Meeting people by the Potomac River

Hello!

We have had a pretty good week here. We were able to talk to some
interesting people, as well as explore some places we had never been.

Monday we ended up walking down King street which is the main road
that goes through old town Alexandria. We went to an art museum there
by the Potomac river. The museum used to be a torpedo factory back in
world war 2. There is quite a bit of history here and it is cool to
see all of the old stuff.

On Tuesday we had zone conference. So we spent from 8:30 am till 4 pm
in a meeting. I think that is my least favorite meeting that we go to.
It's way to long and I always end up with a headache. We had to go a
little early because our ride had to have a car inspection so we
decided before the meeting to go get some McDonald's. We were
definitely glad that we did. Even though it was long it turned out to
be really good. We learned a lot about how to address people's
concerns by first teaching faith in Christ. It is vital for people to
have that faith before we try to answer their questions because if
they don't have faith in the first place then it doesn't do them any
good. We also learned a lot about temple work and how we need to get
our recent converts to the temple. Retention rate drops significantly
if they don't go to the temple within the first 6 months.

I don't think I ever told you guys this but I had the opportunity to
speak in sacrament meeting last week. I spoke on having non members
come into the homes of the members. Luckily I only had to speak for
about 10 minutes so it wasn't too bad. We ended up have a youth
speaker, Elder Cook and I, and then our ward mission leader. Way to
many speakers for 1 meeting. We went till about 12:25....only a few
minutes over.

We were able to meet with our progressing investigator this week. We
talked about tithing and the word of wisdom. He is engaged to a less
active member, and they are making progress in coming onto the church.
He is on board with being baptized, but they live together right now
and aren't going to get married until June. He also works every other
Sunday so it makes it hard for us to see his true commitment. I guess
we will see how it goes.

Yesterday we had a regional broadcast from Salt Lake City. It was to
something like 130 stakes on the east coast. It was pretty good. We
heard from Sister Reeves, as well as Elder Hales, and Elder Anderson.
We also have regular stake conference this week. We just have all
sorts of fun meetings these two weeks.

We walked down by the Potomac river yesterday. We didn't know really
where we were going just hoping to see some people to talk to. We met
this couple that we ended up talking to for about 45 minutes in the
bank of the river. We talked about what we do as missionaries, what we
want to do in life, pretty much anything that you could think of we at
least talked a little about it. It was good to just have a normal
conversation with someone. Ultimately that shows them that we are
normal people and hopefully it will lead to further interest in the
future. We talked to a guy named Cornelius as well this week. He says
that he loves Mormons and every time he sees us he wants to talk. He
is a black guy that we first met in Mcdonalds a few weeks ago. Every
time we talk to him we can smell alcohol on him. He is a cool guy and
we like talking to him. Every time he shows us his scar on his chest
from when he got shot in New York. We meet a lot of interesting people
here. But it's fun.

that is our week in a nutshell. Glad to hear everything is going good
with you guys.

Love you!

I am a fire dancer!

Transfers are always really hectic. But it's to be expected when you
get a call on Tuesday on whether or not your leaving, pack all day
Wednesday and get everything figured out for your departure. Then of
course Thursday is the big meeting which takes all day. Go home that
night and it's hard to do much besides unsettle and organize your
stuff. So transfer week is just a bucket of fun.

Ahh the city. It's an interesting place. We have "old town Alexandria"
which has lots of interesting shops and there are always street
performers. It's interesting to walk down and see all of the different
types of people. We are able to walk right up to the Potomac river and
look over into Maryland. Definitely much different than my last areas.
We live in a high rise apartment on the 4th floor and from our study
room we can see the Washington monument. I will have to take some
pictures and send them to you guys.

Not a whole lot going on. There is one investigator that we are going
to be working with. We have an appointment with him his week so we
will see how that goes. The ward is very small. That average sacrament
meeting attendance is 150. Looks like we are going to have our work
cut out for us. I think that I will enjoy my time here. Who knows,
with the new mission president I might get lost in the shuffle of
everything and spend the remainder of my time here.

I sent a video earlier today. If you can't watch it let me know and i
will try again. There was a member in the Algonkian ward that was so
kind as to let me borrow some juggling pins. He said that he has ones
you can light on fire and that if I got good enough that I could do
it. Well that's what the video is of. I think that is one of those
rare opportunities that I had to capitalize on.

On Saturday we did go all the way back to Ashburn for a baptism. It
was the family that went through a divorce and they were unaware that
their son would now be counted as a convert baptism and he would need
to be taught by us. I was able to be a witness and then we got
permission for him to be confirmed right afterwards. So I was also
able to participate in that. Afterwards I went and talked to his mom
and she got super emotional. I was really glad to be able to go back
and see it all of the way through. I am going to try to stay in
contact with them by email.

On Wednesday we had a miracle happen. After a dry spell of not being
able to teach the Vannie girls, we were finally able to teach them
again before I left. It had been over 2 months since the last time we
were able to teach them. They still want to be baptized, it's just a
matter of when. That will probably be another baptism I get to go back
for.

Sounds like everything is going good at home. Always good to here.

Love you!

The fire Dancer!

Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End!

Good evening! Sorry this letter is so late, but we had a full day.

We went to D.C. This morning for our final preparation day of the
transfer. We were able to see a few different places. We did a lot of
walking around to all of the outside memorials. To be perfectly
honest, once you have seen in one time then after that it gets pretty
boring going again. But it was still fun. There were a lot of people.
I hope that my next area isn't in the city because I do not like
walking down the street with that many people. I like my little areas
like Warrenton.

We did a couple of service projects this week. One of them was to our
family we are working with to get their 9 year old son baptized. We were
able to talk to her for a while and figure out why things in our ward
didn't work out for them and why they have their records in the
Ashburn ward. We were able to connect pretty well since they attend
their and also have family in the ward. We have their baptism set for
this upcoming Saturday the 11th and we are really looking forward to
that.

We had a lesson with our newest investigator Sherri as well. We talked
about the Gospel of Jesus Christ which consists of Faith, repentance,
baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. She really
liked it and we think that she will continue to progress. I am really
grateful to the members that we have in is ward and he encouragement
and the assistance that they offer to us. That Wednesday that we had a
lesson scheduled we got a phone call from one of our ward missionaries
who we had come with us to the last lesson and she asked if we would
like her there this time as well. I was really grateful for her in her
willingness and desire to help out.

The reason last week that we had to switch our preparation day was
because of a funeral. The funeral was for a 28 year old who died from
cancer. We ended up staying at the church building for 5 hours
helping. It was sad to see the family, but also reassuring to see
others testimonies of the spirit world as well as the afterlife and
that we can be sealed together forever.

When we were right near the Washington monument we saw some Jehovah's
witnesses with there little stand with information. I decided that I
had never really learned what they believe so we went and talked with
them for about 10 minutes. I learned what scriptures they refer to
when the call God Jehovah, and a few other things. They gave me a
little book about what the bible really teaches. I spent about 40
minutes looking over it and comparing beliefs as well as similarities.
It's interesting to see what different religions believe. If nothing
else I believe that we left a really good impression on them and had a
good conversation.

I wish I had more to write about, but it's difficult. I think with
this week being transfers there will be much more to write about.
Thanks for all you do!

Love you!

Every week is good in the Kingdom of God

Good afternoon!

We have had a good week here, but then again every week is good in the
kingdom of God. 
We weren't super busy but we still had some exciting things happen.
Last Monday as you saw we were able to go to great falls. When we come
out here we will have to go there. I also got a few more pictures I
will send from it. That night we had a lesson with our investigator
Jon and his girlfriend Mandy. We talked about the word of wisdom. It
was a good lesson, a little rocky at the start, but smoothed out
towards the end. We have had a hard time knowing where to go from
here. They are both awesome and have shown major progression which is
really good to see.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with a new lady we are working with named
Sherri. She is super awesome. The Spanish elders have been working
with her for a while now so she already has a pretty good
understanding. She has a baptismal goal set for April 25th and we are
excited for that. She didn't come to church this last weekend since
she was sore from the dentist, but she did go to the women's broadcast
on Saturday which was really good. We are going to continue to work
with her.

The Vannie girls that we were working with are still in the back of my
mind, and also in the wards mind. Our bishop had some contact with
them last week and there is a possibility that we will teach them a
few times this week in his home and they will set a baptism date for
April sometime. That is the hope at least. I really pray that the moms
heart is softened and she lets her daughters participate and be
baptized.

All of the baptisms will be happening after I leave. It makes me super
sad, but I know that I will get to come back for them. I know that
those people we are working with will get baptized. It's just a matter
of when.

We do have Ryan set up for April 11th and that is solid. We were asked
to be the witnesses so that will be cool. But another crummy thing is
that is also transfer week. I will probably be headed to new area on
the 9th. I'm going to do everything in my power to get back here.
Hopefully I don't go too far so it will be easy.

I have really enjoyed the time I have been able to spend in the
Algonkin ward. It has been really awesome and a good ward. One of the
better wards that I have been in. But I am off to my next and possibly
last area if I do get transferred. As of now I only have 24 weeks
left. Pretty weird. But that's still enough time to where I have to
keep focused.

I'll save some stuff to write about till next week so it's not so boring.

Love you guys!

Baptism date set for April 25th

We have had a pretty good week here. We had a good lesson with a
investigator some Spanish elders found. They have been teaching her
and we finally had a pass off lesson. She is super solid and has a
baptism date set for April 25th. We were also able to talk to one of
our other investigators who has his baptism date set for April 11th
and that is good to go.

Those are the most exciting things that have happened. We did have a
little 18 month mark celebration with some other elders. One of them
was elder Wilson my former companion in Belmont ridge, and Elder
Karbach who I served with in Centreville. We played some games as
well as some racquetball. I never realized how much I like racquetball
until I played that night.

This week I have tried to take it easy because my head still hurt from
last p day. Hard to do as a missionary. Today we went to great falls.
We got some super sweet pictures that I will send. Glad to know hat
everything is going good at home. I do think about it more and more
lately. I know that I have less than 6 months and it is starting to
set in. Considering that the sisters that came out with me go home in
10 days so that makes it even worse.

I will be getting a new area and a new companion on the 9th. At least
there is about a 95% chance of that happening. You have asked me a
couple times when my release date is. I believe that I will fly in on
the 18th. That should be the Friday I come home. They did make this
transfer a long transfer so It could be a week after as well. I'm not
for sure on that.

That's all for this week. Love you guys!

Trying to not be discouraged

Hello everyone.

We have had a very slow week here. We weren't able to meet with any of
our investigators so that was a major bummer. Something else that was
quite disappointing was we had one of our investigators who had a
baptismal date set for this upcoming Saturday not show up to church so
we had to cancel that. She is 10 and her little sister is 8 so they
were both going to be baptized this weekend. We have been trying to
meet with them for the past month but we haven't been able to.

We were in our apartment Saturday night around 7 and I decided we
needed to knock on their door. So we got on the bikes and rode the 3
miles to their house. We were able to talk to the girls but not the
mom. Every time we go over she won't come talk to us face to face she
tells her girls what to say. They told us that we can talk tomorrow
(Sunday) because they were going to come to church. We didn't bring up
anything about the baptism, but the older girl Angie looked at us and
said that its almost the 21st. We told her that's why we wanted to
come and talk to them. We could tell that she was heart broken. We
just said talk to your mom about it and we will see what we can do.

Their mom has been less active for a while. Both of the parents were
members, but they had their dad pass away back in November. The only
thing holding them back is the mom. She wanted to have them baptized,
so we aren't sure what the hold up is now.

Another real downer that happened is that we were in ward council
Sunday morning talking about it. Bishop said that he was in contact
with her a lot this week and on Saturday he got a text from her saying
she was really frustrated because the elders knocked on her door with
out telling her first. So first of all my heart just sank. But he also
said that she told him she would be coming. We were at least excited
that they would be coming. Then 3rd hour hits.

We get out of gospel principles and went over to bishop and he told us
she didn't come. That was the deciding factor between the 21st or not.
The high priest group leader came over and I guess I was looking
pretty down because he put his arm around me and said we are still
doing good things and not to get discouraged. I'm a little
disappointed with the whole situation, but what do you do.

Now less depressing things. On Friday we traveled to centreville and
picked up our new iPads. They are nice....I guess. 32 gigabytes and
increased power. I get to use it for school and other stuff so that
will be good. We have a couple appointments tonight that are going to
be really good.

I'm definitely excited to hit 18 months, but it will be super weird to
send home the sisters that came out with me. Just another step towards
the end. Time really does fly by. Sometimes more than others. It's
also weird to go to activities and your on the older side of things.
Well that's the report. We just got done playing football and ultimate
frisbee. I may have got a mild concussion. A term field isn't as soft
as you might think. I guess we will see.

Thanks for all you do. I know that's not a real detailed email but
that's all that happened.

Love you guys!

Good lessons with our investigators

This week has been pretty good.

We had some pretty good lessons with our investigators. Our
investigator Jon cam to church yesterday with his less active
girlfriend. We were really glad that they can. We have been trying to
get them there for a while now. We also taught Ryan. He is one of the
9 year old's that we are teaching. We were able to teach the last
lesson that we formally have to teach. The plan was to have his
baptism on April 11th but we will see how that goes.

Other than that not much has happened. We live pretty routine lives so
there is only so much that can change week to week. This upcoming
Friday we are switching ipads. I guess there much better than the ones
that we have currently. We have a bunch of meetings this week.

Today we are going to go over near my old area and play some football
with that zone. It's finally starting to warm up a bit so we can start
to do outside things. Our original plan was that we were going to go
to D.C. but then things just didn't quite work out so we are going to
try for next week.

I was thinking about this not to long ago, but I only have 6 months
left. It's pretty weird to think back about the time I have been out
here. I can't decide if I will have 1 or 2 more areas. I will more
than likely know at the end of this transfer depending on what
happens.

Sorry that this letter isn't that great. I'll try to write more next week!

Love you guys!