Hello to all!
Hope everyone has a wonderful new Year! I have to be indoors by 5pm tonight so I get to stay up late tonight too! Like 1030pm! Woot Woot! But its all good because I dont like staying up late anymore. Its disobedient and as everyone knows...Elder Malone is very obedient. :) I didnt say greg i said Elder Malone so dont doubt me. :) But I am actaully known here a little bit as being one who likes the be effective and obedient. WHich some missionaries have a problem with I dont know why. You definitely are not getting up at 630 everyday and tracting everyday for yourself. I mean you do but also for the Lord mostly. :)
But it was really good to hear from all ya'll again. I will be sending the tape and camera memory card home soon so you can all look at those when that comes around. There are some interesting pictures on there abnd dont be afraid. Just laugh and that will take away some of the shock. But tis really good down here in Ahoskie. We were supposed that have abaptism on the 29th but he disappeared! Who knows where he went but he showed up in wal-mart randomly around a corner. and we are planning on meeting with him again. hopefully we can resolve his concerns. but he came to church! He didnt seem too interested after he reappeared. he just said he was out of town for a week. but he never told us and it was his baptism week! :( werido. but through much prayer we ran into him and hopefully getting him back on track. (sorry my typing is soo bad right now. just try to udnerstand my fingers wont obey. ) we had another lady felita getting baptized ont eh 5th but she smoked again so that got pushed back. we have not seen her in 2 days which is not good. we are supposed to see them everyday! and we usually do but she kinda disappeared too. she has a really tough time at home with her husband so we are really helping her. and the change the spirit makes is incredible! elder hall felt prompted to try her a 4th time last friday when we had 5 mins till we had to be home. So we did and she was there! but with a lit cigarette. so we talked and she cried and said how she is unhappy and things are not working. so we prayed, and read scriptures and she prayed and let me tell you. investigators say the best prayers ever! It was so heartfelt and personal that it brought me to tears. we all were! and she addressed it, dear Heavenly Father, this is your daughter...and how...im getting the goose bumps right now typing this but when we left the spirit was sooo much different there. we made her a calendar to help her eachday till the 12th (her new baptism date) with scriptures.(my idea) and we also gave her a journal to help her with writing her thoughts to see her progress. (my idea again.) so the spirit is awesome when it comes to personal revelation! and prayers are answered as well! it was raining really bad yesterday while tracting and I didnt bring my coat or umbrella. :( so I prayed that my suit, tie and BOM wouldnt get ruined. I woke up this morning and my suit was more clean, my tie is perfect and the BOM has NO water damage at all! So prayer really really does work. I hope all is well. Sorry its kinda short but know I love ya'll. Im loving it out here very much. Thanks for the support both personal and financial. I know its a strain but think of the blessings we will all get after this life and during it.
3 Nephi 13:25-33
Love
Elder Malone

Letter to Jacque 12/18

you will have to tell me If i have an accent or not yet. I think I might be getting one a little bit. Things are good though! I love my companions and we all get along realy well. We have a baptism this weekend and another one next weekend. Then one on the 5th i believe. But they were all set up before I get here. but they are all awesome! its so cool to see the changes and how they go through so much to be able to live the way the Lord wants them to do. I totally used that pizza mcdonalds thing at some ladies door the other day. i dont know if she liked it but i will backhand anyone who doesnt think it makes sense. anti is so dumb. did you hear about that one guy ed decker? yeah he is apostate. haha its missioary lingo for not doing whats right. like going to bed after 1030 is apostate. its fun. well i need to go but thanks for the email, support, love,care, packages, and all else! Love elder Malone

Letter home on 12/18

Well our church is pretty sweet. it use to be an old restaurant so it has drive-thru salvation. :) yeah it rocks pretty awesome like. but its a good size one. they will get a real chapel if they can have an average of 60 people come to church for 3 months i believe. yeah we only average about 52 a week. haha small eh? i gave a talk last week though about the gospel. i think it went well. i also taught priesthood and gave a prayer a few sundays ago so they are really putting me to work which is awesome. we have a car and we drive about 50 miles average a day. yeah its a huge area. it goes up to the VA/NC border. so its crazy how much we drive. and for zone conference on friday we have to drive up the Denbigh in Newport News. Like a 3 hour drive from our house or so, so we might be spending the night up in franklin. i got some pretty sweet ties. we swap some times and they are way nice. i guess polyesters are the way to go because they can survive the summers out here so if you send ties please make them polies. :) but i ride bikes occasonally. its fun but it can really wear you out. just to answer all weather questions...i can take my jacket off at 70 degrees and i have taken my jacket off almost everyday last week. but now this week we wake up to 30 degrees so where it went I dont know. but i got more name tags. a magnet one and another clip one. i love those things. but im all set as far as everything goes. just really focusing and putting my head into the work and blocking out most everything.

My comps are great! one is from sequim,wa and the other from modesto, ca. he doesnt know aunt carol but he asked his mom and she does! its nice to be able to bash on utah without having to throw out disclaimers. but its soo fun though. we have soo many inside jokes and just little things that make it more enjoyable. and we have only been together 12 days! its insane but way cool. we are singing 22 songs on sunday for Christmas. its the way the program is set up. yeah weird huh? we started reading the BOM as a companionship. 14 pages a day and its nice. it really brings the spirit but we cant study other things which is sad no time. :( but i highlight everytime it says Christ or another of His names and its really intersting to see it all. elder rappleye and i saw eachother on last fri and it went well so its nice to know we are still friends. just not companions. :) but its ok.

Well not too much left to say. just relying on the spirit and laughing my head off with these guys. we have different words of the day and everything. so its cool. well i have to go ok
Love Elder Malone

12/3 Letters to Dad's house

We received some hand written letters from Greg, I'll try and hit some of the things he said.
To Alex: He was full of teasing! He goes to bed early and gets up early, he says it feels good to get up and exercise in the morning. Says he's "pretty huge now". He says boys are mean and he gets bored with them! He tells her not to kiss boys, they don't brush their teeth! and neither do dogs, so don't be sneaking around and kissing Gus (our puppy). he says quote, "I am sorry I talk about you and boys alot. But I know it's not as fun to kiss people when you're young. When you're old and in love is where the magic is! Not that I know anything about that one......:)".

To Jacklyn:He goes into people's houses and they have little girls her age and it makes him think of her. He tells her that she should feed Gus brussel sprouts. They are really good for dogs! And it makes them fart alot too! So feed him brussel sprouts and then lock him in Alex's room!:)
say your prayers EVERY night!

To Dad: (We had to smoke 25 chickens for a ward party) He says: "Dad,
:( Stop smoking! It's bad! Even though it's "only chicken" it could turn into turkey, then beef and venison! And once you hit venison there is no return! And then *BOOM* excommunication!" He really wants a missionary picture at the Stake Center. So that we can look at his pretty face. He used ya'll in a couple of places. He says that Preach My Gospel is the ultimate guide to everything! pg 107 is an awesome one he uses all the time. He says that he is going to need a new book, this one isn't going to last 2 yrs because he uses it all the time. He's excited about his Grandma and Grandpa Donn getting their mission call to NYC Manhatten temple. He thinks it's funny that gpa will be living in the big city. He says it's been a growing experience to learn to love his companion and put up with him. He prays alot for himself and companion and it's helped alot. Read the Bible dictionary under Prayer and it WILL change your views and the way your prayers go. In a positive way.

To Jacque: The anti-morman stuff is big out there. Alot of people look into it, which is dumb! You don't learn how to make pizza by working at
McDonalds! You don't learn about the church by anti material! Go to missionaries or websites! He stays away from it. Sometimes people battle with you to get you to say things, but "I just bare testimony and walk away before the spirit does!" He suggests that we carry around an extra Book of Morman to hand out. He suggests having them read the Introduction (especially the last 2 paragraphs), The Testimony of Joseph, the 3 &8 witnesses & Moroni's Promise. Its a good combination. Preach My Gospel pg 107 is a winner with people who are struggling!

Letter 12/4...he's being Transferred!

Mom,

I am being transferred to a place called Ahoskie( a-hoss-key), NC (i believe its in NC) but its down in the Chespeake Zone and in whats called tide water. aka the "tidewater trap" its hard to get out once you are in i guess. I will be in a threesome with Elders Brockman and Hall. I dont know either one but I'm very much looking forward to it. I will greatly miss this ward. some office staff and the Zls cleaned the apartment really well on saturday. like mop, wash walls and clean the carpet and bathroom. which makes sense. They did because sisters are moving into our ward. elder rappleye is going to be going down to a place calles negs head. i think. its over by me.

well I have raked a lot of leaves lately. like tons and tons. After a District meeting on last wednesday, a car was broken down in the road and others were just honking and going around. so we stopped and I pushed the car into the turn lane, across traffic and then up a hill out of the road. but the thing is that as hard as it was I thought how cool would it be to have that angel help like the pioneers did in the picture on the wall in the office? well i thought it but the car just got harder and harder, ( mind you this is a boat of a car.) so as i pushed it across traffic(no cars don't worry) the car took off from me and went up the hill a lot farther than I could have pushed it. and I knew that in my moment of weakness, when i thought i couldnt push it anymore, the angels came and helped me. whether they gave me strength or whether they took it I dont know. But I Do know that they are there. Willing to help as soon as we are ready to collapse. Everytime. I know that I didnt push that car by myself. it was a nice size car and hill. We are not making really any progress with whitney. she knows its true and embraces all of our teachings but she lacks in the knowledge and thats what is keeping her back I think. Oh and please send me some CD's for Christmas too! Like From Cumorah's Hill if its LDS published, some MOTAB and EFY CD's. They can be burned thats totally cool. Elder Funk and I were on exchanges and we were running late. So to help us get home on time, The Good Lord gave us green lights for about 7 miles down Midlothian Tpke. That is unheard of on Midlothian. So we felt blessed there too. OH and by the way! Start sending everything to the mission home. because it might take a while to get to me if it goes to midlothian and then Ahoskie. so they will forward it to me. but make sure it is all USPS nothing else!PLEASE! well thats all for now. Love you lots! thanks for EVERYTHING! Love Elder Malone

Partial letter from Greg 11/20/07

Well I got one package, the greenie one which was awesome! on thanksgiving I will only have 2 weeks left in my first transfer! how crazy is that? it also marks my 8 week mark! what the heck?! haha where did it all go? I dont know. but im loving it. I rode a bike for the first time eysterday! and it was sooo sweet. I got honked at too! haha i was loving every minute. its a lot better because you can stop faster and talk to more people, you get to know the area better and you are more in the action. plus the exercise is really great too. but it makes talking to people that much better when you ride 4 miles to get to their house. but the people here are so awesome. I meet new members all the time and they are soo into missionary work and they have people waiting to hear the gospel. thats the best way to get someone converted is member referral. 98% return appointments made are kept. and 30% are baptized. alot better than 2% for tracting if we find them. so really think and pray about who you can introduce to the missionaries. if everyone in the church invited someone to church we would build more buildings and imagine if 30% of them got bapitzed! thats like...4.5 million people or so! wow!

love you lots, love Elder Malone

Letter to Mom 11/13

Well I went to an authentic baptist church! it was the coolest thing in my life. haha so it was a clapping and praising good time! seriously they would sing soooo loud and clap too! and the choir would get into it and the people would stand up and shout and clap. the piano player would go nuts and just bang on the piano so hard it almost broke. then the drummer would just go crazy too. its all about their emotions and not spirit in it really. but it was awesome. then some preacher guy gets up in military uniform and prays for the people to have the spirit shouting "in the name of Jesus!" like 30 times over and all around me people are crying out amens and hallejuahs. and praise God. instead of saying umm they say amen at the end of every sentence and praise God when he changes subjects. it was awesome! oh an investigator is a minister there so thats why we went by the way not just cause.
umm i do a lot of tracting. IM thinking about joing the navy or army when i get home. this one Elder tells me stories and I love it. And this guy in my ward is in the navy so he flys and I love his stories too. Not any super amazing experiences really. I have just found that my knowlegde and stories about worldly things helps me when I talk to people. which is why I think I would be a good counselor and why I had so many trials all the time. I had pears and cream cheese last night. i heard its amazing but its ok. the ward is really doing well with missionary work. they are all getting into it. this one family has a baby just born with heart defects so its going to die soon. :( but it was only suppose to live a couple mins and its going still. its been over a week so good news there. prayer works. but hmm....thats it i think. i like that scripture you gave me and I love this new one i cant remember it. its like matt7:24 with Christ on the sermon on the mount about faith is not the only way to salvation. not just praising his name but acting in it. its good to read the scriptures. its better to study. but its best to live them. thats my words of wisdom for the week. read from the scriptures everyday for at least 30 mins. do it as a family too. it will help. i promise. love, Elder Malone

Letter from Greg 11/6/07

well another week has come and gone. but still the work is tough. I have a new quote:

"if missionary work gets easy, then you're not doing something right."- Elder malone

i really love the talk that President Eyring gave at conference in 2002 called Rising to your call and I would have anyone who gets any type of call to read it. it really is amazing how this gospel works. I went on an exchange with the zone leaders yesterday and actually learned more from him then I do my companion, sad as it is. but we taught a bunch of people and they all seemed really interested in the gospel. but they have to make the change and put forth the effort themseleves. and thats probably the hardest of all. especially when some guy chooses football over the word of God. Im wondering what he will say when God says, "as a matter of fact I DID send my gospel to your door. Rememeber those guys in ties and suits? that you said you were too busy to listen to becuase your football team was playing?" But Rita is struggling with the gospel. she invites us over to teach but she doesnt show up for her appointments so thats tough. especially on elder rappleye. But I keep the right attitude and look at every door as a new chance to help them. not the effects of an old door. Charles is a back-up baptist minister and he goes to his church over ours. so we are really hoping to get him to church. this sunday is fast sunday so we are probably going to his congregation then taking him to ours. im excited because I love going to those churches where they "praise the Lord! and sing hallelujah!" but im really hoping on those people we talked to at their door to call us. And we are also putting a ton of emphasis on the members and getting them going on a ward mission plan to help them reach out to their non member friends. so we are counting on referrals there too. OH! the sweetest thing happened. this little girl named tara richio ran up to me and said "elder elder! here!" and she handed me a drawing she made of me! it was the cutest thing in the world! and im mad we cant hug little kids so all i could do was giver her a piece of gum. :( but she is only 3 or 4 but still it was awesome, and I carry it with me all the time. but it helps me know more that I am a missionary because everyone calls me elder and I do the missionary work. its nice to be in virginia right now when everyone loves the missioinaries. especially when the world needs it soo much.everyone read up on bill carpenters conversion story. its truly amazing! love to all!
Love, elder malone

Letter to Jacque

Please dont name him Elder Malone. thats lame and what if you get mad at him or he dies? is it like a a voo-doo doll? no thanks. well im doing great! yeah have my mom put that poem up on the blog. its for everyone. its an ok one. i wrote it in about 15-20 mins. but whatever people want to out up on the blog is for all to read. just not personal stuff about me or help suggestions for others. well a pupppy? what kind? how about mr sticthes? or crosby? jynx? i dont know. but the people are awesome! here is my schedule 630 wake up 7 eat 730 exercise 745 show and dress 8 personal study 9 companion study 10 tracting!/appointments 1 lunch/study 2 more tracting/appointments 5 dinner usually with a member 630 visit less actives/recent converts 9 planning 930 get ready for bed 1030 sleep! its more detailed then the one i wrote my mom so probably put that one on my blog too. well i totally ate those drinks. yeah i ate them. they were really chunky. but still good. a tongan guy chugged 3 down without blinking. crazy kid. well i have to go but thanks for the letter. and tell grandma i said hi. have fun in san antonio! there will be a temple in virginia someday you can go to. love elder malone

from Marisa

Well, since my mom has sent me three invitations to contribute to this, I had better. From his letters Greg sounds amazing. His new picture of him arriving in Virgina confirms the fact that he is eating quite well! I talked to him at the airport before he left and he said "do you know how much you are paying for food?" I assured him I was well aware. Also he said " I forgot that normal people dont walk aruond in suits all day" That one made me laugh! Imagine everyone in your world walking around in suits... it was funny. Well, that is all for now! I miss my brother, but luckily he is gone doing something amazing. Bye!

10/30/07 Email and Update on Elder Malone!

See Emailing and Addresses for his new address. His p-day is on Tues. so expect an email then.
=====================================================
From Greg:

Well now at the Chesterfield county library I have an hour to write so good news there. But Im loving it in Virginia! it is amazing! The weather is really nice. Not too much color change on the trees because they havent had much rain lately. But its gorgeous. the ward is awesome! they are filthy rich. The knight family owns a Universtiy in Virginia for charity only. And they buy and run hotels from Hilton and Marriot. Among other things. But they are really awesome though. My typical day is wake up. study from 8-10 both personal and companion. then tracting till 1. then lunch and study till 2. then tracting or appointments. then dinner-usually by a member. then we teach them or they visit less actives with us or appointments. and then planning from 9-930 and then bed by 10. but they have a really cool ward mission plan. but im in Midlothian ward. and its really big. not with members but size. its about 15 mile radius? something like that. elder rappleye is really sweet. he is really smart and knows a lot about the gospel. OH! we visited a lady named Rita Keiser and after a year of teaching she said, "Well I cant have you guys come over anymore." so I got sad but then she said she wants to be baptized! so we were really happy about that. but it was part her fellowshipper. they are in the same boat with only member in family and kinda older with no family. and i placed my first Book of Mormon to a "die-hard episcopal" as she put it. but 15 mins on her doorstep and she was touched by the spirit. so she accepted the book and promised to read it! well thats mostly it for now.
Love Elder Malone

Update on Greg

(ok the dates on th pics are off)

Greg left for VA on Wed. Oct. 24th. Unbeknownst (his favorite word) to his family, he suprised us with an early morning phone call from the airport! It was so wonderful to hear his voice. He sounded happy and the same teasing, always-finding-something- to- get- into guy. There were 5 of them going to VA. He loved his time at the MTC and sent home 3 items to remember it by....an acorn, fall leaves and a square of TP. Apparently they tp'd the elders room, went playing in the fall leaves (I don't even want to imagine what the suit looks like after that) and he and his companion bonded over collecting acorns. He wrote a beautiful poem which if he gives me permission, I will post on here. He keeps feeling prompted to write a hymn, I'm assuming the lyrics only. He says he "enjoys the challenges and look forward to those in the mission field."

The mission home called me on Wed. night to tell me Greg had arrived safely and he ate a great dinner and was writing a letter and sending a picture of him. He was spending the first night at the mission home and then going to the local chapel the next day to train and then meet his trainer....sounds like dog obedience school to me!!! So now he is an official "greenie!" Anjum

Comments from Elder Malone

We've gotten a few letters and e-mails in the past couple of weeks. Greg seems very happy and loves learning so much about the gospel. He's kind of glad that he doesn't have to learn a language because he gets to go "way" deeper into the gospel. He says that he's following the rules and it's "surprisingly" easy. He wanted Halloween pictures from his sisters, but then said that Alex and Jacklyn will probably just be boogers and Kayla will think she's a "princess" again so never mind, it'll be just another boring year!

He really enjoying the changing of the leaves and weather in Utah and is very excited to get to Richmond on Wed. Oct 24th. He said to think about him at 3:00 pm Az time, he'll be at his new home. His time at the MTC has been wonderful and he says, "It's gone by so fast! The days are long, but the weeks are short."

He thanks everyone who talked him into going on his mission.

Elder Malone's First P-Day Letter!

Hey I finally got my email! Its gregorymalone@myldsmail.net.
please note the .net part. its not .com!

things are going amazing here! Its my first preperation day
and im lovin it! Its so werid to think its already been a week.
like its been really full but I dont know how to explain. its so
fun though. Im learning so much already. its nice not learning a
language because we can get into the deep doctrine. oh and not
meaning to brag but at our devotional last night we had a talk by
Elder Gerald N. Lund. Yes the author of work and the glory. and i
shook his hand!

My companions name is Elder Hatch. He is crazy. we have a lot of fun
together and its funny but we play like we are mad at eachother but we
never really are. but other elders look at us funny. The food is delicious
of course! and endless too so im afraid to step on a scale. I exercise
too so no worries right?

A normal day for Elder malone is wake up and get to class by 7 am.
Personal Study till 815.
Breakfast till 9
Class from 915 till 1
Lunch at 115
Class from 2 till 6.
Dinner from 615 to 7
Then class till 9.
then planning for the next day

but with conference its been a little mixed up which is good. and class
is not just sitting but teaching and going to different workshops. they
have so much different things to do. I called a lady in new jersey and
asked how she liked the pamphlet on familes. she enjoyed it alot so i
offered for the missionaires to come by with a Book of Mormon and she
agreed! she was a devoted catholic and said she was having a really rough
time. but they awesome part is also that i had prayed for someone to pick
up the phone and no one did. but i kept the faith and prayer in my heart.
and look what happened! the Lord blesses those who seek for an answer. and
by the trial of their faith will He answer them! I know this to be true.
Thank you so much for all the pushing you did to get me out here. its really
paid off. and Im missing home but not enough to come home yet! haha
sorry. maybe in 725 days. love to all!

Elder Malone

Emailing, Writing and Addresses:

EMAILING:
You can email Greg at: gregorymalone@myldsmail.net

WRITING:

If you want to avoid the hassle of getting stamps, writing etc. you can also sign up on DearElder.com to write letters which will be mailed to him by the dearelder people. They print them and mail them for you....just choose his mission.

Or Write to him at the addresses posted below. 

LIVING ADDRESS:

Address for where he's living in NC:

Not Available yet...plz send letters to email or the mission home


Mailing Address for the Mission Home in Richmond, VA:
please use this address for mailing packages and when you don't know his regular address-

Elder Greg Malone
Virginia Richmond Mission
9327 Midlothian Tpke. Ste 1-B
Richmond, VA 23235-4944

Elder Malone Enters the MTC!

Greg and Nate Johnson (friend going to Nicaragua) both entered the MTC on Oct. 3, 2007 at 12noon to begin their service to their Father in Heaven for the next 2 years! He looked so wonderful in his blue suit and red tie. His mom, dad, stepmom and friends accompanied him. Pictures will be posted soon. Mom got to put his name tag on him. Then we all went into the chapel to listen to talks by his MTC Mission President and watch a video. Then came d-time....hug goodbye and he goes one way and we go another. Tears flowed freely...except him of course...he was too excited. His estimated date of departure is Oct. 24 for Virginia. See the address section for his current address. He LOVES care packages and letters! Check back often for news.