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| A picture of Elder Gajewsky participating in the Mormon Helping Hands! (second one on the left) :) |
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Mom,
Well, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to a family in the Scotch Plains English Ward for it. It was the Caycho family. Brother Caycho was born in Peru and grew up for half of his life in Brooklyn or the Bronx. I can't remember which one. He has been a member pretty much his whole life and has had to sacrifice a good amount. He's a great member. Sister Caycho is as American as it comes. Great family! Cooked really good food and had a lot of family over. Way fun! We also met up with a bunch of other missionaries in Princeton Stadium to play some turkey bowl. That was a lot of fun. For some reason, Princeton University doesn't lock their stadium!
This last Saturday's service got canceled for the day because there were so many missionaries from out-of-state that were helping out. President Jeppson told our zone and another that we could go out and do regular missionary work if we wanted to. Well, we had nothing planned so we went with a couple members in Scotch Plains to go do service for the day. Turns out that they were going to Brooklyn for the day. So I got to go to New York again! We drove through Staten Island and over the Brooklyn Bridge! Way cool experience. The Brooklyn Bridge has been in so many movies and is so famous. But to all the members and everyone else it's pretty normal to go over the Brooklyn Bridge. All the missionaries were amazed! Haha. New York is so much more condensed than New Jersey. I took a few pictures of it, but I forgot my cord to download them onto the computer to send them. I did print out a few pictures from last week's service that I'm going to send home. Pretty cool pics! I have to say, Brooklyn is an ugly city! I don't know how Tyler Nielson loved it so much. But I'm sure that other missionaries say that about New Jersey.
By the way, New York and New Jersey drivers are crazy! I think I'm picking up their road habits. I'll come home a crazier driver, but hopefully better since my reaction time is increasing.
So last Saturday night, we went over to the Branch President's house. He told us that a few of them were going to go do service the next day, so they don't know who is going to give talks during church the next day. He asked if we could. A Saturday night and a Sunday morning to prepare a talk. Wow! Welcome to missionary work. Well, I was tired Saturday night, and Sunday morning we went to another area for a baptism for the sister missionaries. We returned back to our area 10 minutes late for church. I prepared a talk about the Sabbath Day in just a couple minutes and hardly anything written down. I took up about 20 minutes and I thought I did pretty well! I'm improving! This is great.
President Jeppson told us today in his letter to the missionaries that this next weekend will probably be our last week to do service. It's been several weeks now since the hurricane and mold in houses is starting to build up pretty bad. That's dangerous. And President Jeppson is very concerned about our well-being. We always wear masks when going into houses anyways, but I think it's getting pretty bad. I'm a little sad because I love doing service like this, but it could only last for so long.
Anyways, that's the last week. Lots of fun. We're finding several less-active members that want to come to church! That's always very exciting.
Q of the W:
1. Do you know what day we can skype you at Christmas? Will it be Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Can't wait...:)
Probably on Christmas Day. I think we're going over to the Caycho family for that.
2. What will you be doing for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
Probably just visiting members. Get out and work!
3. Have you heard from Luke lately?
We're emailing each other! He's doing great. He always adds some Spanish too. I can't wait to talk with him after the mission! It's going to be so much fun!
Love you mom! Thanks for the Christmas CD! I'm loving it. One song that I wanted was Mary did you know by Donny Osmond, but I love all the songs on it. Great pick! Thanks Kelsie!!! Love you. Write me.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Dear Mom,
I'm not getting transferred. My companion and I are both staying. I'm happy to be staying here. There's a good amount of work that I can do here. I really do love the members here. Even if they aren't the most productive.
We do have a place that we're going to go for Thanksgiving. It's the Pleitez family. She's divorced. She has three daugthers. One I don't know about. One has been sealed in the temple with a RM. The other is 20 years old and wants to go to BYU-I in January. They're pretty cool. I'm excited for Thanksgiving.
That's always an uneasy thing to hear about missionaries. It's very real. I heard a story from a missionary here who got held up at gunpoint in Newark. The guy who did it was very high on drugs when he did it. By some miracle, the guy let him go. Safety also comes in obedience to the commandments and the mission rules. That's one reason why I'm so careful to obey the mission standards, because it brings safety, protection, and blessings.
We gave more service this last weekend. We actually had a lot more to do this weekend, so we were ordered from President Jeppson to keep Saturday and Sunday cleared for service. We went to the same place as last week: Union Beach. We found a new street that needed a lot of help. I'm going to send some pictures in the mail this week. Everywhere is littered with garbage and stuff from people's houses that got flooded. Some houses were flooded with 8 or 9 feet of water depending on the area! Others only had a few inches, but the crawl space with insulation and wires were completely destroyed. Some yards had roofs in them! And the roofs were from houses that were down the block! Absolutely amazing the amount of damage and destruction. I heard a statistic that this is the worst disaster in the United States only second to Katrina! Wow! And I was in the middle of it. It's a weird feeling to be a part of it. I actually have a crazy story from the service. We were walking down the street looking for people to help. This guy said that he could use some help. This other Elder and I said yes. We ended up going into this guy's crawl space that was only two feet high. Our job was to take out all the soaking wet insulation. A small part of insulation feels like it weighs about 10 lbs. We got soaking wet and it was so dark in there. My knees hurt after.
Well, I don't have any time left. I'll write more next week. Sorry I couldn't answer the questions. I'll talk more next week.
-Elder Gajewsky
I'm not getting transferred. My companion and I are both staying. I'm happy to be staying here. There's a good amount of work that I can do here. I really do love the members here. Even if they aren't the most productive.
We do have a place that we're going to go for Thanksgiving. It's the Pleitez family. She's divorced. She has three daugthers. One I don't know about. One has been sealed in the temple with a RM. The other is 20 years old and wants to go to BYU-I in January. They're pretty cool. I'm excited for Thanksgiving.
That's always an uneasy thing to hear about missionaries. It's very real. I heard a story from a missionary here who got held up at gunpoint in Newark. The guy who did it was very high on drugs when he did it. By some miracle, the guy let him go. Safety also comes in obedience to the commandments and the mission rules. That's one reason why I'm so careful to obey the mission standards, because it brings safety, protection, and blessings.
We gave more service this last weekend. We actually had a lot more to do this weekend, so we were ordered from President Jeppson to keep Saturday and Sunday cleared for service. We went to the same place as last week: Union Beach. We found a new street that needed a lot of help. I'm going to send some pictures in the mail this week. Everywhere is littered with garbage and stuff from people's houses that got flooded. Some houses were flooded with 8 or 9 feet of water depending on the area! Others only had a few inches, but the crawl space with insulation and wires were completely destroyed. Some yards had roofs in them! And the roofs were from houses that were down the block! Absolutely amazing the amount of damage and destruction. I heard a statistic that this is the worst disaster in the United States only second to Katrina! Wow! And I was in the middle of it. It's a weird feeling to be a part of it. I actually have a crazy story from the service. We were walking down the street looking for people to help. This guy said that he could use some help. This other Elder and I said yes. We ended up going into this guy's crawl space that was only two feet high. Our job was to take out all the soaking wet insulation. A small part of insulation feels like it weighs about 10 lbs. We got soaking wet and it was so dark in there. My knees hurt after.
Well, I don't have any time left. I'll write more next week. Sorry I couldn't answer the questions. I'll talk more next week.
-Elder Gajewsky
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Dear Dad,
It was a dark day here on election day, especially for all the members. Both the Bishop of the Scotch Plains English ward and the Stake President of the Scotch Plains stake have (or had) Romney/Ryan signs in their front yards. Even though missionaries aren't really supposed to be involved in politics, we were all pretty sad as well. Haha. We all wanted Romney to win. Most of the Hispanic members were for Obama because I think he was popular among the lower-class community. However, we did meet with some members last week and she asked us if we have read up on the race. We said no. Then she said that she really wants Romney to win. I was pretty surprised. She said that she's done her research and that she's read about them and Romney is by far the better choice. She also said that she's talked to her friends about it. They all wanted Obama. But then this sister would ask them if they've read about him. They said no, but.... I've heard this and that.. She said okay, but have you read about them. They said no. She then told them to read about them then come back to her. She's pretty cool. Speaking of elections. I got my absentee ballot, two days after Election Day. For some reason, it took them 15 days to get that ballot back to me! It was a little frustrating.. I wasn't very happy.
But grandma is right. The Lord is in charge. It isn't time yet. Hopefully in 4 years, we'll get someone who is willing to uphold the Constitution of the United States in it's fullness. Then I'll be able to study and research and read about both new candidates. In the meantime, we'll pray for the President of the United States.
I want to go to Texas again sometime! I barely remember Texas. If you go to Dallas, say hi to Kyle Byington for me, haha. Why are you going to Texas?
Also, tell me about Stake Conference. I know that President Trent is still Stake President and that's good. I want to meet with him when I get home. That should be fun.
Love you dad. Tell the kids to write me. I haven't gotten a letter in a while. Talk to you soon.
-Justin
PS: I don't know if you had monthly scriptures on your mission, but I'm going to start sharing my mission's monthly scripture. This month, our focus is the Book of Mormon and the scripture is Moroni 10:4-5. Awesome scripture!
It was a dark day here on election day, especially for all the members. Both the Bishop of the Scotch Plains English ward and the Stake President of the Scotch Plains stake have (or had) Romney/Ryan signs in their front yards. Even though missionaries aren't really supposed to be involved in politics, we were all pretty sad as well. Haha. We all wanted Romney to win. Most of the Hispanic members were for Obama because I think he was popular among the lower-class community. However, we did meet with some members last week and she asked us if we have read up on the race. We said no. Then she said that she really wants Romney to win. I was pretty surprised. She said that she's done her research and that she's read about them and Romney is by far the better choice. She also said that she's talked to her friends about it. They all wanted Obama. But then this sister would ask them if they've read about him. They said no, but.... I've heard this and that.. She said okay, but have you read about them. They said no. She then told them to read about them then come back to her. She's pretty cool. Speaking of elections. I got my absentee ballot, two days after Election Day. For some reason, it took them 15 days to get that ballot back to me! It was a little frustrating.. I wasn't very happy.
But grandma is right. The Lord is in charge. It isn't time yet. Hopefully in 4 years, we'll get someone who is willing to uphold the Constitution of the United States in it's fullness. Then I'll be able to study and research and read about both new candidates. In the meantime, we'll pray for the President of the United States.
I want to go to Texas again sometime! I barely remember Texas. If you go to Dallas, say hi to Kyle Byington for me, haha. Why are you going to Texas?
Also, tell me about Stake Conference. I know that President Trent is still Stake President and that's good. I want to meet with him when I get home. That should be fun.
Love you dad. Tell the kids to write me. I haven't gotten a letter in a while. Talk to you soon.
-Justin
PS: I don't know if you had monthly scriptures on your mission, but I'm going to start sharing my mission's monthly scripture. This month, our focus is the Book of Mormon and the scripture is Moroni 10:4-5. Awesome scripture!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Oh and by the way!! Thank you so much for the Halloween care package! Loved it! I totally forgot about Toffifay's. So yummy.
Dear Mom,
This past week has been a pretty fun week. On Wednesday, we got hit with a snow storm. I don't know if you were watching the news or anything about that. President Jeppson told everyone to go home at 6:00pm last Wednesday because that's when the storm was going to hit. I was a little worried about losing power again, but the storm wasn't anything bad. The next day welcomed us with a nice layer of snow! It's completely gone now. I guess that's fall! There's still a few trees around us that have some leaves left, but hurricane Sandy got rid of pretty much all the leaves. It feels like winter now.
Last Friday was interviews with President and Sister Jeppson again. It seems like we just barely had interviews! How time flies. It was an awesome time again to be one on one with President Jeppson. He is such a great man. Interesting experience when we got there. We walked in and I heard somebody talking in a room down the hall in the chapel. We started walking that direction. I noticed through the window in one of the rooms where President Jeppson was. We went farther down the hall to see who was talking. President and Sister Jeppson's son-in-law named Alex Boye was talking to a couple missionaries. If you don't know who Alex Boye is, it's okay. I didn't know him before my mission either. He's somewhat famous in the LDS music world. He had a really cool conversion story that he shared with us in the MTC when he came to talk there. He talked to a couple sister missionaries in England, and they softened his heart when they shared their testimonies. Since then, he joined the church, served a mission, became a famous LDS musician, joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and married the Jeppson's daughter. He's a really good motivational speaker as well. He talked to us about what we would have happen on our missions. He talked about Ether and how the Lord asked him what he would have happen in order to have light on their boats. So he likened that to us and our missions. He also talked about how when one plugs in their phone to the wall, they have no idea how much power they're plugging their phone into; that the electricity that we can use is beyond the understanding for most of us. Then he likened that to us when we pray, we are plugging ourselves into the power of God, and with that power we can do anything he wants us to do. It was a cool experience!
The day after that, we had the opportunity to do service at Union Beach. It was a big mission activity. Like you said mom, New Jersey was where hurricane Sandy hit land. Union Beach is right on the part of New Jersey that sticks out into the ocean. It was hit HARD! And I got to see all of the destruction. We got our yellow Mormon Helping Hands tshirt, and went out in teams to look for people who needed help. Literally, we were given an address of a fire station, which was a base camp for all the volunteers, then we just went out in teams and went house to house and asked what they needed help with. Mountains of trash lined all the streets. The city was bringing in big dumpsters to throw all the trash into. We helped a few houses with just taking out all their destroyed things and put them out onto the street. There was a group of three guys that had a metal shop/restaurant/office that got flooded with 8 feet of water. To make it worse, their restaurant had gone out of business just a few months before. The whole garage/shop area was full of a couple giant refrigerators and a bunch of stuff that was all completely ruined by water. We just helped them carry everything out onto the street so that later they could throw it all away into a dumpster. So much money wasted! So sad! These people were so grateful. I've never heard so many "thank you's" in my whole life. The one guy who we helped clean out his garage/shop wanted to make a donation to our church. President Jeppson later showed up and the guy wanted his address. President Jeppson told him that we're not here to accept money or donations, but to simply help out anyone we can. Awesome experience!
The next day, we actually did something similar. It was Sunday, and the Scotch Plains Stake was going to go help out on Staten Island. For some reason, Plainfield Spanish Branch didn't go. But we got permission from the Area Seventy to leave our mission to go to Staten Island with the Stake to help out. So we went with the English Elders to English Church!! First time in 10 months that I've heard three things: the Sacrament Prayer in english (sounded weird), an organ (wow those things are cool sounding!), and good singing (Spanish people don't sing... well... usually). We went to their church at 8am for about 45 minutes, then we all headed out to Staten Island. We carpooled with some members. We drove in a suburban! I forget how big those cars are! Unfortunately, we found a worse situation there on Staten Island. The National Guard was there. It really felt like a disaster zone. There were Black Hawks flying over, military Humvees driving around, news helicopters circling around, big dumpster trucks all over the place, the streets were dirty and muddy, houses were completely destroyed, trash all over the streets, and base camps for food and emergency supplies. It was a really weird feeling to be there. There were a lot more members and missionaries from the New York mission there helping out. You could tell who the members were by their yellow Mormon Helping Hands tshirt. We did the same thing. We went to different houses and asked what they needed help with. We tore up a floor. We tore down all the walls of a house. We helped clean out a flooded basement. There were tons of housed with warning signs on the door saying that it was extremely dangerous and therefore prohibited to enter the house. Just a crazy experience. I took a few pictures that I'll have to send.
So moving on, last Saturday night, we finally found some less active boys that are my age, 20 and 21. They have some desire to come back to church but they were embarrassed when they couldn't get the Sacrament Prayers right and had to say them 4 or 5 times. Poor guys! But, we're going to work with them to help them come back to church. The older one named Alex is learning piano a little. I told him that I could help teach him a little. I taught him FACE, All Good Birds Do Fly, Great Big Dogs Fight Animals, and All Cars Eat Gas. It was a little much for his first piano lesson that wasn't from YouTube, but I'll write it down for him. They're a cool family.
Also, we finally got in contact with Carlos and Yerlin! Hopefully you remember them. I barely do, haha. It was a really good lesson with them. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is Faith, Repentence, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We only got to baptism until we ran out of time and had to go home. It was awesome to see them again! Carlos said that his mom is moving to Utah. Cool! We have another appointment with them next Monday.
Good week. Yesterday was a holiday, that's why I'm emailing today. Sorry if it was confusing.
Also, transfers are coming up this weekend. In a week, I could be heading to a new area. Hopefully no. I like this area a lot and I don't like getting to know a new area. So hold off on the letters to Middlesex for a little bit. I'll let you know next Monday.
Here are the Q of W:
Dear Mom,
This past week has been a pretty fun week. On Wednesday, we got hit with a snow storm. I don't know if you were watching the news or anything about that. President Jeppson told everyone to go home at 6:00pm last Wednesday because that's when the storm was going to hit. I was a little worried about losing power again, but the storm wasn't anything bad. The next day welcomed us with a nice layer of snow! It's completely gone now. I guess that's fall! There's still a few trees around us that have some leaves left, but hurricane Sandy got rid of pretty much all the leaves. It feels like winter now.
Last Friday was interviews with President and Sister Jeppson again. It seems like we just barely had interviews! How time flies. It was an awesome time again to be one on one with President Jeppson. He is such a great man. Interesting experience when we got there. We walked in and I heard somebody talking in a room down the hall in the chapel. We started walking that direction. I noticed through the window in one of the rooms where President Jeppson was. We went farther down the hall to see who was talking. President and Sister Jeppson's son-in-law named Alex Boye was talking to a couple missionaries. If you don't know who Alex Boye is, it's okay. I didn't know him before my mission either. He's somewhat famous in the LDS music world. He had a really cool conversion story that he shared with us in the MTC when he came to talk there. He talked to a couple sister missionaries in England, and they softened his heart when they shared their testimonies. Since then, he joined the church, served a mission, became a famous LDS musician, joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and married the Jeppson's daughter. He's a really good motivational speaker as well. He talked to us about what we would have happen on our missions. He talked about Ether and how the Lord asked him what he would have happen in order to have light on their boats. So he likened that to us and our missions. He also talked about how when one plugs in their phone to the wall, they have no idea how much power they're plugging their phone into; that the electricity that we can use is beyond the understanding for most of us. Then he likened that to us when we pray, we are plugging ourselves into the power of God, and with that power we can do anything he wants us to do. It was a cool experience!
The day after that, we had the opportunity to do service at Union Beach. It was a big mission activity. Like you said mom, New Jersey was where hurricane Sandy hit land. Union Beach is right on the part of New Jersey that sticks out into the ocean. It was hit HARD! And I got to see all of the destruction. We got our yellow Mormon Helping Hands tshirt, and went out in teams to look for people who needed help. Literally, we were given an address of a fire station, which was a base camp for all the volunteers, then we just went out in teams and went house to house and asked what they needed help with. Mountains of trash lined all the streets. The city was bringing in big dumpsters to throw all the trash into. We helped a few houses with just taking out all their destroyed things and put them out onto the street. There was a group of three guys that had a metal shop/restaurant/office that got flooded with 8 feet of water. To make it worse, their restaurant had gone out of business just a few months before. The whole garage/shop area was full of a couple giant refrigerators and a bunch of stuff that was all completely ruined by water. We just helped them carry everything out onto the street so that later they could throw it all away into a dumpster. So much money wasted! So sad! These people were so grateful. I've never heard so many "thank you's" in my whole life. The one guy who we helped clean out his garage/shop wanted to make a donation to our church. President Jeppson later showed up and the guy wanted his address. President Jeppson told him that we're not here to accept money or donations, but to simply help out anyone we can. Awesome experience!
The next day, we actually did something similar. It was Sunday, and the Scotch Plains Stake was going to go help out on Staten Island. For some reason, Plainfield Spanish Branch didn't go. But we got permission from the Area Seventy to leave our mission to go to Staten Island with the Stake to help out. So we went with the English Elders to English Church!! First time in 10 months that I've heard three things: the Sacrament Prayer in english (sounded weird), an organ (wow those things are cool sounding!), and good singing (Spanish people don't sing... well... usually). We went to their church at 8am for about 45 minutes, then we all headed out to Staten Island. We carpooled with some members. We drove in a suburban! I forget how big those cars are! Unfortunately, we found a worse situation there on Staten Island. The National Guard was there. It really felt like a disaster zone. There were Black Hawks flying over, military Humvees driving around, news helicopters circling around, big dumpster trucks all over the place, the streets were dirty and muddy, houses were completely destroyed, trash all over the streets, and base camps for food and emergency supplies. It was a really weird feeling to be there. There were a lot more members and missionaries from the New York mission there helping out. You could tell who the members were by their yellow Mormon Helping Hands tshirt. We did the same thing. We went to different houses and asked what they needed help with. We tore up a floor. We tore down all the walls of a house. We helped clean out a flooded basement. There were tons of housed with warning signs on the door saying that it was extremely dangerous and therefore prohibited to enter the house. Just a crazy experience. I took a few pictures that I'll have to send.
So moving on, last Saturday night, we finally found some less active boys that are my age, 20 and 21. They have some desire to come back to church but they were embarrassed when they couldn't get the Sacrament Prayers right and had to say them 4 or 5 times. Poor guys! But, we're going to work with them to help them come back to church. The older one named Alex is learning piano a little. I told him that I could help teach him a little. I taught him FACE, All Good Birds Do Fly, Great Big Dogs Fight Animals, and All Cars Eat Gas. It was a little much for his first piano lesson that wasn't from YouTube, but I'll write it down for him. They're a cool family.
Also, we finally got in contact with Carlos and Yerlin! Hopefully you remember them. I barely do, haha. It was a really good lesson with them. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is Faith, Repentence, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We only got to baptism until we ran out of time and had to go home. It was awesome to see them again! Carlos said that his mom is moving to Utah. Cool! We have another appointment with them next Monday.
Good week. Yesterday was a holiday, that's why I'm emailing today. Sorry if it was confusing.
Also, transfers are coming up this weekend. In a week, I could be heading to a new area. Hopefully no. I like this area a lot and I don't like getting to know a new area. So hold off on the letters to Middlesex for a little bit. I'll let you know next Monday.
Here are the Q of W:
1. Do you guys at your apartment have any type of Christmas tree to put up?I don't think so. Sad.. I've seen mini-Christmas trees in closets in my past areas. Maybe we'll find a mini-tree.
2. Is there anything in particular that you need/want for Christmas before I send the package??The music to Piano Man, Open Arms, and Mario. I can't really think of anything else. Something cool! I don't know. Sorry, there's not much I could use on my mission.
3. Do you still have 8 missionaries in your apartment?No, thankfully! They left Wednesday right after the hurricane. It was Wednesday right after the hurricane at noon that we were finally allowed to leave our apartment. So we were all ready to go and sitting in our apartment for 30 minutes before noon waiting to be able to leave!
By the way, I found out that weird green and orange lightning is when a tree falls on a power line and the transformer explodes. That's why so many people lost power, tons of transformers were exploding all the time!
Thanks for the quote! I really like that one!
Tell Kelsie, Kyle, Julia, and Kaylee that I want another letter soon. I haven't gotten a letter from them in a while.
Love you mom!
-Justin
Monday, November 5, 2012
FINALLY!! AN EMAIL FROM JUSTIN!!
Dear Mom,
I'm fine! I'm doing okay. This week has been pretty crazy! Hurricane Sand hit HARD! We've done some service for some members around here, but nothing serious. We just helped them rake up a bunch of leaves in their yards. As you probably heard, there is a gas shortage here. If your car's license plate ends in an even number, you can only fill up on even days, and the same with odd numbers. There is also a dollar cap you can buy gas. We waited in line for an hour and a half the other day for gas. Many people are telling us that that isn't a very long line either. We could only fill us $40 worth of gas. We're doing good on gas so far. So there are a lot of missionaries that live really close to the coast. President Jeppson evacuated them to other missionary apartments before the storm. We had 8 missionaries with us when the storm came. It came earlier than we thought. It was supposed to hit shore on Tuesday morning, but we were quickly ordered to stay inside on Monday. We got the brute of the storm on Monday afternoon. It honestly wasn't very bad around our apartment. Monday around 5:00pm is when we lost power. When we were finally allowed to leave our apartment on Wednesday at noon, we got to see the damage that Sandy caused. The biggest damage that happened to the Plainfield, Middlesex, and Scotch Plains area was trees. There are (or better said, were) lots of old trees with weak roots. They were very big and fell over everywhere. They fell across roads, blocking off traffic. They fell on houses and tore off parts of houses. They fell on tons of power lines causing power outages almost everywhere. They quickly got to work on fixing all of the damage. Last night at around 9:00pm, we were at the Branch President's house when the power finally came back on for our area. Such a relief! It was so hard to do studies in the morning with little light. Also, Tuesday night, President Jeppson told us that it is unsafe to use indoor candles. We, being obedient missionaries, immediately put out all of our some 50 candles. Sad. We lost a lot of light from that. No flooding around us. I saw a newspaper article from the Daily News last night at a members house. I could not even believe the amount of damage that happened in New York and the Jersey Shore. Most likely, when the gas shortage lets up, President Jeppson will be sending us to the Jersey Shore and maybe even New York to help clean up. One picture I saw of New York, showed almost every home destroyed in many areas. Devastating. I had no idea that a hurricane could be this destructive. It feels almost unreal being part of it. My week this week has consisted of going around and trying to visit all our members and some investigators to see if everyone is okay. Pretty much everyone has food and water. Many are still without power and it's very cold. Gas is sparse. I think it'll start coming back to normal soon in the next few days as the power starts coming back to the area. I also heard that the hurricane has done about $20 billion in damage!!! 18 people have died. It's crazy. Some missionaries still aren't allowed to go back to their apartments because of flooding in some areas and the amount of devastation. I also heard of a snow storm coming in the next couple days. I hope it's mild. I'm okay. We have plenty of food. We have had plenty of food and water. We have power now. It's warm in our house. We have plenty of gas in our car. It's time to start cleaning up. I read a quote somewhere this morning from President Hinckley. I don't know exactly how it went, but it went something like this: There is so much sadness in the world. I don't know what the answer could be but this, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's true! This event is something that I'll never forget. I'll have a part in this clean up and I'm thankful for that opportunity. I was hardly affected by the storm. Our milk and eggs went bad and now our kitchen stinks from it, but that's about it. So many other people have lost so much. Pray for the people of the tri-state area.
President Jeppson let all the zone leaders know last Friday about the storm. The zone leaders texted us and told us that we would not be allowed to leave our house on Tuesday. Gradually we got updated on the storm. Eventually we were told we couldn't leave on Monday. Luckily we had prepared a little bit on Saturday night. I was planning on doing all the preparation on Monday, but the storm ended up coming on Monday afternoon. I remember one missionary opening one window Monday afternoon and hearing the wind blow so hard. You know how if you take a long stick and spin around really fast and you can hear the stick hum through the air?? I know you don't want to think about that too much because you don't want to get dizzy, haha! But the wind from the hurricane was doing that to all the power lines. It was kind of eerie. Another really, REALLY weird thing that happened. On Monday night through Tuesday, there was a really strange kind of lightning... at least I think it was lightning. I've only seen this happen once before and it was at Freedom Academy in a freak storm. It was colored lighting. I never actually saw the lightning itself. But it would light up the sky. Usually it was really close to the ground and over the trees. It would flash green or orange and it would flash for on average 5 seconds. There was one time I saw this "lightning phenomenon" happen for literally one whole minute. For a couple hours, I just sat by the window and watched this happen. It just kept going and going. It was pretty creepy actually. Hurricane Sandy really was a freak storm, especially with this lightning. I should have taken some pictures, but I don't think they would have turned out very well. It reminded me of an alien movie.. Creepy..
We played a lot of games through the storm. We played scum a lot. I learned a game called Hearts. You should buy a game called Pictionary Man. Lots of fun!
I knew you would be worried mom, but I was fine the whole time. Thankfully, nothing happened to our apartment. We live close to a forest, and a big tree fell over there, but that was the closest thing that happened. Love you! Miss you!
-Justin
Dear Mom,
I'm fine! I'm doing okay. This week has been pretty crazy! Hurricane Sand hit HARD! We've done some service for some members around here, but nothing serious. We just helped them rake up a bunch of leaves in their yards. As you probably heard, there is a gas shortage here. If your car's license plate ends in an even number, you can only fill up on even days, and the same with odd numbers. There is also a dollar cap you can buy gas. We waited in line for an hour and a half the other day for gas. Many people are telling us that that isn't a very long line either. We could only fill us $40 worth of gas. We're doing good on gas so far. So there are a lot of missionaries that live really close to the coast. President Jeppson evacuated them to other missionary apartments before the storm. We had 8 missionaries with us when the storm came. It came earlier than we thought. It was supposed to hit shore on Tuesday morning, but we were quickly ordered to stay inside on Monday. We got the brute of the storm on Monday afternoon. It honestly wasn't very bad around our apartment. Monday around 5:00pm is when we lost power. When we were finally allowed to leave our apartment on Wednesday at noon, we got to see the damage that Sandy caused. The biggest damage that happened to the Plainfield, Middlesex, and Scotch Plains area was trees. There are (or better said, were) lots of old trees with weak roots. They were very big and fell over everywhere. They fell across roads, blocking off traffic. They fell on houses and tore off parts of houses. They fell on tons of power lines causing power outages almost everywhere. They quickly got to work on fixing all of the damage. Last night at around 9:00pm, we were at the Branch President's house when the power finally came back on for our area. Such a relief! It was so hard to do studies in the morning with little light. Also, Tuesday night, President Jeppson told us that it is unsafe to use indoor candles. We, being obedient missionaries, immediately put out all of our some 50 candles. Sad. We lost a lot of light from that. No flooding around us. I saw a newspaper article from the Daily News last night at a members house. I could not even believe the amount of damage that happened in New York and the Jersey Shore. Most likely, when the gas shortage lets up, President Jeppson will be sending us to the Jersey Shore and maybe even New York to help clean up. One picture I saw of New York, showed almost every home destroyed in many areas. Devastating. I had no idea that a hurricane could be this destructive. It feels almost unreal being part of it. My week this week has consisted of going around and trying to visit all our members and some investigators to see if everyone is okay. Pretty much everyone has food and water. Many are still without power and it's very cold. Gas is sparse. I think it'll start coming back to normal soon in the next few days as the power starts coming back to the area. I also heard that the hurricane has done about $20 billion in damage!!! 18 people have died. It's crazy. Some missionaries still aren't allowed to go back to their apartments because of flooding in some areas and the amount of devastation. I also heard of a snow storm coming in the next couple days. I hope it's mild. I'm okay. We have plenty of food. We have had plenty of food and water. We have power now. It's warm in our house. We have plenty of gas in our car. It's time to start cleaning up. I read a quote somewhere this morning from President Hinckley. I don't know exactly how it went, but it went something like this: There is so much sadness in the world. I don't know what the answer could be but this, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's true! This event is something that I'll never forget. I'll have a part in this clean up and I'm thankful for that opportunity. I was hardly affected by the storm. Our milk and eggs went bad and now our kitchen stinks from it, but that's about it. So many other people have lost so much. Pray for the people of the tri-state area.
President Jeppson let all the zone leaders know last Friday about the storm. The zone leaders texted us and told us that we would not be allowed to leave our house on Tuesday. Gradually we got updated on the storm. Eventually we were told we couldn't leave on Monday. Luckily we had prepared a little bit on Saturday night. I was planning on doing all the preparation on Monday, but the storm ended up coming on Monday afternoon. I remember one missionary opening one window Monday afternoon and hearing the wind blow so hard. You know how if you take a long stick and spin around really fast and you can hear the stick hum through the air?? I know you don't want to think about that too much because you don't want to get dizzy, haha! But the wind from the hurricane was doing that to all the power lines. It was kind of eerie. Another really, REALLY weird thing that happened. On Monday night through Tuesday, there was a really strange kind of lightning... at least I think it was lightning. I've only seen this happen once before and it was at Freedom Academy in a freak storm. It was colored lighting. I never actually saw the lightning itself. But it would light up the sky. Usually it was really close to the ground and over the trees. It would flash green or orange and it would flash for on average 5 seconds. There was one time I saw this "lightning phenomenon" happen for literally one whole minute. For a couple hours, I just sat by the window and watched this happen. It just kept going and going. It was pretty creepy actually. Hurricane Sandy really was a freak storm, especially with this lightning. I should have taken some pictures, but I don't think they would have turned out very well. It reminded me of an alien movie.. Creepy..
We played a lot of games through the storm. We played scum a lot. I learned a game called Hearts. You should buy a game called Pictionary Man. Lots of fun!
I knew you would be worried mom, but I was fine the whole time. Thankfully, nothing happened to our apartment. We live close to a forest, and a big tree fell over there, but that was the closest thing that happened. Love you! Miss you!
-Justin
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