Shoveling Snow!

Sorry it's so late with the email. We have had a full day here. We went to the Pentagon this morning. It was pretty cool. We got to see a bunch of cool military related things. It was really humbling to see some of the memorials. We were in one of the halls and they had a painting depicting some sort of humanitarian efforts, and on the box it had the churches name. That was cool to see. In one of the special memorial rooms I found someone named William Laing. Probably related somewhere. 

Afterwards we came back to Sterling then went to Ashburn and played some basketball. I am sore from that. Haven't played in quite some time. 

We have had an interesting week to say the least. On Thursday we had our transfer meeting. I met Elder Johnson's family. It was hard to send home another. I guess that I was supposed to learn something from doing that. So I got Elder Rogers. He came out with me. Some interesting things have happened with my companion situation. I have never had a companion younger than me in age, or somebody younger in the mission. I have had 3 that came out with me, but none younger. 

The new assistant is someone that came out with me. That's interesting to say the least. I am still in Sterling. We are moving apartments soon so I will get you the new address. Don't feel bad for not sending anything. If anything I need to send stuff home. When the spring hits I am going to send home most of my warm clothing. Start downsizing my stuff. 

Elder Rogers is from Santaquin. He is the oldest in his family. He is an awesome guy, I think that we are going to get along really well. 

On Saturday we got 10 inches of snow. We got the text saying not to drive, so we started to shovel but it was coming down just as fast as we could clear it so we spent most of the day inside. We were in contact with our bishop Saturday and also Sunday morning and he told us that church was canceled. We decided to go shovel snow at about 8. We were able to help out a few people in the ward. One of the members we did was less active, and her husband isn't a member. They have a 3 car garage so it took us about 2 hours. They ended up giving us 50 bucks each. We tried to refuse but they kept persisting and eventually we gave in. I hate taking money from people, especially since it was on a Sunday. Is that considered working on the sabbath? 

That was our week in a nutshell. Again sorry this is late. Really busy. I hope lizzy hangs on till I get home. That will be sad is she doesn't. I guess it will be sad regardless. I'm alright on money now. We get a new allotment soon. 

Love you!

Holy Snot It's Cold!!

Good Morning!

Holy snot, first of all i have to say that it has been so cold over
the past couple days. Yesterday was really bad. It was a grand total
of 10 degrees when we left our apartment to go to ward council, with
the wind blowing about 20 miles an hour. The wind didn't stop at all.
After church we tried to check on some people and invite them to a
fireside tonight and i didn't think to put on my hat or scarf and we

were only out in it for about 10 minutes, but by the time i got back
into our car...my whole body hurt from the cold. Its not just cold,
but the humidity and the wind just intensified it.

So now to some of the weeks endeavors. Sending home 2 comps in a row
is difficult. Accompanying them to the departing activities makes it
worse. So on Wednesday they had their departing temple trip so we left
our apartment at about 7 after we had some other missionaries show up
to go to the mission. The only reason we went with them is because I
had an appointment at 12 to get a hitch put onto our car. So we get
there, and we were waiting for people to show up to open the office. I
call the uhaul place and they told me they had no record of our
appointment, and the hitch guy wasn't working that day either. We were
20 miles away from our area with nothing to do for about 6 hours, and
I was with a random other missionary. I had talked to a few other
missionaries about going to lunch. Elder Karbach, and Elder Wilson.
One former companion, and another a really good friend. We ended up
spending the day with them. We went to lunch at a buffet. I'm pretty
sure buffets cringe when they see us walk in because they know we
could probably eat them out of business.

We spent 2 hours eating. It wasn't to bad of a price so that was good.
When we were eating they were telling me about about a place they
found with a bunch of graffiti and they showed some pictures. I was
really interested so we went and walked around it for a little bit.
Took some sweet pictures. I wanted to make a post about one but I
couldn't think of anything. Eventually I thought of something and it
turned out really good. I'm pretty proud of it. We then had to trek
back to Burke to pick them up. Then Elder Ames told us they didn't
have a ride back to Leesburg where they lived so we had to drive all
the way out there, then finally made it home at 5:30. I drove a total
of 130 miles that day. Which isn't that bad except for the fact that
it was all stop and go, not to mention Virginia traffic.

That night we went on exchanges with our district leader. I went with
his companion Elder Wickham. He is new this transfer so he still has
that greenie Fire and very gung-ho about everything. A little
overwhelming at times but still a good kid.

Thursday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders. I went with Elder
Gemar who has been out about 20 months. He is from Saratoga springs
but has lived all over Utah and salt lake county. We checked on a few
people...no success. Then he had a Skype lesson that he taught. That
night they had the Mission leadership conference call. So I listened
into that. Sometimes it bugs me all the new stuff that they try and
all of the new rules. But that's okay. Endurance is key. Missions are
meant to be enjoyed, but sometimes it's all I can do to endure.

We picked up another missionary on Friday since he was on an exchange
and they are currently in a tri-companionship. We went to lunch at SAMs
club then re exchanged.

Saturday was a very interesting day. We had Elder Johnson's departing
interview. We again had to drive all the way to Burke. After his
appointment we had set up to have the hitch installed that day. We
drove there and dropped off the car. We were hungry and wanted some
lunch. Elder Johnson had served near that area so he said there was a
McDonald's not to far. We ended up walking 4 miles there, then 4 miles
back. My feet hurt so bad. He didn't think it was that far, but that's
ok because we had a good time. Eventually made it back again at about
5.

I think this has been one of my longest letters. I am excited to get a
new companion. Elder Johnson has been my longest comp. We have been
together for 13 weeks. I only have 5 transfers left so it seems like
things are starting to come to a close, but I still have a while.
That's crazy that Spencer's time got cut by a month. I know that won't
happen to me. Are they more excited or bummed that it won't be 24
months? I think I would have mixed emotions.

Well I hope you enjoyed this novel. I probably won't ever wrote that
long of an email ever again. I don't know we will see. Hope everybody
is doing good.

Love you!

Teaching Teaching and Teaching

We had a good week here. Business as usual with some unexpected surprises!

On Tuesday we had a lesson with the Vannie family. I don't think that i have told you guys about them yet. They are a family who the parents were both members, but less active. The week before i got to this area he passed away from ecoli. They have 2 daughters who are 8 and 9 so its been really rough for them over the last 3 months. We have been teaching the daughters because the mom contacted the bishop of our ward and wanted to get them baptized and to start coming back to church. 

We had exchanges this week so i had Elder Bateman with me and we were able to teach them the restoration. This was actually the 3rd lesson that we taught but we decided to go out of order just to suit their needs. We were able to set up a date for them to be baptized for March 21st. We are excited for that and that will be a little bit before i leave. 

On Wednesday night we taught the Ammerman family. We were teaching them when i first got here, but they were not showing any signs of progression so we decided to drop them, and then last Sunday they showed up out of no where to the other ward. ( I might have already told you guys that )  We got to talk to the mom more than ever before and she said that she i willing to let her son be baptized if he wants to. He has shown desire in the past to do so, so that is promising.

We are still teaching Jon and Mandy. I might have told you about them, but i don't remember. She has been less active for about 20 years, and he is a non member. We have a lesson set up for tonight and Johnson is going to teach it with a priest. He showed some concern that if we are right then all of his family has been wrong, so the plan is to teach about family history and temple work. 

The reason that i am not going is that we have a pass off lesson with the Spanish elders so i will be going with them. We have never met this lady, but from what they have said she is really promising. We are excited to have someone else promising to work with.

I have been feeling better thankfully. Still hacking up stuff from my chest, but that's good i guess. We tried doing whats called an apple juice cleanse. For 1 1/2 days all we did was drink apple juice and nothing else. It was miserable so we didn't finish. Today we are going to go play some basketball in Centreville. 

My companion goes home in 10 days. He is the third I'm sending home. I did it last transfer too, so they are making me think about going home. We have to go to Burke on Wednesday for his departing temple trip and i have an appointment to get a hitch put on our car for a bike rack, and i am going to go to lunch with some of my buddies. 

I love you!