Words from Elder Chandon Herring in Washington DC

"Hello Family,
I have a new companion. His name is Elder Stevenson. He is so weird
but I love him. He only has two flaws. He is super Hairy and he does not clean anything. (Is it bad that I'm happy he is worried about being clean? Proud moment for mom...haha!) But other
than that it is all good. We had transfers on Wednesday. Life is good
here in the DC 3rd area. Since no one seems to know where I am, I am
about 5 miles North of the White House. On 16th and Ft Stevens. It is
a nice area. Our areas top border is Ingraham st and the botton is
Columbia rd. We live out of our area but that is fine. our left line
is 18th st and the right is 2nd street. So you now know where I am all
day. About a 25-30 bike ride from the Mall.

Tuesday. We had a great morning lifting (still with E Thornton) and
then went straight to the food bank for a service project. We helped
sort food for about 3 hours. It was fun and I have to say... The
homeless get better food than I have in my pantry here. :) We had a
brief district testimony meeting after and had lunch at & Pizza. yes
the place is called: & Pizza. (and pizza) It is like subway for pizza
but super high quality and super good. Mom you will love it!! We came
home at about 5 and did not go out because E Thornton had to pack. So
i did some studies while he did so and we then left for FHE about
6:30. It was good as always and the attendance to going up! Hurray! We
did our district pictures. Sadly the Spanish Elders are both going as well. It is so sad they are awesome!! I love
E Springer and Little.

Wednesday...
Ok we were able to wake up early because E hart (who is now home)
needed to pack... and sing as loud as he could early in the morning
while doing so. It is all good. though. We headed to the VC for the
long awaited transfers. President keeps it tight so no one knows where
they are going... unless you are smart and sync your area book. It
tells you then! haha E Thornton is going to Durwood and will be with
Elder Crandall! My favorite MTC Elder. I want to be his comp some day.
It was a great meeting and the testimonies were good. When I got
stevenson I was excited. He is fun. He wants to be a disney cartoonist
and voice actor. He is super good at drawing and sounds just like
almost all of the disney characters. He also has a sword as a
posterity gift! Lucky ! All I got was a deck of cards. We went to
dinner and ward coordination which was good as usual and then home.

I heard something really cool though. When people say their mission was
the best two years of their life they have failed. It should be the
best two until your next two. Then the two after that and so on. We
should all be constantly improving and making each "two years" Better
that the previous.

Thursday.. My 100 day mark!! only 600 left :) We had a boring day. We
were not able to leave our aptartment until like 6 because of weekly
planning and all that jone we have to do. But when we were able to
leave it was a great day. We had a great lesson with Annita who also
came to church this week and we met Natarsha. We were walking to the
bus after Annita's lesson and then heard behind us, "Hi Elders" That
never happens here. So we talked to her and invited her to the Why i
Believe event on Sunday. She said YES AND SHE CAME!!!! It was
interesting when she did and you will see why. But it was a super good
day when we were out and about.

Friday.. We had a good day as a TRIPANIONSHIP! This is because E
Humphrey, our new DL and roomate had to leave for a leadership
training. So we had E Porter join us. He is a goof but a great elder.
We fixed bikes, Facebook time, studies, and roleplayed. When humps
came back we left to go teach Slap. He is a lvl 32 free mason. Good I
guess? He is cheese though so we will probably drop him. But we had a
good Plan Of Salvation lesson and he thought it was interesting. When
we were done we went to sis Luna for a lesson. Yes we got Juice and it
was divine. She was in a super good mood but needed to talk... for 45
minutes... we did not say a word while she talked. It was good thought
because she needs to talk to someone. We had a great lesson and she
loved it.

We are now doing little Ceasars pizza every friday night. :) It is right
next to our home and we have coupons. After dinner we went to Sis
Onyeka. she is good but was really depressed this time. She needs a
job and has not had any luck for quite some time. But we brightened
her day. Well I did with my charming smile and good looks. :) jk it
was the gospel. It really does lighten your lives and brings joy to
your darkest nights.

Saturday... We had a busy day. We had our normal studies but when that
was done we did about 30 minutes of FB so we could go to an
appointment. but our ipads started to update so we could not use them.
We missed lunch but made it to our appointment. We almost were late. E
Stevenson has not been on bike for a while and is not very athletic so
he is SUPER slow on bike. But we made it. we taught Richardo and then
Bro Belemu. Making it home right in time to shower, change, then go to
the VC for E Stevensons Practice He is singing at the Why I Believe.
His son is singing The Prayer. So good. After we had dinner that JS bought us.
It was subs that were really simple but good. We got dropped off at
our appointment not even having time to change out of our suits and
had a lesson with Karen\ sis Bonner. Karens back is getting worse and
she is going to have to have surgery. It is sad but ok. Sis Bonner is
trying to quit smoking. Then We taught Sis Galloway. She really is an
incredible woman. She is so kind, smart, and just awesome. You will
love to meet her if you ever can. Then the strangest thing happened.
Sis Galloway said she would come to the Why I Believe! WHAT!!!!! And
she came!!!!

Sunday... I think this was the best sunday so far on my mission. We
had such a great day. We had my favorite kind of sacrament meeting.
Where you come up, say your favorite hymn, verse, and why then we sing
that song. (What a neat tradition! Love this!) It was so cool. I loved it and the spirit was so strong.
Then good meetings followed by the Munch and Mingle. We had a great
turnout and i got to meet a lot of the ward members on a more personal
level. It was refreshing. We came home and ate then were picked up
again by Brother and Sister Seay. They are a great couple that are
assigned to our ward. Their story is super good to. But they helped us
get sis galloway and Natarsha to the Why I Believe. It was such a
great evening. The speaker was a former mission pres of Tonga and his
wife. Also the testimonies of those recently baptized were
inspirational. We set up a time with Natarsha to come back and see the
VC and the temple better. She was interesting at first. She was hung
over when we got her and was dressed like a hooker. Not very good at
all. Her clothes were falling off so thank goodness for sis galloway
and sis seay they helped cover her up and get herself together.
Natarsha is struggling a lot and is in such a need for this gospel We
can help her so much! but over all it was a great day.

No baking this week. i made the Chicken Enchilada soup though. IT is
super good. I Think I will make brownies today. We are having our
first chill pday in a long time. So nice!

Thank you all for your letters, love support, and prayers. I love you
all and I know that this is the work of The Lord. He is our great
eternal head that loves us no matter what we do. I love him so much
for that. Thank you all again and remember to share the gospel!!!
Carry a pass along card and give them out. Bro Seay always does that
and he has personally baptized about 3 people this year from doing so.
THere are a lot who need the gospel but dont know where to find it."