Dear Mom,

So this past week, it's gotten to be pretty cold. I have a sweater on and my two-piece coat from Mr. Mac. I also have a scarf and a hat. My gloves are also very nice. I'm just trying to find some thermals somewhere. I stay pretty warm. When the wind picks up, then it gets a little more miserable, but luckily we don't have too far to walk between appointments. Most of the time during the day we don't have many appointments, so we'll be walking around for a little longer. When about 4 o'clock hits, then it starts picking up and we have a good amount of appointments. I have my little weather thing that I got for my birthday that tells me that in the morning it's about 15 to 20 degrees. Earlier on this week it stayed about that cold all day long. A few days the wind made it seem like it was way worse. Today, it's going back and forth between snow, hail, and rain. It's P-Day so we are just hanging out at the chapel. All of our apartments are too small to fit the six of us. The past few days, it's been about 30's. Not too bad. A little bit of snow, but still nothing is sticking.

So this last Tuesday we had our interviews with President and Sister Jeppson. Amazing as always. I told a story to President Jeppson that happened to me last week. I was a little concerned about how I handled a certain lesson. I don't think I told you last week. So here's the story, we were visiting one of our investigators at a member's house. Our investigator is this 16-year old girl from the Dominican Republic named Melissa. She doesn't speak English. She's spent the past few years serving a ''mission'' spreading the word of the Bible. Good for her. She wanted to learn a little more about our Church. She's come to Church a few times now. The Wednesday before this past Wednesday, we had this lesson with her and we taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She seemed a little spectacle about it, which isn't a rare response. After we were done, she said she had a few questions. She pulled out a few pieces of paper and started asking some weird questions. When she was reading off the paper, I heard her say something that gave me the feeling (the Holy Ghost) that I needed to see exactly what this paper was. I asked if I could see it. She said sure. I started to read some of it, and I could tell that it was Anti-Mormon stuff. It was anti-Mormon and anti-Jehova's Witness and anti-a couple other things, but it was Anti-Mormon stuff nonetheless. Then I had another feeling (the Holy Ghost) that I needed to tell her straight up that these were lies. So I got up some nerve, then I looked at her and told how it was. I said these were lies and that they came straight from the devil and she couldn't read them if she wanted to grow closer to God. She said no and that God had directed her to find those. I said no, they are lies and if she wants the truth it is only found in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. She didn't have much to say after that. The member family was kind of happy about that, and then we left maybe 10 minutes later. For some reason, I didn't know if that was the way I should have handled that situation. So I asked President Jeppson. He said that he was proud of me for having the courage to act on that prompting to tell her the truth and that he doesn't think I could have handled it any other way. It was a pretty scary experience to tell someone that what they are holding is lies when they think they got it from God. I'm glad though that I was able to call her out on it! We had another member with us who is preparing for his mission. He's name is Alan and he's from Mexico. He was super happy for me when we got out of that lesson. He was telling me how much the Holy Ghost was with me when I called her out. Fun mission experiences!! We had another lesson with Melissa just a few days ago. She didn't take anything personal. She's a little confused right now. She told her pastor about that experience! It's good that she's confused. Hopefully she'll just draw back on sincere prayer. We'll keep telling her to read the Book of Mormon. Again, fun mission experiences! 

This last Sunday, we were able to go see a few other baptisms in our District. We saw a family of three get baptized in West New York and a mom and daughter get baptized in Jersey City. When we were in Jersey City, I ended up translating the baptism as it was going on for President and Sister Jeppson. It was really, really hard. That was actually my first time translating! President and Sister Jeppson said they were impressed. I guess I did a decent job for my first time translating! It was a 'good feeling' moment. The baptisms were wonderful and they were packed with people. Everyone in those wards wanted to see them get baptized! 

We had dinner at Tina and Milko's again last night. What an amazing family. They are from Bolivia and fed us a traditional Bolivian dish. I forgot the name, but it's beef, onions, green peppers in a sauce over french fries. It's not as good as it sounds, it's actually WAY better than it sounds. It was so good. 

This next week should be a pretty normal week. It's the last week of January, and I'm glad. I just want winter to end. I want spring. Not necessarily summer because summer is going to be so hot. I just want spring and fall. 

In his weekly letter to all the missionaries, President Jeppson announced that on Saturday, February 16, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is going to come to speak to our mission! He didn't say who, but an Apostle!! That's about three weeks away, but I'm already looking forward to it. Before I know it, it'll be here probably. 

Has Kelsie been hanging out with William at all? Have you talked to William at all? I want to know how he's doing. I sent him a couple letters early last year, but I never got anything back. 

Q of the W:

1.  How often do you actually tract? 

Hardly ever. We contact people sometimes, but mostly we're just working on the investigators we have and as we help less-active families, we'll find family members or friends that are interested to hear more.

2.  If you could only give one piece of advice to someone leaving on a mission, what would it be?

That's hard. If someone is preparing to go on a mission, I would say to start studying Preach My Gospel and the standard works as much as possible. If someone were leaving on their mission in the next few days, I would say learn to love the members as soon as you can. The members are everything. Missionary work does not progress without the members, so do everything you can to love the members so they can trust you.

3.  When you talk to members who are less active?  Is there a common reason they became inactive in the first place?

Yes. Work!!!! I hate work!!!!! It's the reason why so many people don't come to church. Then they get used to not coming to church and then when they finally do get Sunday off of work, they have forgotten about Church and are embarrassed, or scared, or nervous, or something about coming back.

Another that isn't as common is someone getting offended. Usually some good talk about what really is important will brighten their attitude.

Love you mom!!

-Justin

Dear Mom,

Sorry for not emailing yesterday. The library was closed for MLK day.

So first off, this last Friday I tried a food this past week that I said that I would never want to try! Sushi... There's a member in our ward who is super cool. His name is Antonio. He's from Chile. He's way nice. He's probably in his early 40's or late 30's. I don't know for sure. He's single, but has had a rough life with his family. He came to the United States a few years back. He hated it at first, but when he found the Gospel, he realized why he was here. He loves the Church and now works in the Manhattan Temple. Somehow he inherited a good amount of money, so he treats the missionaries very, very well. He took us out to a Japanese restaurant. He loves sushi. When he asked us to come with him, I told him that I've never tried sushi and that I'm scared to try it. He said, if you don't like it that's fine, you don't have to eat it, don't worry about it; but I at least have to try it. So... I did. It's definitely different. The restaurant he took us to was a sushi buffet. I tried raw tuna. I tried sushi with eel in it, crab, fish, all sorts of stuff. Some of it I actually liked. Some didn't taste too good. Others like the tuna just grossed me out. They had lots of shrimp, so I ate that. My companion and Antonio made me try seaweed. I had wasabi with all of it. My companion tried to make me try calamari. He also tried jellyfish and clams. It was a definite 'no' for me to the calamari. I wasn't even about to try jellyfish or clams. Antonio also had me try all these dessert things. They were totally Japanese stuff. There were like two of them that actually tasted okay. The rest were pretty nasty. Overall, it was a pretty good experience. I'd be willing to try sushi again, but I don't think that I'm going to put the effort in to get to another sushi place again. 

Also on Friday, we went to the Bishop's house for some dinner and to get to know him a little better. President Jeppson has told us how important it is to get the Bishop's trust and to do everything he says. He, and especially his wife, are incredibly important for our work in the ward. We have to have them know that he can trust us. So we had dinner with him and his wife, who cooked very well, and then taught him about charity from Moroni 7. Our Bishop has been known to be a little grumpy and also, unfortunately, not very private when it comes to interviewing members worthiness. It's caused some members to got less-active. We call it "Chismoso" or gossipy. He and his wife really are amazing though. I don't think they do it on purpose. When we visited them, they were very nice and welcoming. Bishop seems to love the missionaries. That's good!

This last Thursday was Zone Conference. As always, it was amazing to hear from President and Sister Jeppson. They're so amazing. We practiced how to start teaching investigators by letting them know why we're here and what we want them to do. It was really good. Very inspiring. I took notes. I will always remember President and Sister Jeppson. We're going to have interviews with them later on today. I'm pretty excited to get some one-on-one with them again. I have some questions in mind that I want to ask them. It should be pretty great!

On Sunday, we went over to a recent convert family's home for dinner. They are an amazing family! They are both from Bolivia. They have a 7-year old daughter that just turned seven on January 20, right after Kaylee turned eight. They also have another daughter who is just over a year old. They are an awesome family. Two Sunday's ago, we had dinner with them. When we were eating, they asked me what my favorite food is. I told them my favorite food is my mom's food, haha! They asked what was it that my mom made that I always loved. I said that my mom cooks Lasagna really well. They said they would try to make it the next week. Last Sunday, just over a week ago, we had Lasagna! It was actually pretty good. It was the first time that they had made it too! It was the first time in a year that I've had it! Of course it wasn't as good as your lasagna mom, haha. Just this past Sunday, two days ago, they made my companion's favorite food. I forget what it's called. It's an Italian dish too. Again, the first time they had made it. They've only been members for over half a year. Milko, the dad, has had work lately on Sundays, and he's still working on trying to get those off. They want to go to the temple. Tina usually comes every week. The 7-year old girl, Nicole, wants to serve a mission some day. Great family! We taught them the Articles of Faith. It was a Spanglish lesson, since Tina reads and speaks Spanish better and the little girl is better in English. Milko is great both ways. It's pretty fun teaching Spanglish lessons. 

We have some good progressing investigators. They're just starting up or starting to progress. Nothing too amazing with them, but I think that February will be full of getting people ready to be baptized really soon. It's going to be great!

President Trent sounds like he's doing as amazing as ever. I wonder if he'll be a mission president.. It wouldn't surprise me. I can't wait to talk to him again. I really hope he's still the Stake President when I come home. I want to be able to talk to him about my mission. I've always loved talking with him. 

I've seen that soda machine before. The only one I've seen in Utah is at the Costa Vida by my Quiznos. I've seen them a lot around here in New Jersey. They're way cool. However, I usually end up just getting the regular soda. It's so cool though!

I can't believe that Morgan is already coming home. I'm also curious as to when Jaime Ricks, Patrick McMillan, and Tyler Whitely are coming home. How much longer do they have left? I forget who else is in our ward that's on a mission. I'm sure they're all getting close. Also, who else has left on a mission in our ward since I've been out??

One thing if you could send me. Sometimes we want to play a game for FHE at members' houses. I don't know how easy it would be, but if you could find a game from Deseret Book about the Book of Mormon or something in the Church that looks like it would be a fun small game, that would be great. Also, I would need it in Spanish.. If you can't find anything, don't worry about it, we've been good at coming up with games. Make sure it's a small game too, nothing too big. I'll send my camera soon.

Love you mom! Talk to you soon! 

-Justin

Q of the W:

1.  Do any of the missionaries get sick very often?  The flu is super bad here.  Just wondering if it is there too.

I haven't heard much about the flu among missionaries. I've heard about how bad it is though. I'm drinking plenty of Orange Juice!

2.  How often do you eat at people's houses in your new area so far?

Very often actually. This area loves to feed the missionaries. We probably eat at least once a day. Last night, a member took us out to eat at a small Hispanic restaurant. Sunday, we were at Tina and Milko's. Tonight, we might eat twice, once for sure though. Tomorrow, we'll eat for sure. Thursday, we have two FHE's. We'll get fed for sure at both of them. We're pretty much always eating. Good thing it's a walking area.

3.  Have you heard from your friends lately?  I wish they had a blog.  It would be fun to keep up. 

Yes. Tanner is doing really well at writing every week. He's been really good to keep in contact. Kyle every once in a while. Luke I haven't heard from in a couple weeks. Spencer I haven't heard much from. We're all pretty busy and loving it! Tanner wants to learn Spanish after the mission along with like 4 or 5 other languages. He's getting way into the languages now! It's going to be a fun friends reunion!

Dear Mom,

I think I am going to send my camera home so you all can look at it. I just don't have any time to do anything like that. P-Day is packed enough as it is. We share a van with two other companionships. It's a little harder, but we all hang out with each other on P-Day and it makes it a lot of fun.

Spanish is coming along. I still get frustrated with it because sometimes I still can't understand people and I don't know exactly how to say certain things sometimes. But I'm working on it. When I get home, it'll be easier and harder to learn Spanish. I'll be able to read more stuff in Spanish and have more liberty to watch things and read things in Spanish. But I won't be using nearly as much as I do now. That'll be sad. I'll try and find ways to use it more often. I can order at Costa Vida and Carls Jr every day... Just kidding, that would be a waste of money.

It sounds like you had a fun birthday! I'm so happy. Next year, you might have to post-pone your birthday a couple days. I don't know if I'll be home on the 10th. 

No snow storms for a while. Luckily it's been pretty warm here. It's actually been unusually warm here. About 50 degrees during the day. About 30 degrees at night. I won't be surprised when it gets super cold though. I'm just enjoying it while it lasts!

I'm so excited for Kaylee's baptism! I'm sad that I'm going to miss it, but I'm still very happy to by on my mission. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

This past week has been pretty good. I'm still getting to know the area and the members. There are some very good members in this area. There are plenty of less-active members to work with. We actually had a less-active member contact us and ask us for the Bishop's phone number. He wants to come back. He said that he needs to work out something first and that he had a problem with some ''people''. I don't exactly know what that means, but I'll let the Bishop take care of that.

We've found some new investigators that we're very excited about. We're staying positive and we are planning on setting baptismal dates with them soon. We had an awesome lesson with a new investigator this last week. We found this lady from the Dominican Republic who said that she's pretty religious and enjoys going to her church. We found her when we went to try and see a member in this apartment building. When we were talking to  him from the downstairs lobby area. We called him from the doorbell system, another girl came in the door when we were talking to him. He told us that he's busy and can't meet with us then. When we were done, the girl (early 20's) said that we could come up and try to convert her mom. I thought for a second that she might have been a member. She's not. We set up an appointment to return. We went back a few days later with a 19 year old guy in our ward. He's from Mexico and doesn't speak much English. He is super cool! Very nice and friendly and impossible to not like. He came with us to teach her. He's putting in his mission papers right now. We had a very cool experience teaching her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She never disagreed on anything, and she had good questions. The Spirit was there and I know that she felt it. When we introduced her to the Book of Mormon, I promised her that it can bless her life more than she can imagine. She looked at the book and then asked us, "So if I don't read this book, God won't give me those blessings?" I didn't know what to say. That's a tough question to answer. Our 19 year old team up, Alan, jumped right in and said, "Of course you won't! That's why we want you to read the book." It was such an awesome moment! Alan had it perfect too. You can't receive blessings if you don't read it! I know that Alan is going to be an amazing missionary. He even shared the first vision. He had it memorized perfectly. Overall, it was a great lesson. Hopefully she responds correctly to the Book of Mormon. We've been taught that we can't 'beat around the bush' when teaching people. If we do, they won't know why we're there. They need to know it how it is, but in a loving way. Just like Jesus Christ taught. Teaching plainly and boldly the truth, exactly how we know it. Those who believed on Him, dropped everything they had and were converted to Him. Those who didn't want to, walked away and refused the blessings that awaited them. We're praying that this lady, Fabiola, will be converted to Him and His Gospel. There's others like her, but I don't have the time to talk about all of them. That was the highlight of the week.

We love our members here and are trying to help them the best we can.

Love you mom! Talk to you soon.

-Justin 

Q of the W:

1.  Did you get your 'happy halfway' package? 

Yes. Thank you so much!

2.  Do the apartments' kitchens come with all the pots and pans and other stuff?

Yes they do. Some apartment have more than others, but we have enough.

3.  When you talk to members who are not active...what is the one main question you ask them to help them come back to church?

Usually we try to get them to think about their baptism. Who the missionaries were, how they felt, and why they wanted to be baptized. That usually helps us get to know more about where we should start. Some people say things like the missionaries convinced them, or they were baptized at eight, but never went. Kind of sad, but we try our best to love them and help them.

Dear Mom,

Happy birthday this week!

My new address is: 

2029 Bergenline Ave Apt.#3 

Union City, NJ 07087

I'm in a place called Union City. Something special about this area is that it's a walking area. :) My area is from 15th street to 30th street. It's about 15 streets wide and 15 streets long. A very small area. Don't worry. I hasn't been too cold. My temperature clock thing tells me that it's about 37 degrees in the morning. During the day it gets to low 40's. I've been told that it'll get colder. Snow hasn't been here yet either. I'm sure it'll get colder but all my gear is keeping me warm. The Mr. Mac jacket is really warm and I love those finger gloves that I bought. For Christmas, several people gave me scarfs, so I'm stacked on those. I also received some hats. Although I'm not a huge fan. Today I want to go get some ear muffs. There are some really nice ones that I've seen that other missionaries have. They cost like a buck. I'm excited for this area. We're also in a ward. Finally! The ward boundaries are split up between two other companionships besides us. So there are six of us total. We're very close to the Hudson front. Union City is on somewhat of a hill. On the eastern edge of my area, there is a cliff which overlooks a small section of a town called Hoboken, then it's the Hudson front and NYC. We can walk to the edge of our area to this cliff, and I'm pretty sure that it's there that they take all the pictures of the NYC skyline. Way awesome!! I would send you a picture, but I'm trying to figure out something with my camera. It's having troubles charging the battery. It won't stay on for three seconds before it tells me that the battery is exhausted. I'm trying to figure it out. Hopefully it's a battery issue. I might have to go get it checked out and maybe buy a new battery. For now, I can't really take any pictures. As soon as I get it back up and running. I'll take a few pictures of the NYC skyline and send them! I have to tell you, seeing the NYC skyline where we were is really cool. There's nothing like it. Remember that feeling when you reach the 'G' on the mountain in Utah and when you finally get up there, you look out over the valley?? It's that same type of feeling. When we travel to NYC, we'll have to come into NJ and look at it. 

By the way, I remembered about halfway through this last week what I sent Kelsie for Christmas. I can't believe I forgot! Haha! 

The change to Union City has been interesting. I still miss Plainfield though. I think it was a good change though. I needed it. I was getting to accustomed to the area. It'll still take some time to change to this area. In Plainfield, I had the whole Branch in my area. Now I only have 1/3 of the members in my area. Getting to know the city is a little different than getting to know a driving area. In my past areas, you get to know the area as you follow the GPS to members' houses and investigators' houses. Here, we don't use a GPS really, so we just walk. I'm still just following my companion around the area. I've actually been doing pretty well with getting to know the area so far. I'm not so disoriented now. Also, we can see the Empire State Building from almost anywhere in our area. It lights up red and green at night. I'm going to like Union City a lot. I just still have to get to know the members and investigators. Something else interesting about Union City, is that the chapel here is actually one of the chapels I found on Google Earth before my mission after I got my call. I don't know if you remember when I was looking up different places in New Jersey like where LDS chapels were and when I found Linden, NJ. Well, I found the Union City chapel on there too. So it's really cool to be able to actually be here now. The chapel is actually in my area too! It's pretty close to our apartment. The chapel's address is 2501 New York Ave, NJ if you want to look it up. It has two levels of underground parking. The first level of parking is the one you will see under the chapel when you look it up. 

Nothing too interesting happened this week. I've just been getting to know everyone in the area this past week. We met with a lot of members so that I could introduce myself. It's really cool, because some people think that I'm new in the mission for some reason. But, when I start talking to them they say, "Wow, you already speak Spanish perfectly!" in Spanish. That's a good sign that I'm doing pretty good on Spanish! Then I tell them that I've been on my mission for about a year. It's cool to think that I've already been on the mission for about a year. For me, it's gone pretty quick. Now it's the countdown. I'm liking the mission a lot though. All the departing missionaries have a bitter sweet feeling about going home. They're definitely ready to go see their families again and do 'normal' things again, but at the same time, they just love to teach people about the Gospel. I'll be the same way. It'll be a very bitter sweet time. 

Well, that'll about do it for this week. Love you mom! Happy birthday. Talk to you soon.

-Justin

Q of the W:

1.  What is your companion's name and where is he from?

Elder Romrell. He's from Idaho Falls. He's really cool. His trainer is actually my trainer! We had the same trainer! So we're 'brothers' in the mission. He's a lot of fun. It's going to be a good transfer!

2.  What is your new apartment like?

It's small. A little messy and unorganized. We're working on it though. We're cleaning a little bit everyday. It's also a 2 man. We're the only two in the apartment. Not as fun as a 4 man, but we can focus better. 

3.  How was the diner you ate at last week?

We went to a place called Friendly's. It's a New Jersey chain diner. Weird. But it was pretty good. Not too expensive. It reminded me more of like Ihop or Denny's then a real diner. I think you have to go to the expensive diners to get the real 'diner' feel.

Teresa Gajewsky (tgajewsky@hotmail.com)

1/06/13

Dear Mom,

So, first of all, I'm being transferred. After 6 months in Plainfield  I'm finally done and moving on. I've also been released as District Leader. So less responsibility and a little more time to read and study what I want. I'll miss some of the responsibility and being 'in' on mission things, but hopefully in the future I'll be able to help out more. I don't know where I'm going next yet,  but I'll let you know next Monday. 

So last night, I finished the Book of Mormon challenge that President Jeppson gave us to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I was a little behind for a while, but then I buckled down and read a lot. Yesterday, I was in Mormon chapter 4. I didn't read through Ether, because that was the first book that I read in the Book of Mormon. For the last half of the book of Mormon and all of the book of Moroni, I read out loud with another missionary in our apartment who was at the same place as me, so we finished together. Mormon and Moroni were both super smart, intelligent guys! Moroni especially talks a lot about the Atonement. Also, something that I've just barely started to understand from the Book of Mormon is how much it talks about the gathering of Israel and the Lord fulfilling that covenant through the Book of Mormon in this dispensation. It's something that I haven't really ever heard of or known about until these last two months when we started to learn more about all the purposes of the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon!! It is such an amazing book!! I'll be studying it again from cover to cover and highlighting all the things pertaining to the gathering of Israel through the Book of Mormon. I'll keep you posted. 

We actually met a lady the other day who started to almost bash with us about the shooting in Connecticut. She wanted to know the answer why a just God would let children die in such a way like that. She said she knew that people can choose what they do, but she wanted to know why God chose those children to die in such a brutal way. Well, like many people, she was hardhearted and didn't understand the answer that the Book of Mormon can give her. We showed her the story in Alma 14 about Alma and Amulek. It's a crazy story about mass martyrdom. It actually says in one of those verses why God allows the innocent to die. This lady said that that story didn't answer her question, but we know it did. We also had a member with us who has been a member since he was little. He knows a lot about the Church. He was even Branch President of Plainfield a little while back and he said after the lesson that the scripture that I shared in Alma 14 should have answered her question. Some people are just hardhearted and there's nothing we can really do about it. I like the scripture in 1 Nephi 16:2. The wicked take the truth to be hard. Sometimes that happens too, haha! 

So yesterday was the day that I said goodbye to the members in Plainfield. I kind of knew that the chances of me being transferred were pretty high, so I was telling all the members about it. They were very loving about it. We had an FHE with two families last night and we brought a Church video about temples. It's called Between Heaven and Earth. Some, or a lot, of Church videos can be pretty cheesy, but this one isn't that at all. If you get the chance to see that video, it's pretty good! It teaches a lot about temples. They even get a Catholic person that I think is pretty high in the Catholic Church and two professors of Judaic studies to talk about temples. Then they have Truman G. Madsen, a temple president, President Packer, and Elder Holland testify and teach about modern temples too which is really good. After that, I said goodbye to them. I'll be going back tonight to say goodbye to some other members. I always tell them that I'm going to come back and visit. I've had a good time in Plainfield!

I can't wait to see Les Mis. I've been seeing the movie The Dark Knight Rises on DVD in Walmart! AAAHHH! One more year..

Well, I'll probably be spending the rest of the winter in my next area. I remember last year for New Years Eve, I was at Tanner's house with Luke, Tanner, and Spencer playing Call of Duty. I remember telling Luke specifically that I only had 10 days left before my mission. HAHA! One year ago.. Now we're all on missions. How great! This next year will be a good year. 2013 all in NJ. 

Another thing, there's a work out place in New Jersey that's called work out world. Their logo is Jersey Strong. It's a pretty big thing. They give out free magnets that say Jersey Strong. It's especially big among missionaries because we all love NJ now. They also sell like shirts and jackets. I might have to buy one. 

By the way, what did I send Kelsie again?? I can't believe I forgot..

Q of the W:

1.  Do you guys have any snow yet???

Yes. It melts on the roads though. It was snowing yesterday.

2.  What will you be doing New Years Eve/Day?  if anything?

Not much. Tonight we'll visit some members and that's about it. Tomorrow is transfer conference and I think we've decided to go to a diner before the conference. We're going to go to a place called Edison Diner. My first diner experience!!

3.  Has it been super cold there yet?  and how do you guys stay warm outside?

Yes. Today it's about 32 degrees. That Mr. Mac coat is really nice and I got like 3 scarfs for Christmas. One from the all-mission Christmas conference, one from a member, and one from an investigator. The scarfs help out a lot. 

Love you mom! Talk to you next week!

Mom,

The temple trip to NYC was awesome! We all loved it. We spent several hours in the temple. We woke up early on Wednesday morning to drive over to Newark to take a PATH train to Penn Station at the World Trade Center in NYC. To start off, over this whole day, I think I saw at least a million different people. There are just way too many people in NYC. We arrived at the World Trade Center. Some of us wanted to take the Subway to 64th which is close to the temple. The rest of us wanted to walk the 50 blocks to the temple. I walked. We got a little lost, but the New Yorkers know their way around. There were a couple times when we were walking through the city when we hear, "Elders!" We wave to them and they wave back. We even got an "Elderes!" which is the Spanish version. That's a lot of fun! When we were leaving the temple, I saw a guy with a "Utah Utes" hoodie on taking a picture of the temple. As we walked by him, he said, "Hey elders." It's a lot of fun meeting other members in Manhattan. We also bumped into two Manhattan missionaries by the temple too. It was cool to meet them. At the temple, we did an endowment session and baptisms for the dead. Baptisms was a lot of fun. Two of us would get in the baptismal font, then one of us baptized the other for ten names, then we just switched places. It was really fun. Also, on our way to the temple, we walked through Times Square again. As we were approaching Times Square, I noticed a gigantic mormon.org ad. It was at least 20 feet tall and 50 feet wide. It was huge!! Right there in the middle of Manhattan! By Times Square! I took a couple pictures of it, but I forgot the cord to my camera to connect it to the computer today, so I'll have to send them next week. It was the ad about Christmas. It's on mormon.orgright now. I also learned something else very important about NYC on Wednesday. It's super expensive to travel there. $2.25 for a one way ticket on a train or subway. It's ridiculous. It eats your money right up! I've rethought about living in NYC now. I don't think I could handle paying that much for transportation every day. I still want to visit, but we'll have to come ready to pay a lot for transportation.

On Friday, we had our all-mission conference. We had a special guest visit from Alex Boye. It was a really fun Christmas party. All the presents that had been shipped to the missionaries came through the Mission Office. There were so many packages! They also wrapped all the packages they got in Christmas wrapping paper to make it more festive. We got a little stocking with some candy and other little things from the Jeppsons. It was really nice. Also, there were some donations to the mission from some other people. They made hats and scarfs for all the missionaries. It was really nice. Alex Boye sang some Christmas songs for us. President Jeppson talked to us a little bit more about Christmas. It was all in all a pretty good Christmas devotional.

Then the next day, we went out to do more clean-up service from the hurricane. The first lady that we helped had a pretty big yard. It's all pretty much forest in her yard. There were a few trees that got knocked over. So two missionaries who have had experience with chain saws before the mission cut up the trees and we hauled all the parts of the trees to the front yard by the street so the city can come by and take it away. We got a couple trees done when it was time for us to go to our next one. We had told a guy the previous week that we would come back and help him with his deck at low tide. At about 12:30 we got to his house. I don't remember if I told you about him. He had a good sized deck in his backyard. His backyard is facing the beach. However, there is a ledge that is in his back yard that goes down onto the beach. He also has a small dock where he used to park his boat. During high tide, the water comes right up to the ledge and there's no beach. During low tide, there's about 10-15 feet of beach. What happened, was when the water came in from the hurricane, it came up over that ledge, picked up his deck and turned it. Then the water receded and set the deck halfway on his backyard and leaning on the dock over the beach. Last week, we came during high tide so we couldn't do much. This last Saturday, we came back during low tide, so we cut up the deck and hauled it out front. It took about 2 hours and about 14 missionaries. It was fun! We then returned back to the first lady and did as much as we could for another hour until the sun went down. We returned the supplies we were using back to the Eatontown, NJ ward, and came back an hour late for our Branch Christmas Party. The party was cool. It was pretty simple. There was a lot of food and we just ate and talked to each other. There was Christmas music going on. It was fun!

Other than that, we didn't do much this week. We've gotten a few Christmas presents from members and investigators. It'll be a pretty good Christmas! I'll miss everyone over in Boise! I also have been seeing some advertising for Les Miserables coming out on Christmas Day. Is that the movie you're going to go see? Let me know how it is!

Love you!

-Justin

Dear Mom,
I'm sending a package home tomorrow. I picked out just a few things for everyone. Not Chubs though. Hopefully he won't notice. 

To start out, we've had a 2009 Chrysler Sebring in my area. Last Monday, after we were done with most of our P-Day stuff, the vehicle coordinator called us and told us that we need to bring our car down to the Morristown chapel; that it's time to sell it and get us a new car. So on Wednesday, we picked up our brand new Chevy Cruze. I was the first to drive it. I drove it out of the Morristown chapel parking lot with 33 miles on it! It's a lot of fun driving a brand new car. It drives very nice and has some cool features. It's very basic though. The Church doesn't buy any unnecessary features. Just the basics. But it's fun.

That's so sad to hear about those children in Connecticut. I did hear something about that, but no details. That's so sad to hear about. I can't imagine the pain and misery that he will feel when he's held accountable for that. In this scripture in Alma 14, Alma and Amulek, both of which were extremely rebellious in their youth, now converted to the Lord, are preaching in the land of Ammonihah. They are missionaries and prophets declaring repentance unto the people in these few chapters. In this chapter particularly, they are cast into prison, beaten, starved, then sent to watch the martyrdom of the Saints.

"9 And it came to pass that they took Alma and Amulek, and carried them forth to the place of martyrdom that they might witness the destruction of those who were consumed by fire.
"10 And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma: How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save them from the flames.
"11 But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.
"12 Now Amulek said unto Alma: Behold, perhaps they will burn us also.
"13 And Alma said: Be it according to the will of the Lord. But, behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not."

This is a very sad story, but I love it. Amulek shows so much faith! He knows that he holds the power of God! He knows that he has the capability to stop this "awful scene" from happening. However, it is not the will of the Lord in this instance. In verse 11, we read what Alma says of the will of the Lord. However, I think there is much more that the Lord sees in this instance, that is not written and not known to us about this story; and Alma knows that; and Amulek learns that. Then I absolutely love the answer that Alma gives to Amulek concerning their death. Alma knows that their time had not yet come. Before their mission, their fathers Alma and Mosiah were promised that their sons would not die on their missions. Alma remembered that. I think that we can apply that to us. Even though this ''awful scene'' happened in Connecticut, our work is not yet finished! We still have work to do. We're being kept on this earth in this time, because the Lord wants us to help bring others to Zion. 

So, this last Thursday, we went to the Mission Home for what's called Jingle with the Jeppsons. Just our zone went on Thursday, so there were about 18 of us. I saw your card you sent to them mom! It was such a fun experience! One of the activities that we did was with these bells. We each got a bell that was a certain note. President and Sister Jeppson made these posters with songs on them and the certain note that goes along with the song. So as we were singing, we would ring the bell when our note came. It was a lot of fun. There were a few songs that a lot of us didn't know, so that made it hard for us to keep up. Fortunately, President and Sister Jeppson and just a couple missionaries knew these songs, so they could sing it and we could follow along a little better. They also fed us breakfast! So good! It's so nice to have a meal that's done so well. It always reminds me of Sunday meals at home and breakfast on General Conference and Stake Conference days. President Jeppson also taught us a little more about Christmas. You know how we always share the stories from the Bible about the birth of Christ? Well, President Jeppson, being so amazing and knowledgeable about the scriptures, shared the story of Jesus from the Book of Mormon! How fitting, since our monthly focus is on the Book of Mormon! I'm trying my best to start to become like that on my mission. I love the Book of Mormon. I read it at least an hour a day. It's so amazing. President Jeppson shared a few scriptures from 1 & 2 Nephi about the prophecies of the coming of Christ (including some Isaiah chapters) and also Alma 7:10-14 emphasizing the Atonement of Christ. It was a cool spiritual experience. Maybe I can pull off something like the Christmas after I come home. 

So we actually went to do more service this last Saturday. We went to meet up in a chapel in Eatontown, NJ. Then we went to a place called Oceanport, NJ. This time, we had two Elders with us that have had a lot of experience with chainsaws before the mission. So we went to the people who needed help with downed trees. It was crazy! The first tree that we worked on was leaning on a fence and onto a shed. A couple Elders, including the ones with the chainsaws climbed up and started sawing all the limbs off. The rest of us were picking up the limbs and putting them on the side of the road. We did some other small things too. We also tried to get into Seaside Heights to help a guy who needed a lot of help. Unfortunately, the National Guard is very strict on letting people into that area. They said that we need a pass to get in, but he didn't really know where we could get a pass. We kept trying to tell them that we're service volunteers and we're there just to help out. They didn't budge. So hopefully we can go back this next Saturday to help out. We were told by some other missionaries later on that day that we just have to take a different highway into Seaside Heights and the National Guard will let us in if we're service volunteers. It was a little stressful, but it was really fun to help out again! 

So this coming week we will be going to the temple in NYC on Wednesday. We'll be leaving pretty early and spending a good amount of time at the temple. I think we'll be going in right under the Freedom Tower! Cool! I can't wait to go to the temple again. It'll probably be an exhausting experience, going into NYC, walking to the temple, spending a lot of time there, then coming back to our area. Fortunately, we have some set appointments with some members that night, so we won't be running around trying to surprise visit members or trying to find potential investigators. This next Friday, we have our all-mission conference. It's obviously Christmas-themed. Alex Boye will be the speaker. I don't really know what to expect, but it should be a lot of fun! I'll let you know about it this next week. 

So that'll be it for this week. I'm really excited for this next week. It's going to be really good. Hopefully it won't be too slow because of all the last minute Christmas stuff. I'm loving the Christmas CD that was sent! Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin

Q of the W:

1.  Any snow yet?

We've had a little bit. But it just melts. These last few days it's been raining.

2.  Did you guys decorate your apartment in any way for Christmas?

A sweet lady in the Scotch Plains Ward gave the English Elders some decorations to put up in our apartment. We haven't done much. We have a mini Christmas tree though. 

3.  Does New Jersey have any type of city transportation? Like a subway or bus system?

There is NJ transit, which is a train system. They also operate a lot of buses. I haven't used any of them yet. We're going to meet up in Newark on Wednesday morning to go to the temple. We'll be taking some sort of tracks system. I think some subways do come into New Jersey. I don't know for sure though.