Norfolk 2nd Ward...

It's a good little ward. not too much excitement for missionary work though. I don't know how to explain it. It's like there is, but the members are not that interacting with the missionaries like normal. So it's something I'm trying to work on. My companion is Elder Stokes. He is an alright guy. He kinda takes over the role of SR companion for now which is fine, he knows the area better. But I still need to jump in when he plan on doing something ridiculous, like biking 2 miles to stop by a guy, then bike 1 to stop by a lady, then go back home for 3 miles for lunch. I say just pack a lunch, plan to work the area around that person and lets go. So longer days, but it pays off. The Lord helps us.

Other than that it's alright. Trying to stay dry, I'm sopping wet after a short ride, so I wear a bandanna to keep the sweat from out of my face. It works good. actually y'all will not believe this but I'm actually eating a WHOLE LOT healthier than i use to. (besides the cookie dough and snickers pie Elder Leonard made today). mostly whole-grain breads, tuna and water. I ran out of money a while back so I'm surviving off the food that no one really claimed in the apartment. I don't want to use my personal card because in the real life, there is no "fall back cash". It's tough, but paying off. My health is up and my body fat is going down. We have a scale that measures it, so with eating 6 healthy, small meals a day, and lots of exercise and water i will be lean and mean in October. yeah baby!

I'm already buff so its just the lean part. seriously, y'all know its true. so along with that, if anyone feels compelled to send me some:
-tuna/chicken in water
-brown rice
-peanut butter
-dried fruit
-almonds or other nuts( not peanuts)
-other non-perishables
that would be splendid. thanks family!

Well in the Norfolk news, its a great place. I'm definitely going to be a pilot in the Navy soon after the mission. I love love love hearing the planes fly overhead and seeing them. It's gorgeous. A TOTAL distraction but I don't care. The area is nice. a lot like Deep Creek with its rough areas and nice areas. So far so good. We are really trying to find more people to teach. You can never have too many. They were teaching a couple of people when I first got here, but they are on the slow track. we need to step them up. Oh we also have Sisters in our ward too. We live with the 1st ward Elders in their area. The 1st and 2ND ward Sisters live together in our area. They are really great Sisters too. hard working. Unfortunately they are not finding too much success. :( super sad day, but they remain faithful! I'm really hoping to help the ward not only gain trust in the missionaries but mostly in helping the sisters. Its super easy for members to love Elders, but its really hard for some to like sisters. I don't know why. They are stellar. One of the Elders in the 1st ward is Elder Leonard, one of the guys from my MTC group. So we have a good time. Oh and the sisters in the 2ND ward, our sisters, are the ones who drive "Lily" my car from Deep Creek. So they had to fix the dent in it this week. so they are walking,poor girls. It's like high 80s all week. They get rides though.

Last night I met a Muslim guy who is going to give me a Koran this week some time. He is a really neat guy. I told him all about Sri Lanka and asked about the Muslim faith. Very similar to ours...very similar. It's amazing how close they are. Their Koran is our BOM written to provide a 2ND witness to the things in the Bible. Their Mohammad is our Joseph Smith. So basically the same thing. I would encourage everyone to look more into other faiths and be familiar with them. It provides good knowledge and proper understanding of others beliefs. Especially because we want people to learn about our faith, we should do the same thing.

Well not too much left to talk about. just really working on getting pretty for October, and trying to not think about it. It's easy. Also, trying to avoid getting such a dark tan this year. too late though, in 3 days I've changed like 2 shades. Seriously it's terrible. Get me a do-rag and call me Shequan.(pronounced shay-kwan). oh yeah.

love to all y'all,
Love, Elder Malone

I'm a grandpa!

Elder Holley, my son, is training this transfer! Which makes me a grandpa! haha that makes me feel old, mission wise. But I will get a generational picture tomorrow and have to send it out. I guess he didn't turn out so bad after all huh?...odd.

I have 4 transfers left, including this one. And i am going down to Norfolk 2nd ward in the VA Beach stake. I've never served in that one before but I've been to Norfolk plenty. WE are on a bike and I'm excited. Have I mentioned how much I love biking? Well I really do. So I might need some money to get it back in working order. Actually I need 20 dollars. We HAVE to wear these ridiculous yellow reflectors and leg straps all the time... to keep cars from hitting us, (hmm...a little late?) so good news is no more cars! Bad news is, more Mormon jokes. We are known for the white shirts and black pants, and soon also the yellow bandalos. President thinks they are the greatest thing ever....He is also bald, so phooey on him. Here is my new address in case anyone really cares:

Elder Humility
6411 Crescent Way #203
Norfolk, VA 23513

Now a lesson on Norfolk. Don't get confused with the pronunciation of it with Suffolk. Suffolk= Suf-folk...Norfolk=Nor-fick. I would write the southern way to say Norfolk but that involves a bad word but it is properly said with that word in there. Perhaps if I'm feeling rebellious one day, ill say it for y'all. its ok for me, I'm a missionary, and its my mission language. I feel like this is a small transfer too. I won't be in Norfolk very long. I think the Lord is really just hopping me around to keep it fresh, and to utilize me in ways I'm needed. I have often felt that I'm here more to bless than to be blessed. A lot of my companions had things I could help them with. Maybe ill be a counselor one day. who knows.

Miracles in Farmville. Well, we had 4 to church which is nice. WE are dropping some people and picking up a few new ones. Not too many actually. But the branch just loves how hard we work. They are very impressed at our attitude on not wasting time or doing dumb things. So we got a good reputation going there. Which has brought about a greater missionary spirit. So this Sunday we are teaching some friends of a member. The best kind to get because the member will be there. So talk about a blessing. Those have a 80% rate of getting baptized I believe. So invite your friends!

I'm not excited to leave, but it feels ready. Which is odd because of Crystal, being sent here to teach her. But the Lord knows what He is doing with His Elders. And I know that President is inspired man. so...we shalljavascript:void(0) roll with the punches.

Love to all,
Elder Malone

Miracles

So first things first, we had some really neat miracles this week. Lets recount them:

1) Elder Neugubauer taught a guy named Edmond in downtown Richmond last couple of transfers. He was doing really really well, keeping all his commitments and all, but then he disappeared. So we are walking along the road around the college on Monday, and sure enough guess who we run into? Seriously! After a few weeks he turns up to be in Farmville, VA of all places. He got in a car wreck and had been struggling so he is in town for a while. We are meeting with him tonight. Really neat though how things turned out. He is excited to get back into the Book of Mormon and church. :)

2) There was someone that had met with the missionaries back in January, only once though. Nothing really came of it. Well sure enough, he called us last night and asked about church and what it as like. We told him and commited him and his girlfriend to come to church. Their names are Sidney Thompson and Austin Miller. So we are meeting with them tonight also. But what a blessing to have some random people from a few months ago just up and call for church and lessons!

3) Well I may have said this before, maybe not, but there is someone here that im
supposed to teach. It was made clearly known to Elder Clegg, when he was praying for transfers. He got the impression that I should come to Farmville to teach a lady named Crystal Burley. I had heard about her form other missionaries but didnt think much of it. Well when i got here, I looked her up and her information. We attempted contact with no success. Well one day in wal-Mart parking lot we happen to see her in her car.So I go and talk to her and find out who she is. She said she recognized the missionary tag and all. Well not too much came of it unfortunately. We contacted the member that she is very familar with and told her that we wanted her to set up an appointment with Crystal and us. (Crystal had been reading the Book of Mormon on her own). The member was a little apprehensive, so I quickly bore my testimony about how the Lord made it known that we ARE the missionaires that are meant teach her. The Spirit was strong, and she agreed that she needed to do it. That was Friday. Monday, I called her and she said that Crystal was anxious to meet with us! So we set up an appointment for tonight at 6pm. Family, friends, and family of my companion, please pray for her. We have been praying for a baptism this month. It could be her it could not be, but there IS indeed a reason why she is now ready. We need your prayers for her too. so when you read this, if you will pray for her to understand in her heart and mind the message that we are teaching her, that will do wonders. Thanks sooo much.

I love yall alot. Im not ready to come home just yet, but I will be when the time comes. I love missions. they're gooder 'n grits.
love
Elder Malone

Where in the Hades is Farmville, Va?

Well, its considered the heart of Va. So if you get a map and point to the middle, somewhat, you'll find me. I love it out here. I was uncertain as to how I would like it. we got a very unexcited response to us our first Sunday. We don't have very many members in the branch, so we are working on that. We are making sure to not waste time at members homes and to be on time. It builds trust you see. That's what we need. We are working on getting the Priesthood more involved also. We need exchanges and they need the blessings/growth.

Here is some miracles and people we are teaching:

-Bobby Carwile and Sam Elholm, have been investigating for a while now. They are a really great family. I'm excited that they are still talking with us. They plan to get married soon but they don't know when. Also they want to be baptized, so we set them for a date to help speed things up. They are praying about April 25th. They feel really good about it, they face a lot of trials but they are being blessed for their obedience. We had a powerful lesson the other day. It's funny because we felt strongly about sharing a particular lesson with them, we get there and they bear a powerful testimony of it right off. So the Spirit helps us to address their needs and it was probably one of the most Spiritual lessons. Only twice have I born a testimony that brought me to tears during a lesson. It was amazing the way the Lord used me. I was extremely humbled that night. Good things are happening there...

-Jay B, we met him walking along the road. He said he met with the missionaries before and it was mostly his GF who was interested. Well he agreed to meet again and he loves it! He was going to go to church at another church, but we committed him(after a really long, Spiritual lesson) to come with us. He did and felt everything really speak to him. He said, if this really is the truth, then I want to jump right in and just go for it. Well he is doing that because he got his confirmation. Amazing...

-We had 6 people to church last week too. Probably the most I've had my whole mission. The members are bringing friends and they love it. We are actually going bowling with some of the YSA's tonight to get to know them a little bit better before we teach them. Good way for lots of people to come together and see us as people, not just Elders.

Also our first day here we met a really neat kid at Goodwill named Brian. He is pretty interested. He is coming bowling so he will get involved more in the branch which is really good. He loves to learn, so we hope its more of a wanting to convert and not so much, I want to learn. He is tough to teach though because he stares you down and doesn't look away. So it can be tough to determine his understanding.

Well much love to all y'all. thanks for the prayers. I'm having such a great time out here. We are being blessed. I'm back up in Richmond(ish). I have some of my favorite people in this zone too, so the meetings are really great. Its such a great way to do missionary work. with those you love.

My love to all,
Elder Malone