Season 17: Enumclaw. Episode 5: 2 John 1:12

Elder Ward and Elder Taylor last night at the mission devotional.

It was hard to say goodbye to the Skyway Van, Mohanna, for the last time.

A 3d printed model of the Seattle Temple (in Bellevue) given to me by Brother Lyman.

If anyone ever asks me how my mission was....

Howdy and Hello friends and family! I write to you all now from Enumclaw Washington. 

I love this place along with all of the other places I have served. That is the great miracle of a mission. When you truly give your heart, you get more back than you gave. I feel so much love for my companions, Mission Presidents, people, investigators, the area, and much more. I was blessed with the tender mercy this morning of seeing Brother Gustin whose family fellow-shipped and brought in Tatiana and Andrei over a year ago into the gospel. We were playing basketball in the Enumclaw Stake Center and he walked in because he was doing some maintenance stuff on it. I was grateful to hear that both Tatiana and Andrea are still firm in the faith and progressing. The experience of helping the come unto the gospel has been one of the great blessings of my mission.

Its tough to hear and think about all of this "going home stuff" with still a week left to give my heart. I desire to say as Paul did that "I have fought a good fight" and that "I have finished my course." (2 Tim 4:6-7). I could have chosen to be bummed about spending a 3rd Thanksgiving on my mission, but I cant think of a better way to thank the Lord for all that He has done for me. This week will be amazing and I am excited for the miracles and experiences that will follow.

Yesterday at church was filled with many tender mercies!

-Brother and Sister Lyman came to church together. Since last time he has been filled with a great desire to come back for good and he wants to be done with smoking by January 1st. We visited him and followed up on his Book of Mormon reading and he shared that he is already started Alma! He has had some trouble reading because of the small print and so we showed him the gospel library app on his tablet. He wasnt aware of it and he seemed just as happy as a kid in a candy store when we showed him all of the features of the app. We didnt get much teaching done in the visit, but we feel helping him have better access to the Book of Mormon along with his wife will help them both come closer to Christ. The Book of Mormon is the tool given by the Lord to us to convert people to Christ. It is literal evidence of the Prophet Joseph Smith divine calling. They both came to church and said we could come by this week. At the end of the lesson he gave us both a 3D printed Seattle Temple. Its amazing!

-Sister Martelle came to church! We did not have a lesson during the week due to a annual windstorm that was happening, but she did come to church. She enjoyed it a lot! to the point where when we asked her how she liked it, she told us "I am going to come next week." She also wants to help the Relief Society and the ward in the upcoming parties. We are meeting with them this week and expect great miracles and progress.

-Kaitlyn is one of the granddaughters of the Feery's in the ward. We had a lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation during the week. She really understood it well and liked it! She is making great progress too in accepting the gospel. She lives in Covington so she wont be able to be baptized here, but she is progressing to where we can connect her with the ward there. She came to church with her Grandma and she enjoyed it.

We had a lot of good experiences with having these investigators and less-actives at church this week!

Elder Gay of the 70 came and visited the mission and he shared a great statistic. Every .24 investigators (about 25%) who attend church end up getting baptized in the North West region. The reasons include powerful experiences at church and great friendship. In some parts of the U.S.A. though its .5 (50%) of investigators who attend sacrament meeting get baptized. The experiences that non-members and less-actives can have at church greatly affect their likelihood of feeling Gods love for them at church. We can all help them have better experiences by going up and introducing ourselves to those we don't recognize, sitting with them, and offer a friendly hand. Help all of Gods children feel welcome and loved here in Christs church.

I love the mission. I love the experience and I cant ever thank all of those who helped me financially stay out here enough. Thank you so very much for your sacrifices because it has changed my life and eternity! A question people can filter their choices through is "Will it matter in 1000 years?" What you have done has definitely done that and more. This experience will forever ground me in Christs foundation and the gospel throughout the rest of my life.

Thanks for all of your prayers and other sacrifices on my behalf. God is aware of them and I have felt them. I love you all. If there is 1 thing that the mission as taught me (among many other lessons) it is that I love my family and friends so much! I pray that the words and invitations I have given you throughout these 2 years have helped you come unto Christ. I testify of Christs love and power to make us at one with the Father. Because of that Atonement, we can overcome literally any mistake and missed mark in our past. I have felt His love and change and I know that you will to when you accept it into your life. No one can drag you to heaven, but you sure will have a lot of people inviting you there because they love you. I invite you to come closer to Christ and start now! Don't procrastinate because as soon as you make steps towards Him, you will feel that support. "Come unto Christ and find in Him Eternal Life." I know the Book of Mormon to be Gods word. I have read it several times, but that doesn't qualify me to bear testimony of its truthfulness. I know it because I received a sure witness from the Holy Ghost that it is Gods word. Anyone and everyone will receive a witness that it is true when they follow the formula given in the book (Moroni 10:3-5). Joseph Smith is the instrument God used to restore Christs perfect and pure gospel. He is a prophet and a testimony of his instrumentality in Gods hands will come when you receive your witness of The Book of Mormon. Read the Book of Mormon and pray daily. Come and participate in church weekly. From my experience on my mission, no single person who is faithfully doing these things will ever loose their testimony and be overcome by doubts. If you are struggling, start to do those things faithfully and you will recognize the difference in your life soon. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

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 "Stay by the Tree"

For friends at home 'round where I live feel free to come visit and chat. From about 8-9:30pm on Monday the 28th I will be available (and of course the days following as well). It will be at my home in Provo. If you need the address email jennsumsion@hotmail.com for it.

Season 17: Enumclaw 1st. Episode 4:

I opened the drawer of Elder Stoker on exchanges to find something very scary in it..

..aahh!!

Elder Lewis and I. He is albino :)

Elder Fenton and I had an epic game of Uno Stacko

A nice picture of Mt. Rainier I snapped this afternoon.​

Howdy Howdy all! I have been busy getting other things done. As a result my time here is shorter than usual today!

My time is running out to be serving as an official representative of Jesus Christ. It motivates me to work harder and harder to find those who are ready to receive us. 

This week I had a couple cool interactions with Turkeys haha. On Tuesday on an exchange with Elder Palmer we got to change the hay in a Turkey pen. Yesterday at a members while we were waiting for them to answer the door we made "gobble gobble" sounds and they Turkeys replied haha. We were the Turkey whisperers haha. 

Rolondo didn't make it to church yesterday even though he said he would come. So Elder Fenton and I are going to be practicing some patient persistence with him. Love you all so very much!

Sister Martelle came to a baptism on Saturday and then that evening we got to have a lesson with her in a members home. The work is moving forward here and I pray that it wont stop. One of my goals is to leave Enumclaw 1st with a promising family of 5 committed to baptism. I know they are there!

Love you all!

--

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 "Stay by the Tree"

Season 17: Enumclaw 1st. Episode 3:Miracles All Around

Elder Fenton and I around Lake Tipsoo this morning.

Me getting an action photo with my expert laying down on the ground technique :)

My tag on a rock in a stream.

Lake Tipsoo.

Sister de milo haha

We met a guy last week and he had some interesting beliefs that I had never heard of. Basically it summed down to only believing in the words of Paul in Romans-Philemon. Elder Fenton and I thought it was so interesting and so we just barraged him with questions about why, what about Matthew-Acts and Hebrews-Revelations, and others. He shared that Jesus Christs words was only for the Jews and that Paul's words was only for the Gentiles and that we are all Gentiles. Matthew-Acts are nice for history, but not necessary for us. The Apostasy is definitely very real ladies and gentleman.

As I have shared before, there are as many miracles happening in your life as you can see. God is blessing us with many many things, but most of the time we dont recognize all of the good he is doing for us. In the ward we are having a 40 day fast right now and it has helped me look and search for more of the tender mercies that God is blessing us with and also in what he is doing in the members lives.

We had an amazing visit with Brother and Sister Lyman this week. Brother Lyman has been less-active for a long time (50 something years) and his wife is a non-member. Usually the visits haven't gone very swell, but this one went great.They asked the missionaries to visit once a month and so we came by for our visit and he was teaching his wife about how they could be together forever. He was also sharing with us his mission scriptures and the journal of his great grandfather who was an Apostle. He accepted an invitation to start reading the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi in 10 days) with his wife. He said "Its about time I start reading the Book of Mormon again." Since I wouldn't be here in a month, he said we could come back sooner to follow up and visit. We were so grateful for the goodness of the visit! He also gave us a 3D printed Venus de milo statue as well. The picture below is what I did with it :)

Another miracle occurred this week as we were led to a potential investigator in the area book who is now committed to baptism on the 10th of December! It was a great miracle as for 4 months before, he wouldn't have been as open to us coming by as he is now. He has had a couple situations that have humbled him to wanting to put his bad past behind him and to follow God. He wants to become a better man. Rolondo is his name and he almost reminds of this mans transformation of what God did to him and helped him become. https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/his-grace/from-gang-member-to-good-man

We are having a church tour with him tonight and are getting the members involved.

One thing I have learned this week as I have been pondering is more about the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is temporary and lasts with whatever happens around you. True Joy that is found in Christ lasts all of the time. No matter what circumstance you are in, you feel Gods love and trust in His plan. 

Love you all!

--

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 "Stay by the Tree"

Season 17: Enumclaw 2nd Episode

Elder Stoker and I from exchanges this week.

 decided to experiment... so I made Eggs in a Banana Basket (Eggs in the basket (an egg fried in a piece of bread), but with Banana bread instead)!

This is from about 7 weeks ago when we had Lunch at Coulon park with the Stephens. We ate on this floaty raft/dock thing.

Howdy and hello family, friends, and those who I may not know to well!

The ward is starting a 40 day fast on the 2nd. I am very excited for the work to move forward with that. I felt another confirmation that I was supposed to be here in this area when I got to see the ward all gathered together hearing about this idea. I know that God loves us and will help us when we work in faith.

In Ether 3:6 and 9 Christ doesnt say that he saw him because he had the best idea or best program, but he said it because it was of his faith. Just like that I really know that the work moves forward according to our faith. There are many refernces to faith in Ether 12 (it even says faith 34 times).

Lastly here are two really swell videos that I love!

This video is a montage of all of our Prophet, Seers, and Revelators witness of Jesus Christ when they were first called. It is powerful!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-06-022-general-conference-montage?category=social-media-shareable-videos&lang=eng

This is the last witness of some of them.

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages-for-youth/the-last-testimonies

--

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 "Stay by the Tree"

Season 17: Enumclaw 1st. Episode 1:His Perfect Will and Timing

Time keeps on marching on and on! I remember at the beginning of my mission reading Jordan Stouts season 17 emails and I wondered if I would ever get there. I have now and it is going way to fast.

The work here in Enumclaw is great. It is similar to North Tapps, but a lot more rural. Our ward is the biggest ward in the mission and as a result a good amount of driving happens. I love the ward so much already! They are all so wonderful and willing to help. Coming up we are going to be starting a 40 day fast soon. The work here is going to be on fire. I am expecting miracles with all of the swell stuff that is happening. 

The work here was going slow, but is now starting to pick up real quick. We have been blessed to find some great investigators who are actually seeking to know the truth and desiring to have help with their concerns. Here is a super summary of each of them.

Johan and Catherine were found right after we followed up with a former investigator. They were out on their porch smoking when we came up and talked to them. Catherine had never really opened up or talked to missionaries before, but the circumstances she and her family were in has placed her in a place where she is willing to listen and learn. Her son is going through some very hard things with the death of his fiance of 10 years. She is looking for help and comfort. I am grateful we were striving to talk to everyone because it would have been really easy to just walk right by. Obedience brings blessings to us and Souls to Christ.

Ty and Jakin are members of a christian church in the area. They have some great respect for the Mormon church and were very kind when we talked with them. Jakin who just graduated from High School asked the missionaries to come by when they were at the library. He has some big concerns, but if he is willing we can help him overcome them. One of them is using a scripture in Galations 1:8 to say that any Angel or anything preached is accursed/not the word of God. We have prayed and have a great lesson plan this evening to talk with them about it.

The others are Brother and Sister Martelle. She described herself as a "Neo-Pagan." Interesting... We are going to have fun teaching them :)

Elder Rasband came and visited our mission! It was very powerful and I received that he was a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator in these last days! One thing I learned is that he is the 98th Apostle of this dispensation to be set apart and given those keys. It was amazing and an experience that I am not going to forget.

Sorry its short, but times a running out!

Love Ya!

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 "Stay by the Tree"

Season 16: Skyway. Episode 6:Tender Mercies

The Renton Zone.

Part of the Skyway Ward. By head from left. Sister Stevenson, Brother Stephens, Bro Sablan,
Sister Sablan, Elder Knowles, Justine (new convert), Elder Rex, Elder Sumsion, Jazmine, Bishop Munson,
Sister Beck, Elder Payne, and Elder Richards.

We found a frog and got some action photo's :)

Howdy and Hello!

The transfer calls came in and I am heading out of Skyway! After almost 8 months/6 transfers I am heading to the Enumclaw 1st ward for my last 6 weeks. My companion will be Elder Fenton. I have been on 1 exchange with him and I am excited to serve with him. This is going to be an old companionship because I am pretty sure he just started his last 12 weeks. 0.0

This week has been very grand and swell. It seems like the best week in an area is usually the last one. It seemed that Elder Richards and I weren't having as much fruit as we could and I was thinking and about the different things we could do to find those who are ready. I remembered that we weren't doing the best at keeping up on the area book work. The area book is something that missionaries have in every area that is a record of the work you have done there. I have learned on my mission that it is a way to account for the work you are doing in the part of the vineyard you are serving in. I also learned that if you aren't doing a good job of keeping track of those God is blessing you to find, why would he bless you with more if you were going to forget?

As soon as we got all caught up that is when we started experiencing and seeing many more miracles.

One of those great blessings came in a way that we didn't expect. We were talking to people along Rainier Avenue and Kenyon Street when we needed to use the restroom. We walked to the closest store called "Store and Grocery." In it there were no public restrooms, but the guy from Ethiopia working there let us use them. Afterwards we got talking to him. He has had great interactions with the church in the past and really loves the missionaries. David grew up in a christian household, but with split religions just like Joseph Smith. We shared that story and he really connected with it and the other things we were sharing!

We came back days later with a Book of Mormon in Amharic for him and he nearly jumped with excitement when he saw it! He is sooo sincere and I love him! He is a busy fellow and so we are going to be stopping by at various points to teach him a little bit at a time while the store is the least busy.

Great tender mercies come all of the time in missionary work and it is easy to miss 'em if you aren't look n'! Often times we will get people who want us to visit them, but they will be in an apartment complex with a locked gate or a door that we cant get passed. Then to make things worse they have these call boxes next to them to let the person know we are here, but 90% of the time they dont even work! I have seen Gods hand in simple ways to get us in those complexes and they are all nice. Yesterday we had 2 of those experiences. We came to the door and it was locked and the call box wasnt working. A lady walked on in, but she closed it to purposefully not let us in. Elder Richards shared an idea of "Is there a back door?" Yes, there was and it was slightly ajar to the point where the lock didn't engage.

The other one came when we were trying to deliver a Bible to a lady in a complex with a gate and a voice box that didn't work. Just to the side there were some kids throwing paper airplanes and one of the planes went of the fence. The kid ran out the door and let us in on his way back in. BUT there was a second locked door we had to get through and it was locked. We started to walk away from it and just before we completely left the complex, the kids yelled for us that they got the 2nd door open. They held it open for us and let us in. The Lord will provide for His servants :)

Elder Richards is going to be a trainer this coming transfer. I am super happy for him! He has progressed a lot during this transfer and I expect will continue to. Training is a refining process as a missionary for the trainer and the trainee. There are several reasons of why you are called as a missionary to go wherever you are called to go. Reasons include for the particular people your specific example will work for, the Mission President you will have, and I also believe for the trainer who welcomes you into the mission. Elder Joshua Graham played a vital role in my missionary service for which I will ever be grateful.

Love you all! Continue to be faithful and work hard. That is what I am doing. One little phrase I love is...

"You will spend 18 years preparing for it.

2 years doing it.

And the rest of your life reflecting on it."

This transfer is going fast with a visit from Elder Rasband this Saturday, a Zone Conference, Interviews, and a visit from Elder Robert C. Gay of the 70. I pray to do my best in this short time I have.

--

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 "Stay by the Tree"

Season 16: Skyway B. Episode 5: Bisrats!

The District! From Left: Elders Ward, Perkins, Sumsion, Richards, Sisters Livingstone, Ericson, Beck, and Stevenson.

All of us have gifts. Elder Richards has the drawing skills and I do not. I got some sideways thumbs up skills.... and I dont know if Elder Richards does or not ;)

Howdy Howdy!

Today I identified several things that I wanted to share, but I am not sure how to cohesively put it all together. 

Elder Richards and I are still progressing and making progress. One of the goals that we are working on is to be in bed trying to sleep exactly at (or before) 10:30pm. My whole mission I have done it where I start saying my prayers right at 10:30pm and then afterwards I would go to bed. I have also been on exchanges with Assistants where they have done the same thing and so I felt like I was being completely obedient to it. Elder Richards has had several promptings since the beginning of the year that he should be in bed at 10:30pm. He had been doing the same thing as me, but we both felt prompted that we should strive to be in bed trying to sleep at 10:30pm exactly. Its been great for me because its a goal that has been causing me to try and change 22 months of habit and it is tough to change, but it has been a great experience working over it. It has truly been a sacrifce as I spend time that I would normally spend writing in my journal or just sitting and thinking instead on praying. The Lord sacrifices when we try to obey and we are both trying to be exactly obedient.

That is one lesson about revelation that I can share with you in a short sentance. Heavenly Father is not likely to inspire you to do something else if you haven't acted on what He has told you to do. Think of yourself in a giant maze with your Heavenly Father on the top of a huge tower in the middle. He knows the way to the exit. You ask him for direction and where to go and He will tell you something like "Take 20 steps and then turn right." When you follow that pattern eventually you will get out of the maze. 

But if you instead ask Him to tell you the whole route that you need to go, you would forget it and get lost anyway. Ask Him and he will give it to you bit by bit. When you follow Gods direction, He will tell you more. 

We are still searching and seeking for the elect here in the area. There is a goal that the mission has set to help 111 people repent and be baptized by the end of the transfer. On Thursday night I was having a conference call with the District brainstorming and counseling on what we could do as a District to help contribute to and reach this goal. Through a flurry of ideas, The Spirit led us to what we should do. It was determined that we would fast on Saturday to Sunday that each area would be blessed with a family to teach and who would be baptized. On Friday night we shared ideas of how to find these families over another conference call.

We fasted and it was awesome! I love fasting and praying for miracles because they do happen. In Skyway B we experienced some great blessings I believe to be related to the fast. No direct fruit for the Skyway B area, but we did get to send as a referral to several other missionaries some families!

Three I can specifically remember. 1)We met this mom of 5 kids who is Latino and lives in Federal Way. She accepted for the Spanish Missionaries to come by and visit her there. She also gave us some fresh apples that they were delivering to some family. We got this huge bag of about 20 apples. We were grateful! 2) We met a man from Samoa who lives in Kent. He has had several interactions with the church in the past that have all been positive. He enjoyed talking with us and we got to send him over to the Samoan missionaries of the Seattle mission. 3) We met this nice 7th Day Adventist Filipino woman who accepted for the missionaries in Puyallup to go and visit.

Yesterday while we were finding we met this man from Ethiopia. He name was Bisrats. In Amharic apparently it means "surprise!" He said he was alright with us coming by and visiting with him this Friday. We have also met several other individuals who said we could come back. The work is great here in the Lords service!

You never know what you may find or what may come up as you are serving the Lord, but you can trust that all of the surprises will be good ones.

Love you all!

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 "Stay by the Tree"