Having some fun with the NCAA

Hi guys how's it going ? Dad, don't worry about not writing a long email! as long as i know your safe and doing good that's good enough for me. but i'll just be writing this whole email together. sooo first i'll talk about the game. it was SICK. we went down to madison square garden. the first game was Cincinatti vs Providence. it was pretty cool! but we were seated WAAYYY up at the top.. so at half time a few of us walked down to the bottom level and found an entrance where there wasn't any guards.. so we snuck in and found a row that fit all of us! so for the second half of the game we were actually pretty close to the floor! the 2nd game was Syracuse vs Seton Hall.. syracuse is a big basketball school so it started to get pretty packed and all of the people around us who had snuck down all got kicked out of their seats and so we thought that we were gonna get kicked out too, but we decided to stay there until someone kicked us out. and we got super lucky haha nobody came any said anything! so for the whole second game we had seats on the bottom level, it was dope!!!! and i bought a hat. i had to do it. SYRACUSE! haha so yeah. the games were awesome, thank you for giving me the money to go :) uhmm not a whole lot else happened this week. the weather has been stupid. we got a few inches of snow the other day. i don't like it down here in the city . but it's all melted by now! my companion has been feeling better. we ran on monday morning, but then monday night was when it snowed so we couldn't run on tuesday morning because there was snow everywhere. and this morning we didn't run because i don't even know why! lazies. don't judge! i am getting fat haha i need to be able to play ball every day. i've really been thinking about whether or not i wanna play basketball when i get back.. don't know. but i wanna play more basketball, once a week aint enough! 

so for the update on our investigators.. we got some bad news. we went back to teach patricio and teresa on monday and they told us their final decision.. they decided to get seperated! and teresa said she doesn't want to continue the lessons for now.. patricio said that he's still gonna take the lessons and that we'll talk at church on sunday.. he doesn't know where he's gonna live.. so there's a chance he could move out of our area.. so that means we could have just lost both of our investigators :/ it was rough.. it really honestly hurt! kinda ruined the whole day.. but whatever. we still pray for them and we hope that whatever happens they'll be able to progress.. so yeah. right now we don't really know what's going on, but we are pressing forward! so yeah.don't worry, i'm treating elder critchfield very nicely! we get along better than any of my other companions because we work more as a team than i have with other companions.. so we're good! i actually haven't done anything about the card yet. i'm probly gonna go today or tomorrow to get this card situation figured out. tell beto i'm sorry i didn't send him something earlier, i actually sent him a card today so it should get there soon! and i sent one to the house for karla.. i lost her address so i had to send it to your house.. so they should get there the same day! as for other things.. nothing has really happened haha life is good though, we are super happy even though we've been having this struggle with our main investigators. 

i've been reading this book called the continous atonement.. it's really good, i suggest you guys look into it!! cuz i want it haha I love you guys so much, i cant wait to talk to you guys in like a month and a half! i hope everything is going well, be safe! los quiero mucho! 

-Elder Zazueta

My new companion

HI!

okay, so i'm gonna type as fast as I can today! i'm not sure how much time I have. everything has been so good this past week! my new companions name is elder Critchfield! he's awesome! he's from murray Utah. he played soccer but he loves sports. we played a lot of basketball last Wednesday. good sign of things to come haha uhm he is such a hard worker. he just does what I say without question and when I ask him for input he isn't afraid to suggest things which is really good because we really get to working as a team, and I couldn't really do that with my last companion.. so we are working hard. I've been so tired tho! I don't know why, but this past week I've felt more tired and it's been harder for me to get out of bed than it has been in the past. the only struggle elder critchfield has is that he doesn't speak a lot of Spanish. they cut the time for missionaries in the mtc, so he only got 6 weeks in there as opposed to the usual 9.. but it's fine, he's super confident and that's gonna help him a lot! we've been teaching a lot of lessons, and I kinda feel pressured because since he doesn't speak Spanish, I basically have to teach everything.. unless we practice what he's gonna say before hand. but he's learning fast. i'm so excited for this game! it's gonna be the first college basketball game I go to ! it's the big east tournament, if you watch the game on tv you might see me on the big screen haha tell Julie's mom I say HIIIII! i'm so glad beto made allstate, and it makes me happy that alexia is taking an interest in sports. she'll have so much fun! I wish I could just go to the church whenever I want to play ball.. i'm losing my touch. the past couple of times we've played I've actually felt pretty good and I think i'm getting a little bit of my bounce back.. I still dunk pretty much whenever I want, I just gotta keep working out so that I don't lose too much! elder critchfield hasn't been feeling too good this past week, so we haven't been able to go down to the track. I feel gross :/ I actually don't know what else I want for my birthday... so just put whatever you want! also, I got the contacts, and I got tia macry's package. tell her and tio chico I said thank you! please..

dad, that job sounds like it's super legit! is that something you have a lot of interest in ? or is that kind of whatever..? I can't wait to hear about how it went! sorry, I don't have too much time, we have to be somewhere soon so that we can pick up our tickets and if we're late they won't give them too us! and sorry about the pictures, I haven't even sent the new ones to Haley.. I didn't take a lot this past cycle so I think i'm gonna send this one in a few weeks so that there can be more pictures for you guys to see. don't you guys have one of my memory cards? i'm missing one.. I love you guys so much, sorry I will answer all of the rest of the questions in next weeks email I promise, we just have like no time today! but thanks again for giving me the money to go to the game. i'm super grateful for everything you guys do for me. los quiero mucho :)

i'm out!

I'm a Dad now!! (Trainer)

Dad

thank you. my birthday has been really good :) no me cantaron las 
mananitas.. pero ahorita les explico como celebramos mi cumpleanos.. 
i'm so excited to go to that game! so yes, i just got my new companion 
earlier today. his name is elder Critchfield, he's from utah (of course)  
he plays soccer, and he likes to play basketball too. we already played 
today for like 3 hours haha legit.  and yes, i'm staying in the same area! 
i'll have to talk to hi about the gym membership tho.. we'll see what 
happens! and yes, the basketball games are at madison square garden- 
I'M SO EXCITED!!!!! that's awesome that Elder Rasband went and 
spoke to you guys! he actually came to the mission like 4 or 5 months 
before i got here.. not fair! it really is crazy how the church is 
progressing.. we received 40 new missionaries today. thats the record 
for missionaries arriving in a single transfer in the north eastern united 
state.. per transfer we usually get anywhere from 12 to 18.. and this time 
we got 40 . insane. that would be awesome if you could send me the 
paper and the book! i would really appreciate that! i'm not sure i 
understood the job offer that isagenix gave you.. what's a gerente? 
sorry, my spanish is slackin!

Mom 

thank you too :) i guess i gotta thank you and dad for creating me. 
and you for birthing me haha without that i'd have no birthdays to 
honor. so many packages.. so much candy,, haha i'm gonna get fat. 
you can send me tata's watch if you want. tio chico sent me a watch, 
a hat, some cards from him and tia maye, a shirt.. and some mexican 
candy.. legit! as for the game, no, it's not just me and my companion. 
there are quite a few of us going.. it's gonna be so legit! that's next week :) 
cant wait! i pass by yankee stadium all the time! i haven't been in, but 
i'm almost positive i'll be in the area when season starts so i'll be able 
to go to a couple games soon ! that's gonna be awesome too! i'm on 
foot thank goodness. and the weather is actually getting a lot nicer! 
either that or i'm just getting used to the cold. either way i'm happy 
haha as for haley's letters, i finally got them like 3 days ago.. the post 
office is not being nice. but i got their package too! so yeah. no worries, 
the mail is just slow. i'm so excited for Brisa! i wonder where she's 
gonna go! that's crazy.. and i'm excited for you guys to have spring break.. 
i wish i had one ..

okay so sorry this email is super short. people keep calling me and i 
have to answer and it's taking time away from my email. but i'll type 
as fast as i can. 

things are super awesome right now. Yobanna got confirmed on sunday. 
one of our less actives is excited about going to church and her mom isn't 
a member, so this is a sign of good things to come.. patricio and teresa 
just met with the bishop last sunday and they're trying to figure out their 
situation. we're going to their house on friday and i'm hoping they'll tell 
us they want to get married.. that would be the best thing to ever happen.. 
hope for the best! sooo last night we stayed up late because we had to 
move a bunch of stuff around since two of the people in our apartment 
were moving out. at midnight i opened haley and karlas package and it 
had some cool stuff in it. so we threw a party at like 2 in the morning 
with just 3 of us. it was fun. haha i'm super excited to have this new 
missionary with me. he has an awesome attitude and from the sounds 
of it his spanish is already pretty decent! so things are going good! i'm 
sorry this is the worst email ever. but i have to go. i love you guys so 
much and i miss you and i wish i could spend this day with you. i want 
you to all know i'm so grateful for all the things you do for me. i really 
don't deserve it. please be safe and love each other haha it is the greatest 
law! one love :) talk to you next week :)

Yobanna's baptism!

sooo this one i'm gonna write it all together since everyone had the same questions haha 

but first things first.. i don't know if you guys already got me something for my birthday.. but 

last night i figured out what i wanted, i just don't know if it'll be possible for you guys.. soooo 

as you guys know, the NCAA men's basketball season is soon going to be in the playoff 

tournament.. and part of the tournament is here in new york. last night the assistant to the 

president texted me and told me that we have permission to go.. it will be on the 13th of march.. 

we will get to watch 2 games, which he said it'll be 60 dollars or more... and i really really 

wanna go. soooo that's what i'm asking for! si no se puede, pues no se puede.. but if you 

guys can give me any part of the money i would love it! so yeahh.. that's it about my birthday 

present. if there's nothing that can be done, don't worry about it!

also, no. my companion doesn't play basketball.. at all haha he's not really an athlete.. 

but he's willing to play, and when he does it's hilarious. so we have a good time. also, 

we didn't end up getting the gym membership because Vazquez didn't want to.. i couldn't force 

him. so i didn't do exercise for a while... but then i made him start running with me.. and then 

we find out that there is a track right across the street from yankee stadium! soo for the past 

week we've been waking up at 6, we run to the track ( which takes like 3 minutes) and then 

we do exercise there. it's so nice to have a track that close! so even though i won't really be 

lifting weights, i'll at least be running and keeping off TOO much fat. so yeah. but yeah, my 

companion is fine now.. he's not sick! speaking of companions, i know next week is my 

birthday, but next week is also transfers, so i don't know how long i will have to email. and 

also, yesterday we had surprise interviews with president.. and in mine he told me i am for 

sure training!! i'm gonna be a dad!! haha meaning i'm a trainer. therefore, he will be my son. 

so yeah, as of next wednesday i'll be training a new missionary.. i'm super excited! but a little 

nervous.. but more excited than nervous. as you can imagine. i just hope he likes basketball haha. 

the weather right now isn't my favorite.. it's raining. and it's super windy. sooo the wind moves

 the rain and all the water on the roads so you can see the wind coming at you . kinda cool. but 

kinda sucks. i can't even use an umbrella because the wind will break it, no joke! i'm jealous of 

that 70 degree weather.. thats not fair! i can't wait until it warms up so that we won't have to wear 

our suits everyday. also, don't worry about my back!! it definitely feels a lot better! it started hurting 

after we played basketball like 2 weeks ago.. but now that we've been running i stretch before and 

after and sometimes before i go to bed, and that has really helped a lot. so it hasn't bothered me at

 all for the past few days! oh, and i'll be sure to be on the look out for those packages! and speaking

 of mail.. can you have karla or beto ask haley if she's gotten my letters? because i've been dropping 

mail off into a drop box by our house, i just don't know if they actually get sent out.. and if she did get

 it, there's no rush to write back, i just want to make sure it actually all sent ! 

investigators:

things have been a little crazy! 

as you can see by the pictures, yobanna DID get baptized!! her mom let her thank goodness. it was 

actually super cool. her mom told us she wasn't going because of work.. and then we went to pick 

yobanna up and she told us we should've done it a different day.. and then she let us go, but she 

looked pretty mad. about 10 minutes later she calls us and tells us she's coming and to give her 

the address to the church. so we delay the baptism about an hour waiting for yobanna's mom to 

get there and she didn't show up.. and we had people waiting so my companion made us start

 the service. we sang, prayed, and heard the talks. and right when it was time to go over to the 

font, her mom showed up.. so i baptized her and her mom got to see. and then she left for work. 

but it made us so happy! and then afterwards yobanna asked us if she could share her testimony 

which is super rare because she gets embarrassed to even say it in front of us.. but she just went 

up there and told us she was grateful for what we have done for her and that she loves the church 

and that she wants to stay forever. it was really short but super awesome! so then come sunday 

she was supposed to get confirmed.. and guess what, she didn't show up -__-    nonsense! so we

 were super frustrated.. after church she called us and told us she was super sorry and that she had 

fallen asleep.. and then she told us that she still went to church and went to the other spanish ward 

so that she could take the sacrament. and that made us sooo happy because even though she slept

 in, she showed us that she truly knows the importance of her baptism . it was awesome!!

now for patricio and teresa.. we had a lesson with them last night. it didn't go exactly how we expected.. 

they always ask awesome questions so they started asking away like usual and then it was our turn.. 

and we asked what they thought about marriage and stuff.. and they told us that they decided they 

were gonna seperate.. what the heck! we didn't really know how to react at first, but when they told 

us that, i thanked them because they really showed us that they are serious about keeping the 

commandments and that they are willing to seperate to be able to progress in the gospel.. so we t

alked about it a little bit more and then we decided it would be best for them to meet with the bishop 

before they made any major decisions.. and they agreed. so hopefully this saturday they will meet 

with him and they can get everything figured out! we are praying for them.. we love them . 

haha other than that i don't really have any news.. it was vazquez's birthday on monday so we 

partied a little bit, and ate wayyyy too much haha but that was that. i gotta go cuz i'm running out 

of time and i'm in the library.. so it's time to wrap this up! i love you guys so much, and i just wanna 

let you know i'm doing super good! hopefully things keep going up :) i miss you all, please take care!!

Starting to feel like a missionary!

orale!!!

Dad

yes, it's so nice having people to teach haha i finally am starting to feel like a missionary.and yeah our mission president is super smart and super spiritual.. sometimes i don't understand how he does it. but i'm so grateful for him. sooo yeah, i just wear the same suit every day haha i have two pairs of pants, so i mix those up, but yeah. same thing every day. i think i'm gonna by the other one soon tho! there's an H&M in manhattan where they sell full suits for 89.90   and they sell them slim, which is what i want . so whenever i go to manhattan i think i'll be buying a new suit! haha me da riza imaginandome a ti parado enfrente de tantas personas traduciendo con cara de zombie! haha i bet you did awesome. did they pay you good? and i'm sure you enjoyed your trip to california! did you go on "soarin' over california" ? i know how much you love the sensation of flying.. haha i'm trying to figure out what to do for my birthday.. my birthday is actually on the next transfer day, so allllll of the missionaries are gonna be together. i could just throw a huge party... we'll see! but i'll for sure have the sisters make me a cake.. they make pretty good tres leches, i'd be down for that! haha 4 weeks away from break.. that kinda sounds like a long time, but it goes by so fast. i can't believe i'm almost at 7 months. time flies. dile a mis abuelos que les mando saludos y mucho amor de regreso!

Mom

I'm doing so good :) our investigators are doing sooo good! i'll update you guys in a bit. pero si, yo se que tengo que practicar mucho! especialmente porque creo que voy a entrenar un misionero nuevo empezando en el dia de mi cumpleanos, y cuando averigue que soy mexicano va a esperar a que yo sepa como hablar perfectamente! no pressure.. haha but i will be okay. dominicans call plantains "platanos" and they call bananas "banano" or "guineo".. weird right? and just for fun, i'll let you know that they call oranges "chinas" but anyways the mangu was really good! i liked it.. we ate it with salami and fried cheese and onions.. the usual dominican stuff. elder vasquez says hi to everyone! he has almost been out on his mission for a year.. he hits a year on the 28th of this month! and no, he doesn't live in mexico. his family lives in new jersey! so he didn't have to come very far. NO haha i don't miss bethel. that was possibly the most boring place in the world. the only thing i liked about it is that we played basketball every wednesday. other than that, i don't miss it. haha my pants do NOT stand up by themselves.. i will be taking them to the dry cleaners very soon...aww man i don't know how i'm gonna be able to sign for the package!! i don't know what time the mail comes.. i'll see if i can figure out where the post office is and see if they can tell me anything about it. i'm sorry you're sick :( have you received a blessing yet? elder vasquez has been feeling sick the last couple of days too, its no fun! i hope you get better soon mom.. as for me, my immune system is proving me right once again. it's official, i'm a beast haha i feel so good. i haven't been sick, and i think it's gonna warm up soon, so i don't think i'll be getting sick at all. no worries! what do i want for my birthday? jeez.. that's a super hard question haha I HAVE NO IDEA! my ukulele. except right now we're not allowed to have them in our apartment. lame. uhmm.. maybe some money to buy some hats? i've realized that asking for stuff while you're on a mission is hard. because whatever you get, unless it's food, you have to carry it around with you haha so i don't know. just send me whatever you want, i'm really not expecting anything big!! and for your other question, we have a subway, mcdonalds, and burgerking right by our house, so any gift cards to any of those places would work!

now. for the rest of the story.

this past week has been awesome. in particular with our investigators. first let's talk about yobanna. she's 17, she's got an attitude, but she loves having us over. she's the one who is getting baptized on saturday. so we had an appointment with her last saturday, and she juked (she wasn't there).. which is bad because we needed to help her prepare for her baptism.. so we were a little frustrated. so we called her saturday night to see if we needed to pick her up for church and she didn't answer. so we called sunday morning. she didn't answer. so we were super frustrated and decided if she didn't come to church we were going to have to move her baptism back a couple weeks.. so we prayed and then went to church. we sat with our other investigators (whome i will talk about in a second) and then i looked to the back and saw yobanna.. i was soooo happy because she depends on us to go pick her up for church, but without us saying anything to her she came and she payed more attention than usual.. so that was good. then we had a lesson with her after church and invited her to a fireside to meet our mission president and she came and was telling everyone she would be getting baptized on saturday so we were happy to see she was excited. but when we took her home her mom was super mad and started yelling at us this and that and a bunch of nonsense and said she didn't want yobanna to get baptized and all this stuff soooo we didn't know what to do. long story short, we prayed a lot, we went back to yobanna's, she had her baptismal interview, and we talked to her mom and she's willing to let her get baptized. we're so happy! and she wants me to baptize her, so i can't complain about that :)

now, for patricio and teresa (other investigators) they are awesome!! from mexico, they live together, but they aren't married. they come to church every sunday and they pay attention and they love it and they ask perfect questions during our lessons and we love them so much.. we invited them to be baptized on april 6th, and they've been thinking about it. i'm sure they'll say yes. but for them to get baptized, they have to seperate or get married. sooo yesterday we went over and taught them the law of chastity. we told them about eternal marriage and families, and then invited them to get married. teresa totally wants to. patricio is thinking about it. but i honestly think they'll say yes. i'm so excited for them! i mean, nothing is for sure, but i think they will and i'm super happy. so yeah. that's been the highlight of my week haha

other news, my back has been hurting a little, i don't know why. it kinda feels like the back spasms i had when i was a senior, but not nearly as bad. i just hope it doesn't escalate to that point because that would be terrible! another funny story, we had a new investigator that lives in the other missionaries area so we all went to her house so we could hand her off to them. she wasn't there, but her daughter was. so we started talking to her and found out she plays volleyball.. vasquez looked at me and said that i play volleyball.. then she looked at me and said i was cute and then kept talking to vasquez. then he asked if we could come back and if she would be there to listen to us, and she said she'll only listen if i was one of the people who came back hahahaha nonsense. i thought that was funny. goodness, i love you guys so much. i hope everything is going well with you guys, cuz everything is going well with me :) miss you, take care of yourselves! and mom, get better!

Zazuetaaaa

ps. i got two new nicknames in this ward. instead of zazueta they call me "se suelta" or "se azota" haha mexicans these days!

New Address

Pa

our week was pretty good! we are actually only teaching a couple and a young woman.. but soon we will get more! a lot of our work has been with less actives and helping them do FHE and come to church and things like that.. we visit a lot of the members in the ward too! the girl we are teaching committed to baptism, she'll be getting baptized on the 23rd, so next saturday! i'm excited.. the couple that we are teaching had something come up, so we haven't seen them in over a week.. no bueno! but we are going to their house tomorrow so hopefully we can get them back on track. don't worry about the pages from the book, do your thing haha your work is more important.

Ma

Yesss now i'm with my people haha i don't know that much spanish.. i feel like it was better when i was here the first time.. i just know that it's mofongo, not mojongo! haha i've actually never even had it.. but i think it's something with plantains? not really sure. tonight i'm gonna eat mangu for the first time, which is another dominican food made with plantains. i'll be sure to let you guys know how it is..  also, arizona is crazy! haha i can't believe you guys are colder than us! that doesn't make sense.. haha i know, i think i bring the trouble.. i'm just going to have to warn people next time i get transferred so they can prepare to get hit with who knows what.. i'm patiently waiting for my package haha no worries, i ain't trippin!!! elder vasquez is from celaya, guanajuato! we haven't had any baptisms yet, but we will get some on the way! i hope..

okayyy my turnnn

so. everything is everything. meaning everything is good! i'm meeting more and more of the members and they love me and my companion because we speak fluent spanish haha we have an unfair advantage, and i'm grateful for it! we are still working hard and staying busy. our mission president has really been focusing on re-activating less active members and said they are of as much importance as new converts, so we've been having a lot of lessons with less actives members and it's going really well! we have fun. me and elder vasquez are getting along really good, so we don't have any problems! the other two that live with us tho are completely different, so they struggle a little bit. good thing the mexicans are there to lighten the mood haha you guys ask about the blizzards. they're not fun. not here in NYC! we got a lot of snow, somewhere between 6-12 inches. which would've been fine if i was in connecticut, but here in new york city the snow SUCKS. there is no space to put it.. cars get buried when people plow the snow.. the other day me and my companion helped push like 7 cars out of there parking spot and we shoveled a few sidewalks too.. and the snow turns black and gross since its the city.. and then we got the kids having snowball fights in the middle of the street. crazy! we were walking right in the middle of one and some little 12 year old kid was like "STOP THROWING SNOW! WE GOT PEOPLE WITH SUITS ON OVER HERE, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!" hahaha it was so funny. it was good to know he had our backs. i haven't bought my suit yet.. i  think i'm gonna buy it the next time i go to manhattan at a store called H&M.. they have them for like 100 bucks.. and i wanna get a skinny suit and they sell them there. so i think i might wait a little longer. we'll see! i haven't touched any of the money you deposited .. as promised haha i'm so sorry i forgot to give you guys my address! in the NYC public libraries we only get 45 minutes to use the computer before we get kicked off.. so i logged out and forgot to put my address, and i tried to log back in , but it wouldn't let me because i used up all my time. i'm sorry! 

my address is:

The King Of New York

811 Walton Ave #B6

Bronx, NY 10451

sorry.. forgive me :) also. today is brisa's birthday! can you tell her i said Happy Birthday Please!  that would be great. soo yeahh..i don't really have anything else.. i don't really have any big news, other than i've never been so happy for a day that is 42 degrees. haha i'm out here in a T-shirt it feels so nice!!!! new york has changed me. i hope everything is going super good with you guys. I miss you all so much. tell everyone i said hi, and let people know my address ! Los quiero y extrano muchisimo. cuidense!!

Zazzy

I love to be back in NY!!!

 I love being back! My Ward is awesome. we are Concourse ward. lots of dominicans. 

mostly dominicans actually.. in my side of the bronx, there are 2 spanish wards and 1 

english ward. its kinda funny! Elder Vasquez is so cool tho.

 

.WE'VE HAVE BEEN WORKING SO HARD!!

we have 3 people who we think are ready to be committed to baptism.. so 

next time we see them we are definitely gonna be inviting them. but yeah. Elder 

vasquez is from Mexico! so we're two mexicans, we both speak fluent spanish, and 

everyone in the ward loves us haha he's 26, almost 27. so he has a little bit more of 

life experience than i do.. and his spanish is better than mine because he came here 

when he was a teenager.. but we get along super good and have been working super 

hard! it's the first time on my mission where we've been too busy to knock doors.. 

we just have a ton of appointments! we hope to keep it this way.. 

i have to tell you guys that i am so lucky to be in THIS mission. You guys know what 

preach my gospel is right? our book that helps us know what to teach and how to teach 

it? well the guy who wrote preach my gospel came to our mission and trained us on 

how to be better missionaries and all this other stuff and it was INCREDIBLE. 2 out of the 

3 guys who run the missionary department were there helping us.. that was why i couldn't 

email on wednesday, because my zone got the training on that day so we had to change 

our p.day! and then yesterday all of the zone leaders in the mission got to come and receive 

the training along with some other missionaries, and i got chosen to go again.. so i got 2 

full days of training.. and what they showed us was so simple but so powerful and just 

changed the way of thinking for all of us who were there.. so the night after the first 

training, our zone committed 7 people to get baptized.. in one night. 7! thats a lot! at 

least for our mission/area. and the next day we got two more.. and i think by next week 

me and elder vasquez will add another 3.. we are praying! but it was amazing. the head 

of the missionary department right now was actually the mission president in mesa, so i 

talked to him a little while about our stake and stuff.. it was cool! but yeah.. i'm doing 

so good haha working hard.. loving my ward. and dad, you going out with the missionaries 

is paying off because now i have someone coming with us to almost every single 

appointment! so thank you ha ohhhh also, my area is super small compared to my last 

one, but it's awesome. and yankee stadium is literally like 2 blocks from my apartment.. 

so if i walk down the street i can see it.. pretty cool right? so yeah. i don't know what 

else to say haha I love you guys so much.