#SharetheGift

What a memorable week. I will never forget this past Thanksgiving! That is for sure.

We started out the week making team shirts! We bleached the back of some “I heart NY” shirts for our turkey bowl team. The whole entire mission got together to play football on Thursday! It was freezing… we won our first game, but ended up losing. It was a blast though! I miss playing football. Oh and I accidentally pulled my hamstring while I was running for a pass… It hurt so bad. I went down pretty hard, and didn’t get up for a bit. I am recovering though. It is really tender and it still hurts, but I just have to keep on keeping on!

After the Turkey Bowl, we went to the Forbes! They are a Jamaican family from the branch. They fed us so much food. It was unreal the amount of food that they had. Our whole entire branch could have been fed by that dinner. I ate a little too much food… I threw up in their bathroom. Everyone could hear me, and they all laughed at me when I came out. Hahaha! It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though. We had another dinner appointment after that. We kept eating at the second appointment because we didn’t want to be disrespectful. I excused myself and threw up in their house too! Another blessing in disguise… Then I had room for pie. 🙂

I had an exchange! I was with Elder Beazer and Elder Young for the day. I love those two guys. We had a great exchange. We found a new investigator, and taught a former investigator. Then we had to stop by a pharmacy and grab some stuff for my leg, so we loaded up on chips and soda for the night! Well I drank seltzer water… haha #mormonparty We had a great time. Then we woke up the next day and found a surprise. We walked out to where we parked our car, and it wasn’t there. We all interrogated each other thinking that someone moved it during the night… We were happy to find out that nobody was lying! But then we realized we still had no idea where our car went. So we had to call the towing place for our complex, and this guy rolled up. He wasn’t all the way there in the head… We got him to give us a little discount, and he drove us to the bank. OUR CAR WAS TOWED! Haha I was so upset. They live in the same complex thingy as us, but they have a different parking pass because it is a different street… Wow. Gotta love New York! We ended up getting the car back, with a little dent to the bank account. It made for a memorable exchange. 🙂

Well I applied for BYU Provo. We will see if I get accepted. It is weird to be this close to going home. I am trying to focus, but there are so many things calling my attention. A lot of them are legitimate things that I have to worry about… Like school. 😦 No thanks. I will stay on my mission.

Anyways!! It was another good week in the books. I will leave you with a little spiritual thought. I am trying to study about the Savior’s life everyday this month because of the “He is the Gift” initiative from the church.So I was studying in John 2 today. The first eleven verses are about Jesus turning the water into wine. Just like He can change water into wine, he can take people with unrighteous desires and change them to have righteous desires. We simply have to be obedient. I know people can change, no matter how long and hard the process is. We just have to turn to the Savior! Especially during this time of the year.

Have you heard of the “He is the Gift” business? If not, google it. Watch the video. Find out how you and your family are going to do these three things this month:

#DiscovertheGift #EmbracetheGift #SharetheGift

Elder Lee
Come what may, and Love it!

That is Horrific!!!

Last P-day was awesome! We finally had a full p-day to ourselves. The zone got together to practice for the turkey bowl! We are pretty serious about the turkey bowl so we even practiced in the rain… then it really started to pour….and the wind started to blow….and we realized that we weren’t THAT serious about it! Haha! It was fun though. Except we went shopping (soaking wet) afterwards, and we were miserable. Good times.

We had a street sweep with Elder Young and Elder Beazer. I love those guys. We picked up trash on some public streets in the community. It was disgusting, but hey! Thats New York!

I was able to go to Midwood on exchanges! We had a great time. It was weird being back in the same apartment again. We went to Gyro King though! I love halal food. I miss it. If you don’t know what that is.. you should google “Lamb over rice halal food” and look at the pictures that come up. Yum.

We planned to go on the trains to do a flash mob! We practiced a few songs, and then we were off! We would all get in the same car, and start singing. It was funny to hear people’s reactions. One lady was nice and commented on how it was good to hear “Christian music” every once in a while. Everyone else ignored us or got really mad. There was this russian guy that was not happy… at all. I think we woke him up. He started shaking his head and cursing us under his breath. He finally turned and looked me in the eyes and yelled, “THAT IS HORRIFIC!”. I just smiled and kept singing. I chuckled, because some people get bent out of shape for the strangest things. Oh well! OH and I tried to fearless these two ladies on the train and got totally shut down… in front of the whole zone. I was like… uhhh… and just sat down. Hahahaha I tried!

Anyways. I was pondering about why bad things happen to good people. Elder Holland makes a great point. He talks about how Jesus Christ was the best this world has ever seen. Did He not go through hard times? Was He not tortured beyond what He deserved? Of course. He kept His scars to show that although bad things may happen to good people, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love them.

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

All Around The World

We had an incredible week. It all started with a new transfer!! The new missionaries that came in were so cool. They were from all over the world. Spain, Paraguay, South Korea, etc. Oh and Provo, Utah of course. 🙂 It was cool to see so many people from around the world united in the same cause. They are going to be stellar missionaries.

The transfer meeting was great as usual. It is always a treat to be with the majority of the mission and to hear President Calderwood speak.

Well I have a new companion! We are still in a trio, but Elder Baker had to move on with his life 😦 Elder Lavelle is the new addition! Wow, I am so excited. I have always looked up to him throughout my whole mission. It is pretty cool to be his companion. I have learned something cool. Do you want to know the true measurement of a leader? It isn’t about the work that he gets done. That stuff doesn’t really matter as much. The true measurement is how the people around that person do. If the people around you are growing and blossoming, that means you are a good leader. Even if you are conquering the world, but everyone around you is being destroyed in the process.. what good does it do? A true leader inspires and lifts the people around them. Elder Lavelle is great at that.

Well we had a meeting this week! I made a little video for it. It was cool. The concept was on whether you are “Insane or Inspired?”. If you change your expectations in life, do you change your actions to match them? Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. You have to do more than change your expectations in order to be inspired. You have to change your actions to match it. Pretty cool concept!

We hardly ever sleep. Sleep is overrated anyways! I fall asleep anytime I stop moving. That usually only happens in sacrament meeting. So you can count on me passing out in church. Haha… yep. OH a lifelong dream was fulfilled the other day! We got a selfie with President Calderwood. It was great. Highlight of the week for sure.

The biggest highlight happened on Saturday though! Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the seventy made a surprise visit! He basically had a layover in New York on his way to Bermuda with President Calderwood, so he set up a conference for the mission! It was incredible. He talked about a lot of things, but one thing stuck out. He said that we are responsible for how much we get out of meetings. Sacrament, District, etc. Whatever it is! We decide how much we are going to learn from every meeting. It is up to us to seek knowledge, but not only to just learn. The most important part is turning that knowledge into action! We should always have a resolve to change after every meeting we have. That is how we continually improve. I loved that. I mean.. We have a billion meetings anyways, right? Might as well get something out of it!

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Another week has flown by. Wow.

Well due to a special occasion, I found myself at dinner with President and Sister Calderwood! We were eating, and decided we wanted to “fearless” our waitress. It was pretty easy because she started asking us questions… I love when they do that. 🙂 It was kind of awkward at first, but it smoothed itself out. We were all asking kind of lame questions, until the question got thrown out, “What question do you feel like religion has never been able to answer for you?”. She was taken aback. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and all of the information for church. The ball is in her court now! I hope she goes. That was super cool though.

Have you ever had the blazin’ wings from Buffalo Wild Wings? Well if you answered no to that question, keep it that way. It was a horrible decision. Elder Hussein got some for me one day and I foolishly ate five of them. They didn’t even taste good, and they burned everything that they touched! My fingers, lips, mouth, heart, stomach, etc. I thought they hurt going in, but it was just as bad when they came out. I will leave it at that.

Elder Nugent was praying one night to find out where Heavenly Father wanted us to go. He felt like we should go to this former investigator’s house. It was shocking because they had called us a few weeks ago and yelled at us. After that, they told us to never come back. That was the same day that the other family we were teaching told us that they were moving, so it was pretty tough. But for some reason Elder Nugent felt like going to see them. We wrote them a thank you card, and headed over… we knocked on the door and… they let us in and fed us dinner. Ha!! God is so good. Even though promptings don’t make sense, just follow through with them.

I have just had the strongest impressions about families lately. The world is getting pretty ugly, and they are going to attack the church for what we believe. It is already happening. We had a fireside last night about how marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. I just felt the Spirit confirm to me that it was true. I can’t ever deny that. President Calderwood read The Family Proclamation, and it is all true. If you don’t know that yet, you should read it and pray about it. You are going to have to know that for the future. The future is frightening to think about, but I will always defend traditional marriage. That is the catch with “additional light”, you have a lot more responsibility. Oh boy.

We have spent most of our proselyting time in Belle Harbor. There are so many families there it is crazy. Almost like Utah. They all know their neighbors (which is refreshing) and actually care about each other. The ones we have met are pretty set in their ways, but they are willing to have us over and feed us 🙂 They love the missionaries after what they did for them during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. We have a lot of hope for some families though. This branch needs some anchor families!!

Anyways, I am not ready to come home yet. I love President and Sister Calderwood too much. I have nothing but respect for both of them. If I end up being half the man that President Calderwood is, I will be doing alright.

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

The Half-Gallon Challenge

I do a lot of things wrong. One of the things this past week that I wanted to improve was my water intake. Don’t laugh. We wanted to start drinking more water to stay hydrated! We all bought a gallon of water and decided to drink it every day. So we have been carrying around our gallons of water everywhere! I am pretty easily entertained, and I came up with a challenge. I told Elder Baker that if he drank a half-gallon of water in ten minutes, I would give him twenty dollars. Now I was pretty dang positive he couldn’t do it, but it was enticing enough for him to try. The deal is you have to finish all of the water in ten minutes, and not throw up. Well he got really close! Then he threw up. Ha! I challenged another missionary to do it later, and he was determined. He did it in seven minutes!!! I was astonished. I grudgingly took out the twenty dollars and handed it over… only to follow him right to the bathroom and watch him throw up everywhere. He came out and handed me the twenty dollars back. I felt bad, so I told him I would take him to lunch. Moral of the story? Well there really isn’t one. I just wanted to share that story.

Halloween has come and gone! I talked to a guy who I had met over a year ago on Halloween. He is awesome. We actually had a really good conversation about the symbolism of the Book of Hosea. I never thought that would happen in my life! Haha! Anyways, we had to be in by 6pm because of the hoodrats that go out. It is actually a big gang initiation day, so it was good that we were all safe. I went to bed at 8:30pm!! It was the best.

I am still enjoying life! I am so grateful for this chance to serve here at this time. It could not have been better timed. This whole mission has been a miracle for me. I love it.

I was pondering about how people who live around a lot of Mormon’s can still be actively engaged in missionary work. I came across a scripture that answered my question. In James 4:17 it says “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin”. I just thought about all of the good that we can do for people around us, regardless of what church they belong to. If you find yourself surrounded by members of the church, and still want to be a missionary, “go about doing good”. There is much good to be done all around us!

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

Why Did the Swankie Man Schlep Across the Street?

I learned some cool new words this week! Well I guess they are old words, but they are new to me! Okay here they are. Swankie. I love that one. Apparently it means ritzy? We were teaching one of my favorite people out here and she used that word. I busted up laughing, and gave her a hard time for using that word. The other word was schlept. She used it like this, “The Jews schlept across the street”. HAHA! It is referring to the way someone walks. I just thought those were the funniest things.

 

Anyways. We saw some miracles this week!! I was asked to give a workshop. The basis of the workshop was that with faith, miracles will happen. There were two sisters in there that really got it. I promised them that they could see miracles that very night if they would just have faith. I told them to call me that night to follow up. When they called me we were all ecstatic. They saw some amazing miracles! It is so cool to be a part of this work. I can’t even tell you.

There is a Sonic that we found. 🙂 I have missed that place. I went a little crazy, but hey! It was Sonic! You can’t blame me too much! It brought back memories of going through the drive-thru with my mom and having her order a Route 44 Cherry Limeade with extra ice!! I even got cheese tots to celebrate the occasion.

We had another tender experience this past week. We had some extra time so we spent it knocking doors in Belle Harbor. WOW. That was the place that was most effected by Hurricane Sandy. The people love the missionaries over here. A lady that we met while knocking started crying on her doorstep. She was so touched by the memory of us helping her during the storm. Sadly, none of us were actually there to provide service for her, but we stood in place of those missionaries! It was incredible to see a complete stranger crying at the sight of us. Most of the people in Belle Harbor are Catholics, but they are generally very nice. They haven’t been interested in our message just yet, but they will soon! I just wish they all understood that their spiritual lives need as much repair as their temporal lives did.

I am loving the mission. I am still learning, and changing. Hopefully a pattern I can continue to see for the rest of my life. I learned so much this morning in my personal studies! I studied Mark 8 for like 45 minutes. I will copy and paste my study notes into the email at the end..

I love you all! Keep up the great work!

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

I was re-reading Mark 8 today and noticed something interesting. So
Mark 8 is after Jesus feeds the 5,000. His disciples witness this
incredible miracle that was unheard of. Now, shortly after that
experience, they found themselves in a similar situation. For some
reason the disciples ask a stupid question (Mark 8:4). I can imagine
that the Savior was frustrated with them for their lack of
understanding. In stead of rebuking them right there, he proceeded
with His miracle and fed them. Later in the chapter the Savior rips
into them and rebukes them for their lack of understanding earlier.
Jesus took His own advice. In D&C 121 we learn not to rebuke people in
public. I think that is why He didn’t say anything in the moment! He
waited until they were all in private to correct them!

Later on in the chapter there is another miracle performed. The Savior heals a blind man. It is interesting to note that this miracle is the only one
recorded where the Savior heals someone gradually. It could have been
because the man did not have enough faith at the beginning, and Jesus
was helping strengthen his faith along the way? It is interesting nonetheless.

In Mark 8:28-29 I noticed something. Verse 28 says “they
answered” the Saviors question of who the people thought He was.
‘They’ obviously refers to multiple people. If you read in the next
verse when the Savior asks His disciples directly, “Whom say ye that I
am” their is only one person from the group to respond. “Peter
answered”. Would you, like Peter, be one to respond so quickly with
your testimony of the Divinity of The Son, or would you be caught off
guard trying to find out what you actually believe? (Mark 8:33) The
hebrew word for satan just means “adversary”. He wasn’t calling Peter
the devil, he was acknowledging that Peter was in opposition (or an
adversary) to His plan. Peter still probably believed in the political
Messiah, like so many other Jewish people (Paul actually talks about
how much of a stumbling block this was for the Jewish people. They
couldn’t comprehend that their Messiah would be crucified. See 1
Corinthians 1:23). Peter was only defending the Jewish tradition of a
Messiah that he was raised with after the Savior prophesied of His
death in verses 30-31. We have to cut Peter a little slack, he was
probably pretty confused a lot of the time. I would have been too.

Two Pies Please

Goodness gracious it has been quite the week! There are way too many things to put in this email, but as always… I will do my best. 🙂

Exchanges like crazy. I have been all over the place this week! The highlight was returning to Midwood for a 24 hour exchange. It was amazing to be back there and see how much it has changed. It started with us playing tag with a LA kid and his friends. We played with them for a while and then had a spiritual thought about the Book of Mormon! The LA kid said the best prayer ever. He said something along the lines of, “Heavenly Father help my friends find out this is true, I know it is”. Wow it was incredible. We were walking around that night going to and from appointments when I saw this mom with her child. I caught her attention as she walked by and we talked to her! She was interested in learning more, and wanted her family to hear about our message. WOW. It is a family of six. Amazing. The next day we were picking up trash around the church and ran into this kid. He saw us picking stuff up so he just started throwing his trash on the ground in front of us. Some of the missionaries were getting ticked, but some people are just like that. What can you do huh? ANYWAYS, we had dinner with a strictly Jewish family. Some of the nicest people I have met on my mission. The missionaries started talking to them one day, and they have been going over once a week for dinner ever since. I had some delicious food (it is called Jachnun, you should look it up). That sums up my exchange there!!! It was wonderful.

Then I ventured over to Jamaica! I had an exchange with a less than pleasant man on the street. We were fearlessing and shining shoes, and I commented on how nice his shoes were! He stopped and proceeded to yell at me, blah, blah, blah. Never heard that one before. I just kept smiling and told him, “I don’t really care when the letter J was invented, that has nothing to do with my testimony of Jesus. And yes ‘Yahweh’ is indeed the hebrew name for Jehovah”. Whoop-dee-do. Haha I have heard all of these arguments a thousand times. I finally told him to have a nice day and started to walk away, and he started yelling out cursings upon my head and that blood will be on my hands or something. People be crazy. 🙂 BUT then we went and got two pies from Joey’s on Jamaica ave. Boy do I love NY pizza. Yum.

I actually fell asleep twice this past week. During church and a lesson. Ha.. I am so tired all of the time. I don’t have a minute to waste though! The minutes are going by too fast. I absolutely love this mission. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I am just going to go out there and live it up!

I read Moroni 7:3 this morning. There is an interesting quote in the institute manual. It says, “The rest here referred to is not physical rest, for there is no such thing as physical rest in the Church of Jesus Christ. Reference is made to the spiritual rest and peace which are born from a settled conviction of the truth in the minds of men”. Food for thought. In other words, “There aint no rest for the wicked”.

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

Memories!

Wow. It has been quite the whirlwind this past week. It flew by. I have been so busy. I love it though! I will try to do a recap for you!

I am serving in a branch now. It is the first branch that I have served in on my mission. It is different, but I like it. I have never seen a unit that was in its early stages of development before. OH before I forget. Remember that lady we knocked into with President Calderwood in Terryville (I can’t remember if I told you about that)? She got baptized last Saturday! Miracle.

So I was able to go on exchanges back in Midwood this past week! It was great! It brought back a lot of memories of when I served there. Did I ever tell you about that guy from South Carolina? We met him while we were fearlessing one night. He said he needed money to travel to a bus stop so he could head to South Carolina. One of the missionaries ended up giving him $20. We talked to him on a bench that was covered in snow, in the freezing cold. We taught him the restoration and committed him to be baptized! He accepted and we told him how to get in touch with the church in SC. He gave us his ring to always remember him, etc. Pretty cool huh? Hold on. When I went back for exchanges I learned some more things about this guy. He has been in Midwood ever since then going around to different people telling them the same story he told us. He has been lying to everyone, and ripping them off. He even talked to the Bishop of the spanish ward in Midwood. Bishop gave him money out of his own pocket. I was so shocked. Can you believe that? Some people have no moral code. It is ridiculous.

I also remembered a time that we were fearlessing in that same place back in Midwood. I talked to this guy for a while and he seemed interested, so I went to get his information. I put his number in the phone and… his number was already in there. It was under “DO NOT ANSWER”. I had no idea what to do. I guess some missionaries had already contacted this guy before? Creepy huh?

Anyways! Enough reminiscing. This past week I was in Bushwick on a train when I saw this guy wearing super nice shoes. I had a prompting to approach him, but he immediately left the train. I didn’t think much of it, until about 2 hours later. I got back on the L-train at a totally different stop, and guess who was on the same train? The guy with the fancy shoes! I made a beeline to him, and started to talk to him. He was from Seattle and was super nice. He wasn’t interested in learning more, but I did get the information about his shoes! I asked him if they were expensive and he said, “define expensive”. Right then I knew they were pricey. They were $300. I proceeded to gasp inside and tell him I might look into them (yeah right).

I was walking around Queens when we got stopped by two guys. One was dressed as bird and he interviewed us for his show. It was fun! We had a good time. Then there was a lady in the background who was taking pictures of us for the NY times. She said it will be in the fashion section or something under intersection? Haha oh New York.

A cool moment was watching a young man open his mission call to Hounduras! It was very emotional for me to watch that. I remember opening mine like it was yesterday. This is such a sacred time, and I love it. I would not trade this experience for the world.

Elder Lee

Come what may, and Love it!

P.S. We fearlessed a lady that was selling cinnamon roasted nuts. She ended up giving us free peanuts. Mmm. Cinnamon roasted nuts might be some of my favorite things! It has been such a great week. Life doesn’t get any better than this.

Three Amigos!

This week has been incredibly busy. I won’t have very much time to
send big weekly emails anymore. I will try my best in the weeks to
come though!

I am serving in a trio again!! Elder Baker and Elder Nugent are my
companions. They are both really great guys. I am living in Queens
now. It is cool to be back in the city area. I do love the atmosphere
as a missionary. Our area is mainly Far Rockaway. The peninsula right
underneath Queens. This will probably be my last area, and I love it!

I loved General Conference. It is such a blessing to hear from
Prophets. I hope everyone had the chance to listen to some of it!

Elder Nugent taught me something cool this week. He said that with
blood sweat and tears we can do anything. The Blood represents Jesus
Christ’s Atonement. The Sweat represents our work. The tears are
symbolic of our crying unto the Lord continually. With that
combination, you can accomplish anything!!

Elder Lee
Come what may, and Love it!

I’m a real man..?

Well I found out that I will be getting transferred! I only spent one
transfer in Terryville this time around, but it was a good little pit
stop. I learned a lot, and saw some pretty amazing miracles. I am
excited for this next part of my mission!

This last week we were visiting a potential investigator and we saw a
dog chained up in the yard. The investigator lived in the back, and so
the dog was guarding our path. He was not a very nice dog so we knew
we had to be careful. I was secretly excited because I haven’t really
had a dog story yet on my mission. Anyways! We devised a plan (by that
I mean I had an idea and kinda just went for it hoping Elder Galloni
would catch on). He did. We had to find out how long the chain was,
and then pray it didn’t break. I took off running in one direction
along a fence into the corner. Luckily the corner was too far away for
the dog. By the time I was in the corner, Elder Galloni was running on
the other side. The dog kept running back and forth between us until
we eventually got to the backyard. Luckily it wasn’t the smartest dog
I have ever met!!

Oh and we played Bocce Ball with a member this week, and I beat Elder
Galloni. I don’t think the Italian was happy to be beat at his own
game. 😉 Haha it was luck though, because he is normally a lot better.

We helped the Binetti family with some service! Man I love them. I am
actually really happy to see them move to Utah. The ward is distraught
over them leaving, because they all love them. It will be good for
that family though. I will get to see them more often now!

Want to hear something crazy? A recent convert had a prompting that
she should take us and introduce us to her non-member brother! Wow,
alright. We are always up for that. Anyways after knocking on the door
he opened it and…. he didn’t recognize her!!!! They hadn’t seen each
other for over 24 years…!!!! I guess it all started because of pride
and a fight in the family. That was sad.

Anyways, we had a great time at the Bishop’s house yesterday! He had
us over for dinner. His son wanted to play “suicide chess” with me.
The point of the game is to lose all of your pieces before your
opponent. If you have the chance to take your opponents piece, you are
forced to. Turns out I am a pro at “suicide chess”! I guess I have had
too much experience of losing all of my pieces quickly. 🙂 After the
game Bishop asked everyone what they had learned from me. His wife’s
comment struck me, “I learned that the mission can turn a boy into a
man”. We had a good laugh at that because I realized how much of a boy
I really was. I don’t consider myself this amazing man or anything,
but I do have a testimony that the Doctrine of Christ can change us. I
am grateful for that… or else I would be a boy forever!!

Elder Lee
Come what may, and Love it!