Charleston, West Virginia Mission

Charleston, West Virginia Mission

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

of car shows and flea markets

hey all,

  this week has been a really great one.  we have had a  lot of success with finding and teaching.  the highlights this week happened with brother Ross who is back on track and is soaking up everything that we have to teach him.  we are hoping to put him back on date soon.  the other awesome investigators we are teaching right now are the Jones family and a guy named john and his wife Chrystal.  with the Jones family we are onto the commandments and temples so they are awesome.  they enjoy coming to church and always ask good questions.  John and Chrystal have been taught twice and are also very earnestly seeking to know the truth.

  Now for an explanation of the title.  we were privileged to do some walking and talking at two fairly big events that happen in our area.  on is the semi-annual Flea market that happens every memorial day and every labor day.  the other was the memories on main car show that happens each year.  we had a lot of people come and talk to us about the church, including a few members from other areas in the mission and other missions.  which was pretty cool.  

hope y'all are having a good week,


Elder strunk.  

Monday, May 23, 2016

the frogstranglers of may....

hey all,

  this week has been a wet one.  we have had nonstop rain since the beginning of the week and I have missed the sun (if only a little)  it has been a good week other than that.  we have been doing an experiment on what happens when we start immediately testifying to the people who answer the door and it has been a great testimony builder of how a simple testimony can make all the difference in the world.

  there have been a lot of conflicts and opposition in the process of teaching a few of the people who had been so solid before.  but we shall not be discouraged.  we shall press forward.

that is all for now, see y'all next week.  

elder strunk

Monday, May 16, 2016

opposition is so fetching real (or circumstances arose, were pondered, and are being overcome)

hey all,

  so just an explanation of the title, things have been postponed with brother Ross due to circumstances that are not important.  the important thing is that even though the baptism had to be postponed we are still on good terms and have not given up.  

  other than that we have had a good week and picked up a few new investigators that are, if not super enthusiastic, listening to the discussions an not slamming the door on us.  we have done a lot of walking and have seen a lot of blessings for it.  we had a couple of former investigators drive up to us on the street and the husband started to mess with elder Davis and it was fun to watch.  After a few minutes of watching I told him that they were just messing with him and they invited us to dinner.  the only problem with that was that we had just eaten not five minutes ago... I really wanted to ride in that mustang....  Oh well maybe next time.  

  our spanish teaching has slowed down since we have lost the one among us who actually spoke a little bit of spanish, but, again, we have not given up 

see y'all next week 


  Elder strunk

Monday, May 9, 2016

the baptism bells are ringing in my ears... no, wait, that's just the alarm

GOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!


 (I wanted to try something something different this week, tell me what you think.)

  this week has been great.  we had a lot of really spiritually powerful lessons and I am really excited to see what comes of it.  so the first thing that was awesome is we had a lesson wit the parents of a (not by choice) Less-active and they have been investigating for a long time and most of their family is mormon (all except their son who is a born-in-die-in Dutch Reformed, but what can you do?).  We talked and after a little while I asked her if she and her husband had been praying about baptism, and she was silent for a little while before tearing up and saying "yes, and it is working.  I feel that it will be soon," It took all I had not to jump out of the glider and shout for joy and give this sweet old lady a big hug. 

  the other Highlight came in the form of brother ross, who has now passed his baptismal interview and is getting baptized this sunday and confirmed in the next. so there is that. 


  and finally there was the call home (luv ya) in which I got to see that chaos as usual is going on at home.  

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

P.S. sorry about no pics this week.... I left my camera chord back at the apartment

Monday, May 2, 2016

of fluffy jelly beans and freak rain storms

This is actually from last week (April 26th).

hey all,

  this is going to be a crazy week because all in all we are getting a new companion (meaning I need to not only learn Spanish, but I also have to be mister-in-charge x/ ).  I am staying in Galax another transfer and more than likely will hit my year mark here.

  I don't know who else has had an experience like this but here we go: we were teaching brother Ross and his family and were talking about eternal families and the temple.  as we are wrapping up the lesson, brother Wisman (the ward mission leader) starts to bare his testimony when their pregnant cat comes in and lays down on the rug.  now this in and of it self wouldn't disrupt the lesson but then came the kittens.........   so brother Wisman wrapped it up and we left them to take care of the fluffy jellybeans.

  the Hispanic families are doing great we have been teaching the restoration and the plan of salvation although sister Rodriguez will not be having another lesson with us until after her daughter's quinceanera which is at the end of May.  the Ramos are doing really well and we will be seeing them in a few days.  

  other than that we had a freak rainstorm on Friday and ended up tracting in it... not fun and not something I would recommend.

see y'all next week (te veo la proxima semana)

  Elder strunk

greenie breaking to grim reaper

hey all,

  this week has gone by like a ride on the strange cross-breed of colossus and wild mouse, which is to say that it went by fast and crazy.  we have a few updates and all of the excitement.  we have had a fair few numbers of visits and Elder Davis is an awesome dude.  

first about elder Davis: he is  very relaxed and loves to work.  he is a embroidery addict and feels comfortable in craft stores.  we have a lot in common and he is going home in 2 transfers (hence the title). 

  We have had to push Brother Ross' baptism date back so that out ward mission leader's wife won't kill him.  when we scheduled it we didn't realize that the next day was mothers' day... so both Brother Wisman and brother Ross' wives have been a little short the past few days but that is past.  we have been teaching a few other people, but nothing too exciting.  we are loving the weather out here.

see y'all next week

  Elder Strunk
I made a bread-ish type thing


if you use this milk after the expiration date may the fourth be with you!