I admit it. I play with Barbie dolls.

What a beautiful month we have here as we get ready for Christmas and

remember our Savior more. Winter here in Georgia has been less than a

'winter wonderland' as the temperature is still in the 60-70 range and

it seems to rain most days. I'm grateful to have a car and feel

compassion for all of the wet missionaries on bikes.

Right now we have five people with a date for baptism. One is an 18

year old girl going to UGA here and the other is a lovely family of

four. The family was found and taught a few lessons by our Zone

leaders. One of our Zone leaders is from Guatemala so he's pretty good

with his Spanish. (Though he wishes he could be as good as me :p) We

have been working hard and were able to talk to a lot of people this

week. It's so awesome just stepping back and seeing all of the amazing

and different people we meet every day.

Two people I want to highlight this week: 3 year old Naya; and 54 year

old Billy;

Naya is a little black girl with a whole lot of attitude! So funny to

talk with! She enjoys inviting us to come into her house and showing

us the picture of Dora she has in her room. One time we said to her,

'Here, we want to give you a picture of Jesus.' and she responded

quickly with 'Where he at??' Elder Dudley and I just laugh and laugh

at how quick and full of energy she is.

Billy is a nice old-looking man with a white beard on his face and a

beanie on his head. Everyone in his neighborhood knows him and he is

full of interesting things to say! We believe he has some sort of

mental disability but he is nice and fun to talk with. We saw him

walking one day looking kind of bummed out so we asked him what was

wrong. He simply replied, 'I don't want to talk about it, homes.' He

has lots of friends from the 'hood' and derives much of his language

from them. He brings a smile to our face when we think of him. :)

Other than that our week has been great, we ate awesome Latino foods,

I played dolls with a ten year old, and gave a five minute talk in

Sacrament meeting. We're pressing forward here and wishing all a very

Merry Christmas! :D

No cae mucho nieve aqui,

Elder Vance

Hello from Athens Georgia

Helloooooooo!

Basically I love you all and don't have too much time to write this

email. But the gist of what has gone down recently is I am now in a

different area with a new companion. Well, sorta new. I was actually

with him before I trained my last companion. So we are reunited in a

new area. :)

Athens is a lot more open with fields and farms and long roads with

not much traffic. I am driving a car now, which is pretty neat. No

accidents so far. I'll try and keep it that way.

Elder Dudley, my current companion, and I are off to a great start of

hard work! He only has six weeks left in his mission so he is trying

to make it the best possible. I am going to do my best to help him

accomplish that. :D

Our apartment is clean, are car is clean, our clothes are hung up, our

Mormon.Org cards are ready to go and we are prepared to baptize

nations! Or at least do whatever the Lord would have us do. The branch

is the Oconee River Spanish branch and they are great! Each branch has

it's differences and each has it's great, great members (which is

everyone, cause they're all great!). I'm excited to get to work here

and am always thankful for the prayers and support form home.

My Thanksgiving was good too. Had two dinners of normal thanksgiving

food with a little Latin twist in some areas. Just for those who were

wondering. :3

Les qiuero mucho!

Elder Vance

 Me and the Bartlet family. I am standing kind of awkwardly...but they are awesome!

My district before I left. The camera looks to have some spots on its lens. 

But these are a great bunch of  Elders :)

Member in our branch and I think that's her little cousin. The little one is so cute! We walked in the first time and she said 'Oh, you guys are handsome!' and then she kissed us on the cheek...Do i need to talk to President about that?? ;P

Transfersssss!!

What's good family and friends?? Elder Vance here with another little update on mission life here in good, ol' Georgia.

So this week is transfer week! Yikes! Different companions, different areas, and sometimes even different languages!! At this point most missionaries here in the Georgia Atlanta-North mission have already found out where they are going. I am currently in Roswell, GA in the Cumorah Spanish branch with my 'son' Elder Chilcote. I will now be leaving this area and going to Athens, GA to the Oconee Spanish branch with Elder Dudley. Elder Dudley just happens to be the elder that I was with BEFORE I trained Elder Chilcote. So I will be spending the last six weeks of his mission with him! :) Doesn't happen too often that you get put back with the same companion so quickly but 'I'll go where you want me to go' :)

I'm sad and excited to be leaving this area. The members are great, the investigators too, and I'll be leaving behind many good memories. Of course I'll be taking a copy of those memories with me in my brain so I'll have them for hopefully quite a while!

Our good friend Johnny has not been baptized yet but his faith in Jesus Christ has for sure grown in the past month. I don't think we could have done much more or taught any differently to have gotten him baptized while I was here. He has progressed a lot and is moving toward his Father in Heaven at his pace. That's just the way it seems to go as a missionary. there is never 'one size fits all' for the way one teaches and helps people enter the waters of baptism. 

Remember, perfection may be the ultimate goal but a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Our Eternal destiny will not be reached here, but we set the tone of our progression in the hereafter through the choices and desires we make and have now. As we desire to come close to God and be more like Christ, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ our ability to act on those desire will be greatly increased beyond our own, mortal, faltering ability. Everyday as a missionary I learn a little bit more about the Plan that God has for us and my love for Him and everyone else grows. No, I'm not too different than when I left home nine months ago, still that goofy, fun-loving redhead kid; But my experiences sure have expanded. Worth every minute :)

Oh, tambien encontramos una rata muerto en la casa de un miebro este manana. Solo si queria saber.

Con mucho amor!

Elder Vance

I love crashing my bike

So there we were riding our bikes one night this week. Elder Chilcote led seeing he had the light on th efront of his bike and I only had one on the back. A younger black man was also riding his bike coming towards us. Moving off to the side to let Elder Chilcote pass he then moves back onto the sidewalk. By the time I realized that he did not see me, well, it was too late. We collided head on. No injuries were had, hand shakes and hugs were shared, and journies were again begun. Turned out other missionaries were already meeting with him too. I'm not mad or upset for always seeming to get thrown from my bike, honestly I just think God was trying to tell that man something and needed to 'throw' a missionary at him to say it. :) (Yes I've crashed since then too...)

Things down in here in Georgia are moving along well in the now cool, moist weather. Yesterday it wasn't raining all day, it was 'misting'. It was the thinnest rain I'd ever felt and it left a layer of moister on everything, especially us as we rode our bikes through it. I swear it was just melted snow falling from the sky...I guess that would just be rain, huh? I dunno! :P

We are working hard to help our great friend and brother, Johnny, to enter into the waters of baptism soon. I fear I won't be able to see his baptism when it comes but I won't let that bring my heart down or stop me from helping his heart be brought up. 

My friends and family, I thank you for your love and support and I thank you for being faithful followers of Christ right along with the missionaries. There can be miracles when we believe! You've all been moving mountains long before you knew you could. :) (Yes that's from a song...I'm not cool enough to make up lines like that)

Con mucho amor!

Elder Vance

Winter Chills!

It's getting cold!! But supposedly going through tough things builds character, or something like that... Nah, someone probably just took that phrase from the back of a Quakers Oatmeal box :P

No, of course I'm still loving it here! I won't have many more chances ever in my life to be on the Lord's errand quite like this. It's great to be out here and be able to meet so many wonderful people. Anyone can walk up to a stranger and say hello, but it brings out something different when you are wearing a black name tag and introduce yourself as a representative of Jesus Christ. I really love the people who allow us to share a small portion of their lives with them. There are precious moments had by missionaries when you are within the walls of a truth-seeker's home.

Our great, nineteen year old friend Johnny has been on fire this past week. Eating up everything we teach him and reading more and more of the Book of Mormon, he really is coming closer to his God and his God's church. I haven't ever met anyone quite like Johnny before. 

Denise, another great friend and investigator of ours, has been learning more too! She had previously studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses and thus has held a different belief of the purpose of life than we hold. When we shared the Plan of Salvation with her a couple days ago she was quite overwhelmed with the amount of new doctrine. But she is a bright one and has taken to more reading in the Book of Mormon and lots and lots of more questions! It makes me so happy when people read for understanding and ask for answers! :D

I'll put on my scarf and pick up several copies of El Libro de Mormon. You pick up your Book of Mormon and strengthen your own testimony. And together we will both participate in the glorious Work of Salvation in our different ways and callings. God loves each one of His children. 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Vance

District

The chef

Their one and only fall decoration 

Fall colors and their apt, 

The temple!

Tract-ing :-)

Would you like some cake?

Letter 11/04/13

Friends, family, Romans, lend me your ear!

Well, of course, if you don't want to then I can't make you read this. You are free to choose. Isn't that great?! 

But then again...how do you know you'll make the right chose? What if this particular email is actually the best one I've ever sent home and you choose not to read it and miss out on five minutes of sweet brain and spirit food??  Wow, that's a lot of pressure for you. 

Of course, if I don't grab your attention within the first few lines of the email you will be much less likely to deem the rest read-worthy and move on with your evening of Angry Birds, Pintrest and Facebook. Man, that puts all the pressure back on me to be somewhat interesting! But, then who's fault is it then if you don't end up reading this? Mine because I was just plain boring in the intro or you because you judged too quickly? Hmm, I'm sure there is a really long and intellectual paper written somewhere on a topic like that but really I just wanted to bring your minds a little closer to that of a missionary's on the topic of preaching the Gospel.

What do I mean by that? Well here is another example. I have a really tasty chocolate cake sitting next to me and I want to share it with people. I know how much they will enjoy eating this cake and how much joy I will also have because I have someone to eat it with. I grab a plate and a fork for my good friend but then I don't use anything but my hand to cut a piece. I smash my hand into the cake and grab a handful of chocolate and frosting and plop it onto the plate. How appetizing! Err, well, not really. My would probably look down at the lump of chocolate on his plate and kindly decline as I sat wondering why he didn't want my yummy cake. 

Would the cake not taste just as good as an evenly cut piece neatly set on the plate? It probably would, but I failed in my job of presenting the cake making my friend have to go on with his life for who knows how much longer until another opportunity comes for him to eat cake! The same applies to missionary work. The Gospel is sweet. The Church is absolutely true. But there is a huge part to play as a missionary who presents the Gospel to other people who a lot of the time are already set in their ways. They already have a cake. Ya vanilla is pretty good but they would so much more enjoy a chocolate one!!

Okay enough with cake examples. This was just on my mind as I thought about all of the people who we talked to this week who just were not interested in our message! We work on and think about a lot the way in which we approach people and present the Restored Gospel to them. But sometimes no matter how hard we try or well we do they just don't accept. Maybe someday later but not now. But I do want to quickly tell you all of the newest investigator we have!

Johnny is a nineteen year old kid from Mexico. Grew up here so speaks English just as well as Spanish. We met him walking his dog through an apartment complex and just started talking to him. He's super nice and was open to the fact that he has had so many questions about life and our existence his whole life. Perfect, right?? We were able to teach him briefly about the Book of Mormon and Restoration this week and it just clicked with him. "You have no idea of what you have just told me", were his own words. It all just made sense to him! He was very excited about knowing about what happened here in the Americas a long time ago and about how there are prophets today. he came to church on Sunday and continues to show an increase in interest. It wasn't at all because we are just great teachers but because God had prepared him to hear us. Will he get baptized? Well, we hope so on the 23rd of November. If not, he will one day. But he is just one of the awesome people that we know.

Thanks for lending me your ear ;) Hope I didn't hurt it.

Hasta luego,

Elder Vance

How do you say bold in Spanish?

Letter 10/28/13

No, really. I don't know how to say the word 'bold' in Spanish. Not sure that there is a translation for it. But it would have been useful in the lesson we had last night we had with our top four investigators! 

First I will quickly relate the tale of meeting and shaking hands with Dallin H. Oaks. He came to Georgia and spoke to several different audiences, one of which being both entire Georgia Atlanta and Atlanta North missions. Other members of the Seventy spoke including Elder Soares of the presidency of the Seventy. Sister Oaks also spoke and won the award for the quote of the day. 

Speaking of her husband she said, 'He is truly an Apostle. Trust me, I wash his socks.'

The look of Elder Oak's face was priceless, kind of a 'where in the world did that come from??' face. I guess when you're an Apostle you get cool socks? Maybe with your name stitched into them with cute, little, blue thread. Over all, the talks were great. Elder Oaks basically bounced around from topic to topic in no particular order, following the Spirit as he thought of what to say. He spoke, of course, on missionary work and how we can really become missionaries. Powerful.

Our lesson last night was probably the best lesson I've been in so far. We went in really hoping to change directions and emphasize the seriousness of the lessons we teach and get them to see that we are not wasting our breath when we talk and invite them to act. Threw down a little at first with Mosiah 2:9, feel free to look it up :) , and then taught the Restoration. It went really well and at the end Elder Chilcote followed the Spirit and really just went to town testifying and connecting dots for them. He gave a powerful testimony and then I followed when Denise, one of the people we were teaching, asked for mine. It went super great and today we should be having a family home evening with an older family in our branch and the four we taught last night, Santos, Nelly, Bernardino, and Denise. If God be willing and if I have anything to say about it they will all be baptized before I leave this area!

Oh, and elder Chilcote and I will be making a rice krispy dessert for FHE tonight.

Rice Krispy treats + spirit = Baptism. It's doctrine. (...Don't quote me on that.)

Con carino,

Elder Vance