February 27, 2017 -- The Sun is Shining!!

HOLY CRAP the best miracle of this week was the weather. It was between 60-70 for like three days. It felt like spring!!!! On Friday it hit 71 which set the record for warmest day recorded in the month of February in Syracuse. I had the short sleeves on and Elder Turner and I were able to go running in shorts and t-shirts. We also had to make a trip to Sonic during happy hour to cool off with some limeades. Life was good. Not only that but people were actually out and were a lot more pleasant than usual. I just wish that the weather would last but I'll take what I can get.

 

So we got some new missionaries in the ward this past week. One of the them is a brand new missionary named Sister Thompson and the other missionary who came is Elder Vorkink. He is from the best place on Earth... Orem, Utah!!! He went to Mountain View so maybe he could have made a better choice there... Just Kidding.  He is a great guy though and can shred it on the piano!

 

A little update on some of the people that we were teaching. In this past week, Yvonne's motivation to work towards baptism skyrocketed. She is ready.  The only thing standing in her way is her coming to church more often. She has a lot of health problems which make it hard to get to church. She definitely is going to get baptized one of these days though. Unfortunately we had to put Jean, the British lady, back into the Lord's hands last night (drop). She loved having us come over but she just was not ready to give up her Methodist church. We encouraged her to continue reading the Book of Mormon and said we would be back in three weeks to see if anything changed.

 

Something cool that's happening soon is the Palmyra Face to Face with Elder Holland. They're performing a song Elder Vorkink recorded for the youth theme this year. It's call "Thy Will be Done." Our mission president tried everything he could so that Elder Vorkink could go and perform it at the event, but sadly it's not going to happen. You should all go check out his song though. Orem represent!!

 

Anyway the work continues to go on. Things are going pretty good in New York. The sky is blue, the Church is true and life is good.

 

 Have a great week, Elder Carlile

 

 

Sunshine in Liverpool!!

Missionaries in the Liverpool Ward
 

February 13, 2017 -- Missionary Life Is A Roller Coaster

What's up peeps!! Man, to be honest, I've never had so many ups and downs in one week in my life. To start, the weather has been pretty pathetic for a Syracuse winter... that is until yesterday. It started snowing and has rarely taken a break since then. Good thing I've got my winter boots!
 

Elder Turner and I gave out training this past week at the Zone Training Meeting. We gave on finding with a focus on working with members and talking with people instead of at people. It went really well and it was a big relief when the training was over with. I've attached a picture of my Syracuse Zone.

So this past week it has seemed like almost all our investigators either needed to be put back into the Lord's hands for a time because they are choosing not to progress or they have been impossible to get in contact with. So we have been doing a ton of finding during the best time of the year to find..... winter. By the way, that was sarcasm. But it's all about the attitude. Anyway, some Elders were blitzing us. A blitz is when a set of missionaries come and work in our area for the day. Elder Anderson and I had planned to find all day. It had been a pretty good morning but we were now in what I sometimes call the dead part of the day. That time between 2 and 4 where your body just says I want to sleep. We decided to go tracting so we prayed and drove to a street that we thought looked good. Knocked on the first door... no answer. Knocked on the second door and this Vietnamese women answered the door. She didn't speak English so she got her husband. When he came to the door he instantly invited us in. We sat down with him and taught him about the Restoration. He didn't understand all of what we taught him but he loved what he understood and told us of his deep love for God. His and his family are Catholic and he reads the Bible almost every day. When we gave him a Book of Mormon to read, he was very thankful. We told him we would come back with a Book of Mormon in Vietnamese so he would have an easier time reading it. It really surprised me how happy Giing (Yong), that's his name, was. He just had the biggest smile the whole time we were teaching him. I can't wait to go back and teach him again!

 

We went and did service at a pancake breakfast at Pastor Yost's church. Pastor Yost is a great friend to all the missionaries that come through this neck of the woods. He is a Pastor over a Lutheran Church and one of the most Christlike men I have ever met.

Elder Turner has been a trooper this past week. He got sick but still stuck it out and worked through it. He's doing a lot better now but unfortunately I'm starting to feel a little sick today. The struggles of missionary life. When your comp gets sick you're destined to get sick too, it's inevitable. Oh well, life goes on.

The sky is blue, the Church is true, and life is good.

Have a great week!  Elder Carlile

 

Syracuse Zone (February 2017)

Pastor Yost

 

 

February 6, 2017 -- MLC Training

February 2017 MLC Training