November 18, 2013

Sorry for not emailing last week! The library was closed on Monday, and on Tuesday we got our iPads, and every other day in the week seemed just busy enough that we never were able to take time to write. Using iPads gives us a big jump in things to do. We need to update our area book from paper to the cloud, and because our mission is one of the earlier to get technology like this, they are still figuring out how to improve the system. So it's not the smoothest process ever. So we are figuring out how to use this stuff the best way while not getting distracted. But they can be really useful and helpful in meetings. All our scriptures and other materials are on them, and we can pass files to each other through Bluetooth. A lot of things happen in two weeks. A big thing that happened besides getting iPads is Elder Sua'ava rolled his ankle playing basketball a week ago and it hasn't really gotten better, so we are going to a walk in clinic to get that puppy checked out. We've had to try a lot to just go to the church and get missionary work there. It's definitely not the most effective way, so that was hard. Recently I have been thinking about what needs to change to improve the work here. Luckily, God answers prayers, so I know what I need to work on to do better. Diligence. There is a story behind it. At our last transfer meeting President Calderwood blessed us that we would be able to learn how to serve God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. I realized that this is what I really wanted to develop, so I studied it, starting with serving with all my heart. Preach My Gospel says, "Diligence in missionary work is an expression of your love for The Lord and his work," so I thought that fits in nicely. Diligence will actually be really important now that I have so many new challenges and responsibilities. For your information, I have been writing this letter on my iPad in three different places. I started while we were doing laundry, then while on our way to and at the walk in clinic (we have to go back at 5:30 because that is when the foot doctor gets there) and now here while waiting for and riding on the train to the library. Our iPads are blocked from myldsmail.net for some reason so I'm writing this in notes on my iPad and then I plan on sending it when I get to the library computer. Now that I know more about the area, I'll tell you about it. Our church is on the last stop of the train before Manhattan, so we are pretty close to it. So sometimes we catch a nice view of the city. Brooklyn is a lot different than flushing for a few reasons. Flushing is really concentrated right at the center and consistently gets less crowded as you move away from there. We would take the buses occasionally but not too often, most things are within walking distance because most of the people we taught are close-ish to the center. Here it's a pretty even spread over a bigger area. There are a few different trains in our area that we use. Mostly we ride the M train.

Wow I had a lot of emails to read this week and respond to so I don't have much more time to write.

I know that this work is true, and it's not easy, but it's worth it.

Love from Brooklyn,
Elder Schenk