Too bad I don't speak french

On Wednesday we went on a split and Sister Larsen came to our area and I took over. That was a great learning experience for me and I realized I still do not understand the subway system...I'll get it one of these days. But we were able to teach a few lessons and figure out directions on the West side a little bit more!  Also this week we killed the largest cockroach I have ever seen in my entire life...INSIDE our apartment. It was a terrifying experience, really. 

There are a lot of distracting perks about being a missionary in New York City, one of those being just casually seeing Matthew McConaughey while walking down the sidewalk to dinner one night. Too bad we can't teach him!

 We are still teaching our investigator Ismael who only speaks french and his lessons are always a good time. He is from West Africa and has only lived in New York for one month!! how crazy is that. On Sunday he came to church again and brought his cousin Fatima! She also only speaks french as well. So for gospel principles we had a member who spoke French on his mission come and translate for Ismael and Fatima. Ismael shared a story (retold to us via the member) about how he had just moved here and one morning he prayed to ask Heavenly Father for a church and somewhere to go. That night we met Ismael and he said that was an answer to his prayers. He hadn't been able to tell us that before because communicating is difficult but I thought that was really cool to hear. Our Heavenly Father is so very aware of each and every single one of us, his children. He knows what we are going through and he knows what we need. If we rely on him and do his will, we will be blessed and feel of the joy that can come into our lives. Even though we all go through hard things and experience trials, he just wants us to be able to be happy! I'm grateful for my knowledge of our Savior and the atonement, that we don't have to carry our burdens alone. And we can feel of our Heavenly Father's love for us every day. 

 I was reading in 2 Nephi 28 this past week and I love verse 32- no matter what you do or have done, the Lord's arms are always outstretched, waiting for you to repent and come unto him. I love imagining that. He never turns away from us and is always just waiting for us to come to him. I love being able to share the message we have and teach people about the atonement and the blessing that it is in our lives today. 

love you all

xoxo Sister Walecki 

The Manhattan Temple

Here's a bit of the language barrier struggle. We had asked Ismael something about the Restoration
and this was his response. He was watching to see if we understood but we had no idea what he
meant and we just laughed and he's like, "why you laugh at me?!" haha....at least he can say
that in English!

Today for pday we went to The Natural History Museum and wandered around there.
I forgot how much I love museums, they're so interesting!

Our roommates are teaching this man, his name is Marvin. He brought his trombone to their last lesson and he
played some hymns on it. So cool! He plays under a bridge at Central Park every day, apparently.

We buy the same milk as our roommates so Sister Muhlestein & I meshed our names
together to label our milk, Muhlecki.

Google Translate saves Sunday

This past Thursday we had zone conference. I loooove zone Conference so much! President Smith said something that really stuck with me. He said, "Become comfortable with being uncomfortable" because it means that you're growing! I really love that and have been thinking about it a lot this week and trying to apply it. 

 This weekend we had a pretty cool experience. We met a man last week, he was outside at work, stacking chairs and putting away the tables. We stopped to see if we could help him, but come to find out he didn't speak much English and only speaks French. But we explained how were missionaries and he grasped the concept of a church and God through some poor sign language and lots of miscommunication haha. But we gave him our card with our number on it (we do that to hundreds of people and 99% of the time no one calls us). But this past Saturday we got a call and it was him and he wanted to come to church. We used Google translate to talk to him on Facebook and he came to church on Sunday! It was the funniest thing because obviously we don't speak French, so we walked around the church on Sunday showing him around with our tablets and typing in google translate to communicate with him. We have a couple of members who spoke French on their missions so they were able to help translate and explain everything for him. And we found a French Book of Mormon in the missionary closet for him! He sent us a message after church and told us how he really liked it and is going to come back next week!

 We were able to go to the temple today. Here in Manhattan we get to go about once a transfer, how lucky is that?! But I am SO grateful for temples. I'm grateful for the peace and guidance that can be found there. The city is always so busy and so many people always on the go. It's nice to be able to go to the temple and just forget about the city for a minute. I know that we have them on earth for a reason, they enable us to focus on the bigger picture and remember what is important here on earth. They're the greatest blessing!! I hope you all have a great week. love you!!

xoxo

Sister Walecki

From the Christmas Devotional in December

We painted some one's pantry.....in our proselytizing clothes and I'm the messiest painter ever.  Luckily I got the paint
out of everything besides my tights. Haha

We went on splits this week. This is Sister Russell and our Levain cookies for dessert.

Walking by the natural history museum the other night.

Oh yeah, here's from the apf at Central Park for New Years a couple weeks ago.

After the temple today (January 16)

It's freezing cold here with some SNOW!!

(January 9, 2017)

This week it finally snowed a lot! It's so weird how magical snow makes everything feel. It felt more like Christmas this weekend than Christmas day did!

 I started reading the Book of Mormon over again with the start of the new year and I love how no matter how many times I read, I am able to learn new things each time. Whether it's questions that come up that I've never thought of before, things that apply differently to my life it changes each time, I loooove it! 

One of the best parts of being a missionary is all of the amazing people we get to meet and love! I love getting to know all kinds of different people and being able to share the gospel with them and just being a part of their life! 

Someone threw a cigarette at my head this week, so that was fun too. I don't think she meant to, she was mad it wouldn't light so she broke it and just chucked it but it whacked me real good in the head hahaha. New York is always a good time.

I love you all & hope you have a lovely week!!

xoxo

Zone Meeting

Walking to the church the day after it snowed.

Don't ask what I had to do for these pictures......buuut it was worth it:)

No idea, just a whole lotta birds.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! Every pday I can't believe a whole week has passed since the last time I wrote. The weeks just fly by. This week was real good again :) for new years eve we had to be home by 7 then we just ate dinner and had a conference call with President Smith. It felt just like every other day, we just came home 2 1/2 hours earlier than normal!

 I was asked to give a talk on Sunday so that stressed me out all week, trying to make time to write one. I got one finished but sacrament meeting started late so just before I was going to give my talk, he came over and asked me to just bear a short testimony because of time. So I scrapped my whole talk and just said something. The Lord helps ya in those times I think! 

This week at the church I ran into a girl I knew from King Henry haha...so crazy how small the world is! 

We did another apf at Central park this week for the new year. And I think one of the coolest things about serving in New York City is the chance that we have to meet people from all over the world! I talked to tons of people from everywhere. Whether it was London, Haiti, Korea, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, all over the world. And it's so amazing to get to know people and share the gospel with them here in New York!! The work is good, the people here are amazing and I'm learning a whole lot. I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

xoxo

SisterWalecki 

Outside the window of the Relief Society room.

Friday night I went to take a shower and the water was ice cold and never heated up. Then that night

our heater never turned on so it was nice and chilly. The next morning we saw this posted by the

elevator. Cold showers and a chilly apartment make for a fun time:)

Martinellis and Mac & cheese for New Years Eve!

This was just on the ground in the subway after New Years Eve haha.

Christmas!

Christmas morning!

Gift wrapping outside the temple!!

Christmas

 I went to the MTC exactly 2 months from today, whaaaat?! SO crazy!! This week has been really good. It was a little weird adjusting to having pday on Monday, it kinda made the week feel longer but another week has passed and I'm still alive so all is well!

 Last Sunday we had a fireside at the church and Stuart Edge came and talked to us about service and all his YouTube jazz. He's a famous Mormon you tuber apparently so that was pretty cool. Then on Tuesday we did service allll day long. It was the best!! We went to Central park and raked leaves for 3 hours then wrapped gifts and handed out hot chocolate in front of the temple for a few hours after raking. Stuart Edge was there and apparently he was on facebook live and lds smile making a video of it all. So you can go watch it and see what we were doing and if you can find me!!:)

 On Friday we went to Grand Central Station and caroled for an hour with the zone. And I realized you can't have any fears of being in public when you're a missionary. There were hundreds of people there and so many people recording us and taking pictures and stopping to listen. Some joined in. It was a great time. 

The other day we talked to a man outside of an elevator in the projects and he asked our names and sister Muhlestein said hers then he asked mine and I told him then he turned toward me and asked again and I said Sister Walecki. And he said Walecki? Are you lucky? Can I marry you?? And I was like uhhh no I don't think so! Haha then he got on the elevator. Perks of being a missionary.

 Christmas day was the greatest. I loved seeing my family and I'm so so so grateful for all the packages and Christmas cards everyone has sent. It really means a lot and I loved seeing all the pictures- I miss every one's faces.

 

 This Christmas I really got to just focus on Christ. On what he did for ME and for YOU and the knowledge that we have of his birth and atonement. I know its a huge blessing in our lives. I know that our Savior lives and because he does, we have a purpose here on earth. And we get to go through all kinds of experiences to learn and grow and become more like him!! I love all of you and hope you have a merry Christmas!!

xoxo Sister Walecki  

My cute companion Sister Muhlestein

Sister Simons made homemade cinnamon rolls Christmas morning so it's safe to say she's my favorite right now, basically.

Columbia University is my favorite and I love walking through these trees.

I don't really remember where we were exactly, but this was downtown somewhere on pday.

Our district

Downtown all the stores have cool Christmas things in their windows. This was at Macy's.