a grim reapers work is never done

hey all,

  this week has been great.  we have seen a lot of progress in all of the many areas of the area.  I am getting transferred this time and am going to Oakland, Maryland*.  so hold all letters and packages to the end of the week.

ethan and amber are doing great.  we have been able to bring up baptism and they are both excited for it.  amber has a smoking problem but it is not something that is overly bad.  so we should be able to see them again.  

not much else has been happening by way of investigators at the moment so I am sorry to go, because I want to see things grow and flourish in this area.  

  I will now explain the title my new comp is going to be elder wilkenson who is going away in december.  

see y'all next week

elder strunk

*Oakland is a town in the west-central part of Garrett County, Maryland. The town has a population of 1,925 according to the 2010 United States Census. The town is also the county seat of Garrett County and is located within the Pittsburgh DMA

in answer to your question

hey all,

  this week has been awesome.  we were able to see great things happen and were able to have an amazing set of lessons that brought the spirit in like a lightning bolt.  ( was going to say wrecking ball, but then thought "nah, better not make that reference in a spiritual email") we have a great ward that are eager to help, even if said help isn't always phrased right or in the nicest way.  

ethan and amber are doing well.  we had a lesson with them on monday and finished explaining the plan of salvation, making sure to not leave any stone unturned, and it was amazing to see everything click in their minds and see that light go off as everything started to make sense.  then we proceeded to go over the law of chastity, which went really well and was one that a lot of missionaries tend to make more awkward than it needs to be.  the understood and committed to live it.

sadly, brother ross dropped us.  I think it is more that he is still ashamed of his slip up than anything on our part.  we keep him in our prayers though.

we had and awesome miracle happen this week and I still can't believe that it happened.  we had a less active come to church to have her baby blessed, and her boyfriend (not a member) came as well and we were able to talk to him and he is allowing us to visit in the next few weeks to see them and teach him.

now, there has been several asks about why I did not put the fact that I was a district leader in my weekly emails (thanks mom).  The reason is simple, everyone makes such a big deal about nothing.  Yes, I'm a district leader.  Yes, it seems fairly cool.  No, it is not, it just means more stress for me.  and that is why I am not as excited as you.

see y'all next week

  Elder strunk

miles for days

hey all,

we have had a great week this past week as we have had the miles to do stuff.  we have been visiting a lot of less actives and have had a blast talking with them.  

ethan and amber are doing great.  we saw them last week and were able to go over/finish teaching  the gospel of jesus christ lesson and we had a lot of fun.  their kitchen is finally finished and they are very happy about it.

we have had a few things that are going on this week.  including the fiddler's convention which is one of the biggest events in galax.  we have had a few street fairs and a lot of fun talking with people.  

I hope that y'all have a great week.

Elder strunk

P.S. elder hunsaker is fully recovered from the dog

all of the miles in the world we had to run out here....

hey all,

this week was a week of very achy feet and interesting circumstances.  we ran out of miles on tuesday and were walking most of the week, though there were some cool circumstances that followed, which will (if I don't forget....) be mentioned later.

ethan and amber are doing great.  we had a review of the plan of salvation with them and helped to clarify things that they didn't even know that they were confused on!  It was awesome to be able to see the things that we explained click and fall into place.  

we were able to see the rivas and got to re-pick-up Lenny, the boyfriend of one of the daughters, and re-teach the first lesson.  It went fairly well and I hope that it will continue and he will stick it through.  

in other news while we were walking the other day, we were able to see a family that is usually hit or miss, and we chatted and shared the restoration with them and helped them move their entertainment system out to the driveway so that they could get it sold.  after we had finished talking with them we went to see someone else, who turned out not to be home.  We walked back to our apartment to get hydrated before continuing the work and ended up running into a woman who joined the church ten years ago and was looking to get back to activity and leave her past behind.  she told us that she had hitch hiked all the way from LA! and was waiting for her parents to come and pick her up and take her home to Roanoke.  we sat and talked with her for a little while and I told her a little about  the Roanoke ward and was able to give her my mini book of mormon so that she could carry it with her on the trip, since she had left her copy in new mexico.

the other interesting thing that happened is that my companion got rear-ended by a German shepherd  and has some battle wounds to tell everyone about it. (as for the German shepherd rear ending, he was the last one on the porch when the member we were with knocked on the door (which was cracked,  the Less actives were asleep and so the dog, as soon as it heard the knock, came bolting out in full protection mode and Elder Hunsaker was the first person in sight. so he got bit.)

well that's all for this week. 

see y'all in approx. 521,280 minutes

  Elder strunk

it all comes and it all goes.....

hey all

this week has been another slow one due to the fact that we have had a hit-and-miss with most of our investigators.  we have been able to see ethan and amber,  and they are doing well.  we had a lesson on fasting and what the fast offerings go to.  and they asked some really good questions.

brother ross is still busy and we have had trouble meeting but he is still reading and praying, which is good,

mark is doing well, he is now in the hurry up and wait phase of his trial while they try to determine what the stage of his cancer is.

  on another note, we had a small world moment today with one of our investigators.  we were talking with them and we some how got on the subject of people that they knew that were mormon and it turns out that she is actually the sister in law of a less active member's wife.... so yeah that happened.  other than those it has been a lot of walking and talking.

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

barbecue, bluegrass, (mostly) blue skies

hey all,

  this (Half) week has been quite eventful.  we had a new missionary come into the area (a baby six monther),  a state barbecue competition, and three days of blue skies; It was amazing(ly humid) we had a good time though and got to splurge on a lot of good free barbecue.

ethan and amber have been gone the past week on vacation and have set up an appointment with us on wednesday, so I will let y'all know how that goes.  we have been going and visiting members, less actives and the other good people of galax to get elder Hunsaker  of Northeastern Arizona acquainted with the area.  

one other thing I would ask of you is to keep a less active in our ward in your prayers, his bladder cancer has come back and he is scheduled for surgery today.  his name is Mark.  

thanks and see y'all next week

  Elder strunk

for whom the bell tolls (or elder Davis' last day and elder Clark's speed violation)

This is actually last weeks letter.  We were out of town and I was unable to post it when it came.

hey all,

  this week has been a great week and also one that was full of mixed feelings.  we were able to see a few people come to church that wouldn't have otherwise because of elder Davis' final mission address, but after they got there they said that they would like to come back, so that was awesome.

  we were able to teach a few people that were found with elder Davis. there really was a lot of tears and so longs and a few spiritual messages to go along with it.  I will send you a picture of my new companion and I when I get him.  

see y'all next week.  

Elder strunk

content warning..... if you love turtles, look away now.

hey all,

  this week has been fair-to-partly dead down here as the fourth has come again.  we have been teaching a little and have been floundering in an almost ghost town to find people who had stayed in the town for the weekend and week leading up to the fourth.... needless to say this email will be very short.  we have been able to see the joneses and I am happy to say that they are progressing fairly well.  

  brother ross has had a huge workload lately and we haven't been able to see him as frequently, so old habits have resurfaced and we have been working our hardest to keep him uplifted.  

  other than that we had a great fourth of july that started with a turtle hunt and ended with fried chicken of the pond.  which was really good, and actually tasted a little bit like KFC......... maybe that is what their meat actually is XD 

see y'all next week

elder strunk

the table where we did our dirty work

me and my skinned turtle

and now for the weather.... WHAT THE FETCH!?!?

hey all,

  

  this week has been really quite crazy, as y'all have probably guessed by the weather reports coming in.... we had a really cool electrical storm thursday night and a great many hot and humid days afterwards.  the flooding doesn't impact us down here, thankfully, though we are getting the left over humidity and it is not fun.  

  the Joneses are doing well and have now committed to live the word of wisdom and I am enjoying very much the opportunity to teach them.  we have seen so much progress in them and it is amazing to hear their questions.  

john had to work through the weekend and so we were not able to teach him this week, but he is still doing well.  we have seen a few cool people and are enjoying a goodly portion of the spirit so there is that.  

that is all for this week.

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

well well, here we are again

hey all,

  this week has been great as we have been working hard to meet with a few people and then get things going for everything else.  

we were able to meet with Brother Ross this week and had a great lesson and invited him to pray about a date for baptism.  we also were able to have an exchange.  there are a lot of talkative people in wythville.  we have been talking with the jones family and have had several great lessons and are they are both looking forward to sundays and are enjoying meetings too.

  not much else to report this week as most of the other stuff was said in last week's email

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

we apologize for the lack of pictures and are working on making it a priority

  this week has been crazy.  we have transfers tomorrow (I'm staying in Galax) and have not had an opportunity to really do anything super celebratory for the birthday yet.  we have been teaching and talking and talking and teaching.  brother ross is doing well.  he has had a hard time of it and we are trying to get him to come and feel the peace of attending church again and partaking of the sacrament.

we have had a fun time the past week with the joneses.  they started a reno of their kitchen and enlisted our help with the demo and framing.  I don't have any pictures and wish that I did... sorry.  I didn't think to take any until after the fact.  we had a great time busting out the plaster walls and helping with the measurements of the walls and stuff.  

with John it has been a little bit tougher because he works crazy hours.  we just are trying to get in and see them.  

again I apologize for the lack of pics and will work my tail off trying to get things done so all y'all can have some.

see y'all next week

Elder strunk

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.  

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

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

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

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!

R2, Light speed to Endor!

Hey all,

  this week has flown by (if you couldn't tell by the title of the message:}) we have been teaching testifying and going through the all around craziness of being missionaries.  we have seen Brother Ross pick a date (may 7th) and have been teaching him a lot.  he is still going strong on the WOW (word of wisdom) and has come to church with his wife and his grandson Chevy.  

we have also started to teach a man by the name of John Moody.  he is a recovering alcoholic and is currently on parole.  he has an honest desire to know and listened intently when we taught him the restoration yesterday.  

other than that we have a lot of spanish investigators.  I can understand only about every 10th or eleventh word during these lessons, but the spirit is so strong that we all can understand the gist of what is being said.  

Hope y'all have a great week,

Elder Strunk

P.S. don't mind the change in font type I got bored of the other one 😸

is it weird that I feel old right now?

hey all,

  this week has been a spiritual mountain top racing in the indie 500 with the Jazz winning the play offs with front row tickets to my favorite band with a matinee premier ticket to star wars kind of week.  everything has been so cool and crazy at the same time.  

  but first, questions.(and I got a lotta them) comments on scenery I love it out here It is so beautiful and open and the hills are pretty cool too.  Elder Larson is the name of my current companion.  people tend to lean toward indifferent when we knock or talk to them on the street.  we drive a car and walk and walk and walk and walk.  p-days are usually playing games or just lounging around the apartment (aside from the cleaning and grocery shopping).  we each have separate beds.  the temperature depends on the season, summer is generally mid 80s to upper 90s and in the winter the weather tends to get Bi-polar.  *gasps while trying to catch breath*  I think that that answers the main body of questions, so onto the update (and an explanation of the title).

  So, first off, this week I was going through the April 2009 ensign (great article on the symbolism of the atonement by the way ( here )) I saw a church news article on the oquirrh mountain temple and how it will be opening in August of that year.... Has it really been that long?  conference weekend was really good.  we got to watch three of the sessions with a member and a few investigators at the member's home and the priesthood session was at the church and was preluded by an Ice cream and bratwurst social.  the Sunday evening session was watched with brother Ross at his house and a lesson was given afterwards.  we are teaching a number of spanish speaking families which requires a lot of member help because of the fact that I speak german and Elder Larson only speaks a little spanish.  but with the help of the members they are doing well.  

that is all for now ... I think.  if I think of anything else I will let you know.

see y'all next week

  Elder Strunk

ALL THE EXCITEMENT AND AWESOMENESS!

Hey all,

this week has been one amazing experience after another.  first off the weather has been AH-MAZING. the days are in the 70s and at night it cools off to about 50 (the only exception to this is when it is raining).  we have been walking a lot and have seen so many blessings because of it.  there are opportunities for teaching opening up and we have been doing that with gusto.  

now for the reason on the title.  if y'all can remember back that far we have been meeting with an investigator named Robert Ross daily for almost two weeks now and he has progressed exponentially since the start.  he is reading and praying and has felt the spirit numerous times we have invited him to watch conference and he has accepted the invitation and will be streaming it through his tablet (technically it is his Granddaughter's tablet) and is really excited for his baptismal date on April 16.  and frankly, so are we.  he has almost completely stopped smoking and has been looking for alternatives to coffee as well.  his wife, who would usually leave when we first started teaching, has been sitting in on some of the discussions.  we have high hopes for the entire family and are praying continually for them.

we did have someone tell us not to come back at the moment. but that is behind and honestly I am on a continual spiritual high from brother Ross.

see y'all next week

  Elder Strunk

Today felt like and ugly tie day...