Weekly Update 11-15-10

     I feel like I have stepped into a complete different country and into a complete different work in my new area, but I am loving it here in Flushing, Queens. I am surrounded by Asians, and I love them so much they are such neat people to serve. I am grateful to be here in this area. I feel that all of the ghetto people in ENY turned into Asian people, I think that was just my mind playing tricks on me because I was in the Hood for so long. There is nothing to worry about as I am here. I am totally good. I am actually above average when it comes to how tall I am, I feel tall for the first time in my life, ha ha ha. It's so true though. This area is so crowded with people I really do feel like I am in an Asian country, even the signs are in Chinese, and I have no idea what they say, it is funny.

     When I got here in the area, I had to get some things organized with my companion Elder Pickering. We had a lot to do before we get to work and see the miracles that lie ahead. I am grateful to be here and to have this time to serve with Elder Pickering, he is on his last 4 weeks on his mission he goes home before this transfer ends so we will have to see how it all works out when time gets closer. He has served in all of the areas I have served, I haven't served in Bermuda or Jamaica though, other than that we've served in the same areas and know the same people. He loved it in Bermuda, but I am not going to have that opportunity to go there, but I love it here in the city.

     Right now there are a few people that the missionaries have been teaching here before me. They actually already had a baptism lined up, her name is Gem, she is supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday, but I haven't even met her yet and we still have a lot to teach her. So I am not quite sure if it is all going to work out for this coming Saturday, but we'll see. There is someone else that the missionaries have been teaching her name is Samantha, I absolutely love Samantha so much she is so great, she is from Malaysia and her parents aren't very accepting to have her join the church. I feel that I have made such a spiritually powerful connection with Samantha, she is so great. We met with her 2 times this week and I feel strongly that she is going to be baptized soon.  She says that she believes in the Church, it is just her parents that are making it hard on her for joining the church. Her parents are coming to visit her in December so I look forward to meeting them, and I am hoping that we can baptize her when her parents come, so that they can experience that sacred moment with their wonderful daughter. 

     This week I had the special opportunity to go back to East New York with President Nelson to witness the baptism of "Star", she is someone that I talked to on the bus my first week with Elder Palmer about 6 months ago. We worked so hard with getting baptized, but she had a lot of things holding her back, Satan worked hard on her. I was so happy when I received the call that she was getting baptized. She called me and told me that I have to come to her baptism and that she wants me to speak. She told me yesterday that she misses me so much, and that I am like her son. She said that yesterday at church everyone was talking about how they are going to miss me over there in the East New York Branch. I will miss them too, but I am grateful for the time that I had to be there and share those great experiences with them for the past 7 months. 

     Here in Flushing we have to travel about 30 minutes on the bus to get to where the English people are found. We have such a huge area, because we are the only English companionship in our Zone besides one other area and that is a car area so we couldn't cover that, because we don't have a car. I love traveling on the bus and talking to people anyways, it is always so fun.  I know that there is a lot of great work and great experiences that lie ahead of me here in Flushing. I feel so much more comfortable here in this area than in my last, I don't have to always be looking around to make sure no one is going to come jump me, but seriously. Life is good for me right so much, my testimony is firm in the faith of Christ and following his teachings. I love this work and I know that there is nothing greater that I could be doing in my life. I know that everything is going to work out for me in my life. I love you all,now, I am safe here. It feels extremely less stressful here. 

     My heart is full of love and gratitude to my Father in Heaven for giving me this sacred experience in my life to be here. As I have been here I know that my personal testimony has strengthened  thanks for all the things that you've all done for me. I miss you all so much!

      

       LOVE, ELDER JD DOYLE

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

Weekly Update 11-01-10

     Wow, I cant believe that it is already November, it is so crazy the way time has been moving by. This week was such a very special week for me and for my whole entire family, I was able to talk to my little bro on the phone for a bit as well as to my family. Having been given permission from President Nelson to do so... I cant explain in words how much my heart has been filled with such a great joy and comfort knowing that my little Bro is in the service of our Lord. He is going to do so great out on his mission. My final words with Tyler on the phone were filled with so much power and love of God that I know that he has been called by a prophet of God to take His gospel message to the Haitians over there in the Orlando Florida Mission.

     I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Rudaz, he is one of the Assistants to the President he told me that I am going to love my next area, and that he knows that there is a lot of great work for me to do there. He told me that I am gone so yeah this is going to be my last week in this area. No more "hood" for me, but who knows I might be going to the other "hood" in Jamaica, Queens. He told me that I am not going out on the Island, and that I am going to be staying in the city, he says that I am a city Missionary and that I might not ever go out on the Island or he could have just been saying that you never know. We will find out hopefully by the end of this week. Elder Rudaz also had the opportunity to speak to Tyler and to tell him some things about the mission, his counsel to Tyler was to work hard and to love the people. It is so true that you have to love the people or else nothing is going to happen.

     This week us missionaries were asked to be in charge of the Haunted House for the Halloween Activity at the church, we set up the best haunted house ever, it was so good, it was fun as well. I love it when the presidency of our branch gives us certain responsibilities. I always like to fulfill them with excellence so show them that I am also here to serve them and the branch. We had so much fun doing it, it was a great success. Our voices were all gone at the end of the night from screaming at people in the haunted house.

     The bad thing about our voices being gone was that we were also asked to sing in church yesterday. We sand "We'll Bring The World His Truth" a primary song, it is such a powerful missionary song. We had people in the congregation that were deeply touched with their eyes filled with tears. Yesterday my companion and I were invited to the Nedd families home for an early dinner because we had to be inside by 5 o' clock because of Halloween, which Halloween is crazy here by the way. The Nedds went all out on this meal for us, it was a goodbye meal for me, they made me cards and wrote me letters and bought me a Cheesecake from the world famous, "Juniors." It was so nice of them doing that for me. I am definitely going to miss the people here in this area. I love them all so much. I have enjoyed my time here in this area, I had a lot of success and experienced a lot of change within myself as I have been here, I will never forget these great moments that I experienced here in this area.

     Today is Elder Palmers B-day, I love my boy Elder Palmer, Bro. Amato is taking us all out to Dinner for his B-day. We are going to a Greek restaraunt, I've never had much experience with the Greek foods, but I know it will be good. He does so much for us missionaries, I hope that one day I can pay him back for all that he has done for us, but he always says that we have already done it, by talking to him about the gospel and sharing our testimonies and great spirits with him. Whenever he mentions the missionaries in church our to others he always gets emotional. He is such a great guy and I look up to him in a lot of ways.

     Well This week was a big week for us and for my family back at home. I want you all to know that there is truly no greater work that we can do than this and by serving others. We don't have to be full time missionaries to serve the Lord, we can always look for opportunities to serve those around us and to reach out to them in love by serving them and sharing our testimonies with them. Sometimes we don't always know or understand how much we can help others just by little kind acts of service. I love you all so much and I am grateful for each of your support with me serving my mission here!

 

ELDER JD DOYLE

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