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.