Moments from a Missionary

This week marks the beginning of my last transfer in the first year of mission...it went so fast! I loved the 30 Birthday cards that I received thank you so much and I had a great but very busy birthday. I love you all...we spent a lot of my birthday moving the Elders From Covington VA into our apartment...so right now we have two sets of elders in our apartment Elder Sawyer and I and it has been unique to be able to teach with four elders or be able to split and cover two appointments at once.  Meet our new roommates...long story short, they lived in a very old house that the pipes had been frozen in for days and so they temporarily came to live with us, then that temporary became slightly more permanent when we went to take them back to find their ceiling bow-ing in and a foot of water under the house, so the mission office had them move out immediately, so they live with us until further notice. (likely a two or three weeks.) left to right, Elder Yocum, elder Sawyer, Me,

So for st arters this week The City and County asked us to come so they could present us with a formal certificate of appreciation. and they gave me a copy of this front page headline for the state newspaper...It was fun to talk more with city and county people we worked with now that things are back to normal, I even met someone who lived in logan UT and works at a ski resort in Mountain ops just like I did. Alright so this story will be further elaborated in my written letter, but long story short, Alan tells us his toilet won't flush, so we know  a ward member who can fix any thing, the ward member comes over with a plumbing snake, says well that isn't the problem...he takes a look under the house in the crawl space and discovers a pool of "goodness" (use your imagination) John (the member) tells us what to do and how to do it. and we set to work. First step is we had to break through the old rock foundation of Alan's 1940 home and dig an access trench  to

Dearest All        W ell, it happened and I see it, after zone meeting in Lexington VA  on Thursday , the things that I had that were holding me back from being completely unified with my companion just didn't seem to matter anymore, during the first part of the meeting I felt fuming mad and was keeping to myself, (which was very out of character for me), for no apparent reason other than the spirit of contention trying to detour the Holy Ghost from confirming to me what I needed to give. After wrestling with the spirit and at last praying again and again, just for peace during the zone meeting;  "I will do it, whatever you want, just please bring me peace" was my thought,  Then the  arguing in my head ceased, and I was able to enjoy lunch in beautiful  Downtown Lexington and then on the two hour drive back to my area, I felt an overpowering peace come upon me, and felt at rest, an my desire caught hold of that feeling and I decided I wanted to feel that mor

So Short week to report on, after three days of working with the city and the water restored we resumed our normal schedule  on Thursday . Although it was a double whammy  on Wednesday  night when literally right after we finished emailing last Wednesday the Power went out city-wide...this was the first time I think I have every experienced a complete blackout in the true sense of the word, it was on top of still not having drinking water for most.       The city rushed to get every vehicle they had to intersections to light them with their headlights, but it was totally dark with out them. Below is a photo I took on our way home of one of the main streets that is normally bright as day with lights, but there wasn't a light on in the city...on the bright side the stars were incredible that night. Power was restored the next day.   So the photo below, I saw this sight on the way back from interviews in Virginia and said..."hey that is where Elder Cluff took that phot