May 25, 2016 I Found a Chinese Dane!

So I'm going to jump right into a story this week. Two Saturday's ago our stake had a missionary activity for prospective missionaries. The activity was in the city by the temple. We had a few APF's (Area Proselyting Focus that are  basically little street events or activities that we put on to street contact people) that we were rotating through. The first one that we went to was at Columbus Circle by the massive statue on the south-west corner of Central Park. 

We had set up this massive plywood Book of Mormon and we're trying to talk to everyone. The wind kept blowing the Book of Mormon down so I had to hold onto it and just smile at people and try to talk to them as they walked by.  Nobody wanted to talk to me until this old but very excited Chinese woman walked up to me and asked me if she could have a Book of Mormon. She didn't exactly speak the best English but we fought the language barrier enough for her to tell me that she doesn't live in NY, had visited Salt Lake City and really wanted a Book of Mormon in Chinese, which we didn't have with us. She wrote her name, email address and phone number (that had too many numbers) in my notebook, and walked away with an English Book of Mormon and a promise that the Chinese missionaries would contact her to try to get her a copy in Chinese before she goes home. Fast forward to Thursday. We get a call from the Chinatown zone leaders.  They said that she responded to their email and gave them her address. They were asking for more information about her before they sent it to where she lives. And it turns out she lives in Copenhagen Denmark! What?! How crazy is that!? I found an investigator for Max's mission!

Also on Sunday the YSA Ward was meeting in Danbury and we had a less active member that wanted to go so we went with him.  After the meeting I ran into the Murphy's. We were in a pretty big rush to get to an appointment so we didn't chat for very long. It was cool to see more people that we know. Jared Murphy was able to give the member we brought a ride home, which was a little miracle because he didn't have a ride.

Thanks for being awesome family! I love you.

Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride

May 18, 2016 Zone Activity! Catered by Olive Garden

Elder McBride celebrated his 20th Birthday and his halfway mark in his mission this past week!  Woohoo!

We had an awesome weekend this last weekend. On Friday we had our zone conference, which we learned a ton at. Then on Saturday Elder Gallardo and I got invited to go to the city for an activity for prospective missionaries in the stake. It was super awesome, we got to go out into Central Park and street contact with a ton of the youth from the stake. After we went to the Potters house for dinner and a testimony meeting/devotional.  It was a great activity and the youth seemed to get pretty excited about going on a mission. It was at the devotional that Sister Potter took that video of me. On Sunday the sisters in our district had a baptism! It was the first one in our zone for a nice little bit. It's always super stressful to make a baptism happen but it's always worth it in the end. Thanks for your stories. I hope you love the Cure concert!

Year Mark Stats:
Areas: 2
Companions: 4 (+1 MTC)
Baptisms: 3* (-1 for apostasy)
Pairs of Glasses: 2
Roommates: 9
Zone conferences: 4
President Interviews: 4
MLC's Attended: 4
Times hearing Elder Holland speak in person: 2
Times hearing an apostle in person: 3
Missionaries Trained: 1
Shirts destroyed: 5

Yorktown Stake Prospective Missionary Activity

Zone Activity:  Sam may have received a gift card to Olive Garden for his Birthday.
He's a big fan of spaghetti and meatballs

May 11, 2016 Hey Family!

It was great talking to you this week! I love you! We have a pretty crazy weekend coming up. On Friday we have Zone Conference and on Saturday we have this stake Missionary Activity. The activity is on Manhattan and is an activity for all the seniors of the stake that are planning on going on missions, it should be so much fun!

Have a Great Week! I love you so much!

Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride

May 4, 2016 Sweet Week

We had a sweet week this week. We finally reset a baptismal date for the 15th with the investigator who was supposed to get baptized last month.  On Monday, we had MLC, which was super cool because President and Sister Smith had just gotten back from a conference in Washington DC with Elder Oaks. President and Sister Stauffer were there as well, during lunch he told me a bunch of stories about him and Dad going to Yankees games. Also a week ago Sunday, we had our stake correlation and President Potter says hi. I'm excited for Sunday! Love you!

Con Amor,
Elder McBride

Zone Picture

I also saw Elder Mackintosh for the first time since I got transferred because he got called as a zone leader.