Goodbye VCU

Well this week has been really interesting.  First of all, it was Fall Break for everyone on campus so everyone went home to be with family and friends.  Which made it near impossible to meet up with our investigators or find new ones, it was literally like a ghost town, but we still had Kristi's baptism!!

which was awesome!!! :)  She asked me to do a special musical number for her and that was fun.  But then transfer calls came... and I'm leaving..  and I'm REALLY REALLY bummed, borderline depressed.  I feel like I'm leaving home all over again!  This has by far been my favorite area.  I've felt like I could be an effective missionary in an area that fit my personality there are so many people here that I'm going to miss like crazy, Especially Elder Hathcock!!!!  Hands down my favorite missionary in the VRM!!  We had some of the most memorable experiences of my mission here and I'll never forget it!!  Soooo yeahhh,  I really hope that package gets here either Monday or Tuesday before I leave :(  This next area will probably be my last!!  Scary Stuff!! I love being a missionary, I'm going to miss being a YSA missionary but I know that I'm leaving for a reason... even thought I'm really curious to what that reason could be.  You all sound like you are doing so good!!  TYLER!!! HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY!!!!!  I can't believe that you're turning 15!  I'll be missing you this week!  I miss you all!! I hope you all have a great week, and I'll let you know where I get transferred to when I'm there next week.

Love, Elder Sahagun

FAMILY!!!

             It's been a great week!! Started off good with some interviews with President Wilson.  This was probably one of my favorite interviews!  It was really personal and we got to talk about a lot of things, not even like missionary things but like real talk, life and future things.  It was great!! I love President Wilson! We did get to see Meet the Mormons!! The first Presidency gave President Wilson permission to show it to missionaries early and they streamed it at one of the nearby stake centers.  It was sick!!!  It might just be becasue it's the only full length featured presentation that I've seen in like 19 months but I thought it was a great movie!!!   It made me cry, of course the very end segment about the missionary mom.  I don't want to spoil anything.... but you'll understand when you see it!!  I loved it. 

             KRISTI IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!  On Friday this week Kristi is going to be baptized!  It's so great, she had her baptismal interview and after she was done she was just telling us how excited she was to be getting baptized!  It was so good to see how happy she was.  She has come such a long way since I've met her and come even further from when the elders first found her in the compass 6 months ago!  Super excited for that, you'll definitely be getting some pictures for that. 

             We found this super awesome girl this week named Taylor Conrad, she was raised Roman Catholic but her parents divorced and now she doesn't really practice so she is SUPER open to finding out the truth!!  We had our first lesson with her on Thursday and it went so great!!  She understood everything super well and has such great desire and this is how I know she has such great desire.  We invited her to church and she said she was going to come, she doesn't have a car but said she wouldn't need us to get her a ride so we didn't.  5 minutes after church starts no Taylor and we started to get a little bummed, we shot her a text.. no answer.  So we go outside to the foyer call her and no answer.  We are super sad.   Then like five minutes later we get a call from Taylor and she says sorry guys I'm almost there.  We are like yeah for sure just let us know when you're close so we can meet ya outside.  She calls us we go out side and see her walking up monument with a bike..  and we were in shock...  This girl had biked 5 miles, in the rain, in a skirt to come to church. It was crazy and surprisingly enough she loved it and wants to come to Kristi's baptism and then do the same thing next Sunday!!  It's awesome!! She is my hero, I don't even know of many life time members of this church who would be willing to do that!!  Such an awesome miracle!! 

 Mom!!!  It looks like you had a way fun week!!!  those are some awesome pics!!  the Brigham City Temple is beautiful!!  Soo my new address is  6737 Dartmouth  Richmond VA 23235,  but before you send it, if you could you should include some dress sweaters and maybe a black wind breaker rain jacket thing.. cause I have no idea where any of my winter stuff in and it's getting cold and rainy :(

Dad-  Thanks for those.... words of wisdom? hahaha :) jokes pops, I miss you. I miss our conversations and your counsel!! 

Tyler- Yooo BRUHH, did you say there was a letter coming?  Let me know what's up man, love 

ya!!

Jessica-  It sounds like you are having so much fun with dance!!!  You are looking so grown up it's scary!!!! 
Keep me updated!!  I really love hearing about your life!!!

I love you all so very much and hope you have a great week!!!!!

Love,
Elder Sahagun

REEEEDDUUUHHHHTHOON!

Dear Family,

An Epistle to the Sahagun Family form Elder Sahagun at the end of a week preaching amoungst his bretheran the Virginianites.  A record of his dealings from the past week.  Mainly a record of his feelings and revelations whilest reading the record of Jesus Christ's ministry among the people of the ancient Americas, also known as the Book of Mormon.. 

1. And it came to pass, that Elder Sahagun being sorely tired and ridden down with exhaustion, both of the body and of the mind and of the spirit, did speaketh many things unto his beloved family

2. Behold, these are the things which he did speak, (or rather the things that he did type out) unto his family, his family being: his father Ray, who was the son of Raymon Sahagun who was a decendent of the land Mexico, and also his Mother Linda, who was the daughter of Bob and Roma, who were decendents of the Knudsenites and the Johnsonites.  His Eldest Sister Heather who had recently returned form many moons of preaching to the people in the land of Thailand. His younger brother Tyler, who had gained much height in the space of a short time.  and his youngest sister Jessica, being full of energy and having a bright countenance most of the time.  

3.  and yea, These are the words which he did email unto them  

I wouldn't of thought that it was possible, but after 7 days of diligent, some what undistracted, Book of Mormon reading I have finished the Book of Mormon!! For the 2nd time in my life,  I'm gonna be straight with yall...  Reading the BOM in a week was probably the hardest thing I've done in about 5 months...  We were really behind when it came down to the wire, but one buzzer beating all nighter and a couple of sugary drinks later we had done it!!  What a week. In all honesty I truly feel like this experience really helped me to gain a greater appreciation and build a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I can't deny the divinity or the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  It's truly the most correct book on the face of the earth, and " a man may come closer to God by abiding by it's precepts" and truly gain the fullest measure of peace and joy in this life by daily scripture study and by applying the principles learned.

I really didn't think that I would be able to stay awake during conference after a late night of reading, but I was able to get a lot out of the wonderful opportunity to hear form our Apostles and our beloved Prophet.  I'm pretty sure that Dieter gave one of my favorites but I really feel like there weren't any bad talks, just an all around good conference.  I'm really looking forward to re-reading a lot of those talks. 

Okay....... I'm feeling a bit out of the loop and have recieved many miscommunications on the matter of this guy...  Mom said that he was just a "friend" Jessica said that he was just some boy and Heather only said " I like him. His name is Keenan. Keenan Larsen." ...................... SOMEONE needs to use some good adjective and describing words with me!!! maybe a picture?  hahaha just jokes :) , but seriously...

I love you all so much!!! Here are some great pics from our read a thon!!!  Richmond is beautiful!!!!!! THE Church is true!!!! 

Elder Sahagun

Richmond is beautiful!

Richmond is beautiful!

FAMILY!!!!  

It's sooo good to hear form you every week!!!  This week has been really good!!  and this next week is going to be pretty crazy because this last Saturday we started "The Book of Mormon Read-A-Thon!!!"  So your probably wondering what the Book of Mormon Read-A-Thon is.  Well it is basically just reading the Book of Mormon in a week, to build our faith and our testimonies of the Book of Mormon right before General Conference.  The Rules:  You must read 75 pages a day (alone or with your companion), until you do, you cannot go out and proselyte.  You can go to appointments that have been set up in advanced, but if you fall behind you must catch up.  Me and Elder Hathcock have decided to read it as a companionship (to help us not zone out and keep each other focused) and we've had like 3 lessons so far with investigators and some recent converts, plus church meetings and church itself... so we are a little behind :\  We just finished Enos this morning, but we'll be able to  catch up.  I'm gonna be honest, going into this I was not to excited, but it has been one of the most enlightening and spiritual expiriences that I've had.  In the short 2 and a half days that we've been reading my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much.  I have realized just how much peace reading the Book of Mormon brings into our lives!!  Plus me and Elder Hathcock have gotten pretty creative with where we read so it's pretty great :) I'm so excited to renew my testimony of the Book of Mormon and to finish it for the second time in my life!!! 

Conference is coming!!! I'm super excited and a little bummed at the same time because it will be my last one on the mish :( but I'm not gonna let that bring me down!! We'll be watching it at our chapel on historic Monument Ave.  Dad if you're not familiar with what that is you should look it up, it's pretty sweet.  We're hoping to get all of the investigators we can to come!! but it's rough with people being so busy with school!!  But hopefully Kristi will be able to come and Katelynn and Tristan and one of our new investigators named Patrick.. he is sweet.   We met him on campus super briefly because he was headed to class, we gave him a pamphlet and told him to read it and pray to know if it's true.  He met up with us the other day again and we asked him if he read the pamphlet he was like "Yeah and it all makes sense, but now I need a Book of Mormon so I can read it and pray about it and stuff"  We must of looked really surprised cause he was like "Is that cool?" and we said "Yeah Yeah Yeah!!! We gotchu!!" it was tight.  We were pretty excited.  

Elder Sahagun & Elder Hathcock

It has been raining more down here too.  There were two days where it rained like non stop and I was completely soaked!!  It's really funny to see people's reaction when you approach them soaked to the skin asking them if you can share a message with them about Jesus Christ!  The 3 reactions I got most often were these:  #1 looked at me like I was insane and they said "ummm no" #2 looked at me like I was a abandoned puppy with three legs and said "ohhhh ohh I'm soooo sorry I really can't!! I'm sooo sorry have a good day tho!! Stay Dry!!"  and #3  Raised their eyebrows, stopped for a second to think and then said, "Man, you must be pretty dedicated!"  or  "Heck man you're standing in the rain, I can talk to you about Jesus" hahaha it was a great day.  People are great. 

  I bought like two pairs of pants, I could use a few more I'm still rockin some pretty awesome worn ones haha it's awesome.  You should just send them out, shopping is one of the last things I want to do on a P-day hahaha!

It is soo good to hear about everything going on!! I love being a missionary right now!! I love the Book of Mormon!!  I know with all the surety in my heart that it is the word of God and that we can come to gain the fullest measure of peace and comfort in this life by reading it and abiding by it's precepts!!  I'll be looking for you guys Saturday to see if I can see you up in the nose bleeds haha I love you all!!! Have a great week!!

Love, Elder Sahagun  

Hiking to read The Book of Mormon @ Belle Isle 

My Dearest family!!! 

 

This week has been awesome!!  Thank you for all of your prayers on my behalf and on behalf of our investigators I know and can testify that they are being answered!!!  This has been a really great week as far as Investigators go!! No we haven't found Tristan, we currently have our best facebook stalkers in the YSA working on the case, but have had no solid leads yet. We met with Kristi this week and we were planning on going in the lesson and just being like " okay Kristi, you're either gonna do this or your not..."  and we were super nervous about how she was going to react, and right after she said the prayer we asked her how she was doing and she was like, "well I've been thinking a lot about baptism and I want to set a date"  Elder Hathcock and I just stoped for a second looked at eachother and were like.... " wait, what?"  haha it was super unexpected but we are super excited for her!!  Pray that we will be able to work out a date with bishop.  We met this awesome girl named Katelynn Mayers this week and she is wayy awesome!!  We taught her the law of chastity and the word of wisdom first thing and she was just like, yeah I can do that, so we asked her if she wanted to prepare to be baptized on the 21st of October and she said yes!!  We are finding so many prepared people!!  Pray that we will be able to make contact with Rasheema Burgo we met with her one time and set her on date and she dissapeared!!  Same exact story with this kid named Jeff Hoffler.  Met with him, Set him on date and he's fallen off the face of the earth... seems to happen a lot here. 

 

     So yes we are ( as of 20 minutes ago) completely moved out of our old apartment and into our new apartment :\ I reallllyyy don't want to talk about what happend today.   You can send everything to 6737 Dartmouth Ave.  Richmond VA 23235. 

 

Really cool story this week!  We ran into this girl named Virginia on campus and talked to her for a little bit, she seemed genuinly interested so we got her contact info and all of that good missionary stuff.   The next day we get a call from a Utah area code and some girl is like"  hey are you the missionaries in the YSA ward?  We were like yeah what's up?  She's like " did you talk to a girl named Virginia recently?  We said.  "yeah she's pretty awesome, why?"  She started going off she's like"OHHHHH MANNNNN she's like my best friend!!!  She said she talked to some mormons and I was so thankful!!  I live in Utah,  I just got back from my mission and I wrote her every week hoping that she would learn about the church, and have prayed every day since I got back that I could find a way to get her to talk to the missionaries and I guess you just talked to her!! It is such and answer to my prayers ahhhhhh you guys have no Idea!! When she texted me this morning and told me some missoinaries talked to her I literally started dancing around the room!! Blaahhhh this is so awesome"  That is a really watered down version of what she said.  This was like a 12 minute conversation. But it was way cool to hear that and to know that we have been doing what we are suppose to!!  I'm super Excited to Teach and Baptize Virginia, punn intended.

 

Heather!!  the weather is getting a little colder but not much haha  I'm so gald that you are getting into a good routine!!  It sounds like you are doig a lot of fun stuff!!  and yes I'm SUPER pumped for general conference!! sad to think that it's my last one as a missionary!! :(

 

 

Tyler, you stud!!  Those pics dad sent are nice!  Keep it up bro, I miss you.  What's going on in your life??  Get me in the loop yo.  

 

Jessica!! I MISS YOU!! Are you still doing your dancing stuff?  I miss playing guitar with you and hearing you cute laugh!!

 

I love serving here with Elder Hathcock!!  He is definitely my favorite companion so far!!  This is the most fun and the most fulfilled I've felt on my whole mission and I love it!! This is such a great work that we get to be a part of!!  I hope that you are finding your own missoinary opportunities because I know they bring so much happiness and peace for everyone involved!! I love you all!!  This church is true!!!

 

Love, Elder Sahagun

Chicken Fingers and Waffles! It's a thing here and they're delicious!

Beautiful RIchmond

Family!!! This week has been pretty great!! Sorry this is going to be really brief!!  We got rained on a little this week. Talked to a ton of people (as per us) but we talked to this one kid named Jeff Hoffler and he is awesome!! He's like this 6' 7" 18 year old who plays soccer. He told us that he didn't really believe in God but that he had been looking to get back into church and figure out if God is real!!  He is super tight and super willing!! He is set to be baptized for Oct. 11th please pray for him!! We're meeting with him tomorrow at 4:30.  He was the only super solid new guy we found, we talked to and got like 15 kinda flakyish new people and their numbers so that's pretty cool.  I just can't tell you guys how much I love talking to students at VCU.  It is the best!!  I feel so fulfilled!!  

Tim Bruch a recent convert 

Story of the week, 

So these born again christian people come on campus and talk (bash) with us all the time, and hate is a strong word.. but we really really really don't like them.  We've talked to one in particular a couple times and he is super antagonistic and unpleasant.  We've told him (as nicely as we possibly could) that we don't want to talk to him anymore, so he leaves us alone.. BUT we were walking through the compass ( the student commons area) one night and we saw him talking to Sister Fowers, one of the sisters in my district who has been out for a grand total of about 6 weeks.  So me and Elder Hathcock were like "nope, not today sir"  and we went up to them and just stood there and waited for him to acknowledge us he said "do you want to join us?" and Elder Hathcock spoke up and said, "no we've already had this pointless conversation before, so we're here to rescue her." haha and then he just starts ripping on Joseph Smith about how he was an sinner and was going off about all of these things Joseph Smith supposedly did and I progressively was getting less and less patient, whenever we tried to speak he'd cut us off.. finally I spoke up and said ' SIR, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE JUST LISTEN.  He stopped and nodded his head.. I looked at him and said, " When you are without sin, you can cast a stone at whoever you'd like." He stood there silent looking really angry and I said, " Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and you will never know that until you pray,  we're not going to have this conversation again."  He stopped looked at all of us and without saying a word he shook all of our hands and walked away.   so yeah stuff like that happens here to and it's annoying but there must be opposition in all things!!  and we definitely have some awesome miracles going on right now!!!  I love being a missionary!! I love being (as President Perry my first mission prez used to say"  a conservator of truth! We all are, I loved Elder Hollands talk last conference about defending the faith!! and these days more than ever there need to be more saints who are willing to defend the faith!!!  I love you all so very much and hope you have a great week!! 

Love, Elder Sahagun 

September 8th

 My Wonderful Family!!!!  

This week has been a little crazy... and slow BUT STILL AWESOME!!!!  Mainly this week was slow because we had to move.. so yeah let me explain a little better...  so you said "So I'm confused about your you're moving,you're not moving.  So the couple missionary sister found you a place but it's just as far as the place you're already in, so you're staying where you are until you can find a closer place?  Is that right?"  and that would make sense right??  and that is exactly my frustration..  So we did move into that place that is just as far out of our area as our last apartment, even though it doesn't solve any problems.. because the whole reason we needed to move was that we could live in downtown right close to VCU.. but it's all good we're moved (partially) now and it super crappier than our old apartment, but what are ya going to do?

SOOOO Tristan James, hahaha so Tristan was suppose to be baptized this last week, but he fell of the edge of the earth so that didn't happen.  Tristan lives downtown on VCU campus, but he doesn't have a phone or any way of getting in contact with us, so the way we set up appointments was just by setting them when we met with him and then just hoping he'd show.  and this week he just didn't show.. and we have absolutely no idea where he went, so that could be something you pray for!! Pray that we'll be able to find Tristan and that he'll be able to be baptized on the 13 of September!! Miracles will happen!! So besides Tristan we are teaching a lot of people, but the most solid ones (ones that have a date) are these people Kristi Deguel- Kristi is super awesome and cute haha cute just because of the fact that she's literally like 4 foot nothing haha She has been way busy with work (she's a nurse) and it's making it hard for her to feel ready to be baptized so that is her struggle right now.. Rasheema Burgo-  Rasheema is awesome!!!  She is really awesome, we had a lesson with her like last week and set her on date for 0ctober 11th but she also works on MCV campus (medical campus) and is super busy so it's really hard to set up with her, but she's super solid and has such a great desire to learn.  Justin and Braden are roommates and we talk to them a lot, they are with an on campus ministry meaning they kinda do what we do on campus but it's more like a non-denominational club, but they said they could be any religion and still be in the club so they are willing to learn!! and Diamyn is a freshman, we took her on a church tour two days ago and we are meeting again with her tonight!! She is super crazy and funny and is kinda tip toeing her way back into religion, because she has had bad experiences in the past will this kinda thing but she could definitely be baptized!! ALL of these people could be and it's really exciting!! Pray that these people will continue to feel the spirit and feel that desire to be baptized!! because they are all ready!! :) 

I hear from Elder Crankshaw and Elder DeLaigle a lot!! It's really great to talk to them, I can tell that we've all changed a lot, but at the same time we're pretty much the same... if that makes any sense.. haha probably not. oh well. 

You have no idea how great it is to hear everything going on back home and don't even think for a second that it's boring or that I don't want to hear it!!  because it's great and I love it!! :) I love hearing all of the great things that are going on!!  So don't worry about that! haha and don't worry about me being unsafe on a bike anymore because.. I'm not on bike!! :)  I love being a missionary!!  I've talked to so many people this week who have said that they used to believe in God and now they either don't know or don't care what they believe anymore.. and it's really sad, I just want them to understand how much God truly loves them and desires them to have a relationship with Him!! I love being able to promise people blessings and testify of all of these things I've been able to learn for myself.  This Gospel is the greatest!!  YOU ARE ALL THE GREATEST!!! I miss you guys like crazy, but I'm super glad to be a missionary at this time in this awesome area with my awesome and probably favorite companion! I hope you all have a great week!! Testify to a stranger this week!!  and you will feel incredible!! I love you all!! sorry there are no pics this week I forgot my camera at home.... my bad

Love,  Elder Sahagun