Midwood Members

The ward mission leader was Paul Merchan.  He was about our age and had served a mission in California (Long Beach?).  He was the best mission leader I had my entire mission.

The Santos family was another great family.  Abby (second from right) was a returned missionary as well.  I think she served in Boston.

The Pinedas.  She was the Relief Society President and so nice.  One hot day we dropped something off at her house that she needed for a lesson and when she opened the door we were just dying from the heat and humidity.  She took one look at us and asked if we needed a drink of water.  We did, desperately, so she gave us water and popsicles.

The rest of the Relief Society presidency.

Hermana Cuevas

Area #2 - Midwood, Brooklyn

Midwood was smack dab in the middle of Brooklyn, but our area went all the way down to the coast (Coney Island).  We lived in a house right next to the church, which was so nice.  The Spanish sisters (us) lived on the third floor in the back in a small apartment.  The English sisters (there were 4 of them), lived on the second and third floors in the front of the house.  Their part was much bigger than ours.  The Bishop's Storehouse was in the back on the first floor, and the Family History Center was on the first floor in the front.

I ended up being in Midwood for 6 months and it was one of my favorite areas.  The ward there was much bigger than the branch in Freeport.  There was a 10-year-old girl named Nerissa who played the piano in sacrament meeting (just the top hand).  She was super cute and loved sister missionaries because she wanted to go on a mission when she was older.  (She's the one next to me in this picture.)

During the time I was in Midwood I had 2 companions: Sister Allred and Sister Auna (my greenie! in the picture above).

My First Transfer Call

The last Sunday of my second transfer I got a call from the zone leaders telling me that I was being transferred to Midwood, Brooklyn to serve with Sister Allred.  When I heard that I got kind of nervous.  I had never been in a big city like that before.  Sister Allred was actually my "companion" at the greenie street sweep the day I got to NY and the only other thing that I knew about her was that she had really good Spanish and was a really good teacher (which was true!).  Sister Gines found out that she was training again, so we had to get to transfer meeting a little early so she could get her companion.  A couple hours later I was on my way to Brooklyn with Sister Allred, on my very first subway ride.

Other Freeport Stories

Story #1 

One of the inactive members of the branch invited us over for dinner for her husband's birthday.  The drink they gave us was carbonated and a light pink color - I just thought it was soda.  Then I tasted it and it didn't taste familiar, so I thought it was just some kind of weird soda.  Apparently my companion was trying to catch my eye across the table because she knew what it really was after just one sip, but I wasn't paying attention.  Later she looked at the bottle that the drink came from and when we left she informed me that the drink contained 0.6% alcohol!  It didn't affect me physically at all, but I felt awful for drinking it, even though I didn't know what it was.  I was/still am kind of naive, so I had no clue what alcohol tasted or smelled or looked like.  Even though it wasn't something I did intentionally, I still felt so bad for the next couple of days.

Story #2


My first Sunday in the area I was asked to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting.  Not unusual when you're a missionary.  However, it was my first time doing this sort of thing since it was my first area, and I was feeling a little worn out and discouraged that day.  So I start talking and then I start crying and after I sat down I continued crying and didn't stop for the rest of the meeting!  I don't know why I couldn't control myself.  I think it had just hit me that I was on a mission and what the heck was I doing there!  Sister Gines had 3 tissues and I used them all up before I was done.  One of the sweet little girls went and got me a cup of water and after the meeting all the hermanas surrounded me and said how glad they were that I was there and were all trying to speak English to make me feel better, etc.  It was really nice and that really started my love for that branch.  Also, that night at our dinner appointment (we went to the same house every Sunday) Hermana Nerio made the best pork chops and mashed potatoes (not an easy task when mashed potatoes aren't a part of your culture).  She told Sister Gines that she wanted to make the meal to make the new missionary (me) feel more at home.  She was such a sweet lady!

Miscellaneous/Interesting Things

The sisters we lived with were Sister Ferrin and Sister Goff.  They were English speaking and they actually lived more or less in their area (unlike us - we had to drive 20 minutes to our area every day).  We did a few fun things at night or on p-days.  Sister Goff hit her halfway mark and her mom somehow ordered pizza from a pizza place (Domino's?) that was nearby.  The pizzas were all half one topping and half something else.

Sometimes we would make breakfast together.  Sister Goff would put coffee creamer in the french toast batter and it was really good.

On New Year's Eve the missionaries had to be in their apartments by 5:30-ish.  So we had a little party with some chocolate pie I made.

Sister Goff got transferred after my first transfer and Sister Zufelt took her place.  Here she is with me and Sister Ferrin modeling some scarves my grandma made for Christmas.

There were so many cute little kids in the branch or at the homes we would visit.  It was so hard to obey the rule of not holding babies or children while I was on my mission.  So sometimes we just had to play with them or take a cute picture.

And sometimes they would just jump on my back, so I rolled with it.  (He really did just jump on my back.  I couldn't do anything I promise!)  That crazy Ronaldo.  He was hilarious.

This is some kind of weird church or something.  It was the craziest looking thing I've ever seen.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  From what I remember there was all kinds of false doctrine written everywhere.  We knocked on the door to see what it was, but nobody opened it.

At some point in her mission, Sister Gines made friends with a lady named Cristina.  Cristina absolutely loved Sister Gines and one day she came from wherever she was from and took us out to lunch, bought us stuff at the grocery store, and then gave Sister Gines a card (which she later opened and there was money inside).  Cristina wasn't a member of the Church and didn't plan on becoming one, but she was one of the most generous people I have ever met.

Our District and Zone

Our district leader was Elder Hardy and his companion was Elder Davis.  Elder Davis was actually called as an English missionary but was switched to Spanish for a couple of transfers.  It was really hard for him because he didn't know any Spanish at all and he had kind of a hick accent, but he was super cool.  Elder Hardy was a good DL and we had a lot of fun in our district.  At one of our meetings we played Jeopardy and I ended up getting two song questions, and had to sing Book of Mormon Stories and I'm a Little Teapot (the second one without laughing - I didn't make it).

Our zone leaders were Elder Harnos and Elder Phillips.  There was one elder from my MTC district in this zone, Elder Marsh.  He's the tall one in the middle of the back row.

We had zone conference every transfer.  Usually the zones from each area of the mission (Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island) would meet together - I think there were usually about 3 zones in each area.  This picture was from my first zone conference and we actually combined with Brooklyn for this one.  All the sisters there got together for a picture.  The one on the far left is Sister Morrow, our mission president's wife.  Two of my future companions are also in this picture: Sister Allred and Sister Ivanova.

My Trainer

My trainer and companion was Christy Gines, from Highland, UT.  To this day I am convinced that she is the only sister who could have trained me with the love and patience that she had.  Not that I was difficult (I hope), but like I mentioned before I had a hard time with homesickness sometimes, it was really hard for me to talk to people, and just adjusting to mission life in general was a little rough.  If I had to describe her in a few words they would be patient, loving, forgiving, fun, happy, and outgoing.  She loved the people, she loved me, she loved the other sisters in our pad, and she loved the Savior.  Her Spanish may not have been perfect, but people didn't care because they liked her.

Sister Gines always looked for ways to serve other people.  One time we came out of an apartment building that we were tracting and she noticed a lady across the street raking her leaves.  A pretty everyday thing to see.  She ran right over and took the rake from her and started raking.  Another time we saw some people we had tried to teach a time or two walking home carrying groceries, so we went and helped them carry them home.  She would always look for little ways to serve every day and was a great example.