has
done for me in my life. After church we had a baptism of a man named
Jesus, his wife has been less active for all time but the other elders
have been working with him and he finally got baptized. It was way
spiritual and a good way to end the area for me. I said goodbye to a
lot of the members and got some pictures as well. It's sad to leave
but I know I'm needed in Olmstead and I'm still in the same stake so
I'll see them around. We had a dinner with the Gardners (A Senior
Couple). Elder Beardall and Elder Gore bore their testimonies of this
gospel. They are going home today. The spirit was super strong. I
couldn't deny the spirit in that room. We went to the Bronx to help
set up for a fireside that the smiths were doing for the youth of the
Westchester stake. What a blessing! We even got to hear them tell all
the youth how much of a blessing a mission is. We also had to go help
the APs afterwards because they locked their Keys in the office so we
rescued them! Haha. It snowed too...Yay!

Monday we had district meeting and we talked about being a leader and
what that means. Just about how great it is to be a missionary and all
that fun stuff. We talked about one of our investigators who isn't
progressing super well and we talked about how we could help. Everyone
really enjoyed it. We got a zone picture so I'll send that really
soon. After we got back to the office we had an unexpected staff
meeting, but a needed one. It's a crazy week with transfers. We filled
orders and then helped a member do some wiring for a microwave in
their apartment. (I Shouldn't say we, it was all elder Beardall). They
are an awesome family who recently moved into amount Vernon and have
been renovating their apartment for quite some time.

Tuesday we packed for the first little bit and then had to go to the
office to take the seats out of the big Van and clean both vans, then
we made our way to the Westchester county airport to pick up the new
missionaries luggage. We transported luggage as everyone else who
drove, then drove them back. We helped as much as possible and got to
eat desert at the smiths. A girl that I knew from college came into
the mission today, I got to say hi and then go to work.

Wednesday I got dropped off at Inwood and met my new companion Elder
Nalaza who is from Cebu city Philippines! I've always wanted a
Filipino companion and now I have one. He started in Newtown with
Elder Ross who is my previous companion. This is the first time I've
been senior companion! We were blessed to hear from Elder Neil A
Anderson, Elder David A Bednar, and Elder Dallin H Oaks on a Worldwide
missionary broadcast. The title of the broadcast was teach repentance
and Baptize Converts. We did a lot of walking and talking to people
and tracting and all that fun stuff. We met with a recent convert
named Dalton, he was baptized recently and he has been struggling to
come to church but he says he can this week.

I already love Olmstead and I'm gonna see great miracles!

1. Brother Sage and I
2. Bishop Neilson and I
3. Brother Jenson
4. My last zone
5. Elder Beardall, Burton and I
6. Some of the elders.

7. Elder Nalaza and I