December 19, 2016

Hello everybody!
It was an interesting week. But overall, not super bad.

Lets start the weekly rundown!
Monday: This was a good day! Preparation day obviously. So we went to
go play basketball with some of the Haitian Creole Elders (Not Elder
Watson though. Bummer. He is out in Jamaica, not Brooklyn. But I have
seen him around a couple of times) We went to Pier 2 in Brooklyn. This
is not a typical pier (or maybe it is. I've never been to another pier
though.) because it is actually a outdoor rec center! It has
basketball, shuffleboard, roller skating, wall ball, and all that
jazz. It is super well cared for too. So that was really fun! I got a
ton of cool pictures. So that was successful. It was probably one of
the coolest views I've ever seen in my life. I tried to put in a picture and failed, so sorry!

Check it out! So cool. I couldn't put the panorama in, but out to the left, you have the Statue of Liberty, and to the right Brooklyn Bridge, so that was spectacular. And out behind us we have "The Watchtower" (JW headquarters) and a ton of ridiculously expensive apartments. Like no joke. Easily over 30,000$ a month. So yeah, when I'm all rich and famous, you know where you can find me hahahaha prolly not in my lifetime. It was way cool. Unfortunately I am not super good at basketball (I can play defense, but really can't shoot) so that wasn't the best part. But hey, I made a basket. Go me.

Tuesday was transfers! that marks the end of my first transfer! (Disclaimer: I've only been in the field for 4 weeks at that point, so I have not actually served a full transfer. But my first transfer is done ✅.) It was a bummer to see all the missionaries that fshed 🐠🐟 their mission leaving. (For those who don't know ASL, when you sign the sign for finish, you say *fsh* So that is a funny thing that we make jokes with.) Elder Garcia headed home, which was a bummer because he was such an awesome missionary, and a nice guy. Ah well. 

Wednesday: Wednesdays are prolly our least busiest days. We go do service in the afternoon after studies, and then by the time we get home there isn't really enough time due to travel time to go see someone or go do lookups because we have to go teach Talvin at 7 and then we interpret for him at institute. Which brings up a story! It was my turn to interpret! Yay. I thought it was going okay, but then after awhile, after everything I said, Talvin would look over to Elder Larson to interpret because he couldn't understand what I was saying, so that was a little heartbreaking, but hey. I can use this as a experience in the future to improve myself. So I'm not to devastated by it anymore. But man, that night was a rough night for me. True-biz.

Thursday: All afternoon that day was spent heading out to the mission office (like a 1 1/2 hour trip there.) so that Elder Brown could resolve some issues with his passport because he isn't going home to Tonga after his mission, but is going to Orem to go to UVU and play rugby for them. So we had to fix issues with that. Then on our way back we tried to look up Jaqueline to see if we could teach her a lesson. I don't know if I told you about her. She is someone we found when we were doing a lookup. We went to go look up someone and she pretty much just shooed us away and was like "Get out go away" that sorta thing. So as we were looking down that hallway to the elevator, down the opposite side of the hallway we saw a Deaf doorbell, and went up and rang it, and met Jaqueline! she is super nice and friendly. Unfortunately we are going to give her as a referral to the Sisters, so that is a bummer to me, because we still haven't had one lesson with an investigator or nonmember my entire time in the field. So that is a bummer. I just want to teach the restoration to someone for once. But oh well. This time when we went to look her up she was too busy cooking dinner for her and her husband, so we headed out to go have dinner with Elder Merkley and Elder Faucett. But they were super late, so we ended up just eating at Popeyes, and then going to their apartment for a few minutes, so that was a complete waste of an evening. So that was not fun. But hey, I had a fun experience with a crazy guy named Twin! He talked to us for like 20 minutes while we were waiting for the other Elders in a Deli. He would stop talking to us, and then walk back up and start talking to us again. He told us that he didn't care about Jesus, and then later said that Jesus has already saved him. Oh, he also told us about how he killed someone or something (It was hard to tell) and went to jail for 20 years. Oh! He also said he could order us up a prostitute for 25 dollars if we wanted, and it was like ummmm no thanks lol. But he kept saying that everybody know he is, and if we asked people if they knew Twin, they would say "oh yeah! I know him" But I sorta doubt it because, in order to prove his point, he went to the guy at the register and started talking to him, and the guy basically yelled at him and said "I told you, I won't sell you anything! Go away!" So that was a fun day.

Friday was a complete waste of a day. Our lesson with Jose Pagan fell through (no surprise. Its not really his fault though. His wife Layla is super against the church. And crazy. She ripped out their videophone so we couldn't contact him.) so we just ended up sitting in our apartment until 2:30. Then we went to go take the Sisters something at the church. That was something we were just gonna do on the way, but then Elder Larson realized he forgot our phone at the apartment, and we needed to call someone to let us into the East New York chapel, so because of that Freddie "cancelled on us" In other words, because we were 45 minutes late to the lesson, he got sick of waiting, but Elder Larson just said he cancelled on us. And all of you may know I hate being late (thanks for that Dad :)) I especially hate being late when it is a meeting or an appointment. And its great for me, because we are literally late to every appointment. So i guess patience is something I need to learn. But I don't think I want to learn it to that extreme. The only good thing that came out of friday is we got to go to the Spanish Branches Christmas party, and the food was incredible. Homemade Horchata and Jamaica juice. I was delicious. But then I couldn't get Elder Larson and Elder Brown to leave fast, so we got home at 10:50, and I was really really upset about that. So Friday was pretty much miserable.

Saturday was good! We had the Branch party all day! wooooo! 2 til 7! When Deaf people party, they party for a long time, that's for sure. It was a lot of fun! I had a great time :)

Sunday was good mostly We had church, which was good of course. I am getting a lot more confident in talking to people, so that's good. I still can't understand a lot of what they are saying, but hey. Its a work in progress. After church we came home and had dinner and did phonegames, which was good. We planted seeds and stuff like that, so that was awesome. Until we ended. After we finished, we got a callback, so we answered it. I was a guy, who actually ended up being a baptist preacher! He was super nice and told us he doesn't have anything against Mormons!! And then he put his wife on the phone. She started asking us questions and bashing. Normally, what are we supposed to do? Testify and not participate in bashing, right? Haha not with Elder Brown and Elder Larson apparently. They fully engaged. At a certain point I could feel the Spirit go out of the room. So I kept telling Elder Larson (who was off screen) that we needed to turn it off, but he kept ignoring me, and then eventually just told me to shut up, so that was great. I at one point almost ended the conversation and got out of there, but then after I said "Have an awesome day tomorrow" She kept asking questions. So because of this, we missed planning. So that was not a good time for me. Needless to say, I was upset. Then there was arguing, and then I went to bed. So it was a rough night for me. Don't argue with people about the Gospel, people. It only takes the Spirit away, and then you are just two humans having an argument. Just simply testify. Its all you can do, and a testimony is more powerful than any questions you can ask, or any scripture you can show. So that is my word of advice today.

Wow, this is a very long email. (Sorry, not sorry haha) I love you all. Have a good week, stay safe, choose the right, and BE STRONG! The Lord is with you and will help you. I hope you all actually read my letter, even though it is long. Either way, I still love you all. Make it a good week.  
Pictures:  1. Us heading to Brooklyn Bridge
2. A snazzy picture I took at the pier we went to play basketball at.
3. The beautiful sunset over Manhattan
4. Manhattan at night!
5. This one I saw on Facebook. It made me laugh, because I always
either play old men or racist people. So that is fun :D
6. Picture of Lady Liberty with the sunset in the back. We got some
good pictures that day obviously.