Kendrick, Noah

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...