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!!!

Week 26...trout and deer and hounds and lessons...oh my!!!!

Petersburg!!!

This is a great place all the way it is way back in the stick and hunters and deer everywhere, like if my bumper was going to kiss a deer it would be in West Virginia. There is hounds everywhere been talking to a lot of people with them, one guy says he wants to take us trout fishing, Petersburg is the home of the Golden Trout. There is a lot of backroads here where we have to go find potentials of the past that are not mean't for a 2017 chevy Malibu, but we try to make due we just have to wash the car a lot more often then usual, the ground clearance is horrible and the turns out here are bad, I get and aggressive driving going 5 MPH, thank goodness for a skid plate.

When we first showed up here our house was awesome 2 story town home has all the bells and whistles, except a laundry machine we pay a ton of money washing things, but 7 hours into being into Petersburg we were trying to fix the toilet, the owner had put 3 lbs of that blue stuff in the back of it just clogged it up soooo Elder Thueson had this amazing idea to take the back of the toilet off and get the Blue stuff out he dropped the lids in and cracked the bottom out of the toilet, just a flood of blue water came all over the bathroom, It was everywhere I heard him say help so I ran in there and it looked like he killed a smurf or something in there. that took awhile to clean up and then the land lord came into fix it and that was a long awkward silence when he looked at it. But its okay now!!

The work here has been awesome we have picked 20 potentials in 4 days and have 5 really solid investigators one says he will have the Book of Mormon read by the time we come back Friday, the members are giving us refferals  like crazy we are definitely always busy here and I love it so awesome, the members love having elders back they were super excited when they so us.

People are really nice out here but there was only one that Elder Thueson got his first door slammed in his face though but he is okay with that he can mark it off his mission bucket list.

Love teaching people here, they are scattered all over the map though we have a huge area theres a couple people in the deep woulds that want us to come back but we tried to leave and we might as well drove up a water slide...........with ice in it, but after the 3rd try we got it poor poor little car, we had to gun it up because we didn't have phone service at that time so we went for it but maybe we will get a big truck, (wont happen) 

Next week i'll give you more news on the place but until then there we go.

Kody and his companion....Ruthan got a text from the family that the Elder's had dinner with !!

Week 25

Hello...

I am going to petersburg WV this Wednesday for sure and i am super excited to do so, been getting ready and prepared for it for a while, still working hard in Luray VA but having dreams about petersburg and all that excitement.

Things have been going in Luray, this last Sunday we had our Winchester stake conference and it was super super good had a lot of time and things were said there that i needed, A member of the quorum of the seventies came Gifford. S Nelson and he gave a super good talk so did everyone else talked about priesthood authority and where the authority that the stake president and President Christiansen got his authority to be a mission President and it was good (He got his authority from President Eyring from the first presidency i'd say that pretty sweet.)

For the stories in Luray, no body has been attacked by a bat again, but we have been walking so much that me and my companion have named all the animals in the creek walking the green way and on main street.

One awesome member of our branch Mary Stanley, had a cool story, So you know those missing peoples story that some people look at and don't really no if your going to find them, well she gave her coat to one sitting outside for awhile in an apartment. Then got home and realized that she was a missing kid report and called the police, and she is now a hero, doesn't like to be called a hero but I am good at annoying her with it. If you wanna look it up i'd take a quick guess  and say you could find it under missing persons in Luray VA news kidnapped by a disobedient child of god, thats what i am going to say it's much nicer that way.

So Valentines day is here and i can't even shake a girls hand for more than 3 seconds, its's a good thing though they have cooties anyways. But the lord will bless us on valentines day for being obedient even though i have to live with a dude for 24 months it is worth it. Just ignore the fact that i didn't go to the valentines dance in firth, but then realize that i would have to go back to high school and that would be miserable enough, I try to avoid any conversations about going to high school

Going to the Luray caverns today it is free for missionaries so i can go look at a bunch of pretty rocks and then we will go party (clean up the apartment and i wont do the dishes.) :) 

Anyways til next week!!!!!!         MERRY VALENTINES DAY !!!!!

 

                                Meeting with their friends on the green way

                                            Looking into the valley...

                                              Off on an adventure!!!

                                  Washington D.C. Temple....so beautiful

 This is the fountain that is usually not iced over...but when they visited the temple it was partially frozen over..thanks to the COLD!!!

                                Kody and his companion Elder Thueson!!

         Working hard on their studies as they continue to learn and grow!!!

 On their last day in Luray, VA before their transfer the Elder worked hard and the branch member even made sure that they were fed!!!

 Kody loves hard work and the outdoors so I am betting he was right in his element!!!

A Surprise Box!!

This week Ruthan received a notification that she needed to go to the Post Office in Firth to pick up a package that was to big for their mailbox. 

When she got to the Post Office...they were very apologetic as they told her and showed her the box that looked like it had been put through a huge shredder.  They had put everything in totes to protect it....

For Ruthan the most important and dearest item to her heart was the following letter from Kody....

 This is the letter from Kody...you can tell it did have a rough time in the trip to Idaho.....this is a challenge when mail leaves this area or at times when it comes to this area ( the area is the East Coast).

 Kody sent this flag home...the flag in the Book of Mormon is referred to as the "Title of Liberty".

 Kierra was excited about the apron representing her brother's mission....

 You cannot serve in the Baltimore Mission and not send something home in honor of the NFL team the Baltimore Raven's...as you can see Seth is happy to add the poster to his room and enjoy the nice warm hat...

One of Kody's first companions was related to the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and had this book which he left to Kody.  Kody sent it home for his Mom and Dad to read and maybe even Desmond!!

Other items in the box were hats, a make-up bag, a shirt and a drill bit.....you have to check with Ruthan for more details about a couple of those!!!

Week 24...The bat story

SOOO...

Turns out me an Elder Thueson are still in Luray VA. the moving date to peters-burg WV was changed to the 14th of this month instead of last Friday.

So all the appointments we had and the people we were suppose to be teaching we are trying to get back, they planned on us leaving and so they didn't really care anymore so it's been rough getting them back so they can be taught again. And we said are good byes to everybody in church last Sunday so when we showed up to church this Sunday we got quite a few goofy looks but we are bosses so we just walked in like we owned the place i went up and gave my testimony and decribed briefly what happened so that straightened things out (KINDA)

We have been trying to pick up the potentials by walking and talking to people on the green way, and last night we were walking and talking, all of the sudden Elder Thueson got mugged by a bat for about 10 seconds and then flew away he was pretty startled but i had to sit on the ground i was laughing so hard, he deinitley didn't find the same humor out of it as i did but it was quite the site to watch.

Others news there is not much, we are just trying to stay enthusiastic here and keep working hard here and not slow down.

Had to drive to zone conference but we were going to run a little bit late so i definitely was cruising i got a bunch of check your speeds and a agressive driving doing so.

so I got a happy message from Elder Rudd and he gave me a warning that i have to slow down or i can't drive anymore, so now i am driving very very carefully as i go places , THE STRUGGLES not my style but you got to do what you got to.

I wasn't apostate and didn't watch the Super Bowl still not quite sure what the score but it's whatever.

In case you wonder what the bat may have looked like...this is a picture of the bats in Virginia