Season 11: Skyway A. Episode 4: Cultural Experiences

Elder John and I certainly had a last couple of interesting P-days! Last P-day we went to the very top right of the Skway ward which is the closest in the mission you can get to Seattle without leaving the mission. It was a super fun adventure! We took so pictures there and it was super duper enjoyable!! You can tell by Elder Johns smile in the picture :D

Today we did some more cultural events and went to a place called the "Family Fun Center." We went with the other Elders in our ward and played some Mini-Golf. It was great fun and goodness! The stress melted off like wax to a small flame :D The owner of the place is a member and he was super kind to us.

The work in our side of the ward is going well! Duane dropped us sadly due to his mom not agreeing with him meeting with us anymore. She has a heart issue and he wont talk to her more about him wanting to meet with us because if he does that could potentially cause her a heart attack. That's some tough stuff he has to deal with and we are praying for him!

We had a ward roster meeting on Saturday with most of the Auxilarys in the ward, the Bishopric, and the other missionaries in the ward. We went through D-Z in the ward directory in a 4 hour meeting. We went over every member in the ward directory (there were over 900 A-Z) and determined what that persons next course of action is. So whether that be moving their records back to Salt Lake, having the missionaries go visit them to determine their interest, having the bishopric visit them, etc. We got a lot of work done and its going to help so much in giving us specific persons to visit.

Elder John and I have some good work this week. We are going finding to bring more souls to Christ. We are excited for the fruit we will be blessed with as we work hard.

Have a wonderful week! If you aren't reading The Book of Mormon everyday, just try it out for this week and see what happens. But don't simply read it like a Harry Potter book or novel, read it like a cookbook or exercise book actually applying things to your life!

Happy leap day!

 

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 11: Skyway A. Episode 3:Jello Opinions!

Elder Graham and I from our exchange last week.

We recently went on an exchange with Elder Mitton (left of Elder John) and Elder Cook (Right of Elder John). This was at the end of it.

Howdy Family and Friends!

I was thinking about putting some sort of secret code in this email like Violet did in the Series of Unfortunate Events, but I realized that would take a lot of time so I may not do it.

In Skyway there are tons of people to talk to and many people will let you come back and teach them once, but second and third appointments are very rare here! Elder John and I are working hard and are helping the Zone to work hard on achieving more second lessons with the same person. We did that this week with Duane! He is a wonderful soul and about 60 years old. He has had a couple of strokes and is operating at 90% of his former self (that's what he shared with us) in terms of function. He has a lot more trials, especially with his health, but I wont share them all. During our first lesson we didnt really teach anything because whenever we would ask him a question he would give us a brief answer and then go on for at least 5 or 10 minutes on a life story about one of those hard aspects of his life. Our second lesson went tons better as we were able to share more about Heavenly Father and Prophets. We need to go very slow because he doesn't retain everything so a few concepts a lesson will be ideal for him. We didnt ask almost any questions (which usually is very very bad in teaching situations) during the lesson and it turned out very well. We were so happy when we asked him as a review at the end "What is a Prophet?" He made a joke (he is very very funny. He isnt a stand up comedian, he is a "sit down" comedian) and then told us that they are called of God. Progress will be slow for Duane, but as time goes on it will show.

Elder John and I have a strong desire to bring many souls unto Christ by helping them repent and be baptized in March, so we have a goal this week to do a lot more contacting and tracting than we usually do. We have the goal of helping at least 2, so we are going to be doing something different than we would normally to achieve it. (p.s. if you are ever wondering if something is a good goal, one of the best ways to find out is if it motivates you to do something that you wouldn't have done otherwise. This goal is good because Elder John and I are doing a lot of things different than we would otherwise to achieve this goal.)

If you were to ask me "What is your favorite thing about serving a mission?" I would reply something like "First off thats a very absolute question and I dont have an absolute answer for you." Then I would say, "One of my favorite things though is personal progression and becoming more like Christ." One of the goals of a mission is not simply to act differently for 2 years and go back to doing the same things you did before, but tobecome something different. Read Elder Oaks' seminal talk about becoming to understand more about what I am saying. As a result of my mission experience I am not simply acting more like Christ for 2 years, I am becoming more like Him which is such an amazing gift! I need a lot of work done on me and its been amazing how Christ has been able to shape me one step at a time while I have been serving "with all my heart might mind and strength."

"The Challenge to Become"

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2000/10/the-challenge-to-become?lang=eng

One personal struggle I have is working with my companion in unity and trying out ideas and things that are shared. This isnt specific to Elder John, but I would say to all of my past companions. This week has been a great week of further progression on my personal goal to better yield to their ideas and love my companion. I am not perfect, but I am becoming much better at recognizing and stopping my self from being so narrow minded all of the time. I have a bad tendency to not support or use the ideas that my companion suggests, but as I have been striving to constantly humble myself by listening, thinking, and supporting them, it has worked out! One way this is helped is I have changed the way I look at my opinions and what I call them. I used to look and think about my opinions as stone hard objects that didnt change under normal circumstances, but only under huge events like a sledgehammer to it or being melted in lava or something of the sort. Now I look at them more like "Jello." Jello is great because it has shape and form, but it also can be molded or brought back to liquid and reshaped. I am striving to be much more open to other concerns, recognize when I need to be more supporting (aka all of the time), and I will often say to Elder John "Now this is my Jello opinion about that..." to let him know that I really am not dead set in doing it a certain way. Christ can help me overcome these personal struggles and I am grateful for it!

I love you all so much! I invite you to read that talk/listen to it and consider what you can do to become more Christlike this week and follow through with it! If you would like me to keep you accountable, email me your goal and I will follow up!

Love you so much!

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 11: Skyway A. Episode 2: Follow Up!

We took pictures with this painting and the owner of the place it was painted on "Heavent Sent Chicken"was there so we took some pictures with him. He was pretty great!

Howdy howdy! 

Here are just some tid bit updates on how things are going!

Tuesday the 9th: I went on an exchange with Elder Graham (who is now an Assistant!) into the Clark Lake ward. It was wonderful! 15 months to the day when we met each other and I got here in Washington, we were on an exchange together in the same ward. It was sooo happy!

Wednesday the 10th: We had a great Zone Conference on helping our investigators become agents and not just acted upon. Basically helping them out to learn more and take more part in their own conversion process.

Thursday the 11th: 

Friday the 12th:

Saturday the 13th:

Sunday the 14th: There was an amazing Stake conference broadcast from Salt Lake! It was so amazing and appreciated! It was for all of the Stakes in the America Northwest area, West area, and other places. The talks were so good! I really hope they are posted online because they were so great. Sister Oscarson gave a great one directed mainly towards the youth and Elder Renlund gave some great advice about answering difficult gospel questions. They were all so fantastic.

Monday the 15th:

Tuesday the 16th: I went to Choir practice with Elder Graham. We had a great follow up on exchanges and how it went, the things we learned, and additional review on how we have changed. Take that as a principle that you should always follow up on invitations and things you talk about! "Extending an invitation without following up is like beginning a journey without finishing it or buying a ticket to a concert without going into the theater." (Preach My Gospel, chapter 11).

We also ate lunch together at Cafe Rio in Covington afterwards. It was wonderful! Super good stuff :D

Dont have as any more time to fill out more stuffs! Got to go! Love ya!

--

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 11: Skyway A. Episode 1:God Works With Imperfect Instruments Perfectly (as long as they are willing)

Me at the Mission Office picking up supplies this morning for the Zone

Elder John and I at transfers which take place at the Maple Valley Stake Center.

Howdy!

 

This week has been great. Renton is great! I love Skyway! The Skyway ward is the 3rd largest ward in the world membership wise (meaning there are wards that are larger geographically, but this ward has the most members in it!). Not all of them are active though... there are about 1000 members, but only about 125-175 are active. Yesterday it didn't seem like there were a lot of members even at church. In Elders Quorum there were only 3 attending if you don't include the missionaries and the teacher. This ward attendance wise is like branch size. But I love it!

 

We drive around a mini-van. There are only 2 in the mission. The Puyallup South Zone Leaders have one and we do. Its a light blue Grand Caravan. The Elders serving in Renton in the past have apparently named it "Mohanna" haha.

 

There are just so many people to talk to in this area! North Tapps was pretty rural compared to Skyway. Most of the ward is actually in the city of Seattle and there are tons of apartments! We could spend the whole day just talking to people outside, but we are busy! The work is going great and we are getting it rolling. Elder John and I are focusing a lot of finding this week, because if we are going to be helping a lot of people repent and to be baptized, we have got to be led to them.

 

We had a great experience Saturday morning. We were going to some members, but we couldn't find them because I left my GPS back at the apartment. We drove around and couldn't find them at all because a lot of the roads look the same. We decided to visit another investigator figuring we got lost for a reason. That was soooo true! We got out of the van and noticed about 5 different folks doing yard work. We offered to help and eventually got started talking to one about the gospel. Her name is Crystal. We ended up moving to a different location because we were getting in the way of the people doing yard work and taught her a lot about the restoration there on the spot! She had lots of questions and was very interested.

 

She is looking to get back into church. She used to go to a Pentecostal church, but stopped going a while ago and never went back because her previous boyfriend was not religious. They have broken up and she has gotten back together with an ex boyfriend and is now pregnant. She is definitely so prepared and were grateful we were led to her! She understood a lot of the restoration and committed to come to church the next day. She didn't make it to church for some reason, but we are having a lesson with her at the church on Tuesday. We are excited to help her repent and begin to see her life change for the better as she accepts this gospel.

 

There are more people we are working with right now, but Crystal is the most promising one. A part member family who Elder John has been working with before I got here are the Gastons. Brother Gaston is the non member and he struggles with smoking (and Sister Gaston). We had an amazing lesson on Saturday with them about the Word of Wisdom where the Spirit was facilitated and we gave them a blessing of strength afterwards. They committed to fast as well on Fast Sunday to overcome it as well. At the end before we were leaving though, they told us that they were going to their other church in Tukwilla. It was tough because it was a spiritual powerhouse there, but they chose to not come to church and for now have chosen the church in Tukwilla. They will still let us come by which is great, so we will be addressing that and some other concerns this week.

 

Things are wonderful! The new apartment I am in is now in ship shape and organized, so the Spirit can now be better facilitated. If you would like to take away any lesson is that you should clean your dwelling place more often haha. The Spirit dwells in a clean house a lot more than a dirty one. The Temples are kept clean and organized for a reason :D

 

I love this area and I am excited for the miracles of being led to more prepared people this week. It will happen as we exercise more faith!

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 10: North Tapps. Episode 7: The Real 7

And it came to pass...

This is my new legion of ties. I love it. If you go back to my MTC days in the blog, you can see how much my fleet has grown

My email headings are not always perfect nor will they be. I may forget to add a title or label it wrong. I acknowledged it, and now I move on. :)

Woah! Transfers are happening today! Elder Nelson has been here for 4 transfers and he will be starting his 5th here! I am being transferred today after 2. The Lord has plans for me and I am grateful for the time I got to spend here in the North Tapps ward serving as a Zone Leader in the Puyallup Stake. I now venture on to the Renton Stake serving in the Skyway ward! I will be serving as a Zone Leader with Elder John. I am excited for this coming transfer. Also Skyway is super duper close to Seattle so I should be able to send you some pictures of the city even though it isn't in our mission haha.

The work is progressing in North Tapps! 

Brother Ryan Rector our investigator on date has become sick, so we haven't been able to meet with him in a little bit. Its rough because the sickness is real, so I really need to be patient as we are trying to work with him. We are praying for his health. In the future I will be able to come to his baptism and will let you know when that happens.

We had an amazing lesson last night with the Sergeant family! We tracked into them way back in November and we finally had a lesson with them last night in the Beaus', members in the ward, home. It went wonderful! They have real intent and will get baptized when they come to know that its true. Brother Sergeant is really the one he needs work because it seems that Sister Sergeant is ready to join the church right now. Brother Sergeant has never been to a church and doesn't really have a religious background so religion is an interesting thing for him.

I had one last experience I wanted to share. It happened a while ago, but I felt like I should share it. When Elder Lawrence of the Seventy came and visited our mission, the Mission Leadership council got to have a meeting with him. Mission Leadership Council also the week before had a special "meeting" where they all got to go and hike part of Mt. Rainier. It was hard for me because I was missing out of these awesome experiences that were happening. I wanted to be apart of it. 

I asked President Eaton about what I could do to help this way I felt and he expressed some inspired thoughts. He told me that I wasn't missing out on any special revelation Heavenly Father had for me. The Holy Ghost will reveal to us what we need to hear. The Spirit is select to only the special groups of leadership like Ward Council, Seminary Council, Etc. The Holy Ghost comes when you are sincerely asking and knocking. That really helped me and I was grateful for that revelation. Don't worry about not being in leadership stuff, because what you are experiencing is what Heavenly Father has meted (or measured or chosen or given) for you! Read D&C 84:85 to lead you on additional study of this topic.

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