May 29, 2018

Family,

This week was has truly been a week of miracles! It started off last Sunday as we heard from a member in the Bishopric that the (M) who have been less active but have been coming out to church, have 2 daughters who are 11 and 12 who are not baptized!! Well kinda... So the mom wanted the 12 year old to go on the temple trip on Saturday with the youth and as she met with the Bishop he found out she didn't even have records. The mom says that her and her younger sister were baptized at 8 back in Hawaii but there is no records of them anywhere. The ward has searched everywhere and even called Salt Lake but there is no record for them. So Wednesday night we got a call from the Bishop asking us how to go forth with a re-baptism. Since they had come out to church over 3 times we were just going to teach them all the lessons and then baptize them Friday so she could go to the temple on Saturday. The font at the temple broke and so the trip was cancelled so we are not in a rush anymore. Friday night we taught them and went over the baptismal interview questions and got a feel of what they know and are teaching them right now. They will get baptized this next Saturday June 2!! We are so excited for them they are awesome. The dad is also not a member so we hope as we teach the kids the dad will soften his heart as well!

But that is not all the Miracles!!! Thursday night at 8:30 we went to visit a referral in a apartment complex but she wasn't home. We decided to try another referral in the same complex we have been trying to get a hold of but have missed. Anyways he was home and let us right in!! He and his wife are from Kenya and they were so kind and we taught them about the Book of Mormon and bore testimony of how much it will benefit them in their lives. It was a simple lesson yet the Spirit was so strong. They both said they knew it was true before we even asked them to read it. At the end of the lesson they did commit to read the Book of Mormon and they both committed to baptism for July 7th!!!

We were so blessed this week with finding and having 4 new investigators placed in our hands and on date for baptism. (G) is also progressing super well. She accepts everything we teach and is willing to change if she needs to, to please God. She has so many member friends and they will study together. She is super excited for her baptism as well for June 9th!! The Lord has been blessing us so much lately and things are going so good! I love the mission and I love this gospel. It's the sweetest moments in the world watching things click in these individuals heads, seeing the light that comes into their eyes as they learn more and desire to be a part of it.

It has been such a blessing in my life watching our investigator (G) as she learns about this gospel. She is just like Lehi in 1 Nephi 8:12. She knows that this gospel is true and she desires it more in her life but not just in her life but also in others lives as well. She has been inviting friends and family to come to her baptism and to church. She is even bringing a less active family back to church!! It's so amazing the joy that comes into ones life as they accept this message.

I'm also grateful for all of you and hope that you all have a good week. Thanks for all you do. Love ya!

Elder Ethan Stucki

~Mom...

We had transfers this week but Elder Wright and I stayed together. This was the transfer that decided where we will go or what mission we will go into. So I will be going to the Seattle mission.

We are going to Buffalo Wild Wings today. and yeah we would love some food!! we are like out!! we are still pretty good on cereal. idk what else there is to ship. Those black forest fruit snacks are the best!!! yes I love jerky. granola bars are good the sunbelt honey and oats ones!! chili is good. maybe a little mac and cheese

I gotta go tho have a good week  I love you all!!

May 21, 2018

Family,

Okay so this week I think I'm just going to touch over some of the better points of the week. We were able to have 3 lessons with our investigator who is on date for June 9th. She is progressing and for the most part most her family is pretty supportive even though they are mostly all Catholics. She is from Guam. She was having a party at her house so on Tuesday she asked us to mow her lawn and clean up her yard because it was very much overgrown. It was fun to get out and work.

We were able to have our first lesson with the (M) family. They are less active members that were baptized within the last 5 years. They moved here from Texas a little over a year ago and just haven't been out to church. They are a younger couple with 2 kids that are like 4 and 5. We taught them on Tuesday and they had us over for dinner on Friday and then again on Sunday!! They are also doing really well. It's cool because we  met them through our investigator (J) because they are good friends. We have been able to go through all the lessons with them together for the most part.

Thursday we had zone conference which went pretty good. Elder Wright and I taught about Strengthening Our Desire to Serve and Our Faith that we can accomplish what we set out to do. We tied it along with Joseph Smith's first vision account and how his desire was to know what church to join. Joseph Smith had full confidence and faith that he would receive an answer and was fully willing to get up off his knees after he prayed to go and join what ever church he was told to join. As he prayed the first thing that came to him was opposition. He was seized upon by some dark unknown spirit. We all have opposition in our lives especially when we are trying to do what is right. Joseph then exerted all of his power to call upon the name of the Lord and was delivered from the darkness and not only received an answer but a specific answer and later he had instructions given to him of how to accomplish it. Which is what we know as the Restoration of the Gospel. That is a quick run down of what we went over but it was pretty good!

Saturday we had our Finding Festival which was way fun. We moved it to week 5 of the transfer but we mixed it up this time. We didn't do any tracting but everything was done out in public. We rode from 10:00 - 5:00. We rode the buses around federal way talking to people, we set up whiteboards with questions about God in parks and taught people. Some missionaries went to the baseball games that were going on and drew the Gospel of Jesus Christ into hop scotch and taught people there. It was a good day! We ended up finding 33 potential investigators and 4 new investigators as a zone!! It was a good day.

Sunday we had a pretty cool experience. We were at this big apartment complex. We had prayed and felt that we should go and tract there as we were doing our planning in the morning. When we got there we felt like we should pray to know what specific building to go to. As we did it was pretty interesting because we both got a different answer. (It has been a testimony builder for me as I have been on my mission that almost every day as my companions and I pray we come out with the same answer of what we should do. Then we see miracles as we go and do it. But this time it was different)

I felt like we should go to apartment B and Elder Wright thought we should go to apartment A.

We decided either way they were both on the other end of the complex so we were kinda confused but decided to start walking that way. We were about to get in the car to just drive over there but I decided that we might as well just walk and talk to people as we go. As we were about half way there we met 2 guys about 19 and 20 walking home. (D) & (V) We stopped and talked to them and they were so prepared to hear what we had to say. They said that they had talked with missionaries in the past and they invited them out to play basketball and have a lesson but they forgot where it was. Every Friday night at 7:00 we play basketball with the ward mission leader and invite all the non members we find and our investigators. Anyways they should be coming this week. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and they both asked for a copy and said that they would have some read before Friday night!

I'm so grateful for the way that the Lord works. I'm pretty sure that if he would have given us both the impression to go to apartment A or both of us to go to apartment B, we most likely would have been so excited to get there that we might not have taken the time to talk to these 2 guys along the way. Trying to do "what the Lord wanted us to do" but missed the wonderful opportunities that He was presenting to us along the way.

I'm so grateful for the Spirit in my life. We have seen many miracles the past couple weeks ad we have listened to the promptings of the Spirit which has lead us to much success. I know that the promises of the Spirit extend beyond missionary work as well and we should constantly be striving to listen to and follow the promptings as they come to us in our daily lives as well. I pray that you will all follow promptings so that you will find more guidance in all that you need.

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

Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki

~Mom...(answers for Ty)

I did not use an umbrella.
Thermals are good. I would not get the thermal long john garments but just get regular thermals to wear over your garments. I never used shoe polish. journals are good. I would get a big one with big pages because it makes you write more if you try to fill out the whole page each day and also then you can put things in it like the programs of baptisms and things like that. .38 G2 pilot pens are the best. pencils are good to. sticky notes are good. oh well that's good then! also if anyone is ever wanting to send any gift card, there is a buffalo wild wings here...okay we will take you up on that next Tuesday because everyone goes there the last week of the transfer. yes transfers will be next Tuesday. Highlighters are nice for Preach My Gospel. don't use them in scriptures though it ruins them. color pencils are good for scriptures and certain pens as well to underline as long as they don't bleed through

May 14, 2018

Family,

I will probably keep it a little shorter today because I was able to talk to you yesterday for Mother's Day which was good! It was fun to see all of your faces and how much you all have grown but you all seem like your goofy selves still. ha ha

On Tuesday we had a really awesome lesson with a less active Part Member Family. We went over for dinner with a member and they had another couple who was there to have dinner with us. She is a member that was baptized 5 years ago and he is not a member. They both have had a super tough life with drugs for the past 20-30 years. He has been in and out of jail for 30 years which has been super hard. They just recently lost there home and they have one daughter who is 12. They are trying to change. They have been clean from drugs for 5 months and have been wanting to come back to church. It was good to be able to teach them and start to help them with that.

President Rasmussen also went out on splits with us Tuesday night so that was fun. Our lesson fell through so we got to find some investigators and do some tracting with him.

Thursday and Friday I was on an exchange with Elder Drabicki in the Spanish branch. It was kinda fun. Although I didn't do much because it was mostly in Spanish. But we did go to see a referral of a man named (A) that we had found in our area and he spoke Spanish so we said we would send some Spanish missionaries by. So Elder Drabicki and I went by and we taught him, his wife and daughter!! They were way prepared too. It was awesome.

Saturday was a day of miracles. We had a lesson with (G) who is a investigator we found earlier in the week. She was a referral from the Bishop that he gave to the missionaries about 3 months ago. The missionaries never went by. So he asked us if we would go by and visit with her. He had met with her for an interview to work at the DI. So Elder Wright and I went by earlier in the week and she is super solid! She had already been reading the Book of Mormon, she has member friends and has been inviting one of her less active member friends to start coming back to church with her.

So we had a couple lessons with her this week. On Saturday we went by and had planned on inviting her to be baptized. As we were teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the 4th Article of Faith we mentioned baptism. She told us that baptism is something that she has been thinking about a lot and something that she wants to learn how she can do it! We told her that we had planned to invite her to be baptized and she got super excited and started crying. She said that this is what she has been wanting and she is now on date for June 9th! She is a super sweet Philippino lady in her late 40's. Another miracle as well is that all of her family is super supportive of her and whatever choices she makes even though they all have different religions. On Sunday she came out to church as well and she loved it. It wasn't her first time coming, but it had been a few weeks. She loves it all. It's so awesome to see how prepared she is and how much the Lord has been working with her and preparing her to hear His message!

On Saturday I was also able to go to the baptism of Sister (N). She is a lady that I taught the past 6 months in my last area. She is super awesome and we have worked with her a lot. We have had her on a couple baptismal dates but they all fell through with her husband's sickness and then he passed away. The week I left we put her on date for May 12th to be baptized and that took place this past Saturday. It was good to be able to go back to that and to be there to support her. She has been taught since January of 2017 so some of the missionaries who had taught her have already gone home. Some of them are at school in BYU Idaho and they drove out to come to her baptism as well. It was cool to see all of her support.

That was about all for this week. It was good to talk to you all yesterday. I hope you all continue to read and to pray and to go to church. The gospel is true. It is important. It will bless your life. I love you all and hope you have a good rest of your week!
I love you all!!
Elder Ethan Stucki

May 7, 2018

Family,
Tuesday went pretty well. We had District meetings. My District leader is Elder Rudd. He was one of my previous companions which is pretty cool. Since he is a district leader I got to go on an exchange with him after the meetings. We go on exchanges with all of our district leaders each transfer. We were in my area and it went pretty well. We tracted into a super sweet lady who opened the door and told us to come right in. There was not a 3rd male so we could not go in but we taught her about the Book of Mormon on her door step. She wanted to learn more so we set up a time to come back on Thursday. We also had a meeting that night with President Keeney the Stake President who is so awesome!! He's such a spiritual giant and we get to meet with him weekly which is awesome. Watch and see he is going to be a General Authority one day!!

Thursday.... what a day ha ha
Today was actually a really good day with a pretty funny experience. So the lady I told you about on Tuesday... (T)  We went back to teach her with our Elders Quorum President and she was there and let us in. She had forgotten we were coming but was willing to let us come in and teach. As we walk in we saw her son there who was about 28 years old. He wanted to know what we were doing there and she told him we were there to teach her about the Book of Mormon. He came to us and was like "What y'all preaching tonight?" We told him we teach about Christ and he's like "really sit down I'm a prophet" right then I knew it was about to get interesting. I'll dumb this down a lot because we were there for 20 minutes before we just had to stand up and walk out. He pulls up a scripture in Numbers 15:38 about how it was a commandment to wear fringes and he was wearing fringes at the end of his shirt and we were not. So we can't claim to teach about Christ if we don't follow his commandments! It was a pretty funny experience honestly. Even more funny because our Elders Quorum President was just called Sunday and this was his first time going out with us. He was in for a treat!

Friday was MLC which took up the whole day. It was good. It was just basically on the new way to do planning with technology. There is a lot of training that is going on with the phones. 

Saturday we had to get an oil change on our car. We went out finding for a little bit and found a new investigator named (H). He is in his 60's. He let us in his home and just started talking. He has had a life full of crazy adventures and a pretty wild background that has led him to find Christ. It's pretty neat how within seconds of meeting us people will open up and tell us their whole life story. He is a southern baptism but at the end of our lesson he said that he feels like he understands Christ so much better then he did before. He invited us to come back. It was pretty cool! God's preparing his children!!

Saturday was also dart night which is so sweet! The member is a stud. We just eat food, play darts and talk about the gospel with every one who comes. We are free to invite whoever we want too. So we invited a couple of less active and investigators to come. There are so many people to fellowship them and it's just pretty sweet. Every ward needs a dart night for missionary work! It works!!

Something that has been on my mind this past week is prayer. I have been thinking about what President Nelson said last conference about how "you would be amazed with how much the Lord wants to reveal to you." The new way to do our planning with the phones is all based on revelation. Without that revelation we won't be able to do effective planning each day. The new way of ministering is also based on revelation. Without personal revelation we won't be able to effectively minister to those who we are to watch over. There is a pattern to this. The church is moving in such a way that we all need to be worthy of that revelation. How do we receive it? Through prayer. As I have tried to improve my prayers this past week I have also strengthened my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I have been able to understand and recognize the Spirit better. I hope each of you are spending time each morning and each night in prayer... talking with God to seek his guidance. I agree with President Nelson that there is so much He wants to reveal to us. We just need to ask Him. I love all of you and thanks for all that you do for me. I hope you each have a good week and don't forget to pray!!
Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki


~yes. It is starting to warm up but it is nice because I am done with the rain!!
we are planning on having a zone activity and playing ultimate frisbee today. The best sight to see here is the Redondo Beach. I have been really bad at taking pictures. However I did get a SD card for the camera and have started filming things for Ty. The socks you got me are the best. They last your whole mission. My socks still look brand new. They are tough. The shirts are good! My white shirts are still pretty white and looking good. They do need ironing because it looks better. Stains come out easy... with the help of bleach. ha ha I have only worn the big coat like 5 times. I like the smaller ones. On days it was really raining hard in the winter and I was on bike it was nice but other then that the smaller ones are nice. I don't like the backpack unless I was on a bike but for the most part I have always had a car. So I did not need one. Bedding and towels? Yes I am grateful for both of those! I like having my big quilt but IDK  what he will need there and how easy it will be to move it all because they are big.
I gotta go. I hope you all have a good week! I love you all!!