Week 18: The BLT Wards

Hey everyone! This week has been a long but great one! We've been pretty busy this week with transfers. I don't remember a whole lot about what happened on Tuesday this week other than saying goodbye to investigators and others in the area. As for Wednesday, we had transfers where I met my new companions and said goodbye to my old ones. We then drove back to Bonney Lake and got straight to work. My new companions are Elders James Mendenhall, Jacob Loader, and Ethan Borsky. Elder Borsky is from Saratoga Springs, Utah, Elder Loader is from Housten, Texas, and Elder Mendenhall is from Edmund,Oklahoma. All four of us are now over the Bonney Lake and Lake Tapps wards (BLT). In the past, the missionaries in these two areas have been put together and taken apart a lot, so it seems like the president doesn't know what to do for this area, but I'm still in a foursome and it's pretty great. The apartment we live in is a little small, but we're doing alright. We now have a bench to use for working out in the mornings. The area here is nice, but doesn't have as many trees as there were in Lacey, but there are a lot of hills which makes me glad we have a car.

Other than transfers, not much else happened this week. On Thursday we met the new ward mission leader who is very new and has no clue as to what he's supposed to do. Just talking with him was stressing me out because he was so stressed. On Friday we did a lot of service for the Bonny Lake food bank, and yesterday we went to church twice for both wards.

Not too much happened this week, but that's probably just because we're all new to something and we're trying to learn the areas. Also I'm trying to get used to the English missionary schedule. As a Spanish missionary, we wouldn't get out of the apartment until 12:30, but as an English missionary we are out two hours earlier and we don't come back for lunch (we generally eat right before we leave). So I've been having a rough time getting used to that. Every day seems so much longer than it did before. It's weird. Anyways, that's all for this week. Love you!
-Elder Smith

Also here's the my new address:
Locust Ridge Apt #4
8513 Locust Avenue East
Bonney Lake, WA 98391

Pictures:
1. A small lake near our apartment.
2. Me, Elder Mendenhall, Elder Loader, and Elder Borsky.

Week 17: Baptism!!!

This week was a bit of a rollercoaster. It certainly had it's ups a downs. The beginning of the week was fairly uneventful except that Maria, the grandma of Daira wanted to move the baptism from Saturday to the next week because she (the grandma) has been having lots of back problems lately. Fortunately she got feeling better so we had it this Saturday, otherwise I wouldn't have been here for it because of transfers. I don't have much time to write today, so this email will be shorter than usual. But the end of this week was a little rough simply because of some bashers bashing and being rude like usual. This one guy really got to me though. It wasn't much bashing about religion, but just about me as a person. He really got under my skin and got me mad. And because of this I was a little reluctant to knock again the next day, but that next day I found someone new to teach on the second door I knocked and it really boosted my spirits. Then this Saturday was the baptism which went super well. Sunday night was probably one of my favorite days this week. We had a fireside called Why I Believe. We had a third of the missionaries in the mission there. All of us invited our investigators, and at the actual fireside we had recent concerts share their testimonies and their conversion story. It was a super powerful experience. A lot of people in the crowd were crying including one of our investigators named Susana.

Also we had transfer calls this Saturday. Elder Williams is going to the Tumwater 2nd ward (English) which is one of the areas we cover right now for Spanish. Elder Kirkland and Elder Torrico are staying and the companionship is shrinking down to just them two. As for me, I'm going up to Bonny Lake and Lake Tapps in the Puyallup stake. I'll be with Elder Borsky and two others. I already know Elder Borsky, because he was in my zone last transfer and I'm excited to be with him because he's a really great missionary.

But that's all for this week. Love you all!
-Elder Smith

Daira and Hermano Diaz

The four of us with Daira

Week 16: Ending this transfer with a bang.

Not too much happened this week, but we did have a few good things happen. First and foremost, Daira is on date for this Saturday and we've finally taught her all the lessons, so it will happen for sure this time. It's such a good feeling to know that she'll finally get baptized after being on and off date for 3 transfers now! So I'm pretty excited for that.

Another big thing is how we handed out 17 Spanish Books of Mormon at soccer on Friday. For at least a few months now, we've had soccer every night with a bunch of hispanic non-members. We usually have a spiritual thought and a prayer before we start, but we had an idea to give everyone a BOM/LDM and give a small lesson about the history of it. It was pretty awesome. We ran out of BoM's the week before in both languages and we had just barely gotten some boxes, and now they're almost empty again.

Also on Friday we had exchanges with the district leader which was pretty fun. I did a lot of biking that day. We also found a couple people that day too even though they speak English. Not too much else happened this week though. Oh, and our bathroom is being ripped apart, so we have to take baths instead of showers now. A few weeks ago the apartment inspector came by for the annual inspection and noticed we had the black mold. A couple more people came by to take a look at it, and on Friday they finally started to do something about it. They ripped out the floor in the bathroom and part of the shower wall. They also took out the shower head unfortunately, and they brought in a big machine to try and keep the air and bathroom drier. It's like a humidifier except that it works in the opposite direction. It's also super loud so it's hard to communicate sometimes.
That's all for this week.
-Elder Smith

Pictures:
1. My first good view of Mt. Rainier
2. My favorite tree that I've seen so far.
3. A cool temple that was in the middle of a neighborhood in Olympia.
4. A poker chip that we found yesterday that I decided to take a picture of because I was a little bored.

Week 15: Boonie Knocking

This week was pretty great. It went by super fast. We had some super great experiences this week. Tuesday was pretty cool for me because I finally taught the whole restoration in Spanish to someone. Fortunately he didn't speak very much and was kind of quiet, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to understand him, and then I really would have been in trouble.

Wednesday was a pretty standard day, but Elder Williams and I got to meet with the Millers who are a young bilingual family in our branch. It was really cool to talk to them, because the dad was a Spanish missionary in New Jersey, so he was able to give us a ton of advice for both member missionary work and for learning Spanish.

Nothing much happened on Thursday, but on Friday we did some boonie knocking and got threatened to be shot. That was pretty fun. We had walked down a driveway to a house that didn't have any no trespassing signs or any kind of signs. We knock on the house and there's no answer, so we go and knock on a trailer just behind and again there's no answer. As we turn around to walk back to the road, a big black truck came flying down the driveway towards us. When it skidded to a stop, two men got out shouting at us to put our hands in the air. It looked they had guns in the back of their pants, and they just kept shouting at us. Then they forced us to kneel on the ground while still shouting. We told them that we were just missionaries knocking on doors, but they didn't listen to us and just kept shouting about how we're in the wrong place, there's no trespassing signs out front (there weren't any), and how we're lucky to not have a gun pointed at us as we left. So that was pretty interesting.

Saturday was also really cool. It was a lot of walking, and I had just started what's called a 40 Day Purification fast (I'll attach it to the email), but that night I had an awesome lesson. We met with Carlos and Nareda Saenz, and we were going to teach about the plan of salvation. Carlos spoke pretty good English, so the lesson ended up being mostly in English so we could express ourselves better. It was super cool though. It was the first time I received inspiration to say something and recognize that it was the Spirit guiding me. And as I threw all worry out the window and just said those things that came to me, I was able to receive more and see how the Lord was working within Carlos. At the beginning of the lesson he said how he didn't want to come to church just yet because he's worried about the corruption that's in other churches, and that where he goes his children will follow after him, so he wants to make sure that he goes to the right place. But by the end of the lesson he decided that he would try to come to church the next day without any further prodding. And he said he would read the Book of Mormon that night with his wife. It was amazing to see this happening right before our eyes.

Carlos didn't come to church. That was disappointing, but we did have a lot of members back since the holidays were over. But other than that not much else happened.

Hope everything's going great at home. Have a good week!
-Elder Smith

Me at one of the many lakes

Breakfast with the ward mission leader, Uru Diaz

Purification

How do we do everything in our power to be worthy of having the Spirit with us as we strive to find our brothers and sisters who are ready to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Neal A. Maxwell:
“Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us on the altar and letting it be consumed!”

Elder Gene R. Cook: (this is a missionary’s experience that was given in a talk by Elder Cook. This experience took place as he was serving as mission president in Uruguay.) The following story is written in the missionary’s own words:

“I was transferred to a new area and was working hard. In terms of spiritual things, I was starting to understand more deeply. Yet there was still something missing. I began to read the scriptures more thoughtfully. More accurately, I began to search the scriptures. As I did I became aware there was still something missing.

One day a member informed us that he had an investigator that was ready to be taught and he volunteered to attend the first discussion. The discussion went along as usual. At the conclusion, my companion and I bore witness of Joseph Smith and then turned to our friend. He paused for a moment, looked at the young lady and said, “I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God.” The room filled with an extraterrestrial force. The investigator started to cry.

As we walked home, I was baffled. The man said the exact same words that we had said but the result was dramatically different. When he spoke he had an influence that we did not have. There was no question that the influence was the Holy Ghost, but this man seemed to have it in a different way. There was still something to be learned. I had to find out what the secret was so I returned to the scriptures. It seemed like we were so close to being effective and yet we just could not make it happen.

After several weeks of searching and praying, we attended a meeting and heard a well-known church leader. He spoke about the scriptures as a source of strength, and about the process of spiritual influence. His words caused a burning in my soul. When he finished his address, I intentionally lingered behind. When I was finally alone with this man I asked him for a few moments of his time. I explained my desire to be a more effective missionary. I told him about the lessons that I had learned. I told him that something was still missing. Finally, he spoke. He said, “Elder, when these pretty ladies pass you on the street, what do you think about?”

Before I could answer, he asked,

“Do you ever speak sarcastically to your junior companion?”

“Do you get up at 6:30 a.m. every morning?”

“Do you keep every mission rule?”

His list of questions grew longer. Finally, he said, “These are things that keep the Holy Ghost from being your companion. If you want the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, then you must purify yourself. I will tell you how to do it.

● Go home and fast for a day in the attitude of fasting and prayer.
● Make a list of every behavior that ‘pokes’ at your spirit.
● Once you have made your list, then go to the Lord.
● Covenant with the Lord that you will fast from the things on your list for 40 days.
● In other words, for 40 days you will do nothing that appears on that list.

You cannot just stop the old behavior and start the new ones. You need the help of the Lord.

● Each morning go to the Lord and specifically promise Him that you will avoid each item on your list.
● Ask for His help so you can have extra strength
● At night go over the list with the Lord, if you have failed on some items, figure out why.
● Tell the Lord.
● Ask for more strength the next day.

Go through the process for 40 days. If you do, you will find that your most basic desires have changed. Your spirit will flourish and the Holy Ghost will become your constant companion. You will become an effective tool in the hands of the Lord.

We went home determined to make the concept work. We began to fast and we began to make a list. It proved to be much harder than we assumed it would be. I would pray and then I would feel impressed to write down some item. Then arguing that there was nothing wrong with that particular thing, I would fight the impression. For example: I felt impressed to put golf on the list. My response was, “there’s nothing wrong with golf. We only play on preparation day.” I ignored the fact that on the other six days my mind continually dwelled on how to play better. I wrestled with the Spirit and then finally wrote golf on the list. It is interesting that from the moment I wrote it on the list, I experienced the most intense desire to play golf. Everywhere I turned there was some reminder, some temptation to break the commitment. So it was with each item on the list. Each day I had to fight all my natural inclinations and turn to the Lord for the help necessary to overcome myself. Sometime between the 30th and 40th day, I suddenly realized that my desire for the things on the list had disappeared. It was as if a great anchor had been cut from me.

The last morning my companion and I knelt in prayer and then started out the door. I was suddenly impressed to go back again and pray. With unusual confidence I addressed the Lord, “Father, these are thy children. We are now doing everything within our power to live the gospel. We turn the burden over to thee. Please carry us the rest of the way.”

We went to our first appointment. Halfway through the discussion, our investigator began to make an excuse that he could not be baptized because he did not know that Joseph Smith is a prophet.

“Your real fear is that your mother will disapprove if you join the Church. In the name of Jesus Christ, I promise you that your entire family will embrace the gospel because of your courageous example. The Lord wants you to be baptized now and it is necessary that you comply.”

I had never before done anything like that. In fact, I knew nothing about his mother. He hardly mentioned her. While I could hardly believe what I had said, a familiar spirit filled the room. This brother began to weep. He committed to be baptized the following Sunday.

The experience repeated itself. At our very next meeting with each investigator there was a celestial manifestation and every one of them was committed to baptism. In an 8-week period, 16 people were baptized. It was an unusual number for our mission.

While the number of baptisms was large, the truly impressive thing was the change in my companion and myself. We were different people. Our most basic desires and motives had been altered. Credit and recognition were no longer of any consequence. For the first time in our lives the things of God were more important than the things of this world and the honors of men.

Our sensitivity deepened. We noticed how often we would cry. Several times a day we would be brought to tears by a prayer, a talk, a discussion, a scripture, or almost anything would deeply touch us. Our concern was continually focused upon others. For the first time we could understand Nephi’s claim, “for I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night because of them.” We could understand the statement because for the first time we could understand Nephi’s motives.

The Holy Ghost became our constant companion. Because our motives had changed, because we had an eye single to the Glory of God, the Lord could trust us and we experienced the Power of the Priesthood and became effective tools in His hands.

Helaman 3:35
“Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and they did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because their yielding their hearts unto God.”

Neal A. Maxwell:
“The submission of one’s will is placing on God’s altar the only uniquely personal thing one has to place there. The many other things we ‘give’ are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us.”

CHALLENGE:
● We challenge each of you to fast from food and water for 24 hours.
● In the spirit of the fast write a list of at least ten things that ‘poke at your spirit’ (or ten of your natural man inclinations that you want to change.)
● Now begin a Spiritual Fast and fast from the 10 items on your list for 40 days so that you may be purified and the Holy Ghost will be your constant companion while you are doing this missionary work.
● This fast is not a fast from food and water, but it is a fast from your natural man tendencies.
● It is a period when you deny yourself of all those natural man things on your list that you want to change.

Your list might include eliminating such things as:
1. All distractions that prevent you from having a meaningful personal & companionship study every morning.
2. Avoid any unwholesome thought.
3. Avoid negative thoughts.
4. Avoid saying anything negative- think before you speak.
5. Stop sleeping – even five minutes.
6. Avoid expressing any irritation you may be inclined to experience with a companion.
7. Avoid any music that does not conform to mission standards.
8. Think of others’ needs first- do away with the ‘I’ pronoun.
9. Put pride out of your mind and heart. Read President Benson’s talk of “Beware of Pride”

You may wish to include some positive things you wish to do such as:
1. Maintaining a positive attitude about all aspects of the missionary work.
2. Set yourself a definite goal in memorizing the discussions.

3. Commit yourself to overcome a fear you still have of some aspect of your missionary work.
Study carefully your white handbook. See if there might be a few things you should be doing that maybe you aren’t doing and also see if there might be a few things you are doing that you shouldn’t be doing. Remember sacrifice brings forth blessings of heaven. You have got to give up all thought that would take your mind off of what the Lord has called you to do. If you can do that, there is no limit to what you can accomplish for you will
plug into that spiritual power source.

● The Lord will tell you what to say.
● He will tell you where to go.
● He will tell you how to interest the children of men.

Just as in regular fasting, we do without food and water for a period, not because they are evil, but just to show self- control and to show our willingness to do whatever we’re asked to serve the Lord. Similarly, in the mission field we will give up other things, not because they are evil or wrong, but just because we want to rid ourselves of all distraction and also want to manifest to our Heavenly Father that we are willing to do whatever He asks, including sacrificing some of our little pleasures. This is called the principle of “The Spiritual Fast.” Agree now as full-time servants of the Lord to ‘fast’ and to do without these things not just for twenty-four hours, but for twenty-four months.

Fasting will:
● Help you bring your body into subjection to the Spirit
● Enhance your receptiveness to the promptings of the Holy Ghost
● Bring you nearer to God.
● Increase your spirituality.

You will find that as your spirituality increases, you will be literally impelled to overcome your failings. In one of David’s psalms to the Lord, he explains that he humbled his soul by fasting (Psalms 35:13). In another, he explains that he chastened his soul with fasting (Psalms 69:10). From the psalms of David, we humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers” (D&C 112:10). Fasting will cause you to be more and more submissive to the power and influence of the Holy Ghost in your life. As you become more receptive to the promptings of the Spirit, your love of God will increase.

Hartman Rector Jr.:
“Sacrifice is the key. The Lord will not deal with you on any other basis. It is the key to controlling the powers of heaven.”

There is no limit to what you can do if you and the Lord believe that you can. If you look to Him for your strength and are willing to make the sacrifice, all things are possible.

“Every virtue has to be cleared with the Devil” Malcom Muggeridge

Week 14: Happy New Year!!

This week was awesome, but also pretty rough. After Christmas, I felt dead. The flame that was keeping me going went out after what was basically 2 P-days in a row. We hadn't had a regular day since Saturday because Sunday's Sunday and we have church then. So on Wednesday and Thursday I was having a rough go of it. And the Friday was park day for the month (we dont get to use the car for most of the day until 4:00) so we had to bike in the rain which really got on my nerves for a few reasons. I dont have fenders on my bike so everything I was wearing got super dirty, my seat was sliding down so riding was really awkward, and it was wet. But we had success that day. We gave a Book of Mormon to a mother and her son, and they said we could come back (so we just referred her to the English missionaries), and we knocked into a less active member. We gave him the time for church and told him about 2 hour church to maybe get him more interested. Dont know if he ever came, but that was cool and I felt good after that.

Saturday was great. Really great. That's what two baptisms does for you. Two of those three kids that were supposed to get baptized a few weeks ago finally got baptized on Saturday (Jazmin Meza and Daniel Meza Vega). Everything went over super great. And this one guy named Juan (investigator) who always comes to the soccer activity we host every Friday came to the baptism with his family. I've got hopes for them. And what's even better is that the third kid who decided not to be baptized for fear of what and already having been baptized when she was younger now wants to be baptized this Saturday. I'm super excited. This next year we have a mission goal to baptized 1,000 people, and Daira (the little girl) will be one of the first if not the very first. We're also working with a woman named Susana Tapia who wants to be baptized, but she feels like she wants to study more. I feel good about it though.

That's just about it for this week other than some car troubles that we're getting figured out. Happy New Year!

Hermano Diaz (branch mission leader) and Jazmin

Elder Torrico, Elder William's, Maria (the grandma of the three kids), Elder Kirkland, and me. In the front is Daira with Jazmin and Daniel.

Jazmin, Hermano Diaz, Daniel, Elder Williams

Week 13: It doesn't feel like Christmas

This week was blur. I don't even remember Tuesday hardly at all, Wednesday was zone conference all day, Thursday I didn't get to leave the apartment until 5, Friday was the Branch Christmas party, Saturday was pretty normal, and yesterday was the Christmas sacrament meeting.

All that I remember about Tuesday is that Elder Torrico had to go to the doctor's office in Tacoma, so Elder Kirkland and I biked around in the rain for most of the day trying to visit people.

Wednesday was pretty cool. At zone conference we had a gift exchange, did some Christmas skits (we did the haka), sang some songs together, and had a spiritual boost at the very end. We didn't get back to Lacey until 6:30, and we didn't get to do very much that day.

On Thursday we had weekly planning which adds a couple hours onto our morning studies, and so it took all of our time for the afternoon up until dinner at 4. So now we haven't been able to do very much missionary work all week because of zone conference and weekly planning, so we were all kind of anxious to get to work and finally do something.

Friday was pretty good. Elder Williams and I got stranded for a bit because his phone died at the end of 5-7's so we couldn't call the other two elders to come pick us up until we popped out the sim card with a key ring and put it in my phone. Then we showed up to the branch Christmas party pretty late because of that, and I made it in time just to play the piano a little for them.

Saturday was pretty normal. I got to teach those 3 kids that we've been trying to get baptized. It was pretty cool to do, because this was the first lesson that I got to teach other than the restoration (we taught the commandments). That night Elder Torrico and I knocked a house that I've been to last transfer, but nobody had answered. This time though they answered, and it was this lady who's had all the missionary lessons before and reads out of the Book of Mormon more than the Bible even though she's being visited by Jehovah's Witnesses. We were able to give her a blessing since she was sick, and from what we heard back, she slept like a baby that night.

Sunday was a miraculous day for me. A few weeks ago before transfers, I was asked to play piano for the Christmas service, and I was told just last week that we were going to be singing almost all of the Christmas songs in the hymn book. I was not ready. I've been practicing every P-day, but I was still not ready. Especially for those weird ones that I've never heard nor sung. When I went in to play I did so bad. It was worse than when I even practiced. But afterwards when I talked to people, they said they didn't notice a thing. I didn't believe them at all, because I had stopped playing at points because I was fumbling so bad. But even when I pressured them, thinking that they were just saying that to be nice, they were being serious. Somehow nobody noticed, and the only explanation that I can find for it is that God had something to do with it.

I think that's just about everything for this week. Merry Christmas!!
-Elder Smith

Pictures are from Zone conference before Christmas

We did the Haka

Week 12: Trainer or Trainee?

This week has been pretty long. Mostly because of transfers. Tuesday was really short. We didn't do a whole lot. Elder Williams and I had our Última Cena with our trainers at Wendy's, but that was about it. Wednesday was transfers, and it was pretty long. I inherited a much bigger desk than I had previously, found a new tie and rain jacket in the closet, and moved some things around. Elder Williams and I weren't allowed to come pick up our greenie for some reason, so we just knocked doors and biked around the whole day trying to visit people. At around 7, the new elders in our companionship picked us up and brought us to the church for our meetings with Hermano Diaz, the branch mission leader, and the branch president.

The new elders are Elder Torrico and Elder Kirkland. Elder Torrico is from Bolivia originally, and then moved to Virginia. He's been out for a little over a year now and he's kind of quiet, but when he does talk he can be super hilarious. He's awesome. In only the short time that he's been here he's made some small changes in how we do things that felt like they needed to happen for a while. He's mine and Elder Williams' follow-up trainer, and Elder Kirkland's first trainer. But Elder Williams and I are also training Elder Kirkland at the same time. So that's pretty interesting. Elder Kirkland is fresh out of the Mexico MTC and he's super excited to be here. He has a lot of energy and motivation to do the work, so we're helping him focus it in the right areas. He reminds me a lot of Elder Calhoun from the movie The Best Two Years. He can be a bit much at times, but he'll learn to tone it down eventually.

The rest of this week was pretty slow and less than exciting. Saturday we were supposed to baptize 3 UBC's, but we could never get in to teach them so it didn't happen. And yesterday at church Dustin was supposed to be confirmed since he got baptized last Sunday, but he never came to church. So that was very unfortunate. The only real interesting things this week is situating ourselves in the area with new elders who do things differently. I'm sure that in these next few weeks we'll be able to kick things back into motion and it'll be better.

Have a great week!
-Elder Smith

P.s. Here's my apartment address in case you want to send letters and such.
6203 Jamestown Lane SE
Apt D 205
Lacey, Washington 98503

Week 11: FIRST BAPTISM!!!

Not much really happened this week. Just brought someone into the kingdom of God through the waters of baptism. That's all. It was seriously so awesome. If you remember, last week a 10 year old boy named Dustin came up to us asking when he could be baptized, so this week we went through all the lessons with him and set up the baptism. That was the highlight of this week. Elder Powell was the one who actually performed the ordinance and Elders Williams and Bradley gave talks, and I played the piano of course. The Spirit was super strong last night. The rest of last night I was thinking about how true the scripture in D&C 18:15 is which says: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Everything about the baptism went smoothly. However, when we were cleaning up afterwards, my phone took a dive in the font. This is the part where I tell my mom to not freak out, because my phone is completely okay. Apparently my version is partially waterproof. How did my phone end up in the font? Well we tried to pull the plug to drain the font, but the string came unattached, so I tried to pull the plug with something that had a hook on the end of it. Unfortunately, while I was leaning over to do so, my phone slipped out and sunk right to the bottom. So Elder Powell just changed back into his wet clothes and retrieved my phone and pulled the plug. I put my phone in rice overnight, and it's been just fine.

Another awesome thing that happened this week: at the beginning of the transfer we had an 9 year old named Daira on date for baptism, but she and her grandma went on a trip to California. The week before last they returned and came to church with 3 other UBC's (unbaptized children), and two of them are of baptizing age. This week we got Daira, Daniel, and Jasmin all on date for baptism this Saturday. What's even better is that all three of them came to the baptism last night and are super excited to be baptized. So next Sunday we'll have 4 confirmations at church.

The only other things that happened last week was that we did service for some older lady who had a lot of trash in her yard that needed cleaning out. We did that on Saturday, and on the way there we got a call from the mission president about transfers. Elder Williams and I will be staying in Lacey and having Elder Torrico from Bolivia come and follow-up train us. Then we'll also be getting a greenie that us three will be training. Elder Powell who has been in Lacey for 2 transfers is going to Forks. Apparently they need a Spanish speaker up there so that'll be exciting for him. For anyone who doesn't know where Forks is, it's in the middle of a rainforest on the northwestern area of the Washington peninsula. It's also miles from civilization and it's where Twilight was filmed. As for Elder Bradley, he has only been in Lacey for the one transfer and he is going to the Tacoma Spanish branch. He'll be follow-up training 3 other Spanish elders.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Holidays!

Our last picture together before heading our separate ways.

Chilling while filling up the font

The four of us with Dustin

New companionship

Week 10: Sequel to the Book of Mormon? Ghosts? Stolen milk?

This week was a pretty average week, and yet it really wasn't. First off, the ZL's stole a gallon and a half of our milk on Tuesday so we only had one gallon for the rest of the week. They figured that since we used a half gallon of milk at their apartment during exchanges that they could just get back what we owed them. Plus they had no more money on their cards for food. So that was pretty funny. We also decorated our apartment for Christmas, so now we have a mini tree and a small line of Christmas lights.

On Wednesday we met our goal for finding new people, and this one lady we talked with we shared the video He is The Gift, and it made her cry. I'm not sure why, but it was cool to see the Spirit at work.
Thursday was also pretty normal, and we again met our goal for new people even after we raised the bar.

Friday was pretty awesome. We had interviews with the mission president in the morning, and right after we finish this man walks into the church asking where he could get the sequel to the Book of Mormon. His coworker had given him the Book of Mormon, and recently he injured his arm at work so he couldn't do much except sit at home. He said he doesn't really like to watch TV since he gets bored easy, so he read the Book of Mormon and finished it. That never happens. Except for with this guy apparently. So we gave him a triple combination book so he now has both the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. That night we had soccer again and we had a ton of people there. Last week only one guy showed up, but this week we had people come that we've never even seen before. It was awesome. And right before we started playing we shared a Christmas video with them as we do each week. So that was pretty cool.

Saturday was the light the world service day, and we helped a man in our ward clean out his backyard. He lives in a trailer so his backyard is pretty small, but he had piles of trash over 6 feet tall. Only half of it was in garbage bags, so we took that half to the dump in someone's truck, so we had to make 4-5 trips. We did that for most of the day, and then that night we had another small miracle. On Thursday we found a small family that said that we could come back later to share a message with them, and on Saturday night we came back, and according to what the other two elders said, they're primed for baptism. They're Catholic but they dont understand why children need to be baptized. They were excited to learn what we had to teach them, and when Elder Powell and Elder Williams gave them a chapter of the Book of Mormon to read, they started reading right then and finished half of it before they left. It was so cool.

Yesterday was also pretty good. One of the people that we had on date for baptism at the beginning of this transfer came to church today. They had been on a trip in California for several weeks so they missed the baptism, but upon returning they brought 3 unbaptized children (UBC) with them, so we might be getting 4 baptisms. And then while at church a kid of one of the members came up to us asking when he could get baptized. We have been seriously blessed with miracle after miracle.

And then last night we had a pretty strange experience. We were at an apartment complex, and as we were knocking upstairs we saw this man standing out in the courtyard. And for the 10 minutes it took us to knock the upstairs he hadn't moved. He wasn't even doing anything. Just standing there looking off into the distance at nothing. We then walked down the stairs to go talk to him and tried to start a conversation. It went something like this:
"Hey how's it going?"
...
"How's your day been?"
...
"We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have you talked to missionaries like us before?"
...
"Can we help you with anything tonight?"
...
"Okay you have a good night."
...

It was so weird. He didn't move at all. All he did was slide his eyes over to look at us and then resumed looking at nothing. He had what looked like a medical band on his wrist so we figured that he might have been a mental hospital patient, but he looked homeless like he'd been on the street for a while. After that awkward encounter we just resumed knocking the lower level of that same building. And we would just glance over every once in a while. We were so confused as to what he was doing. And then 5 minutes later we glanced over, looked away for a second, and when we looked back he was gone. Just completely gone. He must have vanished into thin air because we would have been able to see him walk somewhere since he was standing out in the open. We tried looking around to see where he went after we finished knocking that building but we couldn't find him. So that's my ghostly encounter.

Oh, also transfers are next week, but I'll find out where I go on Saturday.

Pictures:
1. Puzzle I finished on Tuesday. And it's missing ONE PIECE. It's killing me.
2. Funny don't break in sign.

Puzzle I finished on Tuesday. And it's missing ONE PIECE. It's killing me.

Funny don't break in sign.

Interviews with the President Lieshman

Week 9: I don't know what to put for the caption this week... a lot happened.

So Tuesday night was awesome. Elder Powell and I were out knocking and didn't really find anyone to teach for an hour and a half, but a half hour before we were supposed to be finished we went down this hidden driveway that Elder Powell found, and the first house we knocked on was this old lady who had talked to the missionaries and had lessons from them a few years before, but for some reason or other she didn't want to be baptized. It was such a miracle coming across her. She says that she's had a few near death experiences that had caused her to want to change, and since then she's turned to the bible and studied everything about it. It was so cool to meet her, because we ended up just talking with her for 2 hours. She was supposed to have bible study that night but it had gotten canceled, and yet we ended up on her doorstep and in some of the first few moments that we shared some things with her we taught her some things that the other missionaries didn't talk about. And she said that some of these things were very important to her and that she wanted to know more. By the end of the night Elder Powell ended up sharing something with her in Isaiah that made her tear up and feel the need to go talk to God when we were finished.

It took up the rest of our night and her house and now our clothes reeked of cigarette smoke (she smoked an entire pack while talking with us), but it was so worth it. It's just too bad that she's not Hispanic, so we have to refer her to the English missionaries.

Wednesday we had a meeting with the stake president and the rest of the zone. The stake president had some good tios for us, but what I really found meaningful is what the zone leaders had to say. One of the things they shared is a quote from Preach My Gospel:

“I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”

—President Ezra Taft Benson


Thursday was Thanksgiving and no one from our branch invited us over, so the zone leaders found a family for us to have dinner with named Sagastizado. The food was just pretty standard stuff. We ended up staying there from 1:00 to 8:00 because after the meal we played a 4 hour game of risk and then a 2 hour game of unstable unicorns. It was so fun, and it was nice that we wouldn't just be at our apartment all day.

Friday we did exchanges with the zone leaders which was interesting.

Saturday we didn't get to do too much because we had to do weekly planning. We did get in a small car accident but everyone was fine and only our mirror got broken off, and so now we have a better car so the other one can get repaired. About the crash, Elder Powell didn't see a lady when he was switching lanes and she zoomed ahead to try and avoid a collision. It took off the mirror as you can see.

Sunday was mostly uneventful. Other than the zone leaders' car getting stolen. They got it back eventually because of a device the church put in the car, but the the ditched it and stole the bike rack and a few other things.  My companions and I were asked to speak, and we had to do it in Spanish, so I was super nervous. We were given the option to speak on anything we wanted to. I chose to speak about the Book of Mormon. I was supposed to speak for 10 minutes, but somehow I spoke for 15. Also giving a talk in Spanish is so much easier simply because I can't tell what I'm saying so I can't even judge my own talk on how it went.

I thought lizards lived in the desert?

Most of the zone

My companions and I: Elder Bradley, Elder Williams, Elder Powell (the ginger)

Unstable unicorns, it's a very interesting game.

Week 8: Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey everyone!! This week has been pretty great. I've focused more on my personal studies and found a lot to learn from reading the Book of Mormon. Also this week we got 2 people on date for baptisms, so that's exciting. The hardest part though is getting them to come to church. They always have some sort of excuse as to why they can't come. We've also tried getting them to come to a church tour, but they won't even do that. This one guy, Brayan, who's probably in his late teens or early twenties, says that he feels like if he goes to church it should be with his parents and he just doesn't feel comfortable with church. We've tried to teach his parents but Brayan never invites us inside some just have lessons on his cold porch.

The other hard part about teaching Hispanics is that there's always someone different who answers the door and the other person you were going to teach isn't home. So we'll get plenty of new people to teach, but they don't commit.

Also a random experience that happened when we went to go visit some investigators: we were going to a trailer park, like usual, and there were four cop cars near our investigator's trailer. So there were lots of police out too, there were also some guys in military uniform, but when two of the elders went to meet with the investigator, they said that the police were out trying to find someone who had apparently been running around threatening people with a sword. We decided to not stick around for very long.

As for answers to questions about how a companionship of four works, we generally switch off every day. Me and Elder Williams just switch trainers, so he'll be with either Elder Powell or Elder Bradley, and I'll be with the other one. Then the next day we switch. Also we only have one car: a Toyota Corolla. So we generally only use the car and sometimes have members drive two of us so we can cover more ground and have members with us for lessons. We only have three bikes, and the elder who doesn't have one probably won't need one until he gets put in a biking area.

When we teach lessons, two of us will go meet with half of the investigators in the area, and the other two will meet with the other half. But usually we can't even get in the door. They either don't answer or they're not home. We have been getting fed some pretty good food though. When members feed us, they have to feed four of us at a time, but that's now changing. We had zone conference this week and one of the changes is that we won't be getting fed by members in their homes Monday through Friday. They either drop it off to us, we pick it up, or we just make our own food. On Saturday and Sunday they want us to have dinner with less active families, part member families, but if that doesn't happen then we can get it from members. It's putting more focus on the ward mission leader since he has to coordinate these things.

It can be difficult having to work some things out between four instead of just two, but it's definitely nice to have more people. Elder Powell is a funny guy who feels strongly about missionary work and his purpose. He's a wrestler and a football player. Elder Bradley is also pretty witty. He's very diligent and knows a lot about Spanish, how to teach lessons, etc. And Elder Williams loves to talk and fix things. He's almost always talking even if he isn't talking to anyone in particular. And if he's not talking, he's fixing something: food, tables, bikes, organizing closets, cleaning.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Elder Williams making an apron from a pair of ruined dress pants he found.

Meme that Elder Powell made of Brother Saucedo. Brother Saucedo is an awesome guy who loves talking about ionized water, BYU (he's never been, but he's taking online classes), and about the blessings he can get by helping us with lessons, giving us water, or anything else.

My small desk and bed. I used to just have the stool as my desk, but now I got an upgrade and have a bigger desk.

Service project we did Friday morning for a witch who hosted a coven focused on earth based paganism. (Also I'm not sure what Elder Bradley is trying to do in the very back. He's either dancing, doing some martial arts thing, or raking the leaves. Can't tell)

Week 7: Week two in the field

Not a whole lot happened this week, but it went by fast. It's kind of discouraging how every week and every day seems exactly the same. We try to set up appointments for people who have seemed interested or for our investigators, but they all mostly seem to fall through. When we go to meet with them they're always busy, or it's too late since it starts getting dark around 5:30 here. The main thing I've learned that I need to focus on is the good that I'm doing. Often, it doesn't seem like I have the opportunity to do very much good, but every time we do find those people willing to learn amongst all the doors being slammed in our faces, it really helps reinforce the reason why I'm out here.

But even though every day is the same, there's generally always something that makes it stand out from the others. For instance, I've met some people in trailer parks who haven't had anyone to talk to for a very long time. This one lady we met while knocking doors, who seemed to be in her 70's, talked to us for about 45 minutes, and the entire time she was either laughing or crying, but it was all about how glad she was to have company for her skittish dog. To me and Elder Bradley, it seemed that she hadn't talked to anyone other than her dog for several months or she had some sort of mental disability that came with her old age. Probably both though. It was such a sad sight, and the weirdest experience I've ever had.

Week 6: First week in the field!!

This first week has flown by so fast! Each day feels so long but it all happens incredibly fast.

I arrived to the mission field with about 25 other new missionaries, and after meeting the mission president, we got an amazing meal and found a place to sleep for the night. Next day we had a bunch of training and learning mission rules, then finally we got to meet our companions. Turns out that I have three companions. Elder Williams is from Mesa Arizona and he came with me from the CCM/MTC, then there's Elder Powell from Logan Utah who has been out for only six weeks so he's technically still being trained since training goes for 12 weeks, but he's also training us. And then there's Elder Bradley who is from West Jordan Utah and has been out for 15 months. He started out in the Federal Way mission, but that got closed so now he got transferred to this mission. The area we're serving in is the Lacey/Olympia area, but we're serving in the Rainier Vista Spanish branch.
Our apartment is really small, because there's only one bedroom with two beds in it. So elders Bradley and Powell are sleeping on the beds while Elder Williams and I are sleeping on the couches which are actually more comfortable than the beds.

Other than this, the apartment had multiple other surprises that I wasn't prepared for. One being that we had basically no food whatsoever, two, there's black mold in the shower (which we're going to try to clean up today, but we're not sure how so if you have any ideas let me know), and three, apartments are basically the missionary graveyard for unwanted items. We've found tons of stuff that have just been thrown in closets. Elder Williams has been going to town on the apartment. He's been cleaning absolutely everything including the walls, organizing closets, and fixing everything. It's pretty funny actually. He says he's never like this, but he just feels the need to clean.

Also between the four of us we only have one car and three bikes. Generally, we only use the car because everything is so far spread out and the branch we're serving in doesn't have any boundaries like a ward would. So I haven't even used my bike yet which is a little disappointing since I was actually looking forward to it.

As for the rest of this week, I've already had some pretty interesting experiences. The weirdest one so far is when I met a prophet while tracting. One thing I've been surprised about is the difference in culture here. Everyone is religious, but they're all of different faiths: Buddhists, Catholics, born agains, I've even met someone who said his faith is one where they study every faith and believe in all of them. But running into a prophet really takes the cake. This guy believes that he is a prophet and he has seen God. He has some crazy beliefs, and all he wanted to do was to bible bash us. It was so weird.

But so far our schedule is mostly studying in the morning until 12, go knocking doors, try to get appointments, but have all of them fall through and so we go knocking some more. I haven't been able to teach any lessons yet, and it's frustrating that we can only teach Hispanic people. I feel like the MTC didn't prepare me for this at all since all we did there was practice teaching lessons and I haven't had the opportunity to teach anyone yet.

However, I feel like I've felt the Spirit a whole lot more out in the field already than I've ever felt in the MTC. One thing I want to share from my personal study is an invitation from Elder Bednar. He invited all the missionaries in one of his talks to get a cheap Book of Mormon and starting from the beginning and mark every spot where it mentions God, Christ, or the Spirit. I've started doing this and the change in my study has been incredible. It's usually hard to pay attention sometimes or understand what its saying, but as I've been going through marking, I've been a lot more focused and I've learned more as I've read. I invite each of you to try this even if you only do it for five minutes each night, you will be able to feel His presence more in your life.

Our trainer is introducing us to everyone for our first Zone Conference.
Elder Williams, Me, Elder Bradley, Elder Powell