Coming Home!!!

I know I haven't been very good about keeping this updated, but I wanted to update that Cory is coming home.

The End Cory's last email!!

Hey family,
SO things have gone by way to fast and I can't believe that its time to come home. All day yesterday and today my stomach has been turning over and over iam way excited to come home. So things are going a little crazy lately satan has been working hard on me. Last week my watches battery died then on sunday my camera broke and wont charge I even bought a new battery thinking that it might of been that well its not. I got a flu shot from a docter in the ward and the secretary told me that they would cover it well i got a bill in the mail and it was 20 dollars, so I set 20 dollars a side to pay for the shot well I got up this morning and the money and the paper are not in the spot that I left them. So I have to fork up 20 more dollars. I have just had a lot of crap happening to me lately. But were pressing forward! Sorry that the letter was so short there wasn't to much to say. Iam really exited to coming home on thursday and to see you all. I miss you and love you I can't wait to talk to you on thursday. we do go to the mission home tomorrow. well ill talk to you all later bye.
Elder Cory Alan Downward

11/2/09 e-mail

Hey family so this is going to be short I think maybe 1 paragraph. jk So things are going good we are having alot of things start to work out for us. We dont have anyone else that we can set with a baptism date but we are trying to find someone. Acctually do you remember me telling you about michele the lady that I baptized in roanoke. Well her grandson that is 8 got baptized on saturday. So i gues that we planted more seeds there then we expected. WEll here is the good news for this week. Brittney is set with a baptism date! yay and not just any day it is the 15 of november the last sunday I have in the mission field. She is way excited and ready for it. We taught her the plan of salvation and things went really good. I really hope that we can find one more person and set them with a date before I leave. Things are going really well I can't believe that I only have 16 days its going way to fast I dont want it to end. When we were teaching brittney I wished that I could extend my mission. ( but we know that mom wouldn't allow that) jk It hasn't hit me yet that I will be home in no time I am still in shock. I dont think it will be real till iam on the airplane. we had our interviews on saturday and man can you say fast. All president asked me was how was elder chymboryk doing and what srengths he had. That lasted 3 min and then that was it i was out of there. I Bet he was just waiting till this last one to have a longer one. I hope atleast. Well I dont know what else you really want to know. Oh thanks for finding out what time I get released. I dont feel like I have been out for 2 years. There are some members in the 3 ward that are having a BBQ and a bon fire next week for me to have one last hurahh. They are pretty cool. They have a daughter out at BYU that keeps telling them to invite me over:D jk For Halloween we carved pumpkins and went out to dinner with the other lynchburg elders. It wasn't nothing special. Oh here is a funny story for you. On sunday morning the alarm went off and I jumped up and got in the shower and then was shaving and then all of a sudden our cell phone alarm went off. It hit me it was day light savings time. I was so mad I blew it. We got back in bed and took a hour nap just to get that hour sleep:D Well I love you all and miss you guys can't wait to talk to you in Two weeks:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Love you Bye. Love Elder Cory Alan Downward

march 19th e-mail

HEy Family!
So things are going good out here. This Last week was transfers. Elder Weathersby is my new companion. It has been pretty fun. WE had zone conferance yesterday that is why i didn't email you. Sorry i forgot last week to tell you i had so many other things on my mind and didn't even think about it. WE Learned alot about working with members and how we can help them to do missionary work. I am really excited for this new program that we are starting to do. I can't wait to see how the work picks up and starts to move along. WE only have one real progressing investigator his name is "investigator joe" he is married to a member. We set him this past week for baptism during general conference. He has some really good concerns and is just waiting to have a spiritual experience. I cant wait to see how he progresses and starts to make progress. We dont have any other invesigators that are moving along. We are really close to dropping the other invetigators. WE havn't had any luck with finding a new investigator in the past couple of weeks. Its been really hard to get things moving here. I am sort of frustrated with it. I feel like i get put in these areas where there is nothing going and its up to me to get it moving along again. This area used to be a really good area. a missionary was here for seven months and had seven baptisms. He had really good social skills and could get along with anyone. I feel like the investigators that he was teaching here were more intersted in having a friend ship with him and not real interested in the church. I could be wrong but that is what i have felt so far. Dont worry about the helicopters we are to busy to play with them anyways. But thanks for doing that for me. I saw some pictures of the draper and the other temple." I dont know how to spell it" I got onto the churchs website and saw what they looked like. I dont need anything. I should be good till the end of my mission. I would like a peanute butter egg and iam sure elder weathersby would too. If possible get two extras because of the university elders. TEll grandma thanks. It was elder Westover that wanted the peanute butter egg recipe. Way to go dad on the pop I havn't had any candy sinse halloween. And i actually gave up pop a week ago so iam now doing pretty good with that. Dad now that you have some free time maybe you can finish reading the book of mormon? I am in Alma ch.34 and this is my third time on my mission. This saturday we might be doing a 5k run for a member that was in the singles ward that died a while ago. I will let you know how it goes. That would be cool to have a wii i really like them. I Had a blast the one time that i played it. The boxing game on it is really fun. Oh When i was in lynchburg i was teaching a Part member family and had them set for baptism when i left. The guys name was "Baptisee". Well they got baptized last transfer. I saw there name in a mountineer. like you said you never know what kind of seeds you are sowing in the areas you sserve. Well that is mainly it I love you all and miss you guys so much have a good week. Bye Love ELder Cory alan Downward.

March 9th e-mail

Hey Family,
Thanks for the email it was great its hard some times to only get a short email from you guys once a week. Thanks for understanding. Dad Sounds like you had a good time fishing and that you caught a lot of them. Your story reminded me of when we went up one time and it was freezing cold and windy. So I tried to build a wall out of snow. Then the other time we went and I got a lot of sun on my face and my freckles got really big. It looked like I had dirt all over my face. Those are some good memories that I had about ice fishing. Hear is some news for you all, this week was transfers. Last week in the mail all of the Zone leaders get a paper stating where everyone in the zone is going and who there new companion is. We were looking forward to it all week. Well it came and we ran inside and gave it a good look over. I saw where everyone is going and who is coming. I never looked at what was happening with me and elder Gerrard. Then he pointed it out and I was in shock. Elder Garrard was being released as a zone leader and going to be a district leader and my new companion is Elder Weathersby! I was so excited and I am still excited. I was hoping to be able to serve with him again. I was talking to one of the Assistants to the president the other day and he said that they had seen a big change in him the last little while, and were really excited for us to be able to get back together. This is going to be a great transfer we are going to get this area back on track. There were two zone leaders here a transfer before I got here that got doubled out. They had this place on fire. I really want to get it the best that we can. I know that this upcoming zone conference is going to be a really exciting one and should get the mission on track to what we should be doing. Last week was a really hard week we lost a couple of our investigators but I'll tell you about that in my letter. Its spring break here and the whole city has basically shut down. All of the students left for the week. There is none anymore. Its weird to think that the city is run by the school. I bet that this is how it feels in snow college. I cant wait to talk to you guys again in a little while. It seems like yesterday I was hitting 15 months now this Saturday will be 16 months man time flys by. Tell ashley and them that I say Hi and that I really miss them tell grandma also. Thanks for the email and all that you guys do for me I really appreciate this opportunity that I have in my life to be serving the lord and spreading the gospel forth. I love you all and miss you so much. have a great week. Love Elder Cory Downward

Feb 10th e-mail

Hey family! so i never got your email at all last week. Not even the one the that you resent. Of well as long as i get the package iam happy wiht that. SO what did you send to my last companion? He is really cool and fun. I called him the other day and he said that he is doing good with his new companion. Its about time that i get a letter from you guys. you said at christmas that you were goinig to write more i havn't got one yet oh well i will survive.I can't wait to go fishing we drove to a area here the other day and there was a really nice river that i wanted to go fly fishing on it so bad. The rivers here are to warm though for fish so it sucks. It is so beautiful up in the mountains i can't wait to see what it looks like here again in the spring. WOW its only a couple of months away. DANG there is only 3 months left till mothers day. Yahoo iam excited that is so soon then after that its time to come home. So you guys didn't catch any fish huh? That sucks. There is so many things that i want to do here on p-days but we hardly have any time to do anything with shopping, emailing, and writing letters. The weather here is amazingly warm its about 55 degrees and humid it feels so nice we all have short sleeve shirts on today.:D One thing that i wish is that it would snow like a foot. Our investigators are doing ok we lost one last week. I wil have to tell you about it in ly letter. But the other guy we had a horrible lesson last week so we fasted for him on saturday. We went back over last night and it was night and day. I love this gospel and Knowing that our heavenly father will answer our prayers. I had no idea that Rob served in christians burg that is so cool. I will tell you all abou what zone leaders have to do in my letter. Oh Yes we do have a cell phone all missionaries have one now.(all companionships) its nice now we can keep better trac of what is going on in the zone. Only the zone leaders get to text though. Tell bro Sokia and The ertals hi for me. Thanks! Hey can you get Josh's and Ryans new address for me. I want to write them and see how they are doing. Sounds like Aspen Brylee, and Porter are getting big i can't believe how much they have changed crazy. wow how fast time flys i was in my bed the other night and was pndering over the mission and it felt like yesterday that i just came out. It was wierd to think that i only have 9 months left that is so weird to me. I have learned so much about life and what our heavenly father expects of us. this is a great blessing to me at this time and will have an even bigger influence on my life. I got to go i love you all and miss you guys thanks for the email. Love ya lots. Love Elder Cory alan Downward

Exerpts from Cory's letter to Ashley this week!

"The weather here is the wierdest that I have ever seen. Last week it was -14 plus the wind-so cold! then this week it was 60 degrees, we were tracting wiht our sleeves rolled up. Now it is getting cold again! I wish it was snowing here, we have only got like 2 centimeters. I miss Utah."
"Things out here are going pretty good. This Sunday we had Michelle's baptism. It went great. I had the honor of performing the baptism. Everything went off without a hitch. "

Cory wants more letters!!!!!!

January 27th e-mail

Hello family,
WEll things are going really good here we had a pretty exciting week on sunday was Michele's Baptism and things went great. It was a really cool experience to be able to be apart of her life and perform the baptism. President Thornock came and was there for it also. We got alot of support from the ward and had a pretty good turn out. Well we got our transfer call last night and gues what I am going to be training AGAIN... Man I can't believe this!

I am just kidding I am not training iam going to be a Zone leader in Blacksburg VA. Thats where Virginia Tech university is. Its going to be pretty interesting to see what all goes on there I heard that alot of things have been in the news about it lately. My companion is Elder Gerrard He is from Vegas, I think. I went on exchanges with him once while I was in Lynchburg. It is sort of funny everytime I get transfered I go to a new zone this is my Fifth area and my fifth zone. I am getting a wide variety of the mission. I really am excited to be a zone leader but sort of nervous this will be a great learning experience and a great time in my life. I am really going to miss elder weathersby he is a great missionary and we have had alot of fun this last transfer it went by way to fast but there is a reason that iam leaving. I am going to miss him But we both hve promised that were going to hang out when we get home and do things together. Thanks for the package I got it yesterday and I really am grateful for the perfect push ups I have used them a couple of times and really like them. I cant wait to go out to dinner with you guys when i get home we dont eat out that much but at least iam not getting fat:D
Well not awhole lot else is going on just excited for this new area. When president called he said that he wants me to get blacksburg on fire like i have done here in Roanoke. It lifted my spirits to know that he thought that highly of me. Well family hope that you all are doing good back there in Utah and that your winter isn't that bad. we were told that the weather was supposed to be pretty bad today and actually Snow. (I think that they lied to us all its doing is raining) well we will talk to you soon Love you all and miss you guys Bye.
Love Elder Cory Alan Downward
here is my new address.
314 Reynolds st. Apt A
Blacksburg Va. 24060

Silly Elder

Aspen and Brylee made this of uncle Cory and I thought I would share!

January 20th E-mail

Hey family, So sounds like things are going pretty good with you all. That is sort of weird to think that there is going to be a new bishop when i come home. Oh well Who is Brother OLsen? I cant think of him off the top of my head. I am glad that i made moms saturday(with Sandys help of course) Sandy is the one that did it all! I just asked her if she could and she took control so you should probably give her a call and thank her for doing it and also let her know that iam very thankful for it also. What all did you do for her birthday and all that fun jazz. I hope that you had a happy birthday and that it was good. SO next week is transfers alrea dy and we have no idea what is going to happen so if you send anything to me this week send it to the mission home thanks. I will be looking for the package later this week. Did you get mine yet? I wil let you know soon as we find out what is going to happen. So what did Elder weathersby have to say in the card he didn't tell me a thing that he wrote you guys? I wrote his family and let them know how much ireally apperciate serving with elder Weathersby. I had no idea that Josh and Ryan moved out. I was going to ask you guys to start looking up things for me about schooling. I think that i want to go back in the spring semester at SLCC. SO if you can start finding out things for that would be great. So here is your exciting news for the week Michelle Thompson is going to be getting baptized on Sunday and Iam going to be performing th e Baptism. Iam so exxcited this transfer has been one of my more favorite ones out here me and Elder weathersby are getting along great and we are really liking it here together. I Hope that the rest of my mission will be as good as this one. If you see BJ Gardner again tell him i say hi back. SO what all did ashley put on the blog page of me? Well Family that is mainly it I Hope that you all have a good week and that evereything goes good with you guys. I love you all bye. Love Elder Cory Alan Downward P.s. Maybe he colbey smell something in the garage and doesn't like it in there anymore.

Tuesday Jan. 6th E-mail

Hey Family, SO things out here is going good. We are doing amazing. The weather is really starting to tick me off because it just gets to about 60 degrees and stays that way for the whole week. Today it got colder but nothing to special. I really want to get some snow I miss it so much. It hasn't even really snowed here yet all it has done is start to snow then melt ten minutes later. SO confusing! Sounds like it it is cold there it was about that bad here last year but that was farthur north. It was supposed to have ice rain today but nothing has happened yet. Oh well. Yes, we heard about Utah killing Alabama and that there is a big debate about who should be #1 that woould be cool if they did make it. This area is not real big on sport teams from the west all we here about is Virginia Tech. and North Carolina. I had no idea that aunt Beverly died. How is grandma taking it? That is cool that Grandma did the closing prayer. I had a bunch of thank you cards left over from when I first cameout and thought that I would send one to everyone that sent me something from the ward. I didn't get one to the ertals but will soon. It makes me happy to find out that everyone liked them and was grateful for them. SO Sandy Got me a shirt and two ties, a puzzle that goes over the plan of salvation so that when we teach people it they can see how it all works. a Jar with a bunch of thoughts one every sunday till I get home. It was a really good Christmas alot better then last year But probably because I got the gifts before christmas :D. SO Josh and Ryan are up to no good still huh? well Something that Rob Said when we were up at the Cabin Two years ago Has stuck with me to this day. He said that when he went on his mission his friends that didn't go hit a wall and didn't really progress for those two years. He said that he had alot more skills when he got home then his friends. So we sill see if it is true when I get home. I wish that they would take the time and think about how much fun and how many different people you get to meet out here. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything it has helped me grow and progress in a number of ways. So the helicopters take them to Costco Ashley said they would take back anything. Thats just me being greedy and wanting them to play with. Well that is mainly it for this week not a whole lot of things are going on out here We are trying to find some more people to start teaching and get progressing. I will let you know how michelle is doing in your letter. We havn't gone out to dinner yet but I will soon I'll let you know Thanks. Melinda I hope that you are having fun in Logan Love you. I miss you all and love you alot. Talk to you soon Bye. Love/Elder Cory Alan Downward

Christmas in Roanoke, Virginia!

The family that Cory spent Christmas day with, sent us these pictures of their dinner! Looks like a lot of missionaries joined them-I hope they had enough food! We appreciate all of the people out in the mission field that befriend, feed and help Cory! Thank you!

Nov Letter

Hey family how is everything going? It is going amazing out here our area is on fire. Last week since I am the district leader we went out on exchang es and we found four new investigators and then we found two more before sunday it was amazing to see how the lord blesses us. The people that we found seem pretty promising and hopefully will be good solid investigators. Our main investigator Cody stephans is doing really good we are hopefully set him for baptism this up coming week. YAY:D it has really cool to see him change and progress sense we first started teaching him. He has changed alot in the last couple of weeks. We are doing really good I made myself a promise last night that before I come home iam going to read the old testament, the new testimont, the book of mormon, doctrine and covenents, pearl of great price, jesus the christ, our search for happiness, our heritage, and preach my gospel. that is one a transfer. Hope that i can do it. Iam sorry to hear about the odekirks and the loss of his daughter and son. that would really suck to have them both die in one week. that is why we have the word of wisdom and we have a prophet to lead and guide us so that we dont make mistakes that could end up taking our lives. The district leader position is amazing its not that hard but sort of fun because i get to see whats going on in the district and see what i can d= o different. I got an email back from sandy and she said that she was ok with out emailing. She understands that its from a prphet and that this is what were supposed to be doing. The size of pants i need are either 32W 34L I wont black ones gain. and the size of the vest is a large. black also. Thanks for the compliment on the hair cut i cut it myself now:D i cut elder Lopez's last night it turned pretty good its not that hard to do. so the picture of my finger where it was all bloody. we were moving a family into a home and i was carrying a box out side and when i put it down it cut my finger it was way worse then a paper cut and hurt like the dickens:D but its all better now just a sweet scar. the explorer combo is 51979 i think. write it down this time. Well i got to go i miss you all and lOve you guys thanks for the letter kristin. Oh the pictures that you can erase are the ones of the pumpkins and what ever other ones there are on it. just not the ones of the hike. you should be able to put a couple of videos on it it holds alot of videos. Well i love you all and hope that you have a happy thanksgiving. Love/Elder Cory Alan Downward