I've been hit!

Well this actually happened a few weeks ago but I am just now getting around to telling its tale.  We were make a journey towards the Chapel so that we could play some sports as well as a few games on our p day and we were waiting at a light to turn left.  There were 4 of us sitting in the car and I was driving.  Well I was looking down at my lap at something I had just gotten and everyone else was being boring in the background when out of nowhere I hear this THUD!  and the car shakes... My first thought was... man! I hate getting rear ended.... Well I look in my left side mirror to see who it was that hit me and sure enough there was a lady laying on the ground wiht a bullet bike on top of her... By this time E. Lewis was getting out of the car becuase he saw her hit our car and was rushing out to make sure she was ok and then time sped it. My mind was blown away that that had just happened.  A lady was driving her bike trying to turn right on the road that i was sitting on already.  Being her second time driving she hesitated on how much to lean into the turn and lost controll of her bike which led her over the median and graciously sliding across both my door and the left passenger door and then falling on the ground smashing her knee.  So graciously that there is a skid mark on the window of her helmet going across them. 

 

The cops get called and all of that stuff is taking care of and come to find out that my comp. E. Coates had seen the whole thing and just watched as she hit the car (I still bring that up ha ha!) but thankfully the only thing that was hurt on her was her knee and she was taken away into the sunset to get that fixed.  While exchanging info with the cops E. yates and his comp walk up and start tlakign with the cop and as we get  talking to him we become best of buds to the point that E. yates pulls him aside and asks to be handcuffed so that he can take a picture.  To our dissapointment the cop said he wasn't allowed to but it was worth a shot! The car is in for repairs now and it needs both doors replaced... Poor Black Pearl ( named by E. Yates)

 

ITs a short one but hopefully it was a good story!

 

Mat

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Latest Project

Well I managed to sneak my way into the office and design another thing for Sister Albright before she left.  Sister Albright once shared a story that talked about a spectator on an airplane watching 2 missionaries on a plan.  One of the missionaries was laying asleep on the airplane absolutly exhasted and his shoes were worn and beat up along with his suit.  While another one of the missionaries was, to put it simple, looking fresh.  I wish I could find the story and maybe if Sister Albright sees this she can comment what the real story is because I fear I make stuff up too much sometimes. 

 

Although this is not a very impressive design and not my best work I still like it and wish I had more time to fine tune it.  I wish I had a picture of the paper that we used to come up with the ideas for this so you guys could see the progression that I see happen every time I design something.  I have learned a lot of life lessons from watching the design process take place. 

 

I made two final products for this project.  The only difference was what the text said.  My favorite is the one that isn't show here but says "We Walk In Christ's Footsteps" 

 

I'll see if I can hunt down the story and share it. 

 

Much love from the east coast!

 

Mat

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Life without....

One of the most common things talked about when people get ready to leave for a mission is the fact that you are unable to text, watch tv, listen to music... I think to some it can be summorized as you can't live.  (as sad as that is to say).  But with events of this past week over a million people join me in this extreme lack of technology.  Friday night we had a crazy storm which downed trees and, I believe, killed 11 people.  As a result of this storm a million + people have been living without power which means that poeple actually go out and socialize and talk with their neighbors.  Facebook is no longer a means of communication but rather look at peoples faces.  I am still without power which can be hard for sure but I am blessed enough to have a mission president who still has power.  Allowing us to take warm showers and sleep in a cooled house that isn't humid as none other. 

With the power outage the librarys are a lot more busy which means that I have less time to update this and am actually out of time... :(   I hope all is well and don't worry about me we are just kicking it cave man style.

Mat

Found some more time... this is a common sight this week.

Up we go....

Well for P-day last week we decided it was time to take an adventure... My ward mission leader Brother Todd took us on a hike up old rag... One I would highly recommend to everybody.  I don't have much time to write an explination or to post all of the pictures... Just know that it was fun.


well this sucks....


 

Once a comp.... Always a comp.




Holding up the rock so others could travel under.  Olympian style baby!








Mngoma, Yates, and myself with our friend jethro clark... This dog was incredible!  Hiked the entire mountain and would actually give directions at times... We have no clue where he came from but he was our friend for the entire hike.



Victory!!! (this photo was actually taken half way up but I thought it looked like a nice victory shot)



Actual victory shot. 

 Love you all!  I'll work on getting more out and about.  Let me know what you think!

The truman show....

One of the classic conversations after watching the truman show is if , just maybe, our lives are like that of Truman... Where everybody is watching us go through our day to day activity wihtout us knowing any different.  Well the longer I serve on a mission I come to find out that that is the life of a missionary.  Constantly I get the request for information on just about everything about my life, which I freely give.  What happens next is what bugs me.  In an everyday conversation there is two sides.  Each person brings something to the conversation.  Well it feels like I give all of this detail and in return I don't recieve any insight into the life of the person I'm writing.  There have been excuses given that it is to keep me focused or I don't need to worry about the things of the world.  Did you ever think that being treated like a normal person is what keeps me going on my mission?  I've seen enough people who completely void themself of all personality when they come and serve a mission.  Dare I say, turning into robots happy to eat, live, and breath the life of the mission.  It is those sort of peopel that quickly tell you to leave them alone and that they want to focus on their mission.  Me on the other hand.... I am still a person, and I pride myself in such a statement.  I still have a heart and soul that cares deeply about the people that I left back home and wants to keep up with them so that when I return home those connections still exsist.  Was it not enough that I gave up two years of being surrounded by the ones I love.  Is it truly neccesary that I also remain clueless as to what they are doing in their life? how they are progressing and how their passions develop? 

 

I am told often that we (meaning the people my age) are at one of the most important times of our life.  Each decisioun that we make will decide how the rest of our life goes.  Here I sit 2000 miles away from those I grew to love making me no longer a part of their life only because they are worried that I might break some focus.  I thrive off of continuely maintaining my friendships from back home.  Friendship is one of the most valuable things I have been given in life and I plan to treasure it.   All I ask is that people not worry about me... I'm fine and can handle myself.  If I don't have time to write you one week I will the next.  Time is not as big of an issue as people make it out to be. 

 

I am no different fromt he Mat that left a year and a half ago.  I still long for friendships and care about what goes on in the life of my friends.   So my plea is to break me free from this show I'm trapped in.  Let me know what is going on in your life.  Let me know that you are still alive and kicking.  I want to hear the ups and the downs.  The hard and gritty of life or the happiest moments of your life.  I am a person no different from you and long for the friendship I once had with so many of the people I left back home.  My life will be an open book if you open yours to me. 

 

God has blessed us with personallities so that we may bless the lives that we come in contact with. 

 

I love you all! and I thank those who have kept in contact with me.  I have truly enjoyed renewing friendships lost and hearing about whats going on in life and ask that you continue to do so.  I have slacked off on blogging merely becasue I felt I was just feeding the fire.  People were able to "watch" my life and in return I felt like I was just talking to myself.   Let me know your alive and I'll worry about my end. 

 

My address is on the top left of my blog but I will leave it here just in case

 

Elder Mat Harb

5242 Lyngate Ct.

Burke, VA 22015

 

I look forward to hearing from you all!  You are in no way obligated to write me.  I just wanted to let everybody know that it is ok to write me and that I would love to hear from you. 

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Back in the field

Well I have now spent my last time in the office and have returned to more relaxing work of serving in the mission field.  The area i was placed in is close to the office still but it definitely isnt the office :P I am serving in the Fairfax ward.  I don't have much time to write a long email because I sent a long email to my fam today and I have a limited amount of time on the computers here in the libraries. 

I am real excited to be back in the field again and plan to take off running as fast as I can.  I said that the field is more relaxing then the office only becasue in the office you are worried about something 100% of the time. I would wake up in the morning, read a chapter out of the book of mormon and head to the office at 9 and be attacked by work until 9 at night sometimes even later, pulling nights as late as 1 if there was a meeting the next day.  In the field you don't really have that.  The things you are worried about is how to find and meet with people and oonce you meet with them the spirit kinda takes over.  Also the work done in the field is 100x more rewarding.  Just last night we taught an awesome spirit filled lesson which left us driving home feeling like 100 bucks and that we were on the top of the world.  Not once did I get that feeling in the office.  Makes missionary work so much more fullfililng when you get that feeling.

My companions name is E. Yates.  He played lacrosse at BYU just before he came out and has become one of my best Friends on the mission which makes me extremely excited  to be his companion for the next 6 weeks.  I imagine in the near future you will be getting some rather funny stories from our time together as well as some amazing miracles happening. 

I'll keep this one short and I'll tell more of what I've got planned for this transfer next time.  We have some pretty good plans we are going to do for district meetings and such.  For now though... this is all you get.

Peace out and I love you all. 

Mat

The end of a great birthday week

Well the week has come to an end but with the end of the week a new year has sprung forth for myself.   I was able to share a rather busy birthday week with my roommate E. Johnson who has his birthday on April 5th.  This was probably one of the craziest weeks I've had in a while.... for the majority of it I felt like a pretty high roller which is abnormal for a missionary... I was taken out to eat just about every day some day's twice a day. A few of them being a higher end restaurant requiring me to order a 24 dollar entree.... Crazy stuff I tell you.  I am sure that some of the pictures will be posted on the mission blog.  (armiesofhelaman2.blogspot.com) Along with a large portion of backtrack images of my time in the office.  Don't judge me by half of the looks on my face... these past 6 weeks have been the craziest I have seen the office.  I am either exhausted in the picture or I am stuffing my face because I didn't have time to eat before the day began.

I have many people to thank this week for making it a great birthday week!  Especially my parents.  They spoil me rotten even after I get a van towed and have to spend some more of there money ( they will be payed back no worries)  Just thought I'd take some time to give them a shout out that I appreciate them and love them a ton!  They put up with more then they deserve and they keep going strong.

These posts will probably start to slow down a bit because coming up here soon I am having a change of pace and can't make any promises.  Kick me every now and then to make sure I'm alive if you don't hear from me.

Happy Easter!

mat

Who would have thought....

So I made an important discovery this week... Well maybe not all that important but a discovery nonetheless.  I learned that it is indeed possible for an E350 to be towed, I also learned that towing companies often charge by weight as opposed to just towing our car which means that not all cars are treated equal... I also reconfirmed that my sweet mom and paps love me still.

This week would definitely have to fall under the category of crappy week.  Mostly because I have been fighting something fierce which leaves my body exhausted to the point of accidently falling asleep on the office floor for a decent amount of time.  Another reason for the crappy week is it consisted of a good chunk of angry missionaries calling requesting me to do things.  I don't mind the doing things but the angry doesn't fly very far in my book.   If your gonna ask me to do some ridiculous task that you are too lazy to do you better darn well be happy about it if you ask me :P  Then on top of all of that poor old Natasha (my van) got towed late at night while I stopped to check up on a missionary who is going home shortly due to back problems.

Despite the crappy week it ended well with being able to watch conference with some of my mission buddies at the stake center!  All in all though I am looking forward to this week... not because something fabulous is going to happen (there are a lot of great things happening this week) but mainly the fact that it is a new week and that its not last week.

On a different note... I have been trying to get E. Bay to open his easter packages all of this week and the man wont budge... he just waves them in our face trying to rub it in that he got 2 easter packages and we have none! (by wave I mean leave them sitting on the desk but wave sounds better) I look up to the man for his self control for everyone in the office has teased him about not opening them and he has held strong.  Not going to lie it would make my day if there was some things contained in there that needed to be refrigerated or opened right away.   My family expects me to do the same with my B-day package... We will see how strong I will hold... I'm thinking 30 min.

Well its time to go play som v-ball

Mat

Sarah & Isatu

This past Saturday there was an awesome baptismal service held for Sarah and her daughter Isatu.  They walked into church one day and stayed for 6+ hours and accepted a baptismal date the first time that I met with them.  Their story goes on from there but that is all history.  Here are some pictures from the baptismal service. I, the favorite elder, had the privileged of baptizing Isatu, Elder Norris Baptized Sarah.

Now Fanta is a whole different story from her sister and mom.  She is by far the cutest little girl ever.  It took her a while to get her to warm up to me but now ever time she sees me she runs and screams to meet me.  Although whenever we tried to take a picture of her she would fold her arms and frown so E. Bay being the master he is was able to snatch the picture above of her which resembles how she usually is.  She likes to play the game of when your crouch down to talk to her she pushes you over and laughs.

It was a great experience all together and I am happy for both of them.  They have already seen the difference that it makes in their lives.

I hope everything is going well for you folks back home.  I continue to be out of the loop but keeps things exciting I guess.

How did I do?

This week was the week that my life in the office was supposed to slow down but it seemed to forget that it was supposed to :p.  There was only one meeting planned for the middle of the week that normally I don't need to do anything for but I managed to wiggle my way into a whole lot of work of which I am great-full for.  I had a heck of a lot of fun doing it.

 Well with leadership meeting this week we were trying to come up with a way to effectively show people where we are in baptisms for the month and where we need to be.  As well as get all of the Church leaders in the are on the same page as the missionaries... As you can imagine what will interest church leaders will most likely bore missionaries.  Old people just tend to enjoy practical boring things while half of the missionaries out here could care less what a bar graph says.  Well I was asked to just create a chart of bar graphs (not included because it isn't all that impressive or interesting) and then I started brainstorming with E. Johnson on how to get missionaries to look at this email because I know I wouldn't look at an email of just graphs.... let alone care or understand what it means to me. So one of the things that happens in the mission is a weekly email that contains what is called Zone Shout Outs. Which is the only email sent out that everybody pays attention to and so I got the thought... why not create something that includes both the zone shout outs and the main part of the information that we would like the missionaries to know.  Realizing that the main part is better then nothing this is what we came up with.

One problem we saw last year is that our goal was always in the back of our mind but no one took it to heart until the end of the year when they realized they might not make it. With this we are hoping to create this fire and motivation to occur each and every month because they realize where they need to be to reach there goal.

I would appreciate some opinions concerning the design of it.  This is my first design that has used strictly text, which is probably my weakest point of design.  The reason for the color choice is it matches the page of bar graphs in case a missionary does decide to look at the graph it is color coordinated. It is also designed to be able to expand as far as numbers changing and the geographical breakdowns (previously known as zone shout outs).  The top part is a map of the mission in case people were confused. The numbers surrounding the map are how many bapt that happened that week.  This was all designed in inkscape (free) for those who are interested.    Oh and it is also my first design that I have used the color yellow in... Proof alone that I am a changed man :P

Above is one reason why this week was busy.  This took up a day and a half of work and the rest consisted of a baptismal interview which meant going on an exchange... And of course that only caused more stress because we had a presentation somewhere else the next day that president needed us for but because we were on exchange we didn't get all that we needed to done.  Causing a lot of stress in the morning trying to exchange back while completing everything before the meeting started.  Needless to say it all worked out perfectly but it was rather stressful in large part to E. Bay.  He is truly a blessing to have as a comp.

Well I've got to go throw a program together for the Baptism tonight.  I will post pictures of it up next time.

Mat

Mormonism 101

One thing that has been a big push in the mission lately as well as just the mormon culture in general, at least in Virginia. Is this article that the church has just released which includes some FAQ that are commonly discussed as well as an info-graphic on some statistics concerning the church.  These are both something I would highly recommend reading and making yourself familiar with.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-101

Here is the info-graphic that is contained on the site.  I realize that some that read this post wont bother looking and so I figure I'd put some enticement.  No shame in that right?

Much love from Virginia!  I have to peace out just thought I would post this up while I've got some extra P-day time. 

mat

Zone Conference Week

This week was a pretty standard 2nd week of the transfers.  Every transfer during the 2nd we week the mission holds zone conferences which is where the zones meet together and get trained by the APs, the Mission President, and the Zone Leaders.  Which means that the APs, the mission president, and my comp and I have to drive around each day but Monday and Saturday to these meetings which take place all over the mission...  As you can probably guess by the end of the 4th zone conference I start to have nightmares about listening to the same thing one more time... Its pretty bad.  To illustrate how bad it is I thought it was fitting to post this picture of my companion dying from his allergies ( we will pretend it is because of going to 4 different zone conferences)

But backing up a little bit to Monday.  On Monday we had the honor of going golfing with one of the senior missionaries who was just released this last transfer meeting from managing the finances of the mission. I wasn't able to get a picture with the senior missionary in it but here is me and E. Peterson and Johnson and Bay.  I didn't do as good at golfing as I did with bowling but I didn't do too bad... got a 48 on a par 3 course which is +21. Not really good at all but hey who cares.  All in all it was a fabulous p day and a great way to start off the week.

me, E. Peterson, Johnson, Bay

As far as my area.  It is going great! we should be having 2 baptisms coming up here in the next week and we are looking forward to that.  After this week we should have a little bit more down time to finish things up in the office and get out and knock some doors.  But it may have to wait another week because I've got a lot of work to complete to make reporting easier for the next office elders.

I feel I might be fighting something but it may just be a bad case of too much junk food.. I've gotten back on to my work out schedule which usually means that I stop eating junk food as well so that will be cured here coming up soon.  Can I just say I am way happy I don't have any allergies... after seeing my comp almost die from them just about everyday I continually shout out thanks for not having allergies.

I apologize for this post it is scatter brained and not very entertaining.   Didn't have much to say this time around.

mat

here are a few good stories shared at Zone Conference.  I would highly recommend reading them.
http://golfmarketingpro.com/familiesinzion.com/downloads/The_Story_of_Frau_Gertrude_Specht.pdf
http://www.jmaxbits.com/file_cabinet/Inspiration/Do%20You%20Want%20a%20Donut.pdf

Out to get me

This week was exciting enough that is for sure... any more exciting and I just may have to quit my job and walk away :P (not really).  This week is without a doubt a lot more calm then last week but certainly contains a heck of a lot of driving.  The mission has been switching out their cars lately, buying new ones and selling the old ones.  Which means that we have to not only pick up the cars but then deliver them to the missionaries that are getting them.  All of which included me and my comp, but don't get me wrong I'm not complaining too much it was just a lot of driving... 

We picked up 4 new cars this week we got some more of the cruzes that i talked about last week (think i did at least) then we got 2 Subaru Legacy which are hands down the nicest car I've driven thus far.  It still felt like a sports car which I didn't like too much but it rode around super smooth and you just kinda felt like you could sit back and chillax and take it easy which is something I'm awfully fond of.  Still would prefer a more classy feel but absolutely loved driving these guys off the lot.  Kinda an addicting feeling driving a car off of the car lot... hopefully I don;t get too addicted to it because I don;t think it is a very good habit if I am to stay out of debt....

On one of these car adventures we ended up getting home a little late from picking an old car up after we dropped off the new one... Me not thinking very well decided I'd go straight to the apartment instead of dropping the extra car off that my comp was driving. Now normally that wouldn't be a problem... especially in Utah. But for those of you who have never lived in Virginia every stinking place to park in here is either painted yellow (meaning you cant park there) or it requires a parking permit.  I have parked a car at my apt before with no problem so i figured just one night would be fine... Sure enough the next morning  when we go out to take the car to get detailed so we can sell it it seems to have vanished.  One of those oh crap...... moments for sure.  We go to the front office and get the tow truck company's number and give them a call. Sure enough they snatched the little buger and its gonna cost 125 to pick it up. I was pretty darn ticked.  Although thankfully the senior couples that I work close with were kind enough to help us with a large chunk of the cost cause it wasn't our car but one we picked up for them it still was rather annoying.   

When we went to pick it up the office of the tow truck place was this  little trailer shack looking thing with the window about 6x6in and thats all there was to talk through and everything... I think that if for safety a company has to only have a tiny window so that they don't get the crap beaten out of them they are doing something wrong... maybe thats just me. I sure was as nice as i could be to the lady hoping she would drop the price a little bit but I think they have seen that trick before or something... it was a no go.  

Other then dropping cars of this week has been pretty normal... Involved lots of stake correlation reports which I am currently so sick of doing but thats ok.  I had an excellent exchange with my district leaders comp as well which doesn't happen too often cause of our busy schedule but we snuck one in. 

Overall I can say that this week was pretty good.  one of the senior missionaries out here has the motto of "life is good" I'd say this week complements his motto 

One of my ponderings of this week is trying to find one word to explain my life as well as my beliefs and theories... if any of you have some a word that has changed your life and inspired you to do better I would dare to go as far as asking you to share that word with me in hopes of getting inspiration.  I promise I wont steal it from you either. I thought about change as one but that one has already been taken ha ha.  

Blessed transfer week.

This week has been a rather exciting week indeed.  Granted those of you who are reading this may not agree because you don't get very many good stories out of it but rather it is just busy... So you wont here much about it other then that but my hopes are that I will at least be able to get a few good tales down this time around.  I just had to ramble on for this first paragraph in order to motivate myself to continue one... which is why most of my first paragraphs don't make much sense :P


So the week starts off with the breath before the storm so to say... On Monday we have next to nothing to do which allowed us to take a full p-day which hardly ever happens. Now that I think about it it didn't even really happen again but the work that I had to do was rather exciting work. I got to go pick up 2 brand spanking new Chevy Cruizes and take them for a little joy ride while talking to an Elder I haven't talked to for a good long while.  During all this we managed to find some jazz music to play in the background as we dove deeper and deeper into thought.  Such a wonderful blessing jazz music is.  


Tuesday wasn't all that bad.  We ended up splitting up and I went to visit people with a missionary who was going home while my companion took an elder to get an x-ray then we had to take all of the mail that has been on hold since Saturday to the transfer chapel including bikes and zone boxes.  We were able to get it all in one load though thanks to our trusty 12 passenger E350 :) by the time we got home it was time for bed. 


Wednesday was a little more busy but it didn't really seem like it because it started off with taking a missionary to physical therapy and then out to Sorak Garden for a classy lunch.  After that is when the explosion happened and up tell now my comp and I have had no time to just sit and think.  Once we got back from lunch we had to empty the seats out of the van and clean it out for all of the new missionaries luggage because it was raining and we couldn't put them in the truck.  After making it nice and clean we drove to the airport where we met up with the AP's and ate a donut while we waited for there flight to land.  For those of you who go to airports often enough the police there can be rather picky about where you park so, because the AP's like to be there for the new missionaries, my comp and I split up and I got the van and he got a different car and I just sat there listening to music while pondering by myself (pretty odd thing to do as a missionary thats for sure).


Fast forwarding a bit because all of the little details don't matter much but rather that it was full of random stuff that we had to attend but not necessarily do anything for but clean up after.  After transfers happened on Thursday we went to dinner with the departing missionaries.  This meal is one of my favorites for a few reasons.  One being Sister Albright is an amazing cook and goes all out with this meal and the next is in watching all for these missionaries going home you are able to pick up so many characteristics that they have developed over 2 years and you are able to figure out how to apply them to your life.  Its kinda like seeing the answer to the tests  :) woot for cheating.  After the meal they get to have a testimony meeting which is one of the most powerful meetings you could go too.  Two years of trials and lessons learned are shared and that is all the detail I will go into on that one.  When that meeting is all done we go bowling... And this is probably where I will get excited and my sentences will start to make less sense then they already do...


Elder Doyle came in before he left and gave the Pres. a dollar and said this is for the person who wins bowling which just added some motivation for people to do well.  Fast forwarding again... well rewind first.  Last time I went bowling I had E. Crockett teach me how to spin the ball properly so that it comes at the pins from the side and increases your chance of a strike.  I decided I would only bowl that way to  master the skill a little better.  K now fast forwarding.  About half way through the game sister albright decides to throw in $20 if anybody can beat 160... Now you have to understand that in bowling my I rarely break 100 and on my best of days the highest score i got was maybe 115.  So I just kinda shrugged off being able to get above 160 and continued to try and master the walk which is an important part.... Gotta get the strut right or there is no chance you will be good :P Well I'm not sure how to word the next part so i will just put the picture up :)

Im the one on the bottom.  'H'

I look a little odd... thats all good though.

I also had Sister Albright take a picture of me holding up the ball that helped me win the game as well as the dollar bill and the $20(I'll put it up when i get it from her).  One thing that is kinda funny is before we went in to bowl I told E. Bay ( my comp) that if i bowled 150+ i'd buy some bowling shoes... thats how confident i was that I wouldn't break 150 but sure enough it happened.  Now I'm deciding if i should actually follow through with the bowling shoes or not :P 

Well after winning that game I was pretty sure I could do it again but of course I couldn't...I did however still break 100!  103 ha ha.   Now I owe one of the missionaries that went home lunch when I get home in a yearish.  

After bowling we went back to the mission home and I got to bed around 2.  When I say bed I mean the couch in the main room without a blanket or anything and still in my white shirt and suit pants :P I fell asleep waiting for another missionary to grab blankets which he never did so I froze all night.  Then at 5 we woke up and drove them to the air port then went home and crashed in a real bed (with a blanket) and slept and took a nap. 

I keep remember more stuff... sorry.  After the nap we had to distribute the Cruizes to missionaries which meant driving the entire day.  And of course one of the missionaries... Sisters.  gave us a car that had absolutely no gas and they took the gas card as well which left us praying that we could make the 40 min drive to our next drop off point and use that set of sisters gas card. thankfully we made it but it was certainly a close one


Thats the just of what a transfer week looks like with all of the little boring details that we have to do :P rather busy for everyone here in the office but always fun thats for sure.  


I was considering putting some of my ponderings of late but that would make it even longer so I may just save it for a rainy day...


Congratz for making it to the end!


-mat

The Event....(did that show ever make it?)

This week was interesting to say the least... It started out being one of the worst weeks I've had in a while.  It all started with that temple trip to dc...  Now the temple trip itself was grand but on the way home from the temple something rather tragic happened.... My ipod ceased to exist... well the button that woke it up ceased to exist.  Now music has been one of the only things to keep me sain on my mission and especially while serving in the office.  Its a great way to just relax a little bit and let out all your frustrations. something not very good to loose.

With that going through my head I call tech support and see if they can do anything and of course it is 2 months out of warrently so they want  70 dollars to fix it... Now if any of you remember how I am that wont do... I would much rather just fix it myself and so I pull out the hair dryer that I got from a member and start dissasembling (the hair dryer is to melt the glue so you can get the screen off).  Well we came across a problem of I couldnt turn my ipod off while i was working with it because the power button was the one that was broken and I fear I might have messed it up even more.  But I have to wait tell I find a good spacer for the button (all that was wrong with the button was a little black dot that acted as a spacer was missing. Piece of crap Apple making there buttons cheap)  Once I find an effective spacer I will cut the battery and reconnect it, giving the system a complete restart.  Which will hopefully be all that is needed to get the pod rolling again.  On top of that my blender broke which was rather tragic because most of the food I have is ment to go through the blender to make a shake.... Granted I know what is wrong with the blender (its the same thing that happened to the tredmil a while back) I dont have the time really to rip it apart and find out what piece i need to buy.  And also that will only delay its failure from happening again so I'm considering buying another nicer blender to get me through the day.  Right now I am using my roommates :p.

Enough of the bad I'll just skip to the good now :)  Yesterday I had the honor of attending/speaking/confirming Autumn Car!  Autumn is one of the coolest people you will ever meet and belongs to one of the best families ever! the Carrs.  Elder Meitler and I tracted into them when we were together in November and after a few great months spent over at there house Autumn decided to get baptized.  The baptismal service was excellent and she was as happy as could be.  One of those moments where you complain that your check muscles are tired from smiling type happy.  -Man we sure had some fun times with her and her family.  When I left the area I brought over PVC pipe to make marsh mellow guns and we just had a huge Marsh mellow fight for a good hour or so.  When I saw the mom yesterday she said that she is still finding some mellows to this day. He he :)- The picture you see above is at the end of our top secret handshake.  I'm not allowed to show you the rest of it but i can tell you this much... It is pretty epic :P

Overall it was a great week! despite the death of my blender and ipod.  We has a few amazing lessons and I found one of my new fav Mormon Messages.   Which, after watching it 4 times the day I found it,  was used it in a lesson we taught that night as well. One of those tender mercies that the lord blesses us with daily.  This week was full of many more similar to that. Also without this video I the loss of my ipod would have been a lot more stressful but it reminded me of how much an ipod doesn't matter.  Still pretty ticked about it though :P

Well I  hope everybody is having a great week!  I could probably ramble on some more about things that happened this week but I will leave it at what I've got now.  touched on the main points so that should be good enough right? :)

I'll end it off with a glorious shot of me working on my ipod 

-mat

On a more enjoyable note

"its a new day, and it all gets better. Its a new life, thats what I'm told." It seems as of late I have become rather lost without the music I had back home... and sadly enough the music i have out here will be put on a stand still as my ipod just broke this morning so I am going to go pick up some tools that will hopefully allow me to fix it and keep my mind sain enough to function.  It is rather sad how reliant I am on music but it sure does help get me through a long day of office work :P

So in response to the few comments I've had a letter is the best way to get a hold of me but if you are super extreamly opposed to it then I will see what I can come up with... I'm sure we can figure something out.  As for the comments its hard for me to respond directly to them but I do get them in email form so I will be able to read them but wont be able to reply.

So today I got the unique opportunity to drive a bus full (I say bus because I currently drive a 12 passenger van) to the D.C. Temple which was awesome!  It wasn't even my zone but a good friend of mines Elder Johnson.  The reason I got to go was because they requested my van and so I told them I come with it :) but it was pretty fun.  The GPS that we used (elder bays) took us on the most random route which ended up with us going through just about all of DC which was rather interesting driving the beast through the city but it was pretty fun.. I grabbed a picture but I'm sadly not in it for I was driving but I will eventually edit this post and put it in here so it looks more pretty.  After we went to a childhood favorite of Chilis and I got some Chicken Crispers.  Overall a fabulous day and was much needed!  Oh today was our stake temple day so just about half of the ward I am currently serving in was there which was kinda funny.  They were hoping to get away from me but I sure fooled them. suckers!

Well I hope everyone had a great V-Day.  I'm a little out of the loop so thats about all I can say.

Love from the east

mat

A Time of Solemn Serenity

Well it seems that the title I used for last time could very well be the title for many more but this time around it is a little different... This week was pretty uneventful to me personally.... but as for the DC South mission and to a very sweet lady it was tragically eventful.

There are but a few moments in life that will remain trapped in your mind and be carried, or dragged depending on the memory, with you for the rest of our time here.  The majority of these moments are ones that you will hold dear to your heart and enter into a sweet serenity when you ponder them.  While there are many others that you try to bury and hide away from.  It is of one of the later that has happened this week, or so that's how I view it.   One of our senior office couples Elder Plummer passed away from an unexpected stroke on the 15th of February.

It is with these moments that, at least for me, you remember the most detail.  If someone were to ask me about my baptism or about when I got sealed to my sisters I could tell them small points of each... Nothing in a large.  But if someone were to ask me about the morning I found out my brother had passed away I could give detail enough to make it sound like it happened just last week.  One of the fondest memories I have after that experience, and is most certainly one I will never for get,  is in the days after my brothers passing I had a friend and his mom come over and give me a gift -  Something that I will always hold dear -  With that gift they told me that this isn't the end and that I will be able to see him once more.

 So after the passing of Elder Plummer the mission, or at least the office, has entered into a state of solemn serenity.  It is at this time that I am truely great-full for the chance that I have to teach people that this is not the end.  That these harrowing memories don't mean anything because we will get to be reunited with our loved ones.  The best thing that we can take from these moments is that the little things don't matter... What girl you should take on a date or what you should do for the rest of your life doesn't matter.  But rather growing close to the ones you love dearly, lifting them up and moving closer to our Savior.  Charity truely does never faileth and so why do we insist on placing the focus on ourselves.. When with a simple gift or a simple act of kindness we can impress someones memory for the rest of their lives and give them hope and peace.

I will never forget Elder Plummer even though I only shared but a few weeks of time with him serving here in the office.

Much love from Virginia

-mat

Pretty uneventful this time around...

Well this week was overall uneventful this week (in case the title didn't give that part away). Seems like it is still Monday or something of the sort but alas here I sit on a Saturday morning sending out my emails.

I suppose as I think on it this week wasn't entirely uneventful. I had the opportunity to go see a GMU basketball game on Wednesday with the some people in the mission which was pretty fun. Felt kinda odd to be at a game but it was good. No tee shirts or injuries though so I must say it was a let down :P he he. A couple hours before the game I was asked to throw a little business type card together for Leadership meeting which was taking place the next day and so below is what I was able to come up with. Front and back of the card.

It was pretty cool because I never thought I would have to do mid-night runs to fedex while i was on my mission so hoo ha for that. I think this card turned out a lot better then the sheep you saw earlier. Well I guess they aren't even really the same style of design but as far as coming out of the printer. I was worried about how i was going to tie in each zones goal for the month but I think the solution that I can up with looks pretty good but toss some feedback my way. For the record I would have never put that logo on the back but I was forced to. They tried to force me to put some other things on it but it would have completely ruined the design so I did what my parents are so familiar with me doing... sure (i'll leave it at that he he). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall though aside from fedex only having 100lb paper... that was a let down.

Another slightly exciting thing happened yesterday. I got to go spend 800 dollars and while doing so I got talking to this guy in the store for 30 min or so about his religion as well as ours and we left on rather good terms. He gave me a cooly little pen as well as advice on buying watches as well. Oh the reason for spending 800 dollars was on some mattresses for the mission but thats not nearly as exciting as just saying I got to spend 800 dollars... The guy was also nice enough to leave us with his cell number in case we ever need anything to give him a call. He said he would hook us up with 50% off a pillow that I liked he he. Was a nice guy over all though and says he wants to go to the visitors center sometime so we will see what comes of it. He said it would happen probably in the summer so I might not be here but that doesn't matter much.

Another thing worth mentioning is that it was my sisters b day this week. Happy b day! hope it was a good one! That little one is a blogger to the end, or at least she was when I left. I am often congratulated by her on being able to keep my blog up to date which I more then not fail at. Also I forgot to mention last time but my sis had her first baby as well so that makes uncle x4.

-mat

Well here it is

This week was Zone Conference week which normally isn't too bad... but the difference for this week around was that I was going to all 4 of them and so by the forth one I could quote just about every thing that was being said... I finally gave in and started another little sketch/design book that kept me mostly entertained and you might see some samples of it one of these days... no promises because I don't have a heck of a lot of time but maybe on one of these p-days I'll throw it together.

The point of talking of all these zone conferences is that Sister Albright had me design some things for her to pass out and my favorite one was this one. She handed me this quote (which i thought of as 2 quotes) and said she wanted a magnet made out of it and to have at it. So off i went and this was the end result. (mom if you want one I'll see what I can do :P) Overall I think it turned out pretty well but I'm open to some critiquing, granted they are already handed out so it wouldn't matter much but would increase my design skills.

This week has been pretty crazy though... Both my comp and I are rather brain dead from hearing the same meeting 4 days in a row. but aside from that there have been some fun things happening. One of my friends got her mission call to Kobe, Japan mission which is pretty darn sweet and I am slightly jealous but mostly excited for her. The other thing that is worth mentioning might take a while so i will start a new paragraph (if you cant tell I'm still pretty horrible as far as writing goes :P)

So we were leaving home from finishing up a power point in the office for the next zone conference and it was about 9 30 or so and right when we open the door we hear this chanting going on across the parking lot.... "we love you! We love you! We Love you!" so first thing that goes through my head is welcome to virginia (the reason for that is when i was training whenever something odd happened thats what i would tell my greenie) but as i walk out into the parking lot i see these people standing in front of a parking spot as someone is backing out saying that chant. Once they are finished backing out and were ready to drive off they start screaming and waving there hands in the air and then they walk back inside... By that time my comp and i our in the comfort of our car laughing our heads off wondering what on earth is going on.

Well on that note I must be leaving now

We love you!

mat

That fell apart faster then i thought...

I have failed as of lately as far as updating this darn thing but I feel, being on my misison, i can throw out the excuse that i have been busy... exspecialy with my current calling being as it is.  I'll keep it a secret just to be nice and entertaining for all of you guys.  If you guys really want me to tell I 'll think about it :)

It seems communication has come to a stand still with back home... my guess would be something exciting happened on my sisters end with her baby.  One can only hope that everything is alright with her but alas what can I do but keep busy :P

I have had a rekindling desire for graphic design as of lately and I have put together a magnet for sister albright which i will post here when I get around to it.  For right now I am on the road towards there house so I dont have access to the file right now.... But another thing that I have grown to miss is my DSLR... I have been tlaking about it with a bud of mine who skated a lot back home and he has got me really wanting to try to set up some shots for skaters.  which of course as i think about that it on ly makes me miss talking pictures more and more.  Id say its about to the point of having my fam send out my camera... but I will think about it for now.  (just a heads up fam!)

Well my thoughts are scattered like crazy because I find it hard to focus on just one topic while im in the car (especially when trying to keep conversation with my comp who is driving) so sorry once again for a messy post promising a future post full of more meaningful information but that is all this one will have to be... for I have reached my destination :)

I love you all! dont be afraid to send a little hello my way.

mat

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