MOVING and MORE

Hello all,

So this was my first week as an office Elder. It was pretty cool! My companion has told me that transfers is the hardest week. Nearly every day since then we have been delivering supplies, packages, and other stuff that Elders forgot in their old area to their new ones. It is really great to see the whole mission and meet the other missionaries here in Seattle. On Saturday we drove down to Federal Way to pick up a bed. The sisters who lived there lived with members in a mansion that overlooked the Puget Sound. That is probably the nicest place to stay here in the mission and of course sisters live there. We still have a lot to deliver, but hopefully by the end of the week we can focus more on the missionary work here in the Bellevue 6th ward.

Right now we have 2 investigators. Jake and Lindsey are an older couple who requested missionaries after they visited Temple Square a couple months ago on a long ski trip to Utah. They were very impressed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They attended "Music and the Spoken Word" for 3 consecutive weeks and loved every program. I am quite sure it is the Choir that converted them at first. While on Temple Square, they spoke to missionaries about the Book Of Mormon and were very interested. Needless to say, they are golden and are scheduled to be baptized this weekend. They do have some health concerns, so it may be delayed, but they are definitely ready to do it. They are really amazing. They have the "How can I help?" not an "I need help!" mentality that will make them great members! They are excited to hold callings. Elder Rodriguez told me that the first time they went to Church, they even donated tithing because they had extra money they wanted to donate. I am excited that they are a family and will grow together in the gospel and will have the opportunity to be sealed together in a year as they remain faithful!

Yesterday was Easter. It was fun to celebrate with members. On Thursday, Sue, from Issaquah sent Elder Kitchen and I bags of candy to celebrate! She has invited both Elder Kitchen and I with her when she is sealed in a couple of months to her soon-to-be husband, Adrian!

So I am quite excited to be here in Bellevue again! It is great to be working with many of the same Elders I have gotten to know for the past 8 months here in Bellevue. The Church it true!

~Elder Fetzer

TRANSFERS

Hello all,

 

So as you may know, I have been transferred from Seattle. I am now in Bellevue 6th ward and also work in the mission office. It is going to be an interesting next couple of months. I get to drive this HUGE van a.k.a. "The Tank." I don't really know what exactly I will be doing, but I think it is going to be a cool job! I am excited to see more of the mission! As office Elders, we deliver supplies to other missionaries and drive all over the mission to help move. It is going to be an exciting adventure, although I really have no idea why I am an office Elder.

 

My new companion's name is Elder Rodriguez, from Orem, Utah. He served around me in Issaquah before he became an office elder, so it is pretty cool that I already know my companion well.

This was an interesting week. We haven't heard from Clint since my last email so I really don't know how he is doing - probably worse. I hope Elder Tanner can help him out. We continued to meet with Keith, the Chinese investigator. He was our only progressing investigator, but he is still trying to understand the spirit and try to believe in God so he is gonna be a bit of work for the 5th Ward Elders.
 

For some reason I kind of felt like I was going to move so this week we saw a lot of Seattle. We went to see the Fremont Troll under the Aurora bridge and went to quite a few parks. There is one park called Volunteer Park, which we went to and it had an old water tower that you were allowed to climb to the top of, which had quite a good view of both Seattle and Bellevue. At the park they also have a conservatory, which houses various plants from around the world. It was pretty cool! Bruce and Brandon Lee's grave is also in our area. We went to an old cemetery in Seattle, where many of Seattle's rich and famous are resting, including many of the old pioneer families. There are many beautiful neighborhoods in Seattle. The houses are spectacular. The houses in Issaquah have nothing compared to these houses.

 

So as you see, I really am quite excited for the change. I can't wait to see what the next months as an office Elder brings me! The Church is true!

 

~Rich

 

Richard and his cousin Meka before transfers

 

 

 

The Troll Under the Bridge

 

From On Date To Not

Hello all,

Well, this was quite a dissappointing week. Clint was not baptized. He is currently on a slippery slope and his future is cloudy. On Wednesday we found out that he really hadn't quit smoking. So we had a lesson with him later that day, and at first he seemed committed to really stop, but now he seems discouraged and seems to be smoking even more than before. The past couple of days he hasn't been too talkative and has really seemed to have given up. So the future is cloudy with Clint, but Elder Tanner and I are trying to stay positive. He might just be in a phase right now, but we may be headed for a bumpy road to get him baptized.

So things are only looking up from here. I'm hoping and praying for a miracle soon! We had a pretty fun week though. As you see, we went to a park that has a great view of downtown seattle. Did you know that the Space Needle actually is quite far away from the rest of the City and that Queen Anne is the only place that you can take the picture like this of the Seattle skyline?

It is officially spring in Seattle. We are having more and more sunny days, but of course it still rains a lot! There was a really nice day last week and it was really nice just to be outside walking around.

The Church came out with a newly edited version of the film "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." I wonder who recieved the revalation to change it. The film truly needed it to make it more understandable to a general audience.

Anyways, I am doing fine here. Things are good. We do have quite a few people to teach, just not progressing. The Church is true!

~Elder Fetzer

Conference Weekend

So you must all be wondering how Clint's baptism went. To put it simply, it didn't happen - yet. After his interview with President Larkin, they both determined that it would be best to wait another week so he can work on his Word of Wisdom problems. So now his baptism will take place this Saturday. It actually works out quite perfectly. His next court date isn't until the week after so he will have the Holy Ghost for whatever legal matters come his way. Other than that, we had kind of a slow week with not much to report.

 

I did another exchange last Wednesday. I went to an area, which gets around using buses. It was really quite fun moving around using public transportation. I truly felt like a missionary!

 

The highlight of the week had to be conference. It is always good to be spiritually fed by prophets and apostles. This year I noticed a couple of themes, including marriage, tithing, temples, service, welfare, and preparing for tough times ahead. As we live the gospel and keep our covenants, we will be able to get through any trial that comes our way. The priesthood session was especially good. I can't wait to re-read the words of the living prophets of God in the Ensign next month.

 

This week we got a new investigator. He is the foreign-exchange room mate of someone in our ward. He is from China and is very interested in Christianity and that the LDS Church has a prophet on Earth once again. He has no belief in Christ, but he wants to learn more. It will certainly be interesting teaching someone without a sure knowledge of God or Jesus Christ.

 

Well, things here are slowly but surely going along. Hopefully the baptism goes through this weekend. The Church is true!

 

~Elder Richard Fetzer