OK, some more mission journal entries.
August 6, 1996
We got a new correlator and I’m very excited to work with him. He really wants to baptize so that’s exciting. Calls came and my comp is off to Staten Island. […] I guess there was a bomb up the street from our house last night. They had 2 ambulances a bomb squad and about 6-7 police cars. Crazy. Ya, we didn’t stick around they had about 2 blocks roped off so you couldn’t go in the blocked-off area.
August 7, 1996 (Wednesday)
I got a new companion today. [Elder]. He’s pretty cool and he’s a little nut. Something weird happened at transfers the other day. There is this sister missionary and she’s [attractive]. But, I went into the church and nobody else was in the church but her because we were all leaving. I was a long way from her and she stopped […] she said. “I’m really glad you’re staying here.” […] She said some nice stuff and all I could say was thank you. It made me feel kind of funny inside. My new comp and I are going to get 10 baptisms. We’re going to be animals this month. […]
Aug 8, 1996 (Thursday)
Wow, today was crazy. So ya, my comp is loony. Oh yes, he is. He does just crazy stuff. I have no response to some of it. We tried tracking. Not too good. We bought some fish and fed our pet Oscar (fish). […]
August 9, 1996 (Friday)
Today was crazy. We had a media referral and kind of knew the road wasn’t there but thought to go look for it anyhow. (because of prayer) we were right and so we prayed for direction and there were only a few houses nearby. It was in an industrial part of town and so we felt the spirit lead us to a house and there we found a cool lady. She was very cool. I taught her the Joseph Smith principle and the spirit was there so strong. I almost cried. I could see [tears] in the eyes of the woman. She felt it. I wanted to commit her to baptism but the words wouldn’t come out. […] We walked a lot and my comp got blisters on his feet. […]
August 10, 1996 (Saturday)
Hay Manhattan Day is on the 28th. I’m excited! I heard a story today I wanted to share. It was about a few boys. They had been drinking and they were way up on this hill and had in their possession a few riffles. […] They passed out drinking that night. And in the morning they awoke to see way down in the valley a sheep herder. One of the boys still a little bent from the night before starts shooting at the sheep for fun. […] They thought they killed about 30 sheep. Ya, as I heard the story the only thing, I could think about was how much the sheep herder must have wept. […]
August 11, 1996, (Sunday) Wow, church was cool today. We moved into a new chapel today. It was pretty cool. We’ve got an awesome view of [Manhattan] because the church is on the 4th floor. I like it. So President Bailey was there and President Garff and all the district people. Ya, I loved it. They’re good men. President Bailey talked about our last months and all the miracles that happened. She shared a lot of the experiences missionaries had. […] We had an appointment and they juked us so we went to look up a referral I had. He was never home, but this time he was. Come to find out he went to church a lot when he was young. Then again a year ago, but he didn’t feel he was ready for baptism. So he backed off and wow it was cool. He told us stories about how when he would see the missionaries he would think inside yes. That he knew all the other churches were wrong and he didn’t feel good there. I’m like wow. But I do think he should have been baptized last night (no baptism) oh well, I think this one will hold strong for today. Then we found another guy who admitted he was a little hard-hearted. The last time the missionaries came and thought maybe this is the time he waited for. (He thinks he might be able to find out if it’s true) Awesome. Then we found another lady who was way cool. I feel as though we were exceedingly blessed last night. Very and so we try and do our best. I love working with my comp. […]
SOME NOTES:
What can I say, I have never been that good at talking to girls. Especially sister missionaries on my mission.
The Oscar fish was pretty cool. It would eat like 10 goldfish at a time. Just gobbling one after another like binge eating. It would swim around with half a fish sticking out of its mouth.
The church we were in was interesting. It was the 4th floor of a building in the Astoria part of Queens. There was an awesome view of the Manhattan skyline from where the church was. One of my favorite things was looking at the Manhattan skyline. I always loved having that view. You always had a great view if you could get to the top of a building.