Elder LeGrande turned 20 years old this week!

September 8, 2014

Hey family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(…)

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

Love Wes

September 16, 2014

Hey family!

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

(…)

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

(…)

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

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

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

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

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

Love Wes

Elder LeGrande Letters from August 28 and September 2, 2014

August 28, 2014

Hey what’s up family! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Wes

Sept 2, 2014

Hey hey what’s up family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Wes

Letter from Elder LeGrande 8/18

Hey guys! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Wes

Letter from Elder LeGrande August 11, 2014

Hey family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love, Wes

Being a District leader is quite a bit of work.

Hey family!

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

Love,

 Wes

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