April 28, 2014

This week was pretty good. Me and elder B had an awesome lesson with A.. on Friday, she is still getting baptized on may 31st, so hopefully im still here. Speaking of that, transfers are next week on Wednesday may 7th I hope me and elder B. can stay together for another transfer, but I highly doubt it. At the same time im kind of ready to leave this area. Although our investigators and teaching are doing well. The member work and less active work is pretty terrible, most of the people in the ward blow us off and don't really care. We had ward conference this week and we had early morning leadership meeting with all the ward and stake leaders.  Somthing else way cool that happened this week, a Mormon ravens player named C.L. lives in our area and we have been trying to get a hold of him to come over to his house and he has never responded. But on Saturday night he texted us and asked us what time church was! He came to church with his other buddy who is on the ravens! It was sooooo sweet! Everybody in the zone though we were pretty cool having them at church ;) Hopefully we can go over to there houses soon.

Today has been a fun p day. Me and elder B hung out with our zone leader buddies elder M (who goes home next week) and elder Tilley my last companion. We went down to Baltimore and went to all these markets and Indian shops and we got a bunch of cool things. They have like all the most expensive colognes and stuff you can buy but there just in generic jars. They smell exactly like the real stuff. I got three glass containers of Gucci 2 jay z gold and the brand new Kenneth Cole stuff for 10 bucks! It should last me probably for about the next 4 years haha. So that was sweet, then we went to lunch at a resturant in down town Baltimore owned by a member in the inner harbor ward and she gave us free meals so that was sweet! The weather is pretty nice right now in the high 60's and the weather is supposed to be getting a lot hotter coming up. Anyways thanks again for the awesome letter, emails and the Easter candy again! I love you guys very much have a great week! 

love wes

March 17-April 7 Letters from Elder LeGrande

March 17

Hey family, 

I hope you have had a good week, mine hasn't been too bad. Me and elder B will able to get two new investigators this week which was pretty awesome. J is getting baptized on Saturday, so that will be sweet. The weather still hasn't gotten warm here, it snowed four inches last night. Luckily cars were only grounded until about 1230 today. This weekend its finally supposed to get warm, so I'm very anxious for that. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. The adult session on Saturday was pretty cool. All the stake conferences around the world are all about missionary work. They had the L’s (the head senior couple from our mission) speaks as well as some kids preparing to go on missions. Sunday was good as well, it was a little bit different because it was all recorded from SLC but elder Perry spoke and some other 70 and they all talked about missionary work so it was good to here :) I sent you all letters today, so I hope you get them soon :) Transfers are next week, this has felt like a really long transfer. I doubt me or elder B will get moved though because we just shot gunned the area. So I just read that A is in the hospital huh? Good thing she got a blessing from dad. That’s pretty sweet that aunt spring called you to give that. I’m sure she will be better in know time, but I will definitely pray for her. So what’s been new with you guys this week? I just realized that the girls are probably close to fourth quarter right? That’s pretty crazy how fast that seems to have gone for them. That’s pretty sweet that copper hills won state in Drill again, hopefully they can pull another state championship in something else. I was just remembering how my class one state in three different things which was pretty sweet. I agree with Dad when he reminded me that a year ago we went to Hawaii! That’s pretty crazy that was a year ago. In a couple months I will have been graduated for a year! That doesn’t even sound right to me. Time seems to have gone so fast since then. Anyways me and Elder B are instructing at zone training tomorrow. I seem to instruct every zone training haha, oh well I don’t even care anymore. But anyways I hope you all have a great week, I’m looking forward to getting that letter and the visa card. I love ya guys very much, have a great week!

Love Wes

March 31,

Hey guys!

It is 64 degrees here in Baltimore today and I'm super stoked for the warm weather! Sorry to here about the snow, knowing Utah it’s probably melted by now and its 70 degrees haha. This last week was an interesting week. We were out of miles to use for the month and so me and Elder Benard walked almost everywhere this last week. I would be surprised if we hit 50 miles of walking this week. My shoes are getting absolutely wasted and will It also poured rain for like the last 3 days and so we were wet for like 3 days straight and it was pretty miserable. This next week is supposed to be really nice and warm so I’m much stoked for that. For transfers this week my new zone leader over here in Baltimore is elder Tilly who was my last companion and my district leader was my last zone leader in Woodstock which was kind of annoying because I wanted a break from both of them haha but oh well. I’m glad me and Elder Benard are companions because I look around the missionaries in the Baltimore zone and am glad that I have elder Benard haha. So one of our super awesome investigators named Aoifa who is recently married to an awesome member decided she wanted to be baptized in May! She would be baptized sooner but she works everyday in Johns Hopkins and is super busy and hard to find time to meet with her. But anyway to answer your question about the letter from Cancun, I never received it I’m sorry to say. Dad it sounds like you had a pretty good weekend with Jess. There are some pretty interesting teams in the final four I must say. If Kentucky ends up wining it all I think I will be sick haha. Greg Koplin is going to Hawaii huh
? That’s pretty dang sweet! It sounds like a lot of my friends are finally going to go on missions this summer so I’m excited for them. Anyways that’s all I have for this week. I hope everything is going well for you guys and you have an enjoyable week! :) I love you guys!

Love Wes

 Hey family!

I got all of your letters a couple of days ago! It was really good to here from all of you. Saturday was awesome with Jason’s baptism. He was baptized by our ward mission leader and everything went really well. He gave a super awesome testimony afterwards. He will be someone who will stay active in the church for the rest of his life. We also helped a member move right after the baptism that was living with another active older family named the Walks. The Walks are pretty awesome , they have us over for dinner all the time and they live in a really nice area called Owings mills which is where two Ravens players live. And actually both of the Ravens players are LDS there names are JJ unga and Cody Larson. They both live in Utah right now for the off season but come back here in April, so hopefully we can hang out with them when they come back. But anyways sister walks gave us like 100 dollars worth of food! So it was pretty awesome because me and elder Benard are both really low on money and on car miles. It has been a hard month for those things, so I’m ready for April to hit. So me and Elder Benard are both staying in Jones Falls which we both expected because we shot gunned the area. I’m glad to be with elder Benard still but I’m not really sure how glad I am about staying the area haha but oh well. Yesterday our zone and some other surrounding missionaries went and toured the Baltimore Orioles Field. It was only six dollars too so it was a really good deal. But the tour guide was a lady who was pretty cool and a huge orioles fan. We got to go all in the suites, press rooms, dugouts, and the clubhouse and even on the field! It was way sweet, I have a ton of pictures I took which I am sending to you. It was a really sweet preparation day. The reason why I didn’t email you guys yesterday is because the myldsmail site was acting weird and wouldn’t let us do anything on it so that’s why I didn’t get to talk to you yesterday! I hope you all had a good week and did some fun things. Its snowing again today and the weather is just turning into a bad joke, I have a feeling its going to go from winter to summer and we are going to miss all of spring haha. Oh yea and me and elder Benard had one of those bad eating experiences that you here missionaries talk about haha. We had some native Indians from India had us over and they cooked us some really genuine Indian and Tibetan food and it was so awful haha. Me and elder Benard both felt so bad sick afterwards haha. We probably sat in the car for about 20 minute’s just feeling like we were going to throw up. Oh ya and on Sunday Elder Benard got his patriarchal blessing and the patriarch got permission from the area seventy for me to be there and listen which was way tight! Hahira but anyways that’s about all the interesting stuff that happened this week! I love you guys very much and be safe!

Love was

 April 7

Hey family!

Awesome email you guys sent me this week! :) I too enjoyed conference very much and had many talks that I enjoyed, but for some reason president Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session keeps sticking out in my head and he talked about loving everyone we come in contact with and helping people who are having a hard time and that feel like everything is hopeless. He also mentioned the story of the lady who made the man go around her property and how much she regretted it and wanted to apologize to the man who had long since moved out. Last night before I went to bed I thought of a ton of times that I was mean or rude to people (most of them were either you or Sarah and lynz) and how much I wish I could take back so many things I said and did. I’m going to try and apply it more as a missionary too, especially when it comes to other missionaries who drive me nuts and tick me off haha. Anyways conference was great, Saturday we watched it with J and on Sunday we went over the W's and watched it at there nice house and they fed us a huge lunch. But anyways in response to your questions, we apparently got a new mail man a few weeks ago who wont deliver mail unless our names are on the mail box. Even though ours says LDS missionaries. We put our actual names on it though a few days ago. After you called the post office I received some of your old letters you sent haha, but never have I got the one you sent from Cancun but oh well. The April fools joke mom pulled on Dad I thought was hilarious though haha. If I was Dad I would have just turned off my phone haha. Elder B thought it was funny too. I sent that package like 3 days ago, so you should get it today with those shirts and pants in it. I sent it in a 12 dollar flat rate box like you said.
Oh yea the videos you sent me on my camera won’t work :/ So you will just have to tell me what the videos were like. And in response the preach my gospel question, which I’m glad you asked because it means you were paying attention haha. We use preach my gospel not just in discussions but basically live our missionary lives. All the ways it says to do stuff in preach my gospel is exactly how we do it. The lessons in it, as it says aren’t rote presentation. They are always tenured to the people we are teaching and t here needs. Most of the formal discussions we teach are taught directly out of the church pamphlets which align with exactly preach my gospel talks about in the restoration, plan of salvation etc. Btw tomorrow we have to teach president and sister R directly for zone training! Its kind of nerve wracking but me and elder B isn’t worried at all. I also went exchanges this week with elder Tilley haha (my last companion) it was pretty weird to be with him again for a day especially because instead of being in the middle of nowhere in Virginia we were in the hood of Baltimore haha. Anyways I hope you liked this email and I answered all of your questions. Thanks for the sports score Dad, sounds like you had fun watching the best two years. I’m sure some of it is very accurate but at the same time I bet it is a lot different from the missionary work we do now. I hope you all have a great week and tell Sarah and lynz to stay out of trouble haha. Btw Brandi said she is going to text you and see how you are doing haha. I still write her every week and she says she is waiting for me haha. I hope to hear from you guys soon and look forward to your package and letters! Love ya! :)

Love Wes

 April 14

Hey Family!

It sounds like you all had a pretty good week. Mine was pretty good as well. The weather has been super nice like you mentioned. I’m so glad its finally starting to warm up, except it was 80 degrees on Saturday and our AC unit in our apartment is broken so there coming by to fix it hopefully today or tomorrow. Honestly this week was pretty typical and I can’t really think of anything that would be worth sharing with you guys. I guess of Friday night we met a sweet less active member for the first time who wants to come back to church and have us come over and work on his back yard with him, so that was cool. He also wants to come play basketball with us on Tuesday nights. Our Basketball nights are turning out to be really sweet. We have like 4 less active members and a couple non members coming to play every week. We also invited him to a member barbecue which was on Saturday up in the country in the other elders in our wards area. It was fun we had some good smoked meat and got to introduce some less active members and play football with them and with J our recent convert. Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you about Tuesday. On Tuesday we had to teach (role play) with president and sister R in companionships for zone training. Me and elder B did so good though haha. President R is doing this for everyone in the mission and he said to our zone that me and elder B were the best companionship so far teaches that he had seen in the whole mission. After we did role plays we did personal interviews with President R. He said that me and elder B again were the best teaching companionship he had seen in the mission so far. I think he was really frustrated by all the role plays that happened, because honestly most of them were pretty terrible. I'm glad that President R likes me so much. These next couple months are going to be very interesting. A lot of the mission leadership is going home this summer and a ton of new missionaries will be coming in, so I will be one the older and more experienced missionaries in the mission which will be kind of weird. Anyways so that’s how my week went. I’m excited to get the package and letter from you guys. Tricia also said she went one from her and from grandma and j, which will be nice :) I hope you guys have and awesome week! I’m going to play basketball with my zone at the stake center which should be fun. I love you guys! :) Be safe and have a good week :)

Love Wes

March 10, 2014 letter from Wes

Hey everyone,

It was an alright week this week. It has still been cold, but it is supposed to be getting warmer this next week. I'm really hoping we don't get anymore snow haha. Nothing too spectacular happened this week. Me and elder Benard had some weird people we talked to this week down in the city. We walked around Johns Hopkin university and tried to talk to people but it wasn't a very good idea haha. Everyone is extremely liberal and nobody wanted to talk to us at all. We talked to another promising guy that sounded cool until we found out that he was going to sell some weed lol. We don't have too many investigators right now, but at least Jason is super awesome and its getting baptized. And we also have a members recently married wife who is going to hopefully get baptized next month. I really don't have to much more to say about this last week. Oh yea we found this cool less active member that used to play ball at the church with a bunch of his non member friends but they stopped coming because no one let them in. So now Tuesday nights we should have a ton of people that are coming to play basketball, so im stoked about that. Wednesday night they want to have a member basketball night too which I hope will turn out.

Letters for the past two weeks

March 4, 2014

Hey guys,

How are you all doing? From the sounds of the trip, you had a lot better week than I did. Yesterday we were snowed in for about the 6th time in the last two weeks. Preparation day was horrible; we didn’t get to do anything. Towards the end of the day it got nicer and we took some buses to Essex to play ball with some other missionaries. Needless to say it took us 2 hours to get there on the buses, we missed basketball. My wallet I think was stolen but I’m not sure, I told sister Pascoe it fell out my backpack but I don’t know what happened, I thought for sure I had it in the church and Elder Benard thought he saw it too. But as we were leaving it wasn’t there... I’m not sure I brought it in for sure, but I thought I did. I really hope none of the missionaries took it. I lost everything; luckily I got my credit cards cancelled; elder Larson in the office is getting me a new driver’s license and missionary credit card. But other than that I lost my cash, visa, wallet, missionary ID, temple recommend, bus pass. I have absolutely no money to my name right now and no wallet or anything, and I’m broke as a joke. And on top of that, this has been the worst winter of my life by far. It has been bitter cold for like 5 months…. I did get your letter by the way and it made me happy. I hope you guys know I love you guys so much. I’m glad everything is going well for you. It makes me happy to see that you are all happy and having fun. My friends have told me that the weather In Utah has been really nice so that’s good. But anyways at least our investigator  is doing really well, he quit smoking and he is doing an awesome job. He is ready to be baptized for sure. We also picked up another investigator this last week who seems very interested in the gospel, we met him walking around in a blue light zone, which is a zone where they have cameras so the cops monitor it but they wont go into because its too dangerous haha. But other than that there hasn’t been too much to really speak of.  Elder Benard likes the same things as I do, so we are in the same boat. That’s about all I have to say about this terrible week, but hopefully this one will be better. Sorry to have to ask for a new wallet and stuff, I wouldn’t ask for it, but I really need one. Anyways I have to get off, but I love you guys, thanks for all you guys do for me :) Have a good week!

love wes

February 24, 2014

Hey family!

It was really good to get emails from you guys today! This week has been crazy. I’m convinced that Baltimore is Sodom and Gomorrah here on the earth today haha. Baltimore is bad news to say the least I wont go into detail about some of the stuff I saw this week but it was not good. I bought some Excedrin migraine like everyone has been telling me and it doesn't do squat, all that's in it is ibuprofen and a can of mountain dew without the flavor. On Saturday i vomited because it was so bad. Luckily yesterday and today so far I don’t have headaches. I did call sister Richards about it a couple days ago and she told me to buy some Excedrin migraine and get back to her. Needless to say it didn’t do anything like I said so next migraine I get I will call her, but don’t worry about it, I’ll get it figured out. The members have been really good about feeding us this week; we had a meal every night this week which was awesome. It was our zone temple day on Saturday so we got to go to the temple and do endowments which were awesome. I enjoyed this time way more than any time I have ever done it, so that was cool. I must say though, one thing about this ward is there is a lot of lawyers and doctors and they all disagree with each other so its kind of hard. I have noticed that is in a lot of wards though. But anyways, its been cold here and I am sick and tired of it. I can’t wait till it get warm! You are very lucky you get to go to Cancun! I’m jealous right about now. I hope you have fun, you guys deserve the trip for sure. So the USA really didn't come in first in the Olympics!? That’s a joke, I’m calling corruption on that one. As far as investigators, {one we are working with currently} is the most solid investigator I have ever seen in my life, he is already a member minus the baptism, so that’s pretty dang awesome. Cant wait for him to be baptized, he is a high school teacher in the inner city. We also have another new investigator from Ireland who is recently married to a member here and she already told us she was going to join the church no matter what so that will be another baptism haha. It doesn't 

 get any easier than that. I’m glad these miracles keep happening because besides them, there is not very much real growth investigators in Baltimore. But anyways I have to go. Hope you have fun in Cancun and tell the girls and I love and miss them! Have a good week.

This week has probably been the hardest and craziest week of my life.

Hello family!

Thanks for all the nice emails from you guys! This week has probably been the hardest and craziest week of my life. So my new area is in the Jones Falls ward here in Towson, Maryland. Towson is a nice area and 80 percent of the population in Towson city is under 25. 

My area is huge! Our ward is the biggest ward in the mission, with 900 plus people on the roles and average of 320 people at sacrament! Its bigger than most Utah wards. It is a very young ward because The Johns Hopkins hospital is in my area and half of the ward is working and going to school there. There are about 12 colleges in my area! Our area covers some inner city and some really bad spots in Baltimore. 

Today we had district meeting in Essex which has the the two most dangerous streets in America haha. There are places called blue light areas in my mission area, which means that they have blue lights and cameras all over the streets. Police pretty much don't even respond to phone calls in this area any more haha. To put in perspective how crazy this area is, there are about 500,000 people covered by us and another set of elders and two sets of YSA missionaries. 

It has been a crazy adjustment. Not to mention me and my new companion Elder Benard "shot gunned" the area, which know one cared to tell me. I found out we were "shot gunning" at transfers from Elder Benard. 

This week has been very hard. First of all they took the car away from this area and the start of this transfer  and gave it to another area. We soon figured out that this area would be impossible as a car and out ward mission leader called president Richards and "told him off" about taking the car, haha. So we got a car from the mission office yesterday which was such a life save. We had already walked to everybody who was in walking distance of out apartment. It took us three hours to walk to a members house each way.

These last couple days me and Elder Benard have been completely exhausted after walking about 25 miles in 2 days. But luckily we have a full time car now. These last couple weeks I have been having bad migraines almost everyday, so today I'm going to call sister Richards and see what we can do for it. Two days ago it was so bad I felt like I was going to throw up. So yea you could say its been tough. 

I'm so glad to have the best family and friends in the world, I don't think I could any of this without you guys! 

I love you guys so much, I'm glad to here that everything is going well back at home. I hope the weather there has been better that it is here. The weather has been an absolute joke. The entire state of Maryland was almost in chaos. But today there hasn't been a cloud in the sky and its 50 degrees! :) Tonight I get to go play basketball at the church with a bunch of people and some less active members, so I'm very excited about that. :)

 We have a very good investigator who is being baptized next month who is a school teacher in inner city Baltimore. He is a very humble sincere guy who is VERY solid and ready to be baptized. And we have another lady were about to start teaching who just got married to a member and told us she is going to join the church with her husband! So we pretty much got a free baptism haha. She is an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins hospital and her husband is an RM who grew up in Maryland and is a Navy Seal. 

So that's sweet. Well I'm in the Towson library and have to get off now but I love you guys very much hope you guys have a good week!

love,

Wes 

Transfer to Jones Falls, MD (Suburb of Baltimore)!

Hey guys!

So yes I'm getting transferred after six months in Woodstock. I'm headed to Baltimore! Apparently my area has been the zone leader area in Baltimore for a really long time but I guess they moved it because I'm not a zone leader! Elder Tilley tells me I'm not it the hood but I'm in the really rich area, probably the richest area in the mission.

It is supposed to be a good size ward though. I'm pretty excited, I will be going on exchanges in  the hood though in inner city, so that will be fun! ;) My new companion is someone named Elder Bernard. No one has a clue who he is, so it should be interesting.

 

Yesterday I got to hang out with the whole Harris clan for the last time. I was sad I had to say bye to all them but it was a good time, and I got some pictures with them so its all cool. This last week nothing really happened to much, the three investigators I'm leaving behind are doing well and are going to be baptized this next month.

 

But I'm excited to go to Jones Falls. It really is one of those areas that a lot of missionaries wish they could serve in. I hope my new companion is cool.

 

Thanks for the package you guys sent me, I loved it. Thanks for the nice things you liked about me to, it made my day. Thanks Sarah and Lynz for the emails too! It is good to here both of you are doing good :) I hope school is still fun for you.

 

Thanks dad for the update on sports it was cool to here the jazz beat the heat. Well I hope you guys have an awesome week and have a good Valentines Day I love you guys very much. 

Letters from January 20, 27 and February 3 2014

January 20, 2014

Hey guys! 

Elder Tilley and I had a great week. We were able to take our investigator Chris to a baptism in a near by ward because elder Tilley was the elder who began teaching her so we got to go and bring him. Afterwards we had a sweet lesson with him and when the spirit was super strong we invited him to be baptized and he knew that he really wanted to, so he is scheduled for the 22 of February because we have some stuff to work on with him, like the word of wisdom. But no biggie, the spirit can do all things! Hopefully his girlfriend and friend who are doing awesome and taking the lessons will get baptized too! I sadly will probably will not be able to see it though because I am 90 percent sure I am getting transferred. But oh well, it doesn’t matter. I hope you all had a good week. I dont know about you but I am sooooo done with this cold weather. I am ready for it to warm up! I was bummed to here that the Niners lost but I am glad the Broncos are.  I love you guys very much, I am excited for the package and letter! Have an awesome week!

Elder LeGrande and Elder Tilley fill up water containers
 for a member from a water spring

January, 27, 2014

My knowledge of the Gospel has just grown tremendously, I have also just mainly learned about people which are super important in missionary work. Missionaries, [I know]  aren’t so robotic anymore. You have to read people with help from the spirit and just teach to there needs and ask question to help them teach themselves.

Briefly, this week has been very good, our investigators who chewed tobacco during every lesson we have taught so far all committed to live the word of wisdom. Me and elder Tilley were both super nervous because we didn’t want to lose them as investigators, we studied and real played it a lot and as we taught them the spirit was stronger than any lesson I have ever taught or been in. It was a miracle just to see how the lord has our back. Chris is on date and his two friends have committed to be baptized but not on a specific day yet. Mission conference was also super awesome this week. S Gifford Nielson is THE MAN. Btw he is 6'6! But it was an awesome mission conference, he really talked about how the second coming is coming soon and how we just need to be the help in the wards and branches to bring others to his gospel. Another thing he taught that our mission is already focused on is real growth and about finding those big fist investigators. We could be baptizing thousands in Baltimore but the numbers are not what were focusing on. Anyway that was my week! Played ball with a bunch of really good elders today including my best buddy elder bell who was my MTC companion, almost all of us played HS ball. Thanks for all you do for me guys I love ya very much I pray for you guys every night! Love ya :)

Love wes

February 3, 2014

Dear family,

Had a pretty good but tough week. We had pretty much no miles this week so we had to walk a lot. We walked 10 miles one day and my shoes are starting to get decently worn out. We were able to see our investigators the 3 amigos  and that was really good. We bought them jolley ranchers, gum and mountain dew to replace there tobacco and coffee. We were also able to go over there house yesterday with two other friends they invited to watch part of the super bowl because we were able to get permission from president! I only saw the first half of the game and I must say it was a joke of a game. But oh well me and elder tilley had fun with them and the had steak and shrimp for us, so that was pretty sweet. The weather here is terrible. I am so done with this stupid snow and cold. It snowed a little this morning and our cars got grounded, so we cant really go anywhere on our preparation day which stinks. I heard we could get up to 30 inches of snow later this week. I don't know how much more of this crappy weather I can handle. But anyways I hope you guys had a good week, I liked the pictures you guys sent of Dad playing Austin [McCombs] in church ball! Whats he up to these days? Anyways transfers are next Wednesday and we should find out where and what on Sunday night. So I just now found out that two of my good friends just came home from there missions. I'm not going to name anyone but I am kind of upset about it. I guess I cant really blame them at all, because missions are the hardest thing ever, but I wish they could have stuck it out. But oh well. I will be looking for your letters in the mail! Thanks for always supporting me and encouraging me. It really does make a difference. I love ya guys have a good week!

Love,

Wes