Week 54: "We are Going to Have one Heck of a Companionship Inventory"

Sister Leininger and Elle received their packages from home.
Thanks to the Mergens for hauling them back to Washington.

Blessings come in all shapes and sizes, but it is up to us if we are willing to recognize them or not. This is a very interesting principle and it all goes back to the Plan of Salvation with our agency and being able to come to this earth to choose for yourself. What we are going to do and how we want to choose to live our lives.  I can't even imagine how hard that would be for our Father in Heaven to have to watch so many of His children choose to do things that are not going to help them and only hurt them. He must love us a lot to be able to sit and let us learn and grow and make decisions for our best self yet know when to give us the help that we need, but not so much that he does things for us! 

Sisters Oveson, Washburn, Leininger, and Elle

This last week has been a lot of fun and full of so many blessings. On Tuesday we had exchanges with Sister Packer and Sister Deaver. I was with Sister Packer here in Lynnwood and Sister Leininger went to Harbour Point with Sister Deaver. So many amazing things happened. So many miracles happen every day but whenever I go on an exchange there is always just an abundance of miracles

Elle learning to cook.

So a couple of months ago Sister Leininger and I ran in to this lady who just moved here from the East. She is not interested in learning about the Church but when we were talking to her we learned that she loves to cook. So we asked her if she would help teach us how to cook something and she said that she would be more than willing to! So fast forward some time, Sister Packer and I were able to go to our fist cooking lesson. When we got there she was telling us about how she wants to blog about how Mormons and Christians can be friends and that Mormons are actually really cool people. She said she was either going to video it our take pictures she didn't know yet. We told her that she could do whatever she would like. Side note it has become pet peeve of mine when people say that "Mormons are not Christians" So that was so much fun to be able to learn how to cook and she told us that next time she is going to teach us how to make a dessert! 

Thursday we went on exchanges with Sister Oveson and Washburn. Sister Oveson is in the first six weeks of her training and she is so funny. I can now laugh because I am not at all where I once was. We had such a good day! We talked to everyone and their dog, it was so much fun. We talked to this one lady who has friends to that are LDS but she herself was not interested. We answered questions about the Book of Mormon and the Church and it was so cool. We then were able to find a new investigator and we are all loving missionary work now! 

We had an interview with President and Sister Wilding!!! They are amazing and I am soooo grateful that they are my Mission President and wife!!!!!!

The lemonade stand

We also did a lemonade stand at the Park and gave away Free Lemonade. We had so many people come over and obviously ask for some lemonade and then there were quite a few people that asked about the church and for the missionaries to come and answer questions and teach them more!!! What a successful day! To make things even better Sister Leininger and I had breakfast with the Wildings! It was really good. Good oil Texan cookin'! 

Sister Leininger and Elle

When we were knocking doors this past week I had a really loud and clear call to repentance. We were knocking, knocking and knocking and at one of the doors this lady answers. When she opened the door all the gross Smokey air came out and we had to catch our breath. She wasn't too excited to see us but then we asked her if she knew anyone that needed service or an uplifting message and she started to cry. She told us to go and visit P101. She told us that her husband just died and that she needs the Mormons now! We told her we could go visit her and that we would help her in any way that we could. We walked up the stairs and I knew exactly who she was talking about. I had seen Annette before and I didn't want to see her again. It took me a couple minutes before I would move to the door. We knocked the door....no answer; we knocked again....no answer. I was so happy; as we were walking away there was Annette. So we said Hi and she invited us in and we told her we would love to. I was not too excited but I went in anyways. While we were in there I was in a serious call to repentance. The Spirit was so clear that we needed to invite her to take the lessons. Then again the Spirit told me that we needed to invite her to be baptized. So I did and now we are teaching Annette!

I have never heard the Spirit speak so clearly in my entire life. Right then and there I made a commitment to forget myself and go to work! We have so many amazing things in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I will never do anything that will hinder the spirit from being able to talk to me! I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week! 

Olympic fever

Book of Mormon in the window

Lemonade anyone

Elders and Sisters working the lemonade stand

Elle's meeting house

Setting up for the lemonade stand

Free lemonade

Week 53: The Atonement!

Elle's District

The summer here is so amazing! It is hot for a couple of days and then we have overcast weather for the next couple of days. It doesn't rain here very much in the summer....I think it is really nice! 

This last week we have been able to give a lot of service. We decided we now have the credentials to open our own painting business, yard work business, and cleaning business. I think we will have a lot of success when doing so! 

A Washington Sunset

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Machias Sisters! I got to go to Machias with Sister Casebolt. Machias was just pink washed with the Sisters, this is the very first time that Sisters have ever been in the Ward and so all of the Members are excited and are being very very helpful. Sister Casebolt is such a good missionary and I was able to learn a lot from her! I am excited to get to see the amazing things that she and Sister Johnson are going to do.

We then went on exchanges with Lynnwood Spanish. We had a day full of service! It was good and I am always thankful for the chance that I have to be able to help other people. It’s so amazing how when you serve others your day only gets better and better! 

The Scoffields

MLC ( Mission Leader Conference) was this last week. Although it is a very long day it is one of my favorite meetings of the month. There are a lot of things that I learn in this meeting. I am able to know how to help the Sisters I serve and also our investigators and just receiving answers to questions I have and for ones that I didn't even know I had. Last month at MLC we focused a lot on Repentance and why it is important to make sure that the people we are teaching understand why it is important that we repent and that they know how to repent. There have been a lot of good things that have happened and there were a lot of good things that I learned about Repentance.

This last MLC we focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ! The Atonement of Jesus Christ is something I am so-so-so thankful for! In preparation for MLC we studied a talk by James E. Faust titled, “The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope”. It was so amazing. In the talk he states, "Our salvation depends on believing in and accepting the Atonement. Such acceptance requires a continual effort to understand it more fully. One of the cool things about the Atonement is that every time you study it our read something about it you will learn something new. In the talk he shares a story about some young boys. 

He Continues: Some years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley told “something of a parable” about “a one room school house in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough no teacher had been able to handle them.

“Then one day an inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told that every teacher had received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted the risk. The first day of school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own rules and the penalty for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules, which were written on the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, ‘What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’

“‘Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response.

“A day or so later, … the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. ‘The thief was located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.’

“As Little Jim came up to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on. ‘Take your coat off,’ the teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’

“The boy took off the coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the teacher hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to take the boy’s licking.

“‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you all agreed?’ the teacher asked.

“After five strokes across Tom’s back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. ‘Little Jim had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. “Tom, I’m sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!”

If you want to watch or read President Faust's complete talk CLICK HERE.

The Atonement and the Resurrection accomplish many things. The Atonement cleanses us of sin on condition of our repentance. Repentance is the condition on which mercy is extended/ After all we can do to pay the uttermost farthing and make right our wrongs, the Savior's grace is activated in our lives through the Atonement, Which Purifies us and can perfect us. 

I am so thankful for the Atonement and the happiness and peace it brings into our lives as long as we use it. We are able to use it sometimes we have to put our pride aside and accept the help that has already been given to us. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

The Plan of Salvation Chart

Face masks and Hot Tamalies

Sister Leininger and Elle

Week 52: Chew Gum and Go Swimming...Bucket List for when I get Home

This last week has been a really good one. We have had a lot of challenges and there are so many things that are out of our control until people will listen with an open heart. Others wise we are a broken record and that is only helpful for a second then we are just annoying. 

This last week at the Food Bank we had to say goodbye to one of the Russian Sisters! She goes home today and I am super sad! She is such an amazing person and Sister and she has helped so many people. She has even been teaching me a little bit of Russian which has been very helpful. 

Elle and Sister Leininger with a snake by their car

Earlier this week we were walking to Brother Hatchells house to go meet his family that have been in town for the last week. As we got to the door we arrived at the same time as this man who was selling pest control. He laughed and he said, "Okay, If you want to knock this side of the street today I will knock it tomorrow. That way we don't double knock the same doors." We both looked at him and then looked at each other and laughed. That threw him off, we started to talk to him and come to find out his boss is a member of the church and he talks to his employees about the church quite often. So when we would start to talk about things he would think for a second and say, "Oh ya, I have heard about that." It was a lot of cool and we walked and talked to him for a second. We tried to exchange numbers but it wasn't happening. He told us his boss has been trying to get him to be a Mormon for a couple of years now and that he hasn't succeeded. Implying that we weren't going to have any success.......CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!! 

The next couple of days were pretty normal. Well rewind the last couple of weeks we have been getting a lot of questions about the Family the Proclamation and where the church stands on Gay rights. Why Blacks haven't always been able to have the Priesthood, Polygamy and that there can't be any book added to the Bible. I mean there is a lot more, but it has been so crazy to get so many of these bashing questions all around the same time. None of it is a problem because there are answers we can give them to all of these questions. Thank goodness for modern day Prophets! 

We got a call from our Zone Leaders. They told us they had been street contacting and that they ran into this really nice mom. They talked to her for a bit and were able to set up a return appointment for the next day at 6 pm. Score! We went over and we took the amazing Sister Cash with us. It was her first time ever going out with the missionaries and so she was a little nervous, but she did amazing! We knocked on Diana's (Yes another Diana!) door and she answered and looked a little surprised. We talked for a second and she told us that she didn't want to be rude and so she told the "boys" that it was okay. After talking for a second she invited us in and we were able to teach her the Restoration. She has been trying to find a church and so it was cool that we kind of were able to show up! She said the closing prayer and her husband joined us for the end! It was really cool. Also Sister Cash bore her testimony and it was PERFECT! Let the Holy Spirit guide! 

As we were driving home from that appointment we ran into the Pest Control guy! We pulled over and started to talk to him and we were talking more about the church. I didn't want to her about bugs, and so we were able to give him a Restoration Pamphlet and he said that he would read and pray. As we were leaving he told us that we have gotten further than anyone else. I knew we would, for goodness sake we have been called by a Prophet of God and also we have the gift of the Spirit, if you are going to listen the Spirit is going to win. 

Looks like the Sister Missionaries found Elle

We then had a MIRACLE on Sunday. We were in Gospel Principles and were talking about fasting and fast Sunday. In the middle of the Lesson Bishop came and pulled us out of class. I was kind of excited because we never ever get pulled out of class. He told us that there was an Indian Family that just walked in and was looking for us. Okay, rewind three weeks ago. We had been knocking doors and not having a lot of success. The last door we knocked opened and it was this man from India, we talked to him for a second and he told us that he was Christian. We gave him the Restoration Pamphlet and invited him to church. We told him to call or text us if he would be coming so that we could save him a seat. This man came to church!!!Three weeks later and he brought his family, his wife and three boys. Our Sacrament meeting is at 9 am and they came about 11 am so we went to the Mays Pond Sacrament meeting with them. It was funny to see the Assistants faces. The parents want their boys to learn more about Jesus Christ. We got to sit with them and tell them about things and it was the coolest thing. Near the end one of the boys kept saying that he wanted to go. The parents were embarrassed and so they left. We are going to be able to stop by and talk to them later today!! We are really excited! 

It has been an amazing week here in Lynnwood, Washington! I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week! 

Happy Birthday Katie!!!

Week 51: Pokemon Go?

Drink Pictures are the new rage.

Does everyone and their cat and dog at home play the new Pokémon Go game? Ha ha, it sounds like the weirdest game. Someone said people have been walking in the middle of the road and doing dumb stuff like that. I can't complain too much! Everyone is outside more and so we are able to contact and talk to a lot more people!!! Every missionaries dream! 

Elle and Sister Leininger on their bunk beds.

This last week we have had so many blessings, sometimes I wonder if I deserve them all. Ariana and Diana are doing so well and they are some of my favorite people to! We had a lesson with them earlier in the week and Sister Merket came with us. We did the brownie Restoration! One of my favorite lessons! They both loved it, we previously had taught Diana the Restoration and the Book of Mormon but Ariana was a little behind. What was so cool is that Diana was helping us explain things to Ariana!! YES! Then we were going to have a lesson later in the week and they called to cancel! They had a pipe in their bathroom break and so they were clearing out the bottom room so a guy could come and fix it. We ran over and helped them move things and then we talked about the Book of Mormon after.

Sunset in Lynnwood

I have grown to have such a strong testimony on the Book of Mormon! If you are ever having a hard time you need to ask yourself if you are reading from it daily. Diana said that something was troubling her and so she grabbed the Book of Mormon and she flipped it open to a random page and just started to read. One of the versus she read gave her the answer she needed. I don't know how it answered her problem or question but it did. She loves the book and that Heavenly Father really does answer us! We were so happy she had that experience because now her testimony on it is growing even bigger. We talked to them about baptism. They are going to pray about it and when they get back from vacation we will go from there! 

Elders Klein and Coppieters. Sister Leininger and Elle

 Saturday we went chalking again and it was awesome! It was a lot more successful. We did it as a district and because there was a lot more of us some of us could draw and the others could talk to people! We met some cool YSA aged people and some families. I even got to play some basketball with some kids! 

Relief Society was really good yesterday, the lesson was on the talk titled, "Do I believe?" by Bonnie L. Oscarson (Click Here to Read This Talk). I loved that talk so much! Sometimes I think I forget the difference between knowing something and believing it. I also think that sometimes we are scared to ask questions, or sometimes questions are frowned upon. But how else do we learn unless we question things. I think the most important part is what happens after we question something. We have to take what we learn and decide we want to have a better understanding. It’s when we don't care to learn or act on the things we learn that we get into trouble.

I am so thankful for my testimony and for the church. I love you all so much and hope that you have the most amazing week ever!

Elle says, "Elder Howlette made me some GF bread! This is
what happens when you spend time in the MTC with someone!"

Sleepy Elle

Afternoon temp. in Lynnwood, Washington on Monday

New apartment

Lets have a plan and do it

Week 50: I am Staying!!!

Free slurpee day at 7-11

This last week has been a good week for us. With President Bonham leaving and President Wilding coming in it was the very fist week that we didn't have any additional meetings. It was a little weird but it was really good because that meant we were going to be able to spend a lot of time in our area that we normally don't get to. The weather was nice, we got to go out and proselyte a lot....what more could you ask for. 

For P-Day we got to go to the Church and play basketball and other games with some of the missionaries in our Zone, this was a lot of fun. I came out on my mission competitive and well nothing has changed in that aspect. I found I couldn’t really run or jog because I would start to get competitive. So I kind of just walked all over. Very boring but it was a lot of fun! Still a struggle....maybe I will be able to fix it a little bit before I go home! 

Personal scripture study

We went to go and visit a Less Active member. We parked the car and started to walk when we passed a garage sale. So we stop in and just walked around because everyone who was there we had never met before. It was a lot of fun because we were able to talk to a lot of people and come to find out the family that was holding the garage sale knew the person that we wanted to go and see. They were very kind and told us some of the hard things that had been happening in the neighbors life. But what was cool is that when we had just showed up the man who was in charge knew who we were and was super kind.  Fast forward a couple of hours we decided that we were going to go and pick up trash on 164th so that people could see the "Mormons" out doing some good! As we were picking up trash we passed the same guy that was at the garage sale! It was so cool, he thought what we were doing was very kind and Christ like!!! Planting and Harvesting!

Cammy our investigator is going awesome! We were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and she loved it. She has been though a lot in her life and when I say a lot she has been everywhere and done everything. What is cool is that she is just trying to fix her life and figure out her purpose and the things she is suppose to do! She is ready for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I am so grateful that I get to spend this time teaching her!

I read a talk by Sherri Dew called "Will You Engage in the Wrestle?" (Click Here to read this talk). I love this talk so much! She talks about so many things. She says, "We can only bear witness of what we know. We can't testify of a wish or a hope or even a belief. We can express a hope, a wish, or a belief. But we cannot stand as a witness of Jesus Christ unless we can bear witness of Him. We can defend the faith only if we have faith." She goes on to talk about how we are here at this time because our Heavenly Father chose us to be here now. That there is work to do and we are the ones who are going to be able to do it. She shares a story of two girls who had questions and didn't know if the church was true. She asked the first girl if she wanted to have a testimony of these things. She said yes and Sister Dew and so many other people helped her with that. The second girl on the other hand didn't care to know if these things were true. She teaches that it is good to have questions but it is important to look for the answer to those questions by going to the right sources. She says, " Champion wrestlers tell me that it isn't necessarily the strongest wrestler who wins. It is the wrestler who know how to leverage his strength to over power his opponent. Spiritual wrestling leverages the strength of true doctrine to overpower our weaknesses, our wavering faith, and our lack of knowledge. Spiritual wrestlers are seekers. They are men and women of faith who want to understand more than they presently do and who are serious about increasing the light and knowledge in their lives.....Growing spiritually and reviving answers to our questions depends upon our ability to feel, hear, and understand the whispering of the Spirit. It is work engaging in a spiritual wrestle to learn to receive personal revelation, because we can only know what is true when the Spirit bears witness to our hearts and minds as only the Holy Ghost can. Revelation must include both, because intellect alone cannot produce a testimony. You cannot think your way to conversion, because you cannot convince your mind of something your heart does not feel." I could go on all day! I encourage you to all read it because it is amazing. You can find the whole talk on BYUI web page. 

I get to stay with Sister Leininger here in Alderswood. We will just be moving appartments! #missionarylife

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week! 

Week 49: So it's July and I'm Still Wearing Sweaters!

This last week was so awesome! At the time of everything that was happening I was so worried and I thought that nothing was going to go right. I look back now and realize that Heavenly Father had his hand in everything and that he made sure that everything went how it was supposed to. 

Monday with the 4th of July was awesome! We went bowling and out to eat and then later that night we went and had a BBQ with Diana and Ariana our investigators! It was awesome and a lot of fun. We were able to meet her husband and her oldest daughter. We spent the evening with them and about half way through they had some friends come and join us. By the end of the night and the time that we had to leave we were the only members there!!! It was so awesome, we shared a scripture with them before we left and said a prayer and they were all very nice about it and told us that we need to do this again! I count that for a win!

We were able to go and share the Book of Mormon with Diana the next day and she loved it. I think one of the biggest sellers is that it is about the Native American heritage...and well she is Native American. So it was really cool for her to be able to read about her people and she was telling us about how there are some Native American stories that pretty much talk about the Book of Mormon in a roundabout way...I thought that was really cool! 

We went and did a couple blitzes with some of the Sisters that we get to serve this last week and it was a lot of fun. They normally consist of us going door to door, but it is so much fun to be able to talk with them about all the cool things that happened and they are so much more excited to be able to go and visit those people. On the flip side of that we also had to go and help some companionship's with having a comp. inventory.... As effective as they are they are so awkward at the very beginning. They sit there and they don't want to voice their opinion in fear of hurting their companion’s feelings. I think the problem is that they wait until the very last straw and then the just blow and they still don't talk openly with their companion. Thinking that they can just wait it out. That is not true; the spirit is not with you when there is contention in a relationship. I think that this goes with friends, companions, husbands, wife’s...all of it. If you have a problem with someone PLEASE just talk it out and don't be dumb and let it just sit there. 

MLC was on Thursday and it was awesome! President and Sister Wilding are so amazing and they love us and have our and this mission’s best interest in mind. It has been so cool how the spirit every time I am with them testifies of that to me. I cannot deny the things that I know to be true. We learned about teaching repentance and we were really excited to be able to apply the things that we were learning. Sister Leininger and I were going to be able to apply it the very next day with Caesar. We taught it and it resulted in us dropping him....yep, Right now is just not his time but I am excited for him to be able to make convents with Heavenly Father one day! 

Saturday Ariana and Diana went to a baptism with us and it was amazing. We had an appointment set up with them for Thursday and it kept getting bumped back and finally she just canceled. We were so sad we were going to take Sister Merket was going to come with us. So we were working on our area book and we get a text from Diana that said, "We got back sooner than we thought. Would you still like to go to the baptism with us?" Well YES of course. We ran over to her house went to the baptism and they loved it. Then they came to church yesterday and they kept telling us how it was so much better than the Catholic and Presbyterian Church's that they have been to. They are so excited to come back and be a part of the ward and go to Activity Days and all of the other cool things that they church does!

I love the Church so much and am so grateful for all of the blessings that I have been able to recognize. I am grateful for Joseph Smith and the fact that he asked a question. I love that because he asked a question we are able to have the true church on the earth today. It also shows that it is okay for us to ask questions and always be learning something new. I have also been reading all of the General Conference talks from this last conference and one that I have liked a lot is 'Be thou Humble' everyone should read it!

Keep reading your scriptures and saying your prayers! I love you all so much, have a great week!