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