Ridin' around on my bicycle

Hey Y'all!

First off, thank you so much for all the care packages and mail! They really brighten my day and help me get through the rough times. It's amazing how much an email or letter from one of you can make me feel so uplifted.

Things in Virginia are pretty chill right now. The Confederate flag is a pretty big deal right now. Apparently Danville was the last Confederate capital before they lost the war, so there are a lot of people really passionate about the flag here. On the other hand, there are also a lot of people that don't like the flag at all so people are taking down Confederate flags in Danville and then other people are putting them back up. I heard that there's this really rich guy going around renting out little 5x5 plots of people's land just so he can put a flag pole up with the Confederate flag. It's pretty nuts.

They took our car away last week so we're now in a car share with the sister missionaries, which means we've been biking a ton. It took me until this week to realize how big and hilly Danville is. Not a huge fan of the bikes, but it has brought some interesting experiences.

The other day we were meeting with a less active woman on her porch, and some guy pulled up and asked if we were having a Bible study. I said we were and he asked if he could join and I said of course! Then the dude came over and before he even sat down he was trying to explain that our church wasn't true because our Elder's aren't married. He was using a scripture that I looked at later and saw it was giving the requirements for a Bishop so I'm not really sure what that was about. All he really wanted to do was argue with us, and then he basically told the lady we were talking with that her mom was going to hell because she wasn't baptized. You could tell the guy was just trained to take down Mormons, but really didn't know a thing about our church. He kept saying false things about the church and then we say "we actually don't believe in that" and then he'd say "yes, you do" and I was just thinking to myself, "thank you sir for telling me what I do and don't believe in." I could have sat there and Bible bashed with him, but I could tell no matter what I said he was too caught up in hatred to listen and understand so I just sat there and took it and then told him we loved him and pretty much left. All you can really do in that situation is just show them love.

I've spoken to a ridiculous amount of people here that have suffered from domestic violence. I have heard far too many stories of people's boyfriends getting drunk and beating them. I won't go into detail, but I've heard more detailed stories than I can bare. Alcohol and substance abuse seem to be the worst thing anyone could do to themselves. The sad part is, the people getting abused don't know how to deal with it so they turn to alcohol and smoking and drugs. There's so much filth here, and I can't think of any other way to describe it.

On a brighter note, Orson Scott Card is in my stake!!!! I'll be looking for him at Stake conference.

I really miss ya'll, but your letters and emails and packages really uplift me. Hope ya'll have a fantastic week!

Vic Fitzgerald and the bloody napkin

Hey Ya'll! 

Things in Danville are going great! I apologize for not giving enough details in my previous emails, it's really hard to type out long emails on the iPad so the keyboard will really help. But now I'll answer all of mom's questions!

The first night in the mission home they fed us dinner and then sent us to bed. Haha, it wasn't super exciting. We'd all been up since 2 am so everyone was way tired and I'm pretty sure I was out by 8:30. All the elders stayed at the assistant's apartment and the sisters stayed at the mission home. I haven't really had the chance to meet my mission president and his wife since there were 13 of us greenies and we were only with them for a few hours, but they seem really nice! Elder Clarke is super chill. He likes to play basketball and has a really good understanding of the scriptures so we've had some pretty cool deep doctrinal conversations. He's from Huntington Beach California which is pretty close to San Clemente. On P day we usually just relax and play basketball but today we're going down to Greensboro for a zone cook out. The members occasionally feed us dinner but we mostly just cook our own meals, all though a few times we've gotten lazy and gone to Bojangles. We mostly make chicken and rice with peppers and sauce. I have lost like 5 pounds though which sucks because I want to be gaining weight.  I'm eating a decent amount of fruits and veggies but I've been told it's a good idea for missionaries to eat vitamins so they get everything they need.  Any suggestions on which ones I should buy? We don't really knock doors unless the Spirit prompts us to a specific door. We mostly just contact previous investigators, inactive members, and part member families. Member referrals are like our favorite thing ever though, but it doesn't happen very often. Our ward is much smaller than Cline Falls, it reminds me a lot of Madras. We cover the Danville ward along with a set of sisters. 

Funny story: we were out tracking looking for a former investigator by the name of Vic Fitzgerald. When we got to his house there was an old man chillin' on the porch, a common sight in Danville. We asked if his name was Vic. He didn't reply and just stared at us, so we walked a little closer and asked agin if he was Vic but he just stared at us. It was kinda creepy. Eventually we were up right next to him and we asked again and he let out this strange grunt that sounded somewhat like the word "what?"  And we said a little louder "Are you Vic?" He put his hand up to his ear so my companion yells "ARE YOU VIC?" And it takes like 39 seconds for him to process what we just said and then he grunts, like a legit grunt,  "what's a Vic?".   My companion then points at the door and yells "DOES VIC LIVE HERE?"  And the old man grunts "what?"  At this point I'm just trying not to laugh as my companion says all right, have a nice day. Honestly I'm not sure why we didn't teach him about the restoration right then and there.  Also the guy had a napkin in his hand covered in blood. 

Anyways, thank ya'll for the emails! A couple of you have said sorry that they're long but honestly the longer the better because I love hearing from ya'll! 

If you have anymore questions about what's going on here just let me know! I miss ya'll so much and hope yins have a fantastic week!

Elder Earnest

2 Corinthians5:7

A video from Danville

Yins and Ya'll

Hello from Danville Virginia!!!!

I'm totally living in the ghetto and it's nuts. Last week my companion went outside and heard a bunch of gun shots. I've seen some pretty crazy stuff already. No one has street addresses so they just spray paint the number on their garbage cans and almost all the houses have "no trespassing" signs on the front door. The other day I'm pretty sure I almost witnessed a hit and run and then we saw two guys trying to break into a funeral home in broad daylight. It really feels like I'm living in a 3rd world country. The tap water isn't even drinkable. All the people here are super easy to teach because they all sit on their porch all day but they're really hard to commit because they all are literally chained down to smoking and it's very sad. If I've learned anything so far it's to stay as far away as possible from any form of smoking and any other type of addictive substance because I've seen first hand that it will literally control and destroy your life. 

We've been working like crazy trying to find people to teach and the Lord has really been blessing us. Last night we taught a lesson to a random kid we found on our former investigator list and the Spirit was so strong and intense. The kid was really tearing up by the end and I could tell he's been waiting for the gospel for a long time. It made me feel so good to know I made a positive difference in his life that day. 

I also have a new companion named Elder Clarke. He's from Cali and is super chill. We get along really well so I'm very grateful to have him. 

I love yins and miss ya'll so much. Also I can read emails every night; I just can't send any until Mondays so if ya'll have a spiritually uplifting thought or just want to send me a story or what not I'd love to hear it throughout the week! 

Love, 

Elder Earnest 

Arriving in Charlotte

The newest missionaries in the North Carolina Charlotte mission.

Elder Earnest with President and Sister Alexander.

On my way to NC

Hey guys! 

I went to the Provo temple this morning and also this will be my last letter from the MTC because I leave for NC on Monday (August 3) at 3:30 AM. Not too happy about that, but I'm super excited to leave because the food here sucks. Also over 1,000 missionaries showed up on Wednesday and there's a record breaking high of over 3,000 missionaries here right now so cafeteria lines are super long. I'm still really enjoying all my classes here though! I've learned pretty quickly you can't teach what you don't know, and you sure can't teach without the Spirit. There was a day here where they pretty much blew my mind and shattered my testimony (in a good way). I figured out, though, that having a testimony isn't enough, you've got to be truly converted so that's what I've been working towards. My teacher is so dope, he's like crazy smart about the gospel. He spent a term studying in Jerusalem through BYU last spring, and now I'm seriously considering doing that when I get back.  

Get this, I got a new set of leather scriptures, not a quad, for $16 dollars. We were doing service the other day and we were in the cleaning room and I saw this huge pile of clothes and manuals. I asked the guy what they were and he said it was stuff people left in dorms and it was all going to the DI pod and I could take what ever I wanted. Most of the stuff was in another language but I found a brand new English Bible. Then I went to the MTC store and got a triple which only cost 16 dollars because they give missionaries super discounts.

Anyway that's whats up with me! I'm very sorry to hear mom is sick and I hope she gets better! Enjoy Bear Lake and let me know how it goes. I'd write to all of you individually but they only give us an hour to write emails. I love you all and miss ya'll a ton. Hope to hear from you next week, 

Elder Earnest

P.S Thanks so much for the minonaries, I was having a rough day and it totally made me feel so good. Love ya'll.     

Sam's first missionary package. Thanks to Quinn and Jonas for drawing the faces!

And so it begins...

Hey mom, and everyone else,

I made it to the MTC! Annee picked me up in Salt Lake and took me to temple square and then to In-n-Out. I got a double double there, wasn't feeling as hungry as Taylor's four by four. Also I forgot to give Annee her chocolates, sorry. I think my district will really enjoy them though! When I got here they had a host missionary take me through a bunch of rooms to get my name tag and planner book and all sorts of other materials I needed. They pushed me through it pretty fast. I was one of over 750 that arrived on Wednesday which is just crazy. I went to class and met my companion, Elder Hampshire, and a few other Elders and Sisters in my district. Elder Hampshire is 18, but went to a year at BYU last year. He's actually the BYU Lacrosse goalie which is pretty cool. He lives in Bountiful Utah and literally seems to know half of the other missionaries here from school. The only familiar face I've seen so far has been Brother Anderson, who used to be Elder Anderson the missionary that was really scared of dogs in our ward a few years back. I went on splits with him a few times so it's been really cool to see him here. He actually taught out class this morning and gave a really power lesson about Christ's Gospel and inviting others to be baptized. I'm super happy he's here.

There's only one other companionship in my district and zone going to Charlotte. Everyone else is going to the Chesapeake Virginia mission, which is the one that goes along the coast of Virginia and North Carolina that we were looking at a few days ago, and there's a few in the other district in my zone that are going to Cleveland Ohio. I've actually bonded pretty tight with the other Elders going to North Carolina with us. We're all in the same room with another companion ship going to Virginia. Elder Alston is from Alberta Canada and pretty much represents every Canadian stereotype I've heard of. He's got red hair and is just a jolly guy. He actually acts and sounds a lot like Trey Hartford, and I really like him. The other Elder going to Charlotte is Elder Richinns. He's from a small town down in Arizona near Snowflake. He's kinda just a normal dude and really fun to be around. He reminds me a lot of Walter Harris (which reminds me, can you get Walter's email for me? He's in my contacts under Cpt. Walty Salty.) and he plays raquetball!!!! Me and him give Elder Alston a lot of crap about Canada's metric system.

So basically I'm getting along pretty well here. I've made some pretty good friends, who happen to be to my mission so I don't have to say goodbye in a few days, and I'm really enjoying the classes. I've learned a lot about the gospel these last few days and I can really feel the spirit here. Oh yeah, I also was called last night as a District leader which is pretty rad. Anyways, if you've been worrying about me don't because I'm doing just fine. Honestly, I don't even feel much homesickness at all which I'm super grateful for because it's letting me really enjoy my time here. Let me know who you guys are and what's going on in Redmond.

Lots of love,

Elder Earnest

 

Sam with his cousins, George and Henry Earnest, just before entering the MTC on July 22, 2015.