Hey Everybody! :D

 

It has been such a great time here in Nashville! I have seen miracles this week....again! So many great things are happening. So I will tell yall our whole week! Started out of course on Monday. That night we taught the word of wisdom to a family and they commited to live by it that night! They gave up coffee, tea, and smoking. They drank alot of tea and the poor kids were devastated because there is no more! haha but they are all better now.Tthey gave us all their ash trays, their coffee and tea and we threw it out for them! They exercised such great faith!!!!!!! They trusted in the Lord so much, and they are still going strong! As I recall that event I am reminded of Alma 32 where it is spoken of the swelling that we will feel and then we know that it is a good seed. That experience as well as many others have increased my faith, testimony and confidence in the Lord. I am a bit of a gun ho type of person. I like to take the biggest step I can as fast as I can, and seeing them do that was powerful! We met a really sweet and solid lady that night too she was wonderful and she knew already the church was true and that there was a difference with members of the church. She wanted to join. Well I will finish that story shortly. We had zone conference Tuesday that was great. We learned about faith, charity, and testifying boldly and often to bring the Spirit. Our assistants spoke with power. It was so cool! We had some delicious homemade fryed chicken for lunch too! mmmmm! We went back Tuesday night to see that lady we met who was so solid. Her father inlaw told us to leave and wouldn't let us see her. He said that he would talk to her.  There were a few other guys there and we think they were preachers. But they were "talking" to her, which we know to be lying to her and giving her a bunch of false things about the church. That was the hardest part of my mission, just was walking away from that man without getting mad. Elder Elzey testified to him before we left and he still wouldn't listen. He kept saying he was a christian man and then threatened to do something bad if we didn't walk away immediately. It was hard to handle that, but I guess we learned self control or something from it. I am almost out of time so the rest of the week consisted of me accidently punching Elder Elzey in the face and knocking him out!! haha it was really an accident! Then me riding my bike on a curb; falling and tumbling into the grass, service for an old widow on Saturday. Then we saw our recent converts on Sunday and heard about how she stood up to a lady who was saying mormons were horrible people and so bad She walked up to her and said, were not too bad! I just got baptized last week! haha she said the lady melted in her seat cause they had known each other for a good little while. I found a scriptue in Jude about people who talk about things they don't know about and we get that a ton out here, people saying we believe in this and that but they have no idea and worse are not willing to even listen to what we really believe in. It's been a great week! I gotta role 20 seconds left! I love yall! Enjoy conference!

 

Love

Elder West

Baptism!!!! It went so great! We had a rough beginning of the week cause Elder Elzey got sick, then I caught it, then he felt better, then I felt really bad got a prescription, then he caught it again and now we are both on prescriptions! We rested alot this week to recoop! Now we are back up to speed and kickin. Then yesterday with the baptisms, and also extending a baptismal date to a family and they accepted!!! WHOO!!!! Love it! I was able to perform the baptisms of two of our three baptisms, Sis Trimm and one of her daughters!  Elder Elzey was able to baptize the other daughter! Things are going so great! We have zone conference Tuesday again and I am excited. We have been studying Alma 32 and 1 Corinthians 13 to prepare for it.  Reading of the Book of Mormon is going great, there is so much to learn in there!  Elder Elzey on Saturday decided to go no hands down into a ditch and come back up. The ditch was about two feet deep and had a fair incline and decline. Well he did and I got the biggest laugh when he bounced up and down on his bike then eventually flipped over onto the grass!!! Hahahha he was fine just a little bruised. Then, literally not 30 ft later, he jumped and was going just to the wrong angle when he landed and fell into another ditch and flipped over again! This time a lady pulls up laughing and asks, "Is he okay?" haha I was just busting out laughing again! He got up and shook it off and then about 5 to 10 minutes later, he went into another ditch (with hands) and went up this big bump and flew in the air and landed on his side and skid a good little bit! haha It was one funny day with him crashing. I told him to take it easy though before he gets a broken arm and can't proselyte very well. He does make riding fun though. We had lunch after the baptism with the family and had another delicious bbq, really enjoyed it. Oh and we painted fire hydrants out here in Nashville Saturday morning with our ward. They hadn't been painted since 1976 and they were all sorts of bad looking. Now we see them everywhere and they are all  a really pretty red! Trying to help our communities is helping us get recognized.  A member suggested that we write articles about ourselves and us coming out here on our missions and put them in the papers so people can see them. We are gonna double check to see if thats okay then move forward with it! I hope all is going well back home for everyone, I still haven't heard from ALOT of yall! :p it would be nice too, I love you guys, have a great week! :D

 

Love,

Elder West

It's been another great week! Have some fun experiences to share, Elder Elzey and I are working with this great family who loves to give us surprises and the other night they busted out with a whole rack of ribs for us to take home! They had smoked up and all and mmmm we are going to share them with the district on tuesday! Can't wait! Elder Elzey would make fun of me cause I my bike crashed his first day here and the other day he wiped out in the middle of the road, so we had a good laugh.  He also broke his chain on his bike that evening. We have some baptisms coming up on Sunday, a great family and I am so excited to be able to witness this family make these covenants. We will be starting a Book of Mormon reading tomorrow and have set the goal to finish by the end of the year. I know my messages have been short lately yall but all I have is a few minutes to write. But know I love ya! I hope yall are doing good! Love yall!

Elder West

It's been a great week! No baptism, but lots of incredible things coming up! The ward is really trusting us, we are developing alot as missionaries. My new companion is Elder Elzey, straight from the MTC he is a great missionary and full of energy, he makes the day fun! Already a pro at teaching lessons and talking to people. I am glad he is here the work will move forward. I gotta make this another short one but know all is well! I love yall! Have a great week!