Elder LeGrande turned 20 years old this week!

September 8, 2014

Hey family!

It was great to here from you all this week! I had a really good week! We found 4 new investigators this last week! Heck yeah! We have 8 investigators right now and 4 of them are really solid I'm hoping for at least three baptisms this next transfer.

Yeah so I’m staying with Elder B here in Severn! I’m just fine with that this area is pretty awesome and we are really seeing some good things happen here. One guy who we found this last week while street contacting is way cool and he came to play basketball this last week and came to church. He has a ton of potential and I’m sure he will get baptized if he can just kick his smoking habit. He is 26.

We had stake conference here in Annapolis this last week! They had to broadcast it at 3 different building because there are a lot of people in the stake. I was at the one with all the live speakers in Severn so that was cool. President and Sister Richards came and spoke and gave some good talks on missionary work and all the good stuff going on in the mission. So it was a good Sunday. We had dinner last night at the Y’s and there huge forty Niner’s fans so they were talking about the game and giving me all the updates, so that was cool.

Overall my District did really well this transfer. We had a couple baptisms and have some really solid investigators right now so there are some good things going on. I also went on exchanges with the Zone leaders this week and that was sweet. I went to there area with Elder H and we are good friends so it was cool.

We taught this really cool family and they want to get baptized but cant give up smoking so we taught the word of wisdom and the spirit came in and slapped them all and they committed to stop smoking and they haven’t so far, so that was awesome!

Today for  P day we watched a movie called facing the giants that president Richards approved and the whole zone went to the B’s ( a senior couple) super nice club house that has a theater that we watched the movie in and it was pretty fun to watch even though it was pretty cheesy ha-ha.

So I had an awesome week and loved the emails from you guys! I have played against some high school players for fun here and Severn and give them a good fun for there money ha-ha. Anyways thanks so much for writing me I love you guys very much.

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Anyways I’m glad lynz had a fun party and hope Sarah gets feeling better and has a fun birthday! I love you guys! Have a good week!

Love Wes

September 16, 2014

Hey family!

Wow thanks so much for all of your long emails you guys sent to me! Seriously that is the best birthday present I could get!

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I..went to a place called Gabe's and which is like a really nice upscale thrift store I guess and it’s huge. My sun glasses broke a couple weeks ago and I got two brand new pairs of sun glasses for 2 bucks! The lady at the counter gave me a really good deal for some reason! I also got some new shoes that were only 10 bucks so I’m excited to not have my sock rub against the ground in my proselyting shoes ha-ha. I’m going to take a picture of my shoes and send them to you so you can have a good laugh ha-ha. Do you remember those shoes in that one general conference talk that the stake president bronzed? Well my shoes blow those shoes out of the water with how beat up they are ha-ha.

(…)

It sounds like all the birthdays and everything have been really fun and you have enjoyed them so I’m really glad to here that! I hope Sarah has fun at her Dance though!

It sounds like R is ready to go on his mission.  He will do well though, the most important thing to have when you leave is just the desire to help others and do your best.

So anyway in a really short explanation of my week, it was one of the best weeks of my entire mission. The Severn ward is killing it right now and the area is on fire! We put two people on date to be baptized this last week named R and T who are both older guys and really cool. T has been taught for a year and a half and finally he has decided to be baptized on October 11! And R is another older guy about 65 who has gone through a rough life and wants to be baptized soooo bad!

And we also have two other investigators praying about a baptismal date!!!!! The sister training leaders in my ward and district also have 2 on date so we are killing it right now and everyone is just in awe! The lord has blessed us a lot for our hard work and dedication!

Anyway thanks so much again for the birthday wishes, presents and emails! I love you guys very much. I let you know how everything went next week ok. :) Love you all! :))

Love Wes

Elder LeGrande Letters from August 28 and September 2, 2014

August 28, 2014

Hey what’s up family! 

My week was pretty good! My back is not hurting anymore at all so that’s good :) I had my back popped by like 10 different people so I think it got all lined up again ha-ha.  I’m excited for you to sell those houses and glad everything with Dads work is going well! It makes me feel good to know that being on a mission is blessing you guys! I would stay on a mission forever if you kept getting blessed the way you are now ha-ha.

 I can’t believe that school starts! What day does it start for the girls? I know for pretty much all the kids here in Maryland started school today. That’s crazy how Sarah and lynz are now in the middle grade of both of there schools! They are getting so old! And I can’t believe I turn 20 next month. That is crazy!  

We had some good lessons with some less active members that we got in with and split some wood for one too. We saw all of our 5 investigators and that was good. Even though only 1 came to church! (I was pretty ticked about that) ha-ha. So it was a pretty good week. We have been continuing to get fed REALLY well so that has been awesome! It’s so nice to get fed so much again!

Luckily I'm working out and playing a lot of basketball so I’m not gaining any weight. I actually have sitting at about 171 lately and ideally 171- 178 is where I want to be! I was looking at the stats for the USA basketball team dad gave me and realize at the beginning of my mission I almost weighed as much as Stephen Curry and he is like 4 inches taller than me ha-ha. Also I didn’t know Rudy gay is from Baltimore! You should look up to me where he played high school ball and where specifically he grew up In Baltimore. It very likely could have been in my last area. Basketball has been really good though lately.  

 I started weekly basketball night here and invited all of the Severn ward, fort Meade ward, Odenton ward and the glen Bernie ward to come out and play and it has been really good basketball. I have been really happy with myself trying to get back into prime basketball shape again. I think I have gotten better in some areas of my game on my mission, but lost a few other things that I had when I left. Ha-ha sometimes it kills me that I’m not as fast as I was back home, but I guess you can’t really expect to be on your mission ha-ha. My jumping is still as good if not better as I was when I left. I had some members throwing me some oops on an outside hoop and I had a few dunks from them. But anyways everything else is going well.

 Being a District leader is no big deal. Wednesday I have leadership meeting in Fredrick so that will be fun and I have the O's game on Friday so I’m stoked for that! Other than that I don’t have much else to say! But thanks again for your emails. I love you guys very much! :) Have a great week! :) Let me know if you have any questions for me! Love ya!

Love Wes

Sept 2, 2014

Hey hey what’s up family!

Sounds like you all had a great week in park city and going to concerts, and starting school and all the other things you did! I had a really good week as well.

I had a leadership meeting in Fredrick on Wednesday so that was cool. It’s a pretty crazy meeting actually. It pretty much consists of President Richards throwing down on us and letting everyone duke it out with each other in figuring out how certain situations should be handled ha-ha. Needless to say I didn’t say much in the meeting as a new District leader because I didn’t want to get destroyed by everyone hahaha. So that was pretty cool to see a lot of my good friends in there and hang out with them. President Richards even played a segment from the movie miracle (probably my favorite sports movie) about being on the same team and how the name on the jersey (our name of the tag) is a lot less important then the name on the bottom (Jesus Christ). So that was pretty sick he showed that, hahaha everyone was glued to the TV hahaha.

On Friday the Orioles game was way sick! Elder Burrup threw the first pitch at the game. He wasn’t allowed to throw 95 because the catcher wasn’t in full gear. 

So he threw a solid 70 curve ball ha-ha. The Stadium was packed so it was super sick. I got to hang out with all my bros and some members from my old areas. It was a blast. And the Orioles destroyed the Twins. 

There were 3 home runs and Chris the boss Davis cranked a grand slam and the stadium went crazy that was super awesome. Orioles will do damage in post season for sure. 

I’m on exchanges right now with my zone leader who was one of my previous zone leaders named elder Hall and were having a lot of fun after my District meeting so that’s pretty cool. A bunch of us selected ball players (ha-ha) went to Columbia to play some ball at the stake center there. And that was a blast. Most of us are either zone leaders assistants or district leaders ha-ha and we nick named our selves the high baller council hahaha. I was very pleased with how I played against so many good players. I had easily the most points and me and couple other good elders were on a team and we played against Elder H.  (6'7) and Elder T. (6'5) both playing college ball. And we beat them in a very good game. I had 7 threes in a row and had a majority of our points. It was a ton of fun. But besides that everything has been pretty good lately.

 Transfers are next week and who knows what will happen with that. So you and grandma and Tricia and people have been asking what I want for my birthday. Some ideas I have had are Taco bell/McDonalds gift cards. Some new dress pants. Some new shoes, a new suit, cash. I mean if I just had some cash I could probably just go get a suit and some shoes from Burlington coat factory on sale or a good will or something. It would save everyone a lot of money I think if I did that, but I don’t know! I’m down for whatever. People don’t need to send me food though ha-ha.

 But yeah just some thoughts. Let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you guys and I will do my best! I wanted to say Happy birthday to Lynz on Saturday! I cant believe that she is turning 14! That’s crazy! Hopefully she has a fun birthday! Anyways I hope you all have a good week! Thanks for the pics, letters and emails! Love you guys!

Love Wes