Lot's of news!

Well dear people some really cool things have happened this week:

-We set Anne, the old lady with the hair problem for baptism. Aug 2 I think. Its more of a tentative date to get her thinking about it. She has to come to church 4 times before she can be dunked. But she has 4 weeks now to come to church. we did tell her we have sisters to do her hair and she said maybe."its too early for them to come over." early meaning 830ish. but they would do it. so she just needs to make that step for herself. but all we need is one week and she will be coming forever.

-We set another girl named Tiffany for baptism too! July19. she is awesome. she is only 12 too. and she has a strong testimony. just the cutest little girl ever and really nice. she gives us flowers when we go over there. and she asked me to do her confirmation too! that was an unexpected honor. Im really excited for her to baptized.

-Transfers came in. I am still in Glen Allen with Elder Meyers as a DL. good news. I love this place. and there is about 3 people who could be baptized this next transfers not including the two mentioned above. lots of work and lots of time but lots of blessings. But thats not what im doing it for though. not trying to sound all noble or anything. But i do it because i want to. beacuse it brings people joy and I love seeing their eyes light up for us. or hearing an investigator pray for the first time. as hard as it may be. its from the heart and very spiritual. its amazing!

-Well another miracle is this less active lady named Carrie Owens. she hasnt been to church in 14 years! and after some work with her, she came to the first two meetings last sunday! it was awesome. she fit in really nicely. and in class, she mentioned us as her push and thanked us. she said that elder malone is very persuasive. :) i hope its good. am I really though?

-Not to mention we met a guy who is into Scientology. if you ever get to meet one of those people please do. they are awesome! really really crazy to believe such things but nice people. I dont want to put down thier beliefs but its interesting talking to them. ill leave it at that.

-Well I wanted to thank everyone for their wonderful letters. It's been great hearing from yall. sorry if its taken a while to write back. no worry though. keep em coming. I love hearing from y'all. and i am going to do better at writing my week for y'all too. I think it would really help to talk about that to keep focused. too much outside distractions come in through emails. and plus it can be kinda homesick sometimes. so please try to include uplifting things and spiritual experiences. its so important to keep focused. and President said that it would help to write more in my emails and to recieve things that are uplifting. as much as i love hearing about things. my main focus is out here. so please in the nicest of ways, keep the daily events to a minimum. thanks so much!

love to all yall,
Elder Malone
p.s. friday is watermelon day. so eat up. i know i am.

Birthday list anyone???

Well all is well today and so far. Last week though we had like 8 appointments dropped. They just didn't show up! So its been getting a little frustrating trying to get a hold of people. The work is really slowing down. But its awesome though because its all the work of the adversary trying to slow it down. So we just work harder at calling people and trying to contact them. and it doesn't always work but when you pray at night and account the day to the Lord I feel His smile on my day. And some thoughts for how to do better for tomorrow. So its nice to receive that daily.

I know that all of you are really worried and anxiously awaiting my birthday list. so here it is.
-Food(dry stuff is good.)
-Cologne( my top choice is 360 degrees by Perry Ellis...the blue color)
-pictures from home
-money to fix my bike and buy things needed
sorry its a pretty lame list. but I'm not a man of material things. if I need it I'll buy it. and that's where number 4 comes in. but its always good to smell good. sorry...i really don't know what else to put on there. use y'alls imagination. I'm open to anything. i got a Hannah Montana cake for my first district meeting. it was awesome. i love her.

Speaking of district meeting we just had one on Friday and it was awesome! I really planned it out to try and maximize the spirit and it worked! I was afraid it wouldn't turn out as well as I wanted it to but it really did. We talked about properly preparing our investigators for baptism and how to do so. then we practiced setting them for baptism. and that really helped invite the Spirit. We had some time set apart for pondering and really trying to see how we could reach out to our investigators needs, and it turned out to go really well. So we had a lesson with Anne, this one lady, and we set her for baptism on august 2! she is really nice. we tracted into her a few weeks back. she is kinda cranky but really nice. she is very interested and knows the church is true. she doesn't doubt it. she just needs(and wants) to read the BOM. once she does and comes to church she will be baptized! the hard part is that she had shoulder replacement surgery so she cant lift her arm and she cant do her hair. we have tried so many different ways to help her come and it wont work. she wont come until she ca do her hair to look "presentable" for the Lord. which is good and all...but its been 3 years for her like this. so we talked about her putting the faith first and then the miracle will follow. (Ether12) so we are just going to leave it up to her now. Transfers are coming up next Thursday. we don't find out who is leaving until next week. But I don't think either myself nor Elder Meyers will be leaving. We work really well together. and we haven't had any fights or quarrels. so its really nice. and the bike is really good now too. its easy to bike and fun sometimes. I'm not afraid of the weather. it's my legs I'm afraid will give out. but the Lord is on my side. I ran over a nail and it punctured through the tube on both sides so its in the shop now getting serviced. so please put money into my account asap. i don't know how much but alot should suffice.

Nothing really new lately. Happy birthday to everyone who has one coming up in June. its weird to think that my "blackout year" or my full year as a missionary is half gone. its gone by too fast. next year it wont be all spent in VA. that is not a good feeling or thought. i really love it out here. there is nothing that is too bad, that prohibits us from sharing the Gospel. why should we let anything get in the way? the Saviour didn't. so I wont.
Love Elder Malone
p.s. Alma 5

He's teaching a guy named TED?????!!!

Hey y'all!
Really quick... sorry for the short email. times are good. the humidity is coming and so is the heat. We have a baptism on the 7th with a lady named Akua Johnson. she is soo awesome and soo prepared. she has been wanting to investigate for a while now and she was almost done with the lessons when I came in. so we just set her and she actually said no. so when we came back the next week she said she had her baptism date picked out! so it was really awesome. we didn't fail at setting her. We just put it on her mind and possibly in her prayers. so that was a great blessing there.

Also...we are teaching a guy named Ted and he invited us over for pizza tonight. I kid you not when I say that he is a Ted. he is a really nice guy. this will be our first actual lesson/meeting with him so I really hope it goes well. The only problem we are running into is people to come to church. We really need them to come so we can get people to fellowship them with and get them feeling the spirit. I fasted for it yesterday and we had some show up. which is really awesome. but we still need more! and I'm not being greedy or anything but we cannot baptize them until they come to church! But its amazing to see the hand of the Lord in my day. He is always there in yours too. You just got to look to find it. That is my challenge his week. Find His hand and then love it.

Love Elder Malone

So you get to be a District Leader!...

Ok let me try this thing out. Well things are going really well in Glen Allen.
1. Elder Davis is pretty alright. He is very by-the-book Elder and it kinda bugs me sometimes but no worries. he is VERY obedient. which sometimes its needful to follow the Spirit of the law and not the letter. and so he has some hesitants but he does alright. there are more blessings from obedience. too many to count. im trying to help him relax a little. he beats himself up too much about little things. like the other day he was feeling bad so he thought it was from disobedience. I said he was fine. he is very obedient. he said, "well i could definitely improve. like I could wipe up the counters after i use them. that might help. " i laughed and told him he is fine. but he didnt really agree so we shall see.

2. being a District Leader is way fun! i got to do exchanges with Scotchtown Elders the other day. and one is Elder Roberts so just like old times and the other is Elder Blight. he goes home in like 3 weeks so i learn from him mostly. but it was a lot of fun! and i get to stay up about 10 mins late on sundays to do numbers. because my fax is lame so it takes a while. but other than that no worries. I did hold my FIRST district meeting and it went really well i hear. it was combined with another district to make it bigger. and then my district (only scotchtown) suprised me with a Hannah Montana cake in celebration/embarassment. it was awesome! and she is way cute too.

3.We have a baptism on saturday the 3rd of May. its a Cambodian family. they are so dedicated to the gospel. if we tell them about something then they do it! their names are Shawn(dad) and Michelle(daughter) Mao. like he threw away all his coffee and tea as soon as we told them to. so they are so excited for it! i get to confirm Michelle on Sunday and Elder Davis is dunking both of them. im scared. ive never done that before. but it will be so awesome. the Spirit is the strongest in those circles. blessings are powerful but not as much as a confirmation circle (sorry girls). and scotchtown gets to have a lady be baptized on the 18th of may. our zone will have 13 baptisms in may! how sweet is that? president millburn asked for 10 a zone every month! and we are! but the coolest thing is that I will get to interview their candidate for baptism. how scary huh?! but way awesome too!

4. the tornados were not in Richmond. but they were down south and around us. there is nothing to clean up or help with around here so no service there :( but i am looking forward to a hurricane soon.)

5. DONT BE AFRAID OF EMAILING ME! I love getting emails but try to not have them be novels. dont leave things out because you are afraid its too long. I only have specified to certain people that their emails are too long. and its not a picky thing. all the emails i get takes up more than a hour. so i am constantly behind. but please continue to send them! i love hearing from all ya'll! just no novels! thanks.

6. we went to a place called Maymont Park today. it was so cool! it had a zoo type of thing and a japanese garden. that was the coolest part. then we played football and i rolled down the hill. it was a blast! i love Richmond soo much!

Love Elder Malone

The Move to Richmond.....

Well Elder Davis is pretty alright. We get a long great. He is very obedient so a big change for me. It keeps me going so I like it some. I finally found out his schtich you could say...something that makes me itch that just settles a little off with me. He is very tight about his money and eats very healthy-like. so not a huge thing. but its different. We get along well for the most part. Being more obedient has really helped me see more missionary miracles. little prayers answered throughout the day that make it much better. tracting is going well actually. its really tough because everyone has been tracted into so we just introduce it differently. its a challenge to say the same message different ways every time. but you'd be surprised how i can relate anything back to the restoration. all in all though its going well. Glen Allen is a really nice ward. lots of good member work going on so we have people and dinners too! that's a huge step up. biking is getting hard but sometimes its easy too. in Richmond, if you're not going down you're going up. so just think of that all day. sometimes we take downhills but then you got to come back up. tough times but its just all about working the natural man out of you. and the harder I work, the more I show the Lord that I want to work for Him and bring His children home. so that's my mindset while I bike. it works i suppose. Not too much to tell. We did give a lady in the hospital a blessing. She had some bacteria so we wore these gowns and gloves while we did it. something different. well sorry its short and late. but times precious. love to all.
Love, Elder Malone

BIG NEWS!!!

Alright people are you ready for a huge shock?!?! I sure as heck fire was when I found out...Well here it is. I got a call from Elder Coles last night right as we were opening our mouths to say our prayer. He is an AP so that meant something on transfer night especially. Well it turns out he wanted to talk to me! And he said, "Elder Malone, after some careful and prayerful consideration, we would like to extend to you to be the District Leader in the Glen Allen district. Its in the Richmond Zone(or stake). As we were doing transfers, we realized that we needed one more District Leader. And President Millburn and we all agree that you are more than capable to fill this role. So do you want it?" HAHA well needless to say, I was more than stunned. Why me? I didn't think that was what President was talking about when he said "big change" and " prepare yourself well." Who knew?! so there it is! I'm going up to Richmond VA to be a district Leader over 2 other companionships. My new companion will be Elder Davis who is one transfer younger than I. And from what i know a really awesome guy! So talk about a responsibility! But I prayed to the Lord to help me and comfort me when I find out where I am going so I know that it is where HE wants me to go. And I got the sweetest most peaceful feeling ever thought about. It gave me such comfort. And I later thanked Heavenly Father repeatedly for the support and comfort He gave me. I know I will rely on Him a lot this transfer but I look forward to it. I pray that I might be humble in serving them and helping my district in the way that they need it the most. I see this as a great opportunity to prove myself to the Lord and Mission President that I can do it! Now there is a catch, I'm getting shotgunned in there which means that neither I nor Elder Davis are there currently so we are starting from scratch when it comes to knowing people and the whereabouts of things. So it should be a great adventure. Oh..and I'm on bike. :) but i will love every minute of the heat and sweat that will be coming. Coats off now till next conference! so that is much better on bike. I love the Lord soo much. not just now but I always have. He is my best friend out here. And will be at home too! he gives me soo much strength when all I do is turn to Him and just tell Him what is wrong. He always provides a way. Like Sister Tanner said on Sunday, "The Lord is a 4th watch Lord.' He comes at the last minute to help us. Last minute for us but just in time for Him. He will never abandon us." I KNOW that with all my heart. Ahoskie has taught me a lot and I will look back knowing that its been really growing. And Ahoskie is getting closed for a while. no more missionaries which is why I'm cleaning all day today and tomorrow and packing. so i don't know my new address yet but I will soon.
Love to all. and thanks for the prayers,
Love Elder Malone

Letter home on 3/25/08

All right lets see how this thing works. My typing is off today so it will probably be a little un- coordinated. Elder Q says that when I talk to people on the phone I drop a drawl. which I think is awesome and he just laughs about it. He says I use southern words alot which he thought was just out of joking but I'm serious when I use them. So he says, "oh...hes not being funny. huh:)" like if i ask "what ya'll want for supper?" he thinks I'm being funny. but I'm seriously asking what they want for supper! whats wrong with that? nothing i like it. :)

We are all getting along better. just dumb little things piling up. I have been speaking my mind more than i want to but its helped on some ways. it helps me get some stuff out and really get the whole picture. not just what i think but it helps clear my mind of wrong ideas. so its bitter sweet. Honestly through it all, I have not lost the faith. I have lost the faith in missionaries and repented, but I have not lost the faith that the Lord is helping me every step. And that soo many people pray for me everyday. We are the most prayed for people in the world! So that helps the confidence some. I feel bad for sending any bad vibes home. I apologize. I realize that I shouldn't be quick to judge. I normally don't judge. but when you are around someone soo much and we have a strict code of conduct. you tend to see every step they take outside of it and focus on the bad. so i am really changing how I view myself and others. It amazing how the Lord answered me in His own time and no soo much my time. He tested me to see how much"long-suffering" i could endure. and I guess it was a long time. because it has been a super long time to me. But to Him like a second. Because He sent His spirit "to comfort me when faint." and "I feel my Savior's love" especially as I do what I love doing most. serving others. its crazy how it works out. i love to serve. especially knowing I won't get anything on the other end makes me happy. because then I know its the right reasons and I hate doing things for the wrong reasons. So i serve others and it helps me feel better as well as become a better person. I realize my own weaknesses and work those out as I work with others.

My new favorite scripture chapter is Ether 12. And i extend to all of you a challenge to read and pray about it. especially verse 27. its great to talk about. and it cross references perfect with Alma 32. So please read and pray and ponder about those scriptures. because they will humble you and make you realize how much you need the Lord's trials. I got a million but it only feels like 1 small one. because of this amazing blessing from the Lord. Matthew 11:28-30. and then i think about in times of trial, this is the Lord in my response to help, "And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and said, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14:31) just remember that He immediately stretches forth His hand and tells us to be of good cheer and have faith. I challenge you all to look to the Lord in times of need. I know He will help us if we ask Him.

Love Elder Malone

Letter from Greg 2/26/08

Well I don't know how this will go. I haven't been able to clearly put all my thoughts down on paper like I really want to. I have been doing some real up and down times in life. Just extreme lows and highs. But i can really feel love for the people now.

Good news! A lady here named Felita, got baptized in Jan. She is moving to Scottsdale in June to go to culinary school there! So she will be there when I'm home! how sweet is that? I'm looking forward to her living there. she is sooo awesome.

Well I'm sorry to say but I had a crazy black lady propose to me the other day. She is really interesting. She is a member of the holiness church. Pentecostal. yeah they are crazy and everywhere! and she likes to talk to us. but has this weird attraction to me for some reason. so we talk with her through her screen. and i don't talk much to her but she will occasionally stop the conversation to talk to me, and she randomly asked me if i would marry her. I said no of course and my only nice excuse i could say was "I'm on a mission." i didn't want to say because you're old or Pentecostal but she didn't think it was a good excuse. but luckily she left it alone. yeah she is weird.

I have always prayed before my study in the morning to use what I learn throughout the day. and it finally happened! we were teaching Felita and everything I had learned in the morning about loving others and using the BOM helped her exactly as she needed! it was so amazing to see that even the random scriptures I cross-referenced had helped her out too! it truly was a tender mercy from the Lord and I thanked Him ten times over for that. it was awesome to see the fruits of my labor for that day. I met brother Zundel's family out here. This guy in my ward passed away the week after President Hinckley. And his daughter married Brother Zundel's cousin. whose last name is the same. so when he introduced himself i found it couldn't be just a coincidence. so i asked if he had family in AZ and he said he did in mesa! so it was his cousin! it was really cool. he took pictures that he should have sent to brother zundel. they are from Maryland i believe.

Sorry my typing is poor. my hands are shaking pretty badly. Last night was transfer calls. so we can stay up later! and elder quebbeman and i decided to duct tape 2- 2 liter bottles of soda to our hands and drink it! we both only got one down in an hour and gave up. but it was awesome.

It will be Elder Quebbeman, elder Roberts and myself in Ahoskie now, so its good. I heard elder roberts is a strong obedient missionary...exactly the one I was praying for which is good to know. I do not hold myself higher than any other missionary, but i am here to grow.

I would suggest to everyone to please go and buy the new spring Oreos!they are to die for and also if you submerge them in milk.... its like celestial kingdom worthy. i tell you what. oh man. but i thank everyone for their kindness and support no matter what. sorry about my lacking to write. it tough out here. not so much physical but mentally.
Love Elder Malone

p.s. don't keep hidden wedges. read president monson talk in July 2007! good stuff!

Letter home on 2/12/08

Ok so to start off, I had the coolest thing ever happen to me the other day! Ok, so we are told that we have to contact every single referral given by Salt Lake last year this year. So we have been doing a lot of that and we went over to this one lady's house. It was in a pretty bad trailer park and there were some cars outside. AND some dogs...oh yeah. So we walked up and the littler of the dogs was going crazy barking! But it seemed harmless so we walked on. Till we approached the beast... it was a massive dog and we second thought it but as servants of the Lord, we pressed on. We finally reached the steps and the little dog is off the wall barking. It's right by the steps so we walk up and it jumps at elder quebbeman, so we use the bible to repel it away. We all get up the steps and.... well, they are not home. so i take the shot at walking down the steps to see if the little dog will cause trouble because he was hiding. sure enough as i hit the ground he came at me. i thought i was out of his reach but no....he took a nice size bite at my left leg! so now with pain in my leg i look around and he is cowering away. so i tell him i will kill him if he comes back again. so the other two are safely able to get off the porch and im limping away with a battle wound that rivals most veterans. :L) not really. it tore my pants good and got some nice teeth marks in me. A little bit of blood but we stopped rabies by putting hand sanitizer on it. :) it worked. So, pictures are coming. we were going to email them but we forgot the camera. so...yeah thats the week for you.

Pretty much not too much left. Transfers are soon and I am excited for that. But I wanted to say how tough it is living with someone, well one of them. But with the Lords help I am able to look at them with a new light. Sure its tough and every 10 mins I'm praying for strength but last night He turned me around to view a road I had not seen. A new path... and what i thought was a dead end arose up and helped me. So i dont know where it goes but I know its better than where i was.

May we all look towards Him in our times of triumph, sorrow, need and thanks is my prayer. Love Elder Malone

Letter on 2/5/08

Things are good here. We have a GPS provided by elder quebbeman so we dont get lost. We are teaching a lot of people. one is set for baptism and a few others are almost there. ruth is set for the 23rd of feb. and has come twice to church. she needs 4 times so we are praying she still comes. she has a ways to go but is trying hard.

The funeral for President Hinckley was really awesome! I almost cried. he was an amazing man and a great example of work. He has given us all a charge to double baptisms in the north american missions so I think that it would be a great way to honor him by doubling the baptisms. so please do all you can to get referrals for the missionaries. I know that the Lord puts thoughts into your minds of people to refer. and even if you dont think they are right, the Lord does. So follow those thoughts. And tell everyone else that as well!

Well we had some crazy mice all over the apartment lately. But after we put out sticky traps and other traps they have disapperared. We caught 3 so far. I will not tell you what I did with them all but as you can see from some pictures, we did use fire. they deserved it.... pooping on our counters and eating our food! stupid meese. and President Capser the branch president is ok with us killing them! everyone is and everyone else does it so no worries there.

I thank everyone for their packages and support. I didnt get carols but I did get the valentinos. and a letter they had sent the MTC back in november finally came through the other day.

I am really relying on the Spirit lately for strength among the most of things. But mostly for inspiration. Its easy to get used to the spirit and its easy to lose it too. I have really seen how much hard work can turn into a small amount of return. Unfortunately thats how it is sometimes. But I know that no effort is wasted when it comes to the Lord's work. So I continue to press on and keep going. I work hard at teaching and harder on my companionships. Both are essential and both can become extremely difficult.

Just last night I had a gentleman ask about circumsion. And he proceeded to say how his preacher said he is unclean for not being circumsized. Now mind you, I really wanted to know that so we told him that its not required anymore. And then he continues to talk about it and he is also sitting there without a shirt on too so that added to the effect before my eyes! it was awesome! well not really but it was hard to not laugh. especially when we held hands to pray. I am glad I grew up normal. Thats all for now I believe. thanks for the support you give!

Love Elder Malone

The Famous Scarf he rarely takes off!!!