July 17, 2018

Family,

Well this week there was a lot of good things that happened and a lot of sad things as well. The sad is that almost all of our friends that we taught last week did not keep their return appointments this week. That is always one of the toughest things when you find people who seem so prepared and then they are not there for your next lesson. The good thing is we did find a lot of new friends and also got in touch with some people who we used to teach as well. Hopefully all of them keep their return appointments for this upcoming week!

We had quite a few interesting experiences this week talking to people on the streets. On Wednesday we found some sketchy apartment complex that we didn't know about in our area. The apartments are kinda tucked away so we went and tracted there and it went pretty good. We found a new friend and also this guy who's pretty cool who is a member but his records are not here. So we got his information to move him into the ward and he said when he gets back from his trip he will start coming to church with his nonmember wife.

As we were leaving the apartment complex this truck with a shattered windshield pulled right in front of us and parked in the middle of the road. Then this lady in her 50's or 60's got out just sobbing and the first thing she says is "you won't call the cops on me will you?" I was thinking I don't know should we??? She then goes on to tell us how her life is super hard and her parents won't let her have a dog and so she got super mad and she ran into some guys mail box on purpose and then kicked her windshield until it was shattered. Now she has to get it fixed.  ha ha It was pretty interesting. She just wanted someone to pray for her. So we did and we invited her to church. So we will see if she comes.

This week was also transfers and I got transferred!! That was kinda surprising. We thought Elder Wright was going to get transferred because he has been here longer. I'm going to be in Kirkland now which was a part of the old Seattle Mission. It will be exciting to see some new places. I've actually been up there before back when I was companions with Elder Pugh and he was getting his surgeries. They were up in Kirkland. It's another rich area.

Other then that I really don't remember what else happened this past week. I am now logged out of the area book planner so I can't go back and check. But this week flew by! Thank you all. I sure love you and am grateful for all that you guys do for me!

Elder Ethan Stucki

~I should get the jeans today. I made 1 video for Ty. I just don't have time. We have been busy. If he wants some of those ties I sent home he can take them on his mission... not the floral ones I sent home earlier.

~I'm sure this will be my last area. It is about 45 minutes away from where I am now. I am packed and we don't really have transfer meetings we just meet up at one building find our new companion and go.

~Elder Wright is from Pleasant Grove and Elder Scott is all I know. All my companions have been pretty good for the most part. I don't really have a favorite.

~I feel like I never know what to say in emails anymore. It's all just kinda the same ha ha

~No. I actually haven't been trunky. I wish I had longer.
~Yeah it will be good for him. (Ty) Hopefully he is getting ready. He should start reading missionary talks and things
~~okay... I love you all thanks for all that you do and have a good week!!

July 9, 2018

Family,

This week actually went really well and we saw tons of miracles!! To start off we are very thankful that we don't have lice!!! Most of our ward got it from the activity because the girls brought it home from girls camp but we luckily did not get it. So don't hug girls! Not because they have cooties but because they have lice!!

Tuesday we had a really awesome lesson with the G. family. There is a mom, dad and a daughter. Long story short they have had a rough past and have made tons of huge changes and are coming back to church. The dad is not a member. He wants to be baptized and said that when he can he is going to be. He is so excited we won't be able to keep up with him and he will be diving head first into the font before we can get there!!! Haha I love them. Ask me about them later on when I get home!! They have quite the story.

Wednesday was super awesome! We had Zone Conference last week and they talked about how ages 15 to 25 is the sweet spot. In that age range is when most people convert. Well this week we found a lot of like 15 -20 year old friends we are now teaching. (Now friends not investigators) Anyways we found (G) this week. She is 15 and is Chuukese. It's a small little island somewhere. Anyways the Family has apparently been taught before but we taught her about the Restoration and committed her to read and pray about the pamphlet. She accepted the challenge and we set up a return appointment for Friday. When we went back on Friday to follow up she said that she had read the pamphlet and prayed about it the way that we showed her to pray and she had the coolest experience!!! She told us that night she read the pamphlet and prayed how we showed her to and then she went to bed not thinking anything of it. That night she had a DREAM!! In her dream she said that the whole Restoration was laid out before her in order. Idk how exactly detailed her dream was or what all she saw but that was awesome. She recognized it as her answer and we are continuing to meet with her!!

Friday we had a big meeting that has been anticipated since January when the mission dissolvement was first announced. It was the first MLC or Mission Leadership Council held as a newly combined mission. It was good!! It was basically just a council the whole time about rules and procedures and how things are going to be moving forward. The Seattle Mission President obviously ran things a little different so we kinda had to meet on common grounds. It was good though.

Then Saturday we went back to a return appointment we had with (S) who we found last week. She is 17 and from Kenya we taught her and her mom this time. They are super cool. We invited them out to church and they came!! It was so cool. Hardly ever do we have people here come to church after the first invite. It usually takes weeks of reading to get people to come out. So that was awesome.

~Elder Wright and I gave the talks in sacrament. So that was cool. It was on the life of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. So it was pretty good!! And a really awesome week!!

~Sounds like it was a good week! You do better about writing about your week then I do.  haha

~No not really. I mean there are always exciting things happening but I cant keep track of them all...

~What am I going to do about school... everyone keeps asking me that and saying I should probably start signing up for it and idk how to do that kinda stuff. Kailor asks me about it
every week.

I have to go though I love you all and hope you all have a good week!!

Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki

July 2, 2018

Family,

This week went pretty good. 

Monday ~

Fun P-ay we just drove around and went to a few different popular places like Brown's Point were there is an old lighthouse on the Sound.

Later in the week we did some service for a less active member and helped him move a giant walk in freezer to some other guys house. The thing was so stinkin' heavy. It was in pieces but still massive. But that's okay because we have some lessons lined up with him to start teaching him so he'll come back to church!

There are lots of people like that in this ward. We will talk to members who have had experiences in their life recently or they are starting to come back to church. We are hoping that we can start teaching some of them. Mostly those who are non-members and help them to join the church.

We had our Festival of Finding for probably the last time since the mission just split. It was this past Saturday and it was really good. We found 15 new investigators a Zone which is awesome. This week as a Zone we have had the best we have ever had and found 35 new investigators. We usually find around 21. Seven of those investigators were found in our area as well so we are super excited to start teaching some new people.

On Thursday we had our Zone conference which was very good. We got to hear from one of the Assistant's that was the Assistant in the Seattle Mission. It was cool to see the differences in the missions. The things that they are doing good at that they can help our mission with and the things that we are good at that we can help their mission with as we come together. I am excited for the combination of the missions and to see how things go. It's weird because now our Mission office is in Bellevue. We will get to drive up there and we will see a lot of new things.

We had a really good lesson with G. It is so much fun to go and teach her because she is just so awesome and understands all of the Gospel. Everything we teach her she soaks right up and she's always reading and studying on her own. We wish everyone was like that. 

After the Finding Festival on Saturday we also had a ward BBQ that was really fun. They had lots of games like volleyball, badminton, Frisbee, football and many more. We had the barbecue and then afterward there was a fire and people sat around the fire roasting marshmallows and singing songs. There are a lot of different ethnicities in this Ward. It was cool to see the Islanders who brought their ukuleles and guitars and played and sang, someone was playing a harmonica and everyone else was just singing. It was pretty fun.

That was about it for this week. Hopefully this all makes since because I did it all with the text to speech. But thanks for all you do and have a good week I love you all!

Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki

PS -  I need new jeans!!

sounds like good things are going on back at home. So that's exciting.
Things are going good here. My companion and I get along really well.
The best part of the week was the Festival of Finding because a lot of new investigators were found. and ya there are always spiritual experiences on missions.

Also!! we will be going to see President Nelson speak!!! I am so excited. September 15!!

The mall here has a sweet hat store that makes me want to add to my collection!!
There will be tickets but the General Authority over this area talked with our Mission President and said they will reserve seats for all the missionaries.

… about girls camp. My ward just had girls camp this past week and some girl went there with lice and it spread like a wild fire! So they had to come home early. Then we had a ward party the next day and I think someone gave me lice!!!!! My head has been tingly and there are little white things but they don't move. idk if it's just skin cause I've never inspected my head before and idk what lice are like. I'll be ticked if I have lice. I think I might just be paranoid but I swear I feel little tingling's on my head. We talk to and touch so many people and all the girls and the leaders got it so idk man but I better not!!

Have a good week. I love you all!!

I think I'll shave my head!!

June 25, 2018

Family,

This week was a little bit slower than normal. Our last P-day was pretty fun. We had a Zone activity and played sand volleyball and spike ball.

I went on an exchange this week with Elder Worthington from Montana. He was a lot of fun to be with. He is newer missionary he is on his 4th transfer. He is a super good missionary and has a lot of faith. 

We had a good lesson with our recent convert G. She is so awesome. I just love her. She has the biggest heart in the world and just wants to help people. When she came to church she saw one of the less active sisters we have been working with who is struggling and went and pulled her aside and talked to her to fellowship her. She is so sweet.

The less active lady is a returning active member. Her husband is not a member. They used to be huge into drugs and had lots of money and lost every thing. He was in prison for a long time. Now they are living in tents at a state park and have totally changed there life around in the past couple months. They haven't missed church in 2 months. He is working with a member now and she also has a job and they should be able to get a apartment soon. He listens to General Conference talks while he gets ready and while he is at work. He wants to get baptized but he is on probation right now so he can't at this time. But he will! They are awesome.

There's really not much else to write about for this week. Thank you all for all that you have done. I love you and hope you have a good week!

~Most of our investigators right now are kinda hard to meet with so not a lot of them are progressing. The only one that is would be B. but we have a hand off lesson with the YSA Elders set up for Wednesday so we won't be teaching him anymore. 

~That's exciting for Ty. If I had one suggestion for him it would be to have Dad teach him how to give a blessing and to maybe give you or someone one before he leaves. I had never given a blessing before my mission and I didn't know how and then I got out here and was pretty scared to. Luckily I had a good trainer who asked me to give him one so I could learn. But that would be good for him.

~It just wasn't a busy week and I didn't write throughout the week. It's true we all get lazy after we experience spiritual things. I think that's why it is so important to flame that fire we feel by reading and praying and also serving others every day. It is the natural man though. Peter, James and John and the rest of the apostles walked with Christ for 3 years and witnessed and even preformed many miracles themselves. When Christ left, what did they do? Well Peter said "I go a fishing." and they said "We also go with thee." they went back to old habits. and that's what we do as well.

Hey HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! That is exciting. 25 years!!! That means your kinda old. 

Just a little bit

Love you all
Elder Ethan Stucki

June 18, 2018

Family,

This week went pretty well. We had a couple lessons with our recent convert G. and she is progressing so well. Tuesday we went on a last minute exchange with the Assistant's. I was with Elder Newville in Kent and it went well. We found 3 new investigators for them in their area. Elder Wright and Elder Christensen were in my area they put two of our investigators that we found on Sunday on date for baptism! It is a mother and her 11 year old daughter who recently moved to here from Louisiana and are looking for a church. They are pretty cool people and we are excited to continue to teach them.

Wednesday ~ We were able to meet with B. an investigator who is 18 years old and graduating high school this year. We found him last week as well and we left him with a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read. At our follow up he said that he felt like he needed to get baptized. We committed him to be baptized and he agreed so we are  excited for him. We will hand him off to the YSA Elders because he is YSA age.

Thursday ~ We had Ward Corrolation meeting. The highlight of the day was later that night after the meeting we had a lesson that was supposed to be with a lady named H. that we had found little while ago. She was not home so we ended up having a lesson with her cousin named H. and one of her friends J. that was there. They both became new investigators.

Friday ~ We saw a lot of miracles in finding new investigators. 

Saturday ~ We went on exchanges again. I was with Elder Henrie who is from good ole Panguitch, Utah!! I love Panguitch. We spent most of the day doing service helping 4 different families and individuals move out of their homes. From 7:30 am until 3:30 pm. We started with 2 families to help and ended up getting calls to help 2 more families. So we didn't get to teach much together but we got to do a lot of service!!

Sunday ~ Good day - but sad because none of our investigators showed up to church. We were able to go around and have some good lessons with some members though to help inspire them with there missionary efforts. 

Happy Fathers day to all the Fathers and Grandfathers they did a lot.

The scriptures are full of accounts of how Fathers play an important role in the lives of there families.

We read in 1 Nephi how Nephi had listened to the words of his father and was desirous to know them for himself. As he prayed to the Lord in faith he received his desire and saw what his father had seen. (1 Nephi 10:17)

Enos teaches us how he was able to have all of his sins forgiven after his Mighty prayer. What started him to pray however was "The words which he had often heard his father speak concerning eternal life."
(Enos 1:3)

Alma the younger taught how he was "Racked with eternal torment" but remember the words which his father "prophesying unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a son of God, to Atone for the sins of the world."
(Alma 36:17)

Joseph Smith listened to his father's advice and read in the Bible and happened up on James 1:5 which started him in the journey of being a tool in the hands of the Lord in restoring the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth again.

Heavenly Father loved the world so much that he sent his only begotten son into the world so that through him, we can all have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I want to put My Dad in there as well with a lot of these same qualities. He taught me how to work hard, do what it right, raised us in this wonderful gospel, and taught us about Christ. I know he would do anything for us kids because if the love that he has for us and I'm grateful for that and for him!

Thanks everyone for all that you do. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki

June 11, 2018

Family,

The start of this week was pretty average. We did lots of finding less active members and part member families. We had a couple of good lessons with the (M) family. Mainly Brother M. His kids were running around and his wife was sick. Brother M. is a less active member who hadn't been to church for a year. (more or less) That was the last time he had been but he has never been to active. His family goes every now and again. We got talking to him about church and why he doesn't come anymore and it was because he has had people give him a hard time because he smokes. We started teaching about building our foundation on Christ and applying his atonement into our lives.

In the middle of the lesson I was trying to think of what Christ would say to Brother M. if he was in the lesson with us. As I was thinking about this I felt so strongly that Christ wants him to come back to church and be there with his family. I was kinda nervous to say it because he had already told us that he has made up his mind that church wasn't for him but he still loves the gospel just not going to church anymore.

But of course when Christ needs his message to get to someone he will make it happen. The impression grew stronger that I needed to tell him so I kinda explained to him that throughout the lesson I had been thinking of what Christ would tell him if he was there. I told him as representatives of Jesus Christ we strive to live in such a way so that we can have the Spirit to help us get God's message to the hearts of those we teach. I told him how I felt so strongly that if Christ was there, He would invite him to come back to church. We read in  3 Nephi 18:12 with him. It talks about the commandment to continue to partake of the sacrament and how that is how we can build our foundation upon Christs rock. The spirit was so strong as we did so and to see brother M. (now this is a guy who's been in construction all his life, he's 55, used to be kinda a cowboy)  Just a big tough man...  to see him getting teary eyed and almost begin to weep... was another testament to me that God knows the hearts of his children. He knows what he needed at this time. We know that he knew at that time what he needed to do. He didn't say much after the lesson but we hope and pray that he will come to church this Sunday.

Saturday was another special day. It was G. baptism!! It went really well and she had quite a bit of family come that are not members. It has been so fun working with and teaching G. she just soaked every thing right up and knew it all to be true. While we were teaching her she even helped to reactivate one of her friends families who are members of the church but haven't been out in over a year. So that was super awesome too.

Those are the main points of our week. We have found some really cool people that we have return appointments with for this next week that we are exited about. Last Friday we had interviews with the mission President that went really well. 

Thank you all for all that you do. 

I hope you all have a good week. and Happy Birthday to Ty this last week too! 

I love you all!!

Elder Stucki

June 4, 2018

Family, 

Sorry this might be a little bit shorter this week but it was still a good week! The best part was obviously this past Saturday we had 2 baptisms for the (L.) girls. They were the girls we found like Sundays ago. A member of the ward council told us about this family that had recently started coming back to church and they had 2 girls who were not baptized. So we went to their home. They wanted to learn about the Gospel so we taught them and yesterday they were able to get baptized! It was a pretty awesome day!
Really that was like the highlight of our week. Since the baptism was pretty sudden it took us most of week to get things figured out. Scheduling the building, getting clothes, people to give talks etc. We are also in the process of planning another baptism for this Saturday as well for (G.L) So we have been super busy. Things are super good as well!!

Other then that this past week we had MLC on Friday which went really well. We talked about leadership qualities that are important to have and how to help missionaries focus on their faith, desire and purpose. Especially with the mission split that is about to happen. That's really about it for this week. Thanks for all you guys do I love you all!

~I did get my package. Thank you very much!! Your the best.

~The picture was of dart night and the rest of the day we will play some basketball and do some shopping. 

~There are a couple of really nice pairs of shoes at Ross that i have been waiting for them to go on sale. Elder Wright got a sweet pair of church shoes for 49 cents!!! The lady marked them all the way down for him because they had been there for a long time. So for the past 4 weeks I've been waiting for these shoes to drop in price.  ha ha 

Have a good week. Love you all!

Elder Ethan Wayne Stucki