47th Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, New York

20 Years of Good Times    written July 22, 2013

Another week down here in Midwood. This was a pretty uneventful week, except for turning 20 of course on July 18th. That was a good day.

You asked about my experience learning Spanish in Brooklyn....In some ways it's harder to learn Spanish with English all around, but it's also better in other ways. It makes it a little slower to happen, but I find that it embeds it better in your mind. Because I have to use both languages so much, it all cements it easier. 

Spanish has been a real struggle in our district because our missionaries are so young here. Elder Goates and I are the only ones who are confidently fluent. The other four are all pretty new and still struggling. So I decided to hold district language studies every day for an hour. Everybody meets at the church at like 11:30 and then Elder Goates or I teach a lesson on Spanish. It has been really helpful, we have come a long way in this transfer alone. And it helps me learn more because to teach something well, you have to really understand it. It has been a cool experience.

So the week got started with another exchange last Tuesday. This time I was with Elder Adams. We did a bunch of lookups and had zero success. Just like most normal days in Midwood. We did have a good district meeting that day where we provided cookies and drinks though. That was a definite success.

Wednesday we got started with service in Prospect Park. Then we moved on to have a lesson with a less active that I had never met before. It was the 20 year old son of an active member. He got baptized a year or so ago. Then he put on a lot of weight. Like a lot. He moved to Columbia for a year and got involved in this huge weight loss program. He lost something like 250 pounds over that year. He is doing much better now, although he still has a lot of issues with the excess skin. It would be great to have him come back to church, but he has a father who isn't exactly keen on the LDS church. It's a shame, but we're going to keep working with him.

Thursday was a way fun day. The sisters in my district threw a district birthday party for me and they made a chocolate cake. We partied for a bit and then headed out to do an elliptical activity. We gave out compliments again. It's one of my favorite activities because we just get to help people smile for an hour. Help them feel God's love for them. It's great.

On Friday, we had our movie night. Although it turned out to be a fiasco this time. The ward wanted to combine it with a homecoming party for a return missionary in another ward. A guy who doesn't really speak Spanish. They thought it would be a good idea to combine with the movie night. So I had a bunch of different members lined up to bring food and the movie. And nobody showed up on time. We even moved the time back this week to help people show up on time. Nothing. The food was an hour late. On the upside, nobody actually came for the movie night. I guess that's an upside. It's kind of a downside. Everyone there was members there for the party. So that worked out. We didn't even end up watching the movie, we just ate the food and chatted with the missionary.

Saturday we had a singing street sweep in a different area in our zone. They asked us to come out and help them. The coolest part was that they rolled out a piano into the street for me to play on. I took ample advantage of the opportunity to play all sorts of songs. Including the hymns that they asked me to play. It was a really fun activity and it sounds like it was really successful for them.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. We're doing really well out here. Things are slow, but I think things are still improving here in Midwood. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and for all your love and support!

Love,
Elder Erickson

46th Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, NY

Progress - written July 15, 2013

It was a slow week, but I think we're finally getting somewhere here in Midwood. Things got started last week with an exchange with Elder Goates. That was a fun day. It was the first time in a while that I've been companions with a missionary who was confident in their Spanish and who I didn't need to worry about. We had a lot of fun that day.

Wednesday we had service in the morning and we got caught in a downpour of rain. And of course, it only rains while we're outside. As soon as we get inside somewhere, the rain stops completely. Great. Thanks mother nature. That night we also taught our investigator, Efrain. That was a disappointing lesson because he kind of told us that he never had any real desire to get baptized, he just wanted to learn more. So our next lesson we're going to tell him that we're not going to continue to meet with him unless he is willing to start setting goals and making progress. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, we really need to find some new investigators.

Thursday was 7/11! Of course we all went to get free slurpees! We also had a really cool elliptical activity that day. One of the sisters in my district came up with it. We made a bunch of signs and we went out to a busy street and just told people to have a nice day and put a smile on. We called it Compliment Hour. The idea is that we don't try to get people's information during this time, we just show them that we are nice people and that we care about them. It was a really fun activity and people responded really well to us. I'm hoping we can keep doing that and maybe find an area with more people.

Friday we also did an interesting activity. We made a bunch of giant cardboard dice. Then on each side of one, we wrote a different addiction (smoking, alcohol, drugs, coffee, swearing) and on another dice, we put different periods of time (1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 5 days, 1 week, 2 weeks). Then we took to the streets to get people to roll the dice and try to beat their addictions. One of the sides also said "free candy" so there was a chance to win a sweet and beat addiction. The idea is to get people to try to start giving something up and then get their information to try to follow up with them and help them use the Atonement to overcome their addictions. It actually went really well. I was a little skeptical at first, but I think the draw is that people like rolling giant cardboard dice. And the free candy was nice as well.

Saturday we went out to the park to give out free lemonade and to advertise for our movie night. That was one of our most successful activities ever. People flocked for the lemonade and most of them were Hispanic. The kids were freaking pumped about movie night. We're planning to do it again this week to really get a good turnout this week. Saturday we also had a baptism in the ward! It wasn't a convert baptism, it was the eight year old son of a member. But it was still a really nice event. They asked me to play the piano and for Elder Goates to sing. The best part was that we got a less active family there and they enjoyed it as well. And they served lunch afterward, we were really happy about that. 

We're still struggling with trying to get the ward to function over here. We went to ward council yesterday. It started pretty well and eventually fell apart to arguing and fighting. Love Hispanic people. The huge dilemma is that we're not allowed to pass around a calendar for people so sign up to feed the missionaries anymore. Instead, the ward council is supposed to think of people who need help or support from the missionaries in the ward and the ward mission leader should call them and ask them if they can feed the missionaries at some point this week. Not a super complex concept here. But nobody can seem to grasp this concept. I made copies of the pages from the mission president's handbook to try to make it as simple as possible. But that apparently didn't do anything for us. I don't understand what they finally agreed to do because it didn't make any sense to me. I told them to try it and I'd see how it went and ask the mission president if it's okay. It was the most ridiculous ward council ever.

The other companionships here are doing really well also, so we are all excited about the work here. It's still slow and I think it might stay that way for a while, but we are definitely making progress. It is a great time to be serving the Lord.

Love you!
Elder Erickson

45th Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, New York

Week of Parties and Miracles     written July 8, 2013

Parties and miracles are definitely the two words to describe this week. The week started with the usual grind. Trying to put together activities for the elliptical, putting our movie night together, I had an exchange with the zone leaders. Nothing super exciting. On Wednesday we had President's interviews and I was able to get some advice on the difficulties we face in this area. Namely the fact that a number of ward leaders don't really trust missionaries and aren't particularly keen to work with us. This came because of missionaries in the past who haven't always done the things they should or treated the leaders as they should be treated. It's been an issue here for a long time apparently. And things really don't go anywhere if you don't have the support of ward leaders. So President Calderwood encouraged me to try to do everything I could to gain their trust and support.

The first miracle happened Wednesday evening. We randomly met the 2nd counselor in the bishopric at the church. He is kind of in charge at the moment since the Bishop isn't always there. We have had some struggles with him in the past because he likes to be in control of things. So we sat down and chatted with him about the ward and about missionary work. Our meeting ended up lasting two hours and by the end of it, we were all on the same page. He explained his frustrations with past missionaries and we told him we would try to fix those things. He told us he would encourage the ward members to support our activities and be more willing to teach with us. It was a really helpful meeting, one that we've needed for a long time now.

Thursday was our P-day and the 4th of July! We all went down to Coney Island to see the world's largest hotdog eating contest. Oh my goodness. It was the greatest thing ever. I've never been so pumped to see a guy eat hotdogs. The reigning champ is named Joey Chestnut. He has won like six years in a row. He had the world record at eating 68 hotdogs in 10 minutes. The whole event lasted a couple hours, they had entertainment beforehand and there was a women's competition too. We got there early enough to be let into the main crowd area. The women's event was intense because the winner at 36 and 3/4 hotdogs while second place at 36 hotdogs. So crazy. The men's competition was the main event though. And wow was it incredible. These guys can eat hotdogs. Joey managed to beat his previous world record by eating 69 hotdogs in 10 minutes. And I watched it happen. So amazing. I also loved that ESPN covered the whole event. That's hilarious. The rest of the day involved going to a BBQ at a less active's house and having correlation later that day. We ended the day with ice cream and watching fireworks as we walked home. Great P-day.

The miracles got back to work on Saturday. Saturday we did hurricane service all day. In another area of Brooklyn, there's a community group that is rebuilding houses. So we went out to help with that all day. It was nice to get back to hurricane service. On the way home, I got a text from the zone leaders. They told us that President got a message about a less active in our area who has a daughter serving a mission in Oaxaca, Mexico. She requested that we visit her dad because he was leaving on Monday.

We gave him a call and headed over on Saturday night. He was a way cool guy, he was so excited to see us. It turns out that he actually has two kids serving missions right now, his daughter, who is 19, and his son, who is 21. He has been living in Brooklyn for 5 years and has never once had a Sunday off of work. This week he is on vacation, his first vacation in 5 years. He really wanted to go to church, but he didn't know where the chapel was. He had been praying for the missionaries to come by, and then that night he got the call from us. I told him that it was a miracle because we don't have him on any of our records or anything. We were able to chat with him for a while and then we came back the next day to pick him up and walk to church with him. He was so pumped to go to church again. He took a picture with every missionary he saw so he could send them to his kids.

On top of that miracle, we had a less active family come back to church yesterday. We have been working with them for a month now. They haven't been to church since last year. I was so happy to see that whole family sitting in the middle row. And to make things even better, we found our investigator, Efrain, again. He had disappeared for a week, but then he showed up at church, so we were able to teach him a lesson and get him back on track towards setting a baptismal date. It was the best Sunday we've had in Midwood for a long time.

Today we're planning to ride the Staten Island ferry so we can see the Statue of Liberty. The work here is finally taking off. It's still slow and it probably will be for a while, but we're getting somewhere. And I am so blessed to be a part of this wonderful work. Thanks for everything, happy 4th of July, and stay cool out there!

Love,
Elder Erickson

44th Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, NY

Changes and Frustration:     Written July 1, 2013

Those are the two words I would use to describe the week. It all got started last Tuesday when they swapped out most of the English district. The only change in the Spanish district was that Elder Kitchen left and we got Elder Goates. I'm really excited to have him here. He was in the MTC with me, so we're already good friends. He can sing like an angel, so hopefully we'll be able to throw together some cool songs for sacrament meeting.

With so many new missionaries, I was in charge of running the elliptical activities we do every day to find new people. The English district leader is also new, so I took over to help him get used to his area before he had to start running huge finding activities. The first activity of the week was on Thursday. We drew a big tree on a poster and wrote the question, "What do you love about your family?" Then we had a bunch of leaves cut out and we ask people walking by to write what they love about their family on the leaf and tape it to our tree. It was way successful the first time we did it. People like to stop by and see the tree we have and add a leaf. Then we get to talk to them about eternal families and invite them to church. Things got a bit chaotic at first because we had so many missionaries who had never done this before, but it ended up working out pretty well.

On Friday we tried having a free lemonade stand. Set up for it was really frustrating because of other people not doing their part. It just meant that we had to pick up the slack for the English district. But it was still an awesome idea that we are for sure going to be doing in the future.  It was a pretty hot day and people loved stopping by for a cup of free lemonade. Then when we hand them the cup, we give them a pass along card and invite them to church. It was probably one of the best activities we have done so far. We also tried doing more shoe shining at that event, but it started raining which put a damper on that event. It was funny though because even in the rain, people still wanted free lemonade. The power of free is not to be messed with.

Saturday we tried an activity that I'm not sure I like very much. We wrote on big poster paper "What would you like to ask God?" Then we went to a busy area and asked people to write down the questions they would ask God with the intent of explaining to them that they can get answers to these questions through prayer and scripture study and invite them to meet with us. But people are people and so they like to give us crap or claim that there's no way we could answer for God. I think we may need to fine-tune that activity a lot. I'm tired of crazy people coming to us all the time.

We also helped a new family move in on Saturday, that was a good time. It's a husband and wife moving in from another area in Brooklyn. They have a son on a mission right now. We're really excited to have some new faces in the ward.

We met with Efrain again this last week. He's still doing well and tells us that he wants to progress, but he's afraid of committing to baptism entirely. We're trying to help him through his fears and I asked him to pray about a baptismal date that he would like to set and bring it to church. It was a good idea and he said he would do it, but he didn't come to church yesterday and didn't answer the phone when I called him. So hopefully we can get back into contact with him soon.

On a lighter note, our ward correlator got us a list of former investigators and less actives to look up. This is the first time this has happened here in a while, so we're excited to have the ward involved in helping us reactivate people. And at ward council yesterday, we had a guy from the stake there, helping guide the ward leaders in how they can help the missionaries and what they need to do to run the ward effectively. It was awesome. That dude is a hero. Also, one of the missionaries from my district in the MTC, Elder Goates, is in my district now. I could not be happier about that. He is great.

So everything is going well for the most part. Just trying to work with ward leaders who apparently don't like missionaries very much. And trying to work with an English district who never comes through for me. Those are the frustrations of the week. On the upside, Coney Island for the fourth of July and movie night this Friday! Hopefully we can make some new things happen here!

Love you guys!
Elder Erickson

43rd Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Broooklyn, NY

Alive and well in Brooklyn, NY.          Written June 24, 2013

Things are going well out here. The announcements yesterday at the missionary conference were crazy. Facebook for missionaries? Hanging out at the church all day to give tours? Things are getting crazy here. Of all the times to be made a leader. It will definitely be an adventure and there will be stories to tell.

Also, I got the call the be a district leader here in Midwood, starting tomorrow. I'm not super excited about it, but I guess I might as well step up and try to make something happen. I would much rather stay as a regular missionary, responsibility is not a fun time. But I can't really turn down a calling, so I'm just going to do my best.

This week went by fast and nothing really exciting happened. I had these two Restoration concerts that I was asked to play for. I ended up with 9 songs that I was supposed to play. One concert was in Brooklyn in an area called Dyker Heights and the other was on Staten Island. The one in Brooklyn, I was the pianist for all eight of their songs. The one in Staten, I was supposed to play two songs. The problem I have with playing songs for concerts like this is that I have to go find people to practice with and set up times that work for them. Learning the songs myself isn't so much a difficulty as finding a good time and place to meet with these other people. So all of last Tuesday was dedicated to practicing with people. I was on exchanges with the district leader that day, and we spent all day at the Dyker Heights chapel practicing with people. We left at two in the afternoon and didn't get back until nine. Wednesday we had a dress rehearsal for the Staten Island concert. Luckily, I was able to meet one of the people for the Dyker Heights concert there and practice with them at the same time. Thursday was the dress rehearsal for the concert in Dyker Heights, so I finally met with the last few people I needed to practice with there.

Friday was the first day of the big concerts. We got a ride out to Staten Island in the afternoon. Elder Rodger's aunt lives out there and she is very less active, so President Calderwood asked him to go visit her. He got the chance to go with another missionary and have dinner with her and her family while I stayed and played for the concert. It went pretty well, they had maybe forty people show up. That's a solid turn out for an all Spanish concert. Saturday was the concert in Dyker Heights. It was also all in Spanish. I was the pianist of the night there, it was a good time. They had about the same turnout, it was a very nice concert.

Saturday morning at about 7:15 in the morning, I got a call from the Zone Leaders telling me that I needed to be at the Bushwick Chapel by 9 for an interview with President. That threw all of our morning plans out the window. We headed over and that's when I got the call to be a District Leader for the Spanish Midwood district. I get started on that tomorrow after transfer meetings. The biggest downside to being district leader is that I have to go to a lot of  boring meetings and that I'm responsible for a lot more now. It's not a super big deal, but it would be a lot easier to just stay as a regular missionary. It will be especially crazy with the announcements made yesterday. I have no idea how the use of internet and the tours of chapels will go. Especially when our chapel is hidden in a largely Jewish community. But I can't dog on an idea until I try it. Hopefully President Calderwood has some guidelines for us on how these things are supposed to work. Apparently our mission is one of the go-to missions to try new things because we're in such a diverse area. So I'll let you guys know how things turn out.

I'll hopefully have some investigator stories for you guys next week now that we're back to regular missionary work. Until next time!

Love,
Elder Erickson

42nd Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, New York

Update: Simi Valley Father's day       written June 17, 2013

Just to tell you a little bit about Brooklyn.  Besides the five boroughs, all of New York City is divided up by smaller subsections that nobody really knows about unless you have visited the area. Like I'm currently in Midwood, which is an area within Brooklyn. We also work a lot in Flatbush. I've been to Bushwick before. It's not too far from where I am, but it's in a different zone, so I don't really go there ever.  I know that they have FHE at the Bushwick Chapel for the single adult ward every Monday.

Dad commented about the roadshow from 2011 and my famous line about Congressman Weiner.  I see things about Congressman Weiner all the time out here. I actually saw him in Far Rockaway during the hurricane cleanup. He was walking by and we didn't recognize him at first, but someone in our group was like hey that was Anthony Weiner! We looked back and sure enough, it was him. I didn't talk to him or anything, but I walked past him. That's pretty cool, right? I'm pretty sure he's running for Mayor of NYC, but I could be mistaken on that one. 

Happy Father's Day! Sorry I missed getting a card to you in time, but there's one on the way. Mom wondered what our ward did for Father's Day. The Relief Society threw a dinner for the fathers, since our ward ends at 3:30. They had sandwiches and cookies for everybody. Fathers got to eat first, but they let everybody eat. One of the women came up to me and said "Elder seras padre algun dia, puedes comer con los padres." It was a nice event, the primary kids sang a song for the fathers and I played the piano for them.

I heard that dad took Zeke and Ben to ride over at the old Von's building. I wonder what they're going to do with that Vons place? I hope they put in something cool for when I get back. That would be awesome.

Well I got signed up to play at two more Restoration concerts this week. This means that I will be practicing all week long. They called me on Friday and gave me nine songs. Ridiculous. It's not learning the songs that I'm frustrated with, but the fact that I now have to find all these people and practice with them within the next week. I finally got all the practices set up by yesterday. This week is pretty much shot for proselyting, so I can only hope that some good comes out of one of these concerts. One will be in Brooklyn and the other will be on Staten Island. Both are in Spanish. It should definitely be an adventure.

Hope you guys are doing well! I only have ten minutes left on the computer and there is a huge line to use computers today, so I don't know that I'll be able to get back on again after this email. but I'm doing well out here. I really enjoy serving the people of Brooklyn. They are not always the nicest when you try to talk to them on the streets, but they are great people. I miss you guys and hope you are all doing well!

Love,
Elder Erickson

41st Epistle from Elder Kaleb Erickson serving in Brooklyn, NY

Teaching with Authority               written June 10, 2013

This was a cool week. It starts with some back-story. There is a guy here named Efrain. He is an investigator, but his brother lives here and the brother is a member. He's actually the ward correlator. But Efrain has been investigating the church for some two years now. He goes to another church too and feels a connection with that church. Elder Kitchen and his companion had been working with Efrain, but weren't getting anywhere, so they decided to take a break from teaching him. The ward had a party for Mother's Day about two weeks ago and they invited Efrain to come and play the guitar for the talent show. He came and he had a blast playing for the ward.

Last Sunday, fast Sunday, he decided to get up and bare his testimony. He said that he felt something different while he was playing the guitar and has decided that he wants to learn more about the scriptures. This is great news. Elder Kitchen felt that Elder Rodgers and I should take over teaching him this time. So we talked to him and set up a time to meet. We met with him on Wednesday and he was really having a rough day. He had lost his job recently and was struggling to find motivation to keep going in life. But for some reason he really felt like he needed to talk with us that day. I told him that the spirit was guiding him to us because we had something that could help him in his life. And that something was the Gospel of Christ. If he began to live the Gospel of Christ, he would find the happiness and the motivation that he's looking for. He wasn't quite convinced, but I told him that he would never know if it works unless he tried it. He agreed to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and to pray about whether he should continue with us or not. He said that if he gets an answer, then he will continue learning, but if he doesn't get an answer, he's going to stop meeting with us. We really put this one in the Lord's hands.

Fast forward to Sunday. We get a call that he is going to be at the church in 15 minutes and wants to talk with us. So we head on over and happened to find a member who was willing to meet with Efrain with us. We sat down and I asked him how it went. He said that he read the chapter and that he really felt good about it. So he decided to read it again. He still felt good, but he was worried about whether the feelings were from God or from the devil. So he decided to pray about it. Because God wouldn't lie in a prayer. And the good feeling stayed. As a result of this experience, he told us that he is willing to start doing more to progress and is willing to work towards baptism. He still had a few doubts, but hopefully we'll be able to answer those questions as we continue to meet with him. It was still an awesome experience. At the end of that lesson, he told us that he is impressed by the authority that we teach with. I've never had an investigator say that I teach with authority before, so that was a cool moment. The member started telling him about how missionaries are called of God and given specific authority to teach just like that. I feel hopeful about Efrain. I think that he is on his way to improving his life and if he can just learn to walk by faith instead of sight, he will definitely get baptized and make a great member of this church.

In other events from the week, we had our movie night on Friday. Unfortunately that was also a night of a giant tropical storm. So it wasn't super well attended. We talked to a few members and they said they weren't coming because they were afraid to leave their house. Two families still came though and it was fun to watch Tangled in Spanish. I still think that movies are funnier in Spanish. We're planning to watch Finding Nemo next, so hopefully the weather will work with us next time.

Also in surprising news, our Bishop decided to move randomly. He hadn't been to church in two weeks and we hadn't been able to get in contact with him, so we were worried about him. But it turns out he is now living on Long Island. Commence speculation on the new bishop and changes in the ward. It should be an interesting next couple of weeks.

Hope you're all doing well! Love you!

Elder Erickson