Nov. 6, 2013.

New Haircut!

today, we are planning on going to sleepy hollow, since we didn't get to go when we carved the pumpkins.. so we're gonna make sure we get there early! it should be cool. other than that i think we're gonna go "shopping".. elder McEachern -pronounced "Mc-ECK-ern" - needs some sweaters, and i'm going to try to find a shoulder bag..

now in regards to ipads. on monday, we stopped by the mission office to pick up some stuff for our apartment, and we ran into the AP's and the Mission President there. long story short, they told us they had some good news for us, and told us to come back the next day. so yesterday we went back to the office for a conference call with our mission president, the assistants, and some guy from salt lake, who was telling us how to use our ipads. haha sooo yeah, as of yesterday, me and my companion have ipads! and we are actually the only missionaries in our mission, aside from the AP's who have them. we don't know why they decided to give them to us early, but we got them. they rest of the mission will be getting them next thursday and friday. and yes dad, the area book and our daily planners are in there, along with the list of our ward members and all of their callings. ITS AWESOME! its gonna be such a big help.. it's gonna take some time getting used to using them since we're used to having everything on paper.. so right now it's taking quite a bit of time to input everything that we need, but i'm sure things will speed up once we get used to them. i'm lovin' it haha it's super weird having one... and since you're probly wondering, the church has these on lock down ha we can't just browse the internet or download whatever we want. theres a filter and things so that if someone tries to do something that we're not supposed to it will either prevent it from happening or it will send a report to salt lake and they'll forward it to the mission president. we're being watched very closely haha which is good, cuz who knows what people would try to do. so yeah, that's the big news of the week :) pretty exciting stuff!!

the picture is of us on halloween!

Oct. 30, 2013

i'm sorry this message is so short, we don't have a lot of time today! we are going down to manhattan and it takes a lot longer to get there from here than when i was in the bronx.. maybe we'll have time later today to email and if we do i will send pictures!

but yeah, yesterday i got my haircut by Sister johnson, who went to westwood! she's family with some people in our stake, so that was awesome being able to talk to her because we know a lot of the same people.. and it was a free haircut! who sent you the picture? this weekend is gonna be cool.. on friday we have the mission leadership council which is with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in our mission, and usually they are awesome already, but this one we are combining the council to be with all of the leaders from the ny-ny south mission! so i'm pretty pumped about that. well guys, i love you all. i hope you have a good week! sorry again, we are just short of time today!

Oct. 23, 2013.

Outras coisas (other things)

things are going well. we are SUPER busy all the time. but mostly with doing things for the missionaries in our zone. we have been doing a lot of thinking and planning in regards to how we are going to help all of the missionaries in our zone go in the direction that will benefit us as a whole. it's been great. yesterday we had zone conference which is when multiple zones in the mission get together.. so our zone got put with the 2 bronx zones.. so i got to see all my homies :) it was nice! our whole mission is officially approved to use facebook.. so now everybody in the mission will be using it. crazy! and they also announced that we will have our ipads and our iphones within a month. i'm pumped. out here for P-day we kinda just do whatever comes up. one day we played volleyball/basketball.. one day we just played pool in the top room of our apartment building.. today we are having our zone activity. we will be having a pumpkin carving contest and then we are going to the cemetary in sleepy hollow to go find the headless horseman. or something like that. so yeah. me and McEachern went and bought 13 pumpkins this morning. it's gonna be a party :) next week i think we are going down to the city. i really wanna go to central park to see all the trees with the different color leaves. so yeah guys, i'm having a good time :) i hope you all are too! Love you, miss you and all that good stuff. I'm out!

Oct. 16, 2013.

this past week was pretty great. we got a new investigator who is SO ready to be baptized. we've had two lessons with him in the past week and we are going back to meet him tomorrow and our 2 visits that we've had with him have been truly amazing. he's surprised us both times with his desire and his understanding of what we teach him.. we are planning to have him baptism in the beginning of november.. we have faith that we can help him do that :) i'm really liking it here. although its not the city or the bronx, which is where all my peoples be, i'm having a lot of fun. i've made some good friends in the zone. we are living quite comfortable in our apartment. the weather is pretty nice still, and all the trees are starting to change color which is amazing! and i'm not too worried about staying in shape because we wake up early everyday to exercise! 3 days a week we work out in our gym and the other 3 days we go play basketball. so i'm pretty happy about that! i think about basketball a lot.. like a lot. frustating at times. hopeful at others. but. we'll see what happens. things are all good here :) today we are just gonna hang out at our apt and play pool and just chill with some of the other missionaries. it should be nice :) i hope you all have a blessed week. Love you all!

Oct. 9, 2013

Hey!

yeah, i'm doing good! i like the new area.. its definitely different than the bronx!! but its not bad. i'm still getting used to being in a car.. i haven't really been able to meet a lot of members yet because we had general conference this weekend so we didn't go to church.. so i saw no members haha we've had a few dinners so that's been nice. its so weird not having dominicans around. those are my peeps!!! me and my companion get along really well! he swam at byu.. so he's legit. and he likes playing other sports too so some days we wake up early and go play ball at the church with some of the other missionaries.. its nice :) yeah.. there's no way i'll be able to go pick up the package.. and i don't know where west street is, so i can't even call other missionaries to have them pick it up for me :/ i think she's just going to have to re-send it.. sorry!aqui espero a el paquete que mandaste!

i'm glad you guys are having fun with Beto and Maricruz. tell them i said i hello and that i love them!! i didn't get an email from dad.. i dont know if he sent one? but tell him i say hi :) haha

today we are gonna go play volleyball and i think we have some good volleyball players in our zone so i think it'll be fun.. and we are gonna go get some groceries cuz we have NO food in our apartment right now. so we've been a little hungry the past few days. but it's okay. things are going well :) i'm happy. and i hope you all are happy :)

I got transferred!

i'm just gonna do one big email today if thats okay. as you obviously know. today, is thursday. yesterday was wednesday. and it was transfers. haha Last week was good. we didn't do a whole lot because we were busy moving things into the old apartment, and we just visited a lot of members so that i could say bye to all of them. yup, i got transferred!! could you imagine if me and portillo would have done 4 transfers together? thats 6 months!! a quarter of my mission.. but yeah, it was time for me to go. I got sent back upstate! butttt not really. i'm finally out of the bronx after a year in total of serving there. i'm now a Zone Leader in the Westchester zone of our mission. the areas that the zone covers are white plains, sleepy hollow, new rochelle, portchester, mount vernon, and a bunch of others that i don't know yet cuz i've only been here for a day. My new companion is Elder Mceachern. he's dope! we actually got to the mission field on the same day, so i've known him for a while and now i have the opportunity to serve with him! and, we are spanish speaking :)) yayy! we ARE in a car. which is a blessing. and a burden, healthwise. but it will be okay. we live in a SUPER nice apartment. which missionaries haven't lived in before.  on the 26th floor. with a dope view of our city and of manhattan. we have carpet. and two bathrooms. and this time it's only me and my companion. so i have my own bathroom haha its ridiculous. annnnd we have a gym in the basement. which is free. and we have a washer and dryer in our apartment so i will be saving like 20 bucks a month not having to pay for laundry.. and on the top floor of our building we have whats called an "amenities" room. which has a pool table and an air hockey table which are 100% accessable for us. so, its safe to say i can't complain about where i live.  i will make a video soon so you guys can see. its definitely bitter-sweet being transferred. i love the bronx, its my hood! and i made a lot of good friends there- members and missionaries alike. a few of the members found out i was leaving and they bought me stuff and made me cards and all that jazz. i was definitely feelin the love! one of them even took us out to red lobster on tuesday. it was soooo good. so good. so i am definitely gonna miss being in the city, but i know this is where i need to be now. i'm pretty excited. our chapel has 2 hoops in it, which my last one didn't. and i hear we can play basketball a lot. so i'm excited because i haven't played in close to 6 months. and thats not okay. but yeah. it will be good. i'm just excited to be speaking spanish, and i'm excited that although i'm not in the city, i'm not in the middle of some forest like i was when i was in connecticut haha but yeah guys i'm doing very good :)

dad, i would like some coyotas if you feel inclined to send some :) and mom, sounds good about the money. the reason i had 40 dollars left and not the 60 you put in was because we had some unexpected things we had to pay for, but i will be able to get some of that money back. i'm still planning on buying the bag! i hope you guys are doing good :) there's nothing else for me to really update cuz the BX is old news, and i don't know anything about here. soo yeah.  here's my address tho:

Zazzy

40 Memorial Highway #26E

New Rochelle, NY 10801

you know what to do with that :)

haha have a good week- I Love you guys!

14 Months!

14 Months serving the Lord!

Not a whole lot of things going on. we've been working hard. trying to teach. trying to save. we've been working a lot with the other members of our zone to help them have a baptism in september.. as a zone, we are going to have 5 baptisms this weekend. its awesome!!! so i'd say things are going well. on monday, Elder Bruce A Carlson of the 2nd quorum of the 70 came to speak to the mission. it was awesome. he gave us a lot of insight on how we should measure success. and how we should measure ourselves. and it was super cool, because before the conference started, all the zone leaders got to go into a meeting with him and the mission president so he could talk to us as leaders. and then we got to go in again to talk to him as the leaders of the mission. i loved it. something interesting that he said was that they don't send us on missions to baptize everyone.. they send us on missions to mold us into worthy disciples of Christ, and to help us develop habits that will make us good fathers/husbands/mothers/wives. and that the baptizing is what comes along with it. i had thought about that before, but i had it the other way around. but that was the first time i've heard a general authority say it. but it was a really cool experience. being a leader in the mission definitely has it's perks! today, we are going to the zoo as a zone because its our last p-day before transfers. so it should be fun, i hope. i love you all. everyone, be healthy. be smart. look both ways before you cross the street. time to go ! byeeee!