February 19, 2018

February 19,2018

Wednesday was a pretty good day. We set up our smart phones and that was pretty neat. It feels strange having a smart phone now that I have gone 17 months without one. But there are a lot of cool apps and features on them so I can definitely see the benefit of having them. It is also nice because we are able to download good short videos onto our phones and then when we are out tracting we can share the video right there on the spot! Also one plus to having the smart phones is that I can now write in the notes section every night and then write more about what happened through out my week for you mom ha ha because I usually forget most of it by Monday when I get to the computer lab.

Thursday 

We had a lot of good things and crazy things happen today... so this email isn't to terribly long I will just write the best of them. We had an amazing lesson with (F) today who is the investigator Elder Christensen and I found. We taught him the restoration and he was so prepared to receive it. He doesn't have much of a religious history and he is very humble and asked the best questions and accepted them. At the end I asked him if he has ever received an answer to a prayer. He said he feels like he has. So I asked him if he believes he could get an answer right then and there, if he were to pray, to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon was true. He said he feels like he has a good enough connection to God to receive an answer! So he prayed!! After he prayed he said that he felt peace and that a burden had been lifted off his shoulders. We testified to him that was an answer to his prayer! (F) is so solid and so prepared to accept this gospel and we were stoked after our lesson with him! We are so grateful that God has lead us to him and that we are able to teach him at this time! 

Friday 

Friday was a pretty good day. We did some service at the food bank in the morning it is something that we do every Friday morning. So that's pretty fun. We did a lot of tracting. Something we have really been working hard on is just finding new people to teach. We have been working hard at it ever since I got here because it's just been like the same 3 people being taught on and off for literally the past year. We have been getting referral's from members lately so it has been good! We taught an awesome lesson today to a members coworker named (J) He's like 25 and just solid! We taught him the plan of salvation and he just soaked it all up. The member though is wild. He's super intelligent but he just talks 1000 miles an hour and so it can be hard to understand him at times and he goes a little deep for the investigators. 

Saturday 

Today I was on an exchange down in Sumner and it was honestly a pretty tough exchange! When we woke up that morning the Elder I was with started throwing up and was sick and ended up sleeping until about 11. When he woke up he said he was good to go so we headed out. We were on bike and it was pouring rain and super windy so it was a pretty cold and wet day! When I got back Elder Delp  was telling me how he got a phone call from brother Nuttal who is the fellowshipper of (J) and (J) was telling him that he had a lady come into his work that day who is a recent convert of 2 years. This lady was telling him how amazing the church is and how he needs to be a part of it. On top of that she was also Hispanic and she was showing him all of the videos that the Spanish branch throws and it got him super excited! He was telling Brother Nuttal how he has been getting so many signs and just things happening in his life that is leading him to the church. I love watching the Lord prepare his children for the gospel and seeing these miracles line up. It's so amazing! 

Sunday 

Sunday was alright. We only ended up having only sacrament because we got like a full 3 inches of snow🤔 and that was just up on the lake. Our area is up on a hill. Down in the valley in Sumner where the church is we didn't have to much snow. But they wanted people to get home safe so they ended church after sacrament. It was to bad because we were supposed to have some investigators at church today but when it snows not to many people leave there homes so they didn't make it. 

Monday 

As you can see Monday was not pday because it was Presidents day. But we had a good day. All I can say is I just love the Spirit!! It's one of the greatest gifts that we have been given so we need to listen to it! Today we were leaving a area that we had been knocking doors in and as we were driving out I had a feeling that we should go by (G & D's) house They are investigators that we found a few weeks back. The Hindu family. But I thought "no we have gone by a ton and they are never home" and I was about to keep going but then the thought came to me again and I just couldn't ignore the Spirit again so we went there and they were home!! They let us right in and they are seriously the nicest people. They offered to cook us Indian food right then but we felt bad having them do that so they set up a time for us to come over this Saturday and they will cook us all their favorite dishes! We invited them out to stake conference this week as well because Elder Dube will be coming to it so it will be really good!! But we always need to listen to the Spirit!! We will never go amiss if we do.

I think that's about it for this week. This email is probably a little bit long sorry idk if I'll write about every day or not cause it just gets lengthy. But I love and miss you all thanks for all you do!! Yes we started using our phones but it is super weird. I don't like - it but I do. It is a love hate relationship. There are a lot of good apps and things to use on them but I just don't like the fact that it is a phone. I'm a missionary. I don't need a phone. But I get one.... it's fine though. The only down side to that is you just bought me a super nice camera and idk what to do with it now because the phone has a good camera so I don't carry the camera anymore...? 

Transfers are March 6th so I will email Tuesday March 6

Thank you i love and miss you all have a good week!

Also there are these really cool water pitchers that they have here if you'd want one or not a lot of the members have them here. They are shaped like a fish. They look good though not awful. But when you pour them it makes a gulping sound!!! They are pretty sweet. They are the cool things to have here ha ha I don't how much they are though but I'll look at them today

Elder Ethan Stucki