I'm happy that we are working hard

To answer your pressing question mom. Well, the ASL do the blessing much differently than normal speaking english. When we do the blessing, we put our hands on their head first. The person doing the blessing step back as all the other still keep their hands on the person head (for that reason, the person giving a blessing place their hand on the top of everyone hand). They fingerspell their full name and do it in ASL grammar. When they are finish with the blessing, they place their hand back on to seal the blessing. Little bit wierd but that how they get it done.

It good to hear everyone is having a fun time back home. Fall is in the air and the general conferance will come soon. You can help me enjoy the conferance by sending me snacks! Anyway, I'm looking forward to the conferance. We will be able to connect with the Salt Lake City and use their interpreters over the internets so the missionaries don't have to interpret and can actually sit with their investigator. One of the elder here don't want SCL interpreters because he think their styles are different from New York, he want the elders to interpret. He may be right that the interpreting style is different from here but honestly, pretty much all the missionaries don't want to interpret because they just want to sit with people and watch it together. I'm excited and it will be my 2nd time that I will watch the full conferance! Wow, I'm sure doing a lot of new things here in my mission!

Elder Jolley and I are doing great. We have found a lot of deaf who are interesting in the gospel. One of the deaf literally had his jaw wide open as we explain the gospel, scaredly can't beleived it! Pretty cool. We have one baptism date for October and we are doing everything we can to teach and help them progress to join the true church. We are careful not to force them and we only depend on the spirits to teach them. We have much in store for us and I know that only happen because we were diligent and obedience. We will continue to do so.

The bronx people has been very interesting. One man walk up to us and start calling us brother. It good to see that the Bronx has accepted us. Still, we make sure we don't have high hope because we noticed most of the people who called us brothers are drunk but the man that called us brother recently wasn't so that count, right?

Today, we will be using all of our P-Day to deep clean our apartment. It won't be pleasant and fun but we are require to do it. The reward is a nice clean apartment that will be mess up in less than a week (sorry mom) and a general conferance. Pray for me that I won't get a knee scrape!

One of our new investigator recently is very cool. His name is Artz. What make him very interesting is he is deaf and blind. Born in Domincian Republic, move to New York at age 7 years old, he a man with remarkable skills. He can sign in Mexican, American, and English (these three are very very different language). He also can read and write in perfect english grammar. His knowledge of the bible is incredibly deep. He can also read in Braille. He even volunteer to proselyte with us on Friday! Right now, we are in process of ordering a Braille Book of Mormon. He has been attending church for over a year now and the only thing that preventing him from progressing is the Book of Mormon. It will be a cool expereince and I have learn a lot from him especially about the Bible.

The district are doing great and I'm happy that we are working hard. You won't see such a finer district than us. The ASL district is unique because sometimes we stay as companion for more than two cycles and often stay in our area for more than four cycles (that six months). That good because our area are huge and it take quite some times to search and building some relationships with the deaf. We had a lot of fun moments together and recently, we are having a debate about foods. Ahh, the sillyness. I'm grateful that we are obedience and that we are working hard. The work is long and slow but that doesn't stop us. We make sure we have some funny moment to get rid of the stress and not take things too seriously.

Here what my schedule of the week normally look like. On monday we have nothing except from 6 to 8:30, we have what is called Mutual. It basically a basketball activities for young deaf. At least ten show up every week and the success is apparent. On tuesday, we have district meeting from 12:30 to 2 then a Institution class at 7. Wednesday is our P-day and we are off to work at 6 pm. Thursday we have weekly planning and off to work at 2. Friday and Saturday is a full day of work. We normally have baptism on saturday. On sunday, church started at 11 but we show up at 9 to coordinated the missionary effort and church are finished at 2:30. We do whatever business we need to do after church such as teaching investigator with members then we are normally home for dinner at 5. It off to work at 6. Pretty much everyday, we eat lunch at 11 and don't eat dinner until 9:30 so that we can work for a full nine hours. Dinner appointment are rare but we are not disappointed because there are much work to do.

Drumroll please. drumdrummdrumdrumdrum

SCRIPTURE OF THE WEEK!!!!
Open up your Book of Mormon! Turn to Jacob 4:6!
Here in the mission, we need a lot of faith on the Lord. Doubt is the enemy of faith (grr doubt, go away!) Especially here in the ASL when we stay in the area for a long time, we often think we know everything and that created a lot of doubts. We have to understand that the lord know what he is doing and that if we ask him, he will show us what to do. So, how do we have faith? The scripture made it quite clear, you need a testimony. If you don't have a testimony, then you don't have faith. Because I know the BOM is true, I have faith that the lord will lead me to someone to give them the BOM. So if you want to have faith to accomplished something that pertain to building up the Kingdom of god, make sure you have a testimony and when you do, you won't doubt, not a single percent of it!

I hope you are having a awesome time back home and I will look forward to the general conferance. I testify that I know President Monson is a prophet of God and that he lead the true church of jesus christ today. I testify that all the men and women who will speak today has been chosen for a reason. I know what they will speak is true and how grateful I am for a prophet today to guide us!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

p.s. GO BUCKS!