10 March 2014, Brunswick

Let's just go with numerical list this week:

1. District Meeting last week was AWESOME. I created a HUGE Book of Mormon out of poster board and everyone took turns writing their testimonies and signing it in Spanglish (whatever they could). It was pretty spiritual and we focused on having a testimony of the Book of Mormon and using it to contact people on the streets.

2. Had zone meeting. Our monthly focus is a continued focus on the Book of Mormon with a switch to TALKING TO EVERYONE and contacting. So we did a lot of practicing, which was rad, but the BEST part was in the middle of our role-play, a sister who was cleaning the chapel came and asked us for a blessing. So our group (3 elders, 1 sister) went out into the chapel where it was tranquil and gave her a blessing in the middle of zone meeting. The spirit in a chapel, when it is quiet and almost empty, is indescribable. She was having problems with her asthma, so Elder Wood blessed her to heal and for her breathing to be calmed. It almost immediately was.

3. We contacted this incredible Guatemalan guy in a Dunkin Donuts in South River. He came in for a coffee after work, at about 4:30. Part of our new zone goal is to ALWAYS have a Book of Mormon in hand, and as I was in the bathroom, this man (Carlos) sat down at a nearby table and sipped his coffee and drummed his fingers on the tabletop. He looked over at Elder Wood, saw the Book of Mormon on the and said something like, in a heavy Hispanic accent, "The Book of Mormon, I have seen that book before." Elder Wood began a conversation with him and as I came out of the bathroom shaking my hands to dry (all bathrooms in NJ are ALWAYS out of paper towels) he addressed me and started asking questions about what we do as missionaries. We then sat down and taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel for about 30 minutes. He was fascinated, then curious, which curiosity and fascination turned into a real desire to know what we were teaching him. We're planning a dinner with a family so we can teach him at a member's house. Carlos is one of the most sincere people I've met.

4. Taught 27 lessons this week. We worked our tails off this past week. 

5. Found some cool doctrine in the Book of Mormon the other day in Alma 12 (I can't believe I used to think that the Book of Mormon wasn't that deep or thought provoking.. paahhhh): In verse 31, it reads, "... they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good..." We, as humans, are beings that have the power and disposition to act upon other forces. It's because of the Fall that we have that power to a certain extent. Before the fall, Adam and Eve's power to act was not as strong. But because they chose to eat of the fruit their spiritual eyes were opened and they became "as the gods". It's cool to know that we are VERY similar to our Heavenly Father and we have the power to choose and act. That's a God-like gift, and it's the most important thing he's given us. AGENCY. It's everything, along with our faith. FAITH brings POWER.

6. I have to start sending some small things home from here on out. I don't want my suitcases to be HUUUUGGEEE so I'll just have to send a couple of extra boxes home. Then I won't have to be running around screaming the day before I'm gone trying to figure out what to do with all the junk I have (it's really not that bad).

That's about it for this week. Thank Natalie and Dad for the pictures this past week. I loved seeing the family and Nad's friends in New York. THEY'RE SO CLOOOOSSEE.

God lives.

EC

3 March 2014, East Brunswick

Me and Elder Woods' first day as companions, Short Hills, NJ at Transfer conference

We found the COOLEST investigator last week that came to church yesterday. His name is Samuel. he is from Peru. He was an engineer in this country but now he rides his bike every day to the Costco warehouse where he works with packaging and shipping with a lot of other Hispanic men. The first lesson we had with him we could barely understand him because his vocabulary is dizzying. But on Wednesday morning the Spirit helped us understand what his real desires and worries are. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it is NECESSARY for us to return to live with Heavenly Father. He readily accepted a baptismal date. He happily came to church yesterday, showered and ready to go at 11 am, wearing his nicest shirt and shoes.

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT HEAVENLY FATHER NEEDS. I've had so many conversations with missionaries about the PEOPLE that God wants us to find. They are those that are WILLING to accept and act on the truths that we share with them. They are those that you grow to love in sucha  short time because of their humility.

 I had to give a training the other day in Morristown to all of the brand-new district leaders in the mission, and I trained on effective meetings. I felt the spirit as I realized that the best way to know that revelation is being received by those you are teaching is if their is a flow of comments and feedback from your listeners. For anyone that's a teacher, I'm sure you understood that as of 20 years ago, but for me it was revelation from on high, and I was grateful to understand that. There was a lot of commentary going on in my training and I was happy and content with it. I LOVE TRAINING.

Thanks for all the feedback from friends and family this past week. I feel so blessed to have a small crowd of faithful friends and family that continue to be in contact with me. I can't express enough gratitude.

Missionary work is the most amazing work on the planet. There is lots of work to be done this week in Parlin, South River, East Brunswick, Sayreville, Jamesburg, etc. 

God lives.

EC

Jose Mercado in Jamesburg

Elder Bellevance, Elder Wood, and me, visiting Silvia Rosero's sick mother, Carmen

Me and Hector Rodriguez from Columbia

Me and Silvia Rosero in the hospital elevator

L to R: Elder Wood, Elder 

Elder Guijarro, Hermana Haddock, Hermana Schwendimann, Me, Elder Aspinall

24 February 2014, East Brunswick

I am more familiar with Jersey hospitals than my own area.

Not really. But I felt like that last week. Elder Wood got sick with some stomach problems and we had to go to the hospital to get him hydrated.

This was the conversation when we (Elder Bellevance and I) were dropping him off (keep in mind that there is literally NO PARKING IN ALL OF NEW BRUNSWICK):

Me: Alright we'll drop you off at the corner and you go in.

Elder B: But he can't be alone.

Elder Wood: Ooooooh I feel like I'm gonna die! (continues groaning)

Me; Ah shoot you're right.. what do we do?! (car behind us starts honking)

Elder B: I don't know!

Me: We'll just watch him walk inside and give him the phone!" (getting really stressed out)

Elder B: Alright then.

Elder Wood: (groaning, stumbles out of the car holding an empty trash can for a barf bucket and walks into the emergency department)

Totally dishevelment.  Then it takes Elder Bellevance and I 20 minutes to find a parking spot. Finally we park on the 8th floor of an expensive parking garage (cause we're cheap missionaries) and head down to find Elder Wood in a hospital bed in the emergency room, still wimpering. 

So they can't find anything wrong with him except he's nauseated and can't keep food down so at about 8 pm, they move us up into the Pediatrics department, in the CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL. Elder Wood just looked like a big baby, sitting on the beg with an IV in him. It was hilarious. I had to spend the night there on Tuesday night and then we went on an exchange with one of our zone leaders on Wednesday night so I could get a good night's sleep. ALSO, while Elder Wood was sleeping/getting tests done, The zone leaders gave me permission to leave my companion. I definitely took full advantage of the situation: went to the cafeteria, got breakfast, chatted with nurses and doctors, looked at hospital photos, contacted Elder Wood's nurse and invited her to church, (she was from Trinidad & Tobago, pretty rad), and just wandered the hospital halls. Also, I pretended that I was asleep while Elder Wood was getting "checked" in his hospital bed at 12:00 at night. I heard the whole conversation and I as dying.

As far as real, gritty missionary work this week: We had a couple solid days of work. yesterday, for example, a Peruvian lady named Lourdes took us to some of her Peruvian friend's houses in Jamesburg (corner of our HUGE area). She said that she was super willing to come out "knocking" with us. I LOVE MEMBERS like her. Anyway, the people we knocked let us right in, of course, because they knew her, and we then taught a really good lesson on the Book of Mormon. After, we went to another house, and her inactive friend and his 17-year-old daughter came outside. The mother of the house didn't want us in there so I taught my very first car-lesson ever. It was actually really spiritual. The 17-year-old girl is really struggling with a belief in God. She feels like he's never really answered her and she's looking for "a physical sign". IT was cool to teach someone young that is at that point in their life where they are confused, yet humble and willing to experiment upon our words.

We are doing well. The work is growing. Pedro de Jesus is on date for the 16th. Pray for him, he really needs to ask his boss for work off. He's learning to play the piano, and he works at a diner. I love that 20-something-year-old man from Oaxaca, Mexico. We really need to focus on finding and talking to everyone this week because I feel like our area NEEDS it. 

O let me shake at the first sight of sin."

EC

10 February 2014, East Brunswick

Purification Fast = a fast from everything mundane, worldly, and of the natural man. That's what I've been doing this past week. It will last for 40 days and I already feel more constructive, more spiritual, and just happier in general. 

We miraculously found 2 less-active members that are not even on the ward list here in Brunswick. We went to go teach a recently re-activated member named Hermana Perdomo, but when we were talking to her on the found, she told us to come visit her at her niece's house, who lives just down the street from her, (in South River). So we went over, met her niece, Heidy, (a blonde Hondurian girl) and her niece's husband, Jensen. After chatting with Hermana Perdomo for a few minutes, we turned the discussion towards them, and Jensen began asking us about a hundred thousand questions so we taught them the Restoration of the gospel. Then in the middle of the lesson, Heidy turns to us and says that she remembered that she was baptized when she was 10 in Honduras, in a Mormon church. So that was cool. After the discussion they invited us to eat with them, which we gladly did, and then exchanged numbers so we could set up a time to see them again. They are really interested in the message and we've going to teach them again soon.

Another miracle story: Elder Wood and I were in a member's taxi, as he was giving us a lift to our appointment, and he told us that he had to pick up someone else to take them somewhere. We said that that was fine, so he picked up this young Dominican lady who was going to do her laundry. Elder Wood started chatting with her and asked if she knew anything about the church or missionaries. She said YEAH and then told us that she was baptized in New York 5 years ago. Whhhhaaaaaaaaaa????? Cool. So we set up an appointment with her and we plan on seeing her this week. Her name is Kelly, and she told us her husband is NOT a member, and we found out neither is her sister who lives with her. MORE PEOPLE TO TEACH.

Got your emails, Mom and Dad, thanks. But parents, I literally have no idea how to notarize anything. I might need help on that and ALSO, on one of the papers, it asks for my license #. I don't have that  because my license was LOST. Duh. Love you guys though and I really appreciate all your help.

This week, other than the typical, life-changing experiences, was pretty normal, and a little slow. Mostly because we had to spend one entire day driving and in pharmacies, getting medication for Elder Wood. So I was a little frustrated, but all is well, I learned something about myself. The only times I REALLY get anxious and frustrated is when we don't spend as much time as we can doing missionary work, or when outside thing impede us from working hard. It's the worst. 

Transfers are next week. I think things are gonna be changed up but we'll see. Elder Wood has been here for about 6 months so he's probably going to go. 

Spanish is going great. I still wish I was Mexican. Can you wait until there's a mustache above my lip? Me neither.

Love to all.

EC

4 February 2014, East Brunswick

Ritzy East Brunswick

My area is rich and white. Of the 8 cities we cover, the only city that has a larger Hispanic population is called South River, which is where most of our work is done. All of the contacting, knocking, and teaching is done there, because it's filled with Mexicans from Oaxaca and Ecuadorians from Quito.

This past week was filled with more visits to the hospital to be with Hermana Rosero and her mother Carmen. We actually had a really good lesson on prayer with Hermana Rosero's daughter, Maria, who is 23 and applying to go to Rutger's University this fall. We stopped by the hospital and she was there working on applications. So we sat in with her and watched Carmen sleep, as we talked about school, life, future, etc. Eventually we brought in church and religion and testified of the Church, invited her to come and committed her to pray every night. It's so easy to discern whether people are actually invested in their belief in God or not and so it was incredible to see Maria change a little, just in that short discussion we had on prayer. ANNNND we followed up today and she happily said she's been praying every night. She'll be baptized in no time.

We had a great lesson on Wednesday night (after frantically making calls for an hour to find an hermano to come out with us because our original guy bailed on us) with Karla (from Puebla, Mexico - MY PEOPLE!), who is a recently returning less-active member. We also taught her friend, Brenda, the mother of the family that lives with Karla, and the lesson was filled with teaching and testifying about the gospel and the way it specifically blesses us. Karla supported our teaching with a testimony about the Plan of Salvation and how when God took her father from her, she had to remember who she loved more: her Heavenly Father or her earthly father? Brenda is now investigating and we are going to start teaching her husband and family as well.

ALSO, Jose Mercado drove down from Plainfield and took us out to Maria's Taqueria in Jamesburg. Spectacular Mexican food down there. I ordered carne enchilada with rice and beans and fresh lettuce and avocados, with a cold Cola on the side. It was so good to see Jose and he was better than when I saw him last. He said he goes to church 2-3 times every month (which is considered active) and he is working on receiving a calling right now. 

The gospel is real. It's not some made-up story, some fabricated idea of man. It's the way we get back to Heavenly Father and I know it's true.

EC

ps - I'll say it again : ALL MY FRIENDS ARE MISSIONARIES.

27 January 2014, East Brunswick, NJ

Bring your buckets by the dozens, bring your nieces and your cousins...

This week we went to hospital 4 days consecutively. The mother of our member (Silvia Rosero, from Ecuador) just barely came to the States from Ecuador, and as she was coming over, the plane ride caused her to have several serious health conditions (on top of the fact that she already was a little sick, AND is 84-years-old). Poor Silvia. We went to the hospital every day from Tuesday to Friday, starting off visiting her in general medical on day one. We gave her a blessing of healing, promising her that she would feel better the next day. Silvia texted us the next day saying her condition had worsened and she was moved to the ICU (BY THE WAY, all 4 days I was having these insanely vivid flashbacks of feeling like I lived in the hospital when Mom was in UVRMC. It was strange yet comforting being there). So we went up to visit her and she said she felt better, but there were more problems and more tests to be done to determine what her condition was. We just stayed and talked with her, (let HER talk to us) until she fell asleep. Elder Wood and I both felt that we should be there mostly just to be a support for Silvia. We continued to visit them until the weekend when Carmen (mother) started doing a better and remembering more things. I learned a couple of things from these experiences:

1. The priesthood is real and it has the power to bring people to investigate the true gospel and eventually join it. We are praying for Carmen, who's heart was really hard before we gave her the first blessing.

2. The spirit in the ICU is incredibly intense. There are lots of tears and pain, which makes it an emotional place, but I think it's because so many of those people are being kept alive with machines and medicine. The veil feels thin, as if God is just waiting for some of those people to come back to Him.

Other than our hospital experiences, the week was slower, but still a good one. I spent some considerable time pondering repentance and the importance of it in our mundane lives. I've been really trying to internalize it, understand it, and use it every single day to feel purer and cleaner before Heavenly Father. I've noticed that I have had several spiritual experiences where I really LOOK FORWARD to my nightly prayers, that personal time I get to spend with Him, where I can throw down my fears and sins on the table, where we can "reason together". Through personal purification, I think I've become a more sober-minded person, but still completely me, still loud and obnoxious and always making jokes. It's strange. I feel like my Father (though I don't have piercing blue eyes) in the sense that I've realized the seriousness power of our message. It's not something to joke about. "Missionary work is hard because S A L V A T I O N  I S  N O T  C H E A P . "

May God bless every one of you in your endeavors to serve Him.

EC

21 January 2014, East Brunswick, NJ

 HEY Mom, Dad, Natalie, Kai, Finn, Lars, Grandma, Grandpa, ALL UNCLES AND AUNTS ON MOM's and DAD's side, Lydia, Chris, Bayley, Tanner, Bekah, Hayley, Jaezo, Kent, and EVERYONE ELSE I love.

Here are a few of my thoughts about Christ and the Atonement:

Christ was chosen to suffer for us, not because God loved Him more than he loved us, but because that was His calling. I carry a different calling, but Heavenly Father still loves me dearly, enough that the price was paid for me, and God, in the very moment of Christ's greatest pain, chose not to reach out his hand and help Him. That requires more love than I can comprehend. I understand and believe whole-heartedly that the Atonement of Jesus Christ does not just cover my sins, pains, tribulations, weaknesses, misunderstandings, and temptations, but I think it also encompasses the good things we experience. That Atonement is EVERYTHING, and it represents everything good in this life. There's a quote I love from a recent Mormon Message, given by Elder Christofferson: "Maybe the greater blessing for us is to have to walk through it with Him." He's talking about trials and when he said this the first thing I thought of was having to walk WITH Him in the garden, having to walk WITH Him to where he was being crucified. Maybe the greatest blessing we can have is to have to experience the Atonement for ourselves and understand the pain that Christ was feeling.

I'm a happy man. I've changed a lot and I've lived in New Jersey for more than 20 months, which is insane (EAST COAST!), and I wake up every day around 6 to an alarm to go outside and run in the winter morning. That's how every day starts. I was talking to President Jeppson yesterday and he was telling me that WHEN he felt that his son changed on his mission is when he stopped writing about all the trivial THINGS he was doing, and started writing about HOW he was doing things and his understanding of WHY he was doing things. This work is all about our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, I wrote a new song and it's called Blue Room (LYDIA THINK ABOUT IT) and it's nice. I feel like my P-days are being cut down shorter and shorter every week and when they're over, I'm stressed and I just want to get back to work. 

My district meeting is going to be rad tomorrow (cancelled today due to a blizzard) cause I'm training on the importance of using the scriptures while teaching and I'm pulling a bunch of scriptures from the Old Testament to show that ALL THE flipping scriptures do is testify of Christ, which shows us how important He really is. 

This week I got cold water poured on me while i was in the shower by Elder Guijarro (mexicano visiting from the other Brunswick area) and then after he felt bad so he tried to hug me (and I was naked still). Also, we helped a Taiwanese family with car trouble last night and when we asked if we could send English missionaries to visit them, the mother of the family, Shuying Lee, kept saying "yes yes yes yes yes!!!" so that was awesome/ They're probably going to get baptized. On Sunday, the teacher in Priesthood was teaching that there have only been 5 dispensations since Adam, and then we had to correct him. HAPPENS on a weekly basis. We visited a mother and her young son, Rusty, who are awesome, and they want me to bring the guitar every time I come over now, because they LOVE IT. Had ZONE CONFERENCE, and I felt more love for Heavenly Father and the Jeppsons that it hurt. I don't think I've ever felt that before.

Love you all dearly. The gospel is true.

EC