Crazy things are happening!

Hello all,

 

So this was a busy week. It was transfers! And as I predicted, Elder Kasenberg and I are still in the office. This had to have been one of the busiest weeks of my mission, in the office every day from 9-5 and most evenings driving around the mission delivering bikes and other furniture to missionaries that moved into new apartments. But at least we are busy and do have things that have to be done, although I can't wait until I am back as a regular missionary.

 

I am glad that our ward has FINALLY implemented the focus 5 program, in which we focus on families and individuals that are less-active and would like to invite back to Church. It has taken a long time for the ward to really learn how to implement it, after various trainings from stake leaders and even an area seventy, and took Elder Perry to come for the ward counsel to really understand it. But better late than never. Other wards I have been in that have truly implemented the program have seen great success from it and have seen many people come back into the Church. So once it is fully implemented we will have a lot more referrals from the ward to teach.

 

This week I sold a car without the help of Elder Greensides. I feel pretty happy about my accomplishment. I sold the Toyota Avalon driven by the mission president before he got a new one. I am happy about the persistence of the man who bought it for calling nearly every week since June to see when it would be ready.

 

We had a REALLY CRAZY experience this week. I can't remember if I have ever told you about him, but there is a homeless man in the stake that is well-known among the missionaries that always asks for blessings and advice. I have had 2 experiences with him in the past when I was in Issaquah 5th. Before he came to Church and after the meetings he asked for a blessing because he "gained revelation" that he lost his exaltation when he was sitting in the waiting room (that is the only part he can go into) in the temple. So he expected us to give him a blessing telling him that he had or had not lost it (that blessing didn't say). As I saw the man walk into the office and stand at the counter and ask me and my companion for a blessing, I froze. This time he talked to us for an hour about how he moved back east but his bishop there told him to come back and make amends with his wife so he could fully repent. Now in Washington he wanted a blessing telling him what to do next. I have to be honest, the spirit wasn't there. So I gave a blessing telling him universally true statements, such as to follow the law and that Heavenly Father wants him to get his life back in order. THEN he wanted my comp to give him a blessing because "out of the mouth of two or three witnesses" is truth, so he says. So Elder Kasenberg gave him a blessing with universally true statements. After this experience we talked to other missionaries and many of them had heard and even had other experiences with this man. I guess for being in Bellevue nearly a year I got my fair share of experiences with him. Crazy stuff! But that is one of the interesting things about missionary work. You don't have those experiences every day!

 

Well, things are going okay. Work is moving along and the Washington Seattle Mission is doing good!

The Church is true!

 

~Elder Fetzer

Elder Perry comes to visit

Hello all,

 

So this week was actually quite good, not in terms of teaching or lessons, or the people that we met, but it was just good. And to end it by hearing from one of the Twelve apostle made it all the better.

 

Transfers are coming up next week and i'll be surprised if either me or my companion are transferred because we are really the only ones that know how the office runs. But it could always happen. Also, it seems as though my friends out here are all getting ready to go home. Each transfer more and more people that I know are leaving the mission field, off to bigger and better things. Every transfer I feel like I know less people. So maybe it is just me and I need to start getting to know the younger missionaries better. I feel like I am still a younger missionary myself, but then I realize I have been out nearly a year and see that most of the mission is younger than I am and that makes me feel weird. Anyways, things are fine right now. We're always busy in the office and getting ready for transfers is no different.

 

Yesterday we had the privilege of hearing from Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He was accompanied by his wife and Elder Christiansen of the Quroum of the 70. Elder Christiansen just emphasized points found in Preach My Gospel including talking to everyone, companionship study, and how to help people read and gain a witness of the Book of Mormon. Sister Perry also spoke about enduring trials and the blessings that come from it. Elder Perry talked about loving your companion and how to work with less-active members of the Church. The spirit in the meeting was quite strong. It is always a great experience when general authorities come to visit.

 

We haven't met with the Stinsons is a while. They have family visiting. But they said we could come by next week. We're planning to talk to them about Patriarchal Blessings! We found some good potential tracting this week.So that was basically my week. It was good.

 

~Elder Fetzer

Zone Conferences and More

Hello all,

 

This was quite a good week! We actually did have time to do some missionary work (after 5 PM of course) and we stayed pretty busy. This week was zone conference, meaning that we had to be there all 4 days and do all the inspections and do training. It still surprises me that we train on basically the same thing every zone conference and missionaries still aren't able to care for their cars well. But at least we get a good lunch from all the work and I get to see some of my friends from around the mission.

 

Proselyting is going to start to change in the mission. BECAUSE, have I told you about it? The Church is going to do a HUGE media blitz for the "I'm a Mormon" campaign in the Seattle area and it is going to help the work here a lot! As part of it, we are spending a lot of time on the Mormon.org site and all the missionaries are creating profiles. Other cities that the Church has done this in has seen great success, especially NYC. It seems that the Church has been seen in a better light lately. Hopefully this helps people gain a testimony of the gospel. 

 

Also, Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is visiting the area THIS FRIDAY. Rumor has it he will provide training for this upcoming blitz, but none the less, I am quite excited! At zone conference, all the areas got DVD players to use to watch the Preach My Gospel training DVDs. I'm kind of worried about what is going to happen, but I know that the people who approved it in the Missionary Department know what they are doing.

 

This media blitz may be what our mission needs to see the work really start to skyrocket. We have had many visits from general authorities in the past year preparing us for great things to come. Hopefully this will help accomplish the goals our mission wants to achieve.

 

We had some good success tracting this week. Many of the potential investigators we found live around members homes. It is surprising how prepared some of the people are. We were tracting around the Bishop's house and we found a man who wants to become closer to God. He let us in (the second time it has ever happened) and we taught him about the atonement and we taught him how to pray and actually got him to do it! It was really quite a miracle! 

 

Last night we had a great ward party! The ward holds an annual corn roast every year at a park on the shore of Lake Washington. It was quite enjoyable getting to know the members of this ward better! Other than that, It was an average week. But the Church is True and will bless many more people to come.

 

~Elder Fetzer

"Can I Rent a Car?"

This was another interesting week in the Washington Seattle Mission Office. We are getting ready for Zone Conference next week and we also have transfers coming up. So things are really picking up.

There was a car that broke down and I had it towed to a dealership. When the missionary found out his car would be in the shop for 2 days he asked if the Church would get a rental car. Of course the answer is no. It is just kind of funny the dumb questions you encounter from other missionaries.

 

Elder and Sister Greensides left for home. They both gave good talks in the ward that they attended. It was a bittersweet goodbye for them. They will truly be missed. They were great missionaries!

Last Saturday the Bellevue Stake had a luau. This stake does more activities than any other stake I have seen, probably because the people here have money, but still. They had a roasted pig, hawaiian ice, and hundreds of cupcakes. I saw some of my friends from Issaquah 5th like Anne and Sue. Every time I see Anne she seems like she is doing better. It keeps on being a testament to me on how the gospel changes people. Last October she was in a really low point in her life, but as she has more fully lived the gospel, she has been blessed.

 

The Stinsons and Sue and her husband Adrian met. They both have similar interests and love the outdoors and are very active outside. Hopefully they both become better friends with each other. As soon as I met the Stinsons, I thought that they would be good friends.

 

Things are slow right now. Hopefully things start to pick up, but for now we have the office, which takes up most days and evenings. So we keep busy, just not with real missionary work. Hopefully I'm blessed when I get out of here.

 

The Church is true!

~Elder Fetzer

Ready to Take Over the Office!

Hello all,

 

So yes, Saturday is my p-day at least until mid-September, when the new office couple, the Wiesses, come. We work from 9 to 5 in the office all week, except Saturday and Sunday. The Greensides leave Monday and so we will officially take over the office. I am glad we have gotten a solid 2.5 weeks in training. I think it will be okay.

 

Last Saturday I attended Sue's sealing in the Seattle Temple. It was a great ceremony and as always, it is good to be in the House of the Lord. Afterwards, there was a reception at the chapel behind the Temple. It was great to see old friends from that ward. 

 

Other than that, it was kind of a dull week in the office. We are getting another vehicle ready to sell. And there are always emergency repairs and tire replacements needing to be done as well. So things can get quite stressful. I love the days in the office where there is nothing going on!

This week we tracted a lot in the evenings and found no one. Our area is very slow, and really has always been slow because the Office Elders have always been assigned to this ward. But the highlight of the week continues to be the Stinsons. They are still solid. We had a great lesson with them about service and watched the films on the new D&C DVDs about the story of John Rowe Moyle and John Tanner. They are faith building stories about how they fulfilled their callings in the Church. That is one more thing they need, real callings. They have been temporarily assigned to be on an upcoming activities comity, but they are ready and willing to do more. So we'll have to work with the bishop to make sure they get one. Because that is one of the things a Prophet of God said that every new convert needs, a friend, a calling, and nurturing from the good word of God.

 

So things are going well here. We're busy in the office and we are doing missionary work, just in a different way. The Church is true!

~Elder Fetzer

A Very Busy Week

This is going to be short. I have never driven a brand new car, or been out of the mission boundaries to pick them up, but I have done those and many more vehicle coordinator tasks this week. Along with that, I did new missionary training, signed the papers to sell a car, and had to call Church headquarters to get authorizations for car repairs. This is the busiest I have been throughout my whole mission. I can't wait to have a break.

I feel as though my emails are going to be rather boring over the next weeks. We have very little time to proselyte and our other office elder related activities, including moving out apartments and delivering furniture and supplies are taking up many of our nights. I am just glad that we have a good ward that is very missionary minded.

Plus we're still teaching Jake and Lindsey, but they are on a backpacking trip this week so we won't see them until next week. We're going to Sue's sealing today at the temple and her reception after. It will be fun to see my friends from Issaquah 5th.

All in all, things are going just fine.

~Elder Fetzer

Things Are Slow, But Things Are Good!

Hello All,

 

This was quite the week. It is always busy after transfers, but our added office assignments just make us more busy. First off, I am officially the Vehicle Coordinator for the Washington Seattle Mission with legal power of attorney to sign for new cars and sell old ones and do whatever else is required for the job. The Greensides leave the 30th of the month so Elder Kasenberg and I are at the office form 9-5 basically every weekday training with them. We are both going to do training for new missionaries, do zone conference car inspections, and manage the cars and make sure the missionaries get them fixed and take them for other maintenance. Plus, we are officially taking over for the Greensides the first week in August after they leave and filling in for many of the other office jobs until their replacements come in mid-september. This is going to be a busy and interesting transfer.

So far, we have learned a lot about how the mission works. It is kind of overload, but I am sure that the next week will get better and I know it will be fine.

 

Things in the Bellevue 6th ward are kind of slow. We got some new investigators this week. The Petersons are an older couple and were referred by their friends from Arizona when they went to the Easter pagent there with them. Our first lesson was interesting. They mainly wanted to know what made us different and about the Book of Mormon. I don't know how much real intent they have, but maybe they could end up being the next Jake and Lindsey Stinsons. We can only hope.

 

So since things are going slow here, I will just tell you more about Jake and Lindsey. They are still amazing! They just keep becoming more and more wonderful as time passes. Last night President Larkin had a fireside at his house for new converts. He asked them all to bear their testimony and share their conversion story. The Stinsons did great and Lindsey seemed VERY excited. They bore their testimonies about the importance of the priesthood and about how happy the last months living the gospel has made them. Lindsey says she is shy, but she has no problem talking to people about the Church. She is so excited about it! She was excited yesterday because she got her first calling as a visiting teacher. She said that her prayer came true because she prayed that she would be able to work with one particular sister in the ward that has really become good friends with her. Now they are companions and she will teach Lindsey how to be a visiting teacher. Jake and Lindsey are already doing missionary work. On the day of their baptism, Lindsey talked to her sister in Florida who was really down in the dumps and told her about the peace she has felt in the gospel. She asked if missionaries could visit her sister. Now, a month later Lindsey's sister has a job and is happier and is thinking about being baptized. But there is more to the story. Her sister's friend has seen the peace her sister has felt and is now taking the lessons. Even though they don't have kids to pass the gospel on to, a chain is starting to form with the people the Stinsons have told about the gospel. It is all very exciting.

 

So things are doing fine here. I don't know how much prosliting we will be able to do, but we are at least busy. That is good.

 

The Church is true!

 

~Elder Fetzer