pues todo vaya buenisimo. solo es un poco disorganizado entonces estamos trabajando a corrigir la lista del barrio de los miembros y tambien una cosa que yo hice por mi ultimo translado fue llamar todas personas en el telefono y borrar los numeros que no sirven y apuntar alado de los nombres "miembro" si son miembros. (Well, everything is going very well, just a little disorganized so we are working to correct the ward list and another thing I did in my las area was to call all the telephone numbers and erase teh numbers that are no good and write down next to the names which ones are members.) it really worked out great with learning/speaking spanish more and using the time to find and now i want to do it here in Newark. we have 2 phones b/c the area was combined from 2. its taken much time but is worth it - we're still working on it.
did you ask gerber about any other areas he served in? i think it'd be cool to know just for fun. no rush to find out though.
i feel safe; i still prefer mail to go to the office and such. other than that we have a car and Saturday i believe spent a lot of time walking. it was fun and pretty cold - lots of wind and overcast. This morning we ran and took some pictures (ill send them next week) and weather was decent. A few hours later we looked outside and it was hailing. crazy right?there aren't any specific rules for us to follow and the main shock from red bank to newark is probably the size and roads. other than that, little Spanish stores etc are all over the place. it’s great.
I’m sorry about the van. the Lord works in mysterious ways. all I know is things happen as trials for us. when we accept those trials with happiness we receive blessings so much more than we would if we don’t accept the trials with happiness. We can't murmur as did laman and lemuel or any other scripture characters. I know you aren’t murmuring and it's hard but remember Christ's life wasn’t' easy either.
as far as Duty to God goes, i think i earned it before i was an elder which i think the ordination took place in June or July pretty close to after seminary/reg graduation.... i don’t' remember for sure and the dates should be in the pamphlets which should be at Jason’s house as you said. wouldn't the record be on the ward computer that bro Horton could check for the date?
Christmas is closer and i want to know if i should only buy gifts for the kids or only Gemma since they boys have received more than her and if i can find stuff for the family..... Thanksgiving is even closer and we already have 2 dinner appointments - we'll see how i do with that since it’s not going to be turkey almost guaranteed and my comp will want turkey somewhere..... It’ll be a fun week!!
So we're in a car - I’m using maps and I’ve learned how to use them really well except they don’t' have businesses printed on them. Right now we aren't using bikes nor do we have any. for the most part the mission is all driving or walking - we had 18 missionaries come out this past transfer so many areas were split/combined and # of cars was reduced. as far as driving - well let’s just say if you came here and tried to drive you’d lose your mind in about 2 minutes trying to figure out the roads. it’s ridiculous all the signs they have and restrictions for diff. days and times etc. GPS' are preferred for that reason but maps are less expensive. it’s just crazy.
Well thank you for going to pomeroys - try to keep it as cheap as possible. I’ll also look around here to see if anything goes on sale. for the past couple weeks day time temps have been between 42 and 50 degrees and i guess that doesn't include wind chill factor. it's great but yes it is a whole lot colder than Arizona.
i would say there is more Spanish speaking people but it's hard for me to tell if they're white or Spanish. that is one thing I’m learning to distinguish. and I’m not sure about the ward. My first Sunday there I was told more members than normal showed up and it appeared to be about 100 people. It’s not too big and we aren't even in a chapel. The church rented out a floor of a commercial building and a room as a chapel on the floor above. It’s different but fun. The bishopric was just reorganized before i showed up and the new bishop is fluent in English yet i don't know that he has a good English accent; he taught an engineering class in English. again, crazy right? I’ve really only talked to him in Spanish and when i can’t think of how to say something in Spanish he tells me to say it in English and i cant think of the word(s) in English either. is that a good or bad sign??
From the 4 bap dates that we had we dropped one. We were blessed though to have found many people we haven’t seen forever and we even found a in/less active member knocking a house. it was cool. lessons have been good and i think this transfer will be more with the investigators we have and finding in/less active members and reactivating them. This will be a great transfer.
so we had a lesson last night. it was pretty good. My comp and i were talking about it afterwards and he told me that i had taught him how to teach with silence. I didn't say much throughout the lesson and nothing was really in my mind to say so i kept quiet and threw in a word or 2 here and there. more towards the end of the lesson a scripture came to mind and i wanted to bear testimony of the BoM. I gave my testimony and read the scripture or however it worked and we ended shortly after that. I know that was the spirit guiding what to say and my comp said the friends had tears in their eyes - i never saw tears. I’m not sure what all happened or how just that according to my companion, i brought the spirit and wrapped everything we talked about back to the lesson. and he told me my Spanish was really good for being out for however long I’ve been out. it was a cool experience.
oh and one other thing. Elder D. Todd Christofferson came to our stake conference we had yesterday which was held in the union county performing arts center (in case you want to look it up) and it was great! He asked everyone at the end of his discourse to come and shake his hand but that he didn't have time for pictures or conversation. He lived in NJ for part of his life and told us a little about that. it was great to meet another Apostle of the Lord in person and be able to shake his hand. He mainly did it for the kids but everyone in general. i was really renewed spiritually.
So Pres. Bahr has asked that we do not have ipods, no exceptions. seeing as how i don't want to be disobedient, i think i have a cd player packed away at jasons house.... would it be possible to get that sent out as well as cd’s of the music i bought and any burnt cds of church music and talks etc??? i would love to listen to music again that isn’t' from the same cd we've already listened to many times and any church Christmas music/instrumentals (trans-Siberian orchestra would be great, if you believe it's appropriate) as Christmas time rolls around. Also i believe i have a case to hold the cds if i could get that as well. please and thank you!!!!
i feel that’s everything i can think of for right now. i haven’t received the package yet; I’m sure it’s in the office just waiting to be picked up. That’ll happen soon. Thank you for everything. i know the letter is long and i hope you don’t' mind. i think pres. whimpey asked me to make them this way anyway right?
I love you guys and always keep you in my prayers. life is going great and i can see i'm progressing little by little. i know the church is the true church. i know when we read the book of Mormon daily it brings a peace and joy in our lives that we cannot find anywhere else. I’m grateful to have such a loving family and such loving friends and ward. I want you to know that only through the spirit can we really know for ourselves of the truthfulness of all things. If we do not have the spirit, we cannot progress at the level our Heavenly Father knows we are capable of progressing and learn to our maximum capacity. Only through the spirit are all things made known unto us whether it be spiritual or temporal.
I love you all. Stay warm, well enjoy the heat of winter and in i guess 7 weeks we'll be speaking Spanish, possibly, and I’ll have the greatest surprise of all!! have a great week!
love craig
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