7/27/26

Whats good email it has been a super last couple weeks! Still in the same place of Virginia Beach and God is still providing. I am also still with Elder Pipes, he is the goat and has been great to serve alongside with. Also just hit 1 year. It's gone by so crazy fast and it has been so much fun. This has definitely been the most impactful year of my life and you are thinking about serving a mission pull up. 

With the Virginia Richmond mission splitting into 2 missions our new President, President Merrell has been awesome. He has already taught me so much on the outlook of the Gospel and doing missionary work. We just recently had zone conference and it's safe to say he cooked. He made a big emphasis on relying upon the arm of the Lord rather than the arm of flesh. He is going to do some great things here in the Norfolk mission.

One of the things we had just found out about was that we will be sharing a car with the Elders in our apartment complex. My bike has no brakes and a flat tire with no pump so we were out there walking around like im reteP in Cameron. Biking is honestly mad fun but our area just is not bike friendly at all so we got like 2 spots we can be riding up on. We usually end up just getting dropped off at an area for a couple hours then have other Elders pick us up. 

Anyways we have had some chill friends we have been teaching. One of them is our boy Noah. He was able to be baptized last week on Wednesday at 8 pm. The rest of his family are members and his Dad served a mission. His dad is active spiritually for sure but had not been to church in a good amount of time. We were just in the area a couple weeks ago and we rolled up on them. We talked about sharing the gospel and how important it was, and we ended up talking about how important baptism is. Noah really wanted to get dunked and his dad left it very much in his court for when it was to go down. Noah then said he wanted to be baptized on his birthday making it so we would need to teach the young buck in order for him to get baptized. Get spawn camped. Over the last couple of weeks we have been teaching him all the basic gospel principles. It was always a good mental exercise trying to find a way to teach the principles without it being too complicated or him just walking away. Safe to say the object lessons are on lock now. 

Our other friend who is goated is Reece and his family. We were out finding people to teach at some shopping center and we invited Reece to pull up to church. He said he was very down and has been looking for a church in the area. I was like bet me get you all the info right here right but then he said how first he needed to sell his playstation in the gamestop. He goes in there and is selling it for about 30 minutes as I am just camping outside. Chatting people up. Eventually we needed to dip so we had to find him in the back of the store and take his number down. Told him I would call later that night to tell him more about our church and he was down. That night he didn't pick up and reached out to him the next couple days. 2 weeks go by and nothing really happens until he just calls us and lets us know he's got work off for church to be there every Sunday and he would need a ride. Was getting him rides until his coparent starts pulling to church with him as well. He has been one of my favorite people to teach. He also played rugby in high-school and I had to let him know about my 2 rings. Thx @Rex Bateman. Luckily he didn't ask about how much time I played. Him, his girl and his kid are about to get baptized August 23rd. Pray for my guy Richie Reece!

We got some other chillas who have been progressing pretty well lately so that has been great to see. 

Not too much else has been going on really. Virginia Beach is the best place to be with what is now gonna be my 4th transfer here.

Here is sum of the best scriptures you will find-

Moroni 7:

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail

Lately I've been thinking more about what conversion is versus testimony. I had known I had a testimony for a minute now but to be converted and really live the gospel is something else. Looking not to your own needs is the first way to be converted and following these 2 scriptures is something I have been trying to do more lately. 

Lemme know how you are doing! Love yall!