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