Hallowings

What is good Brothers and Sisters?? 

Another stellar week out here in Clarkston. I would like to address my living situation. I have received multiple emails about misappropriated information in regards to my current residence. (I just tried to use big words and I am not sure if they mean what I think they do) I live it 1308 15th St, zip 99004 in Clarkston, Washington. Ok, now that we have that straightened out... 

Our investigators are all doing really well - 

Char Fam: we put them on date last Monday for December 9th. They had a family catastrophe and could not come to church, but we are teaching them again later this week. 

Jonathan: weren't able to teach him again because he works a lot trying to make enough for the end of month rent he has to pay.

Hum Fam, Justin and Lenora: They were supposed to come to a baptism but instead we recieved some half baked excuse. That is frustrating but we will let you know if anything new develops. 

Stephen: good news here! We didn't get him to church, but we did get him to come to an addiction recovery meeting on Thursday. He connected really well with the group leader and we are still confident that he can get off the cigarettes. By the way, smoking is probably the nastiest thing that anyone could do. Moving on.

We were able to find several new investigators as well. We have two big focus right now 

1. Making everyone's baptismal dates firm.

2. Getting them to church.

Ya know, that's about all I got. Sure love y'all and I pray that you are all safe in your Halloween extravaganzas!

-E. Rapier

[Editor's note: "Hallowings" is what 2-year-old Steele called his favorite pair of fairy wings from the dress up box. It's become a legendary family word. And since Elder Rapier didn't send any photos this week, I think we need a picture of Steele in his fairy wings. Don't you?!?]

Steele in his "Hallowings"

Not Disappointed

Hey y'all :) an overview of this week;

 (3) more investigators 

 (8) people at church 

 (6) dates for baptisms 

Pretty hard to be disappointed in that if you ask me. We had so many blessings this week. 

We were able to find a new investigator named Jonathan who literally told us he was wondering the night before why there were so many churches and where they all come from. We taught him the restoration and he lit up like a Christmas tree. I haven't felt the spirit so strong in a lesson in a long time (despite the ever present weed stench). Anyway, we put him on date for baptism right there, and he was on his way to church when he got called into work. Next week for sure.

Char Fam: we got them to church. Boy, there are 8 of them, and they look like a regular ol' mormon family, haha. They really enjoyed the service. Afterwards, Brother Char told us he believed in the priesthood. We have a lesson with them tonight at 7:30. If you read this before then, say a prayer because we are hoping for a baptismal date. 

Hum Fam: didn't come to church. We are going to have a member come with us to the next lesson and then come next Sunday and drag them out of the house with a lasso. I am open to alternative suggestions. 

Randall: had a great lesson with him this week. We put him firmly on date for the 18th of November. We are going to need a lot of faith; he is living with a woman and needs to move out for 2 weeks before his baptism or else he won't be worthy. This doesn't leave a lot of margin for error. 

Anyway, that is just the tip of the iceberg. In the last 3 weeks we have accumulated about 18 investigators and I am sorry - I just don't have time to update you on all of them. Let it just be said that the field is white.

Thank you for all of what you do to support me, and I hope you have a great week. 

Send NBA and NFL updates, please and thanks :)

-E.Rapier :)

PS: I took a face full of gravel during a sweet wipeout on my bike this week. I got to play golf last Monday which was the best p-day of my mission so far. Will include pics. :)

Wipeout!

Geared up for the road

Oohhhh yeeaahhhh!

Off the tee

Whattup y'all :)

Alright well, it is Week 3 here in Clarkston, Washington and it has been zoomin by. I witness so many miracles on a daily basis, it isn't even funny. This week there were no shortage of them.

We are working with a couple families right now:

Hum Fam: Lenora, Justin, and their daughter Izzy. We put them on date for the last week of December. Justin is a construction worker and shot a nail through his finger this week with a nail gun, so we only met with Lenora, Izzy and their little girl Delphi. They are so prepared. They already have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and want so badly to get baptized. We just have to help Justin to gain and maintain a testimony for himself. They are doing so good at reading and praying, but I swear - every Sunday there is a different excuse. Like, literally they told us their cat got in a fight and they couldn't come. What?! Anyway, pray their cat stays out of trouble this week.

Char Fam: GOLDEN FAMILY. We found them last week. The father is a theological genius. I mean this man knows the bible inside-out, left, upside-down, and backwards. He believes in the Book of Mormon and most of the Restoration. We committed them to read Mosiah 3 and pray about if they should join our church. I see some more on dates here shortly. Also he told us he believes in the priesthood. so there's that as well.

Steven: such an awesome guy. He has been taught by missionaries for about 7 years. He also has a huge testimony of the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the church. He just can't quit smoking or drinking coffee. We set up a plan to have him clean by the New Year. 

Randall: he is on date for next month. He has been to church 3 times and likes it. We are working with him to understand the priesthood and what the implications of it are. He doesn't understand why we want him to be baptized again. Hahah! Pray that something in his head clicks. 

We taught a lot of people this week. Elder Huff and I are doing well. We get a long super good. He is pretty funny. 

Also I was called Saturday morning to give a 25 minute talk on Sunday so I did the ol' "ro-sham-bo" and threw something together. I was incredibly flattered when a member of the ward came up and asked me to write a copy of my talk for him because he wanted to have it. That made me feel good :) 

I hope each of you are looking for ways to serve those around you. With the holidays coming up, there is so much we can do to help those around us. :) I love you all and I know God does too.

-E.Rapier :)

Mining in Clarkston

Ya know, the next time I see the missionaries who served in Clarkston before me, I am going to ask if there was a lot of mining going on when they were here. They will undoubtedly say, "no."  I will then say, "That's funny, because this place is straight GOLD." So that should tell you how well this week went. 

We showed up in this area with 2 investigators and that was it. Last week we found 5 investigators. I haven't seen so many miracles in my life. We also put 4 - I repeat FOUR - people on date for baptism. Life is GOOD. 

We found a part-member family. The non-member father is addicted to smoking and drinking coffee, but he knows the Book of Mormon is true. He set a date in a few months to be done with smoking/coffee and be baptized. With another investigator, we invited the rest of their family to join in on one of the lessons and we put the whole family on date 

Our ward is feeding a a ton and I am scared that I am going to put on all the weight I just lost. All is well here. I ran out of time. I am so sorry. 

Sure love y'all, 

-E. Rapier

Meeting Elder Huff on transfer day

Tie twins

Sharing General Conference with some ward members

Who doesn't love a good bathroom selfie?