AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

hey all, 

this week has come and gone so fast that it is insane! I am being pulled two different directions emotionally and don't know how to feel (Because I only have a week and a half left, I am excited to go but at the same time I don't.  I love it out here.).

Wednesday:  we walked all over tarnation, and no one was home...

Thursday: more of the same.

Friday: we went on exchanges and did service at the YMCA, we sorted books for them and priced other books.  we do it every week from justserve.

then we walked around for three hours.  we took a route that we don't normally take and were able to talk to a cool older lady and hide from the rain on her porch.  

other than that nothing really exciting.  I honestly don't know if I will email at all next week.

See y'all next week.

Elder strunk

18 to go.

hey all,

before you start calling me trunky I have one defense! I have been reading D&C for the past 123 days and that has been my semi-flaky countdown.

this week has been really slow due to the holiday.  I will gibe the update in fairly short fashion because there has been not much happening since the random wednesday email session.

friday: we had district meeting and then went to do myplan (i have been doing it for the past four weeks, but for those of you who don't know it is basically the church's "we know this will make you trunky as all fetch because it counts down your last transfer but it will help you get your life sorted out so you don't go inactive" training) . then everything but the YMCA fell through.....

Sunday: my comp got to give a talk.  and we had a member have a bad reaction to her new meds halfway through sacrament meeting! (she is fine now) so church ended an half-hour early!........

On the fourth we went about business as usual except at the end of the day we went over to a member's house and had a lot of food and were able to talk to a few people who have been hard to get ahold of the past few weeks.  then we played a game where we guessed the people who had said things in americas history.

see y'all next week.  

elder strunk

fourth has come and passed.

hey all, 

no, it's not transfers yet, no we didn't forget to email (though that would have been a shameful action on my part.), yes I am still alive.... mostly.... (but who's counting)

this week was fairly scattered and I can't remember half of it.... so I'll give you the highlights.  

Thursday:  we had an amazing lesson with Quan, and were able to set him on date for August 12th he was totally willing to meet twice a week to work towards that goal.  we were able to see a few other people as well but nothing as promising as that.

Saturday: we got a lesson set up w/ martin for this friday and were able to start working with a referral who seems really promising.

sunday:  Quan moved to Roanoake ........ WHY!!!!!!!!!!😭 we were able to have a good gospel principles class on baptism though and that was a lot of fun.  

Tuesday: fourth of July! 

see y'all next week,

Elder strunk

I can give a fairly detailed description this week!

hey all, 

this week was a lot of meetings as the presidency of the salisburys comes to a end.  

Tuesday: we had our final Zone Confrontation (conference XD) with President Salisbury.  He gave a lot of good advice, it ended up being alot of finance and goal setting things that came up.  

Wednesday: we went and saw Michal Squires, a former english professor at VT who enjoys our visits and were actually able to teach a little bit.  then we walked over to try a couple of formers in another area and though neither of them answered we got a lot of good potentials out of it.

Thursday: we went up to the top of our area and went knocking.  then we slowly made our way down south to see a few other people.  we ended up at a house on one of the backroads that as we knocked on the door, I kid you not, ten cats appeared out of nowhere and just kind of stared at us..... creepy ....

Saturday:  we went up to try a few people and managed to ascertain the location of a few people and confirm the location of others.  then biked down to the lowest part of our area (that we can reach without a car) and were able to learn that the referral that we had been given was non existent, then as we were biking back the chain slipped of of my gears on a hill, after that it was fine for a little while... then (fortunately) just as we pulled on to the College campus to catch a bus, the rear tube of my bike went bang....  needless to say, we experienced the full effects of Murphy's law.

that's all for this week 

See y'all next week,

Elder strunk

events have conspired...

hey all

this week has been chaotic and rather short.... and events conspired to where I don't have my planner, so  I will again be giving a quick synopsis and will hopefully have a good long email next week.  

Thursday, we had all day transfers.  we were at the church at 6:30, saw the people off, then weekly planned for three hours, had lunch and went back to the church at 3 to make sure that people got where they were supposed to, and the train didn't get there till 4:30! yikes we ended up sitting around doing nothing for an hour and a half.  

Friday, we went out and did some good knocking.  we talked to a less active's daughter (?) who said that he is only home after six.  we told her we'd try back.

Saturday, elder Burnham got swamped with a 101 degree fever and we ended up staying in all day...

sunday was stake conference.  it was awesome to see all of the people I knew from Galax and the seventy was really cool.  he talked alot about agency, for about an hour!

that is all for this week, 

See y'all in the next

Elder strunk

*screams* "somebody shoot father time, he's walking too fast!"

hey all,

this week has gone by way too fast.  we have been having a lot of fun.  

  

we have been doing a lot of finding this week with a few potentials getting found in the process.  but nothing too exciting.  waves is not going anywhere so we are probably going to drop him soon.  quan is on vacation in tennesee for the week and so we haven't been able to see him either.  we have ben having good lessons with Joanne though.  which has been nice.  

I honestly can't believe how fast time is going.  it has been on day after another so fast that sometimes it is hard to remember what exactly has happened.  and father's day is coming up! holy crap! I hope that somebody fulfills the request in the subject so that time will slow down a little bit.  

See y'all next week (with both planners so that I can tell you details from the last couple of weeks) 

Elder strunk

​ps.  pictures will be forth coming

An attempt at a cake (birthday).

Me in the rain

My conpadre (aka Elder Burnham)

A snake find.

nothing super new (or, I can't believe I'm 20!)

hey all,

so it's raining..... which killed our plans for today....

on to the madness.

Wednesday:  we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders because summer drought affected our numbers.  it was really interesting in the fact that some how we ended up doing more tracting then normal.  though nobody answered the door.

Thursday: we finished up exchanges and weekly planned before going to a dinner appointment and then knocking some doors.

Friday: we were able to see joanne, and had a really great lesson with her.  mostly on the gospel of Jesus christ.  we were also  able to teach quan with a member present.  

That is really.  all for this week.  see y'all next week.  (and in just under two months... ugh time needs to slow down)

elder strunk.

did memorial day really just happen?

hey all,

 this week has been pretty good.  it has been relatively cool and dry 

Tuesday:  we got rained on and ended up walking up a really steep hill to try and see a former, all while soaking our socks.   we also met with Quan, an agnostic who lives in our area.  he is fairly interested in what we believe and said h would try to come to church.

Wednesday: we met with the YSA sisters and reconfigured the boundaries to our (temporarily) split area so that they could get a few more houses next to the institute.  and we got the trailer park where the recent convert lives.  

friday: we went back up north to see ricky and to try a former in that same area.  neither of them were home, so we ended up walking down to the YMCA to do service and had a good time doing service there.

Sunday: Quan came to church! it was awesome to see him there and to be able to talk with him after sacrament meeting.  other than that we had a bunch of meetings.  

other than that, it was  a lot of walking.  

see y'all next week,

Elder strunk

toxic mold and two new

hey all,

this week was a little more eventful on a couple of days.  so we should have a little more to say.  

monday: we went frisbee golfing with the ward mission leader, who will be leaving us with in the next couple of weeks.  then, we went and tried a bunch of formers.  we had a good day and were able to talk to a few people.

tuesday:  we went up north again and were able to see James..... only to get dropped.  this is by far the weirdest drop reasons that we have ever had to write.  there was a growth of Toxic mold in his apartment that had infected both him and his girlfriend and some of the people at the place where he works.  and since he works in a federal building ... the feds got involved, so needless to say, he'll call us.....  other than that we did service at the YMCA.  organizing and categorizing books! I AM IN HEAVEN WITH THIS SERVICE!

wednesday: nothing really eventful happened in the morning, but that evening as we were going to try a former we ran into a member who lived on the same street.  after talking with the member and getting two referrals from her, we moved onto the former.  the former's husband answered the door and told us that she was not home, but that she had been talking to people over where she was babysitting and they wanted to meet with us...... YAY!

thursday: again, nothing eventful in the morning, but that evening, we went to try a former that we had had trouble finding (we had to get the address from the members who were fellowshipers...) we knocked on the door, he answered and said that he was on a skype call with his family.... we told him that we understood and he asked us to come back on friday at 5:30.

Friday:  we did a lot of walking and talking.  then we went into the appointment mentioned above.  they immediately invited us in and began offering us all kinds of food and drink.   we taught the restoration and he accepted our commitment to read.  

nothing else comes to mind, see y'all next week.  

Elder strunk

not much.

hey all,

 pretty tired right now just spent the day playing frisbee golf.  on to the stuff.....

Tuesday: we had zone conference and were edified and uplifted.  we also learned that the new president will be getting here in June, so I will have a transfer and a quarter with him.

Wednesday: we rode the bus on normal schedule for the last time.  (it is now on reduced schedule) . we also walked up and were able to see a few people.  

Friday: we had exchanges, the process by which that is done has changed.  we now both go to the District leader area and one half gets the car, and the other half gets the foot.  we ended up walking around a lot, and going to see a few people that I remembered from my time there at the beginning of my mission.  (none of them recognized me of course.  

Saturday: we started at the top of our area and walked the entire way down, seeing people as we went.  it was a long day. 

that's all for this week.  see y'all next.

Elder Strunk

as the weight drops, the time flies.

hey all,

this will be a little bit shorter, due to shortness of time in between sessions.

Thursday: three hours of driving in silence.  interesting time of reflection on how much I have changed in the past two.

Friday, we went and met with an investigator named waves (cool name, huh?) he is a good guy and has honest desires, and likes to talk, like most people here.

saturday: we went and saw an investigator named James, who was really interested in learning about the Plan of Salvation.  we were also able to go to the ward cookout and get many much hot dogs and burgers....... foooooooooooood.

sunday: we had a weird, different, and all around strange regional broadcast, although I can Imagine that it was weirder for the General Authorities that were probably just talking to a wall.

this is all for this short-ish week

see y'all next week

Elder Strunk

*joyfully panicked screams echo in the foreground* or Back in Blacksburg!

hey all,

this week has been one awesome thing after another.  

Tuesday: we went out to Ravenswoodand walked our tails off going to see different people.  didn't really get to see anyone due to the fact that no one was home.  ended up talking to a bunch of people on the way and were able to see potential come of that.

Wednesday: crazy day, we went and saw a few people ..... after the thunderstorms passed, and then went out to the adkins, and shared some scriptures.

thursday: back to ravenswood to see the same people and were able to set up a few things for this next week....

Friday: service at the food pantry in ravenswood, and more walking.  More talking and more things for this week.....

Saturday:  more of the same, and I was told I am leaving.

Sunday: we were able to see a bunch of people and avoid most of the rain.  we also got a text form the Martins saying that we would be able to meet with them at the end of the week.  

monday: back out to ravenswood and said goodbye to the people that are out there.  

See y'all next week from Blacksburg, VA

off road carrolla..... not a wise Idea....

hey all, 

this week has been a long one.  but a good one.

Wednesday:  we went out and tried to see a few people.  and with the rain I found out very quickly I had walked a hole in all both of the shoes that I have........ so we ended up running to wally world to grab me a new pair of shoes.

Thursday we went out to Ravenswood and then to Racine to find some less actives, and ended up finding a cool guy in Ravenswood.... he liked to talk.... and we also got to sit down the butlers again.  

friday:  we did a lot of service and were able to see a few people in ravenswood and then tracted a little bit.....

that is really all this week. nothing much else to talk about.  

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

 

Mom speaking- I would guess this is the car from the title of the post, but I have no idea what it means. Stay tuned for when I get a response about this...

Grayson taking an unsure selfie- Sorry it won't rotate:(

farmer's tans and angry beepers.......

hey all, 

sorry for not emailing yesterday but we had interviews, which takes up most of the day.  

Tuesday: we walked a lot the last week so this is the only time I will mention it, but we went and were able to cross a few people off of our to-see list because they were home and would not answer the door, even though we saw them peak out of the window.........  We were also able to see Frank! he is an Awesome sometimes-catholic who is an honest seeker of truth, we shared the Easter video with him and had a talk about how Christ can help those who are searching for answers.

Wednesday: we went and saw the Adkins family (da da dada *snap snap*) then we went out to Evans and tracted for a little while, invited a bunch of people to our church tour that we had planned for Sunday (insert frustrated sigh here) more about that later.  we also got to see a potential and set up a lesson for Friday.  it was awesome.

Thursday: we tried a lot of people and all of the set stuff ended up falling through........

Friday: we went out to Ravenswood and were able to see roger, an older gentleman who we talked to on Monday.  we were able to teach him the restoration and were able to help him understand the need for prophets.

Saturday, we had district meeting then went back out to Ravenswood to try and see a few people and talked to a lot of people that were out walking.

Sunday: Elder Goold got sick and so we only went to sacrament meeting then, when he was feeling better, we went out and set up for our church tour.  (one person showed up....)

Monday: only thing that really happened excitement wise was when I got a dressing down by the woman behind me for needing to change lanes last minute (i'm sorry, but you try driving around Charleston for the first time with only a GPS and a bit of faith) needless to say I got the bird and honked to death

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

I made a denim tie!

Another view. A no sew wonder!

stubborn Pentecostals and a Chocolate Festival

hey all,

this week has been great.  we have seen many people and started losing weight! 

Tuesday: we walked about twelve miles and were able to see a few potentials: Terry (an older woman who had been taught by sisters in the past) was not able to see us but did answer the door (which was nice), and Jesse (a semi-crazy middle aged woman who has had several tragedies strike her recently) and talked to her on her porch for about twenty minutes about many subjects.  

Wednesday: we walked about another eight miles and saw Joyce White and were able to set up an appointment for this Tuesday.  we also made a number of posters and signs for the Easter initiative.

Thursday: we went and saw the Shamblins and showed them the Easter initiative.  Then we helped them share it.  We then went out to Fareplane and saw a few people that were out that way, nothing really happened out there, but we aren't giving up.

Friday: Everything fell through.  it was a lot of walking and talking.......

Saturday:  we went and did a lot of walking and talking at the WV Chocolate Festival, which may-or-may-not-have ended with me about five dollars poorer then when we entered.

Sunday: mostly walking and a lesson with Joann Meadows, or rather a session of "we are just explaining what we believe, not trying to push anything on you" with her friend *shakes fist in the general direction of Lewisburg* who has been trying to counter all of our teaching with her Pentecostal stubbornness.

*sighs* rant over, see y'all next week,

Elder Strunk

our ingenuity for our street sign: two metal hangers, shoe goo, tape, and a lick and a promise

my companion (Elder Goold) and the finished product

the pimp glasses we found in the closet.  Green lenses, stylish!

Puns, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and the days of yore

Hey all,

this week is a blur, we had many things go on and a lot of interesting experiences.... ONWARD!

Tuesday: is a blur, we went and tried a few people and tracted in the rain.  interesting experience from that is the fact that my umbrella broke (which would kind of deter me from wanting to rain tract again, Darn you satan.) and a few minutes later, as we went by a house that we had knocked on earlier,  the guy who had said that he wasn't interested walked out and gave me a new umbrella (thanks heavenly father :) )

Wednesday: we went out to Ravenswood and tried everyone that we knew and had one person answer. Travis Casto is a good guy and willing to Read the Book of Mormon.  plus he has two GIANT and BEAUTIFUL Great Danes, Molly and Rose.    it was a good day though because we were able to decide on the videos for a Fireside that we are working on. 

Thursday: Zone Conference! New little black boxes, Now with female voice (which is so much harder for me to get angry at for some strange reason).  

Friday: service and a whole lot of invitations to conference.  we were able to see Hannah again, and talk to her.  she is still interested, but her ex-Husband won't let her daughter even hear our message.... dang pentacostals,,,,,,,

Saturday: we went to conference and were hoping for somebody to show up, but no one did....

sunday: back to the church, then back to the apartment to get the phone (25 mi) back to ravenswood to watch conference ( 12.5 mi) then back to the apartment for dinner (12.5 mi) 

favorite talk was either Joaqin costa or elder holland

see y'all next week

Elder Strunk

I made biscuits!

With Elder Scott

"mormons in the civil war... all right."

hey all,

 short email this week due to short week.  it's kind of funny that as a student you look forward to the short weeks, but as a missionary the short weeks are just boring.  

Thursday: transfers, shopping and unpacking.

Friday: went out to the food pantry and did service.  tried to see a few people and were able to see "Tall" Tim Moore, a guy that we invited to learn a couple of weeks ago and taught a really good restoration.

Saturday: panic sets in at about noon as first the first councilor in the branch presidency and then the branch president call us to tell us that we are speaking in sacrament meeting the next day ...... that was interesting.  we went out and visited the Raid on Ravenswood, a civil war reenactment and that is where the quote in the subject came from.  the first person that we saw said that as he puffed on a cigar....

elder Goold and I get along really well and are having a blast.  

that is all for this week, besides the fact that it rained cats and dogs yesterday....

*panicked screams echo from background* must be transfers.....I want my miumj

hey all,

this one will probably be the longest one that you will get for a while, transfer week and all

Wednesday: we were able to get in and talk with the Martins ( the family that was referred week before last) and had an amazing lesson.  She is dead set on baptism and the he is living the word of wisdom (more on that later) we had gone in and taught the restoration to them both and then answered some questions about the Word of Wisdom and committed them both to live it.  before that we went and taught Joanne, the woman that we I.T.L.ed at the end of last week, and she had a lot of good questions that we were able to answer and tie back to the Plan of Salvation.

Thursday: exchanges, we got to see Joyce and had a great lesson with her before going and trying a few people out in ravenswood.

Friday: meetings all day.

Saturday: we had another amazing lesson with Joanne, and were able to teach a restoration with a review on the plan of salvation.  it was amazing!  then we went back and taught Sister Martin again, and this is what she told us about the few days in between meetings, her husband set out to "prove us wrong" and decided to follow through with the commitment on the word of wisdom.  it ended up helping prove us right.  she told us that she had been able to see multiple changes in her husband as he has lived the word of wisdom.  and she had taught her mom straight out of Moroni 8 on infant Baptism! it was all I could do not to spin cartwheels all the way around the apartment when we got back.

the rest of the past few days was filled with elder grover's goodbyes and packing.  that means that your's truly is staying in ripley for one more transfer! 

see y'all next week,

 Elder Strunk

I want my mummy!

These don't have captions- must not have had something witty to say about them?

blessings of diligence

Hey all,

this week was great.  we had so many great things happen and we were able to see many blessings from parking the car and walking to places that are close.

Tuesday: we got in to see mike! we had a good lesson on faith and read Alma 32 with him, he asked a lot of good questions and we were able to help him progress a little bit further on the path.  on the way back from that appointment a woman asked us if we were selling something (which was a first for me, usually it is GO AWAY JEHOVA"S WITNESS) we told her no and ended up taking for a good few minutes and set up an appointment for this week.

Wednesday:  not much eventful happened and we ended up going to help get a couch for an active member that we ended up taking out after an hour because it had cat hair all over it and she was allergic....... so yeah.

thursday, we went out to ravenswood and were able to catch a few people before going to see Jeremy and Ashley, a part member couple, and reading the book of mormon with them.  it ended really well and he has really started to open up.

Friday: Zone meeting and Exchanges.  An interesting thing happened this week though, we didn't have to resort to tracting! it was awesome.  

Saturday: slow day nothing much happened...... sorry

Weather update: We are currently getting snow .........................

see y'all next week 

Elder Strunk

"you got the keys?" "........"

hey all,

this week was fairly dry (work wise) due to torrential rains and rising rivers in the hollers.  

Tuesday:  rain, rain , and more rain, we went and set up some appointments with less actives and those nearer to the apartment.

Wednesday:  more rain.  we went and did some knocking around our apartment complex.  only other eventful thing that happened was the fact that we managed to lock ourselves out of our apartment.  A nice neighbor was kind enough to card us into our apartment after noticing our plight.  

Thursday: we ha district meeting and then proceeded to try to see Mike, who promptly canceled on us and rescheduled for saturday.......

Friday: nothing more than knocking 

Saturday: we went to try and see Mike who rescheduled again for tuesday, however as we walked back to our apartment we ended up Inviting To Learning a girl who was out running.  

see y'all next week

Elder Strunk