Final P-Day

I am super busy today so I won’t be able to write much.  This week was good. I had a District Leader Training in Newberg and was able to see a lot of missionaries that I have served around and say goodbye to them. I got to see Elder Holt and that was a lot of fun! 

While I was gone, Elder Gutierrez got hit by a truck on his bike! By he is totally fine, so that is evidence of the Lord protecting us as missionaries. I had a great week with Elder Giles and Gutierrez. They are both awesome. 

I know that the Lord is directing this work. I know He is patient with us in everything and that He loves us. I am grateful to have been able to be a missionary!

Too Busy to Write

Don’t have a ton of time today, but thanks for all of your support. We had a good week. We had three people show up to church yesterday just randomly. We had never met them before, but they just walked into church, so that was awesome. It seems like the Lord has really prepared them. We had another missionary join our companionship this week for the last week, so that’s been good. Sorry I don’t have time to send a lot today. 

Blessed with New People to Teach

Our week was good! We were blessed with a lot of new people to teach. The Lord has been blessing us with people every day to hand out Books of Mormon to. It has definitely helped to grow my testimony that He will prepare a way for us to accomplish our goals if they are in accordance with His will. We have also been praying more specifically for the weekly goals that we have set, and have seen those goals come to fruition as well. We had one day where we were walking to an appointment and as we were walking, we saw a man in the stairwell of an apartment complex. We went to talk to him and then we walked with him for a few minutes and right after he left, we were right by a guy who was on his porch. He is a young man with a young family, and he was really nice and said we could come back this week. After that, we went back to our original destination of the first guy’s home. Apparently we had the wrong address, because he lived next door. But the blessing in that was that we were able to meet a man named Bill who was extremely nice and willing to learn more. He even helped on the construction of our church building! It was pretty amazing to see how the Lord guided us that entire trip and led us exactly where we needed to go. 

Baptism

The baptism went really well. Because of Lynne’s health, we had to have two people in the Font for the ordinance. We ordained Eric, who was baptized a month ago, about 30 minutes before the baptism and he participated in the ordinance. So that was exciting! Our Book of Mormon study class has been going really well. We have been getting consistently 20+ people. It’s really to the point where I feel like it could be a calling for someone because it is a consistent group of 20+ people. We are looking for some more people to teach. We had a ton, and now it kind of dropped off a little bit, but the Lord will provide more people to teach. Our 5th Sunday lesson was really, really good! We definitely were guided by the Spirit, but I really believe that is because we prepared pretty well for it. 

We saw a lot of good things this week. We have a goal to hand out a Book of Mormon every day this Transfer. We have only missed one day since we made that goal, and it’s because we didn’t pray for it specifically. We got really busy that day and it just didn’t happen. We were really busy Sunday, but we prayed about it and took 15 minutes and the Lord led us to someone right away. It was really cool to see that. 

Great Week

The week here was good, we have been pretty busy. We were finally able to meet with a guy that we have been trying to meet with for a while. He was really open to talking and we had a great lesson with him about the Restoration. On Wednesday, we had a church tour with him with one of our members. It was a really powerful church tour. It is really good to be able to take people to the church prior to their first Sunday coming. Later this week, Eric, one of our recent converts of of few weeks, came to a lesson with Jared to fellowship him and it was great! 

This weekend we had a really good Book of Mormon study class. We have been doing it for about 10 Weeks and have gradually grown in numbers. This past week we had 21 people! It was a our biggest showing and at least 3 or 4 of the people there were people who are preparing for baptism. So that was great. This week, Lynne is getting baptized. She has been going through so much. It is pretty crazy how much she has been getting hit by the opposition, but she has been so hopeful and positive throughout the entire experience. 

We are excited to do a 5th Sunday presentation on that 101 ways to do member missionary work this Sunday. Today was Elder Gutierrez’ birthday!

Amazing Missionary Fireside

Our week out here was really good. Elder Gutierrez is from Las Almas New Mexico. The past few years he has been living in Las Vegas though. He has been out for 9 months. We have been doing really good and have been seeing a lot of cool things happen. This week, I don't really remember a lot. It has kind of been a whirlwind. We had an amazing missionary fireside last night. It was cool to be a part of another one, as we did one when I was in McMinnville Stake in Newberg. We, as missionaries and the stake, have been really pushing this event for the past 6 weeks or so. We had a great turnout! The entire chapel was full and some of the overflow. These firesides are so powerful. And although our numbers as a missionary choir were small, the Spirit really made up for us and delivered our songs strongly. It was cool. President Stevens (Stake President) spoke about keeping our eyes on the Savior. He told a story about a young boy who was asking his dad how to plow in straight lines. The dad told him to pick an object in the distance and keep your eyes on that object. The dad left and came back and the line was straight for a little, and then started looking like an "S". He asked his son what happened with keeping his eyes on an object. The son said that he did. He picked their cow Bessie and follow her and then she walked into the barn and he didn't know what to do after that. I thought that was funny! He gave a great talk about focusing on the Savior. That was really cool and perfect for everyone there. President Tateoka sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul and that was powerful. Sister McCall was supposed to give a brief testimony, but her car had been giving her trouble all day. She left Portland around 8am and was running really late. It was amazing because the Lord gave us the idea (and actually prompted President Stevens to help prepare Bailey for this) to ask Bailey (a convert of about 16 months) to fill in if need be. And the need was there for her to do that! The Lord truly had her ready and prepared to do that. And she gave a great testimony. Sister McCall walked in right after that and was able to sit and enjoy the program. It was a blessing that she was there to be able to hear and listen to the music and the spoken words. 

Other than that, things are going really well. We are seeing a lot of miracles. We are really busy. Brother Beaver is progressing a lot. He has been to church 8 weeks in a row and is making great progress. Sister Buckley, a lady we are teaching, has been doing great as well. She is getting very close to baptism and we are excited about that. It has been cool to see the faith of the ward continue to grow. A member of the Bishopric brought a non-member family with them to the fireside last night, so that was great! We had a farewell again this week. This was for Tanner. He is going to Uruguay. He has helped us a lot with lessons and it has been fun to see him prepare. We have another farewell next week for Ethan! The missionary spirit in the ward is great right now. 

We got news that Elder Nonu will be transferred to Turner in the Salem stake. It is really close to Stayton. We were definitely not expecting that, but that is obviously where the Lord has need for him at this time. The last 6 weeks really flew by. My new companion will be Elder Gutierrez. He has been out for about a year I think. I am excited to be staying here in High Desert. I am getting a little nervous about this being my last six weeks though. It just feels weird. Our entire district is getting pretty shaken up. One of the Sisters goes home, another is getting transferred, and then we have 5 other elders getting transferred. So it is going to be pretty crazy. Elder Greenwood, who lived with me in Newberg and was trained by Elder Bills & Patterson, is going to be one of our zone leaders out here now so that will be fun. 

The week was pretty good. I honestly don't remember a lot of what happened. It is really hard for me to remember on Monday what happened the rest of the week. We have one sister we are teaching, Lynne. She is in her 60s. She had a good amount of exposure to the church growing up. She is very prepared to be baptized. She has a really hard health trial, which makes things hard. On Friday, she had a really hard day with other things as well, so after our lesson we gave her a blessing. She showed up to church on Sunday glowing. She was so happy and she did not even have her walker! She loves church and loves the feelings that she is feeling. It has been really amazing to see how far she has been coming. 

This week we were also able to help a sister move. She is not a member, but we have met her a bunch of times since I have been here. When Elder Nonu got here, she finally started opening up and being willing to talk with us! She apparently lived with Tongans in California, one of which being one that Elder Nonu knows. So that really softened her heart. She reached out to us this week because she was moving to Idaho and really needed some help. We were able to contact the Elder's Quorum and they did a great job of showing up to help. Overall, I think that there were 12 of us there. As she pulled in with the Uhaul, she was in tears. Originally, she was supposed to be waiting for us with the Uhaul ready at noon. Well, the owner of the Uhaul had a flat tire, so he was not able to get it to her until near 1215 and she didn't show up until 12:30. As a missionary, this is kind of nerve-ra

cking because you have a bunch of members who are just standing around waiting. But now as I am typing this up, I think that it is important that she was late, because she was able to see this force of people standing there ready to help her when she pulled in. I think that is pretty cool.

We had a good fourth of July. The ward had a breakfast and we had 4 people that we are teaching show up to participate! One miracle on that day was that we went by with Stan to pick up Brother Beaver, a man we are teaching. He lives right next to Crystil and her family. Right when we pulled up, Angelica (Crystil's daughter) texted us saying that she did not have to work. It was just a blessing because we were able to go see if she needed a ride to the breakfast, which she did, and she was able to attend. 

Eric's Baptism!

Our week was good. It was really busy. We had an exchange this week with the Elders in Cascade Crest. It went really well. During the exchange we met a lady who has run into missionaries three times within the past few weeks, so she thought that was interesting. We had Zone Conference this week, which was really good. It was really good to be able to see some of the missionaries in the other Zone, like Elder Oswald. A lot of the missionaries that came out around the same time as me are going home, so it was weird to here all of their final testimonies before they leave. It has been really cool to see how much the mission has changed since when I first got here and to see the impact that President Tateoka and Sister Tateoka have had on the missionaries in the mission. The highlight of the week was Eric's baptism. Eric has a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ and has a very strong knowledge of the Bible. We have been teaching him for a couple of months and it has been really cool to see the changes that have been made in his life as he has started to learn more about the Gospel and read the Book of Mormon. But specifically as he has started to come to church. The first time he came to church was right at the beginning of the transfer. He was struggling to make it out to church, and Elder Nonu just asked him, "If Jesus Christ was here inviting you to come to church, would you come?" That really changed his perspective and ever since then his progression has taken off! That was really cool for me to see how simply Elder Nonu put it and how much of an impact that it had on Eric. The baptismal service was great and the confirmation on sunday was really good as well. 

 

We are seeing a lot of miracles with finding people to teach and with the people that we are teaching having desires to progress and work towards baptism. The faith of the members in the ward has been growing steadily over the past five months. I have been thinking a lot about that and about how important faith is, especially as we unify our faith as children of Heavenly Father. As the faith in the ward has grown, more miracles are happening. I believe that as more miracles continue to happen, the faith in the Savior preparing the hearts of the people here will grow in the ward. As that faith continues to grow, I think our faith as a whole to stretch out of our comfort zone and invite our friends and acquaintances to learn will grow, and in turn we will see more miracles. I am learning a lot about unity and how essential it is. There really is no limit to what the Savior can do. Things can change everywhere if our faith as members of the church and children of Heavenly Father is unified in the Savior. 

Miracles and Baptisms

The week here has been really good! We are seeing a lot of miracles and success. This Saturday, a man that we are teaching is going to be baptized. His name is Eric. We had a really good week this week with a lot of our investigators coming to church! We are seeing that the Lord is preparing people in this area. In Alma 13:24 it says, 

"For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory." 

We are seeing that that is very true in our area. We had a great experience with the Elders in Cascade Crest sending us an awesome referral! They were walking quickly because they were running late to an appointment. All of the sudden, they heard someone whistle at them. They turned around and it was a lady in her 30's. She started talking to them and discussing how she wants to start attending church with her husband because all of her children have been going to different churches, but they haven't found the one that works for them yet. The Elders were able to have a great discussion with her on the street about the Plan of Salvation and now she wants to meet with us! It is really amazing to see how the Lord is preparing the hearts of the people in this area. 

Lots of Good Things Happening

The week here was good. It’s been busy and lots of things happening. We have been teaching a lot of people, which is good. We have three guys that we are teaching that are all doing good on their own right. Two of them are close to baptism. One of them is getting closer. He has been to church four weeks in a row and seems to like it. Josh told us this past week told us that he wants to be baptized, so that will probably happen within the next couple of weeks. 

We had a cool experience this week. We were in an apartment complex and saw a couple that we have talked with a bunch. One of them was on the phone and she was asking about an HDMI cable and how much it costs. We had an HDMI cable in our bag, so we pulled it out and gave it to them. This was a very big miracle in their lives. They saw it as a testimony that Heavenly Father is aware of them. We were able to start talking more and started talking about baptism. He has wanted to be baptized for a while apparently, but has to change because of the commandments. But they both accepted the invitation to prepare to be baptized on July 21st! So that was really cool. We are excited for them. 

Cool Experiences

The week with Elder Nonu has been good. It’s definitely a learning experience for both of us. He is doing well though and he is starting to pick up the language better. It’s just different for him, not going to the MTC. We saw some cool experiences this week. We went to Costco for lunch on Thursday and while we were there, a guy working pest control came up to us and bought us lunch. He served a mission in independence, Missouri. He is only in Bend for the week. Well, a couple of days later, we were really late for lunch and decided to go to Subway (we really haven’t been eating out that much lately because we have been eating healthier.. ) but we got there and got into line and guess who was in front of us? The same guy! He bought us lunch again. It was really nice of him. 

We had a cool experience yesterday. We went in the morning to go wake up one of our investigators. When we got there, there were a couple of people outside. The natural man didn’t want to talk to them because we were already late to wake Eric up and we had church soon, etc. But we decided to do it anyways. It turns out that they were really cool! They had even talked to the Sisters the other day. The one guy asked pretty much why God doesn’t send anyone today because it’s a crazy world. So we told him how Heavenly Father calls a prophet and that there is one on the earth today and they liked that! 

Elder Nonu

My new companion is Elder Nonu. He is from Tonga. He has lived in Seattle for a year, but is not very familiar with America or the English language. We are working on his english and trying to help him to feel comfortable teaching the lessons. He has had a long journey in trying to come out on a mission, because of visa issues in the past. He is actually a few months older than me. And he came straight from home, not going to the MTC. But he is a really good man and very humble. I am excited to work with him until I go home. 

The week overall was pretty good. During the two days that I waited for Elder Nonu, I was with Elder McElreath and Schultz. It was really good. We talked with a lot of people and had a lot of really good lessons. We watched the Day's of Harmony video with one of our investigators, and then afterwards the Spirit really impressed us to talk about baptism. So we talked to him about it and he is going to pray about a date to be baptized. It was really good. We had a really good scripture study class this past week. One of our investigators, Eric, came to the class and after the class we talked about coming to church on Sunday. He works really late into the night, but he told us that we could come wake him up. So we went over in the morning and woke him up and he came to church for the first time! We were really excited about that. At church, Sister McCall bore her testimony, which was really cool to see! She has missed the past couple of weeks and bore her testimony of how she has felt the absence in her heart because of not being there, so that was good. 

Training New Missionary

Elder Holt is being transferred to Lebanon to be a District Leader out there. He’s going to do really good at that. I’ll be training a new missionary so I will get him from Newberg on Thursday. It will be good. 

  

The Book of Mormon study class is going really well! We had almost twice as many people there this week and it was really successful. A lot of investigators came and they really enjoyed it. We are excited to keep doing that moving forward. 

The week here was good. I don’t have a ton of time to write today because we are busy packing up Elder Holt and everything. But the week went great. We met a really cool guy named Jason. He has battled some mental health issues for a lot of his life, so that has kept him from progressing much spiritually. On the day of our lesson, we talked to him on the phone to confirm and he didn’t want to meet any more because he read the intro to the Book of Mormon and didn’t really think it was for him. Elder Holt did a great job of talking to him and allowing the Spirit to work with him and eventually Jason reschedule for the next day. At that lesson, we realized how prepared Jason was! He told us that he wanted a moral compass for his life and he wanted to quit smoking and drinking coffee! At that lesson, we talked about baptism and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! Then in the next lesson he said, “So essentially in Mormonism you believe that your church is Christ’s original church?” That was pretty cool to hear! He’s probably the fastest I have seen someone understand that principle. He came to church on Sunday and had a good time. We had another investigator there on Sunday as well for the first time and he really enjoyed it too. It’s been fun here with Elder Holt!

 

Lessons Learned

The week went pretty well. It went by really quickly. The trip to Newberg and the mission tour was really good! Elder Whiting was a really good man and he taught us a lot. I learned a lot from what he taught and I’m grateful for the chance to have been there and learn. I think I learned the most, however, during a few minutes that President instructed us. President told a story that I have heard him tell a few times, but I learned a few more things from it this time. He told a story of when he was sick right before a Stake Presidency Meeting. Sister Tateoka had to take him to the hospital and he was in pretty intense pain, and he cried out to Christ just as Alma the Younger did when he saw the angel. It stuck with me a lot this week. I was thinking about Alma the Younger and what he said about his experience. He said that his mind caught hold of the thought (the thought being that of Jesus Christ coming to atone for the sins of the world), and that is what led to his joy and peace. 

Church yesterday was really good. We had a really good ward council and a great Sacrament Meeting. I definitely felt edified from church. I learned a lesson in ward Council. We are working on the Melchizedek Priesthood Rescue. We have a bunch of names, but were going to start with the first three. The third name on the list was a name that a lot of people thought had moved and wasn’t in our ward anymore, so we skipped to the fourth. Well... when church started, guess who showed up to church with his family? The third man on the list! His kids are not members, and after Sacrament, the mom asked if we could start teaching the kids the lessons. So we were excited about that!

On Saturday, we had a great experience doing a Book of Mormon study class. This was our first class. There were about 10 of us there. But it was great! At first, one of our investigators got sort of contentious. He sort of felt that God was both good and evil, but as we read in 2 Nephi 2, his heart softened and he totally changed his outlook! That was pretty cool to see. 

Mother's Day

We were all able to Skype with Jacob yesterday! It was great "being together" and seeing his smiling face. Things are going well as he finishes his last three months in Oregon!

The week here in general was good. It was kind of a slow week. We had an exchange this week with the Zone Leaders, which went really well. I was with Elder McElreath. 

When he first came into the mission, I was his Zone Leader in Keizer. He has come a long way. He is very loving and so it was good to be with him and be able to talk with him. Our exchange was really good. We had a really powerful lesson when we first started the exchange. We were teaching one of their investigators who has been struggling off and on but overall is doing well. The members in the ward did a really good job at the lesson bearing testimony and inviting the Spirit. We invited her to be baptized, but she didn’t feel like she could. Then the Spirit helped us remember a scripture to share with her and it was the perfect scripture for her. Her whole demeanor changed and she accepted the invitation. That was pretty cool! 

This week we are heading out to Newberg on Thursday for a mission tour. Elder Whiting of the 70 is coming to visit the mission. It will be really good to be able to participate in that. It will be fun being in Newberg as well. 

Happy Birthday with a Baptism

The baptism went really well! There was a really good turn out from the ward once again. Angelica asked a couple of the young women to be the speakers and they did awesome. The next person that we were working towards baptism with, Crystil's neighbor, hit some major stumbling blocks and it has really halted her from progressing towards that. But the miracle is that she attended Angelica's baptism because she wanted to support her! So it was awesome that she was able to be there to hear the young women give simple and sincere talks. And the Sister Missionaries, during the interlude time after the Baptism while Angelica and Elder Holt had to change, taught the Restoration and so that was really good for her to hear as well! 

Overall it was a great day. That whole family is doing so well and we are really excited for them. The rest of the week was pretty good. I don't remember a ton of what happened though. But overall it was good! We had an exchange with the Cascade Crest Elders, which was good. During the exchange, we were biking and saw someone far away so We went over to talk to them. They were getting in their car and weren't interested, but as We were about to leave, someone behind us starting talking to us. She is not a member, but her husband is and they have been taught off and on by some other Elders nearby. So we were able to have a good conversation with her ans encouraged her to start meeting with them again. I believe that the elders said that she came to church this week so that was good! We also had a great lesson this week with a less active sister that we are teaching. She has had such a strong desire to get on track and so it has been really great to see her progression. She has been to church three weeks in a row and is changing a lot! 

Brother Sauter from the ward brought Jake a cake and ice cream for his birthday on Saturday!

Follow His Promptings

The week here was good! We had a really good weekend. Crystil and Anthony were able to join the youth for the temple trip. They were able to do baptisms for the dead and have a really enjoyable experience. The Bishopric asked them to bear their testimonies about it on Sunday at church, so that was awesome to hear! Crystil is excited to continue taking her family back to the temple. Her daughter, Angelica, joined the youth as well. But since she hasn’t been baptized yet, she went to the visitors center and hung out with the visitors center Sisters. The Sisters there talked to her about a Baptismal date and invited her to pray about one. The Sisters were able to really connect with her and talk with her, which was great! She went to a tree on the temple grounds and prayed about a date and had a really cool experience! Her answer was that she should be baptized this upcoming Saturday! We are really excited for her. She has been doing really well and it is great to see her reach this point. 

We had a good week with lots of experiences. We had an exchange on Wednesday. During the exchange, we were driving back to our apartment in the morning to come back for lunch. As we were driving, we felt prompted to pull over and talk to someone. At first we didn’t do it, but then it stayed there, so we followed the prompting and talked with her. She turned out to be really cool and it was a great conversation. We were able to send her as a referral to the Sisters in the neighboring area. It was just another lesson that a) Heavenly Father is always aware of us and He will prompt others to do things to be of help to us. And b) that we need to always follow His promptings. At first we didn’t, but I’m grateful that we did. We just have to always learn to follow the first time it comes, which isn’t always easy! 

Great Things Happening

Things here are good with the work. It has been amazing to see the ways that our investigators are progressing. Ashley, who is Crystil's neighbor, is doing so good. She was able to make it to the full day at church for the first time this week and she had a really good time. The Spirit has been working with her so much. She has absolutely started to love reading the Book of Mormon and has been cruising through it so fast! We were able to read the Book of Mormon with her in a members home this week, and that was so good. That is something that can really help investigators, reading in members homes. We have really been focusing on reading the Book of Mormon as a mission recently, and it has helped a lot. It was really cool this week because the Relief Society in our ward threw a baby shower for Crystil's daughter and apparently it went extremely well. Crystil's daughter felt so loved and the sisters in the ward did such a good job at fellowshipping her. Crystil and Anthony are going to be going up to the Portland temple this week to do baptisms for the dead! The youth are going up for a temple trip, so it is going to be a great opportunity for them. Ashley and Angelica are also going to be going up with the youth and are going to be visiting the visitor's center while the rest of the them are doing baptisms. 

We had a cool miracle this week with one of the newer investigators that we are teaching. His name is Andrew. He has been having a rough week, so we went and visited him on Saturday. We had a really good conversation with him and invited him to church. He said that he would try to come to church, but wasn't sure. On Sunday morning, we received a text from him and he said that he was going to come! He showed up to church and stayed for Sacrament meeting and he really enjoyed it. The ward did a really good job at helping him feel loved and he said that he wanted to come back again. We were excited about that! 

Staying in High Desert

The week has been really good. We definitely saw a lot of miracles. Crystil was able to go to the temple visitors center this week with Anthony, so that was really good for them. We had a lesson this week with Crystil’s neighbor, Ashley. We did it at the church and had a church tour with them. It was really cool because Crystil, who has only been a member for about three weeks, was bearing a lot of testimony and helped out a lot. We showed a little video about the Relief society and Crystil said, “Oh it’s much better than that!” So it was really good experience for Ashley. She was really excited to come to church on Sunday, but then Sunday morning she messaged us saying that she had to help her mom with some car problems. We messaged her back saying that she could come late if she could make it. We got a text with about 5 minutes left in Gospel Principles saying that she was in the hallway! She went to relief society and had an awesome time! She is doing really well and is progressing towards baptism in May. 

We had a lesson this week that we were bringing a Priest with us to and when we were walking towards the mans apartment, we saw another guy and started talking to him. He invited us to come upstairs. He recently started attending another church because he is trying to get his life on track. We were able to teach him the Restoration really briefly and use the Book of Mormon and he said we could come back Wednesday. It was cool too because right as we were starting to talk about modern prophets, I saw that on their entertainment center they had a quote and the author of the quote was James E Faust! So we told him that he was a modern Apostle. So that was cool!

Elder Holt and I will both be staying here in High Desert for a third transfer. We are excited to be able to keep working together and to hopefully keep seeing more miracles. Elder Patterson is staying in Redmond, so I will be able to see him at the Zone Conference next month before he goes home. I’m excited for that. Next month our Zone Conference will be a mission tour with Elder Whiting of the 70. That will be good. 

Things this week went well. We had Anthony’s baptism, which was really good. He bore his testimony at the end and it meant a lot to his mom and sister. It was really good for his sister to be there and to feel the spirit there. It made her think more about being baptized and now she is working towards that. The baptism went really well overall! There was a good showing, especially from the youth in the ward and the young men’s leaders. We had interviews with President after the baptism. Those went well. It’s always good to be able to be with them and talk with them.

We had Zone Conference this week too, which was a lot of fun. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and why it’s important to use the Book of Mormon. It was actually really fun because at one point, I mentioned that Elder Patterson was really good at that, so President asked that Elder Patterson and I get up and role play it. Elder Patterson is serving in Redmond now So we were able to go up and do a role play together of using the Book of Mormon to someone we just met. That was fun! Elder Patterson also bore his final testimony at Zone Conference because next Zone conference will be a mission tour and he won’t have the opportunity to do that there. It was really crazy to see him do that. It was pretty emotional for me!

The week was good. We had an exchange as well, and during that exchange we had some good experiences. We saw one guy across the street, so we went over to talk with him and he didn’t really want to talk. He said he was in a hurry, so we walked fast with him until we could give him something. It was cool because the Lord led us straight to another guy who had met with the missionaries in the past and was willing to have us come back this next week. 

Good Week in Bend

The week overall was good with the missionary work here. This week we had a really good lesson with Crystil and her neighbor. Her neighbor has been really impressed with the ways that Crystil has changed. She says that she has seen a huge difference in her and that she has a light about her, which is so true. She said that she wanted that for herself, so this week we had a lesson in Crystil’s home with this Sister. It’s pretty amazing how she has only been a member for a week and she is already fellowshipping and reaching out and inviting others into her home to learn more. She bore a lot of testimony as well, so that was really cool. 

Anthony is getting excited for his baptism on Saturday! He asked one of the Priests to be the one to perform the baptism, so we are excited for that. It will be a great experience for him. Tanner is even going to either leave his rugby game early or skip it to be able to baptize Anthony, so that is really cool to see. The ward is excited as well, so that’ll be great. 

It was great to be able to go back to Newberg this week for the District Leader Training that we had. It was good to be able to see a lot of missionaries that I served around and just everyone there in general. It felt good to be back in the mission home around President and Sister Tateoka. I think the highlight of my week was being able to talk with President one on one for a few minutes after the meeting. That was really good. 

 

Crystil's Baptism

The week here has been really good. It was another really busy week preparing for Crystil's baptism. Crystil is awesome. She has taken the Gospel and has been living it and running with it 100%. At her baptism, when she came out of the water, she said, "Oh, wow!" and then she started to get really emotional because of how good she felt. It was a really unique experience. At the end of the baptism she bore her testimony and it was really powerful. She talked about how she was at the darkest point in her life when she started to talk with us, but then after two weeks of meeting with us she said that she started to feel a sunshine in her life that was hard to explain. It was a really powerful testimony and had an impact on a lot of people who were there. We have a stake temple day coming up in a couple of weeks, so she is going to go up to Portland for that to do baptisms for the dead. We are excited for her! She is also a great example for her family. She is excited to help them accept the gospel because she wants them to all feel how she is feeling. Her son, Anthony, will be baptized on the 7th of April, so we are extremely excited for that as well. 

Other than that, the week was really good. I was able to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week. I was with my MTC companion, Elder Fisk! It has been so cool to see the way that he has changed over the past 19 months. He is an awesome missionary and has been a great example to me. We saw some cool miracles on the exchange. At one point, a lesson that we had set up on facebook was having to be pushed back, so we decided to go out and talk to people for the 15 minutes that we had. We walked in one direction and talked to a bunch of people. Then we saw a hispanic guy across the street and started talking to him. We were able to talk to him in our broken spanish for just long enough to see a guy walking past us. This guy is an investigator that the elders have been teaching recently and have not been able to make contact with him in a while. So we finished talking to this hispanic guy and ran down the street to chase down the other man! It was crazy that we were able to be there to see him and set up a time for the other elders to go back. That was pretty cool. 

I am excited for the upcoming week. On Wednesday, I get to go to Newberg for a District Leader Training. That will be a lot of fun! 

Elizabeth's Baptism

The week in general went well. We had a really good turn out at Elizabeth’s baptism. The Spirit was definitely present and the people in attendance really enjoyed it. Her confirmation was done on Sunday, which went well. We had ward conference so it was really cool to be able to have that on the same day. 

We had a good day Friday. We have been struggling to find people to teach recently, compared to when we first got here. On Friday we really tried to focus on having better contacts with people when we met them. We only had a couple of hours to be out and contacting people, but we were blessed with a ton of people to talk with. We also had a cool moment where one of the people that we have been teaching saw us outside and came out to talk with us. He has been having trouble with one of his neighbors and he wanted to pray with us to help himself forgive her. This was a really big step for him because he hasn’t been too open or anything with us. So we were able to pray with him and then give him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and he read it. Then we went by the next day to read with him and had a good experience. After we read, he texted us a question about the reading, which was another big step, so that was cool. 

This week should be good. Crystil and hopefully Anthony will both be baptized on Saturday, so we are excited for that. 

Upcoming Baptisms

We are teaching a 9 year old, Elizabeth, who will be baptized this upcoming Saturday. We are excited for her. We are also teaching Crystil, who will be baptized in a couple of weeks. She is doing really well. We taught her about the word of wisdom and she has totally given up everything that she has needed to. She feels the Spirit really strong, so it has been really cool to watch as she has embraced the Gospel and has felt good about it the entire time. 

We had another cool experience this week. We have been teaching a guy named Ryan who has been living at a friends house for a few weeks. Apparently, we found out this week, that he has been taught by the Zone Leaders for a long time, but they recently lost contact because he lost his phone. When we found out that it was the same Ryan, we were going to try and get them in contact with him again, but when went back to his friends, he wasn’t living there any more. Well, a few days later we were riding our bikes and started riding next to some guy that we were talking with and rode all the way to some apartment complex. As we were talking with this guy, we saw Ryan in the background! He apparently moved in with a different friend. It was crazy how we were guided to him. 

Staying in the High Desert

We are doing well. Transfers are this Tuesday. Elder Holt and I will both be staying in High Desert. The work has been going really well out here. The ward has been doing great. We are teaching a family; Crystil, Anthony, and Angelica. They have been coming to church consistently and it has been going great. We taught the word of wisdom this week and Crystil has been 100% on board to live it and has been doing great the past few days. She is preparing to be baptized on March 24th, so we are excited about that. This week Anthony committed to work towards April 7th as a date for baptism. It has been really well. The ward has done a great job in fellowshipping them. 

We had Stake Conference this week. President and Sister Tateoka were there to speak. One of the things I learned from them is that when you speak at Stake Conference, you need to stay on time so that the Stake President has the time he needs to speak. Well, the first few speakers took a ton of time. There was only 30 minutes left by the time President and Sister Tateoka both still had to speak. they were the last two speakers before the Stake President. It was really powerful because they both kept their talks short and powerful to allow for President Stevens to have all the time he needed. President and Sister Tateoka are amazing. One thing I liked from President Steven’s Talk was that we need to believe. He said that a lot of people say that seeing is believing, but truly believing is seeing. As we believe in God and have faith, we will see Him more in our lives. 

Oh by the way, the Edwards in Newberg got baptized, so that was cool to see! 

Baldy's BBQ, Bend, Oregon!

Brother Sauter took Elders Klima and Holt out to dinner on Monday. Here's what he posted to his Facebook page (and sent us) about the experience.

"Tonight for Family Night it was having the Elders take on the Baldy's BBQ "BBQ Extravaganza" for dinner and the Elders won! A full rack of baby back ribs, 1/2 smoked chicken, pulled pork, brisket, chipotle potato salad, fried, baked beans, and honey-jalapeno cornbread! For appetizers BBQ rib tips and smothered fries (twice fried french fries smothered in ulled pork, cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce). And the Elders won. Elders Klima and Holt are the very first to have successfully completed this challenge. Although they did warn me they were hungry after an exhausting "P" day!"

Before

After

Zone Conference

The week here was really good. We had Zone Conference, which was fun. On Wednesday, we were on exchanges, and we got a call from President saying that he wanted to come out proselyting with us since he was in town for the Zone Conference the next day. That was fun! We had some unique experiences. We went to talk to some guy in one of the apartment complexes and he was not happy about it. He got pretty upset with us and was telling us that he was the assistant manager and that it was private property and that if we were not off the grounds in 5 minutes then he would call the cops. The problem was that we had an appointment with a less active Sister in the apartment across the complex, so we told the man. He said that we couldn’t and that we needed to leave. We said that we were going to go over, and so we did. The Sister, when we opened the door, told us that he wasn’t an assistant manager and he was lying to us. As we talked with her, President felt that we should just go in and teach her, so we did! Lo and behold, the cops were never called and we were able to have a great lesson with her. 

We also had Zone Conference this week! It went really well. It was good to see President and Sister Tateoka and to see Elder Patterson again. It was a really good Zone Conference. I was able to talk with President afterward for a few minutes, which was nice. 

The rest of the week was good! After our Zone Conference, we did a power exchange with the Burns elders, so I was able to work with Elder Oswald a little bit again. That was fun! It has been fun to see how much missionaries grow throughout their missions. 

Things with Elder Holt are great. He is a really good missionary and he is extremely talented at playing the piano and all of those types of things. He played the special musical number, a Hymn by John Schmidt, and was able to pick it up and learn it in only about an hour. He’s great. 

Miracles Continue

Things here have been busy, yet good. We are seeing a lot of progress and miracles that the Lord has been giving us. I found out of a really cool miracle this week over email. 

So back in September, I believe I told you about Yana. She was a girl from the Netherlands that was working in Oregon over the summer. Elder Oswald and I were out walking in the rain one day and she pulled her car over to us and started asking us if we were Mormons. She had some previous exposure to the church. Well, she went on to tell us that she was leaving town the following Wednesday. During our conversation, we started talking about temples, and we offered to go with her and some members of our ward to visit the Portland Visitors Center on the upcoming Monday before she left back for home. We went to the temple with our ward mission leader and his wife and they had a great time. Yana really loved it. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that we would send the missionaries near her home to give her a Book of Mormon in Bulgarian, which was easiest for her to read. Last Monday, I felt prompted to send her an email and see how things were going. Here is a little piece of what she sent back in her response this past week..

 “I got in contact with missionaries a week after I arrived in the Netherlands. They brought me bulgarial version of book of Mormon. I strated to read it and going to the church. They gave me some lessons and after 4 months I decided to get baptised. The seremony was this weekend. I realised that I after I have meet people from the church my life has changed to better.”

It is pretty amazing to see the way that the Lord is working! He put us in the right spot on that day, we were able to have the right conversation with her about temples, and eventually take a temple trip and she felt the Spirit there. Then, because of the technology we have we were able to help her get missionaries to her home and after 4 months she was baptized! It is really cool to see how the Lord is hastening his work and how we can have a small impact in one way that leads to a huge miracle in a different part of the world. I thought that was pretty cool!

We are about to go caving with some of the 18 year old priests In the ward, and then after that we are going to go “snowshoeing” with the Preims.

Renewing Friendships

The week here went well! We had a lot of good things happening. On Tuesday morning, we were on exchanges, and I got a call from a number we didn’t recognize. It was Brother Graham! He and Sister Graham were in town, so they called up and took us out to lunch! It was really good to see them. I really do appreciate the opportunity I had to serve around them. It was good to catch up and talk with them about everything. 

The week overall went really well. We are working with a lady named Crystil and two of her children, Anthony and Angelica. Crystil has a best friend who is a member and has been for a long time. She said her friend has been trying to convert her forever. On Wednesday, the kids came to Mutual and it was a combined activity and they loved it! Then on Thursday, we had a lesson with them. We had a couple from the ward come with us, and it was perfect. The couple we brought did a ton to help Crystil overcome her fears of coming to church, and then on Sunday, they all came to church! They stayed all three hours as well and really enjoyed it! We are excited for them.

Cool Experiences in the Ward

Pilot Butte

The week here was good. We were able to continue to find a lot of people to teach. The Lord has been blessing us with a lot of people to talk with. We found a guy last week who was walking with his son. He told us we could come by sometime. So we stopped by this week and he was with his girlfriend and they let us in and we had a good conversation for about 45 minutes! They invited us back and we had another really good lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation. She had some questions about it, but at the end she told us that everything made perfect sense and that she felt really at peace about it. One of the miracles of it all was that she does people’s nails for work, and she was talking about us and what we were teaching with a customer of hers. It turns out that that customer was a member of our ward! So she was able to meet her and talk a little bit about the church. 

We had another cool experience this week. A boy in the ward was getting baptized, so the family asked if we would speak at the baptism during the part where the boy and his dad were changing out. He invited some nonmember friends, so they thought it would be a cool idea. We were able to speak and, essentially, teach the first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. We showed a video as well, and it went really well. Not only was it a good opportunity to help share the gospel with non-members, but it was also a good way that we were able to build trust with the ward. 

We also had interviews this week, so that was fun! It was really good to be able to see President and Sister Tateoka again and to have some time to talk with them. I really appreciate them, they do a lot. 

First Week in Bend

Things here have been good. It has been a long week, but a quick week at the same time. It has been much different than being in Newberg. But it has been fun! We were able to find a lot of people to teach this week. We had a regional stake conference this week, so it was a little hard for us to meet all of the ward members. We have been able to go into some homes and meet them, but really next week will be the week when we can meet more of them. We have been blessed though, because we have been able to call some members that we don’t know and have been able to get them to come to some lessons with us. Bend is a really nice area. It is much like Northern Arizona and the  high Desert. It reminds me a lot of Prescott and those types of areas. There are three buildings in Bend. We have 4 wards in Bend itself, one in La Pine (about 30ish minutes south), and one down in Burns (a couple of hours south). 

The ward seems pretty average size. About 150 people come each week from what we have heard so far. There was not a lot of people being taught when we got here, but we have been blessed with a lot of people. We met a really cool single mom who has been pretty interested! My new companion is Elder Holt. He has been out for just a little bit. He was trained a little bit by Elder Bills. 

Sorry I don’t have a ton of time this week. We went to Costco to shop, and it took a while because we shopped for most of the transfer!

Transferred to Bend!

I'm being transferred to Bend on the other side of the mountains, so ’ll probably have to keep this short because of the craziness. 

The week was really good. We saw a lot of cool miracles this week and a lot happened. To cap it all off, we had a huge missionary fireside last night. It was put on by the Zone here. There were some musical performances by missionaries, and we sang in a missionary choir a couple of songs, there were a couple of talks from recent Converts and also a talk by President Tateoka and President Noyse (Stake President). Sister Francis, was one of the recent convert talks! She did a great job talking. And her husband was there! We have been teaching him for a while. He is a really good guy! They actually just took us out to lunch here in town at some really cool resort here in town. But the missionary fireside was extremely good! The Spirit was really strong and there were a lot of people who left feeling very good and a lot of people who wanted to learn more.

The week went by super fast. One of the best parts was Sunday! We had a few people come to church. Javon came for the fourth week in a row! On Saturday we gave him one of the Book of Mormon stories books and asked him to read the first chapter, and by the next morning at church he had already read through 38 chapters! He is really cool and really prepared! He told us that he wants to serve a mission. He came to the missionary fireside as well and enjoyed it a lot! 

I am definitely going to miss this ward and I am definitely going to miss serving so close to President and Sister Tateoka. It has been a really cool experience to learn all that I have from them. It will be weird being with another companion other than Elder Patterson. It feels like I have been with him for

forever, but it will be really fun being in Bend. Elder Oswald will be in my District, so that will be a lot of fun! Sorry that the email is so short! Just a lot of stuff to do. We are about to play pickleball with President and Sister Tateoka. 

Last Week of Transfer

The week here was good. On Tuesday we had a District Leader Training Meeting with all of the District Leaders coming in from throughout the mission. It is always fun to have those meetings and to listen to the inspired words of President Tateoka. It has been cool to see the way that our area has been taking off. We have been blessed by the Lord with people starting to really progress. Last Monday evening, we texted a family that we are teaching to ask them how they enjoyed church the day before, and they responded by telling us that they were at a family in our ward's home! The family in our ward invited them over for FHE! It is super cool to see the way that this family has been being fellowshipped into the ward so well. And a lot of it has come by the ward without us even asking, so that has been really cool!

We had a lesson with a man named Ryan. He came to church last week. He has floated throughout churches in his life, but when he came to church last week he felt more loved than he had ever felt at any church before, so that was awesome to hear! He is one of the most interesting people that I have met on my mission. He's a funny guy, but he has been interested in continuing to learn, so we are excited for that! 

Javon is the 13 year old boy that rode his bike to church last week. He is really prepared! We went over this week and talked to his mom and she was all for us coming over to teach him and to help him come to church and activities. Javon has really enjoyed coming to church and getting to know the boys and learn more about Heavenly Father. The Deacon's Quorom is having the boys each teach a part of a lesson during the month of February, and Javon said that he wanted to do it one week!
We are excited for him and really feel like he could be baptized next month. 

We also had an exchange this week. I stayed in Newberg with Elder Lemmon. He is from Lehi Utah. He came out during the same transfer as me, but this is the first time that I have had the opportunity to go on exchanges with him and get to know him. It was a good exchange! It was a beautiful sunny day and so there were a lot of people outside. We rode bikes too, which was really fun! Elder Hallenberger, who is in charge of bikes, let me trade my bike for a different one because about 2 months ago another Elder was riding my bike and snapped my chain.. But yeah it has been fun riding bikes. We were able to talk to a bunch of people and find a few new investigators. I even got bit on the finger by a chihuahua.. I am not a huge fan of little dogs! 

Playing Pickle Ball

This week will be good. It is the last week of the transfer! Time has flown. We have a big missionary fireside for the stake here on Sunday! It is put together by the mission. There will be a couple of recent convert talks and President Tateoka will talk for a few minutes, as well as the Stake President. There will also be some Mormon Messages and we will sing a couple songs as a choir of missionaries in the zone. Sister Francis who we baptized in September will be on of the recent convert talks! We are super excited for that. She is rock solid!