November 3, 2014

Hey whats up everyone!

This last week as really good, so I don't know if I told you wrong or if you just misunderstood but R is the one we lost contact with. T is great and got baptized and confirmed this weekend and gave an awesome testimony afterwords! So it was way sweet to be a part of that. His non member wife who hates any church for the most part and also came with there 14 year old son who were hoping to work with now. 

Anyways I received the Halloween package and letter with the drivers license and credit card. Thanks so much for doing that! Anyways we have a new investigator named A who has been coming to church and we have been teaching so hopefully he accepts a baptismal invitation next time we go over! :) Tomorrow is out mission conference with elder and sister Perkins and I'm not stressing about it anymore and so I'm sure it will be good :) 

Halloween was cool on Friday, we had leadership meeting in Fredrick and then since it was no proselyting we played basketball and volleyball as a zone! It sounds like you all had a pretty fun Halloween! That's sweet that you guys had such nice weather!

Letter from October 27, 2014

Hey guys,

It has been a crazy week. Transfer meeting turns out no big announcements or anything, like you already know we are reading the BOM in 60 days. My new companion elder k is from Hyrum, Utah by Logan. His family is farmers basically. He came out the transfer before me so he’s been out awhile. He is a nice kid and is in to ball room dance and stuff. He is even more so different than me than elder B is but it doesn’t really matter.

This last week has been pretty stressful. We haven’t had contact with R the whole week and he didn’t come to church. So I am really worried about him and as the district leader the zone leaders got on me and were wondering all sorts of questions about why he didn’t come...

T is good to go for this Saturday for baptism so we are excited about that. Friday I have leadership meeting in Fredrick and no proselyting on Halloween night. I did like the voice recorder you sent but I really have not been able to record anything of my own yet, so I will get on that.

Do you guys have any fun plans for Halloween? We will probably end up doing a zone activity or something but I’m not sure. Next week is that mission tour thing with Elder and Sister Perkins so that should be interesting. It may be on a Monday too so I might not email you till next Tuesday, just a heads up.

My ward mission leader told me about the Utah game and I was super stoked to here they won. So anyways I miss you guys, I hope you are all doing well and you are all happy. Anything cool or fun coming up? Is it still warm in Utah? Anyways I love you guys very much! Have a good week ok?! :)

love wes

October 14th and 20, 2014 letters

October 20, 2014

Hey guys!

So I'm not getting transferred and elder baker is getting transferred to Winchester. My new companions name is Elder K and he is a nice down to earth kid. I don't really know to much about him. We will probably have different interests but its all good I'm sure we will have a good transfer. 

A lot of people got moved around in my zone/ the mission. So there is a lot of changes in locations for missionaries. President Richards has asked everyone in the mission to come to transfer meeting regardless if anyone in your companionship is getting transferred so everyone has a lot of speculation about why hes doing it. 

Anyways I have been super busy lately. Me and the other two district leaders in my zone have been putting together zone training for tomorrow and we didn't get to much notice, so were working hard to get that done. Elder and sister Perkins of the seventy are coming on November 3rd and 4th and we have everyone has to prepare a short talk and prepare to teach them the Restoration. So I have been stressing out a little bit. Especially since if me and elder K get asked to teach then I will probably have to do most of the teaching.  Anyways it will all be fine I'm sure.

 I'm glad everything worked out with you and the B's. They are the bomb! That's so cool you were able to meet them.  Anyways Thanks for sending me a package with the B's. I cant wait to get it tonight! 

This last week we got to see meet the Mormons, and it was good! Especially as a missionary haha. Brother Neomatololo [from Meet The Mormons] is the man especially its crazy how he is in my Stake. 

Anyways thanks so much for all that you guys do for me! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you guys. I still am planning on sending you my camera soon. I love you guys very much I hope everything continues to go well for all of you! Have a great week!

love Elder LeGrande

October 14,

Hey guys!

This last week was a super good week! We had some awesome lessons with our investigators! T is not getting baptized this Saturday but next Saturday on the 25th! He is getting interviewed on Thursday and since hes my investigator I won't interview him the zone leaders will. But he is doing really good right now and is pretty solid so I'm super pumped he is getting baptized after meeting with missionaries for 2 years now! 

We also had a sweet lesson with R this last week and he came out to church and is getting baptized on November 8th! He is super excited to be in the church and he really wants to get baptized so that is pretty dope! 

Transfers are coming up next week as  you know. I suspect that I will stay in Severn and elder B will get transferred but who knows what will happen. More and more of the old missionaries who I am really good friends with are all leaving so its really weird. I don't know hardly any missionaries that came out after me and that's like the majority of the mission now haha. 

So anyways how is all of your lives going? Sounds like everything is pretty normal back home. That reminds me! My recent convert D and her member husband D are in Utah right now visiting family. And they were wanting to get together with you two and elder B's parents and do like a lunch or something on Saturday at like 11 or 1? Is that something you think would work? 

Give them a call and tell them your my parents. They will be expecting your call! They are super awesome people I'm sure you will like them. Anyways I want to here how everyone is doing! What else cool is going on with you guys? Thanks for sending me a package though!  Anyways I love you guys very much! I will let you know what happens with transfers this next week! I love you guys! Have a great week! 

Love wes

October 6, 2014

Hey guys!

I’m glad you all had a great week, it sounds like you all had a good week!

General Conference was awesome as always. We were able to get R & T both to watch conference with us and different members’ houses. We went to the bishop’s house to watch a session and eat dinner and we went to our ward mission leader’s house to watch another. The other two sessions we watched at the church and priesthood session.

There were a ton of good talks. I really like elder Holland’s talk on looking after the poor, elder Robbins' talk on not lowering our standards, and both talks in the regular session and priesthood by president Uchtdorf and president Eyeing. President Monson's talks were good but seemed to be a little more serious than normal for him. But there were a lot of other good talks as well.  Oh yeah and for priesthood session our ward had ice cream before it started.

The rest of this week was pretty normal. Nothing too crazy happened, T is still good for the 18th but I’m a little worried about him. I hope everything works out with it.

Basketball on Tuesday was also really fun. We had sooo many people come out. The weather is starting to cool down here.

Today it’s a nice 74 degrees for a high. Today for preparation day we drove to Columbia with the zone leaders to adjourn as the "high baller council" ha-ha it was a ton of fun. There were a lot of good players there but I lead all scorers again ha-ha. Its nice being able to play basketball a decent amount my shot has been nice and consistent for awhile now! :)

Our mission gets to watch meet the Mormons next week as a zone, so that will pretty sweet!

So how is everything going back home? Is it cooling down? It’s crazy that its fall and I only have 2 more seasons before I come home in the summer.

My friends have already started emailing me trying to convince me to go to Dixie and [other] people trying to talk me in to going to Utah [State]; But I’m trying not to think about that stuff right now even though its in the back of my mind. I’m still pretty sure I won’t go to school until the spring semester when I get home.

Anyways I’m happy to be out here on a mission and am realizing that two years really isn’t [going to be] forever and really not that long of time ha-ha. But thanks for your nice emails and sports updates.  I hope you guys all have a good week! I love ya very much! :)

Love Wes

Letters from September 22 and 29

September 22, 2014

Hey Guys,

… my birthday was pretty good. We had zone training and everyone sang me happy birthday and were really nice so it was cool. 

Our car got taken away from our area so that was a big bummer. We have been riding bikes all week and it has been really hard to see all of our investigators. 

But R…and T… are still doing well. We will have to move R’s date back though because we have a lot to teach him still… Thanks so much for everything, I really appreciate it. I love you guys very much. I hope you guys have a good week :) 

Love, 

Wes

September 29, 2014

Hey family!

It was nice hearing from all of you! Crazy that S… is home from his mission! It made me realize I have been gone for a very long time haha…. I have been meaning to email bishop for awhile. I will shoot him one after this. I miss that guy a ton! 

Anyways this week has had nice mild weather which has been good for biking and walking. Me and elder Baker calculated we put over 100 miles on our bikes this last week. Both of us are soooo sick of riding bikes haha. 

As hard as it its been, we have been doing very well with everything still. T… should be good for the 18th and R… unfortunately just got a job and has been super busy so we didn't really get to meet with him. 

We had some other good investigator lessons as well too. One cool guy named Z… who is Muslim is doing pretty well. He liked the restoration which was awesome to here. He owns 3 really famous pizza joints in DC which were on man vs food and some other shows like that. 

Basketball on tuesday nights is going EXTREMELY well. We have 4 wards playing right now and we had 28 people show up last week. So this week we are taking half to our church building to play, so it should be fun. We have a sweet less active RM coming to play and he wants to come back to church and his wife is a non member. 

Also another part member family in our ward was on date in a different ward close to us, but now they live in our ward so we will probably get  a baptism out of that deal-i-o! So that’s pretty awesome. Leadership meeting this last week in Fredrick was fun. It was cool to see all my good buddies who came out with me and stuff. 

Its weird to see how our group and the group before is like 85 percent of the leadership in the mission haha. So today I bought that awesome suit and got it tailored. I will send you a picture of me in it with my watch! How are the girls liking school?  Anyways I love you guys and appreciate all you do! Have a good week! Let me know if you have any questions. 

Love,  Wes

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