Some photos from Old Ward and New Area

July 28 2014

Hi,

In my new area in Cosmopolis I live in a duplex that is not owned by members. We live in the top floor of a fairly large home. My biggest apartment by far. There are 5 rooms which include another bedroom and a large living room. I will take some pictures of the place this week. Aberdeen is actually not too small. It is the biggest area I have had on my mission. It is a pretty run down town though with lots of crazy people and drugs. Not the nicest place to live. I am glad it is summer though because the sun is always nice to see. The weather has been good lately.

No I did not know Jarom Anderson but his name sounds familiar. Congrats on beating Mr. Reece. I never thought he was a very good teacher but I always like the guy. My new companion is younger than I by two transfers. He is obedient and willing to work which is nice. He is very quiet though so sometimes life seems pretty quiet. Its just him and me. The ward was cool on Sunday. Our Ward mission leader and the bishop are both radiologists which is still my goal in life so I look forward to having that conversation with them.

The work is actually better than I expected down here. We have a baptism of a 9 year old girl on Saturday which will be cool. We also found lots of new people to teach this week. We have a Ford Fusion with 1300 miles a month. I am hoping to find a bike soon though so we can save miles and have more things to do during the day. People say lots of Visa are coming through right now but I have not heard of anything in months.

My companion is from Snowflake Arizona. I wrote lots of information to my letter to mom so just have her share it with you. Yes that is surprising to hear about the weather there. The weather here has been great recently with the sun shining. Unusual for Gray's Harbor. Having a washing machine and dryer is always nice. I have not driven yet but due to the fact my companion almost got us killed I think I will soon take over the driver's seat. Anne should enjoy the concert. That is a really fun idea to take her I am sure she will love that. Does Kate plan on going to school after Mines? I wondered about this the other day. This town is kind of dumpy but I have met some cool people so far.

And yes I always wondered why the church funded BYU and that is the reason. They are basically investing in future church leadership. It is crazy Kate will graduate before I come home. Maybe if she gets a job she can pay for my college. Just kidding. I won't have to worry about that for a while. Thank you for the sports update. I cannot believe James went back to the Cavs. Who would have thought? I love quotes from old people like that.  Lots of love

Will

To the middle of "nowhere"....

For Sunday School we go to Gospel Principles every week. It is a pretty empty class so we go to support the teacher. I do not believe any of my friends are on ragbrai. Max is busy filming that movie and I have not heard from Joe in a while. I plan on emailing Clayton this week. Yes, I still keep a journal every day. Much to my own surprise I have come to enjoy it. 

Well I have been transferred. My days in the Brownsville Ward are over. I spent three transfers here just as I did in Lacey. 3 transfers is a good length. Not too long but not too short. I will leaving to go to the Elma zone to a ward called Gray's Harbor. I am kind of going to the middle of nowhere. I live in a city called Cosmopolis and I cover the city of Aberdeen. So you can look that up on Google maps. I will know much more next week. We live in a home and have a car and a washer and dryer so that is good so far. 

I will miss this ward though. It is hard to leave but change has to happen. The group I am with has been together for 3 months and we were getting a little tired of each other. It's hard when there is only one main room to hang out in. Either way I leave tomorrow. I am saying goodbye to all the people I met here today. I am going with an Elder Rice, who our president described as quiet but obedient. He has been out a shorter time than I have so this is the first time my companion has been younger than me. It will be an interesting change.

 We finished the week strong in Brownsville. We found like 4 new people to teach in two days. Elder Aussef is training so I am getting replaced by a "greenie". Luckily for me Elder Aussef is a good missionary so hopefully he can baptize some of the people we have been working with. I have taught a lot more in Brownsville than I did in Lacey. Lacey was pretty dry as far as missionary work.

 Hopefully I can find some people in Elma. I will send some pictures with families I spent time with in Brownsville. Summer has been great here. Much better than Winter. It has cooled off the last couple of days. Change was hard my first time coming here but I think things will be easier this time since I have moved before. I just have my two suitcases and a Lowes box to carry with me. So yeah. Its been a fun couple of last days. Sounds like you guys are enjoying summer. Now that the World Cup is over maybe next transfer will be the one. 

Wish me luck with the move. My new mail is this.

PO Box 902 Cosmopolis, WA 98537

Will Before Leaving Bremerton

Outgoing Mission President

July 14, 2014

Hi,
Girls Camp is this week as well for the Ward I serve in here. I am thinking this is going to be my last week in this area. I have loved this area but I do not think I could do another transfer with my companion. We have served for 3 months together and that is long enough for me. He has some personality traits that drive me crazy. Including a short temper that is lovely to deal with. Anyways next week I will know if I go or if I stay.

We have a large batch of missionaries coming in this transfer. Sisters and Elders. Someone in church showed us a video of the goal so I was happy as well it did not end in penalty kicks. Though I was rooting for Argentina it was a beautiful goal . Such a good pass.. This week was kind of slow. No one was home and no one was feeling like listening. Everyone was complaining how hot it was but I thought it felt great. There is no humidity and it is a dry heat so I enjoyed it.

Well Roosevelt has won more games than we did last year but not by much. Pretty pathetic we only won 8 games during the regular season. 8-32 is how we ended. Pretty pathetic for some of the players we had. I thought Lebron would never go back but he did. In fact when you think about it it was a great move for him. He left so the team could have some terrible years so they could rebuild and get good draft picks. And then he goes back and has a stellar team waiting for him. Not the worst idea I have ever heard.

 I am feeling pretty good right now. Life is pretty good. Hopefully the Visa stuff comes through before the end of the year. That would be nice. I will send you a letter this week with some more updates I have been doing. I do enjoy reading. I have come to find the Book of Mormon to be my favorite. (If you do not count the Pearl of Great Price) If you do not know the history of where that scripture came from it is most interesting.

I will let you know how everything goes next week. We have interviews tomorrow which I am very excited for. Lots of people like our new president and he seems like a neat guy. He was also companions on his mission with some guy in our ward so that was pretty funny to find out yesterday. I am making smoothies now to eat during the week due to the heat. Someone in our ward has a plum tree with delicious plums so I have been making plum smoothies.

Stay cool in Iowa

Will

JULY 7 2014

I did find it curious why you never sent world cup scores but I completely understand your reasoning. It is hard sometimes. I will be cheering for Brazil. I bought a cool Brazil shirt at Ross the other day to wear. I am sorry to hear you are home alone. Maybe you will have to buy another Lowchen if you get lonely. I was thinking the other day about sports I will miss and there are only two sporting events I would really want to watch. One is the World Cup and the other is the summer Olympics. So at least I will be able to watch the Summer Olympics. The other sporting events happen every year and I will watch them next year.

 I would agree that Fifa should hire some referees to give some financial penalties to players who act bad just like they do in the NBA. That would teach them to fake their injuries. I am sorry you no longer have DVR to record the matches. That would make missing those events much easier. Not much has changed this week. We met our mission president who seems like a really cool guy. He gave a video presentation on his life and talked for a while about the mission. It is funny to see him be a "green" missionary and have little idea on what to do. He told us he calls the APs and asks them each day what is on his schedule. We have interviews with him on the 15th. Lots of our lessons canceled on us this week due to the holiday.

 On the 4th we started out the day going to the ward BBQ from 11-2. Afterwards we played board games in our apartment for a while. All the members that we usually hang out with were out of town so their was nowhere to go. The night sounded like WWIII as everyone shot off their own personal firework show. We also had to be in our apartment by 8:00 so we did not see any fireworks. Not the most exciting 4th of July but it was nice to have a day off. Sometimes it is nice just to hang out with the guys and relax for a day. The work continues. I sold one of my bikes for 30$ and the other for 20$ so I made an easy 50$ from bikes old missionaries gave me. Enjoy watching the finals, let me know how it plays out. I do not mind reading the soccer updates so do not worry. I appreciate the sentiment though.

Will 

One More from June 30

Hi Dad,

Sorry if I did not respond. Do not worry. I always get your emails and read them. I also have acquired a program from another elder which lets me save emails in a pdf format and print them at the church library. It circumvents the problem of paying to print at the library so with long email like the one today I usually print them out and save them to read again during the week.

 Not much has changed this week. We are continuing to work with a family named the Camps who are close to baptism. They came to church yesterday for all three hours which was impressive because they have two small kids. We also found a nerdy guy named Joseph who is in the Navy. Its fun to go over there and teach him. 

We blew out a tire driving our Corolla and had to go get two new tires at Les Shaub. It took three hours but luckily we decided to leave and then come back so we did not have to wait the whole time. Nothing else has really changed except we now have a new Mission President. We meet him for the first time at a special zone conference on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what rules change and what rules do not change.

 Thanks for the sports updates. Sounds like the whole NBA is changing. Conner Gillette emailed me telling me he leaves for the Naval Academy today and does not come home until August. He is sad to leave the friends like I did but he is excited as well. I miss the thunderstorms of home. The summer here has been pretty nice though. Tomorrow will be our hottest day so far: in the 80s. I hope all is well at home and I hope the dogs are keeping you busy.

Lots of Love,

Will

It's July!

Our ward is having a big BBQ on the 4th of July so we will be attending that. There are firework stands everywhere here in Washington. Nothing like I ever saw in Iowa. Everyone better hope it is not a cloudy night like usual. I do not know our plans because I do not know what we are allowed to do. We meet our mission president on Wednesday and transfers are the 22nd of July. I expect to be transferred so it will be interesting to see where I go. 

We actually have not had many dinners recently but someone dropped off some fried chicken which was really good. It does not matter what you cook when the missionaries come over. As long as it is close to being ready when they get there. That is the most important part. I hate when we arrive at the home and they have not even started cooking. Then we have to sit there for an hour before we eat.

 I have a good picture with me and my old president and his wife last week before he left. I will send it next week. Thank you for the wedding photos those were fantastic. I loved looking at those and reading the back of the cards. You should always do that for special occasions where there are lots of photos. Getting them in the mail and having the actual photos are much better than looking on a computer screen. Yes, I believe many people have faith to move mountains. Look at the 12 apostles and the first presidency. But there also has to be a reason for the Lord to move the mountain. Guess there has not been one recently. I am glad you are taking Anne with you to Chicago. Good luck with Stat.

Will

The New Mission President Approaches

Well that was a lot of interesting news I appreciate it. I will have to admit I miss watching the World Cup. I could do without the NBA Finals and the World Series but I had started to appreciate watching soccer before I left. It's nice to stay updated. Go Brazil. 

This week was not the most productive week for missionary work. We failed to get anyone to church but we finally have an appointment with a women with 6 kids today who wants to come to church. So that is good. This is our mission president's final week in the mission. He is greatly loved here and is a great man. He will be missed but it is somewhat exciting for a new change and that comes on the 26th.

 President Blatter is the new  man in charge for the mission. As a farewell gift to the mission our president bought the entire mission lunch on different days. Our zone went out to eat Saturday for lunch at Round Table. ( a pizza spot). Not a small ticket to pay with 220 missionaries (different days for each zone) He is quite a wealthy man as is our new Mission President who works in Private wealth management at Goldman Sachs. It was a lot of fun and we got to watch the world cup for like 15 minutes in Round Table as we waited for him. 

And yes missionaries love to compare missions to "life". You are "born" and trained by your "dad" (trainer) and you die at the end of your mission. We have a large group of missionaries going home this transfer and a large number coming in. This is the transfer after school has ended so it is usually the biggest. We usually get around 8-10 missionaries a transfer and this July we are getting 24. This will most likely be my last transfer in Brownsville so we will see where P. Blatter send me. Hopefully Tacoma.

 I am turning in 50$ of change I have saved up today. I also have acquired three bikes from old missionaries (for free) that are going home and plan on selling them for around 30$ to a pawn shop that a guy in our ward owns. Its nice I do not need a bike because of being a visa waiter I have an excuse not to buy one. If you ever see on Facebook any three of those departing missionaries (Krista Erin Clayton) email addresses you should send them to me via email. That is all. Enjoy the week. Thanks for the pics in the email and in the mail. I will look today in the mail for the photos.

Will