Jersey City

This week has been pretty good. My new area is pretty crazy big, though. We recently bought bus passes, and we are slowly peicing together the bus routes. A couple of months ago, there was a threesome in the area, so they did not buy buss passes that month, and the Elders in the area just didn't buy them again since, and so the verbal tradition and knowledge of the buss routes has been lost through the ages, so we are starting from ground zero. We have been picking up bus schedules where we can, and I am slowly marking a route map of the area for future generations.

My companion is pretty cool, He is from Washington. He came out to the mission last July. He was trained by Elder Ward the transfer Elder Ward and I split. I was in the same district as him for 2 transfers, so I know him fairly well already. He is a really great missionary. He has been in the area for 3 months already, and for the most part I just follow his lead, I really don't know my way around yet.

Other interesting note. Elder McBroom is my district leader. Also, Elders Wray and Godfrey (from my MTC district) are also in the same district. We all know eachother really well, so it's a lot of fun. Elder Godfrey and I have had 2 common areas, we both served in WNY and in Rockland county, though at different times, Elder Wray also served in WNY. But both of them served in the 60-70 area.

Things area going well. There is this awesome lady named Dolores we are teaching. She is from Ecuador. She came to church Yesterday and she loved it. We are trying to get her to get baptized this month. She has desires to, but I think she has some doubts. One of the sisters commented to me that Dolores was worried, because she didn't know what to say to her church why she didn't go yesterday. We have another appointment on Tuesday, and we'll see how that goes. She made us some delicious Ceviche last time we went over.

I love this ward. Yesterday when Dolores came, there were so many sisters and members fellowshipping her and saying hi, After the meetings, one of the members asked me for Dolores' phone number so she could call her and invite her to a family home evening at her house, and to invite and encourage her to come to church. It was really cool. I know that Dolores will get baptized soon.

This week has been pretty cool, I'm still trying to get the hang of the area, but it's going well. On Saturday we had the opportunity to help and serve the bishop of the ward. We spent a couple of hours painting a railing, and then the bishop made us some burgers.
OK. Here are a couple of pic's, it's been a while since I sent pictures, so here goes.
The first picture is a really cool panorama I took on my last day in West New York. It was reallly foggy that day, and you could not see the Hudson because of the fog, or the sky. The effect being that there was fog above and below the view of the city, so I had to get a picture.
The second picture is from the event I was just describing. The painting. In this pic are Elder Larsen (my comp) and Elder McBroom (my old comp) painting at the bishops house, and the third picture is the bishop while he was cooking the burgers.
I hope that everything goes well for you. I wish you all the best of luck in everything! I'm glad to hear that the trip to Italy went well, and I hope everyone else had fun in Canada (or at school.) I love you all and miss you so much!
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth