The "New" Mark

Hey mom! :)

Well not much time like usual! So I am going to try to answer all your questions. Okay yes I received mail from almost all of my friends! As well as most of our relatives. I have had like no time to write letters though with all of these hectic pdays we have been having. I need to write them. It is likely I will not go to the city at all next cycle and I will spend it catching up on all my letters. So I apologize about that to every one :(

Glad to hear Todd got good grades! :) That really made me happy to hear! I wish I would have tried harder in High School. I now realize how important that was. I have changed a lot in that regard. I realize how important school is, and how it will lead to success and to making me happier. That is why I am so eager to go to BYU. And to go to Utah. I want to stay the person I have become on my mission. And I am afraid if I go back home and just start sitting on my butt again I will become the "old Mark".  Not saying that I am different. My priorities are just a little better well organized now :) But I think as far as personality goes you will find it surprising how little I have changed haha! My actions are different though and my decisions. And I believe I am a lot less prideful lol! And you are going to hate me for this but I have not been taking as many pictures as I should :( Next cycle I will be going to the Statue of Liberty though and Battery Park, and the Empire State Building :) So I will make sure I have my camera on me then.

Today Elder Kropf is going to see "Wicked" so I will be hanging out with Elder Fusco, our AP. So that will be funnish... lol! We are going to the city.. again.. haha I really just want to relax! But oh not much time. Hopefully I will get on in the city and be able to email. But Lion King Tickets - don't worry about it. I talked to Elder Dennison in the office (senior missionary), he is going to figure out the ticket situation for us :) I just need to know how much you guys are willing to spend! I may go see it in Feb when there is a pday show. But I don't know yet. A couple missionaries want me to go see Newsies with them!

Well no time, ask me about the meeting we had with Elder Christofferson next week!! It was so good and I want time to explain it!

We are setting a date with the Lopez family this week! The 4 Mexican sisters! So pray for them! Okay really got to go now. We need to meet up with the AP's! Okay love you all! Have a great week!

Love Mark! :)

Finally Adjusting

Mom!!!

 

Hey there! Okay so I am going to address the Lion King first... There are only night time showings?? No day time... :( If you could look again that would be great. But yes that will be a problem if they have stopped showing them during the day. And not necessarily that week but it would need to be sometime during my second cycle. And not the last week of it. So maybe like the 26th of December. That would be good! :) So just look around there. I really hope they still have daytime showings.  Many of the missionaries in his mission are able to view a Broadway show before coming home.

 

Well not going to lie, not much new.. Going to the city again today for Pday. Haha I think next cycle I am not going to go at all! lol! It's just such a hassle :P But it has been nice to enjoy some of the new privileges we have. They are now able to go into the New York South mission to see such sights as the WTC Memorial, Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty.  But I would much rather serve there again! I really hope I can go back and finish my mission in Harlem!

 

ZL Zone Leader stuff is normal. Not too much going on. We are now allowed to give permission to missionaries to leave the Zone on Pday. Zone Leaders have a lot more responsibility than before, but still nothing too backbreaking. My favorite part so far has been going to Zone Council and getting to meet with all the others ZL's, APs,Assistants to the President and President and Sister Morgan. Those are pretty cool meetings where we all get to share our thoughts, ideas, and experiences from the mission.

 

Oh Big news! This Saturday Elder D. Todd Christofferson from the Quorum of the 12 is coming to talk to us :) That is going to be so cool! I remember when he came to our stake! It will be cool getting to meet with him again! He is coming to talk to the Yorktown Stake (Where I was in Stamford) And I was upset that I was not going to get to hear from him after I got transferred, but now he is coming to talk to all the Missionaries so I am really excited! :) It is going to be sick! I will tell you all about it next week! \

 

Other than that, not too much new. I took over the area yesterday when I went on a split with Elder Elliot (District Leader from English District) He is really cool! Such a great teacher! I learned so much from him! I think it was one of the better splits I have had on my mission. The ward has been struggling with people coming to church so we have been focusing for now on a lot of less active work. We were looking some people up yesterday and we had a bit of a miracle. We just so happened to visit a family who was having some internal struggles... Can't say too much. But it was truly amazing what led us up to going there :) 

 

So tell Lindsay to email me! I want to know her plans about serving! I think she should get her papers in ASAP! And if she does not want to leave until after I get home, just put her departure date for after! But she could get her call within the next 2 months in all reality! .. Following the announcement at General Conference that young women can now go on missions at the age of 19, Lindsay has decided to put in her mission application early next year.  Yes, I have requested that she not go until after Mark gets home.

 

All of our investigators are slowly progressing. I love helping them work past their fears and doubts! :) I have finally started meeting some members, and I completely got punked multiple times the other day at the Arroyo's house( I think that's their name lol! ) First off I ate a tiny pepper.. Freaking Hot as.. yeah. But it surprised me how hot that little thing was. Not going to do that again... then they played a game with us..  It was way weird.. There was one person who would decide how to touch someone's face with their hand and just do something funny.. like run their finger across the person to their left's forehead, for example.. I thought the game had no point... Well turns out Elizabeth ( the mom lol) had lipstick on her fingers.. So whenever she touched my face I got lipstick all over me...  I had no idea what was going on, but everyone else was laughing at me and I did not quite get it.. haha It's kind of hard to explain but it was funny... Elder Kropf got a pretty good kick out of it. It took me like 10 rounds until I looked at my hand and there was a red mark and I was like "what the?? " lol It was fun!

 

To answer you question Mom we have been going down to the city for our Pdays. Last week we went to China Town and to the 9-11 Memorial with Sister Keanini and Sister Floyd!  I was proud of myself! I did not spend any money apart from $7 for Metro!

 

But anyways that is about all the news for this week! :) I am doing good and finally adjusting to this place! :) We are trying to pick up the work! We really need the help from the members so that is what we are focusing on.. But first we need to get them to church! Well pray for us here! Pray for the ward! :)

I love you all! Take care and have a great week! :) 

 

Love Mark!

Just a Few Quick Thoughts

Mommy!

 

Well I know you are writing but I am going to start writing now! So the big question is.. When is Lindsay putting in her papers??? :) Hopefully soon! :) That is such a big crazy change!

 

But anyways conference was so good this weekend! I loved all of it! One thing that really stood out to me is when President Monson said "As we act on the promptings of the Spirit the Lord will use us more frequently to run his errands" Or something along those lines. I was listening to it in Spanish so I do not know exactly what it was that he said. But I loved it! I learned so many things by the leaders of the Church, as well as by the spirit! :)

 

So not a lot of time so I am going to cut to the chase. Mom could you look for Lion king Broadway tickets for like the 2nd of January? There are like 4 or 5 of us who want to go and the sooner the tickets are bought the cheaper they are. So If you could look and tell me prices that would be great.. and would you be willing to buy them and then I could just have everybody pay you back? Because we would all need to buy them together so we could be in a group... But either that day or like the week before or something. Any of those Wednesdays would really work. Just make sure it is a Wednesday. could you do that for me?? :) Thank you tons! :) Just look at prices and let me know what I could do for myself?? That could be my Christmas present! :) Please do that this week!!! :) The sooner the more money we all save!

 

Okay well about college. Second thought apply for the Fall semester. Not summer. After some praying that is what I want to do. And Elder Fox told me I could apply as a freshman because that is what he did at multiple schools lol! So if you could start that.  Okay well mom not a lot of time! but I am glad to hear bout Linz! :) She should go right after I get home! A Well mom I love you all! Got to keep it short! :)

 

Oh scc ID no idea where it is! Well I love you all! Love Mark! :)

 

Sorry about the short email! WE are going to the city again! :) Chinatown and Memorial for the Trade Centers! lo love u all! :)

 

A New Area

Hey there mommy dearest! :)

 

So your letter today was as scatterbrained as I normally am lol! But I will go ahead and try to answer all of your questions. I may not have too much time because this is Elder Kropf's dying cycle and he wants to go down to Manhattan and take advantage of the new privileges we have been given... AKA we are going to Time Square today :) And yes Elder Kropf is the one with the Yoda lol!

 

So the area is good! Still upstate so I am still in a car. Right now Elder Kropf is the one who is driving .Although I am fairly certain the the next couple days I will be the one taking charge of that so I can learn my way around the area. The area is huge! It borders my last area in Stamford/Greenwich. And we live in a small apartment. There are only 3 in the building. Our landlady Maria is awesome. She owns a Pizza joint as well so she is always giving us free pizza lol! She loves us. So we are well taken care of. Plus this is the nicest apartment I have lived in. A little smaller than the others, but for sure the best furnished and decorated. I really like it! :) And I am finally on the Bottom Bunk!! First time in 18 months lol! So that has been nice. I feel like I sleep a lot better, when I am closer to the ground. New responsibilities are  fairly simple, be kind, loving and an example! So not too bad. Plus we take numbers on Sunday nights and call the AP's. So nothing too bad... I was not excited when President Morgan called me though lol! I was trying to avoid leadership.. But oh  well.. What the Lord wants, I will do. :)

 

So packages, just send them to the office. It is in my Zone so I can pretty much go there whenever I want to pick it up... Just for now on send mail to the Mission Office. I will get it pretty much when it comes in.

 

So the area is really nice! We live about a 2 minute walking distance from the Church! So that is a huge plus!! And yes I am still working in the Spanish Ward! :) This ward is a lot smaller, and I have hardly gotten to know anyone yet.. But I plan on changing that soon. I am going to implement the plan we used in Stamford and use it here. And we are giving a training about it to the Zone next Monday.. That is something President Morgan wanted me to do, and one of the big reasons why I think I was called as a Zone Leader. So I am excited to see the Work get moving here. Member Participation in Missionary work is kind of down the tube here, so it will, with much faith, be coming back up here shortly :)

 

So I am thinking this is probably my last area but I really don't know. We will see what happens! :) We are teaching some really cool people. There are 4 Mexican sisters who come to the Spanish class, and come to church each week. The hard part has been actually sitting down with them and teaching them. They are all younger. Se llaman Mia, Lidia, Nance,.. and I forget the others name lol! But they are cool. Then there is this lady who we are teaching. She is ready to be baptized, she just needs to move out of the apartment where she is living because she is living with another guy... She is looking though :) That is the good news :) Elder Kropf has done a great job at teaching her!  She is so smart and has a sincere desire to learn :)

 

And then there are a lot of other people but I don't have much time lol! :) But things are going well.. as always I am a little slow adjusting to change but I will be good :) I am glad to hear the family is doing alright and nothing too Crazy is happening... I will try and write Todd again soon. I got a big stack of letters that I need to reply to. lol!

 

And thanks for telling me about Julian. Tell him I say "what's up" and I love him. I love you all very much! and I miss you! You are all in my prayers! :) Tell Bishop Remund I say Hello as well :) I love you all. Take care and have a great week! I will talk to you all soon! And try to have even more time to email next week! Take care! Love you all! Love Marky Mark! :)

 

(Auhoo hoo) That is my monkey noise for Stephie! You can tell her I just made that in the Library for her lol! :) Bye Bye! :)