Going to the Fireside! 7/24/2017

This week went by so fast! Most of the week we either spent knocking or with President talking about transfers. On Saturday we made transfer calls after they were all put together. It was President Leishman's first time doing transfers so it took some time and thought into where everyone should go. We are getting like 28 new missionaries this transfer so we needed a lot of trainers this time-- and the next month is looking like we will have more than that coming in!! Transfers is happening tomorrow so we are going early to pick up the new missionaries and we are taking 4 different vehicles to get all of them! 

Update on the area-- L fell back a little with her smoking throughout the week.. which we were pretty devastated about but the good news is that she has definitely come back so much stronger from it. We had her pick her own date and she looked at the calendar and chose August 4th and then on Friday night it sounds like she made a break through with the smoking and decided that she is done and threw out the rest of her cigarettes and bought some gum to chew just to keep her mind off of the cravings. I have faith that she will do it this time and that she is ready! Keep her in your prayers! 

Highlight of the week~ 

The Bremerton stake had a "Why I Believe Fireside" this past Sunday and it was awesome. About six recent converts got up and gave their story on why they joined the church. Each one of them gave a great testimony, and a bonus was that M, one of the girls that I taught with Elder Lund in Gig Harbor, shared her testimony as well! It was so impressive to hear her side of the story and what she thought as we were teaching her the lessons. Here is a picture of us all at the fireside:

Malia, Elder Quinton, Me, Lund, and Mina

 A picture of Elder Bullough & his companions posted on wa-tacmission.blogspot.com:

Elder ?, Elder Sutton, Elder Bullough, & Elder Lund

"If Opportunity Doesn't Knock, Build a Door" 7/17/2017

This week was a blast! We worked, worked, worked! Lots of good things happened. First off, on Friday we were on exchanges and Elder Braswell and I talked to this man named K in his car at a Safeway parking lot and invited him to come on a tour of our church right then. He accepted and met us at the church a few minutes later and we took him on a tour. It was unusual because he had so many questions and was pretty curious how the church worked and what a ward was. We did our best to answer his questions and then Elder Braswell shared a verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that talks about callings in the church, which K seemed to like. Then K came to church on Sunday and said he really enjoyed it! Unfortunately he is not in our area so the other missionaries in the Stadium area are excited to be working with him haha! 

Another tender mercy is that during our first church meeting, a guy named L walked into the meeting that we didn't recognize so we went and talked to him. He mentioned that he was just looking for a church and happened to come across ours so he thought he would check it out. -- As you can imagine I was so happy to hear that hahah! Turns out that he works with a lot of the members of the ward at his job so that was an instant connection and after the meeting he agreed to take the lessons! 

Then last but not least, in our second church meeting at the YSA ward a girl brought her friend to church that was a non-member and she stayed the whole time and is now interested in taking the lessons too! It definitely was a great Sunday and God sure helped us out by sending some people our way! 

And to put the cherry on top, L has been meeting with the missionaries off and on for a few months and had reached out to us and this time she seems like she is ready. Her smoking habit had stopped her from getting baptized in the past, which is understandable because it is a hard habit to overcome, but she is now saying that she is ready and has been reading the Book of Mormon and has a great testimony of it! So crossing my fingers that she will continue to be strong and can be baptized this weekend! 

Well love you all and have a great week! 

Pictures from the new mission blog:  wa-tacmission.blogspot.com:

Central Conference "Meet & Greet" the new mission president

South Conference "Meet & Greet" the new mission president

Mission Leadership Conference

Mission Leadership Conference

Sunday evening conference call with the missionaries

4th of July — Round 2! 7/10/2017

What a busy week!!

Hope you all enjoyed the 4th of July! We had a blast in the evening. During the day, we had a meeting up in Silverdale with the Leishmans and the missionaries in that conference, then we came back and proselyted 'til about 7pm when everyone had to come in because of the holiday. We have a few missionaries that live in the same home as us, so we barbecued and played some street football! And then to top it all off we slept out on our deck and watched the fireworks! It was a lot of fun!

Then on Wednesday we [went to meetings] in two more areas to have all of the missionaries meet the Leishmans. It went very well except we had to figure out the new computer and the projector since one of the HDMI cords didn't work, but it all ended up working. 

Thursday we went to the temple with the departing missionaries. It was a beautiful day and we went to Cafe Rio after, which was a blast! On our way to Cafe Rio we all went through Seattle to get to Federal Way, so it was way cool to see all of the sky rises and the sites! 

Then on Friday we had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference). It was President and Sister Leishman's first MLC, but regardless he gave a great training on setting goals and achieving potential! 

That pretty much sums up the week. I'm excited because this next couple weeks should be a little slower so we will get more time to find and teach people! 

New Mission President!! 7/3/2017

This last week was awesome!! I can't really remember much of the beginning of the week because on Friday we went to go pick up the new mission president and his wife from the airport. It was definitely a neat experience! Our new mission presidents are the Leishmans, they are from Bountiful Utah, where they raised their family and are proud grandparents now, and he is a successful business man. Overall they are very excited and grateful to be here. It was pretty sad to see the Blatters leave but at the same time I am just as excited and happy to start working closely with the Leishmans. And it is definitely true that the work goes on even with the whole switch.

Here is a picture of us and them:

President & Sister Blatter, President & Sister Leishman, Elders Sutton, Lund & Bullough

Tender Mercy— Practically right off of the plane when we drove back with the Blatters and the Leishmans to take a picture at one of the parks that has a view of the Puget Sound, we talked to this man named E who was sitting at one of the benches eating some lunch. While talking with him we set up a time to give him a tour of our church for a couple hours later. The coolest part of it all is that the Leishmans came on the church tour with us and E. We talked to him all about the church and invited him to be baptized, and he accepted!! What a tender mercy within like 4 hours the Leishmans were able to find someone with us and now he is on date to be baptized! I have no doubt that God orchestrated that E would be eating at the same park as us at the same time we have the new mission president and his wife. 

Another great thing that happened this week is that a lady who I had taught in Lakewood got baptized yesterday. L has a pretty neat story and definitely had her struggles before getting baptized. A couple months ago, Elder Turley and I were split knocking and the last door we knocked into was L’s. She mentioned that she was having a hard time and had been to our church before and knew the bishop. It was a great lesson and we told her that we were going to help her get baptized. Well a couple days after that she came to church and then that week I got transferred out, but luckily Elder Turley got transferred into Lakewood. So he continued to work with her and after a few weeks she finally was able to quit smoking!— To make a long story short, she was no longer allowed to live with her mom and was on the streets and in between places. Well she went to meet with the bishop and his counselors for some guidance and in the meeting they gave her a priesthood blessing and blessed her not to have the craving or urge to smoke and it worked! She said that now she walks down the road and smells the smoke and wants to gag because it is so bad. All in all, it was a great baptism and you could tell that she was touched by the love and support from the ward! 

Well that's all for now and hope that you all have a great week! Love you! 

—Elder Bullough

President & Sister Blatter with Elders Lund, Sutton & Bullough

Picking up the new mission president & his wife (the Leishmans) from the airport:  Sister Blatter, Elders Sutton, Bullough & Lund, and Sister Leishman

Sunday dinner at Sister White's home—it was a full house!

Elder Anderson & Elder Bullough at Sister White's home