Monday, November 3, 2014

Jersey City - Week 13 - New Companion



Que tal Familia,

IWhat a life. Transfers were crazy this past week. So many changes in the mission and especially in the zone. My new companion is Elder Bellavance. He is from a little town outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a super good missionary. Very diligent. He hates meetings and loves to just get out on the streets and work. He is a jokester as well. We have been laughing and having fun as well. He came out last November so he is about 4 or so months younger than me. It is an answer to all the prayers that I am with him. We are going to have a good few transfers together.

Its been a big change up for me. I felt a lot of pressure having to help out a new zone leader, running the area, and helping the zone. It was a little overwhelming right off the bat but it has been settling in just fine. I felt a lot more weight right in the beginning because I had to be the one making some big decisions. It was just a little exhausting mentally and a very tiring week, but this week the dust should begin to settle.

So on Tuesday, transfer conference day, Elder Drewes spent all morning packing and I spent all morning prepping the area and cleaning the apartment. We are getting a whole new area combined with ours so the size of our area is getting doubled. We cover everything from the 139 (Holland tunnel)  down to Danforth Ave in Jersey City, If you want to check it out.  So pretty small area still so we are excited. We were planning last night and we have so many members in our area. We think we have the most active members in our area than any other companionship in the mission. We have about 26. Most companionships cover like 5-8. So we are super blessed with some awesome members. We are going to work a lot with them because we don't have a ton of Hispanics walking on the streets so contacting is a little tough. We are going to work though the members to teach anyone they know or their friends or just area where we can go work. But after we packed on Tuesday we went out to subway and then straight to transfer conference in Morristown with all the missionaries either getting transferred to getting a new companion. Then the rest of the night we were running stuff around Jersey City and Bayonne to the companionships. We barely got everyone's stuff home to there apartments.

Thursday was a nice long working day. We got out working at 12:00 after studies and lunch. Every Thursday in this mission is a walking day. So we don't use our cars unless its needed. This past Thursday we were walking from 12:00 to 5:00 and we didn't get into any of the houses we tried. Everyone that we had planned either wasn't there or was busy. So it was a lot of walking and not too much teaching. I think God was maybe just trying to teach us. Ha there is always teaching going on somewhere. But finally we got into a lesson with a young 15 year old member who is one of the only members in his family and always makes it to church every week. He is a stud. He loves playing soccer and always loves going to church and having us over. We had to be in our apartments by 6:00 on the 30th and Halloween because it gets pretty dangerous after those hours. I guess its initiation time for all the gangs and yeah just not a super good place to be for missionaries. So we were inside after 6:00 safe and a sound. We did our weekly planning and talked the rest of the night. My companion is a funny guy and came from a crazy place.

The first person we tried this week, Elder Bellavance and I, was Sa---. It was sweet because the front two doors of the building were open (never happens anywhere in JC)  so we got in and then knocked on his door and he let us in. His cousins and aunt were there and his mom so we just started teaching them all. It was a good restoration lesson and they a had a lot of good questions. At one point the two cousins were having some trouble accepting the Book of Mormon and were making all these excuses but then the aunt just ran in from the kitchen, who isn't even a member,  and started supporting the Book of Mormon and us and telling the cousins (her daughters) that they weren't listening to us. Ha it was so good. It was like a member in the lesson backing us up but she wasn't a member.

Things are going good. We have a busy week ahead of us with 2 big meetings and interviews with President and Sister Taggart. So it will be lots of planning and driving and studying.  I am doing great though. I love my study times every day. It is amazing how much deeper and deeper I can get into the scriptures and pull things out I have never even noticed before. It takes a lot of visualizing things in my head and asking questions and seeking answers. Its pretty neat actually

I love you all so much. Thank you for the letters and packages and everything you are doing for me! I can feel your love all the way over here in Jersey. I love you family. Keep it up.

love,

Elder Sumsion

Shoutout

Packer Family (Elder Packer's family)- Thank you for the package with the cookies and candy. It was the perfect amount of candy to enjoy and not eat too much. Thank you for the letter as well.

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