54th Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, New York

Finally -  written Sept 9, 2013

Well English classes are finally underway. It only took us four months of begging, pleading, and waiting. But we finally started. And boy howdy has it turned things around for everyone. They aren't even super successful yet, but just the knowledge that we are finally doing something tangible that we can all see and participate in is a huge help morale-wise. Our first class we had four people. Two members and two non-members. The next class we were down to three, two members and one non-member. And our third class we had nobody. But there was a ward bbq going on at the same time, so I'm not too worried about it.

Something about having the English classes every other day made this week seem so busy. It was great. On Wednesday I got to go to the temple for my year mark. My whole district from the MTC was there with us, it was a lot of fun. It was such a calm and peaceful day and it was much needed. Elder Goates and I got to travel to it together and we stayed on exchanges for the rest of the day, just wandering around and handing out English class fliers. It was an awesome day.

Friday was also awesome because we had a packed night. We had three appointments, every hour from 6 until 9. Which doesn't seem like a big deal, but this rarely happens in my life. It was a lot of fun to rush from one appointment to the next. The second one was cut short because he was sick. So we gave him a blessing and we had plenty of time to head out to the next appointment. The best of times on the mission are when you're busy and meeting with people. It's great.

Saturday we had an adventure because we all had to go get flu shots. So we went to Rite Aid and they hooked us up. Then we went to Taco Bell to celebrate getting flu shots. Then we headed out to the ward bbq. The last one the ward had was kind of lackluster, but this one was a bumping party. Everyone and their dog came to this one. We were playing baseball and frisbee, everyone was having a good time. It was a shame that we had to leave to go to English classes. Elder Goates and I just went with the hopes that maybe one person would show up. There wasn't anybody. But we enjoyed chatting until everyone came back from the bbq. At which point we headed out to an area called Bay Ridge, where we had our whole zone come and sing hymns on the street to try to catch people's attention. We call them singing street sweeps. It's always a good time.

But anyways, things are moving along here. Ward council yesterday was still an overly long, very boring meeting, but the bishop is making things happen. Something that this ward has needed for a long time. So hopefully with more time and faith, we will see Midwood Spanish start to blossom soon.

Love,
Elder Erickson