76th week in Spokane

Ed got baptized!! It was an awesome service! I love baptisms, there's always such a neat spirit there. Elder Tamblyn is gone.. I've been staying with a member from the ward so that's been fun. We had an awesome teaching week too! We taught more lessons this week than any other week that I've been here. The work is just booming here.. there's gonna be four or five baptisms within the next two months! Jaak is sooo close he can taste it! The Lord has really been compelling him to be humble! And he recognizes it and we invited him to be baptized but he said that he's not quite ready yet, but he's close. He only has one more thing to resolve so we invited him to pray to overcome it. He is excited to overcome it because he is excited to be baptized. Joseph is still just waiting for his next interview and then he'll be good to go. We found a new investigator this week named Gerald and he is super solid! We taught him twice last week and he came to church yesterday! He will definitely be getting baptized in April, no questions, he is golden! We had lost contact with Jeremy and then he came to church yesterday! Hopefully he won't disappear again, and we will be working on getting him in the water by the end of this month. Ed brown is doing awesome! He has really caught fire in the gospel and will be getting the priesthood and a calling soon! I don't remember if I've ever talked about Billy. He was baptized as a kid but his family fell away shortly after and he's been in and out of state care for most of his teenage life, he's 17 now and he recently came to live with his grandma in the second ward. At first he wanted nothing to do with the church so we would visit a few times a week for a little while and just helped with some chores and got to know him better. Then he finally came to church and hasn't missed a Sunday yet. He got the priesthood and has even been to a few teaching appointments with us and is planning on serving a mission! I think I've talked a little bit about Sis Wells before, we accidentally pulled into her driveway thinking that it was a road because she lives out in the boonies and I was about to just turn around and keep looking for the house, but instead we felt like we should go knock on her door. So we did and she said that it was an answer to her prayers and she asked us for a book of Mormon! She is already a member, got baptized at eight, but neither she or her family have been active since, and shes been involved in a few other churches her whole life but she said that something was telling her to revisit the Mormon church. Its been a struggle with her, she has been 'kicking against the pricks' the whole time! She would text us all the time asking us questions and she just kept fighting and kept looking for excuses wherever she could, but we kept pursuing and just being there for her. Now she has been totally converted and just wants to serve! Its been awesome! She bore her testimony yesterday and she called me her 'spiritual bodyguard' and said that I would be for the rest of her life, so I told her I'd take that on! I have loved serving in Bonners Ferry, there's been its hard points where people used there agency and chose another path when they have been so close! But it has had so many rewards, I have been given so many blessings from this area, the people here and the environment here. I've learned so much about myself and also about what the Lord has in mind for me for the rest of my life. Its been awesome! So if you haven't guessed, I'm being transferred. The mission president decided to move the zone leaders to a different area in the zone and so I will be covering the Sunny Side and Clarkfork wards. Clarkfork goes into Montana a bit which means that I have served my mission in three states.. Washington, Idaho, and Montana! My new companion will be Elder Van Dyke. We served in the same district when I was in Beacon Hill, my third area. So I'm excited! We are both sweeping into a new area so it will be fun! Plus, I will still get to see everyone at stake conference! Well, I love my mission, it has saved my life! love ya!