Weekly Update 03-28-11

There is a very special opportunity that we all have to partake of this coming weekend. The Prophet of the Lord is going to speak to the world. I am so grateful and I look forward to hear from these inspired chosen servants of the Lord. I am a little sad that this is the last time that I am going to hear from these prophets of God while I am on my mission. It has all gone by so quickly. I am saddened, but at the same time I have a lot of faith and confidence for my future. 

As I have been praying a lot my faith is in the Lord and His will and none else. I know that he has a distinct individual plan for me and it is my will to follow His plan. I know that it is my calling to share the Gospel throughout the rest of my life. I feel that I have found such great power and love in this gospel that I am obligated to share it with the world and all ears that can hear my voice that speak my language. I will declare the truth with boldness and with power. This church is true brothers and sisters, I absolutely love it that I have come to this sure knowledge and sure understanding, yet I take no credit for it, but give my full thanks to the Lord for him revealing these truths to me with such great power. I have received the convincing evidence from the Lord that this is His church. 

This week I encourage each of you to ponder what it is that you may question about the church or whatever it may be, as you pray with sincerity I know that as you listen to the words of counsel that will be given this weekend that your questions will be answered. I am running low on time. So I have to get going soon. I love each of you so much, as I say that every week, but it is true and my love for all of you is real. 

     ELDER JD DOYLE  

Weekly Update 03-14-11

     Hello everyone, once again I am going to be short  this week. I want you all to know that the Lord is truly watchful for his children here in this part of the Lord. Our work is starting to progress further. Yesterday we baptized Rickyna, she is an 11 year old daughter of a Less Active, but now active member of the Church. This weekend was a miracle we got a media referral Aida Lee, requesting a free Bible. I gave her a call the next day and she said that she wanted six Bibles. We set up an appointment with her for this past Saturday. As we knocked on the door I felt such a great feeling enter into my heart and I was filled with a powerful amount of comfort. Troy (her husband) came to the door, and he was very sincere about welcoming us into his home. We sat down with both of them and talked to them about the Bible, and then about the Book of Mormon, they were so very interested and understood that the Lord had children in other places of the world such as here in the ancient Americas. They are interested in learning more about the message that we share, we explained that not everything can be learned all at once. They are hungering to know more, we are so excited to teach them, we have another appointment set up to teach their family this week. They have 4 children and 3 of them are over the age of 8. 

     The work here is amazing, I love New York City, and I know that this is one of my callings that I have been called to for the rest of my life, I will continue to be a missionary forever. This is the least that I can do, and the Lord has truly showed forth his power unto me in a remarkable way as I have been here on my mission. I have changed and have seen others change through power that is not of me but of God alone. I know that I have been called to a great work, and I know that each of us that have come to the knowledge of the truth have the same responsibility to share the things that they know with everyone that they possibly can. This is the truth and I know it, and I know that the Lord will give me the power and ability to share it with others for the rest of my life. 

     This is all that I can do today. I love you all! My time is short and I really don't have much time left here, and I look forward to seeing each of you when I return!

 

     Elder JD Doyle 

Weekly Update 03-07-11

     Hello everyone, I really don't have much time today, but I do want to take the time to talk a little bit about having an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ that came and spoke to us missionaries this weekend. We had Elder Neil L. Anderson, Ronald A. Rasband President of the seventy, and 1st counselor of the Presiding Bishopric Bishop Edgely all of them came and spoke to us. The Spirit was so strong. My experience was amazing. When Elder Anderson got up and spoke to the mission he asked a few questions he asked what will make your missions a sacred time in your life that you can remember for the rest of your life.  and I raised my hand and he called on me to speak and I spoke out to the mission and I said that our missions will be a measured based upon how much we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for this sacred work, and based upon that same sacrifice it will be followed by much miracles and blessings in the work. I said something like that, he then looked down at my name tag and spoke about what I have said and mentioned that what I have said is true, and he testified of the things that I said, It just felt so great to hear him speak and to have been moved upon by the spirit to share those words that the Spirit of the Lord put into my heart.

     This weekend we are supposed to have a baptism on Sunday for Rickyna Martin. We are happy for her and working on her. She is a daughter of a less active member, who has now been coming to church for the last 4 out of 5 weeks. So yeah that is great for her and their family. Well I need to go home and get ready. We were playing basketball all day. So yeah I have to go now. I love you all and I am so grateful for this work. This is the greatest time of my life. I am so happy to be here. 

    Well I have to go now. Love Elder JD DOYLE

Weekly Update 2-28-11

     Ok so today I really dont have much time at all so I have to hurry as fast as I can. Bro, I am with you on that one I absolutely love the Haitian food. It is amazing, and I hope that one day you all can have the opportunity to try it sometime, it is my favorite.  This week has been great for us. We are still working on building a stronger teaching pool. It has been a little rough, when we came into the area there wasnt much going so this transfer has been a time of building the teaching pool and getting in with the members. So yeah... We have one person  that is close to being baptized her name is Rikyna, she is a young lady who is a daughter of a member, she is 11 years old. So we are hoping that we can get her baptized in this next little bit. She is great, but her mom is the hold back right now, so we have switched our focus over to working with the mom better. 

     So this weekend we are going to have Neil L. Anderson come and speak to us, we are so excited. I know that he will give us powerful words of counsel that will be heaven sent. I love this, we are also going to be hearing from Elder Rasband President of the Seventy. Well I really have to go now I know this kinda stinks a bit, but I have to go. I love you all so much! 

Elder JD Doyle 

Weekly Update 02-21-11

    Hello everyone... Wow, I know that you have heard this a lot from me, but wow time flies when you are doing the Lords work. I am so happy right now, I truly am. I know that I am a new man, and a different person. This great change is still occurring within myself, and I am amazed to have recognized all of the weaknesses that I once had before I came out on my mission and now amazed to see how I have been able to overcome these weaknesses, yet I know that I still have weaknesses and I am imperfect, but I am still working on them, and praying for the faith to overcome them.
    I had a great week, but I do feel that we are still struggling a bit with getting in with the members, us being the newer guys in the ward, no one really knows us. We are doing a great job with working with a few members. Like the axillary leaders as well as the Bishopric. So that is a good sign for us. Bishop Urbanowski is such an amazing guy he is from Germany. He has been a bishop for the last 6 years and before that he was a branch president, he is funny he said that it is the same calling with a different name. He came here on a boat in which he built when he was in Germany and he sailed it across the waters here to America. He talked to us about his family history work and he and he has gone all of the way back to Adam and Eve, He finished his family history it is amazing how he found all of this information. Now I am interested in family history work, and I know that my sister has been doing a great job on it.
    This next week we are going to have Neil A. Anderson of the Quorum of the twelve apostles come speak to our mission. We are all so excited to hear from him. It is going to be so great. It is such a privilege. Well I am seriously about out of time and I have to get going now. We are going to get ready and get some stuff done. I love the Caribbean people here the food is great, it is ghetto, but not near as ghetto of where I once was in Brooklyn. Well I have to end this now. I have to go. Love you all!

Elder JD Doyle

Weekly Update 02-14-11

     Happy Valentines Day everyone, well since I cant have a Valentine out here on my mission, I just want you to all know and feel the love that I have for each of you my heart goes out to all of you as we are all continuing to grow throughout our lives and wherever we find ourselves. This weeks weekly update is going to be a short one. As you can see it is past my time to be e-mailing, and my P-day is over, but I am here with President Nelson and he wants me to e-mail my family because today was a busy day for us. 

     The highlight of this week was on Monday night I got a phone call from Bob Tut telling me that he just got done meeting with President Nelson and that he is going to be baptized on Sunday and that I have to come to his baptism. So yep, I sure enough was able to show up to his baptism yesterday and give him a big hug. I know that I am going to stay in contact with him throughout my life. I love that man so much, he has such a powerful spirituality about him. I know that he is going to bring a lot of others to the truth and knowledge of the restored gospel one day. 

     This week we had a "zone street sweep" it is when we get our whole zone together and set up a table with free DVD's and Books on the busy road of Jamaica Ave. We get there contact information and bring them the item that they request and try to share the restored gospel with them. Rony is a guy that I talked to from Haiti, he showed up to church yesterday, his family lives in Florida and they are Haitian, So I might have a referral for you BRO. He is a great guy we gave him a French Book of Mormon. We are meeting with him on Friday. Well we have to get going now I am sorry I wish I had more time. I have to go now BYE!!!  

     LOVE ELDER JD DOYLE

Weekly Update 02-07-11

     It has been a crazy week for us here in Jamaica! Living the life! So we were off to a somewhat of a rough start. My companion Elder Hunter was not feeling well at all this whole week. He all of a sudden had this huge infection in his mouth and he had canker sours all up in his mouth everywhere, and his gums were swollen as can be. You would have had to see it in order to fully understand, but it is seriously crazy. Something that I have never heard of before. He has herpes in his mouth. It has been a bit rough for him. As he was not feeling well I was making phone calls and getting appointments set up so that we can meet the wonderful people that we are going to be working with. The work here is so great in Jamaica, we have seen miracles already in which I will talk about in a bit. Getting blinded into an area is a lot of work, we got sent here knowing no one. It is kinda fun, because we just call people up and set up appointments, it is great being the new missionaries in town. 

     The highlight of my week and one of the highlights of my mission was that we had a General Authority come and speak to the Zone Leaders and also to the mission. It was so great to be able to have the opportunity to get to know him on a personal level. Elder Pearson is such a wonderful servant of the Lord and I look up to him in a lot of ways. The night that he came and spoke to us he told my companion for me to give him a blessing, and it was so great to give my companion a blessing.

     That same night when we got home after meeting with Elder Pearson, my companion was in major pain and we had to get some help. Luckily we live in the same house as the Mission Nurse, which she takes very good care of Elder Hunter and I, they even bought us some groceries. SHHHHH! No telling anyone about that, we keep that as our little secret. Anyways.... We went to the Emergency Room late that night and we got to the hospital at about 11 PM at night and we didnt get home until 5 AM the next morning, yeah... It was hard for us. We were so tired that morning, and we had to make it over to the Mission Office because Elder Pearson spoke to the entire mission. It was so great, but we were so tired.

     Now I am sure that you are all wondering about the miracles that we had that I began to talk to you about. Well... This Sunday church was so great. I happen to got transferred into an area where my recent converts the Bradford's moved. They havent been going to church as much lately and I went and saw them my first night here. I was able to talk to them and sure enough they showed up to church. It was testimony meeting and my companion and I both got up to share our testimonies. After we shared our testimonies everyone got up and was talking about the testimonies that we shared, it was so great. Sister Bradford then got up to share her testimony and talked about how the missionaries brought her back to church in East New York and baptized her 2 sons. She then said that, that missionary is here today Elder Doyle. It was a good first Sunday here. There was a guy that came up to me after sacrament meeting and told me that he has seen me before and he feels like he has met me before, but he doesnt know where. He has some children that arent members of the church. He said that he knows that I have to teach his daughters about the gospel, and the missionaries here have been trying to teach them for a long time. It was a miracle. Also another guy brought his friend to church and he isnt even a member in this ward, but his friend lives here in Jamaica. He introduced us to his friend and we are going to start teaching him. He seems so ready to accept the gospel. I know that there are going to be a lot of great things that are going to happen for us in the near future. It has only just begun. I now have to get going I love you all, I am completely out of time. I miss you all. I wish I had more time to talk, but I dont. LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder JD Doyle