March 12, 2014.

Life is good. We had a pretty crazy week! Last Thursday was my birthday.. So that was cool. Friday our roommates went down to manhattan cuz one of them had to see a doctor.. When we came home at night we talked to them and it turned out that elder Sullivan, our roommate, was probably gonna have to go home because of some problems he has been having with his shoulder.. Pap patently it's cheaper to fly missionaries home, get an MRI in Utah, and fly them back than it it is to get an MRI in NY.. So we found that out Friday. Saturday was a bit of a normal day. Sunday I gave a talk in church! About member missionary work.. It was probably the most comfortable I've ever felt giving a talk. So I'd say it went pretty well. Then me and Elder Sullivan sang after I spoke. We sang a medley of Nearer my God to Thee, Be Still my Soul, and I Need Thee Every Hour. It went okay I suppose! Elder Sullivan is really good at singing. So that was Sunday. Monday during our district lunch We got a call saying elder Sullivan needed to be at the mission home by 4.. And it's an hour and a half away from here. So we were super rushed and we left.. So we dropped him off and said goodbye., it was really sad! It's always a weird feeling when a missionary goes home.. I really hope people don't give him grief about going home early, I hate when people do that!! So now that he's gone, I'm in a trio with Elder Encarnacion and Elder Rydalch, our other roommate. This is the second time I've been put in a trio because of someone going home! So yeah while we were down by the mission home we stopped by a members house who was in my last ward and it was so awesome to see that family- the Aguilar's! Mom, I think you and Hermana Aguilar would be good friends, I would always tell her that and I always wanted her to talk to you haha I was going to give her your number but I forgot to get it for her before I left her house.. Then Saturday we got to go down to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with out ward. It was nice to take a little break from the forest and feel the city again. 

So yeah. Crazy week. And we found out that elder Rydalch is leaving Monticello next week during transfers. Meaning that they will be bringing two new elders here just like they did with me and Encarnacion.. Haha there's just a lot going on. As for the work, things are still a little slow. Still trying to get things going. The people here really just struggle with a lot of things.. It's hard. But we are trying.

On a light note, it was 55 degrees yesterday! It was soooo nice, I had my sleeves rolled up, we were driving with the windows down, I was pumped! 

March 5, 2014.

This past week was pretty good. We are still just trying to find people to teach. We now have an investigator named Lisa! She's awesome. She's bilingual.. And probly one of the most normal people we've met here in Monticello haha she's been to church once.. Initially when we started teaching her she said she didn't know if she believed in God and all of this other stuff, but we've visited with her a few times and we've helped her realize she does Believe and that she does have faith.. She just has a lot of doubts as well! She's awesome tho, we love her. We are going to go see her today. I'm definitely pretty used to being here. Me and my companion still get along well. No problems! Everybody here is asking me if I think I'm going to finish my mission here. If I do, then.. There's nothing I can really do about it and I would be fine I suppose. But honestly I don't want to "die" here.. It's a decent place, but I feel like I belong in the city haha I want to serve in Harlem before I go home. Either that, or go back to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. I loved that area so much! A lot of people have asked president if they can go somewhere for their last transfer or two and some get their wish and others don't.. Some time next cycle I'm going to ask him if he can think about placing me in Harlem or maybe back in the Bronx. But we'll see. It could really go either way. 

On Facebook I've been see a few posts about MCC and how they're doing really good in basketball! I wish I could be there to witness it all. I think soon they're playing salt lake community college and if they beat them then they go to nationals.. Isn't that crazy?! It just makes me think of what I'm going to do.. I need to start figuring school out. I think I'm going to email my coach either today or next week and start talking to him about what the possibilities are for me to come back and play next year.. I really want to! But yeah I know MCC has already started enrolling, so I need to get on that fast! 

Also, do you guys remember Critchfield? Well, he's up in my zone.. So we worked it out to be able to go on a split! So we were on a split from Monday to Tuesday, it was dope! I love that kid. 

I'm doing well guys. Time is flying by as usual. I miss you all a lot, thank you for the birthday wishes. I hope you have a good week! One love! ❤️

Feb. 27, 2014.

Well. Not too much has happened this week. I'm getting pretty used to where I am. The work is starting to progress! We are definitely starting to see the fruits of our labors! I'm sorry I don't have too much time today.. We are going to a kickboxing gym today cuz one of the members in Middletown is a trainer.. So we get a free session today! Pretty cool right? Haha It should be fun. But thank you so much for your emails. They definitely help me out. You guys are awesome!! Have a good week :) 

Feb. 19 2014

things are going good. The weather here is the worst! We were snowed in three days last week. The roads have all been plowed so the sidewalks are all covered in snow. About four feet of it. So people just walk in the street because literally all the sidewalks are covered. And just a fun fact haha I haven't seen the pavement/asphalt of the church parking lot yet.. It's been covered in snow since I've been here. Isn't that messed up? Haha we were checking the weather from around the United States the other day, and Monticello was the coldest place we could find.. And Mesa was the hottest we found. So we are living in opposite weather. I hope you are all enjoying it! The ward is really warming up to us. Everyone is nice. The sad thing is still, we don't have any spanish members. But we have high hopes. We've been able to find quite a few people who speak spanish and who are willing to have us come back over, but the problem is that almost nobody out here has a car. At least out of the people that we have found.. So they have no way to get to church. A little discouraging, but we know if they want to come, they'll find a way. I'm glad you guys liked my Facebook post.. Being here I've really had some time to reflect and think about a lot of things. I'm still learning a lot of things.. I know I always will be. But we are trying really hard to maintain a positive attitude, and so far we are doing a pretty good job. It's definitely a hard place to be with our situation, but we are making the most out of it. Life is good. I love you all. We will be playing some basketball today, if you were wondering 🏀❤️🏀❤️🏀❤️🏀❤️🏀

Have a good week!

We gave our car a snowhawk

Monticello, NY Feb. 12, 2014.

I don't have TOO much time today, so I'm just gonna write one big email. I'll have people keep their eyes out for a package with my name on it.. Idk how long it takes for mail to get up here from the office.

So yeah. Monticello. I met up with my companion Elder Encarnacion last Thursday at Ossining and they gave us our phone and our car keys and sent us off haha we drive a 2013 Chevy cruze. White. It looks really dirty right now.  But things have been really good. We live in Monticello, which is a tiny town. But our area is HUGE because we cover all of the surrounding towns.. Me and my companion get along super good. He's been out on his mission for about 8 months, so I'm the senior companion. Since he's from the DR, we speak a lot of spanish together! It's good for me haha a lot of people told us Monticello was gonna be horrible but we've actually been having a really good time. Encarnacion loves to dance, and he's actually really good. And he is super good on the piano too. And he likes to rap, so we like to freestyle in the car on our way to stuff.. Even tho we are both really bad haha it's so weird for me to not be a zone leader. I feel different, but it's good. The only thing I don't really like is that we are so far away from everyone. 

Our branch is... Interesting. Haha there was about 30 people at church on Sunday. They say we usually get about 50. And church is in English. There is one spanish convert, who is moving to Florida at the end of the month, and one other lady who is from panama, who prefers English.. Other than that, me and my companion are the only ones who speak spanish. We have translating equipment, the kind we have at home to translate stake conference, and we have to translate sacrament meeting. Since nobody in the congregation needs a headset, elder Encarnacion and I just translated to each other haha it was really funny. We are hoping that soon we can have people in sacrament who will need a headset cuz that would mean we have investigators at church!! 

We live in a decent sized apartment. It's not bad, but I'm used to the one I used to live in. There I had my own bathroom. Here there are four of us to just one. We live with elders Sullivan and Rydalch. Both English. They are crazy! We are always laughing at them.. But they are good guys. Also, Monticello is the coldest part of the mission.. This morning when we left to go to the gym, it was 1 degree outside. It's horrible. We have two sisters who are in our district/ward. We kinda all work together and help with each other's investigators. It's pretty cool. Like if we find a new investigator, we talk about them and then all together decide who the best companionship would be to teach them. Unless they speak spanish, then we automatically get them. Which we will need, because we are opening the spanish area, so when we got here there was no investigators or anything, so we are starting from scratch. But it's going good. Life is good. Sorry if I missed anything. Ask if I didn't cover something!

I live at

661 W. Broadway #7

Monticello, NY 12701

But it's better to send mail to the office. So yeah. Hope you all have a good, warm week. I love you guys!

I got transferred! February 5th, 2014.

Okayyyy guys 

You're probly wondering what's going down with transfers. Well. I was super surprised. I am getting transferred! I am getting released as a zone leader, I am leaving New Roc and am heading to a little town called Monticello.. Population is like 7 thousand haha it's supperrr far. Like a two hour drive from where I am right now.. I am going to be "white washing" which is what we say when we start a new area.. As in, the missionaries in the area right now are both leaving, and then me and my new companion will be replacing them.. So neither one of us will know the area at all. But from what I hear, there's nobody out there ha I will be serving in a branch up there.. I will be companions with elder Encarnacion, he's from the Dominican Republic, so I'm excited about that haha gotta get that Dominican accent back.. I'm really sad to leave tho. I love this area and this zone, and I thought for sure I was going to stay because elder mceachern was here before me, but President felt it was better to transfer me and leave him here. So yeah. It's rough. But we will see what the new area has to bring. We are supposed to have transfers today, but the weather is terrible right now and the roads are really dangerous so transfers were postponed until tomorrow. So yeah. That's what's going down with me ha other than that, I have no other news.. Things are going well tho. We all face challenges. Nike has the best advice ever.. Just do it! I am going to make my time up in Monticello a good one. It's literally the place in the mission where nobody wants to go, but I'm hoping to be able to change that. And I've been inspired to create a t shirt.. It's going to say JUANTICELLO.  But I might need some money for that haha maybe as a birthday present you can donate to the t shirt fund? And I'll have somebody create it out here online for me.. But yeah. Thank you all for the support and the love I feel from you. I miss you. I love you.

Oh and Sister Dalley, idk if you remember her from Christmas, says hi haha have a good week :)

Anddddd we made a huge snowman the other day.

January 29, 2014.

Ayeeee.

Dad.

Yeah. Weather is terrible. Haha but we are not confined right now.. It's just freezing outside! Like 15 degrees right now. I didn't know you had gotten that sick while you were on your mission! That sounds terrible.. I feel so blessed because I haven't even had one day where I didn't feel well enough to go out. I bet that was a Pretty big trial.. I've heard so many good things about the Gilbert temple! A lot of pictures on Facebook. I would like to see it haha it looks amazing. Haha yeah Alex boye was a totally random thing but it was super cool! Que es la comisión de Sonora-Arizona? Is that for isagenix? You should totttaallllyyyyy grab some candy on the way back.... Just an idea. A new counselor! Who do you think it will be? Aww Mann. No more juice box :( I loved that car. I still feel super bad for crashing it.. I remember you were really looking forward to be able to drive it.. Sorry again.. I'm not worried about the car situation, I have a longboard so if anything I can use that to get around! 

Madre.

I'm doing a lot better! I'm not coughing anymore. I'm sorry you are still sick! Have you gone to the doctor? You should. I know you would tell me to do that if I said I was sick. I can't believe the temple has 4 floors! The one here is 5, but only two of them are the temple.. El obispo garnica cuanto tiempo tiene como obispo? Crees qué lo van a relevar pronto? Yeahhh. Dad told me about the car. I'm  not upset. How much were you able to get for it? Haha I was wondering why I never got your card! I thought it might have been lost or something.. I'm glad you have it! 

The rest.

This week has gone by so fast! We didn't do a whole lot.. We had interviews this past Thursday. Mine was interesting. It's always good to talk to president, he always knows how to help and how to make us better! 

The work has been a little slow. A few weeks ago we talked with our bishopric about how we need to get our members more involved with our online stuff, so they told us that on the 26th they would give us (the missionaries) the entire third hour of church to teach the members about what we do on Facebook and how they could help us. So then this Sunday we were all ready with our training and everything and we were excited to get this stuff going.. But the bishopric forgot to tell everyone in the ward and in the auxiliaries soooo we didn't get to do it. And now we don't know when we will be able to. Super lame. Our ward struggles a little bit with stuff like that. 

I can't believe I officially have less than 6 months left. It's unreal. My 18 month mark was actually on the same day as one of our sister missionaries, so we kinda celebrated together. We went to the Aguilar's (whom I love more than anyone out here)  house for dinner. She made posole :) it was pretty good! But it sucks cuz I just compare everyone's food to mom's and in my head I always think.. Mom's is better... But I still enjoyed it haha and also I officially started what the missionaries out here call 6 months to sexy.. Meaning the last 6 months is the time we work out super hard so that by the time we get home we are looking prime !  

Transfers are also next week. Either one of us could go, but elder mceachern will probably leave. We know for sure we won't be together, so this time next week I will have a new companion! I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure it will be fine. It's crazy to think that after next week I will only have four transfers left... It's that time! But anyway, today is the birthday of one of the sisters in our zone, so we are kinda throwing her a party today! It should be fun! I love you guys. Mom, get better please. And everyone else- take care of her. :)  have a good week!

I don't know if you guys have seen the original picture, but one of the sisters here drew me this version. It's my three favorite things. Me as a missionary, me as a basketball player, and me eating chicken wings.