Week # 48 ~UGG!

Hello family and friends,

Here is my quote from Pres.

"Your criticism may be worse than the conduct you are trying to correct" (Unknown)

This week has been weird and different,

I have been having some trouble with my companion, but we are working it out.  This has helped me grow because, I have seen and experienced some weird and patience testing things.  Things are getting better now because we are working out the kinks of our companionship and it is going way better. 

The weird.  I saw a man walking his dog while riding a ride on lawnmower.  That through me a little bit.  I had to look twice.

I also now have my shoe print permanently in the middle of a road because I stepped in some tar that was very squishy because of the intense heat.  It sunk about 3 inches down.  Then while we were walking on the sidewalk, I saw some birds squawking at us in the trees and sure enough a white poop came flying down at us and landed right on my shoe and made a splat noise.  Gross!

I have also been riding my bike a ton and it has been kicking my butt. The bike rides that we do everyday is super exhausting but it is keeping me in shape.  I cant wait to go biking in Moab again with all of my biking training that I am doing.  It will be awesome.

Thank you for those cd’s you sent.  Those talks that you sent me were awesome and if you could send me some other ones that would be nice.

The H’s, they are great, they have been coming to church every week.  They had some bad experiences with other churches and this ward has been super for them and their kids love it.  We are teaching them the first five lessons and answering all of her questions that they have.  They are planning to get baptized on labor day weekend by her nephew.  My cloths are holding up great, sister H got me a couple of new pants that are around my size and she gave them to me for free.  They are a variety of colors like dark brown, grey, black. 

This is a picture of a rain storm.  This is pretty much the normal rain that we get all the time here. 

and that was my week.

Well I have to go, love you all.

Love Elder Vance

Normal rain storm in Nebraska

Week # 47 ~Ups & Downs

Hello Family,

Start off any good day with an uplifting  Pres. quote.

"Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit... we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." (Aristotle). And may I add, "Christ-like, by doing Christ-like acts!!"

So this week was kind of a downer.  A guy that we used to teach died this week.   I don't know how he died, but we are in contact with his wife if she needs any gospel in her life.  Also someone from my school died on his mission in Madagascar from internal bleeding from the brain. That really threw me around the corner and back so that was kind of sad.

But on a strange note, I found out that my comp. loves to eat paper, literal paper, like notebook paper, tissue paper, the paper that hamburgers come wrapped in, that stuff and it really grosses me out.

On a GREAT note….we are getting closer and closer to a baptism with the H family and I’m really excited about that.  They are a great family and are growing in the Gospel. 

That is pretty much what happened this week.

I am doing well and am keeping on.  I am not in need of money or clothing, just letters from home. Thank you all who are sending love from home!  I really enjoy hearing how everyone is doing.

Love,

Elder Vance

Week # 46~ Hot.Hot.Hot.

Hello All,

Quote from pres.

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact." (William James)

So about this week.

It is so freak’in hot!   The tar on the streets and parking lots have melted and it squish around with my shoe. What a mess.

The Hamm's, the family of four that we have been teaching are going great.  They have a little boy who is 6 and little girl is 10.   The wife works during the day and husband works at night.  They have a ton of questions about everything and we have most of the answers.   To answer your question, do we know what we are going to teach ahead of time…Yes we do plan specific topics that we are going to teach them ahead of time.  It changes a lot and evolves as we go. 

The forth of July we ate with some members home.  A potluck kind of thing and then went home at 9 and it took me forever to fall asleep after that.   All of the legal and illegal fireworks that people were setting off all night. 

While riding my bide on friday I hit the curb and fell off and rolled off of my bike.   I didn't even get hurt or tear my pants.   Later we were visiting a less active and their dog jumped on me and tore a little bit of my pants :( but she offered to sew them back together for me.

I have been doing a lot of research on my heritage the Tribe of Manasseh in the bible.  It has been really interesting and I have a little challenge for you when you have time.  See what you can find out about your tribe.

My new companion is fine. Yes, he is nice to me.  He has re-arranged our entire apartment and can rebuke me really good.   He follows the rules to the extreme.  I will be fine, we are working on things!

My money is great, I have plenty and I don't think that I need anything else. 

That is my week and I love you all,

Love Elder Vance

Week # 45 ~ Blessings

Hello family,

I am feeling good and fine!

This week was an unofficial P-week. That is what some of the missionary's call the week of transfers.  It was full of making sure that Elder Bailey didn't forget anything (which he did) and saying goodbye to everyone that he knew.   He is now in Omaha and I have a new elder and his name is Elder Millett from St. George Utah. 

I have not figured him out yet..???   When we are just talking to each other he randomly switches from a Russian accent to a regular voice a lot and is very random at times.   The good thing is, that he is a clean freak.  He is cleaning everything he can touch, so I don't know what to think yet.  Today we went on a tour of Hornady and I took some pictures and I will email them to you.

I have been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot lately.  I actually read it all the time.  I am still finding things out that are meant to help me. I just read it this morning and found something in it about my mission. What I’m supposed to do with the people that I am teaching and my companions both junior and senior.  I learned that I am to never destroy their faith in me.   I am to let them know that I am here to help put their life's course back on track.  Pretty Awesome!!! I will work hard at making it be.

I am recently reading in Genesis about my heritage in tribe of Manasseh and it is very interesting.  I learned that Manasseh is a sort of bad kid and got his younger brother put first ahead of him so that he got the bigger blessing.  I will read more and fill you in. 

I recently got my bike tires filled with foam so I will never get a flat ever again.  It cost quite a bit but should even out in the end in years from now when I still do not need to change a flat tire. 

I did not get your package yet, I think that it will come soon.   We are going to a members house for the 4th to watch fireworks at 5pm for dinner and firework fun. 

We are still teaching the family of four and are in hopes that we will get them all baptized before I leave this area. 

I love you all and know I am doing great.  Take care and read your scriptures.

I have to go…

Love Elder Vance