Week 10. Wanna fight a Tongan?

 Ok so here is what happened last week, I know you were all anxiously waiting these three days and now your wait is finally over. A lot more happened but here are some of the highlights:

More Trees - One of the members had a bunch of wood stacking up so we took two hours and helped him with a third of it, afterwards he made us some steaks and it was really good.

Anotha Book - We helped a lady named Vicki (the person I talked about in my last email on tuesday). She just wanted more help cleaning up her garden and we talked for a bit and apparently she is famous and liked us enough to give us her book for free. So now I have been given two books even tho I'm the one supposed to be giving them out.

Hochs - I've probably mentioned them before, but in our last lesson/dinner with them we were talking with them and we found out that Brother Hoch was giving a talk the next Sunday and that he had paid his son $100 to write it for him! It was a really good talk and he did share some personal stories that made it good, but he is just one of those unexpectedly funny guys. so it was really cool to see that and to hear that.

Apple Pie - So yeah that didn't work. I had three people give me recipes and one person told me to not even try making the crust from scratch, so I didn't. I bought the just-add-water and was supposed to stir it until it collected into a ball, but I'm not that patient. So I tried using my hands and ended up ruining the crust so that I wasn't even able to use any of the recipes I got. But Nina took pity on me and now she is going to show me how, so now we can go back and maybe invite her to LightTheWorld with our members and get her involved. So hopefully that'll work.

Where do Liars go? - Sister Hymas texted us and asked us to call and tell her daughter where liars go. Thankfully my Mom had already taught me this so I knew exactly where it was (2 Nephi 9:34). We had time so we called her daughter and said that we had a spiritual prompting to call and share a scripture with her. Once she saw the scripture she knew it was from her mom and couldn't stop laughing. But then she did have a question about Hell so I got to answer that for her, so that was cool and fun.

Thanksgiving Day - We drove to Oak Harbor early and played flag Football in the pouring rain, because it's Washington. It was super fun tho and I think I got 2 touchdowns. I also got smacked in the face when I tried to catch a punted ball and it slipped through my wet fingers. But it was great. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner with our Senior Missionaries which was planned for 12, (dinner at 12?), but we got there late and ate at 2. It was a good dinner and a fun night talking with the district.

Boxing Match with a Tongan - I can neither confirm nor deny if this happened. But if it did, I would have lost terribly.

This week I just wanted to share an analogy that Elder Fuluvaka told me. We are all trying to learn to become like Christ, just like a baby learning to walk. The baby will take a few steps but then stumble and fall. We will all fall short and get sad and it can be really hard to get back up again, but because He is our loving Heavenly Father, He will pick us back up and help us try again. It will take time, it will be hard, but His love will never end, and eventually we will be able to walk and be like Him. I really love that analogy and how we are asked to become like children in Mosiah 3:19. I hope this week we can all become a little more child-like and follow Christ and help Him Light The World. He loves you, I love you, and my dog would love you too. Talk to y'all next week, bye!

Pictures

Sister Auna and us

If you know you know

How many pictures do I have of me at this angle with food?

The Eldersssss

Thanksgiving Dinner. That dude was out in the background

One of the Coolest missionaries: Elder Tolman

oh, and Anziano Meredith 

ZLs, STLs, and us

6 minutes flat and I wasn't even trying

Week 9.5 I guess. Thanksgiving made things weird

 Sorry for the late email, like I said, blame Thanksgiving. Our p-day was moved to today instead so that along with a few other things has made things interesting. But I'm just going to do highlights for the 16-21 or else this email would get way to long. You'll hear about this week on the 29th 

Power out - So last Monday (15th) right after I sent the email the power went out. It was very interesting and affected our week quite a bit so I'll refer back to this one for some of the other stuff. One thing is we needed gas but without electricity nobody can pump it. There was this one place in Oak Harbor who was running off a generator and was probably making bank. Oak Harbkt got their power back that evening. But it took South Whidbey longer. What made it a real problem was that the cell tower was down too so we were off the grid for a night. We eventually got power back in our apartment Wednesday morning, and now I'm going to invest in a gas stove because eating cereal while cold sucks. 

Zone Conference - Was supposed to be on Tuesday but because of the power outage, floods up north, and a semi almost falling off Deception pass bridge, it got postponed to Friday. Which made rescheduling everything a pain. I was asked to share my testimony on obedience which was interesting. 

Fallen Trees - this was on Tuesday which was then opened because our zone conference changed. This was a problem for us because of the ZC we has nothing planned until that night because of how long the meeting is and travel time. Luckily a member invited us over and we helped clean up yards in her neighborhood we even met someone who wanted us to come back. (Just to do more service, but still!!) Then we got an emergency text that someone was trapped in their driveway because of fallen trees and they were freezing in their car. So we rushed out and by the time we got there she had already left and that they had a tractor to do it so they really didn't need us at all. Still fun tho. 

Sleep Over! - we had slept without power once and I was loving it, but out mission president thought we were freezing our butts off so he gave us permission to go up to Oak Harbor and have a sleep over with the Elders there. It was pretty awesome. I stayed up til 3 just talking and then I made everyone breakfast burritos. By the time we got home our power was back on. 

Official Tub mover - Thursday we helped Collin again. This time he had us move a bunch of old bath tubs around his property so he could do photo shoots with them. They were super heavy, and we got some good pictures. Sadly I never got in one tho. 

We are given everything - Yes missionaries like food, but I don't think members get that we don't eat as much as they think we do. We helped a member clean his house out so he can rent while he's gone for a bit and he gave us his whole pantry of food. It was a ton. Then we took it home and sorted it to find half of it was too old. But it was fun. I got to climb in his attic and I was looking for a gun he said he stashed somewhere but forgot. Sadly I never found it

Tiana - we meet with her again and she completely dropped her questions about polygamy and asked us for evidence that the Book of Mormon was true. We showed her scriptures both in the Bible and Book of Mormon and challenged her to read when Christ visited the Nephites. She accepted and I felt prompted to tell her that she can look for evidence as long as she wants but it won't matter unless she believes it. I hope she'll pray and get a confirmation from the Holy Ghost that it's true. 

Fred and Nina - we met with them again and had dinner. It was very awesome because we were all able to talk with one another and have a good time. Earlier in the week we dropped off cookies and so Fred joked about how we only gave him 4 cookies and they tasted like hockey pucks. Then Nina called him out and said he ate 3 of them so that was funny. Nina also gave me some recipes for pies and cookies so I'll have to try them out. 

Sneak peak: I was going to use her apple pie recipe but had no clue how to make the crust. It was an epic fail

Hymas Family - One of the best families in South Whidbey. They fed us and I had raw fish for the first time. 10/10 would not recommend. After dinner instead of us giving the lesson, Brother Hymas gave us a lesson on our emotions and what personal requirements we have to feel happy and how when we know them we can make ourselves feel happy rather than relying on others or situations. It was pretty cool. 

So that was last week. One thing that I wanted to share was my testimony on obedience. I don't know how many of you read this but I hope it can help someone who does because it was something that really helped me and had forgotten for a bit. 

I have been told this quote, "obedience brings blessings. And exact obedience brings miracles." And that had started to bug me. And so as I pondered what to share these thoughts kept coming to my head that all the miracles I've seen, felt, or heard of have happened to people. Imperfect people. The only person who was perfect, who was exactly obedient was Jesus. But we can still receive miracles. A talk I love is called, "be ye therefore perfect, eventually" by Elder Holland. It is a super great talk. It talks about always trying and that's what makes the difference. Our personal faith and conviction. And obviously we will mess up but as Brad Wilcox said worthiness is not flawlessness. We are not expected to be flawless to receive blessings, miracles, or personal revelations. It was something I learned a while ago and something I think we could all remember a little bit more. Jesus doesn't want us to feel bad because of our short comings, he just wants us to become better. I hope you all know that and how much God loves all of you and wants the best for you. I love you all and I guess you'll hear from me again on Monday. Talk to you then bye. 

Pictures 

Week 8

 Again, thanks for all the emails for my Birthday. This week was crazy and I may have had too many sweets, but I don't have a belly yet so... Anyways here are the highlights of the week:

Birthday dinner - So after a whole day of writing emails because Elder Herbst had to sign up for classes, so we finally had dinner and it was amazing. I had gumbo for the first time and the member also baked me a cake. It looked super cool and tasted better.

Stuck Inside -  We just contacted over the phone today and it was so boring. We got like no lessons out of it. It was a hard day, but then right before we stopped to cook dinner a member randomly stopped by and dropped off a cooked chicken so that was an awesome blessing. There was one good contact tho...

Seth - He finally responded and said sorry for not saying anything sooner but he invited us over the next day and so I was so happy. We went over to help him chop wood but instead we just talked about struggles and how God can help us. We shared Alma 7:11-13 and Elder Fuluvaka shared an amazing testimony and now we have planned for a weekly lesson, so now we are going to work with him slowly.

Morning Run - I got my companions to go on a longer run, meaning 2 miles, which for them was long, but it was fun. We ran to an earth sanctuary, basically a park but you had to pay $7/person which was very dumb so we turned around and left.

Tiana - We met her and she is very willing to learn and has studied about the church but not the Book of Mormon so I can't wait for her to read it and feel the Holy Ghost tell her it is true. Also the only way we were able to have a lesson with her is because of Elder Fuluvaka. Being in a trio is different but this week would not have been this good without him.

Member Baptism - We went to another member's baptism and we were actually asked to help confirm her with the Holy Ghost so that was really neat.

Bro. Salmon & Nina - They are a less active and a girlfriend and Elder Fuluvaka came in clutch again. Bro. Salmon was not going to invite us in but then saw Elder Fuluvaka and they started talking and really bonded. Elder Herbst and I were then able to talk to Nina and find out about her and invite her to a ward activity. Together we were able to get a return appointment so it was super awesome. It also lasted for 3 hours, but they needed it.

This week had it's up and downs but I love writing this email and in my journal because when I start to write I just think about all the good and I am able to see God's hand in my life more. Two times I shared my testimony really stood out to me this week and I wanted to share them with you guys. One of them was with Nina and I shared John 14:27 about God giving us peace and sharing that with her really hit home how much His Gospel can make us feel peace despite our circumstances. I hope you all have been able to feel that in your lives and if you haven't try reaching out to Him and I promise you can feel His love too. The other time was when we were roleplaying and teaching the Doctrine of Christ. I shared how enduring to the end is like running a race. You can't just stop, quit, and walk off. You have to keep pressing forward and I know that the reward will be so much better than any medal or trophy we can get. I truly love all of you and I hope you can feel my sincerity. No matter where you are in life right now you can always focus more on Jesus, and when you do you can feel that peace, know the truth, and have the greatest gift of all. I wish you could hear my voice and my conviction. I hope and pray the best for all of you. Until next week, ofa lahi atu!!

Pictures. Y'all never said if you liked inline or attachments so I'm just going to stick with inline

Birthday Dinner and Cake. Apparently I'm 949 years old now

cool pic

Not as cute as Chuni

member baptism

ITS SO FLUFFY!!!

"Picture for Mom" -Nina. I told her I wasn't good at taking pictures

Week 7: New Companion and Ferry Ride!

 Thank you so much for everyone who sent me emails and wished me a happy birthday, you are all the best! And the day isn't over yet so if anyone else wants to send one, it would be a great present. This week was kinda crazy, but here it is:

Wilson's - A super cool family that feed us on Monday. The wife is a programmer and the husband is an engineer that was showed us all the underwater robots he and his kids made to enter into competitions and it was super cool. He also had a rule made because of him so that was funny to hear about sounds like something I would try to do on purpose

Cleaning Inspection - We had a cleaning inspection and they said it looked really well, but we still had to clean a lot  didn't make sense to me and from what it looked like when we first got there it was a big improvement. But moral of the story is our apartment has been owned by the church for a bit and hasn't been checked up on so its kinda getto.

Transfers/New Comp - We got a surprise call on Wednesday morning that we had to get to the mission office to pick up a new companion. They normally send it out the Saturday before but they forgot us. I got super scared because I haven't finished training but we just picked up another Elder so now we are a trio. But we got to take the ferry so that was exciting and it really saved us miles. I also had to drive home because Elder Herbst can no longer drive.

Elder Duncan - Then on Friday we had a Mission Conference with Elder Duncan of the Seventy, rode the ferry again, and again it really saved our miles. It was super cool, but the group picture took forever and probably won't be uploaded for a bit. But afterward Elder Duncan wanted to talk with a two Elders and two Sisters and President Auna picked me and Elder Herbst. So being the Companion of an ex-AP has its benefits. It was super cool, he just asked me a bunch of questions, but I was able to share my testimony with him and that just reconfirmed again that I know this Gospel is true. But because of this and transfers we were out of our area for a lot of the week which was kinda sad.

Food Challenge - Our new Companion is Elder Fuluvaka, he is super funny and a Tongan to boot. So I have had two eating competitions with him and he beat me both times of course, but I was getting closer the second time and he even had to loosen his belt so that was funny. The second time was with the Martin Family and they have a five year-old named Henry who is the cutest and funniest little kid ever.  

Biker Bob - I have spoken about him before and now we are working on getting him and his cousin, Sister Bell, to the temple. They are doing really well and started to come back to church. Biker Bob even shared his testimony on Sunday, which was a big deal for him, but it was so sweet and really showed how much he has grown.

This week has been really amazing spiritually tho, and my testimony was able to grow stronger. I know that the power of sharing your testimony can really help you and others. The Holy Ghost uses your testimony to help others know and feel of the truth and He can help strengthen our knowledge at the same time. It's not going to be easy at first, nothing usually is, but as we keep trying and trusting in the Lord, He can change us and make us better than we are. I love you all and I am so grateful for all of your support and help that has made me the person I am today. God uses people for His purposes. Be the good that helps others become better and everyone can become a little bit better. Jesus loves you and He wants to see you be the best you can be. This Gospel is amazing. I learned that Gospel means "glad tidings" and I can't think of anything better to have than knowing that I have a Heavenly Father who made a plan for me to be like Him and be with my family and friends forever. I can never stress enough how much I love you and how much He loves you. I hope you can all feel that this week, and don't ever have second thoughts about emailing me because you should have done it before your first thought ever leaves your head.

And the pictures...

When your Comp knows the Mission President really well

Cool Ferry pictures

Elder Fuluvaka, hair cut, and facemasks

Bro. Swinkles and his Hobbit Home

Week 6 - I died. And my Companion is pregnant

 So, this past week I have realized something. All the missionaries I know have a title for their emails besides what week it is. Most of them are clickbait titles. But I am starting to realize how good they work, or maybe I'm just really gullible. So let me know if my title works 

Anywho, highlights for the week:

Trunk or Treat - on the 30th our ward did a trunk or treat and so thanks to the Hymas family we had decorations and we invited lots of our friends to come. One of them came! She is a less-active and has a child, and she wants to come back and get to know people. She actually asked us to introduce her to some people and that's when I realized that I really need to start memorizing lots of names. And we didn't really dress up so we just changed name tags except Elder Herbst lost mine so we both just ended up being Elder Herbst.

Member Baptism - The father is not a member and so we got invited by the ward mission leader who was asked to conduct it. And because of some missed calls he wasn't sure if anyone was giving the baptism and Holy Ghost talks, so the morning of, he calls us and asked us to do that, plus teaching the Restoration while the boy got changed. And so we were prepared, I thought of this object lesson (because baptism talks always have object lessons) and it turns out the older brothers had prepared talks so we didn't have to. Which was great and all, but that means that I lugged a 60 lbs bag full of weights for nothing. You know, the weight of our sins and Baptism can take them all away so you don't have to go through life with a bag of weights. I thought it was pretty good, but I bet my Mom is shaking her head as she read this.

5th Sunday - We were asked to give the 5th Sunday lesson, and being missionaries we did it on missionary work, specifically how member missionaries. We talked about the Love, Share, and Invite in the general handbook and it went pretty well. We were able to break the ice pretty well and taught how to do it simply, natural, and normal. Bishop came up to me afterwards and said that I have definitely got better at missionary work, so I'll take that as a compliment. He also let me have a handful of peanut m&ms from his stash in the car because someone asked what our favorite candy was.

The Many Mess-ups - Okay, here is the fun part that will definitely have many of your heads shaking. So... remember when we locked ourselves out... well, it happened again. This time I got a video. We went on exchanges and I was in charge of the area for the day, which wasn't a good idea. Elder Halversen forgot his Tiwi card (what you need to drive) twice. I accidently had us go to a member lesson an hour early, so we left and visited a potential friend who said she would love to study the bible with us, so that's awesome. And then because we were close to having no more miles left to drive, we were supposed to take the bus to district council, we missed the bus and ended up having to drive. We had two miles left for the month on the 27th, wups. It all ended up working out tho.

Elder Herbst is Pregnant? - We helped some people move in and were talking to the lady afterwards about families. Elder Herbst starts teaching her about eternal families and keeping families together with sacred covenants and then says, "yeah, I just can't wait to be a dad." And she asked, "Oh really, are you pregnant?" It took all I had not to bust up laughing. Elder Herbst then tries to explain that he is looking forward to it in a few years, not currently. It was pretty funny.

I Died - So our whole area had a goal to teach 500 principles about the Restoration. At each hundred mark they got a prize. The first three were for them to watch their District leader and his Companion feel discomfort. Because we are all the way in South Whidbey and we were running low on miles we couldn't go up for them to do it. Until last Monday. The prize for them was to 1) throw a whipped cream pie in our faces, 2) dump a bucket of ice water on our heads, and 3) watch us eat a habanero. So they had us eat the habanero, get a pie to the face, and then the water. After I had chewed it was already way too hot, and then the water being dumped on me surprised me and made me gasp. That in turn made some of the pepper go in my air pipe instead of my stomach. That was when I died. It was kinda funny tho because everyone immediately started to feel kinda bad for how much I was dying and I eventually got better after drinking a third of a gallon of milk.

So that was my week pretty nice, and hopefully this week we can find more people to teach. But before I am done I wanted to share two other parables/analogies that I heard this week.

The first is about how whenever you talk with a friend after a time of absence it feels nice, or when I receive emails from all of you it makes me smile and I love it. Well, that is how Heavenly Father feels when we pray. He hasn't seen us in a bit, and we can't talk face-to-face at the moment, but every time you pray He gets so happy. And so I invite you all to pray a bit more this next week, give thanks for what you have, and maybe send me an email too and you can make Heavenly Father and me happy. 

The next one is about the straight and narrow. Right by the Island is a straight and narrow strip of water (it's actually kinda big but in comparison to the ocean it's not). Life is like that straight: Sometimes we will veer towards a side and start hitting sandbars or floating trees, or maybe we had a super bad day and we ran ashore. I know that if we keep trying and keep up our effort we can make it to the Ocean, a place where God has promised us so many blessings we can't even comprehend. We just have to keep trying, keep reminding ourselves of the reward at the end and press onwards.

I know that God loves all of you. I don't say that every week to be monotonous, but to tell you all that His love never ends, it never falters, and I want each of you to be able to feel that too. I love ya too, and I look forward to all of your emails . Talk to you next week

Pictures and videos- yes what all of you have been waiting for
Click here to watch us break into our apartment again, and burn my face off eating a Habanero

Contemplating if it is going to be worth (it wasn't)

Elder Halversen and me on exchanges

a wall of foliage we are helping to make

an awkward photo of me

Our Trunk, it had a strob light and was actually pretty good

The Hymas' truck

Us and the Hymas'