Westley Letter 6/22/14 and photos

Hey family!

It’s been a pretty crazy week for me. My new companions name is Elder Ch..

He is from New Mexico (Kirtland) and he is almost full Navajo. It has been quiet the change from being with a companion who knows has been out pretty much as long as me and just being used to doing our routine and everything to going to training a brand new missionary and teaching him everything. 

I have been glad because it hasn’t been too stressful; Elder Ch.. seems to be picking things up pretty fast. It has been a little challenging helping him to be exactly obedient like waking up right at 6:30 AM and making sure he’s to studies at exactly 8. But he’s doing fine.

I remember being a brand new missionary and not really knowing why we have to be so precise on the rules and the things we do. It’s weird to think how far I have come as a missionary and realizing how long I have been out. Sometimes it feels like it has gone incredibly quick and other days I feel like I can barely remember my life before a mission.  

I guess you could just say I have just had a lot of interesting thoughts this week. It’s funny to see how our lives turn out differently than we might have originally thought. 

Anyways this past week has been good though, All 7 of our investigators are progressing. I think before the transfer is up we could easily have 5 people on date to be baptized. Most of our investigators came to church yesterday so that was awesome. 

The YSA sisters gave us 3 new investigators yesterday. There 10, 11, and 14 and are the kids of a less active member who is in our ward. The sisters have been working with them because we can’t go in without a male every time. But now that they have expressed an interest in being baptized they have to hand them over to us, so that is pretty sweet. 

We had a sweet lesson with them yesterday and all the kids want to get baptized and they mom is on board. If we can just get her to come to church and bring her kids, it will be a piece of cake.

But anyways thanks for all of your prayers. We are doing good here in Jones Falls. I remembered Mac was coming home this week and I have been thinking about the missionaries from our ward that I haven’t seen in a long time. It sounds like Mac gave an awesome talk. 

 

 

I have thought about what I’m going to say in my homecoming talk when I get home ha-ha, even though that’s awhile away. Braden told me he was made a zone leader this week in his mission so that’s sweet.

Anyways I love you guys very much, I'm glad you guys will always be there for me when everyone else goes there separate ways. Have a great week.

Love Wes

May 27, June 5 and June 12th letters

May 27, 2014

Hey guys!

I hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend. I got your letter and it sounded like you had some pretty good plans. Yesterday for Memorial Day the ward had a big barbeque lunch at the big field right next to the church. It was a pretty fun time; we got to play some football and basketball with everyone from the ward, so that was pretty cool. Other than that it was a pretty preparation day, we had an awesome lesson with our investigator tony (the young guy that works for the BSA in Baltimore) we taught him the plan of salvation and he really recognized the spirit. Unfortunately because of his age and in Baltimore there is an YSA ward so we have to give him up those elders. We even invited him to go to church at the YSA ward last week and we found he went to church, and we didn't even know. But anyways it doesn't matter who baptizes who, but I'm glad he is moving right along. A's baptism is still on for this Saturday and we are excited for that. Aoifa and D.. are taking us out to dinner on Friday night before the baptism. As far as the rest of this week went, it was kind of crazy. Elder B.. got rear ended on exchanges with elder S.. by some Mexican guy going 30 miles an hour and rear ended the back of a mustang which rear ended the back of our car. No one was hurt or anything but was HOSED with the car situation. We went from a full car area to sharing with the other elders to now we're going to have no car because it’s going to take weeks to repair. We just got an estimate on it and its going to cost at least five grand to fix. I don’t know what the heck our areas are going to do. I don’t know if were going to be able to get a car to share again or what, but it really stinks. Anyways other than that the guy in the apartment above us, went to the bathroom and his toilet wouldn't stop running and so it flooded part of his apartment and went down the vents from our bathroom ceiling and into our bathroom. Luckily it wasn't a ton but we still had to clean it up because our apartment people never came to clean it up even though they said they were coming but oh well. Tomorrow we have zone conference which should be alright I guess. But other than that, we have been walking a lot in the sketch and the hood. If you ever get bored look up North Avenue in Baltimore city and that will give you an idea of the sketchy areas ha-ha. I appreciated all of your letters, they always make my day. I hope you all had a good week. That stinks that the jazz got the 5th pick that is bogus; of course Cleveland got the number 1 again. But anyways I hope the Heat 3 peat this year. I love you guys very much and I hope you are enjoying the summer and the end of the school year, Have a great week! I love you all very much.

Love, Wes

June 5, 2014 

Hey guys!

This was a really crazy week. We had zone conference and car repairs and all sorts of other crazy stuff. We picked up two new investigators this week, so that was really good. Saturday we had the baptism and that went really smoothly.  It was awesome to see D baptize his wife A. All of D’s family came in from Jersey to see her get baptized. The family that came in was pretty hilarious, typical loud jersey people ha-ha. They were super nice though and really cool. After the baptism they took me and elder B out to a super nice sea food place. They kept making us order super expensive food ha-ha. We had fried calamari, coconut shrimp, oysters, and I had tons of fried shrimp and fries. I think me and elder B's meals were around 60 dollars or so ha-ha. D and his family blew tons of money on Lobster and stuff too. It was a pretty dang good dinner. The oysters were not too bad and the Fried calamari was good. I have had calamari 3 times now in this area. This week for dinner we also had Maryland crab cakes, which were pretty good. And yesterday we had mahi-mahi which I really did not want to eat but of course I grinned and ate it ha-ha. My companion new how much I hate fish, so he was really trying not to laugh the whole time ha-ha. So anyway on Sunday we have the confirmation in Sacrament right? So this crazy lady who no one had ever seen before comes in to sacrament and sits down next to sister W and her son because her husband is on the bishop R (he’s from WJ by the way) anyway this lady is like yelling out stuff in Sacrament and making the biggest scene ever. So we go up to confirm A.. and this lady jump into the freaking circle and start yelling she has the priesthood and power of the HG!!!!! The bishop had to tell this lady to sit down like 5 times and she finally did ha-ha. It was crazy! After that she continued to make a huge scene and even went up on the stand to hug a kid that was crying from his testimony hahahaha. So it was by far the strangest sacrament I have ever been a part of. So that was a condensed version of what happened this week. But anyway thanks for all of your emails! I can’t remember if I got your package this past week or not... But if I didn’t say thanks already, then thank you so much! Anyways I love you guys and hope you all have a good week. Btw dad I’m glad that Ball has been so good, I miss playing with you guys a lot. Hopefully it’s still good when I get home. Anyways love you guys! :) Have a good week.

Love Wes

June 12, 2014

Hey family!

Happy fathers day yesterday Dad! First off I want to start by saying sorry about not getting my package, honestly I haven’t even sent it yet because I have been so dang busy. I will definitely send it as soon as I can! :) So I have been on exchanges the last 4 days of this week with a traveling assistant named Elder H. We have been so super busy I can’t believe how fast this last week has gone by. Elder H is a super stud missionary, he is a semi pro soccer player for a team in Utah and is insanely good. We played soccer with him and the ward on Thursday and it was super fun! Everyone was laughing at my Vans where my left foot is hanging out of one of them ha-ha. But I was sooooooo stoked to get those Vans from you this week! Thank you soooooo much for sending them to me. I was not expecting to get them that fast so I was super excited. Thank you so much again for sending them to me you guys are so nice. While were talking about sports though me and Elder T my former companion were playing basketball as a zone on Monday and me and elder T were both dunking and President Richards walked into the gym and was watching us and he banned dunking in the mission :(( Me and elder T were both kind of ticked but oh well. Anyways back to our exchange with elder H. We had an awesome exchange. Me street contacted over 150 people this week, it was crazy! We have over 50 return appointments, so I’m not going to even know where to start! Elder Hsaid that he has gone on an exchange with almost every companionship in the mission and hadn't seen people as unified and had as good of teaching as us, so our heads got kind of big ha-ha just kidding but it was an awesome exchange. So you are all probably wondering about transfers.... Well Elder B got transferred and I’m staying in Baltimore for another transfer and President R called me and said that I’m training a new missionary. There is only like 7 elder coming in and he chose me to train!!! I’m so fetching nervous! Training is like the highest stress job you can have ha-ha! So I’m kind of scared but it will be fine. I’m sure I will get a good missionary because I’m in an important area and it’s a really bad place so hopefully he doesn’t give me a goober ha-ha. I’m sure whoever I get will be fine. By the end of this transfer I will have done half of my mission is two areas!!! I have never heard of another missionary in the mission do that. But anyways you all should pray really hard that I won’t screw up on Training ha-ha. Elder Benard is going to be a district leader in the west side of the mission in Fredrick Maryland. Oh and btw the interesting elder in the other companionship in Jones falls with us that you have heard about is getting transferred and D.S. is coming in to replace him who Elder B trained ha-ha. Should be an interesting Transfer for sure. But your guy’s week has sounded like it was a blast! I have never heard of any of those bands except for one republic though. I’m glad you all had a good Sunday and made it a good father’s day for dad :) Sorry we weren't allowed to call. But I guess that’s why dad gets a little present from me ha-ha. I miss you guys a ton. I can’t believe how far I am into my mission. Time is going by so fast lately its unreal. A lot my friends just left last week and this week on mission so that’s been cool to here about. That’s awesome R is going to Mexico! When does he leave? Anyways I love you guys very much and you don’t need to worry about sending letters to another place because I’m stuck here in the same ward again ha-ha ;) Thanks for all you guys to for me I love you guys very much, that’s stinks that the Heat lost but oh well. Let me know how the world cup is going ha-ha. Have a great week guys! Love ya! Happy fathers day again dad!

Love Wes