September 28, 2016 The Temple is Great!

I'm running a little short on time today to write so I'll compensate with pictures. We went to the Temple twice this last week. On Saturday we went down to the Manhattan Temple and did baptisms for the dead with our recent convert. It was a great experience for him, his wife, his wife's grandma and us. He was baptized for his dad and the spirit was there. 

On Sunday we were able to go to the Hartford Temple with one of our investigators and his wife. The temple was great but, the best part was how it touched him. He expressed sincere desire to get baptized and join the church but was not quite ready to set a date. He is so prepared. He told us how he's had contact with the church for years and has always liked it but it wasn't until recently that he has felt like it's the right decision to join. His experience gives me so much hope as a missionary. I have taught hundreds of people but only a few handfuls have ever even had the faith to read the Book of Mormon. The hope comes from the fact that someday their circumstances will change and they will remember the promises that those dorky we'll dressed young men made them. And when that happens Heavenly Father will put them where they need to be to find and accept the Gospel. Thanks family! You're great!

Con Amor,

Elder Sam McBride

In less serious news this week. I found the answer to the classic missionary question "What's the weirdest thing you've eaten?" The answer is a Ghanaian soup called Banku. It has so much random stuff in it. It was all right, but not my cup of tea. We ate it all though because we really want her and her husband to get sealed in the temple some day. Also don't judge my table manners, she told us we that the proper way to eat it is with your hands.

1. The best pic we have of what's in the soup which includes full crabs, cow skin, salmon, salted beef, weird Ghanaian jalapeño looking vegetables and a bunch of spices I've never heard of before. Also Brother S--- is in the background, he's awesome.

2. Me holding a piece of beef skin.

3. Sister S--- isn't a member yet, but we're working on her. It was her birthday that day. We gave her a Book of Mormon with a personal note and a Hartford Temple Open House Invitation as a birthday present. 

September 21, 2016 Week of Temples

Hey Family,

It's great to hear from you! Thanks for all of your prayers. So we had a pretty awesome week this last week. We found a bunch of new awesome people including 2 Nigerian brothers who are super cool. But everything that happened this last week seems to be in preparation for what's going to happen this weekend. On Saturday we are going to the Temple with the G--- family. Brother G--- got baptized in January, shortly after his baptism he and his wife kind of fell away for a little bit, but recently they've been progressing a ton and haven't missed church in months.  So on Saturday, we're going down to the Temple with them to do Baptisms for the Dead with him for the first time.  It's going to be awesome. We worked really hard with them to prepare his Father's name to do the baptism for him. 

We started teaching a couple last week. They are a newlywed couple, she's a less active member and daughter of an active couple in our ward and he's not a member yet. They recently moved in and are super prepared for the gospel.  We were able to get them into a special "Sneak Peak" of the Hartford Temple Open House this coming Sunday. It's going to be awesome. We get to go with them. We're going to try to commit him to baptism for late October or early November. 

I'm really excited to hear about Brother Harris becoming the Stake Patriarch. He's perfect for that. I honestly don't think that I've met anyone who just fits that calling so well. I bet Dad did a great job giving his talk.  That reminds me. I was on a companionship exchange in New Canaan Connecticut last Friday and the missionary that I was with hands me the Ward list and says "We don't have anything to do at 11am tomorrow so... who do you know? We'll go visit them." So we went and saw Craig Bench and his family haha. He gave me his talk from one of his recent high council assignments.  It's really good about temples. We shared a little spiritual message and invited them to invite friends to the temple open house. They were already all over that. 

It's so weird that there are people here that you used to know when we lived out here. Do you recognize the name Susana Sena? She lived in Stamford around the same time as us. She said your names sounded familiar and your faces are familiar but she couldn't remember you. 

I love you family! You're great!

Con Amor,

Elder Sam McBride

September 14, 2016 Busy Weeks Are The Best Weeks

We had a great week this week. The mission is on the zone study & interviews transfer, which means that we get to visit all 11 zones. While President is interviewing missionaries we have a little leadership council with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders so that we can get some feedback and council with them about their zone. 

After the first 2 hours of interviews are over the whole zone gets together for a "Zone Study" which is basically President leading a discussion about Joseph Smith History 1:1-20. It's pretty awesome and it's still awesome even after being there for 6 of them. To end there's always a short testimony meeting where everybody that wants to stands up and bears a 30-60 second testimony about Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. The Spirit is really strong every time. 

This last week we visited the Olmstead Zone on Thursday, Manhattan North Zone on Monday and yesterday we went up to Stamford to have it with the Stamford Zone. It was cool, the meeting was held in our old chapel. It's eerily familiar every time I go there. 

During the zone studies President always asks somebody where and when they were when they started to pray out loud, in order to emphasize that young Joseph had never attempted to pray vocally before. He always picks someone born in the church and usually they can't remember but yesterday when he asked someone I realized that I totally had been taught to pray either in that chapel or at home just a mile or so up the street. Haha it's a small world. 

We had a great Sunday this week. We had 3 investigators at church. We didn't even have time to teach 3 investigators last week, but a young man from the local college walked into priesthood because he was brand new to the area and was looking for a place to worship God. It was a super cool miracle. The Lord blesses us when we do our best.

It was great to read about Isaac, what a stud. What a successful week, pinewood derby 3rd place and won an election. Keep going with the Book of Mormon reading. I love that book. You're great family. I love you!

Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride

1. A slice of Pizza that we bought from Cross Bronx Pizza. It's about
a 5 minute walk away from the Olmstead (East Bronx) Chapel.

2. Sunrise over Long Island Sound. This view is from the apartment of
the other Elders in our District. Our view isn't so great.

3. Awkward picture of a family we got out to church this week. The man
is a member from Guyana, the women aren't... yet. The older woman is
the members wife, she is from Ghana and the younger girl is their
daughter. 

September 7, 2016 Busy Week. A Lot of Change.

So this week was super busy. We have had a lot of random assignments and and today we had a little mid-transfer transfer. We had 4 sisters come in from the Salt Lake temple Square mission to supplement for some Sisters from our mission that will be going to the Hartford Temple later this month to run the open house. So I'm a little short on time this week but I just wanted to tell you about Sunday.

When we first came into our area we had no clue what to do, so we decided to start working with some members. We prayerfully chose a few less actives to focus on and bring back. On Sunday 3 of them bore their testimonies. They also individually in the last 2 weeks all qualified for limited use temple recommends. 1 was baptized for the temple on behalf of his father and in the next 3 weeks the other 2 will be baptized in the temple on behalf of their fathers. All 3 have blessed the sacrament for their first time recently. 2 were ordained priest, 1 of which simultaneously received the Aaronic priesthood. And the Third is waiting for his recommendation for the Melchezidek Priesthood to go through. These men are changing. Even though we haven't baptized anyone in this area and we don't have any really super solid progressing investigators right now, I have seen 3 people repent become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you Family! You're great!

Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride

August 31, 2016 The Temple is Amazing!

This week was such a great week! Thursday we woke up before the break of dawn and went to the 6:30 am temple session with President Smith. I woke up that morning so ready to go it was a miracle. It was an awesome session. One I will never forget. After the Temple we rode the subway up to where we had parked our car and while on the subway I gave this awesome woman a Book of Mormon. 

We went straight from the city to a funeral back in our own chapel, it was a great service. Her family is mostly nonmembers and they were really appreciative. I literally got to see and understand the entirety of the Plan of Salvation before noon on Thursday. It was a great experience.

Sunday was also really special. One of our recent converts blessed the sacrament for the first time. He is my first recent convert to do so while I have been in the area. He's the coolest. He's going to do baptisms for the dead on the 24th with family names, including his father. It's going to be awesome. 

It's ironic that Jake spoke on Sunday because President & Sister Bench spoke in our Ward Sunday.  Both talks were great but, Sister Bench's was phenomenal. They spoke on temples which is the perfect topic for our Ward right now. I love that couple, I totally want to be like them when I grow up. 

Today has been fantastic so far. We started it off by taking a young man that we helped to reactivate to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for his first time, along with some other young men in our ward, William, and the Young Men's President. Probably the coolest part, though, is that he was able to get baptized on behalf of his father who passed away when he was a child. It was an amazing experience. He's so excited to do temple work now. The temple is a special place. I love you! You are all awesome!

Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride

Elder McBride at the Manhattan Temple

Group Pic From Left: Tustin (Bishop's Son), Elder Mackintosh (Best
Missionary In the World), William (My adopted little Brother and
Assistant trainer), Jevon (Person that got baptized for his dad), Me,
and Matthew (Young Mens President's Son)

Also, we stopped by the old place on Thursday because we were driving through. We didn't have time to knock the door or anything though.  

(This is the house we lived in when Sam and Max were born in Stamford, CT.  Aaah.  Sigh.  We loved that place.)

Yankee Stadium while driving home from Harlem.

August 24, 2016 Solid Week

We had a pretty good week his last week. Not a whole ton of excitement, but I did want to tell a story.

The Saturday before last, while we were neck deep in planning transfers, a member from our ward called and asked if we could go give a blessing with him that afternoon. We said "of course" because there is no other appropriate response when somebody asks you to come give a blessing, no matter how busy you are. We then met up with the member and went to this elderly Sister's apartment. This member had been her home teacher for a really, really long time and the sister's health was not too great. Elder Mackintosh and I sat there and watched while these two long time friends had a really touching conversation. They had nothing in common, except for the church, but they talked like they were siblings. Towards the end of the conversation the Brother suggested that Elder Mackintosh and I bless her in Spanish because that is her native language even though she has attended the English ward the majority of her life. Elder Mackintosh did the annointing and I sealed it and gave her by far the most spiritual blessing I've ever given, Spanish or English. After the blessing, we left, Elder Mackintosh and I with a greater understanding of what a home teacher is supposed to be. The next day she found the strength to come to church for the first time in months. She was so happy, there was a special spirit about her. According to her home teacher, she then had a great week. But sadly she woke up under the weather Sunday morning not feeling too good. She went to the hospital and peacefully passed away just an hour or two before church was to start. The
Priesthood is powerful. This sister was able to go to church and partake of the Sacrament on the last Sabbath of her life. This experience changed how I view home teaching work. A home teacher who is magnifying their calling is a powerful tool in the Lord's hands at blessing people's lives. This home teacher was one of the first people called to inform him of the Sisters passing, before even her close family. Home teaching isn't about "visiting" it's about "ministering". You can't just say hi to them you have to be aware of their needs and strive to alleviate them, whether or not they're comfortable asking for help. It's such a great blessing if done correctly.

Thank you Family. I hope you're getting back into the swing of things.

Love,
Elder McBride

August 17, 2016 Transfers

Before I talk about transfers we set a baptismal date last Thursday!  He's super awesome and super prepared. He's seen a lot of missionaries in the past. In our first lesson with him he pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon from 1993. We're really excited for him.

Now to transfers. Pretty much every hour we've had where we didn't have something firm set up, we have had to spend working on transfers.  It was really cool to see President receive the revelation about where missionaries should be and who with in order to come closer to Christ.  I had always thought that transfers were either 1. President already has them figured out a few transfers ahead of time or, 2. President kneels down on the day of transfer calls and then knows exactly where each missionary needs to be. It's really not either of them though.  How he really does it is by constantly having the missionaries on his mind, acting on the really strong promptings he has, then seeing what would make the most sense, and then seeking spiritual confirmation for what changes he made. It's really cool to see him do it. After all the transfers are finished and everybody is in the spot and with the companion that the lord wants for them President kind of hands it off to Elder Mackintosh and I and says "Well Elders, make it happen" and it becomes our responsibility to get everybody where they need to go.


It's kind of weird, before being in the office transfers was kind of just a thing that popped up over the weekend then happened. But dealing with all the details and craziness of it is a whole week long process. After Trainers were called Wednesday night, preparations began to have their training Friday.  The rest of Friday was spent helping President as he makes transfers. He will sometimes ask us for information that he "uses to receive revelation". Sometimes it can be easy like "How much time has so and so spent in the Bronx?" or sometimes it can be hard like "How good is Elder so and so's Spanish?"  

Saturday we were in the office for awhile to help President out then we were able to go to a dinner appointment with one of our members that we work with whose nonmember wife we had recently become friends with and talked her into making us some food from her native country, Ghana (talking about food is a great way to start growing a relationship with people who aren't interested in the church). She made us fufu with Peanut Butter soup, which is this dough made out of powdered plantain and this soup made out of peanut butter, oil and a chicken that she had bought and killed that day. It was super weird but actually tasted pretty good. Warning though. Fufu is not a good meal to eat when it is hot and humid, it is heavy. 

After the fufu we went and put all the transfers into the computer, met up with President and his family and called everyone to call or release them from positions and to give the zone leaders their zone's transfers.

Church was great Sunday, after a great missionary themed sacrament meeting it was back to the office to schedule out the next 3 days and make sure that we could coordinate all 200 missionaries on Transfer Tuesday. We welcomed a great group of new missionaries Monday.  Tuesday went almost flawlessly. And this morning we said goodbye to 12 missionaries. They left from JFK so we got some awesome views of the city, I'll include the pictures. All in all I have a much stronger testimony of revelation and preparation.

The Lord has really been helping me these last few days even though the focus has shifted a little bit away from my investigators towards the other missionaries and their investigators. President Smith holds priesthood keys that give him the right and duty to receive revelation for this mission, I have seen those keys in action. It's super cool.

Sorry about this rambly email. I'm super tired (I actually fell asleep while writing it). I love you! You're such a great, supportive family.  Thanks for your prayers.

Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride

P.S. Elder Mackintosh and I are both staying together for this 7 week transfer which means we will have been companions for 5 transfers total up to this point. He's great.

Beautiful View of the Mission

Sam Driving Home from the Airport

City Field where the Mets Play.
Photo Cred: Elder Mackintosh