Much Love From Corona!

Hello Everyone!

Well, I just recently got transferred and I am in a little area known as Corona, Queens. I learned about this place before I came on my mission that this place consisted of the most Spanish people in the mission. When I heard this it was my dream to serve here. Why? So I could be surrounded by a bunch of Spanish people all the time! Needless to say, I know that God knows His children so

well, because I am now here and it is a dream come true.  I am still trying to take it all in! I love it though!

My new companion is Elder Schenk! He is great! He is full of energy and his Spanish is super good. At transfer meeting we also watched a pre screening edition of Meet the Mormons. That movie is awesome. I would recommend truly to anyone. It is really informative, funny and full of life. I really enjoyed it and I hope everyone who is reading this at least gives the trailer a look!

Because then you will want to go and watch the movie :) Please watch the trailer below and then  and check out their website: http://meetthemormons.com/ .  On their page, you can find a theatre near you, by selecting your state and your city.  Don't miss out!  All net proceeds go to the American Red Cross! 

On our first night here, I was just blown away by how many Spanish people there were around here! :) It is seriously so cool! I was just so excited to talk to the people here. I am so happy. I love sharing the gospel in the Spanish language.  There is still people here from Bangladesh and that made me really happy because I still get to surprise a lot of the people and speak a little bit of Bengali to them which is always a lot of fun :)

We were able to meet some cool people on the street and invite them to come to church with us and to watch General Conference. It is always kinda interesting when you tell people that there is a person that was like Moses that is on the Earth today :) We do have a living prophet on this earth today, who is the mouth piece for God, just as Moses was in his day. God loves us!

The other night we met a really cool family on the street and talked to them for a while! Right after that I started talking to another guy and he about had a heart attack that  Elder Schenk and I both spoke spanish and just kept saying how cool it was that we did, even though I sound like a

total white guy :) But hey I will take the compliment :)

It was a really fun week and I am really grateful to be here! :)

Much love from Corona!

Elder Waidmann

"They just make all the work that we do worth it"

Hello there everyone!

I have been having so much fun here in Woodside. I just love being a missionary. I keep realizing it more and more every day that I am here serving of just how special

the time that I have here is. It goes by so quickly and I am just so

grateful for everyday… For the good and the sad times and for

everything in between because that is what makes a mission just so

worth serving. I am learning day by day on how to become better and to

use what I have learned in the past to help me act now and it just

makes me grateful for all of the things that I have experienced to

help me grow on many levels.

So last week! On Monday Elder Martinez and I returned to Brooklyn! We

went to Park Slope and went out to lunch and got Thai food for his

birthday! It was pretty fun. So we got the same plate of food and the

lady told us that the noodles were mild on the spicy level. So I

thought that mild on the spicy level would be pretty much no big deal

because I have eaten some pretty dang spicy Spanish food right? WRONG!

I was dying! They were so so spicy and my mouth was on fire, but the

good news is that it was really tasty! :) We then went out and walked

around Brooklyn for a little bit which was really nice. I love it

there! Actually we went there again today! For a BBQ at an

investigators house in Bushwick. It is so nice because Elder Martinez

and I both served there so we both know a lot of the same people. Then

that night we went and visited a family in the ward and had a Family

Home Evening with them it was awesome! They are a great family and we

had a lot of fun there.

On Tuesday we had our usual district meeting and we had our finding

activity as a zone! It was pretty good! They are always really fun and

helpful to get us excited. Then later in the day we had a sweet visit

with a recent convert and we talked about how we as children if God

can reach our full potential by doing small and simple things. It

really is so true. I love how it is written in the scriptures, in Alma

37: 6-7.

As we do simple things like read the scriptures everyday,

pray, and go to church… this is how we show our faith to God and how we

receive many blessings from our Father in Heaven. This I know to be

true because I have see it have a huge effect on others lives here

that are around me. Also that night we went to a families house that

are from Bolivia. They are so cool! The mom always cooks SOOO GOOD!

She made us a meal called Silpancho and it was so good! She gave us so much food

and we had so much that we took some home! It was nice!

Wednesday we taught F. It went pretty well!

We also that night taught the Y family. They are from Peru and are really

cool! We had a good visit there and their daughter had been gone in

vacation in Peru for the summer so the father asked us to teach her a

few things and it was the best lesson that we had over there in a long

time. And to finish the night off they have us some Chi cha Morada and

Inca Kola! They are both super Peruvian drinks and are really good!

The first one is made out of purple corn and the second one is a soda

that is yellow but tastes like bubblegum almost! Pretty good stuff!

Thursday we had our MLC meeting which was really good! It is always so

good to see our Mission President. He is just so full of wisdom and

always has so much to teach us which is so great to be a part of those

meetings there. After the meeting I went on an exchange with the new

Assistant Elder Nugent. He just got called to be the new assistant and

we had a pretty good night together. We talked to a lot of people that

night and got a few new potential people to visit which was pretty

awesome. One guy we talked to Elder Rogers and I had met earlier. He

is from India and he also speaks Spanish! Pretty crazy right? Elder

Nugent and I were talking to him for a little while by a deli that is

by our house and then he said "You thirsty? I'll go buy you drinks."

Pretty random but super nice of him! We had a good conversation with

him and learned more about Hindu religion and culture which was really

interesting! Then we  taught a lesson to the ward about having Faith in Jesus Christ and how that is important to have and to share.

Friday was a great day in that we talked to some really cool people

before we another meeting with the district leaders in our zone. We

had a good meeting together and then Elder Martinez and I exchanged

back! Reunited! We then went to go and teach M! We had a

really good lesson with her and we brought a recent convert with us who

had just gotten his mission call. It was a great visit there. She has

been in dialysis for a long time and just found out this week that she

was available to receive a transplant. She told us and just started

to cry because she was so happy. It was a beautiful experience!

Then on Saturday we did service and that was a lot of fun!

We did a lot a painting and that was good! Then after service we

taught a teenager that did service with us. It was so good!

Probably one of the best lessons that I have ever taught on my

mission. He asked a lot of questions while we were doing service with

him and then we took him on a church tour. There we taught him and he told us of how he wanted to change his life. It was amazing. We helped him to recognize the power if the Holy Spirit as we taught him and he loved it. He told us how he felt

something different, but that it felt good. I love those experiences so

much!  They just make all of the work that we do worth

it, to help one of God’s children to recognize the spirit to tell them

that what they are learning is true. It is such a beautiful thing. He

asked us what the purpose of life was and why he was here. As we

taught him you could just see that the eyes of his understanding were

opened. It was such a wonderful thing to see. We are going to see him

next week and teach him again! We are excited!

Sunday was great! We had church and then later we went out to find

some people at home and ended up finding a new person who was

interested in the church! It was awesome!! He is from Korea and we are

going to teach him soon!

It was such a good week! We also had a funny experience with an intoxicated man who was jumping all over us on Saturday on our way to the meeting. He yelled at us from afar saying “My boys… the Mormons! I love you guys! “ Gotta love it!

Love you all!

Elder Waidmann

"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

The Lord Throws You A Bone!

Hey there all!

Wow! What a sweet week that this has been! Man the time flys by so quickly!

This week was quite an adventure! We had our transfer meeting on Tuesday and those meetings are always incredible! The spirit is always so present there and it is a very uplifting and edifying experience. I love it. So we had some changes in the zone and there is just energy for days here! We have so many new missionaries here and it is so cool! In the English district there are four missionaries that are being trained so they bring great positive energy here to the zone and it is just so cool to be able to be a part of. At the transfer meeting our mission president talked about the principle of obedience and why it is so truly important to us. I know that being obedient really does bring us blessings. I have seen this here in my mission and I know that as we are obedient in life we are truly happy. When we are disobedient we receive happiness for a very temporary time and then we regret our actions. It is only when we are truly obedient that the happiness springs forth from within us and it is everlasting.

That night we went and visited a Bolivian less active family and it was really cool! We had a traditional dish called Silpancho and it was he bomb! Man! I love spanish food so much!!!! If I come home and I disappear randomly it will probably because I moved to another country because I like their food so much. Sorry America.

On Wednesday we had a finding activity as a zone and it went really well! We went out and we gave out copies of the Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlets. It was a lot of fun! Elder Rogers and I were walking down Woodside Ave. and we walked by this church called the Winfield Reformed Church and there was a Chinese lady outside and I started talking to her in Chinese and surpridingly enough she understood me! Usually when I do it the people usually say hi back to me and laugh haha. BUT! This time was different! She started talking back and then I I just thought "Oh no!" So I just kept walking and then I realized that I love talking to Chinese people so Elder Rogers and I turned around and we went back and then I started talking to her again and then I told her in Chinese that I didn't speak Chinese. haha Pretty ironic I know right. But then she wasnt really understanding my English and then I forgot that when I speak English with a Chinese accent then they understand me perfectly! So I did that and it was so much fun! It just brought me back to Dyker Heights!! Elder Rogers was just laughing so so so so hard when I was talking to her because I sounded so weird. Haha so the lady and I had a great convo and we said bye! Elder Rogers then said that to him I sounded like a foreigner from a Chinese country. He was wondering why I wasn't a Chinese elder haha! :)

Later that day we were out trying to find people and we were trying to be really diligent and we didn't have too much success in the sense of finding the people that we were looking for. Then on our way back we said hi to this lady and straight miracle!!! She is from Colombia and is from Medellin! It was a tender mercy! Elder Rogers and I love the people from there because they are so nice and their accent is so cool! ;) In the words of another missionary when you do your best the lord throws you a bone haha :) We also taught English class that night
and it was a lot of fun! We always say so much spanglish in there and it is so much fun! :)

This week was 7-11! Did you all go??? I hope so! free slurpies! It was the bomb! :) That morning we were out trying to find some less active guys and then I said hi to an old lady and tried talking to her! I thought that she would be super cool and nice! But nope! When we were standing and waiting to cross a street she turned around and asked me this: "Why do you go around picking on old people??!?" And I was really confused because I was nice to her haha....so yeah that was funny haha :) Also that night we found a brand new family!!!! They were former investigators and they are so awesome! They have two adorable little kids and we are so excited to be able to teach them.

On Thursday we had our monthly MLC meeting and our mission president really wants us to focus on PMG more! That is what Elder Neilson, who came and visited the mission, received inspiration on what we should improve on. This week Elder Rogers and I have been studying the guts out of that book and there are so many incredible promises and all we have to do as missionaries and as members of the church is just to have the faith to act upon them and they truly will happen.

One of the reasons why Elder Rogers and I have had such a good week this last week is because some of our mission heroes went home this last week. Elder Jensen and Elder Carlson, who I served with in Little Neck, and Elder Briles who trained Elder Rogers and was the assistant for the last 8 months went home. Wow. That was a tender day. We were just so motivated to carry on this work because those missionaries gave everything they had and it was so hard to see them. We love those missionaries and we learned so much from them. We have been seeking ways that we can improve ourselves and our efforts and we have just been so guided this week. It has been incredible.

So this is my scripture of the week! :) It is found in D&C 123:13 "Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven--"

I want to continue to waste and wear out my life in this service! We can never serve God enough :) I am so happy to be here! I love you all so much! :)

Much love from the Goodside!
Love,
Elder Waidmann