Howdy! Hello! Yokwe!
I am in Maple Valley now. I have been for 6 days. It feels like a completely different place than Kent even though its like 20 something or less minutes away.
The people are really different. The landscape is a little bit different. The weather has been pretty different as well. Its been pretty sun shiny for the past while. Elder Wagstaff and I got some good sun burns from walking around. We haven't done any biking due to a flat tire Elder Wagstaff has so its just been some great walking.
I guess there is just a lot of information to relay and I don't know how to it very cohesively right now, so here you go.
-Elder Wagstaff is a really great missionary! I love him so much. He is obedient and wants to continue being more so. He has a lot of the same habits and ideas about keeping a place clean as I do which is awesome! We are able to work really well together in unity. I appreciate him very much. He is the oldest of 5 from Evanston, Wyoming. The first one from his family to go. He has been out as long as Elder Graham, so for 9 months.
-The missionary work here in Maple Valley is very different. When you contact (talk to everyone you see walking around) in Kent you have some pretty good success. When you ask if you can come by, more often than not they accept. In Maple Valley it is very different than that. Elder Wagstaff and I have been contacting almost everyone and have had no people at all accept our invitation to come over. It can get pretty tough and discouraging that way, but you learn to laugh. Its pretty funny sometimes when you think about it and how people respond.
If you ever wonder about how to keep a positive attitude when things are hard, the talk by Elder Wirthlin called "Come What May, and Love it" has some great doctrine about it.
-Not that I was a terrible missionary before and that I would boast my numbers (how many lessons taught, how many people came to church, how many baptized, etc.) around to people, but I would say I was a little prideful in my heart about how I was doing in Clark Lake and the numbers we were getting. I am glad I am here in Maple Valley because it has taught me humility and brought a much better perspective with numbers than I had before. This week in Maple Valley I had my first "doughnut day" (where you get only zero's for a day) and very low numbers for the whole week. I was very tempted by habit and by Satan to think that I was a terrible missionary because of the low numbers.
I remembered though that it is not by the numbers that I am saved, or by how many people get baptized or etc. It is by effort and my heart by which I am judged. I have truly tried this week to do my best in serving Heavenly Father and fulfilling my missionary purpose and because of that, I am successful. I have invited people to come unto Christ, and inviting is honestly all that I can do.
That's a lesson I have already learned on my mission before and I am sure I will relearn it several times throughout the rest of my mission. I think what changes each time I learn it is how deeply its implanted into my soul and character. Some lessons are only learned skin deep, but others when truly understood and learned, penetrate into the heart and it changes you forever.
Love you all! Hope that made sense.
Elder Sumsion
I have a nice picture, but there was no port for it on this compy. Next week :D
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