Happy Fourth of July

Hey guys!

This week wasn't very eventful. It was actually kinda slow compared to the other weeks. We have done a bunch of walking around and trying to visit lots of people. But most of them weren't home and that's probably because of the holiday. Hubert the guy we have been teaching in the prison finally got out and now he is in New York City and we have been trying to get the bishop and the missionaries there to get in contact with him and help him. He problem is he doesn't have very much stuff right now since he just got out. But we have been able to call him once.

We had dinner with some members on Friday and their son just got back from his mission and we were talking and he was the zone leader for Denton Grange in Reynosa Mexico. It's a small world when you are a Mormon! We also had dinner with one sister in our ward and her husband isn't a member and he is the head guy that is in charge of the Erie Canal. All the way from Buffalo to the other side of New York. He is really cool and likes us but he has no interest at all in coming to church, which is too bad.

We were able to hand out 7 more Book of Mormons this week and we are preparing to take some investigators to pageant this weekend and the next so hopefully everything works out so we can.

We went to some member’s house that lives on the lake up above Hilton for the Fourth of July. We just dipped our feet in the water since we aren't allowed to swim. It was pretty nice and got to spend time with all of the members. There were also some fireworks right across from our apartments at night so we got to see those. But little fireworks that you do on your own are illegal in Monroe county.

We also did the usual stuff like he senior center, and the clothing shelf and our meetings. Church was awesome yesterday too! We had the combined third hour like I'm sure you did and it was really good discussion. We ended up going about 15 over with church. Also one of the cool things I got to do this week was go up into the tower of the lift bridge on Park Ave. and they showed us how the bridge worked then a boat came so we got to see it in operation.

Hope you have a great week!

My screen lock on my iPad

 Only bike shop I have found in NY

June 15, 2015

This week was good as usual!

So Monday, we went to Greece for p-day and played basketball.

Tuesday, we had zone conference in Batavia and it was awesome!! I think we for sure have the best zone around! The mission set a goal to pass out 1000 Book of Mormon in the next three months and our zone set the same goal of 1000! It was great to have all of the trainings and to be with the other missionaries and president and his wife! I think it was probably the most spiritual meeting of my mission so far!

Then we had dinner at this place in Batavia called Big Paulys and tons of famous people have been there so it was cool to see all of the pictures on the wall.

Wednesday, we went to the senior center and I finished the hat finally!!

Thursday, we had a stake priesthood meeting on the Hill Cumorah so that was a once in a lifetime opportunity! Really cool!! And a couple of guys from our ward were advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood that are either recent converts or preparing to go on a mission.

We have done lots of finding this week trying to hand out Book of Mormon. We usually just walk down Main Street, cross the bridge, walk down the canal and then back up Main Street for a couple of hours every day. We got six new investigators this week and handed out 14 Book of Mormons! So a pretty good week!

Saturday, we want to the prison and that was quite an experience!

Everyone was talking about he two prisoners who escaped, then the best part.... When we're going in I went through all of the safety things, metal detector, etc... Then they pulled me down this long hallway by myself to a room and did a "random" narcotics check! So they had to check all of my clothing, hands, feet, arms, etc.. Just to make sure that the Mormon missionary wasn't carrying any weed or crack?!

Quite the experience!

Today we have the whole zone in Brockport and we are going to play ball so it's going to be great!!!

The rain comes down pretty hard.  This is from the car to the apartment!  

Bulletins, letters, doodles, mazes, etc. that the family sends him.

Finished the hat!! Pretty cool!

First Week with my New Companion~ Elder Ahola

Hello guys! 

So, on Tuesday we drove to Pittsford for transfers and I got my new companion. His name is elder Ahola and he is from Finland. He speaks perfect English though so no cool accent. He has only been

out for 4 months so he's pretty new still but he is an older missionary. He's almost 24 and he's already done with college and has his bachelor’s degree.

This week was good. We met with Elizabeth the investigator in our apartments a couple of times this week but it's kind of hard since her kids are pretty distracting to have good lesson. She has obligations in her church so she can't come to ours but during the summer she doesn't have to do them so hopefully we will be able to get her to come to see how great ours is. 

We had a couple of lessons with Jim from the gift store on Main Street and he really isn't progressing that well. He only reads the Book of Mormon to try and see the faults in it. Which there are none. We taught Lee and his girlfriend Mary Jane this week and hey had lots of great questions and are both progressing good. They are planning on going to the sights with us on June 20 and they are super excited! 

I had a meeting with president, the AP’s and the new district leaders in the zone this week.  It's always great to see then and to learn and to feel the spirit of those around you. We have been handing out tons of Hill Cumorah cards for the pageant coming up in July and it has lead to a couple new investigators. The problem is every new investigator I find is a college student who is going to be moving soon! 

We helped a less active family move into our ward from Greece one day and hopefully they will have a desire to come to church especially since they love about a half a mile away! 

We visited a bunch of less actives and a couple came to church this week. We haven't done much tracking this week but lots of street contacting. Most days we will just walk down the canal and talk to all of the people for a couple of hours. 

We had district meeting this Saturday. Zone conference is coming up next week in Batavia. We had church and all of our normal meetings. Today, I think we are going to go to Greece with the Spencerport Elders and do something? I don't know yet though. 

Pretty good week though! Hope you have a great week!

Love ya!

Transfer Calls~ Staying and made District Leader

Hey everyone!

Good week this week! For p-day we went and got frogs again just because some of the elders don't like basketball. Elder Haws and I love it though so that's what we are doing this week. We also had a Memorial Day picnic for the ward at a park. We made some cookies and apple crisp for the young women to auction off for a fundraiser. We also cooked some of our bear meat for the ward to try.

This week we did a ton of walking! We found a couple new investigators and we handed outa bunch of Hill Cumorah Pageant cards so hopefully they turn into something good. On day we didn't drive at all to save miles so we walked all of the way from our apartment to state street, then back to the apartment, then all of the way to Donielle Circle in Clarkson just to have a lady drop us! At least it was only 90 degrees though. Then we called Korey for a ride home and he got us ice cream so that's was good. 

The good part was Lauren the college girl who moved back to Long Island, texted us and told is that she was at a Yankees game and she saw some missionaries, then while we were walking we ran into her sister five minutes after she texted us! It's a sign!! She needs to join the church.

We went on exchanges twice this week and I went to Spencerport both times with Elder Coffey and Elder Haws! Both are awesome and we had lots of fun and miracles! We handed out 4 Book of Mormon the one day and got a couple new investigators! We found some Kingdom Builders in this huge rich neighborhood in North Chili!

The zone leaders came and did a training on Friday. Lee came to church this week with his girlfriend and they both enjoyed it. We are going to have some lessons with both of them and we are going to the sites on June 20th and to pageant with them. She is visiting from Georgia for eight weeks so hopefully we can send her back as a Mormon. ;)

The big news this week was transfers. We got calls this morning and I am staying! I'm the new district leader; my companion is Elder Ahola from Finland! Elder Gubler is going to Irondequoit and Elder Haws is going to Buffalo YSA to be a zone leader.

Well that's pretty much it for the week!

Love you!

To Mom:

That's good that Avery is going running and that you are going too!

Good for Ada going to the temple. Does Avery go too? He should. When I get home I'm going to go on lots of trips and visit every temple with some friends I've decided.

I'm doing good on money and food. It depends on how busy people are but they are pretty good with feeding us. There are a couple families who we can just call and hey will feed us. I don't need another package just yet I did think of something for later though you could send. Thanks for the honey stuff that was my favorite part. I didn't know how to use the creamed honey, but I found out that it's really good on pretzel sticks. I found some cox honey in Spencerport’s Apartment on exchanges this week. It's pretty cool that it's from our ward and in New York.

I did catch more frogs and a milk snake! It was pretty cool. It looks just like a coral snake! Love you!