Alright, so now I'm working in Dover New Jersey. It's so different from Jersey City. It's a lot more residential, sorta like a place in between Lehi and Provo. So it reminds me a little more of home and is a little more normal which is pretty great. My new companions name is Elder Harrington, and we are one of the youngest companionships in the mission. Our New Address is 309 Washington Ave O - 10, Dover, NJ, 07801.
They did something pretty crazy this last transfer. They made 3 companionships utilizing people from our zone in the MTC, so we are all really close in age. There is me and Elder Harrington who is just 1 transfer ahead of me. Then Elder Buess and Elder Stuki. Elder Buess is one transfer ahead and Elder Stuki came with me, and then there is Elder Maughn and Elder Boyes who were companions in the MTC and now they are back together. It's pretty crazy, but this is a really great learning opportunity. Neither of us have our trainers to rely on anymore, so now we have to really push our Spanish and everything. It should be a pretty great transfer.
So on Tuesday I said goodbye to Elder Yates and took some cool pics by graffitti, and then we went off to transfer conference. I was called as the Junior companion and the "Driver". Yep, we are in a driving area, and I got chosen to be the driver. I was pretty scared when I heard that because I haven't driven in awhile and I didn't know what Dover was gonna be like, but it's not that hard to drive around here. I'm just happy we have a car, because it has been really cold lately.
On Wednesday we had our first zone meeting here which was awesome. One of our goals is to really consecrate ourselves to the work, and so now we are reading different things for personal study to really better consecrate ourselves. After that we went to fudruckers which was pretty good, but also pretty pricy. We talked to some pretty cool people, and we have this nice guy named Edwin that comes out with us as well.
On Thursday was our car fast and also weekly planning. After planning for the week, we had to go hike this big hill like over logs and leaves and everything because Elder Harrington said it would take like 20 minutes off our walking time. It was pretty cold out there but we talked to one guy on the street who said he was really close to getting baptized but then he got offended when he couldn't go through the temple with his son, so we'll have to try and meet with him and help him solve some problems.
It's really different here. It's a lot easier to find hispanics, and it's a lot easier to knock doors. And the people are a lot nicer too.
On Friday we went and did service for a man named Uruguay, who was actually from... Uruguay. After we did some service he had us come in and we shared a message and ate this way good hot chocolate with a bunch of cookies. We taught a pretty good amount of lessons, and went to one of our investigators named Fausta. We taught her about the 10 commandments and had Jacobo (a member) there with us to help us out. We had to change her baptismal date to the 26th of Dec because she has work on the 19, but she said that after that, she won't have to work on sundays anymore, which is pretty amazing.
Saturday was a pretty rough day for us because a lot of things were falling through. We talked to some good people and did some good knocking though. On Saturday I also wrote a Christmas Talk for Sunday, which I didn't end up having to give which is a bummer. But it's pretty cool how it's so diverse here. I've like talked to 3 Uruguayans and there is a lot of Colombians here.
Without our trainers, me and Elder Harrington have really had to get better at Spanish, and I feel like mine is improving a little bit each day. I still need to be diligent and learn a lot more. But Sunday was a pretty good day. We had church in our building. Yeah it's just a building because we are only a branch right now, but are 4 members away from making it into a ward. Once we get that, they can start building the chapel. So it's something to work toward for sure. Anyway, in church we had the Primary program which was pretty great. Our Branch President knows Spanish but his daughter doesn't so there has to be a translator each week talking into a little headset and then they can hear it on their headphones. I got to do that for a little while yesterday and translate for her, but I missed a lot of words and sometimes I just said a word and paused until I understood something else they said, so it probably sounded really funny, but it was a good experience for sure.
Then Last night we had our Christmas devotional in Union City. It was a far drive, but it was great for sure. It was a wonderful spiritual devotional.
Everything is good here. The transfer was definitely different and I'm still trying to get used to the change. I like it here in Dover though and hopefully we can have a lot of good success.
The gospel is true. This week I have been reading more about God's love for us, and it has been pretty great. God really does love us so much and wants to bless us, and it's so important that we love God. I was also reading this talk today from Elder Bednar that talked about how we need to pray, not only with the intent to express, but to act. Our prayers shouldn't just be checklists of things we want, but we should have the intent to act to try and make those things happen. He said we also need to persevere after the trial of our faith, and then conform our will to God's will in blessings.
I'm learning a lot here, and I'm excited to talk to you soon.
Love you all!!
No comments:
Post a Comment