Pictures!

These pictures are long over due and a little out of order. The deal with pictures is Ryan takes them and sends the card to his mom and then they are uploaded here and she sends him a new card. I guess this is how it's going to work. The only problem is that now I am not always sure what the story behind each picture is.

This is Elder Trammell, the bird belongs to either a non member or less active member they are working with. Elder Furtney says he's a talker.

I thought I would add this just because Ryan went through all the trouble taking it. He is laughing about it because it's a super old car with super nice rims.

A mini tribute of sorts dedicated to Neil Armstrong who is from Warren, Ohio.

The first day there the other missionaries were taken on a tour of church sites in the area. They went to the Kirtland Temple and the N.K. Whitney printing press. Elder Furtney really enjoyed this and said there was a really strong spirit there.

sept 19 email

Hi Mom and Dad,
I have been doing great here in Ohio. It rains pretty much everyday which is really weird to me, i have never seen so much rain in my life haha. Its way green near the lake but once you get down near warren and those areas its still green but not as much as it is in Kirtland. Skylar and Tyler's baptismal date moved to Oct 2nd because of some family problems but their mom is thinking about taking lessons as well and hopefully being baptized with them as well. Im very excited for them. I hated having to move the date but we had to and they have been having a really hard time. That is so cool that Zack is going to England. We actually had a senior couple that is serving in that mission here last week with their daughter because they wanted to see their first grandson's baby blessing. They were so funny, they loved to see us and they feed us a few times. Also our ward mission leader served there on his mission, he finished 9 months ago but he loved it there. England is so cool, I'm pretty excited for him if you can't tell. He should start watching soccer and get into to that haha that is all they are about there haha. You will see the gnomes soon i just haven't taken many pictures for a while but i will start back up again. You will love my gnome his name is warren haha he is great. I think its funny but pretty much football is peoples lives over here, so I get an update from so many members about michigan. I don't watch games they just tell me how they did so its great I get to hear about my team all the time. I believe we go watch General Conference at the ward building or we go to a members house and watch it, but don't worry we will watch it. This week has been great and i have learned a lot. How is the family doing? Oh i was wondering what Dillon's email is and what Matt's email is, i can email them as long as they are not in my mission its ok haha. I haven't talked to Dillon in forever and would love to say hi to him. Well I'll try to send some pictures home in the next few weeks but not promising anything haha. Love you all and hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Ryan Furtney

sept 12 email

Hi Mom and Dad,
Its going great this week not to much has changed really. Elder Trammell and I are still together for another 6 weeks. Only one missionary left our district in these transfers so its not to bad. We are still looking for people to teach here but we have been doing a lot better we had skylar and tyler come to church this week which was great and we are setting three more baptism dates this friday. We have been doing a lot with less active members its been a huge push the past few months i guess and we had one come back to church last week and two others are planning on coming this week. The work is going great here we had a baptism for one of the other areas at our building on saturday and it was great to see him be baptized. We taught him a few times so it was almost like we did all the work haha just kidding we only taught two lessons, but he is a great guy and he was very excited. Thank you for looking i dont really know a mobile one would be a lot easier. The weather here has been cooling down a lot this week but only to the 60's about not to much lower. We have pretty much been getting rain every single day its pretty surprising I have never seen so much rain all at once. We dont get to much time to shop around here its hard to ever find time. If you could it would be great if you could send some stuff I probably wont need it until october i guess thats what everyone has told me when it really gets cold around here. Thats pretty cool jesse actually got a girl to say yes to go on a date with him haha. No but that is cool hope he has fun at homecoming thats always a fun dance. I hope to see some pictures of jesse in the BMW. Thats way cool that westyn sent his papers in im way excited for him it is an amazing experience out here, and there is nothing like it. I don't think i ever thought of the gospel in the ways that i have out here. The plan of salvation is one of the most joyful things in the world and it brings so much hope and peace to those who except it. Well hopefully eric gets sent home early that would be great, and then mom you would only have to worry about me haha. My testimony has grown so much since i got out here and i love the gospel so much. Actually this week i have been thinking a lot about grandpa and it has been nice. I always feel very calm and happy when i start thinking of him, and it helps a lot when im feeling down about that day. I have learned so much about this gospel and how much it blesses peoples lives. I love you all hope you have a great week im planning on having one haha. Oh also mom tell Lisa I loved her letter, i just can't find time right now to write back but i will. It was great to hear about matt i hope he is still doing well in Brazil.
Love,
Elder Ryan Furtney

Hi Mom and Dad,
I have been having a good week this week and the temperatures here are beginning to drop. Its been in the 60's the past few days but I have been enjoying it so far. Not too much is new with investigators. We have mostly just been looking for people to teach but its a great learning experience. Thank you so much for the emails I'll probably start writing them next week since I don't have too much time this week. So transfers are coming up but I think I should stay in Warren but its still possible that I might leave, so you will find out pretty soon. Oh also I was wondering if you could buy a GPS for me and send it to me in a few weeks, just use my amazon gift card so your using my money and if you know that I'm in a set address just mail it there. So that blog is made up by one of our senior couples there names are Elder and Sister Smith. They take pictures and videos all the time but I don't know what all they put on the blog but I'm glad you found it I was going to tell you about it this week but now I don't have to. Bishop told me that Zach and Westyn are both working on there papers that is way cool I'm glad they are going, I cant wait to hear where they are going. Well this week has been good I have enjoyed my time with Elder Trammell, don't really know if we will be together another transfer or not but I guess we will see. I hope that everything back home is good, How is Eric doing, have you heard anything? I got a letter from Lisa this week its great to hear from the Pellegrini's and to hear how Matt is doing. Ill try to write them back as soon as possible but I have been doing pretty bad the past few weeks writing letters, I am always so tired when i get home (which is not a bad thing cause I know I'm working a lot then) but its hard to write people back too. Well also something that was way cool this week was Elder Nash who is in the quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us. He is over the missionary department. He was great he talked a lot about purpose and focusing on our key indicators more. He was a great guy and he taught a lot. I just hope I can remember everything, luckily I took notes. Also last night a guy who moved out of our ward called us and he lives in minersville or new harmony I don't really remember because I wasn't talking to him but it was cool that he moved down to southern Utah. Thank you for the pictures as well they are great to see. Well this week I'm going on an exchange so I'm actually in Ashtabula right now its right next to the lake, so there are a lot more clouds around here. But its only a day thing so I'll be back in Warren tomorrow. Ok well I think that is about it thanks for the email its always great to hear from home. Love you all.
Love,
Elder Ryan Furtney

Hey Mom,
Thank you for the email its always good to hear from everyone back home. How has school been so far for Jesse, it just started here so I have been wondering. So like four days ago there was this crazy storm at like 2 in the morning. There were a bunch of tornado sirens going off but nothing ever hit, but the cool thing was the lightning storm that was going on the whole time. It was like those ones that every second a bolt is coming down so for like an hour or so it was very loud thunder and also lightning keeping it very bright the whole time. But I really didnt care and I fell back asleep like instantly cause I was tired. But dont worry Elder Trammell couldn't fall back asleep so he would have woke me up if a tornado did hit so I was safe haha. But I thought it was pretty cool and right now we have been getting some storms from the hurricane but it passed through pretty quick and it didnt do to much here. So thats great that you and dad did some service out in the heat. Edler Trammell and I have been doing a lot of service out here and its usually always very hot here. Ya our little mishap was a pretty great experience and pretty much every missionary that is near us have been making fun of us. Oh that bird is named Katie and it is hilarous. The bird belongs to a less active member and we have been teaching her grandkids and they have a baptismal date set for Sept. 25 so thats pretty cool. But that bird is hilarous it freaks out when it sees us because it gets so excited. So I bought the best thing in the world and you will probably just think I'm crazy for buying it but its worth it. I bought a Michigan Gnome haha its in all of the pictures I have taken just so you will know. If you didnt see Elder Trammell has an Ohio state gnome so we have a little rivalry its pretty funny. Thats so cool that Jordan Comstock is going to Hondorus he must be pretty excited. Well so far we have just been teaching a bunch of different lessons and such but mostly the Resoration and the Plan of Salvation. I have been learning so much since I got out here and its pretty crazy. In fact we went to early morning seminary and I learned that there are some scriptures that are scripture masteries that I never knew of haha that shows how much I paid attention. Well so far its been a great the past week... actually this next week we could have at least two new investigators that are friends of YSA people so we are pretty excited. Our mission is starting to focus more on YSA so we teach a bunch of people near our age and its a lot easier to teach them then someone that way older then both of us but we still teach them as well. Oh also we have a mission confrence On tuesday and Elder Nash is speaking to us so I cant wait for that.

Oh also mom could you send me some email addresses. Like Julies and Grandma Herrin, and any other family emails you might have. That would be great if you could do that for me, I havent been able to write to anyone really other then Aunt Penny. Also just say hi to everyone from me.

Love,
Elder Ryan Furtney

Hey Mom,
Well first off, Elder Trammell is from Pocatello, Idaho. He is a great guy and we are always joking around with each other, its pretty funny. Well I cant remember all of your questions so I will try my best to remember but I'm sorry if I miss some. So Warren is a great city - not to big but it is big enough. There is alot that happens here. Its kind of a run down city, but its nice and i love it. Most of our investigators live way out side of Warren though. So yes we have a car because our area is pretty massive and it takes about 40 minutes to get to the edge of our area and its mostly farm country. There are a few Amish in this area so its funny to see them we have taken a few pictures of them but we have to be pretty secretive about it or they just get mad and want to kill us haha. But I have a pretty funny story about our car that happened on thursday.Well first of all our car is a Toyota and there is always problems with that haha. I think you can kind of guess what will happen just by what kind of car it is. Well anyway, we were driving home from doing service for a nonmember when all of a sudden our battery light pops on and we were a little confused. But then all of a sudden all the lights turned on and we lost power steering. We call our vechile cordinatoor for the mission and he told us to get it to a shop that was near us. So we start driving again and the RPM's are freaking out and we couldn't get past 20 MPH's cause the car is pretty much just dying. once we are about half way there all of a sudden our brakes went out and we could slow down but it would try to go by itself as well so it was a little freaky. But we made it to the shop safely and got it in the shop but we were told it would take a least a day to fix. So we walk home which was about 4 miles away from the shop which isnt to bad but when we got to our place we remembered that our keys for our place were on our car keys. So ya we were locked out for about an hour before someone came to let us in to our place. Then we get a call that we wont have a car for at least a week haha. But our day was far from over at this point. We still had a lot of time to go do stuff so we went to vist a part member family that was a little bit far from our place but we had bikes so we were good. But we locked our door thinking that we had a spare key but also left the back door cracked as well. Well... When we got home we found out the key didnt work and back door was actually closed.... Ugh. So we were trying to call everyone that could let us in and we could not get a hold of anyone. So we got there at about 9:30 and started calling people we finally got a hold of someone at about 1015 and they couldnt get us in so they started calling people for us. They got a hold of the apartment manager at 11:15 and they live like 45 minutes away so they drove down and let us in. By that time in was pouring outside and we were just hanging out under our garage area. And we got in at a little after 12 which sucked a lot. But we learned a lot that day. First lesson was to never forget your keys and also test all the keys you think work. Then second, people in Warren after about 10:30 never have shirts on. I'm not lying about this, there was not one person we saw who didnt have one on and im pretty sure more than half of them were either really drunk or high so it was pretty funny watching them. Well thats my story of the week haha it was just fantastic. Oh and the next morning our mission president called and made fun of us for like ten minutes and then he said the assitants were bringing us a new car so now we have a chevy malibu. But we were freaking out cause our place was clean but not at its best so we were cleaning everything that morning haha. Well hope you dont worry too much about me, we are usually very safe here in warren actually all the time unless our GPS wants to lead us into the ghetto then we dont feel too safe. Well hope you enjoyed that story it was pretty fun other than being way tired the next day. Well I am loving Ohio and having a great time. I havent been too homesick so dont worry about me. I work so much I don't really have anytime to think about much so I dont get too homesick ever. Well I love you all hope you are having a great summer and enjoying it.
Love
Elder Furtney

Hi Mom,

I'll be looking for the box hopefully I can get it but it might be hard. Hopefully Matt is doing okay and Lisa too. I think he will be fine. I will pray for him. I have been working very hard and we are just trying to get new investigators as much as possible. This area was kind of dead when I got here but we are teaching a mom and her two kids and we invited them to be baptized and they said yes so we just have to teach them some more and get them to church. They are way funny and have been very nice so far. Also we have been trying to teach another mother and her kids as well but she is always pretty hard to find haha. We have been working with a lot of less actives but they are pretty stubborn but always love to listen and talk with us. The ward is pretty small but we are being fed pretty much every night so I'm happy. The only real hard part so far is getting people to care and actually want to keep commitments. But other then that most people will talk to us and are usually kind there are a few who will yell at us but they are usually high or really drunk so its pretty funny. There is a massive falcon that lives right outside my window so its pretty much like failure to launch all over again cause the bird has the screech of death. Its not crazy over here but I'll just say I have stumbled onto the ghetto more then once and actually have talked to a few gang members so its been great here. Also in Cleveland our car got broken into and they stole our gps which was pretty funny but thats just how it is. Well I am still having a great time and im sending some pictures to you in the mail. Also at Christmas I'm supposed to be able to skype so you should talk to ari about that and try to set something up so I can talk to you on skype, but I will have more info later I don't really know yet. Also thank you dad for the post on the blog its great to hear about things back home. Hopefully your not letting Jesse drive yet haha. Well I just want to thank you for all and day for all the stories you told me about your mission, it helped a lot. Well I love everyone and love to hear how everyone is doing thank you so much.

Elder Furtney