FREEHOLD STRONG

Eric

Elder Palmer and I get to stay one more!!

I get to stay another one!

I love this area so much. My comp is the best. He and I work well. We have fights and disagreements, but this week really showed that we love each other. He is awesome. I got super moody on Thursday and I offended him. We talked for about a half an hour. I didnt know what to say because I knew he was right. He cares a lot about me. We worked it out and have had miracles this week.

Jose and Rosa are an old couple. Their son Marco just moved back from California where he had been baptized. We visited with them one time and now they are coming to church. They even came to our little Halloween party on Saturday night. The members here are so good at making them feel so welcomed! They just drowned them with love. They also really welcomed Antonia 

Antonia is the girlfriend of Felix (the member that hadnt gone for 7 years but came back!). She asked us to come over and teach her about the Book of Mormon. We went by and had a pretty good lesson. She has been coming to church! They have two really cute little girls named Alexa and Ana. We are hoping we will get a wedding soon and then a baptism. 

Freehold is exploding. I love it here. Main St is one of those classy streets you see in the movies. Every time we go down it I am just super grateful I get to be here for one more.

Alma and Adrian are doing well. Hopefully they will come back soon. 

Eric is awesome! We are going to try to help him get work off on Sundays so he can come to church! That is the last obstacle. We have about a month left. WE got this! With your prayers, I believe he will be baptized! And then he can get the priesthood and start his path to the temple! That would be so cool!

I am doing super good. We had a fun week last week. I went on an exchange with our zone leader and we painted all day, had a lesson on a pier, went out to lunch with a member, then played basketball with the hood from Asbury park. I miss the hood. The people are so funny. 

I am now a district leader. I am super excited to work with the wonderful missionaries around me.

I am loving being a missionary. Still working on accepting the mission the Lord has for me, but I am changing. I hope this gospel is true. Because if so, that means I get my family and loved ones for forever. That is awesome.

I love this video. Because of him.

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

He is my everything. Romans 14:8

NJMM for life.

Jersey Strong

I love you

Freehold Pictures

love this kid! #palmerpride

beach boys

Elder Gosner and Franke! We are the Freehold Elders. They are English and we are the Spanish. There are also sisters that I will send you the picture of

the beach at Longbranch! Oct 6

 Palmer Pride

Blue shirt is Felix. He is a member we found. 

Hasn't gone to church for 7 years. 

Took one invitation and he has come every week. 

He has two cute little girls. 

His wife is going to be an investigator one day.

Marcos and Elsa and Nelvin and Reynar. 

They are so fun. I love that family so much

Eric is the one in the black. 

Jose Luis is in the red. 

Jessica is the little girl (she is the best!)

 and the mom is Lucina. 

All but Eric are members. 

Jessica and Jose are super active.

 We found a piano on the ground, brought it home, 

and we have been playing it like mad men

Week #12

Welcome to the last week of training.

I might cry.

I love Freehold. I dont want to leave. Hopefully I get one more, but we will see. My companion is super funny. I dont know what to do sometimes. He just makes me laugh so hard.

This week was pretty good. We found some really cool, new investigators. One of them has read the entire Book of Mormon. She doesnt understand it though. We also found 2 parents of a recent convert that moved back home. Hopefully they too will be getting a date for baptism.

We had a good lesson with Eric and he will be getting baptized the 7 of December. I hope I am still here. If not, I am sure he will still be baptized, but I want to see him go underneath the water!

Alma and Adrian are starting to fall away. Our bishop didnt give him a letter for their immigration papers, and they got all offended. The bishop actually went the extra mile to help him by talking to somebody who works getting people their papers and that man said that Adrian should try to get an old friend to do it who has known him for more than two years. It is a dumb reason to distance yourself from the true church, but it shows how deep their faith really is. 

That's been hard for me. I love them, but I am super disappointed in them. Almost to the point of giving up on them. Its alright though because God will give us the people who are ready and will change their lives. And maybe one day they will realize all that they had in the gospel.

We have had some fun p days. I love the beach here. We collected a bunch of seashells and played sports and made things in the sand. It is super fun here! Its got a little bit of everything.

God is helping me a lot right now. I feel super happy and ready to take on the hard times. He always makes the hard times seem so short.

I hope you are all doing good. I hope you enjoy living in the true gospel. It brings us so much happiness. I wish you could get a glimpse at the tragedy that comes from not living the gospel. I wish you could see the diference between the members that are truly living it, and the people who are not. I am learning a lot. I am growing. If I dont help any one else become more converted to the gospel on my mission, I will know it isnt a fail. Because God has helped me become who I want to be. I am becoming converted.

I am grateful for my family and friends that support me physically and emotionally. Thanks for the letters, packages, and most importantly your prayers. Family, I love you all to the moon and back.

have fun would ya!

Stay Jersey Strong

Columbus Day Yesterday

Welcome to the start of a new week.

I am sorry this email is a day late, but all the libraries were closed yesterday so I email today. 

We have had a roller coaster this week. A pretty average week but just some ups and downs. I feel that I am growing and getting through them well! My companion helps me remember to take a chill pill every once and a while. We worked super hard and we definitely saw miracles. We found 2 families this last week that have a lot of potential. I dont know if I ever told you about Felix. He is a less active we found about 2 weeks ago. He is still going strong and is going to fight for his family one last time. He brought his family to our stake conference on Sunday. Hopefully it touched his girlfriend and she will start to change her life around. 

We finally had a lesson with Eric. I might not get to see him baptized, but I believe that he will go into the waters of baptism before 2015. He is such an example of faith. I love that guy. 

I got to talk to Aldo yesterday! He is doing good. He cannot get baptized because his parents wont let him. The missionaries can hardly go by anymore. He is young, but he knows it is true. He is doing well, though, and keeps being the wonderful youth that he is. Sure do miss Paterson sometimes, but I love Freehold so much.

Freehold is the best.

We are working hard and enjoying ourselves as well. We went to the beach for a long time and I have a bottle of sand and a bottle of seashells for my family!

Families are so awesome. I love you family. I am excited for you to meet all of my jersey family. The New Jersey-ites are crazy... but they can be so inspiring and wonderful. I am proud to be part of NJMM. I am happy to be a missionary.

Pictures will be coming shortly. I have a bunch to send!

I love you my family!

Stay Jersey Strong.

forgive me friends and family

forgive me friends and family.

This week I lost my drivers licence. I was so stressed about it. I cant get on the library without my drivers licence. Turns out I left it hear and it only dawned on me a half hour before we leave to ask if they had it. They did... so I legit have 15 minutes to finish writing.

I made cinnamon rolls for conference :) They were stinking good. This week was a crazy one. We actually had a huge meeting for the trainers and their trainees. It was 7 hours on Wednesday and 7 hours on Thursday. It was a wonderful experience but we didn't get any work done this week. After the meeting on Thursday, we got to watch Meet the Mormons. It was a great movie and made me trunky. I miss home.

Conference also made me trunky. I loved making the rolls and it smelled like being home. It was a very relaxing weekend and Conference was great! I always like feeling the confidence of our leaders. They are inspiring. 

Monday we met with Karina. It was a good lesson. We set up a return appointment with her, but when we passed by, she never came out. Instead, the drunk owner of the house came out and told us he would call the police if we didnt scram. 

We didnt get to meet with Eric this week. Sadly he didnt come to church this week either. Hopefully I will get to see him baptized.

E Palmers birthday was on Friday and we had a lot of fun. We went out to Longhorn steak house for dinner with some members. I got a super good sirloin. Love the Persad family.

We met with a lot of our members this week. They are amazing and an example of faith and endurance. They have it so hard, and yet they are so faithful. They have taught me that it is not about what the church can do for me, but what I can do for the people around that church. A church is just a building until you add people that are living the restored gospel righteously. That is when it becomes the kingdom of God on earth.

I love my companion. Love my area. Love my leaders. Love the Lord. 

Love my mission. 

Love you all.

Jersey Strong