Week 14.....Sugar Cookies and Walking Dead Make-up Artist!!

Happy Late Thanksgiving.

It was my first thanksgiving without my family so i had to get used to it, food was good we ate with a convert family that are really nice. Their pie was good but doesn't beat grandmas ever, but i appreciated them and letting us come over.

Brandon a awesome guy that we have put on date came to church and that's really exciting, and he also said something about he has taken missionaries out trapping in the past so that will be awesome.

Um a new guy we are teaching he is a little interesting, and is into to horror films and stuff he played in the first season of walking dead and does makeup for all the walkers and he also did the makeup in Texas chainsaw massacre. So teaching him in his house is a little weird with all his pictures but we gave him a book of Mormon and he said he would read it so we will see where that goes.

Still hasn't snowed but it gets a little bitter out here, definitely not as many people walking so, sometimes we will just pick an area and walk and walk but at least we are trying. Going through the area book trying to find people to to talk to but a lot of people aren't interested anymore so you just do all you can.

We went and visited a member that fed us this last week so thats super cool and he let us feed sugar cookies to his cows, ive never named my cows and gave them sugar cookies but we all have are different ways of taking care of animals, the Woodstock church building is almost done with renovation so all those people who went to Luray branch while it was getting fixed are leaving which means we will have even less people in our church. But we had a new family move in so it is growing and shrinking.

Anyways that's this weeks Luray,Virginia 

Week 13...life in Luray, VA

Hows it been going in?

In Luray i got to ask my first person to be baptized and he said yes so we will see how he does and keep getting him to keep commitments.

Its kinda quiet out here the colder it is here the less people there are to street contact and the less people open the doors so. Wouldn't want to let the cold air in side understandable. We had a thanksgiving dinner in our little Luray church which is just the part of the dental office that we are renting for church, there was a lot of people and was pretty cramped, then kinda sad when that many people didn't come to church. But it's whatever.

I am finishing up my training as a new missionary so it is week 11 which means i have to do pretty much everything myself so hopefully i don't mess anything up, that would be sad but i have been taught by 3 great companions do i don't think i will to bad off.

There's not quite a lot to talk about in an area like Luray so i wish i could tell you a little more but we are surviving every now and then we can find someone to teach. We are great at cooking ramen noodles. But we are being fed thanksgiving so can't complain there. Have had quite a few more people that weren't the brightest rainbows in the sky but wont go into that to much, hopefully something big will happen and i will tell you something more but until then have fun in the village of firth :)

(one of the AMAZING things about Kody serving out here is all of the history that is here.  The history ranges from the the founding of this country to the Civil War and it is important to remember that Virginia was and is a Southern State...Here is a little bit of Civil War History in regard to Luray, VA).

Page County, Virginia, or known as the Luray Valley and later Page Valley during the Civil War, is located between the majestic Blue Ridge and Massanutten Mountains on the east and west and with the ever-flowing Shenandoah River running south to north.

The significance of the Page Valley as an avenue of armies through the Shenandoah Valley, to and from Gettysburg and as a prominent thoroughfare for General "Stonewall" Jackson, with its stories, is a valuable resource that must be preserved and shared.

Within the boundaries of this fertile valley Confederate and Union soldiers marched and died, commanders contemplated strategies that would affect the entire Shenandoah Valley, supporters and sympathizers went about daily life at home, slaves were bought and sold, barns, mills and bridges were burned and General "Stonewall" Jackson with 38,000 troops marched through his "beloved" valley.

Week 12...surprises from Kody!!

Hey Firthians and all those that like the emails,

            Well Luray, Virginia is warming up for missionary work and definitely not warming up for temperature wise, trying to go tracting in below freezing temperature isn't the funnest thing in the world and somebody let me know if funnest is a word okay thanks. 

People here are real nice and understanding to missionaries just like one story i have, we knocking doors in a little area about a little earlier than 6 and this guy came out around the other side of his house with a baseball bat and ask who we were and i said missionaries from the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS and he was like oooooh and at the same time slowly slipped the doorbell ditcher weapon to his friend behind and started talking to us nicely, so moral of the story people is that the end of the story is the best part don't focus on the bad parts.

We have now 10 investigators so we are just trying to find appointments when we can meet with them, its hard to find people here but "If you think its going to be hard, its going to be" a wise missionary told me that Elder Tucker. You have to give people credit for what they said and if not you must repent. Spiritual tip for the week there hope you enjoyed:)

Had a zone conference and met a lot of good people there great missionaries, learned quite a bit about what i need to be a better missionary and not crashing in the winter, both very important. 

Hope the winter in Idaho doesn't get to bad that would not be good, but so far no snow up here just a little chilly at times.

I went on exchanges with Elders from front royal Virginia and learned a lot and had a good time there is quite a few people to talk to there and a little crazy but so am i so we got along well. I mean come on I gave firth grey hairs.

Anyways keep ready the book of mormon its the do it yourself guide to everlasting peace and eternal happiness i got that off a fridge.

congrats to the football team and good luck to you all 

Well tell next week.

 This is on the road to Luray, VA...it may look like these are mountains in the distance...

 But...this is what they look like up close..they are beautiful, the tree's have passed peak fall color's but there are still many with beautiful colors on them....and this picture really does not capture all the beautiful color's.

 This is part of the town of Luray, Va as you head into it...it is spread out a little bit and is hilly..it is a fun town with a great historic downtown area....

 Ruthan gave us a list of some of Kody's favorite foods...so we went grocery shopping and picked them up..the plan was to to drop off the food, because we were fairly confident we would not see Kody...

 Here are the bags of food not only did we get Pepsi but we also got instant oatmeal, licorice, jerky, bread, milk, Mac and Cheese, cup of noodles and some other great things...

 This is the their apartment building there are 8 apartments and the missionaries is on the top floor.

 We then headed over to the church where Kody and his companion attend. Remember this branch has about 30 people...it is an old home and is probably about 1300 square feet.  Kody's cousin Kaylee just kept saying that this was SOOOO small how could it be a church...

 We wanted to show all sides of the church...it was such neat experience.

 We are parked in the only spot at the actual church..the handicap spot, then there are are spots along the road.

 Cousin Aidan felt that we should go back by the apartment 1 more time before we headed out of Luray.  I was sure that we would not see Kody and his companion but back we went.

We saw that a car was parked in their parking spot so the kids ran up the stairs and rang the bell.  Kody face just lit up when he came to the door and we were standing their.

The Elder's had just returned from doing a service project in the community, they had been moving rocks.

We were lucky because they had ran home to change clothes and shower before heading out to share the gospel.  So thank heavens Aidan had listened to the spirit and we went back.

As we were standing outside the door talking to theme and laughing.  The mail lady pulled up and had a box...the companion said it looks like we are getting a box and Kody said..yup it looks likes a box from my mom.

Kody's cousin Kaylee went and got the box and we got Kody to hold it up...that smile was just on his face it was not a fake one :)

Kody and his companion told us that they did not have a lot of member's feeding them because there are only 30 of them...so they have been living on jello, pistachio pudding and ramen noodles.

So they decided that they were ready for some real food...like Mac and Cheese!!!

Kody and his companion also shared that there had been no children in the primary...but a family had just moved in and there was now 3 kids in the primary....

 Kody has talked about a thing in their car that monitors Kody's speed and miles they drive etc...here is a picture of what it looks like..

 This is their car and Kody is the driver...I have to say that this is a fairly sporty care compared to other missionaries car's...plus look how clean it is!!

Once again this picture does not do it justice...the sun was hitting the hill's at just the right angle and just lighting up the trees and color's.  

One more thing about Luray...it is just outside the Shenandoah National Park and is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains!!

It is important to understand that Luray is considered the South...not the deep south but still the south.  There are 2 statues that honor the civil war General Robert E. Lee..Virginia was on the confederate side!!

Week 11!!!

Alright everybody how are you doing,

Straight off the bat nice with the football team that is awesome, that we are doing that great.

Um to start Luray is about the same old Luray, I have been put into the choir, so its not very good, and we are singing Christmas music. Its not even Thanksgiving yet, but i can't control that so i just sing Kinda. The works is moving along just step by step and people are really nice here. we definitely don't get meals from members as much, but i am not really complaining because it is good and bad either way you look at it. Because you can get full that is hard to look at food or you can look at food and say its not as good as it once but we are pretty good off.

Having good times, missionaries are not able to go out after a certain time on Halloween supposedly something that we are not suppose to do so that seems like the only conclusion in my book. I get to drive up and down some country roads you curving winding and twisting, but then i still have to remember the head honcho tiwi there in the corner with his famous saying "Check your speed". But other than that Luray is considered a town and there is enough people to fill up shelley and parts of idaho falls. So I have came to the conclusion that firth is now a village and i will call it that from now on. The weather here is off an on its somewhat chilly in the morning but usually quite warm, but when it rains it rains we had pots all over are floor because are ceiling was leaking "A lot".

Anyways my time typing is about over so remember that firth is a village, at least in my book that is written in blue crayon. But none the less a book.

Love Y'all

 Kody outside of the church building in Luray, VA.   Luray, Virginia only has a branch!!