An Amazing Baptism

Hello all,

We had a baptism this week! Jack was baptized and confirmed by his grandfather. It was a very spiritual baptism! Jack's less-active mom May and non-member sister Jamie sang the song "A Child's Prayer" and it brought such a great spirit. Hopefully the baptism helps to soften their hearts and eventually Jamie will get baptized. The Lord has blessed us with 2 baptisms the last 2 months! It is amazing that both people came to Church and wanted to be baptized! But now, we are back to square one and need to work hard and find people to teach!

Funny story, we were filling the font and all the hot water ran out and the font was freezing cold so I walked out on a ledge to try to pull the plug to let water out so we could fill it with boiling water and I fell halfway in! My shoes and half my pants were soaking and with only 15 minutes until the baptism we had no time to get home and change. So with halfway wet pants and sopping wet shoes I attended the baptism. Not only that, but the water was cold and Jack nearly didn't get into the water to be baptized. But thanks to his patient grandpa it finally happened!

Last Monday was an interesting day. Elder Ouassil wanted to go to goodwill to buy a new suit because we have to wear them every day now. He got the suit for a great deal, but needed it altered. So we went to Men's Warehouse and after getting fitted, he found out the price and it was way expensive. So we walked out of the store and that was pretty embarrassing. Then I wanted to use a 10 dollar certificate to a smoothie place here and we walked in and I found out that it didn't word so we walked out with no smoothie. To end the day we were dropped by a less-active we teach. So as you see the week didn't start out very well, but it sure ended well!

So now we have to work hard and find our next person to baptize! I know that the Lord will bless us! I love and miss you! I know that the Church is true with all my heart and will talk to you later!

~Elder Fetzer

Elder Fetzer, Jack, Elder Ouassil

Miracles

Hello all,

So this week a miracle occurred. Here in the Bellevue Zone we have been praying for 7 baptisms for the month. We got a call on Tuesday night from Sister Polk, Jack's aunt telling us that since they didn't need to get permission from his dad they wanted to have the baptism on February 26! So we have a baptism coming up! The Lord is truly blessing us!

It is actually really crazy that our last 2 baptisms have been from people who have basically come up to us at Church and told us that they wanted to be baptized. There is a great work to do here in the Issaquah 5th ward!

Other than that we continue to work with basically the same people, Neesheri & Corinda. But hopefully Corinda continues to progress and learn about the Church. They continue to come to Church every week and let us come teach them. Hopefully Corinda takes our advice and starts using the Atonement in her life so she can see that one Man did indeed take upon Himself the sins of the world.

For now, things are going well here in Issaquah 5th ward. The Lord is blessing us. The man we found last week tracting is still trying to become activated.He says that he wants to go to the singles ward FHE tonight.

This week was all-in-all average, but we did see miracles and the Lord is truly blessing the Washington Seattle Mission.

Sorry I have to keep this short. But I love and miss you all! Thanks for your constant prayers and support. I know that the Church is true and that Joseph Smith truly restored Christ's church on the earth once again.

~Elder Richard Fetzer

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello all,

Even in a slow week I have seen miracles. We continue to teach Neesheri, the member returning to activity, and his girlfriend Corinda, who is slowly progressing. She is starting to better understand the atonement and how one Man could take upon Him the sins and sorrows of the world. We challenged her to test it out and that if she had a "particle of faith," she would see the atonement work in her life too.

Jack, our on-date is also progressing. He has really no knowledge of the Church, although he has been to church many times and his extended family are active members, but he will be ready for baptism when March rolls around. Each time we go to teach him, the date keeps on getting pushed back so I really have no idea when the baptism will actually happen.

I have gained a testimony of having the spirit tell me where to go tracting. There is a street in our area that we pass nearly every day. A couple of weeks ago I had a prompting to tract there, but as time passed we always ended up going somewhere else. So this week we finally got around to tracting the street. Door after door rejected us, but I still felt that we needed to go on. When we knocked on the last door of the street we met a less-active man. He told us that the missionaries knocking on his door was the sign he needed to start coming back to Church and invited us back. The Lord will place people in our paths as we follow the spirit.

Be sure to watch out for the March issue of the Ensign. There is an article about the Issaquah 5th Ward. In the summer of 2006 there were many members who suffered many tragic events and the ward bonded together. It is a really cool article and mentions many people that I know! The article even mentions that one man is a non-member, whose member wife suffered. (There is a new feature online that will update the world on these families mentioned and hopefully the next update is that the husband is baptized, but I think it will only happen when his kids go on missions.)
Well, as you see it was kind of a dull week, but we keep on chugging along.

~Elder Richard Fetzer

A Week of Ups and Downs

Hello all,

So this was quite a week. A lot happened. First off, we have another on-date! Jack is a 9 year old boy who is the son of a less-active woman in the ward! It all started a couple of weeks ago when his active aunt and uncle, also in the ward, took him to Church. After Church, his aunt came up to us and told us that Jack wanted to be baptized! So we started teaching him on Thursday night with the message of the Restoration, where he accepted the baptismal commitment for February 19th. We went back on Saturday morning and the family wanted to push back the date to March 5th so family could come into town. So it is kind of a bummer that we have no one scheduled for baptism in February, but at least we will have a baptism coming up!

We continue to teach Neesheri, the returning member I told you about last week and his girlfriend Corinda. Neesheri is coming back to church now and I think is liking it. Corinda for now is slowly progressing and needs to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and the Atonement. She has a hard time comprehending that one man could take on the sins of the world.

We continue to look for new investigators. Surprisingly, there are a few investigators in our ward who prefer having sister missionaries teach them, which is kind of disappointing, but at least our ward will get to count the baptisms. Right now we have the biggest teaching pool that I have had here, but that isn't saying a lot because it isn't that many people. The Lord continues to bless the Issaquah 5th Ward.
Things are looking hopeful for the coming month. As always, the Church is true!

~Elder Fetzer