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
