Week 27

Hey there, how’s it going? Sounds like you had a great week. The family reunion sounds great. So yeah I remember Nauvoo. Its basically like that - we go outside for 10 minutes and we are drenched. But its good, I love the bike area so far. The ward is amazing. I forwarded some pics to you from a member and her family. The one with the Superman shirt was my MTC companion so that was cool. We had dinner with them last night and are going to a bike track with them today for p day so that should be fun. So the ward is great and so is Elder Johnson. We are teaching a few people but not a ton, so we will definately work on that. No, we don’t take showers during the day because we will just go back out and get sweaty again, so it’s not really effective. But I love biking except I almost got hit by a car twice on Saturday and flipped over my handle bars a couple of times. It was a rough couple of days. I'm pretty sure I'm going to kill my self on a bike but it’s fine. Hahaha I'm just kidding, I will be fine.

    So yeah, not a lot to report on other than I'm trying to learn the area and stuff. The members are amazing and I love Elder Johnson, he’s great. So yeah I hope you have a great week.  I'm doing well. I fell pretty good other than I woke up a little sick today but not too bad. Well I can’t think of anything else to tell you so hope you have a good week. 

Week 26

Hey there, how are you doing? So I'm getting transferred to an area called Rolling Hills. It is in Louisville. I was hoping to stay but I'm excited to go to Louisville. So this week was rough, we were on a bike all week so the work was slow. Oh yeah and my new area is a bike area as well.  Yeah we were on bikes all week - we get the car back today just in time for me to leave - hahaha. Oh man. For the most part I'm still not felling all that great. Today has been really bad.  I think I'm just anxious to get to my new area but its been a rough couple days. Most of the week was really good. Being on a bike was good for me, but anyway yeah. The people here are still doing well. I leave tomorrow for my new area. So yeah if you send the package they will forward it to us. We don’t go to the mission office like ever, but now I'm going to be in Louisville so we will go more often.  But yeah this week was good. The last couple days were rough. The medicine hasn’t really had much of an effect on me yet, so I'm not sure with that. Well I will have a lot more for you next week. I will have a new companion and a new area, so I'm way excited for that and I'm going to elder Hawes' last area so he told me all about it. I'm really excited for the area and my comp’s name is Elder Johnson. I haven’t met him yet but Elder Hawes told me about him. So yeah it should be good. Well I think that’s it. Hope you all have a great week and hope grandma is ok, she is always in my prayers. I love you so much. Have a good week.  

Week 25

So this week was good for the most part. We set 3 baptismal dates. One is with Doug who is a stud. I don’t know if I told you the story but he is married to a member and they have been married for like 3 months and we started teaching him. Then out of nowhere he calls us and tells us that his wife kicked him out of the house and wants a divorce. Now he is living in Cincinnati. He has gone to church there 4 times and is still praying about the church. Most likely he will be baptized in Cincinatti because it would be weird for him if he was baptized into the ward where his ex wife is. So it’s a weird situation, but Doug is so awesome. We had a lesson with him at the church and showed him the font and had a kneeling prayer in front of the font - it was so powerful. Then we set a baptismal date with Patricia. She is engaged, we haven’t met her fiance yet, but she is solid. Then we set a date with Ronald. It’s kind of cool because we tracted into him about a month ago and he was totally not interested, but we street contacted his son the other day, and then got a text that told us to go talk to his dad so we did and set a date for Aug. 31. It was really cool. It was a great week as far as the work goes but mentally I’m not feeling much better. They upped my dose of medication but I don’t know, it will probably take another couple weeks to kick in. I’m still struggling, but I’m hanging in there. I know the Lord will watch over me and I feel his presence every day. I’m so thankful for the time that I have to serve. There’s nothing I would rather be doing. 

     This week we are going to be on bikes, because before I got here one of the other elders backed into a trailer hitch and dented the back. So we are going to get that fixed and we have a super big area so its going to stink but its good exercise I guess. So transfer calls are on Saturday. I can’t believe it’s already that time again. I kinda think I might get transferred because me and Elder Hawes have been together for 2 transfers almost and I think one of us will leave and its probably going to be me. So I will have some transfer news next week. I really don’t want to leave again because it feels like I just got here, but I think I’m probably gone.  I can’t believe I have already been out 6 months, it has gone by super fast. I can’t believe I have been in Georgetown for 2 months. But yeah, with all of the new missionaries, it’s nuts. They’re mostly sisters. There are so many of them - transfer meetings are nuts with all the new missionaries coming in. Well that’s all for this week. Hope you have a good week. I love you so much and am so thankful for all you have done for me - love you so much.

Week 24

 So, sounds like you had a great week with Forrest home again. That’s really exiting. So are you doing anything exciting for his birthday? The 4th was fun, we had dinner at a members home and then watched some fireworks from our porch. People here are nuts about fireworks. It was crazy, they shot them off all week, it was cool. Sounds like you had a great week.  So yeah, the baptism for July is not going to happen. His mom isn’t going to allow it, so we were kind of bummed, but I expected it. So Doug hasn’t answered our calls in like a week and a half, so not really sure what’s going on there. 

   So to answer your question about how I have been feeling is I am always drained of energy, always tired and just want to sleep.  I have lack of focus and just don’t feel like myself and sad for no reason and I can’t explain why. But I went to the doctors and I got some medication. The doctor told me it will be like 3 or 4 weeks for it to really start working, but I am feeling a bit better this week. I’m not sure if that’s the medication or what, but I am feeling little better than before. 

   Well thanks for all your prayers, I know they have defenatly helped. Thanks for all you do. I love you so much, hope you have a great week.

    Love, Elder Sutherland

Week 23

Hey mom and dad, what’s up?  How’s Scotland? besids the rain? haha well hope you’re having fun. Any fun plans for the 4th? thats really cool that you can see some of the people Forrest got to serve around.Well hope you’re having a good trip. Well, the work is going well. We have a baptism coming up on the 20th of July. By the way, can I say how nuts it is that its already July - I can’t believe it. Anyway, so the only problem is his mom is a Jehova’s Witness. He is 25 but has a mental disability. It really isn’t all that bad but we would probably have to ask his mom for permission to baptize him. So that could be a problem. But we have some others who are progressing. We have one named Doug. His wife is a member but she is divorcing him, so its really rough but he likes the church and has gone to church twice in Cincinnati so we just call him like every other day because we can see him a lot because he’s in Ohio. Anyway, the work is going ok. and I’m doing ok, it depends on the day. Some are better than others, but hopefully I will get back to normal here soon. Oh yeah and yesterday we went to a mission home fireside and I saw Lauren there so that was really cool to see her again. I loved the pics you sent me. Forrest looks pretty good  - not too fat. hahaha but yeah the one missionary looks like Jason Nieman. Its really cool and  he looks like he’s 12 - not that I can say much but I look at least 15. haha. So yeah, hope you all have a great week. I should have a package for ya’ll coming with in the month of July, or maybe next month, but I am working on it right now so if there is anything you all want from Kentucky just let me know. I will try to send some pictures as well in the package. Well I think that’s all I’ve got for this week. Love you so much.  Have a great week! Love you so much and apreciate all that you do for me. Have a great week love you

Love, TJ

Week 22

Hey mom and dad, how’s Scotland? How’s Forrest doing? is he way fat now? haha well I hope you’re having a great time. I like the pics you sent me, thanks for those. Ok, so the baptism was great, everything went well. They are moving to Florida because Nancy is old and is having a hard time taking care of Brooklyn and herself.  It will be sad to see them leave but we are exited for them because they told us they still want to go to church. We found the ward that they are going to be in so everything should go pretty smoothly. This week was pretty crappy. Other than the baptism, Friday and Saturday were great but the rest of the week was rough. I called Sister Woodbury and she thinks that I might have depression or anxiety, so we are looking into getting some help.  I have a doctor’s appointment this week so hopefully we will have something figured out by next week.  But I will be fine. The work is still going really well and the baptism was amazing. And we are working with some great people. Thanks for all you do. I love you so much! Have a great week with Forrest and enjoy Scotland. Love you soooooooooo much!