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This is what you see when you walk right into the apartment. |
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| This is our apartment building. Underneath it is a parking garage where we park our car. We live on the 5th floor and the 6th floor is the roof. It has a great view. |
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| This is my desk area and how I have it set up. |
As I mentioned last week I have been transferred in Zone and in-ward to the Skyway B area! Its really great. The apartment where we live is really awesome. The whole area where we live is just right south of downtown Seattle. We live around the Columbia City or Hillman City area. Its all really nice and there are tons and tons of people. It is probably the most populated area or one of the closest populated areas in the mission.
Things are going great we have a wonderful row of investigators who are progressing towards baptism. The one who is closest is Ric. He is the father of a large Filipino family. One of their daughters was baptized a couple of years ago and ever since then one or two at a time more of the family has been getting baptized. Ric is set to be baptized on the 28th at 6:30 pm. He wasn't interested at all in being baptized just a couple months ago, but his heart has been touched and he is very ready! For our second lesson even we taught him the Word of Wisdom and invited him to live that and come to church every week and he committed to do that. He is willing to do all of those things to follow Christ and to be united with his family forever. The family is so kind and charitable! Last night we had a lesson with him and his family and they gave us a whole Apple Pie. I love them a lot and I am so grateful to be teaching them.
2 others are committed in the area. Jean is the Grandma of McKenzie who is 9. They are both committed to baptism for the 4th of June. Jean hasn't been committed before, but we are worried she may fall of date because she hasn't attended church yet even when she commits to do it. So we are going to be working with her on that and just helping her take this one step at a time. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!"
This next man is one that I love SOOO much! Walter is his name and he is just the most curious and sincere investigator I have ever met! He is fascinated by all of the doctrine. The biggest struggle for him is coming to church though. It was pretty funny because last week he didn't attend church because he was doing family history. Elder Jones and Elder Murphy taught it to him and he just absorbed it all! He loved the idea of it soo much! So he has been doing a lot on familysearch.org and just a lot of other things. We have been focusing on church attendance and also helping him focus on the "big question" of whether or not the Book of Mormon is the word of God and if Joseph Smith really was a prophet. The reason why I say big question is because the Book of Mormon is really what every question about the gospel can be boiled down to on whether or not it is the word of God. Because if it is the word of God, Joseph Smith was really a Prophet from when he was translating it with Gods power from "Reformed Egyptian" into English.
Anyway, we love him a lot! We are excited for coming progress from him. Even though he has concerns and doesn't understand everything, he is still meeting with us and willing to learn. When someone is willing to take the time and ask and learn, The Spirit can work with that and help you overcome concerns.
Lastly, President Eaton sent out this great message to the mission about not being so concerned about titles. Basically about how it doesn't matter where we serve in the church, but how we serve. Heavenly Father doesn't look at whether or not you served as a Bishop, Relief Society President, or an Assistant to the Mission President. He looks on the heart and on if we truly throughout our life exercised Faith in Jesus Christ, changed as you sincerely repent, made covenants with him, and you strive constantly to keep them and to obey the 2 great commandments. He doesn't have a special tier of the Celestial kingdom for those who served as a Prophet or any other position. In the end, God looks on the heart and what we have become.
This is what President Eaton shared
Our transfer is quite unusual. We have only 2 missionaries arriving. We’re closing some areas. And for a variety of reasons, some missionaries who had been serving as senior companions will be serving as junior companions for a season. And as always, there will be people who had been serving in certain leadership positions who no longer will be.
Such changes test our discipleship. Are you willing to go where the Lord asks you to go and serve how he asks you to serve? Or will you feel slighted or underutilized? Will you murmur because your area got closed or you got moved? Will you coast because you didn’t become senior companion or a leader or are no longer one of those things? In short, will you go where the Lord wants us to go and serve as he wants you to serve?
These changes provide tremendous training for the kinds of changes you will face throughout your life. Ward boundaries will be realigned, a guy you didn’t especially like will be called to be your stake president or bishop, your roommate will get called to serve as Relief Society president when you secretly thought it might be you, and one day you will be released from every leadership calling you hold. What we do in such circumstances will be revealing about our character and our faith.
In the coming months, Sister Eaton and I will experience such a test. Will we serve God with as much love and diligence in some quiet corner of a ward as we strive to when we are on center stage of a mission? Elder Robert D. Hales has written, “How we serve when we no longer find ourselves in the gospel limelight may be even more important than how we served when the whole ward or stake seemed to be watching us.” I remember with sadness seeing one man become less active after being released as elders quorum president. It was almost as if he wasn’t willing to come to Church if he couldn’t be a star. He was addicted to titles, and withdrawal was rough.
Elder Glenn L. Pace served in the Presiding Bishopric before being one of the few General Authorities called to serve as a mission president. One day as a mission president in Boise, he drove through the pouring rain to the mission office, which was part of a multi-use building the Church owned. He hurried to the back door, hoping to go in there instead of walking through the pouring rain to the front of the building. But the back door was locked, and somehow he wasn’t someone who had been trusted with the password to get in.
For a moment, President Pace found himself thinking how ridiculous it was that as a counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, he used to have responsibility for every single building in the Church, and now he wasn’t trusted with the key code for the building where the mission office was. Then, in his frustration, this thought pricked his soul: “Glenn, who are you when you take off your stripes?"
In the military, everyone has a rank, and rank is everything. Your rank is shown by the number of stripes on the shoulder of your uniform. Everyone can see it. The Spirit was asking Glenn Pace who he was without his title.
Do we define ourselves by our titles? Do we draw our self-esteem from our stripes? If we do, we may go through some painful readjusting when we are released as we reconnect to the true source, Heavenly Father.
Many years ago, President J. Reuben Clarke served as the first counselor to two Prophets. But when President David O. McKay became the Prophet, President McKay called him as his second counselor instead of his first counselor. In the General Conference where he was sustained as second counselor, President Clarke taught this simple truth that is important for all of us to learn: “In the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve but how. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one takes the place to which one is duly called, which place one neither seeks nor declines.”
I invite you to show your humility and faith this transfer by serving with all your heart, might, mind and strength, regardless of your title and regardless of your area. As you pour your heart out in loving service, you will show God your true colors, and you will be blessed.
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These lessons on titles is something that I have been learning for the past transfer and I am grateful for the way the Heavenly Father prepared me for my release as a Zone Leader. In a world where people rely so much on compliments and the accolades of men, its just like being plugged into a power outlet with no power. The light, charger, or any other device wont work. The only true source of power that lasts is from God. Seek for his approval and what His opinion is. Plug yourself into the outlet that truly does have a source of energy that never ends. I certainly am not perfect at it, but I am trying every day to care more about what Heavenly Father thinks and approves of rather than what man does.
If you are wondering about what Heavenly Father approves of, check out these different resources.
- Read the scriptures. God will speak to you through His words.
- For the missionaries check out Preach My Gospel pages 10-11. Its the simplest and most clear explanation.
- For everyone, overall the best resource is to ask Him in prayer for His approval. Ask him specifically to "Are my actions pleasing thee?" "Am I doing what thou wouldst have me do?" He will answer that. As I have asked that on my mission I receive an answer every time. Whether its been immediate, the next day or so on has varied, but the consistency of Him answering is every time.
Love you all so much! Mission life is great! Thank you for your prayers and support.
Elder Sumsion
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