Spreading the News in New York New York South

3-16-09
Fam and Friends!!!!
Good morning all! What a glorious day it is in beautiful Brooklyn, NY. What a week, what a week! I dont even know where to begin, so the letter may seem a little scatter-brained, but here we go.
The highlight of the week was defenitly friday and saturday. On friday, we had a district "street sweep" were everyone in the district comes to one area and passes out pass along cards and other fun things. So this week was E. howells and my turn to host the sweep, and we went down to brighton beach and had the first russian street sweep in the history of the area, and it was amazing. I tought all the missionaries how to say "free book" and "free DVD" and then set them loose and people were way nice and receptive. We meet 2 guys who especially cool, and are meeting with them this week, so the Russian work is starting to move faster and faster. Then on Saturday we meet with Natasha and the Russian recent convert, Malika's apartment, and Malika invited 2 of her friends, urie and nicholis, and we had lunch and discussed the church. Natasha was nervous about being baptized and having to be perfect, but a miracle happened, but urie and nicholis were encouraging her to go ahead and get baptized, and it was something she needed to do to show her love to God, and now she is even more excited for next sunday. The best part is, neither of the Malika's friends are members, but they are both coming to church, and reading from the Bomo now! pretty exciting stuff. The Russians here are so interested, because it is totally new to them. My first week here we had 5 russians in church, and now we have 12 attending, so the work is def. moving forward. For the rest of the week, Victor backed out of his baptismal day and pushed back a week, so we are still hopeful for him! On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with our DistrictLeader Elder Chang, who is from Southlake, TX, and is a prettty amazign kid. I had alot of fun working the Chinesse part of town with him, and we taught a guy who is getting baptized in two weeks now! He is way cool, but I couldnt help with the lesson too much, because i dont speak too much mandarin, oh well...
On Wednesday, E Howells and I went on a hour and a half bus ride to find some referralls which was a pretty fun adventure. Its crazy for an area so small, a bus ride can take a way long time!
Oh, and we had the most people attend sacrament meeting in the history of our ward, so they are for the frist time having to open the overflow doors, which is turning out to be harder then expected, but we finally got them open. Its a great problem to have though.
Now for the Q'sHow is my favorite missionary today? Amazing! Couldnt get much better
1. did a funny package arrive last week? I thought I could hear a little singing coming from the east Of course, and we have been singing as loud as possible.
2. Tell us about your week? How are your investigators progressing? How’s the brother from the subway you told us about last week? Did you get to meet with him again? Havent meet with him yet, but that is planned for wednesday, so keep your fingers crossed! But Natasha is still amazing, and our new investigators are pretty rock solid.
3. What happened this week that you knew the Spirit was directing you all the way? When we meet with natasha on sunday, because I started talking to her about a scripture i hadn't expected too, and it was exactly what she needed to here.
4. What did you study in your scriptures this morning? 2 nephi 9, i would tell everyone to check it out, its pretty amazing.
5. What time is Natasha’s baptism next week? I want to be thinking about her during that special time. 1:30 NewYork time. so 12:30 there, Im getting way excited for it!
6. What did you learn this week that you hadn’t known before? Only after real sacrafice will God trust you with those who are ready to accept the gospel.
7. What did you do last week on Preparation day that you got to e-mail so early? I went to queens with one of the elders in the spanish district. He had to pick up some medications so I volunteered to be his travel buddy. It was a fun adventure, but took the whole p-day so I had to write pretty early.
So Our week is looking pretty exciting, Natasha just called us and asked if we can bring all of our russian materials to her baptism because she is going to bring all her friends. The only baricade to her getting baptized now is i have to learn how to say the baptism prayer in russian, and how to pronounce her name.
I love ya'll, keep up the fight for our heavenly father!

Sly,
Toiht RedlE