EMAIL: WEEK 15 - 100th Day as a Missionary

WRITTEN 11/7/16

"Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."

2 Nephi 2:27

Hey erbody!

Things up here in NJ are going great!

Monday was Halloween and our pday! We had some fun activities. We all met together as a zone at menchies (frozen yogurt place) and our senior couple and we all got frozen goodness to start the day off! After that we were packed with sugar and ready to have fun. We all bought pumpkins to carve and we did that while doing our emails at the chapel. Our senior couple made chili for all of us to eat so it was a pretty fun filled day. And then we went back to the apartment for the night and ate a bunch of pizza and played some uno, made plans for the rest of the week, confirmed meal appointments for the week and went to bed early. It was a fun Monday.

Tuesday we had district meeting and fundamentals training at the chapel and had a bunch of appointments lined up for the rest of the night. Nothing too big.

Wednesday we had coordination with our ward mission leader Cesar at this Colombian restaurant called Noches. It was way good. We got like an appetizer plate with a combination of different types of meat and other stuff, and I like meat so yeah it was worth it. We also taught Ana on Wednesday.

Thursday we had service and met with one of our less active/recent covert kid. His name is William and he has a hard time getting to church because of the family situation. He's the only member in his family and his dad doesn't really like him going to church so it's a work in progress.

Friday we helped with the community garden and did some weeding, some cleaning and some organizing. And then after we went back home and did weekly planing for this next week.

Saturday we helped a member move. Moving here is a real struggle. Apartment hallways and staircases aren't moving friendly. Big bulky tvs (the old kind), shelves, mattresses, fridges, pianos are the things that make moving around really difficult. We had to put a box spring through a 2 floor window because it wouldn't go up the stairs so that was interesting.

Sunday it was fast Sunday and we had ward council after church. I've come to learn that if all the ward leaders aren't on the same page and aren't one in purpose then the ward will not function. Ever since we got here we've been trying to implement different things to help the ward be more unified and so far what we've been doing is helping we think. Later on Sunday we had to go help  another member move. They fed us tacos, lots of tacos! Lots of service this week. 

Well one week is over and now on to another week. We got lots of people to talk to this next week and ready to put some more on date.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Elder Marz

* BONUS EMAIL * :) 

Hey, MAMA

I'm doing great. It's been getting a little chilly but I've been staying warm. You can send stuff to my apartment and I'll get it. I don't really know what I want for Christmas:/ remember the magic bullet? It's like a little blender, I was thinking maybe one of those but anything works:)

Transfers are every six weeks. So the next one will happen the Monday right after thanksgiving and it will go into the beginning of January. It's crazy how fast time flies, it's scary to think how 2 years is going to fly by. The days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days. On Wednesday I hit my 100th day away from home, that's crazy!

Teaching has been good. I've been doing a lot of the leading in lessons lately just so I can get better and better.

Well this week something pretty awesome happened. We've been teaching this recent convert family (Ana- mom, Ralph 19, and Paolo 12 or 13) ever since I got here in September. They were all baptized in may or April so relatively new. We've been trying and trying to get all of them to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and especially bringing your own family names but every time we bring up the temple Ana gets super defensive about the temple. We had now idea why, but she had lots of doubts. One of her doubts was that she doesn't want to ask her full-catholic extended family for permission to do baptisms because she's afraid that she'll offend her family. She's already offended her family by becoming a Mormon so it's a difficult situation. And another thing holding her up is that she wants to go in a year when she can go through the front doors and do her endowment but that's a whole other thing, she needs to experience doing baptisms for the dead. But anyways we were teaching her this week and we were talking about proxy work, and how you can go to the temple and help other family's with their work. And I gave an example that lets say perhaps that I didn't have time or the resources to do family history to bring one of my own family names to the temple to do baptisms, I can still go to the temple and do baptisms for names of other families. Once she heard that she got all these chills and she felt the truthfulness of our message through the spirit and she said she wants to go soon. So we think she understands it now. My mission Pres talks about a pretty important aspect of teaching and it's called 7 times 7 ways. It sometimes takes people 7 different times or 7 different ways to learns something before they understand it and that's what we experienced this week. So awesome!

One of the hardest things this week has been probably been trying to handoff the active members that we see to the home teachers and visiting teachers. We find ourselves teaching in a lot at active member homes and with Hispanics here especially, if you come over once they expect you to come over once, twice, three times a week and if you don't come then they get offended. And we can't be using precious time like that and not have any new investigators from it. So we've been tying to get the priesthood involved a little bit more and making sure that they do their visits every month so the missionaries don't have to as much. Going back to elder Hollands talk! But other than that nothing else this week has been to hard. Learning and using more Spanish.

My trainer elder Jordan has been really good to me. I feel like we've really had a good time together. We both get along really well and he's always pushing me to do better wether that's with my Spanish, teaching, or anything else. We've had some really good laughs! A+ 

We all know that laughter heals the soul! (Side affects of laughter can include: crying, a six-pack, abdominal pain, can't breathe, sweating, and many more haha). Elder Jordan and I have experienced this!

Well we're trying to find more people. We were able to meet a whole bunch people last week and now we have some more investigators to teach this week so that's pretty exciting.

Other than all that I'm doing great. Just having fun teachin, preachin, and talking to lots of people.

Love,

Elder Marz

Happy Halloween From New Jersey (Still Week 14)

10/31/16

It is a "mischief Night" in Jersey City so the missionaries had to be in by 6pm. So I ordered them a little pizza party. So fun to "kind of" make him dinner via Dominos online ordering :) 

"So much pizza! Haha "

EMAIL: WEEK 14 - Halloween & Bass Guitar

WRITTEN 10/31/16

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty mellow, lots of finding and lots of getting to know more people.

Monday was pday and as usual we did our shopping and hung around the chapel, played some ball, and wrote our emails so yeah.

Tuesday was fun. We had district meeting and we had a exchange. Elder meek our district leader switched with elder Jordan and elder meek came with me to my area. Well let's just say it was pretty interesting. First time leading out the area. This is when I really got to use the Spanish I know. Turns out my Spanish is actually pretty good so that's nice to know! Later that night I taught FHE at the chapel. We had a investigator of the sisters come to FHE and one of our investigators too! It was really nice to have people show up. I taught about the sabbath day and why it's important to all of us and why we need to come and partake of the sacrament every week and renew our covenants with God. It was awesome, we had a little activity and then we played some games.

I wasn't ready for the picture but this is the only one that we got that night.

Wednesday we had a few appointments in the morning and then we finished off our exchange at this really good Pilipino bread house.

Later that night elder Jordan and I had an appointment with the Ciliezar family. Super awesome family! They brought one of their friends to church and I think we are going to start teaching her. Awesome fam that feeds us a lot and loves to do missionary work, and these are the type of families that are "Gold" for missionaries, I wish more families were into missionary work like they are.

Oh and brother Ciliezar is pretty darn good at guitar and bass! 

Good old Thursday. We went to service and the Salvation Army. They love it when we come. This sweet little Hispanic lady sometimes buys sandwiches at this little cornerstone for the missionaries that are there helping (2-6) and she gets a table ready, napkins, Arizonas with straws, seriously the sweetest person ever! After service we went by some less actives apartments. It's super hard finding people that actually still live at there address. We have 450 members in our ward but we only know about thirty or so of them and they're the same people every Sunday so yeah we've got a lot of work on our hands!

Friday we did weekly planing for a good chunk of the day. And I got a package from the amazing Peacock family! So nice of them to send goodies not only for me but for my companion as well. We both feel very loved, thanks so much! Oh and the decorations are always the best!

Good way to end the day that's for sure!

Saturday we met with a bunch of members. We were busy all day! It rained Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. So we knew that alot of people weren't going to be at school or out and about so we went and found some people. We met with a less active later that night who is divorced and has a hard time at home. She fed us and we talked to her kids and this and that, shared an uplifting message and we were on our way after that. I hope she can find some friends in the ward who can help her. Her kids are funny haha

Sunday was a pretty special day. We got to congratulate one of the sisters investigators and his decision to be baptized. His name is Javier and he has a little daughter and he wants to make a good change in his life and for his daughter. Super prepared guy. We are so happy for him. I was able to be a witness for the baptism. Javier wanted Elder Jordan to baptism him, it was pretty awesome that he got to experience that. Hopefully we can get one soon!

Sunday and Monday (today) night we have to be inside our apartments by 6 because it's considered a "mischief night" and we're not allowed to be out cause it can be dangerous. So today is like an all day pday haha. 

Today we are getting frozen yogurt and carving pumpkins at the chapel so I guess you can say we got some fun things planned for Halloween.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for me and my companion:)

Off to another week!

Love,

Elder Marz

EMAIL: WEEK 13 - "New" District Meeting and Hibachi

WRITTEN 10/24/16

 Monday was our pday and we went to this place Hibachi for lunch and it was like a all you can eat (which are always the best restaurants!) Chinese food. The cool thing was they would even cook it in front of you and it was all you can eat haha, it was super good!

 Findlay is on the left and Elder Meek is on the right, he's our new district leader. Such a nice, smart, humble guy, I'm going to learn a lot from him.

Other than that we just went to the church, played some ball and wrote some emails. Later that night the sunset was super pretty, it reminded me of some of the sunsets we have in st George.

Tuesday was a pretty productive day. We met with a lot of less actives and some investigators as well. Nothing to special. Oh Tuesday is when all the new missionaries came in so that's something cool.

Wednesday we had our "new" district meeting. We didn't get any brand spanking new missionaries but we did get new faces in the zone so that been fun.

Thursday we had service and after we all piled in the car for to go to lunch haha it was pretty interesting 😂.

Later we had a team up with out ward mission leader. Cool kid. Just got back from a mission in Guatemala. He's special haha kinda socially awkward but he's so awesome😂

Friday we had weekly planing which was totally awesome because we have four more investigators this week to plan for! We have two on date for November so that's awesome! 

Saturday was the most anticipated day this week! We were asked to participate in the Noche de espanedad (night of nationalities). So everyone in the ward got together with others from their same country and they made food and brought other things that were unique to them so Elder Jordan and I did one too. We did a American table with hotdogs, corn dogs, and soda. Haha it was a lot of fun. We dressed up for it and everyone wanted to take pictures with us😂 cowboy hats and beards😂

We had 2 of our investigators come to I guess you could say that was good.

Sunday was awesome as it always is. We went around to a bunch of people's houses and actually got to meet them finally. And we got to talk to bishop about our investigators and especially one of them that is on date. Bishop is super nice and just want to help.

Later Sunday night we went to one of our new investigators house to teach them English. It's kinda interesting teaching English just after having to learn Spanish. I'm still learning more and more and it's challenging but also really rewarding as well.

Well this was how my week went. Been trying to get over a dang cold for the past few days but other than that I'm doing great. Loving the area, it's so diverse. 

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, love you guys!

Love,Elder Marz

EMAIL: WEEK 12 - Locked and Loaded:) but staying put until next transfer

WRITTEN 10/17/16

Monday as you all know was my pday and we all went to the church and emailed and played some ball and all that fun stuff. Later that night all of our appointments went through and so we decided to go by the bishops house to see if we could talk with him about the members and some members that he want us to specifically work with. It went really good and his wife made this awesome dish. She called it "Mexican pizza" it's something super easy but super good so now me and my companion are eating it more at our apartment. It had egg, ham (but you can use any type of meat), spinach, cheese, and salsa. She just kinda put all those together and it was way good.

Tuesday I got up and found this super creepy looking bug and my companion was in the shower and I had no idea what it was. It looks like a dang alien! I was getting ready for the day and it flew across the floor but all I saw was a blur? Anyways super freaky! Thought I was going to flip! And the fact that I hate spiders, I think this topped that!

Tuesday was also our last District meeting this transfer. It was way good we had some trainings and some role plays and we got to learn some really good finding strategies to use everyday. After the meeting we had what's called the "hot seat" it were the missionaries that are leaving next week share some experiences from their missions. Spiritual experiences, funny experiences, scary experiences thief testimonies and so on. It was pretty cool to see how the mission has changed these missionaries and that it's crazy to see how fast the time goes! Just thinking that they'll be with their family next week is a crazy thing to think about!

 (Big group photo is our zone and the smaller one is of our district. Two elders are leaving next week.)

Our wonderful senior couple provided lunch for us, they were sweet pork tacos so yeah they were good!

After all that it was exchange time! I went up to the heights area and switched places with my district leader for a day. I was with his companion Elder Merritt. Super cool guy. Been here in jersey just barely longer than me, he left home on the 6th of July. He's English speaking so he was only in the provo MTC for 3 weeks but cool fact, we'll go home the same time! (Because I spent a full six weeks/transfer in the MTC. Spanish elders have one less transfer in the field then the English elders)

The exchange was super awesome. I learned lots of stuff from elder Merritt. We talked to a lot of people. We were walking and contacting people on the streets and we walked past this one lady and felt like we needed to talk to her so walked back and started to talk to her and it turns out that she loves doing family history work! It's so cool to find people that aren't of our faith but still do family history. So she's meeting up with the missionaries and the family history consultant on Thursday and she's going to be taught more about the church. So crazy how small a feeling can be but how it is so important to follow those feelings or promptings, when we do that we are showing God that we are listening and that we trust him.

Wednesday we finished up our exchange by finding people to talk to. We went to the water front and it was so cool to see across the river.

The architecture around here is really interesting!

Later on Thursday we met up with the English elders and we did a table stand by a bus terminal for like an hour and we passed out 7 Books of Mormon and gonna pass by some others later this week.

Thursday was set aside to do a lot of finding. We went around and knocked on a lot of the inactive members and tried to figure out who has moved or no longer live at the address we have. We also did service at the Salvation Army. That's pretty much it for Thursday. 

Friday we were pretty much inside all day. We had studies till 12 (1 hour for personal study, 1 for companion study, 1 for 12 week training, and 1 for language) and then we had weekly planing and TAC. Weekly planing takes forever but it's really nice to plan out the next week and set goals for those investigators who are progressing and make plans to help them further their faith. And we make plans to help those investigators who have a baptismal date (right now we have two😊). And TAC is something we do at the end of the transfer and we deep clean our apartment; sweeping, moping, clean the kitchen, etc.... We took one of our investigators who has a baptismal date out with us proselyting, his name is Isael. He's 14 and super cool, just moved out of his moms house in Elizabeth into his dads house here in jersey city. He was taught everything before by the missionaries but had to move out because of some family things. Super awesome testimony, told us that he wanted to be baptized on our fist discussion with him earlier this week so we put him on date.

Saturday we met with another investigator that's on date, her name is Tomasina. She's a mother of a member in our ward. Super sweet lady, old, and talks a lot! She is super interested but has some health problems that can slow things down. We're thinking of pushing her date farther just so we can really go slow and simple, so we can make sure she really understands. She has a past with getting baptized in lots of other churches just to say that she's been baptized so me and my companion are gonna make sure she's gonna stick with this. She's came to church like four times and loves learn more. So it's pretty exciting.

Sunday church started at 9 and it was super good. We are seeing lots more people at church and we had two investigators at church so that was awesome. My companion and I taught gospel principles for the second hour. We taught about talents and why talents are important. We all talked about our talents and how we can bless others around us when we use our talents. I think it's so cool that God gives each and every one of us specific talents. He gives us opportunities, trials, and times to try our faith in order to help us develop and use those talents to help those around us. After church we went up to the roof just to look over the skyline and take a few pictures, jersey city is so cool I hope I stay here for a while.

Oh yeah and we saw this lambo in like a pretty rundown part of town so that was kinda weird but it's a sick car so I had to take a pic.

Later on Sunday we stoped by a member in the hospital whose been inactive for years and years, her husband is bishops second counselor. She had a operation done and had to stay for a few days. We went over on Thursday to give her a blessing just to help with the recovery. She said with all the help of the members she's thinking about coming to church again so that's good, hope she starts coming again.

We came back to the house for some studies for about 40 min. We had to leave for a appointment that was like a 20 min drive but our car battery was out! So we walked a good 4 miles to our appointment just to find out he juked but luckily our other appointment was close so that was good and we were getting fed!

We passed by this pretty cool painting, they're all over the place!

Well that's what my week looked like! I'm having loads of fun and it just keeps getting better and better. My Spanish is getting pretty good my companion tells me. I can understand almost everything that people say but saying things I need practice with. I'm just taking it day by day and learning more and more. I know that you can't learn something all at once so I'm patient with it and just use in more and more.

Love you all! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for my companion and I. They've helped us this week find more people to teach! Thank you!

Locked and loaded and ready to go for transfer two!