A good week.

What up!

So remember how last week I mentioned that I was staying in BV and not traveling around? Well that didn't happen. The night before the Blacksburg exchange we felt like something different should happen. So we prayed about it. And got the answer that I should go to Blacksburg with Elder Soloman. I was a little bummed, but only because I was more content to stay put rather than pack and such. But thank heavens the Lord knows whats best. We had a great exchange in Blacksburg and were able to get a lot done. Its cool to see what happens when you put your trust in him. 

Lets see, not a lot is coming to mind. Its been a good week. We have Jack on date for Nov.10th, and even though she's not in our area, Sunny's getting baptized that same day after a long delay. Kinda a nice 2 year anniversary celebration just before I go home. But I ran out of time to write today. 

Love Yall!

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

Called to Serve Him‏

Holly Hannah What a Weekend!

Is it just me or does General Conference just keep getting better? The Lord surely is hastening His work with the announcement of missionary service now available to 18 year old Men and 19 year old Women!!! The ramifications of this will be huge! I can think of no better time in all the ages of the world to be a missionary than to be one in this present day. Sadly I will not be in the field to see these youngsters make their debut. However, I'm really excited to use these last few weeks to prepare as many as I can. We have a meeting with the Stake President and President Pitt later this week and I hope that they decide to let us focus even more on the Prospective missionaries here at SVU. At the time of the announcement Saturday morning the building erupted. Many men, including myself, sat in awe. Mouths gaping. Many Women Burst into tears and clung to each other. Now more Sisters than ever will have the opportunity to serve, and I believe the quality of those sisters will help to increase this work traumatically. I will always remember that day. I feel very blessed to be able to be here at this time with these people. 

The rest of conference was likewise inspiring. Addressing things that reduce members commitment to the Gospel Elder Cook said:

 "The first is unkindness, violence and domestic abuse. The second is sexual immorality and impure thoughts. These often precede and are at the root of the choice to be less committed."

 Elder Oaks spoke out strongly against abuses to children in all and anyway imaginable. He emphasized that 

“Children need the emotional and personal strength that comes from being raised by two parents who are united in their marriage and their goals.”

Though those talks outlined many evils we face in the world, I found it comforting that Elder Anderson then spoke on "How do we maintain our Faith" and Elder Bednar concerning "Testimony and Conversion." 

As if Conference wasn't enough to make my weekend, We also have 3 new investigators lined up for lessons this week!! One at least directly from conference. I feel like the Lord was waiting for this week to bless us. I'll be honest, hitting the last transfer of the mission was tough. It was worse that I expected by far. But Conference is just what I needed to buoy me up and help my resolve to work hard till the end. 

Oh! I forgot also that we had a Zone Leader Council on Friday. Also a spiritual Highlight. I didn't have to drive which allowed me to sleep the way up so I didn't fall asleep this time in the meeting (a first). It was a great meeting in which I was truly enlightened. Learning from President Pitt shows me just how many more of the Mysteries of Heaven I have yet to learn. A life long process indeed. 

Well I don't think It gets any better than that. FALSE. I made Crepes this morning :)

Sure Love Yall!
Elder Sunada

PS I can't believe I almost forgot this part!! Sister Covington took Elder Wilder and I out for Lunch!! So Awesome!!

The Beginning of the End.‏

Howdy!

Here it is. I thought perhaps this day would never come. Tomorrow is the first day of my last Transfer!!!...Gosh darn. But the good news is that I'll be staying here with Holder. Elder Turner and Parker will also be staying. But...ELDER WILDER IS MOVING IN JUST A FEW DOORS DOWN WITH ELDER BUTLER!!! I'm so happy that I'll be serving near him. I'll have 2 of the greatest companions together!! So I'm pretty stoked for that. 

This past week was another fun one. Elder Holder and I managed to pull off a decent zone meeting in Roanoke, then I got to travel up to Blacksburg with Elder Morgan. The VT Campus has a very different feel. For one its a lot larger. And its a technical school so most of the students are engineers. I did my best to keep up with them but I don't know much about nano technologies or biomolecular compounds and things of that nature. It was a fun time but It was good to be back in little old BV where kids just talk about Dante's inferno. I think I can keep up with that. 

The rest of the week went on pretty normal. Lots of appointments. Lots of meetings. Saturday I was getting a bit warn down with everything. Just having one of those days where you do lots but wonder if it meant anything. Thankfully Heavenly Father knows when we're going through rough times and knows who to send to cheer me up. Also Sunday was such a good day! There were some wonderful testimonies born and I felt the spirit pretty strongly throughout the day. We had a lesson right after church with a girl who told us that she felt her faith was growing and she could trust God. She still had bad days, but had a determination to do be happy no matter what. Felt good to know that we had helped her along. 

So Overall it was a pretty crazy week. Oh!! Today we went hiking with Wes Butler. But it was raining and we got pretty soaked. We went to a place called the Devils Marble Yard. Pretty much just a big bolder field along the valley side. It felt great to get some rock under my feet and to know that I could still get around up there. I didn't even feel that out of breath. But Maybe I'll just be feeling it tomorrow. 

Well I think thats all I got for now. I love yall and Can't wait to here from you Before I get home ;)

Elder Sunada

Upcoming conference!

CONFERENCE

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

Week in Review

Its been another great week here in the BV YSA. Lots to do yet. I'm still always tired. Maybe this is just the pattern of my life. This past week we had an exchange with Lynchburg where I got to spend time with Elder Johnson. He's a pretty cool cat and we had a great time teaching together. There are so many good missionaries I'm serving around I feel pretty blessed. 

The member work is coming along pretty nicely. We now have ward mission leaders in every ward to help assist us in the work. Hopefully this will also mean my head will stop spinning as much as they will help us prioritize who needs help. One of them served as an Assistant to the President in the Salt Lake City mission. He told stories of how they'd always run into General Authorities and even the Prophet! Pretty Crazy. He's one on the ball guy and has experience in working a YSA ward. Actually at one point he Covered 41 YSA wards... what a headache! I can barely manage three! So his skills will be invaluable to the work. 

We had a great Specialized training meeting on Thursday and got to meet with President for a while. Its always nice to feel his love and see his example. Friday was our weekly planning and the evening was Bishop Walkers open house for the 2nd ward. He lives way out in the boons but has an amazing house. Probably most impressive is his sports memorabilia displays. 2 rooms filled wall to wall with autographed cards, posters, pictures, baseballs hats and anything else. Some of the greatest names in any game have their signature hanging from his walls. It was pretty impressive. 

Saturday was a Stake Luau, and they had a roast pig to boot! Cooked for nearly 20 hours in preparation for the feast. The activity was well planned and executed and everyone had a great time. Sunday night was the third Fireside we'd had in a row. This was a stake Fireside and it was way powerful. Wish I had time to go into more detail but Its time to go shopping and get on with P-Day so I'll say Adieu.

Love yall!

Elder Sunada