Almost there.....

Elder Cauffman and I are counting down the days until April. We are cutting it very close on miles this month, we have 39 or so miles for the rest of the month, so we are trying to walk as much as we can. We are most likely going to go over this month. Yesterday we walked almost the whole day. We drove to sister Feeley's and back, and that was about it. We walked all over Hackensack, we stayed here around the apartment. We are also both broke for MSF money, and so once April comes we will have money again. Once next month comes we'll be able to use the car more. Hopefully next month we won't be so pushed for miles like we are this month. The area is big, but what was killing our miles more that anything was driving to west new york to play soccer almost every morning. We'll probably only play 2 or 3 times a week now.
things are going well for me here in Englewood. We have a lot of work to do now, though. With now there being only 2 elders in the area instead of 4 we have a lot to do. Also, it's been a little hard on me because Elder Cauffman is an English missionary, and all of our investigators are Spanish, I've been doing the lessons mostly myself. It's been rough, but we have a lot of great members here that are willing to help.
On Monday we had an appointment with a lady named Nubia, who was a media referral for a Lamb of God DVD. We asked brother Mata to come with us, he's from Panama. The appointment went really well.
We got to know a lot about Nubia and her husband, they said that they were born into the Catholic faith, but they had been searching for a church because they did not believe that the Catholic church was correct. They said they currently belonged to a Evangelical church, which they said was "better" than the Catholic church for them. But, they said, they were still searching. We had a wonderful visit, and they comitted to read the Book of Mormon, they are staring at the beginning, and they also said they would come to church not this Sunday, but the next week. Brother Mata did most of the talking, but I was perfectly fine with that, my Spanish still isn't that good. Oh, as for Elder Wells, I don't know him. I don't think I've met him. we looked at his blog, and Elder Cauffman doesn't recognize him either. But I'll keep an eye out. Short hills, where he is now, is on the other side of the mission from us, though. Well, I hope that you are doing well. I'm sorry to hear that Dad had an accident. I hope that you're doing alright. That sound like it hurt. I hope that you are doing better now, though. That would be really cool if Uncle Cliff got that job in Green River. I have some really good memories of when we lived in Rock Springs.
Emily has indeed mentioned the puppy, at least twice I think, in every email she sends me. She is really excited I can tell. 24 days left, she said.
Well, I better let you go. I love hearing how things are going from home. I've been doing well here, and I am loving the work. I miss you all a lot, Love,
Elder Isaac

Liz's note: The accident that Isaac mentions happened on Friday. Luke was commuting to work on his bike. On his way home his bike seat came off when a bolt snapped. Luke was pretty battered and bruised but is healing well. We feel pretty lucky because he was going about 15 miles per hour when he went flying off his bike backwards.

Transfers

Well, this transfer conference is a weird one. This time I actually knew for a fact what was going to happen since Saturday. We got a call that they were going to put the area back together. The mission is short about 20 missionaries. A mission usually has on average 140, we have about 120 right now. So they combined the areas back together. Elder Amundsen and Elder Stettler left, and Elder Cauffman and I are now companions. We are what is called a "Spanglish" companionship. I speak Spanish and he is an English missionary. But what makes it weird is that Elder Cauffman and I have already lived together for 6 weeks. So it's kind of like getting a new companion, but at the same time... not. He's really cool though. I'm really nervous, though. I don't feel that I speak Spanish well enough to cover all the Spanish by myself. we have a few Spanish investigators already that have been progressing well. I'm really nervous about this transfer though. The other weird thing is that we are co-seniors, there is no senior companion. We both entered the MTC the same day. We hit our 6 month mark not long ago.
This transfer is going to go well I hope. I also hope that Elder Cauffman and I are companions longer than just one transfer, too. So far each companion I've had I've been with for only one transfer. Elder Barker went on the next transfer, Elder Kemp became a trainer, so I had to leave, and now they put the area back together so Elder Amundsen had to leave. We'll see.

This last week I had a really cool experience I wanted to share with you. Last week Elder Amundsen and I decided that we wanted to get 20 hours of knocking in that week. We had gotten about 7-12 hours a week the whole transfer, and we really didn't have any solid investigators. We knocked 20 hours last week, and only got let in a single door. And he seemed pretty cool, but he didn't want to give us a return appointment. Elder Amundsen told me once that tracting/knocking is not really about finding people. It is in a way, and we do find people through knocking, but knocking is more about showing the Lord that we want to work, and are willing to work hard. When we show the Lord that we are willing to work, he will help us find people to teach. On Saturday we went over to an appointment with a media referral, and we taught him and his family. The spirit was really strong and they seemed really interested in the message we were sharing. We knocked 20 hours and only found 1 person, but because we were willing to show the Lord that we wanted to work, the Lord provided us with that family to teach. A full family of 4!

I've been doing really well here, and I'm glad to hear Nick enjoyed himself in Haiti. I love you a lot and miss you tons. Thanks Dad for sending me the pictures. Nick looks like he really enjoyed himself over there.
As for the package, thank you, there really isn't a whole lot I can think of that I need.
Love you,
Elder Isaac

6 months, how did that happen?

I'm glad you got the pictures. I had to send them in two separate emails because they were too big to fit in one email. It's good to hear that Nick is doing well, and it's very true the shock he must have. I was really shocked here to see the way some people live, not exactly like people living in Cardboard boxes, but still an eye-opener. I'm sure that he'll have an experience that will change his life. Hopefully also it will help him to prepare for a mission.

Spring is kind of getting here, but winter is being pretty fickle. Today it is at least raining instead of snowing. I hate the snow here in New Jersey, by the way. It is disgusting. When it melts it leaves a lot of White gross deposits all over everything. After the last snow melted the car was pretty gross, so we went and got it washed.

My area here is pretty rough. The members here are really awesome, but as far as investigators go... Well, as missionaries we keep what are called "Teaching Records" to keep track of people's progress and what they have been taught as we help them to progress towards baptism. We usually make a teaching record after 2 or 3 solid lessons and they are starting to progress. This last week we had to order some teaching records because we don't have any in the apartment, and for the first time since Elder Amundsen has been in this area (4 1/2 months) we have investigators to make teaching records for. They are both very solid investigators, one is called the Nuñez family, and the other is Carla, We are going to try and get them both to church this week. We get dropped by investigators a lot, we had one lady named Amanda, who we taught once, and the next time we went over, she wasn't home and her son handed us a stack of everything we had given her. It was sad, we called her and she said that she didn't want us to come back. Yesterday we had a guy call us 7 times (we had left our phone at home that day by accident) and he finally reached us to tell us to never knock on his door again.
The work here is a hard, but I've been able to refine myself a lot here. We are finally making some progress, and things are picking up here. I don't know what's going to happen in the near future though, transfers are next Wednesday, so, it'll be interesting.

As for clothes holding up, well, BOTH pairs of Missionary Mall pants are ripped and pretty unfixable, and a pair of pants from each suit have been ruined. One of them wasn't my fault, I promise. I've been told that pretty much all my shirts will get ruined this summer, but that's alright, I'll have the whole winter to acquire some new ones. I just need to get my suits dry-cleaned though, I haven't cleaned them since the MTC, and I need to buy some more tracting slacks, the Missionary Mall ones are pretty poor crappy pants. Any missionaries going out to the feild, be sure to tell them not to buy ANYTHING, except maybe ties, from Missionary Mall. Dad, I did get the debit card, the $30 and the Taco Bell were me. I needed to help pay a parking ticket from when we were on exchanges. and Elder Amundsen really loves eating at Taco Bell. It was weird though, the letter that came with the Debit Card was dated for February 18, and I received it on March 8. Usually mail, even mail coming in through the office, is not that slow. It was just weird how long it took to get to me. I have it now. Oh, yeah, as for cooking, I haven't really bought groceries since I've been here, there's really no room for them. Our fridge is always full of food from members. There's a member in our ward who cooks a lot of food for us every Wednesday. It's pretty cool. We also do get fed the member quite a bit. Last night we had two dinner appointments. One at about 5:00 with the Villarini's, and one at about 7:30 with the Bishop's family. This transfer has been pretty stressful, but I'm doing alright now. I've been on a kind of an emotional roller coaster since I've been here. But through it all I've been doing well and tried to find my reasons for being on a mission.
I miss you all, and I am excited that Nick is doing well in Haiti, tell him Hi for me. I hope everything is going well for you.

Love,
Elder Isaac

Pictures at last.

I finally developed my film, and this time I got a picture CD so I could email some pictures to you.
There is a picture is of Jocelyn, Brother Romero and I that different Jocylen, which is also pronounced differently,, took with my camera. It's not 100% in focus, and they got me with my eyes closed, but it's the only picture I had of Brother Romero. This is the guy that we believe is one of the three Nephites. He's really an awesome member, I miss him a lot!
The other picture is of my last companion Elder Kemp. In the background of that picture you can kind of see Elder Kemp's new companion, who Elder Kemp is training up in Rockland, I don't remember his name.
My new area is: Englewood, Cliffside park, Teaneck, Bogota, Edgewater, Fort Lee, etc, completely, and the rest of the area, Hackensack, etc, is the English Elders area, and if we find people there in Spanish we teach them, so actually, while I live in Hackensack, I actually don't work in Hackensack pretty much at all. The area is actually "called" Englewood Spanish, because we work in the Englewood Ward, mostly in Spanish.

I really don't use my camera a whole lot because it is really inconvenient. One of these days I want to take it down to the Hudson Front and get some really good pictures.; The camera is really good if I want to take good, nice pictures, but for every day use it's not the best.
So, just to let you know I'm doing well, Elder Amundsen has really been putting a lot of pressure on me to learn the area because he has pretty much been told by both AP's that he is going to be leaving in two weeks. Well that's great, I thought, that will be 4 companions in my first 4 transfers. I'm flying through companions like they are pairs of socks.
We had a really neat experience that I wanted to share with you though, Last night we were knocking, we had a dinner appointment with a member family, and we had 2 hours to knock. We knocked 3 doors, when we were let in by this lady. Right off the bat she started firing off questions. Is it bad to listen to music? What kind of music should I listen to? Is it bad to live with someone before you're married? Is it a sin to have sex before you're married? Is homosexuality a sin? Where do we go after we die? What is that book you have?(Book of Mormon) Is it bad to drink alcohol? etc. She was asking us for advice about her relationships and everything. We taught Basically a Law of Chastity+Word of Wisdom+Plan of Salvation+Book of Mormon lesson, then she wants us to come back tomorrow. She even asked US about baptism, is it a requirement to be saved, can anybody do it, etc. We were there for almost 2 HOURS, and we walked out of there and Elder Amundsen just looked at me and said, "She's going to get baptized." It was awesome. These kind of experiences really boosted my confidence, but not too much...
I love you all and miss you so much. I hope that everything is going well at home. I'm so excited, I get to talk to you in 2 months. Interesting side track, Mothers Day is EXACTLY on my 8 month mark. It's pretty cool. My 6 month mark is next Tuesday. I can't believe how fast the time has flown. I certainly hope that this sends with the pic's on there, we'll see.

Love,
élder Isaac

What happened to Febuwary?

I know that's not how you spell it, but come on, February makes no sense to how it's pronounced. This month has gone by so fast. It's only 3 days shorter that normal months, but it seems to have gone by a lot sooner than that. As for the accident, I saw that comment you put on the blog... and well... I kind of accidentally purposefully neglected/forgot to mention it before. I figured you'd freak out so I wanted to wait until I knew for sure what was up with it. It won't hurt insirance, everything is covered by the church, my concern was that accidents out here would make your insurance rates go up, and were that the case I would have refused to drive. But, everything, including repairs, is all covered by the church. The accident was a very minor one, nothing to worry about, it's all fine. Um, in other news, I'm doing better from the illness. I've been on an antibiotic for a few days, and Last night President and Sister Bahr paid us a surprise visit. Sister Bahr made us go out and work yesterday, but we're doing a lot better. (Elder Stettler was feeling pretty sick too.)
I can't believe that in 2 weeks it will be 6 months, it seems like January and February just failed to exist. Next thing I know it will be September again.
Winter hasn't quit here quite yet. We've been having some cold weather spurts, and it's really been annoying. But things are warming up now, hopefully for good, but on the other hand I'm not excited for the summer, I've heard the heat here is worse than the cold.
Oh, also, Sister Feeley said she really enjoyed talking to you. She has been calling and talking to the other Mom's, Elder Amundsen's and Elder Stettler's I think, and I kind of made an off-hand comment that she should call and talk to you sometime. She said "Well, give me the number!" And when I got sick she thought it was a perfect excuse. She's a really awesome member. She loves the missionaries a lot.
Well, I hope you are all doing well, and I wish you the best of luck. I'm doing well here and am happy and loving the work. Talk to you next week Love,
Elder Isaac


Mom's note: I got a phone call on Monday morning from a sister in Isaac's area. Isaac went to dinner at her house on Sunday and apparently had a fever of 102.7º. She was concerned and wanted to know what medications he could take ( she is an RN). It was very sweet, although I have to say that I would prefer to find out that my son was really sick after he is better. I would worry less that way! It is really nice to know that there are good members looking out for the missionaries out there!

Oh, the things we find out.......

We received a series of short emails this week. Isaac emailed on Tuesday (very short) because they thought the library would be closed. He mentioned oh so casually that he may be driving soon because he his companion had gotten a 'red dot', and that he was nervous because he had already had an accident while driving in Rockland County. WAIT A MINUTE..... AN ACCIDENT? That was the first we heard of it. Isaac's letters sometimes leave us trying to read between the lines, but you'd think he would mention a car accident! Anyways, we wrote back asking for more details. This was his response.....

"well, the library wasn't closed today after all. I must have misread the sign, but I could've sworn it said it would be closed on Lincolns birthday. As for the accident I had a car wreck my second week driving in Rockland. However it wasn't bad enough that I got a Red Dot. Accidents in this mission are almost a joke. This mission is #1 for car accidents in the entire world, partly because we have more cars in our mission than most, and also because driving here is crazy. However, usually here on your first accident they usually don't even consider giving you a red dot, unless someone is injured, if someone is hurt it's usually an automatic Red Dot, or if there is a substantial amount of damage. Since then I've been driving a lot better, but still, drivers here are pretty stupid, and the big reason I had the crash is because of driving stress. I've gotten more comfortable now, but it still sucks that soon I'll be having to drive again. Love you, and talk to you next week."
Oh yeah, we feel better now! I guess this is a trial of our faith.
We also got a hand written letter this week. I will transcribe it some other time.

Thanks for all the love and support you give Isaac. I know he appreciates it!

Liz

5 month mark

Yesterday was my 5 month mark. I am amazed at how fast it has gone.
I've been doing well here, but its a little frustrating at times. My companion is going home in less than 6 months and is kinda trunky. Other than that, things are going well here. The members here are really awesome. The Spanish side here is stronger too. Once again I'm in a Spanglish Ward, but that's okay.
That's really awesome that Murray has progressed so much. I hope Olive is up to another puppy, both Murray and Champ seemed to push her buttons a lot.
I'm sorry to hear that everyone at home is sick. I hope everyone starts feeling better soon. Oh, as far as address goes...
Packages need to go through the office, but also letters can go through the office as well, it will take a little longer to go through that way. but my apartment address is:
5 Pangborn place Apt 4H Hackensack NJ 07601
And also, the last week of the transfer cycle, and the first week of the cycle, letters should all be sent through the office, in case I do get transferred. The last day of this transfer is March 15. Not really a whole lot of other news. Tomorrow we're going on exchanges 1/2 day with the Zone leaders.
Love you all, and miss you tons.
Love,
Elder Isaac