Season 10: North Tapps. Episode 2: Good Christmas Week

 This is Starting from the left Elder Kelley, Elder Graham (my trainer), me, and Elder Chance. We are singing "Angels We Have Heard on High" tomorrow at our Christmas activities as half of a mission. We are super excited because we love to testify of Christ through song! I love singing together in a quartet! I miss doing that more often!

                         

Howdy!

Even though Christmas happened and most people are on a holiday break, Elder Nelson and I certainly weren't taking a break. We have been working hard to find more and more people to accept the restored gospel and things are happening!

We were able to have that lesson with Martha and Aida on Christmas day in the Puyallup Discovery Center (this is the website for it and the pictures on the website are of the actual room! Those arent just some random photos, those are the actual room in the church building where we had the lesson on those couches.  http://www.puyallupfamilyhistorycenter.org/discovery-room.html ).

Martha and Aida have such a funny dynamic. Martha the 8 year old is so converted and wants to be baptized. When we invited them to be baptized Aida said she wouldn't because she doesn't know it is true yet, but Martha said "I will!" Another example is we invited Aida to say the closing prayer, but she declined. Then Martha (the 9 year old :D) said she would help her mom and so AIda said the prayer with Martha whispering it into her ear. Its so great that she helps out so much and she also said an amazing prayer!

They were set for coming to church and basically to come by themselves, but we got a text about 20 minutes before saying Martha was sick so they wouldn't be able to come. Elder Nelson and I were disappointed (not discouraged. Its okay to be disappointed. Discouragement is what is the bad thing) about that, but we are so excited to teach her this coming week! Its so hard when things that you have no control over happen like that. I have that tendency to be to hard on myself and it took me a moment to slow down and think that there realistically wasn't anything more I could have done to help them stay. So my simple invitation is when things in your life happen that you cant really control, don't beat yourself up about it! Choose to be happy and focus on the good.

I love this. How can we be ungrateful when we remember all of the bounteous blessings that God has given us! If we remember what He does for us every day, we wont have to be sad or discouraged because we will naturally be happy about what we have been given. 

2015 is at its 11th hour. I can say serving a mission here in Washington has been the best year of my life so far. I know that it certainly hasn't been the easiest, but I can catalog 2015 as the year in my life where I was a full-time missionary for every last bit of it. I have grown and changed a lot and I am still not done. I still have the rest of my mission and my life to continue to become more like Our Savior. I plan on making goals to become more like Christ and progress for this next year. My simple message about goals that you make is that you need to own, care about, and remember your goals that you set. If you don't honestly care about the goals or if you don't remember them, or if you don't make a plan to achieve them these resolutions wont likely be resolved at the end of the next year. Did Astronauts ever get to the moon without first designing the vehicle that will take them there? They couldn't just wake up one morning and wing it to the moon. Make a plan of how you are going to achieve your goal and then stick to it!

I love this gospel. As I study the doctrine everyday, my testimony is renewed and strengthened. One of the most important goals that I invite you to make for this year is to firmly resolve that you will read The Book of Mormon everyday, say multiple prayers throughout the day, and attend church every Sunday possible. These 3 things make or break our testimony. I invite you to become more firm in the Faith this year and in every year continually. So if you are not, start. I promise you will be able to tell a difference. Ask yourself "Will you I do these things?" These are some of the smallest things you can do that will make the biggest differences in your life. By small and simple thing are great things come to pass!

Stay Celestial!

Elder Sumsion

Season 10: North Tapps. Episode 1:The Time for Christ.

Howdy Howdy! It is an amazing time of the year for remembering Christ because more people start to do it than normal. One of the tracting approaches our President said we could try out is just inviting people to come to church because the Sunday before Christmas is usually when people who usually don't go come. We invited a lot of people to come and we had 3 less actives come to church which was super duper happy! All it took was an invitation to come, remembering to follow up, and actually doing it. Really that is the key to missionary work. Invite people to do things and follow up.

We haven't been able to make contact with Martha and Aida for a while, but yesterday we were able to talk to Aida at her door. We decided to go tract out her whole neighborhood to find her so we just "happen" to run into her. It worked. Preach My Gospel says "There are many honorable ways to find people to teach." :D She said she is going to come to church this Sunday and also that she has just been super duper busy with work. She was open to scheduling something, so we set up an appointment on Christmas to teach her which is going to be great!

Last night we were tracting in this huge neighborhood that is huge, but very hard to find without a map. We knocked around in a cul-de-sac and ran into a less active man. He said we could come back later and was very friendly. His records aren't even in the ward, so it was great that we ran into him. Its really insightful to see how we are used as missionaries to bring back those who have gotten astray back into the fold. 

You meet a lot of interesting people while tracting around here in Washington... I remember my seminary teacher Brother Jepsen who lived here in Washington as an apartment manager telling us stories about one crazy man who talked a lot about aliens and them coming to get him. I thought "sure you see and hear of people like that in the movies, but there aren't really people like that." There certainly are people like that I can tell you! 

In the end, this week has been pretty slow, but things are going to be picking up. Elder Nelson and I are going to be following up a lot more with potential investigators we find and that will certainly yield fruit. We are most certainly going to have baptisms in the coming months as we invite more and more people!

Happy Christmas y'all! Don't forget to invite one of your friends specifically on social media or in person to look at christmas.mormon.org. Invite someone to watch it and follow up later to see how they liked it. Be sure to just try it!

Elder Sumsion

Season 9: North Tapps. Episode 5:

 Two trees that fell over in the storm that totaled 2 cars and damaged 3 others. Elders in our Zone had permission to help out with this to help clean up. It was some good work!

In order starting from the left, Elders Kelley, Dalley, Perkins, Sumsion, R. Nelson, Z. Nelson, Kidwell, and Cabrera

The roots for one of the tree's that fell over.

Elder Nelson and I did it! Bacon Pancakes!!!!

This is a picture from exchanges with the Assistants. This was my first apartment
and it still is super duper small compared to the other places I have served in.
That is Elder Berkheimer on the ground.

​Howdy! I figure instead of telling to every time how little amount of time I have to type these emails, I am will instead spend that time typing it because that lack of time happens pretty consistently.

I have a lot of pictures to send so this email is pretty long because "A picture is worth a thousand words." Its tough because I can only send 2 at a time, so sorry about the barrage of emails. There was a pretty bad windstorm on Wednesday morning and as a result President Eaton gave permission for missionaries to go around and look for service opportunities and have other missionaries come and help. That happened in our Zone where two trees fell over and did some huge damage to 2 cars totaling them and damaging 3 others. Missionaries in our Zone helped out and the following emails are pictures.

This week we were able to go on exchanges with the Assistants. They Assistant area is Clark Lake where I started my mission or my first area! This week also celebrated the 1 year of being in the mission field. And guess what? I went back to Clark Lake on an exchange into my area 1 year exactly from when I got there! It was so great! I enjoyed it so much and learning from Elder Berkheimers great example.

A family we taught last week dropped us, but we did find a great former last night who seems really promising. We are going to be having our next lesson in the Puyallup Family Discovery Center next week. Its going great!

Love you all! Things are wonderful here in Washington! Share the video! I havent forgotten of what I have invited you to do, just try it out!

Sincerely,

Elder Sumsion

Season 9: North Tapps. Episode 4:#ASaviorIsBorn

A selfie with President Eaton and Elder Nelson while at our apartment.

Elder Nelson and I at Mission Leadership Council at the Mission Home.

Hello Friends and Family!

This week Elder Nelson and I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with President Eaton! It was only for 4 hours, but each of those hours were fantastic. He ate dinner with us at our apartment and then we went out finding. One of the things that I really looked forward to was seeing President Eaton tract and learn from his example. Towards the end of the evening as I was reflecting on what I learned I recognized that I was being way to hard on myself about how I did in tracting. When someone would say no it didn't seem to phase him at all. I am sure he still has things he wants to fix and do better, but he doesn't spend to much time on how it went. As I focus more on pleasing God more than myself in the way I tract and not myself, that is where I will find true success and more fruit. I am working on being less hard on myself when things go poorly and I am glad to learn from Presidents example.

I am out of time again and I would love to share more with you and I got to go. I am doing well and striving to be a progressing missionary. Love you all! Share the gospel with someone this week! It is literally the best gift you can give this Christmas season. Just try it this way!

Go to your Facebook friend list and pray about who you can specifically share christmas.mormon.org with and the video on it "A Savior is Born." Then send them a message with the link letting them know why you like it!

Its super simple and I challenge you to do it.

Love,

Elder Sumsion

Season 9:North Tapps. Episode 3: Gratefulness.

This was at the Thanksgiving activities. On the left side to the right we have me, Elder Raps (who is currently serving in Glacier Park/Lake Wilderness), Elder Moon, Elder Patchet, Elder Ryan Nelson, and Elder Nelson my companion. We were at one point playing a card game called "Exploding Kittens."

I had an adventure this week and I made steak. It was a exciting experience! I had never really done something like it, just mainly watched my mom do it. They turned out pretty great. 

This is Lake Tapps on thanksgiving morning while we were driving to the activities.

Sorry I don't have tons of time again for this email. This week we found 2 new investigators and got them committed to baptism on December 26th. We aren't sure of their commitment thought because one of them, Wyatt, said he would come to a baptismal service and to church, but didn't make it to either. They are both YSA age so eventually we will transfer them to those Elders (which is my trainer and my missionary brother :)).

We are still trying to have another lesson with Martha and Aida and are working with them. She gets pretty busy so its tough to schedule things.

On Thanksgiving we were able to gather as a half of a mission and play some games. There was Basketball, Volleyball, board games, and a couple of other things going on. It was for 3 hours and its the only time in the year where we get to do something like that. It was really fun to play board games! I really do love to play them and to be with other people.

My simple invitation to you is to not only express your thanks to other people on Thanksgiving, but to do it every day of the year! Most importantly express your thanks to God. Just as Elder Bednar invites us have prayers with Heavenly Father where we thank Him, I invite you to do the same. Have a prayer and only express gratitude to Him, and then afterwards record what you are thankful for and His tender mercies in your journal! It will help you be happier and more grateful for what you have

Love,

Elder Sumsion

Season 9: North Tapps. Episode 2:Being Busy.

The Lake behind me is part of Lake Tapps and in the background is Mount Rainier. Pictures dont really give you the full depth of field for it. This is probably the best one I got of it so far though. This picture was taken in North Lake Tapps park.

This is Elder Nelson! We went on exchanges! He is from Canada and lives about 3 hours from the mission. He is a great missionary and we sung a lot on exchanges.

As a missionary your free time is already pretty limited, but it gets even more limited when you are serving in leadership. Now leadership isn't something that rises you above others, it simply gives you more opportunities to serve and sacrifice. That requires time, but you are blessed for the sacrifice.

I don't have much time today. Sorry about that! 

We went on what we call a "blits" this week with the Elders in Clarks Creek Ward. We spent about 2 hours and 30 minutes with them. I went with Elder Meyer while Elder Nelson went with Elder Chance and we both worked in their area/ward. This was Elder Meyer's second week of being in the mission and it was great to learn from him. He is great at being very personable and "real" with everyone that he talked to. At the very beginning of it we couldn't find the house we were looking for, so we walked around for a little bit longer and an amazing experience happened! 

While we were getting into the car a Hispanic man pulled up next to us in a car and asked "Are you the missionaries?" We responded affirmative and he pulled over, then we started talking. His name was Oscar and he said that he got baptized 6 years ago and hasn't gone to church for a little while, but that he wants to come back to church and for his daughter to get baptized! It was so cool to have something like that happen where we could be in the right place at the right time! Heavenly Father will certainly direct your paths if you are trying to do what He asks!

That"s all I have time for.

Have a great week!

Elder Sumsion

Season 9: North Tapps. Episode 1: Starting Up

This is Elder Nelson and I at transfers (with Elder Odell sneaking behind :D)

It was raining all day on Saturday and then it was snowing pretty hard on Sunday morning! This is the first time that I have been with snow since I left Utah last November. It was all melted probably by 1, but it was really cool to see! This view is just right outside our apartment.

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a very nice one! I have enjoyed it and I am glad to be with Elder Nelson! I am in the North Tapps ward which is basically around the the city of Sumner, Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, and a little bit of Auburn. The ward is basically all trees and scattered houses in-between. We have a car which has been really helpful! I am grateful to be in one especially since winter is in the midst of things and it rains more and more. Elder Nelson and I were especially feeling for all the missionaries on bike on Saturday because it was raining literally the whole day! And it wasnt a light rain, it was pouring at some points.

This ward is actually brand new! Its about 3 months old and there wasnt a lot of work done in the ward beforehand, so Elder Nelson and I are basically building up the ward and the work here. We have some great starts though! Martha is 8 years old and we have had a couple of lessons with her. She came to a 8 year olds baptism and it has been in the works of teaching her and her mom. We are just starting to teach her which is great. We are going to start teaching her mom to tomorrow! They both came to church on Sunday for all 3 hours and it seems she really likes it! We are so grateful to have the opportunity to teach them!

I am all out of time for today, but I am doing very well and I am happy! The work is good and I am growing (which means I am out of my comfort zone)!

Love you all!

Elder Sumsion