Pday 12-19-2011

Dear Friends and Family:

 

Everything's well. The weather outside is utterly frigid, however, we haven't received any snow yet.

Anyhow, this is the last Christmas Holiday in the Mission!

We arrived last Monday in East New York where some of the missionaries there reside for the "pig roast" that we would have. We almost changed our minds because we heard that the area was blocked off by police, fortunately, there were no issues and we entered the street fine after we passed them. We brought the salad for it, however, the pig hadn't even arrived yet! I was concerned about the fire we would do! There were no issues, however, we left early because nothing was prepared.

Not much has really transpired this week except the cold and another street sweep.

 

We attended and (as a Zone) sang for the District Mission Party. Along with us we brought a non-member and a member who had moved into the area and happened to encounter us on the street. His name is Johnny. He moved three months ago to New York City from Charlotte, North Carolina. He was baptized there! He had no idea that the church was so near him....a 10 minute walk from his apartment. He attended an activity in the Branch on Wednesday, came with us to the party at the Church building on 185 Marcy Avenue, and finally met the entire Branch on Sunday!

 

There were a lot of members from both Spanish and English Branches at the party. Afterwards everybody started dancing. We all left at 8:30. We were delayed on the Subway because of the usual Saturday 'maintenance and repairs' halfway home.

I took several photos from the party and the musical numbers.

 

Love,

Elder Roberts.

PDay Dec 5, 2011

Dear Friends and Family:

Uumm....I'll need to create Christmas Cards today perhaps! I need to go to Rite Aid and do that. There's much to do. Some buildings here have decorated themselves and Christmas is in the air. I've spoken to people and we have obtained some few numbers and addresses.

There are many Hispanic families, however, on the Queens side of Ridgewood, there are also many Arabs and Eastern European families.

Ridgewood, NYC is located in Northern Brooklyn/Queens...not very far from Manhattan. Manhattan's easily visible and the area consists of a lot of apartment buildings everywhere! There are two many Subway lines which intersect through Ridgewood: the L Train and the M-Train...

The stops on the M-Train alone include the Central Avenue stop on the M-Train (Brooklyn)to Knickerbocker Avenue (Brooklyn) , Myrtle-Wykof Avenue (Brooklyn), Seneca Avenue (Queens), Forest Avenue (Queens), and Fresh Pond Road(Queens).

The L-Train runs accross and intersects at Myrtle-Wykof with the M-Train.

All stops on the L-Train are located in Brooklyn:

Jefferson St., Dekalb Ave., Myrtle-Wykof, Halsey St., Wilson Ave, etc...

The Brooklyn side of our Area and District here is really trashy and has a lot of crime; if you would see Wilson Avenue, for example, you would inevitably consider it the Ghetto (although Brooklyn's not completely [Park Slope's a rich area of Brooklyn] like this-it's filthy and crime infested in the North of it). Queens is much more secure and safer.

There are, residing within the Branch's boundaries, a considerable number of members within a small geographic area for a Branch here in New York. The vast majority of members are from originally Ecuador and Honduras. There are Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in Ridgewood, however, the ratio isn't quite that high within the Church here.

All of the members have acquaintances and friends who do not belong to the Church. Many opportunities to speak to people also-on the buses, Subways, and on the Street.

We've recently encountered success in Ridgewood. The Branch is expanding and they've also resumed Visiting and Home teaching because it had desisted for many months with the changes in leadership.

We have many meetings in the Chapel in Williamsburg within Bushwick's area at 185 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn.

Anyway, thanks for everything.  Love you!

Love,

Elder Steven Roberts.