90th week in Spokane

We had, once again, an awesome week! I keep on getting amazed at the blessings that the Lord has been giving us! Last week I mentioned the countryman family. Well, they wanted to learn more about the sacrament. I was excited about that because in order to know about the sacrament, we gotta know about baptism. So we talked with them about baptism and the covenant that we make when we are baptized. We read the sacrament prayer and pointed out the three things that we promise to be willing to do.. Take the name of Christ, Always remember Him, and keep His commandments. The last two are self explanatory, so we focused on what it means to take the name of Christ and why that's important. We drew a diagram of the plan of Salvation on a white board and then drew a straight and narrow path from earth to the Celestial Kingdom, and drew two gates, one at the beginning and one at the end. Then explained that baptism is the gate and the Priesthood is the key for the first gate. We then talked about the second gate and read a few scriptures with them.. we focused on Mosiah five, and also read some verses in doctrine and covenants sections 18 and 45 and then did a role play with them that we were at the gate at the Celestial Kingdom. I know that the way I just explained it sounds confusing, but with it drawn out I promise it makes sense! The spirit was so strong during that lesson and we invited the family to be baptized on July 9th and they said yes!!! It is such a miracle! They are an awesome family and I am so excited to be with them as they make this leap of faith by being baptized! So that was miracle number one. Miracle number two comes from the lesson that we had right before the Countryman's. We actually didn't have time to teach a lesson because Richard was late getting there, but we were able to talk to him for a few minutes. He has been coming to church for a few weeks with his girlfriend, he's 25. He also took the lessons a couple years ago but wasn't ready at that point to be baptized but he says that he's ready now. When we asked him what his expectations are with meeting with us, he said to be reminded about the fundamentals, and to be baptized! So we will be meeting with him on Wednesday and inviting him to be baptized July 9th. Miracle number three is CRAZY! we left our apartment and it was raining, Elder Fordham asked me if I wanted to drive.. I said no, lets walk. So we started walking. There's a Baptist church right across the road from us and there was a guy sitting right next to the front door. Elder Fordham asked me if we should go talk to him. Immediately my mind quoted the white handbook "do not proselyte at or near other houses of worship" so I said can we do that? But we felt like we should, so we went and talked to him and it turns out that he got kicked out of his brother-in-laws house the day before and was homeless, he's 23. So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and we read the introduction with him and he said that this is what he's been looking for, he said that he felt like the Lord was guiding him to the Baptist church so that we would run into him. So we called our bishop, then took the man to a members home a couple doors down, taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized on July 2 and he said he would. So he met with the bishop and right now he is living with the same member that Ed is living with! His name is Emil. He is a tender mercy of the Lord. He's my same size so I gave him some slacks, a tie, and a white shirt. His backpack was all torn up so i gave him mine. He's an awesome guy, very sincere, very humbled. The Lord lead us right to him and He lead him right to us! Then at church there was a member that came up to us and said that their son, who is not a member, would like to take the lessons, and he was at church with them. so that will be happening this week and hopefully be putting him on date to be baptized on July 9th! I also had a very enlightening study this week. I've been studying about Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel. I've also had on my mind about living the Doctrine of Christ and what evidences are there to show that. Well, in the first blue box in the Christlike Attribute chapter, there's a question that says how do the first principles of the gospel and Christlike attributes relate? The scripture it gives is Moroni 8:25-26. I read that and it hit me like a ton of bricks... If we are living the doctrine of Christ, the fruits or the evidence of that would be that we are living the Christlike attributes. So as a missionary, to test ourselves if we have the Doctrine of Christ in our hearts, is tested by the Christlike Attribute self test.. along with check your progress. Also, in the teaching skills chapter, in the very first paragraph it says, essentially, that in order to teach with convincing power, we must first have Christlike attributes, and then study the material, and then master your language, and then we can fully rely on the Holy Ghost in our teaching to teach with convincing power. But first and foremost, we gotta master the Christlike attributes. because without it, how can we be Christ's disciples? Without it, how can we have the doctrine of Christ in our hearts?? So Elder Fordham and I have talked to our District leaders and this week we are going to take about ten minutes in district meeting and talk about this so that our missionaries can more fully have the Doctrine of Christ within them. I love this work! I love being an instrument in the Lords hand! I love being a missionary!

89th Week in Spokane

We had an amazing first week together! I came to an area where there are a few fence sitters. The first night here we taught a 19 year old guy named Ed who they had been teaching for about a month but he wouldn't commit. We were able to talk to him about faith and goals and how we prove to the Lord our faith to Him. We set a goal with him to be baptized on June 25 and he said he would. Since then, he has gotten really excited about his date and he said that he will be serving a mission in a year! He is just staying here for the summer, he will be going to BYUI in September, he's the man! Then a couple days later we taught another investigator named Murry, he's 18, we taught him about the plan of salvation and tied it right into baptism and he is now preparing to be baptized on June 25. On Sunday, we had seven investigators come to church! It was a really good day! There's a girl named Sara who has come a couple times with some members, she's about 23 or so, and we set up an appointment with her for after church and we taught her the Restoration. The Spirit was so thick it was tangible! It definitely ranks in the top five most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission. She said a prayer that rivals King Lamoni's first prayer.. it was so sincere! There's a family that has been taught for a long time here that won't commit named Countryman. I'm really praying that they will be ready to be baptized on July 9th, it will be my last Saturday. They are so awesome.. they are just scared to commit to baptism! Its a husband and wife and two kids, the husband is actually a member and a week before I got here he told the Elders that he's ready to start making some real changes. We also found a new couple to teach named Randy and Mariah, they are pretty sweet too, he's 20 and she's 19 and they have a 6 month old named Aden and they seem really prepared. This transfer we are really gonna be focusing on working closely with the members, building their trust and confidence in the missionaries, it seems like its always a constant cycle.. the members are way awesome and then some slacker missionaries come and screw everything up and then new missionaries have to come repair whats been done and then the cycle starts all over again! It seems that has been my role many times on my mission. But it has always been really nice to see the results that come from it. My companion asked me what I want to become when this transfer is over and I get on the plane. I told him I just want to be exhausted! Spiritually and physically. And so far it has turned out that way. I'm so grateful that the Lord is pouring out His blessings upon us on my last transfer. I've been praying for this transfer my whole mission and I can feel the effects of those prayers now and I know that the Lord will continue to pour out His blessings upon us. I love this work!

88th week in Spokane

This week went really well, as far as our teaching goes, we taught more lessons than any other week since I got to the area, so that was nice to finish it off that way. So yes, I am getting transferred for my last transfer to Deer Park, Washington, I will still be a zone leader. my new companion is Elder Fordham, he came out the same time as Elder Anderson, the missionary that I trained, so he's been out about a year now. We'll have fun together. So some highlights for this week would be that I went on exchanges with Elder Walker, he's serving in Libby, Montana. and we actually just chopped wood the whole time so that was fun, it had been a while since I'd done any of that. Another way cool thing that happened this week is we were out walking around and saw a guy pruning some trees so we went and talked to him and he started telling us about his church, that they aren't affiliated with any denomination, some are Christian and some are not, he said that they are all just spiritual seekers that get together and discuss beliefs. So I asked him more about the logistics of who speaks, is there a minister, or how that all works and he said that they just have different people come and share their beliefs. So I asked him if we could come and teach about ours, and he got excited and thought that it was a great idea! So we went into his house where we met his wife and got the info of how we need to go about arranging that, but its gonna be an awesome opportunity for Elder Van Dyke and his new companion. Hopefully they will be able to plant a whole lot of seeds because everyone that goes there is searching for something, and it just so happens that we have the answer for every single one of them! But unfortunately I won't be able to do that. But its one of my new goals to teach at another church before I go home. So first thing I do in my new area is to search out all the local pastors and ask them if we could come teach. and we'll see how that goes. We had a great couple of lessons this week, one with a girl named Nicki and we invited her to be baptized June 25 and she said yes! So that will be exciting. and we also finally were able to teach Lisa and she is absolutely golden. She is just absorbing everything we say and is loving every bit of it. It was really an exciting thing to teach her because she was just so on board with everything! She does have a couple things she needs to get over still, namely smoking and the sabbath day. But that will come around very shortly, I'm excited for her, she will be baptized this month I'm sure of it! Today was fun, for Memorial day, we went hiking, and that was really fun, we went with a member, Brother Leifson. it was a pretty short hike, but really steep, we were able to get some really nice views of the valley. It made me excited to get back into hiking! Well, I think that's really all I have to say this week, I gotta go pack! Love ya!

87th week in Spokane

Its too bad we weren't raptured up this Saturday, I was really looking forward to that!! This week was kind of interesting. We packed up a days worth of clothes and headed to Clark Fork Tuesday morning like usual. On our way to Clark Fork we called one of our district leaders to set up an exchange with him for the following week. That day wouldn't work for them and so we set it up to go Wednesday night to Friday morning. Then we called another companionship to go on exchanges with them and it just turned out to work best to go from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. We planned it so that I would be going to the other elders area both times, so I only spent a couple of days this week in my own area. It was good for Elder Van Dyke though just in case he's gotta take over the area in a week! While I was in Priest River, ID and Newport, WA, we taught this really neat family, a single mom with eight kids! She was raised in the church but quit going soon after she left home. They are Hawaiian and they're pretty funny. But we taught them the restoration and it went really well! Hopefully they will continue to have a desire to keep meeting with the elders there. When I was in Sandpoint and Westmond wards, we went to this huge event they have annually here called lost in the fifties. There were tons and tons of people here, it was crazy packed! There was an hour long car parade where people from all over came and drove their restored cars, it was pretty fun. Mostly people were just drunk, so we had a few funny conversations with people just talking around the streets. Well, our bishop in the Sandpoint ward, Bishop Boren, was released this Sunday and we got a whole new Bishopric. So we are excited to start working with them! We had our last Monday morning study with Bishop Boren. I'm really gonna miss doing that, I've learned a lot from studying with him. But when he was a mission president in New York, he had study assignments that he always gave to the missionaries every transfer, and today he gave us a copy of all the assignments and materials that he would give them, so we've got a huge stack of papers to go through now. I'm excited about it! But its gonna be one of those things that's gonna have to wait until I get home because I have a couple other things that I need to get finished studying before I go to that. Speaking of Bishop Boren, he's an artist, and he gives a print of one of his paintings to everyone who reads the Book of Mormon cover to cover that asks him. I had heard about this from other people and so when I first got to the area I asked him if I could have the same challenge and he said of course, so this week I finished the Book of Mormon and today he gave me one of the prints! Its an awesome print, its of a cowboy sitting in a chair reading the Book of Mormon! As far as the teaching goes, we were able to find a few new investigators that seem pretty promising so we are excited about that. There's a whole lot of really great things that are surfacing right now that are going to yield a whole lot of fruit! That's all I got for this week! Love you all!!

86th week in Spokane

Another great week here in Sandpoint, Idaho! The sun is shinning, the lake is glistening, and I can't even get in it!! We had a really great week! I wanna start with telling you a story that happened on Friday. We went up to our old house to check out its progress (because it had a fire) well, the kitchen is completely gutted, they found asbestos so they had to take all the insulation out of the walls and ceiling. its gonna be a while before anyone moves back in there. Well, just outside the house, they have a little trail that goes up a hill with a little campfire ring and then a little past that is an awesome lookout to all the valley. So I ran up there to check it out.. its only like a hundred yards long. Well, I got up to the fire pit area and I heard a noise, like the brush moving, so I turned and looked and about ten feet to my left was a moose! The brush noise came from it going from a laying position to a standing one. By the way, when I was in Utah, me and another guy were chased by a massive bull moose and that was pretty intimidating even though the guy with me had a gun, so needless to say, without hesitation, I turned down the hill and ran! My companion said he's never seen anyone run so fast! haha unfortunately, because I was running downhill, I got a whole lot of speed, so much so that when I tried to stop when I got to the car, my feet slowed down but my body didn't and I fell haha.. I got a bruise on both sides of my hips, my butt, my right knee, left shin, and got my right palm all cut up! It was pretty exciting! but I would much rather all that than a hoof print on my face!! Gladly, the moose didn't chase.. I dont think I gave it enough time to think about it!! So that's my big story for the week! Kinda funny I think! As far as the teaching part of this week, it was really good for that as well! We taught more this week than we had all transfer! Kathy is the lady that is preparing to get baptized in Clark Fork, she is supposed to be doing it next weekend, but I don't think shes gonna be ready for that day, which is fine, it needs to happen when she's ready for it to happen, but she is pretty solid and she will get baptized, I'm confident about that. We made some great progress with Carla this week as well, we talked about the word of wisdom again, and she committed to quit smoking and cut back on the alcohol, which is huge for her!! It will be really good for her to be rid of those addictions so that the Spirit of the Lord can be felt by her more abundantly. Also in Clark Fork, we got a phone call from a young man, he's a teacher, that two of his friends want to get baptized! We went and taught one of them, because the other was sick. and the spirit was way strong during that lesson, he's a really neat kid, his name is Johnathan and he's seventeen. He has been reading from the Book of Mormon and knows its true and from God. He is preparing to be baptized on June 11! Only problem is that his mom has not yet given him permission to do so, his dad has, but not his mom. So we will be working on that. On Thursday I was able to spend the day in Bonners Ferry, and that was such a blessing! I was able to go teach Gerald Rate and Jaak Sanders, and that was awesome! We talked heavily with Jaak about the Book of Mormon, and I feel like we made a lot of progress with him. With Gerald, we read from the Book of Mormon, 3 nephi 14 and that went way good because he had said in their last lesson that he wasn't really interested anymore in the church. Again, we were able to make quite a bit of progress with him as well. On Saturday we had dinner at the Palmers. Sam Palmer is the one that got baptized last month. Well, it turns out that they have been talking to a lady named Lisa about the church Lisa is someone that our bishop told us to go see about a month before, but we hadn't ever been able to make contact with her. But the Palmers had given her a Book of Mormon and she has been reading it and absolutely loves it! She said that she has never read anything that has rung so true to her and that she will more than likely be joining the church very soon! So that was good to hear!! Hopefully we will be able to teach her this week and invite her to be baptized!! Oh yea! other big news... Joseph Black finally got baptized this weekend!!! I am way happy about that! I really enjoyed teaching him! He's in Bonners Ferry. Also on Sunday, Elder Van Dyke and I gave talks in church in Sunnyside! I feel like it went pretty good, I think that it was my first time being assigned to talk on a talk from general conference. It was from Elder Kent F. Richards of the Seventy “The Atonment Heals All Pain”. I had fun talking on it, I shared the story about when I cut my leg and at that same time I was going through the repentance process preparing to serve a mission and how through the Atonement I was able to be healed spiritually and physically, it was fun! Well, I think that's all from me! I sure hope everyone is doing great! Love ya!

85th Week in Spokane

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! It was nice to be able to talk to the whole family! I'm excited to see everyone in just a couple months! I'll give you a couple updates on the investigators.. Kathy is doing awesome! She came to church again and is loving every minute of it! We had a good lesson with her this week about baptism and about Jesus Christ, we watched with her The Lamb of God and that went well. It turns out she has very very minimal knowledge of anything about the scriptures so its kinda nice to work with a blank slate. We have a lesson with her tomorrow so that's gonna be good. We also started teaching another lady named Jerri. She's pretty cool, about seventy. Her husband is a less active member who is the commander of the American Legion in this district. We had a way good lesson with her this week and we hit really hard on the apostasy, it was probably the best apostasy lesson I ever taught, so I was excited about that and so it made the restoration make more sense as far as why it was needed. We invited her to be baptized the first weekend in June and she said that she would work towards being ready by that date. I had what I'm pretty sure was my last zone leader council on Tuesday, and that was really good. We watched a talk by Elder Holland given to the MTC in January and it was awesome! I recorded it so I will still have it to listen to again. We also had interviews with President Palmer which was also my last interview with him before I have my exit interview. We were able to have a real nice talk about how I can best endure to the end. He gave me a lot of advise which i am grateful for! We also had a fun time on Friday night at our ward family activity. We invited a ton of people to come to it but no one showed up. Actually one less active guy did show up and that was really good because if he gets reactivated, his wife will for sure join the church because she has been on date to be baptized about two years ago but since he wasn't too strong in it, she wasn't able to follow through with it. But hopefully he will be able to start coming back! But the activity was really fun, we all got split up and mixed around and then we played a bunch of different competition games. It was a lot of fun. Well, I think that's about it for my week.. can you believe that I only have eight more of these to write?!? Weird.... LOVE YA!!

84th week in Spokane

We definitely had our ups and downs here this week. On Monday we were teaching a less active family whose daughter is not a member, and that went really well, we are going to start teaching her and the family is going to start coming back to church! While we were there, her mom told us about an accident that happened that day. A car hit a deer and the deer flew up and hit right in the windshield of the car behind them causing the back car to run off the road into a telephone pole. She died just a couple days later. It turns out that the lady who got hit by the deer and died is a recent convert in the Sunnyside ward that was baptized on Christmas Day. She and her husband were both baptized then. It has been really tragic. But its amazing what that has done for the extended family who are not part of the faith. There was a memorial service held at the church on Saturday and all their family of course came and they were able to see the support of the ward towards Roy, the husband, and they were also able to feel of the special spirit that is in the church. They were taught that day the plan of salvation perfectly. It was a really special service. Judy (who passed away) has a sister that came up from Nevada and by the end of the weekend she decided that she wants to be baptized when she gets back home. We went to the Clark Fork branch for church this week so we weren't able to go to the Sunnyside one. But we heard all about it, and the testimony meeting there, we were told, was just out of this world spiritual. Just being a day after the funeral, there were many who were eager to share their testimony. Again we were told that there were a whole lot of non members and less actives that decided to come to church that day and they all felt the spirit. And of course we missed it and weren't able to meet these people! Oh well. Its amazing to me how a tragedy can turn into such a blessing.. if we allow it to. We aren't too disappointed however about missing that meeting in Sunnyside because in Clark Fork we too had an amazing day. We had three investigators come out to Clark Fork, which is huge for them! But, before I get to them, I gotta tell ya about a little boy who wanted to share his testimony. His name is Samuel and he's right about three years old, maybe four. His mom brought him up and she was holding him and whispering in his ear what to say, but he wouldn't say anything, he just froze. So she went ahead and bore her testimony and then started to walk away and he started yelling, "no no mommy I wanna do it I wanna do it" so she walked back and whispered in his ear and he leaned forward and just froze again, then he turned and said to his mom "tell them to stop looking at me" so she turned so that he couldn't see anyone, but he looked to his right and pointed his finger and said "they're looking at me" so she started to walk away again and he just started yelling again "no mommy I wanna do it, let me do it, I'll do it this time". So she, being really embarrassed at this point, walked back to the microphone and again he froze and pointed at some people "they're looking at me!" So she said "I love you son" and gave him a kiss on the forehead and walked away. He screamed and cried the whole way out to the foyer "no mommy, I'll be good, I'll be good!" It was so funny! But so sweet at the same time, here you have this little boy who so badly wanted to do whats right, but just couldn't muster up the strength to do it. Well, two of the investigators who came were Carla and Jack. They actually live in a little town called Hope, Idaho. and they absolutely loved church! So hopefully they will start coming out regularly so they can get baptized. The other lady that came, we actually had never met before. But her name is Cathy. Her friends, the Trunnells, invited her to church and she came out and stayed for all three hours and loved it! So we were able to meet her a little bit and then after church we were driving around and we saw her sitting outside of her trailer and so we stopped and talked with her and she had some questions so we taught her about the restoration and invited her to be baptized May 28th! So this week was especially an emotional roller coaster! I love being a missionary!