Life is Good

Hello Mommy! And Everyone!

Haha So first things first.. The Memory Card.. Haha I did not send it because I wanted to keep it for Edwin's baptism Sunday... But that did not happen. He dropped us the morning of :( But that's all good, something to learn from. I just feel bad for him. We think it had something to do with the parents.. We did all we could though. But I will send it with the package I have! It's more stuff that I really just do not need! I will throw the Memory Card in there with it! Also, Mom could you print off all of the the pictures from my mission with recent converts and members?

And that is so crazy about Hunter! Wow Tubbs is engaged?? And Chrisse will be married in June?? That is so freaking crazy! Life changes so fast... But yeah this week was a great week! I went on a split with Elder Clark yesterday. He is really cool! He plays D1 AA Football for SVU.  He is a huge guy! Really cool though. Today on P Day we played kickball on the park where old Yankee stadium used to be. And that was a lot of fun. And Manhattan last week was fun!  We went to Central Park and played catch (Baseball.)  But yeah life is good! Uh what about NY? Crazy people, Crazy Rats, and Crazy pigeons.. What more is there to know?? lol! There is a guy who walks the streets making bird noises and all kinds of other stuff lol! I love it though! Eliason is still getting used to the city. There is something crazy that happens everyday. Last night we were talking to some lady and next thing you know she is telling Elder Clark and me how much we turn her on lol! And then follows to ask Clark to marry her.. Haha really funny! She was a little tipsy!

Yesterday we taught this awesome guy named Ralph.  We need to hand him over to the English elders. He is such a cool guy. So humble and so open hearted!

Other than that not much going on. I am starting to stink at writing in my Journal.. :( I need to get better at that again! And yeah things are great! The atmosphere here is amazing! Especially when we go down to the bottom of my area right before a Yankees game! So many people! It's cool! Now I really just want to go inside of the stadium!

But life is good! Pretty much the same! Elder Eliason and I are working very hard so that is nice! :) I like working hard. It makes me happy even though it is very hard to get out of the house sometimes. But at the end of the day I really do just feel proud of myself, knowing I did all I could. It has also been really cool to see how the Lord guides us to those people who are ready to receive the message of the Gospel! There are a lot of open hearted  people here. Sometimes you got to dig through mounds of dirt to find the hidden treasure at the bottom. It has been awesome living here. I am going to miss it a lot. Don't get me wrong - there are days where I don't want to be doing this.. Because it is hard. But then I remember I only have 10 more months, and think of how much I am going to miss it.. There is real life for the rest of my life.. Being a missionary is only 2 years. And I will never be able to give myself completely to the Lord, like I am able to now. I am so grateful for this opportunity! :)

 The rest of you take care and have a great week! I hope everything is going okay! I miss and love you all so much! I am excited to call home soon! LOVE YOU! :)

Love, Mark! :)  

Another Short One

Hey! Sorry about the memory card first of all! I know you all want to see my pretty litle pictures! Well not a lot of time today. The computers at the library give me a limit. We are in Manhattan today... I miss it a lot :( I would really like to finish my mission here. I saw a couple of members by chance today. And I went and got my hair cut from a member in the Harlem ward :) It was nice to see them! And we went to Central Park to show Elder Lewis's greeny. I love it here! I miss it SO MUCH! haha! I really would not mind living here when I am older.. I really want to finish my mission here... in Harlem.  

So hey I heard you got my package! Hide it and don't let anyone touch it!!! Seriously. Uh what else.... I really have to keep it short... Well Edwin will be getting baptized Sunday. We had a rough time last last week getting a hold of him.  Well the week was good! Things are getting better. :) And yes language study has been happening! :) And don't call me Greglike mom lol! You don't understand how hard it is to get to a post office lol! I HAVE TO WALK :P Lazy, I know.. But really it is kind of difficult.. The only time I really have time is P day. But I will do my best to get it sent off tomorrow. It has no more memory.... :( Well I am going to get going. To keep it short just want to let all of you know I love you so much! Nicole is in my prayers especially :) As well as all of you! You are all the best! I miss home!  Take care all of you! I will say more next week! These GAY computers limit me though! Have a great week! Talk to you all soon! MOTHERS DAY is just around the corner! :)

 

Love you MUCHO! Love, Mark! :)

A Little Short

Hey there everyone! Hey I am going to keep it a little short today! Don't have a lot of time. To answer mom's question, transfers were today. Elder Wilkey left for Harlem (not my area, Elder Lewis's old area) And I am jealous. lol! And I was with Elder Huerta for 4 cycles. Wilkey for 3. And looks like Elder Hellberg may be coming to visit next week! So that will be fun! :)

 

But my new comp is Elder Eliason!!!!  (one of Mark's MTC roommates)  Haha I am so excited! Haha such a goofy kid! But I am excited and so is he. He has been upstate since we left the MTC so he is excited to come to the City. And we have a baptism this week with Edwin. We just need to get a hold of him! So IDK I am pumped. this next six weeks are going to be awesome.

 

So what else. Wilkey said bye to everyone yesterday. Uh oh sorry to hear about the car... Speaking of cars... I lost my driver's license... lol! Not so funny...  My wallet broke and only my driver's license fell out... So can you guys find out what I have to do to get a new one... And if i can get a new one.. I have no idea where I lost it. I never take it out... so yes please do that for me :)

 

Uh what else - oh so is Nicole living at the house still??And hey do we have extra PS3 games?? haha I feel like my questions never get answered lol! But all good! and yes I will send the memory card tomorrow. It is full.

 

Easter was good. Nothing special. Went to a member in Elder Sayao and Topham's area. But it was good! Elder Clark and Elder Martin are coming to open up Elder Huerta's old area. So that is fun! We will have a distict of 8. So that is exciting! This is going to be a great cycle! :)

 

But yeah glad the wedding was good! Wish I could have been there! Hope you let everybody know how much I love and care about them! Well I am going to keep it short today. Busy day! I love you all so much! Have Greg write me sometime! :) I love you all! Give Garrett and Thomas a hug for me and let them know I love and miss them. Take care and God Bless! Love Mark! :)

Special Easter Message

Hey Mom and Dad and everyone else! What is up?? 

So right now I am really sweaty from playing basketball lol! But I am good! The Baptism went great! Chris was so excited! I baptized her. We did it in between the two sessions Sunday of General Conference :)_ General Conference was awesome! It is so cool that we can hear prophets speak in our day! I have grown such a love for it! Haha I am going to make sure that we all watch it when I get home! :) ALL OF US!   And all sessions. I had a lot of questions answered, and I just loved President Uchdorf's talk in the Saturday night Priesthood session! And I totally saw Spencer and Craig at Conference singing lol! I said something in the middle of the session and everybody we were watching it with just looked at me like I was crazy lol! :) v

So crazy you guys are all at Grandma's again without me :( I wish I was there for the wedding, but just tell Josh congratulations for me and I wish I could be there, and explain why I can't. Also let him know I love him! And I can't wait to come and see him and everyone else when I get home! So where are they going to be living at?? 

But yeah just let the family know I miss them and am doing well! Also get them to go to Church with you guys Sunday! :) And tell them I am the one inviting them to go :)  I am jealous of the Crawfish Boil! That sounds like a lot of fun.. I really would like to go live down there when I get older.. I really do miss it a lot! 

So yesterday we set a baptism date with Edwin! For the 14th! It is going to be great! He is a great kid! :) He opened up a lot as we were teaching him. We brought Fernando Reyes along with us, he is really cool. He is 25 and recently has just been helping us out a lot. The Reyes family is probably my favorite family here. Sister Reyes feeds us every week, and she is really nice. I like her a lot! They are from the D.R. 

So yesterday we did some of the most humbling service ever. We helped this lady clean up her house .... There were about 10 missionaries that came. She is an investigator of the sisters in the English Ward.. We walked in and she just started crying... Sorry Mom and Dad but I dropped like $40 to help her... she really needed it.. She had about 58349068984568690 Cockroaches.... probably more.. no exaggeration... and about 40 holes in her wall and about a 10 foot hole in her ceiling. So I bought some wall putty and we started fixing that... And they had a pet ferret! But I felt so good after! Nothing makes me happier than helping someone else :) It makes me feel so good! And we got so much done, and we are not even close to finishing... Mom don't ever freak out about the house being messy again... haha I might just laugh.. lol J.k... but for real. It was so sad how bad it was.. and she is a single lady, and has a health problem so there was not much she could do.. and 5 kids, and a husband that walked out about 6 months ago.. oh and to top it off the super of the apartment left and cannot be found... So it felt really good to help her out :) 

Sorry I am going so fast today but so much is going on! I love this place and I love the people here! I love the language and everything about it! The language is going good! I understand about 95% :) And I speak fairly well!! I need to slow down a lot when I speak. But other than that it is really good. some days better than others. It will be good when I get a new comp and can get a better language study. But I am doing great and it sounds like everyone else is doing good! 

So things are still going great with Melissa! Sounds like she is traveling home for Easter. And going to the Blues game tomorrow! :) I am jealous. She is awesome! Did you guys know that! Tell her hi for me some one please! Just text her :) 

So during General Conference I don't remember who it was but there was a talk in the Sunday morning session that helped me finally realize the importance of the Sabbath Day... I remember the story of the girl playing the soccer game and feeling bad about it.. Then I thought back to all the activities I had done on Sunday and felt bad about it... I remember saying a prayer right there and asking for forgiveness of not keeping the Sabbath Day as holy as I could have, and I just had this overwhelming spiritual feeling come over me...  It was amazing.. And it is sad that so many people have forgotten what the Sabbath Day really is.. With this Sunday being Easter it is really a time where we should remember it, and really a time where we should be in church.. No matter what religion we are. God has set apart the day for us to rest. He makes it perfectly clear in the Scriptures. "Thou shalt do no work on the Sabbath" I also realized how it said we should not make anyone else work on the Sabbath. "Nor thy servant, nor thy maid servant." It is for rest and worship.. and not just Easter Sunday, but every Sunday is a day to celebrate the Victory of over Death. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And each time we take the Sacrament, renewing that baptismal covenant or promise to follow him, promising that we shall live also :) He really does live and because he lives, it is important that we treat his holy Day as it should be. Especially this Sunday. So whoever is reading this if you were not planning on joining in your religious congregation this Sunday, please do it. Because the Lord will love you for it. And it is what he asks. That we rest from our labors :) It's a day to be with Family :) And Love one another! :) 

I know He lives and loves each one of us.. He died and took upon himself each one of our sins and sorrows so we could rise with him in the resurrection. He is everything to us.. And if you don't know him. Please... Find out who he is for yourself. Talk to him. Get to know him. You have a Heavenly Father who answers your prayers...  He really is there... and it means EVERYTHING to us.. I did not understand it before... And I still don't completely understand it. And the majority of the world never will... But He is there, and He is listening.. And He suffered. HE SUFFERED EVERYTHING! Many think he just died on the Cross, but as important as this is... It is not everything... He bled from every pore in that Garden before he was betrayed and he took upon him the "Sins of the World" Many people don't know what that means, He did it there..As Luke writes "He bled as if it were from every pore" He took it all! He has felt it all!! ANY LOSS, ANY HEARTACHE, ANY PAIN, ANY WEAKNESS, DISABILITY, OR AFFLICTION HE HAS FELT IT. He knows you. Better than yourself. He knows your past present and FUTURE.. Because he has already gone there and already taken all of it upon him. The Doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is everything. It is what makes Faith possible, It is what makes Baptism Possible, and it is what makes Repentance possible.  Without it to be quite blunt - WE ARE SCREWED! He lives and I dont know why I am saying all of this, but love him and know him. That is my challenge for each person who looks on this, this upcoming week. Find out who He is. and why it is important to you. Don't just take my word for it.. Find out. :) 

So mom and Dad.. And the whole family for that matter! You guys are great! I love you so much! :) You guys really are the best! And I am talking to the extended family as well! and friends, because a lot of you might as well be family! :) You guys are amazing! And I am lucky to know all of you! I Miss you all and I hope all is going well! Can't wait to see you all again! Hopefully I won't be fat or bald when I get home (And dad no hair products recently) lol! So far I have stayed the same weight since I left. I have definitely lost some muscle tone though.. but I can get that back :P But oh before I go... 

But  anyway... So yeah all is good! Hey do we got some extra PS3 games that no one plays? There is this kid Elder Sayao in my District who is from Brazil.. He is really poor, and he is buying a ps3 here because in Brazil they are $1000 in American money.. Freaking ridiculous right??? haha! so yeah if we have any old/extra games you should send them, because he wants to get it but has like no money for games... so that would make him really really happy! :)  Okay well I love you! So much! You all are all so important to me and you are each in my prayers! :) I miss you guys! I am still me for anyone who thinks otherwise! It will be a blast when I come home! And it will be before we all know it! I miss you guys and all of you take care! God speed and Stay Classy Sandiego!

Love, Mark 

I heard they are making an Anchorman 2!! Yes! haha that makes me happy! Okay Love you all :) You guys are the best!