Weekly Update 10-25-10

    Wow, it has been another week that has flown by before us. It is amazing how time flies, a saying that Brother Amato (a member here) uses all of the time is of course time flies when we are all moving as 67,000 MPH. That is supposedly how fast the earth is moving as it is orbiting the sun. This week was a great week for us, we had a lot of service this week, it always feels good serving others, but at the same time it takes up a lot of our time. So this week we had like 4 different service projects that took up a lot of our time, we had to help the Branch President move out of the Projects, which he lived on the 8th floor so we had to load everything in the elevator and take it down and unload it from the elevator and then carry it to the truck and load it in the truck, it was quite the move for us. Also we helped a lady paint 2 of her rooms and she also wanted us to paint the ceiling, that consumed a lot of our time. Also Brother Amato is in the middle of packing up his stuff because he is planning on moving. It was great serving others it just took a lot of time outside of finding more people to teach. But that is definitely one of the things that I am here for is to serve others.

    I have been here in this area for so long, and I am certain that I am going to be leaving in 2 weeks, I think that I want to go out on Long Island to a car area, considering that I havent driven for the last 14 months of my life, also just to have the experience of doing that kind of work, because I know that the work is going to be different out there. I have been in the loud city forever now. We will just have to see what happens in 2 weeks from now. I only have 2 weeks left to serve here in the "HOOD" I am thankful for the time that I've had to serve here, and for the great success and miracle stories that I have to share with you all when I get home. We still have Zoe and Mark and now Marlorie who are all progressing towards their baptismal dates. I am thankful for each of them and their decisions to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. There truly is nothing more important that I could ever do in my life than what I am doing right now, the Spirit is so strong in my life right now as I am truly giving this work all that I have to offer. It is my duty to God to share with others the mysteries that he has revealed to me through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

    This morning as I was walking with Elder Palmer (my last companion) there was a man on the side of the road who was having a heart attack it was crazy, he was an older guy laying on the side of the road crying asking for help a lady called 911 and he got some help, but it was crazy. I felt bad for this man, I wanted to give him a blessing, but we just couldnt really do it because he didnt speak English. 

    Tyler, I want you to know that I love you so much and that you are going to be a great missionary, I am so proud of you and my heart is full of joy and love, because I know of the great experiences and opportunities that are going to be presented to you through our loving Heavenly Father. You are going to love the mission man, but remember to always work hard. I am out of time and I have to go now. I love you bro!  I also love each of you.

Elder JD Doyle

It has been another miraculous week for my companion, Elder Jones and I. We have been working hard on trying to build our teaching pool, we now have a solid teaching pool. This week we were able to get 2 more baptismal invites out, one for Zoe, she is a daughter of a less active member, another for a guy named Mark he is such a cool guy from Jamaica he has been searching for the truth and has been to many churches he is a full believer in Jesus Christ but is looking for the true church to be baptized into. He is so ready to be baptized I am so excited for him. We had so many great meetings with him this week, his Fiance is a member who was baptized 2 years ago. So she has been helping us out with getting him to read and pray. She is so thankful for having us teach him. Things are moving quick with him, he is excited and has came to church the last 2 weeks. This week we had a total of 10 investigators at church. It felt so good seeing all of these people at church.

This Sunday I was asked to speak in church I was asked to speak on "how to develop faith and make it stronger" I absolutely enjoyed speaking to the East New York Branch I felt the Spirit strongly, and usually people are loud when others are speaking, but when I spoke it was seriously so silent and spiritual. I also mentioned in my talk that I should be gone in 3 weeks so yeah we will have to see and hope that that is the truth. I am always so grateful when I get the opportunity to speak it means a lot to me.

This weekend was the "Fall Harvest Festival" us missionaries volunteered to help out the community and to help out with the staff. It was so fun, but the wind was blowing so hard. The weather here has been so crazy lately last Monday we got caught up in a huge rain/hail storm the wind was blowing like 60 MPH, it was unreal I have never seen anything like that. It was so much fun running through it though, and I didn't have an umbrella so yeah I got so soaked, that I might as well have just jumped in a big huge pool of water. This week we got a lot of great things going regardless of the crazy weather.

This week is going to be a major short update, I am so sorry to all of you, but I am doing well, also all of our investigators seem to be excited to progress in this gospel. I am so excited for each of them and my love for each of them is real. There is no greater thing that I could be doing right now in my life than what I am doing right now. It means so much to me and I know this work is true and it is so real, it truly blesses the lives of so many people, but it is only through Gods love and His power that these blessings come to pass. Again I love each of you. I have to go now.

Elder JD Doyle

10-11-2010
Wow, it has been such a special experience being here, this week it hit me hard and I was able to realize how much I have truly changed as an individual. As I was thinking about it and I realized all of the weaknesses that I had prior to coming on my mission, I was filled with an increased motivation to keep working hard, and giving my heart fully over to the Lord, as these week things have now became a strength to me. This week I really dont have too much to talk about, and I dont have much time left to type. So yeah... We have been working our hardest, it has been a little rough because a few of our investigators just arent progressing so we had to drop them from our teaching pool. But we did find a family, the Salazar family is seeking for a religion for their family. They are awesome, we are excited to work with them.

We also found this guy named mark he is currently engaged to a member who holds the church close to her heart and strives to follow the true teachings of the Gospel. She wants to have her future husband be a member of the church. We have a lesson with him tomorrow on Tuesday. We are going to invite him to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God. I am sure that he will say yes, he came to church yesterday and loved it so much. We will keep working on finding people to teach as we are teaching these great people. We are going to most likely have a baptism on the 30th for Zoe, she is so ready and wants to be baptized. We will just have to see how things play out.

As I have been here in this area, I seem to have a clearer view of the destructive dangers of which this world is full of. These traps are set by Satan, he is fighting to destroy us in anyway that he can, he knows what to tempt us with. It is now our time to stand up and escape these traps. It is just heartbreaking to a missionary who is full of a sincere love for those whom they may be teaching and to watch Satan come into the picture and destroy that individual and steer him or her away from the truth. These pits set up by the adversary are bottomless and he will keep tearing ones life further away once he or she engages into the temptation.

Well I am now out of time, I love each of you so much. I am sorry that this weeks update was short, but who knows maybe some of you like it to be short.

Love Elder JD Doyle

10-04-2010
Wow... It was such a special weekend with General Conference to have the special opportunity to hear the profound words of a living prophet of God, his counselors, and the Quorums of the 12 and all other spiritual leaders that spoke out to the world this past weekend. These sacred words spoken were truly carried into my heart with such great love and power, I give thanks to our Father in Heaven for these truly inspired men called by Him. The Lord has given us these words of counsel and it is now our duty to act and to apply the things that were spoken to us in our own personal lives. There is no other way to find peace and love of God in our life if we but do all we can to read, pray, and apply the things that we have learned and are continuing to learn from the power of the Spirit which truly speaks to our hearts and mind with such indescribable love and power. I know these things are true and I am here to declare the truth to the world, but others have their agency to choose and sometimes choose to walk a different path through life. My heart is truly filled with hope and love for all children of God (the world) that one day they man come to this same sure understanding of the truthfulness and sincere love of God that is awaiting to enter into everyone's life that opens their doors to let the healing power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ set them free. This is my duty to my loving Father in Heaven to "serve him here with all my heart, might, mind and strength. That I may assist in bringing to past the immortality and eternal life of man."

I feel strongly that I am still embarking in such a miracle in my own personal life, with the mighty change that I have experienced within my own personal self. I have become a much more patient and a lot less stubborn person, filled with an increased love for all men. I know this comes as I am continually striving to give my heart to God, and set aside my selfish desires as I am in His service to Him as I am here to share His Gospel with my fellow brothers and sisters here currently in Brooklyn. I hope that all of you may know that my heart is full with love for you and for this true Gospel.

Currently here on the mission we are teaching a few people right now, we are continually looking on finding some new people to teach so that we can spend more time teaching and less time finding. I have faith that we will be able to fulfill the purpose that the Lord brings my companion and I together here at this time. Whatever this purpose may be I know that I will be prayerful and strive to be humble so that the Spirit may direct our steps in this sacred work. Last transfer we started with nothing with 0 people to teach and we ended up having much success, and now it is time to start over and try to repeat what we have done before.

On last Monday when we went out with Bro. Amato he took us to that way nice Italian restaurant called The Parkside. There was a guy walking around in the restaurant that was doing some magic so I called him over to our table and this man literally read my mind. He told me to think of someone that I am close to and the first person that I thought of was my little bro Tyler. So he told me to think of his face and my relationship with him. He then told me to think of his name and the last letter of his name. He then had a card folded up in the middle of the table and told me to look at it and I never mentioned his name or anything, and on the card was written, "Say hello to Tyler for me." Yeah it was crazy. He literally read my mind. It is now time for me to get off though I feel that I always want to say more, but this is all that I have time for so I love you all. Have a good week.

Elder JD Doyle