Well, I went to a member's house yesterday night for steak dinner. His name is Arthur Linderman. They are all American. He speaks Spanish and was the Dover President (Branch President) and then Bishop for a while. Him and his wife and daughter and granddaughter stay in the Ward still for support. All the Spanish Branches and Wards struggle. Dover is a pretty well functioning ward. However, if you compare it to an English Ward, they need help. Both Brother and Sister Linderman help out with the youth program, because they speak English. Their daughter plays the piano, and their granddaughter leads music when the other lady in the Ward doesn't show up. We went over to their house last night. Brother Linderman makes fun of those who get their steaks 'shoe leather' (well-done). I remember Spencer Allen telling me one time that he got his steak at a restaurant medium and loved it. So I grabbed a medium steak. OH MY HECK!!! Best steak I've ever had! Towards the middle of the steak, Brother Linderman's son-in-law told me that it was about medium-rare. It just got better! It was getting really red. It was awesome! I will forever more have my steaks medium to medium-rare. Never again will I have 'shoe leather' steaks. It was really fun there. Great family. I actually found out that Bishop Linderman was a Jew before he joined the church. He's the only non-Jew in his family now. Complete Jewish decent and everything. He said his first contact with a Mormon was 12 years before his conversion. You never know what influence you'll make on somebody. When I was talking with Bishop Linderman more, he said that there was an airshow going on. I forget where he said it was going to be at. Too far and wrong day for me though. I said that I love airshows. He then asked me if I know anything about WWII airplanes because the airshow is a WWII special. I enthusiastically said yes. He started naming off planes that were going to be there. P-51 Mustang, Zero, P-38 Lightning, B-17, and Spitfire. He also said that some actual WWII pilots were going to come and speak. We'll have to go in a couple years!

I baptized Ivan. And yes, I did say the prayer in Spanish. It was really cool. I'll see if I can send some pictures. Ivan's parents weren't at his baptism. They were willing to let him be baptized but not super supportive. I think I'm sending a picture with me, Ivan, and two other members. The lady is Yalily. She's really helping out Ivan a lot. She knows Ivan's mom. The man is her husband. They are both really good members.

The girl is Sydney. A member baptized her. Her dad isn't a member, but her mom is. Her parents are divorced. Her dad is actually pretty supportive and has been coming to church the last few weeks. I think he'll turn into an investigator soon.

 

The baptism was awesome. I sent some pictures. The one picture with me and Ivan and two other people are two members. The lady is named Yalily. She's knows Ivan's mom well and is very supportive of Ivan. Ivan's parents are willing to let him be baptized but not super supportive. It's a little said, but Ivan was very happy to be baptized. Just to prove how smart Ivan is, here's a little story. After the baptism, we had lunch. The line for the food was a little long but not too bad. Ivan got in line by me. Then Ivan said, "This line is like a path to heaven. It takes a long time, but it's worth it." This kid is eight years old. Actually today he's nine! Today's his birthday. He kept telling us how much he wanted to be baptized yesterday because "it would be like a birthday present from God." Yes, he said that.

I've been told that the summers here are brutal. Extremely humid when it's about 100 degrees. Not fun. I'm pretty sure all the apartments have AC. Our AC right now is really good. The cars are brand new so the AC works great. I'm not too worried. June should start getting pretty hot. July and August will be death. Then it'll be September and it'll start cooling down. Just 2 and a half months. Then the fall :) So many trees. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures then especially. 

 

1.  Does anybody know that you play the piano??  Have you played on your mission yet?  You should...cuz you're good. 

Some people. We have the Linderman's daughter who plays the piano really well who plays every Sunday. I told dad about the steak dinner at the Linderman's last night.

2.  What city do you hope to be transferred to next?

I really don't know. I kind of hope I stay in Dover for one more. I heard West New York is really cool. That's right on the Hudson front and where all the pictures of the NYC skyline are taken. My comp served there and he showed me some pictures from there. Really cool. I kind of want to serve in Newark just to say I did. That's where the 'stories' come from. Maybe Morristown. That's a Sister Missionary area right now though.

3.  Do you guys listen to church music in your apartment?

Yes. Sometimes. My comp has an I-Pod with music on it and some talks from General Authorities. 

PS. If you really want to hear a cool talk about the Spirit World. Buy "What's on the Other Side" by Brent something. If you do, make a copy of it and send it to me. We only have the first half of the talk here. The other Elders lost the other half of it. 

-Justin

Wow, this week has been pretty crazy. There has been a lot that has happened. So on Tuesday, we actually had a funeral. There is this lady named Amanda. She is an investigator, and has been for a few years now. She's actually quite stubborn. Amanda is in her late thirties I would guess. She has five kids all under 12. A little while ago, she found out she was pregnant with another! Just over a week ago, she found out that the little baby had no heartbeat. She was really heartbroken. She wanted to have a funeral for her baby. I guess she went to another church to ask if she could borrow the building for the funeral. That church apparently gave her some grief about holding a funeral there. Our friend Edwin, who is a relative to Amanda offered our chapel. Of course we would let somebody use the chapel for something like that! Our church is all about service! So on Tuesday, we had a funeral for her baby, named Esperanza (which means 'hope' in Spanish. It was a really good funeral. The Bishop spoke about the Plan of Salvation is Spanish, then my companion spoke about the same thing in English. It was really good. I think it changed Amanda's heart. She told us that she wants to come to church, and her oldest daughter, 12, told Edwin that she wants to come to our church now. Hopefully, she'll change.


Just this last Saturday was the annual service project in Passaic, NJ. We all met in the Passaic chapel, which is much like the Dover chapel, and teamed up with some scouts in Passaic and some other volunteers. We split up in groups and took trash bags around and picked up trash. As you can imagine, we got some stares. Some people asked where we were from (meaning was organization). We didn't teach anybody while serving. We just served. We actually got done really quick. The mayor was pretty surprised. President Jeppson was a little disappointed because we didn't do much. Last year, they did a lot more and it took them longer to do it. President Jeppson was hoping we could do more. It was a really fun project! Looking forward to next year!


So we finally got Ivan set for baptism this week! We took Brother and Sister Arriola in the ward to come and talk with the parents, since they're both non-members. Sister Arriola is the Primary President and she works with Ivan a lot. She really made sure that Ivan's mom was good about it. It went great! Ivan's mom is good with it! Him and Sydney are both good to get baptized this weekend on the 27th! Sydney, if you don't know, is nine years old. Her mom is a member, but her dad isn't. He hasn't been that sure about baptism for her, so she didn't get baptized at eight. Her dad finally said yes for the 27th. So we will be having two baptisms this weekend, along with another little girl from the other Dover area. We talked with Ivan and Sydney on Sunday. Ivan wants me to baptize him and my comp to confirm him. Sydney wants a member, named Lucio Cielo, to baptize her, then I confirm her. It'll be great! I'm excited!

Well I love you all! Thanks so much for everything! I will send more pictures next week. Forgot my camera, haha. Love you.
-Justin Gajewsky

Q of the W:

1.  Who exactly is Edwin?  We are a little confused if he is someone in your ward, a friend, another missionary, or what? 


1. Edwin is a member. Convert actually. He's been a convert for almost two years now. He's great! He doesn't do much. He doesn't have a job or anything, so he comes out with a us A LOT. He's almost a missionary. He's about 30, but he still wants to go on a mission with his wife when he's older.
2.  What is the hardest thing about spanish?  Like how fast they talk or the slang??

2. The dialects are probably the hardest part. Since New Jersey is so concentrated with people from everywhere, there's Hispanics from everywhere. The people from the Dominican Republic have the craziest Spanish.

3.  If you could change anything about your apartment, what would it be?
3. The other Elders are really messy. They leave dishes around and don't clean very much. I would make them cleaner and more organized. It gets me frustrated sometimes because they're the Zone Leaders and they're supposed to set the example, but around the apartment, they don't do that.



This is where the Dover Chapel is. They're going to get a brand new Chapel in the next few years. I heard that they even have a spot picked out now where it's going to be built.



New Jersey law prohibits self use at all gas stations. This is going to be especially nice during the winter!

Looking out from the front door of the Dover Chapel. That's a Presbyterian Church or something. Either way, it's still false



Ordered another name tag. Only with me would they mess up the spelling. They're ordering another one for free. They cost $4.



 

Dear Family and Friends, This week has been pretty good. We actually had a pretty cool experience last Monday night. After the P-Day part of the day, we finally got in contact with this lady that we've been wanting to meet with for a while. When we first met her, she said that she's actually looking for a church to settle in. But that was weeks ago. Last Monday, we finally got in to teach her the Restoration. When we shared the Joseph Smith experience, she started tearing up. She told us that she's only felt the Spirit two or three times in her life. We asked her how she felt when she listened to the Joseph Smith story. She knows it's true :) It was awesome. The only thing is, she told us that she's more comfortable in English, even though she was born in Puerto Rico and speaks fluent Spanish. So we might be letting the English Elders teach her, because she might want to go to church in English. So, we'll see. This past Wednesday, we had interviews with President Jeppson. We talked with both President and Sister Jeppson. They were both great to talk to. It was one on one with both of them, so I got personal feedback on some questions. It was great! They're both amazing as "Mission Parents". I guess that's what they're called. Another crazy experience that happened the other day. We've been trying to get in contact with this less-active lady named Ranee. She works a lot, so it's been really hard to get a hold of her. One time, when we went by to try her again, an older lady sitting on the couch in the front room told the guy to let us in when he answered the door. This lady's name is Margarita. She's probably in her 70's and really frail. She's from Peru. As we're talking with her, she tells us that she was baptized in Peru about a year ago (that's how she knew who we were). However, she told us that she was never confirmed. That would explain why she's not on our ward list. She told us that she wants to get confirmed. We told her we would work on that for her. We talked with the Bishop and President Jeppson about what she would possibly have to do in order to get the confirmation. It's all a pretty crazy situation. A few days after that, we came to realize that she was most likely baptized years and years ago. Also, since she is a little confused, we came to find out that she may be getting her confirmation mixed up with the endowment. (Possibly meaning that she's been confirmed, and she was working on going to the temple.) When we talked with the Bishop, he said that they looked and looked, but there are absolutely no records of her getting baptized or anything! So, we are going to work with her on teaching her all the lessons and baptizing her as an investigator. Cool! That's basically what happened this week as far as cool things go. I did try something called Mondongo this week (I think that's how you spell it). It's Peruvian. It's cow stomach. I didn't know it was cow stomach at first. I thought it was regular meat at first because it was all cut up. After getting through it a little bit, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't regular meat. It was really rubbery and didn't taste like anything. I only found out it was cow stomach a few minutes after we left. I'm really, really glad I didn't find out what it was while I was eating it, haha! And no, I won't eat it again even though I know it won't taste bad. I would rather have a steak, like I'm going to have in two weeks when the Linderman family feeds us again for Memorials Day. :) Thanks for all the prayers and letters! It's been great so far. -Elder Justin Gajewsky

Thanks for all the info and updates! Much appreciated. I might be able to Skype on Sunday. I told dad some more info on how I'll do it. I'm allowed to text dad more info about that later on this week. I also heard that you're going to Grandma and Grandpa in Bountiful. Maybe you could plan on being there and I can talk to Grandma and Grandpa too! Well, sometimes it feels like the weeks go by fast. The days for me definately go by pretty quick. When I lay down at night, I can't believe I'm in bed again, haha. The weeks seem to go by a little slower. However, on Friday's, it seems like the weekend came up quick (not that the weekend means anything to me, haha). I'm a month away from being 1/4 done with my mission. I'll be in 'training' for one more month, or until the end of this transfer, and that's the 1/4 mark. Not that I'm counting or anything... I've also hear that after the 1/2 mark, it speeds up. Wow! That would make my mission a time warp. Pretty wierd. I'm definately enjoying a lot of things here. We're teaching the Montalva Family (Mom-Natalie, Son (16)-Alberto, and daughter (9)-Ariana. They are amazing! They're getting baptized June 3 (the last day of the transfer, and possibly my last day in Dover). Natalie was talking to us about how long it takes to go to the temple. Wow! She's really good friends with some strong members, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when she asked us how long she has to wait to get her endowment and get sealed with her family. Since my companion and I are baptizing her, I might be able to go to the temple with her when she gets her endowment a year from now! Exciting! We also told her that she and Alberto can go do baptisms for the dead with the ward about a month after baptism. Natalie already wants to starting working on her anceastors! We teach that family about twice a week. The dad still isn't too interested, but I think he'll eventually turn around. Remember Ivan? Well, we finally set a baptism date with him. He's really excited for that. I don't know if I've already talked about him, but we still need to talk to the parents about that baptism. The primary is really involved in trying to help out Ivan. Ivan's parents are okay with him coming to church. The primary is very supportive of Ivan, because Ivan does all the work to get his parents to bring him to church. (Remember, Ivan is only 9.) The primary and the Bishop really want to make Ivan's baptism very special. We all know how smart Ivan is, as he is accepting the Gospel at age nine. I'm convinced I'm baptizing a future Apostle, haha ;) Ivan's amazing. Pray for his parents! I don't know if I've talked very much about Nahomi. Nahomi's mom and grandma are both members. Her mom works everyday including Sunday to support her family and to keep getting money to pay for Chemo-therapy for her blood cancer, or someting. The grandma is pretty old and can't walk very well. Recently, the grandma, Margarita Kallahui, had a pretty bad seizure or something during one of our lessons. (By the way, that was a pretty scary expierence. She just zoned out of it and started shaking. Crazy!) She ended up going to the hospital and had brain surgery. My comp and I went and visited her the other day near Morristown. She's doing better now. Anyway, we've been teaching Nahomi (11). She really wants to get baptized and go on a mission. Yep, she wants to serve a mission! Her brother David (13) just recently started listening as well. He loves what we teach. His big questions are 'Where did we come from?' and 'Where are we going?' We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and I think that's when he got converted. I think as soon as we get Nahomi and David start coming to church and baptized, their mom will start coming back. Every Wednesday, the missionaries teach English class at the chapel. Not very many people come. Usually just one member comes. Last Wednesday, we had our investigator Juan Diaz come as well. My comp ended up teaching our friend Edwin and left me to teach English class. That was fun! When I found out I was teaching English class, I started to think back to how my German teacher taught us. He was a really good German teacher. He always worked on how to teach German in a way that we would learn it fastest and most effectively. So, as I taught English, I tried my best to speak English the most I could and I never directly translated what I taught. I acted out all the verbs I taught. I think that's one way my German teacher taught us. English class was a fun experience! Yesterday, I had a real Sunday dinner! There's a family in our ward who is American. Often, they need English people to come and support the Spanish wards. Brother Linderman is a convert from like 25 years ago. He grew up around a lot of Spanish people, so he knows Spanish fluently. His wife plays the piano in Sacrament, and their daughter leads. By the way, the Spanish wards are never very good when it comes to music. Our zone in the MTC of 30 or so missionaries sings louder in a language they don't know, then a Spanish ward of 80. So the Linderman family is a huge support for the ward. Brother (Bishop) Linderman was the Bishop for the last few years before our Bishop now. Last week, they invited us for steak dinner that we had last night. The last time I had dinner that good was at the Mission Home when I first got here in NJ. The time before that, was at home. Great dinner! Sister Linderman said that they want to invite us again for Memorial's Day. Nothing else very interesting has happened in the last little while. I hope that email was better (sorry Grandma!) I'll try to make my emails more and more interesting. Q of the W: 1. Have you experienced anybody really mean or rude yet? Not really. The really rude and annoying things that happen, is when somebody tells us that we can come over, then they never answer their door or their phone. It's just a waste of our time. That's annoying. I wish they would just tell us they're not interested in joining the true Church and receive help from the Church Welfare from one of the richest organizations in the world, and blessings, and friends in the Church, and be exaulted in the Celestial Kingdom with their families for eternity. Sorry, I don't think they know that, but it's still annoying. Fun fact, did you know that the LDS Church is one of the richest organizations in the world? The Church owns a ton of stuff! My car has only 18,000 miles on it. It's a 2011 Toyota Corolla. The milage report in the glove compartment goes back to when two other missionaries had it when it had 8 miles! The Church buys brand new cars for every companionship across the nation and proabably other places in the world. That alone, costs a lot!! Then you think about all the apartments that missionaries rent. All the farms for Bishop's Storehouse. Lot's of money! I guess Heavenly Father doesn't want His Church to be poor... 2. Have you seen any NJ gangs yet? (I kinda hope not, but I'm still wondering) Nope. No gangs. But I haven't served in Newark yet;) I'm told when I serve in Newark, that's when the 'stories' come. :) 3. I read someones email on Missionary Moms and they said missionaries get to go to the Manhattan temple every 6 months and will go through Times Square (or something like that). Have you heard anything about that yet? Yes! and yes! Every six months. June is when we go next and I'll take a detour through Times Square. Can't wait! By the way fam Gajewsky, we're visiting NYC and NJ after my mish! Forget Disneyland, we can wait. Love you all! Talk to you soon:) -Justin