Last 5 letters update from Jun 30-July 28! New leadership calling and finally transferred!

June 30, 2014

Hey family!

It sounded like you all had an interesting week! My week was pretty good, me and elder Chee now have a full time car again so everything has been a lot better since that happened. We have 7 awesome investigators that we are working closely with.  Five of them came to church and it was really good.  The others were out of town or else they would have come too. 3 investigators we have are a 10, 11, and 14 year old who are the children of a less active member who wants to come back to church. She is in full support of bringing up her kids in the church and wants them to be baptized. The funny thing about the lesson we just had with them is we brought a member named I.. as a fellow-shipper and he came with his fiance C.. who is also on of our investigators ha-ha so it was funny we had an investigator teaching an investigator. C... is getting baptized this month and her because her fiancé is a member it was just like having two members come with. It was so sick! It has been really hot and humid here lately. I am like drenched like 24 hours a day in sweat. Other than that there weren’t too many other things that happened, Elder C... is doing great. I don’t even really feel like I’m training him ha-ha, he already knows the ropes and his teaching skills are already better than missionaries who have been out a lot longer. But his coming week, were having a pancake breakfast for the ward and then a bunch of us guys are playing basketball. But President Richards says we're proselyting on the 4th..... I don’t really know how well that’s going to work out but I guess we will see. Not going to lie I am really going to miss having the fourth of July back home this week. I hope you all have some fun stuff planned. Thanks for sending a package! I was not expecting anything big from you guys so no worries about the simple package. Did you guys get the package I sent?? You should email me back soon so I know if you got it or not. Anyways I don’t have whole much more to say. Thanks for the updates on sports, some members told me about he draft, I was very curious why the jazz picked up a point guard when I heard it but it sounds like he’s a good player. And the other guy sounds good too. Everyone has been telling us about the world cup. We have had some really good basketball and soccer on Tuesday and Thursday nights here. Basketball we have like 17 people come and its really competitive and fun. And soccer I’m getting pretty good at again, those vans you got me are perfect to play soccer in :) This week me and Elder Ch.. have to help 4 different families move so it should be a busy week. Anyways thanks for your packages, emails and letters! You guys always keep me going with the things you send me. I love you guys, have a good week :)

July 7, 2014

Hey family!

Thanks for the package that you guys sent me! All the snacks were really good, I haven’t finished them all yet ha-ha. I weighed myself this morning and I was glad to see I lost pounds this week! I’m at 180 flat now. I have been trying all week to work out hard and eat good but its super hard on a mission ha-ha. When I get home I am going to work out every day super hard ha-ha. But anyways it sounds like you guys had a fun 4th. Mine was pretty good, it was a chill day! We didn’t have to proselyte and us and two other elders went over to the walks for a cook out and some dunk ball and it was a blast. We played about 4 hours of dunk ball ha-ha. D.S. is a good friend of mine in this ward, he sent you that video of me dunking on him ha-ha. After that we went down to the Inner Harbor (which was an absolute joke and a mad house) to try and watch fireworks. President Richards extended our curfew till 10 but we barely got to watch any fireworks before we had to leave but oh well it was all good. That’s pretty cool Dad got offered that job, although he gets a raise at his current job and doesn’t take it ha-ha. Sorry to here that they are making you pay for the IPods ha-ha. I honestly would rather just finish out the rest of my mission without and IPod. The members in the DC north and south have nothing but bad things to say about the missionaries using IPods. I’m sure it would be really nice for some things but I don’t know. This week was pretty good though. One of our awesome investigators named P.. who is from Nigeria is getting baptized on the 26th. He even went up and bore his testimony yesterday in front of 300 plus people ha-ha. He is a stud. Casey the returning less active member came to a pancake breakfast we had for the fourth with her kids we are teaching. They also came to church which was super awesome! We are going to get her three kids a baptismal date this week because they are super awesome and ready to get baptized! Me and elder Ch.. have our Trainer- Trainee meeting this week in Fredrick Maryland so that should be cool. I’m excited because we get to got Cafe Rio after ha-ha. The weather here has been insanely hot. It hit 105 one day last weeks with 87 percent humidity. So it felt like 120 back home. It has been super hot and I’m so glad we have a car or else we would die ha-ha. I hope Sarah and lynz are having a good summer. So I’m going to wrap this up so we can chat but I love you guys and hope you have a good week! love ya!

July 14, 2014

Hey Family!

Yeah today President R sent out a test saying we couldn't talk over email anymore. Quiet a few people are pretty ticked about it but oh well. I’m glad you guys decided not to move to South Carolina! The West is the best ha-ha. Sounds like you all had a pretty good week! Me and elder Ch.. had an awesome week. All of our investigators are doing really good. Prince is on date to be baptized for the 26th. We have three other investigators that have excepted baptismal invitations and should they probably have baptismal dates by the end of the week. It has pretty dang hot and humid here for sure. I guess according to you guys were getting a lot of rain soon? Me and elder Ch.. also had the trainer/trainee meeting in Fredrick Maryland. That was a pretty sweet meeting, it was good to see my good friend elder J. from park city and of course elder P. was there and we had a blast. Anyways I cant believe Adam and Mac and all them are home now. Spencer wrote me a letter the other week so I know he has been doing well. I received two emails this week from to of my friends that are girls that are engaged. I have no idea how life is going by so fast ha-ha. I hope they know what there doing ha-ha. I cant believe people are getting engaged at 19. That is way too early in my opinion. Yes we went to chick-fil-a, we know the guys that worked there so they gave us a head band or whatever and gave us free food. The reason I know I will be transferred is because I have been here for six months. They don’t like to keep you in an area over six months unless they have too. That’s crazy that Kyle G.  had his farewell. I did hear about LeBron going back to the cavs and that’s crazy. They should be super good. I’m glad Germany won the world cup; I called it from the beginning ha-ha. It sounds like you all are having a good summer. I hope everything continues to go well with work and everything else.  Anyways I have to go but I love you guys and appreciate the emails and the letter you guys sent. It really made me happy to here from you. Love you guys, have a good week! :)

Love Wes

July 21, 2014

What is up family!

Thanks for the emails! I enjoyed and had a good laugh at the pictures from dad’s mission days and from the fireside. That’s pretty sweet that you got to see people from your mission, I'm sure it must have been weird ha-ha. First off, sorry I forgot to tell you thank Sarah for finding my IPod! I think its pretty cool you found it. I have to admit though I have no idea what the password is on it. So it’s probably useless ha-ha. It’s crazy to me how school is coming up again soon!? I saw some signs for back to school shopping today and I couldn’t believe it. I have been in Baltimore for a long time. I have no doubt in my mind that I will be getting transferred next week. Which will be nice because I feel I have been in this area for ever? Although I don’t really care about where I get transferred now, ha-ha it’s just whatever at this point. That’s cool that you saw those pics on the blog. And yes you are correct my trainer was at the meeting and he is again training a new missionary. Crazy to think that meeting was two weeks ago! So Saturday we have a baptism of my home boy named P.J. from Nigeria, he is super solid. So were looking forward to that. Also Casey who you were talking about is a returning less active member and will be officially reactivated next week. Her three kids who we are also teaching will be baptized on the 16th of August. I’m pretty sure I wont be able to see it because I’m probably getting Transferred and it would be hard to get a ride from my area to go see it but oh well. I have been pretty dang blessed with the number of baptisms I have been able to have on my mission. If everything goes well with the kids I will have had 10 baptisms so far on my mission. I am right no track to meet my personal goal of 20 baptisms by the end of my mission. Anyways I still cant believe how fast time is going. I don’t feel like I have been out an almost a year on my mission. My former comp and zone leader elder T.  is going home in a week and I cant believe it. In August I will be going to my first and last Orioles game of my mission. Because of when my group came in, we got hosed with only one game. But I hope you all have a good week and everything is going well with you guys. You guys and Tricia and Tracy were about the only people that sent me emails this week. And so now I kind of just hate emailing except for hearing from my family. Anyways I’m going to wrap this up. I love you guys keep on keeping on!

Love Wes

July 28, 2014

Hey family!

This last week was good! P.J.'s Baptism was sooooo sweet on Saturday! Everything went good and he bore a sweet testimony of how he wants to share the gospel with everyone when he goes to college this fall. It was really awesome to see him get baptized before I leave :) So yes I am getting transferred finally after six months! Its been a good time but I am definitely ready to move on haha. So I didn't get a call from president last night meaning that I am just a normal missionary. I found that I am getting transferred to the Severna Park ward in Annapolis so that should be cool. But anyway I got a call from my buddy elder Bell (MTC comp). This morning asking me if I'm the district leader, and I told him I wasn't. He told me he though I was, so I got on to check the computer and apparently I am the new district leader down there. Weird how President didn't call me! My district has cool missionaries in it so I'm excited. My new companion is very interesting. He is a little different and apparently just broke his wrist this last week and may need to go home.. So we will see what happens. Friday I'm going to my first leadership meeting in Fredrick so I'm excited :) Apparently I have a baptism on Saturday too, so that's cool haha. Since I'm only about 50 minutes away from Baltimore I think I will be able to make it back to see the 3 kids baptized on the 16th. So I'm pretty excited for this new transfer and hope everything goes well! Anyways you guys all sounded like you had a good week! Mom I'm super proud of you for coming in 1st in your age  group in a half marathon! You are a stud! I forgot that the 24th was a holiday until you guys reminded me it was Pioneer day haha. Crazy to think that school starts in a couple weeks for the girls! Where does time go!? Time is going by so fast! So anything cool coming up for you guys? That''s awesome that you sold your going to sell a house! I'm sure selling Grandmas house will be fun haha. Where does she want to move? Anyways I want to let you know that I love and miss you guys and hope everything continues to go well for you! Its weird to think I will be home in a years time. That isn't long at all! Anyways I love you guys and hope you have a great week! 

love wes

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

May 19 Letter from Wes

Hey family!

Thanks for all of your letters this week! It has been an interesting week. First of all, me and elder Benard have the second oldest car in the mission and apperently church HQ called our mission and told us that the mission had to get rid of 12 cars. Since ours was the second oldest we had to drive to the mission office and give up our car. We did it about 3 h ours ago and me and elder Benard are pretty ticked. We are pretty much hosed in our area without a car. Its a really bad area to ride bikes and there are very few people in our area that are in reasonable walking distance. We have buses in our area but there super unreliable and dont really go directly close to very many people.We get to share a car with the other elders in our ward but  it really is going to be a hastle since we live 10 miles away from them anyway. So were not very happy right now, but I guess will just have to figure it out. But anyway Saturday was a pretty cool day. We drove down to washington DC area to the the church building right next to the temple where we met with the DC north and south missions. We got there really early, so we could talk with all of our friends. It was good to catch up with my MTC companions and the missionaries I came out with. The crazy thing though was that apperently my MTC companion who went home, came out last transfer! I was like the only one in my group who didnt know becasue im on the opposite side of the mission. But it was so sweet to see him again. It was a really fun conference, I saw elder thomas but did not have a chance to talk to him. Elder Ballards remarks to us were pretty good. He told the missions that we pretty much need to be baptizing more, which was interesting. He talked a lot about talking to everyone we see though out the day. He talked about some other things, but those were the main take aways from it. Aoife is good to go on the 31st for baptism. She is the best! We have some other new people were teaching, including a jehovas witness kid who is 23 that says he has found loop holes in his religion haha (imagine that). So thats been pretty good. Its going to be a very interesing week trying to figure out how to get places without the car. So hopefully I dont get really frustrated by it and figure things out with elder Benard. Sounds like you guys have some fun things planned. I hope you guys enjoy your last whole summer without me haha. Anyways I love you guys and hope you all have fun, im looking forward a lot to getting your package! Have a great week!

 

love wes

May 5 and May 12th letters from Westley

May 5, 2014

Hey family!

Thanks for all of your letters and emails this week! So me and elder Benard are both staying in the Jones falls ward for another transfer. The next transfer is late June. So I will be getting close to my year mark with only having had two areas and 3 companions which is really weird but oh well. I’m glad elder Benard is still my companion but me and him are honestly starting to get burned out on this area. Its been raked over so many times by missionaries and the ward has its issues but oh well. Were glad we get to be here for Aoife's baptism this month.

 This week was super outrageously rainy. Me and elder Benard got absolutely soaked a couple days. It poured for about 4 days straight without stopping at all. You mentioned the sink holes in Maryland; well that big sink hole that all those cars fell in is actually in me and elder Benard's area in Baltimore. Other than that we started teaching a part member family so hopefully that will go somewhere. Other than that it was a pretty average week.  My allergies have been terrible, not surprising as there is plants and trees as far as the eye can see. So I'm getting through that ha-ha, elder Benard is having them a little bit too.  You mentioned that time is going by fast too, which I’m starting to feel like my mission time is really starting to speed up. My year mark is really right around the corner after this transfer and its really weird. But anyways, what  {… }  said about missionaries is true. So many of them are going home, I cant even believe it. People from home tell me almost every Monday of another missionary I know going home. Its really weird. I think too many missionaries jumped the gun at 18 and decided to go on a mission and they weren’t ready. I know that when I went out I probably wasn’t 100 percent ready yet but you just have to stick out and do your duty. Anyways I’ll get off my soap box now ha-ha. Thanks Dad f

Me and elder Benard had to drive the Young Single Adult zone leaders who are both going home this transfer to the mission office in Columbia to go pick up another car for there area so that was interesting. We got to hang out with president and sister Richards a little bit and hang out with the assistants who I’m pretty good friends with, two of them are going home too. Its really weird to see all the older missionaries that you looked up to on your mission all start to go home. You also mentioned that I have still have one more ''hurtle'' to jump over ha-ha like your worried about it ha-ha. But anyways thanks for the sports updates dad. Members have been telling me how good the playoffs have been. Its good to here that your Achilles is getting better and your still able to play well. How has basketball been at Welby? Has all the usual guys been showing up? I got to play some good member ball this week, it was way fun. There are a lot of goood players in this ward. But anyways I hope you enjoy this email and you have a good week. I love ya Sarah and Lynz hope you are having fun! Love you guys!

Love Wes

Hey family!

May 12, 2014

Hey Family,

I’m honestly not really sure what to write you after talking to you yesterday ha-ha. It was so good to be able to talk with you guys, I really enjoyed it! Mom it sounds like you had a good mother’s day! Only two calls left until I come home! Isn’t that crazy?! Anyways today for preparation Day we went down to the inner harbor and walked around and it was pretty cool. Other than its about 87 degrees with 83 percent humidity and I have a serious migraine right about now. Like I said in the call yesterday, we are going to listen to Elder Ballard speak on Saturday which will be cool. There is a missionary from our stake in the DC north mission named Jordan who I don’t know very well but I might see him. Too bad Braden's (Chinn) mission couldn’t also come to this! That would have been sweet. Anyways I don’t know what else to talk about. Were going dinner tonight at a young married couple going to Johns for school, so that should be cool. Anyways I love ya guys! Thanks for all you do. I cant wait to get your letters and package!

Love you!

Love Wes

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