Letter # 69 Another Great Week

hello hello everyone!

 

This was another great week! I had an amazing Christmas! We had to leave China Town this week and go to the 65th street chapel. I was so grateful we got to leave China Town this year! Last year we stayed in China Town and it was very hard to even know that it was Christmas! The 65th street chapel is smack in the middle of south Manhattan so there was plenty of Christmas spirit to go around! We had three investigators come to church this sunday! We were not expecting any to come because we were not meeting at our ussual location! But to our surprise, we had three people come! After the meeting, our branch president invited us over to his house for dinner. I was so happy! We had an amazing dinner! We are talking like a Thanksgiving style feast! It was so cool! The sisters in our district from main land China, had never celebrated a christmas like that before. It is crazy how some things we really take for granted sometimes.

These last two days have been pretty rough for me and Elder Mok. Monday we did not have any scheduled lessons, so we were out side all day long. Being out side is not a bad thing, but when you only get one phone number after being out almost a full day, it is not a fun feeling. After contacting for a long time we took a dinner break, then still had about two more hours to go contact. Despite our exaustion we tried to have a good attitude and make it fun. After contacting about ten minutes into our second session, a man stopped and talked with us. He was very interested in what we were doing, and our message. He gave us his phone number then asked where our chapel was. Seeing that he had time right then we asked him if he wanted to go with us right that second and go look at our chaple. He said that he could! We went up to the chapel and ended up sharing a very powerful lesson with him about prayer, and how God is our loving Heavenly Father. My two favorite princibles to teach investigators. His understanding of religion was very scarce, but after we shared these things with him he had a great desire to know more!

This experience really strengthened my testimony, along with several others this week, that God really does hear our prayers.

Yesterday, me and Elder Mok had a few really good lessons, and then we were outside in the furocious horizontal rain! After being out for about an hour, my companions brand new unbrella broke, and my rain jacket cacoon started to become damp. Suddenly I thought about an old lady that I remembered Elder Faulkner telling me about, and I figured we could go try to visit her. After seaching for a few minutes I was able to find the building. We pulled on the front door and it came open! So rare for New York city! When we knocked on her door, she pulled it open leaving the chain hooked so the door could not open all the way. At first she did not know who we were, and was not going to let us in, but when we said we were missionaries she let us in right away. Her apartment was freezing, and not in the best condition. One of the light bulbs on her cealing was out, and she could not do anything about it because she could not climb up that high. We helped her change her light bulb. She then told us about a part of her floor that causes her to slip everytime she walks to a certain part of her house. She showed us huge bruises going up the side of her leg. We tried our best get the broken floor in place, but did not really succeed. When we came back and sat down with her she started to cry. She told us that she does not have anyone to care for her any more. Her children are in china, and her husband recently passed away. She does not have any friends, or loved ones with her in New York. We are going to get our branch involved in helping her. It was so cool how Heavenly Father sent us to her. I really hope that we can help her.

Well I love you so all! I hope that you had a good Christmas! Talk to you next week,

Elder Barton!