I'm Training!

Hey y'all! 

We had our transfer calls last night, and I get to train!!! I can't believe they are entrusting me with a brand new missionary. Wow, it is humbling. I feel like I just got out to the field a week ago! Anyway, y'all will get pics of my trainee next week, I meet him tomorrow! I will be staying here in Moscow, ID. I cant believe Elder Collins is leaving already. I feel like he just got here.

This was the last week of the transfer and we definitely made it interesting. Let me introduce you to Jerry our newest investigator. Jerry just moved into our area (he was living in a neighboring area before). I have taught him on exchanges before. He will probably be one of the first investigators that my Trainee teaches...oh boy. Jerry believes that he was taken into heaven and ordained a prophet. He has hair like Jesus and he believes his mom is an apostle. He LOVES missionaries and gives us these big bear hugs. He talks a lot. Like, the lesson lasts a minimum of an hour and a half. 

Anyway, we also found more promising people this week. We ran into Bryce and Katie on our way to visit a less active member. We stopped in and had a 15 minute restoration lesson with them. We are so blessed to continue to find those prepared to hear us. 

We got a TON of snow last week, so whenever we are with the other Elders, a snowball fight usually breaks out.

How are you guys doing? Is my mom even sending this thing out? Drop me a quick email - j.rapier@myldsmail.net 

My companion Elder Collins taught me a lot this transfer about being diligent! Pretty good advice - no matter what you are doing, be diligent at it! 

I love you guys so much :)

-E. Rapier 

Elders Chase, Collins, Davis, Brunt, Andrews, and Rapier

Pit Stop

Climbing Trees

On Foot

Whattup y'all! 

This week was awesome, Last Monday we hiked up all of Moscow mountain which is really just a glorified bump, anyway it was a 4.5 mile hike. By the time we got to the top we had dinner in an hour. So we got down that mountain in 35 minutes. Let me tell you, that is the most athletic thing E. Rapier has done in a LONG time. I was sore for 3 days after. 

We also had to drive up to Spokane again because yours truly crashed the car. We dropped it off there Saturday and have been on foot ever since. Turns out you don't realize how convenient having a car is until you don't have one.. Anyway, we also did some missionary work this week!

We taught 2 new investigators, Damien and Corra. Of course they live in the pit. Damien doesn't really believe in God, Corra fell asleep for most of the lesson, and they didn't show up to church. So there is progress to be made there! 

Elder Collins and I have been working with a lot of less active members. Three of them that we met with this week came back to church. It always brings a special spirit to see the gospel re-kindled in peoples eyes. We are really pushing to get people on date for baptism. We teach a lot of people but most of them really struggle with baptism. We are working on it! Pray for these people! We really want them to progress. 

We also had interviews with our mission president this week. President Dymock is awesome. Such a loving guy. I also spent 5 hours in a car with the infamous Garth Taylor on our way back from Spokane. Garth Taylor has to be the weirdest yet coolest man ever. Just short of Ben Wallace cool. Although he doesn't have the afro. Anyway Garth tried to get us to teach his son who is a non-member. While we were all sitting together, Garth told us his son was a Jew and told us to bear our testimonies to him. His son then looked at us and told us he was not a Jew. I laughed so hard. 

The good times are rolling up here in Idaho. This week I studied much about setting effective goals and evaluating those goals! We can all be so much more effective in our spiritual and temporal progression if we determine where we want to go and evaluate how we are doing along the way. You learn a lot about yourself as you strive to reach goals. :) Please identify where you need to improve and set a specific goal about how you can change. Always remember Ether 12:27 :) 

The gospel is amazing and I promise the Lord will always be there to love and guide you!

-E.Rapier

We Went to Jail...

Whattup y'all, another week out here in the Palouse.

Elder Collins and I had an awesome week, a lot busier than last week. We found a new investigator Jen! We went to go visit a recently returning less active member, turns out he is really good friends with his ex-wife (Jen) who was over at the house. We came back and taught her the first lesson and she wants to be baptized! Woohoo! We also found the daughter of one of our less active members and started to teach her as well. We had lots going on this week, and so that was nice.

We also taught Buck in jail! That was sweet. It's just like in the movies. We picked up this little phone and he was on the other side of the glass, it was really cool. 

Elder Collins and I also had to drive, like, 6 hours to get pictures taken of our car because someone crashed it... So that was fun. The roads here in Idaho and Washington are weird. Worse than Austin.

There was this weird guy at the gas station he started saying that he had found some "holes" in the Book of Mormon, his example was the book of Ether, he said that if you add an s to the book of Ether it becomes the book of Esther. This dude was higher than the moon, like Frank Zappa high. He also had "F you" tatted on his fingers. Very classy gent. So he pretty much just destroyed our whole religion there with his very sound argument. Elder Collins died on the spot. We wrote the quote on our quote wall refrigerator. lol.

Spiritual stuff for the week: BEING POSITIVE. I already know my mom is so happy to see me writing about this. I have learned quickly on my mission that the statement "Happiness is a choice" is so true. If you wait for a good situation to dictate whether you are happy or not. Your life will probably suck. There are always bright sides to every situation. :) I encourage you all to seek happiness. President Gordon B. Hinckley said it best "We have every reason to be optimistic". I encourage you to find and focus on those reasons as you serve those around you. Be good and do good :)

Mom, the Ben and Jerry's was for you! Also pictured below is a ghetto snowplow we found in a trailer park. It was gnarly. 

-Elder Rapier <3

Homemade Snowplow

Elder Collins and Elder Rapier

Mom's Favorite Ice Cream <3

Quote of the Week

I Crashed...

Hey y'all. Another good week here in the Palouse River Ward. It was also the Super Bowl; of course, when I leave it goes into overtime. SMH. Anyway, we didn't get much proselyting done when the Super Bowl was on because no one wanted to talk to us, haha. 

Also, I crashed our car....

So we were on exchanges this week, I was with Elder Davis. We are in our dinky little Corolla and we went out to the boonies of our area. It was super foggy; we were driving on this farm road completely covered in snow that had been rained on and had frozen over. There was a fork in the road. I hit the brakes and we slid a solid 200 feet into the snow bank. Wrecked the bumper. So that was fun. We accomplished absolutely nothing that day. We also ghetto rigged the crap out of the bumper with an ace bandage.. lol. 

We did have a cool experience with one of our new investigators, John. We met John last week when some members invited him over to have dinner with us. He showed up to church this week and was really interested and engaged. We're going to meet with him later this week hopefully. 

As far as our other investigators, Buck went to jail... nice. We are going to try to go visit him. Suspected drug use and possession. Stay clean kids! Our other family just up and left for Utah this week to visit their grandpa who is about to die. They don't know when they'll be back. So that's just greeeeat. That's about it. We are going to go find some new investigators this week... (ones that don't go to jail right before they're supposed to be baptized).

We had an awesome zone training this week. We talked about the 3 parts of true conversion: 

Faith (thinking), 

Hope (feeling), 

Charity (doing). 

I would encourage you to evaluate what you need to do better to become converted unto Jesus Christ and his Gospel. I love you guys, have a great week :)

Elder J. Rapier

BEFORE...AFTER!  Who knew an Ace bandage could be so useful :)

The offending snowbank

  Elder Davis and Elder Rapier went to high school together.
Now they are serving in the same district. How about that!

Uh, the banana theives???

Apparently, Elder Collins is king of the Corolla