Dear Mom,

I was hoping they were free! Haha! I was getting pretty tired of those Rockports. I'm going to try and walk better and hopefully these pair of shoes will last longer! Thank you so much mom! Those shoes feel a lot better. I still feel a little ankle pain when I step on something wrong, but I do feel it a lot less with good shoes. That's cool that they had my information on what I bought. Hopefully I won't have to replace any more missionary shoes. However, I have had a problem with running shoes for a while. Remember those puma shoes I came out with on my mission. Well, last fall they became pretty worn. Well, I found some other shoes in the apartment that some other missionary had left a while ago. So I've been using those shoes I found for a while, and I threw away those pumas a while back. I'm getting tired of these shoes, because they just aren't very good quality. I'm going to start looking for new running/athletic shoes soon. I might be able to buy some today. Just so you know that I'll be using some personal money pretty soon. Thanks for all the other goodies in the package too!

We'll definitely have to visit here someday. I just don't think that it would be a very good vacation for the two little girls. I don't think that they would enjoy it.

Just let me know as soon as you can about my credit card. I'll remember to run it as credit.

Update on Antonio, he left the hospital yesterday. Aparently the doctors told him to take it easy and he can't work for a month, at least. Sad, but he wasn't enjoying the hospital at all. So I'm sure he's glad to be home.

 We've been visiting with a lot more very less-active families this past week. We found a less-active member that hasn't been to church for many years. He said something like 10 years, so I don't know. His name is Giovanny. He's from Ecuador. He's pretty receptive to us. I think I talked a little about him last week. We saw him again on Saturday. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He liked it. He said that he for sure was going to come to church the next day. He never showed up. Sometimes, I just don't know how to get people to come to church.

On Tuesday, we saw two more less-active families. One of them is the Galicia family. Sister Galicia has a very strong testimony. She comes to church every once in a while, but she mainly goes to the ward down in Jersey City. Something happened to her and brother Galicia a few years back, and now they don't want anything to do with the members here in Union City. I don't really know what's going on with them, but she asked us to tell the Bishop that she doesn't want any member from Union City to even try to visit her. Kind of weird, but when I asked her if we can still come by, she said, "of course, we really want you two to come by." Interesting situation. I have no idea what to do with them. They've been to the temple and everything. Brother Galicia has a testimony too, but he hasn't acted upon it for the past couple years. He told us that it's been years since he's even prayed. When Elder Koellicker was here a couple weeks back, he promised us that if we read the Book of Mormon for at least 30 minutes every day, we will never go less-active. I'm taking that promise! Becoming less-active is very sad. I always feel bad for those members we meet that have gone less-active. They lose so many blessings and comfort from the Holy Ghost.

We also met with a very less-active member on Wednesday named Mario. I honestly think that he never really even had a testimony in the first place. It doesn't really feel like he has lost anything. He enjoys it when we come over. We started showing him those Mormon Messages on LDS.org in Spanish. He really likes those. We keep inviting him to church, but he has work at 11. But he could still make it to 30 minutes of Sacrament Meeting. He takes very small baby steps. Right now, we're just trying to get him praying and watching more Mormon Messages on his own. He's progressing, but very, very slowly. He's a nice guy and fun to work with.

On Sunday, we finally had the baptism of Brian Montes. We've been working with him for about two months. Brian is 15 years old. He's been a pretty good investigator. He was always reading. He's really good at doing his homework, so naturally he starting reading the Book of Mormon and kept reading it. He said that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true and he wanted to be baptized. It was a great baptism. We had it right after church. All the missionaries in Union City (six of us) sang Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy in Spanish with two of the missionaries playing guitar. It all went pretty well!

After the baptism, we drove two other elders back to their apartment, because they live a little further away. After we dropped them off, we drove by a small little Islam booth by the side of the road. My companion and I wanted to get a Qu-ran, but I won't ever buy one. They had a banner that said 'free books'. So we stopped by and I got out to quickly go see if I could get a free Qu'ran. They were pretty nice! They shared with me a little bit about their beliefs. They said that they believe in one God; that Adam and Eve were the first people on earth; that God has sent prophets or messengers to tell us God's will; and that Jesus Christ was a good person who stood for righteousness; and that this earth is just a temporal state. They didn't even budge the foundation of my testimony of the Church. They didn't speak any Spanish, so they asked me what my tag was. I told them that I'm a Spanish missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then I told them that we believe that God has sent a prophet to us in these days to continue to lead us and guide us. It was a pretty interesting encounter. Men don't touch women in their culture. But hey, I got a free Qu-ran to read after my mission! I felt bad afterward because I didn't invite them to read the Book of Mormon. FAIL! I'll know better next time. You live, you learn. Now I know better when I meet another Muslim; I'm going to invite them to read the Book of Mormon!

So that's about it for this week! Remember that next week is transfers. It's very likely that I'll be transferred from Union City. SAD! I'll let you know for sure next week, and the following week I'll tell you where I've been transferred to if I end up being transferred.

Love you lots mom!

 1.  (question from Kelsie)  How many companions have you had so far, not including the MTC?  Make sure you keep the numbers to the cute ones for Kelsie.

I've had six companions on my mission so far. Haha! I actually had a missionary from California ask if he could write to Kelsie. His name is Elder House. He's black.

2.  (question from Julia) How many baptisms have you been a part of?

I've been part of seven baptisms now.

3.  (question from Kelsie..again)  What is your response to people when they ask "how do you know the church is true?"

 It really depends on the situation. Usually I'll tell them that I just know. My Heavenly Father has helped me understand and I've felt the Holy Ghost tell me that it's true.


-Justin

Dear Mom,

I think that those 5 families that Bishop asked you to choose are part of the Perry Push Plan. It's a reactivation/retention effort. I don't think that it's in Preach My Gospel. It'd be interesting to hear about that plan from Elder Perry himself. I've only heard about it. Our Bishop right now in our ward has assigned each companionship in the Union City ward with five families with which we will focus our less-active work. It seems to be working. We're starting to see a less-active family coming back to church. It's a very gradual process, but it's starting to work. The ward is going hard on home teachers and visiting teachers. The Bishop is visiting them and the missionaries (me) are going over there weekly with members from the ward. It's a big effort but they all came to church last week for the first time in a LONG time. Pretty great!

I'm a little sad to hear about Kameron as well. I remember he was in my German class during my senior year in high school and I remember that he would say that he hopes that he can go to Germany on his mission to learn German more easily. Oh well..

You should take a picture of the Called to Serve calendar. I'm getting to the point now that when people ask me how long I've been out their response is, "Wow! You've been out for a while. When do you go home?" It's been an interesting experience. Weird though. I still have to go through another fall and the beginning winter before I go home, but it's right around the corner. It's scary!! Then I have to start life...

This week we said goodbye to one of our investigators. Her name was Mabel. Her grandma lives just at the edge of our area. Her name is Rocio. She's from Columbia. She joined the church a few years back. She's the only member of the church in her family. When her granddaughter came to visit her for a month, we picked her up as an investigator. The lessons went great and she said that she believes that the Book of Mormon is true and she wants to eventually be baptized. However, we had one problem. She was going to move back to Spain where she was living previously. So this last Tuesday, she left to go back to Spain. We got her address in Spain and we had the Mission Office here send the information over to  one of the missions in Spain. I haven't heard anything yet as to if the missionaries have contacted her or not. But she's pretty much a guaranteed baptism! We prepared her well.

Also on Tuesday, I had lasagna for the second time on my mission. We went to a members house from the Dominican Republic. She cooked it very well! Still not as good as yours. I miss lasagna and other foods like that. But I don't know how I'm going to get hispanic food back in Utah, haha! Bitter sweet like always.

If you remember me mentioning Antonio Gonzalez, our ward mission leader. He had to go to the hospital the end of last week. He got pnemonia. He's doing alright, but he needs just a couple days in the hospital. A couple of us went to visit him on Saturday, and the rest of us went on Sunday after church to go visit him. He's an excellent ward mission leader and really helps us out a lot. He's a good friend of all the missionaries. He keeps in contact with almost all the missionaries. He doesn't have much family because of what happened to him when he was little. It's a crazy story, but all of it happened so that he could eventually get away to the United States and a few months later run into the missionaries! He's awesome!

Then yesterday for our preparation day, we went down into Hoboken. We went to the piers down there and I finally got the pictures that I wanted. I'll send some pictures to you. I'll have to do it one email at a time because the email can't send multiple of them because it makes the file too big... I don't know. I took a bunch of pictures for a panoramic view of the NYC skyline. Next time I'm at walmart, I'll print them off and put them together and see how it turns out. We spent some time just chilling at the pier just talking about life and gazing at the NYC skyline. It was a pretty awesome experience! I really want to do it again. Hopefully next time I can do it, I'll actually be able to go into New York. We also walked around Hoboken a little bit and went to some stores. We went into a pizza shop called Benny's and got pizza slices as big as a baby and also went to a 7-11 and I got a slurpee. It was probably one of the best pdays! It was very relaxing and wonderful. It'd be awesome to be able to spend a lot more time there, but eventually we had to walk back to the car and get back to work. That night, we found a less-active guy that hasn't been to church in many years. He welcomed us right in and agreed to letting us come back and teach him more. He knows about us missionaries and asked us a little bit about our missions. He's from Ecuador and I told him that my uncle Conrad served in Ecuador and said that he loves his country! He asked which part he served in, but I don't remember what part of Ecuador Uncle Conrad served in.

Great week this week! This week should be pretty good as well. Transfers are coming up not this weekend but the next. I'm probably going to get transfered. I'm going to miss this area!

Q of the W:

1.  I was watching the Today Show and they were at the Jersey Shore.  Apparently they have rebuilt that area and were celebrating.  Have you heard of anymore places that have overcome the hurricane?

I've just heard of the Jersey Shore. I also heard of Seaside Heights being completely destroyed. I don't know if that's up and running yet, but I heard that it's going to take another year or so to build it back up.

2.  On pday do you hang out with just your companion? or as a group?

Usually as a group. It makes it more exciting that way.

3.  Are there any huge water-parks where you are?  like our Seven Peaks?

Not that I heard of.

I forgot my PIN for my credit card..

PS. That's also super sad to hear about Channing. I became pretty good friends with him. He wanted to teach me how to ride motorcycles. He would always tell me how dangerous motorcycles were too... He kept asking me if I was going to buy a motorcycle or not. I kept telling him that for sure after the mission I was going to get one. I still want one, but I don't know if Channing will continue to ride them..

Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

Dear Mom,

First of all, sorry for getting back to you on Wednesday. I thought that we were going to have P-Day on Tuesday, but we were informed late last week that we were going to do P-Day on Wednesday. Also, before I forget, next Monday is a holiday, so the libraries will probably be closed. We might be able to find a place to email on Monday, but we're not sure quite yet. Just so you know!

That's cool to hear about 24. I'll be home for that so we can watch that together! Woah, I think that that's the first thing that I've said that I'll be home for when it comes out. I'm coming up on 7 months left. That's not very long at all. Summer has started and then it's the holiday season and I'm home. Crazy..
 
So to start out, the meeting we had with Elder Koelliker was great! I've actually already met him. Last fall, when I was working in Plainfield in the Scotch Plains Stake, he came to talk to the Scotch Plains Stake about family history. So after the Stake Conference, I went up to shake his hand and to talk to him for just a second. I don't think he remembers at all about our encounter a couple months back. Haha! This time, he talked to us missionaries about using the ward more in our missionary work. The wards and branches in which we serve should be a huge part of our work. He also talked about the role of the Stake President. He has the keys and responsibilities for missionary work in his stake, not the Mission President. President Jeppson has the keys to preside over us as missionaries and convert baptisms. That makes sense because the members should be doing plenty of missionary work. He also talked to us about a calling that I've only heard about on my mission. It's the Ward Mission Leader. He's is the assistant to the Bishop on missionary work in the ward. He works closely with the missionaries who are assigned to that ward. In my past areas, the Ward Mission Leader hasn't really helped us out a whole lot. In Union City, the Ward Mission Leader is Antonio. He's great. He helps out a lot. So now all the missionaries know that we need to have a functioning Ward Mission Leader that is willing to help us out. It was a great meeting! We met at the Paterson Chapel for that meeting, then the Paterson members fed us lunch. The next day, I woke up with some stomach and digestional issues. It turns out that pretty much all the missionaries got more or less sick. Some sisters got pretty bad and had to stay home. I just had to make a running trip to the bathroom a few times that night. I'm all better now though. Haha! It was terrible.

On Sunday we had an interesting Stake Conference. They called it a regional conference. We had President Packer and Elder Perry speak to all the stakes in New Jersey and New York from a room in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. We just watched a broadcast just like everyone else in these two states. It was really good and Elder Perry straight up told all the members that they aren't doing enough to help the missionaries and that a prophet of God is telling them to do a lot better and teach with the missionaries and give them people to teach. He also talked about how the members can do that better. He talked a lot about Preach My Gospel. Hopefully the members will step it up. Utah is so different! It just makes me feel so grateful that our neighbors on all sides are endowed, sealed, active families. It's going to be pretty cool to be able to think of how nice my neighborhood is going to be. That's cool. I just don't know how I'm going to continue to do missionary work when I get home...

 
Q of the W:

1. When someone is baptized, do a bunch of missionaries come or just the 2?

Usually all the missionaries that are working in that Ward or Branch come. Sometimes, if a missionary helped that person get baptized and they live close, they'll come too. Our zone leaders come to almost all the baptisms just as support from the zone.

2. Are you ready for the hot and humid weather?

Actually, these last couple days have been very humid. It's not very fun at all. That little weather station thing you sent me for my birthday said that it was about 80% humidity yesterday. I felt like I had just taken a shower and didn't make any attempt to dry myself before putting clothes on. It was a horrible sensation. Next three months, here we go...

3. Did Alan Castro leave on his mission? I saw a picture of Facebook of him with a badge on?

No, and I don't think he'll leave for a while. He just plays around sometimes. He doesn't take much seriously, and he doesn't have a job. He doesn't really want to get a job either. Haha, the Bishop isn't very happy with him right now, because if Alan does leave on a mission soon, the ward is going to be completely supporting him. Alan hasn't saved up any money and any money he does get, he spends super fast. He's a good teacher though. He helps out a lot when he comes out with us.


Love you mom! Talk to you next week!

Dear Mom,

Tell grandma that she still needs to do one next year too. I want to go to that thing again and help out and be in the Norwegian culture.

It was a lot of fun for me to skype as well. I'm really thankful for the Quezada family for letting us come over and using their ipads. We actually ended up talking to them for a little bit afterwards. They're all from Chile. There aren't very many Chileans over here, so it was a cool oportunity to be able to talk to them a little bit more about their country. Brother Quezada is from a city called Valparaiso. It got that name because it is known to many people as a city of paradise. If you pull apart that name: Valparaiso, you get 'va al paraiso' which translates as 'go to paradise'. He says that it's a very beautiful place. But then he said that basically the whole country is very beautiful. I found out that Chile and Argentina are very different from other hispanic countries. Many Hispanics aren't exactly super clean and neat and organized in their homes. However, Chileans have a lot of European culture in them. The Quezada's house is a lot different than most of the houses I go to. It had nice furniture and it was clean and everything was nice. It was a really cool family.

This last week we were able to teach Jenny, the girl that just got baptized, a little more about the Priesthood. We weren't really planning on teaching her about that, but we just ended up teaching her about it. We were talking a little bit before the lesson. Her boyfriend Josh, who is a little less-active, was with us as well. We taught her in the chapel because that was the easiest place to meet for us. We got on the topic of horror movies and creepy things happening after watching them. Haha! Jenny said that she gets scared of watching horror movies because of that. I told her what you said that grandma told you: If you watch movies like that, you're inviting Satan to sit right next to you. But, I told her that we do have more power than Satan, and that if we don't do anything to invite him, but he comes anyways, we can tell him to go away. I told her about the experience that grandma in Bountiful had when she heard the bang above her and then grandpa came in and commanded it in the name of Jesus Christ to leave, and it left. Then I related that to the story in the Bible when Jesus is on the boat with his disciples during a giant storm. Then his disciples ask him why he doesn't care. Then Jesus wakes up from his nap and commands the storm, "Peace, be still." -Mark 4:39. Then the storm immediately stops. Then I learned something new. As children of God, we are the only thing in the universe that has the ability to choose. Satan and his followers do not have free agency. Neither did the storm that was going on when Jesus and His disciples were on the sea. Neither do the trees or the mountains (Jacob 4:6). We can tell a person to leave all day long and they can still choose to stay there. However, as soon as it be the will of God, Satan and his followers have absolutely no choice whatsoever. No agency. They lose it and they are not allowed to stay. The storm in Mark 4 had to obey Jesus. It had no choice. It had no agency. It followed and obeyed Him. As children of God and those that followed His plan, we have inherited the ability to choose. I learned this while I was teaching Jennifer. Pretty cool experience. Then we talked about how we should surround ourselves with the Priesthood and remain worthy to be able to call upon the blessings of the Priesthood. It was an awesome lesson!

Great week this week. I really enjoyed talking to everyone. Next week I probably won't email on Monday, because we're going to have a zone conference with Elder Koellicker, or something like that, of the Seventy. The missionaries that are working in Zones 1,2, & 3 are going to meet with him on Monday, so we're switching our p-day to Tuesday probably. I'll let you know how that meeting goes with him. It should be pretty good!

Love you mom! Miss ya!

Q of the W:

1.  Do you go to the same ward/branch every Sunday?

Yes. The Union City Spanish Ward

2.  How was your dinner on Sunday night?  Yummy?  I should learn how to make it whatever it was called...

They are called baleadas. I don't know how to make the tortillas. But it's scrambled eggs with like cut up ham/turkey bits in it (or if you want to be fancy, steak strips), refried black beans, a creamy cheese that I don't know if you would be able to find at Walmart, and avocado. WAY GOOD! I'll pay attention to the cheese next time and maybe I'll ask her to write down how to make the tortillas. Pretty simple.

3.  How long are you able to practice piano on p-days?

Depends on the pday. Usually about an hour or so.

Dear Mom,

So for next week's call, I'm pretty sure that we're going to be doing it around 5:30 pm ~ 6:00 pm our time, so around 3:30 pm ~ 4:00 pm your time. We have already asked a member in our ward if they have Skype and they said yes. We're going to confirm with them in the next couple days. So we should be good with that. President Jeppson has asked us to keep this call to about an hour. Just so you know! :) I'm looking forward to it!

It's great to hear that everything is going well!

This week has been a crazy week. There was a lot that happened. To start off, on Tuesday, we ended up teaching Alan Castro and his mom at McDonald's. They love the missionaries! Every single time we go over to their house, whether it's just to pick up Alan to come out with us, or to see how they're doing, they ask us if we want to eat. Most of the time we say no. We don't want them to always be cooking for us. Anyway, they wanted to take us to McDonald's to feed us and we wanted to teach Alan a little bit out of Preach My Gospel so that he can be more prepared when he leaves on his mission. He's working on his papers right now. Some legal issues and some GED problems are keeping him from going right now. But he's going to be an excellent missionary! We figured out that Alan is doing what I did before my mission. He's staying up to about 3:00 am and sleeping in to about 11:00 or 12:00. I found a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that says that you're supposed to take care of your bodies by forming good sleeping habits. (D&C 88:124) There is also a talk that dad referred me to by Elder David A. Bednar in which he says that the Spirit cannot work through us if we have bad sleeping habits. ("Ye Are the Temple of God"). So we shared that with Alan. He realized that he should be doing better, so he said that he's going to try harder now to follow a better sleep schedule. My sleeping habit was so fun, but it's not good! Haha! It's funny how I'm teaching that now!

That same day, we met a pretty interesting guy named Edgar. He's a pretty muscular guy. We're not teaching him though. We were trying to get in contact with one of our investigators and we ran into Edgar. We started talking to him. He kept telling us how much he respects us and what we do. I'm pretty sure that this guy has been in gangs and stuff before. He also told us that he used to deal drugs and all that. Pretty cool guy though. He told us a story of when God helped him out. He said that his friend one time told him that he was going out for the night and he wanted him to go with him. He told his friend that he didn't have a good feeling and that he didn't want to go. He ended up staying home. Then Edgar told us that God had protected him because that night, his friend ''caught a body''. I was pretty sketched out by that phrase, but I asked him anyway. He said that it means that you killed someone. Yeah, he is a pretty sketchy guy. He just got out of prison like a year ago, and now he's under house arrest. He showed us the government bracelet on his ankle and everything and how much he hates it. He kept telling us how much he respects us. He told us that he's grown up in the ghetto of ghettos and no matter where it was or how bad it was, the Mormon Missionaries would always be walking down the street and nobody would ever touch them. He told us that we have some sort of special blessing on us. Then he said that he couldn't imagine how anyone could ever make fun of us. I told him that New York City already did. He didn't know about the Book of Mormon play. After that, he kept telling me, 'You gotta be kiddin' me dawg! You gotta be kiddin' me!' He was a pretty cool guy. I just don't think that I want to teach him. He practices Santaria, which I'm pretty sure is a mix between Catholicism, voodoo, native African religious practices, and Satanism. But I guess he's got our back! Haha!

Then on Friday, we had our interviews with President and Sister Jeppson again. I just love being able to talk to them! They are so much help always! President wanted me to see how much I've grown since the beginning of my mission. It's cool to see how far I've come. I still got a long road to go, but President helped me see that my mission has laid the foundation so far, and will continue to lay the foundation for the rest of my mission, for continuing to learn and grow for the rest of my life. I'm glad that I chose to go on a mission. It's been hard so far, but totally worth it!

So every month, we have a mission focus. This month is on prayer and repentance. So all the District Meetings that we do have a central focus on that topic. We also have more direction from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve that missionaries need to spend about half their time working with less-active members. I was kind of surprised by that at first, because I thought that missionaries are all about just teaching new people about the Gospel. But then I started to think about it more and it makes sense! Sometimes less-active members have a hard time listening to other members, but the missionaries are almost always completely trustworthy. Especially out here because missionaries have played such a big role in pretty much every member's life. Whether they were baptized by the missionaries or the missionaries helped their family, it doesn't matter, the missionaries are loved. Then I was also talking with a returned missionary in the ward. He's on break from BYU-I for the summer. His name is Danvirg, and he served in the Toronto, Canada mission a couple years ago. He told me that Elder Bednar came to his mission and helped to stop the 'knocking doors all day', by telling the missionaries that they are not finders, they are teachers. Totally true! Now the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve want us to start focusing WAY more on less-actives. Half our work should be finding and teaching 'the lost sheep'. I love it! Less-actives are an excellent way to find more people that are ready to receive the Gospel and to continue to change lives and seek for deep and lasting conversion. Sometimes, members I think need to fall away for a time in order to become more deeply converted; although it is better if they don't have to. But I think that that's why we're focusing so much more on our less-active brothers and sisters.

Q of the W:

1.  Right now on your mission, do you speak more in Spanish or English?

During a regular day, I would say that I speak more Spanish than English. Days like preparation day, I would say I speak more English.

2.  Are the people in Union City generally nice? (Any kind strangers out there?)

People are only nice if you're nice to them. They'll say hi back usually. There are people that won't say hi back. I don't know what their problem is, haha! Maybe they're afraid that we'll talk to them!

3.  Did you get your package? and I hope the Toffifay didn't melt.

I did! Thank you so much! Mom!!! Did you make a copy of "All of Me"?? That would be such a cool song to play. Did you try playing it? Also, do you still practice piano? What do you do to keep up on it?

Love you mom! Talk to you next week! For the last time! The next time I talk to the family it will be Christmas, and I'll be two weeks from going home.. Crazy thought, right?

-Justin

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