Week 15 Staying in Stillaguamish

I am just speechless... I really don't know what to say, but I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent me emails in the last week and the people that reached out to me over Facebook. My mom sent me your comments. I have felt a love today that I haven't felt in 3 years. Before, I felt the love of my parents and brothers, but today, I felt something I haven't felt in a long time. Please keep praying for me because believe it or not, it does work. It truly does. Thank you Mom, Dad, Justin, Tyler, and Eric for always being there for me and sending your love to me when I needed you to. Thank you, Bishop Shaw, Emilee Berthelson, the Wards, the Andersons, Kenny, the Kempels, the Fosters, Aunt Kris, Sister Kearl, Sister Brough, Sister Nofsinger, Dawn-Marie, Sister Baisch,Yvonne, Brother Selin, Lisa, Sister Hotton, Sister Miller and everyone in my family and all my friends. Thank you for your prayers and your love. Because of you and OUR faith in God, I get to say here in Stillaguamish and keep doing the work the Lord wants me to do with Elder Stoddard, and because of your prayers and love you sent, a miracle happened this week! I'm going to tell you about it with how my week went.

Monday

We had a good p-day. We got hair cuts, went shopping, and had some fun playing basket ball. While the other elders played, I had an interview with the district leader about how i was feeling on Monday because it was not good. He told me so many thing that a lot of you have been telling me, and I'm grateful for Elder Qubalio's support too. I'll miss him. He's going to Lakewood, Spanish Branch, but we'll see each other again soon. He told me that even though we weren't seeing a lot of progression, that didn't matter because the Lord was blessing us in this area by helping us lay down a strong foundation for elders to come. Now going through this last week, I can see really what he meant. After p-day, we visited some people and then went home and to bed

Tuesday

Darrington day!! So we went and visited tons of people and had a good time up there. We visited some potentials and found some that we'll go meet tomorrow since I'm not getting transferred. We had a good day. After Darrington, we came home and had dinner and a lesson with a RC (recent convert) named Cameron. It was a good lesson. Other than that, that was it for that day...a little work and a good amount of progress.

Wednesday

Wednesday was district meeting, and it was a great meeting! Elder Qubalio taught a lesson on keeping commitments and why we follow up with people. It helped me to understand a little more why we do it. Then we had lunch and training and visited a lot of people. Then we had dinner, and we had a lesson with an investigator, but not just one, not just two, but three investigators. A couple of week ago, Granite Falls Ward sent us a referral, and they finally came through and we were able to teach this family that has been attending their ward for weeks because of the husband's mother who they knew in the ward and was a recent convert in the Granite Falls Ward. The elders were teaching her and then her son's family, who are the investigators, wanted to be baptized too. Since they live in our ward, they sent the referral to us which makes me so happy!! We got to teach them the restoration on Wednesday, and it felt so good. After our lesson with Barbara, Mike, and Christoper, who is the 11 year old son, we traveled back home feeling good, planned, and went to bed. That was the miracle for the week.

Thursday

Thursday I had been feeling down again, but as the day went on, I continued to feel better and worked towards happiness. We just visited a lot of people at night time, but we didn't do a lot of work during the day because Elder Stoddard got sick, and we had to make sure he got enough rest.

Friday 

We helped at the food bank. Elder Stoddard and Elder Poulsen had to go to the mission office for leadership training, and Elder Linsey and I stayed and did some work here. It was a pretty good day. Sorry I'm rushing. I'm running out of time.

Saturday

We helped move someone from Darrington to somewhere else in the ward. Then we helped at the old folks place and visited some others. We had a good day.

Sunday was great, and we had a good day, but I only have time to share a message and leave.

Something that helped me this week was the scripture that is in D&C 121 "and now my son know that all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thine own good, therefore hold on!!" This week I have learned to "fear no man" and to continue to grow with the love my Savior has given me. One more thing I want to share, and this is really powerful. Remember how Justin would always say "God doesn't do random?" He is so right, but I want to add to that statement-- God doesn't do random, but He does things for our own benefit. I love you all, and I hope you can see this statement work in your life. Love you all and miss you a ton. Bye!

Elder Hammond