Sick Days

As you may have gathered, I was sick last week.  I still have a little cold right now, but Im just going to let you know now that this might be a little shorter.

Elder Webb's Birthday Celebration

 One of the ways to our church has been blocked by construction, and every other way is more than double the trip because of the air port and air base in our area. (I don't know if you know, but we only have a certain amount of miles a month, and we are running out). Our area is huge and we don't have enough miles for the whole of it. So everything within a 5 mile radius is an absolute biking trip, and every once in a while we just choose to go way out into the edge of our area with our bikes. Don't get me wrong I enjoy biking but this is little old.

We have been finding tons of less actives in this area. Just the other day we met Douglas, a man who went to China to tech English for 12, and out there aren't any churches or members in the area. We then bumped into a superintendent of a small trailer park (usually they give us trouble because they think we solicit but we proselyte, totally legal) but this guy was a less active for 20 years and he said we could totally go around the trailer park looking for people to teach. 

Monopoly with My Old MTC Roommate

Time for a small lesson having the faith. 

Ether 12:6

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

You won't see the blessings from reading your scriptures until after you read your scriptures, you won't see an answer to a prayer until you ask Heavenly Father for help, Have the faith to believe that you will get results from doing what the Lord has taught us to do. 

Not too much else has happened and not many pictures happened, not just because I got sick but also because I got a new phone that can take good pictures, and I had to set it up.

We Have Wind Storms Here

Thanks for the support,

Elder Willis

A New Home

Hello all, it's Elder Willis coming to you live from the state of Washington! 

A Picture of Someone I am Teaching

That's right folks I'm no longer in Post Falls, Idaho, I am in Airway Heights, Washington, over the West Terrace and Sunset wards, I don't know too much of the new area I am in, except for the massive airport and military base we have to drive around to get anywhere.

So far I have only taught a few people, these people in particular were all on date for baptism, but they have some things holding them back.  The first couple just need to get married first (because they living together), the second is always too busy to meet with us, and the third lady just needs her husband's permission (only problem with that is that he is mentally unstable and refuses to help us).

My new companion is Elder Ruth, he is an awesome missionary (at least so far). He really likes to tell it how it is. No mincing words or sugar coating and from what I have seen. It is really effective, like with every companion I have had I have learned something and I have a few more things to learn from my current companion. (He also only has a few transfers left, so he has had lots of experience in the mission field so far).

On the Fence About My Last Comp

Scripture moment.... In 1 Nephi 8 Lehi has a vision of the tree of life, (everything is symbolic in this vision, but that is not what the subject of today's scripture is about.  If you want to know more read it yourself) the tree of life symbolizes Heavenly Father, and on the tree there is pure white fruit which represents the gospel of Jesus Christ, these verses are an account of what happened next. 

12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.

13 And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit.

14 And I looked to behold from whence it came; and I saw the head thereof a little way off; and at the head thereof I beheld your mother Sariah, and Sam, and Nephi; and they stood as if they knew not whither they should go. 

15 And it came to pass that I beckoned unto them; and I also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me, and partake of the fruit, which was desirable above all other fruit.

Once Lehi, who is the father of Nephi, partook of the fruit he just knew that he had to share it with his family.  I have come to know of the truthfulness of his gospel, and I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints is His true church. This is why young men (like me) and women sacrifice up to two years of their lives proclaiming these truths, because we are all children of the same God, and other missionaries, like me, are sacrificing all they can to make sure the message of great value and importance is shared with all of God's children.

Last Picture of Post Falls at Night

If you have a Testimony of God's truths share it, the time to act is now! not tomorrow, not someday, now!

Luke 12

37 Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants

39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

Modern Art in Another Missionary's Apartment

40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Thanks for the support,

Elder Willis

Transfer to the Base

Tracting with A Priest

Well it is transfers again, and I am going to Spokane West, Sunset and Terrence Wards. I move out on Thursday, and I don't know my address yet, but from what I have heard it is going to be on some sort of military base.  My new companion is going to be Elder Ruth, I have also heard that he is an awesome missionary.

Other than transfers not too much happened last week.

Nice Pose

We did service for all the old lady's found while tracting, They were all ecstatic for us to help them with gardening and putting together some bookshelves. we were able to get a few of them interested in the church and now we

 have return appointments with them next Wednesday. It's amazing how interested in the church people get when we do service for them. They all asked how much money we wanted, and when we decline they just make us cookies instead.

I'm going to miss Post Falls. We have been eating like kings here. We get food from both our wards, and the Post Falls third Elders also get lots of food from their ward. We don't have enough room in our fridge sometimes, and because of that, we end up throwing out some food.

He Hasn't Come Out of the Closet

We finally started tracting with some of the Priests on our wards, we have been trying to set that up since I got here, and I don't know what it is but every time one of the Priests go out with us we always find a promising person who tells us to come back.

Scripture moment: 1 Nephi 6:4-5 

4. For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.

5. Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.

These verses show that every single word and phrase in the Book of Mormon has a purpose in bringing us closer to our Heavenly Father and teach us of his plan of Eternal Happiness.

Cool Pose

Thanks for the support,

Elder Willis

T-Rex Pose

Another Pict of the Tank

Service With a Smile

Lunch Line at Zone Conference with Package from My Sister

A normal week for the post Falls missionaries is usually jam packed with service at the food bank or Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Store, but these past two weeks have been full of helping people move, gardening, and helping clean up at home so it can be sold. (I got to polish up my window washing skills.)

Some of My District

We have found that asking if we can help and do service while tracting, we can actually get in the home and teach a little about the Gospel.  One of those instances was when we were tracting in an older folks neighborhood. It's spring so quite a few of the small gardens there have fallen in disrepair. When knocking on doors we typically don't get very far because people think we are soliciting, but that is incorrect. We* are proselyting. (We have little cards that allow us to not get in trouble with the law, because there are many no solicitor signs that we ignore.) We knocked on one house in particular, and this elderly lady comes out and says, "Are you them Mormon missionaries? (with eyes narrowed)" and we said, "Yes that is the nick name, we are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." A after that you could tell she was done talking to us.  She said "ooohh right, 

well have a good day. (She says this with lots of attitude.) She then starts closing the door and we quickly say, "Wait quick question, do you know if you or any of your neighbors need service? We love helping move stuff and fixing up gardens." Then she completely changed. She was all ecstatic, talking about how she would be delighted to have us help in her gardening. She even told us that one of her daughters married into the church, and that she wanted to know more about it. This goes to show that "by small and simple things, are great things come to pass," kind of like Alma 37:6-7.

6.Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

7. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

Me, My Companion, and our Bikes

Here it shows that God knows what he is doing. He has a purpose in all things, and has a plan for all of us.

We had an exchange with our zone leaders, I went with Elder Feller, and Elder Judd went with Elder Homer. We got tons done during that exchange. For example, we went street contacting at the local park and met a huge plethora of people. We had to split off in conversations many times, because people kept walking by. One of the people I talked to was a Wiccan (there are so many beliefs that I had not previously known about, because I grew up in Utah) Another group of people I talked to were Pagans, a few of which lived near Elder Feller's apartment, and they did not mind him visiting in the future.

On our way out of the park, some of the people who worked for Columbia Bank were getting ready to do some community service and pick up trash at the park. We asked them if we could help them. So the story goes like this. We had spent longer than an hour outside at this point, and more than twice it would start raining hard for a minute and the stop. While we were trying to pick up trash. The wind felt like Spanish Fork in the morning. The sky rained sleet for a minute or two. Then the wind would stop and the sky would get all sunny, rinse and repeat this cycle 3 times, that was the rest of our afternoon.

Zone Conference

Other than with crazy weather and great success in our area, because of service, not much else has happened.

Thank you all for your support and your help with my mission so far, I really appreciate it. 

You Miss 10% of the Shots You Don't Take

Last week was crazy. Crazy good and crazy bad.

My Command Chair

We were able to get somebody we have been teaching for a while on date for baptism, and she wanted to be baptized as fast as possible.  So we started making preparations for Saturday.  We invited all the people we are teaching, we invited the other missionaries in our zone to bring people they are teaching. (We had permission.) Members started hearing about the baptism on the day before Easter, and finally the day before the baptism, her nonmember family members said they wanted to attend, so we moved it back to May 11th, just 2 days after Transfers........ We were let down big time, but that's alright, because she has so much support in our ward she is in good hands.

We have an amazing part member family we are teaching, we are working to help their kid get baptized. We are hoping that focusing on this kid will help reactivate this family. Unfortunately, a wrench has been thrown into the whole operation. They learned that a distant family member just learned they have cancer, and then, not too many hours later, they learned that he had passed on because the cancer was just that aggressive.  We have been working to help comfort them with much success, because the Book of Mormon has many passages that can help bring peace to those who earnestly seek for it. 

This is Called a Gooey

There is a scripture that explains it better than I can and it's in 3 Nephi 14:7-8

7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

I like this scripture. I basically says that when we look for something specific through prayer or the scriptures we will find it.

Bet you didn't expect me to do the scripture moment that early in the email.  Kind of like a surprise we had earlier last week. This lady we have been teaching for a month and a half now has been really busy with her work lately, She was unable to attend some recent lessons we had a scheduled. She later texted us that she was taking it as a sign that she would be a poor member of the church. We keep trying our best with her, but we don't want to push her too much. We are just hoping that the members in the ward can make a difference.

Sorry last week I forgot to send some pictures of me  (mostly because my camera is trash, and I need to take all the pictures of me from other people) but I got some this time.

Thanks for your support,
Elder Willis

M60 Talk, driving on our way home from service