Week #59

Wow. Lots going on this week over there!

Not as exciting here. Same old same old. We are beating the zone leaders at their own game (numbers) and the people and members here love us. I went to a lesson with one of the ZLs and he said,"Wow I've never been able to keep their attention that long." Funny how people will pay attention to you if you pay attention to them first. Hooray. Anyways I'm writing some letters tonight and I'll get them mailed tomorrow. If I can find stamps. If not they will all take the trip with dads birthday card. I actually did get that package today. When did you send it? I feel like it took the long way around. Oh well. At least it made it!!!

That is super sad to hear about brother Stewart. He was a very quiet kind man. I don't think very many people realized how sweet he was. He is the definition of pure in heart. He will be saved because of that virtue. 

I love you all! Be on the lookout for letters! I'm finally learning how to pick up a pen. 

I have a song everyone should listen to. Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw. Check it out! Then just live it! Amen!

Cholo means gangster. Thought this was funny. Also check out those forty dollar boots. Bargain deal. 

Pictures in Williamsburg

A little history about Williamsburg and the bridge (courtesy of Wikipedia):

In 1638 the Dutch West India Company first purchased the area's land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglicized to Bushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area "Bushwick Shore." This name lasted for about 140 years. Bushwick Shore was cut off from the other villages in Bushwick by Bushwick Creek to the north and by Cripplebush, a region of thick, boggy shrub land. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand."

Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried across the East River to New York City for sale via a market at present day Grand Street. Bushwick Shore's favorable location close to New York City led to the creation of several farming developments. Originally a 13-acre (53,000 m²) development within Bushwick Shore, Williamsburg rapidly expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city.

In 1855, the City of Williamsburg, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jubilee Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions.

In 1898, Brooklyn became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and the Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the new city. Just five years later, the opening of theWilliamsburg Bridge in 1903 further opened up the community to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the overcrowded slum tenements of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in New York City, which in turn was the most densely populated city in the United States.

The Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges are the only suspension bridges in New York City that still carry both automobile and rail traffic

Williamsburg bridge.

Week #58

[Mom note: This one was a little more personal, but I wanted to include it since it was the most we'd heard from him since being back in the hood.]

We did actually get a lot of snow. I'll try and get some better pictures but I have one that I'll tack onto this email. 

The snacks were a life saver. No special requests, I love all snacks and food. Some Costco snacks like pistachios or choco raisins would be sweet. Do you think you could spot me a little cash here soon? I'm want to take my comp to Buffalo Wild Wings for my birthday. Let me know what you think.

I've been feeling pretty good. Any episodes that I have are spread out and very brief. Some of them feel really weird though. I'm not worried about it though. I'll just deal with it. :) if you've already paid for the meds go ahead and send them. It wouldn't be a bad backup to have. 

My companion is good. He's been pretty sick and I've been pretty sick but we deal with it. We shoveled a ton of snow yesterday. We also helped three people get unstuck. One of them was a guy from queens in a gas dodge pickup with street tires. It had four wheel drive but the tires would slip and the differential would unlock so we basically had to dig him out. It took about three hours to get him down the street to roads that had been cleared out a little. We ended up going home at about midnight. We got about 28 inches of snow. Cars were completely buried. 

We've been working with Tito. He's eleven and ready to be baptized. 

I'll get dad a happy birthday letter written. I got his first letter a few days ago. I think mail has been very very slow. Also don't ship anything that will spoil. Our zone leaders won't pick up packages for us. And we're not allowed to go pick them up ourselves. Tell dad to take care of himself. He needs to tint the glass on his car. Don't even give him the option. In Idaho you can get a prescription and you can even tint the front glass. Elder Neuenschwander (my comp) got burned really bad and he has a prescription for it in Washington. 

That's great that they're skiing. I did crash once but it was into the last gate so I didn't dq. Tell Jeff I love him too. 

Get me Kylee's email, I'd love to write her. 

This week one of the members from Brentwood came to Brooklyn and took us out to Chinese. She's so awesome. Sister Mercado. Her daughters boyfriend just got baptized!!!

Anyone want to visit NYC in the winter? 

Where do they put all of that snow -- in front of your steps
and house. Talk about being barricaded in.
 But at least there is a nice narrow escape plowed!

BRKLN

Hello family!

Well week two back in the Bush here in Brooklyn and I'm alive! Things have been really good here in our area. This week we had a weird thing happened. We were walking on the street and we heard a car accident behind us. We went back to see if everyone was alive and alright. Basically some guy blew through a stop sign at the speed of light and t-boned some random lady. The guy ditched his car and ran
before the cops got there. The lady wasn't wearing her seatbelt but she was really lucky and wasn't messed up except for her wrist was really really broken. When we ran up she was knocked out so we just made sure she stayed calm and didn't move until the cops showed up. The lady's car also had like twenty or thirty rolls of Benjamins rolling around in the back seat. It was also pretty funny the way the cops rolled into the scene of the accident. It was just a bunch of
random guys that ran in all wearing normal clothes. A guy wearing a NY Giants sweater and carrying a Glock took over and we dipped out because we didn't want to get wrapped up in the whole mess on account
of the large amount of cash in that lady's car. Seemed kinda odd.

We ate an extremely large amount of Dominican food yesterday. It was
bomb. We could barely walk ourselves home. That's the best.

My companion got super sick and we were stuck at home quite a bit.
That wasn't the best. Kinda frustrating. This week should be a lot
better.

Overall I'm doing really well and enjoying my time back in this
horrible city! This area is pretty cool but it isn't Queens! I love
you all!!

Keep the faith!
Ryry

Elder Dolor is Back in the Hood

I'm here in Bushwick with Neuenschwander!

I'm feeling pretty good. Still fighting the dang cold that I had. Not too fun because it's really really cold. My gloves also disappeared which sucks. I think that probably happened during the move. The other missionaries did pack my stuff. They tried to steal my pillow too. I was pretty ticked but I got it back. The flight back was good. Not a huge fan of flying. Also there must've been a little miscommunication because I never met up with any other missionaries.

I was in this area one day before I got moved to far rock. I've been with N before too. He's a redneck kid from Washington. He lives right on the snake river. He's from the tri cities area.

Anything you want to send me would be great. Snacks of all kinds would be greatly appreciated. I think everything is going to have to go through the mission office because we live in a really bad area. It kinda sucks because I don't trust our idiot zone leaders out here either. They're both kind of dip sticks as dad would say. I think Kate's camera battery is on or around the entertainment center up stairs. I didn't hide it I just set it down somewhere. I got the package you sent for Christmas by the way. The cookies were still really good. Thanks for that. I will be looking forward to any packages that come in the future. I think food is going to be a bit of a struggle here. Brooklyn is soooo expensive. On well. Hopefully they'll put me back out on the island eventually and I won't go hungry anymore.

Ok here's a couple of pictures. I took some with my good camera too but I don't have a way of emailing those today. I'm off to go buy a pair of shoes before I walk right out of mine.

Love to all!

Ry

We somehow found our way to the top of a 20 story project building and got a few very cool pictures looking towards Manhattan.

¡Buenas tardes!

Hey everyone!

Good week here in Brentwood. We taught lots of lessons. Teaching people about something that has the ability to change their life is quite the privilege. Helping people leave their bad habits and start new ones is very powerful. The veracity of what we teach is completely backed up by the way it changes people. Bad things and untrue things change people for the worse. Good things, true things, do the exact opposite. I've seen people with huge problems with their families and marriages and addictions and jobs and finances completely turn things around because of them making sacrifices to follow what a guy who lived about two thousand years ago taught. Principles that were taught when a donkey was the sweetest transportation around is still working in an age where we've been to the moon and beyond? Hm. Interesting.

Seems pretty true to me! Don't believe it? TRY IT. Yes that's a challenge. Give it a shot.

Keep on keepin' on!

Ryan

The little kids had a church activity and they dressed up like us weirdos! BLACK TAGS. BLACK TAGS EVERYWHERE.

Que onda!

This last week I got transferred to Brentwood! It's an area pretty close to Queens and Brooklyn but it's out on the island. There is a really big Spanish ward here. They all love to feed missionaries so I like it here, a lot. This last week is been a week of getting to know the area the roads are really messed up around here and sometimes we get really lost a lot. I have really been enjoying driving. We don't go fast ever.

My new companion is Elder Ruiz. He does a killer Bill Clinton impersonation it's pretty great. He is super white and Mexican at the same time. It's great because the members wanna feed us even more because he's a native.

We have a little tiny gym in her apartment so we work out every morning. I actually purchased a mass gainer in a pre-workout and I'm trying to gain a bunch of weight we'll see how that goes.

I'm not really sure what else to talk about because this week has just been mostly us getting lost. I love you guys I will update you on next week with awesome adventures with Elder Ruiz!

Also I will include pictures.

Peace out!

Ry

Melissa! She's hilarious. We played tag for like an hour. This is why my dress shoes are destroyed. Also. I dunno how y'all women do the hair things. It hurts. Hahaha

Until next week!

-Payne

NEW ADDRESS:  

Elder Ryan M. Payne

94 4th Ave, Unit 309

Bay Shore, NY 11706