Pictures! And More Updates from Beckley

We finally got some pics this week.  A couple are below and we'll post more later.  He is doing great!

Wearing out his "sole" in the service of God (why is the other shoe so nice?)

Wedding of some investigators!

May 19, 2014

Hi Everyone!

So I did get the shirts shoes and camera! Thank you.  I sent the other [photo] card home so you should have some pictures, but I didn’t find that other one yet. And the shirts kinda fit. They are super long but that are still pretty baggy on my shoulders. If there is a way you can send some that are smaller and slim fit? These ones always come untucked and look baggy. But it’s better than a long sleeve!

Also I haven’t got an estimate for my eye stuff yet. I do know they said the insurance would cover $50 on the exam and around 100-150 on the other stuff. I will be going there after we finish e-mailing and I can e-mail you the estimate on a day when we are at the library again this week.

Also for the new camera it needs an SD card. The other camera had a XD card. So I can take like 4 pictures on this camera until I buy a new SD card.  So just wondering if you all could help me out so I could buy one of those today so I can take more pictures!

Richard and Kathy got married and it was good. We had a member take them out to dinner to celebrate. Now he leaves for 2 weeks for some training cause he is in the army reserves, but Kathy said we can bring a member and continue to visit her.

Savannah is on date for June 29th. She has come to church 3 times in a row now, and her dad told her we are not allowed over there anymore and that she can’t come to church, so she told us yesterday looks like we will need to find another place to meet. She also said, “I’ll bring my 9 year old niece to church Sunday!” So she is doing great.

The others are still kinda progressing but not as much mainly because we haven’t had time to see them.

This week was full of meeting people who just talked and talked and talk about what they learned in the bible by using Hebrew translations and trying to sounds super smart. It was funny though because they had no idea what they were saying. It was just a rant fest!

And I did the gallon challenge last week. That video should be on the camera card I sent you all. I’m sure you'll be so proud!

Other than that things are going well.

Love you all!

Elder Latimer

May 26, 2014

Hi Everyone!

Beckley is still going well. This week was a little bit slower, but it was still good. We saw Courtney and helped her to understand how to receive answers to prayer and the need to take a leap of faith. She told us she never gets anything out of church, and we don’t blame her.  The last Sundays that she went to were so bad! But this one was Ward Conference, and it was awesome! The stake president gave a talk on prayer and answers and leaps of faith. The stories he told were all like the same situation Courtney is in and so was the bishop’s talk. Then, in gospel principles we talked about faith in Christ and it was perfect. We hope it helped her to progress.

And I will start to take some more pictures. I just always find it hard to pose for pictures. You know me, but I will do my best. As of late the mission has been doing terrible with car wrecks. Pres. and Sister Pitt aren’t too happy and so part of zone conference was talking about that. Since then (one week) there have been 3 more accidents so in their e-mail today they said if there is one more preventable accident the whole mission will be walking! I sure hope not. Also he taught about priesthood lines of authority and revelation. How there is a priesthood line and a personal line, and through the priesthood line come the keys and personal line the revelation. He also taught how there are callings like the quorum of the 70 who are serving under assigned keys, where they are given keys for assignments and then after the assignment they lose them. He told us about how two 70s were recently called in the Ukraine, and so even if we get completely shut out of there, even just through a text message the keys can be delegated to help the Church continue to grow and function in the Ukraine! It’s great to have a prophet! It was really cool. There is a lot more to it, but I don’t have my notes and would take a while to type it out!

That’s crazy that Jake is already going to the mission field! I do write him still. I don’t know if he told you but he said his teacher said in his mission the cartel will throw grenades in the street and drive around with 50 calibre turrets on the bed of a pick-up truck. But the good news is they are all God fearing people and they love and protect the missionaries because they are men of God.

Jace should take Jake’s story [about being bullied] and put it to use! That kid needs to learn! Sometimes people need a good old fashioned beating to get it through their head... just like me in 8th grade when I got my head busted open....

That’s so funny about nana [being called to serve in Young Women’s]! She is going to learn how to work technology. It will be so good! I’ll bet you before she knows it she will be a computer wiz! Or at least a cell phone expert!

I’m so excited for [football] season to start up again, so I can break out my Seahawks tie on Sundays! It worked last year and I’m hoping for a repeat this year! Speaking of that has the Sherman jersey been signed yet? Just curious.

Other than that all is well and still keeping pretty busy which is nice. Oh and I am going to be seeing the doctor this week about my stomach ache – the same problem i had a while back, where it felt like I got stabbed by a knife. But this time it was worse. I coughed and about doubled over! So I’ll have to get it checked again.

Love you all!

Elder Latimer 

May Updates

May 6, 2014

Hi Everyone!

So I haven’t gotten the shirts and that’s the right address. I don’t think its the address that’s the problem, it is definitely the mail man. I’ve never had one so absent-minded and lazy! He doesn’t take the mail we send unless we get something in the mail. He just walks right on by and leaves our letters. I got a card from Nana and Grandpa Ron the other day, and he came to our mail box, and we went outside to get it and he says, "Sorry, I’ve had this for a while." It was like a week late! He just forgot to deliver it I guess? We have about gone to the Post Office and complained, or where ever we need to go to get that taken care of. He has problems! Within the last week, those 3 short sleeve shirts I have all ripped, and now I’m down to only 1 long sleeve shirt, and we are supposed to get in the mid 80's all this week! So I was planning on buying one short sleeve white shirt with my mission card today and wondering if you could just throw some money on my home card so I’m not completely broke this month! I tried to work the other day in a long sleeve, and I might as well of sat in a sauna, IT WAS NASTY!!

Hopefully, the camera will get here because you have the right address. Maybe our mailman is a hard core protestant and doesn’t like Mormons? I don’t know!

Other than that transfers are happening tomorrow and to our surprise both of us are staying in Beckley! Which is nice because we are seeing some great progress here, and I’m excited to continue to help the people. We think we can get at least one baptism this transfer!

Last P-day was great! We had a pound of Reeses cups we got from a member on Easter… two half pound cups. We talked a missionary into eating both in under 10 minutes. Needless to say he did it and felt absolutely terrible! We found out in less that ten minutes he ate 2280 calories and over 150 grams of fat! And the kicker is that they were 7 months Expired! It was glorious! Don’t worry I have a video of it for you all!

Stake conference was great. Saturday night was awesome! President Pitt did speak and he was unbelievable. It was one of the coolest talks I’ve heard. I think part of that was he is done being mission president in 12 weeks. He is pretty sad about it! He taught us at a district meeting about a few of the things he talks to missionaries about before they go home. He talked about the temple, prophets and apostles and the doctrine of marriage. He covered what he said took 4 hours in the mission home briefly in our meeting, and told us he has a lot more to say when specialized training rolls around.  He said he has to say things that are so important he doesn’t want to tell us until his last transfer. We are guessing he is going to "rid his garments" I guess you could say. I don’t know if I wanna go to that meeting!  But I kinda do!

Anyway things here are good and weather is getting nicer which makes everyone happier and there are more people to talk to.

And I am E-mailing Jake we are keeping up on each other!

I was thinking the same thing about having to re adjust to Seattle. It’ll be weird to have buildings and people around. Like I said, to me now Beckley is huge, we were driving and saw like 15 people walking around within 5 minutes and we were both just blown away because we were both in tiny areas most of our mission! Maybe I’ll try and request going to Roanoke for my last few transfers? It’s the biggest city in the mission maybe that’ll help me get adjusted a little better,

Love you all!!

Elder Latimer

May 12, 2014

Editors Note:  On Mother’s Day, Elder Latimer was allowed to call home and so we spent about 45 minutes talking to him via SKYPE.  It was so much fun!  He looks good and sounds even better.  Because of the call, however, the letter is a little short this week! Enjoy!

Hi Everyone! 

It was good to talk to you all last night, and yes they did get to skype with their son [Eds. – the family from whose computer he was skyping from has a missionary who is in Japan and called in during the end of our call!]! I was afraid after I got off.  I told them, and they got it set up on their TV and then called him like 10 times with no answer. So I was standing there awkwardly and finally he answered so it was all good!

Oh and one thing we found out this morning . . . we found out that lady we helped move Saturday... she called us this morning and let us know that she found out people broke in and were using her basement as a meth lab. So that’s great that we got to smell all that stuff.  It’s not good for you! But that’s okay. If I ever start coughing up blood I’ll know I should go to the Doc :)

And other than that not much else is happening that I haven’t told you. There were a bunch more stories, but I didn’t have time so I’ll have to tell you all those when I’m back.  They aren’t quite as good without the accents and emphasis! 

Love you all!

Elder Latimer