October 28, 2013

Dear Mom,

I just emailed Logan Kitchen. It was pretty easy to guess his email. All the missionaries have the same set up. He emailed back pretty quickly. He didn't have much time, so it was a short message, but he's there! He had forgotten that I was in NJ. I don't know where in NY he is, but hopefully I'll find out next week when he had more time to email.

For zone conference, we had three zones meet up. A zone usually consists of about 20 missionaries. President and Sister Jeppson met with many other mission presidents and their wives for a mission president seminar about two weeks ago. During those mission president seminars they tell the mission presidents about upcoming events and other things like iPad's. President Jeppson found out that our mission will probably get iPad's next April. So I won't be able to use them at all. Apparently our mission was one of the last missions on the list to receive iPad's. We don't know why that is, but it is what it is.

It's crazy that it's already been a year since Hurricane Sandy hit. It's gone by so fast.

That's cool to hear about a new car! I've always kind of thought that I want a Cadillac Escalade. They look so fancy and nice. I think that I would be sad to not see the old suburban again, but I kind of accepted the fact that y'all were most likely going to find a new car before I got back from my mission. The suburban is a 'hole in the wallet' it seems like. Hopefully it would run nice like the truck and have few problems like the truck. I think it's a good idea. Less car problems = less stress. No dvd problems in the car on the way to Boise = happy trip.

Q of the W:

1.  What will you be doing for Halloween?

We will be staying inside. The day before Halloween and the day of Halloween, we're supposed to be in our apartments by 6:00 pm both days.

2.  How has your camera been for you?  Been taking pictures?

I've been taking a few pictures. I'll send one today.

3.  Do you need anything for Christmas?  I know it's too close to when you get home to send any type of gift...any ideas?

I've only been able to think about that a little bit. I really don't know what to do. I was thinking about just having you do presents as if I were coming home before Christmas and then I'll just open them up once I get home. What do you think about that idea?

So this last week I was hit with the realization of how cold winter can be. I've been walking around in the blazing heat for so long that I think I almost forgot how bad the cold can be! This last week the highs have been in the low 50's and the high 40's. On a few occasions, it was accompanied by lots of wind. It's been cold! I've worn a sweater every day this week. I even took out a small pair of gloves I have to keep my hands warm so I don't have to walk around with my hands in my pockets.

On Wednesday we had our zone conference. President Jeppson made that announcement about the iPad's and also informed us that this would be the last zone conference for some missionaries, including me. :( The next zone conference will be held in January. The time is running short for me now. But anyway, remember me telling you about that missionary work fireside that we did a few weeks back? At the end of that fireside we sang "Army of Helaman" in Spanish. Well, it turns out Sister Jeppson got word of that and volunteered us to sing it again at zone conference! haha! We did a great job and it turned out really, really well! The Spirit was strong in the room. It was a great zone conference. I had to get my temple recommend renewed after the meeting by President Jeppson. I first got my temple recommend because I was going on my mission soon. Having to get it renewed is just another sign that I'm ending my mission soon...

We had a cool experience with a potential investigator named Alan this last week. We finally went to his house a week after he had contacted us in the street. When he answered the door he was happy to see us but he said that he was busy cooking dinner and that we should come by another day. A few days later we knocked on his door again. He answered and said that he looked up on mormon.org and he "doesn't buy it". I was pretty surprised to hear that. We started talking to him a little more and he finally invited us in. His concern was that he doesn't think that Christianity could die out. He said that it's cool to hear that Christ came to the Americas, but that if He really did, Christianity would not have died out. He said that if He really did come, that the Native Americans would be Christians. That's a valid doubt. I saw it as a sincere faith-driven doubt shrouded by misunderstanding about wickedness and apostasy. At first I didn't even know where to begin to answer his question. I had never heard that before. Then the answer came to me. The Spirit gave it to me: We look at the New Testament and Jesus Christ Himself, the God of the Earth, was persecuted by many people, primarily the Jews. Why? The Jews had professed to believe in God and in the coming of a Messiah. So why would they not believe in Jesus Christ? Well, years after Moses, the people at large fell into apostasy. The knowledge about who Christ was was lost and when the Messiah finally came, people didn't recognize Him. People can choose to believe what they believe. Christianity was lost years before the coming of Christ in the flesh and that's why He was persecuted and killed. Luckily, Christianity has lasted in some form after the death of Christ and His Apostles. Unfortunately, the people in the Americas lost the knowledge of Christ completely just as the Jews had in Israel. We have another appointment with Alan this Thursday.

Sunday proved to be a more difficult day this week. We ended Saturday with no appointments set for the next day. We put down names of people that we could see, just hoping that people would be home on Sunday. We didn't have too much luck. It was about 8:15 and we didn't really have too many people to try. We were pretty close to our apartment so it's difficult to walk to a lot of people because by the time we get out there, it'll be time for us to head back to the apartment. We then remembered somebody that we had knocked into while looking for someone else about a week ago. Her name was Rosanna and she had some family members there as well. We decided to try them. Since it's getting darker a lot sooner now, I feel kind of bad for knocking on people's doors when it's pitch black outside. But we knocked on their door and they let us right in. There were six people in the house. We don't know how many of them are family. It seemed like a lot of them were family, but they could be friends. They were all Dominicans. One of them has been here in the United States for 19 years. Most of them have only been here four years and one of them has been here for three months. They were very surprised at how much Spanish I could speak! haha. Once I started talking to them more they seemed very surprised how much I know Spanish! It was a good feeling. We taught them a little bit about the Book of Mormon and they agreed to let us over next weekend! That's six new investigators. We're going to try and make sure that we can get all of them over there too.

Last week I bought some new khakis. We're allowed to wear lighter colored pants now. I also bought a new white shirt because all my other white shirts aren't so 'white' anymore. I'm going to wear this new white shirt to meetings and stuff when I want to look extra sharp. I bought these at Marshalls. The pants were $20. The shirt was $14 and is a little nicer than the ones I bought at Mr. Mac. That's my birthday tie too.

Love you!
-Justin

October 21, 2013

Dear Mom,

You can for sure plan out a fun birthday for you. I'll be glad to do whatever. Especially a movie. It's going to be fun. I've heard that it's a tough experience getting released as a missionary as well.

Wow, that's crazy about William. I knew that they were going to want to go to CJ's and talk! That definitely sounds like William. When I found out that he was coming back for knee problems, I knew that I was going to be able to go to CJ's with him, haha. Hopefully I can talk him back into going on a mission, even though it'll take a while for his knee to get better. A year is a long time to wait to go back on a mission. I think that it's harder to go back on a mission because when you're on the mission you realize how much you actually don't have from the world, like technology and communication and your time. Once you’re in that and come back from it, it's hard to go back into that consecrated time. There is a missionary that I got to know pretty well that went home and then came back out. He said that it was pretty hard to come back out, but he's super glad that he got to come back. He loves the mission now. He struggles with Spanish but he has a super strong testimony and knows why he's here on a mission. He's a really good example of that.

I had no idea that James Pickard was even on a mission. That's super cool to hear that though! I'm happy for him. Does it say if he's speaking a language other than English? Also, if you could try and figure out about Logan Kitchen. I've been dying to know if he's left on a mission or not.

Q of the W:
1. What do you do when you can't reach your investigators during the day?

Sometimes if we really need to get a hold of them, I'll call them several times throughout the day. Many times, if I call them around 9 o'clock, I'll get a hold of them.

2. Is it common to stay in the same place transfer after transfer?

It's pretty common to stay in an area for four transfers, which usually equals six months. I haven't heard of too many cases where they're in an area for more than that. I'll probably be in this area for five! It's also pretty rare to only spend one transfer in an area, which I did towards the beginning of my mission in Paterson. So I guess one never really knows.

3. In your opinion, are the members there super strong in the church or does it just vary among people?

It really depends on the person. I think more people are stronger in the church in Utah and on the west coast where the Church is more prominent. But I have definitely seen some super strong members out here. Our Bishop is one of those people. He's a convert. He was baptized when he was 17 or 18. Served a mission. Married a returned sister missionary. Has three kids now. Another super strong member is Mercedes. She's in my area and she's been a member for about four years. One of her favorite parts about church is visiting teaching. She loves to visit other people. The only thing she ever complains about is about other people complaining not wanting to fulfill their duties about members. She says that she doesn't understand why people don't want to do home teaching and visiting teaching. She doesn't understand why people don't want to come to church every Sunday and take work off on Sundays to keep the Sabbath holy. She's awesome. I don't think I know of many other people like that.

This last Wednesday, we had an appointment with a less-active member. We decided to watch part of President Uchtdorf's talk from the Saturday morning session of this past General Conference. He talked about how much everyone does in the Church and how much we sacrifice. Then asks the funny question, "Why would anyone want to join such a church?" Our less-active member, Juan, laughed. He knows about the Church still and remembers a lot about what we do. Then later, President Uchtdorf asks another good question, "If the Gospel is so wonderful, why would anyone leave?" I feel like that really hit Juan. He didn't respond vocally or physically when President Uchtdorf had asked that question, but I certainly felt that it was a good inspired question directed to him at that moment. Juan didn't come to church yesterday. I wasn't quite expecting him to either. I think that the journey for a lot of people takes them a little while longer before they come back into full fellowship; not because God doesn't want them to come back so soon, but because they choose to not be ready to come back right now. Juan was baptized a few years back and remained active for a little time before going completely inactive. Not many active members know who he is. So that's tough. He doesn't have anyone he knows in the church right now. I learned from that lesson that General Conference truly is inspired for not only those who attend in the moment, but for many people to study in the weeks, months, and even years to come.

We had the chance to meet the husband of a less-active member. She has been a member almost her whole life. She attributes her nine years of less-activity to busy work schedules and no time. She wants to come back to church and she wants her nine year old son, Marco, to be baptized. So we've been teaching him. Since the day we first met her, she's talked about how her husband used to meet with the missionaries a lot and cook for them every time they came over. She always told us how he loved to visit with the missionaries. Her husband, Hector, also has a really good friend that lives in Texas who has been a faithful member pretty much his whole life, and who also served a mission in Chile. So it sounded like Hector had a lot of potential to be baptized. So every time that we've gone over there to teach Marco, I've asked about when we could meet Hector. Well, this last Friday, we were finally able to meet him. He cooked for us :) It was a delicious pasta too. Tons of cheese, but not too much to over do it. He was very enthusiastic and a very cool guy to be with. He was born and raised in New York, but his parents were from Puerto Rico. So his first language is English. The less-active member, Jackie, has learned English, and she teaches at an elementary school. But throughout their marriage, Hector has learned Spanish. He speaks Spanish better than I do. He's very fluent and sounds almost native. He enjoys speaking Spanish with us too. We had a fun time visiting him. He loves to joke around, so it was hard to have a serous lesson with him, but we got in a lesson. It was an interesting lesson. He mentioned how he loves the Book of Mormon. His comment was, "It's an amazing book. John Smith couldn't have made it up." Haha. He's been away from the missionaries for a while. He said that he wants to be a Mormon some day. We're going to work on his testimony. He has a great attitude about it all, but I think right now, he's more converted to the church and its people rather than the Savior and His Gospel. No problem though! He's a great guy! Hopefully in a few more months, they won't be a less-active part-member family anymore.

We also got to see the Munoz family this Saturday. At least two out of the four of them. They haven't been reading the Book of Mormon. I asked Brother Munoz why he hasn't read. He said that he just doesn't like to read. So we talked for a little bit and then we decided to read a couple chapters out of the Book of Mormon with them. We read out of 1 Nephi 6-7. After we finished reading, Brother Munoz told us that another reason he doesn't like reading the Book of Mormon is that once he starts reading it, he doesn't want to put it down because the stories are so interesting and cool. He said that he doesn't like to read for so much time. It's an interesting excuse to why he doesn't like to read the Book of Mormon. I didn't really know how to respond to it. Haha. The Munoz family is great. They are just a little lazy! They didn't come to church again, ever after I committed them to do so. There's not much else we can do to help them out. They're really on their own right now.

Well, this upcoming week is zone conference. We'll get trainings from President and Sister Jeppson and hear some news about the changes coming up. President Jeppson found out that our mission will probably receive iPads April 2014. A little late for me, but hopefully I'll have something similar of my own by then.

Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

October 14, 2013

Mom,

The library I'm at is actually open today so I'll be able to email you today. I'm not getting transferred, so I'll stay here another six weeks in New Brunswick. I think that it's most likely that I'll end my mission here in New Brunswick. I think that that's very possible.

So cool news about Uncle Ronnie's note: I wasn't there. My companion was on an exchange a few weeks ago when they opened the door to see a $1. They didn't pay attention to it and just stuffed it further into the metal lining of the door frame. I mentioned it to my companion this morning about how I couldn't believe someone would just take that $1 bill. Apparently he wasn't paying attention when I had told everyone earlier about my uncle leaving a note. So I checked the metal lining this morning as we left to come do emails and I found it! So now I have it. Thanks Uncle Ronnie!

That's crazy to hear about Luke! He hasn't told me anything about it. Every once in a while I'll get an email from him. He'll send something small out to all us friends with a picture or something.

I'm getting excited about those movies!

I'm a little confused. For the mock ward council are you trying to fit in this family (in which the wife is a 7th Day Adventist) to show how it's supposed to be done? Or is it for real that that family actually moved into the ward boundaries?

Q of the W:

1.  So...do you know what day of the week NJ missionaries usually come home?

They always go home on Wednesdays. We always have a transfer conference, where President Jeppson announces where everyone will go when they're transferred. Then those that go home give a farewell testimony. Then the departing missionaries go to the Mission Home for dinner and spend the night there and wake up on Wednesday morning and fly home.

2.  Do you get invited to go to ward council meetings now?

Not yet.

3.  Do you ever just go to a less-actives house to leave a spiritual message instead of teaching the gospel?

Yes. Sometimes we don't want to push them too hard because they can be sensitive and pushing them hard will push them away. You really have to find the balance on what you can share with them and what you can invite them to do.

Last Monday night, we were on our way home from P-Day stuff and the missionaries told us about a member in the hospital. His name was Chris and he had just gone through a bone marrow transplant. The missionaries had gone over a couple weeks prior to give him a Priesthood blessing. Both the missionaries we were with were in the middle of a cold so they didn't want to risk getting Chris sick in the hospital. So we went to just talk to him for a little while because he was going through some depression issues with all this. Chris was a missionary just a few years ago in the Dominican Republic. Right before he was hospitalized he was working in the Coast Guard. He was pretty cool. His older brother was there as well. He was visiting from Virginia. So we talked with them for a little bit and then left them a spiritual message. It was a cool visit.

Well this week was somewhat of a slow week. It was hard to get in contact with our investigators. It just seems like everyone is so busy. That's what makes missionary work hard sometimes is how busy everyone else is. It makes it hard to stay busy when everyone else is too busy for you. I think we just need to talk to people more often over phone and just really push for appointments. I think these last few months in New Brunswick have taught me how to plan well. It's a little more tough to plan when it takes us 15 to 20 minutes to walk anywhere. So it really takes effective planning to make sure we can get to places on time and also to visit all the people we want to visit.

I'm enjoying the weather a lot more as well. It's not nearly as hot anymore. It's been averaging in the low 70's and the high 60's lately. This last week we had a couple days with a high of 63. I unpacked the sweaters! It's definitely starting to cool down and the winter is coming. My mission is coming to a close and I only have two transfers left now. I'm considered among other missionaries as 'ancient'. There are very few missionaries who actually know who my trainer was! There are also other missionaries that were really good missionaries when I came here that aren't known anymore. It's a strange feeling. I don't really know what to think of it. I'm getting excited to come home, yet at the same time I love teaching. I'll just go with the flow and when it comes, it comes. "Come what may and love it" right?

Love you mom! Miss you!

-Justin

October 7th, 2013

Mom,

I'm relieved that you got my package. I got a little worried about it last week but I'm glad you got it. Feel free to read any of those books you want.

About the note that Ronnie left, I'm sure somebody stole it... That's sad. I hear all the time from members and investigators that they leave their shoes or something right outside their door and it gets stolen within a few hours. The missionaries that were working in my area about a year ago had bikes that they would use to get around. They got stolen. The mission had a couple more bikes that they gave to those same missionaries, and about a week later they were stolen as well. New Jersey is just full of people that like to steal. Sad. I appreciate the note though! Even though I didn't get to read it. We did give a little cheer when they mentioned New Jersey, especially the New Brunswick/Rutgers part! There weren't too many people in the chapel.

Oh yeah, they had a ton of shout outs to New Jersey during General Conference! Elder Christofferson even mentioned New Brunswick and Rutgers! Rutgers is in the state university and a lot of the campus is actually in my area. Super cool. I actually bought two Rutgers shirts a couple weeks ago. I'll have to take a picture of them and send them home. They're pretty cool shirts. I actually just found out yesterday that Elder Christofferson's missionary plaque is in the New Brunswick chapel. He served back in the 60's. I'll have to take a picture of that too.

Concerning the cockroaches, they do try to kill them, but they don't really try to get rid of them forever. I've only seen a few in our apartment. It's not really a problem though. I keep our apartment pretty clean.

I'm so excited to try that Chilean/Peruvian restaurant in Provo! It sounds authentic to me. I want to go and talk up Spanish with them. It probably didn't sound too much like Spanish if they were from Chile or other places in South America. It's a little different than Mexican Spanish sometimes.

It feels really good to be a missionary in this time. The hastening the work thing is awesome. Somebody in General Conference talked about how it talks about hastening the work in D&C 88:73 "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." So I looked up the scripture and in one of the footnotes it lead to Isaiah 60:22 " I the Lord will hasten it in his time." The Hastening the Work project by the Church is fulfilling an Isaiah prophecy! Well, actually I am helping to fulfill that Isaiah prophecy. I love it!


Q of the W:

1.  Do you still have the opportunity to practice at the piano?

Not a whole lot. When I see a piano though, sometimes I'll go and play a hymn or something really quick. On Pdays, if I get the chance, I'll play those other songs too.

2.  Do you ever get 'nervous' about doing anything on your mission?

Not too much anymore. I feel pretty confident about most things. I still get nervous talking to people in the streets sometimes.

3.  Have you seen any big changes with the ward members - how they are supposed to help the missionaries more now?

Not yet. I'm still waiting on that. I don't really know how many members in our ward actually saw conference. There weren't too many that came to the chapel, so that means they watched it on the internet or they didn't watch it.

So we're working more with Stephanie and her baptism. We've had really good lessons with her. Yesterday we had a lesson with her and basically reviewed all the lessons we've had with her. She doesn't know yet if the Book of Mormon is true. She also doesn't know if she's ready to keep some of the commandments like tithing and the word of wisdom. I assured her that that's fine and that she'll come to have those desires more as she comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true. It's slow progress with her, but she wants to get baptized eventually. She has good desires.

We are also visiting with this guy named Francis. A few months ago, we got a referral from the sister missionaries. They gave us an address to a guy named Edgar. We found him at that address, but it was always hard to find him home. He was working a lot. Francis was the guy that usually answered the door and he was always pretty nice to us. Eventually he asked us about what we do and what we teach. So we picked him up as an investigator. We still go by to try and find Edgar, but mainly we are teaching Francis now. He's been reading the Book of Mormon a lot. This last week when we sat down with him, he started talking about what he had read. He told us that Laman and Lemuel are dumb, haha! I'm glad he's understanding it! It's a good sign when investigators get mad at the antagonists in the Book of Mormon.

Friday morning, we got a call from some other missionaries some what close by. They said that some missionaries in Perth Amboy have a member who went to the hospital which was right by my area. The member had requested a blessing but the missionaries in Perth Amboy were too far away to come to the hospital. So they texted us which hospital she was in and her name and room number. This is like the hundredth time I've been to the hospital to give a Priesthood blessing to someone. It always seems like a maze trying to figure out where the room is and you lose your sense of direction. We walked into the room where she was supposed to be and we got a warm welcome from two Spanish members. It's always so great to get a warm welcome from two members that you don't know. The younger one, the daughter was there with her mom who has a kidney infection. The daughter is in the Relief Society presidency in the Perth Amboy branch, and the mom is in the stake Relief Society presidency for the East Brunswick stake. Good faithful members! I love meeting random members.

General Conference was absolutely wonderful. I enjoyed every second of it. I was thinking that I wish conference would last as long as it did when I was 12. It went by super fast. I think the fastest one for me was the first one on Saturday morning. I couldn't help but think at the end that next time around, I'll be in Utah. I'm also hoping that maybe some of us could go to one of the sessions in the conference center. That would be super cool for me!

Last thing, transfers are coming up again this next weekend. I might stay and I might leave. I've been here for three transfers.

Love you! Miss you!

-Justin