Great Week!

Everyone,

Hello hello!! How is everyone doing this week!? HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD! I hope that everyone is doing super super good:) here in northern Virginia things are going good! Just living life and working super super hard...this week has been very good! So on Monday we went and hit golf balls at this super awesome driving range! I killed it! Tuesday we had district meeting and then we had apartment inspection! These past couple weeks on my mission I have seen so many miracles... It's so amazing! After pday on Monday we had dinner with a member of the bishopric and this lady named Jackie that we have been teaching. I put her on date for baptism for July 11th. She is so amazing and I've seen her progress so much in just the short time we have met her... She has an amazing story and I tear up every time that she tells it... She has a two year old son named Josiah he is just a total boss. Anyways Jackie is amazing and she was at one point homeless with her son when he was a newborn. She found a program for single mothers which gave her an apartment and a car. She is so spiritually prepared for the gospel. I've seen Her immediately give up alcohol, coffee and tea. Through reading the Book of Mormon and the bible the lord can help us with these addictions or things that we are struggling with. I can't believe the transformation that she has had in just a short 16 days. We took Jackie to the temple visitor center on Saturday. It was my first time going to the temple here! Holy cow it was so awesome I loved it! We had the sister missionaries at the visitor center prepare a lesson for Jackie and she absolutely loved it. They taught her about the plan of salvation and modern prophets! After the lesson we went to go watch Meet the Mormons Jackie loved it. We asked her what her favorite person was in the movie and she said the missionary mom was her favorite cause she has a similar story to her! Ahhh it's been such a good week! We made a baptismal calendar for Jackie and it tells her that everything we are going to teach her up till her baptism. She is so stoaked! We have been teaching her every single day this week at members homes and the benefit is they make dinner before our lesson so we are getting food and dinner every single day pretty much! Yeah I'm pretty happy right now! This Thursday is transfers so I will be finding out if I am staying or leaving tomorrow night... I hope I stay but there is a chance I will go I'd say it's about half and half...this ward is so awesome and every time that we bring an investigator to church they are so friendly! So today for pday we took a tour of the pentagon with a person from the Franconia ward that works there and then we went to Arlington cemetery and saw th changing of the guard! Today was so awesome!! What is new at home everyone!? I'm doing great out here I do miss you all a lot! I pray every night for all of you! It sounds like summer is finally rolling around there in the springs momma! Hope you all have a great week! love you!

Elder Routsong 

P.s. Soon I look like a goober with my name tag on my tie... Jackie son Josiah stole my name tag hahah

 

Good Week!

Hey everyone!

So this week was soooooo awesome!!!! Yeah ... we didn't really do a whole lot on pday last week so it was alright! Tuesday we did exchanges! I went with
Elder haddon to Franconia and we did a whole lot of tracting. Elder Haddon and I had a pretty fun time! We just worked hard the whole time. We were tracting over by route 1 and this guy was sitting out on his porch smoking he looked so ticked off... I walked up to him and said hello and asked how he was doing. He was pleasant. Then I asked him about Jesus Christ... He started to yell at Elder Haddon and I saying that we were soliciting and trespassing. Hahah so funny he said that he was going to call the cops on us. Elder Haddon was like "alright I guess we will keep trespassing then!!" Haha after that he went inside to call the police. We left quickly after he went inside hahaha. On Wednesday we went to zone training that took almost the whole day so it's all good! Elder Adair had his birthday on Wednesday so we got called on to practice teach In front of the whole zone... I was like lame! But Elder Adair and I rocked it! We had to practice teach on why people have weakness and trials. I busted out ether 12:27 and we just kicked butt! The zone leaders bought donuts for Elder Adair and the whole zone! It was a pretty good time! On Thursday we had the hottest day so far on my mission. It was blazing. All we did on Thursday was do service it was baaaaaad! We shoveled mulch for this lady named Ronnie for about 3 hours it got so bad we had to ask for towels to put over our heads ahh! Oh also that morning we did service at the Methodist food bank they love us there! Friday we went to the church In the morning to set up a Red Cross blood drive at the church it was pretty fun! O ended up having to vacuum the entire stake center by myself! After we set up we went to Taco Bell for lunch and then went straight back to the church! Elder Adair gave blood and did some missionary work while he was giving blood! The nurse that was taking care of him is going to investigate the church! I couldn't give blood cause we went on a cruise last year to Jamaica.. I lucked out cause I didn't want to pass out! On Saturday we went on a huge tracting marathon and worked super super hard! We didn't have a whole lot of luck with it though..hahah people just didn't want to talk to us it was pretty frustrating! But Sunday was by far the best day of the week! So Saturday night we texted two of our potential investigators to come to church and they both came! Their names are Joey and Jackie! Jackie loved church so much that she bore her testimony In relief society! The whole ward loves both of them! I was talking to Joey In sacrament and he told us that he has read all the way to 1 Nephi chapter 17! We talked about the Holy Spirit in gospel principals class and they were just loving it! We had such a good week there was more non members than members in the gospel principals class!! Yeah... so this week was pretty good! We are at this place called top gold right now hitting golf balls its a lot of fun! Dad I want to take you here when I get off the mission you would love it here! How are things going on back at home? I miss you all so much and I hope that you are all doing very good! Have a great week! Love ya!

Elder Routsong 

P.s. Sorry for my hyper all over the place email this week...

Miracle Week

Hey everybody!!

So this week was the week of miracles!! Seriously we taught 8 lessons this week and got 8 new investigators...holy cow this was the best week of my mission so far! I didn't feel like a pile because we were actually teaching people and not tracting our faces off all day every day! Yeah I was so stoked! So on pday last week, Elder Haddon and I just went to lift for like 3 hours it was pretty legit! Yeah then on Wednesday we have been teaching these Jamaican guys named Courtney and Deshane haha they are hilarious I talked to them about eyre of whatever those Jamaican guys told us when we were visiting... momma and family. Haha they are sick! They are doing a life guard job here for the summer then they are heading back to where we went on our cruise I forgot the name but it starts with an A. Yeah, they are really really cool... we actually asked Deshane if he would be baptized if he knew that this was the true church and the Book of Mormon is the word of God! He said yes! On Wednesday we had permission from president to deep clean our apartment all afternoon so yeah it was sweet we borrowed a bunch of supplies from the church to clean( we returned it all after we finished) the missionaries before me just trashed our apartment... On Thursday we didn't really do a whole lot but service. We went to a local Methodist food bank and did a ton of service! Friday we had interviews with president Riggs! I love president Riggs and his family they are so amazing some of the most Christlike people I've ever met. They seriously always have the spirit with them and it's so strong...on Wednesday we taught a man named Joey he is this huge country guy who was a cop. He felt the spirit when we talked about church. I could see it in his eyes it was so amazing... Elder Adair and I walked out of the lesson completely stunned...on a lighter note I had my first experience with a real life hoarder. Her apartment smelled so darn bad gahhhhhh. She was like legit hoarding. The bishop is going to have to talk to her. It's a serious problem! Ahhhhh it smelled so bad!!!! I was like gagging it was that bad... Haha also on Saturday I got let into a mans house with Elder Haddon! We taught him the restoration it was so awesome! Yeah this week we have been teaching people hardcore! Yeah, President told Elder Adair and I we were going to have miracles this week and we totally did. Wow! How are things going on back home!? It's going good here just been working hard the weather here hasn't been too bad this past week! We just ate at this buffet in Alexandria we were the only white people there... Seriously the place was packed and we were the only white People! Holy cow I got two packages this week!! Momma that package was darn great thank you!! It was a life saver my clothes are getting thrashed out here! And the Whitakers sent me a package full of food! WHITAKERS YOU ARE THE BEST!:) I miss you all a lot thanks for the package! I miss everyone at home and hope all are doing just excellent! Have a great week everyone!! Love you!

Elder Routsong 

Dead Blue Jay

Another Hot Week in DC

Friends and family,

Hello everybody!! How was your week!? I hope it was fantastic!!! Life  here in Alexandria Virginia is good! Just working hard and loving the people that are here! I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday last week! We had a Memorial Day breakfast with the Kingstowne ward... it was a lot of fun! There was a flag ceremony, and a few members of the ward, because everyone is in the military, basically talked about those that have served and their current service. It was great to hear from so many members and their stories. Seriously though, everyone is so patriotic around here it's great!! On Tuesday...we had to put the tiwi in our mission vehicles....ugh... They are the worst. They monitor our driving and they are such a pain. But oh well, I'm not driving for awhile! Everyone on the mission is bummed cause of the tiwi. Even president Riggs got up during our conference and said "well to be hones,t the first time I heard about the tiwi I was pretty upset." Hahah but we have to deal with it so there is no reason to complain. So now we have to drive like grandmas! On Wednesday we finally got a progressing investigator! Yussss. His name is Steven! He lives with a recent convert from our ward named Kwesi. They are both from Ghana. Steven is taking care of Kwesi cause he had a stroke and now is going through gout. We gave Steven a pamphlet on the restoration and we came back for our return appointment to talk about it and he had read it twice! He had a question about the priesthood and said how did Peter James and John confer the melkezidek priesthood on Joseph smith! He was amazed at how we have the priesthood. We invited him to be baptized and he said if he gets an answer from God and from reading the Book of Mormon he will be baptized. So pray for Steven. We are going to prepare him with a date next time we meet! Yeah I'm super excited. So the rest of the week we basically moved everyone out of the ward and new people in... This area is so transient. We helped a part member family move in named the Duncan's. They are super awesome Marla the wife is a member and her husband is Chris and is an athletic trainer for George Washington university. He does a lot of work with baseball and with track so we instantly hit it off. Ah they are so great!! Sister Duncan actually coached soccer with Utah state so they are sweet! Yeah this week was pretty good! Oh! On Friday we went to the father son camp out! It was so sick! We got to go because we had an investigator there who knows the bishop! His name is Scott Harritch he went to school at Utah state and has several members of his family join the church. We didn't get to stay the night but we were there from 6-9 darn it was a lot a lot of fun! Yeah this week has been legit. And last week we moved this lady from the Franconia ward named sister Thorne. She bought us each a tie. I got this very nice silk green tie. Ahhh it is legit. It's starting to get super super hot here. Dang it's humid here ahhh every day it's like 90 degrees outside... We went to kohls this morning cause I had to decommission two of my short sleeve white shirts. One I ripped on the fence and the other some gum melted in my pocket. Ugh. Yeah sorry momma. So this Saturday Elder L Tom Perry passed away from thyroid cancer. He was amazing. Yesterday in church we talked about his last general conference talk. I believe that he knew this would be his last conference. Elder Perry knew how critical the family is and how much the family is under attack in the modern world... I am very grateful for his last address to us. If you look at his last sentence of the talk he bears a powerful witness to how important the family is. I am grateful for Elder L Tom Perry. I know he is In a great place right now doing the work of the Lord! I look forward to seeing who the next apostle is going to be:)  this week was pretty good I am feeling more confident with the work! Yet we still do a lot of door knocking and street contacting that I am pretty good at. I've come across several pastors who have given me a run for my money but we aren't supposed to bash grrrr. Anyways everyone please email me!! I hope that everyone is having an excellent week! What is new back at home!? Love you all!!

Elder Routsong