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