"I weighed myself like 6 times"

Dear Familia,

It has been a great week! Lots of stuff has happened this last week. Yesterday our branch became a ward finally after 30 years of people praying for it to become a ward. It was pretty awesome, President Wright told us about 3 days ago that something big was going on this Sunday.  You should have seen the members of the now wards faces when the stake presidency walked in, it was pretty funny. 

It was a really big day for Woodstock. Anyway, I'm glad that president wright sent you the pictures of the baptism.  [The investigator that was baptized a couple of weeks ago] received the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday.  He will be baptizing his daughter on the December 7th i think. We gave (the daughter) over to the sisters to teach because she is a 10 year old girl. 

Transfers on Wednesday were fun. I didnt have to do absolutly anything, so that was nice, I got to talk to all my buddies and hang out with them, so that was fun. I didnt see Dallin but I did see my boy taylor. I did have to wait for a long time while Elder Zander was in his meeting though. [A member] took us and the sister missionaries to transfers and bought us Cafe Rio after:)) Yesterday after the big day at church we were invited over to a members house with the [family who was recently baptized and some of their friends for an early thanksgiving dinner! It was very good and we got to play some baseball in the sub flippin zero temps we are having, they live up in the mountains too so it was fun. But the weather here is sooooooooooo bitter cold it is not even funny. 30 degrees here feels like 0 degrees back home. 

By the way, we split wood with a splitter and a member's house on Friday and I forgot my camera but the wood pile we split was 6 feet tall by 30 feet wide. It was insane how much we wood we split. Anyways so I have been working out a lot in the apartment lately and eating lots of food so I finally decided to weigh myself because I looked at myself in the mirror the other day and noticed I was getting big. So i weighed myself and I weigh 171 [lbs]!!!!!!!!! It was a nice scale too. I weighed myself  like 6 times to check too, and this is with my shirt off and everything. I cant believe I have gained that much.  I have been benching a lot in the apartment though lately and can lift about 15 more pounds and do about 20 reps more than I could at the beginning of my mission. I was kind of freaked out at first, but I like I am really glad now. 

But anyway, I hope you are all having a great week and Have fun on Thanksgiving! We dont have to proselyte on Thanksgiving so thats cool, we will be over at the[new member's house] for awhile then we get to go play basketball with our district in Front Royal, so I am excited for that.  I have to go, but I love all you guys very much. I forgot to mention we got an awesome young kid about 20 years old who is a new investigator and is very interested in the gospel. Hope to here from you soon. Sarah and Lynz I love you a lot stay out of trouble! ;)

Love wes

"This past week has been the best week of my mission hands down!"

Hey guys!

                This past week has been the best week of my mission hands down! So first off one the traveling assistant came out [tracking] with Elder Z and I from Thursday to Sunday.  He goes home one Wednesday and served in Woodstock earlier this year and wanted to come back here for his last week, so it was really good and pretty fun to have him with us and have a tripanionship.

                We had a super fun and good week and did crazy amounts of service, just one of the many things we did was rake a acre of leaves that completely covered the whole yard. It took about 4 hours with us three, the two sister missionaries and another person. I have a HUGE blister on my finger from it haha.
                And of course the best part was the Hodges were baptized on Saturday and confirmed by is on Sunday! It was such an awesome experience and it was so nice to see our hard work pay off.
          Elder Z and I baptisms are the only baptisms for the month of November for our huge two part zone. President Wright was stoked, he was telling us about how extremely rare it was to have a couple baptized out here in Virginia; he said it has been a number of years since it has happened. He is taking us to a Mexican restaurant on Tuesday with his best bud Brother Funk on Tuesday.
                So anyways Elder Z and I are both staying in Woodstock! When its all said and done Elder Zander will have been here at least 6 months and I will have been here for 4 and half [months]! That’s a very long time for people to be in an area.
                Elder R also said that to have the same companion for 3 transfers is almost unheard of. Elder Z was called to be the new district leader here too, to replace our old district leader who is going home. So yea you could say it has been a crazy week but it was sooo awesome.
                We still have to go to transfer meeting two and a half hours away though so Elder Z can go to the meeting for district leaders, but its cool because we get Cafe Rio after :)) ha-ha. So because I am the district leader’s companion I will be going on lots of exchanges with other elders because Elder Z has to go out with every elder at least once a transfer in our district. I will also have some weird extra free time because he will be on the phone a lot.
                But anyway, I hope you are all doing well. Tell Sarah to watch out or else I might have to come home early and throw some little boys heads together, ha-ha just kidding. I am glad to here all is going well with you guys and yes mom you were defiantly blessed to have such good children, just like we have been telling you all along, (ha-ha, just kidding).
                 Anyways I love you all very much and am so grateful for all of you. I hope you have a great week :)

I’m so glad that I decided to come on a mission, I know that there is no way I could be spending my next 21 months any better then on a mission."

Hey family! 

Don't drink the beer Elder!

I think president Wright told you that I was not going to be able to email you yesterday because we had mission conference with Elder Carlson of the seventy. The conference was pretty awesome, it was an 8 hour meeting and Elder Zander and I had to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to get showered and car pool with the sister missionaries down to Fredrick, Maryland.

Elder Carlson talked for about 4 hours about how to consecrate ourselves as missionaries and answered lots of questions that missionaries had. We all got to talk to him and shake his hand; he is a retired four star general.

Besides the awesome instruction that we received I also got to see all of my missionary friends and hang out with all of them so that was cool. After the meeting half of the missionaries went to Cafe Rio in Fredrick and man it was soooo good haha.

This last week has been a pretty good one. [One family investigators] are on date for the 16th so no one has been baptized yet but they will. The word of wisdom is a killer out here, but they are doing very well with it.

Thanks for the letters you all sent me this last week as well as the emails your letter and emails always make me smile. I’m glad Sarah and Lynz are doing well and are enjoying school. Enjoy your time in school because you will miss it when it’s over. So anyway the weather here is pretty dang cold.  It doesn't really ever snow here, but the humid cold is terrible sometimes, haha. Its pretty crazy that transfers are only two weeks away and I could be somewhere else, I really hope not because we already have 3 dinner appointments set up for thanksgiving!

I’m so glad that I decided to come on a mission, I know that there is no way I could be spending my next 21 months any better then on a mission. I feel like I have been the one that has learned so much on my mission so far.  I’m so grateful for the testimony builder that it has been so far.

Anyways I hope you all have a great week and that everything goes well! Dad I am glad to here the Jazz are doing terrible because they will be good when I get back haha. I love you guys very much, I am so proud of you guys and your efforts to try and teach those guys the gospel.

If all the members in the world did what you guys did and helped the missionaries, then this work would be able to move so fast. If you get a chance watch the original hastening the work video, it is way good and helps me remember how important missionary work is.

Love Wes

"We got a new investigator this week who read to Mosiah in one week,"

Hey guys!

 

How are you all doing? I’m glad you got to go to Sutton’s farewell! He emailed me and said it went really good. Dallin Noble also had his farewell on Sunday. Almost everyone is finally out now and that makes me really happy to here.  

So our investigators are being baptized on November 16th hopefully with there 10 year old daughter. I will keep you posted on that. We got a new investigator this week who read to Mosiah in one week which was super awesome and surprising. He is 84 years old and is probably the nicest guy I have ever met.  He is a free mason so that is pretty cool.

So we got an email from our [Mission] President saying we are not allowed to proselyte on Halloween, we have had like 5 people that we shouldn’t got out on Halloween because there are so many people out here who do like legit witch craft and crazy stuff like that.  We [also] heard [that] there is like a big Satan worshiping [group] a couple cities away. Some people are crazy out here.

 

Elder Zander and I are working hard. I’ll be sending more pictures soon so keep a look out for that. President told us this week that we can only write letters on Mondays now, so that kinda stinks but oh well. Tell mom my face isn’t getting fatter I must have just looked weird, haha trust me I would notice if my face were getting fatter. But, by the way, I guess I never told you guys how big my area is. My area is about as big as Salt Lake would be to Spanish Fork, if that gives you a good picture in your head of how big my area is. There are probably only 50000 people in my entire area. Anyways I have to wrap this up but I love and miss you guys and hope you are all doing well. That experience that you told me about with that kid Sarah is going on a date with made me laugh pretty hard.

I’ll talk to ya soon!

 

love Wes

 

October 21, 2013 Letter from Elder Westley LeGrande

Hi Everyone,

So two of our investigators are being baptized not this Saturday but next Saturday! We are so excited; one the husband…has been struggling with tobacco for so long and has finally stopped, so it is so awesome! 

I will make sure to send you the pictures of it when it happens! They have become really good friends of ours and have come such a long way. I gave him a blessing to be able to quit tobacco a couple of days ago and he hasn’t done it at all, and I really think he won’t ever do it again; the power of the priesthood is awesome!

Elder Zander and I got to go to a place in our area this week called Basye Bryce ski resort and town! Since we are as far west and south as you can pretty much go in our mission Basye Bryce borders two other missions so it was pretty cool, its seriously just a mini park city! Missionaries probably have never been out there in the history of the church, so it was pretty cool to go there. It is like 45 minutes away but still in our area in the middle of nowhere in some mountains! Our area is huge. We almost converted a Jehovah witness down there ha-ha but maybe next time!

[We couldn't hike] because it wasn't our P-day, we went there because no one has in years and Pres Wright thought it would be good for people to see missionaries there so we just proselyted for 5 hours ha-ha. But yes I got Emily’s package, it was really nice of her to send it! And yes I got some pictures! I have to go but I will write a letter this week OK  Thank you so much for the package you sent me as well it made my whole week! :) Tell Lyndsey I absolutely loved the picture she drew for me :) It’s hanging up by my bed :) She is such a good artist! :)

The Young Men and Women hosted a “Lost Shepherd” dinner for investigators but 90 percent of them couldn't come except the family who are getting baptized are sitting with sister missionaries in the video (so others could get to know them) and other ones who the sisters are teaching! The youth did a cool serving job where they all do the same thing at a time, which they really worked on. BTW the couple getting baptized has a 10 year old daughter will probably be baptized by her dad once he is baptized and get the Aaronic Priesthood.  So that will be another baptism coming up!

I love you guys very much I hope you have a good week, watch out for those hockey players ha-ha :)

Elder LeGrande

We didn't get a letter this past week because Wes and I emailed back and forth instead, but he did send his memory card!

 

 

 

in Luray i got to be with my boy Elder Zwahlen! (the elder who is the QB for University of Hawaii)

Hey guys!

So Elder Zander and I are staying in Woodstock! We are both pretty glad considering we have so many investigators so close to being baptized. This coming Saturday we also have a softball game we get to play in, it’s our stake vs. the Lutheran church! They do it every year and apparently it goes really well and then after we have a picnic with them. Elder Zander and I are going to convert them all! Hahaha there team is pretty good apparently they have a minor league baseball player, and they have an actual team with jerseys and all that jazz. No worries though we are going to win because we are playing for the lord! ;) So we are excited for that!

We painted part of [a] sister’s house this week so that was fun. I also got to go on two exchanges this week to the crazy little town of Luray haha. Luray is even more in the middle of nowhere than Woodstock, apparently there is like real life witches that live there and stuff like that haha. Luray is the middle of all these mountains that people call the “hollers” “haha but they are  really “the hollows.” These hollows are full of moonshiners and white gangsters and probably some KKK guys.

So in Luray i got to be with my boy Elder Zwahlen! (the elder who is the QB for Hawaii) we had a ton of fun me and him are a ton alike. We got to feed one of the member’s herds of bulls! Each of them have a specific name and they are trained like dogs.  Hahahaha it’s the funnies thing I have ever seen, we fed them cookies because that’s what they love to eat haha. We also got to go to the top of one of these huge hills and see the amazing view, it was really sweet.

General conference was super good! We got to watch it with two of our investigators. They both really liked it and are doing really well with them. As for myself I loved conference especially all of President Monson’s talks. There were many others that I especially liked but don’t have time to go into all of them, but one thing I did notice was how many of them talked about the sign of the times and having a testimony to be able to make it through whatever happens in these last days as so many put it.

 
Anyways so a good percent of our district is being transferred and Elder Zwhalen is leaving so I am kind of sad about that but I better get used to it! I hope you guys are having a good week that’s cool you went to that concert, that sounds like a lot of fun. I have been taking lots of pictures so i will send that for sure ASAP.

I love you guys all very much thank you for your prayers and thoughts I equally pray and think about you guys.

 

Love Wes