Hey Mom and Dad! written Dec 31, 2012
Things are slowly getting back to normal out here. Though not quite
yet because of New Years and whatnot. There's a lot of people who went
out of town for that and a lot of people still haven't moved back yet
from the hurricane. But Elder Wolfe and I have been going out every day
like normal missionaries instead of clearing out basements or playing in
big concerts. It's been a nice transition back to normalcy.
Christmas in Far Rockaway 2012
There's not really too much that has happened since we talked last.
I think I mentioned that we've been doing service for a guy named
Arthur who invited us to come have dinner with him and his wife. This
was already a cool opportunity, but it got even cooler when we found out
that he has a master's degree in theology and has read the Book of
Mormon before. He wants us to explain more about it and discuss religion
with him. We decided to bring the zone leaders along with us because
they are in our district and helped us clean up his house. We had no
idea what to expect, but it was so awesome. They cooked us a steak
dinner with potatoes and green beans, then we had this super tasty
cheesecake for dessert. Already a good start. The whole time we talked
with him and his wife, they are really interesting people. He is
interested in just about everything. He used to be a really good
swimmer; he once tried to swim across the English Channel, but he
couldn't finish because of the weather. He has traveled all over the
world and knows a lot about all sorts of different cultures. His wife is
from Ireland, so she had a really cool accent and had some cool stories
about Ireland. The guy also knows how to play like six or seven
different instruments, so he and I talked music for a while. He had a
big harp there, so we convinced him to play us a tune on the harp. It
was a really fun dinner.
After that we sat down to discuss religion and that was just as fun
as dinner. What's awesome about Arthur is that he is really open to new
ideas. Even though some of the things we explained to him about the
great apostasy and the restoration might have sounded crazy to him, he's
willing to listen to the ideas without any criticism. I got to take the
lead on the lesson and invite him to read and pray about the
truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and he seemed very willing to do
that. It's also fun to talk with Arthur because he knows so much about
the Bible that he is able to teach us a lot of things that we didn't
know. I wish I could think of a solid example at the moment, but I would
say that we learned just as much as he did in that lesson. It was an
awesome night.
We also had a really cool experience last Thursday. Well actually
it started about three weeks ago. We had just started knocking doors in
the elliptical area. One of the first doors we knocked on, a lady
answered the door and told us that she had just lost her job of 28 years
as a nurse and that this was a bad time for her. We expressed our
condolences and then asked if we could return another time. She kind of
said yeah whatever, then told us that we weren't dressed warm enough for
the weather. We told her that we'd be sure to dress warmer next time.
The next day, Elder Wolfe suggested that we go get her a card to
wish her well and a merry Christmas. We got a nice card and bought some
chocolates for her. We wrote a little note and signed it as "The boys
who need to dress warmer." We left them on her porch and bounced. We
didn't go back until this week. We had nothing going on at the time, so
we decided to go back and see how she was doing. We knocked on the door
and her husband came to the door. We were ready to just do a regular
door approach, when he said to us, "Are you the boys who left the card
for my wife?"
We were not expecting that. We said yeah, how's she doing? She came
running down the hall to the door and told us to come in. It turns out
that this little card we had written for her had changed her whole
attitude about the loss of her job. She was really depressed about it
all, but this note turned everything around. When she told people at
work that she was losing her job, they would be sad until she would say,
"Wait! Something good came out of it though!" Then she would pull the
card and the chocolates out of her purse and tell them the whole story.
She still has the cards and the chocolates and carries them with her
everywhere in her purse. It was incredible to see how her whole
countenance had changed from that first night to this next visit. It was
like a whole different person. She thanked us profusely and told us
that she wants to write up the story and submit it to the New York
Times. They were about to sit down to dinner at the moment, but she gave
us both big hugs and told us that we were welcome to come back any
time.
We haven't been back to visit yet, but we're planning to in the
next couple of days. It was just so cool to have this opportunity to
help brighten this woman's life. Whether we end up teaching her or not, I
am completely content with the knowledge that we helped lift this
woman's spirit in her time of need. I feel like that's what Christ would
have done and we were helping her feel the love of her Heavenly Father.
Aside from those two stories, not much else has happened. It's
tough in Rockaway because people were hit so hard by the storm, we can't
just go teaching anywhere we'd like. But slow and steady is the way to
victory. We have a couple of people we're working with, so things are
going well. We're working on planning big weekly activities to bring
families together and help them associate with members of the church. It
will be a long and slow process of finding and teaching people, but
Elder Wolfe and I are ready to work hard and do whatever we can.
I know the church is true and that this is the Lord's work out
here. I love you very much and I hope you have a wonderful New Year's!
Love,
Elder Erickson
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