January 13, 2014

Hey guys!

It has been a fantastic week. We picked up three new investigators this week and has some sweet lessons with them. They are 3 kids in there 20s and all just want to learn about the Gospel! We have 11 investigators right now, which is really good but it is a lot to handle! Hopefully we will have some investigators on date to be baptized soon. Its still pretty cold here, but a little warmer than what it was last week. Yes the long johns fit just fine, which I already emailed and told Grandma, but they did help keep me warm this last week!  But anyways everything sounds like its super boring from what everyone in utah is telling me, so that doesnt bother me much haha.  Thanks for the letters sarah and lynz for letters I enjoyed reading them ALOT! I like how I can see both of your personalities come out in your emails! It helps me remember you guys! You guys both sound like you have had fun with school and friends. Thanks for the packages! Cant wait to get this next one! Thanks for always being there for me, I love you guys very much have a good week.

Love wes

Letters from Elder Wes LeGrande December 30, 2013 and January 6, 2014

Hey guys!
It was great to talk to you on Christmas! It made my day for sure :)
Thanks for all the awesome Presents! I feel like I got spoiled for sure. I was pretty stoked to get lots of nice ties from everyone! Please let Tricia and Grandma Peggy/Donna and Jess know how much I appreciated the Presents they got me. Brandi, Ashley and Karlee all sent me Presents so that was pretty awesome :)

Overall my Christmas was very different but it was good :) Donald was confirmed yesterday, and that went very well, we are going to play Basketball with him and some potential investigators today. I'm sure you are anxious to know the news on Transfers.

Well, I’m staying in Woodstock for another Transfer! Elder Zander is leaving to go be a zone leader and my new companion is named Elder Tilley. 

Elder Tilly is one of the most experienced missionaries in the mission, hes a tall kid and apparently he's good at basketball so that should be good! I think he might even go home next Transfer so I might have a trunky missionary as my companion haha.

He was a zone leader for six months before this and will now be the new District leader here.  I get to go on lots of exchanges again so that will be cool. So will be going too Transfers on Wednesday and President Wright is taking us, so he will probably buy us Cafe Rio on the way back :) But yea tomorrow we have district meeting and The Kunz (the senior couple in our District) are buying everyone in the District Lunch tomorrow for our Christmas Present to that will be awesome! They are the coolest senior couple in the mission. 

We also aren't allowed to proselyte tomorrow night and new years day so that will be interesting! Anyways I love you guys very much I missed you a lot during this Christmas season, but I'm glad to be out here on a mission :) I'm glad you had a fun Christmas with the family :) I feel like time is just going by faster and faster and my mission will be over before I know it, so I will continue to work hard until the very end. Thanks for always being there for me :) Have an awesome week! :) 

Love Wes

January 7, 2014

Hey guys!


It was good to here you had a good New Years Eve! We don’t get to stay up till 12 so my new years eve was pretty non existent ha-ha. And wow 17 days off (girls)? That’s a long winter break!

Anyways we had Transfers New Year’s Day and picked up my new companion Elder Tilley. He is from Memphis TN, and he was in the Sweats old ward when the Sweats were there. He is a 6'4 Baller, pretty dang good at Basketball; he got some offers from some small schools.

He doesn't go home as early as I heard but he leaves sometime in the summer, but won’t tell me when exactly because missionaries are butt heads about telling people that stuff ha-ha.

He is a really good missionary and definitely knows what he wants to accomplish and get done. I have learned a bunch of stuff from him already this last week. We also got 3 new investigators, so we were stoked about that!

We like a lot of the same things especially basketball and music. And he is Randy Rigby’s nephew, so he is a big Jazz fan too. I'll see if we can snag some free season tickets from him when I get home, he is also going to UVU. 

So yeah, it has been a good week, gave a couple blessings earlier this week and that’s about everything worth mentioning ha-ha. The weather here is awful though. It’s in the teens and single digits and the humid cold is 10 times worse than the dry cold. But oh well.

Sarah it was good to get that letter from you! :) Sounds like you had a crazy amount of homework! I hope school is fun for you and Lynz! :) Thanks for the scores pops! I hope you guys end up having a good basketball season! Break some old man ankles! Pull some Euro step on some dudes like I did to some Elders on New Years Eve! Tell all the guys on Tuesday what up for me and tell them they all better be there when I get back! I hope you all have an awesome week and stay warm! 

Love ya guys,

Wes

Hey family!

 Had a good week this last week. Our investigator D is being baptized this Sunday. He is a pretty awesome kid, he has soaked up the gospel like a sponge since we have started teaching him. Ill get some pictures on Sunday and send them to you hopefully next Monday.

We also got 4 new investigators this past week which are two older couples, so thats been pretty sweet. One of these couple houses just looks like a regular house, but actually has a swimming pool inside! It was pretty crazy but I guess thats how they get all of there excersize. 

Haha yesterday we got to go to the temple again with two families in our ward to go check out the lights and go to the visitor center. They had some christmas violin and singing performance at the theater there. They all seemed to have liked it. It was fun and the [whole ]clan brought tons of food to eat so that was cool.

Honestl,y thought thats about all that happened this last week. The mission Christmas party is on Friday in Ellicott city, so that will be a fun long drive haha. I also get to go to Luray on exchanges this week with elder J a buddy from the MTC who is from park city, so that will be fun especially since Luray is a crazy place.

But anyway I am glad you are all doing well. Happy birthday 44th birthday pops! Are you receiving any old folks ads yet!? Haha just kidding. In the state of Virginia the average is seriously like 72, there is no young people here at all. I hope your party was fun with the family. I missed being there with all of you guys! Your the best 44 year old baller I know for sure, you did learn from the best though ;) BTW I havent played basketball in like 3 weeks, it really stinks. I think im just going to get fat now that I dont get to play ball very much. But I work out hard in the apartment for 30 minutes everyday! Happy anniversary too! I love the picture you included when you were married haha, but I hope you a had a good time.

Well I better wrap this up, but I hope you are enjoying your christmas season and you get to relax a little for a change, im excited to skype you on Christmas I will be giving you a five minute phone call to figure out when we can skype. I love you all, thanks for the pictures! Good job Sarah and Lynz in your dances im sure you did awesome. The picture of Brandi was pretty funny as well haha. Have a good week Love you all very much!

Love Wes

Hey guys!

You guys sounded like you had a fun week! So on Friday we got to go to the temple visitor center with our investigator and two of his Young Single Adult friends from the ward. It was pretty awesome, Donald enjoyed it a lot and so did me and Elder Zander. I got to talk to of the sisters who are missionaries there who I knew in the MTC, so that was cool.

It took us 2 hours to get to the temple and because we stayed until 5:30 to see the lights turn on, we left right in the middle of rush hour and we got stuck in the DC and northern Virginia traffic and it was an absolute joke. It took us about 4 hours and some change to get home. Oh yeah, on Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Eves (Elder Dallin Smith's MTC companion) who is one my favorite missionaries out here, so we had a lot of fun. 

These last 3 or so days have been calling for snow out here, and everyone makes it such a big deal, its pretty funny. It finally snowed early yesterday morning and had freezing rain which iced all the roads. So they cancelled all the church in the area yesterday, and the mission grounded our car because of the rain. So we spent about 8 hours yesterday going around and shoveling snow. We shoveled our entire apartment complex and then we had to walk the church and we shoveled that. Then we walked to a couple members houses near by and shoveled them. 

We then got a ride from a member over to the a member's house and we shoveled there back porch and then shoveled there elderly neighbors drive way. It was pretty funny, the old guy living there tried to pay us like 4 times while we were over there, and so we explained who we were and all that and the guy just couldn't believe someone would just do that for him and his wife. It was pretty awesome, they said they were Episcopal but said they had a lot of respect for us and that there prayers were with us and then gave them a mormon.org card. 

Then we went over with that [member's house to another one's house] where we had dinner with the whole... clan and that was good as it always is. We then went to the our newly baptized members and visited them for a couple minutes and came back and watched the awesome Christmas Devotional with the another family. So I had a pretty good week this week. 

Our ward Christmas party is on Saturday and the mission Christmas party is on the 20th. President Richards said we get an hour to Skype you on Christmas, so that's pretty sweet. I am glad to here that you are all staying busy and having fun for the most part. Dad thanks for the box scores and stats! Me and Elder Zander were pretty stoked to look at those.  I got to go, as always I love and miss you guys very much, I hope you are all having a fun holiday season! Have a good week :)

Love Wes 

"We had tons of good food and was I felt like I had to be rolled out of there by the time it was all said and done."

Hey guys!

I had a very good week this last week! Thanksgiving was a fun time; we had dinner over at with some new members and another family.  We had tons of good food and was I felt like I had to be rolled out of there by the time it was all said and done.

We also did some service by helping a sister… shop for something called the empty stocking fund, where we had a 60 dollar limit for some less fortunate kids and got to shop for them!

So the weather has gotten flipping cold here, the cold here is wayyyy worse than in Utah haha. Knocking on doors and standing outside certainly is not fun. Anyways yesterday we had a lesson with our 20 year old investigator and it went very well.  He told us that since reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it that he had really felt the spirit in his life. He committed to be baptized on the 21st of December! We are pretty stoked about it! We are also going to the temple with him on Friday with his “fellowshipper.”  We are so excited, haha!  I cant believe I will be able to go to the temple for the second time on my mission already.

Having the district leader as a companion is pretty fun.  I got to go to Front Royal twice this last week with the zone leaders and I had a pretty good time. I get to go to Luray this next week in the sticks to go hang out with the funny people over there. We have zone conference tomorrow so that should be fun.

We already have the Wrights and another Sister who’ve signed [us] up [to spend]… Christmas, so that will be pretty awesome considering they are like our two favorite people out here. I know President Wright reads these emails on the blog so I hope he appreciates that shout out haha.

It sounds like you had an awesome Thanksgiving in St George, that’s pretty funny that you saw Coach Smith there, I love that guy.

Thanks for the package; we both like the Christmas decorations a lot! I will try and write her a letter today. So Dad thanks for the sports update!  Keep me updated on the NBA, not being really able to play basketball or watch has been kind of hard not going to lie

Sarah and lynz thank you so much for you notes, reading them always makes my day:))) I miss you guys a lot:)   Anyways I got to go, cant wait to get another package from ya! Have an awesome week!

Love Wes

"I weighed myself like 6 times"

Dear Familia,

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

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

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

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

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

Love wes

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

Hey guys!

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

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