August 5, 2013

Well this week definitely had its ups and its down. It was kind of a slow week we had a zone conference one day and spent another day doing service. Which was fun but we didn't get to teach a whole lot of people but. We were able to have 3 L.A members come to church yesterday which was awesome to see. Things with the Willard's took kind of a bad turn. I think they came across some anti-Mormon stuff, we went and saw them last night and they weren't as friendly as they usually are. It was a little heart breaking. I am really trying to love everyone and to see them not accept the gospel and miss out on the blessing was kind of hard. But we are still doing our job and everyone has their agency so it is alright. We will just try to love them and everyone else. There are some really awesome people out here. We are really starting to develop a good relationship with the ward. And they are really willing to help us out. It is so cool to be able to be friends with all these people. It is amazing that the gospel could make friends out of 19 yr old boys and 60 yr old couples. It is so cool. Yesterday me and Elder Jensen( not sure how long he'll be here yet. could be awhile of he could be gone at the next transfer.) but we had the chance to go to the Baptist church. I can tell you from that experience that the church is true. During there service i could not feel the spirit and i actually left there feeling worse. It was kind of sad and depressing. The preacher was yelling and screaming and everyone was shouting amen, and that's right, and tell them preacher. They shout during everything. Like there songs and their prayers. It is so cool to know though that is much as the preacher knew about the bible, i knew more than him because i have  the knowledge of the restored gospel. It really was a blessing to get to go there and made me appreciate the opportunity i have to be a part of the true church and restored gospel. You guys should try going to a different church and just see and feel the difference. It will definitely help you feel more blessed to be a part of the restored gospel. I am glad that you got the package. i was excited to send it and help you put some faces with some names. I love this gospel and the opportunity i have to share it. It is such a blessing. Now to the questions

 

I got your package, thank you so much it was awesome and I loved the ties I don't have any that are like the ones you sent. So they were awesome and everything else in there was great.

 

Do you go out to eat? If so where at? 

Sometimes I do. There are a couple of little restaurants out here that we go to but not very often. There is a subway and McDonald's that we go to every now and again.

 

Are you still getting fed?  Did you make your rabbit stew?

I am getting fed a ton. And we didn't have a chance to kill a rabbit or make stew. That is still on our list.

 

Have you gotten IPAD's yet?

we haven't gotten i pads and i haven't heard anything about them yet so i guess we will have to see.

 

How is training going?

I love training it is a awesome experience and i don't know how much longer i will be in this area. That is for the lord to decide.

 

I hope all is going well. I love you all so much you guys are always in my thoughts and prayers. Mom i love you a ton thank you for always writing me and all the other things that you do for me. I am so blessed to have someone like you always looking out for me. You are the best. I love you all and you guys are always in my thoughts and prayers. Have a fantastic week..

Love

Elder Child

July 28, 2013

Well things are continuing to go great out here. Me and Elder Jensen are having a great time. He is a really cool guy and we have a ton of stuff in common. He likes to hunt and fish and all that stuff. Sounds like you guys are having a great time up there. We will have to go on a couple trips when I get back. One up there and one out here. I saw your letter to Sis Wrye they are such a nice family and are always helping us out and taking care of us. You will have to ask her about the picture that we gave to them. It is a pretty ugly painting and we did it as kind of a joke but it is now hanging up in there hall way. There are some really awesome people out here. Last week we didn't get to teach the Willard's they ended up being busy so we will hopefully be able to get to teach them this week. We were able to find one new investigator last week and we are going back to teach him and his wife this week. That will hopefully go good. We are still trying to help the L.A to come back to activity. We were able to do some service for a lady that has been inactive for years and is married to a non member. They have both slowly started to soften their hearts I don't know if anything will happen anytime soon but it was cool to see the progress that they have made. Not a whole lot of news this week. We are going to try and kill a rabbit and make rabbit stew but I am not sure how successful we will be in that. I am super jealous about the coyote hunting that those guys are doing. Hopefully so more interesting things will happen so I can have more to write about. I did send a couple of pictures and some letters so those sound be there when you get home. I talked to Elder Oates he served in the same ward as me and he was my Zone leader and we were really good friends but he got to eat dinner with Justin and Ashley and Melanie this last week. He is in there ward it was pretty cool to hear that. He says that they are his favorite family in the ward. That is about all this week. Thanks for the letters. And don't worry they are never too long. I love reading them. I always look forward to hearing from my Momma. You are the best mom I love you so much. Thank you for all the love and support you guys are in my prayers every night. Hope all continues to go well.

 

Love Elder Child

"The Ugly Picture)

 

 

  

(From Sister Wrye)

These last group of pictures are from last week when the Elders helped do service.  We had a pallet of round pavers that came and we need to unload them. It totalled in weight of 3,000lbs.  With their help we were able to get that done in about 15 minutes.  Then we fed them dinner then they were on their way.  Also I should explain the boy in the sombrero that is Hyrum Marroquin, he is a member of our ward, his father is the Ward Mission Leader who is from El Salvador. 

 

So there is a story about the ugly artwork.  Elder Child and Elder Jensen came over and said they had a gift for our family.  Elder Child said he painted it, teasing me. c:  So we are not for sure what it is.... So we hung it in the hallway and the Elders signed it.  The story is there is an artist that lives close by that makes a collection of his art in the dumpster and they found it there.  After receiving the artwork the other missionaries decided to bring artwork that they found from the same artist. This is Elder Gratil, Elder Jones, and Elder Vane which live about 12 minutes south closer to Martinsburg, WV and our chapel.

 

 

Letter From the Wrye Family

Dear Family of Elder Child,

 

I wanted to send you an e-mail and tell you what a wonderful, hardworking, dedicated, spiritual young man your Elder Child is.  We first met Elder Child his first day in the mission field.  We were expecting sister missionaries to move in boy were we surprised  :).  Where we live is on the outskirts of our ward and missionaries would rarely travel this direction.  So to have the blessing of missionaries just living a mile and a half down the road we were so excited.    When Elder Child first came to our home it was in the early evening, he and his companion just got here from transfer meeting.  I received a phone call from the zone leaders saying the Elders would come by to our house because they had neglected to give the new missionaries any information to get started.  We fed them dinner while they worked on getting the directory printed out.  Then they quickly ran out to get started before their curfew.

 

Since that day we have learned a lot about Elder Child.  He talks of you all  every time we see him.  He will say things like; “My brother... or my sister...”  And he was really excited to have us e-mail you.  He has a wonderful attitude and sees the bright side of everything he is doing.  He has never once complained to us.  He has worked harder than any missionary I have ever seen out here.  I have seen them biking and walking on all these back roads in the heat and humidity.  I have tried to stop and offer rides for them in the heat of the day, and he has refused.  They explained that they love being out like this that people are seeing them on the street and know that they are around.  And they have had many contacts because people see them out.  I believe this last week with the heat index we were at a temperature of 104*  Elder Child’s response would always be, “This Awesome and I love it!” 

 

My family just loves your son.  He is so kind and loves to laugh, tease, and kid around (we call it “childing”) with us all.  He is very thoughtful and includes all the children when he speaks to us and has even learned to tell my twin boys apart.

 

So I have sent a couple pictures of you son giving our family a message.  I hope your family is doing well.

 

Love, The Wrye Family

July 22, 2013

Thank you so much for the update. This week has been a pretty good one. I am glad to have the opportunity to train. Elder Jensen Is my new comp and he is from Raymond Alberta Canda. We are both loving it out here and we are loving the work. I am glad that you got to hear from sister Wrye. They really do have an awesome family. Last week she threw a chip at my face. Me and Elder B wouldn't tell her which one of us was getting transfered and then today me and Elder jensen acted like we walked to her house. She was super mad and said she was going to kill us. It was pretty funny we had just parked the car up the street but we like to make her think that we are working hard. Things out here are going pretty good. We have 4 investigators 2 of them are still new so not much to talk about with them. We were able to meet with the Willard's and have dinner with them. We were going to extend a invitation to be baptised but they like to talk a lot and they kind of got side tracked so the Spirit wasn't as strong. But they are doing really well hopefully we will continue to have success and the Spirit will touch them and let them know of the truthfulness of what we share. This week we did a lot of cleaning of the ward roster. We went by a bunch of different people houses to see if they lived there anymore or if anyone ever even knew them so we haven't taught a ton of people this week. But it will be nice to have the roster cleaned up to move foward with. I am excited for the weeks ahead. I can tell me and Elder Jensen are going to a great time here in WV we are both so excited for this transfer and are excited to see the miracles that the lord has in store for us. I can definitly see his hand in our work and i know that by relying on him well will see the work move foward and progress. I will write a letter home this week that gives some more details on what is going on. Time is short today because we are at the library so we don't have a ton of time. But I am loving the work and the people I and so greatful for the wonderful family and parents I was blessed with and the wonderful examples that they have been to me. I know that our Heavenly Father Loves us and is just waiting to bless us.

 

Thank you so much for everything that you do mom. I really love you and am so blessed to have had such a wonderful example and mother in my life. I was truly blessed when I was sent to you and dad. You guys are the best and I am so grateful for your example to me. I am going to be sending some letters home so be looking for them this week.

 

 

 

 (The Wrye Family, Falling Waters)

Elder Child is a Trainer!

July 15, 2013

So this week has been full of some ups and some downs. It was a little bit slow this week, but all things in the Lord's time. Anyway we are really trying to continue to help the L.A and find new Inv. we were able to find a new one last night and the Willard's are still doing good we weren't able to teach them this week but we have an appt. and a dinner set up for next week with them. Hopefully we will continue to see success and find those people that the Lord has prepared. As far as the guy in his 20's it wasn't going to go anywhere so we dropped him. We have a ton of potentials right now and hopefully this week we can change those into investigators. It will take the Lord guiding us what to say and his spirit touching them but i know that it can be done. We have also started to see some success with Member this one family in particular has really been helping us out and they know a bunch of people that we can teach so hopefully we can work with them to begin teaching them. The other low part other than it being slow has been the  humidity. The other day we went and tried to meet some people at a big community yard we didn't have any luck but it was early in the morning and probably around 60 degrees and the humidity was so high I was sweating from just standing there it was pretty miserable. But just another joy of being a missionary.

Last night was a pretty exciting one. Call outs came in and almost everyone in the zone is being transferred. I will be staying and I will also become a trainer. I will be training a new missionary. I am excited but nervous for this task. Hopefully I can share what little knowledge I have with him and I will just have to rely on the Lord to do the rest. I know if I turn to him he will help me prepare this new missionary and finish preparing myself.
 I will really learn to rely on the spirit for this one. It just kind of made me think through of some of the stuff that is in my patriarchal blessing and some of the things I heard in the MTC about being a leader that I told you about. I guess I can see those things starting to take shape. Keep your fingers crossed that they don't call me as DL though we just lost ours and I don't think I am ready to take that one on yet. Well any ways the work will continue to progress, I have been working extremely hard at trying to be obedient and have seen the blessings that come from it. Continue to read from the BOM and to pray every day and night. I challenged Sarah and I want to challenge Ben, Mom and Dad and everyone else to read through the BOM from cover to cover by the end of the year. I know the blessings that come from studying the scriptures and the joy and the happiness that can be felt as we do. The Lord will bless us for studying them and we will see the evidence of it in our lives.

Anyways got to go. I love you all. Hope all continues to go well you are all in my prayers and i appreciate the love and support.

July 8, 2013

Well everything is going pretty well down here. The weather has been crazy and hot but we have made it through it alright. I am glad that you didn't open the package and I hope you like it. I thought that it looked like you but I wasn't sure. Sounds like y'all had a awesome turn out at the breakfast. I was doing the same thing that you were doing. Our ward had a big pancake breakfast and I probably made around 400 pancakes. It was pretty fun. Then later that night I got to go over to the lady's house that I told you about and we watched some fireworks there it was pretty cool. Her neighbor did them. Out here in West Virginia they can do the huge ones like the cities do all they need is like a $25 dollar permit. So that was fun. The rest of the week went pretty good. We have to solid investigators Donald and Brenda Willard they are so cool they are in their 50's and have awesome faith in Jesus and in God. They are pretty much already members. Sounds like Ben sure knows how to ball.... NOT haha you know I am just teasing. I missed not seeing an email from him today. Have him send me a letter or something this week. I have lost like 13 pounds I guess from walking and riding my bike so much. And all my clothes still fit me well so i am fine there. Today I got to go fishing on the Potomac. I caught about 25 blue gills no cats or bass though. That was way fun, me and another elder ate a worm so the sisters would buy us ice cream. It was disgusting but it was worth it. Sounds like that you guys are having a pretty fun summer now to answer questions:

 

I haven't heard anything about transfers, I will let you know if I do.

 

Overall though everything is going pretty good. We are still trying to find more people and help them feel the love that Heavenly Father has for them. Hopefully the work will  continue forward. Thanks for the last package. I love you so much. I hope that everything is going well. Sounds like you guys are having a fun summer. I love you all. And i love you a ton Mom.

 

Love

      Elder Child.

July 1, 2013

Well this week has been an array of weather. We started out this week very hot around 85 or 90 but with the humidity I'm sure it was much higher. I still am not used to it and don't think that I ever will be. I would much rather have the dry heat.

   We had a good week. We didn't meet with as many people because we were on foot. We were out of miles in the car and the part for my bike just came today. So we were doing a lot of sweating and a couple days it rained in the afternoon so we got a little bit wet as well. But the work must go forward. We saw a couple of less actives. We are becoming close friends with them but we haven't been able to find out what is holding them back from church. Hopefully the spirit will touch them and remind them of how they felt when they went. Speaking of church. I spoke yesterday. All four of us in the Hedgesville ward spoke. It was cool to have all of us speaking. We were really trying to focus on member missionary work but most of the members seemed uninterested or asleep so not sure how well the message got through. We now have 3 investigators. 2 of them are married they are awesome they are in there 50's and have amazing faith in God and Jesus Christ they just haven't found a church they felt welcome at so hopefully we can get them to experience ours and hopefully they will feel welcome. The other one is in his late 20's he likes sports and hunting so we have a pretty good connection with him. Family is huge in his life and he grew up catholic so we will see how that goes. We are going over tomorrow to teach him and then we are going to play basketball with him with some members from the ward. It was cool to see this success. Hopefully it will continue but I know the Lord's hand is guiding us and we just have to be patient and work hard and be obedient and he will take care of the rest.

 

I urge you to remember that we are all children of God and that an invitation to hear that gospel that comes from a love of the people and of Jesus Christ will never come across as pushing or judgmental. So do all you can to help them feel those same blessings that we all have felt from the gospel. I know you guys will I just want to encourage you because I know how much have friends and family in the gospel and having them share their testimony can really impact someone.

 Sounds like you guys are having a great summer. Continue to spend time together as a family and keep up the work on the scripture study. I hope you guys got the pictures I sent. Today I went to some outlets in Hagerstown Maryland. I went to a Nike store and you would be impressed, I walked out empty handed can't say the same for the UA store. I got a nice pair of shorts and they were only 15 bucks. Then I got to watches. My watch broke the night before i left the MTC. They were 20 each but the one was originally 65 and the other was 130 so it was a steal. So I did spend some money but they were smart purchases.

 

 I hope all is going well back home. Hopefully I covered everything. Sound like you had an awesome time a camp Helaman. I love you all and I pray for you always. I hope all my email are coming through alright. The pictures that mom and Sarah sent didn't come trough not sure why. Sounds like they had an awesome experience at the temple. It was crazy to hear that Emily was there. Time really does fly. Doesn't seem like she is 12 yet. I hope everything continues to go well. I love you all so much. Thanks for the love and support and the prayers as well. I will continue to reply to everyone's email. I hope they all come through from my end let me know if they don't and I will condense them into one so that they will. I love you all you guys are always in my prayers. I love you all.