Onward...to NE Spokane!

Well the glory days in the promised land of Clarkston had to come to an end some day.  :(

I got the big call from ol' President Dymock last night that I would be leaving. I hopped on the computer this morning and found out that I am headed up to Beacon Hill in the Mt Spokane stake! This area is renowned for being the most ghetto in the mission! I am actually super pumped. Among other things I was told I am being put with a missionary who is struggling and I'll be a zone leader. It will be a fun experience. I will now have served in 2 of the most ghetto areas in the mission; in Cheney, we covered downtown Spokane, otherwise known as Felony Flats. I'm in for a good time. 

I'll be honest, I am devastated to be leaving Clarkston. I feel like I have invested ever fiber of my being into this area. I know, however, that the Lord directs this work.  

Let me give you the scoop on this week, which was quite the emotional roller coaster.

As you know, Louise's baptism has been creeping up. We have been meeting with her about 3 times a week to help her memory and get her ready. We were able to get her to the family history center last week to get started learning about her ancestors. We were also able to set a temple date with her for next month. She is encountering resistance for joining the church. Her "guy friend" of 6 years left her, and her friends at the senior center antagonize her about getting baptized. It is amazing to see her undeterred testimony. 

However, we called her Sunday morning to make sure she was on her way to the special stake broadcast. We woke her up and she was not making a whole lot of sense. She said she didn't want to keep putting us through it and that it would be better to stop meeting and just cancel everything. Bam! Devastated is an understatement. I sat through a 2-hour conference so mad that Heavenly Father would let that happen. I literally had a wrench in my stomach. I felt SO sick. It was like a 2-hour long prayer about what we could do to help. D. Todd Christofferson addressed us during the broadcast; as he was talking, I was pondering my favorite chapter from the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 2) and I thought about the role of opposition. Then the Spirit smacked me again. I'm talking like Hulk Hogan type of smack. I sat there in awe that our Heavenly Father places so much trust in us that he would allow those levels of opposition to endanger our salvation. He trusts and loves us at a level that I simply cannot understand. Anyway, we got the fairy tail ending. We went over, gave her a priesthood blessing, and she is getting baptized in less than a week... right after I leave... The principle is that opposition allows true depths and understandings of love that can come from no where else. 

Everyone else is good, still cooking with 8 people on date for baptism :) 

Also, I did so good at budgeting this month. Mom, you better be so proud - I have 40$ left over. That has never, never happened before.  

Ok I love you all, I will send pictures from my phone later today. Also, for the record, I hate having a phone. 

LOVE Y'ALL :))

-E.Rapier

Smartphones, or Not...

Well if it isn't just another great week here in the greater Spokane area. It was quite eventful.

Tuesday we had zone conference and we got smartphones!! Well, some of us got smartphones. Insight is the company that most of the mission used to order their phones. President Dymock said they should change their name to "Incompetent." I still haven't gotten mine and only, like, 5 other missionaries in the zone got theirs. It was quite ironic, because we sat in a 9-hour training meeting learning about phones we didn't have. They should be here soon (hopefully). 

The rest of the week we were able to teach; Ben, Louise , Deja, and FINALLY the Char Fam!, as well as several new investigators and other less-active members. 

Ben came to church last week, and it was awesome. He had a great experience and is excited to be baptized next month. Only problem is, he really likes Arizona tea. The Word of Wisdom will be fun. 

Louise is doing SO good, we taught her 3 times last week. That poor lady can't remember very well. She operates purely off of the Spirit and the way she feels around us and at church.We made her a poster that contains everything she needs to know and written as simply as I could intellectually muster. Her baptismal interview is on Thursday. Please, please pray for her.  

Deja is in an interesting spot. The fellowship we depend on for all of her transportation and help is getting very impatient. They pretty much told us they don't think she's worth their time. I was SO livid. I wanted to rip into them about breaking their covenants, but I had a very deep spiritual moment as I thought about a Heavenly Father that feels that way an infinite number of times in a single day. Even worse  - I am often the proprietor of that less-than-charitable behavior. So I chose to let them use their agency and do my best to love them anyway :)

Annnnnnd... the Char Fam :)) they are awesome! We were able to teach them, and they are so solid. Brother Char wants to be baptized so bad. His wife will bring up a concern and after we resolve it, he will hop in there and start backing up our arguments with his vast doctrinal knowledge of the Bible. The hopes are high for them :)

Other than that, our old pal Ravi had sick kiddos this week and we couldn't teach him, but he came to church Sunday and was very excited when he too got to take the bread and water with the rest of us. Even better is that our favorite members (obviously the Folsoms) made such a big deal about him coming and made us all sit together. 

Highlight of the week, we are working with the youth in our ward to help inspire their missionary spirits. They each wrote their testimonies in a copy of the Book of Mormon that we have been able to give out. "I love the children" -Nacho Libre

-E.Rapier

Book of Mormon night with the youth

Elders Kriter and Rapier

Very Short, Unofficial Post :)

Hey Momma,

No blog post this week because I am lazy, but Louise is doing so good. She will get baptized next week. 

We had 8 - I repeat 8 - investigators come to church yesterday. All is well.

-E.Rapier

First Look - Elder Kriter :)

Chillin' after a long day

Surprise! New Companion!

Whattup y'all :) What a good week it has been! 

Ok to start from the top...

Monday night we got a call from the assistants that we would be getting a third companion, a younger missionary who has not had the best time on a mission so far. Anyway, we picked him up on Tuesday during our interviews with President Dymock. After getting our new companion, we went about our week. Saturday night we got a call from President Dymock that a new missionary had gone home. So he was going to move Elder Huff to CANADA to be companions with, get this... "The one and only ELDER BRINKERHOFF" who I just finished training before Elder Huff. I am so jealous! They have been two of my favorite companions.

That leaves me here with 'ol Elder Kriter. We had a good long talk (rebuking) last night about what needs to change in the conduct I have seen. Things are looking slightly better now, and we will press forward with a bright hope for the future.

Cool sub story: When President was doing transfers, he moved my picture to a different area and found me a new companion and everything. But one of our favorite members, Reid Folsom, of the Folsom family, is in the stake presidency and was talking about us to President Perez, the Stake President. I guess they kind of liked us, because they called in a favor and asked President Dymock to leave us in this area. President told me he prayed about it and then moved my picture right back to Clarkston 1st. Talk about friends in high places. 

Other than that, the ray of sunshine has been Louise; she is getting very excited to be baptized. The only problem is she is embarrassed because she doesn't have any hair because of chemotherapy. We told her she can wear a swimming cap ;) 

In other news, we will hopefully be meeting with Ravi again this week :) 

That is all, love y'all :)

-E.Rapier