October 2, 2107 - What a week!

This week was pretty amazing! It was our first full week in the area since I've been here, and yet it was still

extremely busy. We had three exchanges this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I was rarely with Elder Allsop. On Tuesday the Wenatchee Zone Leaders came down and I got to spend another day with Elder Harman! He was my second comp in the field, so it was weird to spend another day with him just in a different part of Yakima. He finishes his mission here in two weeks, so it was really nice to spend another day with him before he left. 

On Wednesday we were on exchanges with the Spanish Zone Leaders here in Yakima and so I got to do Spanish work again!! It was so fun! It was weird to spend a majority of my day speaking Spanish but I loved it! The Hispanic culture is so cool! I love how friendly they all are. 

Then on Thursday we had the Zone Leaders from Othello come down to Yakima. I spent the day with Elder Aguilar, who was my district leader my first transfer in Omak, so it was super fun to go on another exchange with him. 

We were able to see a lot of success this week with a couple of the investigators that we currently have. The

After the Priesthood Session

most progress we saw was with our investigator Josie. Her husband is very anti-God and so she's been nervous to meet with us because of that. Well on Wednesday Elder Allsop visited her late in the evening and they had a bit of a confrontation with the husband. Nothing bad but the husband tried to tell them that Josie wasn't interested and that she didn't care to learn any more about God. Well it actually turned out to be a good thing because Josie defended herself and told her husband "No, I want to do this! You just won't let me!" Anyway, I guess they got into a little bit of an argument and it turned out super well. The husband is okay with her learning as long as she doesn't involve him, and now Josie doesn't feel guilty about trying to learn without bothering her husband. 

With the evacuation missionaries that came from Puerto Rico
after the Hurricane.

I hope that made sense, but if it didn't just know that it all worked out and now Josie has an even stronger desire to learn and her husband is okay with it! Matt is doing well. He went to the General Priesthood session on Saturday and he was invited to a member's home for the Sunday morning session and he loved it! Sadly, his wife Sara didn't watch any. He told us that he had wished she had watched several of the talks because they would have been very good for her. So, we're thinking that for the next few lessons we'll be watching some of the general conference talks with their family. Pray for Sara that her heart may be softened!

Love you all! Take care!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

September 25, 2017 - Return to Omak

This week was wild!! We had 3 exchanges this week and 2 of them were out of town. The first exchange we went on was up in Omak Tuesday night through Wednesday night, which was so cool! It was so awesome to go back to Omak and visit all of the old investigators and recent converts that I worked with up there. I went with Elder Donakey, who was trained by Elder Allsop, and Elder Allsop went with Elder Nielsen.

I got a chance to see Angel and his family again. They're

doing super well. His grandparents got in a huge car crash

This is the Law family in Omak. Neither Elder Allsop
or I got to say goodbye to them when we left Omak,
and we had dinner with them on Wednesday!
Sister Law is a wizard with the sewing machine
and she made Elder Allsop and I a few ties. 

and they kept telling us that it was a total miracle that they survived. I guess they got hit by a drunk driver and it was pretty scary. Angel is still going to church and whatnot, which is so awesome!!

Sadly, the story for Angi isn't as awesome. She's doing okay but is still slipping into old habits and isn't improving. She stopped going to church again. It's super sad to see that she's struggling. Hopefully someday she'll figure things out and take a 180 degree turn and put herself back on course. Sad as it was it was still awesome to see her again. 

Then we headed to Moses Lake! I didn't get a chance to see

​This is our district at our last district meeting.
(From left to right) Elder Oliverson, Elder Rocha,Sister Rose,Sister Banks, Me, Elder Allsop.
We used a selfie stick. It was pretty fun.

my old area but it was super fun to be there. I went with Elder Ence, who was a district who I went on exchanges with in Wenatchee, and Elder Allsop went with Elder Anderson! Who I trained. It was super good to be with Elder Anderson again. I haven't had the chance to spend a lot of time serving around him since I left Yakima to go to Wenatchee, but he just got called as a Zone Leader, so now I get to talk to him all the time.

Updates on our area. It's going well. We spent a good chunk

of our week out of town but they're still doing well. Matt and Sarah are good. Matt helped with the Sacrament on Sunday and he also helped us teach Gospel Principles and did a stellar job. He is so cool! He is super converted and absolutely loves the Gospel.

Edgar sadly dropped us. He texted us and said that his wife says that they only need one Bible and that it should be the Bible that they already have. Sounds like he missed the idea of the Book of Mormon.

It was sad that Edgar dropped us but it was made up for this

On exchanges a few weeks ago we were doing
some service at a cattle ranch or something and I
learned how to rope. I caught myself a little cow.​

Friday. So, on Friday we got back from Moses Lake in the afternoon and we had a ton of office stuff to catch up on. So, we spent most of the day doing that, but after dinner we wanted to go out and work so badly. So, we decided to knock on three doors and talk to at least one person before going back to the office and we had a pretty neat experience that really showed me that sacrifice brings blessings.

We ended up talking with this awesome girl our age named Chelann. She is super cool. She is basically a member without wanting to be a member. She has so many of the exact same beliefs as us and is honestly a stellar person. She told us she isn't ready to accept the "theology" of the church but she would love to learn more about what we believed. We went back on Sunday and she had read in the Book of Mormon and liked what she read. She told she isn't sure it's God's word yet, but she's willing to read more. Hopefully she does so. 

As we were walking back to our car after talking with Chelann that Friday night, we got the chance to speak to a less active family as they were outside working in their yard. We've been trying to get in contact with this family with little success until Friday, and then Elder Allsop was able to go visit her on Saturday with another Elder. So, our sacrificing a little time to do office work allowed us to get a lot done in just under an hour. 

Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

September 18, 2017 - Zone Conference Week

This week has been a week full of Zone Conferences.

Elder Allsop, President Lewis, Elder Miles

Tuesday through Friday we traveled all over the mission and helped President make sure that everything ran smoothly. We didn't do any training's this round of Zone Conferences, but we went to make sure everything ran smoothly. We have all sorts of stuff we have to make sure is all set up and prepared for the meetings. 

This round of Zone Conferences was full of a lot of practicing, which was really nice. We practiced how to have good focused conversations with people when we first meet them, and we also practiced teaching the Restoration in a very short and simple way. They were all very spirit filled meetings and were a lot of fun. 

Because of all of the meetings we had we didn't get a lot of

time in our own area, but I do have a few updates on some of the people we're working with. The biggest one is Matt and his wife Sarah. We had a chance to visit with them a little this week and the visit was awesome! Sarah has been less active for some time now and she hasn't shown a whole lot of interest in reactivating but she had an amazing change of heart this week. Last week I believe I mentioned that we took them to the family history center and got them both started on genealogy work. Well the spirit of Elijah is definitely real. She has grabbed hold of family history and absolutely loves it. It's also motivating her to work towards the temple now, which is a huge step for them. She's also come to church twice since we started family history and before she started Sarah would only come rarely. It's been quite the blessing for their family. Also, Matt received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. 

Another neat experience from this week. So, on Thursday

night Elder Allsop and I were in a bit of a pickle. In the past when having a Zone Conference, the Assistants would go down the night before, but when they do that it made it really hard to get any work down in their area, so on Thursday night Elder Allsop and I were getting ready to head to Moses Lake to help set everything up for the Friday Zone Conference, but we hadn't worked much in our area. So, we decided to wait and go up to Moses Lake early Friday morning, so we could have a little time in our area. We had to wake up at 5:30. Well it was totally worth it. In about 5 minutes of knocking we ran into this guy named Edgar, who told us he didn't have much time that evening (it was pretty late), but he would love to hear our message. And last night the fruits of our sacrifice really pulled through. We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration with Edgar, probably one of the best lessons I have ever been a part of. The Spirit was super strong, he was super engaged, and we were able to teach super clearly and powerfully. 

It was such a good lesson and I am so glad we sacrificed a little bit of sleep. It was well worth it. He has a very sincere desire to know if it's true and he was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. We'll have to see what happens with him. We have another lesson scheduled for this coming weekend.
-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

September 11, 2017 - Semi Normal Week

I don't have much time to write this week. We had an hour

Meeting about cars

and a half meeting on all the cars in the mission this morning, so that chopped a good chunk of our P-Day. 

This past week has been more normal than the last but Elder Allsop and I only got to spend one day together in our area. We're companions, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it because we have to go on tons of exchanges, and this week we had 3. 

On Tuesday, we had a Super MLC, which includes all of the

Teaching at Super MLC

Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders. It was a super good meeting. President trained all of us on how we can be a better leader, and he talked a ton about the importance of Charity in leadership. He said something that Elder Allsop and I both thought was super awesome. He said "It's 20% what you say, and 80% how you say it." He was talking about when giving correction to other missionaries but I think this principle applies to all aspects of life. It's not so much about what we say or do, but rather it's more about how it's done. If it's done in the right way and with the right attitude it can be much more powerful. In the same meeting Elder Allsop and I talked with all the Zone Leaders about various things. There're pics on the mission blog. 

Then Tuesday night through Wednesday night we were on exchanges with some Zone Leaders, and I was in our area. It was wild because I had hardly done anything in our area, so I had to do a lot of winging it as far as where to go, but it worked out. Well Wednesday night we re-exchanged and then an hour later we exchanged again, so I spent all Thursday in Selah with another Zone Leader. It was super fun.

Friday Elder Allsop and I were back together but we had to

With President and Sister Lewis

still finish a lot of administrative stuff from transfers, so we spent a good chunk of our day trying to get that all taken care of. However, we did get to teach a recent convert and his wife about Family History. It was super neat and his wife loved it. His name is Matt and he has such a strong testimony. He was baptized about a month ago and he is 100% in the Gospel. It super cool to see his testimony. His wife is a tougher situation, but she seemed to love Family History, and she showed up to church!! 

Friday evening we drove to Ephrata to do some more exchanges. Ephrata is about an hour and a half north of Yakima so we missed a chunk of Friday evening, and we spent all day Saturday in Ephrata on exchanges with those Elders. 

It's been a wild week, but I've had the chance to meet some more of the people we're working with, and I am super excited for our area. We definitely are blessed by the Lord in seeing success even with all of the craziness. 

I hope I have a little better update on some people next week, but this coming week we are going to be spending Tuesday-Friday at four Zone Conferences that are all over the mission. It should be super good, but we won't get more than 3 hours in our area from today until Saturday.  

 

Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

September 4, 2017 - Transfer Week

Well this week was super different. We hardly had a chance

Keeping the departing missionaries busy

to touch our own area the entire week. Monday night we spent the evening with all of the departing missionaries. We set up some lawn games and made sure to keep them busy. Then we got to stay for a testimony meeting, which was really neat. It was really cool to see everything that those missionaries had learned on their missions. The spirit was awesome but we didn't leave the Mission Home until nearly midnight, so the next morning I was a little tired. Haha

Tuesday, we spent all day with the new missionaries that

With the new missionaries

were coming in this transfer. We got 28 new missionaries last week and we had to make sure everything was set up and prepared for their arrival. So, we did that all morning, and then went and picked them up from the airport with the Lewis's. Then we helped them with their orientation, ate lunch, and then sent them out to work in Yakima for an hour and knock some doors. That's called fearbusting. After they got back we did some training's and talked about their experiences tracting. 

Then we shipped them all up to the mission home where we had dinner, which was tri-tip steak and it was absolutely delicious. Then we had another testimony meeting with those new elders and sisters and they bore some awesome testimonies. I definitely feel like missionaries are coming into the field more and more prepared. All of the activities ended that night at 11ish, then we loaded up their bags, and around 11:30 pm we started planning which new missionary was going to be with what trainer. 

That took forever but it also was super spiritual. We left the mission home around 1:30-2 am and had it pretty well set. It was cool how as we discussed all the individual missionaries that the companionships seemed to line up nicely. 

The next day (Wednesday) was transfer day and we had to help drive the missionaries around. Elder Allsop and I had to split and drive separate cars for transfers. He drove a huge bus like thing and I got to drive our truck, which we call Tucker. 

Thursday and Friday, we did a lot of training meetings for the

new missionaries from this transfer and the new missionaries from last transfer. Thursday, we stayed in Yakima, but Friday we drove up north to meet with all the missionaries that were sent up there. 

With President Lewis at the Mexican restaurant

Those meetings were super fun. And after the meetings on Friday President and Sister Lewis took us to a really tasty Mexican restaurant and we discussed the agenda for our upcoming Mission Leadership Council. Then Saturday we spent some more time planning that meeting with President and Sister Lewis. We also on Saturday were finally able to spend a little bit of time in our area which was super nice, but I have no idea what is going on. Elder Allsop tells me we have a lot of cool people we're teaching but I haven't met any yet. Hopefully this next week I have some more info on people. 

Mexican dinner

Sunday, we had church. The ward we work with is fairly small, but it's a solid ward. I'm trying to learn all of their names quickly but it'll take a few weeks I'm sure. 

I love you all!! Sorry this wasn't a very exciting letter. If you want pictures go to the mission blog. 

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

This is the mission blog that Elder Miles mentions -

https://yakimamission.wordpress.com/

This is our little office in the mission office. It's more
of a closet, but it works perfectly for what we need. ​

Elder Miles, Elder Allsop, and President Lewis

Transfer day

In front of the transfer board

"That sword is a plastic sword we have in the back of our truck,
and whenever a new Assistant is called he is "knighted" by the leaving Assistant"

August 28, 2017 - Angel's Baptism

Elder Nielson and I with Angel

I don't have much time to write a whole lot, but I want to focus most of my time on Angel's baptism. It was so good!! He asked that I baptism him and that Elder Nielson confirm him. The baptismal service went super well. It was probably one of the least stressful baptismal preparations that we have gone through. It was also a really neat experience. He had all of his family there, even the nonmembers. It was a super spiritual experience. I would have to say my favorite part though was near the end of the baptismal service his mom stood up and said a few words. She talked about how she had seen such a big change in her son’s life and how different he had become. My favorite thing she said was "I'm not a member of the

Elder Nielson, Angena (MooMoo), Elena (Angel's 

mom), Angel, Me.  MooMoo is adorable. 

church - yet." She has so much potential to join the church as well!! I'm so excited for that family. The confirmation was also super cool.

Angi is doing a lot better as well. She came to church again!! On her own power and she brought two friends with her!! She is honestly doing so much better. She had a rough patch right after her baptism, but with patience and love she was able to come back. All it took was her coming to church one more time. She's been doing really well with reading and praying also. I am really excited to see the progression.

Saying goodbye to Angi, Ryley, and Trevor (back).
Trevor was their biggest fellowshipper.

Last thought and then I got to run. On Saturday morning President Lewis called us at 7:36 am and told me that I was going to be Elder Allsop's companion again!! I was stunned. Elder Allsop and I have already been companions for 3 transfers and we're going to have another 2! By the end of our missions we will have been together for 5 transfers! It's crazy. I honestly did not expect the call to be an Assistant. I was expecting to be released and go back to a normal proselyting missionary without any extra responsibilities but that all changed in about 2 seconds. I had to secretly pack all Saturday because the other Elders in our apartment couldn't know, and I had to leave for Yakima right after church. So, at 12:45 we left the church building in Omak and arrived at

Elder Allsop and I just after arriving at the office in Yakima. The transfer board is
behind my shoulder.  There is a lot of info on that little board.

Yakima about 4:30. It was a long day. Last night we were up super late doing transfer planning stuff as well. It makes me feel for Braden on his mission when he would write home about how little sleep they got. However, I'm super excited for these next few transfers. Also, I do know that I will be finishing my mission in this area.

Love you all! Gotta run!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

​This is the Lyles family. They are such a good fellowship family for the Lopez's.

Hyrum, Josh (also the Ward Mission Leader), Me, Peter, Bro Lyles, Sis Lyles, Amari, and Lalina

This is Trinidy, her mom Tina, and her little brother Oliver. I was really sad to have to say goodbye to them. They're a good little family, and Trin has really good desires.

​This is us with the whole Lopez family. 

Across the top: Elena,Tanya, Sister Lopez, Angel, Brother Lopez, Elder Nielson

Middle: Isaiah, Andy, Me

Bottom: Julian and MooMoo

Tonya and Elena are both daughters of Brother and Sister Lopez and they're both non members, but they're coming along!

Elder Nielson and I just before I left Omak yesterday

August 21, 2107

It's been a pretty awesome week. We've worked a lot with

​Elder Nielson, Andy (Recent Convert),
Angel (the 11 year-old getting baptized on Saturday), Me

Josh, and Angel was able to go on the High Adventure with all of the other boys. 

Josh is an absolutely amazing kid. He has such a good desire to know the truth. On Tuesday, we had an awesome lesson with him about prayer. He told us that he hadn't been praying a whole lot because he didn't want to pray unless he really meant it. We had a nice long discussion with him about prayer. We read in 2 Nephi 32:8-9 and had the Berthelson family share their experiences with prayer. It was a super awesome lesson and Josh had some really amazing questions. He asked about temples, and about the advesary, and he also opened up to us about how he's having an internal struggle with making his decision. He said that part of him wants to continue to go to church and repent and change, but there's another part of him that wants to stay the same and go back to his old ways. It was really neat when he opened up to us about that. So we talked about that for a little with him. Sister Berthelson bore some amazing testimony about just testing it out, and giving it a chance to work in his life. It was really neat. 

Then on Saturday we had another amazing lesson with him.

Elder Miles and Elder Nielson

We taught him the Plan of Salvation and about Temples and he absolutely loved it. He told us at the beginning of the lesson that he had been praying several times a day and that he felt his relationship with God growing! It was awesome. When we first met him he barely believed in a God and now he can feel his relationship growing. For our lesson, we read in 2 Nephi 2:14-29, which talks about the middle section of the Plan. It was awesome and it answered a ton of questions that he had had from the previous lesson. He soaked it all in and really, really liked it all. It all seemed to make sense to him. Then as we talked about the Celestial Kingdom we read a part in a pamphlet that said in order to get into the Celestial Kingdom we have to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now our member that came with us, our Ward Mission Leader, explained that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. Then he asked Josh "Have you thought about baptism?" Up to this point we had talked with Josh about baptism, but he had never really been super open about how he felt about being baptized. Well in response to the question he said "You know, I've actually been leaning towards the idea of being baptized." It was sweet! Things are really starting to click for him. Tonight we're going over to visit and talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and hopefully set a baptismal date with him!

Angel is doing super well. He went on the High Adventure

Another stampede pic

and had a tough but good time. He got pretty sore after the 20 mile hike, but he seemed to really enjoy himself. He said it was the hardest thing he had ever done, but it was worth it all. He looks all set to be baptized this weekend. We have a couple more things to teach him and he still needs a baptismal interview, but that should all be taken care of by Thursday. The biggest thing is his mom needs to give him permission, so pray that her heart will be softened and that she will allow him to be baptized.

Also, quick update from Wenatchee. I heard that Jose Rios, my recent convert down there, just received the Melchizedek Priesthood on the 13th!! And that yesterday he was set apart as the 2nd Counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency! He also taught his first ever lesson in Elders Quorum yesterday on the Power of the Book of Mormon. Apparently, it was a super powerful lesson and he shared his experience that he had with Elder Cannon and I. It was so awesome to hear that he's doing well!

 

Solar Eclipse viewing at the church

A shot of the Solar Eclipse through my glasses

Love you all!!
-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission