57th Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, New York

The Week of Sukot written Sept 30th, 2013

It was a fun week here in Brooklyn. Granted, we really don't have much to do with the Jews and we didn't participate in the week of Sukkot in any way, shape, or form. But it was still fun to walk around and see all of the Sukkots in the street. I like to see when fast food places have them outside that way they can still have Jewish customers. Genius.

So the English ward in Midwood has a list of some 750 less active members that the Stake President is really concerned about. On Wednesday there was an epic less-active blitz organized with all of the missionaries in Brooklyn. We had 70 missionaries in this area, all looking up these names for the English ward. Everybody was split up so we all had new companions for four hours while we searched. It was a lot of fun. I got to be companions with an old friend of mine, Elder Hernandez, and we just went out and looked up addressed. We only found one person on our list, but she happened to be from Puerto Rico, so she spoke Spanish. We chatted for a bit, but she didn't want anything to do with our church. It may not have been a successful night for us, but other people had some pretty good success. I just had a fun time wandering around Brooklyn with Elder Hernandez.

On Friday we had a full night of teaching, it was great. We have kind of made it a tradition to go every Friday with a member in the ward. His name is Miguel Aparicio, a 25 year old return missionary from El Salvador. Way cool dude. I think I've written about him before, but I can't remember. He teaches us Spanish and we teach him English. It's a great deal. But we went out with him and we taught three lessons to less-active members. It was awesome. That's my kind of missionary night.

Saturday was interesting as well because Elder Goates and Elder Hellewell both got sick throughout the day. So the day started with me going with Elder Hellewell to find a referral way in the outskirts of our area. Then, by about 5, he had gotten sick too. So Elder Spencer and I took over their appointment for the night. We went and taught some kids who are members but their parents aren't. They go over every week to help keep the kids solid, so we got to visit for a change. And we got some good Dominican food. Can't go wrong there. After that, we had just enough time to hit up our other appointment with a less active member who is now taking the temple prep classes to return to the temple! I am so excited about that. I've been trying to get him to take these classes for a while, so I'm glad this is finally working out.

That's about it, currently. Not too much going on out here. We finally got our first new investigator from English classes. He was looking for a church to join and Elder Goates and Hellewell taught him the first lesson. It went well and he wants to meet with them again, so we're excited about that. Hopefully he is the first of many to come.

All is well here, hope you guys are doing well too. Thank you for your love and prayers!

Love,
Elder Erickson