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Showing posts from July, 2024

{letter #102} Rain in Portland? Unbelievable.

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Hi everyone! I hope all of you are doing great! What is something cool that's happened lately? It's been a great week here in Mt. Hood! Not a lot in the way of eventful things but here's what happened: some lessons, we got rain!, more time in Damascus, and some fun kids! First off, we had some awesome lessons with our friends this week! Several of our friends are preparing to be baptized soon and are working hard to get to that point. They could all use some extra prayers right now. So if you could keep Lori, Wendy, Ashley, Jen, and Edgar in your prayers that would be great! We had several instances this last week where we had little kids ask us what we were doing (while knocking at someone's door), after we told them we were missionaries and talk about Jesus they then point us to several houses to visit! All of which invited us back! That is crazy! God works in many ways to lead us to the people who He has prepared, we just need to be willing to be lead. I got to spend...

{Letter #101} Creator of All Things

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 Hi everyone! I hope that you all have had a great week! What is something you're looking forward to? It's been a pretty good one here! We had zone conference, some exchanges, awesome lessons, and fun training things! First of all, zone conference was awesome! President Botchway talked a lot about the importance of becoming converted to Jesus Christ and the importance of focusing on him in everything we do! It was awesome! What are some ways that you all focus on Christ every day? On exchanges I got to go back to my very first area.... Boring, Oregon! It was awesome! I didn't see too many people that I knew while I was here, but it was still cool to be back. Kinda a full circle moment! The people that we are working with here are awesome! There are a good number of people that are really close to accepting a baptismal date. If you could be praying for the Montiel family, Ashley, Blessing, Viola, and Wendy that would be great! The members in this ward are really great at co...

{Letter #100} Back in Mount Hood

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Hey everyone! How have you all been this last week? Anything fun happen? Have you felt God's love for you this week?  It has been crazy week here in Mount Hood, but pretty awesome! Here's a few things that happened: transfers, new missionary, training meetings, service, mission leadership council (MLC),  biking, and lots of finding! So at transfers we all got to meet our new missionaries that we're training. My new companion is named Elder Guymon! He's from Huntington, Utah and is a very good hard working missionary. This was the last time I will be at transfers and see all those missionaries, but it was really good to be there one last time. The next day we got to make the 1.5 hour drive back to the mission office (the furthest possible drive in our mission) for training meetings! Those were fun! There were 24 new missionaries that came in so it was a pretty big turnover. But it happens almost every summertime, and it's a good opportunity to help the incoming gene...

{Letter #99} Canby Rocks

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 Hi everyone! My time is extremely limited this week so sadly this email probably will not get the time it deserves. I hope you all have had a great week! It's been awesome here! Here's a summary: James got baptized, several zone councils/trainings, and Elder Cherry wrapping up his mission, and finally transfer news today! First off, James got baptized! He is amazing! He has been meeting with the missionaries for almost 2 years straight now and is super committed to follow Christ! He is awesome! James is on the left, Brother Basargin from the ward baptized him We had zone council and also a training by Sister Botchway. Both we talked a lot about studies and how they are key to our conversion. In Doctrine & Covenants 11:20-21 the Lord says: "Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength. Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall hav...

{Letter #98} Blessed and Happy State!

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 Hi everyone! I hope you all have had a great week! It's been an awesome week here. A lot of fun things going on! We had several exchanges, lots of meetings, cemetery grave digging  service, and King Benjamin's tower. So this week was crazy for exchanges! There was an elder that had to go to the hospital unexpectedly (he is okay now). We got asked by President Botchway to go on exchanges pretty much immediately so everyone would be out serving where possible. It was actually really good! I got to go with Elder Kennelly again! I've been on 4 exchanges with him now, he is an awesome Elder! I also got to go with a new missionary, Elder Hunt. He is super cool and is waiting for a visa to go to Japan for the rest of his mission! We had Mission Leadership Council, some community service coordination meetings, and meeting with local church leaders. It has been a crazy week, but seriously so good! A couple things that stuck out to me are the ways that we can work toge...