Song of the Road

Friends and family!

Hey everyone! These weeks just fly so fast it seems. My mission is
getting faster and faster and I can't believe it. I'm so not ready to
be a normal person again haha. This week was really good for us here
in Sterling Virginia! We actually had a lot tosh we accomplished this
week! I have some exciting news I'll share later in the email :)
Monday of last week was super relaxing...just another nice day spent
at top golf :) I really love that place. My swing is getting good!
After pday we went to visit our member mike Jimenez. He is awesome.
Tuesday was district meetings and we had combined district meeting
with the leesburg district. It was a lot of fun! I presented about
faith and its role in our lives as members of the church. Without
faith we can't see or preform miracles for other people's salvation!
Without faith In Jesus Christ we cannot overcome our trails and
weakness. My good friend elder prince talked about divine potential.
It was really really good. After district meeting I went on exchanges
with elder hild. Haha he is fetching funny. We went and did some
service for this Vietnamese lady. Her house is crazy.
I mowed the lawn and moved a few things around in the yard while hild
just chilled on a lawn chair. I was ticked! Ha. Hoa feed us this weird
fruit. It tasted pretty good though. She was begging us to go to this
restaurant with her to eat this weird stuff called "FUH" hahaha no
clue what that is! That night my good friend Eder from the Langley
ward took is out for pupusas. Wednesday we taught this awesome lady
. She is so cool she reminds me of a few people I've
taught. She is a single mother of a two year old son named bastion.
They are from Haiti. Super smart lady. We taught her the plan of
salvation. She wasn't very open for us but when the lesson ended she
really seemed to open up. She loved studying about Joseph smith. That
afternoon we taught this less active guy from India.
he looks at me and says "your name means song of the road...."
Hahahaha he is a total homie. We love spending time with him.
Thursday we read the scriptures with the Esquivel family. They were so
excited to read with us actually which is a huge change. Friday we
went to the mission home for a district leader training meeting. All
the dls in the mission got instructed by president. It was super fun.
I learned a lot and it's always good spending time with president and
sister huntsman. I love them so much! :) we ate dinner with this less
active family. . They are awesome. Saturday we played soccer
and then drove out lovetsville Virginia to help with a big service
project. It's in the middle of nowhere near West Virginia. I loved
every minute of it. We also took Dave to a Spanish baptism in
leesburg. He loved it! Sunday we had to teach a surprise lesson in
Sunday school. It was great! The best news I have though is at the end
of our elder quorum lesson Dave Marr our investigator getting baptized
on the 1st turns to me and says "Elder Routsong I've prayed about it
and I want you to baptize me." I was shocked. I almost cried. I love
Dave so much. This week was incredible! Love you all have the best
week!!
Love
Elder Routsong

IDK about you but I am feeling 22 September 12, 2016

Hello hello!!

Hey everyone! I hope that your past week went really really well! This
week was good but it went fast and slow at the same time ha I don't
know how that works but it happened. Life in Sterling Virginia is
pretty good though. I can't really complain all that much. We have
great people we are teaching! On Monday of last week we went and
played some insane dodgeball at the church. Honestly if you want a
really good workout just play some dodgeball. We were all dying after
we finished. After pday we went to one of my favorite places to go
here! We went to Marie's house to celebrate another missionaries
birthday. She is known as the "mission grandma" she is from Sierra
Leone and loves the missionaries! We love her too! She fed us some
good food. Tuesday we had zone training in the morning and the zone
leaders asked me to teach on obedience. I talked about the 3 reasons
why people are obedient 1. They love blessing 2. The fear God 3. They
love God. It was a pretty good talk then I showed a funny mission
video that was made a long time ago. I then went on exchanges with
elder Marshall. We tracted for hours and hours. We tracted into the
gamarra family in our Ward and they fed us and offered to take us to
lunch the next day for some silpancho (Bolivian dish) it's mega good.
Brother Boehl called us to give a blessing to his wife who had
shoulder surgery. Tuesday night was busy! Wednesday was a very good
day! It was my birthday! I can't believe that i turned 22. It blows my
mind... How did I get to this age? All of age 21 was spent as a
missionary. Pretty crazy huh? The gamarras met us for lunch and it was
fun then I went and bought myself a tie to celebrate. We exchanged
back and then went to dinner at Texas roadhouse with some
missionaries. It was a good time! Elder Benard and I visited some less
actives that night the Reese family and the Clarks. They are great
families just need a little help! Thursday we went and did more
finding and went home teaching with brother Jimenez. They lady we
wanted to teach is less active and was very very unhappy that we were
there. It was sad how rude she was to us..but that's life. We all can
make choices. Friday we weekly planned it so boring! But we have to do
it! That night we got a weird phone call asking if we could help set
up a wedding in the church. It was weird and they wanted us to come
the next day. Saturday was freaking sweet we taught Dave Marr lesson 4
the commandments. It was so spiritual! We love spending time with
Dave. We brought a member whom talked about tithing for like 2 hours
haha it was so long! His name is brother Mitchell and he is this
little old guy who loves talking haha we love him! After the lesson he
took us to firehouse subs for lunch. We went on a blitz with the
Algonkian elders and people were so mean to us holy crap it was
brutal. I really don't have a lot of patience for people at the door
step. I really really don't. We went to the wedding we set up the day
before. It was weird. We didn't know anybody at all. I gained a
testimony of temple marriages as well. Thank goodness. Haha that
wedding just was weird for me. I only want a temple marriage cause I
didn't feel the spirit at all at that wedding. Yeah it was weird.
Hahah anyways enough about marriage.  Sunday we had Dave Marr at
church and he stayed the whole time he's also been reading the Book of
Mormon and praying! I can't wait for his baptism! Ah i know he is
making the best decision he will ever make in his life feeling
completely clean after he comes out of the waters of baptism. Dave is
incredible to me. I look up to him so much. He has taught me so much
about life and the gospel. I feel like a completely different person
from before my mission. I feel the spirit! I see gods hands in my life
and in others! I feel so great! The mission is the easiest hard thing
you will ever do. I love the people of Virginia!  Thank you so much
mom and dad for the birthday packages! My favorite gift was my uvu
shirt hah! Have a great week!
Elder Routsong

Another Week September 5 206

Hello hello!

This week was pretty pretty good! We had a pretty good amount of
success! Today at church was quite possibly the weirdest elders quorum
lesson I've ever been a part of but everything works out! Last Monday
we went and played some football! There is a missionary that asked me
to help train him to play at BYU! Ha I only coached freshman football
so I mustered up all my football knowledge and tried to help him out a
little at the field. He worked out hard and it was fun coaching a
little bit again. I loved my time with the freshman football team I
hope to do it again one day. We had more elders there and we played
some touch football before coming back home and pday was over. I also
got a haircut  by some lady who couldn't speak English...I said I
wanted a 2 on my sides and to keep the top the same. I about cried
when she took a 2 and shaved my entire head...I was so upset. So now
I'm basically a skinhead. That's why you didn't get a picture from me
last week :/ That night we went out with brother Jimenez! He is
awesome! He took us out to this Tex mex place and we had a ball with
him! He is probably my favorite member in the Sterling park ward.
Tuesday we had district meeting and I taught about our zone goals as
missionaries. We read out of helaman chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon.
It talks about two great missionaries and their miracles. I invite you
all to read it. That afternoon we went and did some service for this
little Vietnamese lady who's name is Hoa. She is a sweet little lady.
Haha her yard needed some serious work though. It took me forever to
mow that darn thing cause the lawn mower was taking a serious beating
haha. Elder Benard got caught moving like 100 of these big brick
things to her back yard hahaha it was pretty funny. She speaks such
broken English ha it's so adorable. She fed us this nasty old
watermelon and I about threw up. So when she wasn't looking I chucked
it behind her shed Hahahah. After our service we had to skip dinner
and go to the church because there was a youth baptism that the Ward
threw on us last minute. We filled up,the font and set up all the
chairs and made it look nice. We had a lesson at the church with our
investigator almumy. He is from Sierra Leone he is a very quite kid
but we are hoping he will get baptized like the rest of his family.
Wednesday we had some district service and met with a family who's
daughter just returned from the ft Collins mission. It was nice
getting to talk about Colorado. Thursday was a pretty tough day for
me. We went on exchanges with the ashburn zone leaders. They are cool
but we had nothing planned. It was rushed. We had a lesson with Syd at
the mall with a member of our ward. Syd didn't understand the
importance of why he needed to come to our church although we
explained it over 100000 times. We won't be meeting with him anymore
and it really broke me down. It was a hard night for me. I hate when
people deny salvation and the path to Jesus Christ. People have agency
though and can chose to act or be acted upon. I guess that's the
beauty of the gospel and of the plan of salvation... Friday we weekly
planned and then went out to work. About 6 we get a call from a member
of my district and he says his comp isn't feeling good and he needs to
stay in. I stayed the rest of the evening at the apartment with this
missionary asleep. It was brutal. When he woke up he told me all his
rejection stories of when he was at BYU hahaha. Saturday we play
soccer in the morning with a ton of non members. It's a lot of fun and
we also have a  good amount of missionaries that come play. After
soccer we had a lesson with Dave Marr about the gospel of Jesus Christ
(lesson 3) he loved it! I know he can make his October 1 baptismal
date. He is a great man! That night when we were tracting a ton of
young people started yelling at us. There were all super wasted. I
just laughed at them cause they are losers. Sunday was
interesting...Dave came to church and we taught gospel principals and
it went very well! The frickin elders quorum lesson didn't go so well
though. They talked about a lot of deep doctrine such as kolob and
many aspects of the fall. Yep. It was the complete storm. I was
worried for Dave. He dim fine though. He's such a stud! This week was
good and they just keep flying faster and faster. I'm shocked that I
turn 22 this week...wow I'm old compared to everyone in this mission.
Pretty crazy. Im glad I got through my struggles to come on a mission
and be an instrument in gods hands! Have a great week everyone!!
Elder Routsong

Big Week In Sterling August 29, 20916

Friends and family.

This week was pretty intense. Lots of change! As many of you know I
hate change! But elder King got transferred and I am training a new
missionary. So crazy! It's been a very productive week though :) I've
been focusing a lot on how God works with me this week. I have a
testimony of the atonement that's for sure. He loves me so much and
can teach me so much just by sending me a green missionary. Amazing.
Monday of last week I was still with my boy elder King. We had fun
going into DC! We checked out the Lincoln memorial and the monument. A
couple missionaries we went with have never been to DC before so those
are usually the first two places ya visit. After those we went and
checked out the air and space museum. That evening we walked and tried
to talk to people we were so dead tired from our trip to DC. I got a
call that night from elder snow sayin that I will be training the new
missionary. I was honestly pretty nervous. Tuesday was district
meeting and we talked about the importance of bearing our testimonies
and it was great I felt really good after it:) we worked the afternoon
in the heat and then elder King wanted to make visits to people to say
goodbye. He got so close with many families here. He loved Sterling
park. Wednesday elder King packed up,his stuff and I went on splits
with the Spanish elders it was pretty nice. Our elders quorum
president took us to longhorn steakhouse to send elder King off. His
name is Paulo he is a total stud. Thursday was transfer day. Woke up
super early to go to the trainers meeting. Also, I've been out for 17
months and I am training when elder adair was training me. Pretty
cool. But I met my greenie. His name is elder Benard. He is a really
cool dude. From bountiful Utah and played baseball and football before
his mission. It's weird he graduated in 2016. Man I'm freaking old
compared to everyone else out here...he is going to be a really good
missionary. That night we went out tracting and he took his doors like
a champion. Did a lot better than me when I was a new missionary! We
did a lot of teaching that night. We taught a Hispanic lady named
Blanca the restoration. She isn't understand the need for the Book of
Mormon. We taught Syd and told him he needs to get baptized. He is
struggling understanding our purpose. Pray for him and then we had a
lesson with a less active family. They are so cool I showed them some
funny videos haha Friday was great hahahaha I feel bad but I pulled a
prank on elder Benard....we had dinner with some members in our ward.
They dressed up like Muslims and we taught them. They freaked out on
us and at the end tried to force us to drink fake vodka hahahaha elder
Benard was nervous but he did a great job I'm glad he isn't mad at me
for it haha the arraya family is my favorite family in the ward. They
fed us a Bolivian dish called silpancha. So good. That night elder
Benard and I had nothing to do with our last 20 minutes before heading
home. We prayed and asked for a teaching opportunity and found a lady
sitting outside! Her name was Terry and we taught he about the Book of
Mormon. What a great experience! God answered our prayer. Saturday we
played soccer in the morning with our investigator almumy. We also had
a lesson with Dave Marr. This lesson with Dave was incredible! He has
struggled with addiction and lack of belonging and peace. We invited
him to be baptized on October the 1st and he accepted. I was so happy
I actually had some tears in my eyes.. Dave has struggled for too long
and he is finally repenting and accessing the atonement of Jesus
Christ. I love Dave. We also read the Book of Mormon with Eric and
then with the esquivels. They are both awesome we read 1 Nephi chapter
8 with Danny esquivel. Probably my favorite chapter of the Book of
Mormon. Sunday Dave came to church and loved it! People were very nice
to him and he is starting to give up coffee and alcohol. So cool. We
taught his Spanish guy named Francisco and he could really understand
us Hahahah we couldn't pass up the opportunity to teach though from
tracting! We also had a lesson with brief Rivera and his kids. They
are funny. They love Pokemon go. Wow this week we worked so dang hard.
And taught so much. I'm so grateful for this week. It was awesome for
elder Benard and I am grateful to be his trainer and to learn from
him. I love this gospel and I love teaching the gospel to those who
cannot find it on their own. Christ is my best friend and I know he
loves me. Have s wonderful week everyone! There is so much more that
happened this week but I've already written a novel Haha love you!
elder Routsong

Marmf August 22, 2016

Hello hello!

Everyone I hope this week went well for You! This week was really
tough on me but the end of the week made it all worth it. God retaught
an important lesson to me this week. It was unfortunate but it had to
happen! Before I dive into this week I wanted to tell kari and Kayla
how proud I am of you for starting back at school this week! Kayla uvu
is such a great place! You are going to have so much fun there. I
can't wait to be in the same school as you again! I have the best
sisters ever! The weather has been savage here the last 2 months. High
humidity and high heat. It's crazy. We are working hard though and
trying to make things happen in sterling park. I'm really starting to
love the members of this Ward. On Monday of last week we went to my
favorite place ever....top Golf. The lady that works at the desk
always recognizes me haha. I'm getting pretty good dad! We have to go
golfing now when I come home. That night it rained really hard so we
walked to a less actives house and had a lesson with him. He is a pile
and won't come to church but we are making progress with him. His kids
aren't baptized so we want to get the whole family involved with the
church. It's just a tricky situation. We walk so much! Tuesday I was
on exchanges with elder Marshall! He is a stud. All our appointments
cancelled right in our faces. We walked 16 miles tracting and trying
to find people. It was hard. Marshall and I were dead. Wednesday we
did about the same we tracted for hours and hours and hours. We taught
a couple people but nothing too miraculous. I was being very impatient
cause things were not going the way I liked. We were looking for
potentials for the last couple minutes of the night. Then it started
to pour rain like crazy...we biked 12 miles home in the pouring rain.
It was so dang fun!! Hahah super dangerous cause it was a very bad
thunderstorm too. But awesome. Thursday was full of tracting and
tracting Hahahah that's all we did this week. Friday and Saturday was
straight knocking. Man people's hearts are very hard it's sad. We had
dinner with a less active family and they are super cool we taught
them and they are really wanting to return back to activity. We hope
and pray they will. Saturday we had dinner with the Isbells. They are
the best. A shooter family and I can't wait for dad to meet them
hahaha. But Sunday was the best day for sure. We had church and a
random investigator shows up and wants to learn more. His name is
almumy. Then we went to see the Isbells and they bought us backpacks
for our work. It was so nice of them! They also gave us combat knives.
Hahaha awesome. Jackie spoke at the new and returning member fireside
and I got to see many members from my last wards! It was incredible.
God retaught me this week about how sometimes we have to work through
the tough times to get to the really really good stuff! Sunday was
that stuff!! I was so happy! Jackie is doing pretty good! Her son
Josiah is crazy! I love the kid. I hope you all have a wonderful week.
I know this gospel is true and I love and believe it with all my
heart. Jesus is my best friend and has helped me so much in my
life...love you all!
Elder Routsong
P.s.
Sorry my email is short and kinda lame. We went to DC today to look at
the monuments so I didn't have a lot of time to write

And Another One August 15, 2016

Friends and family!!

Hey! Hope your week was awesome! Another week down...time flies when
you work hard and are having fun! This week was so hot and humid I
thought my skin was going to melt off on Saturday...
This week was kinda slow because everyone decided that they were going
out of town or just straight up couldn't meet with us but we still
managed! On pday last week we played some basketball in centreville
which was a lot of fun. I'm getting better and better at it so
hopefully I can play some good pick up games when I'm back home hahah.
That night one of our members introduced us to his neighbor. His name
is Gaile and his wife is Kay. They are super friendly people. We dos
service for them all week. It was super fun getting to know Gaile he
is so funny! Tuesday we had zone training and we learned more about
being in unity with God and our mission. It was pretty neat. Something
I really liked is "it is better to be a Shepard and not a sheriff." It
sticks out to me cause honestly I'm a sheriff and I call people out on
dumb things rather than being patient with them and helping them
understand. Haha sometimes God just needs us to know things! It was
really cool. We also talked about patience with ourselves and with
gods timing. Seriously another one of my weaknesses... Hahahah zone
training was just for me I guess. After zone training I went on
exchanges with Elder Hild. He is awesome. Probably one of the funniest
kids in the mission he is such a goober! He is so smart when it comes
to the gospel so we had a very fun time out working that day. Our
member dinner was with one of my favorite families in the Sterling
ward. They are hilarious the Boehl family. Hahaha it's just like being
back home ha the things they talk about and they are so nice to the
missionaries. We left their house with two big bags of food! We have
to walk everywhere cause my bike is broken so it takes FOREVER. my
feet hurt. But the work still goes on! Wednesday we worked all day for
Gaile. We worked in the siding of his garage. We is replacing it all
with duroc. So it's a long process. Removing all the wood and hanging
it up takes forever. It was fun though. He isn't s member of the
church so we taught him a  few gospel principals as we worked. He also
had s neighbor there who's name is George. These are two old men haha
both over 65. They loved hanging out with us and we learned a lot from
them. They talked about classic rock and growing up in hippie
California and all this cool stuff ha. By the end of the day we were
so tired. We worked all day everyday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and
Friday. Hahaha we replaced all the siding and starred to paint. It so
some good labor! Friday morning was cool though! Elder King had a
doctor appointment in McLean so a senior couple came and took us to
the appointment and then to this really fancy restaurant after. It's
called Founding Farmers. It's the best food I've eaten out here. Holy
cow. Look up the place on the Internet. After working with Gaile and
George on Friday Ann and Ronnie Williamson from the tall cedars Ward
came and took me to Pf Chang's. We had such a fun time with them. I
love the Williamsons. They are my mission parents for sure. I love
them. Mom and dad I can't wait for you to meet them! Saturday was the
hottest day of my mission it was 95 with like high humidity. The
weather app said it felt like 115 outside. We mowed Eric's lawn in
that garbage. I almost passed out it was so hot my skin seriously felt
like it was going to melt. We read the Book of Mormon with Eric and he
loved it. Sunday was good too! We had Eric and Syd at church. Elder
King and I taught Sunday school a bout being honest in our dealings.
Syd loved the lesson. Elders quorum was the highlight of my week
though. Syds father passed away many years ago and he has always
wondered what he could do to help his father. Our lesson was on temple
work. God literally answered his question after all these years....he
teared up a little bit. It was amazing to see. We tried to put him on
date for September 10th but he is still nervous. It's okay! He is
learning! I love the gospel so much. Sometimes I forget the power that
it has on my life and in others lives. I'm grateful to be a missionary
and my mission has taught me so much about myself and how to overcome
trial! It's the hardest thing I've ever done but so worth it! Love you
all!!
Elder Routsong

Cya Elder Elder Neyman August 8, 2016

Friends and family!

Hey! How is everyone doing?! This week was pretty good. Elder Neyman
went home on Tuesday so it's weird not being in a trio anymore. He is
doing pretty good though. Elder King and I have been having a lot of
fun and working hard. Monday of last week we had zone activity. We had
this huge nerf war in the gym. It was a lot of fun. It was a good Last
pday for Neyman. That night we said bye to a couple members and
everyone was feeding us. It was awful. We always loaded up neymans
plate to tick him off haha so dang funny. He knocked his last door and
it was so crazy. The lady accepted a Book of Mormon and we are going
to send the Spanish missionaries over soon. President came to our
apartment and interviewed him before going home. Tuesday morning we
woke up at 3 a.m. To help bring neymans stuff to the car. I was so
dead tired. Later that morning I taught district meeting on how to
live our purpose as missionaries inviting others to come unto Christ.
It was pretty good. Elder King and I walked like 8 miles to work in
our area. It was a good day though. We taught Syd about how families
can be together forever. We brought a recent convert with us and he
was asking him so many good questions. Syd is finally started to
understand the gospel. Wednesday elder King was sick. We couldn't go
out and work. Thursday we had mission leadership council. All the
district and zone leaders go to this meeting and talk about the goals
and needs of the mission. We got to hear from president and sister
huntsman and usual! I love hearing from them. Sister huntsman talked a
lot about having patience. She mostly touched on having patience with
ourselves. It was exactly what I needed to hear I was being wayyy to
hard on myself lately! We also got to hear from their son who just got
home from his mission in France. He was so spiritual. He talked about
"why we should use our time wisely" when we use time wisely we are
doing the will of Heavenly Father. He also touched on "burying our
weapons of war" like the anti-Nephi-Lehis. Since he spoke to us I have
been trying to think what my "weapons of war are" I know we all have
things that hold is back and things we struggle with but God will help
us bury them and never bring them back. He helps us as we access his
atonement daily! Yeah Mlc was wonderful I learned so much. Friday we
walked and tracted a lot. The very last door we knocked on was this
lady named Sonya. She knows a less active member of our Ward. We are
trying to teach her over there so hopefully it happens! Saturday we
played soccer with our investigator Almumy. He is so dang good at
soccer and I suck so bad at soccer. Hahaha we also mowed a less
actives lawn and then fixed my bike. We knocked more doors. This old
dude answered the door shirtless and all hairy. He kept yelling "OFF"
really loudly at his dog haha we started talking to him and he said he
was atheist. And that we are snake dancers...BAHAHA. What the heck? It
was so funny. Sunday we had church and we talked about some pretty
deep doctrine. Syd was there and he completely loved it. We were
walking around later yesterday night and these girls almost hit me
with their car. They roll down the window and say "do you think that
black lives matter?" I was like "yeah we are all God children" then
they hand me their iPhone and tell me to put in our phone number haha
I did. They text us later and say that they are all Jewish and come
from the tribe of Judah. Hahahaha it was so weird. Another guy I
stopped on the street told me not to talk about Jesus on the streets
cause it's disrespectful........I wanted to tell him that Christs
entire ministry was preaching in the streets....oh some people just
don't understand hahaha thank you everyone for you support and love.
It keeps me going every day. I love this gospel and I am grateful for
my savior Jesus Christ. He is my best friend and he has blessed me
with so much. I know he lives. Have a great week everyone!!
Elder Routsong