Missionary Devotional Jan 15th 2017

Our wonderful missionaries have been very busy bringing souls unto Christ.  We did not have a devotional in December, so invitations were sent to those who were baptized during November and December.

New members of the Church!

In addition to baptisms, we had countless referrals, findings, lessons taught and an outpouring 

of love and service to everyone in the Washington Federal Way Mission boundaries.

MISSIONARY DEVOTIONAL

Our missionary devotional, held January 15th at the Kent Stake Center, was an excellent coming together of missionaries, new converts, investigators and members.  Our wonderful choir did not disappoint in bringing the spirit through music, and a big thank you to Sister Edvalson, conductor and Sister Grimm, pianist.

The program for the evening contained the following highlights:

• Elder Hancock taught that "We are literally the spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father."

• New member, Jason Wilson, told of his conversion and bore testimony of the peace, assurance, consistency and surety of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Sister Reynolds taught that "Christ provides the only way back to the Father."

Caleb Newton told of his conversion which included mormon.or, and of a  Book of Mormon that was slipped into his backpack.  "There's always better things to come!"

• Elder Roach taught us that "Truth and authority have been restored!"

Mehria Nessar told of her war torn childhood in Afghanistan and how we all need to
find our "personal perfect".  Her baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
was her "personal perfect".

• Hermana Lewis taught "We can know the truth of these things for ourselves through the Holy Ghost."

• BreAnn Hake told of her love of the scripture found in Philippians "I can do all things thru Christ which strengthens me."  Since her baptism she feels "Now I have purpose, answers and peace in my life."

President Sterling Rasmussen bore testimony, and invited those in attendance to search further on the websites mormonchannel.org and discover.mormon.org.

President Stroud, Kent Stake President gave words of encouragement and also bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel.

The entire evening was a spiritual feast for all in attendance!

I can't wait for the next devotional which will be on February 19th, 2017.

Washington Federal Way Festival of Finding

Message from Sister Rasmussen:  

     As a mission, we decided on December 17^th and the 24^th to go finding new investigators from 10:00 until 5:00.  Each zone organized their festival to meet their zone’s needs.  There was a variety of plans including many exchanges with companions (each lasting for only a couple of hours), meeting back as a zone for lunch and then scrambling the companionships again for the afternoon, mini Blitzes where they went to others areas, etc.   The initial announcement was met with great enthusiasm by many but great trepidation by some.  Five hours of finding!  Many had never done more than a couple of hours at a time.  With much planning and careful execution the day was a smashing success!  Sister Rasmussen texted every companionship in the afternoon to see how things were going and encourage them to the end.  There was no need for the encouragement.  There were having a ball and finding many new investigators.  We ended up having 169 new investigators the week of December 17^th.  And did I mention it was the coldest day of the year so far?  The high was 30 degrees.  But they were a mighty army of God as they marched toward great success.  There were too many blessings to list them all from this day but to name a few as recognized by the missionaries:

•      Greater zone unity
•      Elevated their vision of what they can accomplish when finding
•      Learning new finding techniques from other missionaries
•      Increased faith
•      Finding new investigators
•      Finding out finding can be fun!

These days were such a success we have decided to implement a “Festival of Finding” the first Saturday of each transfer.  We pray this will bring the above blessings and start the transfer out on the right foot, especially for new companionships.  We ask everyone to pray with us for many more successful festivals in the future.  Stay tuned for success stories that started with 150+ missionaries heading out together as a mighty army to find those who have been prepared to receive the restored gospel!

Departing Missionaries Temple Trip
November 2017 

Missionary Moment

On Jan 10, 2017 Elder Eric William Pinckney  wrote:

Hey Sister Rasmussen, as promised, here are a few pictures from our recent baptism!

It was such an amazing experience getting to teach these people.  I mostly taught Ryan (the 9 year old) and he was so smart!  Everything I taught he remembered and accepted.  Every lesson we had, he would always tell me how excited he was to be baptized by his brother.

The mother on the other hand, was also amazing! After every lesson Elder Jang would tell me how she would do anything and everything the gospel required of her so that she can have a happy family. The thing I believe that struck her the most was the fact that she can be sealed to her husband. (who had passed away a few years back).

It has been 4 short weeks since we started teaching them and now they are all a happy baptized member family :)   I am truly grateful for this experience we were able to have!  It has proven yet again that there are so many people in each of our areas who are just waiting for the Gospel!

But we must give credit to the Federal Way Sisters, (Sister Efnor and Sister Thurman)! If it wasn't for their hard work and their inspiration to knock on their door, none of this would have ever happened :)

"P-Day"

"P-Day" - Our missionaries have their preparation day on Monday's - unless it isn't...
To explain further, if there is a holiday on Monday the library is closed and our missionaries can't use the computers to email home.  So some weeks it is changed to Tuesdays.  Hopefully this doesn't cause too much confusion!

Departing Missionaries Temple Trip
January 10, 2017

Missionary Moment

On January 4, 2017 Elder Payne wrote:

Early Summer in 2016 Elder John and Elder Rex knocked on a media referrals door who was not receptive. Having faith they were there for a reason they began to knock on the surrounding doors when they knocked on Jazmine and Justine Salgatar's door.  Jazmine opened the door but was currently busy, however she agreed for a return appointment. Later she told us that she didn't know why she said yes to another appointment, but she felt something inside her tell her that she needed to listen. 

    

    Fast forward a few weeks; we get the dreaded call 30 minutes before the lesson and she tells us that she doesn't want to learn more. We asked for ten minutes that day to talk and during that short lesson we asked her to pray about what to do. After her genuine prayer she looked up, with tears peaking out of her eyes, and said, "Yes I will learn more." 

     

     Jazmine was baptized two months later.

 Justine, her identical twin, had a few holdups. One of them was over coming family opposition. It was a fast Sunday when Justine calls us to tell her she has decided she is going to be baptized. She was at work at asked us to tell Jazmine the amazing news. We made the call and Jazmine let at a sigh of relief immediately. She was so happy for several reasons but it also boosted her testimony of the power of fasting. She was fasting that day that Justine would get the answer to be baptized! Even though her parents still weren't actually on board, Justine was baptized a few weeks after that special fast Sunday.

 Now their parents let missionaries know they are welcome at anytime! Miracles both big and small happen as we listen to the spirit to go the extra step and knock the extra door.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were fabulous spiritual events!  So many tender mercies and miracles happening all around us as we shared the "Light the World" campaign.

This post will be full of pictures - feel the JOY our missionaries felt as demonstrated in their great smiles.

So much love sent from home!  This was one small delivery - our mailman delivered our record 72 parcels in one delivery.  So exciting for us to imagine the happiness each of these packages will bring our missionaries.

Two of our dedicated Zone Leaders, Elder Palmer and Elder Knight loading up their car to deliver to their Enumclaw zone.

Each Zone has a shelf - rarely did all the packages fit - lots of overflow all around!

 

     




  President and Sister Rasmussen loaded all this and more to the Stake Centers on Thursday Dec. 15th and 16th for the Christmas Devotional Dinners.  The yellow rolls are gifts of Mission Logo t-shirts.  Ask your missionary about the meaning of the logo.  Yellow symbolizes service - they are encouraged to wear the t-shirts during service opportunities.

              
              Christmas Devotional Dinner

Practicing for the Christmas Devotional program

President and Sister Rasmussen lovingly deliver Christmas Eve delivered packages to the missionaries on Saturday

This picture doesn't due justice to how packed to the brim their vehicle was!  Thank you President and Sister Rasmussen for your great love for each of our missionaries!










Christmas Day our missionaries each enjoyed seeing and talking to loved ones at various locations and members homes throughout the mission.

President and Sister Rasmussen didn't forget about the Senior Missionaries ...

We enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner at the mission home on Christmas Day!  We love our Senior Missionaries and appreciate all they do to support and help our mission in so many ways!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Our name on our Mission Office door has had a damaged letter "T" in Latter-Day Saints - it was half gone.  Elder Samuels decided to make a sticker letter to provide a temporary fix.  It looks great!!
Thanks Elder!!