November 1

Helllllllo. Apparently west just isn't that good this year. oh well...I don't really care all THAT much...it's just high school! haha. That's kind of lame about jordan being scratched off. stupid stuff. haha jordan has to deal with it! I have only an hour and I just about ran out of time writing to him! haha.


It sounds like your halloween was cool! Ours was lame...just stayed inside because no body wants us knocking on their door for halloween haha. I don't get it...isn't the rule supposed to be that if the light is off on the porch you don't knock? we were over at some members house who wasn't handing out candy and they got knocked on like 3 times. It's really weird.

haha I like how you had a goofy halloween party...Halloween has just turned into ridiculousness anymore. It's like I don't even want to celbrate it anymore haha.

Sounds like a pretty ridiculous one though. You drove all over the place. haha. That lady at the haunted house deal sounds stupid. People are just way to impatient and inconsiderate. Everyone is so selfish now...


You better not have let them go trick or treating! That's sunday! I hope that wasn't the case...haha I loved the pumpkins though. Especially the tetris one, which I assume was ryans. haha.

The solo went ok. That day was nuts and we had to teach a third hour lesson with the combined priesthood and relief society and we had 4 investigators at church so we had to keep an eye on them and get them rides and stuff. it was insane. But you know...it all worked out thankfully.

I'm glad the advice helped! I try to apply that but sometimes it's a little hard. But It really doesn't bother me anymore.

ok heres the deal with the moriancumr thing. Go to ether 2:13. It talks about How the brother of jared and all them were preparing for there journey and ended up at this place that they called moriancumr. now why did they call it that? There is a footnote at the word moriancumr. It goes to alma 8:7. Which talks about how the people named their lands after the man who first owned them. Now who was the leader of the jaredites? well obviously the brother of jared. since he was the prophet at the time. So what can we conclude here? the land was named after the brother of jared, who is called, at least in part, moriancumr. now the mohonri part? That has to do with an even that happened in the beginning of the church where Joseph Smith was blessing and naming a child and named him Mohonri Moriancumr. When asked why he was given that name, he said he had it revealed to him that was the name of the brother of Jared. You could probably find it in the history of the church volumes.

So anyways yeah. thats it. haha.

That's so crazy they are coming home soon...gah. I don't even wanna think about that. When they come home I'll only have a few months left...ridiculous.

Well anyways...I'm doing pretty good all in all. I will tlak to you later though alright?

Love you all a ton.

october 12

Hey Hey!

SO the zone p-day was great! we had a ton of fun. We just played volleyball and watched joseph smith prophet of the restoration. which reminds me! How in the world did you know that movie existed, let alone get it and send it to me?! Thank you for that I really do appreciate it, I was just wondering where you got it! It's pretty funny cause that dvd is like...the rare item that makes missionaries think they are cool haha. Like "oh man did you hear elder soandso has prophet of the restoration?!" hahaha so funny. so I guess I'm the cool guy now. :P

Yeah the ipod is working great, the only problem was that the charger didn't work! Like I tried it all over the house with different outlets and stuff. So I had to buy a new one. So yeah, that's what I bought at walmart...it was stupid how expensive it was. But I didn't have any other options since walmarts not in our area and we don't get to go there very often.
Mom you don't know how much it means to me to know you are loving the scriptures! I love em too...I've gotten some choice revelation from them lately that has changed some stuff. I've been struggling with stuff going on out here lately and it's helped alot. Make sure you pay more attention to how you feel when you read versus what you understand! I'm in alma 25 right now...I love alma...just so much good stuff!
I totally would be putting all those conference talks on my ipod right now but some members are putting the music on my ipod for me since I don't have time or the means to do it myself. ha. I love conference! I'm going to put the conference cds I have on there along with the past two!

haha the tape was great mom. It was like a breath of fresh air sitting there and listening to y'all talk. I loved it. It just makes me happy hearing everyones voices. Oh my gosh ryan doesn't even sound the same anymore. He's totally got a much deeper voice. Jordans still the same though...haha. Love you jordan!

oh gosh yeah the solo...I don't know we'll see. haha. I hope it's good. but I mean honestly, I'm not a very good singer, but I do feel like it's gotten better since I left! haha.

so I apparently only get a half hour today and not a full hour because of this weird library in petersburg but that's why I may not cover everything! haha.

I loved the picture of ryan...haha he just looks so goofy! haha. braces are fun...haha.

That's smart to do with jordans test. I kinda wish I had done that :P haha oh well.

OH! So quick story I needed to tell you. We are having a baptism this saturday :) and I got a call and he wants me to do it. So I'm excited to just be a part of it. He wants to serve a mission too. He is only 19 so he could totally do it. I'm so excited...he is one of those investigators that when he gets baptised I would be totally content with my mission...just being able to help someone grab onto the gospel like he has...just makes EVERYTHING worth while.

Mom I only have a few minutes left but I just wanted to say...I love the Gospel. I love what it gives me. I can't ever express the feelings of joy I feel from the things I have experienced here. The Atonement is....absolutely priceless. To see it coming to effect in someones life is something I will never forget. The effects it has in my life...help me to know even though I'm not perfect, I can still do the Lord's work.

Anyways. I love you all so much.

september 9th

Hello FAMILY

I have no idea what hijo means? ha. I never got any letter from dad. are you sure you are sending it to the right address? P.O. Box 964 Wakefield, VA 23888 I'm excited to actually get some mail! I haven't gotten any this whole week! haha. oh wait that's a lie! I got a suit! from you! haha thank you so much for that!

The pictures are sweet! Jordan looks like a little stud! haha. No but seriously the pictures are awesome thank you for sending that. I'd attach more than one picture on here but I'm pretty sure it would bounce back and I don't want that. haha.

You and Aunt Lorna are sad! haha. Who hunts rocks?! I hunt cotton. seriously there are cotton fields all around out here. One of these cotton bails is worth a quarter of a million dollars. haha it's insane but they are HUGE bails. Like bigger than two cars. So yeah.
well actually. we set two people for baptism this week! It was sweet! The first one was a 19 year old guy who we set the first time we taught him, and another was this lady that has been taught alot who finally understood why! haha. I love the scriptures...2 nephi 31 helps people understand why we are baptized so well...yes!


haha general conference in a snuggie? wowoowowow. We are going to be watching it in the comfort of an old quaker church! haha. I have to take a picture of these stained glass windows...there are two pains that have this rare mineral in em that makes em worth like 10,000 dollars each! crazy eh? haha.
That's so cool about Jordan getting set apart. I like to hear about that stuff so let me know!

Anyways, I'm sorry the letter is so short...I don't have much to say this week! I love ya and I'll talk to ya later!



Totally forget to tell you this!

I got attacked by a dog this week! haha it was really weird...it was super friendly and whatnot and we walked up to this house and it was totally fine and then we start walking away and all of a sudden I hear the dog like growling mean and my companion is like "oh my gosh!" haha. I turn around and see it running at me and I kind of lean in to hit the dog and he bites my calf and then I hit him with my BoM and he goes away. He didn't break skin or anything it wasn't really a bad bite, but it was just crazy.

we also had a guy tell us he wanted us to have the prophet call him and when we didn't do it he freaked out on us...but that's an entirely different story...haha.

anyways much love!

Life in wakefield is actually going great! I've only gotten one letter and that was from mom, but I'm assuming that the rest will show up soon? But I really appreciate the one you did send...it helped me a lot. I'm doing really good. elder parker is really quiet, but we have fun. we got along good. I'll attach more pictures (because I can only send two per email maybe) but our apartment is an old divided up house (into three other apartments) that's over a hundred years old! haha. our area is big, it covers all of sussex and surry county. Surry nuclear plant is in our area apparently, but I haven't seen it yet. We live in the town of wakefield, which is basically a town formed around highway 460. But we cover a bunch of other little towns including surry, waverly, spring grove, claermont, dendron, and a bunch of towns that only are towns because they have post offices in them haha. Sussex county was the last county in virginia to get a stop light. haha. But this is what happened when we pulled in on thursday afternoon. we showed up with the member who gave us a ride, and realize we don't have the keys for the house or the car. haha. so we try to find ways to break in but then realize that there is no way in. so we wait for a while and then thankfully our branch president works in richmond so the zone leaders were able to get the keys to him and then he brought them to us. so we got to talk with him and set up a time to come over and talk with him about the work in the branch. This was probably the most important thing we could do, save talking with our branch mission leader, but since he was outta town this is what we had to do. so we did that and things have just been working out great. It's been awesome how well it's all worked out. I'm surprised; most country areas are a struggle to get moving. but we are getting blessed lately.

But overall things are going great. we are teaching a few people. The most promising right now is a man named charles who came to church on sunday, and a friend of one of our members named Kristin. it's so cool to see the work progress in this peoples lives...it makes all the struggles worth it. A cool experience we had last night; we had an appointment set up by the other elders with a potential investigator named victor, and his family. His whole family is hispanic and only he speaks english. So theres this member that was recently reactivated and runs these resteraunts in surry and waverly called "la hacienda," and he came with us, because he speaks spanish being from mexico city himself. so we go in there and we dcided we were gonna watch a dvd about the restoration in spanish with them. so we start talking and then we start watching the dvd and afterwards we get talking and victor just starts talking about how he doesn't feel peace in his life and he just wants to be able to feel that again. he grew up in mexico city right next to the temple. he went to the visitors center and everything. The member (his name is Brother Dosamentes) talk to us afterwards and was just like, I don't normally talk that much elders...but it felt like I needed to speak because we were so much alike. It was just an awesome experience. I love how it all works out!
That's so cool that ryans gonna be a teacher...holy cow no way is he 14....He'll be just about to turn 15 when I come home! AUGH. too FAST. haha I didn't really like that gaming chair anyways haha. It was a pain. You should ask ryan what he wants from me for his birthday. I'll do my best to find what he wants! haha not much possibilty out here in the country! haha.


The weather has been great the last couple of days. but you can definitely tell fall is starting to roll in. No hurricanes after Earl. Tropical storm Fiona was supposed to hit us but fizzled out! haha. I bet you I would be freezing back home. Especially without the humidity. Elder Beus' brother came out before we left and we had lunch with him and he was just cooking in the heat when we were just fine haha. we probably wont even get any snow! It barely snows here, we just had a freakwinter last year. I never drove i nthe snow. but I might this year! crazy eh? haha.

Like I said, the new companion is awesome. he's from san Diago. He's a funny guy. He's got a tiny gray stripe in the front of his hair. Like, in x-men. The girl who has the grey in her hair, like her. haha.
thank you so much for all you've done...it really helps make things better out here. I don't think I'm losing much weight? haha. I don't even know anymore, we don't have a scale! ha.



By the way, the pictures! The first one is of elder beus, sister henrie (so you know what she looks like) and me! and the second is our house! haha.

anyways, I love y'all and I will talk to you next week!

love always,
your son.

Transfer time again?

Hello family!

First off, wanted to tell ya I'm getting transferred. The area is getting closed down. Btw, new address is this:

P.O. Box 964
Wakefield, VA 23888

So yes. This past week has been rough. We were told we were probably gonna be taken outta the area because they were gonna close it down. And I felt really bummed about that. It's just been really hard lately with all this stuff. It finally culminated a couple nights ago when I just...broke down. I haven't cried like that in a long time. But I got a blessing from some of the other elders and my companion. So it helped. I've just felt like a failure. All these good things are happening when I get into an area and then they fall off. But I'm excited because this new area we are getting shotgunned in (both elders coming in are new to the area). So we get a fresh start and new things happening. I am excited to start over.

I'm also a district leader again, so that's fun. It's always a challenge but something fun to be able to help other elders.

The companion thing is working out. I mean we don't always get along but we work it out. I don't know what's gonna happen with the new comp. we'll have to see. His name is elder parker.

I do need to relax. A couple days ago an elder got mad at me for calling him before 10 (cause we aren't supposed to do that except in an urgent situation since that is our study time) and it like, gave me a anxiety attack...it's weird...I don't understand why I get all wound up, it just happens. So I am trying to work on it.

That's awesome that jordan won...I really hope he does well. He has so much potential to do great things, but he's like me and doubts himself. He needs to build his confidence now!

haha that will be awesome to get the Pond done. definitely need to send me the pictures of the finished product. haha today was the first day of school here. we saw all these kids leaving the apartment complex today. haha kids love going back to school, they just pretend they hate it...because lets face it, they ARE bored haha.

haha you're getting rid of the gaming chair? haha GOOD. that thing was annoying anyways. Tell aunt lorna that I am gonna write them all back things have just been hectic the past two p-days.

haha oh my gosh ryan is 14...that's crazy! Actually that's good that ryan wants wii games over a cell phone...Don't persuade him otherise! He doesn't need it AT ALL. haha. I'll tell you what, I walked into a gas station the other day and I saw an ad for a video game that's coming out and I was like, geeking out about it. haha.

Ryan will get into it. He'll have fun at the dances EVENTUALLY. haha.

I have to cut it short today, but I love you so much, and I sent you another email with something to you and dad about the ipod.

I hope your week is good, and if you have any questions you can call the mission office and they'll answer it for ya!

Love you,
Your son.

Ipod mania!

BOY! Yeah...it's not so bad heat wise anymore. We get random storms rolling in often. Like they roll in like in 20 minutes and they are completely gone an hour later haha. But when they hit boy do they hit! Usually the rain is the worst because it causes tons of humidity but this last one it wasn't bad at all. So hurray for that.

I loved the tie! I would wear it more if I could. But I only wear silk ties when it starts getting cooler and on sundays. Cause sweat will ruin the tie. Silk ties stain REALLY easy. So yeah. Some of the best types of ties are Donald Trump (you can find at burlington coat factory) and the other nice silk ones. Polyester is good for summers, but those ones you can really only find at like goodwill and stuff. They don't really make polyester ties anymore.

no no credit card. I'll call em after I leave here.
Tell Grandma I say Hi and I love her and Grandpa and miss them tons!

wendover eh? Man you think the storms there are bad...you should see the storms we have here. It's incredible. I know who cindy lauper is...haha that's so funny that she was there...she sounds kinda washed up! ha.

I would love to see those pictures! Send em to me when you can!


I remember going with paul and kyle and swimming at that park for 8 hours once...haha. do you remember that? we got so sunburned it was awful. That's cool you got to go though...I have kind of forgotten what it's like to swim? haha. just kidding.

Team building stuff is where it's at for football. THat's what helped us win state! That's cool that jordan is learning all that. Like what kind of stuff was he learning? That's awesome that they took away the phones! haha it's what they should do to keep em focused.

Before I forget! OK. So this last thursday we had a zone conference where our mission president informed us that we are now allowed to us ipods! SO. What I was wondering is. does jordan use his ipod touch that often? Like would he be willing to let me borrow it for the rest of my mission? ;D The reason I ask for the ipod touch instead of my ipod is because they were talking about it at the zone meeting and president gave us permission to use it to show people the church websites and stuff so I would love to be able to have an ipod touch because I can put scriptures and preach my gospel and all this other stuff on it. you would have to take all of jordans music off it and (if it still exists?) put all my church music that's on the downstairs computer on it and then find the preach my gospel stuff. maybe (and of course this is all if jordan will let me use it) dad can do all that stuff. The reason why I want either jordan's ipod touch or my ipod is because it would save me SO much space so I didn't have to haul around my cds everywhere. SO please consider it at least. Thank you! I would also need the sync cable, an auxilary cable (dad would know what that is) and maybe my fm tuner if it still exists? So please let me know whether or not you can send me something, whether it be jordans ipod or mine. I don't know what dad's done with mine since I left but anyways.

The mail isn't a big deal. I really don't care that much about getting mail. It's just like a bonus to know someone is still making an effort to write you. you know?

I love you mom and I love Dad and Jordan and Ryan. You guys are the best and I look forward to the day when I get to see y'all again! haha.

Thanks so much and I love you! BTW here's some pictures: (I really don't know why we were jumping but we felt like it? haha. So. yeah. anyways.)



Love you! Bye!

august 9th

haha you know what was funny? Thursdays have been bad news for us lately! Even though I didn't get hurt this last thursday, we had a major (and I mean MAJOR) storm this last thursday. Mom it was literally the worst storm I've ever been in! haha. We were driving, and we saw this storm rolling in and heard the thunder and saw some lightening but we didn't think it was that bad. we got out of our car and were like "oh we can make it to this house before this storm hits" and we take like 10 steps and we get like 4 bolts of lightening striking all at once and super close. so we are like uhhhh no. we are getting back in the car. hahaha. Oh my gosh so we got back in the car and the lightening starts and starts raining HARD. Then we start getting lightening thats striking like, with 100 feet of us. It was SCARY. Like you would see the flash and the bolt and would hear the thunder IMMEDIATELY. It was like an explosion. Like a cannon going off in our car. Holy cow. ANd then the wind picked up and It was all three, super windy, lightening, and rain. It went on for about an hour. At one point it was raining 3 inches an hour. It was crazy. We also had some funnel clouds form (pre-tornadoes) but never touched down. It ripped down trees and stuff. It was crazy. People said this is what happened last time they had a hurricane (bunch of severe storms then a hurricane later on) so we'll see what happens. Supposedly we are supposed to have another storm this thursday/friday. It has been the worst summer virginia has had in a long time. Like, the average temperature for july was 94.6 I think? And many times way over that. Man!

ok to answer your questions 1. No I didn't mess up my shirt 2. The bike is fine as far as I can tell, but the bike seat is destroyed I'll have to find a new one 3. we drive a car, we just were biking cause we were outta miles, so we are just driving now 4. No, didn't get dad's message unless you mean the "it's just a sprain, walk it off" thing. If it was that yes. I did. haha. 5. No the card hasn't come yet. Hoping it comes in the mail today. we'll see.

alright. that answer your questions? haha.

Yeah I got the package thank you so much for it! It was perfect and had everything I needed. Thank you! Yeah I was kinda upset myself but I couldn't really do anything about it. It was either pay the fine or go to jail? so i was like yeahhh....haha.

yeah the cd burning thing you can just send em to me whenever you can. no worries on the shirts. They are actually nice because of how they are put together. So thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. You guys are the best!

I'm not even in the sling anymore! I only wore it until my arm felt good enough to move around. Because the doctor told me it wasn't that big of a deal. so I still have pain in the shoulder but not very severe. Only when I move it in a certain direction.

Sheesh jordan. haha I can't believe he let them do that. That was just dumb. haha. my wrist is fine, I just wear this velcro black brace and it keeps it protected. when I take it off it hurts to bend it but obviously. haha.

I'll do whatever you want me to do on the medical thing. just tell me what to do and I'l ldo that from now on.
I'll defintely keep an eye out for dads letter. I would LOVE TO HEAR FROM HIM *HINT HINT DAD* haha no I know he is busy and I understand so no worries there. I'll keep an eye out for letters from aunt lorna.


That's awesome you taught jordan and ryan those scriptures. Those scriptures are what's gonna teach them to choose the right. You can tell them to do something all you want (do your chores, stopping fighting, be nice to people) but unless they understand the doctrine behind WHY you need to do that, they won't follow it. That's what I've come to learn.
HAHAHAHA that's so awesome that ryan had a good experience at scout camp. I laughed pretty hard at his fish story. That kid is awesome. Tell him that I tried to email him but it came back for some reason?

Tell jordan to go even if his hands hurt! Don't give him an excuse to chicken out. It'll help him grow more than he can udnerstand right now. So don't let him chicken out!

The campout sounds fun. I want to camp so bad. That would be so much fun haha. I'm looking forward to doing that when I am home again.

Tell ryan to get out and do stuff! video games will do nothing for you in the long run! haha. The wii is fun and so are games but really they don't matter in the long run. You can do some much more fun stuff outside! haha. Jordans got the right idea. haha.

Sis. Henrie is on a mission in virginia. She is from Pengwich Utah. I think. At least that's how she says it. but She is great! She calls us when we have mail! haha. She loved the card and was so grateful for it.

With the facebook deal, just check to see where they are from! If they are from virginia, add them! Yeah I'm sure facebook is going to get just as corrupted as myspace is/was. It kinda bugs me now. I don't know if I wanna have a facebook when I get home. we'll see.
I haven't run into andy. where is he?I thought you said clover hill but I asked the missionaries there and they don't know him at all.

The yard looks awesome! It's cool to see the yard again haha. Y'all did a good job on it.

tell dad to hold his horses on the cake! He needs to eat better like me! haha.

That's pretty hilarious that neil crashed too. I'll have to write him! haha.


Well anyways. I love y'all. Have a good week and keep praying for us missionaries cause the work never stops! Love ya!

hunter