Hey Everybody! It was a fun week! We had lots of great folks we have met. Saturday was great, we helped a lady rake her yard. She is so sweet, and yesterday we had a lesson with her and her daughter. They seem very promising. We are going back today to have another lesson. I feel like the Lord is going to bless us soon with some great results! I am so excited! Transfers are next week and I am going to be getting a new companion from what President Jensen said. We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas. We were given some ribeyes from a sister in the branch and oh buddy they were good! We cooked them later that night. Then we had some senior missionaries that work in the office come down to deliver Elder Warburton a package from his family. They got us some burger king it was yummy! I bought some gum at a Walgreens and left my backpack there so I was without one all day. ha ha! We were riding our bikes most of the day and I love it! Riding bikes helps me enjoy the work! We saw an awesome sister in the branch that night that is in a nursing home.  We go and see her occasionaly, she loves it when we do.She is so great.  We read Luke 2 with her and it was great to know that we helped someone feel happy. We got tons of candy from different people! Too much for me to eat! I have been sharing it with kids in the branch or kids that we teach. They love it. On Sunday we had our delicioius steak dinner and a great desert with a family that we are teachings. It was awesome! The new year is coming up very fast, seems like there are so many things I want to do but not enough time! Also too many things to improve, its almost overwhelming! It will be done though the last year of my mission! I am going out with a fight! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.. I am almost done with the Book of Mormon, about 30 pages left!!! I love that book and know its the word of God, I will boldly declare it to anyone! :D It brings me so much joy to think of those who I have been blessed to see come closer to Christ throughout this past year. God is so merciful and great to let me be a part of this work. I love yall! I hope each of you have a happy new year and stay safe!! Late Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Elder West :D

Good Afternoon Yalll!!!!

It's been a great week in Crawfordville, we have had lots of sweet things happening, to start out with something sad, I had one of my companions leave on Sunday. He was transferred to the next area east of us, so he is in our district still. A missionary went home early for Christmas so Elder Mudaliar was called to fill in. We had some fun times though. We had our Half Mission Christmas Party it was sweet!!! We got a huge picture made that took an hour for everyone to get in their places. We hheard a sweet talk from Elder Holland. It was a video of a talk he gave at the MTC the week before I went there. It was awesome. He talked about all sorts of things, he said that Preach My Gospel was to be the way to get the doctrine instilled in the hearts of the missionaries and help US become converted to the gospel for life. Thats awesome!!! It is for us! Then after hearing that and reading PMG it says right before chapter 3 an intro to the lessons that the things we teach are for us to love, cherish, live and belive. I love it! We also set some new goals for the new year. We are upping our baptisms to 400. We met and even exceeded our goal for 2011, whoo hoo!! We are getting close to finishing the Book of Mormon. I am almost done with 3 Nephi, its gone by fast. We did a talent show too, I was so nervous because the other night I felt impressed to do something and it was write a poem. So I started writing it but never finished and still wanted to share it, so I did and it wasn't too bad. People said they liked it and I guess I need to seek to develop that. Elder Mudaliar told me to pursue drawing too. I don't know about that one though. They made us an awesome lunch. So much and so much goodies. We had all the fixins. They had a stash of candy and it was like a candy store we had bags and grabbed what we wanted! I got a bag of gumballs and gave them out at our branch social. We also had the surprise of watching 17 miracles! What a sweet movie!!! I loved it! I cried like a baby, it was hard to see but the faith of the saints was unimaginable. The next day was our Branch Christmas party and we had an investigator bring his step son and about 7 or 8 nieces and nephews, they were good kids and they even helped clean everything up! The step son loves it and wants to "do what we do" haha good stuff. They came to a service project we had at the church the next day and helped us pull weeds, rake leaves and all the fun stuff. Then came to church sunday, the guy is on with a date for Feb. 18th. We do have a baptism coming up in January. They should be ready by then. It's been a great week! I am excited for Christmas I hope yall have a great one! I sent out Christmas cards to alot of people, I hope yall got them, I am really worried some got lost or taken or something. I hope not but know that I love you all!

 

Here is my new address for a while - would love to hear from you!

46 Mary Lou Trail

Crawfordville, FL 32327

 

Have a Merry Christmas!!!!

-Love

Elder West

Hi Yall!

Hey Yall, it's been a great week here in Florida again! Even better, today I found out some great news!!!!
1: Mike a kid back in Perdido (my first area) got his mission call and...he is going to Montanna!!!! haha thats so awesome!!!!
2: This one goes hand in hand with # 1 The Hill's were baptized!!!! Yesss!!!! I got the goofiest smile when I heard that it all worked out! They are an awesome family, I love them to death, I will never forget them. I pray God will always let His blessings be on them to help them be faithful.

Yesterday we went fishing for a P-Day activity, my first time in years!!! I wasn't too good, but I caught a few twigs and even someones old fishing line that got left in the water!! I made out like a bandit! We also set up some Christmas decorations, I set up a tree, thats what one of the pictures is of, our little tree, I put lights and a bunch of mormon.org pass along cards on it to spice it up! There is also one of Elder Warburton standing in front of our door, and it shows the lights on the apartment too. That was fun.

Another pictures is of the sunrise the morning I left Georgia to come to Crawfordville, I thought it was beautiful so I snapped it. We had a great week, President Jensen is the bomb! We have a Christmas party on the 15th and they are going to have surprises for us!! :D I hope everyone has a great week! I need to get my companions a little goofy present, not sure what. Anyone have any ideas?

I had a great learning experience this week reading 3 Nephi 11 it is one of my favorite chapters, I love hearing the Savior speak, that chapter and the rest of 3 Nephi is how I gained my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know those are the Saviors words. I feel Him speaking to me as I read them. He truly did come to the American continent. I believe this and know it to be true. :D I love yall!!

Have a great week,
Elder West