"Hello here from New York"

Well hello hello here from New York!!! 

Wowwww so yeah it is week 2 here! It is pretty crazy!! So here is an update! Yes New York is great! It is crazy in fact! I am kinda amazed daily at how insane everything here is! It definitely takes some getting used to! So here is how the week went!!! Sorry if this is kinda short! We have a zone activity soon and I gotta hurry to type!! Ok anyway!!! :) So last monday was my p-day and that was good!! :) after emailing we went and cleaned up the pad a little and I finally finished unpacking yeah I know it is pretty crazy huh I hadnt even finished unpacking!! :) But its all good! Then we got ready and went to Family Home Evening at the church with the single adults in the ward and had a lesson and dinner with them and that was good! :) Then we look through the area book because there is a lot to go through in there! So that was good! 

Tuesday! It was such a good day! We had our district meeting after we did morning studies! And then we had quarterly interviews with president claderwood! Wow that was awesome! He is such an amazing man. Seriously he is called of God to lead this mission it is amazing. Seriously you can just feel the authority and power that he has to lead this work. His vision for our mission is awesome! :) He is so nice too I just love him a bunch! Then we went and had a dinner appointment with an older guy in our ward who is way cool! Then after that we went to a family from the ward and had a lesson with them and then we headed back to the pad! 

Wednesday was good! We had our studies in the morning and then we went and did a street sweep for the english class that we teach! That was cool! It is just where we go on a busy avenue in brooklyn and hand our flyers for the free english class that we teach throughout the week at the church. SO that was pretty cool! Then we went back to the church and got our stuff and went to an appointment at a members home and taught them which was good! Then after that we went to correlation with the ward mission leader at his house and that went well! And then we looked up people that we have been trying to get in contact with. 
Thursday! so we studied and then we went to the church to do weekly planning for a couple of hours and we planned ya know... the week :) Then after doing that for quite a long while we went and got dinner from a lady in the ward and came back to the church and ate because her family wasn't home. Then we went to go and talk to a family in the ward and it ended up that they were busy so we went all the way back to the church and then taught english class which went quite well! We had a good turn out! Around 14 people I think! Man it is tough to teach english. I just think where do I start?? Haha but it is ok and then I got to give a spiritual thought and I did it about something general so it could apply to everyone there! And so I talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how He has a plan for each of us and knows us personally. My Spanish wasn't the greatest but its ok! Then we went back to the pad!

Friday! We had studies and then we went to the church for our zone training meeting. We had that for a couple of hours and that was good! We basically just went over mission goals and our mission vision and things like that! So that was good! Then we had lunch and went to look people up again. Then we met up with the other elder from our district and had dinner at a members house! It was great! Then guess who the missionaries selected to give the lesson? Oh yeah! That is me! I feel like this is going to happen quite often but its ok! I gotta practice my spanish! Then I did that and we went back to the church and then I went on a trio with the other elders in my district because elder goates got asked to sing at a funeral and so we went out and tried to contact people and then came back and met up and went home!

Saturday! We had out studies and then we went and did a finding activity near the church! We played soccer! We had members come and invite their friends so they could get to know the missionaries! That was good! Then we went and changed and went to a lunch appointment at a members house! Ok the food that the members make here is bomb! Just saying :) Then after that we went and met up with the elders at the church and went with them to give a lady in the ward a blessing. That was cool! I definitely didn't do that! :) Elder Hernandez did because he is a champ at speaking spanish! Then we went with the elders to help them find their dinner appointment with a member and when we got there what we found out is that  the member lady who we went to had been praying to see elder goates because she hadn't seen him in a long time and she knew that if it was only two elders that came she couldnt have them come in, and then we showed up and she was just so happy. That lady is amazing. Seriously. Her testimony and her spirit are just so strong. It is people like her that make all of the hard times worth it. She kept encouraging me with my spanish which was so nice :) She is an incredible lady. Then we went to go look up more people and we ended up finding the sisters in our district while they were trying to find people too. Then on the way back elder goates wanted to grab something from a gas station and we went in and a lady came up to us and said "Y'all are mormons??" And we said yep! and then she said "you give away free books" and we were like heck yes we do! And then elder goates gave her a book of mormon to read and what was even crazier is that the elders who spoke english in that area walked in right before she asked the question! And elder goates was just like well here are the guys to talk to! and then as we were leaving she said that she was going to church! And we were so happy for her! But those elders go to a different building so we'll have to ask and see what happens.

Sunday! So wow! First sunday! It was so good! We had studies in the morning and then we went to church and it was fast sunday so it was cool because i got to here a lot of members share their testimonies during sacrament meeting! That was great! And I and the new elders and the new sister had to introduce ourselves  and also share our testimonies. Yeah. I was so nervous!!! Oh my goodness! And I had to go after our district leader elder jensen who speaks amazing spanish. But I got up there and did it! Wow. It was crazy. So much bigger than spanish branch in lincoln! But I did it and apparently I did a good job! That is what the elders told me which was comforting! So then we had the rest of church which was great and I got to know a lot of memebers! Then elder goates and I taught a lesson after church and then we went with the elders and sisters to a dinner appointment with a family in the ward! The people here are so nice! They are always willing to feed us :) So we had that and then we went out and looked for people again! That was the week! 

So it was pretty good! Hopefully we can find and teach more people this week! That would be awesome! Thank you so much for all of your prayers! I love you all so very much! It is crazy to be here but good at the same time! The spanish is so tough because we don't use it super often because our area is so big and there arent too many people that speak spanish around us but I am trying! It was a good week and I am learning a lot! My testimony is growing and so is my love for the people here! I love you all so much!! 

Love,
Elder Waidmann