Bye Bye Burila

Well we got transfer calls this Saturday and Elder Burila is headed

out. I'll be staying here in the good old Shenandoah Valley!!! Its sad

that Elder Burila is leaving cause everyone loves him here but I'm

pumped I get to stay, I love this place!!

Okay so last week we got our hair cut at this tiny barber shop in

Staunton. It's run by just one black guy named Jerrod, he's super

sick. There were 8 other people packed in there and we had to wait at

least an hour to get our hair cut. We were also the only white people

there which was fun, all of Jerod's homies would just stop in and he'd

stop his hair cut and talk to them. I quote directly from one of his

friends who walked in "Aye Jerrod, what's up ya filthy animal! Yo ima

swing by in an hour and you can gimme a cut" It was pretty funny haha.

Another guy came ina me looked at us and said "aye preacher boys!

What's good!?" I guess he had seen us around town haha. I brought my

Rubiks Cube so I could play with it while we waited and as I was

solving it Elder Burila said he wanted to time me, naturally the

entire group at the barber shop wanted to watch as well so everyone

stopped what they were doing as I cranked out a solid 45 second solve,

which is actually a horrible time but it's my new record lol.

So you guys remember Cheyla at the mental hospital?? Well she is doing

awesome! On Sunday we went to see her and had an interesting

experience. When we go we give the front desk our drivers licenses and

they give us a key card, then security comes out and wands us. We then

walk a long hallway, using the keycard twice to get through locked

doors. Once we end up at 1 Oak (her Ward) we press this door bell

thing and they come open the doors for us. The doors have windows and

you can see in to part of the ward but usually you can't see anyone.

On this particular day though we looked through the window after

ringing the doorbell to see two security guards wrestling a lady to

the ground, we could hear her screaming through the doors. So we had

to wait like 5 minutes till it all calmed down and let us in. When we

asked Cheyla what happened she said "oh that's Video Game Grandma, she

loves playing the Wii and wasn't too happy when they told her that her

time was up" lololol we were dying when she told us that. Western

State is pretty nuts!

Okay so I'll do a nice spiritual thought and I'll end the email, if

you've made it this far kudos, thanks for not forgetting about me lol.

So we had a Stake Conference Broadcast this Sunday that involved 129

stakes in the North East Region. Elder Oaks and some other GAs talked

but my favorite was from Bonnie H. Cordon, one of the counselors in

the primary presidency. She told the story of Elder Perry coming to

her childhood home, he went out in the dark with her to feed the

chickens, but she was the only one with a flashlight. She skipped

ahead of him and jumped over a ditch. Elder Perry didn't notice

however and since he didn't have his own flashlight he stepped right

into the ditch which was filled with water. He groaned and exclaimed

"I need my own light!". Sister Cordon went on to talk about this

phrase "I need my own light", each of us in this world need our own

light or testimony to guide us through this mortal life. However, a

candle isn't lit through osmosis, just being in the same room as a

roaring fireplace doesn't light the candle. We have to be ACTIVE in

the gospel and in the journey of gaining our own testimony. Being

surrounded by those with strong testimonies isn't enough, we have to

gain our own!!

Alright y'all well there's my novel for this week, thanks for reading,

hopefully you laughed or something. Stay savage!

Pics

1. Solid 2-3 minute video of a member giving us a tour of his backyard

(it's like 23 acres)

2 & 3 The final pics with The Sistrict

4.  Apparently there's an album cover that looks like this?