Leadership in Far Rockaway

September 24, 2012

Dear Familia,

Alright so to answer your question, the flashdrive got sent back. I was a few cents short on postage so it didn't send. I put another stamp on it and resent it so hopefully that will work now. 

So this week, not too much happened early in the week, but on Thursday we got our first General Authority visit of my mission. Elder Bowen from the 70s came and spoke to us. He talked a lot about planning and working efficiently, then he changed into understanding who we really are (as in the House of Israel and the blessings and responsibilities that that carries with it). It was a really cool lesson.

On Saturday we had a pretty good day. We got another new investigator, Aliza, who the other Elders were teaching but got a little lost in the transition, and she seems really good. We also had a good lesson with Luis and with Francisco (one of the old investigators we picked back up). And they both promised they would come to church, along with a few other people. On Sunday, promises fell through. Francisco came, but Francisco comes every week, and he isn't moving very much. He told us he feels like he needs to humble himself and let Christ take over his life, which is good, but he thinks that means sitting around and waiting for Christ to come and pick him up and carry him out of the apartment with his girlfriend. The whole 'faith without works is dead' thing just isn't clicking for him.

Anyway we spent most of Sunday just trying to find all of the people in our area who we were expecting to come to church and didn't. We had a few good lessons. Luis we didn't have a chance to talk to because there was a wild birthday party going on all day at his apartment. Guess he forgot about that when he promised us he would come.

But ya I was in branch council yesterday and it really started to hit home how dire the straits are that Far Rockaway is in right now. The Greenburgs go home mid November and odds are not looking good that a new senior couple is going to get here in time. The branch only has 11 active Melchezidek priesthood holders right now other than missionaries, and two of them are more like every other weekers. Those two and one other are just here temporarily doing their residencies, so they aren't options for the new branch president. The two people in the current branch presidency are moving within the next six months, as is another strong option. Hno. Figueroa could do a great job at it but he lives in North Carolina for 3 months of the year. That leaves us with 4 options, two of them are great people but don't know what is going on and we have had multiple people say that they would leave the branch if they are made branch president. The other two have been members for just a few months and could be options a few years from now but they are just too new for this. It is getting pretty late to bring in a family from one of the other branches so the odds are that a missionary is going to be the new branch president, at least transitionally until a new senior couple gets here. Now how often does that happen stateside? So ya these next few months could be fun. 

Oh by the way the big charges on the card are because we got hit with a big parking ticket two weeks ago. We parked in a spot next to the school we had often parked next to but we forgot that school started the week before so they hit us with $115. Nice. So I pulled out $60 to pay it but then we looked again they don't take cash so Elder Denton just gave me the money and we put it on my card. So just explaining that - and we will avoid schools in the future.

Well I think that's about it for this week.

Love you all,

Elder Pearce