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