Saturday, August 15, 2015

August 12, 2015 Richland, WA

Hey Everyone! Another week down in the WKM! I'm almost one month in. I'll hit the month mark on the 15th. Then that's one down, 23 to go! crazy right? That's not even that long! Anyway, let me tell you about some of the many many many many miracles of this past week.

First, we have 2 investigators being baptized on the 22nd of August! That's two of God's children drawing closer to Him and receiving the most important ordinances. I am so blessed to be able to see it. So their names are Kendyl and Gerald. Kendyl is a ten year old girl and she is so funny. I have no doubt that she and Amy would be best friends if they knew each other! She has an older brother named Braden who is 15 and he's also investigating the church. I think he will be baptized, but he's not quite ready yet. He just wants to know more. He's awesome. 

Gerald is 16 and he's super quiet, but so cool. He listens intently to everything we say and everything the Spirit says. It's a gift to be quiet. I'm still learning that skill! He has been an investigator for about a year! But now he's ready to be baptized. Both of them were at church on Sunday, and I'm so excited for both of them.

Miracle number 2: We have gotten more new investigators during the short time I've been here than Elder Wilcox and Elder Thorn have had at any other time during their missions. The Lord is pouring out blessings on this area. He has prepared a lot of people for us, and because we are working hard and living worthily, He is leading us to them! It's amazing every time. Example: yesterday was soooooo slow. We had like 5 appointments and they all backed out on us. We stopped at the church for a bathroom break, then before we left, we decided to go into a classroom and kneel and pray just to ask where to go and what to do. We had no idea. So we prayed. As we left, we decided to go stop by this guy named Kyle who they found months ago and has never really been super interested. He is also never ever home. Well we got there and, guess who was home? You guessed it! Kyle! He and his wife had just had a baby 8 days ago. That's their fourth child. We talked to him for a while then he invited us in and we gave a lesson on the restoration! He had tons of questions and at the end he said it really made sense, and he loves how we teach about eternal families and he loves that we believe everybody can be saved, not just Mormons. He wasn't prepared in the past months, but he must be now, because God led us to him! Prayer is real guys. Example 2: we were walking down the street and a car pulled over and the guy in it yelled to us. We went over to him and he said he has been taught by missionaries before and has been hoping to find us for a while! We got his number and will be meeting with him in a couple days! What a miracle right?? I'm so excited to teach him! There are so many investigators I could talk about but I won't bore you. Just know that Al & Lacy are a couple we are teaching that I love a ton and Richard is another guy who's like the most prepared man in the world. 

Shout out to Riley for his birthday! 20 years old... He's such a geezer. I bet he's driving around with his blinker on and going to bed at 4:30 in the afternoon by now. Not as young as he used to be.

So Elder Wilcox has a theme for every transfer. This transfer his theme is "right place right time". As you can see from the miracles I told you about, that's happening like every day. Miracle after miracle of us just being in the right place at the right time.

We got chased by a dog! That was my first time of the mission! Maybe I should write that in my "important dates" section of my journal. Haha but I've never seen Elder Wilcox move so fast!

The Members here are awesome. They really help out with the missionary work. We have a lot of member present lessons. I love this place! Honestly if I stay for a few transfers, I'd be cool with that. 
 Miracle number 3: we just got back from the temple. It is the Columbia River Temple. It's in my area. It is really small but super beautiful. The missionaries get to go once every two transfers. So that was awesome. I love going to the temple. The church that it shares a parking lot with is one of the churches we attend. We also wake up early to go play basketball there sometimes! I love playing basketball and I hope I get to do that throughout my mission.

Oh I don't know if I have mentioned yet, we have a car. Because we cover two wards, we have a big area. But we still walk a lot. We call our car "Ol' Reliable". I really don't know why we call her that. She's only like 2 years old. But It's fun to use the "Warshington accent" and say that. Yes, people really do say Warshington. Where do they get that R from? Who knows? They also say "a couple three". "We saw a couple three dogs" They are such hicks.

So the main differences between Utah and Washington, are that here, everybody has dogs. I swear every house has at least 2 dogs. And there are a lot more churches that aren't LDS. There is one called Bethel that is huge and literally teaches classes about how Mormons worship the devil. So that frustrates me. We have to straighten that out all the time. Anyway, yeah, we call Bethel "the great and abominable church" or "the great whore of all the Earth".

Ok so a little more about my companions, Elder Thorn is actually very similar to me in personality. He's pretty calm, but super funny and loves to laugh. He was inactive most of his life, then he really gained a testimony and changed everything around. His conversion story is awesome when he tells it. He tells it too investigators sometimes and it really connects with them and brings the Spirit so strong. 
Elder Wilcox is also really funny. He always has a good attitude, even when things are really frustrating. He keeps going no matter what! We always have some place to be because Elder Wilcox is always thinking of the next person to talk to. They're both pretty clean.

hmm advice to Brent.. number one, Email me you bum! number two, choose good friends. I had awesome friends, and I can tell you without a doubt, if I had other friends who were making poor decisions, I would have made those same decisions. I didn't realize it at the time, but my friends had a lot of influence on me. 

Nope no weird food. I have had a lot of normal stuff. Hey I have been forcing myself to eat salads! you should be proud ;) honestly, my least favorite part of most salads is the dressing. I must be weird.
Hey get in contact with Elder Wilcox when he goes home ok? He'll be home on the 18th. I can get you all his contact info next week.

Oh man I missed the grandma party.. that's weird. Ive had one every summer since I was what, 4? 5? I can't believe that. Anyway, Tell grandma she is awesome and I love her!

Well anyway, See ya! Love you! Please keep Lacy, Jacob, and Richard in your prayers. Pray for the Spirit to touch them.
                                               

Elder Calvin  Chappell

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