Nothing to say!

This week has been good. Nothing much new happened sadly, but
sometimes that is just how life is.

We weren't able to meet with Prasad this week. We had a lesson set up
with him on Wednesday evening, but he ended up leaving for Pittsburg
that afternoon and so that got canceled. They are going to be on
vacation next week as well so we will see how that goes. We did meet
up with Cornelius one time this week. He finally got a job and so we
are going to try to meet him after 6 during the week.

I have been thinking lately about what is going to happen over the
next 4 months. My prediction is that I will end up staying in
Alexandria for the remainder of my mission. Chances are Elder Cook
will leave this transfer and go to a new area for his final transfer,
and then I will get a companion that I will spend 2 with then I will
be done. The possibility of me sending Elder Cook home is very slim.
But crazier things have happened. The only reason that I think this will
be my last area is because of the mission president transition. I
guess we will see.

I ended up ordering something  off eBay by the way so if you see
something from PayPal on my account you will know why.

Sorry for the short email. Nothing much to say. We will probably end
up doing a whole lot of nothing today. It's hard when you don't have
access to a car for your preparation day. It makes it difficult to get
anywhere. But what do you do.

Love you guys!

Wet feet....Guest Suite

Good morning. 

So I will start with what happened most recently. 

Last night we went to a fireside last night at he Annandale stake center. Jenny oaks baker performed with her 4 kids. It was really impressive. I think I was more impressed with the kids. The oldest was only 14ish. I also got to see a  bunch of the members from Warrenton. It was awesome to talk to some people I know. It's hard to believe I was there a year ago. 

So back up a little bit before that. We got back to the apartment right before we were planning on leaving to go to the fireside, we walked in I took of my shoes and walked into the bedroom and all of the sudden my feet were wet. Now obviously the first thing I did was look up for a leak but it was coming up through the floor. We went down stairs and talked to our concierge and he said he will have someone look at it. 

When we got back from the fireside we got into our apartment and there were just 2 fans on the floor. It didn't look like any of he carpet had been lifted up and we knew it had to come from somewhere. We asked the office if they had stopped the leak and they told us it came from the air conditioner. Well the closet from there to the wet spot was about 12 feet....obviously something wasn't right with how they decided to fix it. We moved our beds into the living room and basically everything else except for the stuff on the far wall. We then proceeded to lift up the carpet all the way to the wall where the ac unit is. GUESS WHAT!?!? WATER!!! All the way along the base of the wall. Not just in the bedroom, but also the living room. We got the maintenance people again and we tore out all of the padding and threw it away. We cut the carpet going from the living room to the bedroom so we could get underneath. We don't think they took into account the possibility of mold growing. 

Since our apartment is a construction zone now, they let us spend the night in their guest suite. It was basically a hotel room except bigger and nicer. They said they are going to get the carpet guys in there today and check for mold and make sure it's all dry then lay new padding. We were hoping that they would just replace the carpet as well but that would involve much more extensive moving and wouldn't be worth it. Hopefully it will be done by tonight but we will see. And if not, another night in the guest suite. 

Everything else pales in comparison really. We taught a lesson to Prasad this week. They picked their wedding date back to August so that will postpone his baptism again. We are going to keep working with them, but we will see how it goes. 

We walked to a bridge in our area that crosses from Virginia to Maryland and check that out. They made a park underneath it with some playgrounds as well as some basketball courts. Pits nice because it always shady and keeps it relatively cool. We got to walk up onto it and take some pictures. 

We haven't been able to contact Cornelius lately. Every time we call his phone it's off. We are going to keep trying. That's our week in a nutshell. I will send some pictures right after I send this off. 

Love you!

Pictures of Blake and his friend:)

Our Crazy Drunk Friend.....

This has been another good week for us. Last Monday we played some
ultimate frisby, as well as a little bit of football. It felt really
good to do some physical activity. The problem is, is that I think I
have shin splints. This whole week my upper shins right below my knees
have been super sore. I haven't had access to a computer to figure out
how to help it. Oh well.

We didn't teach anybody his week. I guess technically we did see
Cornelius again this week and we were able to talk with him. We were
walking down king street as he walked out of subway we met up right
there. It's no longer just a coincidence that we keep seeing him. It's
never in the same place. We were talking for a while and eventually he
asked us what he was doing wrong. He said since we were friends he
wanted to know. So we told him that he needs to stop drinking. Every
time that we talk to him we can smell alcohol on his breath.

He really wants a shirt and tie like we have and luckily we have an
extra suit in our apartment that was left by an Elder that went home a
couple months ago. We were r going to take it to a donation bin, but
now we are going to give it to him. We think that he might go
somewhere from here. Before it was just our crazy drunk friend, but
now we are going to try to teach him.

Not a whole lot else has happened. As you know we did meet those
people from Texas. They gave us 25 bucks for either dinner or
breakfast. We are always super appreciative. We have it chillin on our
fridge right now and we will probably end up getting some groceries
with it.

I am excited to talk to you guys this weekend. We will talk during the
week and figure out a time. Sorry this email is short, but not a lot
happened.

Love you guys!

Picture of our Missionary!

We received this picture today of our awesome Missionary! He looks great! I love it when people randomly send us pictures of him. Thanks Lynda and Craig!

Hi. My husband and I are in Alexandria on vacation from Fort Worth. We ran into your elder, so just wanted to take a picture for you. I have a nephew serving in the Salt Lake Central Mission right now, and my sister loves to get pictures sent to her from people that he meets. Thought I could do the same for you. :) Have a great night!
From a mom and dad of future missionaries, 
Lynda and Craig Carmack