Here are Elder Latimer's July letters. Things have been a little crazy so we haven't posted them until now. He is seeing much success! -- Eds.
July 1, 2013
Hi Everyone:
It’s going good here. Its
been thunderstorms this last week, and they are supposed to continue! So it’s
getting a lot more humid with all the rain, but at the same time cooling down,
which is nice! I have asked for a less-active list from our branch so we can
follow up on them. The problem is, with our limited miles, and the fact that
most of the less-actives live out in the boonies, its hard for us to find the
time and miles to see most of them. But we are getting a few who are close to coming
back to church.
We didn’t ultimately go
to the Baptist church as we ended up having church on Sunday. If you didn’t
count the 2 visitors from Virginia who showed up, a high council member, and us,
there were 3 members of the branch there. But it was still good. We taught a
sunday school lesson on the word of wisdom, but some got stuck on the idea of
eating in moderation and wondered if we should give temple recommends to fat
people because they aren’t obeying the word of wisdom if they indulge themselves
that much! Anyway, it was another ridiculous lesson at church with a ton of
speculation and false doctrine, but we managed to straighten most of it out the
best we could.
It’s supposed to rain
here for the 4th with thunder storms – so there will be a lot of noise here. We
may either go to a member’s or stay on the porch and watch just because if they
aren’t a member, they are most likely going to be tanked hillbillies playing
with explosives, and I think they would think 2 kids in white shirts would be a
fun target! We do have a ton of fireworks in the house that our landlord must
have left. We can carry them for protection!
Training [the new
missionary] is good. I think everywhere
now is training for 2 transfers. They instituted the 12 week program where the
trainer has to train for 12 weeks and prepare that missionary to be ready to
train the 3rd transfer if need be because of all the new missionaries. We were
told that we are getting in the high 20's of new missionaries coming and mid
30's the transfer after – the majority being sisters!
Thanks for getting the
pictures ready! I have been working out for the half hour in the morning and
then when we get back at night, we have an hour or so after planning of free
time that I use to lift. Also we went
and got 3 huge semi-truck tires. I’m not
sure how we managed to fit them all in our little suburu, but we did, so we get
to flip tires as well, which is a pretty good work out. It helps we have a huge back yard! With all
the protein I’ve been eating (mostly chicken breast and broccoli), I’m hoping
to get to 180 at one point. It probably
won’t happen on my mission just because I don’t have enough weight to get
there. Maybe when I get home and can start at the gym again.
I am getting a few letters
and more is always better. Please post
on facebook the address to the mission home and tell everyone to write me. The
mission home just because I have a feeling that because the branch is
struggling and shrinking that when Elder Price gets his visa and leaves they
will shut the area down for a while. I’m
pretty sure Pres Pitt doesn’t want to have someone serve in this area for too
long. At least I hope I don’t have to serve like 4 transfers here, but we will
see.
The mission home address
is 888 Oakwood Rd. Suite 310 Charleston, WV.
I don’t remember the area code, but I’m sure you could Google it to find
it!
Jay didn’t make it to
church the other week so we have to reset his date, although the good news is
his fiancé is starting to sit in on lessons and was excited to come to church
this week. Unfortunately, she was called
into work at the nursing home. The cool thing about that is there is a lady
there we take the sacrament too, and Tabatha (Jay's fiancé) told Nelly (the
Member) that she was going to come to church with us but had to work, which is
cool because if she told us I would have felt it was an excuse but because she
willingly told a member she was wanting to come it makes us think she is
genuinely interested, and if both of them are they will help to push each
other!
We are also close to
setting another man and his wife on date soon.
He is the one who is a free mason, and she is the one who had her mother
condemned to hell by a Jehovah witness elder at her funeral. So she is really
enjoying hearing about the plan of salvation!
Like I said earlier I’m
sure people here celebrate the 4th here just like everyone else, except they
probably go a little more overboard, a lot of alcohol and recklessly using
explosives for terrible ideas (ha ha). It
should be a fun time!
The thunderstorms here
are nothing like back home. It continues strikes and rolling thunder for hours.
Because of all the lighting, the whole sky looks like a strobe light. It’s
really cool. Sadly, we haven’t had any super close yet! I love storms, one day
our basement flooded because of all the rain. That’s another thing the rain
here isn’t constant like back home but every week or 2 it pours! Like if you
stand outside for 5 seconds you can’t be any more wet than you are. We enjoy
going for runs in it, a good change of pace!
Love you guys!
Elder Latimer
July 8, 2013
Hi
Everyone!
We have reset Jay's
baptism, and he has got 3 of his kids back for the summer -- 2 of which are
over 8 and he is interested in having them baptized as well. His fiancé works
at the nursing home where a less active woman we visit stays, and she has been
working and talking with her. They are planning on coming to church Sunday!
Also we went to visit the Baptist pastor and went into his church where he was
doing a practice wedding ceremony. The people there saw he is talking to the
Mormons, and I think he got some flack. Oh well maybe they will be curious too!
We hope we didn’t offend him!
We have been playing
basketball and it’s been really productive.
We are teaching 3 new people who are really good kids and getting a less
active member back to church that way, as well as another kid who is the cousin
of 2 of the kids we play b-ball with.
His mom is less active, and they want to come to church as well. A lot
of missionaries would shake their head at us when we told them about the
basketball thing, so it’s nice to see results come from it!
On the 3rd we went with
the less active we play basketball with to watch him light fireworks and that
was cool because we had thunder and fireworks at the same time. Although it’s a
lot more relaxed around here in the 4th cause there are no places to buy
fireworks except for the grocery store, and people here are really poor
anyways, and it’s illegal to have anything that shoots up in the sky, like the
mortars we always have. So just a lot of fountain fireworks.
Today we are going
fishing and playing basketball then going out to eat with the kids we play
basketball with -- about 8 of them. So it will be a fun day. It’s nice to be
able to have them around because they have become actual friends as opposed to
people we teach and talk to some times. They are always inviting us out to do
things with them. It helps me feel like a real person sometimes! The other day
they took us noodling! Sadly I forgot my camera! I got a 40 lb. catfish! It
wasn’t an extreme sport and we weren’t swimming! So we were good to go! It was
an interesting experience knowing a huge fish in is this hole, but you can’t
see it and you have to stick your hand in its mouth keeping your thumb on the
outside so you can grab it once it bites. It was a lot of fun. I’ll have to
take you all one time when we take a mission tour! They sometimes invite us to
cookouts they have and other things, which leads to questions and things so it’s
all worth it! It also helps us relieve some stress and enjoy our days some
more!
Training is good. My companion is a little messy. He leaves
dirty bowls on the tables, couch, floor and when he eats food is everywhere,
and he doesnt even pick it up. Oh well, I guess I know how mom feels now...
SORRY MOM!
I think Oliver [our
family dog] likes to play a little rough after what we all put him through. I remember
when i would play with him he would run at me, and I would grab him around the
head and flip him over. He loved it! So I’m sure Ryan’s dog wasn’t ready for
that! Does he still howl if you howl at him?
I really am enjoying my
mission! It is a lot better than I thought it would be! I sent my camera card
back it should be there today or tomorrow!
Do we have any pictures
from my surgery? I think I may have left them at the docs office before. If not
dont worry about. Elder Price was just
curious to see them, because he wants to be a doc later in life.
Love you guys!
Elder Latimer
July 17, 2013
Hi
Everyone!
I don’t know how Joe
didn’t enjoy EFY. Even when I wasn’t
excited doing anything church-like I was always excited to go to EFY!
Well at least Jonathan
will have a cool battle scar! He needs to make up a cool story for it now: like
he got in a fight with a guy who had a knife and got stabbed, but still whooped
up on the other guy! That’s crazy how good of a runner he is! Are you going to
put him in like classes or something to help them train him? The earlier the
better!
It’s really hot and
humid here – in the mid 90's with at least 60-70% humidity. I was talking to
Ryan, one of the guys we play ball with, and he said August gets even worse – like
a lot worse. Up to 90%-100% humidity all the time if not above. So I’m not too
excited for that. If I wasn’t a missionary, I would be all for it, having great
time for swimming and white water rafting! Then the river would feel amazing and
lakes would be a pool!
You need to tell Jake to
check his e-mail or his spam folder. I sent him an e-mail a while ago and I
still don’t have a response. When is he
turning in his papers? After fall semester? I’m not surprised that he makes
those video's! Did he ever make a "Harlem Shake" Video?
That’s crazy how big the
ward is. It has 10x more primary children than our branch has people. For that matter, about 100 more than our
whole branch roster has! It seems now like they may shut down this branch
pretty soon. We have had a member from the stake presidency here 3 straight
weeks, and they have been talking about it for a while. The other week we had 8
people there – the missionaries, 2 visitors, and President Hunter who is in the
stake presidency – so 3 actual branch members!
Other than that the work
is going well, we met a kid named Dakota while playing basketball, and he is a
really nice kid who wants to do the right thing. He had been adopted twice and
all over in detention centers in his life. They had found his birth mom, and he
is living back with here now and has done a complete 180. His mom always tells
us how much of a blessing it is to have him back, and that these kind of
situations never happen. What’s cool is that he has been here only a month now
and his mother is a less-active woman who is not on the roster because she
moved here and never had her records transferred. Now that her son is taking
the lessons, and has been set on date for the 3 of August, she is beginning to
want to come back to church. When we ask when we come back she makes sure it’s
a time when she is off work and at home. So maybe the Lord put Dakota back in
her hands so that we could find him and help him come to the church as well as
bring his mother back! Pretty cool experience!
We have been playing
basketball with the youth here. They are
all are 18-19 years old. They are all very nice and respectful. We met them all
playing basketball, and they have really started to like us. Since there is
almost nothing to do here we will go and fellowship with them, most every day,
whether its basketball, fishing, frog giggin, or noodling. It helps us to get
to know them better and especially when you fish, there is plenty of time to
sit and talk about the gospel. They always tell us, “I never thought I would be
this close with a Mormon before.” They keep
telling us we need to come back after the mission so we can do some more things
together. So whether they come to the gospel now or later, I think its
productive. Since it’s their first encounter with Mormons, and we have become
some of their closest friends here. I think that later when they are married
and have families and slow down with all the things they do at this age and missionaries
knock on their door, I’m sure they will be really receptive and want to listen
and learn more.
My ankle is doing
better. Both my ankles give me trouble. I usually roll both of them on a daily
basis. I just think they are so messed up that it has to get rolled pretty bad
to hurt. But now it’s doing better it was just sore for a few days.
And for my birthday I’m
not too sure what I want, there aren’t too many things i can use out here.
Although I would still like a pair of cowboy boots for p-day at least :) My
nike free runners are trashed. I have used them for everything that has to be
done in rain/mud/mowing grass etc... so I don’t really have another pair. But
that’s all i can really think of.
Love you guys!
Elder Latimer
July 22, 2013
Hi Everyone!
We are really excited
for Dakota and his mom as well to start to come back to church! Jay is not on
date anymore because he didn’t make it to church this week, so we will go back
and try and set another date for him. He is really eager and wanting to do the
right thing. I think he is just having a
hard time grasping how serious and life changing this really will be and that
it’s not just another baptism.
But he did have a crazy
experience a few days ago, and so did we. There was a pretty bad thunderstorm
just like there has been for the last 3 weeks! Jay was at the library, and we were walking
there to go on LDS.org, and we were about maybe 100 yards from the library,
maybe closer (I don’t remember too well) and lighting struck the side of the
library. All I remember was a flash and then my ears were ringing because the
thunder was so loud! It was crazy. So we
went in to the library to see what happened and check on people. Jay was there
with his kids and was so happy to see us because apparently the strike just
missed him. He was pretty startled and
hard of hearing at the same time. He
told us the side of his head was still really hot from it. People who were on
the computers got shocked because they were holding the mouse. Not too bad but it was not pleasant, I’m
sure. We later learned that the lightning struck one of the electric lines that
go to the library right above it, and now over the door to the office there is
a huge mark from it. It’s crazy. Now the computers don’t work right and the
automatic doors just randomly open. It was pretty crazy! I’ve never been that
close to a strike before!
We have taught the guys
we play basketball with 1 formal lesson – to Ryan and his brother Jordan – and
the others will ask questions occasionally, so we are still just introducing
them to the gospel. We actually had a cook out with Ryan and his girlfriend,
and asked them if they would like to come to church, both said they wouldn’t
mind and should be coming this week! Playing basketball and things with them has
really made it bearable here. My first
transfer I thought was going to shoot myself! Now I really enjoy it here. What’s
nice also is all those guys we fellowship with see us as really good friends of
theirs and aren’t intimidated like most people are around us, which is great
because they are very open and not afraid to say what’s on their mind, which
allows us to be able to help them some more!
I know they have been
thinking about closing the branch for a while. The closest building is about 40
miles away from us. So if anything they would have to shut this area down or
give us a lot more miles, and it would be pretty tough to get people to drive
80 mile round trips every week for church, especially investigators,
considering the majority are on welfare and either don’t have a car or money
for gas for those kind of trips, but we will see.
That’s good Joe is
starting to get a little more crazy one the tubes! I’m sure he enjoyed that a
lot more than just a slow straight ride! That’s awesome about Jonathan! I don’t
think I ever ran the mile that fast until like high school or something!
I still don’t know who
to root for [in college football] now! I feel kind of bad but I still lean
toward UW. I’ve been a fan too long to just go with a school I go to, although
if Boise State were in the top 10 again I would have to go for them, just
because they need to play for a national title and beat someone like Bama or
LSU to prove themselves, even though they already have by beating Oregon twice,
Georgia in the Georgia dome, Oregon State when they were top 15, as well as
Arkansas, Virginia Tech when they were good, and others! And of course the 2007
Fiesta bowl Vs. Oklahoma!
One thing I haven’t
gotten yet on my mission is a companion who likes football. Well, as much as I do, I guess. They have all
been the kind who will watch it sometimes but they don’t really care to much
for it. But Ryan who we play basketball with loves football, so when we are
with him we will always talk about it, which is nice.
I am excited for my
present! [Josh’s birthday is on August 6th]. You got me too excited
now! Thank you for ordering my work boots! I feel bad always asking for things,
but I’m out of protein powder and out of support card money. Elder Price and I
share one because he is going to Argentina so he doesn’t have a card for here
so they put both out money on my card, and he is quite the spender....
Love you!
Elder Latimer
P.S. I have a question for you, and if you don’t
know, I plan to ask Pres. Pitt. I was reading through D&C the other day and
came across D&C 84:41 and not sure exactly what it means. Because I thought
there was only one thing you could do to not be forgiven, but maybe I just
interpreted it wrong. It would be interesting to know and good to know
especially for a few people in the branch who have family members who have be
excommunicated and have fallen away from the church.
July
29, 2013
Hi Everyone!
Dakota is doing well he
came to church yesterday, and is scheduled for august 17th! He came along with
Ryan, Jordan, and Ryan’s girlfriend, Kelly. It was a really cool experience to
find out later from some members that as we taught gospel principles to them,
they had a meeting about closing down the branch. President Schweinbraten (the
branch president) said later he was going to agree to close it until he saw us
come in with 4 investigators. He ended up telling us that he was done and us
bringing the investigators that week gave him hope, and that we aren’t closing
the branch just yet. It was really cool
to see the blessing it was that they all decided to come that Sunday and not
one week later.
Not only that, but after
we reported out numbers to the District Leader and he to the Zone Leaders, we
got a call that night from them telling us how amazed they were with that
number. They said they have never seen anything even close to that before. The
Assistants also sent us a message earlier in the day pretty much thanking us
for working hard in this area. So that was really nice to get that reassurance
and to know that this is actually a really hard area, and that others know it,
and it’s not just us.
Tomorrow we have
interviews with President Pitt, something that I always look forward to. We get to talk and hang out with a lot of
other missionaries and be able to sit down and talk with President Pitt one-on-one
which doesn’t happen too often. Sometimes is blows my mind the things he
teaches us, and how knowledgeable he is. I would not be surprised in the least
bit if he was called to the Seventy or even the Quorum of the Twelve sometime
after he is done being the mission president. He is a great guy.
Thank you for that
explanation on D&C 84:41. That makes
sense. I had looked around and found a quote from Marion G Romney. I would paste it here but Lds.org won’t work now. It said something
kind of like what you said. It’s sad to think about, especially for a family in
our ward who is very active and their dad, who has been to the temple and
everything, has refused to come to church anymore. He enjoys his beer too much. But our branch
president is working with him.
I did get my shoes and
boots! Thank you. I got a good chance to break them in today. We went to a
member’s house and dug a 3/4 mile long ditch and ran power lines to his home. It
was quite wet as well, but the dirt here is really cool – a lot different from back home. Here it is
like clay. You can pick it up and pack it like a snowball almost, and it all
sticks together. Now the boots are nice and muddy and look like they should!
Thank you guys! I don’t think my free runners would have handled that.
Of course I miss a great
summer! Have you guys been up at the lake much? We have been doing a lot of
fishing/frog giggin and basketball with the non-member youth here. They said
they would like to come back to church as well as try bringing a friend or two!
Who says hanging out isn’t productive! It’s definitely a blessing from the Lord
though to provide this opportunity to relax and joke around with some good
friends and turn it into teaching opportunities and willingness to come to
church. So far on my mission I have seen the most success when we don’t push
the gospel in their face, but just be friends with people and occasionally
bring it up, and leave it if they seem to be getting irritated. In Ashland as
well as here.
Jay is doing all right.
He is planning to be at church this weekend with him and his kids and hopefully
his fiancé too. The only problem with him is they don’t plan on getting married
anytime soon. I think it’s because they receive more money for raising the kids
and not being married than they would if they get married. They live together
which is a problem, but we hope to help him work it out, and act on the faith
he has and get married.
Love you guys!
Elder Latimer
