Greetings family!
I hope you are all doing great! Elder Wendt and I are enjoying ourselves in New
York quite a bit, even though it has been quite rainy. However, cooler
temperatures and no humidity sure are nice to have. Things are going really well
here for us in New york. Much like all of you in Utah, we have been quite busy!
That is really nice as a missionary. It's good to have places to
be.
This past week was really great! Let me think for a minute
about everything that happened.... Alrighty, here we
go!
Monday- After Emailing and shopping, we went to the
Church for a District Activity! We brought a Frisbee and played Ultimate Frisbee
together, which was pretty fun. It was a muggy day, and I really got into the
game, so I was pretty worn out by the end. The one sad part about our District
Activity was that before we even got there, one of the Sisters (the one that is
going home with my group actually) did something and hurt her ankle... I knew
nothing about that, but found out when we saw her using crutches the next day...
Oops! It's nothing too serious though and she's doing pretty good. Missionaries
need to be really careful to make sure they don't get hurt, both right before
coming on a mission, as well as when they're about to come home. I'm being super
safe! :)
After our District Activity, we headed to Cortland for my
exchange with Elder Rebman, and it was fantastic! We had a miracle right from
the get go when we got into Cortland. As we parked the car and were going to put
my change for proselyting, we saw a note pinned to the front door that read-
"Hi, my name is Henry. I am moving to China tomorrow, but I would like to learn
more about the Mormons before I leave. Can you give me a call?" At first glance,
Elder Rebman and I didn't think there was any way it was for real.. It sounded
too good to be true. However, we gave it a call, Henry gave us his address, and
we went right over! He was a foreign exchange student that was attending at SUNY
Cortland for a semester while he studied Linguistics. One of the last things
they did was go to New York City, where they attended the Book of Mormon play.
He said that he really enjoyed the play and it made him really interested to
talk with us. He talked to someone who apparently knew where the Elders lived,
so he came and rang our doorbell, and when we didn't come, it made the note we
found.
We ended up teaching him the Restoration, answering a bunch
of questions he had, gave him a Book of Mormon, and then he said the closing
prayer, which was his first vocal, structured prayer. It was awesome! Afterward
we ran to the Church to use a computer, where we found a way for him to contact
the Church for more information when he got back to Beijing. Once we got that to
him, he asked for our emails so that he could send us any questions he had as he
read the book. It was really awesome!
Tuesday- Elder Rebman
and I had a great day! We went tracting for a while, talked with people on the
street, then got lunch at Denny's, which is one of my favorites to go to.
afterward, we went to an investigators and helped him paint his dining room.
Painting was a lot of fun and the room looked WAY better once we were done. As
we painted, we actually did a lesson with Will and talked about the 10
Commandments. Will was awesome and is actually going to be getting baptized in 2
weeks. Pretty sweet!
Later in the day, we were able to teach their
investigator, Brandon. Brandon is sweet! He's a 17 year old that met some of the
Elders who invited him to Church Ball. He started coming to play ball, then
started coming to Church on Sundays. He likes it a lot and wants to get
baptized, so the Elders are helping him get there. That was way awesome teaching
a kid close to our age that was attending church/investigating all on his own.
There are so many prepared people out there! We have no idea...
After
the lesson, we all played Basketball and I wore myself out again. I'm not too
bad at shooting and I'm still in fairly good shape, but I don't know plays or anything.. But we had a lot of fun.
Wednesday-
We ended our exchange at our Zone Training Meeting in Liverpool. Unfortunately,
somebody rear-ended a school bus and we got stuck on the highway for about 20
minutes, so we ended up getting to the meeting late.. Oops. The training was
awesome though and I learned a lot! We had a member from our Ward (Bro Bird)
come and talk with us about the Book of Mormon. He has a really strong testimony
of the Book of Mormon and is really motivating! It pumped me up again.
Here's Elder Rebman and I after the meeting was over-
We took several pictures, but I didn't have any with us looking at the
camera.... :/
Right when we got back into DeWitt, Elder Wendt and I ran off to our
investigators, the Nelsons, to take them on a Church Tour. Because we didn't
have the car, we had to get a ride with them. We had a great Church Tour with
them. They liked the building a lot and we were able to answer a lot of the
questions about Sunday Services. Church tours are a great way to answer
questions and help people understand things a lot more. Had dinner with an
awesome family right after the Church tour and finished our night!
Thursday- Good day! We tried a bunch of people in the morning, did
weekly planning, then had dinner at Sister Loomis's home. We had stuffed shells
and I ate WAY too much... It was really good. After dinner, we had a great
lesson with our investigator Pam about the Plan of Salvation. The member who
came with us, Brother Herlihy, did a fantastic job explaining everything and is
a great teacher.
Friday- RAINY DAY! We were able to see a less-active brother in our
Ward, and then on our way to a headquarter referral we received, we noticed a
giant rain storm coming in... We started to power walk and made it to the
referral's before the rain started, however, the referral didn't answer the
door.. Dang. So, we ran outside as it just started raining and took cover under
a bus stop just as the downpour started, where we waited until Brother Huller
picked us up for dinner. When dinner was finished, we went to our investigator
Don's house and read the Book of Mormon with him. It's amazing to see the power
of the Book of Mormon as people read it. They naturally stop swearing and
smoking and the Spirit really comes into their home. It's quite odd actually,
but it's really cool!
Saturday- Went to a potential's house from the Blitz we had. Curtis
let us right in, and his wife sat down with us also. We started teaching the
Restoration and they were really interested and wanted a copy of the Book of
Mormon. We gave them one and set up a time to see them this week! So, we were
able to find more investigators this week, which was REALLY nice. Things are
really coming together here in DeWitt!
We went to help the Blanchs (an active family in our ward) with some
service and got a great workout moving furniture, then we had another good
lesson with Pam about the Plan of Salvation. I drew it out for her and we
answered a bunch of her questions. It was a great lesson!
As soon as the lesson was done, we headed off with one of the counselors in
the Bishopric to Bishop Frazee's. They did a cookout and had all of the
Bishopric and the missionaries over. It was great getting to know some of them
better and hearing stories about their missions. We have great leadership here
in Fayetteville Ward. I love them!
Sunday- Church was great! Everyone pretty much knows that I am
leaving soon, so a ton of people were asking if it was my last Sunday... it was
kinda crazy. I don't feel like the end is coming so soon... Weird. But we
enjoyed Church. We sat by the Ward family during sacrament (the 2 boys that just
got baptized) and helped the kids stay quiet during sacrament. It was fun. I
love the Ward family. :)
We saw a less-active sister of the Ward who said she would come to Church
next week, tried a bunch of people, then went to dinner at the Malcom's. They
are an awesome family that moved into the Ward just after I was transferred
there. We've gotten their son Tyler out teaching with us a few times and I'm
really glad they had us over for dinner. The Ward also had a farewell dessert
for the Chamberlains, the first Stake Patriarch that is moving to Michigan this
upcoming week. Saw a few people from the Syracuse Ward that were
there.
Now- As you can tell, it was a crazy busy week, but it was really
good. This week looks equally busy, and I'm just so grateful to see the growth
that has come to our area the past six months. Miracles are always happening and
the work is progressing. I'm glad to be a missionary. :D
I love you all and I look forward to seeing you all soon, but I'm glad I
have one more week in the field. Keep safe and we will meet up soon. I'll try to
not drive Elder Wendt crazy this week as I'm nearing the end of this adventure
and the beginning of a new one. Life's good
.
-Elder Hussey