put the gun down!

So I have a funny story for y'all. So we were teaching this new investigator Nick and his friend Justen comes over (this will come back to play later on in the story). So were teaching Nick, we hear "put the gun down! put the gun down that's how people get shot," so we look over and see that there are like 5 cops. And there were these kids that were shooting airsoft guns in the park. Well we got Nick's attention again and we got our lesson refocused. And then Justen came over and we then started over and Justen said he wanted to know more. It was cool. So anyway I love this work and I love to teach this gospel. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. I am praying for all of you.

love elder black

I bore my testimony there and it was just awesome.

(working on the house 2009)

Sorry family, I have limited time on here so I have got to be quick. but know that I love my mission and that things are going great. I love getting letters from everyone and I am working on sending every one a letter a BIG one. Know that your all in my prayers and that I love each and every one of you. The highlight of my week was zone conference. I love getting together with my fellow missionaries and I love Pres. Belliston. He is the best. He is truly an inspired person and he works hard at his calling. I bore my testimony there and it was just awesome. Well I really don't have much more to say than that. We had our area blitzed and that was fun we had 6 missionaries in Bel Air (and dad it is a richy area) but people are still humble and still want the gospel and that is awesome. Well I will continue to work hard. Thank you for your love and support. I love you all very much and will do better at the letter writing. I have more time to do that. Anyway so farewell for now.

love

elder black

I thought that was something we just joked about.

(christmas eve 2009)

So what's up? I gave you all break down yesterday. And I hope that I did not seemed to rushed. That phone call did really mean a lot to me and I really do miss you all! I am now looking forward to Christmas and the best gift I could get would to here all your voice's again. That will come faster than we all think, so be ready! Well nothing is new here, I am still just so shocked that my mom has a goat now! I thought that was something we just joked about. Oh well I guess not anymore. Hey now that we have a goat we need some chickens and then a horse. I will expect all of this by the time I get home (horses are only 500$ at that rescued ranch it was called the love shack). Anyway I love this mission and I love all of you. I am sorry for this lame email. I just don't know what else to say. Next week will be better, I promise.

love elder black.

fight over the phone

I will be calling home! That just gets me excited just talking about it. Anyway I will be calling home at like around 3 or4pm our time, so I don't know when church is. That is the question I ask here? And I have no idea how to find this info out? Anyway grab steal and fight over that phone! Do everything you have to save it, kill one another! ha ha ha I would love to hear all your voices. So again, this is my plea, that you are home around these times. And if it is later. I am sorry. But be patient with me and know that I am just as eager to talk with you all. So I love you all and to all (that are moms) happy mothers day! And a quick shout out to my mom: your awesome and I love you and I thank you for everything you do for me!

love elder black

aka rocky

PS you don't all have to fight over the phone that was a joke.

To be continued......

Okay Black family and others. Today is Pday. Okay, you already know that. Well just to get it out of the way, I am being transferred. To where? I know not. But I will inform you all on my location on Wednesday, in my next letter. Anyway today was not too exciting because, oh this bad news. But we had some fun regardless. I will update you on last week though. Okay here is how it broke down....

Monday was Pday. We really did nothing too exciting. It was really just shopping and jamming out to MoTab, I love that stuff!

Tuesday we had lunch and then we went to see some potential investigators. That went well, even though we did not get in to see any of them, for they were all not home. Had dinner with the Jonson's. I am going to miss them so much. That family is going to be so hard to say goodbye too. I came to truly love that family.

Wednesday we had studies at 7-10 (pam are you still doing that)? Then we had Terry. It was a sad day. We had to drop her, she just would not keep any commitments. We had lunch then got a call from Sis. Burton that she was sick so we had to cancel that lesson. We went to Bro. Suberts home and we are going to stop visiting him so much because he is not keeping commitments either, but he does come to church. We had the Cole's for dinner and I ate a crawdad and almost threw up. It was not good at all. So that was kinda a bust day. But lunch was fun at least.

Thusday we tried to help Bro. Robison with his book. We had lunch, did some knocking, went to Bro. Nottingham's house. He is 99 years old and that man is still as active as can be! Well after that we had dinner at the Kerr's and then had Elder Larose's bday party, that was lots of fun.

Well I will have to finish this up later. I have got to go to dinner.

To be continued......

Letter time!

(on his 19th birthday)

Well it's that time again. It's Pday and you know what that means? Letter time! Well lets break it down for you......

Monday- Nothing new, just did lots of tracking and finding people. It was fun, but long and hard.

Tuesday- It was my first time in charge of my area all by myself. We went on splits and I stayed in my area and my comp left. It was hard at first, but after a while I got the hang of things. I was on exchanges with Elder Smith.

Wednesday- We had an amazing lesson with Artie Bagor and he wants to come back to church. He also had his friend their that sat in on the lesson. His name was Richard and he was way interested. He said he was glad we were not like the other churches that try to cram religion down their throats. We told him we would never try to do that and it was up to him to decider if he wanted to be a part of our faith or not. We had dinner and we had a good lesson at the Johnson's their awesome. I love them, they're so nice to us. We also went to Bro. Keatlily's house and we also had a good lesson their and we played with his great Dane. That dog is not only fast, but huge! He is a monster!

Thursday- We did lots of knocking and lots of walking. We had dinner with Robison's and ate some WV mexican food. It was okay, but what was funny was Bro. Robison was making fun of the guys that were working there and was telling Mexican jokes and everything. We were trying to tell him to be nice, but you cant tell old people what to do! We weekly planned and then we got the car back, yea! I love having the car!

Friday- We went to Bro. Ketly's and had another good lesson. Then we went to Bro. Robison to help him do something with his computer. I don't know, Elder Meese knows all about that stuff. I just played with their dog Tiger! We went to Bro. Shubert's house. Got attacked by bugs and they all just laughed at me! We did some service at the Gunns, we helped her make a chicken coop. It did not go very well. She did not have her materials she needed, nor did she know what she was doing/wanted. Do you remember when I offered to held Bro. somebody? in our ward before they left, and I helped put his new roof on, and there was a note: you got all the stuff you need get started and I will be there soon. And I had no idea how to put on a roof! Well that's kinda how this went! After that, we went to the Van Valets for diner and we had some true Mexican food. It was so good. I had to pack my stuff too because I had to go on yet another exchange with Elder Hardman.

Saturday- I was on exchanges with Elder Hardman. Went well, I learned a lot.

Sunday - Sunday was so much fun. I rode in a semi-truck and it was hauling about as round as a quarter. And we were inside most of the day, but I rode in a peter built 18 wheeler! Is that not cool or what!

Well give my love to everyone!

And I will let you know how transfers look because there coming up fast. The question is do I stay? Or do I go?

love you guys love elder black

"I just need to track him down."

Dear family, lets talk a moment about me. I love this part of my day! Today is Pday of course, and we as a district are going to play min golf and climb Maryland hights again. That should be a riot. I don't think we have anything else planned. So that is my day today besides shopping, which is all ways fun with the Charleston Elders. I have started making a tape and you have the privilege of meeting them. Anyways on to my week, just to warn you all it was not all that exciting and most of my week was spent in meetings. Okay we shall move on now that you know that.

Monday went to Rittas, that was a ice cream place/ shaved ice. It was good, I loved it. Best ice cream I ever had (well besides nutters). We went to a store called Gabreal Brothers, it was like Good Will on steroids. But I like Good Will a lot better, I think it was more organised and stuff. And that was about it. Yea moving on.....

Tues. District meeting. Love a good D.M. I gave a workshop on good planing and why we do it. It was fun/ up lifting and you could really feel the spirit in the room. We had lunch together and then me and Elder Berad, who is are D.L ,went on splits together. We met this really cool lady (forgot her name (good thing she is not in my area)) but she had a Dalmatian (a dog with black spots all over it he was cool first time seeing one). And we saw Bro. Jonson, he reminded me of Perry a lot. That was about it for Tues.......

Wed. Wednesday and Thursday can almost be combine so here it is: Wednesday I got back from splits and we exchanged the car so we were on bikes (PS dad I sill have not looked at my tires but I will do that soon). We taught the Gunns about the plan of salvation and it went well. The Gunns are a part member family, the boys are members and so is the mom but the dad is not a member. But he will be, I just need to track him down. He is never around when we teach them.

Thurs. We had Pres. interviews and that was great. We had a good time and I love President Belliston. He just is so funny but more than that, he could quote a scripture at the drop of a hat. And I am pretty sure he has the BOM memorized by now and I want to be like that!!! Awesome guy, love him to death. Even though he won't give us a car (I cant see why though). Saw Sister Burden. She is like 90 years old and is still got a sense of humor that would amaze anyone. She is just to cool for school, as she would say! We did not have a dinner appointment, so we talked about life, me and Elder Meese over a frosted beer mug at A&W. It was a good man talk. Love that guy. He is quiet, but when he does get talking he is so funny.

Fri. This also marks the day for a new planer. I am still on MTC time and it kinda mess me up, but I am to lazy to change it so I just deal with it, I roll with the punches.

We tried to see Terry, but she flaked out on us. She is like the queen of that. We did lots of knocking and then had lunch. Had dinner with the Johnson's. They are a newly baptized family and there awesome. The dad reminds me of Cody Villarreal. We saw Brother Nottingham, who just celebrated his 99 birthday. He is so cool and he always tells us that he is only on blood pressure meds and that he is going to live to be 105.

Sat. We went to the flee market to find people and it worked some what. We found some solid people. We went to see Terry once again, flaked out on us. We went to historic Harper's Ferry and we did some tracking there. I placed a Book of Mormon and that was cool. Then we had dinner with the Elsworth's. Cool people, we use to live with them, well Meese did, I did not.

Sun. We had pec and then we saw Brother Ketley. He's is so cool, he is a fire man going through a divorce. He has had a hard life. He is a member but he thinks God has abandoned him. We work hard with him and he said he will try to come to church. We saw the Charleston's crazy investigator. His name was Chris and he is so funny. Well that's about it. See you guys next week.

love elder black

"well apparently I missed this or Hank for got to cover it"

So family this is my week:

Monday we went to Maryland heights, which is the tallest mount. in Maryland (its only like 100 ft tall), there is no such thing as a mount. here. We ate icecream at nutters (which is like the best icecream in the world) then we saw the battle field, that was cool but we did not take pictures because we had to get going to meet with families and do missionary stuff. This was also the time were I had a minor panic attack I then found it in (of all places) my back pack (yea I felt dumb) that was about it. I will be sending those pictures as soon as I can!

Tues. well we saw the Guns and a few other families but nothing new. We did lots of knocking and we did lots of tracking but I will let you know if anything changes.

Wednes. This was a fun day. We went to the auto car wash and it was like these elders have never been thru one. They were screaming and carrying on, I got a video of it. It was funny!

Thurs. was zone conference. This was awesome. I love zone conference. It is such a boost, I love it!

Friday- OK this was a OK day. It started out good we had dinner with the Wards, which was good. We did some off roading in the car. My comp. does not know how to drive off road, so I had to take the wheel. We will not be returning to that members home again without a 4 wheel drive truck! And then I was still driving when I was in the city and the corners at the intersection are really sharp, (well apparently I missed this or Hank for got to cover it) because I bounced off this curb and was like oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo crap. Well let me tell you the next 20 min was spent changing this tire and I was not a happy camper!

Sat. we went to a excommunicated members re-baptism. That was cool. Then we spent 30 minutes at the repair shop, the whole time I was complaining that I could do this so much faster myself all I needed was a new tire!

Sunday. was fast and testimony meeting. I bore my testimony and it was cool! I got invited to talk to the primary kids to talk about missions and that was cool also.

Well sorry this was so lame. I will do better next week. I for got to write stuff down as you can tell.

love elder black

My story on the week

So dear family it is just another pday here in H.F. (Harper's Ferry) my emails home are going to change. I am first going to acquire all the e-mail address I can and then I will write one massive email to everyone like you are suppose to do. Now the second thing that I am going to do is break my days up and write a summary of that day throughout the week, I feel that if I write what happened, that night I won't be thinking about it on pday and forget it all and have nothing to report. So things are going to change a bit, this idea came to me watching G.C. (General Conference)

monday went like this: the Charlestown elders came down and we had pday together and we went out to Wendys and had a good time. The elders that came are elder Godfree and elder Larose . Elder Godfree was supose to be in India, but he could not get his visa and they just sent him here and he is a free spirit, . but they are tearing it up in Charlestown!

Tuesday went like this: we started out our day doing ps. (personal study) and cs.(comp study) which went very well. Then we tried to visit Roger and Karin, a less active family and tried to see Sister Copenhavor, which did not happen but that's ok. We then had lunch back at the apartment or house because it is a house! That lunch was yummy in my tummy after that we knocked Cabel Town a typical West Virginia neighborhood, no body had teeth!! Just kidding but after what seemed to be 6 hours of knocking, but it was only 2 1/2, I need to get in to shape I am such a wimp! We even had the car too! Can you believe that?! Anyway after that fiasco and might I add disaster. I had someone sick their dog on me! But we won't get into that because i am scared for life from it! after that we went to the Curs, that was a nice famliy the dad is a Marine SIMPER FI! We're going to get along quite nicely. We watched Finding Faith in Christ which we all bawled our freaken eyes out and she loved it, we ate dinner there. The kids went nuts, she was embarrassed but we assured her that we understood. I love the dinner (umm umm!) i love members that feed me! After that we taught the Cogles, nice family the lesson went good, but we had to drop them because they just were not progressing and not keeping commitments, I hate that! But the Lord will bless us, I know it.

Wednesday went like this!

DISTRICT MEETING!!! :)
i love district meeting its were you can all get together as a district and get closer and the zone leaders were there and they are cool guys. after that we went to A&W the best root beer in a keg I have ever had! They even give you a frosted mug how cool!!!

after that we had a cool lesson with Terry she is a cool investigator she calls us her babies, so weird! but we love her, . the lesson went well and we invited her to come to G.C and she said she would! that was cool! she has come a long way !

We did service at the library, that was fun. I made dive bombing birds (long story). There was this lady that came up to us and apologized for the mean things she said to us and slamming the door in our face. I have never met this lady, nor have i ever had her door all most take my head off (another long story). It made me think, in pmg (preach my gospel) it talks about how people recognize us as Gods servants when they see us doing small acts of kindness, so that helped this lady to see that were not all that bad and we want to help. After that we had dinner and went back to the old homestead and I passed-out on my bed, becaues this marks the first day I had to ride my bike! We share a car with the other elders, so they bike on one day and we bike one day. My bike has 2, that's right, not one but 2 flat tires! I did not know this until i got home and the whole time i was wondering why i was having such a hard time getting up hills and such!

but i think i fixed the problem (i think)?
Thursday the Dawn of a New Day! the sun arose and so did my spirits
in short we got a new cool investigator (have to tell you the story later) and that's about it moving on
Friday: we geared up for G.C and handed out flyers to everyone for the times. We went to lunch with the Charlestown boys/elders.

We ate at this really nice Chinese restaurant and we ate with the members. we also ate at the Vanvleats they're a nice family and have a cool dog, but it made me miss Simba. Simba this is a shout out for you! You are, and will always be the best and coolest dog in the whole world! Don't think i don't think about you! My prayers are for you to and I pray for you every night, stay strong for me girl!

Saturday: G.C> what can i say more than wow did you here Holland's talk i love him, he is so bold "well you should not be serving tea any way". Well, i have to go i will tell you about Sunday and more of Saturday next week so to be continued.....

got to go now and do missionary stuff

I am now with my new companion and I am now surviving in the Harper's Ferry area. And guess what? My companion is from the same stake you guys are in. His name is elder meese and his dad knows me I guess. So look him up. Ask Pres. Hettinger, I am sure he would know. Anyway you guys have something in common now. Anyway got to go here is my new address:

elder black
743 Chickamauga Dr.

Harper's Ferry, WV 25425

love elder black

got to go now and do missionary stuff by now and tell every one my new address please thank you