Letter from Colin:
This week is a fairly historic week in this, the Virginia Chesapeake Mission. I say that because tomorrow 31 missionaries finish their missions and fly home, and 30 new missionaries will fly in. Not only that but in six weeks another 30 missionaries are coming into the mission, which means that in the next 12 weeks there will be 60 new missionaries and 60 experienced missionaries to train them, which means that 120 out of the 190 missionaries in this mission will either be training or be in training. To facilitate all of the new missionaries the mission had to rent eight 10-person vans to transport all the missionaries and all their luggage because this is all happening on top of normal transfers as well. Transfers are this Wednesday and my companion, Elder Talbot, has found mercy in the sight of the Lord and is being blessed by going back to North Carolina (in New Bern the birthplace of Pepsi) to finish his last 3 transfers of his mission, and I am getting Elder Jack Davis who is coming here from Smithfield, VA.

         In other news, this week an investigator from Hampton that Elder Beeston and I worked hard to start teaching got baptized this Saturday!

--which is really exciting. He is the 13 year-old son of the investigator we taught who died. He had tons of help because of Brother Humphries, who is the Hampton Young Men's President, who put forth the effort to invite him to church and take him to Young Men's on Wednesdays. The other bit of interesting information is an investigator who I found with Elder Grow in Albertson, NC got baptized last week, too, which must be a miracle. Although their family liked me a lot, I was certain he would never get baptized. Every time we met with them and taught them he was always so adamant that he didn't have to go to some building because, "Church is in your heart" (which doesn't really make that much sense). He was certain that tithing wasn't a commandment (although it is in the Bible after all), and that he didn't need to read the scriptures (which would explain his first two concerns). But fortunately in this case I was wrong--he totally got baptized and joined the church.

         However, here in Virginia Beach, this last week was very slow. All of our appointments, except for one, fell through. And every member that was set to go out with us to those lessons fell through, except for one as well, and the lesson they were going to with us fell through, too! Everything didn't work out exactly how we would've liked, but we tried very hard all week, so it's really not our fault, so I can't really justly be mad about it. The best thing that happened this week was our coordination meeting with the Ward Mission Leader and our Bishop, and then Ward Council. We overcame a lot of misunderstanding about how they think missionary work is supposed to be done, and how we have been instructed on missionary work by Prophets and Apostles. So plans are underway with the Ward Council to develop a Ward Mission Plan that is simple and actionable, which if carried out will yield real results on account of members of the ward actually reaching out to those they know who need the gospel in their life (which is everyone honestly). Great things will come from this. It may take some time, but the Ward is now much more informed and supportive of missionary work, which is one of the greatest responsibilities that we have in life.

         Besides that, we presented training in the Stake's Bishopric Training Meeting, which is the first time missionaries have ever done that in this Stake.  Welllllllll,  Until next time, I hope y'all have a blessed week, and I pray that it's a cooler temperature where you are than it is here!

--Elder White