Miracles in NYC

HEY. Holy cow. A week packed with GOODNESS. It might have been one of my favorite weeks on my mission. I don't even know why... There was just so much goodness. So stay tuned ;)

Today is TRANSFERS. Aaaaaaaand... I'm staying in Manhattan!!  :)
And so is Sister Brown!! WOOO. We are so excited for this new cycle.
No more trio! No more being over two areas and two wards!! Back to
normal. Wow! I'm seriously SO excited for a new cycle.

Okay WHERE to begin. ..

YES! Yes yes. Richie!! Remember Richie? The one who works on Wall Street? We had the most perf lesson with Richie on Monday night. Lots of cool things were talked about and the spirit was there. Here are just a few cool things. So Richie said to me in this lesson, that something I had said in one of the previous lessons really stuck out to him. I was like "what? Uh oh. What did I say....?" And then GUESS what he said.... He said that when I said to him "maybe you are the one that lives in a bubble." it changed his WHOLE mind. Richie said he was just about to tell us in that lesson that he wasn't interested anymore and that he didn't want to waste our time. But when I "got all fired up inside" and explained to him how we aren't in a bubble, he had a whole new perspective. Richie was like thank you for opening my eyes. In my head I was jumping for JOY. I had no idea I had reached him in such a way. Our lesson was so good.


We asked Richie why he is continuing to meet with us. And what he
expects out of these "missionary visits" Richie said that the whole
reason he is meeting with us is because he was looking for something
more in his life and when he was walking by the temple he was like
wow. This looks amazing. And then came inside and there we were. He
laughed and then said "I honestly don't know why I am continuing to
meet with you... other than it makes me feel good." (#theSPIRIT is
working in him) RICHIE is so prepared. I think it's pretty stinkin amazing that he is willing to humble himself to learn more about the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He has all the money, anything he would ever want and here he is wanting to learn more. (Blessed is he for being humble without being compelled to be humble) I LOVE teaching Richie.

On Friday I got to go to Mission Leadership Council, (MLC) because
Sister Smith, who was our third companion, is a Sister Training
Leader. (Haha I always get put with the STL's) but I love it. President Morgan is a BOSS. I could listen to him speak all the live long day. He is so filled with the spirit and I just learn so much from him.

So I am currently reading the New Testament and I wish I could explain to you the insights I'm having. I LOVE the scriptures so much. I promise you when you STUDY the scriptures that is when you enjoy the scriptures. I used to never like reading my scriptures.. (#honest) .. But now that I'm literally studying them it's like my favorite thing. (Maybe that's just because I have zero entertainment right now so that's my entertainment hahaha.) but really my testimony is being so strengthened from daily scripture study.
DO IT. Dare you.

THOUGHTS:

So something I had been thinking about for a few days this last week, was how TIRING missionary work is. I sometimes wondered why I was putting myself through this. Why I  couldnt take a nap, why I couldn't just RELAX for a second!!!!! I was a bit frustrated to be honest. But... just when I had some doubts, god stepped in and gave me some answers. And you know HOW he gave me those answers??? THE SCRIPTURES. It was insane. One day I was studying and I was just looking up footnotes and clicking on random links on my iPad and I kept feeling a reoccurring phrase In my mind. Like everything seemed to be pointing to this. And that was to NOT BE WEARY. (Which is tired.) Here are some verses that just screamed out at me.
Helaman 10:4
"Blessed art thou, (abbey), for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments." (I replaced the name Nephi with my name) but WOAH if that wasn't god
talking to me then I am not even alive.
ANOTHER
"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the
foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that
which is great." THIS WAS straight up personal revelation for me. I NEEDED those verses. God understands me. Heavenly Father knows me. He knows exactly what I'm feeling. He KNOWS me better than I know myself. He KNEW that I needed to somehow read those verses. 

SNOWWWW

This shows our personalities perfectly!

 

I LOVE my Heavenly Father.

NEW INVESTIGATOR:
JAY. Jay is amazing. He is from France. He is a musician. And he has zero religious background. He talked to two elders at an APF that we did at Columbus circle. And then the elders gave us his number because he lives in our area! We met with Jay and gave him a church tour. WOW. Best lesson ever. Best investigator ever. He is SO sincere. He had so many questions and we had so many answers!! I can't even remember everything that went on but what I do remember was saying the closing prayer for that lesson and praying that Jay would feel the truth of our message and that he would be blessed and I was so overwhelmed with LOVE. I could literally feel gods love for Jay in that very moment. It was one of the most spiritual prayers I've ever said. Tears filled my eyes and I was like NOo why am I crying!!! Hahaha. I somehow held it together.
And all I can say is I LOVE MY MISSION.

ONE LAST MIRACLE.
So Sunday was fast Sunday and one of the things I fasted for was to be able to see more miracles in our area! I was just feeling the need to RECOGNIZE more of the miracles that happen daily! Well I fasted the whole day and then eventually prayed and broke my fast.
I KID YOU NOT .. 10 minutes after I broke my fast, a man walked into
the church named Holdon. He came to the 2nd floor which was right
where we were. (Nobody ever goes to the second floor so this was cool that he came right where we were) well anyways Holdon walked over and me and my two companions just smiled. He goes "hello I'm Holdon and I want to learn more about your church, where can I go to do that" WHAT. You guys what. These kind of things don't just happen!?!? He walked in out of nowhere. And magically came up to THREE missionaries!!! We were like OOOOO. You are in the RIGHT place. :) and then we got his contact information and taught him the restoration and hooked him up with a Book of Mormon. Holy smokes. Prayers are answered. So cool. Can't wait to see what happens with Holdon. Pray for him :)

I have been realizing lately that we have so many single men to teach. HAHa. Makes things a little tricky. But hey, I'm not complaining. We have people to TEACH. So blessed. I feel like the heavens were opened up to us this last week. It was gooooooood. :)


I love you all. I love the gospel. I love my mission.

LOVE Sista Dunford

HEY 2015!

HAPPY 2015-NEW YEAR!!

I feel like I have SO much to tell you all!!!! So many little MIRACLES happened this week. And Christmas and New Years and AH such an amazing week. So many people here. (I should have been called speaking every language in the world) really tho. Hello diversity. Haha and the reason I am emailing Thursday instead of Wednesday is because our P day was changed from New Years Eve to New Year's Day. Too many crazies in the city to have a preparation day on the Eve of 2015. Haha. But WOW. It's a good day.

What a great year it was. I couldn't have asked for a better year. 2014 was so good for me!!! I
finished hair school, I made new friends, I made some changes in my life,  I went through the temple, I became a missionary, I lived in Connecticut, I now live in New York, and I've learned more about myself and the gospel than I EVER have before. 2014 was so special. I am oh so grateful for that year. I have ONE year left to be a missionary. Almost exactly a year from now I will be coming home. (NOOO) haha teasin. Love home. But really.. I have ONE YEAR left to be a full time representative of Jesus Christ. Wowza. I've been asking myself.. How I can reach my fullest potential as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 2015 is going to be SO good. I'm just going to plow through these New Yorkers and share the freakin message like nobody's business. I'm so grateful that we have the opportunity to change EVERYDAY and be better than we were the day before. I love goals. Goals give us the opportunity to ACT rather than to be acted upon. I have set some pretty awesome goals for myself and I'm ready to act and continue to become the me that Heavenly Father wants me to be! :) YES 2015.

My goodness Christmas was amazing!! Couldn't have asked for a better
day. We weren't allowed to proselyte that day so you could say it was EXTRA special :) It started out with opening gifts!! Which was so fun. My cute companions and I took turns opening our gifts. I was in heaven. I was reminded of who I am. (Not that I forgot) haha I just remembered that I love my family so much and they really know how to put together a good Christmas package. We THEN went ICE SKATING. And let me tell you... Ice skating in NYC on Christmas Day is somethin else. SO MAGICAL. Looking up at the tall buildings surrounding me and gliding/tragically falling on the ice :) too good. I felt like an ice queen of New York. THEN guess what I did next.... SKYPE. Ah yes. Best part of the day by faaaaaar. It felt so short!! I could have talked to you guys ALL day if I could. One hour isn't long at all. It was so good tho. I love you family so much it hurts. I loved seeing your fabulous faces. After Skype we went to eat at a members home! They were great!! Yummy food. We sang Christmas songs together and laughed the whole time because we sounded awful. Good stuff. After dinner we got to go home early and SLEEP. It was the best day ever. And it was all because our Savior Jesus Christ was born. I thank my Heavenly Father EVERY day for that special gift. So blessed so blessed. The next day was Christmas hangover hahaha. Saddened that it was over. We are still sleeping on our beds together in the living room. Haha. Too fun.

 

Hi im a ballerina

Me and the Companions ;)

my fave almonds - WASABI!!

Little baby miracle people throughout the week:

SANAE- a magical miracle. Sanae was BAPTIZED on Saturday!! Yes. We had a baptism. It was such a surprise to us because we basically did nothing!! Haha. She came from Japan on December 22nd and got married to a man in our ward on December 24th (yes Christmas Eve.) she was then baptized on December 27th and then confirmed on the 28th. WOA right?? The man she married had served his mission in Japan and that's where they met. So Sanae had been taught by missionaries in Japan! And then since she was marrying the man in our ward she flew here to be married and baptized!!  So we taught her like one last lesson before she was baptized! And now she is our recent convert so we get to teach her all the lessons again!! HOW AWESOME. Little miracles all around. It was so refreshing!! She is the cutest ever.

A cool little story about SOLA- so we got a media referral (a
requested visit from the internet) so I call the number and this cute voice says hello this is sola! I was like hello and explained who we were and that we had a request from her. She was like oh yes! I want to learn more about the Book of Mormon! So in my head I was like this can't be real? She seriously requested a visit? She is normal? She's legit? Serious about learning more? YES. We set up an appointment with her. When the appointment finally came we went over and she is the CUTEST Chinese girl ever. She doesn't really look that Chinese she is like America Chinese. But anyways she is 24 and so normal. So cool. So cute. So happy. And here she is wanting a visit from us 19 year old missionaries. We did somethin we call a "how to begin teaching" lesson with her and explained what we do as missionaries and what our purpose is. She was super interested. She continued to tell us that her dad went missing five years earlier and they have not ever found him. She and her mom have been left with nothing but a mystery. I cannot imagine the pain and confusion she must feel from that. My heart was literally aching as she explained to us how it happened. I could feel her pain. Ugh I wanted to cry!! Sola has ZERO Christian background. Religion has played no role in her life! She has never prayed to god. Never gone to church. Never read the scriptures. And wow. She is all of the sudden open to it. Her heart is ready and has been softened. Heavenly Father has been preparing her for the gospel. I feel so blessed to be able to be the instrument in gods hands in sharing the restored gospel to her. Sola is already reading the Book of Mormon! SHE is so cute. Everyone keep her in your prayers!!

Another miracle moment with THELMA!!-
So we have a less active named Thelma. And to make a LONG story
short.. We are now teaching all THREE of Thelma's sisters who have
NEVER been open to the church. They are like in their 40's and 50's.
So we have THREE new investigators. Um miracle. IT WAS SO COOL. We
went to Thelma's to teach her and didn't know all her sisters would be there, but when we realized they were there we invited them to listen to the lesson.. It ended up with EACH of them holding a copy of the Book of Mormon in their hands and them saying they were going to read the book to find out if it's true. WOW. Testifying of the Book of Mormon  had never felt SO clear and so right. I am reminded EVERY time I testify of the Book of Mormon, of it's truthfulness. It is so crystal clear in my mind while teaching others about it and I KNOW it is true. Every single thing we believe is based on that book. And it either IS true, or it ISNT. And I'll tell you what. ITS TRUE. I would bet my life on it. That's very bold to say I know(Bold claim bold claim.) But just study it and pray about it to know for yourself. ;) Only hard hearted people don't get their answer. So soften your heart and READ IT :)

Holy smokes this is a long email and I could keep going...

I will just say Woah the people here for New Years HAHA. All these
crazy drunk people. Man the New Years celebrations are just too funny. Time Square was complete chaos. And I know that because that's in my area. Goodness I promise you don't want to be one of those psychos standing in the freezing cold surrounded by millions of people where you can't move at all and then your just staring at a tiny little ball that is going to fall at midnight. I was grateful to be in our warm apartment early last night haha!!

PUPPY!!!!

BUT ANYWAYS. HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE!! Don't forget about me this 2015. It's my ghost year. Haha meaning I will be on my mission like the whole year. So I guess I basically don't exist. But I love you guys.

LOVE,
Sister Abba Dunford

Christmas EVE man

YOU GUYS.

Is it seriously Christmas Eve?!? What.

I will start out with a giant THANK YOU to those who have sent me things and thought of me this Christmas season. I am for sure feeling the love over here in New York. I will hopefully be working on some thank you cards in the near future. I LOVE YOU ALL.

Today we were going to go to Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center and guess what. It's POURING. I'm dreaming of a (wet!?!?) Christmas ??? No white!!! What! Haha. Zero visibility. So we get to go next week for free! So instead of top of the rock we... SHOPPED. 5th ave. happy abbey.

I feel an overwhelming amount of love for all the people here!! I feel like New York is just everyone in the world. Seriously. The other day I was talking to people about Christ and Christmas and within a matter of 15 minutes I had met a woman from France, a man from Israel, a couple from South Korea, and a couple from Australia. WHAT on earth. Let me just tell you that god LOVES ALL his children. And I have been blessed to be able to feel just a TINY bit of his love for everyone. Wow. I really just get teary eyed when I think about all of Gods children. Who am I. Hahah crying over nothing.. Goodness. the things missions do to you.. :)

I'm struggling to explain my love for my mission. I'm so SO deeply
grateful to be here. I love everything about it. Hopefully one day in heaven I will be able to re-play my mission and watch it like a movie. Because this is too good (and too hard) to be real. ;)
Haha

Here's some NEWS for you.
I am now in a TRIO. Haha three of us!! I have two companions. Because one of the sisters in our apartment had to go home early for health problems and so then there was an extra sister. So they put us three together! So now we cover two areas in manhattan. Woah man. So much area. So many people. SO MUCH work to be done. But guessssss what? I love it. Being in a trio is just fabulous. We literally just laugh while doing missionary work all day long haha. It's supa enjoyable.

We finished our 120 Book of Mormon read as a whole mission today!!!
WOW. That book. Is true. And awesome. I'm so grateful for all that I
have learned from reading and studying it everyday. I know that the
Book of Mormon is truly the word of god. LOVE IT.

We had some awesome zone activities this week. Lots of caroling and Christmas sharing. There was one APF where we stood in front of a library on 5th ave. and sang Christmas carols about Christ and I'm not kidding people were stopping and recording us and taking pictures and smiling and being SO happy. Such a cool experience being in one of the most "worldy" places on earth and being able to feel the spirit so strong.

So tomorrow we get to go ice skating and I'm mega pumped about that.
Wooo!! It's Christmas time in the city!! (So help me... if it's
pouring rain again...) Buuuut I get to SKYPE YOU FAM!!!!!!!! I'm sooo pumped. Made a list of all the things I want to tell you!! So be sure and make a list as well :) We are eating at our stake presidents apartment tonight. And me and my two companions are having a slumber party in our living room. (I'll miss my real sisters but these two chikas will have to do ;) )

I'm actually way way way sad that Christmas is going to be over. :(
Christmas is a great time when you can talk to people about Christ and they seem to be just a little more open to Christ than normal.. Their hearts seem to be a little bit softer than other times. I am really hoping within the next few months we will start to see the fruits of our labors from sharing the gift these past weeks. I truly believe that god will bless us for all our hard work here in New York.

Aaaaaand last...  but most DEFINITELY not the least.
I LOVE my savior Jesus Christ. I am so happy that he was born. Christmas is just a great big birthday party for Christ. Let us not forget tomorrow when we are opening our gifts... that the ultimate gift of ALL is Christ. He is there for us ALWAYS. Every day every second allllll the time. He loves us. And our Heavenly Father loves us as well. And that's why he gave us his son. We are so blessed!!

Wellllllllll hey.
I will talk to you TOMORROW family. Face to face. YAY YAY YAY!!!!! I
love you guys so much. Save me a yummy cinnamon roll tomorrow morning ;) and plz take lots of pictures tonight and tomorrow. I'm so excited to wear my new Christmas PJs. I will take pictures as well. LOVE YOU.

Love,
Sista Abbs Dunford

Good Tidings ;)

WHAT a week. Good times in the big apppppple.

WOW there are SO many people here right now. Because of Christmas. Everyone just wants to be here for Christmas!! Haha it's wonderful. There are always so many visitors at church on Sunday. which is fun. There are especially a lot at this time of year!! It's awesome. People are always so nice to us missionaries. (Well the members) hahaha most people in the streets just stare at us. I'm like smiling and "Whatchu know bout me!!" Hahah!

SO we have an investigator named Richie. He is RICH. So filthy rich. His name fits him perfectly. He works on Wall Street and is one of those high class confident people. Haha he likes very expensive clothes and just your average rich person. So this was cool. He totally just walked into the temple one day and asked if he could learn more!!! So we were like YES. We have taught him 3 times in the hallway of the church because a lot of times the members can't come to lessons because they are busy... (Which is realllly difficult because we have a lot of times where we can't teach just one male.) Like you know the missionary rule. Two sisters can't be alone with one male. So anyways we have been teaching him in the "lobby thing" of the church. I LOVE teaching him because I feel like I'm changing his mind about "the Mormons." Something I LOVED.. One time Richie said something along the lines of "you guys are so inexperienced. You live in a bubble and you're so young and probably just brainwashed." Hahahah!!! (Do you even know how many people think the same thing as him?) (KILLS me) When he said that I just got so fired up inside. But not in a bad way haha. I somehow explained (with the help of the spirit) that I AM NOT brainwashed. I am not out here because my parents told me to come here. I am not here because it's something "we Mormons do" I am not here because I had nothing else to do. I'm not here to impress anyone. I didn't just leave all my family, my home, all my music, dating, all my clothes, my friends, my job, because I am brainwashed. For crying out loud I am a 19 year old girl. WHY ON EARTH would I do this for any other reason than to share TRUTH and peace and happiness with others. If I really wanted, I could go home. But NO not till my 18 months is up. I looked at Richie and said "Richie... Do you honestly think I'm that silly? Do you think I haven't thought this through in my head? Because I TOTALLY have. Believe me. I have wondered MANY times why I am doing what I am doing. And I. Am. Not. Brainwashed." I told him how hard the mission can be. And the things I've had to sacrifice. I explained to him some of the things I've had to go through to gain the testimony that I have. I told him more about myself. I think he really started to see that I am NORMAL. Haha I'm not this robot Mormon girl. I kinda sorta explained to Richie that he is the one living in a bubble :) haha!!! He said "wow it's nice to see it from your view!!!" I wish I could just have recorded that lesson for you. But all you have to know is that I LOVE teaching him. Because I feel like Heavenly Father has prepared me for certain people here. I love when I can be bold and confident while teaching. And since Richie is so bold with us, I have every right to be bold back to him. I LOVE when I can be bold with people.

We had the most WONDERFUL Christmas devotional on Friday with THE
WHOLE MISSION. The ONLY time the WHOLE mission gets together is forChristmas!!! And I was in heaven. I really can't explain the spirit that I feel when I am surrounded with other missionaries doing the same thing that I am doing. And oh. My. Heavens. The Christmas spirit was SO strong. President and Sister Morgan spoke and there was a wonderful choir of missionaries. Seriously they sounded like angels. And then we had a big meal that was catered and so good. We sat as a whole mission (all 270 somethin of us) and ate a meal  together. A very delicious one. It was so fun. I LOVED seeing my favorite missionaries from my last area. And so many of the other missionaries that I have made friends with. It was super fun to ride upstate on the train with alllll the city missionaries. So everyone from Manhattan and Harlem and The Bronx rode up on the metro north train which was so fun. We got a lot of people staring at us haha!! Definitely a Christmas memory to remember forever!!!!

My dear Sister Amorim! I miss her lots!

We did an activity with my district in time square!! Something we call an APF (area proselyting focus) so my companion and I were in charge because it's in our area. Basically we just gather a bunch of
missionaries to try to help out in our area. It's always a good time. For this one we gave out free candy canes with "he is the gift" pass along cards tied to them. And we wrapped Book of Mormons and gave those out like Christmas presents. We sang Christmas carols and got a lot of stares. Haha. It was really cool. There are even more ads in time square now!! They are everywhere!!!! Like 6 of them!!! And I just can't even imagine the cost of that... Haha. It's amazing. I showed the video so many times that my iPad battery died! Too good.

I LOVE my ward. Ah. Why am I in such an amazing part of the world with such amazing people!?! I am learning from such good people. Too many good examples to follow here in NYNY North. Every prayer that I say is literally just THANK YOU thaaaaank you thank you. Thankful for the trials Im having. Thankful for the area I'm in. Thankful for my apartment. Thankful for my ward. For my mission president. For this opportunity. For my FAMILY. For ME. I'm so thankful. FOR EVERYTHING.

Christ is Christmas. He is!!! He is he is he is. Can we all PLEASE just remember how amazing he is especially these last few days of December. Christ is a gift for all of us. So go on and open that gift.. :) Discover him. Embrace him. Use the gift. SHARE it.

   

Our teeny Christmas Tree I chose

I LOVE YOU fam fam and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.
(Next P day is Christmas Eve) hehe partay!!! Can't wait to talk to you fam!! Good tidings xoxoxo xox

Sister ABBs Dunford

Welcome to New York!

Oh man I never know how to start these emails.. Just so much floating around in my head!!

So here we go!
#randomness

Welcome to New York, it's been waiting for you!!!! (Tayla swift) yes I heard that song... Because for crying out loud I'm in New York and it was playing at a bakery I went to the other day. I love Taylor Swift.

Serving a mission in New York City is something I will NEVER EVER
forget. NEEEW YOOORK! I love this city. I am getting to know the city in a way that most people don't and won't ever get to know it. I am a missionary here!!! I visit multiple apartments every day!! I get to see the lives of these amazing people. I teach others about Christ. I walk inside other peoples homes everyday. Most people could care less about talking to the people surrounding them on the streets.. but I'm talking to them!! Like how cool. I'm here in New York. With such a variety of people and
I'm doing the most important thing ever. Nothing beats this experience. I LOVE it.

It was a good weeeeeeek!! We have a goal of showing the "He is theGift" video 20 times a day. We got 2 new investigators from he is the gift!!!! Two people interested because of the video. AWESOME. So even tho most of the people we show the video to just say AwHhh that's a nice video... There are the select few who are actually interested. Amazing. YAY. The Mormons know what's up.

THOUGHTS ;)

I will never be the same after this. I refuse to be the same person I was before. I CANNOT be the same. I won't. (Don't worry. I'm still ME.. Just a better ME.) haha But that's something I've really been thinking about quite a bit lately. When we have a spiritual experience or when we receive revelation or I don't know "something special happens," we should never just stay the same. We need to turn our knowledge into ACTION. I think a lot of people have desires to change, but not everyone knows exactly how to make that change happen!! There is a reason why we go through things in life and it's definitely not for us to just sit and stare at the wall and be the same person we were in 1st grade. We MUST change. For the BETTER. I have been experiencing a change in my self as I am allowing Christ to change me! I am letting him help me every day. I know that when we submit ourselves to Christ and when we sacrifice our will for the lord's, we will experience a positive inner change that will help us be happier. I have my own personal witness of this. I have a strong testimony of Christ. I'm so grateful for my Father in Heaven who sent his only begotten son to earth, FOR US. He loves us so much. And what a WONDERFUL time of year it is to recommit ourselves to

follow Christ and to allow him to change us. It's Christmas time! And I'm so grateful to be a part of this amazing work here. I love my mission.

HAHa. I have NEVER seen weirder people than some of the people here in New York. Oh my gosh. There are too many times when I just find myself laughing because of some crazy person that I saw or talked to. Example: On Sunday in church during the sacrament, there was this man who came to visit.  (dressed crazy) he had like a funky hat on and some plants in his pockets and a big brief case and a lot of papers with him.. Well the deacons were passing around the sacrament and this man yells out loud and goes "is this bread Kosher??" AH. Hahah. Then when the water was coming around he stood up and asked (very loudly) if he could have Budweiser instead of water. AH. Haha I was laughing inside of myself the whole time. Hahah. He was crazy!! CRAZY people here in NYC. But you know what it the coolest ever?? We are ALL children of god. And I love having that knowledge. I love sharing this message with gods children here in New York. They are our bothers and sisters!! We are all brothers and sisters. And what a cool thing that is.

I forgot to talk about my new companion in my last email!!
Sister Brown. She is great!!! We are both blonde. She's tall!! She's so nice. We both love shopping!!! Although not at the same stores. Haha. She makes me LAUGH. And we work so hard together. We both love this city. I have NO complaints.

  

So remember how I BRIEFLY talked about Omar the Egyptian in my last email? Weeelllll... We can't really teach him anymore because he just got a little... Too... creepy. Haha. Omar isn't married. And he wants to be married so bad. Hahah I guess to just be blunt about it... Omar flirts with me. And compliments me. And stares at me. SO. Hahaha. We had to talk to the bishop about him and to our district leader and get it all taken care of. So now the other elders are going to teach him so that we don't have these problems anymore. So he was a little uncomfortable for me to be around but it's ALL good now. (No worries mom) IM SAFE.

It's been prettttttty rainy this last week which is fiiiiiiine. Rain rain rain. But hey I'm in New York so it can rain on me any day and I'll still be happy.

Haha there was one day where the subways were not fun. Some of them were not working. Which made the ones that were working extremely crowded and packed. And it was RAINY. So imagine wet New Yorkers shoved into a subway train. Like literally my face was squished right by the window. HAHa I was sneaking Mormon cards into peoples purses. Hahahah.

I am SO HAPPY.
So grateful. So blessed. So good. So excited. So awesome. I love being a missionary.

I LOVE YOU.

Love,
ABBs

Hi I'm in HEAVEN.

Okay maybe a missionary shouldn't be saying this... But I feel like
I'm on vacation. HAHa. Who knew missionary work could be so fun!?!
I am just DYING I love it here so much. I am moving back here after my mission. I LOVE it. And oh my goodness the fact that it's Christmas time here... It's MAGICAL. I am in the best mission in the world.

So how do I even start.
THERE IS JUST SO MUCH TO TELL.

I will start out with HE IS THE GIFT.
Okay. You're lame if you haven't heard of he is the gift. Because it's AWESOME. And Holy. Crap. Our church is amazing. There are 3 HUGE advertisements in Time Square. HUGE. And they are in. Time. Square. WHAT!?! The church has estimated that 55 MILLION people will see it. Let me also tell you Time Square is in MY AREA. 

#bestplacetocontact


#howdidigetsolucky

Yesterday my companion and I handed out like 10 Book of Mormons and
like 50 He is the Gift cards. People were like "oh you guys are real Mormons???" HAHA. The things people say to us missionaries...(People always ask if I am a nun) hahahaha. NO. I cannot explain how cool it is to see real MORMON stuff on huge billboards IN TIME SQUARE. (Haha it is pretty cool to see the Book of Mormon Broadway play adds too) The church has put so much focus into this and I feel SO blessed to have Time Square in my area. I'm just dying. I'm like sharing the gift like crazay out here!! #ShareTheGift. There was this man on the subway that I was talking to the other night and I asked where he was coming from and he said he had just left a concert in Time Square for U2 and Coldplay and Carrie Underwood. I was like whuuuut that's awesome! And then he asked about who I was and what I was doin, so I told him. And then he goes "oH yeah I just saw a ton of Mormon stuff in Time Square right above the people performing!!" I then was like WHAAT. You saw it?? For realz!?! SO COOL. I showed him the video and he loved it. So that's a random little story but I just thought wow, how cool!!! Mormon sharin goodness in Time Square and famous people performing. I betcha Coldplay saw "he is the gift" HAHA. :)
Random thoughts-

We have the cutest little apartment with the cutest brick wall inside!!! Whaaaaaaat! Love it. So blessed.

 

  

So like I don't even need Instagram or twitter because I am basically IN Instagram and Twitter. Haha. So like example: my favorite blogger that I followed before my mission (on Instagram) is IN. MY. WARD. Stop. I have like LIVE newsfeed in front of me all the time. I'm for realz in heaven.

I am pro subway rider. I am becoming a true local New Yorker.. Welll... Except I still almost fall over every time it moves forward.

You would have died laughing if you saw me hauling all my luggage
through the city and on the subways to our apartment. HAHA. My
suitcases were so heavy and it was pouring rain and me and my companion were laughing SO hard struggling to get down the subways, on, off and up stairs... Hahaha.

I love the New York temple. It is like home base for us. We work all around the temple and so it's like home for us!!! Loooove it.

I fall asleep to the sound of a siren every night!! Haha awesome.

In our area we have like my faves. Central Park, 5th ave. Rockefeller center, Lincoln Center, Time Square and other random awesome things. These are just a few cool ones. The upper west side is amazing. It's just like the New York you see in the movies.

Thanksgiving was greaaaat! We ate at my bishops apartment. The food
was amaze. And I just feel so blessed. I'm so thankful my gosh.

Which reminds me.. The apartments here... AH beautiful. The members
apartments.. AH. The views. I love this city.

There was this event at Lincoln Square (which is where the temple is) and the event was called Winters Eve. It's like a huge event that they do every year here in New York on December first. Well all the missionaries in my zone passed out free hot chocolate to everyone and it was SO fun. And so cool because there were so many people outside the temple!!  We got a new investigator that night which was awesome. There were live bands and lots of performers and lots of fun stuff. New York is THE PLACE TO BE in December. Well New York is the place to be all the time.

   

OMAR. Is one of our investigators and guess where he is from??
Egypt!! And guess what language he speaks?? Arabic!!! And so guess how we teach him?? We have a translator!!! And guess what!  It's SO cool. I am in a foreign American place. Haha.

Thank you for the packages!!! I LOVE getting all the packages. And
letters!! They bring so much happiness to me!!! All the missionaries
in my zone always laugh when they bring the mail because there's
always a ton for me. Haha I'm like what?? my family and friends love
me! :)

So lets be REAL. Manhattan is awesome. And aside from the bronchitis that I have... Life is GOOD. You would laugh if you saw me using my inhaler here. Haha we'll be sittin on the subway and there I am just awkwardly inhaling hahahah.

I LOVE my mission. Everything about it. The things I'm learning are
things I would not have learned any other way. I want to write more..
But nope. Later :)

LOVE YOU SO MUCH

Xoxoxoxoxox
Love,
Sista Abba