Another Week in Paradise! 8/28/2017

This week was great! We had a baptism!! T and J have been meeting with the missionaries for about 6 years now and have gone through several sets of sister missionaries. So as you could imagine she knew just about everything by the time we met with her. A few weeks back T was talking with a good friend of hers that she has known through work, who happens to be a member. The member and her had a good talk and helped T over her concerns for baptism. That was it, she was ready. T started meeting with us and we set her baptism date for this past Saturday. I guess I learned how influential members of the church can be especially because of the trust that our friends, family, and co-workers can have in us. T's son J also has a neat story. He is 13 and super good at basketball. He has been going to the church just as long as T and originally wanted to get baptized a couple years ago after going to the young men's camp-outs, but after patiently waiting he was baptized with his mom. It was a great baptism and most of the ward came to support which was really special! 

This next week is going to be fun because we are going to the temple with the departing missionaries, and we will be calling people for transfers on Saturday. Can't believe it is already that time!? 

Well love you all and have a great week!

Sister Missionaries and S on the left, Elder Lund, Bishop, T, J and Elder Bullough

Our Study Room:

Elder Bullough

Elder Lund

The Last Piece! 8/21/2017

This last week was awesome! We started off the week with zone conferences. We went to North conference up in Silverdale on Tuesday, then on Wednesday we down to Olympia, and Thursday we finished the zone conferences in Tacoma. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of training! 

We also got a lot of great referrals this week! We helped a lady named T and her son J move into our ward on Saturday. They have been investigating the church for 5 years now and have made the decision to get baptized into our ward this Saturday!! After we finished the move, we went to the ward social and ate hot dogs and burgers while they got to meet the members of the ward! 

We have also been teaching a man named C, who is originally from Stockton, California. He joined the army ever since he graduated and has seen a lot of rough things in his life. C has mentioned over and over that ever sense he has been meeting with us and reading the Book of Mormon he has felt so much happiness! And my favorite quote that he has said was the other night when we were teaching him the Plan of Salvation, he said this: "I want you both to know, you said that you guys aren't soldiers, well that's not true. You are soldiers. You're soldiers for God. And rather than taking lives, you save them. You are soldiers and never forget it!" C is way sick! Super elect! 

And last but definitely not least, P got baptized! Here's the story:

In Lakewood two years ago, Elders Lundgreen, Bosshardt, Ellis, Lee and I all worked with N and her kids and got them baptized into the church. Well at the time P, the father of her kids, was in jail and caught up in the drug life. Well a couple months before he went into jail we had taught him but he wasn't very committed. P continued to live the way he wanted with the stealing, and drugs and then one day he got caught and went to jail. It was there that he really had a wake up call and promised God that he would be clean from that point forth. Well a year and three months later P is still clean and was able to get baptized yesterday! The baptism was a long time coming and took P over a year to get baptized. He went through dozens of missionaries and yesterday at the baptism there was literally an army of missionaries at the baptism. But that's how God works, He doesn't give up. He requires us to be patient and promises us the blessings, but He does require us to have a humble spirit and a contrite heart. From hearing P's testimony, I could tell the change of heart that P had and that he sincerely was born of God when he came out of the water! He was the last Piece of that family. I have looked back since N's baptism and have seen the whole immediate family get baptized, and even some of the extended family! We counted and I think 9 baptisms have come from N getting baptized almost 2 years ago!! Now that is the start of a ripple effect!  It has been a blessing to work with them on my mission-- definitely a tender mercy! 

Here are the pics:

Elder Smith, P, & Elder Bullough

Just saw the solar eclipse thanks to the library for providing the sunglasses! Super good view!

Photo credit Elder Lund!

9-to-9!! 8/14/2017

This week we did a mission-wide 9-9!!! Every companionship in the mission was out knocking doors from 9am to 9pm!! It was a blast and with approval many of us changed companions for the area. I knocked with Elder Daley, a new missionary. We had a ton of fun just walking the entire day and looking for miracles/water haha! In the morning we found a ton of people that said we could come back so that was a tender mercy, and we even found 1 family while we were knocking that moved form Chicago because they want a change in their lives. Bingo!! It's the gospel! So we are just trying to teach them and help them see that this is the change that will benefit their family the most! 

Yesterday we had a "Why I Believe Fireside" in the North Stake. We had some really great new members speak. One of the speakers was a little bit nervous but her testimony was so powerful as she spoke about the trials she had been going through for the past couple years. She mentioned that the reason she joined the church is because she wanted to be a part of a better family, with better values, and that is exactly what she saw in the Mormon church! Another guy spoke on how he joined the church cause he yelled out one night, "God give me a sign that you're still there!" He then continued and said that not even a minute later two young men on bikes road up next to him and stopped to talk to him! -Good timing! haha. Anyway a very inspirational night and Elder Sutton also played his last piano piece that he will ever play at a "Why I Believe Fireside" because he went home today.😢 

Elders Hoffer, Lund, Sutton, Bullough and President Leishman

Baptism! 8/7/2017-- 100th Blog Post! 😊

It was a great week and felt like a long week but it flew by! 

We had new missionary meeting on Tuesday, Elder Lee left on Wednesday😢, and MLC on Friday. (Mission leadership council) Anyways it was a full week and to top it all off we had a baptism on Saturday for L!! 

Her story is pretty neat. About 6 months ago she was being taught by other missionaries in the area and loved the stuff she was learning but never got baptized because she couldn't give up her smoking habit. Then as time went on the missionaries left and others came in and it was still the same story so slowly the missionaries had to stop going by. Then one day Elder Sutton and I were knocking her apartment complex and knocked into L and she told us her story and why she hasn't been baptized yet. Knowing some of her story already from the previous missionaries Elder Sutton asked, "How much do you want to give up smoking?" She said her desire was at about an 8 out of 10. So he kindly replied okay well keep reading the Book of Mormon and let us know when it gets to a 10. I was surprised at first on how he had handled the situation but looking back I totally agree with it, because about a month later we got a referral from the church saying that a lady named L referred herself and would like to meet with the missionaries. So I called her on the phone and we asked what inspired her to meet with us. She explained that she fell and hurt her back and all she could do was stay on her couch and wait to get healed and during the process she opened the book of Mormon and started reading 2 Nephi chapter 29 (which talks about how God has many different nations around the world and that he commanded them to also write down scripture) she told us that she fully believes that and is ready to get baptized. So we asked how ready she was to give up her smoking habit, and she said 10!! I'm sure it wasn't easy for her but the good thing is that she was determined and with the help of us going over almost every day for two weeks to read with her she did it, and was baptized this past Saturday! Overall I learned that people's desires and nature can change! And usually that change is sparked by the constant study through the Book of Mormon, because of the Spirit that it brings into our lives.

Here are some pictures at L's baptism:

Elder Sutton, L, Elder Lund, & Elder Bullough

Elder Bullough cleaning the baptismal font before the baptism

Here are some pictures that we took as a few of us missionaries, and Elder Lee at the airport just about to leave:

Elder Lee & President Leishman

Pictures from the Mission Leadership Council posted on wa-tacmission.blogspot.com:

Fastest Green! 7/31/2017

It was a good week, honestly it went so fast that I don't remember much of any of it haha! We had transfers on Tuesday which was crazy because we got 28 new missionaries! We had to drive 3 different vehicles and two of them were vans! It was a blast getting all the new missionaries and a lot of them seem like they will be great missionaries! After the trainers met the new missionaries (which was super crazy as all of the trainers ran in and just about tackled the new missionaries as they gave them a hug haha), we had a testimony meeting with all of the departing missionaries. There were about 25 who went home so it was a long testimony meeting haha! Then that night we had the departing dinner with all of the missionaries going home, it was way fun and the Leishmans made hamburgers and banana floats! The other big thing that happened is that we got Elder Lee so now we are in a foursome until he leaves to go back home on Wednesday. Can't believe that it's been that long.. It's fun being with Elder Lee again because we have just been remembering so many things from when we were in Lakewood almost 2 years ago.

On Thursday and Friday the other two were on exchanges so Elder Lee and I were together all day. We taught a ton of lessons that day, but definitely the highlight lesson was at night with L and her friend K. L is still a non member but will be baptized this Saturday, however her friend K was there and we ended up teaching her the restoration which went super well and L even bore testimony without us even asking-- it was so funny to us because she was already great at fellowshipping and she isn't even a member yet! One thing that really helped in the lesson was the Spirit. Elder Lee did so well at listening to K and the things that were bothering her for a long time. And finally when we had gotten to the bottom of the concern and felt that we understood where she was coming from, we were able to tie it into the gospel and how it would be able to bless her life. As well as K we are still praying and working on getting L baptized on the 5th and then hopefully her friend K will come with her to watch it! 

All in all it was a great week! Hope that you all have a great week! 

Elder Bullough

Elders Lee, Bullough, Sutton, & Lund at Sister White's home

Photos from wa-tacmissionblogspot.com:

Elder Sutton & Elder Turley

Elders Briggs, Alvarez, and Bullough

Sister Leishman & Elder Lee

Banana Splits at the Leishmans