Hey family!

 Had a good week this last week. Our investigator D is being baptized this Sunday. He is a pretty awesome kid, he has soaked up the gospel like a sponge since we have started teaching him. Ill get some pictures on Sunday and send them to you hopefully next Monday.

We also got 4 new investigators this past week which are two older couples, so thats been pretty sweet. One of these couple houses just looks like a regular house, but actually has a swimming pool inside! It was pretty crazy but I guess thats how they get all of there excersize. 

Haha yesterday we got to go to the temple again with two families in our ward to go check out the lights and go to the visitor center. They had some christmas violin and singing performance at the theater there. They all seemed to have liked it. It was fun and the [whole ]clan brought tons of food to eat so that was cool.

Honestl,y thought thats about all that happened this last week. The mission Christmas party is on Friday in Ellicott city, so that will be a fun long drive haha. I also get to go to Luray on exchanges this week with elder J a buddy from the MTC who is from park city, so that will be fun especially since Luray is a crazy place.

But anyway I am glad you are all doing well. Happy birthday 44th birthday pops! Are you receiving any old folks ads yet!? Haha just kidding. In the state of Virginia the average is seriously like 72, there is no young people here at all. I hope your party was fun with the family. I missed being there with all of you guys! Your the best 44 year old baller I know for sure, you did learn from the best though ;) BTW I havent played basketball in like 3 weeks, it really stinks. I think im just going to get fat now that I dont get to play ball very much. But I work out hard in the apartment for 30 minutes everyday! Happy anniversary too! I love the picture you included when you were married haha, but I hope you a had a good time.

Well I better wrap this up, but I hope you are enjoying your christmas season and you get to relax a little for a change, im excited to skype you on Christmas I will be giving you a five minute phone call to figure out when we can skype. I love you all, thanks for the pictures! Good job Sarah and Lynz in your dances im sure you did awesome. The picture of Brandi was pretty funny as well haha. Have a good week Love you all very much!

Love Wes

Hey guys!

You guys sounded like you had a fun week! So on Friday we got to go to the temple visitor center with our investigator and two of his Young Single Adult friends from the ward. It was pretty awesome, Donald enjoyed it a lot and so did me and Elder Zander. I got to talk to of the sisters who are missionaries there who I knew in the MTC, so that was cool.

It took us 2 hours to get to the temple and because we stayed until 5:30 to see the lights turn on, we left right in the middle of rush hour and we got stuck in the DC and northern Virginia traffic and it was an absolute joke. It took us about 4 hours and some change to get home. Oh yeah, on Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Eves (Elder Dallin Smith's MTC companion) who is one my favorite missionaries out here, so we had a lot of fun. 

These last 3 or so days have been calling for snow out here, and everyone makes it such a big deal, its pretty funny. It finally snowed early yesterday morning and had freezing rain which iced all the roads. So they cancelled all the church in the area yesterday, and the mission grounded our car because of the rain. So we spent about 8 hours yesterday going around and shoveling snow. We shoveled our entire apartment complex and then we had to walk the church and we shoveled that. Then we walked to a couple members houses near by and shoveled them. 

We then got a ride from a member over to the a member's house and we shoveled there back porch and then shoveled there elderly neighbors drive way. It was pretty funny, the old guy living there tried to pay us like 4 times while we were over there, and so we explained who we were and all that and the guy just couldn't believe someone would just do that for him and his wife. It was pretty awesome, they said they were Episcopal but said they had a lot of respect for us and that there prayers were with us and then gave them a mormon.org card. 

Then we went over with that [member's house to another one's house] where we had dinner with the whole... clan and that was good as it always is. We then went to the our newly baptized members and visited them for a couple minutes and came back and watched the awesome Christmas Devotional with the another family. So I had a pretty good week this week. 

Our ward Christmas party is on Saturday and the mission Christmas party is on the 20th. President Richards said we get an hour to Skype you on Christmas, so that's pretty sweet. I am glad to here that you are all staying busy and having fun for the most part. Dad thanks for the box scores and stats! Me and Elder Zander were pretty stoked to look at those.  I got to go, as always I love and miss you guys very much, I hope you are all having a fun holiday season! Have a good week :)

Love Wes 

"We had tons of good food and was I felt like I had to be rolled out of there by the time it was all said and done."

Hey guys!

I had a very good week this last week! Thanksgiving was a fun time; we had dinner over at with some new members and another family.  We had tons of good food and was I felt like I had to be rolled out of there by the time it was all said and done.

We also did some service by helping a sister… shop for something called the empty stocking fund, where we had a 60 dollar limit for some less fortunate kids and got to shop for them!

So the weather has gotten flipping cold here, the cold here is wayyyy worse than in Utah haha. Knocking on doors and standing outside certainly is not fun. Anyways yesterday we had a lesson with our 20 year old investigator and it went very well.  He told us that since reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it that he had really felt the spirit in his life. He committed to be baptized on the 21st of December! We are pretty stoked about it! We are also going to the temple with him on Friday with his “fellowshipper.”  We are so excited, haha!  I cant believe I will be able to go to the temple for the second time on my mission already.

Having the district leader as a companion is pretty fun.  I got to go to Front Royal twice this last week with the zone leaders and I had a pretty good time. I get to go to Luray this next week in the sticks to go hang out with the funny people over there. We have zone conference tomorrow so that should be fun.

We already have the Wrights and another Sister who’ve signed [us] up [to spend]… Christmas, so that will be pretty awesome considering they are like our two favorite people out here. I know President Wright reads these emails on the blog so I hope he appreciates that shout out haha.

It sounds like you had an awesome Thanksgiving in St George, that’s pretty funny that you saw Coach Smith there, I love that guy.

Thanks for the package; we both like the Christmas decorations a lot! I will try and write her a letter today. So Dad thanks for the sports update!  Keep me updated on the NBA, not being really able to play basketball or watch has been kind of hard not going to lie

Sarah and lynz thank you so much for you notes, reading them always makes my day:))) I miss you guys a lot:)   Anyways I got to go, cant wait to get another package from ya! Have an awesome week!

Love Wes

"I weighed myself like 6 times"

Dear Familia,

It has been a great week! Lots of stuff has happened this last week. Yesterday our branch became a ward finally after 30 years of people praying for it to become a ward. It was pretty awesome, President Wright told us about 3 days ago that something big was going on this Sunday.  You should have seen the members of the now wards faces when the stake presidency walked in, it was pretty funny. 

It was a really big day for Woodstock. Anyway, I'm glad that president wright sent you the pictures of the baptism.  [The investigator that was baptized a couple of weeks ago] received the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday.  He will be baptizing his daughter on the December 7th i think. We gave (the daughter) over to the sisters to teach because she is a 10 year old girl. 

Transfers on Wednesday were fun. I didnt have to do absolutly anything, so that was nice, I got to talk to all my buddies and hang out with them, so that was fun. I didnt see Dallin but I did see my boy taylor. I did have to wait for a long time while Elder Zander was in his meeting though. [A member] took us and the sister missionaries to transfers and bought us Cafe Rio after:)) Yesterday after the big day at church we were invited over to a members house with the [family who was recently baptized and some of their friends for an early thanksgiving dinner! It was very good and we got to play some baseball in the sub flippin zero temps we are having, they live up in the mountains too so it was fun. But the weather here is sooooooooooo bitter cold it is not even funny. 30 degrees here feels like 0 degrees back home. 

By the way, we split wood with a splitter and a member's house on Friday and I forgot my camera but the wood pile we split was 6 feet tall by 30 feet wide. It was insane how much we wood we split. Anyways so I have been working out a lot in the apartment lately and eating lots of food so I finally decided to weigh myself because I looked at myself in the mirror the other day and noticed I was getting big. So i weighed myself and I weigh 171 [lbs]!!!!!!!!! It was a nice scale too. I weighed myself  like 6 times to check too, and this is with my shirt off and everything. I cant believe I have gained that much.  I have been benching a lot in the apartment though lately and can lift about 15 more pounds and do about 20 reps more than I could at the beginning of my mission. I was kind of freaked out at first, but I like I am really glad now. 

But anyway, I hope you are all having a great week and Have fun on Thanksgiving! We dont have to proselyte on Thanksgiving so thats cool, we will be over at the[new member's house] for awhile then we get to go play basketball with our district in Front Royal, so I am excited for that.  I have to go, but I love all you guys very much. I forgot to mention we got an awesome young kid about 20 years old who is a new investigator and is very interested in the gospel. Hope to here from you soon. Sarah and Lynz I love you a lot stay out of trouble! ;)

Love wes

"This past week has been the best week of my mission hands down!"

Hey guys!

                This past week has been the best week of my mission hands down! So first off one the traveling assistant came out [tracking] with Elder Z and I from Thursday to Sunday.  He goes home one Wednesday and served in Woodstock earlier this year and wanted to come back here for his last week, so it was really good and pretty fun to have him with us and have a tripanionship.

                We had a super fun and good week and did crazy amounts of service, just one of the many things we did was rake a acre of leaves that completely covered the whole yard. It took about 4 hours with us three, the two sister missionaries and another person. I have a HUGE blister on my finger from it haha.
                And of course the best part was the Hodges were baptized on Saturday and confirmed by is on Sunday! It was such an awesome experience and it was so nice to see our hard work pay off.
          Elder Z and I baptisms are the only baptisms for the month of November for our huge two part zone. President Wright was stoked, he was telling us about how extremely rare it was to have a couple baptized out here in Virginia; he said it has been a number of years since it has happened. He is taking us to a Mexican restaurant on Tuesday with his best bud Brother Funk on Tuesday.
                So anyways Elder Z and I are both staying in Woodstock! When its all said and done Elder Zander will have been here at least 6 months and I will have been here for 4 and half [months]! That’s a very long time for people to be in an area.
                Elder R also said that to have the same companion for 3 transfers is almost unheard of. Elder Z was called to be the new district leader here too, to replace our old district leader who is going home. So yea you could say it has been a crazy week but it was sooo awesome.
                We still have to go to transfer meeting two and a half hours away though so Elder Z can go to the meeting for district leaders, but its cool because we get Cafe Rio after :)) ha-ha. So because I am the district leader’s companion I will be going on lots of exchanges with other elders because Elder Z has to go out with every elder at least once a transfer in our district. I will also have some weird extra free time because he will be on the phone a lot.
                But anyway, I hope you are all doing well. Tell Sarah to watch out or else I might have to come home early and throw some little boys heads together, ha-ha just kidding. I am glad to here all is going well with you guys and yes mom you were defiantly blessed to have such good children, just like we have been telling you all along, (ha-ha, just kidding).
                 Anyways I love you all very much and am so grateful for all of you. I hope you have a great week :)

I’m so glad that I decided to come on a mission, I know that there is no way I could be spending my next 21 months any better then on a mission."

Hey family! 

Don't drink the beer Elder!

I think president Wright told you that I was not going to be able to email you yesterday because we had mission conference with Elder Carlson of the seventy. The conference was pretty awesome, it was an 8 hour meeting and Elder Zander and I had to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to get showered and car pool with the sister missionaries down to Fredrick, Maryland.

Elder Carlson talked for about 4 hours about how to consecrate ourselves as missionaries and answered lots of questions that missionaries had. We all got to talk to him and shake his hand; he is a retired four star general.

Besides the awesome instruction that we received I also got to see all of my missionary friends and hang out with all of them so that was cool. After the meeting half of the missionaries went to Cafe Rio in Fredrick and man it was soooo good haha.

This last week has been a pretty good one. [One family investigators] are on date for the 16th so no one has been baptized yet but they will. The word of wisdom is a killer out here, but they are doing very well with it.

Thanks for the letters you all sent me this last week as well as the emails your letter and emails always make me smile. I’m glad Sarah and Lynz are doing well and are enjoying school. Enjoy your time in school because you will miss it when it’s over. So anyway the weather here is pretty dang cold.  It doesn't really ever snow here, but the humid cold is terrible sometimes, haha. Its pretty crazy that transfers are only two weeks away and I could be somewhere else, I really hope not because we already have 3 dinner appointments set up for thanksgiving!

I’m so glad that I decided to come on a mission, I know that there is no way I could be spending my next 21 months any better then on a mission. I feel like I have been the one that has learned so much on my mission so far.  I’m so grateful for the testimony builder that it has been so far.

Anyways I hope you all have a great week and that everything goes well! Dad I am glad to here the Jazz are doing terrible because they will be good when I get back haha. I love you guys very much, I am so proud of you guys and your efforts to try and teach those guys the gospel.

If all the members in the world did what you guys did and helped the missionaries, then this work would be able to move so fast. If you get a chance watch the original hastening the work video, it is way good and helps me remember how important missionary work is.

Love Wes

"We got a new investigator this week who read to Mosiah in one week,"

Hey guys!

 

How are you all doing? I’m glad you got to go to Sutton’s farewell! He emailed me and said it went really good. Dallin Noble also had his farewell on Sunday. Almost everyone is finally out now and that makes me really happy to here.  

So our investigators are being baptized on November 16th hopefully with there 10 year old daughter. I will keep you posted on that. We got a new investigator this week who read to Mosiah in one week which was super awesome and surprising. He is 84 years old and is probably the nicest guy I have ever met.  He is a free mason so that is pretty cool.

So we got an email from our [Mission] President saying we are not allowed to proselyte on Halloween, we have had like 5 people that we shouldn’t got out on Halloween because there are so many people out here who do like legit witch craft and crazy stuff like that.  We [also] heard [that] there is like a big Satan worshiping [group] a couple cities away. Some people are crazy out here.

 

Elder Zander and I are working hard. I’ll be sending more pictures soon so keep a look out for that. President told us this week that we can only write letters on Mondays now, so that kinda stinks but oh well. Tell mom my face isn’t getting fatter I must have just looked weird, haha trust me I would notice if my face were getting fatter. But, by the way, I guess I never told you guys how big my area is. My area is about as big as Salt Lake would be to Spanish Fork, if that gives you a good picture in your head of how big my area is. There are probably only 50000 people in my entire area. Anyways I have to wrap this up but I love and miss you guys and hope you are all doing well. That experience that you told me about with that kid Sarah is going on a date with made me laugh pretty hard.

I’ll talk to ya soon!

 

love Wes

 

October 21, 2013 Letter from Elder Westley LeGrande

Hi Everyone,

So two of our investigators are being baptized not this Saturday but next Saturday! We are so excited; one the husband…has been struggling with tobacco for so long and has finally stopped, so it is so awesome! 

I will make sure to send you the pictures of it when it happens! They have become really good friends of ours and have come such a long way. I gave him a blessing to be able to quit tobacco a couple of days ago and he hasn’t done it at all, and I really think he won’t ever do it again; the power of the priesthood is awesome!

Elder Zander and I got to go to a place in our area this week called Basye Bryce ski resort and town! Since we are as far west and south as you can pretty much go in our mission Basye Bryce borders two other missions so it was pretty cool, its seriously just a mini park city! Missionaries probably have never been out there in the history of the church, so it was pretty cool to go there. It is like 45 minutes away but still in our area in the middle of nowhere in some mountains! Our area is huge. We almost converted a Jehovah witness down there ha-ha but maybe next time!

[We couldn't hike] because it wasn't our P-day, we went there because no one has in years and Pres Wright thought it would be good for people to see missionaries there so we just proselyted for 5 hours ha-ha. But yes I got Emily’s package, it was really nice of her to send it! And yes I got some pictures! I have to go but I will write a letter this week OK  Thank you so much for the package you sent me as well it made my whole week! :) Tell Lyndsey I absolutely loved the picture she drew for me :) It’s hanging up by my bed :) She is such a good artist! :)

The Young Men and Women hosted a “Lost Shepherd” dinner for investigators but 90 percent of them couldn't come except the family who are getting baptized are sitting with sister missionaries in the video (so others could get to know them) and other ones who the sisters are teaching! The youth did a cool serving job where they all do the same thing at a time, which they really worked on. BTW the couple getting baptized has a 10 year old daughter will probably be baptized by her dad once he is baptized and get the Aaronic Priesthood.  So that will be another baptism coming up!

I love you guys very much I hope you have a good week, watch out for those hockey players ha-ha :)

Elder LeGrande

We didn't get a letter this past week because Wes and I emailed back and forth instead, but he did send his memory card!

 

 

 

in Luray i got to be with my boy Elder Zwahlen! (the elder who is the QB for University of Hawaii)

Hey guys!

So Elder Zander and I are staying in Woodstock! We are both pretty glad considering we have so many investigators so close to being baptized. This coming Saturday we also have a softball game we get to play in, it’s our stake vs. the Lutheran church! They do it every year and apparently it goes really well and then after we have a picnic with them. Elder Zander and I are going to convert them all! Hahaha there team is pretty good apparently they have a minor league baseball player, and they have an actual team with jerseys and all that jazz. No worries though we are going to win because we are playing for the lord! ;) So we are excited for that!

We painted part of [a] sister’s house this week so that was fun. I also got to go on two exchanges this week to the crazy little town of Luray haha. Luray is even more in the middle of nowhere than Woodstock, apparently there is like real life witches that live there and stuff like that haha. Luray is the middle of all these mountains that people call the “hollers” “haha but they are  really “the hollows.” These hollows are full of moonshiners and white gangsters and probably some KKK guys.

So in Luray i got to be with my boy Elder Zwahlen! (the elder who is the QB for Hawaii) we had a ton of fun me and him are a ton alike. We got to feed one of the member’s herds of bulls! Each of them have a specific name and they are trained like dogs.  Hahahaha it’s the funnies thing I have ever seen, we fed them cookies because that’s what they love to eat haha. We also got to go to the top of one of these huge hills and see the amazing view, it was really sweet.

General conference was super good! We got to watch it with two of our investigators. They both really liked it and are doing really well with them. As for myself I loved conference especially all of President Monson’s talks. There were many others that I especially liked but don’t have time to go into all of them, but one thing I did notice was how many of them talked about the sign of the times and having a testimony to be able to make it through whatever happens in these last days as so many put it.

 
Anyways so a good percent of our district is being transferred and Elder Zwhalen is leaving so I am kind of sad about that but I better get used to it! I hope you guys are having a good week that’s cool you went to that concert, that sounds like a lot of fun. I have been taking lots of pictures so i will send that for sure ASAP.

I love you guys all very much thank you for your prayers and thoughts I equally pray and think about you guys.

 

Love Wes

 

 

It’s good to be out here in the mission field to be able to bring miracles to people everyday...

Hey guys!

 

I got to give a blessing this week to a nice old lady in our branch who had her toe amputated and was really infected so me and Elder Zander went to the hospital and I gave her a blessing.  We visited her yesterday and said that her toe was now fine and didn’t hurt whatsoever since the day of the blessing, just more evidence of the power of the priesthood.

So the baptism with one of our investigators didn’t go though. It’s ok though I guess he just isn’t ready yet. We have about 6 investigators who are so close to baptism it’s pretty awesome the spirit just has to help them in this last little stretch. We got two new investigators this week which is pretty crazy as well. Both of them are super interested and are soaking up everything we say like a sponge. If they can keep commitments they will be in very good shape.

This week I have been to some pretty poor houses, it’s really humbling to see how some of these people live out here. One crazy experience we had with one was a lady who pretended (very poorly I might add) who pretended to be blind ha-ha! Elder Zander and I couldn't believe it! It’s crazy what some people will do out here ha-ha.

This week we also helped a lady who is one the sister missionaries investigators move out of her apartment ALL BY OURSELVES, we were so tired by then end, good thing she only lives in an apartment and didn’t have too much stuff.  There was lots of other service we did as well but I don’t have time to go into all of it.

 So in our stake we have 3 people who work for the Northern Virginia daily, including Pres. Wright and me and Elder Zander are getting a big ad space in the paper advertising us missionaries to help out with service and share messages. It even has a big picture of us on it.

 When it comes out I will cut it out and send it to you so you guys can see it. It was awesome to see you guys went to Curtis’ and Midge's farewells. I am so glad to see some of my other friends going on missions.  I hope tanner and Rob end up going on missions. 

Anyways its good to here from you guys, I love you all very much and miss you guy’s everyday. But it’s good to be out here in the mission field to be able to bring miracles to people everyday. I hope to get your letters soon. You’re in my thoughts and prayers everyday. Have an awesome week you guys and make sure you all have fun!

Love Wes

 

Elder Zander and I have been super busy

Hi Guys!  

So the baptism didn’t work out for Sunday because we had stake conference! But it’s on for next week so don’t worry. Stake conference was really good; president Richards came and spoke to everyone as well as Pres Wright and many others so it was really good. Elder Zander and I have been super busy this past week that I haven’t even had a moment to think about anything else back home or anything, but I guess that’s a good thing. I’m super stoked that UTAH won, me and Elder Zander who is an avid BYU fan had a bet on the game and he was not happy that they lost Haha.

That’s cool you met up with Elder Sander’s parents at the real estate thing. This email is going to be kind of short, I’m sorry to say, but I will write you all a letter today! I hope you are all doing well; We are doing well here in Woodstock! BTW we got a new super enthusiastic investigator who already wants to be baptized so were excited to teach her! I love you all so much, I hope work and school is going good for all of you. All of my friends and lots of people from the ward have sent me emails so that made me happy! That’s good you guys spoke in church with Russell, I am sure it was a great sacrament meeting! Tell Russell to write me next time you see him and till him I miss him! Anyways I got to go ill talk to you guys soon.

Love Wes

 

On his birthday

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and everything! I have had an awesome day so far. I just got my hair cut by one of the member, so that was really good.  I will... go to McDonalds. I feel really bad because I don’t have enough time to answer hardly any letters or emails so please thank the family for all the things that they have sent me and all of the kind encouraging words. Imp glad you had a good time at dinner with Brandi, by her emails it didn’t sound like the missionaries bothered her, but don’t push her in to it. It sounds like the birthdays were crazy and fun, so I hope they enjoyed their birthdays. I also hope the girls got the letters I sent to them. So on Saturday I got to go the temple with sister Wooster, and it was really awesome. The DC temple is very nice, but I wrote you a letter explaining it more into detail you can read. Me and Elder Zander are always busy whether were teaching or giving service we are always working hard. The members have been feeding us really well since I have been there so usually we don’t have to make dinner, so that’s really nice. We postponed our baptism for two weeks from now but that’s ok, he will be ready then. We have two other really good families who are getting really close to baptism and are really embracing the gospel and already telling there co-workers about the church! We are really blessed here in Woodstock; there is a lot of success here compared to most of the areas in the mission. We email at our church, they just put in another computer so we can both email at the same time, so that is really nice. Our branch is getting really close to becoming a ward, so hopefully we can get it their. There is a ton of stuff you get when you become a ward, such as a building expansion, priesthood keys etc. The weather here is getting cooler really fast; the leaves here are also turning really fast already, its going to look so cool when all the leaves have changed. I will send the memory card really soon, I'm not going to have time to do thank you cards, so I know you want me to send them but I don’t think its going to happen. All my friends back at home, all sound really bored with everyone going on missions, college, etc so I’m glad I left before everyone ha-ha. I have not heard from either tanner or Robby yet though which is kind of weird but oh well. I hope you are all doing good back at home, I miss you guys allot, the work here is good and so I’m just trying to stay really busy so I don’t have time to think about anything else ha-ha so that helps most of the time. Thanks for the gift cards and food by the way. They will put to use very soon ha-ha. Well I am going to wrap this up, but keep sending me letters and emails as often as you can, I love to read them! I love you guys very much; I know the lord is watching out for you back at home.

 

Elder Wes and Elder Ben learning to use a tractor and doing service project

 Elder LeGrande with the sweet sister that has a pet wolf at the Washington DC Temple

Elders at a member's home in Woodstock.

Week 4 "We cut down pretty much a whole forest out here with a chain saw and drove around a tractor"

This last week has been really good. I have gotten used to things out here a lot more. Me and my companion are getting a guy named Dave baptized on Sunday so I am excited for that. The sister missionaries are also having a lady baptized on Sunday as well! The thing that kind of stinks is was not supposed to be the ones to baptize our investigators because President Richards wants members to baptize them, but oh well haha.

Our area here in the mission has not only the highest percent of baptisms but also just the most baptisms period. Our area doesn’t have a ton of people either so we are really blessed to be doing so well here. I have so much other stuff to tell you.  Anyway the members out here are awesome even with only about 120 active members in our branch, the calendar to feed us missionaries is always packed full so that is awesome. Every member’s house I have been to so far has all served me and my companion really good food.

There is one lady named Sister Clark who loveeeeees missionaries, so she’s become a really good friend and always buys us pizza and subway. She always has an ice cold mountain dew for me too :) haha she is soooo awesome. A recent convert named who was recently baptized is another good friend of ours, we she lives on  and over a mountain so it takes about 40 minutes to go to her house and we have to take the sketchiest one way dirt road to her house haha. Her husband died about 2 months ago and she lives on about 10 acres of forest and she needs a lot of help, so we do service for her every week. She’s the lady that has a pet wolf haha, has really cool and friendly but if he jumps up on you he will scratch you BAD and make you bleed so has kind of dangerous haha.

We cut down pretty much a whole forest [out] here with a chain saw and drove around a tractor with a cart full of dirt and filled up a half acre of holes. It was way tiring but fun and good work out. She always gives us fresh jelly and salsa so that’s tasty. The work here is really good, we have 10 investigators total and many of them are close to baptism. So that’s awesome.

Me and Elder Zander went and visited a less active man named brother so and so on Friday. Has about 32 and his wife died two weeks ago of cancer leaving behind him and 3 kids. As soon as we got to his house this full grown man balled his eyes out to us for about two hours. Me and Elder Zander hardly knew what to say to comfort him. We gave him a blessing and he felt a little better but was still a wreck. He had recently quit smoking  but had started up again smoking 3 packs a day. Its really sad and he has a good heart but he hasn’t been able to do anything since she passed away. He has so much work to do including finishing a second house and moving out two massive storage units of stuff. So the next day on Saturday we spend four hours moving 5 dishwashers 3 dryers, 3 stoves, 3 fridges and about 35 cabinets into a storage unit with his sister and brother while he sat at home crying.....

President Wright and our branch president are both super awesome guys they help us so much, President Wright is taking me out to lunch on Monday for my birthday, he is such an awesome guy. I have lots of other awesome experiences that I will share with you later.

Me and my companion play basketball every morning in the local Central high school so that’s fun and we both really enjoy that, my companion is a pretty good player. We have a bench press and abs chair in our apartment so we work out with those quite often. Since I got here I cant already bench press about 15 reps more than I could earlier, its about a 100 pounds.

It is still insanely humid here, although the weather is cooling down so it is a lot better. Thanks dad for updating me on scores I really wanted to know all of those.  I'm so glad the Niners and Utah won, My companion is a big BYU fan so we like to talk some friendly smack haha. I am already known around here for how high I can jump haha, Every chance I get with members or kids on the street I try and dunk it hahaha, I actually got some good white man dunks in here so that’s good haha. I am so jealous I didn’t get to go to the TOTO concert I’m sure it was freaking awesome. Anyways I have to go but I miss you all sooooo much

Ps: For my birthday I’ll be happy with whatever you give me, I could use some snacks and stuff though haha, I buy mountain dew every week so I’m usually good on that :)

 

Elder Wes LeGrande and his companion, Ben Zander eat a meal at Café Rio when taken there by a generous member. Westley's favorite!

Elder Wes first letter from Virginia in "the sticks"

So I'm in the sticks of Virginia in the middle of freaking nowhere! Me and my new companion elder Zander from south Jordan’s apartment is in a town called Woodstock Virginia. It is so different out here than I ever could have expected, especially when I had mentally prepared myself for Baltimore. So first and foremost my mission president and his wife are pretty cool they have a really big nice house in Ellington, where I had a good dinner with the other 35 missionary’s ha-ha. I have to admit while I was there my first day and kept thinking to myself, what in the heck am I doing here?

 

Reality seriously slapped me hard in the face it was super difficult. We spent that night in a nice hotel where they had a good breakfast, and then we went to the transfer meeting where we all had to bare our testimonies in front of a lot of people so that was scary. I found Taylor Petterson there and we were both super stoked to see each other, so that was pretty awesome. My new companion elder Zander and I are really different to say the least. He has only been out SIX WEEKS and he is training me. He’s a good missionary for how long he has been out but we both have different personalities and stuff so we butt heads a little so that’s a little frustrating.

 

Anyway our apartment is really nice by missionary standards. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a decent little kitchen so that’s nice. I just barely went shopping at Wal-Mart (pretty much the only store within 30 miles) and bought some food, I think I budgeted pretty good and got a two liter of mountain dew so that’s good ha-ha. I have already taught so many people I have lost count, many of the people are super nice out here until you travel 5 miles away then all the hicks just want to kill us ha-ha. Living in the middle of nowhere is really weird and hard. There is a little over a 100 members in our branch that covers about 30 miles ha-ha. To put things in perspective of how in the middle of nowhere I am, I have seen two wolves, a snake, a fox and about 300 possums. Apparently there are black bears every where too. The bugs and humidity here are INSANE I look soaking wet all day from how much I sweat, and the bugs just flock to me, there are humongous spiders and roaches everywhere. Mom you would NOT like it here ha-ha. Yes people eat possum and all other crazy stuff out here, its like a place you would see in a movie. I have had lots of great experiences out here but even more hard experiences.

 

 There is so much more things I could tell you, I just don’t have time. We had three baptisms on date yesterday and all of them fell through :( hopefully on sunday though they will be ready. Everyone out here has already heard the gospel from the previous missionaries or already has an opinion so its really hard to get investigators especially with our large spread out area. Anyways please send me letters and things as often as possible. You dont truly understand how important mail is until your out here. Your letters and things sometimes are the only thing that gets me though the day. I am really trying to lose myself in the lords work and focus, but it’s really hard to not think about home. Btw you can send all letters to the mission home, it takes awhile to get to me though I guess because I haven’t gotten anything since I have been here. Anyways enough about me, how are you all doing

 

 LDS members out here are all huge BYU fans including the stake president who is one of me and Elder Zander’s good friends. He writes for the AP and Dessert news, he’s a super awesome guy and has bought us dinner 3 times already. You have no idea how good it is to have so many good members back home. There are only a handful of really solid families out here and they have so much responsibility with multiple callings and things, I feel bad for some of them. BTW one our new investigators are from New York and are a DT (Dream Theater) fan! so that was a cool conversation I had with him ha-ha. I hope school is going good for the girls and they are making lots of friends

 

Anyways I better wrap this up even though there is so much to share. Oh yea btw thanks for shipping my bike, its way to hot to ride it right now ha-ha, good thing we have a 2010 corolla to drive around hahahahaha. Anyways I love you all so much I hope I come back alive ha-ha I almost got killed 5 times already by various things, not to make you worry! hahaha ;) I hope to here from ya soon. I think about you all every single day.

 

-love Wes

 

 

Elder LeGrande's arrival to the Baltimore Airport, Mission Home and Transfer to new area



Elder LeGrande Getting
Luggage at Baltimore Airport



33 New Incoming Missionaries

Elder Dallin Smith and Elder LeGrande with another elder

 

 
 
 

 

Elder LeGrande wonders if this is all a dream

"Another Picture?"



"The cooking by the mission president's
wife is like home cooking"

Elder LeGrande shovels it in- "it may be a
 while before I eat again"





 Group photo of new missionaries
outside mission home





 

Return with honor

 
 


"We are the coolest missionaries ever"

 


Elder Dallin Smith (Wes friend from
Copper Hills 7th Ward) 



Elder LeGrande with Sister & P
resident Richards



Waiting to get new area assignments



"Yes! We are ready to be new companions!"

 


Elder LeGrande meets new companion