Wednesday April 28, 2010

Let round 3 begin!!

BWONNNGG!! *big orchestra symbol*

Ahem.

SO this morning was...

DUM DUM DUM

TRANSFERS!!!

And finally I have a companion!! After 2 weeks of going solo (and crazy mind you) I finally have.. Elder Prue! From Orem, UT! He seems great! He's been out for 9 months, so we're both pretty new in the Mission-but we're gonna PWN i can tell. I've only been with him for about 2 hours but I love him already! He's been in the mission for 9 months! I'm SO happy to stay here in Olmstead! I'm not done serving here! I was relieved to stay :)

Quick story from Monday..

SO Elder Fox, Elder Bayard and I went down to my area to look up what i thought was a sweet street contact. So we go down there, all prepped and excited to start teaching this family i met on the Zone Blitz a week before. I'm leading us around my area looking for an apartment building, and after searching this one giant street to no avail, I discovered that we had been on the wrong street.... for nearly 25 minutes. FAIL. SO I redirected us to the correct street, and we continued looking for another half an hour- turns out the phone# and apartment# were FAKES. EPIC FAIL. I was very disappointed and feeling rather low, when I realized that in our wandering, we had come near a building of the home of an investigator that we were about to drop because she wasn't keeping any commits. I strongly felt the need to go back to the building, even though I knew she probably wouldn't be there. We went inside, climbed 4 flights of stairs, and knocked. We waited. We knocked again. We Waited again. Nothing. By this point I was very frustrated and felt not only sad and disappointed but felt embarrassed and dumb. We had what felt like wasted almost 2 hours in my area, with no success. We went back down the stairs and as we were exiting the building, we ran into a little Ecuadorian woman with a little girl and a massive laundry bag in a big cart. I offered to help and back up the stairs we went, Elder Bayard and I carrying the cart for this woman. We kinda talked to her on the way up to her 5th floor apartment, and then started talking to her about the church at the top. She told us she was actually baptized many years ago in a small branch in Ecuador! She told us that when she moved here to New York, she got married and couldn't find a church close to her apartment so she stopped coming. She told us that she recently got an unlimited metrocard and would love to start coming back to church!! As we were talking about this, her little girl ran over to a door for no apparent reason and started to knock- we all laughed and said "Look she's a little Missionary too!" As her mom pulled her back and told her not to knock on other's doors, the door opened, and when the Ecuadorian woman started to apologize to the lady that opened the door, we immediately started a contact with her. Pretty soon, us 3 Elders and the Ecuadorian woman were testifying and the lady in the door said she wanted us to come back and teach our "beautiful message" to her family! THEN (I know there's more, right?) on the way out of the building, we ran into the lady we went to go see originally- the lady we were going to drop. She came running up and said "Elders! Can you come see me tomorrow? I have so many questions!" She told us that she read the chapter in 3 Nephi 11 like we asked, but that she couldn't stop reading and is almost done with Moroni! Hahaha! So awesome! We left and I literally felt like laughing- I was so relieved, and felt silly for being so frustrated- THIS is the LORD'S work. I just need to be happy, do my best, and be obedient- and the Lord's got my back.

Yes Mariano got baptized! So sweet! He's so awesome! He's getting the Aaronic Priesthood this coming week and getting set apart as a Priest! Then him and I are going to bless the sacrament together (en Espanol) in 2 weeks! Woot!

I have some new pictures to send home soon! Of the Yankee game and baptisms and a bunch of stuff!

The weather here has been rainy recently- but I love it! The rain just kind of... i dunno, equalizes me. I feel right in the rain. Dad did always call me the family fish.. always in the water..

Sister Walker got transferred and we had a big (sad) party for her last night in the Ward. Her and I sang "You Can Change" from EFY 2009 and For Good from Wicked.. so sad! Haha she's like a wise older Sister to me (and most the other Elderes in the zone)- she'll be missed! Especially by ME becuase now I have nobody to trade off with playing the Organ at church! Dang it! Hahah!

Last week for Sacrament Meeting, the Young Women were in charge. It was SO powerful. All these young valiant Hermanas from the Bronx stood up and gave short talks and bore such strong testimonies. They were all wearing different colors- the Colors of the Young Woman Values! It was incredible- the power these young women have. I was so babied growing up in Utah, where EVERYONE is members- it's easier to keep values and standards when all your friends believe what you believe. But here in the Bronx... well you can imagine. The members here are SO faithful and SO close to the Savior- they'd have to be here- they are brilliantly shining lights amist a thickening darkness. The Chapel here in the Bronx is a safe-haven- literally. Spiritually and physically protected. It's so awesome to be a part of the Ward of Warriors here in the Bronx.

Oh man. SO i do have a terribly funny incident that happened to me this week... but I think the only thing that can adequately describe what happened is on my camera. Bwhahahaha so you'll have to wait until I send home my memory card!! Hehehe!

Well I'm off! Wish me luck- sorry this e-mail is so short! We had to use a different library today and we have really strict time-limits here with the computers! Love you all!
B happy B safe B strong!!

Church is TRUE!!

Always and Forever,

Elder Brandon Hellberg