Dear Family,
It was no joke, the best Christmas present to be able to be with you guys for Christmas.   Even if it was only for a little bit over the computer haha it was seriously the best thing!  I love you guys!!   haha the work is continuing to pick up here!!  Just yesterday we went on an exchange and one of our zone leaders came and we now have 3 maybe 4 people set on date to be baptized here in January!!  It's so great!! The Lord is being so merciful and I'm just very grateful that he has trusted us to teach some of his most prepared children here at this time, especially towards the end of my mission. 

I don't have a lot of time!!!  Mom you wanted those song lyrics so I'm gonna use the rest of my time to type those up for you  I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Sons & Daughters by Elder Sahagun Click to listen

Can I ask you a question about divine intervention?

and if I asked you right now would you shine some light down

and help me through this 

help me through this.

White shirt and slacks x5 a suitcase on either side 

Ignore the tear that's in my eye, do up my suit and swallow pride

Yeah this is what I've dreamed of, this is what I've lived for

This is what the pennies in my bank have all been saved for

A curbside goodbye my little sister starts to cry 

My family watch me walk away but no one thinks of asking "why?"

I can't believe my eyes so many people on this quest 

So many things that make us different, except for one name on our chest.

Sons and daughters of proud mothers and fathers 

You are chosen, you are called 

and you are not forsaken, He is with us all 

We are sons and daughters of God 

Now my breathings heavy, I'm pitted with survival

My pace is steady set for the extra mile

My heart is ready sights forward and focused

I'm dedicated and my foes all know this

My vision's clear, I know death is not the end for me 

I rep Christ the natural man is the enemy 

Yeah two years and I'm here to stand tall

Never trippin Never slippin, giving nothing but my all 

Chorus 

Now been gone a year is this where I'm suppose to be 

It's been awhile, I kinda miss my family 

Not sure it's worth it being away 

Try to talk to all the people they don't care what I say 

I got holes in my shoes and doubt in my heart 

I'm putting pieces back together just to watch 'em fall apart

Sit down and cry "Is there something I'm suppose to seee

I feel so lost and then I hear my Father speak to me 

"I know your run down and your soul feels broken 

but this is just a trial not a wrong path you've chosen 

It's rough, and I know you miss your family 

but your sacrifice helps others so they won't feel that for eternity 

Chorus 

Step off the plane so fast it could of been a dream 

The faces pass as I go through all the memories 

I'll never forget it that very first day 

I couldn't know it in the moment but know I wish I could've stayed 

I'll never be the same and I'll cherish every memory 

Those times I fell down never thought they'd mean the world to me

Got no shame became most of who I'm suppose to be

Forever changed with the bulk of life ahead of me 

Mom, look at me know can you tell me that you're proud?

Dad, can you tell this man is different than the boy that left your house?

Born of goodly parents and now I know my true identity 

These people all around are part of one eternal family 

Chorus

Lord, I just want to mention I think you answered my question

I wanna thank you right now for the love that I found

To help me through this, to help me through this 

You helped me through this

I love you all so very much, this gospel is soo true and I know it with all of my heart and I'm so very grateful to be a missionary right now, representing Jesus Christ and bringing His gospel to all of the sons and daughters of God.

I hope you all have a great week!!! 

Elder Sahagun

Dear Family, 

I'm so excited to be able to Skype you guys!!!  I feel like I have so much to tell you guys, but I'll probably end up forgetting by the time we get to Skype haha AHHHH it's crazy.. Dylan Lamb and Heather Jensen???  YEAH!! haha knew it.  that is crazy.  I can't believe Jared already got his release date.. .I guess I don't have one yet... maybe I'll extend?  I'll let you know when I find out.  SOO  for Skype, we'll be calling from our breakfast appointment at around 10 here so at around 8 your time be expecting a call :) we'll text to let you know when to be expecting it.  Can't wait to talk to you guys!!! See ya soon!! 

Dear Family,
Well it has been a great week of #sharing the gift with the people here in Virginia.  It is really really cold, but I bundle up and stay pretty comfortable so biking isn't too terribly awful!   Elder White and I are staying super busy with a pretty comfortable sized teaching pool of about 20 or so investigators!  It's really nice, but it can be stressful at times.  Weekly planning, which usually takes about 2 hours takes twice as long now which is really hard because no one wants to stay inside for 4 hours and plan when you could be sharing the gospel with people, but I do understand that it is a very important, if not the most important part of missionary work setting goals and planning is very crucial... but it's not always fun... and we all know that I do not do very good with things that are not fun.  but I've gotten a lot better since being on my mission at doing those un-fun really important things.  

The Ward is great!! We have been fed every single day this month and have meals planned though half of January as well,  It's a good thing that I'm on bike or it would really ruin my last 2 and a half months of my "6 months to sexy" hahaha mom, dad, and Heather.  Was that a thing in your missions as well? They are also really helping us a lot with exchanges, we have three nights a week where we have true splits (two people taking a missionary each) it really helps us to fellowship the people we are teaching!!  Currently we are looking at 4 or  people to be baptized here in the next two months!! 

If I had time I would tell you about each of them and how awesome they are but I really have like zero time..  so would you please pray for: Jerry Davis, Isata (ice-eh-tah) Kamara and Amarah Kamara, Darryl Chalmers, and Chis Cuevas..  Pray that they will be able to prepare for either the 27th of dec.  or the 10t of Jan for baptism!! 

I love you all so much and can't wait to see all of your faces!!! I hope that you have a great week!!! 

My Dearest Family, 

   This week has been crazy.. and by crazy I mean really hard and cold and rainy..  but the work must go forward!!  We have a lot of good things happening in our area!  We've set a goal to baptize 4 people this month!!  pray for us!!  We have the 4 people in mind and it's a totally achievable goal.. we just need the Lord's help haha.

I am so excited for Christmas!!  If you haven't seen the new He is the gift video yet, then stop what you are doing right now and watch it...then #ShareTheGift because it is incredible.  We've got these special He is the gift cards and we've been handing them out to everyone and watching the video just with anyone and everybody who will take 2 minutes out of their life!  It's great I love it.  One of the houses we tracted into was pretty sketch.. they had a bunch of signs up in their window that said they would shoot us if we knocked on their door and had a giant skull in their lawn from dead grass.. it was pretty interesting to say the least I'll attach a pic 

All I want for Christmas is a Taylor Swift tie.. if they even have those.. but really I'm just excited to see all of your faces and get to talk to you!!! I feel like it's been forever since our last Skype!! It's going to be super weird not doing our usual 3 way skype!! but I'm still just way excited to see all of you

Mom- I think... not sure yet, that my departue date will be the 25th of Feb.  that's just a guess because missionaries in our mission usually go home the wednesday after transfers which will be the 24th.. but I'll let you know for sure when I get me trunky papers :\ 

Dad- your class sounds... challenging to say the very least, but I mean could it really be more challenging than years 14-18 with me? haha you got this 

Heather!!!  It looks like you are just having so much fun!!!!  I'm super happy for you!!!  I can't believe you've been home for as long as you have!! I mean you're almost done with your first semester back!!  Life is crazy.. I miss you

Tyler Yooo Bruhhh, I got your letter!! man you are gettin fast.. and still growin, cut it out haha just jokes but man I miss you for real keep the letters coming 

JB!!  it was so good to get your email! It sounds like there is a lot of exciting stuff coming up for you here this next year!!  You sound so grown up even in your emails!!  It's crazy!! Keep giggling and laughing, I miss you're silliness :) 

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

Elder Sahagun

Family!!!!  

Well happy thanksgiving one and all, It was so great to think about all of the things that I'm grateful for!!  

Heather!!  I set a goal to finish the 500 things that I was grateful for before the end of my personal study on November 27th, and I finished at about 8:58 hahaha I was cutting it pretty close, but it was A LOT harder than I thought it would be I had to get pretty creative... the 500 things included a lot including 22 individual reasons why I am thankful for Taylor Swift.  Two of my favorite things from that were. #13 "I am thankful for Taylor Swift because she's got a Indie record that's much cooler than mine." and #18 "I am thankful for Taylor Swift because she wears short skirts and I wear T-shirts" ... so yeah I got pretty creative and had a lot of fun with it, but it really did help me realized so many little things that I am truly grateful for.

We had two meals on thanksgiving, one was a lunch with ribs and all this incredibly tasting non-thanksgiving type of food... which was great!  and then we had dinner at our ward mission leaders house with his family!  They do a way cool tradition, every thanksgiving they go around the table and say something that they are grateful for, alphabetically, so starting with A, B, C.... I think you get it... but it was really cool!  

Soooo transfers calls were last Saturday, I'm not leaving but there are some big changes in our area.  We used to have 4 missionaries in our ward and the house that we are living in.  But now the other two Elders are leaving and their area is being shut down.. which basically means that we are going to be taking over their area.. so we're getting all of their investigators, recent converts, less actives and potentials and are covering their half of the ward now.. which is crazy because we aren't getting a car.. sooo we are going to be doing some pretty long hilly bike rides..... it's great.  I'm pretty excited!

TAMBA AND AIAH WERE BAPTIZED!! It was such a great thing!!  and even better, both of their non-member parents, (very supportive of their decision)  came to the baptism!!  It was incredible.  I love em to death.. I'll attach some pics 

It was so nice to hear about your thanksgiving!!  It sounds like it was just a blast!!  I definitely missed grandma's orange rolls!!  I look forward to getting to see you all in like 23 days!!!  I love you all so much!!  have a great week!! 

Elder Sahagun

Chippenham

FAMILY!!!

TRISTAN GOT BAPTIZED!!!  I got to go back down to Chippenham for it!!  Traffic is so ridiculous that I missed the actual ordinance but I still got to talk to Tristan and everyone else that I've been missing so much!!  So it was really great!!  I saw Taylor Conrad, I told you about her, she's the girl who biked to church.  Anyways I was talking to her and she's getting baptized on the 13th of December!!  Definitely going back for that!!  It as so good to go back to Richmond.. I miss it like crazy, but we are doing some good work here in this area!  The Twins are getting baptized this week, it's gonna be super crazy to get everything ready for that, but it's gonna be sweet. Right now we are looking to find a bunch more people.  We have found 2 pretty solid people so far that we are excited to teach and we're planning and have faith that there are so many more people out there.

We went to the National Marine Museum last P-Day, It is pretty sick.

                  Dad I feel like you would especially appreciate it.  Honestly I feel like you would appreciate a lot of Virginia, there is so much Historic crap here it's unreal!! but we got some pretty sweet pics there so I'll send you some of that!

It's great to be a missionary!!  I'm glad to be where I'm at!!  and I'm excited for the day when I'll get to see you all again!!  Christmas isn't to far around the corner!!  I love you all!! and hope that you have a great week. 

                                      This pic is my district..  Great missionaries, so blessed to be serving with them !

Hello Dear Family!!  

Sorry for such short e-mails, I feel like I was really good about giving you good updates when I was in Chippenham, and it was easy because there was a lot of exciting fun things happening that I could share and I had all the time in the world to share them. It's a lot different here.  There is a lot less exciting stuff going on but also I don't get a lot of time to read and write you back good responses and it's really frustrating.  So the 11 year Old twins Tamba & Aiah didn't get baptized this week, their original date was the 22nd, but we had to change it to the 29th so their parents could attend.  This week has been pretty average.  It is getting super cold, but my jackets and gloves are working out nicely.  We are just biking around to everyone that we know and teaching the people that will let us in.  We've taught a total of 14 lessons so far this transfer!!  That is so good for this area!!  things are really picking up!!  I'm excited to keep working diligently here.  It's been a lot harder, but that just means more growth, and I am never opposed to some good old growth through opposition.  Tyler is driving?  Holy freak that just gave me anxiety and I'm not even his mother.. good luck with that.  Sounds like Jessica is having some fun with dance and Talon fair stuff :) I can't wait to get all of the letters that are coming.  My new address is:  5486 Rector Dr. , Woodbridge, VA 22193.  That's a good Idea with the pants!  I'll see what I can do with them to make someones Christmas!  Can't believe it's coming up again! So crazy!  Sorry there are no pictures this week.  I'll make an effort to take some pictures, even if I have to take a picture with some random person that we know into! hahaha yeahh... the funny thing is that is the only kind of pictures I could take for you guys.  I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!  Being a missionary is the best.  I love the Gospel even when it's hard and that is something that I've learned to do on my mission for sure. To praise God and be thankful for all that he has given me even at times when those things aren't so apparent.   Church is true!!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Love, Elder Sahagun