Week 10

DEAR,EVERYBODY

So there is not a whole lot going on Luray, Virginia. But i'm doing the best to keep the enthusiasm in the apartment, it gets a little boring at some points, he wants me to play Pokemon cards with him i mean could you see me playing Pokemon cards, it just doesn't work out very well sometimes but. I am still alive and avoiding any kind of game a quit playing back in elementary school and i even did know how to play it well back then i just knew keep the shiny and cool looking one. But he is being a great follow up trainer and we get along pretty well.

But life is going on there is a haunted house here called dark woods manner i want to go in really bad but believe it or not i am a missionary. So we get to walk by there every night when it is opens up at 7 and after that most of everybody is in the haunted house so it is hard to proselyte during the those times. even though we get rejected a lot. And i mean we talked to 27 people one day and got a new investigator and 2 return appointments which really good but you go back to the return appointments and there is more return appointments as every missionary knows. All to well but sister Erb got baptized really cool to watch had a great time .

I was able to talk in church this Sunday and it was on Resurrection, Final judgment, and Repentance. So I gave my talk to them in a part i said "you have great testimonies so you have a reason to skip when you walk". Totally didn't remember there was a guy sitting in the back that was injured in the military and was in a wheel chair so i felt stupid he was like what the heck, in more of a joking manner so i said " Jump your wheel chair wheely it, whatever the spirit guides you to" and he just starts laughing and everybody else did so to so i tried to save that. But everybody, and i mean all 30 people in this church shook my hand and said it was great and the the branch president said that was good i think i will have you speak a couple more times and walked off so i should have pulled Jeffrey Holland, and just spiritually chewed them out but know i made them laugh and they loved it.

I m still keeping alive and are doing more and more out here learning line upon line, and precept on precept.

The new car they gave me i am not aloud to drive it however i want, i think i told you that there is a little box in the corner that keeps you in line it's called tiwiand it can be a pain. but every now and then it shuts off i mean i dont drive like crazy but i can go five over when we are late for something its and all missionaries know what this is. Follow up trainer is doing good but Elder dearden and elder woods taught me how to do a lot to we had a great time trying to do that with elder kearney but we are doing great.

Well Love Y'all glad to those i was able to hang out with while i was there and the good examples y'all have set for men Send to all.

This is the the manor that Elder Kody describes where they go and talk to people and as he put's it...he cannot go to because he is a Missionary......

Week 9....Luray, VA

       Kody has made his first transfer in his mission.

Things are going pretty rough here in Luray Virginia they have the smallest church that i have ever seen about 30 people so it is a branch they have a branch president instead of a bishop and now i have to talk next sunday on repentance, ressurection, and the final judgement so that good. There is one lady getting baptized on saturday Sister U, she is a nice lady but it took 8 years for her to get baptized but none the less she is getting baptized and to of her sons are going to do that because she is a little more healthy you could say so they need to. 

Us missionaries are going to be the witnesses for it. 

I am the designated driver of a 2017 chevy malibu but we walk the other half of the day which good, but we were street contacting around the park one day and this guy was running and i ask if i could give him a message about are church he said sure and they kept running so we got to teach the restoration while running with him but he finally pulled over and we gave him a book of Mormon and now have a return appointment on Wednesday. So we will see.

In youngmans in the church we played trivia and when i say youngmans i mean it there is one young man so it is not young mens anymore but he is cool his name is Eric. And my new companions name is Elder Kearney, he is a good man but a little bit of a know it all and everything has to be about him but i wont go into detail but we have problems in the morning because he wont get out of bed there is a nerf gun under my bed and i definitely use that to my advantage. 

I am losing weight pretty good i was 265 at the MTC and now i am 238 so its been going pretty good 

My new address in 300 apartment E ,first street , 22835

There isnt much more i can think to write because not a whole lot goes on but maybe next week, i will have more stories but that is it for now

Love ya'll send to all

 This is how the trees are looking around the Luray, VA area. They are beautiful and even with the challenges that may come the beauty is just break taking!!!

A Treasure Found!!

Ruthan always wondered why she had never seen a picture of Kody with the Mission President and his wife but she just assumed that maybe they had forgotten to send the picture.   Then on Tuesday she was doing a deep cleaning and cleaning the carpets, she moved the piano and the letter from the The Mission President with these pictures and letter was there.  Tender mercies for the Mom of a Missionary.

                                     Elder Kody Killian with his Mission President and Wife.

Kody and the Missionaries of the Baltimore, Maryland Mission.

                                                   The letter from  the Mission President.

Week 8

Hey, y'all doing out in good old firth Idaho land of the awesome and home of the goofballs.

been being pretty good out here. I am getting ready for my next transfer. I will be killing off Elder Dearden and Elder Woods they are both going home Thursday.

Now I am going to be stationed in Luray Virginia. With Elder Carne, they say its going to be something I like with horses and cattle, big trucks and people that do super cool stuff like me, sometimes.

I am not going to be riding a bike, we get a car again, so I guess I don't have to ride the steel horse for another transfer. As much as I am going to miss my first 2 companions, they are like giving me all their stuff. So now I have like new ties and 3 winter coats its awesome.

I started the day off by telling an Elder what a Pheasant was so they are still green but working on it. We went to do yoga today everybody says that I have to go and I will love it...... I WILL NEVER DO YOGA AGAIN. For everybody that does do yoga that's fine but come on there is no trash talking there is no ball and its the total opposite of aggressive so I said no to yoga ever again and that's all she wrote when it comes to that.

Been having a lot of good meals, it is really good most the time, but you will never eat when you are hungry and that's saying if you are hungry. We just get fed so much its crazy our fridge is clear full of junk. But we have a whole section in the fridge for just Pepsi because that is important, there nothing like cracking a cold Pepsi throughout the day, its a sacred drink.

Been going by really fast cant really keep up with what is going on there is no many progressing investigators and awesome people, but hopefully the next missionary will get dunkin them, we got to save there souls. 

People that  want me to sign there mission journals, so what I do is write the FFA creed in every ones journal, we all have our trademarks.

I told people that I had worked at a mill, so I got to explain how to make grain and how cool my boss was #Claude &Thomas. ROCK ON!! 

Anyways hope all of you are doing well and aren't taking it easy.

SEE EVERYONE IN 16 MORE TRANSFERS :)

As a family we took a road trip up to Hagerstown, MD to leave some treats for Kody for his companions.  We had wanted to attend church but we did not make it.

We did get some pictures of the area so that Kody will have them as a memory as well as Ruthan..

 This is coming into Hagerstown...they have a little climb up a hill (they call them mountains but it is a hill), then you come down and Hagerstown awaits you.

 This is the grocery store when they purchase food and other items they may need.

 So everyone knows we did not see Kody or his companions.  This is their door and we just left the treats.

Aidan points out and it is true the apartment did have a certain smell to it.

                                          Avery giving their little pumpkin man a hug!!

                                                         They are on the third floor

 This is the apartment building it is a nice part of town.  One thing about Hagerstown is that it is a city with a lot of trees.  Because we have not had any really cool, crisp nights the trees have not really started turning.  This week that will change and the trees will be loaded with the beautiful colors of fall.

This is the church that you see as you walk out of the apartment.  The reason that this touched us is that Jim grew up Nazarene and we were married in a Nazarene church and then sealed in the temple...it was missionaries like Kody that baptized him a member of the church.

Week 7..adventures in Hagerstown...Kody Style

Hello y'all how you doing, because i am doing great in case you were wondering,

this week has been a little chaotic running around doing stuff like crazy but we have been having loads of fun here. I have been teaching a lot of people and getting them to church has been pretty fun.

So i got tired of an investigator he is just lazy honestly he is a great guy and is funny but has been being taught for years but wont actually put in the effort to get baptized. So i told my companions that i will tell him what's up. they didn't believe me so I walked in there, and sat down and he completely changed the whole conversation to a return missionary that was murdering people so I told him what's up and at the end I had him and his fiancé crying they told us that was the most they have ever felt the spirit. And my comps jaws were dropping the whole time. Then they said they are going to try and get married as soon as they can and are going to get baptized after that.

 See anger does fix everything and all these years I have been told differently:)

So I finally got mugged recently, literally somebody through a mug at me, and after this happened my companions looked at me and said don't you dare throw that back. And at the moment that's what I was thinking. SO now my companions know me very well.

I was getting told about a Maryland winter and they showed me pictures and it looked like a picture from a little snow globe I mean this was nothing there was like no snow at all and then this is the best part. they cancelled the schools for a whole week. And maybe its worse than it looks but I think Idaho takes the gold metal for coldest winter.

Not something I should be bragging about, but I don't have to be around that for almost 2 years.

             I have been having to explain livestock to everybody in my district. The worst part is that elder Richins is basing his knowledge of the difference of a bull or a heifer off the movie barnyard, he literally thought that all cattle had utters.

So like I do, I straight up told him what the difference is.

And I survived another meal with the family they made this pizza role thing and the first bite of it I pulled out 3 long greasy pieces of hair out of my mouth, and I had to tell them I needed it to go. I lost my appetite so bad, that fasting the next day was very easy.

Well we wake up for soccer every morning at the church, our whole district does, they are trying to teach me how to kick a soccer ball low and not so fast because I about took 2 elders heads off this morning. But I am learning to be more careful. They told me I should probably stick with football but you are not able to do that here so soccer and basketball is what we get to do. I already got grounded from basketball for a few days. Because I played to ruff 

But other than that we have been having a lot of fun we joke all the time I keep the good times better, and everyone here likes my singing all the time. Like when I stop singing and try and be quiet they walk up to me and tell me to shut up. so I just keep singing all the time. People here just appreciate me singing a lot more. And instead of the word annoying they use funny. And there is never a dull moment with this elder. I mean I love firth and miss it a little but seriously I don't miss people telling me to stop singing but love y'all 

Around here people don't say pop you have to say soda or a lot of people don't understand that, and people look at you differently when you say firth things you have to elaborate when people ask why do you say that.

Anyways,

Love y'all 

$$$$ELDER KILLIAN$$$$

$END TO ALL

Since I am overseeing this blog I get to add my 2 cents on a few things that Kody mentioned.  First off..yes the winters out here are different than in Idaho and it is true that it takes very little snow to close down an area and the schools...I have laughed many times about the schools being closed for less than an inch of snow...but the problem is that ice is an issue and that is most often why the schools shut down.  If we get a nor'easter in the winter and it stays in place spinning for a time, we get what they call, "snowmegadon's" then Kody will get to do a lot of shoveling but it leaves rather quickly.

I do agree with Kody in the almost 10 years we have been there I have never seen it as cold as Idaho can get...

One other note...stay tuned for some pictures of what Hagerstown looks like this time of year..the trees are BEAUTIFUL!!!

Week 6...serving in Hagerstown!!

Well hello y'all again mission has still being doing really good have had a lot of cool experiences.

I got to meet back with my district from the MTC and that was really fun, we had a great time laughing and talking about the "good times" it was really awesome.

Mission is going bye really quickly now, but i haven't got used to the weather and that nasty water that they drink out here, i mean seriously i quit drinking out of the swimming pool when i was 5 years old. Being having really good meals and we are never hungry there is just way to much food we dont know what to do with.

But i am really scared because Wednesday, we have to go eat at the house, you know the one with the bed bugs cockroaches every creepy crawly thing again, and we have to eat off the plates that the dogs licked on and the rats have crawled over so i stocked up on hand sanitizer. 

I am in the hagerstown ward and all the members are really cool and provide good for the missionaries. There is also so much service out here we were taking a washer and dryer up a 3 story building and i had to hook up all the hoses and wire everything together, good things i took mechanics because my companions said they would burn the house down so that's good. I have been giving a lot of priesthood blessing so that is a pretty fun experience because we are the only elders in hagerstown so we give all the blessings. Still don't do a lot of proselyting because my companions like i said before are zone leaders so i am going to be more a zone leader than a missionary in training.

There is like badgers and raccoons all over the roads so we try to swerve and hit them, that's are definition of a good time. I have got my mission drivers license the tiwi so watch out Maryland the roads aren't ready for this guy. 

I have the coolest bishop in Idaho he gave me Pepsi, cereal, candy of all sorts and my favorite Doritos. He literally gave them to my roommate from the MTC and they gave it to the elders in Gettysburg. So big THANKS to Bishop Killpack. 

Been a lot of weird stuff going on here but i can't tell all or i wouldn't have enough time. 

Conference was really really good this year one of the better ones.

Thanks for all being good examples to me 

MTC Photo's!!

In the MTC Kody and Elder Welling were companions. Elder Welling's mom sent Ruthan pictures that her son had taken in the MTC and you can see Kody's personality in all of them!!

 Loving the new look Kody!!!

 I am thinking he is practicing being Helaman here..perhaps????!!!