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.