April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014

I got transferred to Little Neck!

It's an area right up the road from Flushing, and we have a ward! It's the ward that President Calderwood's family goes to. I guess he is keeping his eye on me...

Last Tuesday and the weekend before were HUGE! They reorganized the mission because they formed a new stake. We used to have the Brooklyn Stake, Queens Stake, Lynbrook District, and the Plainview Stake. Some wards were formed, and now part of Queens Stake and Plainview Stake are in the Lynbrook Stake! So our mission is covered by stakes! 

Queens stake was renamed the Woodside stake. That's the part of Queens that its stake center is in.

So each stake has 3 zones of missionaries in it. They added on Little Neck (my district) to Flushing's zone, so I am back in my home zone! We will have to get pictures as a district. I have already served with a lot of the missionaries in my district and zone. 

Our district has my companion (Elder Hooper) and I  (he is an English missionary - our ward has some Spanish people, so they are actually allowed to stay, or go to the ward in Mineola)

The rest of our district is Sister Lewis and Sister Peacock - they both speak spanish and are sister training leaders (kind of like Assistants/Zone leaders for sisters. they do exchanges with them. There is a companionship of sister training leaders in every stake now).

The last companionship is Elder Park and Elder Law. They work in the Korean Branch in Little Neck, which is actually called the Flushing 3rd branch, but there isn't space in the Flushing building, and we are right up the road. Elder Park was in Flushing while I was there, and Elder Law was in Bushwick English while I was there. Elder Law is the one from Vancouver. Elder Park is from South Korea!

So my district is really experienced. We have all been out over a year. I am used to being around much younger missionaries. 

our area has a car, which is something that I actually never wanted on my mission, but I am coping with it quite nicely now. On Wednesday or Thursday I drove for the first time in over a year (it was just a short drive to the church from our apartment in the morning - we and the other elders play soccer in the gym there - we have a gym!). The drive felt really weird, but not too bad, and I'm getting it back. 

this is from my letter to president

Dear President Calderwood,

I am so excited to be able to serve here in Little Neck! I love the district, I love the zone, and I love the things that we are doing here. There is a huge emphasis in both units here of working with the youth. That has been one of my dreams. I think that God has done much to prepare me for this (and I feel like I say that all the time). I am excited and grateful to have Elder Hooper as my companion. I have hoped to have a senior companion again to teach me more "secrets of the work," and I have been learning. I love how Elder Hooper plans. It's something that I really need to develop, because planning and nightly follow up have usually been very long processes for me on my mission. With Elder Hooper, they are really effective and take a lot less time.
I believe that my love for Flushing and a lot of the missionaries there will be key in helping our district, which is separated from the rest, be really unified with the rest of the zone. And I think that the whole zone has a positive feeling for each other.
Working in English has highlighted something that the mission leader in Bushwick told us a lot: that when you speak the peoples' native tongue and understand their culture naturally it is much easier to work with them. I think that I see that here a lot. Maybe it's because of my background in American culture, but I feel like this ward is much better established than the other units I've served in. But even so, I hear people complaining a lot about how we aren't where we could or ought to be. I have seen that in every unit I've served in. It's good to see our need for change, but I think that the units need to see the good that they have and apply the Doctrine of Christ to build from there.
I am just so excited to be here, President. Multiple times in my first day here, I said "I can't imagine anything more perfect!" God is so good. 

(this part isn't from that letter)

I had this idea to connect a food object lesson to the Atonement.
Imagine that we are like a block of cheese (good start, eh?)
We are a block, but God wants us to be a circle (or if you are really committed to making it look good, you can say a sphere and be much more technical)
The best way to get like a circle is to start at the part that is the least like a circle, our greatest weaknesses, the corners.
so with a cheese grater, start grating the corners (be sure to collect the grated cheese, you will need it later on of course)
move from corner to corner, weakness to weakness, until you are getting closer and closer to the circle that God wants you to be. it is a constant process, sometimes you need to take of lots of cheese, sometimes you just need to shave off a little, refine the circle
when you are done, you have the circle, and a pile of cheese you can use for nachos, or pizza, or something else. Enjoy the benefits of the Atonement!

On Sunday at church, I translated into Spanish. That was a good practice for me. And our ward mission leader is mexican (but speak great english), so I get some good spanish practice in. 

I ought to wrap up this letter, my time at the library is almost out.

Love you all!  Elder Schenk

ps how much are you feeling the Hastening over there in washington

April 14, 2014

Helllllloooo Fam

I am getting transferred out tomorrow! I don't know where I will go, but Elder Barker is sad because it will be five different companions in 5 transfers, and we had a really good time together. 

I'm glad the package got there quickly! And I'm glad you enjoyed it. 

Today will consist of getting my hair cut,  packing, and visiting some members.

Enviado desde mi iPad

So I was wiping off my screen, and it hit the send button again.
But this week I had some good experiences. I decided to follow what
Joseph Smith did in Joseph smith history verse 29. So I asked God how
I was in His eyes, (I was praying on Spanish) and I paused and
thought, and got an answer! It was a good learning experience.
And now I just got a haircut from sister Hartley in the district! I'll
send you a picture
So we need to go and finish doing laundry and packing before we visit
a family. Love you a bunch! I'll let you know about how everything
goes with transfers.

Love,

Elder Schenk

April 7, 2014

So I will open with a cool story that just happened. We were sitting here in the laundry mat, emailing, and a lady came up to us and asked where the church is around here. She isn't a member but used to go in the Dominican Republic. Her name is Socorro, feel free to pray for her and her family.

Today we are going shopping at BJ's but we will try not to buy too much because transfers are coming next week and we don't want to have to leave food behind just in case we leave. We will see how it goes because I've been here a bit but Elder Barker has had only one transfer with his last two companions. It would be weird if that happened a third time, but we'll see. I've gotten back from BJ's by now, for some reason a lot of people are paying more attention to us today as we walk by. Another lady asked where the church is and if we can teach her! And two other people pointed out that we were Mormon or something like that as we walked by. I wonder if we just radiate the spirit extra now that we just listened to the prophet and apostles. Man, after conference I just had a big feeling of "woah, endure to the end." I'm trying to read the Liahona for each month in Spanish, so I will be excited to read the talks again. I am also excited to see some for the first time in English when they get to my iPad. I understand e Spanish well, but it's not the same, or as easy to learn. I like listening to the speaker's own voice.

It's interesting, I feel like sometimes I focus more on serving and helping the missionaries around me than the other people. I think I am much more able to help them because I am around them a lot. 

I am headed to the post office now to send a package home, hope you get it soon!

Love you all, thanks for your support and prayers. It reminds me that there are forces seen and unseen that are directing and helping me to accomplish good works for God here.

All my love from BKLN,

Elder Schenk

March 24, 2014

Hey Fam!

To answer your questions: in the mission, things are going pretty
well, consistently building and improving due to revelation. We are
unifying ourselves more with the members, baptizing stronger
individuals and families and taking more to the temple. A district is
about to turn into a stake, which will make the entire mission covered
in stakes. We have been teaching different things but a lot about the
importance of the Book of Mormon recently. We haven't had many service
projects lately but we do teach English class. And I do like the
tennis shoes. They are more broken in now so I am enjoying them more.

I sent this to president
Dear President Calderwood,

I am experiencing a lot of joy even though things are crazy and kind
of hard right now. Elder Barker and I feel like we can't control much
of what is happening with our investigators and weekly goals. Things
happen almost everyday to cut short our studies and take up he rest of
our day as well. I think little things often build up to create bigger
distractions and barriers in our work, and I wonder if we are supposed
to slow down to learn from these, or if we need to push forward and
get a lot of work done, and that way we will learn and be strengthened
the most. After zone conference, the assistants and sister training
leaders met with us and said that our zone seemed spiritually tired,
and I think it's the things that I've been talking about that are
draining us a little. Elder Barker and I don't feel able to do some of
the things we need to, like take time to stop and think and call
members or even to weekly plan sometimes. We haven't been fearlessing
much, either.
Even though all these things are weighing us down, I feel enthusiastic
and excited more often. I feel happy. It's interesting. I think it is
because I need to share it more with the missionaries around me; they
might need some more energy.

Love you all! Sorry I didn't write much we were playing rockstar life
with the other elders.

Love from BKLN,

Elder Schenk

Enviado desde mi iPad

March 17, 2014

Hey Fam!

I don't have much time because we had a busy day and are in our way home still. We went to the grave dedication for a member this morning (this wasn't he same person whose funerals spoke at). Then we did laundry and did some shopping while we waited for our clothes. Then we helped the other elders in our district, Elder Padilla and Elder Van Mondfrans move into a different apartment. It's Elder Barker's old one and it's owned by a member. Then we went to the mission office in Rego to pick up some things and drop off some other things, we got dinner at Taco Bell, and now we are on the bus on our way home. We are taking a different way that Elder Barker is showing me. He used to serve in the area of the mission office. 

Last week we did not make the best decisions shopping. We bought a 40 pack of Eggos waffles (I wanted to try it out because they were whole wheat) and Elder Barker also got us a 48 pack of pop-tarts. I didn't think it was a good idea. So by Wednesday night we had eaten half of the pop tarts (we didn't eat any on Thursday and brought the rest to a zone meeting on Friday. And right now there are like 6 waffles left. When there are ready made snacks at my disposal that don't fill you up at all, they go pretty fast. Today we made sure to get some better food.
Yesterday was a good day. We stopped by a less active family's apartment before church because we had offered to bring them to church. One had promised us that he would come, and  he kept his word! Then others got ready to come along with us, too. They hadn't gone for a long time since their grandparents' health got bad and they stopped going. So the whole family stopped going. So those that came we us hardly remembered anything from church. They stayed for sacrament meeting and left, and told us that they would come next week and stay longer! It's the Perez family. Elder Barker and I thought that the four that came seemed really happy. 

Also, in the neighborhood of the church, there is a huge concentration of Jewish people called Hacidic Jews. They are very strict and live what I think is called the 500 laws of Moses. Yesterday was their Halloween, and there were a bunch of their kids in the streets dressed up in different costumes. But the most exciting part was when we saw some RV's with speakers strapped to the top, blasting Jewish pop music. That blew my mind! That's the loudest I think I've ever heard music played outside. Also after church Elder Padilla gave us chili peppers. That was hot.

I got to go, but I love you all a ton! I am having a great time with Elder Barker, he is funny and smart and works hard. 

Much Love from BKLN,

Elder Schenk

Enviado desde mi iPad

March 10, 2014

Hey fam!

Sorry for not writing a good letter last week! Ping pong was really
distracting. I am getting better at it, but now Elder Farmer, the
missionary in the district that had the set up, is in Jamaica, so we
won't play as much anymore.
Elder Sua'ava got transferred to Midwood, Brooklyn. It's the zone just
south of ours. He is with a Tongan missionary called Elder Fine, and
is really excited about it. I am now with Elder Barker! He was Elder
Farmer's companion. So both of our companions left and now our pools
are united. Which means we have twice as many people to work with. We
did our weekly planning on Thursday, which usually takes about 3 hours
or so. Ours literally took all day! We went to the church to plan,
after a while got dinner, and the at the end we got on the train to go
back home! There were 27 people or families that we talked about!

Here's what I wrote to president

Dear President Calderwood,

I'm sorry I didn't get a letter sent last week. I was going to talk
about the huge blessings of revelation and repentance. I want to live
a very repentant life so that I can be as much of a help as possible
to the Lord. Repentance and adjusting has allowed me to love and be
unified with Elder S. In some ways we are really different but
we developed a good groove and were continually growing together, even
though we had some rough patches.
The weekend before last we had a fantastic experience in branch
council. President R. asked us to have a presentation ready,
and at the end of the meeting we had a short time to talk. We brought
up our focus people, and with MUCH help from Elder P. we
counseled about how the auxiliaries in the branch could help out
certain focus families. It was by far the most effective part of the
meeting. The atmosphere changed, everyone worked together, and you
could feel the difference in how they feel about the missionaries
after. I am so thankful to Elder P.. He has been sent here to
help me.
This last week has gone well. I am excited to work with Elder Barker.
He is the companion that I have been praying for. Time management is
important for him. We are going to have to learn how to be really busy
and balance a schedule like that, and I think that will be a great
lesson for me.
I see much more clearly what I need to do here, I took some time to
seek revelation about it. It amazes me how willing the Lord is to
teach us when we are humble and desirous. I have learned that this is
also the key to the conversion of those we teach.
This transfer we have a really solid district. I want to help unify us
a lot so we can truly have power together.
And I have set up the time to really meet with President Rodriguez to
talk about how we can unite our keys. I am excited to for us to unify
ourselves with him, and the branch.
The Gospel is so cool, Heavenly Father has done so much to help me
learn and develop constantly. I am so grateful for the incredible
experience and love I have received from Him. I am also really
grateful for the district I am able to serve in, and I am excited to
learn all I can from Elder Barker. And I am so grateful for all you
teach me about leadership and the Doctrine of Christ. This will be a
great transfer!

Love,
Elder Schenk


Also, we have had some funerals recently and I spoke at one! I had
never heard of the guy before, but he was a member that hadn't been
able to go for a long time. So I shared a short message in Spanish
about God's love for us and His plan for us, and how the Gospel makes
life happy even though it can be hard. It was a crazy experience.
Missions are the best...