Friday, January 24, 2014

73rd Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Patchogue, New York

Another Transfer Down          written  January 13, 2014

So the adventures continue, here in Patchogue. We got the week started off with a fun dinner and a lesson at the Ibarra's. They have us over pretty much every Tuesday for dinner. It's great. Then we teach the young man Hermán that lives in their house. We ate some delicious rice and pork with some Guatemalan tamales. Can't go wrong there. We reviewed some of the Restoration with Hermán and tried to help him understand the significance of the restoration. Sometimes the toughest part about teaching someone is helping them understand that we're not just another Christian church. That the story of the Restoration is either true or it's not. And that if it is true, we need to act on that knowledge and do something about it. I'm not quite sure if Hermán quite gets it yet. But we'll get there eventually. We're going to teach him again tomorrow and hopefully clear up some more questions.

Wednesday we started up district language study again. The sisters requested it and I love teaching it, so I volunteered. We had it every day this week, it was a lot of fun. I just pick a different grammar concept every day and explain it with various examples and whatnot. That night we got to have dinner with the ward mission leader. He took us to this sweet place that seemed like an imitation of Chipotle, but with cheaper burritos. Can't complain about that. Then while we ate, got to ask him all of my Spanish questions. It's always super helpful to ask native speakers for help. That was my language study for the day. Then after that, We went and taught English classes. This new guy came who already knows English pretty well, but he needs to fine tune some things so he can pass the GED. So I took him aside and taught him a personal English lesson. That was a lot of fun. English is a weird language. He is a way cool guy and seemed willing to come to church, so hopefully we can meet with him at some point.

Thursday we had a small miracle. We combined English and Spanish districts to go knock doors together. I was with Elder Ligman and we knocked the first door. He took it and did the approach in English. She said we could come in and share our message. We were shocked. On our first try? Her 17 year old son was home, so we could go in. We sat down and she looked kind of Hispanic, so I asked if she speaks Spanish. She said yes and that she hardly knows any English. Wait, what? So I took over and taught her the restoration solo. Elder Ligman can understand Spanish pretty well, but he doesn't speak very much. She seemed somewhat interested. She told me she has met with all sorts of missionaries from lots of different churches before. She was willing to meet with us again, so that's a good sign. Hopefully we can get back there this week and teach her some more.

Friday we had another exchange. This time I was with Elder Coca, the district leader's companion. He is a way cool guy. We taught a lesson to one of the guys I taught with Elder Richardson last week. We also got to teach a recent convert named Josué. He is maybe 16 years old and I am really impressed with him. Especially for not having much support at home, he really has a good understanding of the Gospel. It's incredible. We taught him about temples and he's going to go do baptisms for the dead in a couple of weeks.

Saturday morning I got asked to play the piano for a young women's event. They were welcoming in the new girls and we scored free breakfast for me playing two songs. It was a great deal. We went out and looked people up during the evening and then we met up back at the church at 8 because they needed us to clean the chapel after a baby shower. So we scored some leftover treats from the shower and then frantically cleaned the church from 8 until 9. Always a party.

Sunday was the big day of the week. One of the missionaries in the English district, Elder Weser, is waiting for his visa to head to Brazil. He finally got it, so he leaves today for Brazil. Elder Weser is a really good singer, so he wanted to do a big concert for his ward before he left. He organized a number of things and yesterday was the big day. He had three performances in the program and some speakers. I was the piano player for all three of the songs. It was a lot of fun. They invited both English and Spanish wards, so there was a pretty good turnout. Elder Weser did a really nice job.

So that's about it for the week. It brings the transfer to a close. Our whole district is staying the same, so we all get six more weeks of good times here. It should be fun.

Love,
Elder Erickson

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