Move to Virginia!

The webmaster has been deliquent in posting so there are a number of letters this post!  The first thing you should know is that Elder Latimer has been transferred.  His new mailing list is 517 Mason Ct. Drive, #4, Pearisburg, VA 24134.  You can also e-mail him at joshua.latimer@myldsmail.net. He would love you to write him!

October 12, 2013

Hi Everyone:

I got a chance to get on the computers today for a little bit and figured I would let you know that I’m in Pembroke, Virginia now. It’s a pretty cool place. It is a really small just like my last area, but we actually have the stake center here and a ward. I’ve met the bishop and a couple other members. Down here they have a pretty thick accent, and its everyone not just every other like in West Virginia. I really like it here so far, and my companion is awesome. We get along well and have the same interests and outlook on things. My comp’s name is Elder Thueson. He is from Nampa, Idaho, which is like 20 min from Boise. He lived on a farm and worked there his whole life, played football and basketball and also tore his left ACL. He is pretty cool, and we work well together. 

Also we have 11 people on date here. One is a family of 6 who should be baptized this transfer along with a lot of other very promising investigators! So the work his is moving forward, and it will be a nice change to have people to work with! We also are teaching a family who has a 12 year old daughter who is into acting and been in a lot of commercials and has a contract with Disney I think they said.  She is flying out to shoot a movie with Ice Cube and Channing Tatum, which is pretty cool.

Anyway, that’s just the update, and I feel bad putting this in here because I always feel like I’m asking for too much, but it’s getting a little colder here and I’ve gotten 10 pounds bigger and my sweaters for over my white shirts have shrunk in the wash and are too small.  I was wondering if you could transfer some money onto my card so I could get 1 or 2 more to wear so I won’t have to wear that huge ski jacket all the time! Also a little for food? Just because I got all my food in my last area and then I got transferred and now don’t really have any. My support card has money to get me by for a little but I’m not sure how long... sorry. Also would you be able to send me my cleats from when I played at BSU the white and orange ones? The members and investigators like to play football here and with the turkey bowl coming up it would be nice to have them. Also if you can find it my black tank top with the green logo that looks like a heart rate monitor and turns into the sky line? I don’t like to work out in my t-shirts because I don’t have many so I try to save them for service and things. 

Anyways I love you guys! Tell Jake, Joe, Jonathan, and Jace I say “hi!”

I’ll make sure to take a lot more pictures because the leaves are starting to change even more! 

Love you guys!

Elder Latimer 

October 14, 2013

Hi Everyone!

The new area is great! Still a small town but bigger than Pennsboro and has a Wal-Mart! It is a relief to finally get out of Pennsboro. Some people there were great but it was hard with no support from members and no one to teach. So far the ward here is amazing and is all about missionary work and want to help in every way they can.  Having people to teach is nice! Out of the 11 on date 8 are very promising, and we are sure they will make the date of November 16th. We are excited for them. The family of 6 (Blankenships) were a member referral, but I haven’t met them yet. The other two are the daughters of a recent convert who was just baptized last week and in turn re-activated her husband!

And the area you described sounds exactly like where I’m at. The fall colors are really cool, and they aren’t even in full swing yet! I have a few pictures, but they will only get better! I’m excited to do some hikes around here, because I hear they have some really cool ones,  although the coolest one I heard is now shut down because the federal government shut down.

My comp is great – a really chill guy. He had a hard transfer last transfer with his companion, who was pretty difficult from what he tells me. So I think we will have a fun transfer. The other day we actually had to corrall some goats after a member returned from a show they did. That was interesting because I was told not to let one of them choke when it ran as I held its collar because it would pass out.  And as all the other goats walked of course this one tried to run. So in turn I tried to run with it so I wouldn’t choke it. It was an interesting ordeal.

I dont know if i need anything else sent from home other than T-Shirts would be good. Also my cleats I used when I was playing Lacrosse at BSU for when we play football here. Cotton sweaters would be good, just because I don’t want to have to spend the extra money on dry cleaning them.

That’s funny Nana got you some of your own potatoes! I would love to get some in the mail. I’m sure my Idaho companion would enjoy that too!

That’s crazy there are 100 primary kids, that’s almost as many as the ward here has active members!  Didn’t you say they were thinking about splitting out ward?

That’s too bad about your foot how long have you been going to physical therapy for it? I remember I never really liked going because it definitely wasn’t the most comfortable thing to do.

Other than that not much is going on just trying to learn the area better. Still getting settled in.

Love you Guys!

Elder Latimer

P.S

I will send you the address later in the day, we have it in the apartment but neither of us can remember what it is.

October 22, 2013

Hi Everyone!

That’s crazy you could see North Korea! Could you see houses and things or just the land? [In response to his dad flying by North Korea on his way to Japan from China]

It really is great to be in a new area! The people here have a much thicker accent than they do in West Virginia, but are still very nice! The family we are teaching is coming along well. We meet with them tonight to teach the third lesson, and we hope to get them to church this Sunday so they can make their date. Actually we might already have to move it back because our bishop here wants them to attend 3 times as opposed to 2 times, which is the mission rule. Also we are teaching a recent convert’s daughters who are 13 and 15. They both have been coming to church regularly and really love the gospel. Their mom told us the other day that they have been telling their friends about the church and inviting them to come!  I haven’t met the others yet. They have been busy and hard to get a hold of, but I’m excited to meet them.

Tomorrow we are having the ward Trunk or Treat. It’s nice having ward activities! From what we have been told, a lot of non-members show up there. We are also having a chili cook off for the adults too, and Elder Thueson and I will be the judges. I’m hoping they don’t have any that are too hot! When I was in Kentucky we had a member make some ghost pepper chili, and I couldnt taste food for like 3 days!

That’s too bad about the Huskies, even worse that they got destroyed! But they will pick it back up I’m sure.  I don’t remember if they play UCLA or not. I’m thinking they do because Stanford played them. If so, I think they can beat them, which will help with our ranking because they have been in the top 15 all year. I’m excited about the Hawks! I’m really hoping they play Denver in the Super Bowl. I have a lot of friends who are huge Bronco fans and it makes me mad, so it’ll be nice having a great match up that will end in me having bragging rights!

This year has gone fast to me too!  In the moment it feels like it’s never going to end and then you look back it seems to have gone by so fast. I guess that’s kind of like everything though. Days feel like weeks, and weeks feel like days.

We talked with Pres. Pitt the other day, and he was telling us we will have Facebook and Twitter and things like they by next year (2014), and he said within a few months we will all have our own personal iPads we take to every area we go as well as iPhones for the areas! How cool would that be?! He says they will be used for a lot of things, but one thing he told us about is that we will download the area book on the iPad and the bishop can track what we are doing and progress of investigators etc... as well as doing online teaching and more! It will be awesome! He also told a story of how a missionary in a mission where they are trying them out was able to teach his parents over Skype so they could be baptized. The same with if there is someone y'all know in another country or a friend somewhere else we could teach them over Skype! And then the missionaries in that area will also be involved, but we can start to teach people in other countries too!

It’s a pretty exciting time! I am glad I don’t have the flu yet.  I think as missionaries we might have a little extra protection from sickness :) At least i hope so! That would be terrible to have the flu out here, because I would be out a few days and then my comp would probably catch it and be out another couple days!

I bet Oliver [the family dog] will make sure to make his place on the new carpet. He just seems like he would do it to frustrate you!

And I got the orders from Macy's, thank you! I have not got my protein and things yet it must have gone to Jake.  Anyways I don’t know how to express how thankful I am!

Love you guys!

Elder Latimer

November 4, 2013

Hi Everyone!

This past week has been good.  I just started driving in the area so I will begin to learn it a lot faster.

I heard about the Seahawks last night, a member called and told me they were in OT with Tampa.  I thought he was just trying to get a reaction out of me because I’d been hearing about how bad Tampa Bay was all season. It wasn’t until he texted us that they ended up winning that I believed him.  If he would have said they lost I probably would have thought he was joking. I’m glad they didn’t lose! They need to start playing better if they are going beat Denver in the Super Bowl! 

This week nothing to exciting has happened, just a lot of appointments that fell through. Although we did finally meet with the Blankenship family again and on Sunday the father and one of his daughters came, and they plan on bringing the rest of them next Sunday. Also we had to two girls we are teaching Lexi and Aliyah come. They are set on date for the 16th and we are pretty sure they will make it! But we will have to reset the date with the Blankenships because the father and daughter could make it, but we want them to be baptized as a family.

This Saturday we go to Roanoke, Va with the Southern half of the mission to have a mission conference with Elder Sitati of the Seventy. So that should be a fun, long meeting though 9am-4pm. 

Other than that we plan on hiking the Cascades today, which is a pretty well-known hike in this area of the country, I guess.  It should be pretty cool. I’ll try and take pictures.  I forgot my camera charger in Pennsboro, so my camera is about dead, but it is being sent here soon. Is there anyway y'all could find a cord so I can download pictures onto the computer from the camera so I can e-mail them too?

And I am planning on bringing up doing a turkey bowl on Thanksgiving here for a ward activity for lass actives and investigators. I was asking around and no one around here in West Virginia or Virginia done know what the turkey bowl is. They even said no one plays football on Thursday morning! I thought that was crazy so I want to try and organizing something.

Other than that nothing else is really going on, just the same old routine. I cant think of any good stories now, but I’m sure I’ll remember some soon and have to write them down to send!

Love you guys!

Elder Latimer

November 11, 2013

Hi Everyone!

I’m doing well – just getting things taken care of and trying to keep busy in the area. I enjoyed that story.  Luckily, I haven’t served with a missionary like that. I don’t do well when people cry. I just don’t know what to do, so I usually will just go somewhere else until they are done.

Yesterday, the family we are teaching didn’t come to church. Matt had to work and so Yana didn’t feel comfortable going. But we did have a great lesson with them Saturday night! They had a lot of questions, and we resolved a lot of their concerns. They are an awesome family, but because they didn’t come to church we will have to reset their date. The girls [other investigators] are doing well, although we will have to reset their date also because they said they got nervous and didn’t feel like they know enough yet. They say they want to but only after they learn everything. So we are going to talk with them Wednesday night and hopefully get everything in order.

In our ward I think the relife society is out to get us. I guess Elder Thueson missed a dinner because he was in a three-some in another area after his comp left for Brazil and forgot. Since then they have been getting mad at us.  They don’t sign up and then call us mad because we didn’t show up!  When we check the calendar there is nothing there! Our bishop is having a few challenges too.  The visiting teaching routes got changed and I think there might be some sort of a mutiny forming. The Bishop always tells us. "Elders, some advice.... Never, I mean NEVER, get a group of women angry. That’s how World War II started." It was pretty funny so we are dealing with that too.

The meeting with Elder Sitati was LONG! It was from 9-4 and President Pitt spoke for 15 minutes or so, and Elder Sitati spoke the rest of the time. It was hard to understand him because of his accent and he was kind of quiet. He just taught about finding answers in the scriptures, but it was crowded and hot.

I’m glad the dawgs and hawks are doing so well! It’s bitter sweet being out here, but the good news is we have a member who has taken upon himself as his own calling as college football updater. So he will randomly let us know about scores! People here are pretty excited about Virginia Tech beating Miami. I hope the hawks play Denver in the Superbowl.  That would be one heck of a game!

Other than that, there is nothing too new, except we went to a house that was like caved in on one side and figured no one lived there (up in the middle of nowhere on some hill). We knocked anyway, and a lady answered the door and invited us in. We asked if we should take our shoes off and she said, "if you would like to" and then we looked down and the entire house floor was dirt! So we kept out shoes on.  As we walked over to another room, her mother, who I assume who is in her 80s probably, was in the kitchen and guess what she was doing? She was sweeping the dirt floor! I wanted to ask so bad, “WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU SWEEPING!” Anyway I thought that was funny. They are a different breed of people out here.

For Christmas, I was thinking when I get home I plan on getting my concealed weapons permit and buying myself a 9mm. So if y’all would be ok with it, you don’t need to send me anything this year to save for next Christmas where I can do the concealed class and get a 9mm or something of the sort? I mean you never know.  I’ve heard of multiple shootings lately, and they seem to happen more and more. Just imagine if someone there was armed. They could have saved lives and their own!

Anyway that all I have for the week!

Love you!

Elder Latimer