Oompa Loompa

July 13, 2015

Hey mom, I have not been able to type this until later this day but

hey, I'm still writing this. This week has been crazy. Elder Hansen 

my previous companion is now my district leader

and he is in the other ward that meets in our building and he is

training a missionary from Utah that got out of the missionary

training center this past week.

We had his companion with us for a day and we answered any questions

he has about missionary work that he had questions on then we saw

Bonnie and had a time where we were with Ian Jarvis. My companion

pulled a muscle so we had to take it easy the rest of the day.

Next day we went and helped with service with a member moving railroad

ties (we hauled 20 of them). That was fun!

We had what we called an "e-lesson" where a random person off the

street wanted to have a discussion with us in the library right before

emailing and since today is the day we are headed to Harrisonburg to

meet with our leaders on our preparation day for a game of football

and ultimate Frisbee combined, we call it Oompa Loompa.

Changing the guard, under the weather

July 6, 2015

 We had a 5hr+ car ride back from our transfer meeting, left at 3pm got home at 8. I showed my new companion from West Jordan Utah named Elder Taylor around from 8-9pm so that he can get used to the area a bit more. That was Tuesday.

 

Elder Taylor from West Jordan Utah 

Wednesday I had the flu and lost my voice (and I accidentally drank stuff I might not have been supposed to at the time, but I am alright. still alive,) but my voice has been gone for nearly a week and I have been on an influx of health with temperature ranges of shenanigans to shenanigans- which has somewhat destroyed my motivation.   I have not been feeling good and it is hard to not work as I could be outside talking with everyone I see.

This past week we spent mostly in our apartment because of me feeling really under the weather and we had a Ton of spiritual experiences just even in our apartment,

I tried telling Elder Taylor what was happening in the Stanton area with a shot voice and it made it worse for two days, I am earnestly praying that I will have a deeper voice when I get it back so that I can sound like a deep voice man. That would be nice. But who even knows on a mission (Besides God and Jesus Christ). Not me that’s for sure.

Those in the congregation are loving us more and more with all the stuff we help out with and we try our best with what we got.

 

Tartis in the Library! 

Found the Tardis in the library (i wonder where the Doctor is? Cuz I need a doctor for this throat, just kidding!)

Love ya and hope all is well

Elder Day

Bonnie's Baptism! and good luck charms

June 29, 2015

Hey Momma and Dad and Ryan and Camille, the family reunion looks fun. (McCall Idaho on a lake)

 I have had some exciting news. Bonnie was baptized in Saturday and she asked me to baptize her. Bishop called me a "one dunker" because it was my first time and he had to help correct me in some stuff right before that I didn't even realize at the time but it happened in one immersion.

Bonnie was baptized this week and this last week has been crazy.

 

I got to baptize Bonnie, who we've been teaching 

Monday we did... who knows what for our preparation day, but we did have dinner with the Carroll family and then went to do file work and find in the Staunton area.

Tuesday we went with a member to visit three people and then went with Ian (the member) to go teach Bonnie Sharp about the progression that we experience when having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We then were finding and took some time out of the day to go to visit a man that we had previously visited in the hospital to see how he was doing. We then had dinner with the Chandler family and they made some really good food. We taught them (and they might not have realized it but they taught me) ways of seeing how we can be more in tune with the Spirit of God.

Wednesday we had many revelatory experiences with traveling and finding people to teach. I also had to go to the doctor's office that day to figure out if the medication I received for a minor foot ailment was working properly. It was and the doc said that it was working way better then he had thought so I was able to be done with it sooner then expected! We have been talking a lot on family history and its importance to know where we have come from and where we are headed when we look where we can improve.

Thursday Elder Todd went to the temple (because he is almost done with his mission) and I went to the other congregation's set of elders to work with them for a day. To do so and for Elder Todd to be there on time we woke up at 3:50am, a member volunteered to drive us down and drop me off. When with the other Elders, they called me their "good luck charm guy" because the people that they had been trying to see have never been home until I was there that one day and we were able to teach 3 people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help them understand the Restoration of what Jesus Christ taught to its fullness, it was exciting! I love talking about Jesus Christ with people (heck I love talking with people period). Elder Todd came back from the temple and picked me up around 10:15pm and we got home around 11, planned for the next day and crashed until the next morning when waking up at 6:25am.

Friday I wasn't that tired and we had a great discussion with our leaders about missionary work from 10am-1pm in Harrisonburg (about a 45min drive away). After we taught a lesson and I learned the importance of the temple a bit more from teaching about it. We had dinner with the Swinsons in their backyard and they made us salad and good foods like homemade pasta. So good!I had kale for the first time (that I can remember) this week and today a member is feeding us Jello (never really had that before ethier though I really like kale).

Saturday was Bonnie's baptism.

Sunday was a ton of church stuff.

That was my week.

The library had Comicon Saturday and the makeshift Game of Thrones Chair was still there. So it became the Game of Mormons chair (total Joke, this is just humor. HBO would never do that but I thought it was funny).

Elder Dalby tags along with a chihuahua

June 22, 2015

Ahh, it has come to my attention that it seems to have been long (what 2 weeks? maybe three) since I sent an official photo from my mission and I have thus been notified to send some. I have a camera and for those who have been wondering, I am using it. The photos I have been taking though of late have (mostly) been too menial to send so I have not felt as prompted to send them as much as I think that I may have.

We actually have had a 3rd companion with us and he has been in the apartment the entire time we have been working, you may ask yourself "wait, missionaries need a companion when going places, if one has been in the apartment all this time, where have the other two been?" well I would like to have known that Elder Dalby had his arm broken off of his body so we have tried to use our engineering skills as 19 and 20 year old to reapply his arm to his body. Elder Dalby has been a missionary ever since he was released from his previous "life" in 2010 when he finished his role as an actor. Here is a Picture of Elder Dalby. He was Honorably released due to medical reasons as a missionary when changing locations from our apartment to another home where he can love the rest of his life in recovery.

Elder Dalby our third companion 

This week was kind of ridiculous and here is somewhat how it went-

first the week started out with changing my camera to the German language (or Deutsch) just for kicks. Then we went to Verona for antique mall hunting old Hymnal books from 1860's to the year (roughly) 1950's most all for under 10 dollars so I am debating if I should invest in one?.... I'm still wondering (What do you think?) take a poll and let me know next Monday and I’ll go from there. They are all in pretty good condition as well so no worries much on that. My week went as such,

Tuesday: One of the youth that comes out teaching with us, Brad,)  went with us to visit some people and help move a table from an attic to a basement where the basement didn't really connect to the place through a stairway -so we had to take it outside and go around down a steep hill carrying this crazy heavy wooden table. After we went to the progressing investigator's house that we are teaching with Brad and reviewed the lesson we all talked about Sunday, (Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy) we then dropped Brad off and went to help out and teach a lesson on Temples. After which we went to dinner with a member and their family and shared a message about fathers for Fathers Day coming up. We then went to Brooks' Store (the store of a member in the Staunton area) to be able to help out with some things that she needed and we were able to teach about the importance of having prophets on the earth today to receive guidance and revelation for the Church of Jesus Christ, exactly how Jesus Himself set it up.

Wednesday: I don't even remember what happened that much Wednesday besides it was a blur and we had opportunities to teach and we also had a meeting with the Bishop where he went over some stuff with us pertaining to missionary work.

Thursday we had dinner with the Bishop and his wife (they are so cool!) and during the day we had a lesson with our progressing investigator and also got in contact with a former investigator who every time we stopped by he either wasn't home or couldn't hear us (he's 91, we'll give him some slack, besides) he showed us some stuff that he learned when he served  WW2 in the Pacific Theater in the 1940's and we were able to talk with him about the importance of why we are here and with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how we progress and where we will go in our lives.

Friday we had an all day meeting in Charlottesville that I gained some personal revelation on many of the struggles I had been facing with on the mission and even some before so that was fantastic! We got to meet Elder Perkins of the 1st Quorum of the 70. Apparently he visited Mongolia and knows President Clark (probably the second one, there were two president Clarks, My grandfather was one and there was another later). A few of the people I met when I visited Mongolia with my grandpa, and consider as my good friends, apparently Elder Perkins knows really well (like Batbold and Boldbier)!

Saturday we got to visit a past area because Elder Todd had an investigator that he taught be baptized! and apparently her stepfather is in one of the congregations of Tigard Oregon where my grandparents live so we got to talking about how Oregon was and if he knew any of my family there.

Sunday was Stake conference and we visited a lot of people around our area to bring a SPIRITUAL BOOST!!!! it was really awesome because some were at church earlier that day and we gave them more encouragement for being able to come and see what we all do. Oh, you might be wondering "what is Elder Day doing with a 6 week old chihuahua  puppy in his hands?" Well when we were visiting people we were able to see some people we hadn't seen in a very long time and they just got a new puppy! Fantastic isn't it. We got to hold it and that was awesome.

Elder Day