New Area as District Leader; Fall Arrives

September 22, 2014

Hi Everyone!

The new area isn’t too bad, just really, really slow. The last 2 transfers the missionaries didn’t do anything so we have like 1 investigator, and we saw him last night. He had been drinking since the morning and downed about 9 in the time we were there. I’m not going to lie, it was a blast, but kind of frustrating because there isn’t much we can teach when he is plastered. But from what I’ve been told, he goes to work drinks and falls asleep. Although he has a ton of great questions we will answer on Tuesday, and we committed him to be sober for it and he agreed, so we will see!

And interestingly enough, my prayers were answered in a way I didn’t expect or want, but it works either way – the Lord has a way of doing things. I was praying for a miracle to happen, so we have more work and people to teach. Especially because Elder Law hasn’t really taught anything or anyone his whole mission so he has the “I give up” kind of attitude at 6 months out. The Lord answered. The sisters we shared a ward with have had a TON of work and people they are teaching, and one of the sisters has had some medical problems going on the last couple months. President Salibury had decided with the doctors that she should go home to get it taken care of, and since there were no trio's in the mission they got doubled out today and we are now going to take over there area. So we now have a ton of work on our hands between their investigators, the few we have, and we are still finding while covering an entire county! So the Lord definitely answered, even though it meant having that sister go home. Although she was great about it, and understood it was the will of the Lord for her and she has a work to do back home.

And that’s cool you planted some flowers and stuff. In Beckley we always helped do service for an old lady who had cancer and work her garden under her direction, and I’ll tell you what, she is strict!  So after 5 months of it I learned a thing or two about gardening....

I’m excited for the fall here. The leaves here have been changing, it gets down to the 40's and 50's at night, but 80s in the day which is weird but it’s starting to wind down. I hope we get a good fall this year. Last year it got really cold really fast and super windy and took all the leaves before they got good.

I did get the package you sent, and I will pick some classes out and let you all know. I’ll also see what President has to say about me registering. I also got the SEAL talk. I actually read it the day you e-mailed it to me! I really enjoyed it. I’m hoping I can find a way to implement it to a district meeting. And cool side note, in the course book for BSU, I know the girl right in the middle of the group of students. Her name is Miranda McGary, and she is a member. She was in my group for the personal health class I took. It was weird seeing her on there, as well as the islander-looking guy. I knew him as well. He was a friend of one of my room mates freshman year. His name is Rodney! 

I’m glad the Huskies came back and showed ‘em up! Stanford will be a hard one but it seems like the Huskies always play to the level of the team they are playing. So I hope they can do that with Stanford and at least stay at that level! The Hawks better have won! I was going to get a lot of flack on Sunday if they didn’t! This ward is great and has a lot of young families and returned missionaries who are sport savvy, I guess you could say and a lot of fun! So it’s nice to be able to talk sports with people again. I haven’t been able to do that since ward council in Pembroke like over a year ago!

Thanks and Love you all!

Elder Latimer

September 29, 2014

Hi Everyone!

So yes, I did get my watch and the other stuff! I was so happy when I saw what all was in there! I switched my key ring over that instant I took it out of the package (a seahawks key ring), and I’m sure there will be a cold day when we do service I can wear, as that call it out here the "Toboggan" or "Boggan" (a seahawks knit hat).

I had no idea that they will be giving talks (in General Conference) in their native languages! That will be pretty cool! Although I’m not a fan of reading subtitles the whole time, but that’s all right. If anything, I’m sure I can just read it on Lds.org.

We do go to the church to watch conference unless we watch it with an investigator or with a member who invites us over. So I’m excited for it because, for one, you get to listen to people talk who are coherent and know what they are talking about. And it’s like a missionary vacation because its 2 days of just sitting around and eating! 

That’s crazy you all are doing trek again! That’s a lot! I guess that’s good you don’t have to travel so far. Although I remember when I went it wasn’t too bad for the youth because there were a ton of us and so we all had a good time just messing around. But I’m sure the adults didn’t have as much to do because they had to drive! 

I heard about UW and Stanford from an investigator. I’m surprised they played that close. They also told me they went for 2 on their first touchdown and a fake punt? I guess they could have won if they didn’t do either of those things? I don’t know it’s hard to say because if they worked coach Pete would be a hero and if they didn’t, he would be scrutinized. Oh well, it’s not like UW really had a national title shot this year anyway with UCLA, Stanford, and Oregon. But you never know! As long as Oregon doesn’t get a national title and a non-SEC team wins, I’ll be alright. Oh and, of course, if, or I should say, when UW beats WSU :)

And that’s good to know about school. I’ll have to take a better look at the course book and find some classes I need to take. Also I will e-mail president now and hope to have an answer next week about registering myself. 

And about the jeep, that would be great! Although I do really, really want a truck :) But I would still be more than excited about the jeep, especailly after I start working and I can lift it put some mud tires on in and put a couple amps and sub woofers in the back :) But let me know what all you find! And THANK YOU!

All is well here, we are just trying to make sure we keep up with the sisters area because I’d feel bad if they came back to nothing cause we didn’t do our part, but at the same time, I don’t want our area to go to pot because we focus on their area too much. Although our area can’t get much worse. There is only one person we are teaching. Well, like 3, but they all live together.

And it was cool. They like to drink... a lot. One weekend they said they drank for 72 hours straight, and then talked about how they had never felt as bad as they did before. I figure it’s because they got alcohol poisoning and not just a hangover. But Kim, the father-in-law of Paul, the other guy we teach, told us they got together and decided they are not drinking anymore and he is going to quit smoking because he already is in bad health. And he loves the Book of Mormon and has a ton of great questions. He told us he will be doing everything he can to come to church every week, and he made it yesterday so that was great. We hope to help him and his family will follow. Speaking of his family he lives with his son in law, Paul, and his daughter Kami. Kami called the other day and wants some of the Relief Society to come over tonight and talk with her. She hasn’t even been to church or met any of them yet! So it’ll be great fellowship and a step in the right direction!

Anyway that’s about all as of right now!

Love you all,

Elder Latimer

Love you!

October 6, 2014

Hi All!

Things are well here. We just found out today they the sisters will be back in their area on Thursday! So that’s nice not to have all that pressure on us anymore, and we can spend some more time focusing on our area.

Also we just saw the "Meet the Mormons" movie today. It was pretty good! I enjoyed it. It’s a nice change of pace from the same 3 movies we can watch! I’m excited for it to come to theaters and see what other people think of it!

And General Conference was good, although it does get pretty long when you watch every session, but that all right. It was interesting to me to see like you all said how much they focused on faith and following the prophet and not the world. Makes me wonder if there will be some big changes in the next couple years? Who knows?!

It’s getting cooler over here and the leaves are starting to change! Hopefully, this fall doesn’t suck as much as last year’s where it got really cold really fast and the wind picked up and took all the leaves off the trees before they could all change.

Kim is doing well. There is a lot of drama in that house because he lives with his son in law, Paul, and his daughter who is Paul’s wife, Kami. They got in a big fight and are filing for divorce, but Kim told us he has finally decided he wants to be a Mormon, and will make it to church every week. He also watched Conference! We just need to get him off the bottle! Well more like the can. He doesn’t drink liquor. So we are excited about that and hope that the other problem between Paul and Kami will resolve and maybe it’ll be a humbling point to help both of them embrace the gospel more fully! We will see!

And as you know im not much of a BYU fan, but it is pretty sad he (the QB) broke his leg. I feel bad for him. He is living his dream in the Heisman race and has to go out like this. It’s unfortunate. Is he out for the season? It scared me last night. A member texted us and told me that the Seahawks lost 42-10. I literally lost like 3 hours of sleep over it. Then I woke up to a text in the morning that said, "just kidding, they play tomorrow night." I was so happy but kind of frustrated at the same time! So hopefully they kill ‘em tonight!  Oh and speaking of the Seahawks, have you found out if you can get the autograph or not? Let me know because that would be so sweet!

President Salisbury said he would prefer if you all did the school registration, but I can do it if you can’t. I have looked at the catalog and think I know what classes I need to take, but if you can talk with an adviser to that would be great because I don’t want to select some classes and find out I gave myself a pretty hard load with the classes I chose, especially trying to balance a transition with that. But let me know!

Oh, and I was thinking about the Jeep. If it runs and works well that would be perfect! That same jeep you sent pictures of. Does it have enough space to at least transport things? Let me know how that all goes as well!

Other than that that’s about all, nothing to new! Just trying to stay busy!

Love you all!