mom! oh man. first off! MAKE SURE YOU LET EVERYONE KNOW THIS. I got emergency transferred down to richmond, because another elder got real sick and had to go home. my new address is just the mission office address because we live with the assistants to the president right next to the mission office! haha. craziness. we cover two wards here, bon air ward and midlothian ward. My new companions name is Elder Bues. He's taller than michael jordan pretty much so that's intense. But he's way cool.

the address for me is now:

9327 Midlothian Tpke STE 1-B
Richmond, VA 23235

So crazy. found out on monday left this morning.

So thank you so much about the birthday. I had a blast except for the fact that I found out I was leaving on my birthday. I got a letter from both grandparents and already emailed grandma sorenson. But yes. itwas good!

thanks for the birthday wake up calls for everyone haha. I loved the facebook wishes as well. Tell them all how awesome they are and I love em.

So the stuff was unwrapped only because it had shifted around alot in the box. not like someone got into it. so it was just cause the stuff got moved around alot.

I loved the party favors! haha. I had my banner up for a little while but because of the emergency transfer pulled it down. so I had it for a little while! I took a picture! haha. I love you guys so much thank you. It made me feel really at home I guess haha. haha I noticed the price tag on the shoes so that's pretty intense! haha I'm thankful for that.


my birthday was great. my companions really made it good and I had a ton of fun. y'all are teh best family evah! haha.

yeah the heat has been ridiculous. but today has been a little better. it's like 80 but it feels wonderful compared to the 105 degree stuff we've been having. but yeah so that's awesome.
I am gonna miss virginia beach, especially my companions but I know we can make this new area just as awesome. we are gonna work hard and get these wards a cookin!
yeah we taught the guy from dominica right before I left and we taught him about patience and he totally udnerstands and is just doin awesome.

haha I'm so glad you liked the tapes. I don't know when I'll fill up another one. i haven't added to it in like 2 weeks. so we'll see. I would LOVE to hear y'alls voices at grandmas so definitely think about that one!

you guys are so awesome for doing that 5k. I'm in better shape hthan I was, but not THAT good enough shape haha. I still hate running! you know what's bene kind weird? I think I've gotten more coordinated haha. before i could never have juggled three tennis balls but I can pretty much do it now! it's weird. ANYWAYS. I wanna hear about how everyone does in the 5k deal. especially dad! haha.

haha I loved the pictures of the camping! haha you have no idea how much I miss rocky. that dog is the best! haha he sounds like he's still going strong though. I'm with ya on the camping thing. a week can be way too long if there isn't enough to do. just swimming and hiking definitely isn't enough! haha.

that's so coo about you finishing alma! It's crazy the more and more you stop reading the scriptures and the more and more you start STUDYING them, you get so much more insight into it. I mean it takes me like a half an hour now to study just one chapter, sometimes even longer. it's so awesome. I love the scriptures. the book of mormon is amazing, so many good things in there! I'm way proud of you mom! that's awesome you are still chuggin along. the war chapters actually go way fast so they are pretty easy to read. 3rd nephi is the best!


I'm excited to hear about your experience in idaho! My new companion is from idaho. Like, near boise. i haven't had a utah companion for a while! haha.


last night was my last night in virginia beach. so we go to teach this young single adult named andrew. he's black and lives in these projects in norfolk. we went out to see him and he's always pretty interesting to teahc. ANYWAYS. we were teaching him about the plan of salvation and everythingi s going pretty good, until we start teaching him about the atonement. up to this point we had no indication that he was anything but christian because he was agreeing with everything we were saying. so suddenly he's like, "I don't believe in God." we were just like uhhhh....? so he goes off on why he suddenly doesn't believe in god and telling us it's all fake and stuff. so I was starting to get kinda mad because he just being dumb and I felt very strong about it all so I said a few things to him and he starts talking and it gets to the point where he can't take that topic any further and then he asks us (in the middle of someone elses sentence by the way) "Well, what about dinosaurs?" we are just like, you have got to be kidding. we try to tell him that that question is completely irrelevant, but he says it is and just wont let it go. he starts talking about like, how important it is to know whether dinosaurs were before or after adam and eve. at this point i'm just like...we need to leave, this is dumb. he keeps going then starts talking about how god doesn't exist again. he then said probably the least-intelligent thing I have ever heard fall from someones mouth. well, BABIES don't believe in God when they're born? I was just like -_-#. I was about ready to slap this guy for how stupid questions he's asking. Like I don't knwo if theese are being conveyed over this email but we were dying of laughter and he was totally serious. but we go on trying to get him over these dumb concerns. then next thing we know, in the middle of Elder Faircloughs sentence, he asks, "well, how tall is God?" and without missing a beat (but being totally joking) elder fairclough just says. Six foot three. And we all (except andrew) just bust out in laughter.

you would not believe the ignorance of people sometimes. Andrew knows there is a God. He has so thoroughly convinced himself through poor arguements that he wants there to be no God. It's fun. but no, it's really not. I felt really sad afterwards because of what he chose. we had to drop him because he's not gonna go any further forward. it's way sad.

one cool thing is there was acrazy thunderstorm in virginia beach last night. so awesome. totally gonna get a hurrican sometime soon! haha.

well i love y'all. Please be safe. I am so grateful for what y'all are doing for me. oh! I hope the garments haven't been ordered yet! order them and send them to the mission office!

Love ya family!

your son.