Week # 30 ~No Way!!

Hello All,

I am feeling super great!   We are walking a lot now that we are in a ½ car & ½ walk mission area.   My ward is very nice and very friendly, so is my companion. 

So the craziest thing happened right after I emailed you last week.   You know that drunken guy that I told you about.  Well we got a call from him!!  He said he had no idea how he got home.   He found a card in his wallet (the one that we put there) and decided to call the phone number that was written on it.  It turns out that he can speak -kind of- good English, but sometimes I think he knows what more of the words then he say.  We took him on a church tour and showed him all around ward building.   He said he could play the piano, so he sat down and started to play. He was kind of bad, but we asked him how he learned to play the piano and he just said, “ok let me play another”.  We are currently teaching him and he seems really interested in the church and very willing to learn. 

During this week we have volunteered for service to get our service hours in.   We are working at the YMCA facility and also a non-profit company that builds houses.  This company sells homes for cheaper than what it cost to make the house.   We helped them with one of the houses.  Part of it was that we had the opportunity to  caulking the house. Thanks to Dad, I think that I did a pro of a job on it. It looked like a professional did it!  So I was pretty proud of myself for how well it looked. 

I got my watch fixed, the old battery they saved, they said that it still had a good charge and put it back in and it has been working fine. I also found out that you could re synchronize my watch if the hands are off.  My watch is way more complicated than I thought. 

As for pictures you asked for…I will get some for you as soon as I can.

Love, Elder Vance

I love you tons and lots and lots

My apartment-Grand Island Nebraska

Week #29 ~ Uhhh Joseph Smith?

Hello family & friends,

This is my week....

 Sunday.  Went to church feeling pretty good.   We got a couple of new people to show up and we were very excited about that. 

Monday. P-day. It was super cold outside.  It is way to cold to be walking around much. I finally got grandmas package with all of the fruit rollups and Hi-Chew in them and that super awesome tie. Please tell her thank you, it means a lot to get packages! 

Tuesday.  Was a regular day of walking, teaching and visiting.

Wednesday.  District meeting.  I gave a training on how to be better teachers by centering our teachings on the Covenants of Christ.  I think that it went super great!  I knew just what to say, but my training was cut a little short. I was supposed to have about a half hour to 20 minutes left for a roll play but our district leader said I only had about 5 minutes left.

Thursday.  I recently got a little step counter to count my steps and on average we walk about 10 miles every time we go walking around town, so that's helping me loose a couple of pounds.

Friday.  Average walking day. Cold but it helps you walk faster to stay warm. 

Saturday.  Towards the end of the day, it was dark outside. It is getting really warm, really fast here.  We took a short cut to our apartment through the mall and there were tons of people seeing movies and setting up booths in the hallways. 

            We were waiting for the cross-walk light to turn green and there was a guy on the other side of the road trying to walk across.  He did and almost got hit about 5 times.  When he got to our side I tried to give him a high five for surviving.   He grabbed me by the hand and held it and said " thank you thank you,  uhhh  joseph smith?" Pointing to our name tags.  We said, yes that we are Mormons and asked if he goes to church.   He said something incoherent and wanted something to write with to tell us his address. 

            So he started drawing squiggles and other things on the paper and he told us that it was Arabic.  He had no idea where he lived and we found out that he was completely drunk.  So we tried to help him find his home for about 2 hours.  I couldn't stop laughing, he almost passed out and fell on me.  He couldn't keep his balance even while just walking straight.  After a long while we final found his house and he went inside.  Lesson leaned…Don’t drink and walk!  Or just Don’t drink.  Hopefully we can follow up and help this man. 

and that was my week.

Love you lots,

Elder Vance

Zone Conference February 2014

Week # 28 ~What do you mean frostbite?

Hello Family,

Well this week was pretty good.  I am healthy and happy to be in Grand Island Nebraska, for some new and exciting adventures. 

My comp, Elder Bailey is super awesome, I am still trying to get the lay of the land.  But everything is just flat.  I keep looking for mountains to get my bearings, but ahhhh….. Just flat to left & flat to the right.  I will get some new batteries in my watch so that I can use the compass feature again.  I really need it to find my way around. 

Most of this week we did our usual knocking doors and doing visits.  Until it came to be Thursday.  On Thursday we got a text from a guy in our ward saying that today with the wind chill will be around -20 degrees.   He told us that we shouldn't go out walking in weather like that because a person can get frostbite within an hour of being outside.  We are now in a ½ walk ½ drive mission.  We share the car with another set of missionaries.  So we stayed inside and got rides to visit people.  The rest of the time we were inside of our apartment either studying or playing around. 

Sunday.  We got four less active and two new investigators to church and we were very ecstatic about this.  It is a great opportunity to teach more lessons.  We are grateful!

Love Elder Vance

Week #27 ~ It really is FLAT

Hello All, 

Monday.  P-day.  We did our usual and shopped at Wal Mart

Tuesday.  Helped someone move some boxes.

Wednesday.  District meeting.  I was told that I was going to give another training in district meeting by Elder Q and if I gave him my giant flashlight that I wouldn't have to give any more trainings, so I told him to get off his high podium of pride and humble himself, so he asked Elder E to get the flashlight for him.  So I had to hide the flashlight from everyone.  During district meeting I gave the spiritual thought and I thought that it was pretty good.

Thursday.  We found out about transfers and I got transferred to Grand Island Nebraska with Elder Bailey.  He is super funny and really cool. We get along almost perfectly together.  The only hitch in the area that I am serving is that we are in a ‘car share,’ meaning that we have a mini van for half of the week and we walk for the rest of the time.

Friday.  I walked all day all over town with Elder Bailey showing me around.

Saturday.  We walked around town some more and taught a couple of lessons to some people.

Sunday.  During church the first councilor was reading the schedule for Sundays church day and he said that "Elder Vance will be telling us a little about him and also giving his testimony today” I was like ' what!?!'  So I went up and gave a little testimony.  I think that it was ok for a short one.

That is what has happened so far in this week.

Also, I need to change the batteries for my fancy touch screen watch that you gave me, so where can I get the batteries changed?  Also can you send Hank Smith- thou shalt be nice?

Love Elder Vance

My new address:

Elder Vance

635 Kennedy Dr. #1 

Grand Island, Ne 68801

Week #26 ~YES, We do use electricity!

Hello Family,

So half of this week was pretty normal until Wednesday.

Wednesday.  Zone training and zone Olympics.  It was time for zone training but it was a little different, because of the zone Olympics.  The Olympics composes of jug curls, push ups, situps, stick pull, and ladders.   I competed in the stick pull and lost to an elder almost 1 1/2 times as big as me and elder Elison did the pushups and won.  It was pretty fun doing it because almost everyone was in the suits and ties.

 Thursday.  We have new restrictions on driving miles, like I explained last week.  SO we are doing a lot of walking.  We went to Clarinda and walked around from 10 to 4, so pretty much all day. My feet were cramping and my leg hurt from all of the walking and because of my pain we walked even more.  We also walked to Clarinda Academy ( its a juvenile delinquent center) and also the Clarinda prison that was next door to the Academy.  Later that day a member took us out to eat dinner.   While we were walking, a guy came out of his house when he saw us.  He told us that he really liked the wood carving that we do and also that he hates electricity.  We then told him that we, in fact, are not Amish, but missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint and that we do use electricity every day.  He was not sure what to say to us and just kind of walked away. It was so funny!

I will send some pictures next time because I am emailing you at Bellview right now and don’t have a lot of time.

Happy past Valentines day!!

Loves to you, Elder Vance

Week #25 ~YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

Hello Everyone,

I am doing well and staying healthy. 

This week was getting to the point of normal, except for all of the new rules that the AP's 

(Assistants to the President) have made concerning our miles.  Here are the new rules.

1.   If you go over your mile restriction, you loose your driving privileges for two transfers.

2.  Our max miles went from 1250 to 1100.

3.  We have to report our miles weekly now.

4.  We have 286 miles a week and if we go over that in a week you loose your driving privileges for two transfers.  A lot of missionaries were a  unhappy with that.   We still have to go to district meeting and zone training which is 50+ miles there and another 50 or so back.

But, anyway I think we can make it all work out.  We will at least give it a good ol' missionary try!

So on Thursday we found that our windshield wipers were broken, meaning that when ever we turn on the truck, the wipers freak out and go really fast and then just stop in the middle of the windshield.   The control for the wipers doesn't work.  So we took it to a place to fix it.    They took it apart and couldn't find out why they were going crazy and put it back together and ordered another motor for the wipers.  It should be in soon. 

Friday.  At Skate Land we were volunteering there again.   There were over 100 people there and it was just us two and one other person working behind the counters and we were very rushed so we both put on some skates and were skating to the people to help them out.  I felt like I was working at sonic.  It is so nice to know you are helping someone in need. 

Then on Saturday, we found out that the sisters in Red Oak have been coming into our area and teaching some of the people that we are teaching, so to say 'Hello' we sticky noted their car and in return they did it to our truck and wrote on the notes. 

Short of time,  that is my week

Love to all,

Elder Vance

Our hello to the sisters," Welcome to Shenandoah. "

Notes left on our truck.

Week # 24 ~This week, felt like a week!

Dang this week was crazzyy!

Monday.  P-day.  I got the call from my Mission President during P-day on Monday.   We were still shopping at Wal-Mart and Pres. told me that my Grandma Margaret had died and I just started to cry.  On the other hand…I was also relieved that she had passed so she doesn't have to suffer anymore.  It is still a bit of a hard subject but I can sometimes feel her around me.  It was hard but I am getting over it with the help of my companion and the Lord.

Tuesday.  We went and helped out at the elementary school.   Part of the helping out there is that we read and are read to by the kids.  It is as part of the progressive reading class.  The kids there get excited when they see us walk in and are super ready to read to us, they really like us. 

After that we did some service and helped to clean a less actives house (not the smoker one).  This house has 5 cats and one of them just had 6 kittens, so their entire house smells very strongly of cat urine, almost to the point making me gag.  I was put in charge of cleaning their bathroom.  I was like ' gaaaahhhh', it took me forever to finally clean everything in there.  There were lots of unidentifiable substances in there and I am sooooo very thankful to my mom and dad for teaching me how to properly clean.

Wednesday.  We had district meeting and guess what?  I got (had) to give the training on  'How can we better tie the restoration into all teaching situations’,  it went bad at least I think so.  I was super nervous and didn't know what to say so we just read the section about the restoration in the Preach my Gospel booklet and I some how was able to stretch it to be about a half hour, so I guess it went kind of good.  After that we went on exchanges with the  Glenwood elders. I went up to Glennwood and Elder Q went with Elder Elison in Shen.

Thursday.  I came back from exchanges to my apartment and found that Elder Q had rearranged our whole apartment and threw most of my stuff in the dumpster out back consisting of which was about 13 new eras and a some items that I wanted.  He also went through all of my ties and took them out of the protective plastic cases and untied all of them and tried to steal my remote control helicopter.  Because he wanted it.  Needless to say I freaked out.  He also wrote on all of our mirrors with car marker.

Friday. Saturday and Sunday were just normal

And that is my week

Elder Vance