Hello Sandy

Hey Everybody!

So I forgot to mention last week that we had a trip to Charleston on Tuesday for my last Zone Leader Council. Which just so happened to correspond with the land fall of Hurricane Sandy. So we left BV at 5:30am that morning with the Lexington zone leaders with us. Through Virginia we had several small flurries and it was chilly, but not too bad. As we climbed in elevation up to West Virginia conditions got worse and snow started to stick. The ploughs hadn't made it out yet so we were left to travel in the ruts of the few cars and trucks who'd gone a head of us. On one particular section of road we noticed that the other side of the median that both lanes were blocked by trucks who'd lost traction climbing a hill and remained stationary. There was no going back anytime soon. Shortly after we received an text from the assistants stating that President Obama declared that West Virginia was in a sate of emergency and that our Zone meeting was cancelled. After we informed them that there was no turning back President told all those who were on there way to Charleston to continue on and take our time. Lets just say that we made it there safely, but Mud and Sand tires just don't cut it in winter driving. 

Power was out at both the Mission office and the Mission home. We ended up having a modified zone meeting once all of us had arrived safely. We were informed that we'd be spending at least the night in Charleston till things cleared up. After our meeting we went to the mission home and had one of the best days I've had in the mission. President taught us some doctrine in a level of depth I had never even considered. Elder Holder and I went with the Assistants to Target to get some lights for the night as we only had a flashlight, 1 candle and my headlamp. After returning we ate burgers from the barbecue then gathered in the Living room for a Testimony meeting. It had been years since I'd had such a powerful and intimate meeting with these Elders Which had become my brothers. Truly one of the most sacred experiences of my life to sit in a dark room with some of the greatest and hear each bear testimony of Christ and how he'd shaped each of us to become far more than we ever thought we'd be. At the close we settled down to bed and went to bed being full both temporally and spiritually. By the Next morning things had cleared up and we were permitted to return to our areas. 

The Rest of the week has been interesting. I've never been one to count down the days, but when its this close there's not much you can do about it, realizing that this may be the last time I do this or that. Thankfully I'm surrounded by good friends who've been able to help me keep going. We had an exchange with Roanoke where Elder Muirbrook came back to BV to spend a day with me. We were the oldest companionship in the mission at that time. It was pretty cool.

Jack and Sunny are both stoked for their baptisms next week! Jacks will be at 10am and Sunny's at 7:30. Its going to be an awesome anniversary. This last week its going to be weird but I think I'll make it alright. Speaking of which, much too do. Little time! 

Much Love!

Elder Sunada

Word.

This week History has been made. We finally achieved the Missions Standard of Excellence! This is a first not only for this area, but the zone, as well as a new personal record. The Standard of Excellence are the base goals that we strive for as set by President Pitt in the areas of Finding, teaching and setting people with Baptismal dates. Not only did we meet it, but we exceeded it. But it was not so much that we are any good, rather that we were favoured and blessed of the Lord this week. We picked up and taught 4 new people, each with a strong desire to learn more and feel closer to God. At the start of the week we had set up 3 of these people to begin teaching. Then one day while we were filling time during a missed appointment I spotted a student who I knew wasn't a member. It'd been the first time I'd seen her since the beginning of the school year so I struck up a conversation. Assuming that she was a member, Elder Holder straight out asked if we could meet with her. Without missing a beat she agreed! Without knowing it, she'd also attended General Conference and felt really good about going. Somethings you just can't plan out that well, but The Lord is pretty darn good at it. Its so exciting to be serving right now. 

This morning we Got up early to go to the Butler home where newly called "ELDER Wesley Butler" was getting his suitcases together for his flight to Salt Lake City. He reports to the MTC on Wednesday. He gave a stellar talk yesterday. Elder Holder and I talked before him but he straight up blew us out of the Water. I'm excited to hear what great things he'll do as he serves in the Los Angeles Mission, Spanish speaking. It almost makes me wish I was just going out instead of going home. 

I did celebrate a little bit of Canadian Thanksgiving. One of our ward mission leaders is Canadian and after our Coordination on Monday he took us down to Subway where I got a Turkey Sandwich. Even with that I still felt pretty Grateful for everything God's given me. 

It looks like this week shouldn't be too out of the ordinary. We have a zone meeting but we're holding it in Buena Vista and afterwards I'm going on exchanges but staying here. The following week however is pretty messed up. We have President interviews on Monday, which means P-Day and emails will be pushed till Tuesday, then on Wednesday half the mission is meeting in Roanoke to hear Elder Scott D. Whitting of the 70 to speak to us. I'm pretty stoked. He spoke in General conference about Temples. Then in the following weeks will be more exchanges and at the end of the month another trip to Charleston for what will be my last Zone Leaders Council. Its going to be a wild ride to the end and I'm going to love every minute of it!

Love Yall,

Elder Sunada

Four Strong Winds‏

Hey Folks!

Good Gracious I love being a missionary. It always seems to be getting better. Or maybe its because I'm getting so old in the field that these days just seem to be golden. 

I'm starting to feel a little bit like a traveling missionary as well. Lynchburg one week. Then Charleston. Roanoke this past week. And Blacksburg tomorrow! Yup. Found out that 2 new areas have been unofficially added to the YSA Zone. The Blacksburg YSA Elders and the Morgantown University Elders now fall into our jurisdiction for spiritual guidance and direction in the work of Young Single Adults. The best part? They still report their numbers to their local zone leaders. More connections without the added responsibility of tedious administrative work! :) I'm a happy camper about that. 

We decided to hold our next district/zone meeting in Roanoke tomorrow, so that afterwards I could do an exchange to Blacksburg. I've only ever been there in passing so this will be my first experience with the city. For those of you who don't know, Blacksburg is the home of Virginia Tech. Go Hokkies! Sadly Morgantown (West Virginia University--Go Couch Burning?) is nearly 7 hours away so no exchanges planned there anytime soon. However we are looking into meeting with them Via Skype. Pretty sweet stuff. But with all of this going on it will also mean Elder Holder and I will have to sacrifice part of our P-day to prepare. 

As for the work in our area, we picked up a new investigator. Greg is a 6"8 african american who plays ball at the school and beat boxes for the schools featured singing group "Fading Point". You betcha bottom Dollar I'm loving it! He could seriously facepalm my entire head with his hands. 

The rest of the Elders have been picking up new investigators as well. During my Exchange with Elder Raffenspargar, who's still in his first transfer of the mission, we saw huge success in Roanoke. I was able to to teach with him to a Recent Convert, a golden Self Referral, a member who's going to hook them up with some more referrals, and setting up another appointment to pick up a former. Its happened time and time again. The Lord Uses exchanges to get missionaries excited for the work to keep em going strong. He was almost bouncing in his seat by the end of our exchange yelling "I love being a missionary"!! I do too. Its hard to count how many ways being here has blessed my life. I hope that others will be able to see the changes that I feel. Don't worry, there's still plenty enough of the old me that I wont be hard to recognize. Just less of the junk in the mind and a little more in the trunk. JUST KIDDING.

Anyways, one more week left in the transfer. One more Transfer left in the mission. And every day I still think to myself,

ITS A GREAT DAY IN THE KINGDOM!

Elder Sunada

Good Day in the Woodshed.

Howdy Yall,

Another Great, busy, tiring week down here in good ole Buena Vista VA. I'm so tired all the time...haha but that's ok because we are getting work done! In one day we were able to teach over 20 students individually and combined. Its wild. I've never been able to get anywhere close to that in any other area in the mission. 

School is now back in full swing with the second week of classes now underway and kids are starting to get back in routine. For the most part that works ok though its hard to schedule appointments in the morning when most of them have classes. Most of last week was just spent working and teaching locally, which is great because this week is going to be more meetings and travels and whatnot. Leadership can be a bit of a drag sometimes because of how much things get shaken around. You have to have more things planned out in the weeks and months as opposed to the hours and days ahead. If I could I would have my own personal secretary to keep things straight for me and I'd just follow the program. But it seems that much of the purpose of all this is that I learn to do it. Or at least try. Remind me when I get home I don't want an office job. 

There were some cool events this past week however. Of course the Parade on Monday. There was a institute social on Friday which was well attended and allowed us to serve even more. We have several good looking potential investigators lined up (and by good looking I mean promising, they're all guys so far). And last night was Elder Hollands Church educational Services Broadcast. It was the Best!!! Maybe not as good as General Conference but just as cool because he can say things in a way that he couldn't at Conference. I highly recommend checking out the Broadcast if anyone who missed it has time. Pretty Powerful Stuff!

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/ces-devotionals/2012/09?lang=eng

Anyways. I don't have much more in the way of big events or announcements but I do feel impressed to share how much serving a mission has meant to me. Its changed me in ways that I don't think any other experience could have. It continues to change me into someone better. I may not know what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I do know who I want to be and how I want to live. I'm come to understand to an even greater degree how serving others will always bring me more happiness that serving myself. Living the Gospel is the secret to happiness, the one thing that all the world is searching for, and its free for all. I'm sad that its getting so close to the end. I try not to think of it too much. Going home will be much harder than coming out. Yet I know the Lord will support me as He always has. I feel His love and I know with Him I can do all things.

I love you all very much.

Elder Sunada

Amish Cupboard...yum!

GAHHHH MIND MELTING.

So Its been a pretty stressful week. But In a good way. Elder Gurney made his rounds and we visited a lot of people (He'd been in the area 9 months) then Got up early Wednesday morning and headed out. Elder Weitz was assigned to me until my future companion showed up. We spent most of the day declutering our apartment. At about 5pm the transfer train arrived and 4 elders got off. Elder Vogl, the new Lexington Zone leader, Elders Turner and Parker, the BV YSA 2 Elders, and finally Elder Holder, My new companion. The first time I saw him he was holding a guitar case and I knew...it was going to be great. Thus far its been amazing!

He's from Southern New Mexico (2 hours south of Silver City) and about 16 months out in the mission. We are going to rock this area. But it was a rough week trying to plan for 2 sets of elders. Thankfully it started working out on Sunday and now the other Elders have a good enough grip on their area to plan on their own so we can focus on ours. It was kinda sad because a lot of my favourite YSA's fell into the other Elders area, but we still have some good ones to work with and we actually Set a baptismal date!!! Its kind of a funny story because she's not living in our area currently but we taught her and she's coming back here to get baptized so we get to count it. Made my week!

We also had a lot of good meetings with the bishops, who are still struggling to staff their auxiliaries with Elders Quorum presidents, relief society presidents, sunday school presidents and ward mission leaders. So its still kinda crazy but theres some exciting news coming up. Orientation for school starts on Friday. We have a booth set up and Washington and Lee University on Saturday, and I might not email till next tuesday due to Labour day weekend and there's a big parade in town we are hoping to be at. 

OH and ZLC tomorrow. They said it might run later than regular so we might be gone from 4:30am-8 or 9 PM. Lots of driving. And Its my turn. Fun. Anyways, I think we want to go shopping now. Mostly they. I'm broke this month. To many going away outtings for Gurney. And trips to the Amish Cupboard for fancy cheese, dips, candy and smoothies mix. 

Well, Hope all is going well back on the Ranch!

Love, 

Elder Sunada