Transfers/Snowwww!

     Hey everyone I hope you are doing good and staying safe. Well this past week has been probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission. A lot has happened in a week. I guess I will just tell you a bit about it then.

Dulles Air and Space Museum

     Monday for P-Day the Spanish Missionaries (Elder Bernay and Elder Pina) picked us up and we all went to the Dulles Air and Space Museum. Just so y'all know it's where part of a Transformers movie was filmed, anyway it was pretty cool and fun. Elder Coles was loving it, that is like his favorite place out here or one of them. I got a call from President and found out I was getting transferred.
     Tuesday we had District Meeting and I wanted to show a video so we borrowed some keys from a counselor in the Bishopric, Brother Gustafson, and got a big ole TV out of the library. I showed the video called "No Ordinary Shepherd" and it was really good. (Thank you mom!) we also had some pizza so it was fun. I spent some time packing today and we found out Elder Coles was getting transferred as well so we were both leaving.
     Wednesday we did some packing and then went to Brian Doran's one last time for some service. He's a great guy and I'm going to miss going over there and doing service with him. Elder Coles and I packed for most of the evening then.

Brother Rankin is awesome!
He looks like Mr. Fredrickson from Up
and he even has Doug! (Dog)

     Thursday morning we grabbed the Sisters car and got it loaded with stuff, then we went to say goodbye to Brother Rankin, after that we headed to transfers. My new companion is Elder Finlayson, he is from Highland, Utah, and we are the Office Elders. That means we do a lot of work in the office helping things go good and we do training for trainers and new missionaries and some training at Zone Conferences. We also make sure all the apartments have the things that they need. It's a lot of work and we only get to work in our area during the evening, and some days not at all, that makes it difficult sometimes. Anyway we left transfers in a U-haul full of luggage for the departing missionaries and went to dinner at the Mission Home. After dinner we had a testimony meeting where all the departing missionaries bore their testimonies and it was really good! When that was done we took them to the hotel and then we finally made it back to our apartment at midnight.
     Friday we had to get up at 3:30 to take the departing missionaries to the airport. After we got them all good to go and their luggage taken care of we went to breakfast with the Assistants at Bob Evans. When we were done with breakfast we took the U-haul back to the rental place and then came back to the apartment and took a nap. (President told us to, good thing because we were tired!) When we woke up we went to the office and did some things, but we weren't able to do as much as we wanted to, then we came back to the apartment and did some planning and cleaning. By that time it had started snowing pretty good and we were told not to drive. 

     Saturday it was a blizzard! It had snowed all night and it snowed all day on Saturday and then all Saturday night. There was a ton of snow! We left the apartment at 10:30 with some shovels and started walking down the road. We helped get a snowplow unstuck and then shoveled a members' driveway, they then fed us lunch so that was nice. We were walking back, when we heard a yell, we all turned around just in time to see this little Asian woman slip and fall. She stood up and asked if we could shovel her driveway and we said yes, it was piled up in her driveway! We knocked it out in about 45 mins though, we were hauling. After that when we were walking back we helped two more snowplows get unstuck, it was pretty crazy.

     Sunday church was canceled and we still couldn't drive anywhere, so the missionaries in our complex got together and we had our own little sacrament meeting. It was pretty cool we sang some songs, took the sacrament, and read some chapters of scripture and talked about them. It was a lot of fun. It was a pretty nice day so we went out and helped people shovel the cars out of the couple feet of snow that had fallen and was piled up. Later the Assistants got permission for us to drive to the office so we could get some things done that needed to get done.
     Monday wasn't p-day like usual, because of the conditions it got pushed back to Tuesday, but that's okay. Elder Finlayson and I still had permission to drive to the office so we went in the morning and did some things we didn't get done the night before. When we got back we cleaned and rearranged our apartment with the Braddock elders, we all live in the same apartment so it's pretty sweet! Then we went back to the office to do some more work and then we came back to the apartment and got picked up by a member for a lesson with a lady named Adriana. The lesson went alright, but it was kind of a little bash, she is super nice though so we will see how things turn out. After dinner we went back to the office to do some more work and we took the Braddock elders with us because they were sick of being cooped up in the apartment not being able to do much, so they came and helped us.

Braddock Elders & Elders. Finlayson &  Brady

Snowwwwww! (That's the van we drive)

It snowed more too!

     That was my week and it was pretty crazy, but pretty fun as well. I am so excited about all the snow we got! It's finally here! I don't know how long it will last, but I'm going to enjoy it while it is here and there is a lot of it. They say it's one of the top 3 worst storms recorded in this area, so that's pretty cool! Anyway I hope you all have a great week and stay safe.      ~ Elder Brady

Snow?!

Oakton Zone

     Hey hey everybody, I hope y'all are are doing good and enjoying January! It finally snowed here this week, twice! The first time it probably didn't even count as actually snowing but it was something, the second time was a better snow but still it didn't stick. Virginia is trying though, I'll take what I can get out here.

     So this week was a little different we did some service here and there at the beginning of the week, which was great, service is the best! Most of it was helping people put away their Christmas decorations...I guess even as a missionary I can't get away from that.
     Anyway Thursday was a change in our schedule, President wanted to meet with Elder Coles and I so we got the Oakton sisters to take us to the Mission Office. While Elder Coles was in with President the Assistants to the President came in, (Elder Blanchard and Elder Jones) Elder Jones asked me to go get some stuff with him from an apartment that wasn't too far away so I did and he let me drive the truck!! Yeah Buddy! It was a lot of fun going with Elder Jones and driving the truck so that was sweet. Well we got back and then Elder Coles and I had dinner with the Kambourian's who are a part member family, she is the member and he is not. They are super cool and he was actually a spy so that was pretty cool to talk about.
     Well the rest of the week kind of went back to normal which is ok I suppose just not as fun. We have a lot of potential investigators that we are working to go through so there is always work to do which is good, keeps us busy. Transfers are this week so that's always fun, you never know what is going to happen anymore because there isn't a pattern yet with President Huntsman but hey that keeps you on your toes. Sorry for the short email but we are going to a museum so I don't have a ton of time, hope you all are doing great and have a great week!     ~ Elder Brady

Hey Hey

My district meeting in the Mother's Lounge!

     Hey everybody, this week was pretty good. You know just doing missionary work so what could be better? It is one of the best things I've ever done. Anyway this won't be a long email so sorry about that but anyway here goes.

     Monday we went shopping and then went to Burlington to look at clothes and some suits, I didn't get any but Elder Tesch (one of the Zone Leaders) bought a whole bunch of stuff for when he goes home. He has almost a whole suitcase full of clothes he has bought for when he goes home, it's pretty crazy. After that we went to the Stake Center to email and shoot some hoops.
     Tuesday was cold. We went to see a potential named David, who thankfully let us in but wasn't interested. He was super nice though and we had a good conversation with him while we warmed up for the ride back.
     Wednesday we had Brother Rankin come on splits with us and we went to see a referral/potential named Anthony. He is an older gentleman but he was super interested and wants to meet with the Bishop and learn more, anddd come to church, it was sweet! Finally something is happening!
     Thursday evening we had a ward missionary correlation meeting and it's the first one we have had since I've been here, only three Ward missionaries showed up unfortunately. The conversation got a little intense at one point but it ended well and we are coming up with plans as a ward mission now together so it's good.
     Friday we did some service with the Bank's and helped them move some furniture and put away all their Christmas decorations. They have a ton! It was a lot of fun though.
     Saturday was a Stake Missionary breakfast so all the missionaries in our stake got fed at the stake center. It was super nice and I guess they do it pretty often.
     Sunday was great, it always is. We got to go to church and it was way good. In Gospel Principles they talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and not only how we can but why we do. There are so many blessings from keeping the Sabbath Day holy, it's great!
     Well this was short and it was really just a highlight of everyday this week because I don't have a ton of time right now. I hope y'all have a great day and a great week!
     ~ Elder Brady

Oakmarr

2016!!!

Our Zone on New Year's Eve!

     Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good one and is getting a good start into 2016. This week has been an interesting one with people being gone for the holidays and things like that but it was good still. It was a roller coaster of a week but things should start steadying out here in a week or so when everyone gets back and we get into the swing of things.
     Well Monday was a pretty fun day, we had our Zone Activity which was a big ole nerf war and a white elephant gift exchange, I got a tie! Yeah buddy. It was a lot of fun actually.
     Tuesday and Wednesday were slower days because everyone is out of town for the holidays. Hopefully they all get back soon.
     Thursday was New Year's Eve and also interviews with President. We had interviews in the afternoon, they were pretty good I really like interviews with President. We also learned about planning and got to practice teach a little. In the evening we had our Zone New Year's party we all went to the church and played lightning, mafia, and signs. We could have watched some movies, but no one wanted to watch the ones they gave us to watch so we just played games the whole time and ate pizza. It was a lot of fun though and we rang in the new year, granted we had to do it 2 hours early to get home on time but still..
     Skipping to Saturday, we had a big Zone Finding Fest all day. My district blitzed each other's areas together so there was 8 missionaries in a neighborhood talking to people and knocking doors. Our district alone found I think 7 new investigators this week so it was pretty good. We had a competition with the rest of the zone and my district won! Whoop whoop!
     Sunday was nice, church is at 11 o'clock now so we have time to do studies in the morning before we go to church. After church we met with the bishop and talked with him about how we could better help him and how he and the ward can help us with the people we are teaching, it was really good.
     Well this is a shorter email, but it was a pretty decent week. We had a fun New Year's and now it's 2016, kind of hard to believe. Make it a good year everybody! Work hard to improve yourself and have fun! Miss you all.
     ~ Elder Brady

Doormat we saw while tracting.