Good Week!

Hey hey!!

Hope all is going well back at the casa!! I'm doing great! It's been a pretty interesting week! Lots and lots of stuff happened! We worked super super hard too!! After pday last week we just went home and worked through the night! We taught the Williams family and they are just super super awesome! I love them! On Tuesday we spent a lot of the day cleaning but in the afternoon we went and helped a nice family named Pratts! They are sweet family they're both in their 80s and Brother Pratt has a really hunchback it's like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Sister Pratt is legally blind so she can't really see anything. It was a really fun time though we moved like two tables and all the furniture that went with it and also the hallways in her house were really small. She lives in an old folks community and it was really strange to go inside and feel like I was in a horror movie. We spent a lot of time cleaning.... mostly the bathroom because the last missionaries that were before me really messed it up and it was kind of gross and we both got tired of looking at grossness in the bathroom. It got so bad that we had to plunge our sink. What a mess! This past Wednesday I woke up and I was really sick. It felt like I had strep throat I was sweating really bad and my throat and my head hurt. I really felt like my whole body was going to explode like a grenade! During that morning I taught my first district meeting! It was really great! I really enjoyed it but I was sick so I'm pretty sure none of my district new single thing that I was trying to tell them. I'm pretty sure none of them received any sort of spiritual revelation. They were just sitting there watching me sweat bullets and talk with my really sick voice... it was terrible! After district meetings I went and got some medicine from 7-Eleven mostly just cough drops and a Slurpee…that afternoon I was feeling really sick still we went to this neighborhood pretty far away we walked there and we tracked it in the hot sun it was really humid I thought I was going to die but we were OK in the end. Elder Snow is a stud and he got us like four return appointments throughout the course of this week he's awesome!.Thursday was a pretty good today that morning we woke up and we went to the gym it was a lot of fun got a good lifted. After the studies we had we went to a leadership meeting over at the Sudley building. We talked about a cool find fest that we're going to do next week. It should go from about noon to 9 PM what a long day that will be! After our leadership meeting we went and we did Some district service over at a members house in Manassas. We spent a lot of time pulling and picking weeds and fixing the hedges in the front yard. I got to spend a lot of time with Elder Jones! He's a really nice guy we talked about football for like three hours. Turns out he played football and he's from the Idaho he is such an awesome Elder I'm so glad we have great zone leaders! it was pretty funny that evening we went over to brother Mcgloughlin's house and he showed us pictures of the trip that he took up in Canada. He went to go see some beluga whales. He showed us pictures and talked about his trip for the whole hour that we were there. It looks like a fun trip though I'm really glad because he deserves a nice time!!on Friday we helped out brother Sorenson. He is a less active member of the church and he's moving to Idaho. He picked us up at his house and we help him remove carpet and pull out staples from the wood in the floor! It's like a long time but we were really glad to help him because he's such a nice guy and he always talks about how much fun he had in his mission! I love having people talk about their missions when they're less active so we can get excited about church again! After packing up the carpet in his truck he drove us to this dump! Turns out it was outside of the mission.....I was so ticked! Haha I didn't know though!! I repented!! That evening we taught one of the people that we have been working with over the last month or so! His name is Robert and he is about my age! We committed him to read the Book of Mormon again and he is actually pretty excited about it! He has had a lot of experience with many churches but claims atheism! I think we will change that!!! He said that our church is something that he wants to investigate further! I'm pumped!!!! That Friday morning we had studies and then this guy named kelvin called us and asked us if we wanted his bowflex! I said YES! So yeah now we have this huge bowflex in our apartment...it takes up a lot of space! But Elder Snow and I are going to get HUGE!! It was really hard to weekly plan that day cause I just wanted to go workout on the bowflex!! Haha! Sunday was a great day we had fun at church and ward council! That evening we got invited to a birthday party of a kid named Saddiq he and his mom aren't members but they were at a member house called the Kemavors! Brother Kemavor made this Ghanaian meal...it's just called stew. It was a bunch of rice and chicken with the bones in it and also the livers of the chickens...it was actually mighty good!!! It was a great time!  It was  a good week! Unfortunately no funny stories... It stinks! Just hard work!! Have s great week yall!!!

Much love,

Elder Routsong 

Training/district leader week 1

Everyone,

Hey hey friends and family!! Hope you are all having just a stellar week!! This week has been pretty sweet!!!  This week was pretty dope!!! Elder Lee and I went to the temple last week it was so awesome!! I ran into somebody who knows grandpa Richard! Crazy huh!? On Wednesday we had a Lesson with a guy named Tony! We put him on date for August 30th so please pray for him!!! I'm so excited!! He is pretty prepared!! This week was crazy! Thursday was transfers! I was pretty excited about getting to meet my trainee for the first time! He is such a boss!! His name is Elder Snow and he is from a little town in California called Loomis right outside of Sacramento!!! He is such a stud! He came out already trained basically! I know that he is going to be a super super good missionary! We are having a great time! This week after transfers was pretty crazy it was my first time leading out the area which meant I was in charge of weekly planning it was so crazy.... I was pretty darn nervous!! Oh, Elder Snows first night in the field we put Kingsley on date to be baptized!!!!!!  Isn't that pretty sweet? He is so prepared he actually brought up the topic of baptism the last time that we were over! On Friday we weekly planned and it was good! We have been working super super hard! Knocking a lot of doors! It's pretty dope! Elder Snows first person he talked to was this crazy guy who develops weapons for the navy seals. We got into a little bit of a bash with him... I felt pretty bad but when it comes down to bashing with people just kill them with kindness! He respected us at the end but didn't want to hear our message! We have been tracting sooooo much because I want to get Elder Snow in the groove of tracting so he can keep it a trend throughout his mission! He is such a stud!! On Saturday we had a super super awesome day! The DC south and DC north missions got to go to the Nationals game! They were playing the Rockies! It was so much fun! I got to hangout with Elder King the whole day! It was basically like a second pday... And president and sister Huntsman were there! It was so much fun! Too bad that the Rockies got hammered 6-1 I was pretty upset I'm positive that I was the only missionary that was rooting for the Rockies! Everybody loves Bryce Harper here even though he is crazy inactive in the church hahah but they were yelling "go brother Harper" hahah it was hilarious! The ride home on the metro was crazy there were people everywhere we had been challenged by the zone leaders to talk to a lot of people about the church and we did a pretty good job with it! The metro here is always always crazy holy cow... People just stare at us on it too hahah I'm pretty sure somebody got Elder King and I on snapchat in the metro hahah! On Sunday we had a great day it was fun fun! We had good meetings! I'm in charge of taking Elder Snow through the twelve week program so it's pretty cool we get an extra hour to study every morning now!  On Sunday night we went to go teach an investigator named Norman! He is a stud! He has been reading from the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 3 last night I felt the spirit so strongly testify to him that the Book of Mormon is true! It has been one of the most powerful lessons I've had on my mission.I'm pretty pumped about that! It's been a great week everyone!! Sorry this was a shorter letter!! I'll see you all next week love ya!! Also being a trainer and district leader has been such an an experience!!! It's hard work but I'm seeing so many miracles from iT!! Holy cow I love it!!!

Elder Routsong 

WOW!!!

Hello hello!!

Everyone! This week has been straight crazy. And yes I am writing on a pday! I am so nervous! But I'll tell you why a little later in this letter!! I hope all is well back at home and everyone is enjoying life and having fun with their last little bits and pieces of summer break! Haha! Aunt Kristy how are the kids adjusting to school? Wow can't believe that they started already! That's awful! Yeah so after preparation day last week we really hit the ground running! That night was pretty crazy from about 6-9 I didn't stop raining! It was pouring on us so hard! Luckily we remembered out umbrellas! It was a stroke of luck! That night we went with Brother Smith to teach Kingsley! He is such a stud! He asks the best questions and gets really in depth! He is a thinker for sure!!! That Wednesday we had district meetings and it was pretty good we didn't do much other than tract and visit a few potentials and that was it. We also met with a member from our ward who has been bedridden since February with some sort of cancer. It was really sad that he has been sick for this long but it seems like he is doing a lot better than how he was a few months ago. Holy cow everyone I hit my 4 and a half month mark this past Saturday isn't that crazy!? Yeah it's crazy! On Thursday we worked pretty hard! We had appointments fall through so we spend most of the day trying to find people to teach! We had an appointment with one of our investigators that afternoon but he wasn't home! Ugh he forgot to tell us he got called into work! Lame! I was pretty bummed out. That night we took a recent convert Brother Sontos over to meet with Kingsley. We have been teaching him about the plan of salvation and Kingsley has been having many questions about it! We read with him out of the 40th chapter of Alma and he seems to understand now! I mean who says it better than the prophet Alma?! Hahah it's great!! That Friday was a very interesting day... Holy cow we ran out of miles in our car and we had to walk out huge area!! We didn't go more than a hundred yards without somebody seeing us and giving us a ride! The moment we left our apartment  a member from the Gainesville ward gave us a ride to our appointment which fell through. So we went to dinner and I didn't eat cause I wasn't feeling good and yeah... After dinner we started walking down this really sketchy highway 28. A member from the Fredericksburg stake picked us up and drove us to another appointment! Which fell through...dangit! We tracted for an hour then walked back for an hour. This random lady saw us walking and went to chick fil a and bought us dinner and drove it to us while we were walking back!!! It was a tender mercy! Her name is Rose and she said "I'm not a member of your church but you all look tired!! Here is some dinner!" Haha it was pretty awesome! After we ate I had a conversation with a kid about the gospel and about video games cause he recently got hired at GameStop... I was basically killing myself haha there is some cool games coming out! On Saturday we helped a lady move in to her new town home. She isn't a member but we had to pass her to the sisters cause she isn't in our area. She is a golden investigator too... Dangit!  Sunday and Monday were pretty typical days and very boring! We just worked! Today we had the opportunity to go to the DC temple with one of my favorite families ever! The Renfros they are super super awesome! I love them to death! They took us to five guys after and we all had huge hamburgers! It was a good day! This evening we are meeting with Kingsley! I'm pretty excited about that! But anyways to the craziest and best part of my letter this week... I got a call from Elder Adair  (my last companion) he is now an assistant to the president! He told me..................that I am going to train and become the new district leader and there is a chance that I will leave vint hill. WHAT THE HECK! I'm so not ready for this... But I know it what the Lord wants me to do! I will try my best! Anyways that's it! Have a great week everyone!! LOVE YOU!!

Elder Routsong 

Another Week!

Friends and family,

Hey hey! Another week down! (Wait what!? I'm writing you all on a Tuesday!? Man I must be a pile missionary. Haha just kidding I we switched pday this week to Tuesday!) this week has been pretty good! So after pday last week we went our tracting! We found not one...but two families who are interested in the gospel! Pretty sweet huh? We will be going back to teach them this upcoming week! It was a great experience! We also had dinner with a pretty sweet family from our ward the Youngs they are pretty awesome! We talked about sports the whole dinner hahah I loved every minute of it! Tuesday was a pretty crazy day! We spent the whole morning cleaning our car and our apartment it was super gross blah and if my place is gross and messy I just don't work well so we clean up the whole place so it's all good now! That afternoon we went out to do some street contacting. It was so hot... Holy cow I thought that I was going to die! It was intense! Easily the hottest I have ever been on my mission! We weren't having a lot of luck contacting people cause there was nobody walking down the road IT WAS SO HOT! So we decided to go see some potentials...they weren't home. That evening we had dinner at a family in our ward named the Riddles they lived in Tiffany's mission boundaries in Tennessee! They were super super cool but they didn't know sister Frederick! Oh well. After dinner we came home and called up our investigator Kingsley to come to a baptism! The Haymarket sisters were having a baptism! His name is Blaise and he is from the Congo he is easily one of the freshest guys I've ever met in my life... Dudes got class. But actually Elder Lee and I had the opportunity to teach Blaise along with the sisters. We teach him almost every week in our Gospel principals class because he comes to our ward but he lives in the Haymarket ward boundaries! He is so spiritual I love Blaise! Anyways Kingsley didn't show up the to baptism... But it was such a great experience to see Blaise get baptized. Wow I haven't felt the spirit that strongly since Jackies baptism! I love convert baptisms!!!!!! On Wednesday we had district meetings and we read Alma chapter 36 which is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon because Alma the younger tells Helaman about his conversion! Gosh darn it is such a great chapter! I love verse 27... 

27 "And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me."

The final sentence in it really sticks out to me!! It's that simple!! There is so much power to me in that sentence!

On Thursday we had a pretty interesting day. It was actually a pretty hard day for me. We had weekly planning and that is always a challenge to stay concentrated! After that we drove up to Vienna to a chiropractor and he adjusted my back which was brutal. But I'm doing okay now ha. That evening we went back to do some tracting and people were just not having anything of what we wanted to say. But I was still very very excited and positive cause we had an appointment with a man named James! We show up to his home and he wasn't there. As I was backing out the car James walked by so we got out to talk to him. We talked for about half an hour about a lot of things. I asked him if he had been reading the Book of Mormon and he said no. I asked if he had been praying and he said no. Finally he told me that he had been looking at many churches for his whole life and he expressed that he feels that God doesn't care and he has no faith. I assured him that God does care and he needs to build faith and to read Alma chapter 32. He told me not to come back...I was devastated. He wasn't even willing to give reading and praying a chance. He held the ultimate source of knowledge and truth in his hands and he didn't read it. My stomach hurt so badly the car ride home. I've been praying for him every night to just pick up the Book of Mormon and read it. I know if he does he will understand.

Friday was a good turn around for me we spent the day mostly finishing up our weekly plan and preparing lessons for investigators. Then that night we went on a big zone blitz! The entire zone blitzed the zone leaders area hahah that was pretty funny everyone was pretty mad about that. But I didn't care because I got to tract with my old pal Elder King! That guy is such a stud! We tracted for about two hours together and talked about the Mtc and just goofed. We knocked on this one guys house and he was crazy. He has been with the scouts for 50 years and we told him about the church and all he said was "I know everything there is to know about you Mormons! But I love you guys!" Haha he took us on a tour of his home but Elder King and I thought the whole time that he was going to pull out his shotgun and shoot us but he didn't haha yeah Friday was good!

Saturday was a pretty busy day for us we spent the whole day teaching lessons! Brother Alvarado took us to chipotle for lunch cause he is a stud! For sure going to visit him after the mission mom and dad! Anyways, after lunch we had appointments basically for the rest of the day. We taught a lady named Rena then we taught a less active named Solomon about the nature of God then we worked straight through dinner and taught a young man named Robert who also claims to be an atheist! We had a sweet lesson with him! We were In the middle of teaching him the restoration when his mom and sister came downstairs. They were pretty wierded out by us haha it was funny but I introduced myself to his mom and she was friendly! We committed Robert to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and he said "okay come back in two weeks and I'll have read the whole book by then!" Isn't that SICK!? Alright! And to finish off the night we taught Kingsley about baptism! He said he is interested in being baptized! SICK! We will put him on date soon!  

On Sunday we had a pretty average day Kingsley actually came to church and he loved every second of it! He is out of town this weekend but he will come the week after that! I'm pumped!! 

On Monday we had a big zone service activity! That's why pday is switched to today! We went over to a lady in the Manasses 2nd ward who is pretty old and can't do things for herself! We had around 80 people there helping fix things up! Our whole zone and then several young men and members from the manasses 2 ward. It was so much fun! We worked from 9 a.m. To 3p.m. So basically all day long! We painted a whole barn, cleared out weeds, mulched, cut down trees and a lot more! It was a fun time! I got so dirty and sweaty and covered in paint ha it was a good days work! Pretty much our whole zone had ticks somewhere on them hahaha! Oh! Haha Elder King and I were clearing out vines and stuff and we accidentally cut down this lady's super nice rose bush...she came out and started to cry saying that it was such a nice bush...I felt terrible and Elder King was just laughing hahahah oh my goodness two years of awkward experiences...

Anyways that was my week! It wasn't too bad! I miss life back at home a lot and I miss you all very very much I think about you all every single day! But the mission is a great experience! Have a great week!

Love 

Elder Routsong 

P.s. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA STAN AND ELDER DALTON!! Love ya!

These pictures of from the Air and space museum by the Dulles airport.