July 14

Hey!

 

So are you ready for the latest news of the extention? I talked with President Samuelian about it durring my interview on Wednesday and he asked me how my family felt about it and then he said that he was going to be praying about each and every extention. So the big news about it is....................No news. I don't even know when I will know if it is going to be happening or not. So oncwe agin welcome to the mission waiting game. On the bright side for me I am so busy that I have not even really thought about it again. I will keep you posted so as I know you will know.

 

I am really enjoying the time that I have with President Samuelian. We have had to call him a few times to set up interviews and meetings and everytime he answers "Hey buddie" and ends with "Love you buddie." He is really personable. I think that the coolest thing about the Samuelians is their focus on us being successful throughout our entire lives. President said if I make you successful for two years and then you are not successful for the rest of your live then I have failed as a mission president.

 

This past week Elder Irvine and I came up with the Vision, Strategy and Tactics that we want to impliment in our area and in out zone. These are the goals that we are working towards:

 

Forest Grove Zone:
Vision-Build upon the Rock of Christ and His gospel

Strategy-Build faith in spiritually powerful individuals
               Empower the District Leaders

Tactics-Use every teaching opportunity as a finding tool
             Use exchanges and meeting to build faith
             Use all interactions to share testimony, invite the spirit and love others

 

Dairy Creek Ward:
Vision-Build upon Christ and His Gospel to understand and have a relationship with Him through covenants

Strategy-Do the work with members
               Center teaching on covenants
               Empower the Ward Mission Leader

Tactics-Have multiple fellowshipers for each individual
             Take everyone to the Temple
             Teach members how to become missionaries
             Teach clearly every covenant
             Have members at every lesson

 

As we have been working on implimenting these we have all ready seen successes come. We are seeing great things happen here. We are having a baptism this Saturday. She has to have an interview with President Samuelian first but we think that we are all set for that.

 

I love and miss you all. This is an exciting time to be here and to be able to do this work.

 

Dustin