10 Lessons this week!

So this week has been another crazy one! We found a new investigator
named ryan who is a super solid guy. He is 18 and is headed off to
college soon. He came to church with us yesterday and said that he
really liked the classes and that he was able to ask questions, and
get answers. He really liked how humble our church buildings are
compared to those in Catholicism. We are going to get him in touch
with missionaries in Charlottesville where he is going to college and
keep in contact on Facebook.

We had one of our investigators who has a baptismal date not show up
so we are going to have to push that back. When you move it once then
its easier to move it again, and we don't want that. Hopefully we can
see what happened and resolve any concerns he has.

We taught a total of 10 lessons this last week. That is really good
compared to all of my other areas. So i remember when i was in the
Ashburn ward that i used to talk to the elders serving here and they
didn't have anything going on. Its amazing how an area can turn
around. Hopefully it continues on that trend. Its exciting to actually
see some success.

So today in my 11 month mark!!! I have 13 left, and Spencer hits his
13. So crazy to think that it has been over a year since i have seen
Spencer, and almost a year since i have seen the rest of you. Crazy
how fast the time has gone, and i think that it will only get faster.
As you guys have said, I feel like i was just barely writing
yesterday.

Today we are probably going to go play basketball. Its been a while
since i have so it will be fun. Good stress reliever. Our last p day
we rode our bikes to Herndon. Thats about 10 miles down one of the
bike paths. We went and had lunch with some other elders and just hung
out with them for the day. I need some communication with other
missionaries. In all my areas i have either had roomates, or other
elders living in the same complex. Not here, just us.

Makes me a little crazy. Especially when i am frustrated at my comp i
cant talk to anyone else. But i guess that i am working to overcome
that. I think i just have to not let the little things get to me. Just
keep working, and push through it!

Im glad you guys had fun at the reunion. I bet it was a little
different that a bunch of the older cousins weren't there. Hopefully
they still had fun without us.

I love you guys so much! Ill let you know if i need anything!!

Love your son,

Elder Blake Laing

What a great week!!

Hi Everyone, 

 We were able to go to the Temple with one of our  investigators. So we stayed in the visitors center the entire time, while the youth of the ward went and did baptisms. So I did have my recommend, just couldn't leave our investigator.

 

I wish that I had more pictures to send, but I haven't taken a whole lot lately. And yes my companion is a small dude. He is from bountiful. We don't always get along, but that's something that we are working on.

 

We actually have had a very busy, and successful week. Well...success compared to the normal in the mission. So we had a total of 8 lessons this week. A lot of those are on the same days. A total of 5 new investigators. The mission average is about 2 per companionship, so we were able to go above and beyond. AND.....WE PUT 2 OF THOSE INVESTIGATORS ON DATE TO BE BAPTISED!!!!  One of august 30th, and one on September 6th. So We are really excited for those. Its pretty interesting though, most of the investigators we have, are youth. I guess that's a good thing though.

 

We also had a total of 7 non members come to church. Miraculous because the average is less than one. Very interesting week. We also had a bunch of referrals from members so that was good. Hopefully we can do something with those as well. We actually got a call last night at 11:40 from our mission president. So when we looked at the phone this morning we saw that.

 

We called him back and he just wanted to congratulate us on a stellar week. Which we were grateful for. Hopefully this week will also be a good one.

 

I love you! happy anniversary!! I will try to send some pictures!

 

Love your son!

The Nationals Game!!

Blake was able to go to the Nationals Game in Washington DC with his entire mission. Here are a bunch of pictures that he sent home. He said it was so much fun, and one of the highlights of his mission.

Back in Ashburn

So i am back in  Ashburn...not the place that i wanted to be. I was not very happy last Tuesday night when we got the call. So i guess i just have to make the best of it. My new companion is Elder Wilson. He has been out the same amount of time as me. We were in the west campus together. It was kind of interesting  yesterday at church. I had a bunch of the members in the Ashburn ward look at me, then look away then look back with a confused look on their face. I talked to a bunch of them. It was good to at least know a few people.

I was talking to the sister missionaries who are now in the Ashburn ward. I actually knew them both while they were in my last zone. So they said that they don't have an area book. When they whitewashed they gave them 2 former investigators and 1 less active to work with. They asked me yesterday if i could make a list of people to go see. So that's what i did most of the morning. They also said that a lot of trust with the members is gone because of an Elder that came after me.

They told me that occasionally they use my name to get into some places. They tell them that I referred them. They told me that my name carries some weight with it, so i was happy to see that at left a good impression on the members. We don't have a car in this area sadly, but i am pretty sure that it is one of the smallest areas in the mission.  I am going to have to use my home card today to get groceries. I have 5 bucks left on my mission card and we have no food in our apartment. 

I hope the boat was ok! I know how you feel with the work and sleep thing. Sometimes its hard to write home because nothing to exciting happened. Just normal missionary work. Today we don't know what were going to do. Without a car to get anywhere its difficult.

There are no Elders anywhere near us so we only spend time in our apartment. In all my other areas we have been able to hang out with other elders. So i guess we will see how this is.

I love you guys. Thanks for the support!!!

Another Crazy week in Virginia

So its been another crazy week here in Virginia. A couple of different things happened. So on Wednesday we had to go to centreville. Basically back to my old area for a doctors appointment that elder Taylor had. After the appointment we went over to the centreville apartments. We went up to one and elder Wagner was there, (my old companion) and elder Payne who is another guy i got to be friends with. So they were on an exchange so us 4 went and had lunch. We were going to invite elder McDonald, but they had stuff that they had to do. So that was a pretty good day.

On Saturday night we took out a member from our ward who is home for medical stuff from his mission. So we went and saw a couple of people with him. So we got back to his house at about 9:30, and we helped them move a tarp so it could dry over night. So elder Taylor put his ipad on top of the car when we helped and never got it off. So we got all the way home and he realized that he had left it on the top of the car. 

So we grabbed our roommates and we went to look for it. So it wasn't in their driveway so we had the other elders sit in the trunk looking for it out the back, elder Taylor with a light in the front seat and me driving. So we get about 500 feet down the road and there was a break in the white line on the side of the road, and that was the ipad. Everybody jumped in the car and we went and returned the lights. We were surprised that we found it because the distance between our 2 houses is about 15 miles.

We were low on gas so we had to get some since it was Saturday night. So we go to 7-11 and fill up. On the way back to our apartment we all wanted pizza so we went to little ceasars 10 minutes before they closed. So we ordered and we were the only ones in there. Elder schenk dared me to drink a whole 2 liter in 3 minutes. We were talking about it for a little bit and then the girl behind the counter chimes in and said that if i could do it, that it would be free. So of course i had to try. I downed that sucker in about 2 minutes. an entire 2 liter. I felt a little sick afterwards. So we were behind our apartment and i threw up. Pretty nasty.

That was our adventure for Saturday night. And the ipad was fine surprisingly considering my led foot. We are fully booked for this week. With transfers and everything else. I didnt get a call last night so i think i dodged leadership again. I guess we will see how this week goes. Have fun in california!!!

Love you guys!!

Leftovers forever!

I'm glad that you guys got to go out to see Christopher's farewell. I was messaging him yesterday morning before he spoke. He had a couple of questions on what he should take and other stuff like that. He really will be an awesome missionary. I think that pulled pork sandwiches are the classic group food. Not to difficult to make and it feeds a lot!  Those gatherings with the family were always really fun. I guess that we will probably still have them when i get home.

 So the guy who had the vision texted us a little bit later and told us that although we all carry the same message he was more comfortable with the sisters. All i could think was that we hadn't ever had a lesson with just us and him. I told the sisters that he wanted attention from the opposite gender. Flirt to convert i guess. So we just passed him back to them.

This week has sure been a crazy one. So last Monday while we were emailing we got a call from one of the recent converts in the ward asking for help cleaning his carpets that day so we took an hour and a half out of our p day and helped him. So that was interesting. That night we saw a less active family who cant come to church because the husband that parkinson's so he cant really do much. We also went and saw the Hazel family. Just talked with them for a little bit that night. They asked if we could help set up part of there wedding reception are and of course we said we would.

So on Friday we went up the where it was going to be at. We got out and they said that all of the set up was done. So we drove up to where they were going to have the barbecue that night and we helped with some set up there. We helped direct the traffic for a little bit when we first got there. So it was a fun night. When we were leaving the mom said that we couldn't leave and that she had some food for us. So we were thinking just a little bit. Not so much..There was about 10 of those big metal tin serving things. Ill send a picture of our fridge. So we are still eating mac and cheese, baked beans, corn, coleslaw, and ribs. Probably will be for the rest of this week.

We went 30 miles away from Warrenton to see one of the members of the ward. It was a long drive. But they were excited to have us over. We have done a lot of driving recently. Makes me tired since i am the designated driver i am always driving.

Its been a good week, im hoping we can have more fun adventures coming up soon.

I love you!!

Elder Laing

This is the picture that Blake sent of them at the Wedding Reception that they helped with.....

Visions ??

This week has been an interesting one. I had the flu for a couple of days. Since i had a couple of tick bites last saturday they decided to put me on the antibiotic for it just in case. I am still recovering, but feeling a lot better. We got an investigators who is a single guy that the sisters found but since he is a single guy they decided to pass him to us.

He has been taught a bunch of the lessons and he came to a baptism. Yesterday he said that he was going to be at church, but he texted us that morning and said that he had a vision that he wasnt supposed to leave his house.

Soooo...we dont know if thats going to change anything. It was just a really weird text. We dont think it will, but we will wait and see. Actually we just got a text from him, literally 1 minute ago saying that he wanted to do some study on his own. Ohhhh anger. I guess we will see where this goes.

We didnt get affected by the hurricane at all. We had one day of just normal rain and nothing really past that. Its actually been really nice weather. Mid 80's most of the days, and low humidity so that has been a blessing.

Not sure what we are going to do today. I think we might go play some dodgeball, but i dont know for sure.

Have fun at the lake. Wish i could be there. 14 more months and ill be there!!

Love you!!!

Elder Laing doing Service in
Warrenton Virginia