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.

There and Back Again

Squashing Apples:
It's Depressing if You're an Apple

Welp things have been on the spectrum of good and bad this week.

We moved back into our original apartment. WHOOOO! But the the guys doing remodeling work are moving lots of heavy stuff on the floor above us at 3:00 in the morning. BOOO! 

Its' P-Day and we can do our shopping. YEEEAA! But our mission cards (that it the money we use to buy food for the week) wont be refilled until after our P-day (the only day we can buy food) is over. Stomach grumbling *

Its okay though, we are going to pull through this week easy, we have tons of members support as well as others helping us.

This week we were able to find 3 new people this week!

The Season: 
The Results Will Be in the Next Email

The first is Ashkan. He is not from around here and he is on a personal mission to learn more about the Church. He is one of the most pleasant people I have met on my mission who is not a member. We walked in and expected Anti, because he was being so nice (people who don't like the church like to lure missionaries in their home and then lecture them about why they are wrong. It's what we call Anti). It turns out that he had met with missionaries a few months before we met him. They had left a Book of Mormon with him,. He had told them not to come back for a few months so he could read as much as he could. Well when we found him he had read clear through to the Words of Mormon (that's kinda far, especially for someone who has English as his second language). He wants to know more and we are meeting with him tonight at 7:30!

The Palouse is gorgeous.
One of the only dry crop farming for wheat in the world

We also met a young couple: Angelita and Chris. They are super nice and love the message of the Gospel. They have had questions for a long time concerning the doctrine of the trinity (not our doctrine). They said that they read in the new Testament and found a place where it talked about Jesus Christ being on the right hand of God, which doesn't make sense if you believe in the trinity. They had asked many of their Catholic friends, but they were shunned for asking questions. Once we explained that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were separate beings they felt relieved. We have yet to set up another lesson with them, but soon we will teach them more, and I have a great feeling about how they will receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

His Nose Would Not Fit

My companions mission is nearing its end, with our trip up to CDL for zone conference as well as a temple trip to Spokane. He will be staying up there and I will be coming back down to Moscow (I, however, do not yet know if I will stay in Moscow. Transfers are next week). For the time I am away from my companion, I will be in a trio with: Elder Schelenberg and Elder Lund. It will be a blast.

An Apple Press:  Made Some Great Apple Cider

Nerf darts and General Conference

You Can't Tell, but This is a Fat Dog

We have been so excited for General Conference this past week. It was like Christmas the morning of General Conference.  We all woke up at the crack of dawn and got ready for the rest day. It was worth it! 

For now I will tell you of the progress of the Moscow Poluse River and Paradise Ridge Ward's.

We have received a few referrals, but they have all been very busy and unable to meet with us, but that will change soon. We already have some great lessons planned for these individuals, and I need to mention how blessed these people are since we have been since we have been meeting with them. One of them was able to obtain a much needed car after so much walking to her job and with her kids, but they were able to get exactly what she needed and is now able to make more time for us because she is not walking everywhere.

A Bunch of Lady Bugs

The Six Man apartment adventure is coming to an end tomorrow. Our apartment remodeling is finally done and we can now move in starting tomorrow. We have had a good share of fun, but in all honesty we will probably be able to get more work done without the many distractions of the other elders in a small space. One major distraction was some Elders learning to throw nerf darts (the darts that you should normally put into a gun, but there are not enough guns for everyone so many just resort to throwing) we have darts often flying one way or another and it's a little hectic. 

We were able to get some people to think about baptism! They told us they are seriously considering it, but they need to know more before we put them on date, which is alright! That is the whole purpose of missionaries, to teach people about the covenants we can make with God! 

I loved General Conference Sunday and Saturday. One of my favorite talks was from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the one where he talked about the Hobbit. How we are all on a grand adventure. On this adventure we have been promised treasure at the end, and we will grow as we move forward on this adventure. We may face hardships and disappointment, but the prize at the end is worth the travail.

I know that as we embark on this grand journey, we will find that at times when it gets rough we will find a heavenly hand lifting us up, guiding us to where we want to be, and to who we want to become.

The Six Man Melatonin Adventures

The Throne That Was
Prepared for Me Ahead of Time

We have been having a blast this past week. 

Because my apartment is still under a MAJOR remodeling, the four of us are currently staying in a small two man apartment. Trying to get use to the new living conditions has been the thing to cause the most problems (pranks) in the apartment, most of which involve Melatonin.

We all sleep in the same room on the floor with the mattresses we brought and a few of the Elders like to go to bed early, but that's hard to do with the rest of us milling around the apartment getting ready for the night. So the Elders who go to bed early take Melatonin and just pass out in their beds.

One night we took it upon ourselves to see how much we could stick on one of the sleeping elders before they woke up...... We got pretty far, this Elder can sleep like a rock and we were about to put a mattress on him, but one of us tripped and fell on him and ruined the delicate operation.

We also have little nerf guns that were left behind by the previous Elders, so every once in a while there will be darts flying around in our apartment. We sometimes have a some difficulties getting work done every once in a while.

Well I said last week that this area was dead. We now have received 4 promising referrals that we are going to get lessons with this week. Not only that but we have been working hard to set up lots of appointments with some of the people we used to teach all the time. This area is coming back to life! Now all we need is a to get a few people on date for baptism. 

Brrr, it's cold in Moscow right now. Just in the past week we have gone from 80s-60s and from 60s- low 40s, it's like fall is taking a break this year and winter is stepping up to take the mantle. I don't know how long it will take till it starts snowing sideways but I will be ready with both of my awesome coats that survived my dad's mission.

I don't know what much else I can talk about so I'm just going to share a scripture.

James 1:22-25

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

More Nice Sunsets

We live in a town where many different people try to "Anti" us on the doctrine we believe, one of which being that we believe that Faith in Jesus Christ and acting on our faith (Works). We can't take the help we have been given for granted, we need to act on what the lord has promised us in the scriptures so that we may be able to receive the blessings he has in store for us. I know he has blessings in store for those who keep the commandments and take what is revealed to us to heart. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

DIY Bomb shelter, (our apartment after construction)

We got Chick FIL-A - making all the missionaries in my mission jealous,
because its the only Chick FIL-A in the whole mission

I am so sorry I did not send the pictures last week, I completely spaced putting the pictures in after I put in the text for them.

Our area is dead..... We are only teaching a handful of people in both ward's, and in all my time here I have only met one of them, her name is Sabrina. 

The only things worth taking note of are that we had a Sacrifice Saturday two days ago. This is when the whole zone of missionaries only go finding for the whole day in a certain area. The only problem with that is when you all blitz in one area there are few places left for missionaries to tract........ So we are now a little limited on places to go. But at least we have two new potentials we can visit.

Me at the breakfast club.
(breakfast with a member on P-day last week) 

Now I sent a video to my family of the "major remodeling" going on in our apartment right now, for those who have not seen this video, my apartment looks like a bomb has gone off, there are wires hanging off of the ceiling, several panels of the ceiling are missing and there is sawdust allover the floor. I have another video to send to my family.  Hopefully they will find a way to share it with you loyal readers.

Our apartment also does not have water right now, so we are planning to stay in another elders' apartment for the next week, so that we may be able to shower and get all our clothes washed before the week is done.

I am sorry this is a short one, but I don't have that much to write home about.

I do have one small thing worth note. Today we went to a local pizza stop owned by a member, and we got the chance to make our own pizzas, it was a cool experience for us, especially being able to hang with the rest of our district while munching the freshly baked pizza we just made. 

Somebody got a little tied up
(he was fine with is all, until we started talking about leaving him
in the construction workers truck bed) 

U have a scripture that helps explains why we have another Testament of Christ, The Book of Mormon. 

2 Corinthians 13:1

1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

Lots of what we call "The Boones"

We don't just have three witnesses, but we also have prophets, seers, and revealators, whom of which all have a special witness of Christ, they regularly testify of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and any of the other standard works we have in the world today. 

Thanks a bunch for reading what I throw together. It really means a lot to me when I get letters and responses from those I write, thanks again. 

That's a squash growing in a tree.

Lots of what we call "The Boones"

It's been pretty.

Up Next: Huckleberry Plum Bob and transfers/ the next episode

As you may have guessed from the title, I had Huckleberry pie, I ate almost ripe plums, the guy who gave us both is named Bob and I'm going to Moscow, Idaho. 

It seems a little confusing doesn't it? We were sure confused when we first met Bob. 

We were walking in an old military housing area looking for an old potential on our list, and this guy walks up to us calls us brothers and asked if we needed a drink of water. It turns out this was the man that we were looking for. We immediately got a nice cold glass of water, after a little bit of small talk he asked if we wanted some Plums, then without our answer he started off towards his neighbor's Plum tree. 

After eating a few unripe plums we told him we had never had plums before, so he yelled at his son to jump his other neighbors fence and get a few different types of plums from there. We then ate some of the most bitter crab apples I have ever tasted in my life. He invited us back into his home for some Huckleberry pie (now keep in mind we have no idea who this guy is) during all of this commotion we are introducing ourselves and trying to find out if he is a member or if he has an interest in what we teach. He apparently didn't care for our message saying, "We only have room for one book in this house." He did, however, say that if we ever needed a place to rest for a second we were welcome anytime. And that is the story of Huckleberry Plum Bob. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Rusick to downtown Spokane. This was a crazy adventure for the both of us. We walked a ton, and we're unable to find any new people to teach. We encountered a crazy lady. We knocked on her door and she invited us in. After we had talked for a bit, we found that she believed in prophets, and that there has to be some still around today. Then we got excited to talk about the prophet Russell M. Nelson, but before we could tell her about it she started talking about another bloke, and said that he was a prophet..... Some bloke "who foretold of Trump becoming president", the 9/11 incident as well as a few other super general things. 

She eventually started praying for us and a few moments into the prayer she breaks the prayer to ask for our names, then she starts praying for us specifically, and a few moments after that she asked us if she can pray for our mates... (I have never in my life been asked a question like that before) we said go right ahead, then she starts saying "Lord, please bless these young men, that they may find Godly mates. Please hide the indecency of the women on TV and other places, how is a man supposed to keep his covenants with the way they dress nowadays. Lord, please hide them in the shadow of your wings, quote from Psalms 67". I must say that I was flattered with what she had done thus far, but she takes it further, she starts singing for us.... for at least two minutes. 

Once she was done singing we thanked her for the song and left her a pamphlet that talked about what we tried to go over. 

So sorry I was unable to send this email last week, I had more to talk about but not enough time to say it. 

Anyways, I am now in Moscow, Idaho covering the Palouse River and Paradise Ridge Ward's and my new companion is Elder Martineau. So far we have been unable to do much because we mostly walk. We are in a car share with another companionship but they cover all of Moscow where as we only cover southern Moscow. 

Cool thing that happened.

At church last Sunday some random guy just walked in and said that he would like to learn more about the Church. So we we sat with him all throughout the two hours, telling him about some of different things we do in church and he genuinely enjoyed his visit. However after we told him about the YSA ward (that's Young Singles Adult ward) because he is a college student, but the idea of that seemed to upset him in some way. He told us that he will think about coming back, so we hope we will see him again. 

Not Much Has Happened This Time Around, Well...I Guess a Few Things

I would say some of the only things worth mentioning are that we had to move the Martinez family's baptism date a little further back, because when we shared the Word of wisdom with them, they thought the idea of giving up coffee was ridiculous. At least they still want to meet with us and want to still come to church. So that's a plus.

Yesterday, two of our other "on dates" came to church, and as many of you know, the first Sunday of the month is a Fast and Testimony meeting at church, meaning that anyone who wants to talk about the blessings they have seen in their lives can walk up to the pulpit and share their testimony. We Nathan and Kirsten both have been having great experiences at church and have been loving every second of what we share with them. So anyways, during the testimony meeting there were several people who stated that "whoever this message was meant for, I hope it helps" our a Nathan knew that it was meant for him. Well then my companion shared his testimony and quoted something from an old movie, and that is what pushed Nathen to share his testimony next. He said " I felt as if there were a clenched fist in my stomach, it made me feel like I had to go up there and speak. I eventually did, but the feeling didn't go away until I was done speaking and stepped off the stage" I know none of you know this man like I do (mostly because the only way you know about him is what I have told you) but this was a huge deal for him. My companion and I are so excited for his chance to get baptized.  It is going to make a huge difference in his life.

We had some crazy service this week. 

We helped some of the people we are teaching move their trailer. Boy it was a crazy move. The husband (his name is Ken) never served in the Navy, but boy can he curse like a sailor, his wife Sandy was a lot easier to work with. My job during this move was to crawl under the trailer (with all the big FAT spiders) with a jack, and use it to lift the trailer and kick out the wood and cinder blocks that held the trailer up. I can't lie, I thought it was pretty fun, my companion though did not like it one bit. 

I came dressed in jeans boots and a good shirt that can get dirty. My companion came dressed in shorts running shoes and a decent shirt but not one you would want to do any work in (These people we helped move were pretty much rednecks, and boy let my companion have it, they thought he looked foolish). 

At this move there were more than us and the couple helping out, and while I was under the trailer many people kept getting in and out doing various things to help wrap it up.

It may be because my companions birthday is 3 days before mine but we have been getting lots of cake from people we see all the time for random reasons. None of them beforehand knew that it was our birthdays, but here we are, getting way too much cake to handle. 

Not enough time for pics sorry.

Bad planning again, some of us can't make choices quickly.