"...using every minute and now it's paying off..." Week 6

Hey everyone this week has been amazing. we have seen so much growth this week and so many blessings. we have been using every minute and now its paying off. 

     So monday after lunch we were trying to figure out what to do with our P-day and Elder Morgan wanted to go make some visits and we were like umm maybe we will see. we didnt want to go out and end our p day 5 hours early. but as we tried to think of something to do we just kept feeling like we should go and make visits so we did. and the blessing was so worth it. There is a man who does the maintenance on our apartments and we had his address. So we went with elder morgan to visit him we knocked on the door and it was lie a wall of cigarette smoke came out but we just asked if we could come in and share a message. He said sure come in and we walked in and his girlfriend was sitting on the couch holding their 6 month old baby. we chated with them a while and then worked our way into the restoration. We asked if we could begin with a prayer and he said yes and i prayed and as we taught the lesson it was amazing to see the difference in their interest and posture. they really became interested. Espeacialy brittany who is his girlfriend. she just loved it. we gave them a book of mormon and challenged them to read and pray to know if it was true and what we said was.  we meet with them again on friday and he was gone but as we talked to her we just read alma 32:28-34 and talked about it. she also shared some very personal things about her and ron and she really opened up to us. and before we left i asked if we could kneel and pray and if she would ask if this was the right thing for her and if it was true. She cut me off and said i already did and i know its true and it is the right thing for me. it was so awesome. we taught them again saturday and addressed those concerns she had told us on friday but in a way that wouldnt let ron know she had told us. as we really delved into the atonment and read alma 36:13, 17-21 their were tears in his eyes. he was listening before but not keeping any commitments now he and brittany are comming to church this sunday. i cant wait to continue to see them progress.

     Chris, the previous concern with him is taken care of now haha. but we taught him the plan of salvation on saturday and it went great he asked questions and we answered as best as we could and then at the end i knew we wanted to invite him to be baptized and i was kinda nervous through the lesson but as i asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood of God he was like wo wo wo im not ready yet and so we said alright well how about you come to church tommorow and he agreed to come and he did come and it was awesome. hopefully next sunday we will have 3 investigators at church!

    so on christmas we were driving to the big ugly and there was this giant tree blocking the road and we were like noooo cause we didnt have enough miles left to go the other way so we went and ran past it to a members house and used their phone to round up a couple guys and got some axes and went to work. They wouldnt let us use the axe because we were city boys and the were country men and they were choppin away and eventually i found a axe lying around and i picked up and went at it and just kept choppin and choppin and they were like are you sure you are from the city and by the end i was a country man too haha. my hands have huge blisters now though.

     we started doing this thing were we knock 5 random houses each day and as we knock the houses we were using family history cards and trying to talk to people about it. we would knock they would open the door we would say we are missionarys for the church.... and then say we are sharing a message about family history, have you ever done any? and they would say im catholic and shut the door. like 3 times that happened and they were all catholic. so i guess there are alot of 1 generation catholiocs from like adam and eve time cause somehow none of them have family history or ancestors haha. next time someone says oh im catholic i want to say oh sorry i forgot catholics dont have ancestors and walk away but that probably isnt the right thing to do. 

also there is something that you dont realize until you are a missionary and that is how important the members of the ward or branch are. when members help missionary work is so much easier and succesful. we need the members. so be nice to the missionarys haha.

love you all,

Elder White

How many hillbilly mormons does it take to get a tree out of the road? 

Our pet fish. “Tony”\

elder white trying to swing on a vine

Making an arsenal of Ice bricks. …. It’s a long story.

"...working hard and loving it...." Week 5

Hey everyone! so this week had some interesting things happened this week. We got totally blindsided on Saturday. Chris our investigator apparently thought that Elder Clawson was hitting on him because he would keep on smiling at him and stuff like that and I guess Chris used to be inclined in that way so that was a little awkward to find out haha. Next time we see him we will have to clear that up. We had Zone conference on Tuesday on it was really awesome. But I have been making these pictures that we cut out and got laminated and I made one for the plan of salvation and for the restoration. We don't really have a family to use them on yet besides the senators who are all members already but they made good guinea pigs. I think they will be helpful when we teach family's and help the kids pay attention. The Blevins family which is the family that I talked about in my last email that was in the last house that we knocked on well they called and said that they didn't really want to see us so that was a let down but we are not letting it get to us. We are really hoping Chris doesn't drop us to because of the whole situation.

This is definitely a rough area when we knock on doors everyone says im already Christian I don't need to hear what you say and they close the door. And there are very few young family's or young people here because they have closed almost all the coal mines. So they have all moved out to find work. So pretty much everyone we do teach is very set in their ways and have been for decades. We were out walking downtown logan again trying to talk to people and its crazy how they see us coming and evade like people will be talking in a group and see us walking towards them and they will all cross the street and talk on the other side or they will be walking look uo and see us and dart into a store or hide around a corner so it was funny but also discouraging. but we were out for a couple of hours and were able to talk to a handful of people hopefully something will have touched their hearts and make them interested. One of the craziest things around here is there are tons of these little drive through stores that just sell cigarettes and tobacco. Everyone around here needs the word of wisdom haha. 

We got some sweet confederate flag rings this week

We are working hard and loving it. I may have gained a couple pounds...... of muscle haha I wish but I started this diet thing and im running and stuff so I can get back to were I was its not like im huge but ya haha. Like all excess food gets taken to our house which with the holidays means lots of fuge cookies cake and nothing healthy haha.

love you all

Elder white

the first pic is this ice thing we are gonna add to everyday until its 6 feet tall haha

we found this onion and it was growing something so we planted it and we are gonna see what happens

"...We've been praying so hard this week..." Week 4

***For those reading this blog, you can thank me when you read this next letter.  Here's a request I made in my letter to him!  "I won’t complain about you not capitalizing letters, or run on sentences, but you’ve got to give me a new paragraph here and there!!!  Please, for the love!…."  You're welcome:) -Angela

We have been praying so hard this week for solid investigators and we finally got some maybey! Monday night we went to this lady who used to be taught like a year ago that lived just a couple houses away from us and as we were teaching her she basically just had all the hard questions like the trinity, the Book of Mormon being added scripture, Joseph Smith and tithing and a bunch more. We told her that we would right down all those questions and have answers for next time we met and just told her that we knew it was true and started teaching the restoration and we stopped on prophets because we had to go. we studied and studied all week to be ready to answer her questions and the day we were supposed to see her again she called and said that she talked to her preacher and she doesnt want to meet with us anymore so that was pretty rough but we learned alot through it. We spent all day tuesday in Big Ugly which is a big holler that goes pretty deep into the mountains we knocked on tons of doors with Sister Vanater who lives there but no one was interested. Then it was about time to go so we did one last house and BOOM it was a family with 4 kids and they accepted the invatation to take the lessons from us and we have a apointment with them tommorow so i am really excited for that.

  I am making this a new paragraph for you mom haha. Ok so on wensday night we went to a Rebeccas home she has 2 little girls who are 1 and 2 so they really remind me of Bronwyn and it was really hard not to hold them. but she was recently baptized like a month ago and here husband was born into the church but isnt active now. but we went over and taught a new member lesson to her and tried to get him to commit to stop smoking. he said he would try but didn't seem very serious. but after she told us how she was studying to get her G.E.D and how she was gonna fail so i asked if she wanted some help and she was like yes please! so my companion played with the kids while i tutored her and it was crazy because i was like so where do you want to start and she said addition and subtraction with numbers over like 10 because she didn't really know how to do it when she ran out of fingers very well. so i taught her tricks for adding big numbers and then taught her how to multiply and divide. it was really fun and next time i come over we will tutor her some more.

   The Senator family is awesome. they are all members already except for the 18 year old daughter but i think she will come around. but we met with them wednesday and they brought this man named Chris who is  28 and he was kinda interested in the church. so we taught about the scriptures and the importance of reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon. when we read in the book of Mormon we would read a verse then stop and he would just keep reafding to himself he loved it. So we gave him a Book of Mormon to keep and a restorsation pamphlet and told him to read 3 Nephi chapter 11 and to read the restoration pamphlet so we could talk about it next time so that's our second new investigator so far. i am so excited at the progress we are starting to see in this area.

   On sunday i get to play the piano every once in a while because the chorister picks the songs and if i cant play them she wont change them she just says we will sing occapela which in a branch of 30 people who try to sing the different parts and everything i swear it sounds like we are singing 10 different songs haha. we always bless the sacrament and its really cool but after sacrament meeting Sister Jane (she always tells us to call her momma jane) but she said so Elder White you are gonna play for the Christmas program next Sunday and i said ok what songs do i need to practice and she said every Christmas song so i have to learn 15 or so hymns in a week where i have no time to practice haha.

     After church we called the appointments we had for that afternoon and they all said they were to busy so we went out to downtown logan to do some walk and talking. we were having some pretty good success handing out he is the gift cards and taklking about Christ and we started walking down this road that led up to this hill with a bunch of houses that looked kinda run down and sketchy but we just were like whatever lets go it was starting to get kinda dark even though it was only like 5:30 but we didnt really care and we were a good way up the street when this car that was driving through a stop sign behind us rolled down his window and said hey! and honked we turned around and he waved us over. we jogged back and he said you boys from around here and we said no and he said well dont go up there its not safe for you boys. we were like ok thankyou and he said yep and drove off. Elder Clawson was like well come on and started back up the hill but i was a scardey cat and was like no way haha so we went back down to the city which is like a little bunch of buildings and a kroger store and since there werent many people out we just went home.

thats about all for this week. love you all

Elder White

"...the most redneck place ever..." Week 3

hey everyone! so much has happened. So as we were leaving this guy was calling out my name so i went up to him and he handed me this big envelope and when i opened it it had like a list of 30 peoples names on it and it said you are the travel leader over this group you are responsible for checking their luggage to thier final destination and making sure that they get on the right plane. so that was insane cause there was like 3 different airlines that they were flying so i barely got on my plane i time. that is when i met eldwer faamoe he is samoan and is awesome we traveled together and are both waiting on visas for australia. I already love it in west virginia! if there is one thing it has taught me its that state side missions arent bad at all, they are way cool and i want to stay here almost haha. my companion is awesome his name is elder clawson. he is a funny guy who likes to work hard so we get along well. this place is crazy like its is the most redneck place ever everyone live in these things called hollers its super hilly in west virginia and everyone just lives in little trailors up in the mountains. and the little trailor communities are called hollers. there are lots of abondoned buildings and houses to that have been burned down or are just caving in and falling apart like everwhere and no one tears them down and cleans it up. so its pretty ghetto. everyone smokes and chews tabbaco. our aresa is huge its like massive that just me and elder clawson cover. and in that whole are we only have a branch of about thirty members and like 25 oh them are about to die haha like literally. we have no investigators really everyone already has their church and dont want to hear about ours. the other churches post articles in the news paper about how evil the mormons are and how joseph smith did all this awful things so everyone thinks we are horrible people.i have had some amazing miracles so far though. the first day i was here we were driving to our apartment and i just prayed asking for someone to teach i said i would do anything and right as i ended my prayer the phone rang and this guy that we had never met said hey your the missionarys right and we said yes we are and he said i have a friend who needs a blessing will you come down to the hospital? so we drove down there and found there room and this guy was sitting outside and he said hey im terri im the one who called you he said he used to be a member but had made some mistakes and hadnt been to church in a while. he said that this friend was a girl he was in love with and it turns out that she wasnt his wife so that was a little weird but he said he hadnt done anything with her and he asked if even though she wasnt a member if she could get a blessing we said yes and he took us in the room. she began talking to us and it was very hard to get what she was saying because of her hill billy accent but she told us about al lthe health problems she had had and how she believed in Jesus Christ and how she had heard that we were good people and wanted a blessing so my companion anointed the oil and i sealed it and gave her a blessing it was such an amazing experience as i listened for the promptings of the spirit in what to say by the end i was crying and she was crying. she said that that had felt really good and she was very hankful for it. i asked her if we could come by in a couple days and visit with her and share a message she and terri said they would love for us to come. she ended up being transfered to a hospital that not in our area but when she gets back we have her number and we will be able to meet with her. another miracle was we were out walking looking for someone to teach and as we were walking we passed this falling apart house and i felt like we should go knock on the door but then was like no one probably even lives there and we just kept walking after like a minute i had the same feeling to go back and knock but it was behind us now and i didnt think anyone lived there and then it vwas almost like a voice and i heard you need to go back to that house. so i decided to trust the spirit finnaly and i turned to my companion and said we need to go back to that house and i pointed at it and he said its far back and no one probably lives there anyways and i laughed and said thats what i told the holy ghost haha and said lets just go check so we went back and knocked on the door and heard this ladys voice say please help me i fell 2 days ago and cant get up we tried the front door but it was locked and there were no other doors so we called an ambulance and they came and opened the door and helped her up and we went in real quick before they took her to the hospital and said hi and set up an time when we could come back.  i love the mission and cant vwait to continue serving my apartment is awesome and i love you all.

ya we hit and killed a deer. we skinned it and ate it for dinner. and by that i mean one of the members went hunting and brought it home and as we were walking out we saw it just laying there haha.

"....is a different state than Virginia...." Week 2

Hey everyone so this week has been amazing. first off last Monday night i had been noticing one of the elders in my district was struggling with something. I pulled him aside into a empty room and asked him what was wrong. He was silent for a long time and slowly began crying he told me of a past sin he was worried about and was not sure if he was worthy to be here. he told me about his struggles and i couldn't stop myself from crying. I was able to relate to him. i said elder there is only one way you will know if you are worthy or not, we need to ask God. we knelt down and i said a prayer first then when i was done he followed up with his prayer. as he opened his heart to Heavenly Father and then ended his prayer we sat there kneeling in silence for a while. then I got the most distinct impression almost like it was a voice in my heart and mind saying that he was worthy to be out here and that he had those experiences because he would meet someone with the same problem. I began to cry again and i said elder what do you feel and he said he felt peace and then i told him what i had felt and heard and we both started crying again and we stood up and hugged. it was such a powerful experience that i will never forget. As far as non spiritual things go for Monday during laundry i started a giant arm wrestling contest. there were like a hundred elders going at it it was awesome. i placed 2nd and ill send you a pic later of why.  anyways my elbow hurt for a while. on Tuesday elder Dallin H Oaks came and spoke to us it was awesome. after that our district all went back to the residence while me and my companion went to get mail. as we were heading back to our residence i hatched a amazing plan. i sprinted up the stairs and said elders get out of your pajamas elder oaks is letting our branch meet him hurry and sprinted back down the stairs. me and my companion after a little walked slowly back up the stairs as they came rushing out half dressed trying to get everything on and just started laughing they weren't as happy about it but it was awesome haha they all eventually started laughing to. on Wednesday we taught sunny for the forth time and in the previous lesson she had said she was liking what we said but didn't know if it was true. i asked if she had been praying and she said yes but that she didn't know what she was feeling. so instead of teaching her one of the lessons i took it a different route i taught her how to feel the spirit and the fruit of the spirit and how she could understand what she was feeling and we told her how to have better and more diligent prayers then i said to her that she needed to find out whether or not it was true and as we left challenged her to have a solid answer next time we came the spirit was so strong and it was a awesome experience. later that day we did something our branch president had told us about the first day and it was that when our district was together in class to have each of us tell each missionary what we loved about them. as we went around and each person said what they liked about everyone else the spirit was so strong. i was last and as i was about to start i just couldn't stop crying i love each of them so much and pray for them so much that it was hard to not get emotional. i could barley talk but i told everyone what i loved about them and it was just such a powerful night.  on Thursday elder bednar came and spoke to us. he did a q and a and it was just awesome he is so powerful and bold when he speaks. the food was just cafeteria food but it didn't really matter i still ate a bunch. im not sure if i have gained weight or lost weight yet haha. its weird to think i leave the mtc in a couple days i have so much to learn. i came in to the mtc pretty prideful and i have had to repent of that i realized how little i actually know and how much i need to learn and now im leaving so its kinda a bummer. but i also cant wait to get out into west Virginia oh and by the way i got a temporary assignment to west Virginia which according to my district is a different state than Virginia but i don't believe them. sunday was a sad day my district is leaving at like 2 am monday morning so one i had to get up in the m,iddle of the night to hug them and say good bye and two(i used the right to for you mom) im gonna be all by myself today. but a cool experience on monday was that the branch president pulled me aside for an interview and as we were talking about the elders in my district and everything before i left he said conner i just want you to know that when you first got here i felt i could trust you and now as you are leaving and i have gotten to know you i know that i can trust you. that is pretty much everything from this week. i head out in like 18 hours so i might call while im in the airport. love you all. i gotta send the pictures in a different email.