"A Messenger of Direction"

Hello all!

It is incredible to me how quickly the time goes by here in the

mission field. I can't believe that it is my Preparation day here. The

days are flying by and I am truly grateful for all of the moments that

I have left here.

This week and this past transfer of my mission have been wonderful. I

have been learning so much and am loving being a missionary. It is truly

a blessing to be here and to serve with such great people. I am so

happy that I have been able to serve the fantastic people of New York

City for this time in my life. I would not rather be anywhere else in

the entire world.

This week was such a blessing. It truly was. We were so guided to many

people who were so prepared to receive us but most importantly the

message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this message of

hope, happiness and faith is true. I know that Jesus Christ lives and

loves us. He is our Savior. He will never leave us alone. He is always

with us to give us comfort, to strengthen us and to help us through

the challenges of life.

I just want to express how grateful I am for the

time that I have been able to have to be a missionary. It is truly a

blessing. I know that our Father in Heaven has a plan for us. He truly

loves us. I know that as we truly strive to love others our lives

change. We come to know who Christ is and we are filled with joy as we

follow him.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored! I know it! As we learn

and live it we are happy. I know that. The people here in this city

are such good people. There are so many who are looking for the truth

and just can't find it. I am so happy that I have been able to be a

messenger of direction here. Miracles are possible in every day. I

know that is true. I love you all and I am so grateful to have been

able to serve a mission. I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior

Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the Holy Ghost. He teaches us when we

are ready and willing to learn. I know that he guides us daily if we

are willing to listen to and follow him.

I know that this church is truly Christ's church. He leads and guides

it! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Waidmann

"The Lord did a lot of good here"

Hey there everyone!

I am still in Corona! Yay! Transfers are tomorrow and Elder Schenk is

leaving which is pretty crazy. We were only together for one transfer

but it was a good transfer. I really learned a lot and we did a lot of

good here, well The Lord did a lot of good here.

On Tuesday we visited with an awesome family from Ecuador. They have two little boys who are always running around with a bunch of energy. We have been trying to help them to come to church more often and to strengthen their relationship with God. They came to church last Sunday and it was awesome!! Hallelujah!

I love when people come to church! Because whenever you go to church you feel the spirit, are uplifted and feel good. FACT! That is what I want for everyone. Anyway, They were so happy and he shared his testimony in Sacrament meeting which was fantastic.  The spirit there was so strong. We then watched Earthly Father, Heavenly Father the Mormon message and

wooooo!!! That whole room was basically in tears. It was such a

beautiful experience! 

On Wednesday the senior couple the Bradfords came over to our

apartment to put blinds in because we have bed sheets hanging up as

drapes.  Ha-ha :) She told us that is why we need women in our lives to

make us spiffy and so that way our houses don't look horrible.

THURSDAY WAS A DAY OF STRAIGHT MIRACLES!!!!

We visited a super awesome family. The husband is from Colombia, There is a place in Colombia called Cali, so whenever I talk to people from Colombia I tell them I am from there and they have a mini heart attack every time because they get so excited, but then I say no actually CALIfornia and they just laugh and are like of course! 

Then after that we visited with this family that I met on the street

one day. The guys name is C.  He called us and said "Hey! Do you remember

about our appointment that we have today? It is at 6 and don't go

anywhere else to eat because we are going to give you Lomo Saltado!" I

was soooo excited. I literally have never had that happen in my entire

mission. It was so cool. Someone calling to confirm an appointment

with me??  It was great! The mother,  Milta the mom of the family gave us cereal on the way out as well! Can you say MIRACLE??? I think so! Because earlier in the week I had completely ran out of my important life staple and was dying...okay...not really but I had no food basically and then BOOM! Tender mercy from The Lord! I basically heard a choir singing Hallelujah! In my

head ha-ha! We are so blessed!

On Friday we had a super sweet visit with a family from our ward who

made us bomb Mexican food! Oh man! So good! I love Spanish food so

much. For real. And we had a super fun spiritual thought with them

about how we can restart every week as we take the sacrament. The

lesson was of how as we draw something we can never do it perfect but

every week God gives us a perfectly clean slate through the sacrament.

God is amazing. I have never felt so guided on my mission before. I

know he lives, loves, and guides us. He is a God of miracles. If we

ask for them, then go out and look and work for them, they come. Fact.

I know that to be true. I love my mission and I love this place, these

people and God!

Love,

Elder Waidmann

"Life is pretty dang good over here!"

Hey!

Life is pretty dang good over here in New York. We had quite an

eventful week with a lot of great things that happened.

We did a sweet flash mob activity with the missionaries in Woodside on the 7 train. It was really cool! We sang "A Child's Prayer" (see the video below to hear what we sang) and the people on the train seemed to like it a lot. It was a lot of fun and afterward we did it in one of the stations and because of that a met a really cool kid who I talked to for a while. He lives in Woodside and

told us how he really liked what we did as missionaries. It was a really cool experience.

Friday was such a sweet day! I had so much fun! It was awesome because

it was Halloween and there were sooooo many people outside. It was funny because every time I had eye contact with someone on the street I just yelled Happy Halloween to them it was pretty funny :)

What is different is that here in New York, is that  all of the kids that go trick or treating go from store to store on the street to get candy because everything here is in apartment buildings. It was weird to see but it is pretty cool! That night we have to be inside early so then we planned and I carved a pumpkin! Pretty fun. It was an awesome day.

There is this lady who has a stand by the church where she sells nuts

and coco that are coated with some sweet sugary goodness and she

always has us pray with her and then she gives us free nuts! She is so

cool! She is Colombian and says that she is our mom while we are out

here on the mission ha-ha! I love her! Then I got to dance to that

sweet Ecuadorian music on the street and I was loving it! I got the CD

and everything :) I had to! (See me dancing  in the back left corner, to this sweet music ...below! :D)

After that we did a finding activity right off of the 7 train and I met a super cool kid. He was from Ecuador and we had such a good conversation. It was probably one of

the best conversations that I have ever had with someone on the street

on my mission. He was telling me how he wanted to change his life and

I told him that the Gospel was the answer! I gave him a Book of Mormon

and also some pamphlets and he very gratefully accepted.

Then after that we met up with his guy who I met back in Woodside when I

was with Elder Rogers! It was so cool! He was super nice and we talked

to him in Dunkin Donuts for a while and gave him a Book of Mormon.

Moral of the story is you can literally have a lesson anywhere in New

York!  

Last but not least! Everyone should study the talks from L. Tom Perry

and Richard G. Scott from this last conference. INCREDIBLE. They are

amazing. That is all. 

I love you all so much. I am grateful for the wonderful plan that God

has for all of us. He really does have one. We just have to

communicate with Him to figure that out! :)

Much love from Corona Queens!

Elder Waidmann

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