Thanksgiving!! 11/28/2016

This week was awesome and we had a great Thanksgiving. To be honest it was kind of a blur because it went by so fast but I will share a few highlights. 

On Tuesday we went to new missionary meeting so that was fun. We learned a lot about how to be good trainers and help out the new missionaries.

Thursday was probably the highlight of the week because it was Thanksgiving! We went to the Davis family first and ate a Thanksgiving dinner with their family. It was way sweet because they have a homemade apple-cider maker. We all got to grind up the apples for the juice, it was way FUN! After eating with the Davis's we went and visited a few other families until the end of the night and ate dessert with each of them. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year! 

Last but not least we knocked into a lady and were able to give her a Book of Mormon. She mentioned that she has always been closed off but because we explained to her that it goes hand in hand with the Bible that opened her eyes up and she was inspired to read it.

Then we also had a girl who had been interested in the church awhile ago—who we felt prompted just to invite to church for some reason— accept our invitation to come to church. She mentioned that she was glad that we reached out to her again and she loved coming to church but hadn't in a while. The cool thing is that she has gone to girls' camps before and loves the church and is really good friends with a lot of the youth.

Well that's it for this week, hope that you all have a great week!

Thanksgiving at the Davis home:

Homemade Apple Cider Maker

Thanksgiving in Gig Harbor!! 11/21/2016

This past week was my first week in Gig Harbor! It has been a blast! Gig Harbor is very different from Tacoma and is quite a bit more rich. I mean each house has like 3 garages!! I mean, what do you even do with three garages!? Haha. But there are definitely some perks to being here:

1. The house we live in is a fairly good sized house and has a way great view of the harbor!

2. The members are super awesome!

3. The area is beautiful!

4. My companions are da best!

There is my list of things to be grateful for this season haha.

I had no idea last Tuesday that Elder Lund and I would be in a companionship of 4 and would be training two new missionaries straight from the MTC! It has been a blast so far. Their names are Elder Killian and Elder Sanchez. They are actually just up here temporarily because they are waiting for their visas to go to the Trinidad Tobago Mission. Training two missionaries in a completely new area has been quite a change up for me, but it has been fun. The best part about it is that we get twice as much work done because we can split up. Last week Elder Killian and I went and knocked a street that we felt prompted to go to. While we were knocking we got a call from one of our members who just recently got back from his mission and he wanted to come knock with us. He soon met up with us and knocked into a lady who had just moved in and asked if we could help her move things for her. She agreed and let us move some heavy furniture and boxes to her basement. Then, as we got talking, she agreed to let us share our message with her about the church. It was great and all of us felt the Spirit. Then the next day, which was Sunday, she came out to church with us! It was definitely a testimony to me that being in the right place at the right time and being able to serve can help open people's hearts! 

Well I hope that you all have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!!

"And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." D&C 78:19

New Missionaries meet their Trainers:

Elder Sanchez and Elder Killian 

Elder Sanchez, Elder Lund, Elder Bullough, & Elder Killian

Elders Killian, and Lee

Elders Sanchez, Me, Lund and Hansen

 New Missionary Training:  

(Pictures from calledtoservewa-tac.blogspot.com)

13 Months!! 11/14/2016

This last week went pretty well. The missionary work was pretty good and we were able to teach a lot of great lessons. We met with T earlier in the week and it was so nice to be able to share the Plan of Salvation with her. We talked for at least an hour and laughed about the gospel and went back and forth just cracking jokes. It was so funny when we brought up the part about "what our purpose is here on Earth." She said something like, "You think you could have shown up and told me that fifty years ago..." The truth is so many of us wonder that at different points in our lives. It was reassuring to be able to tell her that we all have a purpose here and that God has a plan for all of us. No matter what we have gone through or what trials we face in life we are going to make it because there is a "plan" for us. Earlier that week I was able to read a scripture in Alma that sums up, pretty much, what this life is really all about:

Alma 12:24  "And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead."

What this means is that no matter what trials we go through in life or what things are given to us we are here to prepare to meet God and to help others prepare for that day as well. Each of us has been given different trials in this life but we can take hope in the Savior's words: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Elder Masey and I were able to bear testimony to T that she does have a purpose here and that even though she has been diagnosed with cancer, she can still have serenity in this life knowing that she has a purpose here.

On a different note, this last week we got our transfer calls and I am now going to be leaving Tacoma and going to the Gig Harbor Zone with Elder Lund. I am excited for this new change and I have been told that it is a very beautiful area. However, it is supposed to be a pretty rich area so I am sure that is one thing that I will have to get used to. Transfers is on Tuesday so I will have a lot of packing to do before then. Here are a couple pics that I took over the week!

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Bullough

Elder Bullough & Elder Masey

Pictures from calledtoservewa-tac.blogspot.com (11/13/2016 post)

Tacoma North Zone Meeting

Tacoma North Zone Meeting

Another Week! 11/7/2016

This last week went pretty great. Elder Masey and I had a great Halloween. We were able to go to a party with our zone that night and play games and watch the movie the "Best Two Years!" If you have not yet seen that movie I would highly recommend it! It is a way funny!

Elder Masey and I had a lot of work that we did for the mission last week such as on Tuesday we opened up a new apartment for missionaries to move in, then on Thursday we went up to Bremerton to get an apartment ready for some senior missionaries moving in. While doing all of this we were pretty busy balancing the time for proselyting as well. 

This week was great for missionary work! Earlier in the week we ended up finding L late at night as we were out street contacting at night. What started out as a pretty closed-ended conversation that we were having ended up in us being able to talk about baptism and also the "baptism of fire" or in other words-- the Spirit. L mentioned that he wanted this change in his life and that he had been baptized by water before but feels as if something is still missing, so he told us to come back the next night so now we are teaching him! Then we went back to B and his family and it was sweet because we took a member, Brother Bostic, with us and the lesson went awesome! At the end of the lesson B said the prayer and we were able to see that he is sincerely seeking. We are looking forward to keep working with him and his family and hope to meet with them this week. Then at church, T came with her friend Sister Kelso. It was impressive that she came because she has been diagnosed with cancer for over a year now and lately it has been causing her pain. Midway through the meeting the pain became too much so she was taken to the hospital which just happens to be right across the street from the church. Later that evening, we went with Sister Pickering from the ward to visit her. T is now doing a lot better and feeling more stable, both Elder Masey and I are looking forward to teaching her again this next week!

Well, there is the update for the week and I hope that you all have a great week!
With love,
Elder Bullough

Elder Masey & Elder Bullough