Season 10:North Tapps. Episode 6:The Temple after a Year

Elder Kelley and I on exchanges. This is the bear we got from the food bank that we have now dressed up. Elder Bear!

The District I am in!

The Elders are starting from the left, Elder Cabrera, Elder Perkins, Elder Beaudette (District Leader), Elder Tripp, Elder Nelson, and Elder Sumsion.

Sisters strarting from the left are Sister Wright and SIster Lyman.

We got to go to the Temple today! Its been my first time in a whole year and I loved it! It was such a powerful experience for me. The temple is such a shelter and refuge from the world. And let me tell you, as missionaries we are in the world A LOT (not of the world though). We spend time in some less than holy places and to go to the temple is like having a glass of water after a long hot day in the summer where there isn't a cloud in sight. It was like finishing a marathon and sitting down and resting. It was like using your phone and seeing your almost after battery and being worried that its going to run out and then getting it plugged in with no worry of ever loosing it. I really loved it and I feel spiritual strength! Its like I had the Armour of God which we wear all of the time clean and polished and now its all new, shiny, and powerful!

This week our ward started a 40 day fast. We had 3 set lessons on Thursday, the day the fast started, and they all cancelled one after another :( Elder Nelson and I were sad for just a moment because these lessons were with key investigators at the church. But Elder Nelson and I determined and trusted in Heavenly Father knowing that He has a perfect plan and that He knew this would happen. We don't know all of the reasons why they were cancelled, but we did have our testimonies strengthened of that principle because we found out that our church building had been vandalized by people using whipped cream cans all over it! So in the end it was apart of Heavenly Fathers plan because it wouldn't have been a great first impression of the church with whipped cream all over it. Moral of the story, its okay to be sad about things that happen in life, but don't let that put you down! Keep on working forward doing what you know you need to do and it will all work out! Trust in God!

The second day of the 40 day fast, Friday, we did have a solid miracle! Ryan who the missionaries here have been trying to have a lesson with in 6 months finally came to a lesson we set up and it was wonderful! He has been prepared from a lot of humbling circumstances (to read how humility prepares us for the gospel, read Alma 32) and accepted to be baptized on February 27th! He had one concern. When we asked him, he said "Yes I will, but can I be baptized in a river?" Haha! So in the end not a very concerning concern! He was coming to a baptism on Saturday and to church on Sunday, but due to sickness he has been rendered unavailable and weak. Great miracles are coming with him and we are super excited!

Love you all! Missionary work is great and I love it!

Stay true and read The Book of Mormon every single day

Elder Sumsion

Season 10: North Tapps. Episode 5: (_____)

Exchanges with Elder Perkins selfie :D

We had someone trying to visit us yesterday :D This was a dog walking around our apartment complex and it was so friendly.

Howdy Howdy!

Things are going great here around Lake Tapps!

Our pool of investigators is always getting refreshed. We have old ones dropping and leaving us, but we have more coming in! Its wonderful! I am so grateful for the goodness of Heavenly Father. There are so many people prepared and we are so grateful to be used as instruments in find them!

Here are some experiences this week:

While teaching one of our new investigators Victor, we brought by a recent convert with us. It was a really great lesson and Victor had real questions and real intent. The recent convert was even a Stevens Minister at one point just like Victor was. Right now the biggest concern we have for Victor is to make clear that we dont believe in re incarnation haha. Our recent convert basically made it seem like we did, so that will be great to overcome.

We tried to visit another potential named Mike last week, but we were prevented by a scary dog. It was very dark and so I leaned out my window and the dog was following us barking lots. Its eyes reflected green and it was really scary! So we didnt visit him because we didnt want to get bitten by the dog. We came back another day and talked to him and he is very interested! He was wondering when we could come back and was happy to see us. He is a truck driver, so his schedule is very crazy and changes all of the time so scheduling with him will be an adventure.

While on exchanges with Elder Perkins, we were in Fife tracting and knocked on this one mans door. He was African American and asked "Are you Jehova Witness'?" We said no and he invited us right on in. He asked us all of the questions missionaries liked being asked like "What is the difference about your church and other churches?" and "What is The Book of Mormon?" He was SOOO prepared. We met him on Saturday and the Elders had a follow up lesson Yesterday (Monday). He is already at 1 Nephi chapter 8!!! He is so prepared and we are so happy to have left the Surprise Lake Elders with someone super solid.

Yesterday while Elder Nelson and I were tracting, we knock on this womans door to find that she had investigated the chrurch before and she almost got baptized when she was in 3rd grade. She was very willing to meet with us and if her husband is alright with it we will be meeting this Wednesday. Her name is Amy.

The last of many awesome experiences that I will share is that someone who works at the Food Bank we serve at every week accepted an invitation and came to a mission devotional with a member! She is the funniest lady and she gives us so much stuff while at the food bank. Like last week we got this like 4 foot tall teddy bear. We are going to dress him up and call him "Elder Bear." We havent been able to follow up and see how she liked the mission devotional just yet, but it is wonderful that after probably years of missionaries serving at this food bank she is beginning to accept invitations :D

Love you all so much! The work is wonderful. I know that even amidst investigator dropping us that The Lords hand is over those he has chosen (1 Nephi 1:20). Look for the shining rays of light amidst your storms of life and I promise you that your week will go better.

Love you all!

Elder Sumsion

Season 10: North Tapps. Episode 4:

A selife at the end of our exchange with the Assistants on Tuesday.

Another picture from Mission Leadership Council

Howdy! All is well in with Elder Sumsion in Washington. The work is progressing and we are finding more new investigators! Its also tough because a large amount of investigators and potentials are dropping us, but we are finding more than that are dropping us so that is a good thing.

One of the persons we are working with is named John. He is a former musician who has sang in across the country including Utah and has known about the church for a long while. He is a cancer survivor and said we could come back and teach him after the Holidays when we talked to him in early December. We had an amazing lesson with him that went just so super duper solid. As President Eaton says, it was "church video" (which basically means it was a textbook example of what a Preach My Gospel missionary should be teaching like). He said he would be baptized on February 6th if he knew is were true by then. We are excited!

We got to have a couple of exchanges this week. I was with Elder Mousser one of the assistants on Tuesday the Wednesday in North Tapps and in Clarks Creek with Elder Meyer on Friday to Saturday. I love exchanges! They really are an exciting and unique part of missionary work. They are one of the best teaching and learning experiences and are so good! I love them.

On Friday night Elder Meyer and I were trying to find one of their investigators homes while walking around in the cold night at about 7:30pm. It was pretty foggy too and this is near down-town Puyallup. Elder Meyer was a little lost, which in the end turned out to be a very good and inspired thing. We were walking around and saw someone off in the fog. We said "Hi" and introduced our selves. She said she was walking to the bus stop and said we could walk and talk with her. We were walking and talking for about 15 to 20 minutes and we were able to teach her the restoration. Her name was Erin and this encounter was so meant to happen! She was super prepared and accepted for missionaries to visit her where she lives, which is in Lakewood (in the Tacoma Mission). She accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon as well and was very happy she met us. She said that she usually takes a different way when walking to the bus stop, but decided to take the way she took that nigh. We were in the exact spot we needed to be in to meet Erin and I am excited for her to continue learning about the gospel! The Church is true and Heavenly Father wont let those who are sincerely looking and trying to find the truth from receiving it.

Also do you remember when I went on Blitz with Elder Meyer about 2 months ago and that man who stopped us and told us that he wanted his daughter to get baptized? Well good news, she got baptized on Saturday :D

Love you all! I love my mission!

Elder Sumsion

Season 10: North Tapps. Episode 3:

Pictures from Mission Leadership Council on the 1st.

This is all of the Zone Leaders and the Assistants to the President minus Renton.

Starting on the left going by (companions are infront of them) Assistants and the Zone Leaders for Graham, Kent, Puyallup South, Auburn, Puyallup (apparently we are the shortest Zone Leaders haha), Federal Way, and Maple Valley.

Dear Family and Friends,

 

To answer your first question we did not stay up til midnight for New Years Eve, but we did change our stove clock to 11:59pm to make it feel like it a little. We celebrated by eating Ice-cream and drinking our last bottle of black water. It was some simple good stuff.

Its been a really good week though for personal growth! We got dropped by a very promising family on Monday. It was completely out of the blue and made no sense. We tried our best though and we know that Heavenly Father is pleased with our effort. They said we could still teach their son, which may be a future way in.

Congrats to my Brother and new Sister-in-law, Brock and Sydney, for married on the 30th! I was on an exchange in the Puyallup area that day with Elder Beaudette and we had an awesome contact that morning with a man and his fiance. When he said they were getting married, I mentioned that they were but that I was out here being a missionary because I know the sacrifce is worth it. He really connected with that and a return appointment was set for the following Friday. I wasn't present at the lesson, but I found out yesterday night that Elder Beaudette and Elder Tripp had a great lesson and they both committed to baptism on the 6th of February! It was such a happy moment! Also that one less active man who talked to Elder Meyer and I while we were on an exchange is doing well. His daughter who he said he wanted to help her get baptized is getting baptized this Saturday! There are just happy moments all around.

Last night we had a really awesome opportunity to follow up with a potential who had no interest in hearing about the restored gospel, but he was very interested in family history! He let us in to use the restroom and we told him more about the discovery center and he was just so interested! We talked to him about it and Elder Nelson and I could really feel the spirit as we did. It was powerful and he said he is going to sign up for an appointment. I am excited to see his progress because I know that as he continues to do that great work especially in a consecrated church building, he will recognize the Spirit and the truthfulness of the Gospel.

Thanks for all you do! I am excited for this new year of 2016! I love life and being a missionary!

Elder Sumsion