Monday, September 28, 2015

Words from Elder Chandon Herring in Washington DC

Hello family so it's that time again for me to write you this week. So let's just start...

Tuesday... Tuesday was a good day we started in the morning with the DC zone district meeting where they had just great workshops and such.  I was able to go to one of the district meetings in the Seneca zone a little bit later as well and the missionaries in that zone do an incredible job.  they are a lot of fun and they are obedient and hard-working. After that we ran lots of errands and ran just in time
to make it to exchanges.  I was able to go Spanish! I went with Elder Kohler and all his plans canceled so we were in our area because we were close enough.  we had a wonderful lesson with our investigator
Marie.  she was very happy as always and had lots of good questions.  she was super engaged and she's not foreign with the idea of baptism.  She is contemplating it. We then watched the talk the first great commandment by Elder Holland and then taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. it was a
really good lesson. we dropped by presidents House at the end of the night for another errand and while we were there we did not see him at all but we could hear him in the back yelling as he was doing some emails and it was hilarious. Not angry yelling just yelling. There!  There!

Wed... Wednesday is our admin day every week and so this morning was rushed.  we had our studies and I am loving reading in the New Testament.  I switched to the Old Testament for a chapter and nearly fell sleep so I had to go back. We then went and bought pizza for the zone leaders as we made the new move-in list that we give to the missionaries so They can welcome
people to their area.  it's a really good idea and we get a lot of results from it. You get them to start talking to people. We were then Late to staff meeting with President and all the office staff. It was a good office meeting and it went pretty quick. we talked about a couple missionaries that are struggling and we are sending home later this week.  there are two more that could be sent home soon.  this is the first
time in a long time our mission has sent anyone home. Then later in the evening as we are driving home Elder Ord told me I was a politician. What should i think about that, I think I might like it ha ha.

Thurs... Today, our very competitive day, would began with what is called specialized training. we train the new arrivals on how to handle stress and then how to use their iPads. there's a program put out by the church for both.  it was really good and it was a lot of fun doing
the different competitions at the very end of the day. the competitions are finding a scripture to address the need, the
assistance act out something from the white handbook and they have to find
the page it's on and then shooting at the scattered first vision on the white board. it's a lot of fun and there's a lot of competition.  Later we sent out a lot of emails of stuff that we need from the
missionaries for a couple different things.  we had a dinner appointment in our area with brother and sister Griffin they're an incredible family and very kind.  the desert they gave me probably is going to give me
a heart attack.  it was literally bread rolled around apples, soaked in butter, sugar and Mountain Dew.  that is what she said she put on top of it 2 cups of sugar several cubes of butter and like two cans of
Mountain Dew it was quite a bit. It tasted delicious but it almost killed us both.

Fri... Today was a long day we got up around 4 o'clock in the morning to take two missionaries to the airport because they called it quits and had requested to go home. one of them was one month old the other was 14. It was really sad to see. We made all the arrangements and had the missionaries that were their companions into new areas and when we came home we were done and we took a nap.  it was wonderful. We were only interrupted about a dozen times with phone calls but we eventually silenced the phone and it went quite nicely. We then did some more
admin stuff. We then got some information that one of the zone leaders is struggling with a couple different things. it was a lot of fun for me to call him later that night and then to arrange to see him later this week.  he is one of my favorite missionaries and he and I are good friends. I'm so glad we are able to be in a position where we can help with the missionaries. They are our investigators. Then in the office later that day Elder Schroer who's one of the senior couples gave us a very nice compliment saying how he knows there's a lot that we have to do and they really appreciate it. I love the senior couples They do so
much and they're the ones that deserve more praise. they are just absolutely incredible sacrificing all their time and finances to serve God. Then we came home and went to sleep.

Sat... Today was a lot of fun we got to get two cars oil change and tire rotation. So while we waited for that we did a little bit of
phone calls and work on the computer. The people that took care of us were super fast.  we walked in and before we filled out the paperwork, they had seen missionaries before, they just put the cars in knowing
exactly what to do with them, it was nice. No wait! I was able to meet with a zone leader who is having a little bit of problems
He's an absolutely wonderful missionary and what helped us was we sat at
cold Stone and ate some delicious ice cream. I thought of you dad as I ate the founders favorite. We drove with the home teachers down for an exchange in Suitland. we went to Calvert and Bayside. I love the area down there.  it's super nice.  it's not as crowded and the air just feels wonderful and smells delicious. I was able to go with the missionaries in Bayside and we went and visited a member who was in Naval intelligence he still is. He told us about the world stage and how things were going.  it was very interesting to see what's going on and what are some potential things.  he says the only real worries are the Middle East countries because their government is ran by emotion and not by logic.

Sun... Today was a really good day.  we went and had a lot of meetings in the morning for the stake level and on the ward level as well.  president cooke spoke to the Spanish ward and he asked Elder Ord to
translate. He did a wonderful job.  he is really good at speaking Spanish.  it was funny when president was reading a quote by President Eyring because the words are really big and we didn't quite know how to
translate in Spanish so the whole Ward and the bishopric were involved in the translation process.  it was hilarious. We then went to a baptism of two people it was absolutely incredible and it was hilarious.  there was lots of clapping and picture taking during the whole thing.  we had to remind a couple people not to do it during the baptism.  they're in the city and that was just a typical church experience. I love their praising! After that we hurried to the Cook's house.  we had a delicious
dinner and then we're off to the visitor center for why I believe.  it was a wonderful night.  the speakers were incredible. The spirit was felt and they taught us on how we can be better. Their conversion stories were incredible and I love the perspective that the wife had.  they met at Princeton when her husband was taking the missionary lessons and she was before she even liked him and was concerned about their spiritual well-being.  then once they decided they're going to get married they both decided to serve a mission first.  he  served in the Ukraine and she in France and then returned home and got married.  he worked as President Bush's lawyer doing lots of his trials as president and then she is working with the Supreme Court as a counselor of some kind.

So that is life here in the Washington DC mission.  it's wonderful!  I love serving. I'm grateful for all of your prayers and support and I'm excited to see you all in several months. time is sure flying. Today
we're going down to the mall I am going to see the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.  it's a beautiful place and I'm excited and anxious to learn more.  Love you all have a good week!

-Elder Herring

No comments:

Post a Comment