Third Transfer Time - Still in Moses Lake YAY 11/26/2012

    Hello how are things with everyone?  We had a great week again in Moses Lake.  First of all, transfers were yesterday and Elder Isaacson and I are actually staying together a 3rd transfer.  I am super excited for that.  Missionaries typically don't spend more than two transfers together, so this is good news for us.  I will also get to spend Christmas in Moses Lake which is also awesome.  

     Two weeks ago, we had kind of a bummer week, but that was all made up for this week.  A lesson that I re-learned this last couple weeks, is that good things are always around the corner as long as your diligent and don't give up.  We had a week full of miracles, which were answers to many prayers.  It started with a part-member-family.  Kerrigan and Angela lived in the 3rd ward when I first came here, but recently bought a home in 1st ward.  That was a blessing for them in so many ways.  With their new home and a new job that Kerrigan has, we are able to teach them consistently.  Angela has taken lessons from missionaries for about two years on and off, and really wants to be baptized.  After a couple visits with them the last couple weeks, we invited Angela to be baptized and she accepted.  They are planning on getting married on the 14th and then if all goes well there, she will be baptized on the 15th.  Pray for them that everything will work out for their wedding next month.

     We picked up some new investigators as well this last week.  Two families that seem right now to have some great potential.  Abel and Yesenia are a couple we tracted into and they invited us to come back.  When we did we talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  Neither of them are active in any church and are pretty leery about churches, but we committed them to read the Book of Mormon and they accepted.

     Pete and Patricia are a couple that have been formers/potentials for a while now.  We gave Patricia a church tour about a month and a half ago and after that, we went into teaching limbo with them as they said they were interested, but that it wasn't a good time.  We street contacted Pete on exchanges and he invited us back as well.  They have been going through some hard times so we were able to really explain the savior and the atonement. They have had some great questions about the church as well.  They have said that they would read and pray about the Book of Mormon as well.

     The week ended on a super high for us as we were able to go to the temple with sister Hopkins as she went through for the first time.  As I've said before, I love the temple and the complete peace that I feel there.  It was especially spiritual for me to be able to be at the temple and support her and her commitment to the gospel.  We have had a lot of progress from 1st ward recently, which is great because it has been historically more difficult to find things to do over in 1st ward, but the members there have given us a ton of support this last month and work is picking up there.  I am super happy to stay here at least one more transfer.   Thats about it from me, I hope you all have a wonderful week and love you all.

Super Short 11/19/2012

This email has to be super short this week.  My pday is actually on Saturday because I am going to the temple on Saturday.  Sister Hopkins is going through the temple for the first time and she asked if we could go, and we are super excited to go and support her.  I will be able to write more next Monday, which will be our transfer day as well, so I will know if I will stay in Moses Lake or if I am going somewhere else.  Elder Isaacson and I are doing well and so are all of our investigators. Sorry this email is so short=(  Love you all and have a great week.

Eventful Week 11/05/2012

Dear Everyone,

We had a great week this week.  It was pretty eventful.  Elder Isaacson crashed his bike and banged himself up pretty good.  Nothing serious, but he's been in pain ever since.  We moved out of the Hunsakers house and into Bishop Tucker's.  We had a good day on Halloween.  We invited all our investigators to the wards trunk or treat and most of them came.  We were getting sick of peoples comments about our  "great costumes" (we are missionaries) so we decided for Halloween I would dress up as Elder Isaacson, and he dressed up as Elder Stacey, and surprisingly, we got a lot of comments on it.  

Amy, one of our investigators from a couple months back, who is the mother of the girl who got baptized a month ago, came to church yesterday.  I'm sure it was a great experience for her because pretty much all of the testimonies talked about things that she needed to hear and understand.  We are hoping that we may start to be able to teach her again.  We have been thinking of sisters in the ward who might be able to fellowship her and be a friend to her as well.  

Hernan and Amada didn't come to church again this week.  They keep promising us that they will come to church and every week they end up not coming.  We have talked with them about pretty much every reason to come to church and in many different ways ranging from teaching them why we go to church to showing them all of the great things that come from coming to church and keeping the Sabbath day holy.  I really think they want to come but right now, when Sunday comes, they find other things that they feel are more pressing to their needs.  We have not really known what to do for them, so this fast Sunday we decided to fast for them and to find a way to help them progress.  I feel our prayers were answered as we went to church and talked with some of their friends in the ward about what to do.  

This week I've been thinking a lot about how the Holy Ghost works in little ways, such as the testimony of another to help answer questions people have and help them to understand the gospel.  I've seen it happen so many times, especially when it comes to church, when a talk or a Sunday school class has talked directly towards a concern one of our investigators had.  For example, about 4 months ago, while Forest was still apprehensive about tithing, our Sunday school class talked about the commandments and the importance of keeping the commandments.  One member of the class was sharing an experience of how keeping a commandment (tithing in this case as well) blessed her and her family even though it was difficult at the time.  It was a simple, yet powerful testimony that addressed Forests concern in every way.  It is a testimony builder to me to know that where we don't, and can't know everything that our investigators are feeling and going through, the Holy Ghost does, and will touch their hearts in different ways to testify to them that the gospel is true.  

That's about it from us this week.  I love things here and we are working hard.  Thats it from me this week.  Love you all.

Elder Stacey

By the way, I don't know if I've talked about Forest since he went into surgery.  He is doing good.  They think that they were able to get the tumor out before it spread, and his spirits are high.  He is going to invite his son and family to take the discussions pretty soon as well.  He is awesome.  Thank you for putting his name in the temple.  I know those prayers were answered.  Love you