Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Week 3 NYNYS
This week was very
busy being Christmas and all! My Christmas was great! The four of us Elders in
the pad got all of our studying done then immediately opened all the presents we
were sent. I am very thankful for those who sent cards and gifts. It means a
lot to me to have your love and support. After we ate lots of goodies and such,
we made our way down to the Lorimer G subway and played some carols. We sounded
so good because of the acoustics down in the tunnels! We had my violin and the
guitar with everyone else singing. We handed out pass along cards. We
definitely made many people's Christmas much more enjoyable. We ate a delicious
Christmas Dinner at a members home and played an awesome game call Killer
Bunnies. It is the funnest game ever! You all need to look it up. It is a fun
family game. Calling home was great and lots of memories and reflection went
on. I am so glad to be where I am now. This will be a Christmas I will always
remember.
Saturday, I had the awesome opportunity to go to the temple with a recent convert! It was a blast! It is so peaceful and quite inside. It was nice to get away from all the noise and commotion outside! Manhattan is so much nicer than Bushwick. It is clean, and even quieter (Manhattan is still pretty noisy too). And to make it all better it even started snowing a little bit!
Last Sunday, the missionaries all spoke. I shared how Christmas to me is all about music centered on Christ and how music soothes the aching soul just like Christ does for us through the Atonement. I also saw the power of music in a family we caroled to on Christmas Eve. There was a family that was having some issues with other family and they said their Christmas wasn't feeling so Christmasy. They were so thankful for us to bring that spirit of Christmas to them. One lady who spoke mostly Spanish was crying and I could see that their countenances were much lighter! I am so grateful for my violin and the musical abilities I have to invite others to come unto Christ through music.
I had an awesome experience Christmas Eve as well. We were going to some referrals and delivering Joy to the World DVDs and we really didn't find any knew investigators. I really wanted to talk with someone and share the spirit of Christmas with them. I was on the subway and just felt that I needed to get up and tell the whole subway car Merry Christmas and let them know that Jesus Christ loves them. It took me a long time to build up the courage to do that, but I know that if I didn't do it I would be very disappointed in myself. So before we got off, I got up and told the people who I was and wished them a Merry Christmas and that the Savior loves and understands them. It was really cool and I felt that my Heavenly Father was pleased with me for doing that. It was truly an awesome experience.
It was a pretty busy week with lots of caroling so there aren't too many unique stories this time. This week should be great, however. We are meeting with a few different people and I hope that the spirit will be present and we can help them progress and learn of the true nature of Christ. Teaching is so much fun and is so much better than tracting!
I am sorry this letter is pretty short today. I am crunched on time this P-Day. There is no greater gift that I could have been given then to be serving a mission here in New York. This will be a Christmas I will always remember!
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder Hooper
P.S. it snowing like crazy outside right now! It is my first time actually being in snow that is falling! I love it :D
Saturday, I had the awesome opportunity to go to the temple with a recent convert! It was a blast! It is so peaceful and quite inside. It was nice to get away from all the noise and commotion outside! Manhattan is so much nicer than Bushwick. It is clean, and even quieter (Manhattan is still pretty noisy too). And to make it all better it even started snowing a little bit!
Last Sunday, the missionaries all spoke. I shared how Christmas to me is all about music centered on Christ and how music soothes the aching soul just like Christ does for us through the Atonement. I also saw the power of music in a family we caroled to on Christmas Eve. There was a family that was having some issues with other family and they said their Christmas wasn't feeling so Christmasy. They were so thankful for us to bring that spirit of Christmas to them. One lady who spoke mostly Spanish was crying and I could see that their countenances were much lighter! I am so grateful for my violin and the musical abilities I have to invite others to come unto Christ through music.
I had an awesome experience Christmas Eve as well. We were going to some referrals and delivering Joy to the World DVDs and we really didn't find any knew investigators. I really wanted to talk with someone and share the spirit of Christmas with them. I was on the subway and just felt that I needed to get up and tell the whole subway car Merry Christmas and let them know that Jesus Christ loves them. It took me a long time to build up the courage to do that, but I know that if I didn't do it I would be very disappointed in myself. So before we got off, I got up and told the people who I was and wished them a Merry Christmas and that the Savior loves and understands them. It was really cool and I felt that my Heavenly Father was pleased with me for doing that. It was truly an awesome experience.
It was a pretty busy week with lots of caroling so there aren't too many unique stories this time. This week should be great, however. We are meeting with a few different people and I hope that the spirit will be present and we can help them progress and learn of the true nature of Christ. Teaching is so much fun and is so much better than tracting!
I am sorry this letter is pretty short today. I am crunched on time this P-Day. There is no greater gift that I could have been given then to be serving a mission here in New York. This will be a Christmas I will always remember!
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder Hooper
P.S. it snowing like crazy outside right now! It is my first time actually being in snow that is falling! I love it :D
Monday, December 17, 2012
Week 3 in Bushwick!
I am doing great! I sure love my mission and everything
about it! It is getting colder each day and more wet. I have been wearing lots
of layers and have been nice and warm. We are still trying to find people to
teach. We have a lot of good potential investigators, just finding a time to
meet with people out here is difficult. We have been caroling a lot again and
have been to a few Christmas parties and block parties this week, so our
missionary efforts have slowed down a little this week. We went to a party in Broadchannel
where the missionaries spent 5 weeks cleaning up the neighborhoods. The people
of this town were so grateful for our help. One lady was crying as she was
thanking us. Everyone loves the Mormons in this area and treats us like
royalty! I really can't wait for this area to be open for proselyting. Serving
other people is so important! Lives were changed out here because of the
selfless act of members and missionaries forgetting themselves and loving the
Lord and the people over their needs.
The NYNYS Mission has a goal to bring 1 New Investigator to
church a week. That will be a tough goal to meet, but I am excited for this
because it makes us missionaries work even harder out here. With this mission
goal, our District has set a goal to have 6 baptisms. I feel that is something
that is definitely attainable. I feel that my companion and I may be able to
have 3 baptisms soon. Elder McDonald and I have been praying and studying for
our investigators and have had some true inspiration about what we should
teach. I am so excited to teach them and bring the atonement and
the gospel into these people's lives. I also will be going to the temple
with a recent convert on Saturday!! I am way excited!
I am learning so much out here! I am increasing my understanding
of the gospel and am learning more about myself as I study and help other
people. I love my mission. So, now for this weeks funny stories!
First off, I got shot in the head on the subway the other
day. This scary looking guy dressed in heavy clothes and covered in sweat was
begging for money from people. He put his hat next to me trying to get me
to put some money in and I told him that I didn't have any. He then took his
hand, shaped it like a gun and put it next to my head and said BANG! It seriously
scared me to death! We were teaching a lady who is from Turkey and doesn't
speak the best English and we were teaching her about Christmas. We were saying
that Christ was born in a manger. She didn't know what that was and we were
saying how it was place where animals were kept like sheep. She thought we were
talking about a ship (sheep sounded like ship to her). Then she was like oh you
mean a Noof! So we said yes a Noof. Later we checked her understanding of what
was being taught and found out that Noof is actually Noah in her language and
she thought that Jesus was born on a boat! It was soooo funny! were cracking
up.
We had a cool experience on the subway again. A man named
Michael asked us for a bible. He was referring to the Book of Mormon and we gave
him a copy. He was saying how he wants to meet with the missionaries so bad and
really needs God in his life. Unfortunately he is not in our area but isn't too
far away. We gave him to some other missionaries to teach. Last night, we met
an older woman who grew up Catholic. She first opened the door and knew exactly
who we were because she read about missionaries recently. She has cancer and is
really starting to lose faith in Christ and is getting upset since she has
lived her religion to the best she could and doesn't understand why God would
do this to her. She is such a great lady! I felt the spirit guide our
conversation. I felt how much God loved her. She wasn't quite ready to hear our
message, but I feel that the Lord is preparing her to hear us in the near
future.
That is week 3! I wish I could write more, but we
are going to see the Brooklyn Bridge and eat at world famous NY
pizza restaurant. I sure love New York and wouldn't want to be
anywhere else. I got a package from the ward loved all the letters! Thank you
to all who wrote to me! Merry Christmas everyone!
Love,
Elder Hooper
This is my District minus Elder
Finlinson, and with Brother Frandsen, a member of the Branch Presidency. We are
all in purple ties in honor of feminist mormons haha! My companion and
I met with the Frandsens for dinner and was saying how some women in the
church were going to wear pants and men would wear purple ties for feminists in
the church. We all decided to wear purple for fun :).
This my districts
Christmas picture in our wonderful not mission approved sweaters!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Hey Everyone,
I am officially in New York, currently in the Brooklyn Public Library writing this email! All my flights went smoothly and I arrived safely! Once we arrived The Assistants to the President and President and Sister Calderwood greeted us. They are all really cool people and made us feel very welcomed. They drove us straight to an apartment building and took us too the 9th floor then to the roof where we could look out over our entire mission. I had a lot of spiritual impressions thinking of the people I will be serving here. I felt God's strong love for them and wanted to help them understand the true nature of God and the Savior. It was truly a beautiful sight. We had an awesome view of Manhattan and all of Queens and Brooklyn. I also met with President Calderwood briefly and we discussed why I wanted to be here and such and just to get to know me. We stayed the night in the mission home that night and had a quick fireside (they had me play my violin too). I was getting very anxious to know where I would serve and who my trainer would be.
So the next morning we were taken to the mission office and we had a quick orientation and then we met our trainers and found out where our assignment to serve was! My companion is Elder McDonald. He has been here for 5 months and is a really cool guy. We seem to get along very well and he works very hard. He is doing a great job training me. This transfer, I am serving in Bushwick in Brooklyn. My companion and I focus on an area called Williamsburg. It is a litte ghettoish but I love it! There are buildings everywhere and people too! I love the subways and other public transportation. We use the subways a lot. They are so efficient! The area is quite filthy. Trash is everywhere. My apartment is pretty nice. Really small however. Its about the length of the living room/piano room in my house back home and the width cut in half. Its really long and skinny, but its perfect for what we need.
The weather is fun. Its like super cold every other day and its been rainy all week. When it rains its like a mist- this constant wave of mist just hitting you. It is very humid too! I am used to putting my clothes in the drier and putting the temperature on low and having all my stuff dry in like 10 minutes. Here, if you dont crank the temperature up to high and leave it in for atleast 20min, it wont dry. Nothing dries haha. We do our laundry at a laundromat a block a way.
Anyway, tracting is basically all we do here. We walk the streets and ring all the buzzers at every apartment building and hope that someone will let us is. Most people reject us. My very first door that I knocked on on my first day, this really tall hairy man with some short shorts opens the door, looks at us, and says "I am a satanist" and slammed the door in my face! It was actually pretty comical! Another lady started walking down the stairs and screamed "There are some guys in white shirts and ties. I don't know them!' and ran back up to her apartment haha! Having the door slammed is something that I am already getting used to, but no big deal. President Calderwood said something very profound that helped me deal with these rejections. He said that these people are not rejecting me. They don't even know who I am. They aren't rejecting me, they are rejecting the Savior. The past few days have been a little rough for me thinking about this. I want to share the message that we have because I know that it can bring peace abnd happiness in the lives of the people here! They need it! Some people say they are Christian have very strong relationships with God. They just don't understand that these relationships people say they have can be so much better if they would simply here our message. It has made me really sad to see these people reject the Savior. I so desperately want to share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with these people.
I have seen the spirit work through me in many ways that I have never before seen. It prompts me to say what a specific person needs to hear. It bears testimony of Savior when I bear my testimony to other people (this is what is so hard because there are times where I know the person at the door is feeling the spirit, yet they still reject you). In planning sessions I have come to understand our investigators who I haven't even met yet! It is incredible and I am so thankful for these blessings I am receiving, and that the Lord trusts me enough to allow me to have these promptings. My hour of personal studya nd my 2 hours of companionshop study are the key to success everday. As I prepare myself spiritually, I am able to overcome my personal weaknesses and most importantly, receive revelation for those I teach. Study the scriptures!
We have a few people we are teaching, but arranging times to meet is difficult because everyone here is super busy! I have only taught in two lessons so far, but we are hoping to find some new investigators tonight and throughout the weeks. One of our Recent Converts, Floretta, just got her temple recommend and wants my companion and I to go with her! I wasn't one of the missionaries that taught her but I still get to go to the temple. I'm really lucky. That will probably happen later this week.
I have used my violin a lot out here! My first two days, my district and I went caroling on a street corner and they sang while I played my violin. It was pretty successful. There was few people that stopped and clapped (that is really rare for people out here). The next time we went was with our whole zone and we sang in the subway cars and I played my violin again too. This time it was tricky because of bumpy ride on the subway, but I manage to keep my violin in one piece. This time was also very successful. They went again with out my companion and I and they said it was lame because nobody really listened haha. They missed the violin. We do basically everything we can to get the public familiar with us missionaries and what we do everyday.
Last Saturday I had the chance to do some Hurricane Sandy clean up. We cleaned out a hoarders house. It took all day long. This was out in Broadchannel. This area was hit hard and was a mess. The people here were very nice to all of us because the missionaries have been down there for 5 weeks straight working. We were fed and taken care of by the neighbors. It was hard to see the destruction of the hurricane. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but the clean up is basically over.
Serving in this area is really tough and exhausting, but I love it. I am looking forward to what this next week has instore for me! I hope I covered everything I wanted to in this email!
My address currently is:This address will be good for about 6 weeks
Elder Jonathan Hooper
243 Harman St. Apt. 3L
Brooklyn, NY 11237
This address is the mission office and what ever mail is sent here will be forwarded to me (send any packages here):
Elder Jonathan Hooper
85 - 69 60th Dr.
Elmhurst, NY 11373-5547
I hope to hear from you all soon. Mail is so uplifting and the end of a really tough day!
Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Hooper
I am officially in New York, currently in the Brooklyn Public Library writing this email! All my flights went smoothly and I arrived safely! Once we arrived The Assistants to the President and President and Sister Calderwood greeted us. They are all really cool people and made us feel very welcomed. They drove us straight to an apartment building and took us too the 9th floor then to the roof where we could look out over our entire mission. I had a lot of spiritual impressions thinking of the people I will be serving here. I felt God's strong love for them and wanted to help them understand the true nature of God and the Savior. It was truly a beautiful sight. We had an awesome view of Manhattan and all of Queens and Brooklyn. I also met with President Calderwood briefly and we discussed why I wanted to be here and such and just to get to know me. We stayed the night in the mission home that night and had a quick fireside (they had me play my violin too). I was getting very anxious to know where I would serve and who my trainer would be.
So the next morning we were taken to the mission office and we had a quick orientation and then we met our trainers and found out where our assignment to serve was! My companion is Elder McDonald. He has been here for 5 months and is a really cool guy. We seem to get along very well and he works very hard. He is doing a great job training me. This transfer, I am serving in Bushwick in Brooklyn. My companion and I focus on an area called Williamsburg. It is a litte ghettoish but I love it! There are buildings everywhere and people too! I love the subways and other public transportation. We use the subways a lot. They are so efficient! The area is quite filthy. Trash is everywhere. My apartment is pretty nice. Really small however. Its about the length of the living room/piano room in my house back home and the width cut in half. Its really long and skinny, but its perfect for what we need.
The weather is fun. Its like super cold every other day and its been rainy all week. When it rains its like a mist- this constant wave of mist just hitting you. It is very humid too! I am used to putting my clothes in the drier and putting the temperature on low and having all my stuff dry in like 10 minutes. Here, if you dont crank the temperature up to high and leave it in for atleast 20min, it wont dry. Nothing dries haha. We do our laundry at a laundromat a block a way.
Anyway, tracting is basically all we do here. We walk the streets and ring all the buzzers at every apartment building and hope that someone will let us is. Most people reject us. My very first door that I knocked on on my first day, this really tall hairy man with some short shorts opens the door, looks at us, and says "I am a satanist" and slammed the door in my face! It was actually pretty comical! Another lady started walking down the stairs and screamed "There are some guys in white shirts and ties. I don't know them!' and ran back up to her apartment haha! Having the door slammed is something that I am already getting used to, but no big deal. President Calderwood said something very profound that helped me deal with these rejections. He said that these people are not rejecting me. They don't even know who I am. They aren't rejecting me, they are rejecting the Savior. The past few days have been a little rough for me thinking about this. I want to share the message that we have because I know that it can bring peace abnd happiness in the lives of the people here! They need it! Some people say they are Christian have very strong relationships with God. They just don't understand that these relationships people say they have can be so much better if they would simply here our message. It has made me really sad to see these people reject the Savior. I so desperately want to share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with these people.
I have seen the spirit work through me in many ways that I have never before seen. It prompts me to say what a specific person needs to hear. It bears testimony of Savior when I bear my testimony to other people (this is what is so hard because there are times where I know the person at the door is feeling the spirit, yet they still reject you). In planning sessions I have come to understand our investigators who I haven't even met yet! It is incredible and I am so thankful for these blessings I am receiving, and that the Lord trusts me enough to allow me to have these promptings. My hour of personal studya nd my 2 hours of companionshop study are the key to success everday. As I prepare myself spiritually, I am able to overcome my personal weaknesses and most importantly, receive revelation for those I teach. Study the scriptures!
We have a few people we are teaching, but arranging times to meet is difficult because everyone here is super busy! I have only taught in two lessons so far, but we are hoping to find some new investigators tonight and throughout the weeks. One of our Recent Converts, Floretta, just got her temple recommend and wants my companion and I to go with her! I wasn't one of the missionaries that taught her but I still get to go to the temple. I'm really lucky. That will probably happen later this week.
I have used my violin a lot out here! My first two days, my district and I went caroling on a street corner and they sang while I played my violin. It was pretty successful. There was few people that stopped and clapped (that is really rare for people out here). The next time we went was with our whole zone and we sang in the subway cars and I played my violin again too. This time it was tricky because of bumpy ride on the subway, but I manage to keep my violin in one piece. This time was also very successful. They went again with out my companion and I and they said it was lame because nobody really listened haha. They missed the violin. We do basically everything we can to get the public familiar with us missionaries and what we do everyday.
Last Saturday I had the chance to do some Hurricane Sandy clean up. We cleaned out a hoarders house. It took all day long. This was out in Broadchannel. This area was hit hard and was a mess. The people here were very nice to all of us because the missionaries have been down there for 5 weeks straight working. We were fed and taken care of by the neighbors. It was hard to see the destruction of the hurricane. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but the clean up is basically over.
Serving in this area is really tough and exhausting, but I love it. I am looking forward to what this next week has instore for me! I hope I covered everything I wanted to in this email!
My address currently is:This address will be good for about 6 weeks
Elder Jonathan Hooper
243 Harman St. Apt. 3L
Brooklyn, NY 11237
This address is the mission office and what ever mail is sent here will be forwarded to me (send any packages here):
Elder Jonathan Hooper
85 - 69 60th Dr.
Elmhurst, NY 11373-5547
I hope to hear from you all soon. Mail is so uplifting and the end of a really tough day!
Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Hooper
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