The Work Continues!

Hello!!

 

So this week has been pretty great.  We had to drop a lot of people who were investigators but we are working hard to pick up formers and also have received a few nice referrals!  The ward has been feeding us almost everyday, which is unheard of in this area usually, and we are becoming great friends with all of them!  Even the old people who are like 30+ and are suppose to be in family wards ;) ha-ha.  So the ward is doing well for the most part, they just need to give us their friends to teach.  One member who is just here for the summer has brought Breelaun, a new investigator, to church twice and will this week as well.  We have taught him two lessons and he is the BEST!  We go into DC to teach him at his gym which he is tied down with because he just opened it up!  The guy is great though.  He is a trainer and he is doing this cycle workout that is low impact and I love it.  He invited us to go for free since we are his new friends and we got to do a workout early this morning while the Washington Post came by and did a photo shoot and while one of the writers for the Post did the workout with us.  It was cool.  I got interviewed too!  I am pretty sure we are not really suppose to as missionaries but I didn't see any harm.  Plus I had to talk up Breelaun!  So look for me in the Washington Post Newspaper soon :) 

 

Anyway, so the work is going well.  Tough, because of the 18-30 singles age limit, but good.  We are having another great transfer and expect miracles to come our way.  Elder Kuddes and I have even been doing a lot of biking around and near campus just talking to people and trying to meet singles.  Ha-ha, that sounds kinda funny from a missionary point of view.  But its what we have to do!  Oh, and funny story: Elder Kuddes and I were in a full day rain shower on our bikes just getting soaked trying to go find former investigators and as we were riding a truck hit this big puddle of water and it was seriously a 5-6ft wave of water that engulfed Elder Kuddes!  I was laughing so hard!  It was even in slow motion to me.  I knew it was going to happen as soon as the truck was coming toward us.  We he was covered in dirt/water.  Good times as a missionary.  Besides getting soaked it has been HOT!  I walk outside and I am like already drenched.  But lotion isn't required which is nice. 

 

Oh, and Mom and Dad.  The Haulocust Museum is the best.  Seriously the most interesting and humbling place I have been.  It might be my favorite museum.  Elder Little and I went through the whole thing together learning about the Nazi's rise to power and how Hitler took over and stuff.  I scares me for our own countries outcome.  Especailly looking at history and how things like this continue to happen.  Even in the Book of Mormon we see the same things with the people becoming wicked.  Wow... crazy stuff.  But on a happier note I am almost done with the Book of Mormon :)  I took the 60 day challenge and will be done around the end of the month!  Yay! 

 

So thats about all!  Everything is going great and I love missionary work! :)  I am so happy to be a part of God's army!  Love you lots and hope all is well!

 

Love,

 

Sean

Staying at the University of Maryland!

Hey Mom!

So yes, we have been having quite the weather. It rains a lot then it gets super hot and humid.  These white shirts I feel will not be so white in two years from now!  Ha-ha.  But thanks for the new one!  I really was happy to have a replacement after I had the pen explosion in the other!  Stupid crap pens!  Oh well.  

Wow.  Sounds like a busy June this year!  But busy is a good thing. And the weather sounds intense there.  It was about 96 degrees a week ago one day.  It was crazy hot and also humid so it felt like... infinity degrees! Ha-ha but I also never need lotion since the air provides that for me.  Its great!  I will probably wither away when I get back to that desert air. 

So this week we would have had some baptisms coming up but they all kind of fell off the map.  Bummer for the area. But we just picked up a new investigator who is amazing!  He was brought to church by a member two weeks ago and came this last Sunday to church again!  He accepted to take the missionary discussions and he even called us and asked if he could be a member and be baptized!!  Holy Miracles, right?  I am so excited!  We meet with him in DC tomorrow!  So that is the good news here!  

Also, today was transfers and Elder Kuddes and I get to stay together!!! YAY!  We are both very happy.  We had an awesome last transfer and he hopes to have an even better one to finish out the mission.  I can't believe he dies after this transfer and in 6 weeks I get to kill him :) Yay me!  (Once again... not literally.  Here in DC we "kill" our missionaries instead of just sending them home.  That would be boring!)  Oh and Elder Stoor, one of the missionaries in our district, left and his old companion Elder Loveless and is training now!  Also a sister in our district is training as well!  So, I am no longer the youngin' around here.  It feels good to be young, but not the baby :)  

Also today was the last transfers with the Matsumoris. It was weird.  Sad because they were leaving but also very wonderful because we all were happy for them having served a great mission here.  We all sang our mission song and then sang a third verse the APs gave us.  The M's were in tears and so were most of us! (Not me because Big Girls Don't Cry ;) )  Ha-ha so we had a great transfer meeting!  And we even gave the M's hugs!  So it was a good goodbye.   I am excited to see who and how the new President will be.  He gets here the first of July I think.

Well, all is going great out here!  I love you all and hope everything and everyone is doing well! 

Love,

Sean

P.S. I loved the package!  Thanks again!  I got the stationary too!  Love the colors this time!  Tell GM thanks for the stamps too!  I love protein so I vote for that in my packages :)  I am going on a no sugar diet!!  Got to stay fit! 

Tell Brian his beard and hair look legit and that I hope he does great at camp and football camp too!

Night of Music and Inspiration

Hello my family and friends!

This week has been a blur!  I feel like I was just writing my e-mail last week.  Today we were able to go to the Temple for our trip we take every 6 weeks, the week right before transfers!  This transfer went by crazy fast too.  But the Temple trip was really great.  I love going to the Temple and plan on going ALL THE TIME when I get back to school in Rexburg.  I feel silly almost for wasting all the opportunities I had to go and chose not to.  But I guess that is one of the many things the mission has changed in me. We also went to the Temple Visitors Center on Sunday for the "Night of Music and Inspiration".  It was really fun!  We had a power outage because of a big storm so the big theater didn't work.  So last minute we had to pull a piano out of a back room and set up a bunch of chairs and put them out for everyone right in the middle of the Visitor's Center!  It was hectic but fun.  The scary thing was that we had so many people packed in and no microphones.  So we were pretty much told to BELT our songs.  It went well and Elder Peterson, my MTC buddy, and I sang "A Child's Prayer."  Everyone complemented us so I guess we did okay.  Ha-ha.  I don't know why I have had so many opportunities to sing so far on my mission.  I feel like Grandma is praying for me to sing a lot ;)  And I never refuse to sing because in D&C it says something about losing our talents that the Lord gives us so... I don't want to lose my voice! 

Anyway, we have had a little bit of bad luck with our many investigators on date who have either stopped meeting with us or just fell off the face of the earth.  So Satan is working hard on them.  So I guess I am just going to have to work harder to beat him!  We received a couple new referrals and also a new investigator who is really solid, so we should hopefully be getting a lot more people towards coming to church and more baptisms as well!  Besides that not too much has happened.  The singles ward is a little tougher in the summer when people go home from school or are just out of town a lot.  However, the work goes on and the ward is surprisingly feeding us quite a bit!!  So that is a big plus.  I guess they like us or something :)

Well... that's about it for the week.  I have to get going anyway.  Thanks everyone for the support through e-mails, letters, packages, and especially the prayers.  I love you all. 

Love,

Sean

P.S.  I love the package you sent it was awesome! 

First Baptism!!

Hello Family,

Wow!  Thanks for all the pictures!  Everyone looks great.  I love that hike to Emerald Lake.  Everyone better be in shape and ready for one last trip in 2016!  We can even pack a cot or something for Dad ;)  Sounds like this summer(mostly June)  is going to be very crazy, but fun.  It is really weird to me that he is going to be a Senior!  Ha-ha I remember those days... wow now its been over a year since I was a Senior... I am getting old. :D 

As for things here... Well yesterday was awesome and also terrible.  I got really sick and was throwing up and really wasn't doing so hot.  Today I am feeling better, not quite myself, and hopefully by tomorrow I should be 100%.  The good part about yesterday was that we added a couple more people to our potential baptisms and we have 7 on date now!  Yay!  So the work here is going great!  Also, this last Sunday we had the privilege to hear from President and Sister Matsumori.  They spoke on missionary work and hopefully it will get the singles all pumped to help us out!  I also go to go back to Derwood and see my "dad" Elder Anderson for Amanda's Baptism!  And guess what!  Your son had his first baptism on the mission!  And I got the opportunity to baptize her.  She wanted me to do it I guess :)  So that was super awesome!  I will hopefully get a picture sent with this e-mail as well.  Amanda also received the gift of the Holy Ghost since the next two Sundays are conferences or something so they won't be able to do it for a couple weeks at church.  So they did it right after the baptism!  It was really a cool experience to be a part of both.  And Amanda was so happy!  That was really the best part... just being able to see how happy she was and the change that happened in her life.  

Together, Again....just for a short time!!

So my past week has been amazing besides this being sick stuff ha-ha.  Oh, and yes I will be singing this Sunday at the Temple's Visitors Center with Elder Peterson.  Pretty cool, huh?  :)  I also don't have a lot of time left for today but I just want to say thanks for all the prayers and support.  I couldn't do this without my family and friends.  The Lord has really been blessing me and I know that this mission is the best thing I am doing.  I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. 

Love you and miss you all!

Love,

Sean

P.S. I havent gotten the Daniel Lacey tie package yet so I will let you know when I do.  I am also sending a SD card this week.  :)  Thanks for everything you do for me!  I appreciate the cards, letters, emails, and packages!

1 Day Short of 4 Months!!

Elder Kuddes and Elder Farley

Hey Mom!

So this week has been crazy packed with awesome miracles.  First off we took one of our investigators who is on date for Baptism to the Temple Visitor's Center last week and watched the Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration movie and she totally felt the Spirit.  She used to say she didn't know God was there but she reads and prays all the time and she even told us she got an answer that this church is true!  Yay!  And on Sunday we committed two brothers and their best friend to be baptized in June and they accepted!  And just today we got a referral from the college park elders of a guy who wants to go to the YSA ward and he is on date for Baptism as well!  So once we re-extend a baptism date to the one investigator we have who wasn't quite ready yet, we will have 7 on date for baptism!  Crazy, huh!  I am so excited!  I get so happy when I see peoples lives chance for the better because of the gospel!  It just strengthens my testimony more and more.  I am so thankful for this mission experience and all I am learning, have learned, and all that I will learn in the future.  I know there are so many of my brothers and sisters just waiting for me to go and teach them.  I just have to find em'! 

So all is well in Maryland!  Thank you all for your prayers and support! 

Everything at home sounds really good!  Crazy, but good.  Summer time for us always seems to be crazy though!  I am jealous you all got to go to Dion's with Danny and his family!  Tell them all I say hi.  Sounds like State Track was okay.  Too bad no one likes track anyways though... It really was only invented for people who can't play football or for those who need to stay in shape over Spring time ;) ha-ha. 

I can't believe Danny-boy Lacey...er... I mean Elder Lacey(so cool---another Elder) is already in the MTC!  I am so excited for him!  It is such a blessing to know all my friends are on missions or almost out!  Speaking of which, I got my tie that is my twinner with Elder Woods... I am super stoked for mine with Elder Lacey!  Happy day! 

 

Twinner Tie w/ Elder Woods!

Also, have you seen Brian lately?  He is a MAN!  He is almost in the 1000lb club for football.  Pretty sure anyone that gets in his way next year is going to be R.I.P.  It makes me proud to see him destroying my squat max and he is going to pas up my bench and power clean max any day now!  I am so excited for Fall.  Farmington Scorpions 2013 season.  State Champs, without a doubt. 

Well I hope everyone is doing great.  I just want you all to know how happy I am to be part of our family.  Heavenly Father truly gave me the best family I could ever ask for.  Thank you or all that you do.  I love you all and will talk to you soon!  Keep reading those scriptures!

Love,

Sean

P.S. Mom I am taking your 60 day BoM reading challenge!  So far I am in Mosiah 14!  :)  Oh and Elder Anderson says THANK YOU for the package!  He loved it!  Oh and I don't have time to respond to Dad's letter or Summer but tell them I read it and love them!  And tell them thanks for the emails and letter!  Dad's letter was really great and I will write him next week.  I only got one out to Brian since we had zone activity all day today and now are about to head to an appointment!

Point Lookout

Point Lookout

Hey Mom, Family and Friends,

This week has been amazing!  First off, I got to talk to my amazing family and even a little surprise appearance of Daniel Lacey!  So that was super awesome!  I really was happy to hear everyone's voice.  And it was great that Caiside talked to me too!  :) As for here in Maryland: We have continued to teach our three investigators who are on date and also picked up a new investigator who is amazing!  Hopefully by the end of this week we will have a couple more investigators on date for baptism and maybe a few new investigators.  I have been loving this area!  Missionary work is the best.  I really am enjoying the work and am learning, like Dad has always said, to "make work fun!"  And it really is and can be when you know why you are doing it and when you see the outcome.  :)  The Elders and Sisters in my District are awesome too!

Today for P-day we went down to the bottom of the state at a place called Point Lookout for sunrise pictures.  We got up a little before 3 am and drove down with the other two Elders in our District, Elder Stoor and Elder Loveless.  They are both amazing missionaries!  We drove down hoping for clear skies but unfortunately it was mostly cloudy.  But we were able to take some pretty cool pictures anyways and we had a lot of fun being by the ocean and seeing the country of Maryland.  We then went and visited some other Elders on the way home and I got to see my old MTC buddy Elder Owens!  He is doing great.  We had Costco pizza for lunch and I couldn't resist their famous berry smoothies so I had one of those as well.  So it has been a LONG but very fun p-day! And for the first time this transfer we are emailing at the institute building that is on the Univ. of Maryland's campus.  Fun stuff.

Chillin' with Kermit!!

It's good to hear about everyone back home and how great everything is going!  I am so excited for Danny boy and his mission.  Hopefully he gets all his jone packed up so he can get on the plane!  Ha-ha.  I am so happy to see all of my friends joining the ranks and accepting their call from the Lord!  The church is true!  And my testimony grows as I see all these amazing men and women go out to help bring the rest of the world to gain a testimony of the truth for themselves.

Sounds like Brian and the F-town crew will be going to BYU Football camp!  Does Brian have to cut his hair... I hope not.  Just do what Dad's friend at BYU did:  Slick your hair back into a neck brace... or in your case your cowboy collar!  Ha-ha.  But that is super awesome!  That place really does help get you prepared for the season especially since it is full pads.  Dang... I wish I could still be playing football with all those guys.  I am like 170 right now!  Staying skinny... or at least trying haha!  That way I won'

t be all fat in two years!

Well that is really all that has happened!  I will keep working hard and doing the work out here in good ol' Maryland!  I am so thankful for all of you and am thankful to Heavenly Father for putting you each in my life!  Love you! 

Love,

Sean

Glenn Dale Singles Ward

Hello there my Momma,

Well it has been one full week here in the Glenn Dale Singles ward and it has been amazing!  It is so weird to be working with people around my age though, I feel like they don't want to listen to me sometimes but then yesterday a girl we were teaching thought I was the oldest missionary out of the other 3 who were with me.  She thought I was like 25 :) So that gave me a confidence boost.  Ha-ha!  The campus is super cool too!  We go there almost every day because we teach a lot at the institute building that is on campus and we go to a lot of the YSA activities when we get investigators there. 

Church on Sunday was different because we just got a group of guys selling Pest Control for the summer that are from Utah.  So there are a ton of RMs here that would not usually be here.  And since it was fast Sunday I got up and bore my testimony too. (Something all missionaries do in a new area.)  It was nice to meet so many great 'young' people here in Maryland.  Even though most of them are like 30.  As for the car thing... eh.  It is really nice since I won't die of heat stroke this summer but I wish I was still on the bike sometimes.  But I did miss driving :)  And as for CDs we only can listen to church hymns in the car -_- ha-ha so we listen to those on repeat all day.  But I want to send my iPod home so that I can get more music on it.  That would be nice. 

It is great to hear about everything going on at home!  I am glad everyone is healthy too.  It is nice to see Brian with the Elders.  Once summer hits and school is over he needs to go tract with them :) get a little experience in. Also,  Brian's hair is super money!  I love it.  I can't wait for the Thor hair ha-ha!

So just a little bit about what is going on here:  I came into the area and we had one investigator on date for baptism.  Since then we have been tracting A TON and giving the sisters in our area a bunch of referrals since we don't tract into a lot of singles.  We have seen so many blessings and miracles since we have been giving referrals though!  We now have 3 on date and maybe 3 more if everything works out with our new investigators.  It has been a blast!  Elder Kuddes is a great guy!  A big change in companionships compared to Anderson, but I already love the guy.  We both are pushing each other to be exactly obedient and to work as diligently as we possibly can!  He only has two more transfers including this one though.  So I might be his last companion if we stay for two transfers!  Oh, and the wards goal and mission goal for baptisms in our area for the year is 4.  If we get 6 in a couple months it will be an amazing miracle!  But the Lord seems to continue to bless us.  :)  I am so excited.

Little side story:  We went to a appointment yesterday so that we could meet a couple of investigators our Zone Leaders were passing to us (also our two new B-dates) and after we got onto the wrong road and got lost FOREVER!!  Elder Kuddes was confident he was going the right way but we almost left our area boundary!  Which for us in the YSA area is the mission boundary!  Luckily, we found our way back thanks to my amazing map skills! (I'm kidding... it was mostly my luck!)  Anyway, we got back and were able to tract into a new investigator that we passed to the sisters, so it all ended well.  We now know not to take the "cursed' road that has no exits! :)  So all-in-all its been the best week ever! 

Oh, and as for pictures I am not taking as many as I was last transfer but I will get on top of it and will try to send the SD cards home often.  (Sorry I forgot to bring my camera to the library today. :/ )

I love you all and am thankful for all you do for me!  I can't wait for this weekend! 

Love your son,

Sean