Smokey Skies and Staying In

Hello all! To start off this week it should be noted that the great North West is participating in its favorite past time around this time of year...catching on fire. I'm not as in the loop with all the fire drama as I was in kamiah-because everyone down there is a fire fighter-but from what I can make out, there was a decent sized blaze in central Washington that may or may not be out yet… not sure. But there's also a real big fire up in British Columbia. Normally that's not a huge problem but the wind is acting weird and blowing all the smoke down our direction. For any who know about the "nasty air” index, 300 is considered hazardous. Spokane is currently around 320, and in our neck of the woods it's about 270.  Fun thing is that elder Peterson had among his host of medical complications asthma, and breathing is difficult and so by decree of the mission nurse we're not really allowed to go outside...yeah, we're trying to see what we can do. We'll have to be creative haha.

But anyway this week was pretty gnarly! haha We did a LOT of walking around town and talking with people. We have had the darndest time meeting with our folks we teach. Nobody has responded to our multiple texts and everything. Super frustrating honestly. So we did a lot of walking and talking and we didn't really have anyone want to listen to us so it was a pretty long week. We did get quite a bit of material out though so hopefully we got them interested. So yeah, not a whole lot of exciting stuff to report but I'm still enjoying life :) I've been able to notice the Lord's hand quite a bit more these last few months and I've appreciated his influence.

Love to all until next week!!

Direct picture of the sun at about 9:30 this morning. Welcome to fire season

Sounds of Students 8.13.18

T minus one week before school starts! That means all the students are flooding back into Pullman haha! The YSA wards are getting ready to go to town this week and I'm super excited!

Hello all! :) This week we had zone conference, first one with President Thompson. And Elder Peterson and I gave an hour long training on finding hahaha! But it went well, we were able to go over some good stuff. As far as the work goes this week, we weren't able to meet with a whole lot of people; we spent lots of time finding this week. One great experience I had was going on exchanges with one of the assistants, his name is Elder Rapier and man he has some serious urgency! It was fun to be with him and I learned a lot. He has this x ray vision or spider sense or something where he can notice hidden people...like this lady who was standing up against the wall of her garage in the shade behind a truck, or this guy in his backyard shovelling gravel.  We didn't even see him, just heard a shovel and he just turns on a dime and it's game on (haha), they aren't getting away. Mail man?... Forget it!  Across the street of a busy road?... Piece of cake!

But Elder Peterson and I had a cool experience this week when we followed what I'll call two fold inspiration! We were walking around Terre View contacting some people and not too many were out and about. Elder Peterson was feeling the inspiration to go over to Sunnyside but wasn't saying anything, and I had a thought to ask him weather we should stay in Terre View or head over to Sunnyside. So together we felt we should go over to Sunnyside and we were able to connect with a guy I found on a different exchange and he let us right in and we were able to have a great discussion with him.  It was cool to see how the Lord works. We didn't really even plan to talk to him; we were planning on tracting some apartments over there and decided to stop by and see him on the way. I'm realizing more and more that the Lord guides us without us even recognizing it half the time. I've learned to try to better follow ideas that randomly come.  Sometimes I don't feel like they're directed at the time, just another thought, but when I learn to follow it and see the result, I know that we are directed as missionaries. Really cool to see. 

Also fun fact this week. My sweet mother sent me some hair trimmers for my birthday and it was the day before zone conference and my hair was pretty long. So I decided to randomly just cut my own hair hahaha! It turned out pretty good I hope..... lots better than when Elder Peterson cut Elder kings hair at 3:30 in the morning before an early meeting in Spokane and we had to fix his hair with safety scissors in the library 5 minutes before the meeting started. The life of a missionary!   When it comes down to whether you want to spend $12 on a haircut or to feed yourself hahaha!

Lastly, I took a picture of this cute quail family....that is one busy mom and dad!  All God's creatures, great and small.

Love to all until next week! 

Land of Promise and Grilled Chicken 8.5.18

Hello all! This week was a pretty great week for the zone! In total we had 14 people come to church and found 12 new people to teach! Numbers like that haven't been posted in months. Lots of cool little miracles happen that add up over the week. Awesome to see.

We are saddened to see the loss of elder king who, as I'm writing this email, is currently chilling in the Salt Lake Airport waiting to get on his flight to Arizona. But I was able to take one of his shirts he left and cut out a part of the front button holes to put through the loop on my ties so they don't blow around in the wind. So not a complete loss that he's gone but he'll still be missed. But I'm excited to work with Elder Peterson! A little background on him. We grew up in the wild town of Kaysville and went to the same high school all three years but never saw or heard word of each other until we came out here to Spokane. But he is a trooper, I have mad respect for the kid. He's got a long list of different medical issues and complications that would drive anyone nuts, but in spite of that he's still really positive and up beat. We're having a good time so far.

As far as our personal areas go this week it was a bit of a grind. We had a bunch of lessons scheduled everywhere throughout the week and most of them cancelled. Not very surprising at this point but still frustrating non the less. But we still went to work and were able to make the most of it. But man... There were these two lessons this week that we did end up having that were gnarly. Holy cow. There were these two guys we found last week in the Sunnyside ward and to make a long story short these guys are self proclaimed master theological scholars. We go into the first one and trying to teach the first lesson but we only made it like two points through. He had so many different concerns and questions and interjections that weren't really pertinent to what we were talking about. It was gnar. We got out of that lesson, went and had dinner with some members (grilled chicken... We had grilled chicken for four nights in a row for dinner. Hence the subject line) and then went right back into the fire with this other guy. And this lesson was even worse. We actually made it through all the points of the Restoration but man it was a battle. We weren't bashing, he wasn't bashing either really but it was close to it. Almost everything we said he had some sort of interjection and question that contradicted what he believed. At the end of the lesson we felt we were just crawling through barbed wire trying to get a book of Mormon to him. Eventually elder Peterson just bored testimony of the book of Mormon... And literally slapped it down on his TV stand and left it there for him hahaha didn't even give him a chance to say no, what a savage. But yeah, the pic below is us after that lesson in the car. I'm super grateful for the simple truths of the gospel. I'm not smart enough to understand anything deeper hahaha! But really I am. 

In other news though Jesse is taking his girls back to Nebraska this week so he won't be able to meet with us. But that family Martha and Miguel that I talked about last week are doing well and we'll be meeting with them tonight!

Solid week and good times coming up! Love to all until next week!

Pics: gnarly lesson, Elder Hayes photo shoot, snake river p-day

Pullman is HOT! 7.30.18

Update. Pullman is HOT! We're in a heat wave right now and everyday for the past two weeks the temperature has been bouncing around 95-100 degrees. Everywhere in Pullman is hilly. I get so confused because you'll walk up a hill, turn around, and still be walking up a hill. I've haven't walked anywhere where you can't still keep walking higher. And everywhere is black top so it's super duper warm haha. But it's all good. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.

This was a pretty good week! We had a number of lessons this week and we have even more scheduled for this next week as well. We were finally able to get back in touch with Jesse and his kids! He came to church this past week and we've had some lessons with him. He's still doing pretty good, progressing slowly but surely, we'll keep working with him. He also gave us a 3/4 inch piece of re bar to use as the backing bar for a hod podge bench press we have in the apartment. Unfortunately the bar is too mighty and it doesn't fit the holes in the stands. Rip. We're bound and determined to figure it out though. Can't be getting too fat. We also have some good news! So there's this family that long story short have been having some trouble stabilizing their lives but the Cordova family in the ward has taken them under their wing and been bringing them to church. They finally are getting a more stable situation and have been loving church! They live in a ward we don't cover that has to meet in Moscow, but by executive decision the two bishops agreed it would be best for them to just attend Terre view until they are able to find transportation. And they've expressed interest in baptism! They have a number of young kids as well so we're really excited to work with them. Their names are Martha and Miguel.

We will be sad to loose our comrade elder king this week, but he's moving on to greener pastures (or rather brown cuz it's Arizona) in the land of eternal p-days. Breakfast burritos will continue to be made despite his absence, spongebob quotes will continue to be shared, and s'mores will forever be roasted. We're planning a 12 burp salute for him.

Love to all until next week! Things are going well and elder Peterson and I are going to have a blast.

Pics. Long story short we got to watch this guy in our ward fly his epic drone made of carbon fiber and titanium!! It's insane. And it's not even his fast one. He has one that clocks at 100 mph. Wish I could attach the video but alas.

And elder Peterson got a surprise pizza hut delivery at like 9:30 at night the other day with three dews each.

Also my good buddy elder Hayes. Him and I were in neighboring areas in the darkness of Colville last winter. 

Children of the Wheat (7/23/18)

The field is white already to harvest. Literally it's going to be harvested pretty soon hahaha! Not a whole lot of time today, another zone p day today but hey I'm excited! My new companion is Elder Peterson and he and I went to school together! Dear old Davis high school! Graduated the same year and what's funny is on the Mission is the first time I've seen him in my life hahaha! That's what you get when your graduating class is somewhere around a thousand.

But we've got some good lessons planned up coming and it should be a good week! I'll be sure to tell you all about it next week. Love to all!