Richmond Hill makes me weep

October 9th, 2017

Richmond Hill? Yeah, so it is crazy. Definitely in many ways the most ghetto and the nicest of areas I have served in. We live really close to a lot of Jews, which basically means we live in a really nice area. The only downside is that a lot of people have money in this area, and due to that the food is outrageously expensive. Last week and this week alone I have spent over $100 on groceries! For not too much, either!

Cool graffiti calls for a picture!

The upside is that we have many member appointments this week so we won't be feeding ourselves much. :)

Should I do this in bullet points?

- Sister Gillespie is precious and lovely and a ballerina and violinist.❤️ I love her so much.

- The Carlins (the senior couple down the hall) are wonderful and we ate a pot pie together for dinner this week and it was fabulous.

- Last night I had a Mexican feast with plátanos, jerky beef, limón agua, frijol, y arroz y era una de mis comidas favoritas en mi misión.

- Also Peruvian food is amazing. If I'm not equivocado (wrong) the amazing rice I tried is called chaufa.

- We were walking around on our first day in Richmond Hill in the Brooklyn slice of our area and we were talking to this girl named Aly about the hope Christ can bring and she began to cry and said she really needed that.

- Yesterday, an investigator of the Elders in Rego Park was baptized. It was weird because on Saturday I had a dream about him getting baptized and then it happened. I was so happy! What a miracle for him to be baptized after he went through so much to get to that point.

- The members here talk to all of their friends about missionary work! It is such a missionary-focused Ward.

- We have street contacted and knocked A LOT this week. And we have to keep doing it until we find solid people!

- Did I mention that Josh in Brooklyn was baptized who I worked with over a year ago? And Elder Menden baptized him, with Elder Creager was there, too!:) How awesome is that? I think I mentioned that already though. It just makes me really happy.

- Also Sister Chung is a Sister Training Leader. And Sister McAllister is training, so my generation picture is included.

 Hermana Gillespie (my new companion) and I

Four generations! Me, Sister Chung, Sister McAllister, and Sister Robison respectively.

Generations + Sister Gillespie ( all photo creds to Elder Rogers whom I dearly appreciate)

- Sister Reeve and I were nosy sticking around at the church for weekly Planning last last week on Thursday and transfer planning was the same day (and they were hiding Elder Asplund so that no one knew he was the new Assistant). Sooo Elder Asplund confronted us at transfers and said, "because you two were 'eating lunch' in the church, President wouldn't let me go to the bathroom so I had to wait forty-five minutes until you sisters left and I had to go SO bad." But the good thing is that we are bros with Elder Asplund now.

- Elder Brown helped us figure out Richmond Hill a bit as well and led us towards Brooklyn for finding.

Cheesy pick-up lines used on my companion and I this week:

"Hey! You dropped something!" *we look back* "my heart." *wink*

"I just wanna let you know that redheads make me weep. I love you! I love both of you!"

Spiritual thought:

"Looking back, I learned some of the best lessons during the hardest times - whether as a youth, on a mission, starting a new career, striving to magnify my callings, raising a large family, or struggling to be self-reliant. It seems clear that hard is good!"

Rooftop fun in Richmond Hill :-)

I know that the challenges in our lives help purify us and allow us to become more Christ-like. Opening up Richmond Hill is difficult, but it is an adventure for which we are more than a match!

I love each of you, have a blessed week!

Hermana Ally Voss