New Year's Eve

I'm staying and my companion is Elder Clausen.
Well we can't go out in the evening because of new years for some reason so we will have to do our proselyting during the day so I will have to go for now.
I forgot to email when we got back to the apartment. We had a great week though. 
Win a round of Tsuro for me.

Merry Christmas

It was a wonderful week here in New York. We had a Christmas zone meeting where we talked all about Jesus Christ and the Christmas story and we sung all the Christmas hymns. That was about it.

We got a huge blizzard on Christmas eve and Its been snowing since so we have quite a bit of snow even though it was barren of snow a few days ago.

Merry Christmas!

The hunger

Hungering is something that everyone has experienced because it is a desire for something, usually having a connotation of food. Our desires shape our actions and our actions shape our character. Often times in this mortal life our desires have dualities that are diametrically opposed to each other. We choose which desire to act on as we cannot act on both at the same time. 

Through time we can act on our smaller desire to do good and our character will change from evil to good, making it easier to choose good because it is our greater desire. Even when we have won this battle the war is not over yet. A sad disposition of the natural man is that it will usually choose a smaller evil desire over a greater good desire, leading a noble character to corrupt it's integrity.

Our Spirits however, as children of a perfectly benevolent Father, have a equal habit of choosing a smaller good desire over a larger evil one. This puts us in a position to "act, and not to be acted upon".

Thus the scripture in 2 Nephi 9 vs 39

"Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal."

It was a fair weathered week. Lots of thoughts while walking on country roads in the farmland. We have the onion capital of the world in our area along with plenty of other crops.

Merry Christmas!

Baptism

This week there was a baptism here in Batavia! The mother and father of the family we are teaching were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. 

They are going to be pillars of this ward. 

I've finally had to bust out the coat for winter instead of my jacket. So it's probably going to stay that way until spring. 

It's been really awesome to see the Lord work through imperfect people to bring us all closer to Him in the short time I have been in this area. One thing I have noticed this week is that it's the little contentions that lead to the big problems. They allow for the handleholds that Satan can use to cause issues in our lives. So pay attention to the small snide comments you make.

The elect hear my voice

Batavia is going to be a great place someday. We have been keeping ourselves busy for sure. There is a baptism of a couple this Saturday which will be awesome to see. They have been meeting with the Elders for a couple months now and we look forward to preparing their kids for baptism towards the end of December.

We got to have zone conference this week and afterward we had exchanges. I got to go down to Warsaw with Elder Bland. It was a great time. But their apartment was wrecked.... so I cleaned a little for them. I got to see the johns family because they fed us which was awesome and then i also got to see the Judkins because sister Judkins needed a blessing. They had some anise cookies which were pretty good.

During the finding I'm pretty sure I had talked to every person before. It was cool to see the change in some of them.

During finding last week in Batavia we had a cool experience. We were talking to this lady at her door and she was saying something and then she paused mid sentence and asked if I was okay. (Pretty normal for me I guess) I must have a resting dead face. Anyways so I said I love what I'm doing and asked if I could share a scripture with her and after I read it she paused and asked her husband to come over and had me read it again. It was cool to see the Spirit work soften her heart.

I know scriptures heal the wounded soul because they are from our Heavenly Father through our Saviour.

Mom: What scripture did you read to her?

Erik: 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Mosiah 14

You can turn almost any scripture into a gospel conversation. Sometimes i ask people to open to a random page and read a random verse and then we talk about how it can answer some of the problems or questions that they have.

Farewell to the falls

Our week in the falls was great. We got to meet with this awesome woman named Emily a couple times and teach her the first three lessons. And now we are helping her read from the book of Mormon and come to church. She has a little girl named Zelda. I'm excited to hear about what happens with them. 

I got transferred into Batavia which is the area above Warsaw. I'm companions with Elder Thompson who was being trained here when I was in Warsaw, and Elder Merling who was trained by one of the kids that trained me. From what I hear the branch is awesome.

Happy thanksgiving!

Niagara Falls

We went to the falls today so I have some pictures of the horseshoe falls this time. I saw a raccoon asleep up in a tree but I didn't take a picture. 

We had stake conference this week. It went well. Brother Bruce Strasburg from our ward spoke and everything he does it imbued with charity and hope so that was powerful. 

We have been teaching a woman with a little girl named Zelda. It's felt quite inspired. Other then that we are just having a great time on the brisk streets of New York.

What happened to Hallows Eve?

Well it was another week in Niagara falls.

While there was more decor and festivities up here then in Buffalo last year, New York has really let me down with their Halloween activity. The Niagara falls ward even got rid of their Halloween party and are doing a "fall festival" instead...

There were some good decorations though so it wasn't completely off.

Elder Kervin had to go on a special assignment again to Lancaster to help Elder Winward so we are missing our companion again this week.

We are continuously talking to people all the time but I don't really have anyone to report on. 

Here was our makeshift cake from my mother.

Response to another email:

We were supposed to be home by 6 on Halloween but we didn't have miles and we scheduled an appointment at 6:30 so we had to walk home after so we were still out til 8. Thanks for the pizza but we don't look at emails throughout the week so we had no idea about it. But luckily our neighbor kept it for us til we got home.

The boots are fine thanks they are already water proof but the spray will definitely help my companions. The day that the boots got here it started raining and it didn't stop until about yesterday so it was right on time. It's to bad I missed the Cannon's haunt. I do miss good horror.

Separations

We unexpectedly had to have Elder Kervin leave us to go back to Lancaster because an elder was super sick over there. We had exchanges and I got to be with Elder Webster for the day which was awesome. I've now been with everyone in his mtc district.

We keep being disappointed by the people we are teaching at church. They keep bailing on us. We have met a lot of really awesome people recently but we haven't begun teaching anyone steadily yet.

Elder Kervin came back and the end of Friday in the evening. We got to meet with Andrew Adkins who is doing awesome as a new member of the church.

Not much else to report about our week just trucking along doing the work and learning.

Reponses to rely emails:

Thanks so much for the package. We were all losing weight and now we have a giant pile of candy from you and Elder Blackham's mom who sends him packages like every two weeks lol.

The ties are great thanks!

I've still kept the 30 pounds I gained... lol

A week's time

This week had a lot of disappointments. A lot of really solid people that I was looking forward to getting to know have stopped talking to us and Jermain cancelled on church once again!

We have been working on exercising charity. So instead of having normal conversations we are making sure that people know that we care about them and we ARE grateful for every kindness they show to us. You can tell that it effects people a lot more when you thank them for being nice to us. Hopefully it helps them reflect on what we said as well.

Welcome to winter and with that comes the police. This week I got to meet officer Brocklehurst in north Tonawanda. He was very reserved and seemed like a great guy. I forgot to invite him to read the Book of Mormon though :-( . There is always a next time.

It was literally just a normal week I just had to write about some aspect of the work to be honest. No worries.

Andrew's baptism

This week we were surprised by Elder Bennett of the seventy visiting our mission. We went to that on Friday so that we could have our baptism on Saturday. 

Being with Elder Kervin again has been a good time. It's helped Elder Blackham and I teach better in unity actually. At the very end of the week we met this super awesome girl named Jamie whom we got to teach. I hope that everything goes well with her because she is so ready for this.

Jermain didn't make it to church again which was saddening, but we had a great priesthood lesson.

It was decently hot and now it's a little chilly and I don't think it will get back up in temperature very much until I go home... harvest season here we come.

Abby Adkins is his daughter that was baptized about 5 years ago. She was able to make it to the baptism from Fredonia.

I never liked it anyways

I've always disliked the nicknames of the church. That's all I have to say about that.

This week went swell. We went on exchanges so I got to go with the other zone leader Elder Griffiths to the Niagara falls north area. He is a great missionary and he helped me a lot. 

Conference was awesome but no one in the ward was willing to come to the church building for it so we couldn't get a ride for one of our friends to come to watch conference. :-(

I will be staying in Niagara falls with Elder Blackham and Elder Kervin will be coming to join us this transfer.

Weekly reminder of my existence

This week was fine. We had interviews with President Evans which was inspiring as always. Elder Blackham and I have been trying to refine our tongues with a more proper form of language. It usually results in less speaking. 

Tim the old man was able to make it to church this Sunday. The other man we are teaching named Andrew was able to give him a ride.

Andrew has had his baptismal interview and is ready for baptism on the 13th!

AJ is on a cruise in the Bahamas so he is on hiatus for a week. 

Jermain the hot dog stand man didn't make it to church though he had a ride. He is doing awesome though. He is in chapter 9 of 1 Nephi. 

Pretty normal week in Niagara falls. 

A darkening world

Oh boy I'm excited for the fall. It's getting chilly here and I can't wait to pop on a beanie for the rest of my mission. The sun goes down fairly early now so we are getting the police called on us again. The people that we are teaching are doing awesome and we are excited for them.

Abby's friend Andrew aka AJ is another one of those youth that is just.. ready. He had some concerns about being baptized because he knows that if he is baptized he is going to go on a mission. He doesn't know how his family will react. He is a tall skinny kid and easily one of the easiest to teach.

We got to do a couple service projects this week. We helped a man that we are teaching named Tim move stuff around in his trailer home. We fit tons of stuff on this one small room and packed it so that it had more space then when we first started. 

We also got to help the ward in a clean up project of a creek at a park in Niagara falls. We were planting trees and pounding in posts and cleaning up trash. We found a gravestone down by the river so we hauled it up to the top. Interesting find.

I hope everyone decorates for Halloween this week!

My week

This week Andrew Adkins committed to a baptismal date for Oct 13th. His daughter was baptized about 5 years ago and is now in university. He has been going to church on and off that whole time. He stopped smoking cigars right before I got here and last transfer with Elder Hill he stopped drinking coffee after he argued about it for a while. He beats himself up about things but he is a really kind man. It's going to be a good day.

Stephanie decided she isn't interested in being involved with the church yet. :'-(

Saturday Elder Blackham and I were on the sidewalk when a car and an crossover vehicle smashed into each other just off center of head on. So we called 911 and reported it. The girl in the car broke her wrist pretty bad. We waited for the police to get there and then carried on. I regret not staying and talking to the girl.... guess I'll remember that for next time.

Other then that we are teaching a hotdog stand guy from Alabama, and Kara the girl that was just baptized in our ward is moving down to our area.  

Auras

This week Elder Blackham tried going down to downtown Niagara Falls and it didn't seem very effective at first. As we were heading back we met a man named Michael. He opened up as we talked and he had been praying to know if he was going in the right direction in life when we walked around the corner and began walking to him. He said he didn't really notice our cloths as much as he did the light around us. We met him again just yesterday and he said since he met us things have been going well for him.

I got to go on an exchange with Elder Hershey here in Niagara falls. He is always very cheerful. We are both looking forward to being able to wear beanies again.

Returning to the beginning

This week started by us going to transfers and Elder Hill getting his companion Elder Griener. I found out that they were taking the Rav4 back and so I had to put all the stuff in Buffalo YSAs car. I had exchanges with them that day because they are trio training a new missionary as well. So it was Elder Jones and Elder Hawes and I in a trio on buffalo state campus and then UB campus. It was very fun to talk to all the students. For the most part students have better social skills then the adults. 

We taught this Chinese kid who had just got here to America and it was incredibly powerfully. Yan was his name. 

I got my new companion who is Elder Blackham from Moroni Utah. He is cousins with Spencer Blackham who was on lehi's lacrosse team. Elder Blackham is a very personable and charismatic person. I'm pretty sure he is a very good football player. His family has a massive turkey farm down in Moroni.

We found out this Sunday that a lot of the members here are from central Utah.

This is the third time I'm training in a row. 

At transfers President Evans forgot to tell me I was also district leader so I wasn't super prepared for our district council...

We finally got to start teaching Stephanie Snyder this week and we are looking forward to seeing the light of the gospel enter into her life. She is 14 but she looks and acts like a 18 year old.

This transfer is going to be a pretty busy one.

Lost in time

I forgot to write an email last week and didn't even notice.... my bad

This week was the last week of the transfer and Elder Hill is going down to Freedom branch. I'm getting another new companion so this will be the third time I've trained in a row. I'm looking forward to it.

The Niagara falls north elders had a baptism after church this Sunday which made for a fantastic Sabbath day.

Flashbacks to Lancaster

Elder Beardall (one of my first companions) is an assistant to the president and he is going home this transfer. There are three assistants this transfer because he is training them both on the calling. All three of them are going on exchanges around the mission and Elder Beardall got to come to Niagara falls first. He is a very spiritually powerful teacher so we had a great time. We weren't able to accomplish our goals for the exchange but we put in the work for it.

This week Abigail Snyder was baptized. She is one of the coolest. Her sister Stephanie just needs her heart softened now...

Elder Hill and I gave talks in church this Sunday. Elder Hill had never given a talk longer then 8 mins and so when we were the only speakers he was a little stressed out. He prepared a talk on enduring in faith and I don't think there is a better topic for him to speak on. He has had some very hard, very recent experiences. The Spirit was present for sure and he ended up talking for about 30 mins. So I ended up having to refine my talk down but that is okay.

We have been striving to find even one person who will stick around for us to teach for the past three weeks. We talk to a lot of people because we are here in the city but still nothing. 

Yesterday evening we were out teaching everyone in sight when we felt like we should change places. We walked south and talked to everyone along the way. About a half mile south we talked to a family on a porch. It was a mother and about 7-8 kids of all ages. They said they knew us and that Abby was just baptized this saturday. So we got talking obviously. Now I know that Abby gave up almost all of her old friends because her choice to be baptized. I think this family was one of them seeing as most of the kids were smoking cigarettes and cigars. They were open to listening so we shared the restoration with Dana, the mother, while the kids filtered off one by one. The Spirit was very strong and Dana wanted to read the book of Mormon so I gave her my teaching one because we didn't have another one on us. We are excited to see where that family goes.

It was incredible to see the change that has come in Abbys life so fast since she used to be in the same place as that family.

Also Maddy Zmuda from my first area has gotten her mission call to Orem Utah.

Abigail!

Cool abandoned armory building

This picture is from way back when Maddy told us she was going to go on a mission a little over a year ago.

Filled with charity

This week was wicked spiritual. We had interviews and we also had exchanges with the Lockport Elders. Elder Smith came to Niagara falls with me and we had some really cool miracles.

I will share one simple one. When we were out in the evening, all the roads I had planned had no houses on them so it was looking like we might finish our plans early. I accidentally parked in the wrong spot and we knocked on a whole street that I had already done before. I have a pretty decent memory and I could probably go back to my first area and remember most of the streets we did. Anyways the Spirit took my memory away, and not only that not a single person we talked to looked familiar and they didn't say anything about us just being there. We got to the end of the street and right as I started a conversation with this Catholic man it all came back to me and realized that I had been here about a week earlier and I had talked to this guys wife. As we spoke his heart softened and he not only took a book of Mormon he invited us to stop by again and said he as looking forward to reading it. It was so interesting to have been lead there for him.

We also met this man who had one of the most powerful conversion stories I have heard and he was so filled with love for everyone and everything.

Abbie had her interview and she will be baptized this week ^-^ she is stellar and wants to go on a mission really bad. 

Elder Beardall is coming to our area for a day with us so we are pumped. Sorry I was driving so I could send this til now.

Simplify

We had zone conference this week. 

We met with Beverly and her daughter Abbie several times in preparation for her baptism on the 11th.

Andrew Adkins had his life turn around and he feels good about the future.

We knocked a lot of doors.

We ate food.

We slept.

Back into the storm

This week time was a storm rather then the normal placid flow and ebb of the days.

On Tuesday I got to go to Canandaigua with Elder McCune who is training as well so we had to be together until Wednesday. Elder McCune and I killed each other with jokes for a straight 24 hours. We didn't really get to sleep much because we were to busy talking about the doctrine of Christ and the changes that have happened in the mission. Apparently Hawaii is exploding which I didn't know. 

Wednesday we picked up our companions. There is a lot of missionaries coming in but I believe there is still less than 80 missionaries. My companion is Elder Hill from Pennsylvania. He never went to the MTC so he just drove straight up here. He is the middle of 5 kids about 150 pounds and 5'9" with blonde/brown hair. People keep asking g us if we are twins.

Elder Smith from my time in Palmyra is training and being transferred to buffalo so he is in the same boat as me except he has to learn public transport hahaha. I drove them to buffalo from Rochester and so we got to catch up on the way. 

The Niagara falls ward is popping. The two missionaries that were here both went home and they had two baptisms last transfer. One of them was last sunday.. so we are trying to keep up with all the names and places and people. We have the daughter of the recent convert on date for August and several other people that are getting there already. The members have already fed us more then I have been fed anywhere else.

7909 4th ave, Niagara falls, NY 14304

Gotta catch em all

We are no longer going to pageant. Chuck is going this week. I'm being transferred to Niagara falls south and I'm training again.

Well I'm leaving Warsaw and heading back to Niagara falls south, which is kind of in Tonawanda I believe but I'm not sure. I'm training again so we are both going to be new to the area but there are two sets of missionaries in the ward I believe. 

Warsaw was great while it lasted. Elder Harvey my companion I had in buffalo is coming down to Warsaw to be with Elder Clinger.

I hope everyone has a good week. 

I have to finish forge work on my blade.

Emoji face

President Evans came by and spoke with Chuck on the 3rd. Warsaw had a parade going on so it was really crowded and we had to walk across town because we couldn't drive through. Chuck basically talked the whole time other then a couple questions that President asked him. So I had to wrap it up or else we would have been there all night. I have abridged the book of Mormon down to about 20 chapters for Chuck in preparation for the Hill Cumorah pageant.

Some members from Rhode island drove by us this week and offered us water and Elder Clinger declined. The next day tons of people offered us water and Elder Clinger accepted all of it because he felt bad he didn't take the members water. He ended up with a lot of bottles.

Ordinary people ordinary places

This week President came by for interviews. I told him about Chuck and so now he is coming down this week to meet with him. I'm stoked for that. I also went on exchanges with Elder Gold up in Batavia and the Elder that he is training went down to Warsaw with Elder Clinger. 

Elder Gold and I had a great time together. One of their investigators we met with had gotten a hold of a very dark anti booklet about Mormons and so he had lots of questions. We answered them and pointed him to the book of Mormon.

We didn't find anyone new or exciting this week so that's about it. It's been decently warm up here and so everyone has been freaking out like it's boiling them alive...

Happy independence day!

 I'm finishing my short sword/dagger

Stumped

Well we had zone conference finally. It was all focused on baptism and they made me give a talk on baptism but it was alright. Our mission is really focused on our purpose.

While we were out knocking on doors in the country we were driving down someone's driveway in the forest and I hit a stump that was on the corner and popped our tire on our car and damaged the door with the stump :( it was a sad day.

We got two people on baptismal date this week. An awesome older lady named Dawn and our good friend Chuck. 

One evening when were were walking on main street in Warsaw some horse just trotted past us on main street like it owned the place. So we went and knocked the door of the person who owned it and told them.. The horse seemed to follow us through town as people tried to catch it.

Carl's baptism

It was a nice week with Carl's baptism. His brother showed up for it and he looks just like Carl only skinnier. It was a very simple program. 

Through out the week we found a lot of people who we have started teaching and are genuinely interested. We got to meet with Chuck again and start teaching him. 

They called a gospel principles teacher and so I don't have to teach it anymore. The class is actually big enough that we are going to have to find a class room or get rid of the table we sit around normally.

I'm very grateful for the time I've had to reflect on my time spent with my father that I'm still learning from. I hope everyone has a good week.

We accidentally melted my dagger  :-(  We were trying to quench it to make it ultra hard steel. We accidentally got the forge to at least 3500 degrees...

Countless continua

This week was much like all other weeks...

It's just Elder Clinger and I walking around Warsaw now. We got to watch the youth devotional thing with the Prophet which was nice.

Carl is all ready to have his baptism on Saturday which will be great to participate in. 

Brother Degraff, a recent convert, had a stroke this week and he is in buffalo. He is doing alright, he is just a little unsteady because he lost the coordination in his right side. 

There was some old guy we met out in the sticks that was in this old cluttered saw mill. We thought we saw him when we were walking around but then we couldn't find him and when we went back to the opening he was standing there holding the post. He only has one eye and he is the most classic old man you've ever imagined. It was straight out of a movie scene. His name is Ken and we sat and talked about the restoration for a while sipping lemon twist or something. Reminded me of Harold in Palmyra.

Happy endings and new beginnings

This was Elder Steeds last week. He left us yesterday night to stay with Batavia because Elder samhammer is going home too. Elder Clinger and I are staying in Warsaw this transfer.

We had exchanges. It was decently hot which was nice. 

Carl didn't make it to church this week but he is pumped to be baptized.

Elder Richard j maynes came and spoke to our mission. He talked about Joseph Smith's first vision and broke it down and it was quite insightful. He shared an experience of organizing a new stake with Elder Hales which he said he had never shared with anyone. It was about the confirmation to their prayer about who was supposed to be the stake President.

We found a turtle on the side of the road laying eggs yesterday evening so I at least got a couple pictures this week.