Of Ice and Men

Sup Gents, 

Wanna hear something that means a lot to me? Ok, here we go. Since I've been in New Rochelle we wake up early at 6 in the morning and go to the church to play lightning (speed, revenge, knockout, or whatever the kids at your local playground call it) with a bunch of other missionaries here in this area. Some mornings I think about going to workout in the free penthouse gym that we have at our apartment building but then I remember how fun it is to relive elementary school memories. Elementary School >>> Real life 

On Sunday morning we woke up to freezing rain! We looked out the window of our apartment on the 26th floor and looked out to the skyline of the city. You can see the highway out of our window and cars were stopped and were not moving at all.  The ice on the roads were so bad. We got a call that morning from our bishop that they needed help icing the sidewalks before church so that people wouldn't slip. I've never really experienced too bad of freezing rain here before, so Elder Moss and I were making fun of the cars that were stopped for being wusses. Saying that this kind of stuff wouldn't happen if they were as hardcore as Utah Mormons and that our ancestors crossed the plains in these conditions. 

Well folks, karma is a real thing because within 30 seconds of us leaving our apartment to walk to the church I slipped and fell on my hiney.  The ice was so slick that before I realized that I was falling I was laying on my back looking up at the gray skies. Elder Moss and I were basically ice skating to the church in our worn out church shoes. Us and the other Elders in the ward, Elder Christensen and Elder Driggs salted the sidewalks of the church. Just as fast as we put salt down, the rain would fall and freeze over the ice. It was ridiculous. The ice would freeze over the layer of salt we just layed! They had to delay church an hour and a half for people to get there and they ended up canceling everything but sacrament meeting, so people could go home. It was Radink to the hinkulious. 

There is a new senior couple coming in this mission next week that will be serving in Chinatown. They needed help setting up the apartment and getting it all ready for them. It was myself and Elder Moss’ task to drive the van with a bunch of stuff down and help move in. It was us two along with two other senior couples. After we got the apartment all nice and fancy like, we went and got some dumprings (sometimes pronounced dumplings if you're feeling extra white) and ate them with the other missionaries. Here I was eating some *pork dumprings looking out the glass window with what feels like China below and Little Italy out of the corner of my eye around the block. And it hit me,  how cool it is that I get to be doing this whole mission thing in New York City. 

Believe it or not,
this Halal food cart has the most 5 star reviews on Yelp
than any other restaurant in the world
#StreetMeat #LambOverRice

Then today for P-day we went to the City and saw the Freedom Tower and the September 11th Memorial. Seeing the 9/11 Memorial was one of my favorite things I have done so far in NY. That is hallowed ground. The best way to describe the feeling I had is there was static coursing through my veins. I felt chills as I walked the grounds. It was a somber feeling. I feel so privileged to be here in this world renowned place of New York doing what I have come to love, which is living and preaching the doctrine of Christ. This has been the coolest year of my life so far. Without a doubt the hardest, but by far the most rewarding. 

September 11 Memorial

Elder Moss and I don't really have any investigators that meet with us. We have very little time to proselyte. The time that we would normally spend proselyting and finding investigators, we spend doing office duties.  We also spend a lot of our time in the car driving.  Because I’m in the car driving, I have a lot of time to think and reflect. I don't mean this in a selfish way but I have had a lot of time to think about myself and the qualities I have gained thus far, the qualities I still want to gain and where my testimony is at and how much it needs to grow. I hope that when I see you people in a year you will be able to see how much my testimony has grown of this work. I love Christ.

Loves and lollipops,  

Elder Tyler J Johanson

Funniest Invention Ever #SelfieStick