Monday, January 28

With his new companion and some other missionaries on transfer day.

Dear Family,

     So it's been a while since I missed last week but things are going great. Last Monday we had transfers. I did get a new companion, Elder P. He's been out 4.5 months.  He's really cool, I'm excited for this transfer.   He's Haitian, he came to the United States when he was 9, lived in Brooklyn and Boston, got baptized at 17, and tried to get on a mission for ever but couldn't for four years because of some immigration stuff, so he's 22 now.  He's the only member in his family. He grew up going to Catholic school, and he knows the scriptures very well, probably better than me and any of my companions.  He's a great missionary and things are already picking up a lot, it's been a fun week serving with him.

     Our area also changed because of January first time changes, so we traded with Elder P and have the Cimarron Ward and the Hillpointe ward.  (We basically traded the YSA for Hillpointe) so it's fun learning a new area.  There's a lot of super cool families and more work going on.  In the past couple of days we got 7 referrals which is crazy, and some look promising.  We've got a lot of work, not THAT many lessons, but the wards are very active and have stuff for us like people to visit and all, and the area is huge geographically compared to Evergreen and Westcliff.  And the roads are not laid out like so much of Las Vegas so we've had some fun learning the area and making and marking maps and systematically making visits.  Because the mission is so young, and because of my several transfers, I know 3 zones and 4 stakes really well now so I know Vegas better then the majority of missionaries, which is weird, I've never been one for directions and all. Being senior now I drive, which is weird, but basically essential for me to learn the area, and I've got it mostly figured out now, even though we live out of our own area.  Oh and our address hasn't changed.

     Elder P is an amazing cook, and I've kind of started trying cooking a little, (not really) like just simple creations with whole wheat spaghetti, ground beef, cold cut ham and some seasonings or what not. Oh I just dropped the hem or whatever on some of my pants and might do it to some more.  The plaidish light pair if you remember those, they were way short so I hadn't really worn them since the MTC, and so I experimented by dropping those, It's great, I'm wearing them now and for my first time, and they are by far my favorite, so I'm gonna have to do some more for sure.  So yeah.  I wish I still had the time or drive or whatever, to write about our investigators and all like I used to but I don't know.

     We had a great lesson with J the other day, it was an hour and a half, he got way into it, understood better then usual, remembered a lot of things I had no idea he ever understood or anything, and he REALLY loves the Book of Mormon. He's a super dedicated kid, he has so little free time with all his sports and conditioning and he's an amazing athlete. Basketball's his favorite, but he's just getting into track and he can run a 17 minute 5k and he's in 8th grade.  We got some lessons set up with some people I hardly know with the referrals we've got and the Hillpointe investigators, but there's some very solid ones.  

     Two referrals seem so golden.  One lady M, she's super in tune with the spirit and health and all I guess.. so she takes a prayer walk every morning, always noticed she got much better communication with God when she would go by our church on the walks, and on Friday noticed a bunch of cars, went in, helped everyone set up for a women's conference, attended, and then went to church Sunday, was very active in Gospel Principles class, agreed and already knew just about everything.

     And then there's another solid referral we're meeting Tuesday.. a young couple visited her because she happened to walk into church, they talked to her, it was her first time going and then visited her, taught the whole first lesson, got her to commit to giving up coffee, read the Book of Mormon, set her with a baptismal date of February 16, and set up a lesson for us tomorrow at 3.  It's way crazy.

     And Hillpointe has another really solid investigator set with that date, and has for a while but is just waiting for a friend to get into town to watch, but she's perfect.  Unfortunately J in the singles ward canceled his baptism after talking to a Baptist friend, but it's just a really minor set back. But so yeah, things are great. I've met a lot of really cool people.

     Oh last pday this guy that has special access to the Ford Shelby Factory took us on a tour behind the scenes or whatever so that was cool, and it's also right by some Air Force special training experiment facility in the desert so there were all these super fast weird looking planes and stuff doing tricks and flying right over our heads the whole time.  

     Love,

     Elder Pyron

Monday, January 14

Hello family!

     How is everyone! Happy Birthday Rachel!  So this week we've had quite a bit more lessons.  We are working with a lady J and her two kids who are 6 and 8, they have been less active and are coming back, and the boy should be baptized soon.  We are also working with a part member family, the H's.  She is life long less active, he's from the Philippines, they've been married 5 years, has been to church about 10 times, the only 10 times she's been, but we're starting to teach them the lessons, and they were at church Sunday so that is exciting.

     We've got a few lessons with old people from the area book we never thought we could get set up, so those should be exciting this week.  We should have a baptism for J in the singles ward on Saturday, we got to meet with him again the other day, I'm really excited.  We've had a few good visits with a few less actives as well.  Apparently M, the guy in my last area, started doing really well, got medicated, stopped drinking, was doing service and looking really good, but apparently he just got put in jail, so that's pretty disappointing.

     We had interviews the other day.   Elder Ms only been here 2 transfers.  We'll see what is going to happen, the transfer is almost over, and I haven't really heard if the area is getting split.  We've got a stake conference Sunday, it was random and short notice, called for by a General Authority, and there's going to be 4 General Authorities, one of which is an apostle; they've said there's not going to be any boundary change or major leadership changes, and we are very strongly encouraged to bring investigators and less actives, so I'm very curious about this.  There's also a meeting for all stake presidencies and all bishops in the entire valley the Saturday before.  But yeah so that's a lot of the going-ons here.

     We went with J to President Uchtdorf's fireside Sunday night; I really enjoyed that talk.  I recently started eating oatmeal, I heard it fills you up good, so I've been eating that in the AM.  And it's the healthy kind, no sugar or anything.  Also, Greek Yogurt is really good, I love that stuff and I've been getting that as well.  I finally like sweet potatoes, had some for the first time the other day, and they're good; the members had them with some nuts in this weird mix but it's good.  And cooked carrots, broccoli and cauliflower are good, never thought I'd imagine that.  I guess they've still got to be done right, and I think cooked green beans are usually going to be a no go.  But yeah, Let me know if you got questions about anything, Love you all!

Love,

Elder Pyron

Monday, January 7

Dear Family,

     Things are still going very well.  Elder M's sickness is just about gone.  This week I had a sore throat and then a runny nose, and it's lasted some time, but has never been very severe, it was very manageable.  Things in this area are still rough, but people are finally getting back from out of town and what not.  We had another lesson with J, he read some more 2nd Nephi( where he is in personal study) but it's hard, so now we are just reading Book of Mormon stories.  We've been doing a lot of less active visits, tracting is a lot less eventful, fun and successful here than my last area not to mention it's colder.

     We had dinner the other night with the Albrights, who were just released as mission president of the DC south mission, so that was neat, but no good connections.  We also ate with the Hs, and he served his mission in New Hampshire and had the Summerset ward, and didn't remember the other wards name in that area.  But he knew the lake and covered a lot of it.

     Well there's not a whole lot of other stuff happening, things are still going good with the apartment, Elder M is fun to talk to, and I'm learning a lot.  I just finished Romans, there's a lot of really good stuff in there but a lot I'm not sure I understand.  But yeah.  Keep keeping me updated on home life and with questions and all.  I'll get around to the thank you notes soon.

     For New Years Day (non proselyting) and the preceding Pday, we played some "soccer tennis" with us four on the complexes tennis court, that was fun.  We also went to some outlet malls; I wanted a hoodie, (lost the one I brought but I will probably find it) but I didn't get anything.  They had a Nike and an Adidas one and all that.  That was fun.  We missed them, but apparently another group of missionaries was there at the same time as us. That was about it for New Years. 

     But keep keeping me posted! and Elder P is right next to me right now... he just got a family video of his mom announcing she pregnant and his siblings all crazy and excited, so that's neat.

     Love, Elder Pyron

December 10

Monday, December 31

Hey family!

     It was great to talk to everyone Tuesday!  So it's been a weird week, we had pday and then Christmas, and Elder M has been pretty sick.  I feel I might finally be getting a little bit of it, hopefully not.  But he's been pretty bedridden.  We had like 2 lessons that fell through, so a lot of nothing.  I go on exchanges with Elder P some and Elder K stays with Elder M.  I've been playing a little hackysack with my time, it's a lot of fun.  Learning tricks reminds me a lot of flat ground skating... at least the cool technical tricks, same foot coordination, times getting really close, getting it down pretty good, doing it real clean.  But yeah, it's been annoying, and Elder M is looking a lot better now, and today's pday, and tomorrow's nonproselyte.  Tonight we have to be in by 6 so we'll do stuff at the apartment.

      Oh, I got to go to K and C's wedding on Saturday morning, that was probably the weeks post Christmas highlight.  I'm so glad it finally happened and they're working to get sealed in a year.  They've  been doing great, like their new ward and all that.  It was an interesting wedding, I've never been to one in an LDS church.  It was small and in the Relief Society room, very few people.  It was a mesh of people with his and her families.  He shows so much love for his family.  It was great to get to see them.

     I also got to talk to Elder C a bit, sounds like M had a blessing, and is doing much better.  He's trying to fill his time with good things so he looks for service opportunities and got a bunch of Ensigns.  The fits of intense anger and depression seem gone.  He wears my shirt and tie for lessons at his home.  Even though I barely got to teach him, he was probably the investigator I least wanted to leave.  And C has had his baby girl, so that's cool.  But yeah, that's a brief look in my life.

     Love you all so much!

     Elder Pyron