June 26, 2017 – Angi, Lydia, and Ryley got baptized!!

This week was quite the week! We had a lot going on, but

Top: Elder Allsop, Me, Tasha, Angi, Josh Lyles (Ward Mission Leader)
Bottom: Lydia and Ryley​

the busyness was totally worth it. The biggest part was making sure Angi and her kids were ready and had been taught everything in preparation for their baptisms. We had taught most things but they were missing just a little. It was super fun working with them this week but Angi was still super nervous about going into the water. So one of the lessons had a huge emphasis on the Priesthood and the power of Priesthood blessings. She was excited to learn about that and little Lydia was blown away that we had the Priesthood. 

Another exciting event from this week was that President Lewis came up for interviews on Tuesday and asked to meet Angi and her family after he had finished interviewing all of the missionaries. It was super awesome. He just talked with her and her family a little about the journey they had made to get to this point and about how excited (and nervous) they were. There's a picture on the mission blog of Elder Allsop and I with Angi and her kids after that little meeting. You'll have to try and track in down. 

This is Sister Mills, Tasha (black beanie on), Lydia,
Angi, and Ryley. Sister Mills was a huge fellowshipper
for them. She's taught just about all of Angi's kids.

Of course the biggest update from this week though was the baptism! It was soooo cool! Angi was terrified of the water but we gave her a blessing beforehand and she told us that she felt "a warm fuzzy feeling" come over her and that she felt like it was all going to be okay. When it was time for her baptism she beat the member into the font and had a HUGE smile on her face, and there was absolutely no trace of fear in her. It was so neat! I got to baptize Lydia, which was awesome, and Elder Allsop baptized Ryley. All around it was a neat experience and I am super happy for them. They are going to make great members. Now we want to work with Angi's oldest daughter, Tasha, to help her get baptized. We're hoping by mid-July she'll be ready.

I'm gonna try and attach a little voice note thing that will allow me to explain it more in depth and you'll be able to hear my voice. So look to that for the details. I hope the voice recording makes sense. It honestly was such a cool experience!!!!

One thing I forgot to mention in my voice note was about the Spirit. Angi asked that I give her the blessing before her baptism and it was probably one of the most humbling and powerful experiences ever. I felt completely and 100% guided by the spirit during the blessing. Not a single word I said was my own thoughts and it felt like the Lord was working through me to talk with Angi. It was so neat! This helped me a ton to strengthen my testimony about the Holy Ghost and his role in our lives. 

Everyone else we're working with is doing well. Trinidy is doing good but she didn't come to church on Sunday. Our member told us that she said she was out of town. The garage project is about to be started but we're waiting on just a few members who can help us really get it going. 

Almost ran over a turtle this week.

I honestly think that's it for the week. Making a voice note makes everything much simpler.

Oh and thanks for all your prayers on behalf of Angi. I'm certain they helped her out a lot. Love you all! The church is true!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

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

June 12, 2017 - What a week!

This week was definitely a highlight from the mission. We've been teaching a lot of awesome people and finding a ton of people, and then to cap it all off we had an amazing mission conference in Kennewick with Elder Neil L. Andersen and President Donald L. Hallstrom. The conference was so good! It was so full of the spirit and was so powerful. There is definitely a special presence around those men. 

President Hallstrom talked a lot about being humble and willing to change. He also talked a lot about how when we go to meetings, we go to be edified, and that the only way to be edified is to feel the spirit, and that the only way to feel the spirit is to have faith, and faith is action. So when we go to meetings we must be willing to act on any impressions that we receive or else we will not get as much out of it. 

Elder Andersen talked a lot about different ways to find (investigators) and how we have to be doing everything we possibly can to find people to teach. That includes being as creative as possible. He talked a lot about focusing on the youth, the less actives, and the part member families in order to receive referrals. It kinda humbled me listening to this because I've never been very good at asking for referrals, but Elder Allsop and I have already made goals to ask for as many referrals as possible, and we have already seen a couple successes. 

Elder Andersen also spoke a lot about how important our time in the mission is. He talked a lot about this is the time to have our own personal conversion. He mentioned that while on a mission we need to develop our testimonies in such a way that we will never be able to imagine leaving the Savior. Then he gave us some ideas on how to do that. He said to pick 10 scriptures from the New Testament and 10 from the Book of Mormon that we know to be true without a doubt, and then memorize them. He said that once those scriptures are part of us they will become part of our heart and part of our bones, and they will come to us in the times of trail that we will face. 

Also, at the conference I ran into some old faces. Colin Van Wagoner is currently serving in the Kennewick mission as well as an old classmate from Lehi, Jaxon Tollman. It was fun to see the both of them again, and they seem to be doing well.

As far as investigators go everyone seems to be doing really well. Angie, Lydia, and Ryley are all doing well. We met Angie's other daughter this week, a 15 yr old by the name of Tasha. They are still doing super well. We had to push Angie's date back a week because she smoked on Monday (they need at least 2 weeks clean), but she has been clean ever since. Angie's been through a lot this week, but she has made some amazing progress. On Tuesday night we got a text from Angie saying her oldest daughter Tasha had disappeared and she was in a panic. We called her and said a prayer with her over the phone to help her rely on the Savior. 

After we hung up, Elder Allsop and I were super nervous that she was going to smoke in order to calm her nerves. We went to bed and the next morning we had a text that said that Tasha was alright and that it was a miscommunication between Angie and her ex-husband. Apparently Tasha had gone on a field trip and the bus had broken down, so naturally the ex-husband told Angie she's missing even though he knew Tasha was on a field trip (kinda messed up). So we went over to Angie's house that afternoon thinking she had smoked a bunch to deal with her panic, but instead she had read like 30 chapters in the Book of Mormon!!! She didn't smoke a single cigarette even though it was probably one of the most stressful moments of her life. She relied on the Lord instead, and because of that her testimony of the Book of Mormon grew so much! It was really, really neat to see. 

Evva, Trinidy, and Jeff and Amanda are all still doing well. Jeff and Amanda have been super hard to be in contact with them these past couple of weeks.

That's all I really have time for! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

June 5, 2017 - Transfer Week

It's been a great week! This weekend we got our transfer calls and Elder Allsop and I get another transfer together here in Omak! We have been super blessed with so many people to teach and it looks like the Lord wants us to continue to work with these people. I am super pumped for these next 6 weeks! So many good things are happening! Probably the coolest thing is that this Saturday we get to go to Kennewick for a joint mission conference. It will be our mission and the Kennewick mission and we get a chance to hear from Elder Neal A Andersen and Elder Donald L Hallstrom!! It's going to be so amazing! 

This week we got to spend a lot more time working with Angie. She's doing super well. She quit smoking and is really excited for baptism. Yesterday at church we had her and her kids, Lydia and Riley, walk down into the baptismal font. The goal was to help her feel more comfortable about having to be submerged in water, which she is terrified of. At first she panicked. She stood at the glass and breathed for a while, and then once she was comfortable there she walked around through the bathroom and came into the baptismal font area. Again she nearly had a panic attack, but with the help of her kids she slowly moved down into the font. She was super anxious but her daughter Lydia said "Its okay mom, just rely on Jesus." After that she totally was able to walk down into the font and stand there. Angie told us that she was about to give up, but her daughter saying that totally helped her to realize she could do it if she relied on Jesus Christ. So, small miracle. Keep praying for her as she prepares for June 17th!

Evva is doing well still. She still hasn't talked to her boyfriend about how she wants to get baptized, so we're still working on that one. She has been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon though and is really enjoying it.

Also, Trinidy is still doing well. She's also been reading and praying everyday and came to church as well. She has really enjoyed what she's been feeling. She suffers a lot from anxiety and she told us yesterday that whenever she gets anxious she reads in the Book of Mormon and that it comforts her. Sadly, her mom wants her to wait a year before she gets baptized, so we're still working on that. 

I'm really looking forward to this upcoming week!

Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

May 29, 2017

We had another amazing week. Our group of 21 investigators shrunk a little as a few people dropped us, but we are still working with about 15 people. It's been really amazing to see the progress of some of these people, especially this week. 

The biggest highlight is that Angie and her kids Lydia and Riley came to church and loved it! Angie is super excited to become a "Mormon" she loves the Book of Mormon and has already seen it bless her life. We also talked with her this week about the Word of Wisdom, she struggles with smoking, so your prayers for her to stop smoking would be wonderful. She has already made huge progress in her effort to stop smoking and hopefully she will be fully free from cigarettes by Saturday. If she's not 100% clean by Saturday we will have to push her baptismal date back. Investigators have to be clean for at least 2 weeks before their baptism and she and her kids are currently scheduled for June 17th. Also, if you could pray for her about her fear of water. She gets super anxious about water, especially going all the way under the water. She even gets anxious when just thinking about her baptism. So all the prayers you can give would be extremely appreciated.

Evva also came to church again! She's doing super well. It was tough couple weeks of little contact but we seem to be back on the same page. We've taught her several more times this week and tonight she's going to have the talk with her boyfriend about the Law of Chastity, so hopefully everything goes well. She wants to get baptized super bad, and absolutely loves the Gospel. The problem though is her boyfriend is an atheist who also isn't a huge fan of families, so any prayers you can say for Evva would super good for her as well. 

We're also back on track with Trinidy. She's the 14 year old girl we were working with. She came to church on Sunday as well!! Her mom only wanted her to go to church on Sundays and do mutual on Wednesdays, thinking that we met with Trinidy each time, so this week we stopped by and talked with her mom a little and worked out how we can help Trinidy continue to learn and grow in her knowledge and testimony of the Gospel. She's also had a bit of a rough spell this weekend. I guess her dad, who is not a good guy, showed up back in town randomly this weekend and she is pretty stressed out about it. So more prayers for her would be awesome. 

I wish I had more time to tell you about some of the others we started working with last week, but I'll fill you in on them as they start to progress. Love you all!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

May 22, 2017 – 21

Things are going super amazing here in Omak! Elder Allsop and I are seeing so many blessings and miracles, and this week was so full of them! I feel so blessed to have had all these wonderful things happen, I am humbled by how much the Lord has blessed us recently. This week alone we found 10 new investigators and we now have a teaching pool of 21 investigators! This is easily the most I have had my whole mission, and it has been crazy to try and find time to visit all of these people. A good amount of these people have a ton of potential as well. 

I wish I had time to fill you in on everyone that we have been teaching, but that would take more time than I have so I'll update you on a few people. 

First, Jeff and Amanda are still doing well. Amanda was a little turned off when we talked about marriage with them. I guess she doesn't think that not being married should affect her being with her family for eternity. They had a little rough bump but they're still doing super well. 

Eva is still doing well. She really wants to get baptized but is just not putting it as a huge priority right now. She decided that she actually wants to marry her boyfriend, which was a very unexpected decision. He has no belief in God, doesn't want children, and doesn't care about eternal families, and she wants all of that. It's kinda a tricky situation, but we'll see what happens this week. 

Trinidy is still doing well, just progressing slowly.

We've also started working with 3 new families. The first is Angie and her kids Lydia (11) and Riley (9). Angie has been clean from drugs for two years and is looking to get more support from God in her life and her kids’ lives. She was a referral from a member and now they're looking to be baptized on June 17th. They are super stoked to learn and grow as a family.

The next family is Dimitri, Dejan (14), and Shenaine (12). The dad is a single dad from the Philippines and he just wants to grow his personal relationship with God. He is currently Catholic but says that religion to him is a way to become closer to God, so we're hoping that as he reads the Book of Mormon that he will recognize that this is the truth. His only hold up right now is that Catholicism is a tradition in his family and he doesn't want to change that. So pray that his heart is softened to the fact that there is only one true church.

The third family is Greg and Vicki with their two boys, Brecken (10) and Logan (5). They are such a cool family as well!! We've been trying with them for a while and Vicki just kept telling us that they were too busy and that we should come back another day, but this last week she set an appointment with us for Sunday, and when we went by they were totally ready to sit down with us. It was super cool. They live in a really nice house up on a hill, and you wouldn't generally expect those types of people to be open and humble but Greg and Vicki totally are! They are super family oriented and they loved The Family Proclamation. They also said that they want to do whatever will make their family closer. So they're willing to do just about anything. They're even going to hold a FHE by themselves! The hard part is that they are just genuinely busy. They are super busy all of the time so if you could pray that their schedule opens up that would be awesome! Also Brecken is a soccer stud. 

Oh also we taught seminary this week, which went super well. The youth up here are so cool!

There's a lot of other people that I wish I had time to tell you about but I don't have much more. Love you all! I appreciate all of your prayers.

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

May 15, 2017 – Quick Update

Not quite super sure what to talk about this week. There wasn't a

We went and did a hike last P-Day.  This is the Omak Valley.
You can sorta see Omak off in the middle left side

whole lot that happened and since we talked last night. I guess a quick update on everyone we're teaching. 

Jeff and Amanda are doing really well. They came to Sacrament meeting again yesterday and seemed to really enjoy it. They had family coming over afterwards so they didn't stay for all three hours. We've had several awesome lessons with them this week. One, we talked with them about how them getting baptized doesn't just mean that they are now part of the church, but it means that they can start working towards the temple and being sealed for eternity, which seemed to put everything in perspective for them. It was really awesome!

We just picked a mountain and climbed straight up it.

Trinidy is doing well! She really loves learning and has been progressing well. She has had a lot of struggles in her life, but it's been cool because she's already seen how much the Gospel has already affected her. She recognizes that her struggles have lessened since she started learning about the church, and her mom has recognized it as well.

Evva we haven't seen much this week. She's been having a hard time lately and we're not quite sure what's going on. Hopefully we can get back in contact with her this week.

Also we met this awesome other little family. The dad's name is

Dimitri and they're from the Philippines. He is a single dad with a son and a daughter. We met them on Wednesday and then had a return appointment for last night, which was super good. Dimitri is currently Catholic, but he was telling us last night that he only sees church as a place to worship God, not as something that defines him in any way, so we're pretty hopeful for him. As he reads the Book of Mormon he definitely recognizes that there is more for him and his family.

I think that's it! Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

​Selfie with Elder Allsop