Week 17

Last P-day we went to Vashon which was super fun; we played pool and took their jeep off-roading!  Elder Skelton was a saint and bought all of us pizza from Saucy's, because the rest of us are all broke.

We had a lot of walking days!  Trying to save miles as we near the end of the month, it's been good exercise though.  Little kids always ask us if we're cops.

Friday we had zone interviews.  It's always good to talk with President and Sister Schofield.  President reminded me that we have to live by faith, that perfect knowledge does not come on this side of the veil.  Sister Schofield encouraged me to always give thanks to God when I see his hand in my life.  Good advice!  After interviews, we went to DQ with the Vashon elders.  Elder Hodson introduced the DQ quart to me!

Saturday was spent helping a member move.  She has a piano, but that was nothing compared to the 3,000 pound printing press she owns.  That was crazy . . . Then we stopped by the church to check out the Halloween party.  None of the people we invited showed up but it was still fun.  Sister Morgan (ward mission leader's wife) kept winning the cake walk and giving me the cupcakes.  I think I had at least 5 . . .

Yesterday was definitely the best day of our week.  Elder Skelton and I felt prompted to go see a couple we tracted into a couple of weeks ago.  They grew up Buddhist but don't practice anymore.  We taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and they loved it.  This time when we stopped by we met S's sister, P.  She has a similar background but already has really great faith in Christ.  It was raining so she invited us in.  S joined her and we taught them the restoration.  It was a really powerful lesson and they loved it; they agreed to pray to find out if this is the path for them.  P accepted my invitation to baptized!  God really does prepare people for us as missionaries, we just have to be the guide for them.

Last night we had dinner with a member family and ended up talking about baseball the whole time.  They got me all caught up on the World Series!  I left them with a scripture that I read this week, 2 Samuel 22:29.  It says, "For thou art my lamp, O Lord: and the Lord will lighten my darkness."  Almost every time "light" is mentioned in the scriptures, it is referring to the Savior.  We need to remember to have faith that He will guide us, and then help be the vessel for the light to reach others.

Love you all!!

Ben

Week 16

This week we went on exchanges!  On Tuesday I went to Des Moins with Elder De Mille, he was in the room next to mine at the MTC and we played ball together all the time so that was pretty fun!  I didn't get the chance to bike though because we had to exchange back pretty early so I could take Elder Skelton to his second transfer training.  They gave us Costco pizza at the end.

Since Vashon Island is in our district this transfer, and the ferry is in West Seattle, we've gotten to pick up those elders quite a bit for meetings and whatever else.  We're pretty tight now!  Today Skelton and I are actually going to go hang out on the island with them.

We had our district meeting on Friday, Elder Skelton and I gave a training on how to effectively study the scriptures.

We had our investigator, Chad, come to church yesterday for the first time and he really enjoyed it.  He's starting to understand more about the atonement.

We had another member missionary fireside last night, this one was in Redmond.  It was pretty cool.  The theme of this one was to preach the gospel, regardless of how new you are to it.  The best part is always seeing my friends after it's over.  Grace gave us some sushi to take home.  I haven't had any since Bothell.

Love you!
Ben

Week 15

 It looks like the rain season might finally be here!  We got soaked while out tracting the other day, but we love the rain!  One person tracked us down after we knocked on his door and he was kind of rude, and he came and apologized to us.  That doesn't happen everyday!  Especially when it's pouring buckets outside.

We didn't find too many people who were interested in joining our church but a lot of people wanted to talk, so that's always fun!  It's really fun to hear about other people's experiences with religion and with God.  We met one person named Greg who answered the door wearing a duck dynasty beard because he thought we were his daughter!  He was really cool and invited us in!  We got him a Book of Mormon in supersize font.

We met with Chad and talked about Christ's atonement.  We read out of the Book of Mormon as well, the spirit was strong.

My district leader (and former trainer) challenged me to be more bold this week.  So an elderly man answered the door this week and started cursing us out!!!  Usually I will just leave it at that but he kept going and cursing us out!!  I stood up for us.  I told him nicely that we won't come back to his again but we can't control if missionaries in the future do and he got super mad.  He was in my face and everything.

My MTC companion just walked into the library and gave me a huge hug!!! Turns out we are "neighbors" now.  Today is Zone sports day so that means we'll get to play ball together again!  It's going to be a fun transfer!

Love you!
Ben

Week 14

What a great week!  Elder Skelton and I survived transfers, so we're staying in West Seattle for another six weeks together!  I'm glad I'll get to finish out training him.  I'd say he's taught me as much as I've taught him though!

We've really struggled to find people to teach these past few weeks, things went so well for us when we first arrived, but we hit a rough patch.  We went on an exchange with the zone leaders.  I stayed in West Seattle with Elder Zhao.  We found so many people to teach.  Everyone was pretty nice and invited us back!  It seems like our luck has changed since then.

We had a really solid lesson with Chad and invited him to be baptized on the 24th and he said yes!  That is on hold now while he does some more research rather than jump right in.  We'll meet with him to answer any questions he has.

We tracted into a young family who's pretty interested in the Church.  They had a friend in college who was Mormon and said he had really good values.  That just goes to show the example you set really does make a difference!

General Conference was great.  It was definitely motivating.  The Samoan Ward fed us lunch, so there was lots of food to say the least.

Love you all!
Ben