May 5, 2014 - Burke

I got transferred on Thursday last week to the Burke ward in the Annandale, Virginia Stake of Zion! It is also known as the ward that President Riggs and his family attend! We saw their family in sacrament meeting. I was told that President doesn't come very often because he has to speak in other wards nearly every week, but because of fast Sunday he was there. Burke is more central in our mission then my past two areas. It is a really nice area with tons of trees. There are a lot of forest/grove like areas that we ride out bikes through a lot. Yes I am on bike again... (haha). I was hoping for a car for the summer months, but for now I won’t have one. It is probably somewhere in the middle in my mission as far as average income of the residents. I’ve met quite a few members of the ward now and they seem great.

Elder Miles and Zohra

Our ward boundaries aren't too big but it will be hard to remember where our area ends. Both my past areas were the area between the Potomac River and a major road, so it was easy to remember what the boundary was.

My new companion is Elder Mathews from Mesa, Arizona. He played football at Mountain View High School and graduated the same year as me. If you remember, I also roomed with him for 3 months in the Algonkian ward! He was trained by Elder Johnson at the same time I was training Elder Seely so we already know each other pretty well. He has been out 7 months. He is awesome and we are going to have a lot of fun together. He has already been here for 2 transfers so we might only be together for one transfer. Speaking of Elder Johnson, he is now in our zone so I will get to see him every week too! I haven't met all of our investigators yet, but I will let you know more about them next week!

Elder Miles and an investigator family from Mount Vernon

I am still a District Leader and I have 3 other companionships in my district.  Our ward has us and a set of Sisters.  No APs or Zone Leaders here. It was sad to leave some people in my last area but I felt like it was time to leave and experience a new area.

My allergies have really been terrible this week. Yesterday was the worst! I have been congested and my eyes are really itchy and watery. I have been taking some medication but it hasn't helped enough! I’m going to buy some different meds today and hopefully they will work better. I could barely talk to anyone yesterday without sneezing! (haha) Elder Mathews had to take over on most of the tracting. It has been hard to sleep as well because I have to blow my nose so much. Hopefully this doesn't last long!

We live in a town home with one other set of Elders. Guess who is in the other

Town home in Burke, VA

companionship? Elder Josh Smith that I played football with at Lone Peak! He lives in the town home as well but they have a car and are assigned to a different ward. He came out at the same time as Elder Mathews. The town home has a lot of room which is nice, but it is not the nicest place.... It is kind of dirty and run down (haha). The AC is broken and the guy that came to fix it says that the whole system needs to be replaced. My desk and chair are not the best either but what makes it all better is that there is a Café Rio just up the road! I haven't eaten at Café Rio since I was at the airport in SLC before I flew out here so I am excited about that. I think we might go for lunch today :).

Everyone could definitely pray for our investigators!   Sending a Book of Mormon with your testimony would be cool as well.

Love,

Elder Miles