Weekly Update11-08-10

Wow, my heart is full with love as I reflect back on all of the many life changing experiences that I have had as I have served here in this area these past 7 months. I have experienced quite the change within my personal self and had the opportunity to see others make a change in there lives as well. The Spirit of the Lord has called me to another place, I have been called to be a Zone Leader in Flushing, Queens. I am grateful for this new responsibility that I have been given to assist in helping the District Leaders as well as the missionaries that are with in the Zone. There are a total of 9 zones in this mission with a total of 15 Zone Leaders and about 200 Missionaries. I am grateful to play the role as a Zone Leader, I know that I will do my best in fulfilling my missionary responsibilities and to love and serve the missionaries around me.

Flushing is Asian central in this mission. There is only one English Companionship in that whole Zone, only the Zone Leaders. I have been to Flushing before, it is a unique place in the world, all of the signs are in Chinese. When I went there before I felt like I was in an Asian country like China or something, because there were people everywhere and no one speaks English. They have only had one English baptism there in the past year, but I know that I am going to do all that I can to make that change. I am going to be in a ward that speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. So yeah this is going to be quite a cool experience. I am definitely leaving the Hood, and I will be a tall person for once in my life, being surrounded by Asians, so that should be fun. I might even pick up some Chinese while I am out there.

This weekend was such a touching experience for me we were able to have the baptism for Zoe on Saturday evening. It was such a great experience and we were able to get a lot of others to attend the baptismal service. Gwen, Zoe's mother says that I am like one of her sons she is such a great lady who loves us so much, I just hope that they can remain strong in the church and that they can keep in touch with me. This Sunday was such a touching day for me. The Spirit strongly bore witness to me yesterday that my work is done here. As I reflect on the way the Branch was when I got here in this area 7 months ago, and how it is today, I see such a huge improvement. Us missionaries used to be the ones that blessed and passed the sacrament every week, and yesterday I had 2 of my recent converts bless and pass the Sacrament. I shared my testimony yesterday and as I looked out to the congregation I noticed that I knew every single person in there and I loved every single person in there. It was so touching to me. I am going to miss the People here so much, and I am sure that they are going to miss me too, last night everyone wanted me to come over for dinner, but I couldn't make it out to go see everyone. Today I am packing my bags up and preparing to move to Queens. I am also going to miss my District, and how close we have come together in Unity and love these past 6 weeks, I love the missionaries here. I have had a lot of success here in this area and I sincerely pray and hope that I can continue to have this great success here in NYC.

This week we were also able to invite Marlorie to be baptized, she is a young married women from Haiti. She has read a lot of the Book of Mormon as we've been teaching her. She is excited to be baptized we set her Baptism date for November 27th, she is going to work hard to prepare herself to be baptized on that date. We also have another baptism that should be happening this coming Thursday for Mark, but I am going to be in Flushing so I wont be able to attend his baptism, but I am going to miss them dearly. It feels great to leave the area like this.

I cant believe how fast time is flying by for me, I know that I have only but a little time left, and I am going to work as hard as I can and make the best of it these last 9 months. I miss all of you, but I am loving my time here, and I don't want it to come to an end. I know that I still have many great experiences that are awaiting me in this sacred work. That is about all that I have to say for now, and I am also running out of time. I love you all so much!

Elder JD Doyle