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: