Letter from Elder LeGrande 8/18

Hey guys! 

Thanks for all the letters and emails! You guys make my day every preparation day! And thank you so much for the package and the banner that was pretty cool too, even though I opened it in the car and it made the biggest mess! Ha-ha it took us about a half hour today getting between all the cracks where the stuff fell ha-ha. 

Today has been a pretty good preparation day. We drove to Columbia with the zone leaders to go play ball at the stake center there. It was fun because they only invited certain people ha-ha so the competition was really good. There's a couple players in the mission going to play college ball so it was fun. But in the middle of one of the games I went up to lay a ball up and got smashed into by a 6'3 260 pound kid and got bent in half in the air. My back is killing me so bad right now. I can’t sit or stand up without having any pain. I think I may have slipped a disk in the middle of my lower back. So I'm going to continue to ice it and stuff and take ibuprofen. Hopefully it will stop hurting soon. I can’t bend over in the slightest or else my back just kills. But don’t worry about it to much... 

Anyway thanks dad I did get your letter with the money you sent to me! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. I think its funny how people all start sending me money and things when I get fed really well and when I'm desperate for cash or food I don’t get anything ha-ha. But it’s nice to be able to have some extra money saved when I need it. But anyway this last week was pretty good, nothing crazy happened.

 I went on exchanges with the Zone leaders so that was cool. To get a break and be with a really cool missionary named Elder Be... that I have a lot in common with.  Elder Ba...  and I are doing well.  That’s good you all saw me on the mission blog. I wasn't too stressed out that day so if it looked like it, I really wasn't too stressed. 

The blog had everyone else’s zone conferences too so that why you saw elder B. and D.  on there, because there not in my zone. The Severn ward is good. It’s a tough area to get baptisms and things in. But the members are awesome and we get fed every day so it’s really nice. 

We have the Orioles game next week, so everyone’s excited about that. Elder B. an awesome missionary in our mission is throwing the first pitch of the Orioles game. It will probably be the best opening pitch of all time. Elder B. was going to get drafted to the braves in the first round but decided to go on a mission. He throws 94 miles per hour. So it should be sick! Look for it on sports center! I also have my first leadership meeting next week, and I heard those are super fun. Nothing else crazy from this end though. 

Hopefully Denise gets feeling better and everything is ok with her. Thanks so much for being seriously the best family ever. You all are the best I and love ya. Have a great week and have fun. And have a happy birthday on Friday mom! Lagoon should be fun! I will be able to celebrate your next birthday with you! Have a great week!

Love Wes

Letter from Elder LeGrande August 11, 2014

Hey family!

Thank you so much for your emails! I love hearing from you guys so much. It’s really weird to think that this next week when I think of what I was doing a year ago that I was on a mission! It is so weird to see how slow time seems to go by sometimes in the moment but then crazy to see how fast the months go by. It’s weird to think that I have been gone for a year. It really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since I have seen you guys. 

Anyways it sounds like you guys had an awesome week! Awesome job running that race mom, you are a stud ha-ha. Btw your birthday is next week, so that’s cool! Do you have any plans for what you are doing yet? Btw thank you for the package, and it sounds like your sending another little one, so that’s nice of you! :) 

This week has been pretty good. Being a district leader isn’t too bad. I have got everything pretty well down now. It’s just a different mind set of just doing my thing as a missionary and being a leader and helping missionaries become better. Because I really don’t like to tell people they need to do better ha-ha. But my district is awesome so it’s no big deal. :) District meeting went really well, and I even had to of the assistants in my district meeting but it was cool. 

We were able to go the temple on Wednesday because we get to go every six months now. It’s cool because the temple is another mission, but it’s only about 25 minutes away from my area. The new temple video is soooo good. I though they did an awesome job on it. Afterwards the member that took us to the temple bought us Cafe Rio so I couldn’t have been happier ha-ha. 

My area has been a little bit of a change. The work is a little slower here compared to being in Baltimore. It’s hard to find people to talk to in my area. But we have two really solid investigators who will hopefully get baptized soon. We have been getting fed a lot by a lot of members, so that has been an awesome change and now I have money to buy some things I need ha-ha. 

Tomorrow is zone conference in Annapolis and me and 3 other district leaders and the zone leaders have to meet with President Richards before, so that should be cool. So that’s about all that happened this week. It sounds like you all have some fun things coming up so I hope you enjoy everything. 

That’s a bummer that the AC broke, hopefully it doesn’t cost too much too get it fixed. Btw to answer the rest of y our questions: My comps name is S. B., and our apartment has two floors, but its pretty small. But it has a bow flex machine and a member gave us a 6 pound thing of protein powder so I have been trying to get jacked, but it’s really hard on a mission ha-ha. I can’t wait when I come home to go hard on our work out stuff in the basement! Anyways thanks for the sports updates and everything, that’s way sick that Cleveland is getting K love (AKA old man Wes as he is called when he did his videos with Kyrie Irving(as uncle drew) if you haven’t watched those videos on YouTube you should because there hilarious. But Cleveland should be stacked. Anyways thanks for all you guys do, I love you guys very much. Have a good week!

Love, Wes

Being a District leader is quite a bit of work.

Hey family!

It feels like it's been three weeks since I last emailed you! This week has been has been so crazy I can not even begin to explain! First off I’m glad you got my new address. Its 8309 Timberlake ct right? Anyways this area is very strange haha. Its a lot different than what I am used to. I am less than a mile away from Fort Meade which a huge military base. The whole community around here is all military related. Every single person who works around here either works for the military or for NSA. Anyways though I have already gotten fed like 5 times! It has been pretty sweet. We even did service for this older wealthy non member couple and they took us to red lobster haha. So far the ward seems pretty cool. It is about a 3rd of the size of my last ward so it is a lot different. My new companion is very interesting. His name is Elder B. from Bountiful. He has been out about 16 months . Being a District leader is quite a bit of work. I have to make a lot of calls and and know everything about everyone in my district. So far everything has been good so far. But I was stressed out for sure the last couple of days haha. Tomorrow will be my first district meeting run by me, but I’m not too worried about that. I’m sure I will grow a lot this transfer from all these different things. It’s weird to know everything about all the people in your district and a lot of stuff that only the leadership of the mission knows about. But anyways I’m glad to have a new area and some new scenery. This ward has a lot of potential I think, the works here just definitely needs a jump start and we are going to make it happen. Saturday was the baptism of an awesome part member lady named D. who is a nurse. So it was pretty cool to see here baptized. We are going to her house tonight to eat some Pizza. So I’m emailing at a library here in Severn so that’s where I will be sending you emails from now on. But to answer dads question about the money, unfortunately I did not get it before I left. But I will see Elder O. who took my spot in my last area at leadership meeting in a few weeks in Fredrick Maryland so I will be able to get it then. Thank you so much for sending me some money, that was super nice of you. I wish I would have got it before I left though, because I was broke at the end of the month haha. Thanks for sending me those pictures though, they are pretty sweet haha. I miss you guys a ton, I hope you guys are all having fun. I’m excited to get your package you guys sent me! That’s crazy that Rob and them drove to Michigan to see the real Madrid game, but its pretty cool I have to admit. Anyways thanks for letting me know what’s going on, I love you guys! :) Have a good week.

Love,

 Wes