Season 14: Skyway B. Episode 1:I Love Working!

Elder Cardon and I right after we found out we were being companions.

Elder Graham, Wagstaff, and I at the training meeting last week. I will be missing them as they are heading out soon!

The Posterity of Elder Graham thus far.

Starting on left Elder Higgenson (son), Elder Graham (self), Elder Lyon (son), Elder Sumsion (son, his first born in the wilderness :D), Elder Jackson (grandson), and Elder Cardin (grandson). Not pictured are Elder Duncan, Meads, and Asper who are as well his grandsons.

Ties from all of my past companions thus far. Starting on the left Elder Graham, Buchanan, Wagstaff, Duncan, Meads, Asper, Jackson, Nelson, John, Murphy, and Rex.

The week has been great and I have been blessed with an amazing companion!

Elder Cardin is his name and he is from Bennett, Colorado. One of the funniest things is this area where we are serving in is compeletely different from what I grew up with in good 'ol happy valley, but for Elder Cardin its the same. He keeps on saying things like "This place looks just like where I am from except for there are more trees." Haha I love him a lot!

The work here in Skyway B is going well. We are working hard to find those who are prepared for the gospel. One of the biggest things we are striving to do is to find families! I have been praying and striving hard to find a family (with Gods help of course because I cant do it without Him). One of the things the Spirit prompted me that I could do as I was thinking about what more I could do was to fast for this blessing. So on Saturday at around 5:57pm I started a fast and about an hour later, God blessed us to run into a very prepared Chinese lady named Suezhen with a family! We are going by tonight to teach her more and some members are coming well. God definitely is one who hears our prayers! I was filled with gratitude because of this experience.

I know that God hears our prayers and that we should all communicate with Him and express the desires of our hearts often because he truly is our loving Heavenly Father.

-- 

Sincerely,

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Season 13: Skyway. Episode 6: Asking Questions Results in Revelation!

Us dropping of Elder Christiansen at the Auburn Stake Center who finished his mission on Monday. Elder Jones did as well! I love both of those Elders.

This was my district last transfer. Starting on the left Elder Sanders, Elder Hunter, Elder Sumsion, Elder Stucki, Elder Richards, Sister Wilkinson, and Sister Bailey.

Howdy Howdy Howdy!

First offs with transfers that is happening today, Skyway A and B are going to be separated back into their own areas and I am going to be in Skyway B. I am being blessed with another opportunity to train which I am very excited for! Training is the most important assignment one can receive on his/her own mission and I am grateful the Lord trusts me with such a sacred duty.

President and Sister Eaton this week had a special training for the mission on the Doctrine of The Family. To understand what that doctrine is check out these 2 talks:

Elder Bednar

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2006/06/marriage-is-essential-to-his-eternal-plan?lang=eng

Sister Beck

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/03/teaching-the-doctrine-of-the-family?lang=eng

President Eaton didnt want us to refer to this training as the "trunky training" because he did talk about some very important after mission events. With these after mission events he talked about how we would approach these concepts (including when to get married, who you marry, careers you choose, hobbies you have) differently when we understand the doctrine of the family and keep these choices in the Eternal Perspective. It was a great training and he really inspired us to find, teach, and baptize families! One of the things I am doing differently to find families is whenever we are driving and see a family at their home or yard is to stop and talk to them (if we dont have a set thing we are going to).

The principle that has been strengthened in my heart this week was one the importance of asking questions! I had the blessing to be on 3 exchanges this week and with each of them I prepared several questions to ask them. I was blessed by all three of their answers to the questions I asked. It didn't matter about their mission assignments (from Assistant, to District Leader, to Junior Companion) The Lord spoke through them to me through these questions I asked. I also took notes on the things that they shared because I didn't want to forget what they were sharing (because the answers were valuable gems and people typically forget things after about 7 hours or at least I do :) ). Elder Rex and I have also started to prepare questions in advance for dinners with members. There is a quote President Eaton shared that goes something like this:

"Every person you meet is a feature story if you ask the right questions."

All these members with over double my life experience or even a couple years have been blessed with their own experiences and lessons that are valuable for everyone to hear.

This practice of preparing questions will be a huge blessing that will bless me in the future whether its in my personal study of the scriptures or in my communications with my family. Try this experiment out. 

Prepare 3 questions that you care about for a upcoming experience (whether that be a visit to the grandparents, a lunch conversation with a friend, or a car ride with your spouse) with another human being. Even preparing questions for those who are less experienced than you (new employees, children, etc.) will bless you with profound results!

Love you all! Have a great week! I will totally keep you accountable to my invitation if you accept it. Just email me that you are going to do it and I will follow up and see how it went.

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Season 13: Skyway. Episode 5: Time! Is Marching On!

Mission Leadership Council on the 3rd of June.

Front Row: Sisters Young, Erickson, Linker, Lyman, Palmer, Huhem, Wright, and Richardson.

Second Row: Elders Snook, Knight, Li, Noh, Sumsion, President Eaton, Sister Eaton, Ha, Snyder, Nelson, Lee-Wen, and Chapel.

Back Row: Elders Cook, Caputo, Anderton, Rex, Nelson, Samuelson, Anderson, John, Riley, and Mousser.

Hello!

I loooove Skyway!

I dont have much time left for emailing! Sorry about that. Time is definitely going fast on the mission so make every second count! 

We got permission because this area is so diverse to have language study for 30 minutes, so right now Elder Rex and I are working on learning Tagalog! I love it a lot!

Gin committed to be baptized in September! Its great stuff!

--

Sincerely,

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Pic and Video Bonus

A special number of "When I am Baptized" in Tagalog version

Season 13: Skyway. Episode 4:Happy Skyway Days!

I love this week! I don't have tons of time to cover it all, so I hope you enjoy these 

pictures that tell the story!

On Tuesday morning we went out of our apartment to discover that our car window had been broken throughout the night. It looks like someone had a sparkplug and string and threw it at the window during the night. We found the spark plug when looking through the mess. Only two packages were stolen as the others were concealed by the Liahona magazine you can see there. It was basically like where people didn't steal the golden plates because they were concealed by beans haha.

As a result we are borrowing a another car from the mission. It just happened to be a very brand new one. I was able to drive the car right off of the Toyota lot at 6 miles. A different experience that I wont have very often in life.

Elder John did get emergency transferred and is now serving as an Assistant with Elder Nelson in the Clark Lake Ward in Kent. We met at the Auburn Stake Center on Thursday morning and I am now serving with Elder Rex and I in the Skyway ward. Things are still super duper busy, but I enjoy the hard work!

We were blessed with Ric being baptized on Saturday! It was a very powerful experience. After he was baptized he bore his testimony in Tagalog. It was about 3 or 4 minutes long, but very very powerful. The Spirit was present and everyone attending could feel it. Everyone on the Earth may speak different languages, but the Spirit speaks and testifies in one universal language that everyone can understand.

Starting on Left from heads, Bishop White, Sister Sablan, Estrella, Princes Joy, Reymark, Ric, Elder Jiao, Elder Jones, Elder John, Elder Rex, Elder Lappalainen, Elder Davidson, and Elder Bonney.

It was a great week and I am excited for the coming week!

Love,

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Season 13: Skyway. Episode 3:Blessed!

I was doing family History today and I found someone who I can do the ordinance work for! I love it! Lets go Spirit of Elijah!!!

The discovery center is in a church building right next to the temple, so we were able to walk over and take pictures.  Starting on the left Sister Chamberlain, Elder Knowles, Elder John, Elder Rex, Estrella, Princes Joy, Ric, Sister Knowles, Reymark, and Elder Sumsion. Reymark and Princes are 2 of their 7 children who live at home. Only those two we were able to take with us. All of their children are members and so is Estrella, except for Ric and one of their daughters.

This is the family search logo.

This is a shot that I was blessed with!
So I am going to be having well over a "thousand words" with this email!

In short we have had another busy week with tons of blessings! 

First off here is a curve ball! Due to a missionary heading home, Elder John is being transferred away (probably tomorrow) to be with that missionaries companion! We only found out like 1 hour and a half ago so its shocking news for Elder Rex and I. Elder Rex and I will be companions (hopefully unless something else happens haha) for the rest of the transfer and then I will be back in Skyway B full time with my new companion.

We went to the Family History Discovery Center in Bellevue right next to the Seattle Temple on Saturday with Ric and part of his family. It was such a blessing and fun experience. I am thankful for family history and the amazing effect it has one those who do it. We got to test of some of the features there and I loved it as well. It was a very fun time and I learned some cool things about my own history. One cool thing was that my first ancestor to be baptized was a man named Cyril Call. Others may have him as well because that was Elder Johns first ancestor baptized as well.

Afterwards we walked around the temple grounds. The Spirit was strong and it felt great! Ric and his wife want to go to the Temple and are setting a goal for 1 year from this Saturday. His wife is a member and has been for a little while. She has been praying and fasting for Ric's heart to be softened and it happened. As a result of her faith and many others, he is set for being baptized this Saturday. Its going to be a wonderful blessing to take part in that. 

Last night we had a lesson where we talked to him about Prophets and Tithing. As we asked him if he believed if Thomas S. Monson was a prophet afterwards he basically said "I dont know, I just heard about him for the first time." We invited him to pray on the spot and to ask God if he was. He said a beautiful prayer in Tagalog (the members that came said it was very sincere) and The Spirit bore witness right there. I love that family so much and I am so excited for this time to 

-- 

Sincerely,

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Season 13: Skyway. Episode 2: Lots of Work in the Skyway Ward!

This is us three this morning getting our haircut at Sister Chamberlains (I just feel taller being in Elder Johns and Rex's presence :) )

The Renton Zone at Zone Conference!

All starting from the left.

Front Row: Elder Christianson, Elder Richards, and Elder Stucki.

On Chairs/2nd row: Sister Knowles, Sister Chamberlain, Sister Beck, Sister Livingstone, Sister McClellan, Sister Bailey, Sister Wilkinson, Hermana Pineda, and Hermana Yost.

3rd Row: President McKinney, Elder Sumsion, Sister Eaton, President Eaton, Elder Williams, Elder Hunter, and Elder Sanders.

4th Row: Elder Knowles, Elder Mitton, Elder Northrup, Elder John, Elder Rex, Elder Boyack, Elder Covington, and President Layman.

This is us on Sunday with Bishop White. He is moving soon so we are going to be getting a new Bishop for the ward sometime soon.

Comusta! (That is "Hello" in Tagalog. It is pronounced "Coh-moo-sta")

There has been a switch around of companions recently, actually the day after I sent my last email. Elder Murphy had since needed to head home for personal reasons, so for the rest of the transfer I am going to be in a trio with Elder John and Elder Rex serving as a Zone Leader Tri-panionship. I haven't been in a trio since I was with Elder Buchanan and Elder Graham over a year ago.

We are covering ALL of Skyway ward and there is a lot of work going on here! I have never been so busy as I have been now because we just combined two full teaching pools of investigators who are progressing towards baptism.

 

Ric who I talked about last time is still progressing really well! He is still really ready to be baptized on the 28th. We have had several lessons with him and his family and they all go really well each time. One of the struggles is the language barrier as he doesnt understand everything we say in English, but there is a couple who comes with us every time who speak Tagalog. They are both returned missionaries and they help out a lot.

Walter is an investigator who is very very curious and we are doing our best to continue to ground him in The Book of Mormon. To help him understand and know for himself if there really were golden plates that Joseph Smith translated into English through the gift and power of God. When you come to know that, all other things fall into place. 

(Read Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel to discover more of the "why" behind that statement 

https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/what-is-the-role-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng )

Jean is a great investigator who really is progressing. When Elder John asked her why she wanted to get baptized during a lesson she said "Because I want to get closer to God." She had a date for baptism on the 3rd, but we need to postpone it due to her not attending church. So when we meet with her this week we will have the opportunity to meet with her and talk about that.

Those are 3 examples of the many people we are being blessed to work with here in Skyway B. In Skyway A there are great investigators as well.

We had a Zone Conference on Friday at the Kent Stake Center and it was all about Repentance. Let me tell you, I LOOOVE Repentance! If you think about it Repentance is one of those plain and precious truths that has been lost in its purity during the Apostasy. Even now in the church, there are myths floating around about this essential Doctrine.

One of these myths that Satan tries to get us to believe is that Repentance is only for the very very bad sins that we make in life and that is not correct. We need to repent for every mistake we make in life.

Another Myth is that Repentance is a bad thing, but it is not! Repentance is less like bitter medicine that we have to take, but more like a sweet victory over our natural and carnal selves. President Eaton shared a quote that says (paraphrased) "Repentance is not the back up plan of life, it is the plan!" Repentance is a sweet thing that aligns our will with God and helps us become more like Christ.

For additional resources that are great for Repentance are 

True to the Faith on Repentance

https://www.lds.org/manual/true-to-the-faith/repentance.p1?lang=eng

and
The Bible Dictionary on Repentance

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/repentance?lang=eng&letter=r

I love Elder Rex a lot! He is from Orem, Utah. He is also super tall as well. Its really wonderful :D

I had the opportunity to sing in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. I sung "A Poor Wayfarring Man of Grief." Its a really easy way to invite people to attend church or a good excuse to remind people to come. I am grateful that I was able to share my testimony and witness through that beautiful Hymn. Singing has been such a great blessing throughout my mission and life.

I have got to go, but I love y'all alot!

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson