June 19, 2017

So as usual this week was super good. We had MLC again on

A picture at MLC. It's Me, Elder Allsop, Hna Andrews,
Hna Fano, Hna Stocking, and Hna Torrez. All of us were
in the MTC together. The sisters all go home
at the end of this transfer. 

Tuesday down in Yakima and we talked about how to implement more of what Elder Anderson talked to us about. It was an awesome meeting, but took up all of Tuesday. We didn't get back to Omak until late Tuesday night, but it was totally worth it. 

This week we've spent a lot of time working with Angie and her kids Lydia and Ryley. They are doing super well. Last night they had their baptismal interviews and it all went really smoothly, though Ryley was a little crazy. He has some autism and ADHD and some other stuff so it was really difficult to keep him focused. He spent like the first 45 minutes at the church at full speed and then totally crashed at the end of the interviews. 

Elder Allsop and I made the cake you sent

us to celebrate our 20th B-Days. He turned 

20 on the 15th

As part of the interview we took Angie down into the baptismal font and filled it up about 6 inches with water so she could walk into it. It took her a while but she slowly moved down into the font and stood in it for a while. She made the trip several times and each time she did better and better. Eventually she was able to sit down on one of the steps and let her hands and feet be in the water. She also at one point put a little bit of water on her face, which was extremely tough for her, but she made it. It was really neat. The entire time she was whispering a prayer that she would be okay.

The drain plug in the font wasn't working correctly
for Patrick's baptism, it was leaking slightly,
so I went in and did my best to fix it.
I got a little wet though.

If you could all please remember her in your prayers this week as she prepares to be baptized this weekend that would be extremely helpful. I don't know if I ever told you but her struggle is that her brother drowned in a river up here in Okanogan and ever since then she has been terrified of the water. So please pray for her so she can make her first covenant with God. She wants it so bad and your prayers will help a ton. 

At Coulee Dam.  We went a few weeks ago.

Other neat highlights of the week - We have been working with a girl named Trinidy for a couple months now and for the first time her mom came to church yesterday!!! It was so cool! Her mom at first was really distant from us, but as we have had more contact with Trinidy we have slowly grown a really cool relationship with her mom. This week her mom offered to let us help her fix up their garage. It was pretty beat up and missing some basic things, like a wall and a door. So we got the Bishop over to their house on Saturday and we took a look at it and the Bishop took some measurements, and then yesterday at church he set up a cool service project with the ward to make sure it got done. This service will be huge for Trinidy and her mom. Trinidy's mom initially didn't want to let Trin get baptized until she had been going to church for a year, but she has seen Trin changing a ton, and this service and her coming to church may just be enough to allow Trinidy to get baptized much sooner!!

The other elders in the ward had a baptism this week as well. He is

the husband of a long time member and just about a month or two ago he told us at dinner that he wanted to start coming to church, and now he's been baptized. This week I had the chance to interview Patrick for his baptism and it was an extremely spiritual experience. He explained to me how he initially didn't like organized religion and had had some bad experiences, but had just recently recognized the power that is in the true church of Christ. He had had some struggles in his life but when I asked him what differences he had seen he told me "It's hard to explain, everything is just better." It was super cool! My favorite part of the interview though was when I asked him if he felt like he was ready to be baptized, and remain true to his covenant for the rest of his life, he said "Yes. I will stick with it until the day I die. I used to question myself out of everything, even the simplest of things, but this I will not question. I know it's true, I know the doctrine is true, and I will always be a part of this church." It was so cool!!! It hit me so hard when he said that and I felt the spirit so strongly. I was extremely impressed by his faith and example. 

Coulee Dam is the largest man made dam in
the world...I think. It's up there. The thing is
absolutely massive

I think that's it for the week! Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission