Things are changing pretty quickly
out here in Far Rockaway! As of last week, we decided that Far Rockaway
is going to get rid of area boundaries. This means that we can visit any
members in the branch and proselyte in whatever area we would like.
Though the plan is to focus on the areas further down the peninsula. Our
main goal in Far Rock is to build up a new branch in the areas that we
worked in after Hurricane Sandy. The area is called Belle Harbor. It is
full of middle to upper-class white and Jewish families. Pretty much all
the white families are strongly rooted Irish Catholics. Not exactly
your easiest place to try to start a branch, but this is the plan. They
all love Mormons because of the help we gave them, the only problem is
that they recognize Mormons by the yellow helping hands vests, not by
our suits and ties. People are super apprehensive when we walk up in
shirts and ties. They're nice once they find out that we're the Mormons,
but it's getting to that point that's the big problem. And just because
they're nice to us doesn't mean they're interested in listening to us.
So it will be slow work for a little bit in Belle Harbor.
I got a new companion last week, his name is Elder
Pearce. He has been in Far Rockaway for about 6 months now. It's great
because he knows all the Spanish members well and I know all the English
members well. We make a pretty good team out here. We've been working
most recently with a guy I talked about last week named Scott Madden.
He's doing awesome work. We taught him about the word of wisdom last
week. He understands the reasons for it all, but he has a problem with
smoking a pipe. He loves to smoke his pipe and it's especially tough
since he's been under a lot of stress recently. We told him a few things
that might help and explained that God would help him quit. He said he
would give it a shot.
We came back two days later and he was still really
struggling with it. We suggested a couple of things and taught him about
the power behind prayer and reading the scriptures. It seemed to hit
him hard when we explained that there was a level of worthiness we
needed to obtain in order to take the sacrament every week and he needed
to start living like that in order to get baptized. It was a really
cool lesson. When we saw him at church on Sunday, he was so excited to
tell us that he hadn't smoked in three days. After we left he had one
more smoke and then he decided that he really wanted to get baptized and
giving this up was the only way he could do it. He wanted to make
himself worthy to take the sacrament and get baptized. He went to the
store and bought some little peppermint candies that he will suck on
whenever he has the desire to smoke. I think he's going to give it up
and he will make a great member of the church. We went over to visit
with him after church and he gave me the rest of his tobacco to get rid
of. I had to take a picture with it before we threw it down the
incinerator. Scott tells me that it's pretty good quality stuff. He had
just bought it before he decided to give up the pipe. I'm really happy
for Scott's decision and I think this is a great example of how the
Spirit and the Atonement of Christ can help people change and better
their lives.
That was really the coolest part of the week. In
other news, President Calderwood has announced that from now on we will
only be counting the lessons that we teach with a member present. He
wants us to work closer with the members of the church and lessons with
members are always better because they really help strengthen the spirit
for the investigator. The only problem here is that the demographic
we're trying to build up (middle to upper-class white) is not exactly
abundant here in the Far Rockaway Branch. It's hard to find members to
bring to lessons that will help in a meaningful way. Sure I could bring
pretty much any English speaking member and be able to report the lesson
at the end of the week, but did that really help the investigator? This
is my new dilemma out here. Finding ways to meaningfully integrate the
members of the branch into our missionary work. Once we get can baptize a
few people out there, it will get a lot easier. But for the moment,
it's very slow work. Luckily Scott Madden's brother is a member of the
church, so we bring him to our lessons. That is really helpful because
Scott's brother is a great example for him.
In other news, my Spanish is getting a lot better.
It's funny, the more you speak the language, the better you get at it.
And I'm lucky enough to get to speak it more often nowadays. I'm not
perfect by any means, but I'm a lot better this week than I was last
week. And every improvement helps.
Things are going well out here. It's getting colder,
so I'm not super excited about that. Luckily we have a car so it's not
too bad. But thanks again for all your love and support! I know this
Gospel is true and that I'm doing the Lord's work. I can see His hand
guiding us every day. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Erickson
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