Trenton for a month

Here comes the last week of July. I have almost been in Trenton a month. Whoa. Time flies.

This week was different than most weeks. Kind of made it fun.

On Thursday we had a zone conference in East Brunswick. It was fun to see some mission friends and feel the Spirit. Every meeting I go to gets better and better. President Taggart is an inspired man and it is fun to be around him. His wife is awesome. She is what every mission needs as a mission president's wife. She is fun.

I got a migraine after the meeting. Luckily we had a meeting for stake correlation in East Brunswick an hour later, so we went with some other zone leaders to their apartment. I laid down for a bit and we had dinner. I talked that day with a missionary that had only been out for 2 weeks. It was fun to see how much energy he had. He asked me about my first weeks, and I realized how much I love my mission. I love to talk about the stories of Paterson and Freehold. I love talking about the miracles in all of my areas. It really motivated me to do all the good I can.

So we were in East Brunswick from nine in the morning to nine at night. That day felt like two days. 

Stephani (a very recent convert here-she is awesome... so awesome) she said something super cool yesterday. She bore her testimony for the first time at a fireside and she said, "with the gospel I dont feel like I am suffering. I dont feel like I am in prison." She said, "now every day I ask myself, 'have I done any good in this world today.'"

I love serving others. And I love this religion, because it teaches us to serve and to love others. A lot of people will argue that we dont love the gays, or we are stuck up, or whatever. But it isnt true. I dont believe it. We do love everyone. But we dont love everyone all at the same time. We have to learn to love. We as members of the true church are learning to serve and love others.

 And that is what we do because that is how we will be happy. 

I am super excited to come home. Sometimes I think about home too much. But I am learning to love the people here, and that makes me want to stay and help them. 

Do me a favor? Please pray for Sulay and her family. I really hope they accept the gospel. I really love that family and I hope the best for them. And I ask your prayers because I believe it will bring us miracles :)

I love being a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is fun. I am proud to be part of NJMM.

I love knowing who I am, and what my purpose is.

 Shout out to my parents! They are the coolest.

We met a new family this week, and I just love telling people that family can be forever. You can see it when they realize what we are telling them. And that hope makes them comfortable and happy.

I am just ranting on now. 

Anyways... Have a good week

Waz good

Jersey Strong

Life is good in the gospel

Love you

p.s. i was born in the year of the pic. There are no coincidences in life.

Weird Week

Last week was weird. It just feels like time goes by so fast, and I can hardly get anything done! We have little things we have to do here and then an appointment there and oops we forgot to shut the garage door. I feel like we are making very slow progress, though. We had more member involvement in missionary work this week. I love our members here. They are so funny and loving. Its hard with such good members because they want you to come over every week for food, but if we were to do that, we would not have any time for our investigators. We are trying to help them focus on doing missionary work instead of making us food.

We do a lot of service in this area. It is really nice. We served at a food kitchen last week. I was talking to some older women and it just amazed me how different we are than the world. They asked me what I did for fun if I didnt drink or sing or dance. I laughed and told them that we can sing and dance. They still were baffled at what we do for fun. Then they asked me what I would do if they sent some attractive women to my house. I told them I would tell them that we could talk after the mission. They continued to give me very inappropriate situations... and I just laughed because it was awkward. They were nice and spunky, and I feel that we left them with a good impression of us boring folk.

This week we knocked a lot of doors. We had some pretty funny experiences. But the funniest contact was an 40ish year old, fat man wearing nothing but a speedo that opened his door, said "I'm sleepy", and slammaed the door. My companion and I turned to each other and just busted up laughing. There arent too many dull moments here in New Jersey.

Something a friend told me this week is that the driving force is love. She wrote me, "He said in Matthew 27:22, 'What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?...' The multitude cried out to crucify Him, but today I asked my class and I asked myself personally, 'What shall I do with Jesus?' How will I increase my love for Him? I thought today, LOVE WAS HIS DRIVING FORCE, SO LET IT BE OURS!"

Thanks rach ;)

I have found that it is the small things we do that make a difference if they are done with love. I have gotten better at learning how to love people regardless of their religion, their background, or their behavior. Sometimes these Jersey-ites make it really hard. But it is possible.

Like Elder Holland says "Hope on. Journey on."

Waz good

Jersey Strong

Life is good in the gospel

Make it a happy week

Ty

Zone 8

Trenton

Trenton: the Capital of New Jersey. Home to a lot of gangs, drugs, a scrawny missionary and his companion from Honduras. 

My companion is a ball of energy. He is so cool. His name is Elder Mendez. 

Members are super cool here. They love one another, and they seem pretty solid.

Freehold is in my zone. Woot woot! Crossing my fingers that i can visit some people next pday.

A year ago I was in the south, and now I get to enjoy it again. I love North Jersey, but South Jersey is so much better. It is so green and chill. 

This last week was nuts. Lots of goodbyes on Monday, and transfers on Tuesday. We had to be in Morristown at 9 am for a special training from President Taggart's son. It was a good training. We did the transfer conference and it was weird to see the sisters with whom I started in Paterson go home. It makes me trunky. 

But Trenton makes me work. There is a lot of work to be done here to get this area up and running how it should be. There is a lot of organization to be done here in this zone. So at least I will be busy.

Last week we had to get everything ready for the All Mission Conference we had yesterday. We threw together a skit, chant, and activity. We are also in charge of a competition we are doing mission wide for the zone with the cleanest apartments. So I am pretty busy. And I am so grateful for amazing assistants and my loving mission mom and dad. They do so much for us. 

The mission conference was better than last years. And that is saying something. I enjoyed it with my missionary friends here in the mission. They are all so young now. The mission has changed a lot. Good and bad. It is kind of sad to see how different it is, but it is ok. I didn't come for the missionaries.

In terms of investigators scheduled for baptism... we have none. But I want to change that. Pray for us? We want to do God's will, and we know that He wants us to find those who will be baptized here. It may take time. But I believe that God has prepared people for me before, and that He will do it again. I cant make a baptism happen, though. All I can do is control me. I will continue to be a better representative and a more pure vessel. God will do the rest.

I am changing. Little by little. 

Keep praying for me that I don't get trunky... but dont worry. I am going to finish Jersey Strong.

waz good

Jersey Strong

life is good in the gospel

Love you  

Surprise

I got a call from President this morning. He asked me if I would be a zone leader again. I said no.

Just kidding. I said yes. But I am super bummed! Rosel is getting the priesthood on Sunday. And Leo will probably be baptized after that. It is super sad to have to say goodbye. But I am grateful that I got to see the baptism and confirmation of Alex and Stephanie. I got to baptize Alex and confirm Stephanie while my companion got to baptize Steph and confirm Alex.

I am also bummed because I am going to miss my companion. I really admire my companion. He is a spiritual walking faith bomb. Seriously, we ran into an anti a couple of days ago. And to watch my companion deal with it so professionally and with dignity was humbling. He is super powerful and he bore a wonderful testimony. The guy did not want to listen and we walked away, but I remember looking at my companion and just being amazed about how strong he is. It was quite a surreal experience.

On the fourth of July we went to a park in Union and watched the fireworks with the Andinos. Those kids are so cute. And the parents are awesome. The show was one of the best that I have ever seen. It was 30 minutes and well put together. I enjoyed spending it with my family here in New Jersey.

Friday morning Elder Pacheco, our ward mission leader and I ran 7 miles! It was pretty good. I was surprised we made it. We are super sore.

It was a good week. I am happy to be a missionary.

I love you.

Waz good

Jersey Strong

Life is good in the gospel

sally and Claudia<--- (the mom)