December 16, 2013, Passaic

Nooooooooooo tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmeeeee.

1. Church was cancelled because we got about 6 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday morning. Wusses, if you ask me. We went to church in Paterson, because it was held later on in the day, as the snow was starting the melt. Got my sacrament!

2. Invited Alfonso and Mari to be baptized on January 12. They said if they read and pray and feel ready by then, they will. !

3. Directed the entire Christmas program yesterday. I felt like Mr. Larsen, from Timpview High School. It went really well, actually, only a few minor slipups that were on my part. We sang 5 songs, 2 from the Hymn book, 2 from the Primary hymn book, and 1 other: This is the Christ. I conducted with TONS of energy, so much that people probably thought I was having a seizure while leading the music, as I was swaying and whipping my arms around, telling people when to come in and when to pause and cut-off. I felt HUGE, probably because I was standing on a 2 foot tall wooden stool and my music stand was on a chair in front of me. The Giant of Jersey rose again.

4. We had Jingle with the Jeppsons, which is where we go to the Mission Home, sing hymns, play hand-bells, eat a HUGE delicious, American breakfast (AMERICA!), have a spiritual discussion and reading of the Christmas story, and picture taking at the fireplace. I felt the Spirit really strong as we sat together as a zone and played a quick game, and then as we moved into the spiritual part. I felt HOME, as if the missionaries were family. I was surrounded by wonderful people, in a warm house, after eating good food. I think that's what part of heaven will be like.

5. We walked all day on Friday because of the snow (Pres asked us not to drive). My feet got wet. Dad, is there any chance you could put some money on my card so I could buy a pair of snow boots to use? I'll put them to good use. Thanks.

6. Giovanny Rosero, our favorite 19-year-old, Mormon Ecuadorian kid is starting his papers NOW. He was originally going to wait until next summer to start but he was praying earnestly the other day and he felt that he should start ASAP. Love him to death, he's going to be the most incredible missionary ever.

7. That's all folks. JESUS LIVES. I realized that yet again as I went to the temple on Friday and did a session. What an amazing chance we have to be a part of the kingdom of God. It requires pain and work and sacrifice but it's worth it.

“… The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” (Matt. 13:45–46.)

EC

December 9, 2013, Passaic

                                                              Half of Zone 3

Snow and rain the past two days. Only light snow but cold rain that followed which made everything icy.

Jazmin got baptized yesterday in cold water. We didn't realize the heater takes a horrendously long time to kick in if it's bitter cold outside so the water was around 55 degrees. Poor Jazmin. Just like when I baptized John Michael last October (first baptism!) she came up and let out a big breath letting everyone know how cold the water was. As she came down the back steps of the font, Vicky, who was holding her towel for her, started busting up laughing because she was shivering and exclaiming how cold it was. Jazmin's daughter, Andrea, didn't want to get baptized because she's a little afraid of the water. But after seeing her Mom get baptized, she now wants to. So we'll have another baptism in 2 weeks. Hermano Bello came up to me right before the baptism and hugged me (as I was wearing white) and said "This is why you stayed man!" Jazmin would have got baptized anyway because of her open heart and how well prepared she was, but it was a huge blessing to be able to baptize her and continue to bless the Garcia family and all their extended family. That family is doing their fair share of missionary work and it's really cool to see how many people are coming unto Christ because of Hermano and Hermana Garcia's willingness to open their mouths and tell everyone about what's made them happier than anything else in their lives.

I got nasty sick on Friday morning, the same morning I was supposed to give a training in Short Hills on "effective exchanges" to all the new District and Zone Leaders in the mission. I woke up at 5:45 feeling ok but then walked to the bathroom and hurled my guts out for the next 3 hours. Blasted Thanksgiving leftovers. I shouldn't have trusted that ham and potato salad. I still TRIED to get ready so I could give the training, but in the middle of a conversation with Elder Nielsen saying "Maybe you should give the training for me..." I booked it to the bathroom and destroyed the tub with some projectile vomit. It was orange that time, because I drank a little Sunny-D to try to get the barf-taste out of my mouth (I hope you're all picturing this by now..). So I stayed home and Elder Nielsen gave the training for me. Elder Dahl and Murray came over from Paterson and stayed the day with me. I just slept and threw up more, slept and threw up. I don't think I ate anything for about 48 hours and I lost 6-7 pounds.

Funny story: on Thursday, Elder Nielsen was DETERMINED to memorize Helaman 5:12 (poor guy really struggles with memorizing scriptures and it's our goal from Elder Carballo) in Spanish. So he locked himself in the workout room for 5 hours and swore he wouldn't leave until he had memorized it. After about 3 hours, he came storming out of the room with his hair all messed up, his tie undone, his shirt untucked, and a crazy desperate look in his eye saying, " I can't memorize this stupid thing!!!!" I made him stop and take a break. We missed an appointment. Finally after about 5 hours, he got it and was able to say it, without help

, word for word. It was pretty hilarious for me. I just cleaned the house, ate lunch, called people, organized stuff, and played hymns on the guitar.

Well that's about it for the week. The gospel is true. You know that I know it.

EC

ps - Elder Hoyt (now Kurt) came back to Jersey and we went and visited the Bello's with him and he came to church in Passaic. He's doing great back in UT.

                                                                  Jazmin's baptism

                                                                   Jazmin's baptism

                                   Hermana Rosado and I (she makes the best MANGU ever)

                                                           Santiago Twins and I

                                                          Hermano Navarro and I

                                                         Laluz family (dominican)

                                                 Hernandez family (peruvian dominican)

December 2, 2013, Passaic

Listening to Elvis Presley's "Here Comes 'a Santa Claus" in the library. Nice X-Mas jam. It's fun still being in the states for X-Mas, even though I've practically living in Little Mexico. Instead of everything smelling like coffee and cinnamon, everything smells like tortillas and cheap beer. The good times are killing me.

THANKSGIVING was a blast. We went over the legendary Garcia family's house for Dinner, and afterwards for a 2nd dinner with the Santiago twins, Carmen and Isbeth. Also, I failed to mention that around 2:30 we had a HUGE Thanksgiving lunch with the Dunnings (Senior couple in Paterson). All the food was excellent. At the Garcia's house, we had pernil (marinated pork chunks that you eat with tortillas), salad, and a bunch of different kinds of Mexican sodas. It was delicious. I need to start snapping photos of ALL the different food I've eaten. The Santiago twins gave us something a little different, a little more traditional. They did a turkey, an amazing Panama style rice, potato salad, a fresh salsa with limes, cilantro, onion, tomato, and mango, baked ham, and for dessert: a half dark chocolate, half flan cake. Ooh. Bonus: we got to take home ALL the leftovers.

We had a PACKED week. Transfer conferences were on Tuesday (a new zone (11) was created) and a bunch of our wonderful missionaries were transferred. The delightful thing about being a zone leader is you get really close to your whole zone, and then when they leave, you MISS THEM. Sister Jorgensen (served in Passaic the entire time I've been here) left down to zone 10 (the Southern abyss, many NJMM missionares refer to it as "banishment") and she was HILARIOUS. Also, Elder Townsend, my Caldwell buddy, and 2 of the Paterson North trio left. Life goes on. Friday was Mission Leader Council. Our new monthly focus is ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM. I'm really excited for this monthly focus, as it's something I really need to work on, especially at this time of year. I am reminded of a scripture that we were to share with a less-active member in Mosiah 3. "

5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the ^aLord ^bOmnipotent who ^creigneth, who was, and is from all ^deternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a ^etabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty ^fmiracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the ^gblind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

6 And he shall cast out ^adevils, or the ^bevil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

7 And lo, he shall ^asuffer ^btemptations, and pain of body, ^chunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can ^dsuffer, except it be unto death; for behold, ^eblood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his ^fanguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

8 And he shall be called ^aJesus ^bChrist, the ^cSon of God, the ^dFather of heaven and earth, the ^eCreator of all things from the beginning; and his ^fmother shall be called Mary.

It is a beautiful description and profecy of Christ from the majestic King Benjamin (I think Mosiah 1-5 are some of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon). Christ came down in a "tabernacle of clay" to minister to us and to give His life for us. Don't forget Him. "Look unto me in every thought; Doubt not; fear not." D&C 6:36.

We also had lots of success with contacting on Friday evening. Although it was freezing, Elder Nielsen and I were with Giovanny running around Passaic talking to everyone. We contacted a young family from Mexico: Alfonso and Mari, and their kids Aldo and Destiny, and then we SAW and TAUGHT them yesterday. We had a wonderful discussion about the Restoration of the Gospel, and they are very positvely responsive. Missionary work is the greatest.

We will be going to the temple on the 13th. FRIDAY the 13th. 

The gospel is true. Merry X-MAS.

EC

November 25, 2013, Passaic

It's cold, in the 20's and 30's. The temperature just seemed to drop out of nowhere and now the streets are bare and it smells like exhaust on every corner. 

I'm NOT leaving Passaic. I'll stay for another transfer with E. Nielsen, which will be my 5th transfer here (in total about 7.5 months). That's a long time, but I wanted to stay so we can baptize Jasmin and her daughter Andrea. I'll tell you about them:

Jasmin just got here 2 weeks ago from D.F., Mexico. She is the daughter of Andrea Salas (recent convert) and we have been consistently teaching her since the week she arrived. She responds so well to the discussions, always has good questions and concerns but she's already ready to be baptized. She accepted the invitation in the first visit, but we confirmed it in the 2nd. She'll be baptized on December 8th with her daughter, Andrea, who is 9 years old. Before we even met her, she had read 530 pages of the Book of Mormon (there are around 650 pages in the Spanish Book of Mormon). She felt the spirit as she read and she knew it was true, THANKS to Hermana Guadalupe Garcia (Jasmin's aunt) who is a strong member and a dear friend of mine, who constantly spoke to her about the church and about how it was the most wonderful thing in her life. In a few years, I won't be surprised if the entire extended Garcia family is baptized. They are humble, Mexican people with an unbelievable ability to feel the spirit and recognize the need for spiritual growth.

We had the branch Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday night. We had a few investigators there, as well as less-actives, and TONS of active members. We make jokes around here that the head-count at activities is DOUBLE than that of normal sacrament meeting attendance: Hispanics love their parties. 

It was great fun though. Hermano Lazaro (looks like a Mexican bear) hired a mariachi band and I was in heaven. They played multiple old classic Rancheras (typical Mexican music). The band consisted of a singer that played the guitar, a bass player (HUGE, 6 string acoustic bass... I need to get one), and two trumpet players. IT was the raddest thing ever. DAD and CHRIS - remember how we used to always change the radio station to the Hispanic music station? Well... I am now in love with all that type of music. Make fun of me, if you dare. Anyway, the band played a song called "El Rey" that Elder Dahl and I learned to sing (I don't even remember how) and as the band was playing it, I was sitting in my chair singing LOUDLY with the band and bobbing my head, acting like a depressed Mexican drunk and all the members were howling with laughter. It was pretty great. All those songs are always from the eyes of some depressed guy singing about how his girlfriend just left him. Unrequited love. Where would we be in music without it?

The Acosta family came to church yesterday again and Jose had his LONG hair in a bun, trimmed up his beard, and was wearing slacks and dress shoes. He's such a cool guy. We found out the other day that he's a fist fighter, a pretty big, scary one too. 

Life is sweet in Passaic. I will stay here for Thanksgiving, the temple trip to Manhattan, Christmas, and New Years. It's going to be marvelous.

I love every last one of you and I miss you. The gospel is true.

EC

ps - Bayley - you're on a mission and I couldn't be prouder. Love you tons.

November 12, 2013, Passaic, NJ

Hey everyone. This week was wonderful.

1. I'm probably getting released from being a zone leader in 2 weeks. Sad day, I will miss zone 3 and Passaic.

2. We taught Jo-Jo Acosta (14) about the power of God and trusting in him. He's a boxer, a really cool kid and he's really starting to trust us and enjoy the time when we come over and teach the family.

3. Saw Maria again this week: Maria has lots of family problems, fights all the time with her mother-in-law (who lives upstairs), has 5 kids, a husband with an alcohol addiction, and lots of desires to better her life. Her good friend is Hermana Bravo (who lives in the other elders' area) and she has SEEN a  huge difference in the 3 short years that the Bravo family has been in the church. 

4. We visited and taught the Ascencio family which consists of Tio Elias (Uncle Elias) and Angel (Elias' nephew). They are HILARIOUS. They're always trying to speak Spanish in a hard-core gringo accent saying things like "como estarrrrrr elderrrrrrrrressss?" Hah, also they call us REBELDERES (rebel elders). Angel is 18 and preparing to go on a mission. Elias is in his 40's, returned missionary. Great family, very strong testimonies.

5. We MOVED this week into a part of Clifton (we cover Clifton and Passaic). IT's a nice little 2 bedroom house (we live on the first floor). It has an amazing vibe to it and we hope to be getting some framed pictures of Christ to put on the walls. Elder Nielsen and I worked HARD this week, because time was taken out to move out and carry stuff from house to house. But turned out well.

6. Jason's dad came up to us the other day out of the blue and said "Hey I want to get baptized. But I want to study a little more with you first." AWESOME. Today is his birthday, and we're going to give him a card and set him with a date.

No time. Gotta run.

Christ lives, we are redeemed!

EC

November 4, 2013, Passaic, NJ

"White tongues hang out, God is good."

This past week at Zone Conference I played the first religious song I've ever written. It actually ended up being a medley of that song (Untitled at the moment) with hymn 163 "Lord Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing" (favorite hymn, go listen to and sing it). I really like the way it turned out and I got lots of good feedback from Elders and Sisters, asking for lyrics, recordings, etc. I'm working on it. 2 weeks ago I laid down my first recording on the tapes the family sent me for Christmas last year. More to come. Some songs are religious, some are not. My goal is, by April, I want to have about 7-8 religious songs recorded, sent to Chris so he can digitize them and put them on CD's, and then distribute them before I'm gone. I realize the power of music like I never have before.

MORE on music: Sister Dunning (senior sister) and myself are in charge of the entire Christmas Fireside in Union City this year. I have been calling and texting like crazy, recruiting missionaries to sing, play, speak, and participate in the program this year. It will be on the 15th of December. 1) I work with our zone, 2) I need to work in my area and keep finding prepared people like the Acosta family (more on them later) and 3) now I have to organize a speech and music program for all the Hispanic members in our mission boundaries. It's going to be awesome. Elder Blanco, Elder Romrell, and I are going to be doing a trio spanish song with guitar and trumpet. We'll see how the composing goes for it. I'll keep you updated.

Anyway, let's move on to the Acosta family. I know I've talked about them before but I just wanted to discuss them a little more: THEY ALL came to church yesterday. One reason why I love church is because it's such a rich environment for revelation and establishing relationships. It can be stressful when you have a family of 6 that come, but it's so worth it when you work through your members and they strive to shepherd your investigators through classes and meetings. I loved watching Hermana Laluz (Dominican gospel principles teacher, returned missionary from 20 years ago) start to fellowship Sofia, talk to her about nursing (they're both studying and in the medical field), and embrace her warmly when the family left after church. ALSO, Jo-Jo is good friends with the Relief Society President's oldest son. They box together and hang out at school. Man, life is good. They loved church and we'll be helping them progress toward baptism in the coming weeks. We had an amazing lesson with them the other day as we read Enos and talked about the importance of praying correctly and striving to better our personal prayers; making them more heartfelt and sincere.

E. Nielsen and I set a goal to speak in spanish whenever we're not in the apartment and it's gone well, so far. It could be better, but we're striving to be more obedient, up our Spanish, and be better examples for the whole zone. We love zone 3.

Christ is our King and Savior. I watched a baptism in darkness the other day and it was still incredibly inspiring and spiritual. A whole family was baptized in one month (De la Cruz family!) and everyone, except for Richard, was baptized in darkness, meaning the light to the baptismal font was burned out. It turned out to be a cool metaphor to me. As those people were baptized, it seemed as if the font literally lit up, especially as they rose from the water. Richard baptized his little sister Sara yesterday and I was close to tears as they embraced in the water after she came up out of the water. The priesthood is real and it is GOD'S power.

EC

October 28, 2013, Passaic

Elder Townsend, new missionary

1. Tanner - write me man.

2. It's getting colder. I like it and I don't. I get moody when the weather

is changing drastically like this.

3. Family, how are you? Thanks for the email, Dad. Those pictures of you

and Jed mountain biking are AWESOME. Hey, also, I was wondering if for

X-Mas I could just a little something from each of your brother's and

sister's family. At least a photo of each person. Because I don't even

remember what some of them look like... Talk to them, and let me know. MOM,

you too. I wanna see if Marlo, Duane, and/or Bonnie have changed at all.

Alright let's kick into the letter now:

This past week was the baptism of the de la Cruz family. Here's their quick

story:

As I I've told you: Richard got into the church because his GF Jennifer is

a strong member. He got baptized about a month ago. His family started

investigating shortly after and they all received witnesses by the power of

the Holy Ghost that this IS the true gospel of Jesus Christ and His

restored church. His mother, Jacqueline, and sister, Shantal, got baptized

in Paterson yesterday and we got to go see the baptism. Also, a

companionship of sisters in our zone baptized a 9-year-old Ecuadorian boy.

But anyway, it was really cool to see almost the entire family get

baptized. Elder Nielsen and I were having a short discussion about how the

gospel changes lives and how even when we teach people that don't get

baptized during the time that WE are teaching them, we've got to have the

faith that they will join the church later on. So, it was really cool,

because E. Nielsen was the first missionary to teach the de la Cruz family

and I got to teach Richard a couple of times and prepare him for baptism.

Lots of missionaries helped this family become members of the restored

Gospel of Christ.

Other marvelous note: I got to give Richard the priesthood yesterday, and

ordain him to the office of Priest. He's an amazing person.

The Acosta family is progressing little by little. They didn't come to

church yesterday because Sofie was sick, but they will be coming next week.

I learn so much from E. Nielsen as we teach them. He teaches with a power

that comes from his over-arching surge of sympathy, compassion, sincerity,

and love. I admire him and am trying to be like him. Last night, we read

part of the story of Enos with them and talked about how we can receive

answers for our prayers. Then, this morning, I was reading in 1 Nephi 15

(just started the Book of Mormon in Spanish again - 2nd time) and there's a

part where Nephi says to Laman and Lemuel:

"Have you inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the

Lord maketh no such thing unto us. Behold, I said unto them: How is it that

you do not keep the commandments of the Lord? ... Do you not remember the

things which the Lord hath said? - If ye will ... ask me in faith,

believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments,

surely these things shall be made known unto you." ASK GOD. Ask Him about

everything. Give Him your questions, doubts, weaknesses. He'll answer.

I know the church is true. May God bless you all.

EC

Shantal and Jaqueline's baptism