September Letters - Leaves are Changing!

Finally got around to posting the last several letters.  Elder Latimer may be transferred tomorrow (we don't know yet), but you can always reach him by e-mail at joshua.latimer@myldsmail.net!  Please write him, he would love to hear from you! -- eds.

September 16, 2013

Hi All!

I’m doing well here. Jay is coming along.  He is still planning on getting married so he and possibly his family can be baptized, but I don’t know if he talked to his fiancé yet. We will see though! We are still teaching Jordan and Dakota. With Dakota, because of behavioral problems, we are working a lot closer with his parents to make sure he is ready and not telling us he is ready when he isn’t. Then with Jordan we have just been fellowshipping with his mom to get on her good side. She is an awesome person, but she just doesn’t want her son to make a mistake. So we have been going to all his football games and catch rides with Ryan [his brother] and his mom to go to the away games. It’s a lot of fun.  It’s nice because Ryan is a big football buff too. We sit there and talk game strategies and have even begun kind of sideline coaching. Every once in a while the coaches come to the stand and talk to Ryan and I and ask us what we are seeing and what we think would work. It’s pretty cool. That’s something I want to kind of get into after the mission. I would love to coach a high school team! And of course a D1 team but that’s just a little harder to do!

That’s crazy the weather got that warm this time of year! It doesn’t even get there here in the summer! Over here it’s been getting a lot nicer. Fall is here. It’s been mid 70's the last week or two so it’s been nice. The leaves are beginning to change. I’m really excited for that. I’ll make sure to take pictures for you! 

Also at church yesterday we had a member’s less active son come with his non-member wife.  She is getting him back into church and really interested in the church. We taught her the restoration and after she told us how much she loved it. She felt most churches try to push everything on you, and while we were teaching she just felt really peaceful! That was a really cool experience so hopefully we can help her work to baptism!

That’s cool Jake is back at school. I bet the girls will keeping encouraging him as he prepares for his mission. From what I hear from missionaries out here is that they call BYU-I BYU- “I Do.”  They say all the girls are there for is to find a return missionary. They just go to school until they find them then that’s it, I guess. I’m not sure I would want to go there when I get back, but I don’t know. I just enjoyed Boise State too much! Plus lacrosse!

Sounds like I get my pain tolerance from you mom! You had bad asthma and felt like you had broken ribs and you had no idea! That’s crazy, glad you are feeling better!

We don’t have a “day of service” here.... At least not that I have heard of. But people see us a lot of the time as free manual labor so we get our fair share in! Like tonight we are helping unload a couple hundred bails of hay. It’ll be a good workout as well as our 3 1/2 hour workout this P-day morning!

Speaking on working out we, did chest today, and I decided to find my max. I’m at about 190-200 right now, so im getting there. I’m up to around 155 lbs in body weight or so! I’m pretty excited. I’m sure I told you, I want to get to at least 180 and get my 40 time back up from when I hurt my knee. Then maybe walk on -- even practice squad when i get back! That would be a dream come true. But that’s quite a bit of muscle to put on.  210 would be nice :) But even if that were to be possible for me, I’d need to be home to get that big, not enough time or weight on the mission.

That’s so funny about Jace! He is a witty one! The best part is he was probably serious when he said it huh? That’s awesome. I’ll have fun talking with him and Jonathan about football that would be cool. I just wish they could stick with it! I would love to kind of coach them.  That would be fun.

I’m more than excited about the Seahawks and the Dawgs!!!! Even on my mission just like back home knowing they won makes me happy. So I’m more than excited!!

That’s about it. I may have forgot something but I’ll send it next week!

Love you!

Elder Latimer

September 23, 2013

Hi Everyone

It’s definitely becoming fall here in West Virginia too! The leaves are starting to change. The majority of the trees are still green, but now I can tell some of the color differences between them. I really excited for when everything is red orange and yellow! It’s nice because it’s beginning to cool down. Highs are in the mid 70's and the nights low 50's. It’s perfect!  And I guess this summer was abnormally cool and from what people tell me there was A TON on more rain than normal. So I’m not too excited to experience a normal summer. Because of all the rain, they say it will be a pretty bad winter this year, which I’m not too worried about because I like severe weather, especially as a missionary it’s a nice change of pace!

I really hope Jace stays with football! If not, oh well. That’s funny he still does that cry. I remember I was always in between laughing at it and getting mad because it got so annoying!

That’s good Jake is doing well at school.  It’s funny he is the same place as Jamie. I would always give him a hard time about her. I don’t know why, but that’s just who it was. He is lucky he has a lot of cute girls im his ward. Both of my areas have had no cute girls. I guess that’s a blessing while I’m out here.

That’s sad about Bishop Eden's mom. I’ve met a lot of people out here and back in Boise who have had parents pass away. I’m glad I still have you guys!

It’s cool Ryan, Ben and Jeff all got jobs! And jobs they wanted! I’ve been writing Alex, and he was telling me about how he is wanting to move out of state. Not sure why, but I’m guessing to start new? At least he is looking at trade school though. Next time you see Alex and Jim tell them I said “Hi!”

This week not too much happened. We did finally get a washer and Dryer. Both came without any hook ups so we had to buy them. The washer took us an hour to set up because one of the water hoses was cracked, and so we had to return it and get a new one -- wasting those precious miles! Then the dryer needed a bigger outlet and some 220 wire, so we went and bought the outlet and after cutting the power and taking off the outlet cover, we found out that we need to run a 220 wire all the way to the fuse box. So unless we can find an electrician we will still have to dry at the Laundromat, although it does save us a lot of money.

Other than that Jay is still working on getting married and hopefully his fiancé agrees with him. Dakota is hard to get a hold of like always, but we plan to visit him this week and hopefully he is ready. Jordan is still working with his mom, so he can be baptized as well. We are also teaching less active member’s wife. She is a great person who I think will get to the waters of baptism, but I probably won’t be here just because I will probably leave this transfer which is the first week in October but you never know! 

Love you guys!

Elder Latimer

September 30, 2013

Dear All:

I’m glad to hear about the Huskies and Hawks! Sounds like they are both looking really good! That's crazy the Seahawks played so badly, but I’m sure that game was fun to watch with the comeback.  Of course, it was Richard Sherman who had the pick-6! I think he is one of my new favorite players.  He is so mouthy it’s ridiculous. He has gotten into arguments with guys like Darrel Revis (Revis Island) about how much better he is. I don't know what it is, but he is so cocky it’s fun to watch him do well and shut up the people who don't like it!

Good thing the Huskies play Oregon at home. I’m sure we will need that home field advantage to help us out. I really hope they beat Stanford. That would be huge!

The area is doing well. Our main problem is getting parents to be ok with our investigators being baptized, and to get Jay to get married. It’s frustrating working with these people for so long and not seeing a lot of progression. But we do have a few that are doing well, like the less-active member’s wife. So this past week or two we have been working with all of them as opposed to finding because we are trying to get them ready and push them while I am here, before they get another brand new missionary in the area who they might be a little more hesitant about. Transfers are next week. I’m really hoping I’m going to leave. The area is good, but there just isn't much work to do.  It is a tough area, and I’ve been here long enough!

The last P-day we had a huge touch football game together with Ryan [and investigator] and his friends. We probably had close to 20 people, and the best part was it was competitive. It was a lot of fun being able to play again! I don't know if it’s been my [weight] lifting but I feel faster, like a lot faster, which is nice knowing my knee isn't bothering me. It was nice to play football at around 150-155 lbs, as opposed to high school when I was like 115-120. There’s a big difference.

The electrical [home improvement] stuff I’ve learned out here.  I’ve learned quite a bit about that kind of fix it stuff because everyone here is pretty self-reliant and fix all their own stuff.  It’s probably because most can’t afford to have it done professionally so they learn to do it themselves. As they do it they like to explain how they do it and all that good stuff, so I feel like I’m getting some good skills out here!

We aren’t sure about where we’ll go for general conference. Maybe a member’s house would be the best so we don't waste over 400 miles going to Clarksburg twice -- even though the closest member is like 20 miles away. We will see what happens.  I’m excited for it especially after being in this tiny branch forever. I get to hear people who are exciting speakers and know what they are talking about speak. Yesterday someone gave a 45 minute talk on translated beings.... and I’m pretty sure the majority of it was false, but I’m not sure as I haven't ever really studied it.  One Sunday we gave a Sunday school lesson to the branch on the Word of Wisdom, and they got off on the tangent of eating in moderation. Someone asked whether we were supposed to give fat people temple recommends because it is obvious they don’t eat in moderation? We didn't want to make that call.   The next week we had someone from stake leadership join us and he was asked about it and said he wasn’t really sure either.  Strange.

I’ll be sure to send my photo card.  I have a few pictures with people we are teaching and things, but I will have to get more. I will send it out soon. Not too many pictures of the leaves yet. They are starting to change and it’s really cool!  But they aren’t even close to where they will be so I’ll have more coming later!

Love you guys!

Elder Latimer

October 8, 2013

Dear Everyone:

This week has been a lot of me training Elder Shaffer on the area. I haven’t been officially notified that I’m being transferred, but we do know one, or maybe both of us are leaving. We find out who and where tonight.  So I am still in Pennsboro and our P-day is Wednesday this week, but we are sending e-mails on Tuesday because the library isn’t open tomorrow for some reason.

We are still working with the same people mainly. The biggest problem is that Jordan and Dakota both want to be baptized but their parents are holding them back. Other than that the week has been full of me helping Elder Shaffer get to know the area better because I’m guessing I’m leaving after being here for so long but you never know!

Sadly, not much else is going on, just trying to do our best to help the investigators we have progress.

I haven’t seen conference yet. We didn’t have it streamed out here, and no members were able to have us over to watch it. So we plan this week to be at the library and watch all the sessions throughout the week. I’m really excited to listen to what was said.

As I mentioned, we have been working out.  We wake up at 5 a.m., so we have plenty of time to work out and still get all our study and prep time in. That’s too bad about the Huskies and Seahawks. It’s even more frustrating that it was so close and knowing that we had a chance to win. But it is good to know that we can play close with teams that are that good! Hopefully the Dawgs can beat Oregon because they play them at home. How great would that be?!

I am doing well and enjoying the mission. The leaves are still changing and will continue to until around the end of October. I’ll make sure to keep taking pictures!

Love you guys!

Elder Latimer