Mission Leadership Council

October 6 Final words from Elder Dustin Hatch

Hello!

 

It is crazy to think that this is the last time that I will send an e-mail before I am home. I am having a little bit of a hard time getting my thoughts in order and putting them into words. My mission has and will forever change my life and there is nothing that else that could have helped me as much as serving the Lord. I have had so many different experiances over the past two years that have helped me strech and grow. I have been put into situations that have required me to forget about myself and serve others. I have had to work harder than I have ever worked before in my life, but I am so glad that I all ready had a good work ethic. I have met many people and have grown to love them very much, there are many people that have changed my life forever and I look forward to being able to know them for the rest of this life and the life to come. I have been able to live in some of the prettiest country perhaps on the planet. I have been able to be a part of people accepting the Gospel. However the best thing that has happened to me over these past couple of years is that I have really strengthened my testimony of my Savior and of the Gospel. There is nothing better than being able to feel the love that the Savior has for all of his children.

 

I am so thankful that I have had the support of an awesome family. There have been times that your love and prayers for me kept me going. I am so glad that I had the great example of many in our family of serving missions. The experiances that I have had have really allowed me to be able to grow in the gospel. There is no doubt in my mind that missionary service is an inspired thing.

 

I know that this Gospel is true. I know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that because of the Atonement we will all be able to return to live with Him and with our Father again. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a Prophet and to Restore the gospel in these days. I know that President Monson really is a prophet. I know that this really is the Church of Jesus Christ.

 

I love you all and am so excited to see you!

 

Dustin

September 29

Hey!

 

This past week went by very fast and this week won't be any different. Time is really flying by and I can't belive that it is all ready October!!!! Crazy!!!

 

It was a good week though. We had an exchange with the AP's on Tuesday and that went really well. Elder Buhler came to the area with me and he served in my area about 6 months ago and we were able to go and contact a few people that we had been trying to see but hadn't been sucessful in our attempts so it was nice to be able to make that contact with someone who all ready had a realtionship with them.

 

Then Wednesday we had our Temple trip. That was a great experiance to be able to go and worship there. It was so nice and then after the temple we took the way home through Tualatin and stopped at my favorite restrant there, Roxy's Hawiian Grill. It is so good,out of my mission now but we needed to eat somewhere.

 

Then after the Temple trip I went out to Lincoln City with Elder Hardy. It was so much fun to be able to be out at the beach. From their balcony you can see the ocean. There is a hotel that is blocking the view directly in front of them but you can see it off of both sides. It was fun to be able to go running on the beach for our morning exercises. The biggest problem that I had was I forgot running shorts and shoes, so I went wearing a pair of plaid flanel pants an orange hoodie and no shoes. I look rediculous but it was fun. the sand on my feet made them all nice and smooth:) I was so ready to get soaked while I was there because it is a bike area on the coast, that is just asking for rain. Much to my happy suprise it was blue skies and sun shine all day!

 

Friday through this morning we had a crazy rain storm. Apparently there was a typhon in Japan that came accross the ocean and landed here. There is a mountain inbetween Banks and the ocean so we didn't get as much rain but in the 2 1/2 days we had 5'' of water.

 

There seems to be something about running right now that we seem to be always involved in, on Saturday there was the Oregon Marathon that we helped take down after the event. tyfoon rains and a marathon don't really mix too well. It was crazy but fun and everyone was soaked! Then Elder Lee and I went running this morning to start to prepare for our 5k in two weeks, I made it 2 miles without stopping and I could have finished all three just fine. Tell you what though the air was thick and very wet which made it hard to breath as we were running.

 

I am so excited for conference! It is so much fun to be able to listen to the prophet and hear what the Lord has to say to us. I love you all and can't wait to see you! I am still working hard but ready to come home.

 

See you soon!

 

Dustin

September 22

Hey!

 

Another really fast week and this week is looking like it will be much the same. This is the basic plans that we have this week

 

Monday - Pday

Tuesday - Exchanges with the AP's

Wednesday - Temple Trip (way excited to see the changes there) and begin exchange with Lincoln City

Thursday - All day in Lincoln City (one day and two nights at the Coast)

Friday - District Meeting in Tillamook and end exchange with Lincoln City

 

It should be a great week!

 

This past week was great though. Elder Lee and I have focused our efforts on finding people. We have been trying many different ways to finds and it has been incredible as we have seen that take place. On Wednesday of this past week Elder Lee asked me if the Stake had ever done anything with the YSA's, up to this point the YSA's have been going to a Ward in Beaverton but because of the mission split that has been thrown off because coordinating councils were changed as well so they were in limbo. I told him that I didn't know of anything and they we started thinking of ideas of how to get a YSA group going here in Forest Grove. On Thursday night there was a Preisthood Leadership meeting that we were asked to attend and help to train the Ward Mission Leaders, which went fairly well, but while we were there we decided to talk with President Richardson (Stake President) and see what the Stake was planning on doing with the YSA's.  Long story made short they had never really thought of using the missionaries to build up the YSA or thought of forming a group but he was excited about the idea. He asked us to get in contact with President Samuelian and see if we could begin working with YSA. When we called president he got really excited, he has worked in the YSA program for most of his church life. While we were still on the phone with him he ran up to his office and wrote on his white board "Areas to open on Oct 14 - Forest Grove YSA Group." He asked us to type a proposal and give it to President Richardson and see if that is what he had planned. So we got it all tyoed up and set up an appointment for Sunday. President Richardson asked his counselers to be there and we came in and they started to share a bunch of ideas that they had talked about in their PEC meeting. Interestingly enough all of their ideas were in line with the proposal that we had typed up to give to them. Anyway that was a really long way of saying that Elder Lee and I got ourselves assigned to work with the YSA's and how we are going to create a YSA group and eventually a Branch. One cool thing about this is now I get to work with President Stoddard.

Things with Kindel on Monday went really well. We had dinner and then we gave her a hardback copy of the Book of Mormon and a Family Proc and Restoration Pamphlet. Her Dad was also there and was very interested in that. She said that it isn't the religion that she would choose but she isn't opposed to learning about it. I think that it will be a very slow process but she is friends with several members and we ahve made them aware that she has had us over a few times and asked them to just reach out to her and be good friends. The Janeway family who she knows lost a baby this summer due to SCID's disease and they are having a 5k fun run and Sister Janeway is going to invite her to come run that. So there is a lot of good fellowship and hopefully it will go somewhere. If she does end up runnung the 5k we will be there, Sister Janeway signed us up to run. It is a sad but really cool story, they turned the experiance into an awesome missionary opportunity. Jordan was in and out of the hospital for over 6 months and durring that entire time the Janeway's would get on a blog everyday and talk about the miracles that they had seen and how being members had blessed their lives. Banks is a small town so a large part of the population followed the blog through the entire process so that is why we are going to be at the race, finding people to teach.

 

So it turns out that it is a very good thing that I ordered a new suit, Friday my suit pants ripped in a way that they couldn't be fixed so I am now down to one suit and it is on its last leg. The pants on the suit that I have left have a hole in the back of my leg from my wallet. I got an e-mail and my new suit has shipped so I should have it in about a week, it takes a while to get from India.

 

Thanks for all that you do for me! Love You All!!

 

Dustin

September 15th

Hey!

 

It has been another fast week. We just keep running and running and we keep seeing good things happen. We plan out our day and it seems like we always end up planning more than we are actually able to get done. Partly due to the fact that our area is so big that it take 20-30 minutes to get anywhere.

 

We have been struggling to meet with our investigators lately. They are caught in the good and better while missing out on the BEST. It is hard but we just keep working at it and keep pressing forward. We have apointments with several of them this week and we are praying that they don't cancel again this week.

 

We had out Mission Leadership Council this past week and it was really good. President Samuelian had Wyn Dunford from LDS Bussiness College and Bro Allen from the Gallup Corp there and they spent a few hours talking about our strengths and how to apply them in our lives. President Samuelian is very devoted to us missionaries and the success of our lives. He has worked it out with LDS Business College that anyone from the OSM gets a 50% scholarship. 

 

Other than that there wasn't too much interesting that happened this week. I have been working on my Personal Progress, a challenge that the Young Women give to every missionary that serves in the ward,  and I am on track to have that finished before I leave. When I finish I get a medalion on a key chain. I think that it is a cool idea to get the young women involved and motivated to get their personal progress done. This ward has a great youth program, there are about 80 youth which is great to see. I am convinced that if you want a great ward you need to have a great youth program. Something else that is cool is they Young Men all challenged the Elder Quorum to a Duty to God challenge. So the Elders are racing the young men to see who can get it done first.

 

It is exciting to see the gospel roll forward and to see all that the Lord is doing. There are miracles out there to be had and there is nothing to stop us from seeing them other than out lack of faith and trust. Ether 12:12

 

I love you all and wish you the very best week.

 

Dustin

 

September 9

Hey!!

This has been another great week! It went by SO fast. The first week of a transfer always seems to be the fastest but I really don't think that it is going to slow down. Big events always seem to make time go faster and there are several "big" events over the next month. Elder Lee and I had a great week. Both with Elder Irvine and with Elder Lee it has been weird being their companions because we have served around each other for so long that it feels like we are just on exchanges. It is great though. 

Things in my world have been a little more quite, Elder Irvine and I never stopped talking so it has felt very quiet over the past week. Not that Elder Lee and I don't get along it is just a different companionship and we don't talk like a bunch of teen-aged girls. We spent a lot of the week going around and trying to see different people and searching for new people to teach, everything in life as a missionary depends on having people to teach. 

We do have one investigator with a baptism date, Kristyn. She started to meet with missionaries over two years ago but her parents won't let her be baptized until she is 18, which happens in November. I hate to see parents be so unsupportive of their children. It is so sad to know that they really want to be a part of the church but mom and dad say no. She has even been paying her tithing over the past two years even though she isn't a member. I am just really excited for her that she can be baptized soon. 

So I had Sister Hawker help me order a suit. It ended up only costing $150. The really funny part is that I went to pay for it and what do you know my debit card had expired so I had her log into paypal and just take it out of my checking account. They said that it should be delivered before the end of the month and if there are any problems with the fit Sister Hawker said that she can adjust it. It is so nice having the Hawkers live next door, they really take good care of us. Today we went with disk golfing with Brother Hawker. It was a great course out in the middle of nowhere (between Banks and Vernonia if you want to look it up on google maps, Stub Stewart State Park). I will miss places like that when I get home, it is cool to be able to drive for less than 15 minutes and be at a state park. I am going to sell my bike to the Hawkers. 

I am really excited to be able to go to the temple. I haven't been able to go since July and I am excited to see the changes. I get to go on the 25th with my district and then I get to go again on Oct 8th for the departing trip. It kind of freaked me out when they told me that this week, time has just gone by so fast. I am just glad that there are good things happening here and that I get to have such a great finish. 

Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you all!

Dustin

September 1

Hey!

 

This has been a great week! I got Elder Irvine shipped off down to Albany to be a ZL down there for 6 weeks. I am super happy that I was able to stay here, I really didn't want to have a six week area. I really wanted to stay here and get the work built up. My new companion is Elder Lee. We served in the McMinnville District together for 6 months and we work together quite a bit while we were there. He is a great missionary and I am glad that he is my companion. He and I are a good fit and we work well together. I really never would have thought that he would ever be my companion, I have learned to never to to guess or predict what is going to happen. Elder Walker is training which is way exciting! That makes two mission sons and three mission grandsons.

 

Last night at Kindel's was great. When we set it up she said that her husband was going to be gone hunting but when we got there her entire family was there (husband and two kids) and then a few minutes later her father came over. The dinner wasn't quite ready when we got there so we visited with them for a while while it finished cooking and then she asked me to say grace. We then went out on her back porch and had dinner, she has an awesome view of the valley. Our dinner conversation was great. We were able to talk about what a mission is and what we do as missionaries. Her father had the most questions. It was funny at one point Kindel told her dad that he needed to ask her a question so that I could eat before I wasted away. After dinner she took us and showed us her goats and chickens. Then she showed us around her house, she has a sweet office that dad would love. Just before we left I asked if we could share a scripture and Kindel called her kids in. I decided to share Ether 12:27 and talk about grace. It was cool because they had heard about the Book of Mormon but didn't really know what it was so I was able to share a little about it. She then handed us a dozen eggs and some brownies and as we were on the way out she remembered that she wanted to hear my companion play the piano but it was getting kind of late so he said maybe next time. She was excited about that and said if you don't hear from me in the next few weeks to just send her a text and invite ourselves back up. They are a super awesome family and they would be awesome members of the church. Perhaps she will have a few questions and she will contact you or maybe even she will contact me. We will try to make it back up there before I leave. I was so happy that I didn't get transferred, I totally set that appointment in faith that I wouldn't get transferred because it was the earliest time that she could do it.

 

This past week after I was able to get in contact with Kindel I remembered that after I got my call mom told me that she had a friend that lived in Banks which is near Portland and that maybe I would get transferred to Banks and be able to teach her. Then I got transferred her and got an appointment with her, I didn't get transferred and I extended. If all of that hadn't happened I wouldn't have been able to meet her. Maybe this is the reason that I needed to extend was so that she could have the gospel. She said that she occasionally goes running with Nina Shurts who is the Young Woman's President. She already has fellowship:)

 

Things here are going really well, we just keep having miracles happen and I don't see them ending anytime soon. It is so much fun to be a part of this great work. I am so glad that I have had this great opportunity to be here and to serve. 

Thanks for all that you do for me! Love you all

 

Dustin

zone pictures

August 26

Hey!

 

This was a great week. We had the awesome opportunity of being able to be trained by Elder Richards. He was such a gentle man and you could really feel his love for the Gospel and the Savior. There is such power when a man comes under the keys of President Packer. I don't know how people can feel that power and then fall away. I guess that is why it is so important that we are constantly feeding our spirits.

We are seeing great things happen here. The building process is going slower than I would like but we are really seeing many great things happen. We have an investigator  that wants to be baptized but her parents are making her wait until she turns 18 in November and she doesn't want to be taught the lessons everytime that missionaries come into the area because she really is active the only thing that is missing is baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. However we didn't want her to loose her testimony especially because she is so close to being able to be baptized so we decided to ask her if she would be willing to help us teach another one of our investigators. She is really excited about that and we are going to be going over and teaching her how to use Preach My Gospel and go over the lesson that we are going to be teaching. A way to teach her without her feeling like she is just going over the lessons again. We also had a lesson with Don this week. He said that he wants to be baptized but he says that he has some things that he needs to work through in his mind. He doesn't want to make a commitment to God before he is ready. He is afraid of making that covenent and then falling short. We are working with him to overcome that fear.

Thanks for the note on Kindel. I will give her a call. I hope that we are able to go over before transfers just in case I get moved. Transfers are next Monday. Chances are very good that I will get a new companion and possibly move. They won't white wash (both missionaries new to the area) a Zone Leader area unless they have to and going home together isn't a very good reason to do that to an area. But we will see. President Samuelian said that one of us will probably move but he will see what the spirit tells him to do.

 

This past week I was talking to Elder Buhler, one of the AP's, about my extention. He said that it had to work its way up through the missionary department. Church policy is that you cannot extend more than 30 days which means that your plane lands at home on day 30. Well my plane lands on day 31 and apperently it was a very costly move. But it got approved and who knows maybe it made it to Elder Nelson and Holland. But I bet that it didn't:)

 

Thanks for all that you do for me. I know that I have made things a little comlicated but I really am grateful for all that you have done for me.

 

Love You!!

Dustin 

August 18

Hey!!

 

This has been a great week! I hear that everyone is sitting on pins and needles waiting to see when I come home. Who knew that this would be such a complicated thing? So the final word is October! They haven't been able to make our final travel plans yet as far as we know but we do know that it will be in October. You should hear from the Mission Office sooner or later.

 

That is cool that you were able to give her a blessing just before she had her baby. That is so cool that you have been able to build up such a trust with them in such a short time period! I hope that good things just keep happening there.

 

This was a great/interesting week. We had a really awesome meeting that Elder Irvine and I were able to assist in putting together. It was Bishop Training meeting. Elder Irvine and I were in a meeting with President Richardson (Stake President) and we were talking with him about the vision that the mission had. He asked us if we could come and train the Bishops on vision in the Bishop tringing meeting and we accepted. We also asked him if it would be possible to have the councilers and the ward mission leaders come to the meeting. The next day we were talking with President Samuelian and telling him about it and we asked if he would like to do that training and he said that he would love that. So we were all set for the meeting and then we decided that it would be great if we could have all the missionaries in the Zone come as well. So we decicded to call and ask if we could have all the missionaries come and sing a musical number. The meeting and the musical number went really well.

 

I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work with the Stake Leaders. It is interesting to see the different perspective. In June Elder Whiting from the 70 came and was talking about Preisthood Leaders. He said that mission presidents are all optimits and that all bishops are pesimists. I think the same thing applies to Stake leaders, optimists. I really enjoy it!

 

This coming week is going to be very exciting. We have Elder Richards of the 70 coming. I am so lucky. Usually it works out so that you get to watch General Conference 4 times as a missionary, I get 5. Usually you have 2 mission tours (where a member of the 70 comes), I get 4. We are really excited about it. Elder Irvine has an interview with him after the meeting and he is really nervous, it is kinda funny! We are really hoping that he brings the new technology (iPad Mini's) with him. In the Broadcast Elder Holland said that they would be coming to us through the 70 so if it doesn't happen this week it wont happen durring my time as a missionary. Elder Richards has also called a special MLC so we get to have meetings with him two times this week.

 

Other than that there really hasn't been anything too exciting. Thanks for the cookies and the bread!

Temple visit

Zone conference

August 11

Hey!

We had an awesome week! We were able to find new investigators and to teach and see many miracles. The best part is that the investigators that we found came through members. They really are the key to this great work. We took Chelsea to the temple yesterday. That went really well and it really helped her to open up and ask questions. She is torn right now because she wants to be able to please everyone in her life and part of the people that she loves are telling her one thing and the other part are telling her another. She is living the Word of Wisdom, praying, reading the Book of Mormon, etc. She has even asked her Catholic boy friend to read the Book of Mormon and come to church but he said no. He is really what is standing in the way of her taking the step of baptism.  She leaves for school in 10 days so we are going to have to pass her off to the missionaries in Portland. Her member friend has also talked with her about attending institute as well. I have faith that she will be able to overcome the obstacles that are standing in her way.

Things here are going great though. They just keep growing and Elder Irvine and I just keep talking about how we feel like we are not the reason why it is the Lord's hand in it. We just keep doing what we know we are supposed to do and it all works out. "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say..." We are really seeing this come to pass. I am so glad that I have had the chance to serve here with Elder Irvine, we really work well together and we have seen many miracles.

On Friday we were on Exchanges with our district leader and his companion out in Tillamook. When I got my call I remember Grandma Steel saying that she hoped that I wouldn't have to serve in any bike areas and that I would get to serve in Tillamook. Well I have spent over half of my mission on a bike and I din't think that I will ever be assigned to the Tillamook Ward but I did spend the night there and served there for 24 hours. I think that we will just have to call that a success:)

We had Zone Conference this past week. That was really great. President Samuelian is a very spiritual man and when you meet him you know that he really is the man that the Lord would have be here right now. He has really been able to change the perspective that missionaries have.

Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you all!

Dustin

Pictures - Mission Leadership

Pictures - Zone conference

August 4

Hey! 

Today we took our entire zone out to the beach. It was about an hour and a half drive there and back but it was totally worth it. We went to Pacific City and we were able to sit down as a zone and Elder Irvine and I had planned out a little lesson about living our lives the way that Christ lived his. The theme for our mission is to build upon the rock and the image is haystack rock in Pacific City. So we sat in front of that huge rock and we were able to read from the scriptures and talk about how we could become more Christ-like. It was great and the spirit was really strong. It was also a way fun to sit on the beach and eat, fly a kite, play a little volleyball, take pictures and just play in the sand. After that we went to the Cheese Factory in Tillamook. It was super busy, so busy that we didn't even stand in line to get ice creame. But that is just the way that it works sometimes. The Hawkers from our ward were able to drive us out there and we really had a great time with them. They are out "go to" members and they live conveniently close, across the parking lot. I was fun though because they have a 12 passenger van so we had four missionaries and them in there.

This past week was also way cool!  On Thursday we had MLC in Newberg. We weren't able to have it at the mission home this time because they had one of the neighbors file a complaint about all the missionaries going in an out all the time. Hopefully they can get that resolved soon because it would be really terrible if they couldn't use the mission home for its intended purpose. MLC was really interesting though because the former missions have finally started to come together and lets just say that there have been a few growing pains. There are definite differences in the Portland and the Eugene Mission cultures and it has made for a few interesting companionship's and meetings etc. We were able to get much of that resolved at MLC and we have Zone conference this coming week and that should also help smooth out the edges. It was cool though because we were able to also spend quite a bit of time talking about vision. President asked Elder Irvine and I to share our vision and talk about what we did to come up with it. That was cool to be able to share with the leadership of the mission what we were doing in our area and in our zone. 

Friday we had our weekly planning day. We really wanted to seek the will of the Lord and to do what he would have us do. We prayed and we asked Him what he would have us do. We felt very prompted that we needed to and that we could assist in helping Chelsea and Wendi get baptized. So that became our focus. We prayed for them we made them a very specific part of out fast. We knew that in order for us to get this accomplished that we needed them to come to church and in Wendi's case we needed to meet with her because we hadn't heard from her in three weeks. 

So the first thing that we did Saturday is we went to go visit Wendi's fellow-shipper. Unfortunately no one had heard form her and the daughter that had heard from her was at the Laurel High Adventure... We really din't know what to do at that point. So we just kept her in our prayers and kept her in our thoughts. Some how we figured that it would all turn out fine. At this pint we turned our focus to Chelsea. We called her to remind her to fast. Three weeks ago we asked her to pray set a date that she would know if the church was true or not. She picked August 4th, fast Sunday. So when we taught her on Wednesday we focused our lesson on fasting and the power that could come from that. When we called she wasn't able to talk but she said that she would call us back later, so we told her that we went to bed at 10:30. We are in our apartment and we have started our planning session. No call yet. We decided that if we hadn't heard from her by 10:20 that we would just text her to remind her to fast. We really didn't want her to miss out on that opportunity. She called at 10:10 and we talked with her about fasting and she said that she had been thinking about it all day and that she would see us in the morning at church.

Sunday morning we had a meeting with our Stake Presidency and President Samuelian along with President Lewis (1st councilor in the mission presidency). That meeting was great and we are going to see great things come from that meeting. It was all in vision and what we need to do to progress the work. We got out of that meeting and walked into the chapel (8:40) and there was Chelsea sitting all by herself. We walked over and she asked where Amy (Sister Updike who invited her to take the lessons)  was. We told her that we didn't know but we introduced her to President Samuelian and Lewis. Sister Samuelian and their daughter Nicole, who is waiting to go on her mission to Florida in a couple of weeks, were also there. So we introduced them to Chelsea and Nicole came and sat down by her. It was perfect because they are very close in age. Sacrament starts and I had seen RayAnn walk in to the chapel and sit down with the Ellison's. We were singing the opening hymn and Elder Irvine leans over to me and says,"Wendi is here." In my mind I switched Wendi with RayAnn so I just brushed it off and said I know. Then I saw Wendi sitting with the Shurts and then I realized that it was her. I was so excited! So we had a week full of miracles. Sunday afternoon we had a lesson with Chelsea and we asked her if she had gotten her answer yet and what she saud was that she could no longer say that there wasn't a God but she didn't feel like she could say that there was for sure. We think that she knows that it is true but is afraid to admit it. We are still working with her and she will come to see it and be able to admit it soon.

Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you very much!

Dustin 

baptism to temple

Elder Pehlam

July 28

Hey!

Sounds like you had a great week! I wish that I was able to be there. I love being in the outdoors and being able to go camping and hiking. Idaho is great for that reason.

We have been keeping very busy here. The first week of a new transfer always seems a little weird but it was good. We went to the visitors center with RayAnn this week. I love being able to go to the temple and I am so glad that even though the temple is now out of our mission that we are still able to take people there. She has had a very dramatic change in her over the past six weeks since I have met her. She is awesome and I really hope and pray that she will stay strong in the gospel.

I was also able to go with Elder Irvine to an endowment session for a lady that he was able to reactivate about a year ago. His companion at the time was Elder Pelham who was my Zone Leader when I first got into the mission field so it was a lot of fun to be able to see him again and also nice to be in the temple.

As far as a time line goes I think that it is pretty set that I will be home in October. The mission office should be getting you travel plans pretty soon I would guess but I am not really too sure of anything at this point in time.

Sorry it is short but please know that I love all of you!!

Dustin

Baptism Day

Transfer Day Pictures

July 21

Hey!!!

This has been a really awesome week!! On Saturday RayAnn was baptized which was awesome. The ward really embraced her and she will do great. It was a really small baptism but I really think that it was perfect. I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and honestly I had no idea what I was going to say when I got up there I did have a few scriptures that I wanted to share but other than that I really didn't know what I was going to say. When I stood up I just felt the spirit come and then the words flowed. Honestly I cannot tell you what I said but afterwards Elder Irvine said that it was awesome and that he had never heard that analogy before (I didn't remember using an analogy so he had to share it with me). Anyway it went really well. 

Also this week Elder Irvine and I had Coordination meetings with both of the Stake Presidencies (Forest Grove & McMinnville Sakes). Holy cow those were sweet!! I guess that I should tell you that Elder Irvine and I didn't get transferred but they did however split our zone. We will stay in banks and we will be working with the Forest Grove Stake and McMinnville will now be its own zone. Anyway we were in the meeting in Forest Grove and we started to talk with them about vision. They got really excited for it and now as a result we are going in two weeks to their Presidency Meeting and they are giving us an hour to teach them about vision and then a couple of weeks after that they are having us come to their "special" bishopric training meeting and we will  have an hour to an hour and a half to teach the bishoprics, ward mission leaders and assistant ward mission leaders. We are really excited about it. We talked with President Samuelian when we we at the mission office and he is going to come to both of those meetings with us. He told us that most of his zone leaders still haven't caught the vision but that we had. So what he wants to do is to take what happens in our stake and zone and clone it through out the mission. He is super excited about it. He also wants to have Elder Irvine and I take a major part in MLC because we actually understand it and are implementing it.

 

So as far as I know the extension is finalized. I am not sure if it has to go to Salt Lake or not. We will just have to see. At this point in time I am just going forward with the October release date. I think that it is probably best for me to fly home at this point in time. Just with all the changes and stuff I feel like it is going to be the best plan of action. We will just have to make a road trip up here in the near future. 

I am now full time driver rather than every other day. You know that broke my heart. I love to ride in the car..... I have actually gotten a lot better about it but I still prefer the drivers seat. Especially if it is my Subaru rather than a Corolla.

 

I love you all!! Thanks for all that you do for me!

 

Dustin

Pictures - Mission Leadership Council