Bad Haircuts and Pollen

Aye y'all, 

Good first week of the transfer out here in Cheney. The subject of the email adequately describes the quality of this week. It was pretty slow. The first day Elder Case was here we got dropped by Nemo :( He just wasn't getting an answer and he decided to go to another church. Not going to lie, that was pretty rough. We had a few less-active lessons this week but not a ton of work.

As you can see today is Tuesday, we had our P-Day moved to today due to Memorial day. Yesterday was a very long day. We were on campus for 4 hours and there were 4 people there. It was pretty darn slow.

There is also a ton of pollen coming with the changing of the seasons, I didn't know that I had allergies. Apparently I have pretty bad allergies. I have been crying frequently because my eyes itch then I rub them and I start crying. UGH. My nose is always running. God bless the Pacific Northwest.

Anyway, I had a lapse in judgment last night when I allowed my companion to give me a haircut. I now look like an idiot. I look like sergeant potato head. NICE. Anyway, feel free to laugh at me. I have the urge to hit myself in the face when I pass a mirror..... :( All jokes aside I can't wait for my hair to grow back.

I read a lot from the war chapters in Alma this week. The common theme that I noticed was that the people who entered into covenants with God were ALWAYS delivered from their enemies. We ourselves face enemies all around us. Let us renew our covenants with enthusiasm and determination, having faith that the Lord will deliver us from our enemies. As we do so, our faith and reliance on the Lord will increase.

I love y'all :)

-E.Rapier

Sergeant Potato Head

Where is everyone? (New companion: Elder Case)

Elder Rapier and another sofa

Transfers

Whattup y'all! 

We got transfer calls last night and I am staying in Cheney! I am getting Elder Case from Reno NV. I served around him in Moscow. I am glad to be getting someone I already know! I am super sad to say goodbye to Elder Brunner. We had way too much fun in the last 6 weeks.

We had a ton of fun this last week. We said goodbye to Allie as she moved out into the middle of nowhere for 5 months. We met with Nemo, he is doing good.

I would like to apologize to for the fact that I am super lazy right now and don't feel like writing too much. Sorry mom, lol.

We had a good week. Met with a lot of less-actives. Also the water in a neighboring city is poisoned and so we handed out a bunch of water for all the people there as service.

We had the chance to meet with Elder Golden of the Seventy. He talked a lot to us about the Holy Ghost and the power that comes from it. Strive to have him in your life. He will guide and direct you. I love my Savior. Keep working hard!

-E.Rapier :)

p.s. Yes, I did burn a tie for my 6 month mark.

The "Burning of the Tie" ritual to celebrate hitting 6 months.

Putting abandoned furniture to good use.

Team Jesus

Mother's Day and 6 Months

Hey y'all, 

This week was the day to honor the wonderful mother figure in my life whom I would like to quickly recognize.

Weighing in at 145lbs (I'm not sure) and standing at 5'7" from Sandy, Utah..........

               WENDY WORTH
            *The crowd goes wild*

Ok, she is awesome. I hope you all showed your mamas some love.

We had a good week, we spent a lot of time on Eastern Washington campus and street contacted. We had lessons with a couple of new people. The less-active who is giving up coffee while I give up diet coke brought her non-member boyfriend to a lesson. His name is John, we taught him the restoration and he has already read a chapter of the B.O.M!

We met with Trevor our atheist friend and taught him the restoration too! He committed to pray, which is a big deal because he refused to the first lesson. We met with a couple more less-actives and are starting to work with them, overall it was a good week.

I can't think of a super funny story to share this week, but last night when i started doing my laundry I slammed my finger on the door really hard. I was also laying on the ground and got body slammed by a small asian (Elder Tsang from Hong Kong) when I asked for a hug. 

Also I hit 6 months tomorrow, boiii. Still got 18 left but I'll get there eventually. The time has both flown and dragged on. Summer coming makes me so happy. I will miss being in the water and doing summer things, but the sacrifice is worth it. I hope you all get sunburnt for me!

This week was cool, I studied a lot of the Plan of Salvation doctrine. The book of Alma is amazing. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father that wants all of his kids back, who allows us to make mistakes but who also sent his son to help us over come that. Nothing profound this week, just my simple gratitude for my Heavenly Father's plan, and my saviors sacrifice. :)

Work hard, have a good week, God answers prayers.

-E.Rapier

A few of my favorite things.

Yep, this too.

Elder Holland!!

Whattup Y'all, 

So, I met Elder Holland on Saturday. I could pretty much just stop the email right there. He came and trained us as a mission. He is really short, but he has some fire. He went from laughing to banging the pulpit to crying very quickly. It was an emotional roller coaster!

He talked a lot about the profound impact that missions have on each of us. I am grateful for the change I have seen in myself. He counseled us to teach as the Savior taught to those in the New Testament. The phrase he used is "Go where you investigators are," in other words, teach to their understanding. I would like to comment completely off topic that he had such a nice handshake. His hand was soft but very firm; I'm not exactly sure why it was so pleasing to me but it was.

We also heard from the presiding Bishop Gerald Causse and a member of the seventy Ian S. Ardern. They all gave great counsel to us as a mission.

Other than that we met with our friend Nemo and talked more about baptism and he wants to push it off a little bit :(. We also met with Allie and taught her about the plan of salvation and she loved it! Things are looking good with her except she is moving out of our mission for 5 months in a couple weeks.

We also had a cool table display on campus this week and gave out every Book of Mormon that we brought! We found a bunch of people to teach so I'm excited about that! 

We did not bless any dogs this week :( 

One cool story of this week: we are working with a less-active girl. Her goal is to get to the temple and we wanted to help her with that! She drinks coffee and struggles with that. I love diet coke probably 50x more than she like coffee but, she said she would quit if I quit drinking soda! I have now been 5 grueling days without a carbonated beverage.. Pray for me y'all!! Mom you better be proud. You've been trying to get me to quit for years. It is a happy sacrifice for eternal blessings :)

My favorite favorite phrase from Elder Holland was that on a mission "We can promise God one convert." We may not baptize, but we can promise to convert ourselves to the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ and never let go. Elder Holland bore powerful testimony about being converted. He also said that if we go less-active and he sees us walking down the street he will chase us, tackle us, and put his knee in our chest. That is plenty of motivation for me. I pray that we all make a promise to Heavenly Father to be better followers.

Quote of the week "Discipleship is a state of being" -Robert D. Hales.

I LOVE EACH OF YOU. Work hard and focus on what matters

-E.Rapier :)

Responsible the YSA ward, Elder Rapier spends lots of time at EWU.

Ten Commandments and Title of Liberty with Elder Brunner.

The Cheney Elders

My favorite team!

Our Faith Killed a Dog... smh

Whattup y'all! So I forgot my camera this week, sorry no pics! But this was to date, the funniest week of my mission. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard... 

Elder Brunner and I drove into Spokane to contact some less-active members of the YSA ward, we knocked on a door and the house looked pretty run-down, we talked to the young woman and she said she went to a different ward and wasn't too interested in talking with us, as we were walking away she looked at me kind of funny and said, "Could you give my dog a blessing?" I was like, "Uhhhh, I'm not exactly sure." 

So we went to the car and called President and he said no and told us we could pray for the dog. We went back and broke the news to her. Her mother had come out; her mother is a blind lady who uses the dog as a guide. The dog is in terrible shape. Its back legs don't work and it seemed pretty bad. So we told them that we could pray for it. So we did and then the blind mother started crying hysterically and told us it had received blessings before and that they wanted us to call President Dymock again. So we did; we went back to the car and left him a voicemail about the situation. We were sitting there waiting because we didn't know what to do and we got a text back reading, "Go ahead then and give the blessing." I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to do... 

After some deliberation as to whom was to give the blessing (rock, paper, scissors), we returned to the house where, for the first time, I actually saw the dog. As the front door opened, a smell that my current vocabulary cannot describe exited the house and penetrated me to the depths of my soul. I had to hold my vomit down. The daughter had to drag out the dog because it couldn't walk. The dog was peeing all over itself as she dragged it out. It was covered in fleas and hadn't been washed since the cold war. It was very unfortunate. Running through my mind were as many ways as I could invent to get out of the current situation. I found I didn't have the heart to act on any of them. I channeled my inner Elder Brunner (he doesn't have a sense of smell) and sucked it up. We anointed and blessed the dog. 

We have not stopped laughing about it since. Last night we received a text that the dang dog died. I cried from laughing, I couldn't believe it. Turns out that family also has two 300 lb pigs living in the house so its an all-around interesting situation. Hope you all laughed at or at least enjoyed that story.

We did also get some real missionary work done. We met with Allie, the friend of a member; her boyfriend just left on a mission. She is awesome and we had a great lesson about the restoration. 

Yesterday at church a guy named Bobby came and he is looking to become a convert, but he is kind of hung up on the word of wisdom. We have an appointment later this week and I will keep y'all posted. 

Also of course Nemo, he is so solid. We met with him and talked about real intent, he said he is going to try to work on being purpose driven while reading the Book of Mormon. His baptism date is set for the 20th. PLEASE pray for him; he is really looking for an answer. 

Sorry this email is kind of long, I wanted to share what I have learned as I have studied this week. Reading over the talk given by S. Mark Palmer, I noticed the significance of the word "beholding." Elder Palmer expounds on this and talks about his search for charity as he beheld those around him and sought to feel the love of Christ for each of them, I was touched as he took the time to pray for the gift of charity and the ability to behold those he met with. 

We talked about serving others this week, and I kind of realized that without charity, service's value is greatly decreased. I hope that we can seek to love those whom we serve in order to feel the love that God has for his children. In the end we are the ones who benefit most from this pursuit. I challenge you all to pray for the gift of charity and implement it at least once this week!

I love you :) Thanks for all the packages and mail, keep them coming!

E.Rapier

610 Villiard

Cheney, WA 99004