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! 

Roller Coaster Week

The week was a roller coaster. The beginning of the week we had a lot of new investigators that we found recently drop us and not want to learn anymore. But the end of the week was really good. We had a lot of our investigators at church. A lot of the main people that we are teaching were able to make it and had a really good time. We had a really good Sacrament meeting in which the Spirit was very strong. Our gospel principles class was probably the biggest I have seen my whole time here in Newberg. But all of our investigators felt the Spirit Sunday which helped them stay all three hours. It was good! The beginning of the week was rough but at the end of the week we were blessed and saw the fruits of our labors. 

One of the kids that we were teaching decided he didn’t want to learn anymore which was a bummer. Another kid that we are teaching, Javon, came again for the second week in a row to church! He is a really cool kid. Neither his mom or dad could take him, so he rode his bike to church! It was really cool to see him there. He had a lot of questions this time at church. He was a lot more comfortable, which was really cool to see. The deacons have done a great job fellowshipping him and the advisor gave him a Duty to God Pamphlet, so that was really cool. 

This week won’t be too crazy. We have a meeting here in Newberg with the District Leaders throughout the Mission tomorrow. That will be good. Other than that, we have an exchange Friday and the rest of the week is pretty normal. We also have interviews with President which will be good! 

Happy New Year!

The week here was really good! It felt like we had a lot more time to actually proselyte this week. And it seemed like the results of being able to just go out and work were really positive. It was cool because we spent a lot of time in a neighborhood where we do not usually do much work, and we saw that that area was very fruitful! We were able to find a bunch of different people that we have now started to teach! We are teaching a 14 year old boy, who seems really prepared. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets that we leave with him and seems to really enjoy everything that he is learning. The crazy thing is while we were on an exchange this week, Elder Patterson and Elder Kersten met another middle school aged kid. He invited us back over to his house this Sunday, and so we went over and met his dad who is a really nice guy. The amazing thing is that this boy is best friends with the other middle-schooler that we are teaching! What are the chances of that? Also, we met a couple of other middle school kids this week playing basketball with their dad. Their dad actually coached basketball down at Coolidge high school in Arizona. Well, we talked for a few minutes and invited them to church on Sunday and the dad told us that Javon would be there. As we were sitting in the chapel on Sunday right before church started, we saw Javon! He came to church and stayed the entire time! That was a huge tender mercy. And the crazy thing is that Javon also knows the original middle school boy that we are teaching that I mentioned first. So that is all confusing, but in short, we are teaching practically the entire middle school here! It has been cool to see how the Lord is preparing the hearts of the young people. They listen and act and feel the Spirit.

We had a bunch of cool experiences this week. One was when we were in that neighborhood that we haven't spent much time in. We had just finished talking to one of our ward mission leader's neighbor's and had a very good conversation with him. We were pretty excited and came up to a street that we hadn't been on before. I thought that it was a through street because it didn't say "no outlet" or anything like that. So we decided we would try. We soon found out that it was a couldesac! As we were walking back down a man pulled up to the mailboxes there and because of the perfect timing we were able to have a good conversation with him and he agreed to have us come back. He has been going through recovery and seems to be open to listening. It was just cool to see the Lord's hand in it. 

We also spent a little bit of time in Salem this week! We went on a short 2 hour exchange with a couple of different sets of elders down in Salem and were able to have a good experience. And then we had dinner with President and Sister Tateoka at their favorite authentic Japanese place in Salem! It was SO good. I was honestly really surprised at how good it was! It is called Bon Japan 86. Then a couple of days later in the week, we went on exchange with the Zone Leaders in Salem. We had a really good exchange and were able to talk to a bunch of different people! I was down in Salem and we made a determination that we would talk to everyone. The start of the day was rough, but as the day went on, we were able to talk to a ton of people and find a few humble people that were willing to listen and accept what we were saying! 

Earlier today we played pickleball with President and Sister Tateoka and the other Elders here in Newberg! It was a ton of fun. I don't know if you have ever heard of it or seen it before, but it is basically like a shorter, smaller version of tennis played with paddles and a wiffle ball. I think you guys would really like it. 

Merry Christmas!

It was wonderful talking to Jake as a family! Best Christmas present ever!

Breakfast  and Guesstures with Pres. & Sister Tateoka