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.