Feliz Dia De Los Padres

This email is directed towards my dad. I wish I could be home to give him a great big hug or tell him I love him in person but it looks like this is as close as I'm going to get. 

Yesterday in church the primary sang the song 'I'm so glad when daddy comes home' I love that song. Really. My eyes started to water up and I couldn't help but stare at that group of children singing to all of their dads with a huge smile on my face while thinking of my own dad. That primary song makes me want to do just what the lyrics say, 'put my arms around his neck and climb up on his knee', I think I'd be a bit big for that now but it's the thought that counts :)

I think of my dad so often while serving my mission. This week there has been a lot of storms and lighting. There was a tornado super close by one day too! The siren went off and everything! where were we at that time? Well my companion and I were standing out on a member's porch watching.... Probably not the smartest. Buuut last night the lighting was sooo loud it woke us up! It seriously kinda scared me! And I immediately wished I could run to my parents rooms and snuggle up next to my mommy and daddy to hide from the thunder and lighting. (don't worry, our investigators believe i'm manly) 

The point is there is nothing I can really say to express what I feel about my great dad. But I tried my best to get close with this spanish poem that I wrote for him.

Mi Padre:

Mi padre es mi amigo favorito

aunque a vezes es un burrito

Le doy gracias por darme lo que yo tengo

Y basicamente todo lo que he querido 

a la mejor no se todo lo que ha hecho

para darme un vida llenido con gozo

una dia yo quiero llegar a ser como Roberto

Y crear una familia y darle todo

No hay palabras para decir lo que siento

Solomenente estas: Padre, Te amo.

I love you Dad! You gave me more than just my red hair and partially dashing looks. You gave me everything. Because of you I have this chance to serve the Lord for two years. My laugh, my (awesome) jokes, my sense of humor, all from you.(we're going to consider that a good thing for now). For now, the only thing I can do to repay you is work my hardest. Give it my all. Do my very best for the Lord and for you.

con todo mi amor,

Elder Vance (Little Red, son of Big Red)

Unsuccessfully trying to change a flat tire.

New companion Elder Rindlisbacher

Todays Forecast is Mixed Sunshine and Thunderstorms

Greetings from awesome-weather-Georgia! 

The weather down here is pretty nice. Although it is still under 90 it is still really humid! It's nice though that it does rain quite a bit. And when it rains, it pours. We went tracting one day in a nice trailer park when it started to rain a little bit. We ran and grabbed our umbrellas and continued on. Within about three minutes the rain got so heavy that our little umbrellas couldn't protect us. We had to hide in our car for a bit. Luckily we even had a car! Yay for mission vehicles! :D

This past Saturday we had a baptismal service for two of our investigators! I'm sure I've mentioned them before but it was a mother and sixteen year old daughter we found while knocking doors. Griselda, the mom, and Delia, the daughter, accepted everything really well from the beginning. It was pretty impressive to see how willing they were to accept as truth something completely new and change their lives forever! They were obviously prepared by the Lord. He was there long before we were. I baptized Delia and Elder Clark baptized Griselda. It was a really nice service. :) They were confirmed yesterday in Sacrament meeting. Elder Clark did his in Spanish and I did mine in English because Delia speaks more English than Spanish. (I say that but really just hadn't practiced confirming anyone in Spanish enough! :p I did do that baptism in Spanish though! :D ) All in all it went really well. They have been accepted warmly into the branch by everyone.

Our other investigators are doing well. We actually had one come to church yesterday. A great guy named Rodolfo. (I have been exposed to so many awesome Hispanic names out here!) Our good ol' English investigator Chris also came to church with us. We actually attended the 9:00am english ward with him.(ended up being at church for over six hours!) Such a great guy! Very sincere. Hopefully he can open his heart to the Spirit.

In other news I am getting a new companion this Wednesday. I found out last week that I will not be training a new Elder. (and I'm just fine with that for now ;P) My new copmanion will be....*drumroll*... Elder Rindlisbacher! (Rind-lis-baw-ker) The cool thing is that he is the Elder who trained my MTC companion. So I have met him before and he seems like a great Elder. Excited to get the know him as we work together :) Hopefully his Spanish is better than mine. I'm still roughing out all my kinks with Spanish.....which are many. But i'm getting a lot better!

All in all things have been going well. Todo van bien! Change is exciting and necessary in life! 

Yours truly (as opposed to 'mine falsely'?),

Elder Vance 

Mom's new favorite picture.  

Hola Amados Hermanos Mios!

Greetings from Georgia! Home of the...well home of the people from Georgia I guess. (supposedly they are supposed to have peaches down here but I have yet to eat one!)

This next week will be the last full week that I will have with my trainer and cousin Elder Clark. He soon goes off to the world of BYU, jobs, and awkwardly trying to impress girls with his Georgia-learned Spanish. What fun! I soon will get a new companion as well. Learning to live and work with new people all the time is one of the biggest learning experiences of the mission. I'm a bit sad that Elder Clark is leaving. We got a long really well! (Maybe too well sometimes) But oh well, here goes new things!

So last week and the week before I was able to go on an exchange with my district leader as well as his companion who is as new as I am. The interesting thing about one of the exchanges is that my district leader doesn't speak Spanish and we were still working in my area. So I had to be the lead in Spanish!!! :O I was pretty nervous about it at first but it turned out fine. I have no idea what I said though! :D

Good news time! We have two baptisms this Saturday. Investigators that we found and taught from the beginning. So all the glory goes to us! Yay for pridefully doing missionary work! Nahh, I'm absolutely joking. Thinking like that is a one way ticket to sending the Spirit away and inviting the devil in for an evening snack. Or brunch.. Anyway, the point is that the Lord simply used Elder Clark and I to teach a couple of His children who had been sufficiently prepared to receive the restored gospel. It's quite the calling being a full-time servant of God. 

One last thing! A cool little miracle happened a couple days ago. We were teaching a referral that we had received from a member the Restoration. The member that was going to teach with us showed up at the end as we were leaving. As we shook hands and were about to go another car pulled into the drive way. It was a neighbor who had a passenger who nobody knew. this mystery man walks in and points towards Elder Clark and I and says, 'I've been looking for you!'. He turned out to be an inactive member who was baptized twenty years ago. I really have no idea why they knew to be there at that time but all I know is that it was a miracle. He is so ready to have that peace from the Gospel back into his life. 

I'll keep it up here. Keep fanning the flames of your faiths wherever you are! Learn to play piano if you're going to serve a mission because it rocks! 

Con amor,

-Elder Vance

Elder Vance at a Civil War train museum

Doing service for a member

Elder Vance and Clark at church

Their district in Kennesaw.

Elder Clark goes home next week!!

Some Dogs Don't Like Me

Letter from May 27, 2013:

Hola!

So, it's hot in Georgia, go figure. Feels good though! The squirrels don't seem to care whether it's hot or cold outside. They are always there. And watching. I love the way they run though! So fluid. and cute. Not as cute as the puppy dogs here though. Just in case you wanted to know.

The days are ticking down for my companion to finish his mission and for me to get a new companion! For at least the first little while with my new companion I will lead in the things we do in our area! :D Don't mess this up Elder Vance!

We still have two people on date for baptism and we are starting to work with other daughter in that family to get her on board too. We'll see how it plays out when we meet with them tonight. Our other progressing investigators are awesome too! And our branch members are so cool as well! The people are just all around fantastic here. And the food matches their 'coolness' level. Yum!

I am impressing more and more people (mostly little kids) with my ability to walk on my hands. I think they are just amazed at how my face can turn the same color as my hair. Hey, if I wasn't born with it I would be amazed too! 

We did some fun things this past week. We drove all the way out to Blue Ridge, like an hour and a half north, to meet up with a convert to the church who doesn't live close to our branch. We helped him paint his home and got to meet his friends. We thought he was going to be an old guy from the sound of his on the phone but it turned out he was only 28. Nice! 

We met a lot of great people while harvesting too! We saw a guy walking around outside playing the guitar and singing about Jesus. Talked with him and got to leave the Savior's Peace and Blessings in his home. He wanted to bless us too so he played and sang a song he wrote about Jesus to us. Not like any Hymns I've heard but still pretty good. :) He also had a nice dog.

One thing Elder Clark will tell you about me is that I always try to get the dogs I see to like me. Some are awesome and warm up to me really fast while others are intimidated by my dashing looks and bright hair. Or at least that's what i'm guessing. Maybe it's the power and authority that I teach with that scares the animals. Who knows? :)

Things are overall going well. It just takes good ol' hard work! Yes, I am very tired a lot but i'm persevering! So you can too with whatever trial you have in your life now. Turn to the scriptures and modern day prophets and of course fervent prayer!  That's what I'm doing! :D

With Love always,

-Elder Vance

Let the Lord be your Light

Letter from May 20, 2013:

Another week has gone by,

Oh how the time sure does fly,

Gripping firm to the plow,

Not going back now!

Bet you didn't know I was a poet too, huh? But no, I don't compare to President Packer with poetic talent. What a guy! I can't wait for the 98-year version of his poem either!

This week has been great! Firstly we had three investigators attend the baptismal service of one of the member's daughters in our Branch. It went fantastically! And then to make things even better we had three investigators at church this Sunday! First times for everything. :) Two of those investigators have a baptismal date for the 8th of June and are progressing well.

We always meet awesome people when knocking on doors. One such person is good ol' Leon! He is a young married guys with a little baby girl. He works at home as a mechanic. He is really good ans we always catch him outside ready for a good chat. (He bought us Mexican-cream pops from the street vendor the other day. So good!) He is such a happy person too! From off the bat he told us how he is the way he is because of Jesus Christ. He has such great faith in Him. Hopefully we can add to that faith!

Estoy llegando a ser mejor con mi espanol y mi abilidad para enteder otros. Basically, I'm getting better at Spanish! At least I think so :P As well as my Spanish, my ability to teach in general is getting better. But all of these are givens for someone who is called to preach!

Lots of Love to all who are reading this! Remember, "wherever you are, there you are." -Robert Vance. What better advice could you get from a doctor??

-Elder Vance

Feliz Dia de Madres! and potato rolls!

?Como estan?

I'm sure Facebook is flooded with screenshots of missionaires on Skype from all of the happy mothers with Elders/Sisters in the world. I was one of the Elders who enjoyed a nice face to face conversation through Skype with my family. It's always good to use technology again. Oh, and ya it's good to see my family and dogs and all. :)

News with the work, we have two people on date for baptism. A mom and her 16 year old daughter. We met them through tracting and they have been really receptive. They also have new born puppies which are really fun to play with when we visit them. We teach them in English and Spanish because the mom only speaks Spanish and the kids speak both. It's useful for those time when I have no idea how to say a phrase in Spanish. I'm getting better with the language though :)

 News that doesn't have to do with the work, well...I don't really have any. We got two bags of really awesome potato rolls yesterday! That's pretty neat if yo uwanted to know :)

I dno't have much more to say right now other than take advantage of this opportunity. What opportunity? Reading my emails of course! No, I'm not saying that because I'm good at typing out emails but because I do have a pretty particular calling. All missioanries actually have the closest calling to an Apostle than most other people in the church. Elder Holland said we are apostolic with a little 'a'. As such you are pretty much reading the words of one called to do one of the smae things as the general presidencies of the church, invite others the come unto Christ. Keep His work moving forward. So this is your inside look at the life of one with that calling. Yes. Fell lucky :) It's even better for you because when reading the letters of a misisary you most often read the filtered email with all the positives of the work. Sure there aren't too many negatives, but it should feel good to just get a brain-full of just the awesome things that are happening on the front lines of the battlefield. :) And some of the pleasentries. Like potato rolls. Man, they're good.

Farewell for now my dear friends and brothers/sisters of my grand Earth-wide family!

-Elder Vance

P.s. No, i'm not kididng. These rolls are so good!!

I Like Trains

Que pasa, mufasa??

So we went to a Civil War and Train museum here in Kennesaw Georgia today. It was pretty awesome actually. Civil war stuff. Trains. Really what more can you ask for from a Civil War and train museum?? Just doing my best to get into the history of Georgia!

We are teaching a lot of really awesome people right now. One of which is a guy whom we met while tracting. Chris is his name. What a great guy! He is a younger black guy who is just looking to reconnect with God and thus far he is really taking to what we are teaching him! He adds his own twist to the scriptures. We introduced Nephi to him and he said to us, 'Man, I wanna find out more about this cat Nephi!' Yes, he speaks english, but he won't let us pass him off to set of English missionaries. So he's ours for now :) But he's just one of the really interesting people we have been privileged to meet. 

I have come to see how this work really 'fills me up' you could say. Honest hour time! There were days in the earlier parts of my mission where I was overcome by the feelings of I don't even know what! I just didn't feel like I could go knock on doors for two years! That's not how it is but that's how I felt. I was just down. But honestly, I would return to the car just so up! The people we met, the lives we were allowed to be a part of for a few moments were all just so great. Therefore, the way to get over the 'new-missionary-blues' is to get out there and talk to people. Get active. Go to work. Good stuff :)

I have no more 'palabras de sabiduria'  (words of wisdom) at the moment, so for now, hasta luego companeros!

-Elder Vance