Week 31...Let it Snow!!!

PETERSBURG WV. 

Been a slower week in Petersburg, but there are always great things going on here. 

But the weather is usually not to bad out here, but then the first day up spring it dumps 14 inches of snow so we got snowed in and our cars were grounded for 3 days. Saved us miles not having to go to district meeting Tuesday but none the less I have to be moving around and sitting in the apartment isn't what I call productive. 

After the storm cleared up a little bit we definitely started working again. There is an 8 year old that we have been teaching and he wants to be baptized and then a part member who just needs to find a date to get baptized on.

This technology is good on some aspects but bad on others, it is so much more difficult to plan and put in teaching records, you have to follow and read a whole bunch of different stuff, and to add to that I wasn't born technologically inclined to use any of this so.... 

But I think I will figure it out sometime maybe 

We go to this one members house to give her a blessing quite regularly and she has like 6 dogs, I love them but elder Thueson is highly allergic so every time we go there we have to come back to the apartment and hook up to the nebulizer or something.  Sometimes you got to take one for the team

A cute girl about my age tried to talk to me in subway and not about the church but I was strong and gave her a Mormon.org card and said visit the website to learn more about are church and walked away. I've learned to "lock my heart." So be proud of me please!!!

And when people say are you able to ride horses, that's a rough one to overcome but I hesitantly say "sadly no" 

We have interviews tomorrow with President in Winchester so we get to split the miles with romney so that's a blessing. We also are gonna have a sick car ride with my MTC companion so I am packing healthy snack for the ride like Pepsi, potato chips sunflower seeds and candy bars for breakfeast. The usual missionary food, and then taco bell after

  Times is flying by here on my mission i feel like I just got to the MTC but I am working towards 8 months in the field i have grown up so fast "not mentally" 

Anyways have a great time back in the West see you in sometime, can't do math right now love y'all 

ELDER KILLIAN

 Virginia and West Virginia have not gotten much snow this year so this 14 inches in Petersburg was a big deal. The other issue that Kody (Elder Killian) did not mention is that we had A LOT of rain before which then froze and left about an inch of ice under the snow.

Yes, in Idaho this snow would have been nothing but not everyone in the Mission comes from areas with snow and there are no snow tires on these vehicle so it becomes a HUGE safety issue.  The other thing to think about is there are A LOT people who have no idea how to drive in snow....I mean there are people who have 4x4's and are stuck in the middle of the road😆

Week 30....

Petersburg WV

Weeks been going pretty good here, its been a little bit slow but we got someone who wants to be baptized, she has been to church like 5 times and knows it is all true she wants to move out first, so lets just say we are double time helping her move out, I would want to move out to because her mom is a little crazy, that's her own words.

Things have been a little crazy adjusting to the smart phones some things good and somethings bad, we are gonna have to try a video chat district meeting because we use 720 miles for district meeting and exchanges each transfer, so we are using members to take us places because now we can only go 14 miles until the end of the month. But we had a good time during exchanges anyways I got to go with my MTC companion on one and he wants to stay here now, probably because I am awesome not because Petersburg is awesome compared to Romney.

I was straight up honest with a member and said we are almost out of ramen noodles and he took us to a country kitchen and the next day to Subway, its brother Hose he is pretty sick, he is the one who's wife wants to be baptized they just want to move out, he just got the Melchezidek priesthood and went through the temple, so that was pretty sick.

Got another investigatior yesterday named Roy and he said just before you to showed up my mom told me that I had to get one of them book of Mormons, i guess it was his lucky day because believe it or not i had one. So we will see how he likes it.

Time is flying by fast out here i am 7 months in the mission field in 4 days still feels like yesterday that i walked up to my trainers we the big smile they had on their face, we have had to wash the car every 3 days because of the dirt, and its hard to go some places without getting the card bottomed out, so i am thinking of putting a lift kit on the Malibu and throwing some 31's on that sucker, see the look on peoples face when we pull into zone conference with that :) 

Anyways having a great time here in this area and continuing to do are best!!!

ELDER KILLIAN

                           This is Kody on splits with the companion he had in the MTC........

One of the neat things about serving out her is all of the history in this area that helped make this a free country, where you can worship as you please.  This is at one of the battle fields of the Civil War.

                                    Kody's zone leaders and other missionaries in the zone.

                                              Looking down on the city of Petersburg, WV

Elder Killian says The Lord knew where you would be able to serve best and it just happens to be full of some of his favorite things, cattle, hound dogs, wild game and a chance to serve.

Week 29....A day in Baltimore!!

Another great week in Petersburg,

Went to zone conference last week and we got smart phones so that is cool and can be a big step in helping the work progress and moving forward, but i am not good with technology and have never had a facebook before so its been a little rough going from our dinosaur phones to a Samsung J3.

Barely missed a deer, i am learning to use brakes properly for slowing down not drifting, but a cat did play peek a boo with the bumper of our car, didnt feel bad about that one, no damage was done.

Today i get the great opportunity to go to johns hopkins in Baltimore, we have been having a good time sister Christiansen took us up this morning she took us to a huge aquarium in baltimore it's super sick got to see dolphins do flips, those animals listen a lot better than i did, not saying a lot but anyways it was cool to watch. Then we went to a restraunt called Shake Shack, its pretty good there got a Smoke Shack Burger and an Salty Balty ice cream. Super Awesome place i got lots of pictures and all that good stuff.

Going to have to do all my shopping and laundry tomorrow, cause its going to be a long day in the Baltimore traffic its just another reason the city is not where i will call home. 

So we will see what happens the rest of the day, we have spent 5 hours in the johns hopkins place, i tried to let them give me a hello kitty band aid when they drew blood, but they are no phone she just put white tape over my arm, next time i am going to pretend to cry and see if that works or she might just shove a massive gauge needle through my vein. "I'll take my chances"

But i have had a great preparation day so far!

Anyways HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!

These are the pictures Elder Killian sent to his Mom from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.  The Aquarium is in the Baltimore Harbor and is a great place to visit!!!

Week 28....The BIG 19!!!

I'm 19 now!!!!!!

But it's a weird number,when I am 20 that will be important but not a big deal now.

Anyways we got 60 mph winds one night in west Virginia, so the night before this member wanted this massive tree cut down (like a 60 ft pine tree and healthy as a horse I think Katrina would have a hard time getting this tree down) but its his house and his tree, and he was concerned its was gonna land on his house when the wind starts to blow, so we went to help him, before he cut it he handed me an elder Thuesonlike hay bale sized rope and said to pull when this tree starts to fall. So he just starts sawing into this massive tree and he cuts it wrong and it falls backwards onto his house, that was a long awkward silence as ever. We made sure to get out of there quick before his wife killed him, I guarantee that he was sleeping on the broken porch swing.

We didn't have any destruction on our apartment but there was tractor trailers tipped over and horse trailers all over the place trees fallen across the road, the Romney elders which are about an hour away had a tree land on there trailer when they were sleeping, they fine though.

Teaching here is still going pretty good, we have those nights when its hard to find but over all I love Petersburg its super cool. 

Me and Elder Thueson are doing super good here we keep each other super entertained, I have to keep an I on him so he doesn't light anything on fire like heating up light bulbs and putting them in the sink, im putting locks on all the knife cabinets, and I have to take the nerf gun away because he put needles through the top of the darts so I don't want nerf darts sticking in my legs. A herd of deer crossed the road slowly like nothing was wrong and he wanted me just to tap one, so I just turned the car off and said this is the Lords car Elder but he is awesome and a hard worker super cool kid.

Petersburg  is pretty cool and I am having a great time here, we burn a ton of miles here we are given 1600 but we have to drive 540 miles in total just to district meeting in one transfer, and are investigators and appointments are all over so its a little crazy keeping miles to a minimum.

Anyways have a great week.

 This is one of the "victims"of the Nor'Easter that Elder Kilian talks about in his letter.

 We did decided to head to West Virginia to surprise Kody for his 19th Birthday. It was a fun adventure and it is a beautiful area.  West Virginia is very rural so Kody is loving that.

This is just one picture of the what the area looks like.  Once the trees start blooming more we will have to go again...plus Kody can always use more food :)

                              This is the sign on the road that leads to the church building.

 This is the actual church building.  It is a small but beautiful building!!  We did not see the Elder's car so I decided to go in and get Elder Killian's address.  I walked in and found him in the chapel for Priesthood Opening Exercises, I walked up behind him and put my arm around him and asked where he lived.

Unfortunarely, we did not get a picture but the look on his face was PRICELESS!!!

 This is looking at the steeple of the church from Kody's aparment complex it is literally behind the church building.

 Since it was his BIG 19...we had to do a little bit of decorating.  We considered doing more but we left it at this.

 We brought a cherry pie and whip cream, Pepsi, Mac and Cheese, milk, flavored straws to drink milk with and Vienna Sausages, (we learned that he does not really like Vienna sausages...always learning something new :) )

 This is their apartment and Jim is busy sending pictures and messages to Ruthan.

 This is the name of the apartments and the funny thins is that the owner is also Mayor of Petersburg.

 As we waited for Kody and his companion to come back from church the girls decided to work on their jump roping skills.

Everyone was SUPER excited to see Elder Killian.  The first thing Aidan said to Kody was, "I'm a Man"!!

 Everyone after we had lunch with the Ward...yes, I did not do a great job with the picture positioning.  I have to say that Elder Killian and his partner are quite the team and so funny!!

This is a picture of a picture.  The two Elder's in the middle are the Zone leaders!!

 Once we got back and before we left we had a great time talking with the Elder's and laughing and laughing.  We loved giving them ideas for food..such as if you hit a deer, gut that baby and then you have some food for quite a while....or there is always raccons and possums on the road!!

As we were waiting for the Elder's to come back we were invited to the ward "Linger Longer" (this is when the member's of the ward bring food and after the meetings they talk and enjoy time together).

It was a lot of fun and we got to talk with Kody and catch up on all kinds of things.  I asked Kody a question..."Is the mission worth it?"  He said YES, YES, YES!!!

One other item...Elder Killian is now on Facebook.  This is part of the mission requirements at this point.  He cannot instant message but you can leave comments for him.

Week 27...Feeling Loved

Transfer calls came yesterday and I am still staying in Petersburg with Elder Thueson and its awesome because I love it here, the work is progressing good out here we have over 45 potentials now and we have 9 investigators, we also found 2 families that seemed interested as well so I am super pumped for the return appointments for them, and everybody is super nice out here.

The members out here our super cool they love missionaries we get gifts all the time and the activities day girls went and decorated our door, members our feeding us good, they found out that March 4th is my birthday and I will be 19, so our fridge will probably be packed full of cake and its already packed full as it is.

It was 82 degress here for about 3 days but now its down to about 60 and raining like crazy so everytime we have to go mudding to find a someone to teach the rain takes care of that costs less that way (gotta use your resources) my MTC companion elder welling is in my district so I will get to go on exchanges with him so we can be companions for 24 hours so I am super excited for that haven't seen him in a while. still trying to find fun stuff to do here that doesn't rack up miles because we already have like over 1500 miles on our car because of how far out the teaching appointments are.

We have not hit a deer but pretty close so that's good have a great week!

 Kody's Mom sent a few pictures of Kody taken us down memory lane as he gets ready to be the BIG 19!!

                                   Don't forget to smile Kody!!!