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Week 36

This week we have been all over. We have done quite a bit of traveling in the office to help the mission. We got to take a field trip to Maryland again to pick up some more Chevy Malibus. I let elder Moran drive this time. There is no tiwi monitor and I drove last time. It was pretty fun to cross the Potomac and look into Virginia and into Maryland. There were a few things we brought to missionaries that they didn't really need. So the senior couples visit all the apartments and do apartment checks and they sometimes request things that they don't really need. There were some elders that had reported they needed a dresser, so we brought it to them, but they just told us when we were there that it was the senior couples who requested it, and they didn't really need it. We are preparing for our mission tour this week. Elder Arnold needs a bunch of stuff for his visit. I have to get a hold of some wireless microphones and a lapel Mic. We also need two projectors and need 2 churches worth of tables. We have to call some seminary teachers to ask if we can take their tables for 2 days. 

This week we had elder Neil L. Andersen visit the mission along with Elder Gifford Nielsen and presiding bishop Cuassé. We got to take a picture as a mission with them and got to hear each of them speak. I got to shake each of their hands as we entered the Chapel to listen to their talks. Elder Anderson talked a lot about memorizing scriptures that resonate with us. As we read and study we should keep those scriptures that stand out to us and mean something to us close to us. We can recite them in hard times and we can keep them with us in the eternities. He told us that we should be getting to know the youth and teaching their friends. He talked a lot about how many youth there are and how each of them has friends who could be taught. My only problem is that when I think back to when I was 16-19 I wanted nothing to do with the missionaries. I think it is difficult for kids in high school to have faith in an unseen being or higher power, especially with the antireligious views of society. In our parents youth 80%of youth believed in God but now only about 60% accept a higher deity or God. I thought of how hard it will be to get to become friends with the youth and gain their trust. I remember how I thought missionaries were just robots or cookie cutter people who all just taught lessons and invited people to hand out book of mormons (which didn't spark my interest in the slightest). How can I reach out to the youth in the ward and not have them feel like it's an extra burden or task to add to their busy lives. In my youth I could only think of sports, girls, and what protein I wanted to use after lifting the gym, with no time or space for religion, how can I get into the lives of these young people and get them to introduce me to their friends... that's the task I am trying to figure out. 

Elder Gifford Nielsen, in stake conference, talked about how we can light the world. We all have a light that shines, how can I share that light with others and help others share their light. He talked a lot about prayer and how there is profound power in prayer. When we ask sincerely and with faith+patience we will receive an answer.

So far I'm just trying to keep focused on my mission. Keeping focused on giving all of myself to moving the Lord's work forward. Trying to seek answers to my personal prayers and his plan for me. If you've got extra time this week shoot me an email even if it's quick. I only get emails from about 2-3 people.

Calvin

Week 35

This week was awesome, even though this area has struggled the past few years due to having office elders we have really seen progress. I've found that noticing the small things that happen every week that are miracles is crucial to missionary work. It's so important to notice the tender mercies of the Lord every day, otherwise it can be very discouraging. I haven't taught a real lesson in probably 7-8 weeks, but this weekend we were able to set up a few appointments and teach a lesson or two. Normally Silvia and her brother Sergio aren't home or available so we stopped by and helped them pick up their leaves. As we were picking up leaves we answered their questions about missionary work and their concerns about prophets and the church. It was a while since I've been able to teach someone and testify of truth, but it was like a jumpstart for me to have the chance to teach someone. We invited them to a church tour and to go to church, but Sergio was determined he would be watching the game by the time the Redskins started playing. We tried to tell him church ends at 12:45 and he could be back by 1 for the game, but no dice. Silvia and her BF said they would come, but when we knocked on the door in the morning they were out at breakfast and wouldn't be back until 4pm..... I'm not sure what's up with that.

Later that night we got to meet with a recent convert that moved into the ward, she is an awesome lady with tons of faith. She just moved here from Tallahassee and was baptized April 15th. She was previously Jewish, but the sister missionaries met her on campus and she said when she let her guard down they taught her. She went to a baptism to support someone else and as she was listening to the music and praying during the intermission she felt the holy ghost speak to her. Her story was so inspiring and the spirit in the room was so strong as she told her conversion story. We are going to start meeting her regularly to teach the new member lessons. She had a cat that was playing with us the whole time, elder Moran always has to get a selfie with the cats he meets so he got a good selfie.

Corey gave us some boar jerky, it's super good. The package says wild swine, therefore it must be good right? These little pepperoni sticks are bomb. Last night we recorded numbers with President and the AP's like usual but since today is presidents birthday we brought a cake and some ice cream and his family came into the office right after we ended the conference call. We hung out a bit and threw a tennis ball around the office, good times with P and the family. 

Brother Bold let us in one night to prepare for some splits and he brought in his cats. One is named Artemis but he calls him moose because he is sooo big. This cat weighs 30 lbs it is ridiculous. This is biggest cat I've ever seen. Brother Bold cut his hair in the back and on the tail because it can barely move so now it looks like a black lion. 

Week 34

This week was pretty cool, we got ten new Chevy Malibus for the mission and they are in Maryland. So elder Moran and I got to drive out with the driving coordinator and we got to drive some Malibus back to the mission office from Maryland. The Malibu was super cool, it even has a star wars hologram on the dash that displays your speed and stuff. 

We went to our trunk or treat this Saturday and we dressed up in our costumes. I just wore my service Carhartt pants and a flannel and walked around with an axe. Elder Moran turned a sheet into a hood and had a beard to be Gandalf. We got to be judges for the chili cook off which was pretty cool. The one that I judged highest ended up winning. There was some super good chili. Elder Moran and I made a chili but we couldn't have it judged. We made a white chicken chili, there was none left when we went to pick up the crockpot. 

There is a ton that happened this week but not much to really write home about. We are doing a lot of work in the office making pictures of the missionaries for the senior couples, and also running around the mission giving missionaries furniture and taking old broken stuff away. 

This week we have been visiting more members so we can get to know the ward and get referrals. We only had one dinner last week, so we are thinking the ward needs to see us more often. We share a quick message and try to make return appointments with the ward members, most of them like us a lot I think. Unfortunately our investigator Don dropped us, his wife is sick and he is spending time with her, but he said not to forget about him, maybe he will want to investigate more in the future. We just need to find time where he is available. Elder Moran and I are wanting to find a lot more, it's hard in an area with only homes and nowhere to really go street contact. People don't like tracting after dark so we try not to randomly tract then. Our goal is to have some investigators that we regularly visit and teach a few people. As a mission we are making a goal to find 531 people in a week and a half. Last time we reached it, but we are doing it in preparation for our mission tour. We actually have a second mission tour that's coming up, elder Neil Anderson is coming to the mission, I'm a little bit nervous to set up for the presentations he has. Should be fun...

Hope you have a great week. Would love to hear from some of you. 

Calvin

Week 33

This week has been crazy busy... So general admiral Broseph (elder Wamsley most call him) left to go train white wash an area in Manassas. Elder Maka'afi and Moran came into the office with me. We had a few good days until elder Maka'afi had to peace out to his next area, he left Friday morning. He was pretty cool, going to miss him. We went all the way out to Sperryville, which is a big part of the mission that sticks out on the west side. Basically no one goes there, it's 40 minutes away from the closest "town" and the missionaries there don't go in to Sperryville. We got some apple cider at a apple stand, took some pictures and went back. It was a trip to remember for sure.  Because transfers happened this week we have just been super slammed with things that missionaries need like bikes and lights and other stuff. The first couple nights we just went hand moved stuff and didn't get to proselyte. 

This week elder Moran and I made some church tour flyers and are passing them around the neighborhood. Hopefully people show up on Saturdays, it seems like a pretty good way to find people, or at least show people around the area the Westinghouse. 

Today I cut my own hair. I wasn't planning on it but then Elder Moran kind of just handed me the clippers and I just started. It doesn't look to bad, it's like a 1 on the sides and a 6 up top. It's better than I thought I would do. 

We have been playing a lot of pong at nights, I win a lot, but elder Moran is starting to get better. I've won about 30 games and elder Moran has about 3 wins. It's alright, he is better than me at basketball. Elder Nash is the zone leader here in Annandale which is cool, we were good buddies in the MTC and it was good to play some ball with him. Not much else going on out here, just trying to hang in there. There are some general authorities coming in the next few weeks, I'm hoping that I can manage all the projectors and microphones and stuff. When elder Arnold of the 70 comes they are having a sister's only meeting, and I'm the only elder that gets to sit in, pretty cool I guess. Not even President knows what they're going to talk about, along with sister Huntsman, she won't be in the meeting either. He kind of seriously jokingly told me I was his spy, he wants to know what the sister's get to learn about that no one else does. 

Calvin

Week 32

This week is transfers,

Holy cow, I can't believe this transfer is already up, it really flew by. The office has been super fun, and my companionship with Elder Wamsley has been pretty legendary. Unfortunately elder Wamsley is moving to Manassas 2nd ward because you can't spend your last transfer in the mission in the office. A guy I was in the MTC with is coming into the office, elder Moran. We are actually going into a trio for a week, elder Maka'afi is going to be with us for the first week.  This next transfer is going to be pretty awesome I think. There are a lot of things I will miss about being with wawawa Wamsley but you gotta make the most out of what's on your plate at the time.

So this week we really didn't do any teaching. The week before transfers is pretty crazy, we have meetings we have to set up for and we have beds we have to shuffle around from apartment to apartment for companionship in trios. We spent a lot of time moving in and out of apartments where we are starting and closing leases. Elder Wamsley and I had the new and returning member fireside this Sunday night. We put together a video slide show of all the baptisms this transfer. 

This week there was a flat we had to clean out because sister's were moving in where elders were, and the elders left trash and food and dishes everywhere. It was a ton of work but I got a super nice pair of cordovan shoes that haven't been worn. Before we got in we had to call the emergency maintenance guy. We and the front desk couldn't figure out why the door wasn't opening. When the maintenance guy finally came he twisted the key first try and it swung open... We waited 30 minutes at 8 at night and then he just opened it, it was embarrassing. 

Not much else to say about this week, it was busy. We spent a lot of time in the car. Hope you all have a good week, write me if you've got time.

The picture at Denny's is from our first day when we were with AP Duvall and Ure. We are with them all of today too because we have to go pick up the arriving missionaries from Reagan airport. This upcoming week should be cool.

Week 31

Sorry for not writing last week, our P-day was super full. We played basketball a little later and after we ate lunch and went shopping it was basically the end of the day. Unfortunately I didn't get much time to send out emails. Last week was pretty cool, we moved a lot of beds to missionaries around the mission who are moving into trios, I got to eat at MOD pizza in Fairfax and got to be in a nerf gun war with a 5th grade kid after dinner one night. It was a pretty good week with conference, we have been sharing lots of messages about the prophets this week. 

Last P-day we got some solo cups and elder Wamsley and I have been playing some pong. We've got a record board on the wall made out of a la Croix sparkling water box. Right now I've won 14 games and he has won 10. It's a fun game to wind down at night after proselyting and traveling around the mission all day. 

This week we got some sunflower seeds and I've been going to town on em. We got a bag of dill pickle seeds and I spit a whole water bottle full of shells in a day, now I'm working on filling a 16 fl oz can. Elder Wamsley and I spit a whole bag of dill, most of a can of sizzling bacon and now we are working on another bag of good old classic Vlassic. 

At the beginning of my mission I started a journal that Jeff Harmer gave me, and I finished the whole thing last week. It was awesome to see my progression and growth as a person and a Missionary in reviewing the past 7 months. It's funny to see the stress I was under with companions I didn't mesh as well with and to see how I was able to grow in the next companionship. I'm glad to start the new journal that my grandparents got for me for my 21st birthday! 

This week we got to go to a few meetings. We had interviews with President Huntsman and I think we convinced sister Huntsman to take us to her favorite burger place called dice burger. Elder Wamsley and I were talking on the ride to interviews wondering how we might bring up lunch and dice burger in hopes that they would take us out for lunch. Both of us talked to sister Huntsman driving each other's  interview with President about dice burger. After our interviews we were walking out right behind them and I whispered to elder Wamsley "what are the odds you ask them if we should ride with them or meet them at dice burger?" And not 10 seconds after I said that President turned around and asked if we should just meet them at dice burger. It was pretty funny how that happened, but it was awesome to eat lunch with them. I'm bummed we didn't get a picture with them!

We also got to eat at this burger place called Melt. There was an apartment we had to move out in Loudoun county (richest county in the US) and it is home to the 4th best burger in the states. This burger was huge and super good. I got a couple T shirts as souvenirs, then we came back the next day with the senior couples who took us out. We got to know the owner because we saw her the 2 days in a row.

We got to eat dinner at an investigators house this week. Corey and Nikki are super cool, they have the huge mastiff that lays on my lap all the time. He decided he wanted to start a book of Mormon that he is going to fill every page with signatures. I'm not sure he will fill the whole thing, but he is pretty determined to fill a few hundred. Corey has a collection of signatures of the cast of the big lebowski and a few other celebrities. 

We also got to do this thing called receiving light. There is this religion that is actually extremely similar to the back story of Joseph Smith, but their founder is Japanese. So these people put their hands around you, but don't touch you. They have a medallion that they have that directs the light to specific points in your body and head that made the toxins leave your brain and kidneys. It was really relaxing because they had it quiet and had me lay on a yoga mat. I'm not sure any light penetrated me, but it was a good time of reflection and meditation. They told us afterwards that if our bodies have irregular discharge like runny dose or diarrhea that it was our bodies getting rid of the melted toxins. Elder Wamsley calls them our hippie friends. 

Keep elder Wamsley in your prayers, he has been sick this week and had some weird allergies. Conveniently after receiving light he has had some irregular discharge, maybe he had more toxins in him than I did.....