January 16-30th 2018

January 16, 2018

This week was pretty good. We have really been struggling with finding new investigators but this past week we were able to find a few really solid potentials. We have return appointments with them for this next week so we are super excited for that. Yesterday we did a mini finding day in our area. We knocked doors for 5 hours since we did not have any lessons and no one gave us the time of day!! It was a long day even though we didn't find anyone new we still leaned a lot.

It was kinda funny on Saturday we went to a baptism in the Marshallese Branch (that is where Elder Delp served before he came here) We were talking to some other missionaries and they were telling us about a crazy high speed chase in Auburn earlier that day.

On Sunday we were talking to our investigator and he was telling us the cops found his car  it had been stolen and it was involved in a high speed chase in auburn the day before. ha ha It was kinda funny but pretty sad because I think it got wrecked and it was a nice dodge Challenger.

The baptism was pretty cool because while the family was getting ready after they got baptized the missionaries usually stand up and teach the restoration. There are usually many non members attending. Elder Delp taught in Marshallese first and then I taught in English. It was pretty cool and the spirit was super strong!

This past week I finished the Book of Mormon again which is always nice. I love how every time you read it you always find something new and different things will stick out to you. We did not see President Monson's funeral. But we did watch this morning when they announced the new Prophet and that was way exciting. I love how the first thing President Nelson said as the Prophet was to "Stay on the Covenant Path" later he also said that he wanted to "begin with the end in mind" talking about the temple and how important the temple is and that we go to the temple and make those covenants with our Father in Heaven.

We get to go to the Temple this next week and I am super excited for that! II will be emailing probably later on Tuesday. The temple is amazing! There is always so much that we can learn when we go and the spirit there is so strong! We were also able to watch the YSA devotional on Sunday as well and that was way good. Sister Uchtdorf is way funny and Elder Uchtdorf is amazing! I love listening to him talk.

Anyways thank you for all that you do I hope all is well at home and I love you all!

Elder Ethan Stucki

(Next transfer is on Tuesday so that is why we are emailing next Tuesday and then the temple trip is the next Tuesday so we will also email then! me and elder delp are doing good and I think either 3 or 4 times I have completed it front to back. I'm also almost done with the new testament and am working my way through the doctrine and covenants and also Jesus the Christ)

January 23, 2018

Well this week was a pretty slow week!! So I will just tell you about the change that will be taking place. Even if you already know ... just to have something to right about ha ha

As of June 30th there will no longer be a Washington Federal Way mission! Back when the age changed for missionaries to go out there was a huge increase of missionaries. We went from 70 to 80 thousand missionaries. With the extra 10 thousand missionaries there was a lot of new missions that opened up as well. The Federal Way Mission being one of them! Now the numbers of missionaries has gone back down so they are closing some of the missions as well.
In our mission there will be 6 stakes going to the Seattle mission and 3 stakes going to the Tacoma mission. I really hope I go to the Seattle mission because that is were President Rasmussen will be going. I'm pretty sure I will because I'm sure my next area will be in the north since I have served my whole mission so far in the south. My last 2 transfers will be in a newish mission hahah. Also it will probably change when I go home as well because the transfers are on different days in the other mission. I think I may finish on their transfer cycle which would be 4 weeks earlier then the original date or 2 weeks after the original date. So it will be interesting to see how that goes.

Other then that not much happened. I didn't get transferred I'm still in the same area with Elder Delp. Our investigators are still kinda in the same boat. People here are still way too comfortable and need some humbling. Thank you for all that you do. I love you all and hope that you have a good rest of your week!!

(I got my tooth fixed yesterday which was nice and I have an eye appointment Friday)

Have a good week I love you all!!
Elder Ethan Stucki

January 30, 2018

So the temple today was really good!! and much needed. It is so nice to have a day to basically just sit and be taught rather then having to always run around and teach. The spirit is so strong each time I go to the temple and I always learn just the things that I need! 

As far as this week it went really well! We had our Festival of Finding this week and we had a miracle! Elder Delp and I went out in the morning and we knocked on this door and a Hindu man named G. answered. We started to teach a little bit and asked if we could come in and share more. He said yes and that alone is a miracle. It is only like the 5th time I have been let into a home this whole time I have been out. People just don't do that around here. We ended up teaching him and his son the restoration and it was actually pretty cool how much we have in common with their eastern religion. There are a lot of similarities. They both became new investigators which was really exciting because they were the first investigators we have fond in this area in like the past 6 weeks. So we were pumped!

We have also been working a lot with the members to get them excited to share the gospel and we have been doing this for the past 3 months and we are finally starting to see some success. We have had a couple referrals and we just had a member call us saying that he has a co worker he has been working with and has a lesson set up with him for us at his house this coming Saturday!! So we are excited for that. Other then that... that's about all that is going on here.

Thanks for all you do. I love you all!

(I was wondering when the truck was going to get sold)

Elder Ethan Stucki

Dear Elders and Sisters.

As many of you know, the Washington Federal Way Mission has been authorized by the Mission Department for smart phone use. Over the next several months we will acquire, setup, and register the phones. We will install the applicable, approved apps, and learn how to safely use the phones to increase our productivity. Our missionary purpose will not change. The smartphone will never replace face to face contact with our investigators where we can bear pure testimony and bring the Spirit to the hearts. The way that we do missionary work will change somewhat as the smartphones will allow us to have greater opportunities to contact and teach our investigators. The smartphone should allow us to be more effective in teaching, and in working with Church leaders and members.
The first step of the process of implementing smartphone use in the mission is to acquire the phones. The phones will need to be acquired by each and every missionary, with the exception of missionaries that are returning home within three months (Before May 1, 2018). Those who are returning home before May 1, 2018 will have access to a mission owned phone for the duration of your mission. I have uploaded to the portal a document entitled "Acquire and Set Up Smartphone". Please print and completely read the document before doing anything else. Once you have read, and understand the document, the process for acquiring your phone is listed below:

...We need phones now.

Elder Stucki

January 2018

January 2, 2018

This week was a really good week. I went on a couple of exchanges this week. Christmas was fun the members here are pretty cool and so it was fun to be with them. It was also really nice to be able to talk with the whole family and see all your faces! It was good to here that you are all doing good and having fun at home! That was about it this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week!!
Elder Ethan Stucki

January 8, 2018

This week we were pretty sad because our investigator fell off date. He was supposed to be baptized Friday. He ended up cancelling all of the appointments that we had set up with him. So we still have things that he needs to taught and do before his baptism.

In a way it is kinda a good thing because the reason he had to cancel is for work... he is finally working again. He has not worked for the past 10 months. The church was helping him out for a few weeks so it is good he is working. Although it makes it a little harder to meet with him. Of course the adversary is very real and Satan has been working hard on him. He has a new lady friend who has shown up in the picture who has not been a good influence on him and has a lot of word of wisdom problems which I'm sure is making it harder on him to live it. But he met with the Bishop and our Bishop is awesome and helped him out a lot. But he is still doing really awesome for the most part and is sad he won't make his baptism this week but we will keep working with him.

So one of my favorite parts of the mission is working with recent converts. It is so cool to watch the growth that comes to people so fast after they have accepted the gospel and to see all the progress they make. In many cases I have seen how recent converts actually become so much more converted and solid in the gospel. They have been without the gospel in there lives and so when they accept it they see how much better there lives are with it.

Honestly I've thought sometimes "oh it would be awesome to have been a convert because they are so much more solid in the Gospel."  I guess that's not really true because it is always a choice of ours to really become converted to the gospel or not. I am actually so thankful that I was born and raised in the gospel as well because it is not always an easy journey when people join the church. Hardly ever actually. The church is amazing and the Gospel is true. I have said this a million times before but I think all to often we take the gospel for granted.

I hope each of you are reading the scriptures each day and striving to draw closer to our Savior. If your not I encourage you to do so! Listen to President Monson and the last words that he said to us in his last general conference, "I implore" not just I ask or your should but he is begging us to really. President Monson knew and understood the importance of the Book of Mormon and how much it would benefit each of our lives. I know that as I have really strived to study and not just read each day I have felt the light and love of Christ more in my life. I have felt the cleansing power of His atonement and I know each of you can too!

  
I love each of you and hope that you have a wonderful rest of your week!!

I will email next Tuesday!
Elder Ethan Stucki

December 26, 2017

Family,

(Ethan called home for Christmas and it was a great visit and so nice to see his cute face)

This week was a really good week. We had a awesome lesson with our investigator A. and taught him the Word of Wisdom. After our lesson he committed to live it. We took all of his alcohol he had and we dumped it all out! A. is so awesome and is willing to do whatever it takes to live the commandments so that he can be baptized. He has come to church every week since we started teaching him as well!

I went on a couple of exchanges this week. They all went good. We had a good Christmas. The members here are pretty cool and so it was fun to be with them. It was also really nice to be able to talk with the whole family and see all your faces! It was good to hear that you are all doing good and having fun at home! That was about it this week.

I love you all and hope you have a good week!!

Elder Ethan Stucki

December 18, 2017

Family,

This week was a really good week for the Zone! We found 6 new investigators which was much better then last week. We also have 8 people on date as a Zone which is really cool! We set a goal in district meeting this past week to have 8 baptisms this transfer. It was a goal that was set by the whole zone and something that we prayed about and everyone felt good about as well. We are all excited to work hard for it! 6 of the individuals on date are for this transfer as well so we need to find 2 more!

The finding festival went pretty good! We set a goal to have 13 mini lessons and we only ended up at 4 or 5. But each area found some potentials which is good! Potentials become investigators! 

We had a miracle that happened this week in which I learned a really good lesson. I was out finding with Elder Maughan and we were tracting some apartments in the Surprise Lake area. We knocked on the door of this Samoan family who let us in and we started with a prayer and shared the Light the World video. After I started to tie it into the restoration of the gospel and started talking about Joseph Smith. As soon as I did the Grandpa that was there, his name was A. interrupted me and mentioned how they were catholic and they have a good belief in Christ. He said they appreciate what we do.

It is a little embarrassing to admit this but me being of little faith in a weaker moment thought, "Oh, I've seen this before they were just being nice and letting us in to share something but are not really interested." 

So we closed with a prayer and left. (I'm thankful for Elder Maughan) After we left he started asking me a lot of questions of things maybe we should have done before we left and we came to the conclusion that there was a lot we could have done.
So Elder Maughan full of faith said let's return and give them a Book of Mormon and tell them our testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it will bless their family!

So that's what we did. The Lord definitely had prepared them because as we were walking back they were out on their porch and we bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and they accepted one and we now have their phone number and they want us to come back and continue to teach them! They have 3 generations living in the apartment right now that all want to learn!! It was such a miracle!

Sorry this email is long but the lesson I learned is that I feel like I have lost faith in people at times and that I give up on them to fast! How sad it would have been if we didn't return to bare our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and get a time to teach them more! I'm Grateful I was with Elder Maughan.  We talked about it after and he mentioned how being new he just feels like everyone is prepared. That's the kind of faith I want to have as well and the mind set I want to have as I continue my mission.

Also another miracle that happened is A. is doing so good!! We taught him a couple lessons this week and he loves it and he also came to church on Sunday which was exciting! We stopped by on Sunday just to drop of a bunch of left over food from our ward Christmas party and there is this awesome member in our ward Brother M. He is Hawaiian and is just an awesome missionary and he always goes and visits with our investigators and he was there with A. just having a lesson with him. Brother M. is such a stud.  We visited with them and as we were leaving I looked over and noticed his shelf was empty and got so excited. Elder Delp and I started yelling and he was like What? We were like you got rid of it all!! 

Just so you know the times previous when we went over his shelf was a big display of alcohol! We kept mentioning that one day we would ask him to get rid of it and he just did it on his own! He is so awesome and so prepared!! This week was great!!

I love you all and thanks for all of the love and prayers!

I will face time at 11 here so 12 there!

Have a good week I love you all!!

Elder Ethan Stucki