December 1, 1996, Sunday
Last month of the year. Wow, these go by fast. […] Nobody went to church with us. […] And [Elder] had another B-Day Party. Wow, his birthday was Friday. […] I feel as though all my energy is gone. I just feel tired. […]
December 2, 1996, Monday
Boy, on Monday and Tuesday, we just worked hard.
We went up to the mall in Queens, that was nice. Boring also. Then our branch […] we couldn’t get investigators to go, so we all took a new member. That was nice.
December 5, 1996, Thursday
We got in trouble today for not inviting the other elders over to a lunch appointment. Opps. So, today we did. We had a huge zone meeting and President Bailey came and interviewed everyone. Wow, that took a long time. My interview was the best. I shared some of my feelings and I asked him if I was a missionary of circumstance. He’s like, “What? No way. You’re one of the missionaries we can always count on. We know what you’re going to do in any situation.” […] I gave [lesson] on teaching the first and second in one and committing for baptism on the first […] the rest of the day fell apart.
December 6, 1996, Friday
Well, we got an Arbola de Navidad (Christmas Tree). One elder went out and blew $60 on a tree. Wow. Another $30 on decorations. I threw in a little, to be nice. Wow, a lot of money for missionaries. I went to a new member’s home (the family I just baptized) and they had a little 3’ fake tree because of a lack of money. There we are blowing all this money when we hardly have the time to enjoy it.
December 7, 1996, Saturday
Boy did it rain today. All day today. We were going to go on a split with Mariana today but she was sick so we advised her to stay home which was good We taught a few people. One was a Satan worshiper metalhead dude. The other was from tracting […]
December 8, 1996, Sunday
Church was cool. We thought all our commitments were going to come but nope. None. They all fell through. We’re trying so hard to get them there but they are being tough. We had the brother of a member show up so that was our only investigator.
December 9, 1996, Monday
I had my first Leader’s Meeting today and we sat and listened. [I’m going to leave out what President Bailey said] Well, [Elder] goes home in a few days. But one thing is really cool. Manhattan Day is tomorrow. Because I’m writing a day later. It was Tuesday.
December 10, 1996, Tuesday
Well, [Elder] and I struggled through the day. He’s very excited. So, I am excited for him. We had some man chew us out. […] We were walking down the street […] about to go into a store (RiteAid) when a lady and girl were exiting and I felt I should go and talk to them. But I continued into the store. I felt it again, so I ran out (without my companion) and chased them down. Just as they went into a store, so I waited. When they came out they were the bomb. A killer family.
NOTES: I’m not sure how to add to this. There are times I wish I had written more. There are times I wish I included more details. There are times I wish I had been able to type it all up instead of writing by hand. I feel I would have said 100 times more if I hadn’t written it. I remember my hand hurting from writing when I was journaling on my mission. I have seen the letters and details my nephew and others write home in their typed letters. There was so much more that could have been said. At least I wrote all the important stuff. I think I wrote the word “WOW” about 10,000 times.
What did I do on Manhattan Day? I have no idea. I didn’t write it down. I know what I did on many of the trips because I can remember them. But, I can’t remember all of them, or what I did on specific trips.