Happy Veterans day! I hope everyone has had a good week! the Staten Island 1st Ward had their first Blood Drive this Saturday. We collected a total of 18 pints of blood. It is not as much as we were hoping for, but it was fun! We actually had more donors who were not members of our congregation which was great. I wish we would have had the chance to pass out more fliers in the neighborhoods around the church instead of just the neighborhood behind the church. We also had some great gospel discussions with some of the nurses that were drawing blood and gave out a Book of Mormon.
The work in Staten Island is hastening!! There are just so many changes happening in the mission and the missionaries. We all feel it and so do the members. The members in our ward are just fired up and working with us so well! They sign up on our teaching calendar to come out with us and it is such a blessing to us and the people we teach. We love the Staten Island 1st Ward! Elder Legere is just the coolest guy ever as well. We are so much alike in every way. We often find ourselves quoting each other and saying the same things at the same time. So we are teaching lots and having tons of fun! Life is good!
We went to the temple with our ward on Tuesday which was a blast! It was so much fun. There is nothing like leaving the craziness of NY and going to the temple. The coolest part of this journey however, was meeting a deaf man at the ferry in Manhattan on our way back to SI. I was just standing there looking around for someone to talk to and I saw this one man sitting on a bench wearing a SF Giants t-shirt. Thinking that he was a baseball fan, I approached him to ask him who won the final game of the World Series. He looked at me and just put his finger in his ear and shook his head. I immediately just like jumped for joy as I have been looking forever to talk to a deaf person! When I told him I knew sign-language he also got really excited. We had the coolest conversation ever. He kept asking me if I was embarrassed to talk to him while all these people around us were staring. I told him I really don't care, but am so excited to be talking with you. It really made him happy. He said that he was sitting there, just pondering on what he should do with his life. We talked about God a little bit and I told him that no matter what, God always understands him and will communicate with him no matter what his language was. It was a joyous moment for both of us.
Well, in three days I will have been on my mission for 1 year! I am so blessed to be in New York serving as a representative of Jesus Christ. I love it here and there is no other place that I would rather be right now. Something that I have learned this week is how powerful daily scriptures study is in our lives. Elder Legere and I did not have a chance to study almost all week last week and boy did we feel it. We just couldn't think straight, remember our goals, etc. I personally just felt unprepared. We finally had the chance to study this morning and now I feel so much more focused and have peace of mind. DON'T forget to study the scriptures daily!
Donald and Korcan are still progressing and are doing great! i love them a ton! I have to get going now. Time to play some ultimate Frisbee!
Love,
Elder Hooper
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