May 19 Letter from Wes

Hey family!

Thanks for all of your letters this week! It has been an interesting week. First of all, me and elder Benard have the second oldest car in the mission and apperently church HQ called our mission and told us that the mission had to get rid of 12 cars. Since ours was the second oldest we had to drive to the mission office and give up our car. We did it about 3 h ours ago and me and elder Benard are pretty ticked. We are pretty much hosed in our area without a car. Its a really bad area to ride bikes and there are very few people in our area that are in reasonable walking distance. We have buses in our area but there super unreliable and dont really go directly close to very many people.We get to share a car with the other elders in our ward but  it really is going to be a hastle since we live 10 miles away from them anyway. So were not very happy right now, but I guess will just have to figure it out. But anyway Saturday was a pretty cool day. We drove down to washington DC area to the the church building right next to the temple where we met with the DC north and south missions. We got there really early, so we could talk with all of our friends. It was good to catch up with my MTC companions and the missionaries I came out with. The crazy thing though was that apperently my MTC companion who went home, came out last transfer! I was like the only one in my group who didnt know becasue im on the opposite side of the mission. But it was so sweet to see him again. It was a really fun conference, I saw elder thomas but did not have a chance to talk to him. Elder Ballards remarks to us were pretty good. He told the missions that we pretty much need to be baptizing more, which was interesting. He talked a lot about talking to everyone we see though out the day. He talked about some other things, but those were the main take aways from it. Aoife is good to go on the 31st for baptism. She is the best! We have some other new people were teaching, including a jehovas witness kid who is 23 that says he has found loop holes in his religion haha (imagine that). So thats been pretty good. Its going to be a very interesing week trying to figure out how to get places without the car. So hopefully I dont get really frustrated by it and figure things out with elder Benard. Sounds like you guys have some fun things planned. I hope you guys enjoy your last whole summer without me haha. Anyways I love you guys and hope you all have fun, im looking forward a lot to getting your package! Have a great week!

 

love wes

May 5 and May 12th letters from Westley

May 5, 2014

Hey family!

Thanks for all of your letters and emails this week! So me and elder Benard are both staying in the Jones falls ward for another transfer. The next transfer is late June. So I will be getting close to my year mark with only having had two areas and 3 companions which is really weird but oh well. I’m glad elder Benard is still my companion but me and him are honestly starting to get burned out on this area. Its been raked over so many times by missionaries and the ward has its issues but oh well. Were glad we get to be here for Aoife's baptism this month.

 This week was super outrageously rainy. Me and elder Benard got absolutely soaked a couple days. It poured for about 4 days straight without stopping at all. You mentioned the sink holes in Maryland; well that big sink hole that all those cars fell in is actually in me and elder Benard's area in Baltimore. Other than that we started teaching a part member family so hopefully that will go somewhere. Other than that it was a pretty average week.  My allergies have been terrible, not surprising as there is plants and trees as far as the eye can see. So I'm getting through that ha-ha, elder Benard is having them a little bit too.  You mentioned that time is going by fast too, which I’m starting to feel like my mission time is really starting to speed up. My year mark is really right around the corner after this transfer and its really weird. But anyways, what  {… }  said about missionaries is true. So many of them are going home, I cant even believe it. People from home tell me almost every Monday of another missionary I know going home. Its really weird. I think too many missionaries jumped the gun at 18 and decided to go on a mission and they weren’t ready. I know that when I went out I probably wasn’t 100 percent ready yet but you just have to stick out and do your duty. Anyways I’ll get off my soap box now ha-ha. Thanks Dad f

Me and elder Benard had to drive the Young Single Adult zone leaders who are both going home this transfer to the mission office in Columbia to go pick up another car for there area so that was interesting. We got to hang out with president and sister Richards a little bit and hang out with the assistants who I’m pretty good friends with, two of them are going home too. Its really weird to see all the older missionaries that you looked up to on your mission all start to go home. You also mentioned that I have still have one more ''hurtle'' to jump over ha-ha like your worried about it ha-ha. But anyways thanks for the sports updates dad. Members have been telling me how good the playoffs have been. Its good to here that your Achilles is getting better and your still able to play well. How has basketball been at Welby? Has all the usual guys been showing up? I got to play some good member ball this week, it was way fun. There are a lot of goood players in this ward. But anyways I hope you enjoy this email and you have a good week. I love ya Sarah and Lynz hope you are having fun! Love you guys!

Love Wes

Hey family!

May 12, 2014

Hey Family,

I’m honestly not really sure what to write you after talking to you yesterday ha-ha. It was so good to be able to talk with you guys, I really enjoyed it! Mom it sounds like you had a good mother’s day! Only two calls left until I come home! Isn’t that crazy?! Anyways today for preparation Day we went down to the inner harbor and walked around and it was pretty cool. Other than its about 87 degrees with 83 percent humidity and I have a serious migraine right about now. Like I said in the call yesterday, we are going to listen to Elder Ballard speak on Saturday which will be cool. There is a missionary from our stake in the DC north mission named Jordan who I don’t know very well but I might see him. Too bad Braden's (Chinn) mission couldn’t also come to this! That would have been sweet. Anyways I don’t know what else to talk about. Were going dinner tonight at a young married couple going to Johns for school, so that should be cool. Anyways I love ya guys! Thanks for all you do. I cant wait to get your letters and package!

Love you!

Love Wes