We're No Angels

I am ready for a bright, Hawaiian Christmas Day!

I suppose I had better get this out of the way first. Next P-day for me will be on Christmas day and it is the only day next week I will be able to communicate with family and friends. (Now that we have a heads up, we can avoid what happened on Thanksgiving).

We have been doing some great work here in Lincoln heights. We have lots of Swahili work as well as English work to do, and now we never have a moment with nothing to do (unless the 5 lessons we scheduled for the day all at once cancel on us. It has happened more than once now; but if it hadn't been for the fact we would not have been able to find some promising prospects.)

Most the people we have been finding at first seem like they want to meet with us and want to hear us out, or at least pretend they do. Once we return to talk with them again they tell us they forgot and are too busy at the moment to meet with us, then once we return again, then they don't even answer the door and ignore us, even though we know they are home. At least we have a large teaching pool already, we will have lots to do. 

Speaking of, we have found some solid people to teach! Notwithstanding the great Swahili family's we already are working with, the English has been prospered considerably in the past week.

Enjoying some good childhood memories.
(We were showing Elder Cohen Candy Land for the first time.
It got pretty competitive at the 5th round) 

We walked up to this guy's front porch, and in his window there was a sign that said. "is there life after death? Trespass and find out☠️" 

So once the guy came out (I'm going to call him Rick) we asked him about that sign, and if he actually believed if there was a life after death. He had told us that he was unsure; since the death of his mother he has wondered about the destination of her soul and if she was alright. We told him that we share a message from God, given to us to bring us peace of mind and joy of the soul.  We also told that we know where we come from, where we go and why we are here in this life. We were able to set up a time to come back. Once the time for our lesson came, we were able to have a wonderful lesson with both Rick and his wife. It turns out Rick's mother knew some few parts of the Plan of Salvation already. She was spiritually lead and was able to discern them from the Bible and teach her son, so when we taught him he was like, " Oh, I already believe that..." for this and that all over the lesson.

Apple pie and glazed doughnut pancakes.

These members feed me way to much, and way to well.

Sorry if I had more time I would write something spiritual to share, but I lack the time. 

I do apologize,  I forgot to send last week's email and all the text above was that email. I will just add to this email and hopefully the plague that are described in it will not be added unto me. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

I don't know about you, but we were not able to have a white Christmas, in fact we had a wet Christmas, all the snow melted because it is so warm. (According to my African companion, it is freezing,  he doesn't know what's coming. Right now it's only 40°F, during February last year it was - 30° plus windchill. ) 

We are teaching this guy who is struggling with smoking. He had been making good progress reducing his intake from 2 packs a day to only a few cigarettes a day. Then we told him that the time was now to quit and give up his cigarettes. He was not to enthusiastic about it, but he did give us what he had, (which we promptly threw in the trash when we got home) then we promised to visit him each night to strengthen him in his conviction. Things were going fine, until recently he stopped returning our calls and is no longer home when we visit him. We fear that he has broken into his old habit and gave in to his vice.

Not Bad, I still like the Festival of Lights Back in Utah better...

We are brainstorming ideas to get with him again. He may be feeling guilt or shame. That is something we all feel when we break any of God's commandments, but that does not mean that there is not a remedy for this. God has promised us that so long as we return unto him he will remember our sins no more, and we can enjoy all the blessing a he has in store for us. 

D&C 58:42

42 Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

We have been meeting lots of people that keep telling us to come back.... After the holidays .  With how things go for us they may never be quite "ready for us to come over, we are so busy". We shall see how all these potentials go. I will keep you all posted if anything cool happens. 

Add captionThe Joke of the Spokane Police Force

We have been doing a lot of caroling lately. Boy they are so much more effective than just knocking on doors. The people feeling like they owe it to us to either talk to us or even have us over some other time. 

We have gone out with our ward as well as our zones, but the coolest ones are when we go with our ward. Because we are teaching lots of Swahili people and quite a few of them are coming to church. We learned a Swahili Christmas Hymn! I have a video that I will send to my family, and hopefully they will find a way to share it with y'all. Anyways we all had a blast singing and getting to know more people. The kids were so excited to be knocking on doors. They ran to the next location with great enthusiasm each time we were going to another home. 

We got Dave, the pastor, to come to our church last Sunday. However, he has certain conditions about that. The only one of note was that we had to go to his church on Christmas Eve for his special service. It was a bit of a surprise for me, because I have never before attended another church service in my life, so the drums and guitars were a bit unsettling for me, not to mention that we all got candles and  stood up to sing with every song. We met quite a few interesting people there. While we talked with them, I kept reminding myself that I could not proselyte in another church (mission rules. Overall it was a decent experience (I just can't get over the band.) 

Well, this had been a good Christmas for us, we were able to play Settlers of Catan and eat two great meals with two great families. 

The Most food I have ever seen at one place at the same time that was not a store

I hope you all have had a merry Christmas, and had the chance to remember the true meaning of Christmas. 

Here is a nice little video that can help you if your struggling with the true meaning, if you are not struggling you should still watch it because it's a good share video:

The Reason Behind Christmas

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/inspirational-messages/2013-11-018-the-reason-behind-christmas

Well the time has come for me to close. Be as it may, while we were caroling in big groups, and I must confess we stepped all over the governors grass. We're no Angels but they all loved our singing.

Thank you all for your great messages and responses to my emails, I hope you all have a good night's sleep after all those sweets. 

It's Happening

Me and My New Companion, Elder Cohen

I got transferred to Lincoln heights!

I tell ya, this is the most stressed I have ever been while driving. Already there have been multiple times where we should have been involved in accidents because of the intense driving of the locals here in the big city, but I'm okay, and so is the car. (my parents would be proud)

So I realized once I got to the area that I may have said that I was going to be Marshallese, but it is actually going to be Swahili.

Elder Schelenberg, Elder Bartschie and I
last day of last transfer 

My companion is fluent in both English and Swahili, already we have been able to visit lots of Swahili families. My companion even taught Come Follow Me for them in Swahili at church yesterday. As for me, I do a bit more than I thought I would. When we teach the people we teach ask my companion to translate so I can be apart of the conversation (they are a really patient people). This is such a cool area to serve.

The members here are very missionary minded. There are a few things they do that I am not used to, nobody is perfect. Anyways, we have lots of opportunities to have members come with us to teach in this area. We have it set up so that a member will come with us every Tuesday and Thursday night, for the whole night driving us around and participating in lessons (I have not had the chance to participate in this yet, but it sounds sweet.)

Me, Out and A Boat

There is a whole mix of different people and communities in Spokane. When we volunteered at the local food bank lots of Slovak people came in. Among them there are Swahili, Marshallese and Spanish people all over Spokane with all the Chinese population down in Moscow. We have a lot of work to do.

Magic Zone Leaders

So far the people we have met have been nice, but there was this one guy who was overall interesting! We entered his yard and on his porch he had a small knee high gate, we pass it and knock on his door, we knock just once or even the same way so we taped on the glass of his door to see if we could get anyone to come to the door. Once he came out he was in a foul mood. He said "did you open the gate on your way in!" we say yes. " Well, close it on your way out!" "how would you like it if I came to your home and knocked on your door!". To that we responded by telling him that we both lived far away and that it would be very hard to find (which is true) and to that he says, "Oh yea give me your address, you think you're being funny!" (apparently it was not this guy's day). Then my companion says that he was from Kenya and at this point he finally gave up. Everybody else has been quite a bit nicer than he was. 

He dropped his GAINS!
He was a disappointed schellen. (inside jokes) 

Thanks for all the support and love that ya'll send my way, if you want to send me anything you will have to go to my blog, there you will find the address for my mission office, from there they will send it to my current address in Spokane. 

Once Again, It's P-Day

The Moscow Dream was Finally Realized

I know what you might say. "But Elder Willis, P-day was last week". Well, I am back, and I have more to tell and more to share, for today is Transfer Day.

My time in Moscow has come to an end, I am leaving the mother land to travail in the city of Spokane, Lincoln Heights, to be exact. 

A Bearded Dragon

A Reptile Show - This is a Ball Python

From what I am told, this place is very low income and there are lots homeless in that part of town. I also hear that it is primarily Martiwlus work as well, so I am going to do a lot of standing around not knowing what is going on.

Not much has changed since the last email I sent you all.

We managed to find more referrals for the YSA missionaries. We tracted into Lilly, a young woman who just lost her uncle, but upon hearing about the plan of Salvation, wanted to meet with us again.

We made water!
(The water in the building was turned off,
so we took all the ice and melted it.)

I, unfortunately, have to go early, we have to sign a lot of journals and I did not realize how much time passed by. 

Happy Thanksgiving

The hour of our second feast on Thanksgiving -
After that I could barely bend over, I was so full

Now is the time we can show most of our gratitude, when we are placed before a bountiful feast don't forget to show your appreciation for both your host and the Lord for the opportunity to gain weight and every moment that follows.

Sorry I could not talk last Monday, our mission President let us get ready for the week like laundry and groceries, but we could not message or email because we would get that chance later on Thanksgiving. (We get all day to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labors).

Remember Bibek, the man I was talking about who is from out of town? Well we had a fantastic lesson with him, teaching him about the Restoration. He said that it all made sense, and that he would keep reading the Book of Mormon. He even invited us to his home out of country (if we ever go that way that is). He is so humble and now wants to meet with us soon every day this week before he goes to Rexburg where his friends are going to school. It pains my heart that we have to hand him off to the YSA elders. He is such an awesome guy to teach.

We Got Fed By Some Members We Served -
there were so many leaves

In other parts of the work, we have Ashkan! He is a lot like Bibek, not from around here, but he is super humble and ready to learn. We had a fantastic lesson with him the other day. We taught him about what we call spiritual C. P. R (that is, church, prayer and reading the scriptures). He already has a background religion and to our surprise had already been practicing these spiritual sustaining attributes for many years before he had met us. We even talked about more than we had planed, like fasting, and how the first Sunday of each month is a little different from the rest, and now he is excited to come to church this Sunday.

I'm sorry that I don't have too much more time to write about the week. Even though we had the whole day off we spent most of it relaxing, talking and watching some of the awesome videos on the Gospel media App

I will have more. Tune in next time to hear the latest on Transfer calls! 

My Companion is Quite the Cook -
he uses a lot of coke and sugar in his recipe

That's right folks, next week I will find out wither or not I will be staying in Moscow. Remember, before you worry abour sending mail or any packages, that I won't be going anywhere until next Thursday.

GOOD NIGHT! 

We Could Leave Your Friends Behind

(sorry I wanted to make a nice title for my mission friend without a hat) - inside joke

Hello! 

So many exciting things have happened this time round.

We have been finding a lot more people than we usually do, but I will only talk about the promising ones today. 

These aren't all my groceries...a lot of food.

There is a college student who referred himself to us a little over a week ago, but he gave us very little information in his background. We were suspicious that this person might have malicious intent for us. We investigated where he lived and tried to look at our past records to see if we had any information from previous missionaries in the area about this person's address, but this is a college town and there are lots of move ins and outs constantly, so the records we did have are incorrect most of the time.

We Had to Rake a Lot of Leaves

Eventually we gave it up and just went straight to their door and rang the door bell and to our surprise a young man opened the door and immediately invited us in.  So we were thinking "uh oh, this guy is going to Anti us and we are going to miss our appointments because they always beat around the bush". But much to our astonishment he wanted to know more about Christianity. He wasn't even the guy we were looking for!

I wasn't kidding.  It was a lot of leaves

This young man had been raised in another faith and had spent about a year in America. To him the thought of Christianity always made him curious. It also helped that the person we were looking for (his roommate) was interested in learning more about our church because all of his friends who came with him from his country, went to either BYU Provo or BYUI and had good things to say about the members there.

So let's recap. The guy we were talking to was not the man we were looking for. But he was interested because of the interest in the church of the man we WERE looking for. This man we were looking for was very interested because of what his friends have told him about the example of the saints of the church.

Zone Conference Pictures

This reminds me of one of the videos we showed to some members recently. It is about a mother who has things on her list to accomplish for the day, but because we are human beings life has different plans for us. As we follow the example of Christ others will see the difference it has made in our life, and much like our friend from another land, people will want that difference in their lives as well. 

Fun Times at a Restaurant

“You never know how much good you do.”

https://media2.ldscdn.org/assets/mormon-channel/mormon-messages-2014/2014-00-008-you-never-know-360p-eng.mp4

Our two people on date for baptism may not make it to be baptized this Saturday. It's sad, but true. We have been plowing through all the lessons we need to teach them so that they could make it, but the last lesson they had with us erased all doubts, they are not ready. The biggest reason, they don't believe in prophets, especially Joseph Smith. 

More Zone Conference

More...

We have made plans to help revive their date but we feel like they have a long way to go now. In the Lords time they will be ready for baptism again. 

Sorry, we have had a lot on our plate today, I wanted to talk about a little more, but I don't have the time. 

and More...

Ya gotta love the pictures.

And More

Last One

Lazy Day

Leaf Day,
We Joined the College in its  Day of Service

Hey everyone, despite what has happened in the past week I am feeling slow today. So today will be a little short.

We had another Sacrifice Saturday a few days ago. This time we were in Pullman, Washington. 

I can't describe the feeling when you cross the state border but the work over there is on easy mode. People are actually nice to us and would really be willing to take time out of their day to speak to us and learn from us.

We were lucky enough to find a few people for them to teach (or at least go back again and see just how interested they are). 

We were able to have more lessons with our "on dates". They are very stressful. I am also told by my companion, that when we are meeting with this couple in particular, once they start asking "questions" my face turns red (it's not from anger or from embarrassment, so what could be causing this?) Anyways these questions always have something to deal with something that has happened in church history. Each and every one of the topics he brought up are things that would look controversial without context, but because we have been focusing on church history in our personal study we were able to provide the full story to each of his "difficult questions".  

Other than the "difficult questions" this couple is great (to protect the identity of this couple, I will call them Amy and Terry) . Amy is such an angel, and has a strong testimony of what we have shared with her, but Terry is the guy who doubts and tries to make us look bad in front of Amy, but it doesn't affect her. In fact she has such a strong testimony that she testifies often to Terry and sometimes rebukes him for some of his "almost Anti" questions. We are so proud of her and the progress that they have made together. 

Never Seen So Many Leaves in My Life. 
We got them all Raked.

Hey, I am sorry I don't have much more to share, but here is a spiritual thought. 

If you are familiar with the story of Ammon (Alma 17), he is a young man who wants to help those who fight his people come to a knowledge of the Lord. After some time he eventually finds himself in servitude for those he is trying to teach, and one day when he is assigned to watch over the kings sheep. 

Alma 17:27

27 Therefore, as Ammon and the servants of the king were driving forth their flocks to this place of water, behold, a certain number of the Lamanites, who had been with their flocks to water, stood and scattered the flocks of Ammon and the servants of the king, and they scattered them insomuch that they fled many ways.

I like to liken the scriptures unto us in our time and day. Imagine the sheep as us, the men who scatter them as Satan and those who follow him and finally Ammon as Jesus Christ. (Disclaimer: this thought is strictly for the imagination, and in no ways is to be taken and accepted as cannon to the Book of Mormon. For a full understanding of my analogy you just need to read Alma 17.) 

Our Groceries Last P-Day

Satan and those who follow him try to scatter us from our shepherd. They have an array of many different techniques and approaches to do this; but mainly by distraction and diversion

 are we ever lead astray. We need to focus on the path that our shepherd leads us on. If we make all that we do in life focused on the Savior and his teachings, we cannot be lead astray. Even if we are ever lost after having been confounded and scattered, we have the Savior who fights for our cause and will never stop the fight to bring us back into his fold.

Not Even Wenslydale?

The Library Pump

Things have picked up drastically recently, and like the scripture in the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants says we have been sifting the Wheat from the Tares. (I can't believe how many people we were teaching were Tares)

For those of you who don't know what I am talking about. A Tare is grass or poisonous weed that is similar in appearance to wheat. It cannot be distinguished from wheat until it is fully grown. Here is the scripture: D&C 86:7 "Therefore, let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe; then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned." So basically a Tare is somebody who is not ready for the message of the Gospel and the Wheat represents those who are.

The Snow Came.  It was a lot.

Amidst plucking up all the Tares in our area we have come upon fields of Wheat, white and ready to harvest. In other words, we have dropped a lot of the people we have been trying to teach because they just came out and told us they are not interested, or they won't respond to any messages. But we were able to find lots of new people to teach. Each one is having good contact with members and missionaries in the past.

The first family: they were super nice and let us in and gave us some water, we were able to use this opportunity to share what a missionary's purpose is and they had lots of questions. We eventually found out that the husband of the family had a best friend while growing up, who had been a great example and even served a mission, so he was very interested in finding our more about what we did.

The Old MTC Gang

Eventually the time came where we had to go, but not before we were asked what our church believes, faith or works? After a small discussion and us telling him that the question  was like asking what blade on the scissors was more important. That without faith works are dead, and without works faith is dead. He seemed to like that answer and said we could come back sometime.

The next guy is not as promising. He goes to a local church College called New Saint Andrews (which is only one place of many in this town that teach and preach Anti). Whenever we hear that somebody is from that school in particular we prepare ourselves for an aggressive assault on our our faith, but with this man it wasn't quite like what we expected.

He also had a best friend who served a mission, and he wanted to know more about our church from the source, because he was all together very familiar with Anti information. So we didn't have much of a bible bash. It was actually a discussion, he wanted to know why we though that the Gospel (the Bible and the churches) changed after the death of the Apostles as well as why we claim to be the only right church which lead to a whole hour of discussions.

The Sky is Pretty

In the end we had already told him about the Priesthood, (power and authority to act in God's name). Why many different people thought the church had to be reformed, (because they could plainly see that what was taught and practiced AKA the sales of indulgences among many others practices were not what Christ taught). And even the First Vision with Joseph Smith and his experience with God, (if you either have not seen it or have no idea what I am talking about, go to https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org and search for the Restoration video, it explains it all). All in all it was not a complete waste of time, like we said, he is not as promising.

Pretty Again

Anyways, after last P-day that is when the temperature started diving. Immediately after we P-day ended a snowstorm took us all by surprise. Suddenly it was knit cap and gloves season and still is. 

We met the most crazy man I have ever had the chance to comprehend in my life (no he did not have the Wenslydale? (inside joke).

He claimed that he knew what food was, that you could only eat grain seeds that have sprouted. He said that he could go into his past lives, that he remembered what it was like to talk to Cain and Able as their father Adam and many more things did he say which cannot be written here for I am forbidden by my companion. Just know, that this guy was crackbrained.

Halloween was a bit of a disappointment. All the missionaries in our mission had to stay inside from starting from 5:00 to the next day. Not just because they want us to avoid the drunk mayhem which is good, but it is because people like to dress up as missionaries. So our mission president know that we are not getting into or causing trouble, he makes sure what we just stay inside for the night. (I am only telling you this so I have an excuse to not be able to tell you any cool Halloween stories, because there are none).

My Companion, Elder Wang, and I

Well, that's a lot to talk about, and I haven't even mentioned my companion Elder Wang. He is so good with English. He is even pretty witty, even so sometimes he gets a little lost, but I am positive that the holy Ghost helps him pick up right where he left off. 

We taught some people a few days ago who were struggling to know if God loves them, to make the long story short we basically told them this. "You yourselves being parents love your children right?" They say "yes". "Well we have a Father in Heaven, and He loves us more than we can understand, so much in fact that he sent His first born son to suffer and die for us. That is how much our Father loves us". By this time we were able to get our point across and show them God's love for us.

Thank you all for your love and support, especially for reading my email. (man they are getting long).

Pictures, it's been cold and we have been taking lots of pictures.

" No, we are not Jahovas" (said every missionary ever)

Two Previous Companions - Elder Martineau and Elder Bai

Well, we thought the remodeling was over but we were mistaken. 

They are now painting up a storm. Sometimes late when we get home, and sometimes even letter than that - 2:00 in the morning for instance. So we have taken necessary precautions, not only against the nightly remodeling, but also against the snoring.... We have some interesting sleeping habits in our apartment. 

We had another Sacrifice Saturday. Not many people are very enthusiastic about Sacrifice Saturday. It is a day where we all meet together talk about training and doctrine we need to learn/practice. Then we all break up and blitz an area in the zone (a blitz is when all the different missionaries go to another area to tract).

We were lucky enough to tract in our own area, and even more lucky to find three people with interest to learn more.

The most prominent of the bunch is Christy. We walked up to her home and there was a guy smoking on her lawn. We told him that we are missionaries and we help bring people closer to Christ. Before we could say more he told us he was not interested, so we asked him if he knew anybody in the area who could use an uplifting message or service and he said that the lady inside would like to talk to us. Right then she comes out and she seems happy to see us, but she asked if we are Jahova's Witnesses (we get this a lot, the people up here don't like them). To her remark we say no, and much like other people who ask us the same question, she invited us in and wanted to know more about what we had to share.

Me and My New Companion - Elder Wang

She was thankful that we were going around spreading the love of God. She told us that the knowledge of God helped change her life and guided her to her to where she is at today.

She expressed her distress about how her children were falling away from having faith in Christ and asked what made us want to come on a mission and we told her that we were able to obtain a knowledge and testimony of what we teach at our church. (I just realized that I may have been writing a little bit more than I originally planed sorry). This lead us to talk about how we have 2 hours at church: the first being Sacrament the most important part of church where we remember our Savior, Christ. The second is dedicated to us learning the Gospel among others things that we can take and apply to our lives. Then we explained how we now study at home as a family so that we may have a strong connection with those we love. To make this long story kinda short, she loved what we told her about our church and wanted to meet with us again.

Being a companion with Elder Wang has been a blast. He is sharp and witty and is surprisingly good at speaking English. Speaking of which we have already found several families who speak Mandarin Chinese and Elder Wang was able to make an awkward contact turn into a promising potential. He is on fire. 

1 Nephi 17:8

And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.

Nephi was asked to build a boat, even though he has never seen the sea. He did not fear that he would not be able to do this. In fact he was ready and willing to do the will of the lord. 

Much like when Nephi was commanded to build a boat, I have been asked to do something that I previously thought impossible, but as I work and see the progress I have made in my grand adventure I can see that I have done many great and amazing through the power of Christ "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philipians 4:13)

Sometimes when we start to do what the Lord asks of us we may not see the point or even the progress of his plan, but when we look back and see we have done something grand (like building a boat without knowing what a boat looks like) we can see that with the Lord on our side we are exactly where we need to be.

Thank you for all that you do, I am glad that you read about my experience and I hope it helps you grow your testimony. 

Uh oh, it's that time again!

Temple Pictures in the Rain with the Elders

TRANSFERS! WHOOOO! 

I have had a great time in Moscow, and I'm going to keep having those good times. The only thing that is changing is my companion. 

Elder Martineau stayed up in Spokane after Zone Conference a few days ago, so the last few days I have been in a trio and I tell ya it's been a blast!

My new companion is from China. His name is Elder Wang, and I have heard strange things about him, but I can assure you all that we will do great things here in Moscow.

The District

So the fist thing I ought to talk about is how sick I have been for the past few days. At first it started with sore tonsils. Then my stomach was constantly upset and it hurt to speak. Then the next day I did not get any sleep the entire night and I was bed ridden for the entirety of that day, just trying to sleep but unable to do anything of the kind. The next day was Zone Conference, I was actually able to get some sleep that night and was feeling astronomically better than before, but I was still sick.

For Zone Conference we had to pack for the night, and Elder Martineau had to take all of his stuff because he would not be coming back. Our car was stuffed for the 2 hour drive to CDL.

For zone conference Elder Pearson (of the Seventy - over all the missionaries in the North West) and his wife came to visit us. The only way I could describe Elder Pearson

Most of the Zone

is a bulldog. He was fearless in his attitude and didn't flinch when he would admonish us. He also gave us 4 new things to start practicing while on the mission. 

First, we need to pray for Charity and Love, the most important of all the Christ like attributes.

Second, read Joseph Smith history so that we may be experts and increases our testimonies.

Third, give your companion 3 compliments each day.

Fourth, NEVER NEVER NEVER forget to ask for referrals, ask members and people being taught. They promised us that if we do those things, we will double the amount of baptisms in our areas.

The next day we were able to go to the temple. It was a great experience, I would have to say that I understood more this time.

Last Zone P-Day:
My Carved Pumpkin I promised in the Last Email

I had to say goodbye to my companion. He is leaving the mission on Wednesday, right now I am in a trio with Elders Schelenberg and Iund, we are so busy. Between the 3 of us we cover 3 ward's: Palouse River, Paradise Ridge, Rolling Hills and the Moscow YSA ward. We went to the first hour of one ward then we went to the second hour of another, then we went to the first hour of another ward and stayed for the second. We even had a baptism right after church yesterday. There were lots of non-members there and they all loved it, then there was two more baptisms after the first later in the day.

We had invited all the people we are teaching to the baptism, only one of them came, but it was steller. It was Ashkan. He wants to learn more about our church. All throughout the baptism he was either asking me questions or sitting back going, "hmmm" or "that makes sense". After we asked him if he would like a tour of the church and he said he would love it! After a very successful tour he said he would like to come to church with us next week!

I have loved the time I have spent on my mission! When I talk to people about what it means to be a missionary they are shocked because I give up TV, social media and things some people can't live without. Although some of the people I meet might make fun of what I believe, or say that I am wasting my time out here, or even say God is not real and I can do whatever I want, to them I say; " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Roman's 1:16).

I know that God lives, that he loves us, that he has a plan for us and if we simply do the things he has asked of us we will have eternal life, even after death. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ amen.