Week 21...Back to Luray!!!

 This is the Missionaries that attended the temple the Washington D.C. Temple that Kody ( I mean Elder Killian) talks about in his letter.

This is the missionaries or at least a group of Elder's all together preparing for their transfers.

This is Kody's new companion!!

Hello,

Got transfer calls last night, turns out I am leaving a trio again and it's a little confusing what they did but it should go well.

They are putting me back in Luray Virginia for 2 weeks or so with another elder I came in with from the MTC and then they are sending me to Petersburg west Virginia, which means I am opening up that area it was closed after a senior couple left, that's at least what I heard, so I will see how that goes. I am going to the transfer point Wednesday but at least half my stuff is in Luray 

and I am 23 minutes from there.

Anyways I went to the temple last Tuesday and had a great time, the inside if the Washington D.C temple is amazing, and we went to the visitors center after that. And then enjoyed that thoroughly.

Then Brother Stickley took us to golden corral, he is awesome.

We have been getting a lot of work done here in Front Royal and having a blast as we do so, so I am going to be a little sad to leave, we had good times here and good food as well, I am afraid to go back to Luray and open up the fridge again, because we definitely have not been there in awhile and milk and meat do not last forever believe it or not  :( 

The weather here has been super weird it went from 0 degrees to 68 degrees in one day, and then the next day it was 14 degrees so long story short it sucks

Their school system is weird all the kids got out of school early and it got shut down just because the weather channel said there was going to be freezing rain ( I wish we could get out of school because the weather channel said it was going to snow) and by the way, it didn't even rain, it actually warmed up. Lucky kids.

Something I really have to get used to is watching football I don't know any of the game scores( I know I am not suppose to so I haven't ask) 

We have to knock late, its just the rules, we can't go inside until 9:00, people don't like that at all, so we have got to see quite the gun collection, and how to speed walk really well. Other than that everybody is pretty cool. just not late at night. But I am still having an awesome time on my mission, wouldn't trade it for anything, so thanks for all the support Love you all.

ELDER KILLIAN

 In order to make sure that Elder Killian had food when he and his new companion return home...The Lane Family made a surprise delivery...the funniest thing is that the door was not locked...so we just left it right inside the door except for the milk which was in the fridge...

 This is the area that is covered by the Luray missionaries it is a big area but except for the actual town it is very, very rural.  One other thing about Luray is that it is a tourist area so in the winter it is very quite and many places are closed.

Elder Killian may have thought he was leaving Luray, VA but for now the Lord has other plans.

Week 20...the blessings of missionary work

Hello very cold week in Front Royal Va 

There still has been no snow but that's, but it is bone chilling cold outside!

It hasn't been a petty eventful week, but since we are covering to large areas we are definitely always on our toes moving along, a ton of people want to get baptized just not go to church but we are working on that one definitely have been very diligent in all things we do so we are getting blessed. A member of the quorum of the seventies came and talked with us saturday and it was really good, liked it a lot, very strong into the book of mormon and testimonies in, said some stuff i needed that week, so i was already diligent in reading but it helped me get moving a little faster.

So missionaries we are suppose to show an example and teach repentance and get people to keep the sabbath day holy-- but we may have been really cold yesterday and forgot it was sunday (it felt just like a normal day of proselyting) so we went in there to get hot chocolate  it and we talked to the store manager and she said she is interested and might come to church next sunday!!  so then we got are drink and right exactly when we left the store we all look at each other and yell it's sunday, so you can look at it like we just bought a cup of sin or we picked up a potential investigator, so thats the story of 3 mormon missionaries purchaing hot chocalolate on the sabbath the same thing we taught that day to keep the sabbath day holy. Just thought i would share my apostate story there.

But that same Sunday morning we had 2 investigators come to church, they really liked it, so us 3 missionaries went and bore our testimonies yesterday for them and us of course, but they said they loved it and are willing to come again so thats awesome, we had also taught them keeping the sabbath day holy......oops hopefully they did a better job then us? but at least we kept true to are fast until 5:00.

Been having a fun time but kind of stressful, good thing we are going to the D.C temple tomorrow that will be a relief, good thing we get to do it this week it is closing down pretty soon for renovation, so i am pretty excited for that, it kinda messed our schedule up But the temple is always worth it. Trying to get more pictures but don't have time to take them and they are hard to send because the computer we have does not have an SD card slot so its harder to get them to you,

The members have been super nice in front royal and supportive of all things we do, we also get fed a lot again not as much as Hagerstown but a fair amount it kinda evens out when you are always busy and don't have a big window to eat, but we have been eating healthier, so i am losing more weight and we are working out in the morning we are splitting what little weights we have in the apartment between 3 of us, so that is one con of a trio also i have been sleeping on the floor for the past 3 weeks, i took one for the team! Any ways that's about it for this week letter THANKS LOVE Y'ALL 

ELDER KILLIAN

As Kody mentioned in his letter they had the privilege of hearing from a member of the Seventy.  With this privilege they were able to sing as an entire mission.  The current challenge is who can find Kody....we can hear his voice but cannot identify him!!  Below is the link

https://www.facebook.com/jane.b.simpson.56/videos/10208460806116825/

This is Kody along with other missionaries taking the opportunity to enjoy helping those who have passed away receive the blessings of the temple.

Week 19...Baby it's Cold!!!!

Hello,

Didn't get to email last week because of holidays and because of skyping my families which was fun. We got to spend the Christmas with our branch president in front royal

This week has been quite crazy. we were in luray and we got a call that we had to go to front royal mission because elder mortensens companion broke his foot, so i got to experience an emergency transfer while i am 4 months in, and i am in a trio again with elder Harvey and elder mortensen my MTC buddy in my district so thats really cool, trios are really fun and we are getting a lot more work done then if we were in luray but we are also covering luray still as well. so we get to cars, the Malibu and a legacy so that's cool.

We have been teaching quite a few people, one of them , which are progressing well, but he  told and interesting story after he said he likes hunting, he told his great hunting story

to begin with he had his Firearms taken away for other reason and so he thought he could by a cross bow, so he did then he went out back of his apartment complex and popped a deer with it and clearly said he didn't know that you couldn't hunt in city limits, it ran on somebody else's lawn and died he was really mad somebody called the police on him....poor guy

another one, well let's just say some lady still thought we believed in polygamy, but she had it backwards and all 3 of us got ask to marry her, we had to double clarify that one, quickest change from the restoration i have ever seen!

Havent got much snow but it is freezing its got to like 13 degrees but this is a different kind of cold it goes straight through your skin and like burns, with the humility it really sucks but we just proselyte in it for hours on end because we are missionaries.

Cops were watching us as we walked into an apartment hopefully protecting us, but was thinking they knew how much i got pulled over, that was just first thought that came to my head but we are also across the country. 

Anyways much more stories but i'd rather not go into them here they are in the journal for when i get home so thanks love you all my apartment number for all who want to know is 1122 north shenandoah ave apt.8, Front Royal, VA 22630 but just thought i would let you know.

ELDER KILLIAN

(Note: When Kody talks about how cold it is with humidity...is is the truth. I grew up in Idaho as did Jim and so we know cold ...but this brings a new level of cold....so if you want to send hand or foot warmers he would appreciate it :) )

Week 18!!!

One of the most exciting things for the Entire Killian Family and Layne Bolinder was getting to talk with Kody...Elder Killian on Christmas Day.

It was an early call for Idaho, since Kody called at 10:00am EST.  To make sure that Grandma Killian was there for the call she stayed the night at the Killian home.  Mitch also stayed the night and then Layne (Kody's best friend) made sure that he was there the next morning as well.

Kody had 1 hour to talk to his family..he started by giving a brief update and then he let everyone ask him questions...

A couple new things that he shared were: 1. Since a missionary had a foot injury they put Kody in a three person companionship and moved all the missionaries to Fort Royal, VA.  They will know oversee Luray, Shenandoah, and Fort Royal.  It is a HUGE missionary area.  2. Kody is now a District Leader....I think a district leader but maybe a Zone Leader...anyway he is over the missionaries he is serving with.

Kody also took a few minutes to introduce his companions!!!

Week 17...a nice surprise for Mom!!

Hello all,

Been good in Luray  things have slowed up a little bit over the last week and things are getting harder at some points and others they are better but wether good or bad god directs you all the way through it so i keep hanging on.

Brandon the guy we put on date for baptism and is doing pretty good meeting with him again and are excited for that, we actually got to meet him because we wanted to introduce him to the new missionary in the area Elder Harvey, so after the Christmas party in Luray a whole  35 or 40 people showed up came so i was impressed, but anyways we stopped by brandons to give a blessing to his mother in law she was sick with bronchitis i think lets go with that, he heard the missionary knock that i have usually each missionary has one, brandon opened up the doors with an empty gun and scared the new missionary, so it was a good way for Elder Harvey to first meet the person we have on date and  the one investigator we have in Luray everybody else in Luray doesn't really want to hear what we have to share so i have definitely had my fair share of bible bashes on my whole 2nd and 3rd transfer here.

on transfer point i met people i have seen in Hagerstown that i have missed and they have all missed me so definitley felt loved there, but i get to skype the killian family on christmas so i feel the love there. Love to everybody, enjoy the christmas season and how important it is, and light the world with the joy christ has brought all of you and the true meaning of christ mas 

-Elder Killian 

(These are those tender mercies that make a mom's heart full....)

Week 16....Snow!!!

Hello people,

It is the start of a new transfer and even though it is a hard area my new companion and i are tearing it up, we get along really well. I got a story " so here we dont get fed by members a lot so i was very surprised when it was on the meal calendar, but all of the sudden the time on it said 7:30 p.m, that's a problem, because we are ask to have dinner at 5 and be done by 6, so as hard as it was we told them that we couldn't go on that time, so she text back and said come by the store and pick the money up so we can just go to dinner @ 5 so we got a good feeling about that, so we did. Once we received the cash we were about to walk out when we hear GENTLEMEN!!!!, we stop in our tracks and flip around, then we turn around and walk up to her a little old lady and she ask are we mormons? yes i said back, then she said right after that "you have a book of mormon to give me right i was like daaa i didnt really say that but we took one out and gave it to her and her care taker and then set a return appointment so we will see how that goes, so we then go eat and start prime proselyting and we are driving around and knocking doors, then right when it hits 730 which is the actual time they were going to feed us we went and knocked on a house and a guy named dustin sayed come in so we did " he had a hound puppy" but anyways we set a return appointment with him, so if that doesn't say exact obedience brings miracles then i don't know what does,

Well anyways, the next day it snowed during the night, it snowed the whole rest of the day, even though we didn't want to we were tracting out in the snow, i was hoping that doing so people would say oh you poor souls come inside or something like that, but it was more like don't want the cold air getting in my house then feeling the breeze of a door slamming in our face, gotta love old Luray, thats how the rest of yesterday went.

Our branch mission leader has to move and nobody wants to take his place so we are in trouble on that one cuz he is one of the few who likes to help.

But we are going to keep being obedient in all things we do, but we definitley have to keep having fun or having something to do in Luray or we will go crazy, other than that, what lays in store we'll find out.

IT IS MY MOMS BIRTHDAY TOMORROW, FOR THOSE THAT DO NOT KNOW SO MAKE SURE TO BOTHER HER ABOUT IT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN THANKS !!!!!!!!!! 

(Note from Aunt Wendi...these pictures were taken off Elder Killian's SD card..we delieved a little Christmas a few weeks ago and he left the card for me so that I could put together a gift for Ruthan on her birthday...I have tried to put them in some order...I know the first ones are when he was in a companionship of 3 in Hagerstown, MD..the rest are from Luray, VA)

Week 15...Transfer or Not...

Well transfer were today,

Looks like i am staying in Luray Virginia, my new companions name is elder Harvey and elder Harvey is a district leader, haven't heard his name before but we will see.

This week still a lot has not is going on, but we are still trying to find more and more people, i went on a exchange with the zone leaders but the 2 zone leaders went with Elder Kearney so they put me and elder christiansen together because they are in a trio like i was in hagerstown we have both been out about 3 months now so that was interesting putting us together for a day but still fun none the less. we got fed by a member in Woodstock Virginia on an exchange, haven't done that in awhile, but we ate chicken heart and chicken legs, i was trying to be nice and just eat the chicken heart, but i bit into one and now i love them, so i ate about 20 chicken hearts or close to that, i was definitely expecting the worst when i tried it, like a was gonna feel a pulse or something but nope, it's all good usually when you fry a chicken heart it won't beat.

Since i am still in Luray i still get to be in the choir :( but i am just going to be the international lip singer of Holy night and The other one about that says Emmanuel shall come to thee or something like that, Christmas music was never my thing.

And there is still no snow here and its about 40 to 50 degrees on a good day here.

Oh and we were personal studying and i leaned back in my chair and put a little dent in the wall so i had to call the mission office and the landlord, so 2 claps for me but its all good. Kinda 

Anyways til next week.

-ELDER KILLIAN

 As a family...The Lane Family we decided with guidance from Kody's Mom, Dad, Brother's and Sister to surprise Kody with some food....he was not there but Avery made sure that she was dressed appropriately for the Christmas delivery!!

Just a little surprise from Kody to everyone!! He really appreciated the gift card to Domino's Pizza it was the PERFECT meal after a long hard day tracting and not wanting to come back to enjoy more Ramen Noodles with Elder Kearny!! They did not have Pepsi products sooo he had to settle for Coke and Elder Kearny went for the Fanta!!