Kendrick, Noah

It has been a hard, but joy-filled past 2 years. Serving a mission has been a big learning  and growing experience. I remember my first day. I was assigned to go to Bridgeport,  Connecticut. I didn't even know that Connecticut was part of the New York City Mission,  who would have thought.  On that first day we drove to a parking lot and my companion looked at me and said,  "Ok Elder Kendrick, go out and invite everyone to church". I thought he was joking, but  then he got out of the car and he began inviting everyone he saw. I’m going to be  honest, I was very surprised and frightened to do that.   I remember every day for those first few beginning weeks not wanted to get up in the  morning because I did not want to talk to random strangers, let alone in Spanish. I had  to learn to trust in God and in his timing. Yet, now I've seen how the Lord has blessed  me and my friends and my family.  I know that the Restoration of ...

Greetings from the Bronx. It has been a busy couple of weeks. We haven’t had any baptisms  but have some people on date for this week and the first part of November. Last week I went to  Manhattan. I feel like I’ve been there and done that. The group I went with have all been before,  so I didn’t have to play tour guide.   On Saturday I went to Philadelphia to the temple. The Manhattan Temple is closed for  renovation so the closest is Philly. I was invited to go due to one of my recent converts getting  his endowments out. This was a person I baptized in Queens, so we were invited to attend. It  took a little over two hours to travel there by bus. We didn’t get to do any sight seeing while  there. It was a great experience to go through an endowment, see the Philadelphia Temple and  support a new member. I haven’t had the opportunity to attend the temple for about 9 months  when I was able to do baptisms for the dead in the Manhatt...

Greeting from the Bronx. It has been a busy couple of weeks. To start off, we were able to get Nurys from the Dominican Republic baptized. I talked about her in my last email. She is one of the people who had cancer. It was really special for her to get baptized. She has been looking for the assurance that everything is going to be O.K. Her baptism has brought her that peace and comfort. Her husband has been inactive for years but has started to return and has been helpful in helping teaching her. The pictures are of him with his wife. We watched General Conference at the church house. We invited everyone we could. We invited our friends we are teaching (investigators) and had one person show up at the church, but 8 people confirmed they watched it at home or on their phone. We also had 13 of our recent converts watch as well. Weather has been pretty mild. Highs are mid 70’s and lows in the 50’s. Probably a lot like home. The leaves are starting to change and fall. It is comfortable to...

Hola everyone. All is well in the Bronx. Having said that I’m in the Bronx, means I stayed here for my last transfer. It is crazy to think I am in last area. Remember though, I am staying two extra weeks. I don’t know if I will move my last two weeks for a trio. I guess I could have one two week transfer, but officially this is my last. We had a mission tour last week. This is when a General Authority comes and tours the mission, gives devotionals and meets the missionaries. Elder and Sister Daines from the Seventy came and gave two separate devotionals because of the size of the mission. Elder Daines spoke about covenants and baptism. He focused on teaching how the Savior would. It was good to remember and refocus on why we are missionaries. I have zone conference this week and I get to hear from President and Sister Taylor. This is the second zone conference since they have come into the mission. We are teaching two people who are looking good for baptism this week. Nuris from the Do...

Happy Labor Day. Everything is going well in the Bronx. I have another week and a half here then I have transfers. That will be my last full transfer before I come home. I am staying two extra weeks after my last transfer to help out a Spanish trio. I can’t believe how fast it has gone. I have loved being here and doing missionary work, yet I have missed everyone and look forward to reuniting. Since my last email, we have had another baptism. Her name is Rosa from the Dominican Republic. Rosa was a referral from the missionaries in Philadelphia. She was being taught in Philly and moved to the Bronx. We finished up the lessons and she was baptized. Last week we went to a some members houses with the bishopric. We did the sacrament for them. One was an elderly couple and the other was sick. It was amazing to be part of blessing someones life with the Priesthood. They cried in gratitude that they were not forgotten and knew the Lord was aware of them and sent his servants to bless them. L...

Hola from the Bronx. It’s been a few weeks. All is going well. I just wanted to check in where it’s been a while. There is honestly nothing new or too excited going on here. We did have a baptism last Sunday which is awesome. It was Sister Yudelky I talked about in my last email who was sick and postponed her baptism. We were able to get it scheduled and taken care of (picture below). We have been doing more street contacting and have a couple people who I believe will get baptized in the next week or two. I have faith we will keep finding people who are ready. Weather here has cooled a little. The highs are in the 80’s which makes it a lot more pleasant to be on the streets. We have had a few rainy days lately. Having said the weather isn’t to bad, the Bronx is still not the place to visit or plan a vacation. I have been studying how everything testifies of God. I have been more mindful of how even the ability, knowledge and material to build such big buildings came from God. It is am...

Greeting from New York. I wanted to write and tell everyone I’m still alive and doing well. I just had transfers and I am staying in the Bronx. Two transfers left. I got a new companion, Elder Alba from Oregon. He has been out for about 6 months. We were suppose to have a baptism this week for Sister Yudelky. She got sick so we had to postpone until this week. Sister Yudelky was found while I was on an exchange teaching in English in another area. She was invited to church and felt the peace and truthfulness of the Gospel. We taught her the lessons and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. The Bronx is a pretty rough place. I see a lot of homeless people, people with mental problems and people who are addicted to drugs. We are instructed to not make contact with them due them being in no condition to feel the spirit or accept the Gospel. It saddens my heart to see people in that condition. Regardless of the conditions of the world, my heart is full of the goodness of the true Chu...

Greeting from the Bronx. It has been a busy couple weeks. I am starting to get use to the area. The hardest thing to get use to is how there are pockets of people. In Flushing it was mostly Chinese people. The Bronx is mostly Dominicans. It is really interesting how people gather in pockets to different boroughs. I have been on a few travels the last few weeks. I spent some time in Manhattan last week and today I went to a Yankees game. The missionaries here are treated well. The Spanish people are glad to hear about the Gospel. I would explain it as, they love God and are glad to hear more about Christ. It’s the commitment that is the struggle. They make a lot of excuses like, it’s ok, I have Jesus in my heart.  The missionary work here is the same as my other areas. We do all street contacts. We work in the areas of the apartment buildings mostly. We do spend some time near stores or parks, where ever we can find the most people. We had a media referral come in from one of the Ch...

Greeting everyone. Sorry, I know it has been a long time. Last time I wrote I was in Flushing. I have since transferred to the Bronx. My apartment is the biggest I have had on my mission. It was a former senior couples. It may not be the nicest one I’ve had, but it is really nice. My new companion is Elder Aguilef who is Chilean. Elder Aguilef only has three more weeks left and then is going to BYU, Provo. The Bronx is a whole new world. I think everyone in the Bronx are on drugs. There are a lot of needles littering the streets and subway. Of course we have been instructed to not even talk to people who are high because they are in no position to feel the spirit or receive the Gospel. The streets are what you would imagine the projects to be like. There are rows and rows of projects. The projects are full of people from the Dominican Republic. I have to be a little more aware of my surrounding here. We have been teaching a gentleman by the name of Franklin who is from the Dominican Re...

It’s been a while. Sorry, weeks have gone by quickly. My last few weeks have blended together because there hasn’t been a whole lot going on. It has been a dry spell. We have been working hard and not a lot of baptisms. Then last week, hard work paid off. We had three baptisms. Ysraal was the first. He is from Peru. He knows about the church from his brother and has been coming to our ward. We had some really powerful lessons with him. We baptized him because he did not have any records. The next baptism is Austin from Mississippi who is 20 years old. He lives right on the Gulf of Mexico. He lived in a foster family. He had a really rough childhood. He is now homeless in New York. We found him in the street and invited him to church. We started teaching him and he embraced the Gospel. We also baptized Walter. Walter is from Guatemala. He divorced his wife and remarried in New York. He was a self proclaimed member, no records. The Branch President had us re-baptize him. We had a Fathers...

Holy cow, it’s been a while. There is not a lot to catch you up on, but here we go. I have gone through another transfer. I am staying in Flushing. I have a new companion, Elder Morgenegg who is from Colorado. He has been out for 7 months. I have been in Flushing now for just over 5 months. It will be 6 months when next my next transfer comes. We are still doing a lot of street contacting. We had a guy by the name of Luis who was on date to get baptized. He all the sudden dropped off the radar. We lost contact with him and he hasn’t reached out so we had to move on. Sad to see, but it happens. We had an interesting sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago. A guy giving a talk, (actually telling more of a story) talking about his job he just retired from. Our recent convert / baptism, Kenneth raised his hand and the guy talking called on him. The convert asked about metro trains and why the 5 train is slower and this and that. They had quit the conversation, right in the middle of sacram...

Hola everyone. Everything is going well in Flushing. Not a whole lot new is going on. We did have a baptism this week. Crazy story. We baptized someone in 4 days. How does that happen? We met a gentleman from the Dominican Republic. His name is Juan Ramon. He is actually a member. So why did we baptize him? He actually has no records. We contacted church headquarters and there is no paperwork for his ordinances. Soooo, now you see why it only took 4 days. I still do a lot of street contacting. We mostly go to the same two streets. We run into people now and then we have talked to. It’s hard to explain how many people are here and that’s why we can work the same streets so often and not see the same people over and over again. I testify of the power of prayer. We have been praying to find someone too baptize. That is when we found Juan. I know it is all by design and God is working his miracles in all our lives, everyday. I am amazed at how fast my mission has gone. I have six months le...

It has been an interesting couple weeks. Last week started out with an earthquake. I’m sure  everyone has heard all about it. We were in our apartment studying and the chair I was sitting  on shook away from the table. It felt like the subway rumbling by. My companion and I thought  that was weird but didn’t think much more about it.  I found out it was an earthquake when my dad and Nick were texting me asking if I was OK  and what the earthquake was like. We were fine and just went on with our day like nothing was  different.   We had a couple of baptism over the last couple of weeks. Last week we baptized Samuel  from Venezuela. Samuel was a referral from the Chinese missionaries. He came to church and  we started teaching him. He is very friendly and wanted us to go travel with him.  The other baptism is Kenneth. He was born and raised in Flushing, NY. His family is Jewish and  he was really never involved in practicing his ...

It's been a few weeks. Everything is going well here in Flushing. I had transfers last week and I am staying here with the same companion. Over the last few weeks we had two baptisms. The one picture is Thomas. We found him on the street and he lives in a group home. We invited him to church and started teaching him the lessons. He accepted the Gospel and was baptized. The other picture is Leslie. She is from Ecuador. We found her on Main St. in Flushing. We again invited her to church and she loved it. We started teaching her and she had a lot of questions. She had an uncle die in Ecuador. She asked about what he was doing now and where he was. We taught her the plan of salvation and baptisms for the dead. She was thrilled at the news. She, of course was baptized. The weather here is up and down but overall to the nice side. On P-day last week our zone went to Manhattan to sight see. I went to the Apple store on 5th avenue. It is really something to see. I also went to One World T...