A good member can change the attitude of an entire week.

Another good week. We had lots of lessons with investigators and less actives but we can never seem to get the to church. It's like saving your souls isn't important enough.. We keep trying. Gustavo and
Cinthya are doing awesome still. We took them to the temple visitors center on New Year's Eve and they seemed to enjoy it. It was a fun experience. We're struggling a little to get them to be progressing according to preach my gospel standards, but we're still working with them. To finish off New Year's Eve we watched ephraim's rescue as a zone then played volleyball. We went to bed at like 11 and that was about the extent of our partying. Definitely wasn't as good as the family traditions back home, but it was fun and we enjoyed it. We met a new black guy named Adrian. He was super prepared or so far has seemed to be. He was in the area book from a while ago and we finally got ahold of him and gave him a quick lesson using the pamphlets and he was really curious and wanted to know more. It was sweet! He told us he'd read the pamphlet and pray then start reading the Book of Mormon and to call him back this coming weekend. So we're keeping our fingers crossed. We had some other sweet lessons this week but I was on exchanges so elder cline got most of those. They were with Lena, the lady from Sudan, nick, a less active, and one with Gustavo and
cinthya. We're about to drop Jorge because we cant get him to actually do anything and he bails on our appointments and yeah. It's sad. We're going to give him some stuff to read and have him call us when he's finished with it or wants us to come back. Mr. Grant has been out of town all week but hopefully he gets back soon. Today it's about 50. Yesterday was a little warmer and this week it's actually supposed to get cold! Maybe. We shall see. Not a lot to report on with this week, but it was a good one and will hopefully roll into the next. Now that the holidays are over people might actually want to listen to and talk with us. We've had a few people tell us to talk to them after the new year so it's time to start bugging people again! Elder cline and I still get a long fine and president hints at us being together at least until the following transfer which will be March 3 I believe. So that should be fun. Hopefully we're still getting along than. He's really tall. Well not really, I'm just short.. Have I ever mentioned I hate being short? If not, now you know. Life is good, church is true and I know without a doubt the gospel is restored today. And be nice to the missionaries at home! A good member can change the attitude of an entire week.
Elder Lucas

With Elder Cline at the Washington D.C Temple

With Elder Huffaker

Star Wars was dope!

Hello everybody,
This week went quick which I'm always grateful for. We did a pretty fun metro activity on Tuesday. We just stand where people get off and hand out water bottles with different cards stuck in them. I'm pretty sure if we weren't dressed up people would quickly take them from us but they see we're religion oriented and they want nothing to do with us. They always think there's a catch too. They would always ask what it's for and we'd just respond with drinking. Humans are strange. We found a new investigator! Her name is Lena, she's from Sudan. We had a good first lesson with her and have a follow up appointment this week. So hopefully good things come from it. We also ran into a lady this week that let us in and as we were talking about prophets she told us she believes that Moses saw God but believes that the sentence "no man hath seen good" is also true. She also believes that Moses and Noah were prophets but that doesn't believe in prophets such as Adam.. It was quite ridiculous. I pulled us out before the bashing could continue. We had an awesome lesson with Gustavo and Cinthya and a member. We talked a little bit about the priesthood and refreshed the restoration. They're going out of town for a week so we're hoping Satan doesn't get a grasp on their souls in that time. Mr grant said he was coming to church but then he bailed... But we're still hopeful ish. Friday we had our mission Christmas conference which was pretty awesome. We had some speakers in the morning then had lunch from the our stake. The members of the McLean stake are sooo loaded. It's
insane the amount of money they have and spend on things. Just a side note. There's a lady in McLean 1st that owns like every dominos in the northern Virginia DC area. It's crazy. She hooks missionaries up. That's not what we had for lunch. There's another lady that loves missionaries and spending money and is totally ocd or something and everything has to be perfect. That being said our lunch was perfect. We just wanted food and she made it into a 5 star restaurant. We had salmon and pork and potatoes and jello and salads and a bunch of stuff. There are 218 missionaries. It was impressive. Oh the talks were good too:) we biked about a million miles this week. Elder cline doesn't seem to care that it takes 30 minutes to get to an area for a 10 second check up and then ride back. It's also been decently cold but not too bad yet. Christmas is supposed to be 70.. Someone bailed on talking in sacrament so we got a late night phone call asking if we'd speak so we did because us missionaries are best at that improve stuff. I spoke on finding hope through the savior and elder cline slightly roasted the ward on missionary work. It was good. Speaking of holidays, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Years and I'm sad to not be around but I'm glad to be serving the crazy people of Virginia. Things are going well. It's hard, but it's life. I'm thankful for the gospel and I'm thankful for Christ.
Until next time,
Elder Lucas

A Christmas haul!

SSquad

Hola
This week was an interesting one. Nothing crazy happened but it was transfers and had a strange outcome. Last transfer elder cox was supposed to go zone leader but it didn't end up happening and
president told him they'd talk about it this transfer. On the Monday before transfers president and the APs call the missionaries that are going to be training, district leaders, or zone leaders. So Monday
night we were waiting and waiting for elder cox to get a phone call but it never happened which really through us off. Tuesday is when transfer doctrine comes out. We got it and I stayed here in the
tyson's ward and elder cox went district leader and finish trainer which he was a little upset to find out about because he never got a phone call. It was super sad to have him leave. We'd become super
close. I'm sure we'll stay that way though. My new companion is Elder Cline from bakers city Oregon. So that's fun. He seems pretty cool. He's definitely not elder cox but I think we'll get a long well. He's very outspoken which is good and bad I suppose. We'll see how things go. We had a couple really good experiences with Gustavo and Cinthya this week. We went over Thursday night for just a minute to introduce elder cline to them. We talked for a bit then they, in their way, basically bore their testimonies to us of what they feel and know and why they're progressing and it was super awesome! They understand the restoration and it's so clear to them. They're also seeing "truthfulness" signs that are really random to us but to them it means that they're heading in the right direction and that they know we have the true gospel. It's been super sweet! We had a ward Christmas party on Friday that they came to as well. The party was good and friendly and they thought so as well. Sunday, yesterday, they came to church and we had dinner with them at our ward mission leaders house which went super well and was a lot of fun. And we got Mr. Grant to church! It was sweet. Elder Cline and I have the same opinion of boldness and dropping the hammer style of working with inactives so I'm pretty excited for us to get that going. Our ward has tons so here's hoping and praying that we can start getting them back to church! We didn't get as much work done this week due to transfers but it's expected and we're doing our best to get started. Today we are going into DC again
for some cheap shopping and just enjoying it while it's warm. So I guess it's pretty weird right now but these last few days have been in the 70's.. It's quite ridiculous for the middle of December but it's
whatever I guess. It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas time. Another pretty interesting thing proving the world is small. We've talked with a member who served his mission in Russia and there's a guy in our ward that's a bit shady but he lived in Russia for 15 years and ran into this missionary and then about 13 years later moved back to the US and into a ward in Virginia. First day in the ward he ran into the missionary who is now married and has 3 kids. Pretty random and weird and cool. Also there's a missionary here that's now my zone lord and I've totally ran into him before at a Morgan girls choice dance. He lives in Moab. Small world.. Adding to my random rambling we
haven't ran into crazy people recently. It's rather odd. Speaking of Russians, we have a Russian missionary (from Russia) serving here and he's cool but if you say anything about communists he'll deck ya in the face. He's done it! He's with an elder that I've become good friends with from Arizona who is super "America is the greatest place on earth" and it's going to get really funny! So yeah, there's my randomness of the week to help the extension of my email. It's been a good interesting week. I actually miss elder cox a lot so that kind of stinks but it'll all be good. Thanks as always for the love and support.
Elder Lucas

Transfers were actually super hard. It was weird. There's not been a time in my life really where I've been so connected to a group of people. Other than leaving for the mission, but we've become super close. Even the sisters, Well sister. Sister Christiansen went home and it was sad because we'd all become super close. That's the life of a missionary, I just didn't realize how hard it could be.

  A while back there were like 5 of us in the back of a car and Elder Cox said he was squantched and we all laughed and the word squantch kind of just stuck so our group was turned into the squantch squad. We don't have much to keep ourselves entertained with so we do our best with what we've got.

My zone before transfers

Christmas is all about Jesus

December 7, 2015

Well this week was a good one as usual!
Monday we went to the pentagon which was pretty sweet. We then went to the pentagon mall where we didn't meet a single crazy person! Can you believe it?! We couldn't. We did run into a guy with Thor like hair that we thought was gonna bash for sure but ended up telling us about a book he read that talked about Utah preppers and how they've got things figured out. He then asked us if we got any converts at the pentagon. We laughed and said no and then he said oh well if anyone
needs Jesus it's those guys. It was funny and a relief because we were all waiting for a slammer. Tuesday we had district meeting which was on Christlike attributes and on how we can improve then it rained all day.
Wednesday we went and bought me a new tire since my parkour biking skills caused too much strain on my tube. It rained all day but we tried contacting some people but had no luck.
Thursday elder cox went to a meeting so I went on a trio in Vienna. It was fun, but we had no car or bikes so it was a little difficult.  But that night we got a car! We get it till transfers which is this coming Thursday. It's been super nice. We've been able to contact tons of potentials and referrals and get places and it's so nice! Friday we spent the morning helping set up for the McLean 1st ward Christmas party, had a meeting, then spent all afternoon taking car of car stuff. So we got a car from the Spanish, and they sometime can be a little lazy, so we had to take care of a ticket they got a few days before as well as getting the car stickers so it can park in falls church. It took all day and a bunch of phone calls but we got it figured out. (We lost the car this morning... Some sisters totaled theirs somewhere so we had to give it up. One of the Spanish elders went home because his passport expired and the other went to a trio till transfers). We had a super awesome lesson with Gustavo and Cinthya that night. We just shared a Christmas message and talked with them and they just talked a
lot about how they feel with the Mormon church and that they like it all. It was sweet. Gustavo said there was no way he'd ever quite coffee then elder cox said something about God saying so and he was just like ok, I'll work on it. It was funny and really cool to see.We don't have a baptism date for Gustavo and cinthya because they're not married.
Saturday we went to a member baptism then did some contacting with our fancy new car. Then we went to the McLean 1st Christmas party. Even setting up we could tell, but it was the most intense Christmas party I've ever been apart of! I'll send pictures. It was crazy But super cool!
Sunday we had church as always. We were all stoked to use ournew car that we hopped right in and drove ourselves to the ward council meeting they don't have on fast Sunday's.... Our mistake. After we met with Mr. Grant and had a decent lesson with him. W committed him church next week so we're praying he'll keep to it! Then we went to the Christmas devotional. It's been a pretty good week so we're not complaining. Thanks for all your love and support. I know the church is true and I'm thankful for it everyday.
Love, Elder Lucas
PS The people here are putting lights up and some people actually get decently festive. I wish there was snow here, but there won't be till like January or February.

                           

The Power of Prayer

So yeah our pday was bumped to today because we had half mission conferences on Monday and Tuesday and meetings for leaders Wednesday so they wanted to have the whole mission on the same pday. So we get one today and Monday! The training was really good. Elder Perkins of the 70 came and was doing the training. It was focused a lot on boldness and quickness. We need to be bold in our approaches but not offensive and quick to get the message across so we don't bore people. It was super good but super long. We were there from 8am to 4pm. We were fed though so it wasn't too bad I suppose. These last two weeks have been decent. Jorgé, the 15 yr old, hasn't been keeping commitments and continually bails on us. Most likely because he's 15... He's super interested but doesn't care enough to act. We're kind of just dropping him and seeing if the young men's president can do anything with him and the other priests. Gustavo and his family, the Bolivians with the 2 yr old, are still doing super good. They couldn't make it to church but have been reading the Book of Mormon and have questions and like the way things are going. They keep inviting us over so it's been super awesome. We hope things will continue to progress. Mr grant, the black guy with tons of strange questions, has been continuing to ask questions but we go over at like 8 and it's way too late and he's only available on Sunday's so we have to wait a week to go back. So we're still trying to get things worked out with him. But he's asked for stuff to read from the Book of Mormon which is awesome.
This day light savings thing is killing us... As soon as the sun starts going down people here say "oh it's way too late guys I'm not interested" or "I'm going to bed you guys need to come by during the
day" (they're not home during the day because work) or "I just put my
kids to bed" or many others which are are all valid excuses except for when the sun goes down at 4:30????? People say that, then we look at our watches and go ummmm ok.... We'll try by another day.... That's always pretty rough.. And to make it worse people don't answer doors, phones, or any form of communication because it's waaayyy too late if the Suns going down. It probably sounds like a lot of complaining but it's how it works here.. And if we don't have pre-planned lessons with members we don't have anything to do all evening... It can be quite the struggle...
We're having tons of fun and I'm still learning lots but it's just super frustrating.. Nothing real crazy has happened. Halloween consisted of the zone eating food and watching cokeville miracles. Which was actually really good! The movie, not Halloween.. Highly recommend watching it. The power of prayer is remarkable and I see it all the time here.
DC was pretty sweet! We just went through a few museums and hung out as a missionaries. We were walking down the street and some guy with a cool tie walks by so we're like hey that's a cool tie and he responded with find the real Jesus... We were just like really.... Really bro? You had to stoop down there after we complimented you?? Oh the love we get for saving people.. Jk things are going good and I'm loving it. I hope all is well at home and thanks for your continual love and support. I know the church is true and I love it
Love elder Lucas

I miss the snow! We have zone activities like every transfer. We can
go to DC once a transfer. And the zone leaders are always in charge.
It'll be cool to have two close pdays. Yeah I'm doing good and am nice
and settled. And yes happy. Sometimes it can be hard because but I'm
doing good.​

Everything is Awesome!

October 26, 2015

This week was super busy! Monday we had pday and we had a zone activity where we played games and bonded. Our zone is super awesome! Most the missionaries say it's their favorite zone so far so for me that means I might not be so lucky in the future.. But here's hoping it continues. I have an awesome zone, district, apartment, and companion and hopefully that continues! Tuesday we had exchanges with a different elder and we just did some stuff in their area. It was fun
and is always nice. Wednesday we finished up exchanges and tried to contact some potential people but had no luck.. We never do.. Thursday we had a return and report meeting with all the missionaries that came in with me. We basically got together with all the trainers and trainees and discussed and ate and talked with president. That took up most the day. It was sweet to see the MTC homies again though! We then finished up the day by trying to meet with people we had appointments with but some people are bums and they fell through... Friday we had a leadership mtg and then again tried contacting people... We did have a ward fall festival with tons of inactives and non members which was sweet! Saturday we went to baptism for a convert and then went to lunch with the office elders. Then went tracting in the afternoon and had no success. Sunday was busy as always. We were at church most the day and had an awesome dinner/game night with a part member family. We had an awesome nerf war with the kids. The kids wall has so many nerf guns it's insane and super awesome! We shared a lesson of course afterward though. It was just a fun one.
Today we are headed into DC to do something. Not sure what yet but I'm sure it'll be sweet. The
baptism Saturday was awesome! So elder cox and a previous companion of his had the opportunity to teach Kenny, a black gangster, and go all the way through to baptism. Kenny is super cool and strong in the church! He's also flipped his life around and is way happier now. He's been a convert now for about a year. One thing he said to us a little while back was that the church must be true because we're always learning stuff when we go and you can always feel something which I thought was kind of cool. So his nephew came to stay with him a few weeks ago and say how Kenny has changed and wanted to have that change in his life. So elder huffaker and elder marshal started teaching him
and he has been super excited to learn and become a member of the church. It's been sweet to talk with him. As for the baptism part, Kenny was able to baptize him which was super awesome and he was super excited but super nervous. He kept forgetting the words so we had to keep reminding him. I took him 5 times to baptize his nephew because he was hardly even getting immersed and there was always stuff sticking out but even though they were both quite embarrassed it was sweet to see the importance of the ordinance. They kept trying because words have to be said right and the person has to be properly dunked. It was a cool experience and the spirit was definitely felt. Drick, pronounced dreke, his nephew, short for roydrickas, is super happy with what he's done and wants his girlfriend and family to be baptized too which will be cool in the near future. Elder cox and I have worked
super close with huffaker and marshal throughout the transfer so that's how we've been able to work close with Kenny. Over all though all of our lessons fell through this week but the family we've started teaching came to church and want us over for dinner this week so we're pretty stoked about that!:) so yeah, that's my week real quick.
Somehow we've ended up with 3 boxes of pizza and three big containers of Mac and cheese... We're gonna get so fat... But it's whatever I guess. At least if we die tomorrow we won't be upset for not pigging out. Our apartment is at a 90 degree angle of another building and the apartment right next to ours has a guy (old) that likes to tan in a speedo so that's kinda gross... I've also learned giving away book of Mormons can be super fun. We were at a red light and the guy next to us had his window down so I rolled down mine (we were in the back of a van. Don't worry, we definitely don't have the luxury of having a vehicle...) and I asked if he wanted a Book of Mormon and he said sure so hopped out, gave him one, said have a good day, and hopped back in. It was dope. Church is true.
Oh I just remembered. We were chillin in Wendy's with some other missionaries after an exchange and some Asian guy came in a just stood in the door way preaching something. We have no idea what he said but it was really funny and we're sure he was totally roasting us but we don't know. Everyone there was very confused while we were laughing pretty hard. So yeah. There's my crazy
story for the week. It's been a good one and flown by like always. I hope all is well at home and thanks for all your prayers. The power of prayer is amazing and we'd definitely be doomed without it... The Church is true and watching people progress is an amazing thing. I'm definitely thankful for this opportunity even if some days it's prettyrough being here.
Until next time- keep Reading, keep praying, always go to church, and order us take out. 7700 random run lane, falls church, VA 22042 apt 203 ;)
Lover elder Lucas

The Spirit Directs and Testifies

October 19, 2016

Well this week flew by like always. Which I'm always thankful for. Not a ton happened this week. We had a lot of meetings and different things going on. Also some of our appointments bailed on us so we didn't teach a whole lot. On a crazy note, we met with a lady who said she had only like 20 minutes but then proceeded to take an hour explaining the spiritual journey she went on for 8 months where she didn't work or do anything but wander around visiting churches and pastors and preachers (never went to the Mormon church) and praying and reading the bible.. She also told us about some crazy vision she had which was quite fascinating. It was funny. The interesting thing though is when you hear cool spiritual experiences you normally get a story with the spirit but in this case it was just a story. Just going to prove the spirit directs and testifies of truth and truth only. It was a very interesting experience. We had nothing to say afterward. She doesn't believe Mormonism or that the Book of Mormon is real. So we said well thanks for talking and left. We probably won't go back..
On a positive note We're teaching a new family. And I don't know their last names... A guy, his girlfriend, and their two year old son. They're from Bolivia and they're super awesome. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and the girlfriend said she wants to read it and come to church so we were pretty stoked. They've always liked how nice Mormons are and how we actually live what we preach. They're super cool and we're excited to keep teaching them.
Zafar has been sent home to Pakistan so he's no longer investigating... Which we are a bit upset about. Jorge hasn't been answering his door or phone so that's kind of the pits... And mr. Grant also hasn't answered his door or phone.. So yeah. A bit of a rough week.
Oh another positive note! I finished the Book of Mormon this morning. I started the first day in the field which I thought was pretty cool. Reading it straight through without much stopping has definitely helped me get a better understanding of where things are as well as the story as a whole. I was pretty happy and will probably try to do it again fairly quick. It's definitely getting cold here. I love it! The fall here is not very good but I'm glad it's finally cooling off. I'm short on time today because we are doing a zone fall activity.
Everything is going well and I'm happy to be here. The church is true and I hope all is well back home.
Love elder Lucas