Far Rockaway is always an adventure. I feel like I say that all the time. But that's because it really is an adventure. Nothing really major happened this week, but hopefully this week, we're going to do some solid work out there. I'm feeling really good about it.
So we have a list of all the people that received help
from the Mormon Helping Hands after the hurricane. We have split up the
names as a district and our job is to visit every single person on the
list for three reasons. One, to ask how they're doing and make sure
they're okay. Two, to see if they need anymore help that we can viably
do. Three, to ask if they would like to have us return to share a
special message about Jesus Christ. The list is huge and we've only
scratched the surface of it, but people are always so happy to see us
still in the area. And everyone is always very willing to listen to the
message. We haven't returned to teach anyone yet, but we've got a couple
appointments set up for this week. It's going to be a really cool week
with all these new people to meet. It's always a tricky approach when
you knock one of the doors on this list. My companion and I are pretty
big guys. Wearing suits, we can be kind of intimidating. People are
always super apprehensive at first, but you just have to keep the
conversation going and people very quickly warm up to us. It's all about
people skills out here.
In other news, we have put together a baller
Restoration Concert. I did all the music, with the help of my companion
Elder Pearce. We just have to call missionaries now, to make sure
they're good to perform it. I think it's going to be really good. Some
people are going to think it's boring, but I also think that a lot of
people are going to be touched by the message and be more willing to
listen to us. I'm really excited to get things moving on that.
Our investigator, Scott Madden, was supposed to get
baptized yesterday, but unfortunately he came down with a cold, so we
had to move it back to next week. Not too big a deal though, he'll still
get baptized next week. He seems pretty excited about it, so we're
happy that he's making this covenant with God. I just pray every day
that he doesn't relapse with his pipe smoking and that he'll continue
progressing and make it to the temple someday after his baptism.
I forgot to mention last week, but we started
teaching English classes. We put up a ton of flyers all over Far
Rockaway that we're teaching English to Spanish speaking people. We hold
them at the church, so that way people are comfortable with coming to
the church and know where it is. We also share a spiritual message at
the end of every class to get people comfortable with missionaries
sharing spiritual messages. It's a really fun experience to teach
English to all these Hispanic people. I find that I get better at
Spanish when I teach the classes because we have to explain things in
Spanish and answer questions, so that's always helpful. The most
incredible part about the classes was that we had 31 people on the
second day of the classes. That's unbelievable. The other missionaries
here who have taught English classes in the past, had to do the classes
for 4 or 5 weeks before they got even close to that many. And we pulled
it off on the second day. Far Rockaway is doing pretty solid work.
That's about it for the time being. Though I do have
kind of a funny story about Spanish. Last week, I translated for a
woman in the branch who had a meeting with the branch president. Our
branch president only speaks English and this woman is from Guatemala,
so I went in to translate. She actually speaks pretty good English, but
brought me in, I think just in case she needed help and probably to help
boost my confidence in Spanish. It all went pretty well until near the
end. The president said, "You need to do your part, and I'll do my
part." I don't really know the word for "part" in Spanish, so I guessed.
I told her "Usted necesita hacer su parto." It seemed like a good guess
to me. She looked shocked and really confused, then realized what I
meant and told me the word is "parte." It doesn't seem like too big of a
difference, I figured it just wasn't a real word in Spanish. A few days
later, we were visiting her at her house and she informed me what parto
means in Spanish. Apparently, the translation of what I said is "You
need to go into labor." Hence the initial shock and confusion. We all
had a good laugh at it though. And now I know for the future. I figure
we all need a couple good Spanish mis-translation stories in our lives.
And I think that one is hilarious.
But we're still working hard out here. There are so
many people to meet and just not enough time in the transfer. There's
only two weeks left in the transfer and oh what I wouldn't give to stay
here for another transfer. I won't know for another two weeks, but I'm
really hoping they leave me here again. I've come to love this place too
much for my own good. Well I hope everyone is doing well in Simi. I
love you and miss you a lot! Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Erickson
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