Hello, as you can see by the title of my email I am no longer in the
Bronx. On Saturday I found out that I was getting transferred to Union
Square at the bottom of Manhattan Island. My area covers from 42nd
street all the way down to the bottom on the west side. We have such a
beautiful area, we cover the Empire State Building, the 9/11 Memorial,
the freedom tower, and battery park at the bottom of the island (where
the ferry to liberty and Ellis island is). It blows my mind that I am
here in New York, it's so beautiful here. I was really shocked to find
out that I was transferring, elder Clark is taking over the area and
an Elder Vieira is coming to replace me. I have confidence in elder
Clark, he knows the area well and we have been finding a lot of cool
people to teach there so they will do awesome and work many wonders
among the people in the Bronx. I'm with Elder Casela, who is from
Isabela Philippines, he has been out for 5 and a half months. He is
funny and he knows how to speak English well. I'll talk more about
this area later.
Thursday we had our coordination meeting and did weekly planning and
planned a pretty awesome area and we went to city island afterwards.
We finally met up with Matt, who was a potential. We have been texting
him and haven't been able to get in contact with him but we finally
got to sit down with him. We got a tour of his big white mansion. He
wanted to feed us goat curry (Indian Style) next time we go over. I
wasn't expecting a 40 year old man, but he loves the Mormons and is
pro Mormon. He got a job offer in Provo once and went out there and he
says it's heaven. He is really cool. He had a church tour once in new
Rochelle and loved the church. He is really cool.
Friday elder Clark and I saw a lot of success. We took brother Ford
with us tracting in elder Newbold and Davis's area, he was telling us
that he doesn't want to know his neighbors because then they will be
knocking on his door and want things. The funny thing is that we only
found people on his floor and they are super legit! We had to take a
detour because of the stupid subways were not running on certain
tracks for certain times. I'm glad we did because we met this guy
named Bart who respects Mormons. He was telling us how we need to
leave a good posterity. He was also telling us how he is handsome and
how he is rich. Anyways very cool guy and says that missionaries are
welcome anytime. We tracted that street and on our way home we
couldn't get on the 2 train because they were all packed as we turned
around we saw our bishop sitting in a delayed train. It was super
legit. We also met a less active member who referred herself to get a
finding faith in Christ DVD. She said she would come to church! The
rest of the night was crazy, we split with our zone leaders, I split
with Elder Sorensen.
Saturday elder Sorensen and I saw a lot of miracles. We talked to a
lot of people and looked up some potentials. We were walking to this
less active and we said hey to this group of guys and we walked by and
one of the guys said "what, did god tell you not to stop and talk with
us?" And we said "no we can talk if you want", they didn't even want
us to talk with them. Anyways we looked up this less active, Sister
Rochester and Ashani. Ashani was home and he was saying how he needed
to clean before his mom got home so we offered to help and swept his
floors and carpet. We talked to him for a while and it turns out he is
doing the BYU-Idaho pathway program. He is doing online classes. It
was legit. We met with another less active as well as an investigator
named Rico Blando. He asked us so many questions that really didn't
matter. We answered questions and the spirit was there. Rico asked us
what time our church started, he came to church too! Elder Sorensen
got called as an Assistant to the president as we were talking to this
less active member named Megan. She is germaphobic and scared of large
groups of people. Why are you in the Bronx? On our way home we got on
this bus and this lady said "hey come pray for my son, he needs change
in his life!" We talked with him and he is probably 14 and was
interested in learning more and his parents wanted him to learn more.
He lives right behind the church too. What are the chances of that?
Elder Sorensen is awesome, and I learned so much about how I can be a
better missionary. I have been working on talking to people and asking
questions to get to know them and people are more interested. It's
really cool. We got transfer calls as we were un splitting. It shocked
me to find out that I was being transferred and I won't get to finish
training elder Clark but he will be fine.
Sunday we had to church and I said goodbye to a lot of the members.
I'm gonna miss Olmstead because every week is a new adventure and you
never know what to expect. Rico came to church and this solid
investigators of the zone Leaders named Jason and he got to church
early and he is totally legit. Church was great, we had an appointment
set up that night for a pass off lesson with the sisters and they
cancelled so our night was shot. We went to do less active look ups
and we found Monique, she is really cool just living with her partner.
We talked to them for a bit outside and they are totally legit! Her
partner really appreciated us giving her a Book of Mormon. Now she can
read the book and pray about it. They are gonna try to meet with her
partner and hopefully they will change their ways. They are super
legit! Monique was wearing a legend of Zelda shirt, dope.
Monday was great, we had a great district meeting and the spirit was
so strong. I love the spirit. We had the opportunity to eat a cross
Bronx slice, they are so good just so bad for us. When we come back
after my mission, I'll take you there! We looked up this media
referral named Tesouro Miranda who is super cool and wants more in his
life, he has a family and he speaks Portuguese. Elder Vieira speaks
Portuguese. It was legit. I packed from 6-9 and my suitcases were
bulging hard core, I was afraid that my suitcases were gonna explode.
They could very well. Haha they are pretty wrecked, not too much time
left now.
Tuesday morning I was pretty nervous to leave the Bronx because I was
scared to be in Manhattan where everyone is so busy and it's not easy
to talk to people. I'm in a highly populated area and I have to push
my self in order to say anything to strangers but I've met a lot of
people who are nice and a lot more who are rude and won't say a word
back to me. We got to the Inwood chapel where we switched companions.
I'm with elder Casela and elder larkin (I took his place) told me that
I'm gonna get hooked up in this ward. He was saying the members make a
lot of cool things and they just give it to us because they love us.
This ward is a very wealthy ward and they are very busy but make time
to feed us. Exactly an hour. Go in the door and the clock starts
ticking. I can't wait to meet the members. Elder Larkin told me I'll
probably be speaking in 2 weeks. We took an A train all the way down
to West 4th Street, then transferred to an F train to the last stop in
Manhattan, east Broadway. If we miss this stop then it's so long
Manhattan, then we are in Brooklyn. Haha so we got to pay extra
attention to where we are at. We don't want to go to the South
Mission. We live in the most tiny apartment I've ever lived in. The
last apartments front room is as big as this apartment. We live in
Chinatown. The sisters in our district live right above us. The stairs
up to the apartment were ridiculous to carry my suitcases. They were
super heavy. They are still in one piece though. We did a lot of
street contacting in battery park, we talked to this guy from Hawaii
who knows missionaries on their missions. He thought it was "pretty
freaking cool" that we are serving in New York. We talked to a lot of
people. We had a good time, we were tracting a project building and we
couldn't open the door, this guy yells to us "Pull harder!" We yanked
the door open. As we were leaving we talked to this lady named Vianny
and she talked to us a lot but speaks Spanish. Luckily I get language
study because elder Casela is called English. I'll study Spanish so I
can learn and teach her a bit. She gave us free Pastelillos, which are
like a little tortilla that's shut and has meat in it. So many humble
people here, they are trying to make a living in the big city and its
hard but they are so kind to us. I love our mission.
Elder Casela is awesome, he kinda reminds me of a Filipino version of
Conner Bowden! Haha. It's great though, he is awesome and we get along
well. He is funny and he told me that after his trainer he wanted to
be my companion because he met me once. I love him and we have so much
fun. I'm grateful for this church and this time the lord has given me
to serve in Manhattan, I know that I'm gonna see miracles and that
people are so prepared here. We have a lot of work to do.
1. The salinas family and I
2, 3. The Olmstead zone
4. Elder Newbold, Joe and I.
5. Freedom Tower
6. The plan of salvation=Love
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