Oh the adventures of a New Yorker.

HOLA!! Hey everyone!
Our apartment is so legit! Haha When I say legit, i mean it's very... Bronxy. Haha!! We're RIGHT by the above ground metro- it goes by our window- super loud- every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. It's gotten to the point where it's actually kinda comforting :) We have rats, bed bugs, roaches, and loud neighbors- ALL of which are insignificant when you have the Spirit! hahaah! But really though, it's great! I feel so.. New Yorkan!

WOW it's been a crazy week.
Quick Recap.

SO first night we went to teach an active member family, the Lara Family. They are Dominican- SUCH GOOD FOOD. AHH. ANYWAY, they live in the Government Apartments, called "the projects". These buildings are ridiculously terrible places to live. They live on the 21st floor. I step into the elevator, look down, and I'm standing in a puddle of URINE. Wonderful. No pets are allowed in these builings (what are rules anyway) so I'm pretty sure it came from a higher-level thinking mammal. Elder Richardson just laughed and said "welcome to the BRONX!"

SPEAKING of Dominican Spanish... 500+ MPH. I thought I could understand SPANISH pretty well when I left the MTC. I literally didn't know I was listening to Spanish the first time I heard Hermano Lara speak. It's SO fast and SO slurred. They drop all their "s"s and "n"s and cut words off halfway through the middle! Reminds me of my ENGLISH... I'm learning some hilarious Dominican phrases that don't actually make sense in Spanish- idiomatic expressions. "que lo que" means like "hey whats up? " Esta Heavy" (pronoucned "sta heh-bee") means "thats tight!" hahaha I love it.

SO cute- me and Elder Richardson went into an elevator in a different bronx project, and there was a lady with 5 little kids going up with us. One of the little kids, about 7 yrs old came up to me, tugged on my scarf and asked "excuse me, are you a secret agent?" I laughed and said "I couldn't tell you if I was!" All the little kids looked at each other with wide eyes and grinning and one said "cool!!" and they all left the elevator making gun noises and darting around corners like spies.

OH any ANYTHING NASTY in liquid form is referred to as "Bronx Juice."

On Friday last week, we were walking down by the bottom of our area and we were heading to the bus stop. The wind picked up and caught my hood and it flipped up right on top of my head! My hands were frozen in my pockets so I left my hood up as we walked underneath the metro. We stood there for about 10 seconds when I felt a "plop" on my head. I looked up and saw about 50 pidgeons crammed up in the metal structure of the Metro. I looked over at Elder Richardson and asked "Elder, do I have poop on my head?" "Why YES Elder, you DO have poop on your head." We cracked up for like 10 minutes- it was hilarious- I had a HUGE blob of slimy green bird poop on my hood- but it could have been SO much worse.
Haha someone up there knew I was gonna get pooped on in my first week and decided to cut me a break and put my hood on for me :)

A few nights ago, we were walking a Lady home who had come teaching with us, and we went into a small convenient store and she bought some Excedrine for her sister at home. We were waiting in line when this HUGE black guy came up and said to us "Hey, you know Cocolito? I’m Cocolito. Cocolito appreciates what you doin out here, sharin ya'll message about Jesus. Go pick yourselves out a soda and Cocolito gonna buy it fo ya." I kinda looked at Elder Richardson worriedly... Elder Richardson said "It's okay, we just had Dinner..." He got interupted but Cocolito- "Hey now, if you don't go get a soda for ya I'm gonna be offended!" We quickly went over and pulled out 2 cokes from the fridge and put them on the counter. Cocolito pulled up what looked like 1000 dollars all in 1's and paid for our drinks and said "Now, anybody givin you greif? You come tell Cocolito and He'll take care of them nice and good for ya." He shook our hands, gave us gangster hugs and walked away with several other big guys behind him. Good to know the mafia has my back here in NYC. :)

Sunday-
We went to the Olmstead Spanish Ward- it's actually pretty big! I've never been to a louder Sacrament meeting- but I've never felt the Spirit so strongly in a Sacrament meeting either. I LOVE the Spanish people and culture. They are SO incredible. So strong and loving and humble and generous- we've been fed almost every night by members! They are so awesome!

I'm having an AWESOME time here in NY. We have several progressing investigators and 2 baptismal dates for 2 weeks from now!! So awesome!
Spanish is coming along! Wish me luck!

LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Hellberg