Ballin' in the hood

 What's popping everybody! Is it crazy hot over on that side of the country as well? The humidity this past week has been pretty gnarly. I don't think it's as bad as the humidity in Kiribati but man it sure is something else. This past week was pretty sweet so allow me to share a couple highlights:

We put our friend Debra on baptismal date this past Thursday. She is a pretty awesome lady. She was able to attend a baptismal service about 2 weeks ago and she loved it. She told us that she felt the spirit when she saw the font and when the baptism took place. We were able to have a cool lesson about baptism and why it is important and she said that she wanted to get baptized wahoo!

We have been allowed to have meals with people, so this week we had a couple awesome meals. We had some nice Filipino Food with a Member named JoJo and it was pretty dang good. JoJo is a recent convert of a couple years and he just loves putting on big dinners for the missionaries so when he heard we could eat with people he was way excited. We also had a nice BBQ with the man himself, Bro. Crabb. 

We went to the courts to play some ball with some other Elders last Monday and we we shooting around having a good time when this group of guys challenged us to a pickup game. Two of them probably just got out of prison, two were just your typical play ball all day type of people and then one of them was 6'8 and a D1 commit for football haha. But, we scored circles around them. I don't know why it is, but I swear your given special abilities to play basketball as a missionary because I've never performed better haha. We became pretty tight with all of them which is pretty sweet because you need all the protection you can get as a white person over here haha jokes. We got all of their numbers so we can play with them again/invite them to church 🤙🏽

Well that's about it from this past week. Keep smiling ya'll!

Tangiringkami ni kabane 

Tia boo moa 

Elda Jeppson

BBQ with Brother Crabb 

Eating dinner with JoJo

Mid-city "Lake"

Just Me and Lady Liberty 

Some sweet murals around the city 

Buffet Eating 

Vibin on the Bus 

Meet me her Mckay so I can beat you in soccer haha jk

In The Eye Of The Storm

 Kam na bane ni Mauri! 

How's it going everybody! Nothing to crazy happened over here this past week but we were able to have some pretty awesome lessons with some people.

We are teaching this lady from Sierra Lione right now and she is such a sweet lady. She is supposed to get baptized here in a couple weeks which she is excited for. We had a super awesome lesson with her the other day on Temples. We showed her the Rome Italy Temple video and after it was finished she said, "I want to go there. I felt such peace watching that video and I know that's what I should do." Her testimony is growing everyday and it is amazing to be able to see the change that is happening in her life.

The weather here has been super wacky lately. People say here that if you don't like the weather in Jersey then all you have to do it wait a day. We are going from 90 degree hot weather to rainy and cold the next, to 70 degrees and just right, back to hot, then right back to rainy haha. You never know what weather to dress for, so you end up finding a way to prepare yourself for whatever mother nature wants to throw at you. There have been a couple days where we leave the apartment in nice sunny weather, but and up returning soaked head to toe in the middle of a storm haha I think missionaries just attract bad weather.

Here's a little spiritual food for y'all:

"A Bell is no bell till you ring it,

A song is no song till you sing it,

And love in your heart wasn't put there to stay 

Love isn't love till you give it away."

Think about that throughout this week and then try and look for little ways to serve those around you.

Tangiringkami ni kabane 

Tia boo moa 

Elda Jeppson

Elders Young, Marx, Me, Kay, Brough, Hickman, Zinkand

This older lady we are teaching gave us some incense that her sons made and this was one of them haha 

Baptism Time - sorry Mom my eyes were closed 

An old train station across from Ellis Island

Livin' In The Hood...

 What is going on everybody! Jersey City is a fun time filled with a whole ton of awesome experiences and awesome people. I'm just gonna get right into it;

To start off let me just paint a picture of what our area looks like.  As the people be saying it, "We be livin in da hood mahn." So picture this: Your the only white person. You've got people wheeling up and down the streets on their dirt bikes, big old speakers blasting music, maybe some illegal happenings but those don't have to be mentioned haha and a whole lot of awesome people that love talking to us. We have made some good friends with a lot of people so everytime they see us they yell out from across the street. There is this dude named Mike who yells out so loud "Mormon Power" every time he sees us. We saw him on the bus yesterday and he hit us with it and everyone around us was so confused haha it was awesome.

We are teaching a lot of awesome people right now as well. We were able to put our friend Ahmeer on baptismal date which is exciting. He is such a cool guy. We were teaching him about the Restoration at the church building and he asked us a question about baptism. We just so happened to have a baptismal font at our church building so we showed him it and he was is awe. We explained to him what baptism was and how we do it and he told us that, "That is something I want to do." Seeing people want to live the gospel always makes me happy.

There is a quote that I came across yesterday that I want to share with y'all. 

"President Hinckley has often said that the only way he knows to get anything done is to get on his knees and plead for help and then get on his feet and go to work. That combination of faith and hard work is the consummate curriculum for learning the language of the Spirit."

When I read that I realized that that is what most of my mission and even life has been. Sometimes we just don't know what to do. I have seen though throughout my mission especially that as I have asked for guidance and then started doing what I know how to do I have found that God is always right beside me helping me out. Take some time to think about that this week.

Remember y'all, Keep that smile on your faces!

Tangiringkami ni Kabane 

Tia Boo Moa 

Elda Jeppson

The moving crew

Strolling in the park

Oh hey there...ya that's NYC behind me 

Elder Young and I 

The Zone