Week #88 ~This Branch needs us!

Hello All,

I am feeling great here in WAHOO.  The area is very small and the branch is even smaller.  So this week we went to visit some people at an old folks home. We met a man named Osar there.  He is a little crazy, he thinks that two other woman put a spell on him.  He feels the spell makes him shaking a lot. He is starting on a lot of medicine so he will be “kind of “normal soon. We are trying to teach and visit with the people in the home and maybe teach a few lessons.

I am finding out more about my companion Elder Lopez,  He thinks that the Lunar mission by NASA was a fake and he isn’t joking either.  He is 18 and still kind of a "teenager" if you know what I mean.  But very kind and we are getting along great.

Yesterday in church, while someone was giving a talk a little girl in the front row decided to help with the lesson.  So she held up a picture of Jesus and stood on her chair and showed it to everyone. It was kind of funny.   

Wahoo is nice and the branch likes us a lot because they kind of need us to help them.  They need help with everything because they are so small.  This week we are going to do service chopping wood, it will be great to get out and start working again. 

Today for p-day activity, we are going to be playing basket ball today, after our laundry and shopping. 

Love you all,

Elder Vance

Week # 87 ~ Eye Doctor Branch.

Hello Mom & Family,

Things are good in Wahoo.  We haven't taught a lot of lessons here, the town is small and kind of quirky.   We are in a branch that is very small, barely a branch.  Our church services are held in the basement of an eye doctors building.  We are teaching mission prep every Sunday evening. Which is great fun!

Our apartment is super dirty, we are going to deep clean it today. My companion is going great.  Elder Lopez  is 18 and has been out for 6 months.  This town does not have a lot of people that we can see. We have to drive everywhere because everything is so spread out.  I love to bike and we do it when we can, but unfortunately we do not have opportunity here to ride.  We did get to go to the Omaha Temple last week with our zone.  It was so great.  I have sent a picture for you.  I love you tons,

Love,

Elder Vance

Week #86 ~WAHOO......

........Nebrasak that is! 

I got transferred to Wahoo Nebraska. It is a super small town and everyone is really layed back.   It is kind of a bother because I am still used to a strict schedule of things to do. It is very small! 

My new address is

 Elder Auston Vance
155 E. 8th Street. #1

Wahoo, Nebraska.   
68066 

My new companion is Elder Lopez.   He is kind of layed back.   He has been out for 6 months.  I am senior comp so that is very nice.  We have been given a  Ford Fusion to drive, so that is nice. 

Conference was great.  My favorite talk is Elder Hollands talk, don’t you just love every talk he gives!!! It is the talk with the two boys on the cliff. My testimony has grown a ton since I left.  It is so nice to feel like I am starting to know personally some of the stories in the BoM.  I also feel like I know of the more extended parts of the stories and truly know the prophets.  It is awesome to serve a mission!

It is full on summer and tornado weather here.  I will be sending home my good winter gear, since I will not have any more winters here.  I will be home before you know it!  I love you also tons and tons. and tell Kyle “hi” for me.

Love you all,

Elder Vance

Week # 85 ~Working Harder Than Ever!

Hello,

 This week has been the slowest week I have ever seen on my mission so far.  We had to scratch by to even see someone for a couple of visits.   I am working harder than ever!!!   It is not very motivating. I also think that I will be leaving to another area at the end of this week.  Transfers are this Friday.

I have been here in Omaha for almost 7 and a half months, so I think that I will be transferred.  So hold on to the packages and letters.  I am going to send a letter home, it is a NOMRMA.  Nebraska Omaha mission return missionary application.  It is a funny form that girls fill our for missionaries in Nebraska.

My release date is Aug 19.  I hope that lines up with school starting.  I don't think that I can leave early either.  My short time is up and I have to get off the computer. 

I love you tons! 

Elder Vance

Week # 84 ~Making good impressions!

Hello my family,

So turns out we had a second mouse running around our place!  We finally caught it and got rid of it. 

All 3 of our investigators are leaving us.  Two are moving and one wants to go to another ward, which makes him out of our jurisdiction. We will make sure new missionaries take over.   So we are sad and out of investigators. 

We went to dinner with the N families home and they are both very old.  During dinner they gave us a lecture about how you shouldn't tell people that you don't drink at a party.  They think you should tell them no thank you instead and politely refuse the drink.  That some how was the main topic of conversation that they wanted to talk about.  It was about an hour-long talk.  Apparently we impressed them so much with our comments from the dinner, they invited us back to go to dinner again.   I will keep you informed. 

Love you,

Elder Vance

Week # 83 ~Grapefruit?

Hi family,

This week has been weird for me!   While we were teaching investigators, I had a day of craziness.   I was mispronouncing words, backwards inside out and pushdown. We were talking about planting the seed of faith…. I accidently told them that the seed will turn into a grapefruit instead of a GREAT fruit.  Everyone laughed at what I said including me.  We laughed for a while actually. 

S.  Is out of town again and won’t be at church. 

We have a new ward mission leader who is kind of a bummer.  He is telling us what we need to do which we are already doing.   He expects us to be perfect which we can’t ever be, so it is kind of frustrating.  We will continue to do our best pray a lot.

Later in the week we saw one of the 3-doomsday planes. That was pretty cool. We also saw that bomber jet that is really flat and kind of looks like a triangle. It was a pretty interesting day.

Love Elder Vance

Week # 82 ~Three day mouse removal!

Hello Family,

 

We finally met with S.  and he is still willing to meet with us and we reset his baptism date to April 11^th.  Pray that is will happen and I will be there to see this man come closer to our Heavenly Father. 

So we found a mouse in our apartment and it freaked me out!!  It was pooping everywhere! It took us a good 3 days to finally catch that sucker! One day to strategize, one day to observe the enemies movements, and one day to execute our plan! And… we got it!  Peanut butter on a regular mousetrap wins again!  But I was super paranoid about that mouse coming into our room so I barricaded the door with towels and things so it couldn't get in. Somehow, it worked!

Love you tons and tons,

Elder Vance

Week # 81 ~No Transfer

Hi guys,

No transfers for me…YAHHH!  And I am still in Millard area.  I am so happy to have the same area and the same companion.  I am very blessed. 

So S.  Is now not progressing in a good direction.  He has been drinking coffee and a little bit of alcohol and is supering busy and is moving.  We finally met with him and we both are really sad about the situation.  We will work hard and pray hard for him. 

Other than that on Friday we stopped by a less active family and they are from Micronesia and when they opened the door their apartment was super hot and stank strongly of dead fish. Apparently they were making their own sushi and they didn't use any fish.   so I was really confused to where the fish smell was coming from.  Instead of fish they were using spam.  I guess it is cheaper that any fish. 

I wanted to be polite and so I asked for a little bit of it.  I thought that they would give me at most a little bit sized piece.  Nooooo, they gave me 8 inches of that stuff!  It was wrapped in a weird seaweed thing.  So I took it politely and we were off. As we were walking I decided to see what it smelled like.  So I sniffed it and almost threw-up.  I then thought, you know it probably isn't as bad the second time, it was worse.  Then my hand smelled like it.  I almost threw-up again.  So to be polite I waited to get far away from their home and through it in the dumpster.   You do not have to go foreign to eat gross food! Or to see weird things and meet interesting people!!

Love you,

Elder Vance

Week # 80 ~ Baptism Push Back

Hello Family,

So our investigator S. had to push his baptism backs two weeks because he is busy.  We are still teaching and praying for him.  We have hope that he will continue to progress and realize the importance of the Gospel in his life. 

Thanks for the letters and packages of encouragement.  We are trying to stay as upbeat as we can.   We have transfer calls are this Thursday and transfers are this Friday. I hope I don't get transferred; I want to see this baptism come through.  I love my companion he is a really kind and fun to be around. 

No I do not need anything and I love you all tons!!

Love Elder Vance