We call the Tree of Life the Tree of Life because it is where we do the most of our contacting, and it is where a fair number of our recent converts were discovered, and where they began their journey to find eternal life. Hence the name. It is an actual tree on the street, who's shade provides comfort to us in the summer.
I got a shoulder bag, but I'm probably going to return it and go and get a cheaper one that doesn't make me feel so much like a Jehovah's Witness missionary. I didn't buy any pants, but I got 4 pairs from Elder Mok today because he's going home on the 21st and doesn't want them anymore.
Since the 2 sisters left for SLC, we now have 14 missionaries in Chinatown excluding the Blairs. Elders (by missionary age): Mok, Foley (AP now, no longer in Chinatown), Williams (upstate), Blonquist, Zander, Murray (upstate), Wang (my comp.), Me, Elder Cook, Elder Leung, Elder Radford (came out 2 weeks ago). Sisters (By age): Sister Woo, Sister Beer, Sister Khong, Sister Chan (SLC), Sister MacKay, Sister Lee, Sister Chen (SLC), Sister Dong (came out 3 weeks ago.) Elder Foley, being an AP and privy to this kind of knowledge, told us that we are getting 5 more missionaries in October, which is also when the 2 come back from SLC, so either I'll be training that cycle, or else I'll probably be going upstate at that point. I seem to go on a decent amount of splits, basically 1 split every 2 weeks or so.
Sorry about the pictures, I just realized that we're going to the Bronx Botanical Garden today, and I forgot my camera. Oh well, who cares about flowers anyway? (Elder Mok LOVES them.)
Sister Beer went to the LEGO: ART OF THE BRICK exhibit, but me and elder Wang decided our time was better spent getting a hair cut for him and shopping for side bags, so we didn't accompany.
We might be picking up a new investigator this weekend, Xxx (my first baptism), is bringing her husband to church on Sunday. We're really hoping he has a good experience/is open to the message. If so, that would be the highlight of my mission to see him baptized before the end of the year, because then I would probably be able to go to their sealing before I left the field.
I think Pres. Buckner is probably comparing the success in Chinatown with the success on the rest of the island mostly. We do get baptisms fairly regularly here, but we certainly aren't doing the 50ish baptisms a year that they were doing in 2011. That said, we're doing a lot better at retention as a result, which I think is probably more important currently.
Weird mission story of the week: I got proposed to. Elder Wang answered the clerk's office phone while he was emailing, listened for a bit, then handed the phone to me. I had a 40 minute lesson about the translation of the plates, the word of wisdom, and most of the Plan of Salvation on the phone with some random lady who seemed decently interested in the gospel, up until the point where she was saying that she felt God was telling her that the 2 of us were supposed to get married. I actually thought "what would Jesus do in this situation?............I HAVE NO IDEA." She never even told me her name, and refused to give us her address or number so that the missionaries nearest her home would be able to get in touch with her. Weirdest phone call ever. (and for the record, I said "I would at the very least want to meet you in person and get to know you a lot better before I made a decision like that." I gave a similar response all 3 times she offered.)
I haven't really tried to find mexican food here mom, but there are a lot of Hispanic people in the Lower East Side, so
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard. I'm getting really used to NY style pizza though, I might miss that when I come back. Also, there are several streets of Little Italy that come off of Canal street. Speaking of which, I have offically memorized the street layout from Essex street to Mulberry (11 steets of Chinatown, the 11 I walk the most, and I'm mostly memorize for the rest.)
Have a great week, love you all,
your son/sibling in service,
Elder Christensen
No comments:
Post a Comment