Richmond Chill

December 16, 2019

This week was an interesting one here in Richmond Hill! It seemed like every day our appointments got canceled at the last minute and we were left with no plans. Elder Stanford and I decided that New York only loves 3 things. Smoking weed, honking their horns, and wasting missionaries time. Somehow I am still happy all the time despite the inconveniences we endure. Something about the gospel really just makes you happy... who would've thought. Because our appointments kept getting canceled, we resorted to FINDING. We knocked doors, found people on subways, street contacted, all of the above. Only a handful of people we met were actually interested in our message, so we have only a few new people to teach. But we planted seeds in a lot of people and hopefully that'll grow into something when future missionaries contact them again. #NoEffortIsWasted

Also, Elder Stanford and I managed to get shifts to work at the giving machines this Wednesday! I am so excited! I remember watching a video in seminary about the giving machines in New York City and thinking it was so cool, and this Wednesday I get to work at them! Its in Manhattan, right next to the Manhattan temple, and I am excited to be in that part of the city and spend the day there. If you don't know what the giving machines are, I will attach a link to a video about them at the bottom of this email! We assumed we wouldn't get a shift to work at them since we are in Queens, but we decided to follow the teachings of Doctrine and Covenants 66:6, which says, "for inasmuch as ye can send, send". So we sent Sister Teuscher a message and asked her directly if we can somehow get a shift. She pulled a few strings for us, and we got it! As far as I know, we are the only missionaries in Queens who get to travel to Manhattan to volunteer at the giving machines.

I love snow, and I love walking. Lucky for me, I get to experience both at the same time. Haha, I think it snowed or rained every day this week, which I would normally love, but when you're outside all day it gets pretty wet and cold. But its okay, life is good and its all worth it when you see people start to find happiness through the things you teach them. Speaking of happiness, last week an Indian lady named Mohan saw us on the street and wanted to feed us! Obviously we accepted her offer. We showed up to her house on Saturday and it turns out SHE IS RICH. Her house was huge, especially for New York. She had a marble staircase and big glass chandeliers. She fed us super good Indian food, and offered us $50 as a Christmas present. We declined, gratefully, because we don't accept money for what we do. She continued being persistent, and so did we. She told us she wouldn't let us leave until we took her money. Nevertheless, we left $50 richer. But we felt weird spending that money on ourselves because we aren't really supposed to accept money from people, so we did some service by buying pizza for a bunch of other missionaries to enjoy, because its Christmas time. #LightTheWorldWithPizza

I realized I haven't really talked about my companion, Elder Stanford very much yet. He is from San Francisco California and he is honestly like the ideal companion! He knows what he is doing and is fun to be around! We get along great and we don't have any problems. BUT, the hardest thing about being his companion is that he is kind of a vegetarian. He isn't a hardcore vegetarian, but... he makes broccoli as a snack. We eat A LOT of vegetables, and coming from a family that primarily eats meat, I am not used to it. But, its healthy for me so I can't complain too much!

It was a good week! Talk to you all next week, Merry Christmas!

Elder Webster

Here is a link to a short video about giving machines if you want to see what they are! Hopefully the link works...

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/one-drop-at-a-time-the-giving-machines/2019-09-0020-one-drop-at-a-time-the-giving-machines-lighttheworld-1080p-eng