Dear Mom,

I stayed! I'm still in Union City! And I'm still District Leader!

This week was a good week. It was pretty busy too. On Tuesday and Thursday we had English class. We've started English Class at the chapel. Antonio Gonzalez has offered to come and teach it every Tuesday and Thursday. The missionaries take turns coming to help out every week. This last week was our turn. Basically all we do there is pronounce the things that they're learning so they can hear a native voice. It's actually pretty funny to hear them try to pronounce things sometimes! English is such a hard language. I keep telling myself that I was that way with Spanish about a year ago. Plus, English is a harder language to learn.

This last weekend, there was a returned missionary that served in New Jersey that came back to visit some members. He came to church on Sunday here too. He was actually a very well-known missionary. He served in Plainfield too and is well-known there too. He baptized somebody there that ended up becoming the second councilor in the Branch Presidency in the Plainfield Branch. When he came here to Union City this last weekend, he asked about some of the members that he used to visit. There are some members that have slipped through the cracks over the years. He served in Union City just about two years ago. He gave us some people that we could try that would be good potentials. He goes back to Utah this next week to continue studying at BYU. After seeing him visit the mission, it made me really want to make sure I come back after my mission to visit!

This last Sunday, we ended up eating quite a bit again. We went to a members house right after church to eat some lunch. It filled us up. One of the sons is named Ovidio. He's like 15, but he seems a lot older than that. It's funny because he reminds me a LOT of William. I told him that I wanted to start calling him William. He has the same personality as William and everything. He doesn't really look like him though. We had a good time there. (Side story: The other week, I saw his dad at church. He's really cool too, but doesn't like to come to church for some reason. I noticed that he had a pretty nice watch on and I asked if I could see it. It was a Rolex. I told him that my dad has a Rolex too and talked to him about how my dad explained to me how you can tell if it's a fake Rolex or not by how the second hand works. He said that I was the first Elder to know that! Haha! I don't know why I wanted to share that with you, but I thought it was funny. They're a way cool family.) After we visited that family, we went to a birthday party that we were invited to by some other members. They fed us as well, even though I wasn't hungry. I ate, because she told us that Elders who don't eat her food don't come back to see her again. She was half joking, but I ate anyway. She got upset at us when we told her that we had already eaten and that we were probably going to eat some more. It wasn't a serious upset, but it was one of those 'mom' upset, where she still loves us just as much, but she doesn't know why we're setting up so many eating appointments. Then after that, we drove out to Secaucus to some more members. We were also meeting some of our investigators there. It was a dinner appointment. We got there kind of late, and they had already eaten. They saved some for us and had us eat. I was really full, but I was also surprised with how much I could stuff down! It was probably because it was all pretty good food! Pretty crazy day!

I sent a letter to grandpa Lee the other week asking him a little bit about Patriarchal blessings, because I teach about those every once in a while. Grandpa gave me some great insight to them. I've used it, but now I have more questions! Haha! We taught Jennifer, the girl who just got baptized, about them and she really wants to start working towards getting one. It's so cool, because about 3 months ago, she hardly knew anything about the Church. Now she's reading the Book of Mormon on a regular basis, preparing to go to baptisms in the temple, and starting to want her friends to come to church. How the Gospel changes lives!

I've heard a little bit more about the bombings. I heard that too that it wasn't Al Queda. That was a relief for me. It was just two crazy kids instead of a real enemy. Still just as sad.. I didn't hear about the NYC part though. That would have been really scary. The town just north to us is called West New York. There are a few parts in West New York that you can drive basically right next to the Hudson front. You can see into Times Square from there. That was cool! You can see those giant monitors going and all the flashing lights. I'm sure that if those kids would have been able to make it to NYC, our trips to the temple might have been cancelled. We get to go next month in June!

I do remember going to Deer Valley. That would be way cool to go see him sing. I can't imagine him singing either. When we go to Disneyland, we are for sure going to that restaurant.

That reminds me, is there an estimated finish date on the Meridian, Idaho temple?

That's great to hear about Kyle! I'm glad he's trying to keep up now! Is he getting A's now? I hope that he can keep that up during high school.

Q of the W:

1.  Do you hear big city noises where you live (or lived) in Union City?

Yes. There are sirens almost constantly. I like to sleep with the window open to get fresh air in. When I first got to Union City, I was woken up almost every night by an ambulance driving by with sirens going on full blast. I think I'm getting used to it, and I usually just sleep through the whole night.

2.  How have you been on teaching children lately?

We're not teaching as much recently. There are a couple children that we like to teach, but not very often.

3. Have you made plans yet on where you will skype us on Mother's Day?  We plan to be in Bountiful.

We've been thinking about a few members that we could ask. Union City shouldn't be too hard to find a place.


So that's it for this week! Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin


PS: Spencer told me about Jesse Rackiewicz. He quit his job and is leaving in his parents basement playing video games and watching movies. He says that he feels lonely. Pretty sad.. We're going to try and talk to him more.

Dear Mom,

So my camera works! I had somebody in the ward help me figure it out. Apparently, the cord that I use doesn't charge the camera. It only attaches it to the computer to download pictures. I've been going off one charge since the Christmas I got it. The guy in my ward bought me a battery charger and wouldn't let me pay him back for it. Now I'll have a battery charger for my camera. I'm confused too. I thought for sure I was charging the camera the whole time. The guy at the electronics store said that the little hole that I plug the cord into is not connected to the battery to charge it when I plug it in. I don't know how I went that long on one charge, but whatever! It's working now!

Last Monday, before my camera was charged, This same member took us down into Hoboken. Hoboken is right by Union City, however it's down a cliff right on the Hudson front. Union City is almost all Hispanic and Hoboken is as American as it gets. We went down a main street where all the shops are. We went by a shop called Carlo's bakery. I guess that's where they film Cake Boss on the Food Network! I never knew! I've heard of that show but I don't ever remember watching it. We didn't go in because there was a line on the street to go in. Then we went to a shop called Benny's. They sell pizza slices as big as a baby. It was a huge slice and it only costed $3. They had a huge TV on the wall and that's where I heard about the Boston Bombing. I was kind of a little bit captivated by the news. I may or may not have watched it while I ate my pizza... Not too many people have talked about what happened there. I feel like Hispanics don't really like to watch the news, so I don't hear about anything going on. I just hear about stuff from the youth in the ward and other missionaries or TV's in tempting hard-to-avoid places... After we ate the pizza, we passed by a German Bakery shop. We went in. The guy working there was from Germany! I tried to speak some German with him but I failed pretty badly. Oh well, at least I speak Spanish just fine! Then we went to the pier. They've built a giant pier that goes way out onto the Hudson river. That's as close to NYC you can get in New Jersey! I felt like I could reach out and touch it, or swim there. It was way cool! At that time, my camera battery was still charging. I'm going to have to go there another P-Day and take some pictures. It was really cool! That will definitely have to be a place to go visit. Hoboken has a lot of cool looking restaurants too!

This last Saturday we had a service project in the Clifton/Paterson area. I got to go back to Paterson again. We helped clean up a park that was damaged by the hurricane and years of lack of care. We came in with a bunch of plastic bags and picked up a bunch of garbage. It was pretty fun. We picked up fallen branches and pilled them up so the park would look nicer. It was pretty nasty at some parts, because I found hundreds of what's called nickel or dime bags. That's how they sell marijuana. They come in tiny bags that look like button bags, those bags that have a button you can sew onto a suit or pants if a button falls off. Those bags were everywhere. I found a couple needles too. They had special precautions for those. They got their own separate bag and were picked up with mechanical hand by one of the guys in charge of the service project. They're disposed of properly after that. It was a fun project. They gave us all t-shirts to remember it.

Not much else happened this week. Just teaching lessons. We're finding some cool investigators. I also might be leaving this next week. Transfers are coming this next weekend. I've been in Union City now for 4 and a half months. I could go. I hope I stay, I really like this area!


I only remember Donkersgoed. Vimahi sounds familiar but I don't remember anything about her. I've heard all lot of good things about Wilcock.

So Roy's Quiznos is a real Quiznos or is it his own thing?

Great story about Chubs! I love to hear them!

I can't believe that Jaime and Patrick are already coming home. I guess it kind of does feel like two years, but at the same time they kind of flew. I feel like my mission has been flying by. I'm at 8 1/2 months left. I'll be coming home in no time. I'm used to the mission schedule now. It's easier to wake up now, because the sun is coming up earlier. I think I've just become accustomed to New Jersey and the mission. I miss even more having my own schedule, but I know that I'm going to miss terribly teaching people.


Q of the W:

1.  Why is a branch a branch and not a ward?  Do you know what the difference is beside the size?

I think that in order to be a ward, you need to have a certain amount of active Melchizedek Priesthood holders. Also, a Branch President does not have as many rights as a Bishop. A Bishop is a Judge in Israel and has responsibility over a ward to guide it. After a Bishop is released, they are still a Judge in Israel, but do not have that personal responsibility over a ward. That's why we still address them as Bishop. A Branch President, I think is a temporary Judge and are not addressed as President when they are released. They also don't necessarily have to have the Melchizedek Priesthood or be married. It's preferred I imagine, but not a necessity.

2.  What's the name of the store that you guys do your grocery shopping at?

We shop at Wal-Mart, but there is another store that we go to on occasion called Aldi. I think that it's the east coast version of Winco.

3.  I should be sending you some more contacts soon...anything else you need?

Just that sheet music "The River Flows in You" if you can find it. Also, if you can get the Jon Schmidt music called "All of Me", that would be cool!


Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

Dear Mom,

Let me know what the title of that book is. I did read one book that's called Chosen Soldier. That was the last book that I finished before I left on my mission. I'd love to have a good book to read when I get home.

Too bad Kyle didn't want to take a language. I was looking forward to helping somebody with a language class when I get home. I can image that it was hard to get a class with Mr. Embley. I don't think he teaches very many other classes besides German. From what I remember, he taught all German one day, and other classes the next. What are the names of Kyle's teachers? I'm wondering if he has any of the same teachers that I had.

Grandma told me that Roy's new sandwich shop (Quiznos, whatever it is) already opened. I'm really curious to how similar it is to Quiznos. Grandma told me that the some of the Johansen kids went up to help it open up. Grandma is impressed with Josh! I can't wait to see Josh again. It's been so long!

How often does Julia play as goalie? Is that her favorite position?

That's really cool to hear about Kelsie. What kind of leadership position is it? Is it like student government for the college or what? When does she start?

How did you end up getting a pull-up? Haha! That's great! Have you and Kelsie been keeping up with P90X?

I'm excited for Julia and the piano. I was talking to another Elder this last week. He's way good on the piano. He's like Brother Drake that plays the organ. You give him a sheet of music and he'll had a million notes onto the music. This Elder also can just make up music on the spot by knowing the chords and what notes go well with which chords and knowing all the minor and major chords and scales and stuff. I want to work to be like that. He said the secret is just hours and hours on the piano. He was taught a little bit, but he just spent hours and hours on the piano just messing around. I think that Julia is going to be the same. She's just going to be ridiculously good at it.

I'm looking forward to Skyping as well!

Yesterday we had the confirmation of Jenny. She was really excited. We had a lesson last Wednesday about missionary work. She wants to start inviting her friends to hear the Gospel. She does have a friend in mind that came to her baptism that is willing to chat with us. Jenny told us that her friend doesn't want to convert, but is willing to talk to the missionaries. Jenny is excited to do missionary work. Then on Saturday, we had another lesson with her to teach her more about the Holy Ghost. It was a good lesson. She's going to be a good member for a long time. After she was confirmed, she came up to me and told me that she felt the same feelings I was talking about when I go into the temple. She felt really calm and quiet and a really good feeling. It is experiences like that that you want to have, because when hard times come you can always go back to those last spiritual experiences. Jenny should be going to the temple in the next few weeks to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. She's really excited to go. She has a good friend in the Church that's studying at BYU-I right now. Her name is Christine. She should be coming back to New Jersey soon to visit, so they'll be going together. Pretty awesome!

On Friday, we had a zone conference. President and Sister Jeppson were there. They both gave great talks and there were a couple other missionaries that gave great talks as well. We all learned more about what it means to be a good missionary. We also really focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how to teach it. It was a really good conference. It took up most of the day. We had lunch there provided by the local members. I love these conferences. They're always so spiritual and kind of a quick break from teaching all the time. We get some instruction instead of giving instruction.

Later on that night, we got to visit the Robles family. They are a great little family from Peru. The two little kids are 6 and 8. The mom has been a member a long time, but went less-active when she moved the United States. She's been wanting to come back into the church for a while now. She really likes the church. Her husband isn't a member but wants to learn more. Unfortunately, he's extremely busy with work and it's really hard to get in contact with him. We're still trying though. The kids really like the missionaries. They always look forward to when we come by.

After that, we met up with a couple other missionaries at the Bishop's house. Every once in a while, we all visit with him to talk a little bit about the ward and some other things. His wife loves to cook for us. She cooked what are called Baleadas. It's a tortilla with scrambled egg, meat, a really good Mexican cream cheese, and avocado. It was a good night.

Then on Friday, we went out to lunch with some other Elders. One of the Elders comes from a richer family who sent him $50 in gift card to Red Lobster. So we went to eat at their lobster fest. I tried lobster tail and crab legs. Not bad at all! Very expensive, and I don't think that I would pay for it, but it was good. Lots of butter! I guess you can't escape the sea food in New Jersey!


Q of the W:

1.  Do you want me to find a cord for your camera for you and send it to you?  Let me know and I will.  I want you to be able to take pictures...

I had a really nice member buy me a cord by surprise. Unfortunately, it's not the cord that's the problem. I don't what it is. I'm going to go to a Radio Shack today to see if I can't fix the problem.

2.  Have you ever heard from people about a ice cream shop called Jersey Freeze?  I saw it on Food Network and it looks like the best.  They serve soft serve ice cream only but lots of different flavors.  They are in Freehold NJ which is south of you.  Just wondering if it's that famous or not...

I've never heard of it. I'll keep it in mind if I ever go to the Freehold area. I know that there are missionaries that are living in the city of Freehold.

3.  Seth e-mailed Kelsie today asking about you!  What other friends have you heard from lately?

I've been in light contact with Seth. He seems to be doing okay. Tanner is great at emailing. All my other friends aren't. Tanner wants to talk to Jesse. So we're trying to figure that out right now. Other than that, nothing.


Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

Dear Mom,

I really enjoyed General Conference. At the Union City chapel, they brought a TV into the Relief Society Room and transmitted it in English. All the other Elders were there along with some members who speak English and wanted to hear it in English. We weren't too packed into that room. When Elder Christofferson came up to speak as the last speaker, it was cool to say that I met him! It was even cooler when he started quoting from Les Miserables! Now I want to see that play again.

I can't remember where, but I remember hearing about that thing for Jurassic Park. I thought that that would have been something cool to see.

That would be super cool for Kyle to do an Eagle Project for my mission!

That's so cool for Kelsie! When does she get back? I'm not going to be going to the temple in the month of June. That would be way cool to run into her. But the JFK airport is so far away from New Jersey. From what I remember, JFK is pretty far from Manhattan as well. How long is her layover in JFK. Where does her flight go after JFK? I'm super excited to hear about her trip!

I'm excited for Kyle and a foreign language. That'll be cool to see what he wants to do. Has he said anything yet on if he wants to take a language?

That's super sad to hear about the Quiznos. That's good to hear about Roy and him opening up a new shop. I wonder how that will go. I guess there's no more stress about Quiznos anymore. I can't wait to try Roy's new store. Keep me updated on how that goes. Do you know when it's supposed to open? Is it going to be pretty similar to Quiznos?

Well, I can't wait to see everybody again! That's funny to hear about Linda! We've got a good family!

So last Monday, we visited a family in our ward. The Martinez family from Mexico. They're a great family. The dad was Bishop just for a couple years until a family problem came up and he was released. It wasn't his fault at all. I think if that problem hadn't come up, he would still be Bishop right now. He's in the High Council for the Stake now. Half the family is somewhat less-active. However, they just had their son return from his mission in Brazil. His name is Brian. He's way cool. He took us out to eat at a small Peruvian restaurant between the two Saturday sessions of Conference. Unfortunately, he has to leave again in two weeks to start a job in Minnesota. He's going to sell security systems, knocking doors! Haha. He's not looking forward to it to say the least, but it pays well. He's been a great help, because many, many less-active members love him. He would be a great help in activating some members. So we're trying to work with this family and helping some of them get more active in the Church. It's kind of hard sometimes. But I love that family. They absolutely love the missionaries. Every time we go over there, the dad always says, "Have you already eaten? Do you want something to eat? Something to drink? We have gatorade. We have juice." Then we say, "We're okay. We're not hungry." Then he says, "Are you sure? I can go grab something really quick. It's just down the street. It's no problem." Then we say, "No Bishop. We're fine. Thanks!" Then he asks us if we're sure again. We always end up drinking some gatorade though. We have to accept something they're offering! It's a great family! I won't forget them.

Then on Wednesday, we found an amazing guy. I told dad the full story because I thought that he would enjoy it more. So we found a guy named Andrew. He's only 26 years old and he's worked in Afghanistan in the Special Operations. While he was serving there, his humvee got hit by a bomb. He was sitting on the top, so he was blown from the vehicle about 30 feet. When he got up to go back to the humvee, he was shot twice in the chest. He had on his bullet proof vest, so it didn't hurt him too bad. It did break some of his ribs though. When he fell to the ground after that, one of his ribs punctured his lungs. He had some other crazy experiences. Something else happened to him last year and he can't walk without a cane. He's really cool. He's from Puerto Rico. He speaks English mostly, but he is native Spanish. We didn't share too much with him. Tomorrow we're going to teach him again.

On Friday, I had a training for District Leaders at the Mission Home. I always love going to the Mission Home. It's the only place that feels closest to home. It's nice and peaceful there. It's an actually house with it's own yard and driveway. It's just really nice there. We had a little training from President Jeppson on how to be better District Leaders. Then they fed us lunch. Spaghetti. It really tasted like a home-cooked meal. I like Hispanic food, but I really like American mommy meals sometimes too. It's always so great to see President and Sister Jeppson.

Later on that evening, we went to go see a returning member (from less-activity) family. It's a mom of two girls (11 years old, and 15 years old), and their grandmother. We watched a couple of those bible videos about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Those are pretty cool videos. I wish I had time to watch them all. Do you know if they've compiled all those into one movie?


Q of the W:

1.  When you watched Conference, where did you eat between sessions?  Did they have food at the church?

We had a special mission fast after our evening meal on Saturday until after the final session on Sunday. But between sessions on Saturday, Brian Martinez took us out to lunch.

2.  How is your camera lately?

I haven't had time to go look for a cord. I haven't been able to take pictures.

3.  Have you been writing in a journal?

Yes I have. I'm about a week behind, but I'm keeping up on it.


I have a couple questions:

I remember that we had the piano music to a song called "The River Flows in You". That's a song on a CD that another Elder has. He can play it on the piano. If you could find that, could you send it to me. I'd love to learn it!

Also, how do you know if Clorox has chlorine in it? I want to start using bleach on my white shirts. The tag says that I should use a non-chlorine bleach. I don't know how to find that. I think that during the summer, the sun and heat does more damage to white shirts. They might start turning yellowish....


Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

Dear mom,

Yes. I did get the package! Great tie! I love it. I wore it at church yesterday. Thanks for all the candy and stuff. I like it all.

For Easter, we only had two dinner appointments. They weren't too big. I don't think the Hispanic culture is the same as the American culture during Easter. I didn't hear of anything doing anything special. We did have those two dinner appointments, but I think that we would have eaten even if it hadn't been Easter. Last night, we went to a members house. The mom is from Peru, and the dad is from Guatemala. He made us his famous hamburgers. They were pretty good! It's been a while since I've had a good hamburger. It kind of reminded me of a nicer restaurant!

We also had an Easter baptism. President Jeppson was really busy with several other baptisms yesterday that he and Sister Jeppson weren't able to make it. He did call later on yesterday and talked to us about the baptism. Yes, I did baptize her. Cool experience! She's one of those golden investigators. We didn't do very much to get her baptized. With so many other people, we try and try to get them to come to church and they don't know about getting baptized. Jenny was pretty fast though. She already had some friends in the Church, a couple of them less-active. Now they're starting to come back. I think that those are the people we should be looking for. Those that come to church because they already know that it's something that they have to do. I think as soon as we taught the Restoration of the Gospel, she realized the importance of coming to church. She's quick to understand. As missionaries, we really helped her out a lot and we answered a lot of her questions. We're good friends with her now. At the baptism, we had Bishop Chavez give the welcoming to the ward for her. He said something really cool. He told her that she's the pioneer for her family. The Gospel in her family starts with her now. She now has to work with her mom and her sister and with her cousins. He then asked her how old she was. She's 18. He then said in a year we'll talk about serving a mission and he started laughing! Haha! Our Bishop is amazing! Jenny laughed too. I really think that Jenny has potential to serve a mission. She'll get confirmed in two weeks, since this next week is General Conference.

This last week has been pretty tough. For some reason, a lot of people have been setting appointments and then they don't show up. It's really frustrating. A lot of them are members too. I don't understand that. I was talking with another missionary a couple days ago, and he's been running into the same problem lately too. People just put us on the bottom of their priority list a lot. Sad, but true. I think that for some reason, people have been more busy these past couple days because of Easter, so they're not home as often. So that's been pretty frustrating. Hopefully this week will improve since there isn't much going on any time soon.

Last Friday we had a youth come out with us for a day. The Stake that we're in did something called Ammon Academy. They took all the youth from 16-18, and set them apart as full-time missionaries for a day. Then they sent them with us missionaries to see what real missionary work is like. It was kind of a weird set up. We got a youth that goes to the Union City Ward, but he lives in the area of the other Elders. So when we saw a couple members, he was just visiting members in his same ward, so it wasn't anything too weird for him. I heard that other youth missionaries went a little farther than that. It was cool though. His name was Oscar Salomon. We got to know him better. Now when we see him at chuch, we know him a little better. That's cool.

Well, the rest of this week has been pretty boring. Nothing out of the usual. I'm glad that the weather is finally starting to be better. I don't have to wear my heavy coats anymore, which is really nice. Yesterday, I just had a light sweater on. I loved it!
 
I do know Angel Cordova! He's a member in West New York. West New York is just north of Union City. We'll do exchanges with missionaries in West New York every once in a while, so I've met some members from there. Angel is cool. He reminds me of someone, but I can't remember exactly who. Angel just recently got his mission call to Madrid, Spain. I think he's leaving end of July or August, something like that. He's cool though!

Oh man. If Kyle is going to PG, try and get him to take German!!! Or at least get him a class with Mr. Embley! Mr. Embley will recognize that name immediately. I remember when Kelsie had started to sign up for her Junior year, maybe, at PG and she had signed up for a history class or something with Mr. Embley. I remember Mr. Embley asked me one day if I had a younger sister that went to PG. So he'll know our name! It'd be way cool if Kyle talked to him and let him know how I'm doing. But Spanish would be cool too. I wonder if any other teachers will recognize that name. There were a couple other teachers who know our name now at PG.


Q of the W:
1. Will you be watching General Conference at somebody's house?
They should broadcast General Conference to the Union City chapel in Spanish and in English. We'll just watch it there.
2. Time to ask again....Do you need more Diovan or contacts?
More contacts in the next couple months.
3. Have you ever had a companion that got sick where you had to stay home all day?
Not too often. Usually we'll tough out a cold for a couple days. I think one time I had to stay home. I just read a little more in the scriptures and relaxed. It wasn't too fun. I couldn't go outside or do anything.


Love you mom! I'll talk to you in a month or so!

-Justin