Football and two new Comps!

This week has been good. Got 2 new comps. We have been super busy all
day so this is only going to be one paragraph. We are getting along
good. I think this will go well. We have each other to talk to and we
aren't constantly examining each other so I think we will continue to
get along.

We just got done playing football. I have moved into a zone that is
not very athletic so it was interesting to play. There was about 8 of
us that participated the most. For most of the game I was QB for our
team. It rained here yesterday so the field that we played on was wet
and muddy. Made it more fun.

Tonight we have dinner with our bishop. I have talked to him a little
bit and seems like a really nice guy. It's actually warm today. It got
up to the 70's so that was good for football. I am dreading when the
cold comes, but I will have a car this year so hopefully it won't be
as bad.

I'll try to send some pictures throughout this week.

Love you guys!

2 ties for 12 bucks!

Things are the same here. We haven't had too many exciting things happen. Last Saturday we went to a baptism in Centreville. It was a guy that we first contacted back in February. So this was a long time in the making. Today we went to 2 malls. I got 2 ties for 12 bucks. I hate spending money I have decided, but I like new things. I need a couple of regular shirts, but I don't want to buy them, and I don't want you to send them to me without me trying them on first.

I decided that soon I am going to buy a hoodie, but I don't know when. I don't really want anything for Christmas. I don't need more things to carry around. Sorry I wish I was more help. I really just have no idea. I'm ready to leave this area. I'm just super done with everything here. I need a change.

I did buy a new blanket at Costco on Saturday. My other one is getting really worn out and I just wanted a new one. I will figure out tonight if I am training or going into leadership, but I highly doubt that will happen...maybe I'm doing something wrong. I guess we will see.

I will write some more on Tuesday night and let you know what's going on. I'm assuming that I am leaving, but there is always a possibility of staying.

I love you guys! I hit 14 months tomorrow so only 10 left!

Ryan received the priesthood

So it has been a pretty good week. Done a little bit of everything I guess. So we had our fun adventures on Monday. Ya it really is so cool to see all of the monuments and the museums. Definitely different than what we usually do on our p days. So we are not teaching crystal anymore. We passed her to the sisters to start teaching. We think that she will do better learning from them instead of us. With the scheduling with the member we had to make sure there was a male there as well so scheduling was easier as well.

Saturday we had a guy from manassas come and take us to lunch. His name is Broken Oliver. He changed his name to broken because he believe that God broke him. He has read all of the standard works. So it is an interesting situation with him. He loves all of the missionaries, we just don't ink he wants to change his ways. He was a baptist pastor for most of his career so he knows the scriptures really good.

One of the main reasons that we set up our tree is because we were having a major cleaning day and we were cleaning out he closet that is was in so we just decided to set it up. All we need is Christmas music and snow. But I really don't want to deal with snow. It makes going out and trying to do anything absolutely miserable. But it is the last winter I have to deal with.

Crazy to think that I only have 10 months left, and Spencer only has 8! Even crazier. Time really does go by fast. I do think that I am going to be moved for the holidays. I have already been her for three transfers, and the likelihood of staying for 4 in an area is a very small chance. I am actually kinda glad that it's almost over. Belmont ridge has been really good, but also really difficult. Especially with my companion situation for 12 weeks. I'm ready for a change.

So I have some other good news to report. On Sunday Ryan received the priesthood and was ordained a teacher!!! I had the opportunity to stand in the circle. It's so awesome to see the light of Christ in Ryan. It's amazing how the gospel can actually change the appearance of someone. It's amazing to see his progress. Some other good news is that A guy that I was teaching in Centreville is getting baptized on Saturday. His name is Craig if you remember me telling you about him. He has had a hard road to get here. He was a drank and smoked when I was teaching him. He went through addiction recovery and has changed a lot. I am excited to see that!

Today we are going to play some football and some basketball. Looking forward to that. We are sitting in the gym right now but nobody else has showed up. Don't quite know what I want for Christmas. It's hard to ask for things because I want to see it and try it on before I get it. (Referring to clothes) I think I will probably go to the store today or soon and get another jacket to wear....but I don't know yet. If I think of anything I will let you know!

I love you guys so much! Thanks for all you do! (The downstairs is looking really good...love the pictures!)

Halloween Monster

Some of these pictures are from when we were building a monster for
Halloween. Since I am in the Leesburg zone we deemed it leesenstein.
It gave us a goal to work towards in building it. In order to do so we
had to teach a certain number of lessons and do some other things. It
was a fun thing to do and also a good motivation booster.

Ryan was baptized!

Hi Everyone,
So we are sitting in the middle of D.C. Right now. Actually at a
Starbucks so we can steal the wifi. Been a really good week. Ryan was
baptized so that was super exciting. I did get the package and as soon
as I saw the grey Book of Mormon I was super stoked. Then the card
said it was for Ryan. It's been a good week but business as usual.

We went to the holocaust museum. It was really depressing. Crazy to
think that it actually happened. So we are probably going to go check
out the air and space museum right now.

For Halloween we were able to watch 2 movies. We watched frozen and
despicable me 2. It was pretty cool. I will send some pictures. Love
you guys! Thanks for the support!

Interesting week

It's been an interesting week here. So we spent most of the week
apologizing to members that were in our gospel principles class. I
don't think I told you, but we chewed out our gospel principles class.
We taught a lesson for the first 30 minutes of class then went to
class. When we got there the topic was on the millennium and they
weren't talking about anything in the manual. It was all speculation
so Elder Geohagan got up and told them that we shouldn't be doing this
in a class where people that attend are either non members or shakey
in their testimony.

Most of the members felt like we shouldn't have done that, but I think
that it was necessary. So we visited basically all of the members that
were in there and we could tell that there were a few hurt feelings.
On top of that  we got an email from our mission president last Monday
chewing us out because we are all doing horrible. Then on Tuesday we
had a whole mission conference call. All the sisters, elders, and
senior couples were on the call and he only said what the elders are
doing wrong. So it has been a rather depressing week.

On the call he said that we have 1 week to come forward and talk to
him about anything inappropriate we have done on our iPads or he would
come to us. It basically felt like a threat so we have him coming to
our apartment on Wednesday to talk to us. We haven't done anything
wrong, but we decided it's better to lay it all out than for him to
come take our iPads away.

An then on Friday we had a zone conference. Which actually was a lot
more uplifting than I thought it was going to be. So we have had a
tuff week. But I guess they are to be expected.

So we have been teaching Ryan a lot. We are preparing for this
Saturday. This morning we had a meeting with his mom and got all of
the papers signed so everything is good to go except for his interview
which is scheduled for his evening. He is ready. It's awesome to see
how he has progressed in the few months I have been here. I'll make
sure to take some pictures :)


We are playing some touch football today. We figured out its a really
good stress reliever. Tonight we have dinner with a Hispanic
family...so it will be delicious. I know you have probably looked for
this email already but I have been writing over the course of all day.
In between athletic events.

Your going to have to send me some pictures of how the down stairs is
looking. Love you mom!

Mario and Luigi judging Chili

We have had an awesome week. I am so happy that i have a good
companion. We get along really well. We are bros. Last Monday we
taught a lesson to our investigator Ryan. He is the 15 year old who is
on date for November 1st. We went over the laws and ordinances as well
as reviewed the baptismal interview questions again. He did really
well. Its really cool to see him moving forward the way that he is.

Tuesday we had our district meetings and ate at Carolina Bros. Its a
barbecue place which is owned by a less active in the ward and he
loves the missionaries so we eat for free. Delicious. Wednesday was
also another awesome day. We participated in the talent show that our
ward had. We did a synchronized sock puppet dance to the circle of
life. I know it sounds a little weird, but it was actually a lot of
fun and the members loved it. Ill try to send some of it. Tonight we
celebrated Elder Geohagans 21st birthday. Didn't really do anything
special.

Thursday we had a lesson with Crystal. She wasn't quite sure if she
wanted to keep meeting with us. She said that she was thinking about
canceling our meetings all together. So we went in there not sure
exactly how it was going to go. We focused on the apostasy after
Christ and the apostles were killed and they need for a restoration.
We showed the 20 minute movie of the restoration which really brought
the spirit into the lesson. We then talked about baptism with her. She
was again very skeptical about it. We explained it as best we could.
We tried our very best and.....SHE ACCEPTED FOR NOVEMBER 15TH!!!! That
was about the 10th time we met with her and we have pushed hard for
it every time. Usually miracles like this always happen at the
beginning of transfers which proved itself again.

Friday was another fun day. Went and had lunch at Carolina bros again.
Went to the thrift store to see if they have anything good. Bought a
tie for a dollar. We then skyped a recent convert that elder Geohagan
works with. Tonight we saw a couple of members. We are trying to meet
with every member we are trying to collect their favorite scriptures.
We are going to be doing a presentation for the ward.

Saturday was another fun filled day. That morning we went to an older
ladies house and helped her move some stuff from her basement out to
where she was having a yard sale. We helped with that for about 2
hours. Ran over to Mcdonalds and got some breakfast, then went to

another members house and helped out moving them. They are moving to
the Ashburn ward. They moved into places that weren't even built yet
when i was there, amazing to see how much can change in a year.

That night we had the ward party. It was a lot of fun. We got to be
the chili judges and run some games. It was a lot of fun. We loved
being Mario and Luigi. We had people wanting to take pictures with us
so we got to do that a lot. I really do like the ward. They are a lot
of fun.

It was a really busy week. We taught a lot of online stuff as well. We
spent another good chuck of time doing that. We taught a total of 9
lessons and now have 2 people set for baptism. There is a really good
chance that i will leave on November 20th so these 2 are just in time.

Love you!!!