Letter #47 - Week 49: Driving Me Yonkers (And New Rochelle Too)

August 26, 2019

Hola Everyone!

It's absolutely wild to think that 7 short days ago I was in Connecticut enjoying my avacado toast. In the last couple of weeks, President Teuscher has been reaching out to the sisters of the mission to see if there was anyone who spoke Spanish that wasn't in the Spanish program. Well, he didn't find anyone, and so he had to close one of the Spanish Sister areas for a transfer until the last big wave of new missionaries come in next transfer. President decided to close the New Rochelle area, but what I didn't know was that we would be temporarily covering New Rochelle. Combining these two active areas means a few things:

- We are trying to regularly teach more than 30 people (a weak pool compared to the crisis of 60 in the Bronx, but I guess they went a little crazy too) and take care of 11 recent converts (half of all these people we don't know)

-Between trying to contact people, setting up spreadsheets, gathering and inputting information, and actually planning for our area and the people we're teaching, we weekly planned for over eight hours over the span of 2 days and still didn't get done everything we wanted to (don't tell President)

-#drivingfordays (more on that later)

-Two sacrament meeting life. The Yonkers ward starts at 10, then we go to part of class, then we travel to New Rochelle for the end of their classes (they have them first), then attend their sacrament meeting. The bishop of the New Rochelle Spanish ward is actually Brasilian, and the high councilman who came to speak also speaks Portuguese, so there was a lot of portañol going on.

-More effective finding or bust. We're doing our best to just fill all of our awkward time with appointments and get really blessed with refferals.

Luckily Hermana Patchell was the perfect companion to have before all of this #dilligencetransfer , and it hasn't been as disastrous as it could have been.

Now for driving- I ended up being the designated driver for this transfer, and between not being familiar with the area, red light cameras, no parking, New York drivers and Yonkers' roads, it's been an adventure to say the very least. The good news is that so far I haven't suffered any aggressive driving notices from TIWI and I've only had to check my speed once.

When I would go to interviews with President in Connecticut, he would always ask me how my Spanish was doing, I would tell him it was fine, it was going a little slower than normal, but fine. I was sadly wrecked yesterday at church with all Dominican Spanish, and I said some embarrassingly incorrect things when I bore my testimony, but luckily God still loves me and the members do too. It'll be good to go back to more Spanish, and it'll whip me back into shape too.

Overall, Yonkers is actually a very beautiful place, and I feel very lucky to be here. Here are some Yonkers and mission fun facts:

-Yonkers is the 4th most populated city in New York, home to more than 200,000 people

-We live right next to the Hudson River. If you look out the window, straight ahead is New Jersey, and if you look to your left you can see Manhattan.

-Hermana Gonzalez and I are the only sister missionaries serving in upstate New York in the mission at the moment

Mosiah 1:3-7

3 And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.

4 For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.

5 I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.

6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.

7 And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.

¡Os amo!

-Hermana Prue