#HOOPFEST

Hey y'all, 

We had a killer week this week. First off we were able to meet with Bryan 3 times. He will be baptized this Saturday at 11:30 am, I am so humbled to see his exponential progression in such a short amount of time. The Lord truly walks with each of us. This is all you need to know about Bryan is that he joked about putting a black bath-bomb in his baptism jumpsuit. I laughed very hard. 

We met with our normal less-actives this week. We met with the wiccan lady again. I don't remember if I mentioned her last week, she is mormon but she is also a wiccan. They believe some weird, border line satanic stuff. Like voodoo and witchcraft. It is kind of spooky. Anyway they said that they are going to read the book of mormon and we will keep meeting with them as long as they do. Found a few new investigators this week, but honestly Bryan was the highlight. 

The rest of our time this week was really filled, on Thursday we were able to attend the Temple. It was awesome as usual. Wednesday we had an 8 hour zone conference.

Hands down the best part of the week was HOOP FEST. For those of you who don't know, hoop fest is a 3v3 street ball tournament. It is a huge deal in Spokane. Half the city was shut down Friday and Saturday. People come from all over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California to play. There were several hundred (at least) courts with different games going on for all ages. We went and walked around talking to people and watching basketball. It was so cool. Kevin Durant even showed up, CRAZY! I got a sweet tan and watched some good basketball.

"I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the
presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy,
ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander
in the maze of mediocrity.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until
Heaven returns, give until I drop, preach until all know,
and work until He comes. And when He comes to get
His own, He will have no problem recognizing me.
My colors will be clear."

Remember who you are!

-E.Rapier

Meeting with Bryan and his girlfriend

Dreaming of #HOOPFEST

Basketball and Eternal Families

Hey Y'all, 

This was a week of miracles. I mentioned Bryan (our investigator) last week. He is now on-date and progressing really well toward July 1st! He is literally the most prepared person to receive the gospel that I have ever seen. He loves coming to church and he want to be baptized. It makes everything that you struggle with as a missionary so worth it. It definitely makes me feel that I have taken the church for granted. I love missionary work!

Ok, other than that we don't have a ton going on. We are entering our dead week where campus is closed and we will not have a lot to do. President has suggested that we go into other missionaries' areas and work there so that we don't slip into a depression.

This week for my spiritual thought I would like to share a story. We are coming up on two years of my father passing away. I don't know where the time went. This week as we were walking on campus there was a kid playing ball on one of the outdoor basketball courts on campus, it was rainy and bad weather but, I felt like I needed to go play with him. I asked him if he wanted to play pig and he said yes. His name is Jacob, and he had a pretty rough life. We got talking and as I was schooling him at pig, horse, and eventually elephant, I was able to teach him the whole restoration. He happily accepted a copy of the book of Mormon. We were both soaked by the end of this. As I was thinking over this experience, I couldn't help but think of the hours on the court I spent with my old man and how thankful I am that someday we will get to play basketball in heaven. Really grateful for God's marvelous plan for us. Let us not take it for granted. :)

Love each of y'all.

-E.Rapier

My comp was kind enough to take some pics of me playing ball with Jacob. Enjoy.

Basketball with Jacob

Meeting with ward members

Good Stuff

Whattup Y'all! 

We had a good week this week. We had 23 lessons planned and 14 of them fell through :(.  Hahah, bless our hearts. We had some miracles. We are short on time and I want to share 2 quick miracles. 

1. His name is Brian, he is dating a member and wanted to meet with us. Honestly the most prepared guy to receive the gospel that I have met on my mission. Only problem is he got strep throat and couldn't make it to church. We will meet with him again this week. I will keep y'all updated. 

2. Jacob Johnson, music major at EWU and super awesome guy. Met with us and isn't quite as solid as Brian, but he is willing to change his life. 

Y'all needa send me some emails! 

Ok, last thing I noticed this week: I gave a training on revelation through prayer this week. When reading about prayer in the bible dictionary it says that the purpose of prayer is to align our will with the Father's. It dawned on me, that's why we have revelation! It is literally the most obvious thing ever, but it took me 19 years to put together. Revelation is God's will for us and prayer is the bridge of communication. Sorry for those of you with higher IQ's that this didn't help at all. For you closer to my mental capacity, you're welcome ;)

LOVE Y'ALL

-E.Rapier

p.s. This dog was the size of a bear!

Giant dog!

I'm 19!!

Whattup y'all! 

Good week out here in Cheney with Elder Case. So Elder Case is from Vegas, we get along pretty good. He is into photography and went to the University of Nevada Reno. We spent a lot of time on campus this week. Unfortunately we had a lot of people cancel appointments. We did, however, teach John. He has that straight surfer flow. He is doing so good. He said this week that baptism is a goal that he wants to work towards. Hopefully he will be on date this week, say a quick prayer for him.

The miracle this week is Keenan. Keenan is a football player at EWU, he was on date last fall and fell away due to drinking and social life. Missionaries have been trying to contact him for months, this week during weekly planning I just felt like calling him, he answered and invited us over on Wednesday. We met with him and he opened up to us and talked about the answer he received about if the Book of Mormon is true. He wants to get baptized. He struggles with giving up drinking, mostly for the social aspect of it. I am so thankful he answered and hopefully he will look at a date to be baptized soon. :) Tender mercies from Heavenly Father. 

In other news I got sunburnt this week and it made me very nostalgic. Mostly over fun summer activities that I can no longer participate in. Oh well.

Thank y'all so much for the birthday wishes!  I appreciate the multitudes of packages that came my way :) means a lot. I am now weighing under 200lbs, BUT with all the junk food I may be back over 200 very soon. If you forgot my birthday was this week, that is ok - I will still accept your birthday wishes. ;) 

This week I read in Alma 43; it talks about the Nephites and Lamanites and their battles. When the Nephites were about the conquer the Lamanites, it said that the Lamanites fought like dragons and they had never been known to be so ferocious. "Nevertheless, the Nephites we inspired by a better cause" I have pondered a lot this week about what my cause is. I invite each of you to evaluate the cause that you are working for. Why do you do the things you do?  

Work hard :)))

-E.Rapier

Texas birthday greetings :)