"I would not change what I am doing for anything"

Hey hey hey!

I mean hey! How are you all doing? I hope that you are all doing well

and that life is treating you all great! Because life here in New York

is incredible!

This week has been such an incredible week. Probably one of the most

memorable and fun weeks on my mission. It has been so full of

blessings and miracles. I really don't even know where to start.

First off, I want to tell you about our investigator “R”! Holy moly!

This guy is a miracle! He had been taught by the missionaries in

Mexico before and he was pretty interested and we found him last week

at our miracle building! WOW! He is such a great guy. So humble and

full of love. After our first lesson with him he shook our hands and

just gave Elder Rogers and I a big hug. I was really surprised to be

honest, but hey! We had a sweet lesson with one of the members of our

bishopric and “R” together on last Monday and it was great! “R”

loved it and he was just so happy to be here and to have met us. We

love him so much and he just really wants to change his life! He came

to church on Sunday and he loved it as well! It was so cool! There is

a brother who is offering a painting class and “R” asked me if he

could come and then the Elders Quorum President told him "Of

Course!" It was awesome :) He is such a good guy and he is so fun

to be with.

On Monday night went out and were talking to some people and 

we met a guy from India who wanted us to come to his cafe and buy coffee from him. Obviously we didn't, but he was a super cool guy and he told us that he knew how to speak Spanish 

(he really didn't which was pretty funny haha). Anyway so we 

kept walking and we heard someone shout "Hey guys!!" So we turn around and see a young guy point his fingers at us and motion for us to come to him. We were kind of

surprised and then went to go and talk to him. His name is “L” and he

is from Colombia and has lived here for 6 months. He is so cool!

He told us how he wants to consecrate his life to God and to change

and become better and how we knew what we taught was true! What in the

world? Come to find out, later he said that he had seen us talking to

people on the train and knew that we were servants of God. So cool! :)

We taught him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! It was so cool! He

loves learning! He is really smart and he knows the bible really well.

He is such a fun guy to be around! We had a ward activity on 

Saturday and we taught him beforehand and then he came to the activity with us 

and he loved it! :) He was introducing himself to everyone and they loved him! It was so so so funny. He would say hi to people and they would ask him where he was from and he

would always say, "Soy Colombiano!" "Hasta las medias" and they would

just all die! :) In Spanish it is hilarious, but in English not as much

haha. In English it means that he is “Colombian until his socks”. Pretty

great. Let me just tell you all.  We were talking to him the first time we

met him and he said "Are we going to talk about Doctrine or what?" and

we said of course! :) He is loving learning about the church and

loves the Book of Mormon! When he read that HE could pray to know that

the Book of Mormon was true (Read Moroni 10: 3-5) he just smiled and said “Amen”! Then when we told him that Jesus Christ came to America and his face was just awesome!

He was so shocked and then so happy! :) Needless to say he is amazing!

I love New York and all the crazy awesome things about it! Even if it means running after a bus for about 10 minutes not catching it, then having to walk home for over a half an hour in the rain with my companion. I wouldn't change what I am doing for anything. I love my life. I love God. He is our Father. He hears our prayers and answers them in HIS time. Miracles are real and we just have to have the faith and show Him that we really truly do desire the best for others around us.  Love

and Charity go a long way. You can never go poor by giving away love

and I know that is true!

New York is my home and I love it here!

Much love!

Elder Waidmann

#ShareGoodness

"The teaching that is going on here is really great!"

Hello all! 

 This is going to be a shorter email this week because today was a
pretty crazy day! We had our regular once a transfer zone activity
which was pretty fun! We traveled to Rego Park, which is an area in
the mission, and we went to a place called Juniper Park and played
some kick ball and ultimate frisbee! It was pretty fun! I also got to
play a little but of tennis with one of the sisters who was in my
district in Bushwick because she is serving in Rego now and we had a
combined zone activity with their zone. So it was sweet! Also I got to
play some catch with another Elder who had a glove and a baseball! Man
I haven't done that in a pretty long time and it was a lot of fun! 

This week was a lot of fun! I learned some more Bengali and some Greek
as well! It was really cool! Last night I actually talked to a lady
from Greece in Greek! I mean it was a very tiny conversation but it
was still pretty fun! I told her that she was beautiful and that I
loved her haha! :) She was pretty happy! Don't worry she was about 80
so I wasn't flirting if that is what you all are thinking haha! 

 So some cool things that happened this week! We met a really cool guy
from Mexico! We met a guy outside a building by our house and we talked to him and set up a time to go and visit him on Friday! He has only been here in the US for 2 months and he is
so humble. He has been taught by the missionaries in Mexico already a
little bit and he is just such a loving guy. So on
Friday we talked to him and taught him about the importance of Baptism in the
church and how it really is a gift from God that he has given to us to
be able to come closer to Him and how we really desired that for him. He was so happy and just saying thank you. He feels that he wants to come closer to God. We invited
him to be baptized and he was really accepting and is excited. We are
going to teach him tonight with a member of the Bishopric and we are
amped! He is so great! Ordale! 

 We also taught our investigator from English class this week and he is  such a loving guy. We are excited to keep teaching him! We had some really good lessons this week! The
teaching that is going on here is really great and Elder Rogers and I are having a lot of fun.

We had a sweet experience this week! Our investigator couple from
English class invited us over to come and eat Paella! It is a typical
Spanish dish from Spain! It is pure seafood. And if you know me,
well me and seafood, we aren't the best of friends but let me tell you
it was so good! Maybe I got the gift of tongues in the sense of to
have stuff taste good that I don't usually like haha but I am not even
kidding it was great! It was full and I mean FULL of shrimp, mussels,
clams, tentacles, and all this other stuff with rice and it was great!
I had a lot of fun there. They are such great people. Right now, the husband
is just really set on not being religious and we will just take it one
step at a time. 

 Saturday I got to go on an exchange with Elder Rees who is from
Tennessee and maybe Evan and him know each other! We had a
lot of fun and had to eat a lot of food. I literally almost lost all
the food in my stomach at one point at a members house and it was
scary. But I survived! We had a great day together and had a lot of
fun. 

Exchanges are just always full of miracles and it is so cool. We
went and taught a former investigator of theirs! First cool thing he
loves tennis! Connection there! He has the tennis channel on when we
were in the house and I was so distracted at first....I haven't seen
that channel in an eternity and so it was like a tender mercy from The
Lord... slash a temptation haha :) But we had a great lesson with him! He
already has a testimony of the church and he wants to join the church
holla! :) It was such a cool experience! It was a really fun day.

We also had a really uplifting zone meeting this week and it was so
great to be taught and uplifted by the spirit there. Elder Rogers and
I taught a workshop on the doctrine of Christ and I learned a lot
through studying and teaching it. It was great. The Spirit really does
truly teach you as you teach others. It is such a cool principle of
the Gospel. This week has been such a blessing. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is wonderful! I love it! 

Love you all! 

Elder Waidmann