Week 62, 7 months-Bushwick, 7 months-Staten, ? months-??

So funny story first. Immediately after getting on the Statue of Liberty ferry, I went quickly to the bathroom and went upstairs to join everyone else. This guy gives me a weird look and then is like "hey, come here". I come and then he beckons me to come closer to whisper to me, so I do. He says "check your zip". I was just like, oh my gosh thank you! It was funny. The sisters were like what was he saying and I just said oh nothing and then when they looked away I zipped up my zipper hahaha. The Statue of Liberty was a lot of fun. We weren't able to go to Ellis Island, due to time issues. Manhattan is so nice.

So today we went to the TEMPLE with Donald! It was a blast! The Novaks graciously drove us. It was just great to be inside the temple. Elder Legere baptized him like 25 times! He was baptized for family names so then we confirmed them immediately afterwards. He was freezing and shaking. I felt so bad for him. Then one of the most precious experiences I have had was when Elder Legere and I were able to baptized each other! I just felt the spirit and was so happy I almost couldn't even talk because I was just like, dude this is so cool. I felt that the Lord was pleased with our efforts. When we were changing, Donald was talking about how he was feeling and he said "I just can't describe how I feel" and the did his little oooohh sound. It was wonderful. I knew the Lord was pleased.

So, I am getting transferred! I will know where I will be going on Tuesday. I have also been called to be a Zone Leader. I am really excited for this opportunity to learn and also to help the other missionaries in my zone in this capacity. It is going to be great. I am also excited to see a new area as well. I will miss Staten Island so much. I really love the ward members, Donald, especially all the Sri Lankans and Bishop Glick's family. I love it here, but I have been having many impressions in the last few weeks that this was coming so I was prepared!

So we have had a few miracles lately. We seem to continue to find these unidentified less-active members :). We were looking up some Former Investigators and we saw a man names Rudolf. We called him and he was like I am still interested in having you guys over, come Friday. We went and a good lesson and then we said goodbye to his wife who was busy taking care of the baby and making dinner and she said, your church is on Rockland Ave right? Elder Legere and I were thinking, wait.. how do you know? She then said she was baptized in Ghana a few years ago and such! We were totally shocked. Hopefully we can unite this family in the Gospel! Eugene, a young man we have been teaching, has been thinking about baptism and he is praying about it! He is progressing quickly. I hope he will make the decision to be baptized. Elder Legere will take good care of him!

Well I am excited to be transferred. It will be bomb awesome!

Love,
Elder Hooper

Pics of my visit to The Statue of Liberty and Manhattan

 

 At the TEMPLE with Donald! It was a blast!