Yes it is once again that time for another post! I hope that all is well where you everyone is at who is reading this! Because all is certainly well here in Brooklyn!
So the big news is that transfers are coming up soon and I can say that I am definitely scared to hear the phone ring nowadays because I don't want the conversation to contain that I am leaving in it! But I have to get used to the phone ringing off the hook because we have Free English Class Flyers literally EVERYWHERE here around the church and on 5th Avenue! So let's just say that we get a lot of calls with questions! But I love it though! I think that my favorite part is where I answer the phone in Spanish but, the person on the other side of the phone call asks "You speaka Spanish?" in the thickest accent ever! It is so funny and then I am always able to say yes I do! And ask what their question is. It honestly never gets old! :) I love it!
So this last week was seriously so wonderful! Brooklyn continues to grow on me and I am loving it here! It is such a wonderful place filled with so much culture clashing! It is so cool! You literally con feel like you are in 4 different countries within minutes of walking it is pretty amazing! That is what I love about the Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, and Sunset Park areas of where we are pretty often!
We have been using facebook now and I am starting to like it as a missionary a lot more now. It is definitely still a little weird being connected to everything still but it really can also be a blessing to us in missionary work. We can do things now that we haven't ever been able to do before which is awesome! And I love being able to update my blog too! It is great! :) I am so blessed to be here in this mission in New York to have all of these wonderful privileges.
I am loving my time here with my companion Elder Martinez! Man he is great! So funny and he loves Christmas! Let me tell you that much! He has the countdown started already! Also we officially started the Christmas season in our companionship! Elder Martinez has been playing Christmas music and we are loving it! A little early?? Yeah probably! :) But hey we love it!
Last Friday night our ward, or also known as Congregation, got together and had our annual Noche de Hispanidad!!! Oh my goodness was it wonderful! I loved it! There was some amazing food as always! Because hello the Spanish food here is the BEST! :) I am so blessed to have tried so many different things! I basically am becoming every type of Spanish person with all of the different foods I have eaten and all of the different people from many parts of the world! There definitely isn't only one culture here! Which is so cool! We also as missionaries performed a little skit/act and it was a lot of fun! The members here loved it and that is what we like! :) We love our ward members so much!
On Saturday we were privileged enough to be able to go to Midwood, here in Brooklyn to help out the missionaries there! It was called Operation Good Shepherd! We went out as missionaries and looked for all of the people that were on the list of the ward that hadn't been to church in a long time to help them in any way that we could and to love them back into the fold! I went on a mini exchange with Elder Nyre who speaks Creole! That was sweet! We had a good time and got some good done! :) That is what we missionaries do! We go and spread the Good News of the Gospel and try our best to always go about doing good! I just love it!
Sunday was a beautiful day! We had a great day at church! There were many people there who were investigating the church and who were there for there first time! It was awesome! A man named Luis who we had met earlier last week came and he loved it! He is such a humble man and is so ready to continue to learn and accept the Gospel and Christ into His life and to live according to Christ's teachings. He told us that he is looking for something to fill his life with and we are so happy to be a part of it! We also met with a wonderful couple named Elizabeth and Elmer and they are such a wonderful family! They have such a cute little daughter named Allison and she is just hilarious! :) We talked to them about a lot of things and shared out testimonies with them! They are wonderful members of the church! We shared with them the importance of the temple in their lives and they put their vision there at the temple to go and be married and sealed for time and all eternity! We are so happy for them! It was awesome! And they fed us too! Bonus! :) They are so nice! :)
And okay! So about the title of this blog! I have been continually praying that we can continue to see miracles here in this area and I have been trying to do my best to find them no matter how little or big they might be. So yesterday as we were finishing preparation day and riding the B9 bus that runs on 60th Street right next to our church we get a text message from our Relief Society President saying that there was someone who was interested in learning about the church in the church. And she asked if we were close and if we could come. So since we literally were right outside of the church when she texted us we got off of the bus at the nest stop at 8th Avenue and headed over. Elder Martinez and I thought that it just might be someone asking for information about English class, oh but lo and behold we were wrong! When I hopped off the bus I was hoping that it would be someone that would want to learn more about the church. Then we got into the church and our relief society president, Hermana Casiano began to tell us of what had happened. A man had came in wanting to learn more about the church and since we weren't there she talked to him and gave him a Book of Mormon and explained some things about what we believe and she let him into the chapel to pray. So then we went into the chapel and waited for him to finish praying. It was so great to be able to sit there and just feel of the spirit that is always present in that room. Then he finished and Elder Martinez and I introduced ourselves to him. It was then that we learned his story.
His name is Miguel. He told us that he had come into the church to pray and find peace. He had seen one of our Free English Class Flyers on the street and he said that he was interested in two things. 1) That it was a church, and 2) that it was offering free English Class. So he said that he got off of work yesterday early and had nothing else to do so he made his way to the church. He said that he couldn't find it and then went and looked for the paper again to find the address. After walking 15 blocks he found it and then went to the church. And then, that is where our paths crossed. Miguel is such a humble guy. We still don't know too much about him but I know that He is one of our Heavenly Father's children who is looking for the truth of the Gospel to fill his life right now. He said that when he moved here to the United States he fell away from God, but now he wants to bring himself back. That was one of the most amazing things that I have ever heard. These people. I just wonder. How? How do we cross paths and meet these people that are so hungry for the truth? And then the answer obviously comes to my mind. It is simple and one word. GOD. Yep that is really the answer. God. He is so aware of everyone and everything. He knows who His children are and He knows them by name. He is all knowing and all powerful. He wants to bless us and have our lives filled with truth and with light. That is why He has given us the gift of prayer. It is our straight line of communication with Him. He is always listening to us at ANY TIME and ANYWHERE. I know that this is true with all of my heart and soul. God listens to us. And when we are acting in Faith of the things that we have asked for He Will Bless us. I have no doubt about it. I have seen it and I have felt it. I know that there are no such things as coincidences. Just only ANGELIC ARRANGEMENTS. And I am grateful to have been able to been a part of one yesterday. Miguel is so ready and so humble to learn and so willing.
I would love to invite all of you to do as he did. Search if you don't know. Be patient and listen after you pray because your Heavenly Father will answer you about anything that you ask. He will answer us especially as we serve others I love what President Uchtdorf says: Often, the answer to our prayer does not come while we’re on our knees but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer, we often find the answer to our own.
I love Him so much. I love my Savior Jesus Christ who did something that I could have never done for myself. He is the one and only person who knows all of us perfectly. His grace is sufficient and perfect even when we feel that we don't deserve it. I know that this is true. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It is simple for us to live and all that we get from living it is pure and true happiness. Not one that the world thinks is happiness, but what God knows is happiness. He loves us. Me and YOU and everyone on the Earth. How we can never comprehend. But we can know it. I know it and I feel it. God's love is the best! Elder Terrance M. Vinson describes it so beautifully :
I
believe that if we could have the privilege of walking physically with
the Savior, that we would feel His arm draped over our shoulder just
like that. Like the disciples heading toward Emmaus, our hearts would
“burn within us” (Luke 24:32). This is His message: “Come and see” (John 1:39). It is personal, inviting, and embracing in its invitation to walk with His arm around our shoulders.
May
we all feel as confident as Enos, as reflected in the last verse of his
short but profound book: “I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put
on immortality,
and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure,
and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place
prepared for you in the mansions of my Father” (Enos 1:27).
Because
of the multiplicity of experiences and the power with which the Spirit
has witnessed to me, I testify with absolute surety that God lives. I
feel His love. It is the sweetest feeling. May we do what is needed to
align our will with His and truly love Him.With love from Brooklyn,
Elder Waidmann
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