Christmas

Hello fellow blog readers! It was a treat calling home on Christmas as usual and quite strange to think I only call home one more time before I see them face to face. This call home was much different. It didn't feel strange at all and it felt like I hadn't been away from my family for a long period of time. It really helped me refocus on my purpose and to remember that our time as missionaries is short. I heard on the phone from several family members "only 9 more months..." It made my heart sink. Only 9 months left? That's only a school year of time? I get attached to people far more than the average Joe. Its one reason transfers is so hard for me. I don't like all the change of companions and areas all the time.

I like getting to know everyone in my area. It's fun to contact on campus when you see people you talked to back in August and they smile and wave. I hope to see them again because maybe something has been stirring inside them since we've last spoke. I guess to make my statement clear: I do miss my family and will be excited to see them, but my mission is sinking deeper and deeper into my soul. I like the way I'm living and helping others. It is most exciting.

For Christmas this year it was fun opening presents, making a breakfast, and staying in our sleepwear longer than usual. It felt so weird but it was fun for a day. Now that the Christmas holiday is over it's back to work as usual. Last year we didn't do the same proselyting on New Year's as this year. This year our mission president wants New Years day to be a regular finding day in the mission with lessons, church tours, and tracting. I think it's weird but what president says goes. I'm very loyal to my mission president and have realized I have a lot more flexibility when I am. Similar to obeying the commandments and feeling more free.

Thank you for all who sent a Christmas cards. I loved it! Thank you for all the prayers and support you give to me. It helps my mission be more positive. Have a wonderful New Year!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Merry Christmas!

Hello fellow family and friends!

The mission has been quite stressful lately and very rewarding at the same time. We have found so many miracle people here in the University wards. Some of which who'll be baptized in January and some who just got baptized Saturday! Another surprise baptism! These are the most fun baptisms to have. We still have one more for December 31st. We might even have two on that day. Bai (the Chinese guy in the photo) brought his sister to the baptisms and we have a lesson with her on Wednesday at 10:00. We are going to commit her to be baptized on the 31st as well. How cool to be baptized one year and confirmed the next? I think it's cool.


This week is going to be horribly slow in finding considering campus looks like a ghost town. We are trying some unique finding ideas such as posting fliers around campus and bus stops, Christmas caroling, hot chocolate stand with church supplies, and the good ol tracting. I haven't tracked forever because street contacting is so much more effective in these high density populated areas.

This past week was transfers and I stayed so that means I will be in this area at least until January 25th. I'm hoping to stay until Spring because that would mean my next area would most likely be my last. Only four areas in two years would be pleasant. I get too attached to people so I don't want to have to transfer any more than I have to.

On Thursday we had a half mission activity for Christmas and we watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" the animated version (which is my favorite one.. the Jim Carry one is really annoying in my opinion). We then ate a ham dinner that the Bellevue Stake relief society made us. It was really good and the funeral potatoes tasted like Gladys Hamilton's. It was very much a treat.

Saturday was our surprise baptism that just fell into our laps. We are going to have two more before the end of the year! We really want to hit our mission goal of 720 and if we do that it'll be a lot easier to get 1000 next year because we'll get referrals from those baptized this year.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Merry Christmas! Thanks for your continual support.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Zone Conference & Zone Leader Council

Hello my friends. This week was a big deal for my mission. We are coming up to then end of the year and our baptismal goal is 720. Last year it was 610 and we hit 555. This year we are now just over our last year actual which means we have a long way to go to hit our 720. We are praying and fasting to find more people to teach. There is a really unified feeling in our mission right now and we've seen some pretty amazing miracles of families being found and accepting baptismal dates for December.

This brings us to our next point of conversation. We had Zone Conference this weekend on Friday and we discussed that if each of us could achieve 2 baptisms per companionship we will hit our stake goal and our mission goal. We have one on-date and most everyone else does too but we need to find one more person! It's quite a challenge with school coming to a close but there has to be some students staying over the holiday. After zone conference we had a zone leader council that was only 3 hours instead of the usual day on Friday and we had it at the Seattle North Stake Center instead because we held the meeting right after zone conference. We discussed our goal for next year and you could feel a pretty powerful feeling in the room.

After much prayer and council we set our new goal for the 2011 year. Our new goal is 1000 baptisms for the Washington Seattle Mission. This is amazing! Our mission is improving more and more and it's interesting to see why mission presidents are called at certain times. Our mission goal in 2008 was 416 and they hit 446. Only three years ago the goal was 416 and now it's 1000 with a Stake in our mission preparing to split. We may have a new zone within the next year. If we were to get 416 this year we would have all felt like failures as missionaries and yet... that was a big deal just three years ago.

I love seeing the mission become more unified and teach the doctrine better. Especially the doctrine of baptism. I thought baptisms were always a huge thing and expected investigators to be perfect. The opposite is true. After baptism the Holy Ghost is what gives people the drive to stay worthy. After they have done all they can the holy ghost will help them along the path.

Transfers are next week which means I may not have the opportunity to e-mail. We have transfer calls this Saturday and I am extremely nervous as always. I hate transfers! It's the worst. I've never had one where I felt completely confident or at ease. I'll for sure let you all know within the next few weeks what happens. As far as how my companions and I get along... Elder Frogley and I are unified and for Elder Jordan... lets just say we have a difference in opinion.

Thanks for the encouragement. Keep it up and live your life righteously!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Thanksgiving Week

This week was one that was defiantly out of the ordinary. It started with all the snow which, by the way, is all gone now. Phew! Thank goodness. Then it escalated it school being cancelled, us getting permission to leave the mission boundaries for thanksgiving dinner, and ending the week with a new investigator who was a self referral. YAY!

Thanksgiving was really tasty. We went to our bishops house in Redmond which is right outside our mission and in the hands of the Everett Mission. Sister Jenkins made this amazing stuffing. Mmmm... she gave us two gallon bags to take home and they are already gone. It was that good. So I've basically eaten left overs since Thursday evening. As far as missionary work it was pretty slow this week due to school canceled and being in a singles ward over Thanksgiving. This new week of school will be a blast though for a couple reasons. 1) We had a self referral come to Church this Sunday. Her name is Brittney and we have a lesson with her this evening at 6:00 @ the institute and then at 7:00 for FHE we are making blankets with the ward to give to the children's hospital. I don't have the entire story on Brittney yet but we shall find out tonight!

The only negative thing that happened this week was pushing back Henry's baptismal date due to weather and family circumstances. He is a really sincere guy. He just graduated in architecture and is currently searching for a job. He is only 22 years old. WOW! In Utah, no one graduates till they are older because half the state leaves on LDS missions.

I'm excited to see what the University 2nd ward does this next week. Thanks for the support from home.

Enjoy the holidays. :)

Snow in Seattle!

Yes that's right everyone. Snow in Seattle. I was on an assistant exchange in Federal Way again with my last companion Elder Bunton and it started snowing harder and harder. Snow in Seattle is very unusual. They have no snow plows or anything so the roads are crazy. We were informed by our mission president to head home early and park our cars. We started our drive up interstate 5 when BAM! Traffic! It took 4 hours to drive from Federal Way to Seattle. This is half the distance of Cedar City to Saint George and it took four hours. We had a giant sleep over at our 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment with 5 missionaries on Dexter Ave in Seattle. ha ha We then were stuck inside (luckily it was P-day) and our temple trip was postponed. We are driving again today but our cars will most likely have to be parked at 7:00 P.M before it freezes too much again. The High the last couple days has been in between 22 F and 38F. So basically its freezing cold. People forget its moist here so it feels a lot colder. People are babies about driving though. ha ha That's how Suzanne put it anyway (Suzanne from Jersey who was just baptized). We have a half mission activity this week but it might have to be postponed or cancelled as well. We also had to move back our investigators baptismal dates due to lack of teaching them because of weather conditions. Life in Seattle is cold, SNOWY, and full of out of the ordinary news. As much as I want to write more events about this week I must go. I'll have to make it up to everyone. Let me know what I can do. I love you all and keep up the good spirits,,, even when it's freezing.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Fast & Finding Week

Oh my heck this week was so awesome! We fasted and prayed and now have four people on -date for baptism! Here is the cool thing. Two of them are member referrals, the first I've had since being in this area and they are solid. One of them is super excited to get baptized on the 27th of November while another is shaky but has excellent fellowship. Her name is Ghee-hee and get this; she is from Federal Way and was really good friends with Alex Elder. Alex was baptized back in June in the Jovita Creek ward and she sent me a letter a couple weeks ago giving me Ghee-hee's number because she lives up here on the UW campus... better yet in our ward boundaries. So I called Ghee-hee and she remembered me from some of the ward activities. She is a really sweet girl who would be a really good addition to our ward/ the church in general. Alex wrote me again and told me she is coming up here this Friday and will be on the UW campus Saturday to visit Ghee-hee but it gets better. She is bringing up 4 people of Ghee-hee's friends that are all members of the church who I know from Federal way and they are all coming to church and are going to sit with Ghee-hee. She is already being surrounded by these church members who are her best friends and she is going to be meeting even more people from our ward when we have lessons with her this week. Alex will be here for 8 days starting Friday.

I'm stoked to see a Alex as well. This rarely happens on the mission. Don't you love when you have recent converts who move to BYU-I who send you referrals in the mail who you get to see after you've been transferred? I know I do. ha ha

The rest of the week was really good and this Friday I get to be companions with Elder Bunton again because its our zone leader/assistant exchange. YAY! I am setting up a lot of lessons with our favorite people and leaving prime contacting time open to find more people. This week looks like another great week in the WA SEA Mission. Despite the dark days (the sun is completely gone by 4:30 P.M) and the constant drizzle of rain, life here is good. Just as a reminder next week is temple day so I wont be E-mailing until Tuesday. I love you all! Thanks
for everything you do for me.

Your missionary,

Elder Bottema

Texting is Back!

Yay!! Our mission was finally re-approved for texting for zone leaders, assistants and University wards. I've been trying to text everyday since our mission president told us. He doesn't know when we have it again but he's just waiting for the "switch to be flipped." It's on our new phone plan but we are just waiting in anticipation. We had it last year but obviously I wasn't a zone leader so therefore I never got to enjoy the benefits. We had an interesting zone leader council about some of the disobedience that went on last transfer but come to find out our mission is 90% diligent and obedient. We just have a small fraction or handful of missionaries who are not the most obedient.

Our mission is still improving and doing better. We had an awesome day yesterday. We had two non-members who just showed up at church who we are now teaching. We are going to have 3 people on-date for baptism by the end of this week. I prayed and fasted for this goal and I feel really comforted by it. My new zone leader companion is doing great! It's a lot different than training a new missionary. It's really just making a few adjustments here and there and handling sticky situations. He's great though. Our third companion, to say the least, doesn't really have the same opinion as us. Fun times, fun times.

The weather here is starting to get bitter cold. Not horrible but cold and it sure is raining a lot more. Most days start out rainy and then we'll have a hour break of sun and then it just leaves and the rain comes back. Because of daylight savings time it's pretty dark by 5:00 P.M. When December 15th - January 15th comes the sun is completely gone by 4:00. It's so werid. It's a lot darker here in the winter compared to Utah, however, its not as cold so I can't complain too much. As far as news that happened this week it wasn't too eventful. I hope all is well at home. Be safe and stay strong!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Transfer 10 News

What a wide range of emotions. So much happend this week. It started off going on exchanges with the assistants Tuesday. I got to go back to Federal Way for a day! I didn't see any of the members I knew because I was in the Federal Ward.. not the Jovita Creek Ward. But i still recongnized the area. Then we had a miracle message from our investigator Suzanne. She read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon that we left her (2 Nephi 31) and called us saying, "When can I be baptized? Can it be sooner?" It was awesome! So we did it this weekend! We taught her for 2 1/2 hours on Thursday. We taught lesson 3 and 4, the baptismal interview questions, then she had the interview, then we planned her baptism, and answered a couple other gospel questions. Her baptism was on Saturday night at 8:00 and our mission president came. He left quickly because he had to organize tranfer calls (we'll get to that subject later).


I was also privilaged to baptize someone from the Seattle 5th ward. I conducted her interview and she like it so she asked me to baptize her a couple days later. She was a miracle as well. She was found on Sunday and baptized Saturday... the same day as Suzanne. So I was able to have 2 baptisms this Saturday! Suzanne is from New Jersey and her friend introduced her to the church via facebook. She said NO WAY, however, she kept seeing signs and feeling prompted to learn more and here she is. Her friend from Jersey is sending her a set of scriptures with her name. I wish you all could meet her! She is so awesome and has the funniest personality.

One of the reasons I have been on a roller coaster of emotion this weekend is not only because of having baptims, pnemonia, stress, and transfers, its because we had a sort of emergency transfer. I am still in the Seattle North Zone and will be until at least December 14th. We had transfer calls and my companion Elder Bunton and I were staying together. There was a missionary going home so we took him to the mission office on Monday morning. After he had his departing interview he called Elder Bunton in the office, had a quick interview with him, and asked him to be the next Assistant to the president. I felt like I was shot in the heart because we had just made all these new goals, told everyone in the ward we were staying, had a ton of success together, ect. He is going to be awesome at it though but needless to say I felt abandoned.

Our zone was able to hit our goal of 10 baptisms in the month of October. It was awesome to see the faith and desire grow in the missionaries. We have such a good zone. Our goal for November is 15 and we have a lot of work to do. I am training a new zone leader and his name is Elder Adam Frogley. I was his district leader for 4 transfers in Federal Way. We got along really well AND we have wanted to be companions for so long. Our exchanges were always a lot of fun. I also have a third companion who is on the brink of going home early. He came out in May 2009 and we are watching him for a transfer so I am in a tri-companionship. He made some really bad decisions last week and needs a little boost. Pray for me. It's already a rocky start and we haven't even had our first night together. This is my charity and love/ patience test. And were off!!!!!

There were some other events that took place too but I can't remember them all because there was so much that happened. I miss my old companion a ton already but know that I will have a blast with Elder Frogley (who by the way is from Draper, Utah. I've had all the people from Draper in this mission as a companion). Oh one more thing; I've never wanted to go to BYU.. ever... and the past month or two I have never felt more impressed to go there. I guess only the future will tell. Thank you so much for what you all do. I love you!

Elder Bottema

Harry Potter Exhibit (and baptisms)

I wish I had a picture of Jason's baptism but I lost my camera then found it long after the service was over. I'll get one with him so you can know what he looks like but he is awesome! We have another baptism this week and then Suzanne, who is ondate for November 20th 2010, is progressing wonderfully. She is a hard core punk type of girl but really sweet at the same time. She makes my day. Teaching her feels more like hanging out than a lesson and she has the best input. Transfer calls is this weekend which means I probably wont be E-mailing next week. I am super nervous about tranfers. It's looking really likely that I'm going to be leaving because we need a LOT of zone leader trainers. We are going to need 2 new assistants and 8 new zone leaders within the next two transfers. We also have a large group of District leaders going home which is really disappointing.

As far as what happened this week a lot did. We had Elder Ringwood come to our mission and I wasn't able to talk to him about the Hamilton's and Bottema Tile because I got the news a little too late but he is a very spiritual guy. I loved having him come to our mission. He knows everything about the Book of Mormon. It's amazing. We were also able to attend a missionary fireside only if we had investigators and recent converts coming. He gave a really powerful presentation on Moroni Chapter 10 and we went thru all the details. I wrote a lot of notes and the past couple of personal studies I have been marking my scriptures up a lot. Then on Thursday we had a mini zone leader council with him on how we could improve our mission. He said he was really pleased with what was happening. It was a lot of fun to get to talk to him more personally and on a one-on-one basis. Then on Friday we were in charge of car inspections which was kind of fun because now we know what the car coordinator looks for when he inspects vehicles. We are getting a new car at the end of the month but if I get transfered I wont even be able to drive in it. haha

I am getting extremely nervous about this Saturday. I really want to be here. Everytime I get this attatched to an area, transfers comes. Sigh.

Change of subject. We went to a Harry Potter Exhibit today and it was awesome! I was having a blast. It was at the pacific science center which is 5 min from my apartment. Really... It's super close so this made it fun because after our museum tour we were able to take 15 min power naps at our apartment before finishing the rest of our P-day stuff. The exhibit had a lot of things that were used in all the movies and you could see the detail and look at the hard work and effort for the props. You weren't allowed to take pictures so I have very limited pictures. It was highly enjoyable and I was able to learn even more about Harry Potter and the movies.

Thank you for everything! I love you all! Keep being strong

Elder Bottema

Preparation Week

With a baptism this weekend, one next weekend, meetings, and zone leader responsibilities. We had a week full of getting things prepared for all our events. We did a lot of teaching to help our investigators progress towards baptism. We had a couple leadership training meetings and baptismal interviews for other people in our zone. And last but not least we are preparing for Elder Ringwoods tour this week.

We as zone leaders are especially busy and still trying to keep our teaching appointments, finding fellowship, and contacting makes it all the more stressful. Last week was a one meal a day type week and it looks like this week will be really similar again. Today we are meeting some Elders who are singing at a fireside wednesday night with Elder Ringwood so that'll take up a large part of P-day. We also have zone conference Wenesday, then Elder Ringwoods fireside with a musical number Wednesday night, then we have been assigned car inspections for another zone conference on Friday. Not to mention our baptism on Saturday. Oh yeah and a special Zone leaders council with Elder Ringwood thursday from 3:30- 6:00. Holy cow. In the middle of all that we have appointments, calls to make, blessings to give and less-active members to visit/teach. It's just one of those weeks.

This transfer has been the transfer that has gone by the quickest on my mission thus far. It has to do with multiple reasons. 1) Lots of success 2) Zone leader responsibilities 3) Used to being a missionary. Life as a missionary has become so normal now. I heard from a psychologist in our ward that if you can go 1 month without something you can live your entire life without it. It's all about disipline or in church vocabulary, "Enduring to the End."

We had some pretty cool miracles this week with people just walking up to us and basically asking us how they join the LDS chruch. One was a girl from New Jersey whose friend got baptized and she saw her on facebook and then her friend on facebook told her to check out the chruch. She instantly thought, "yeah right." But soon after that she has been getting "signs from god" that she needs to do this. She loves how her friend lives and wants to have something similar. Perfect! We can accomplish this! =)

I've really enjoyed this past month and am excited for the events happening. I really hope I get to stay with my companion another transfer but we have so many zone leaders going home within the next 2 transfers that it looks really unlikely. I pray and hope we do. I've been really fourtnate since the end of May to have good companions. Lets keep it that way!

I enjoy everything you all do for me. Continue doing whats right and you'll have overwhelming peace.

Love,

Elder Bottema

News from Seattle

Our mission the past month has been blossoming in success! Our area has 3 people on-date still and one is getting baptized on the 23rd. It's so exciting! We are finding people like crazy! I really hope I'm able to stay here another full transfer which would mean I'd be here until December 14th. Our week was wonderful with faith building experiences. I must explain one story that I probably wont have again. This wasn't a good news experience but my companion and I can't stop laughing at it today.

Yesterday in church we had a man in his low 40's come into church. Now remember... I serve in a singles ward aged 18-30 so people who are older stick out. We've talked to this man before and he starts out his conversations with missionaries like this: "Hi, how do I remove my records from the church?" Last time we spent 2 1/2 hours wasting our time with him and giving him all the compliments in the world. We later found out he just goes around the mission asking missionaries for blessing and fishing for compliments. Needless to say the first experience was HORRIBLE! Luckily we were surrounded by people this time. The first time we were all alone in the institute building. So, he pulls us out of Elder Quorum and states the same question as always. We didn't give him any pitty, told him to talk to his bishop, and walked away. Well he was not happy with the answer we gave him. So he waited till the Univeristy 3rd ward missionaries got out of sacrament and talked to them. He was slightly harassing them (just as he did us a couple of months ago) and a member was not happy. As everyone left and went to their classes it was 4 missionaries (two of them being me and my companion) this estranged man and a member. In the middle of the foyer an argument broke out and a fight was about to break loose. Luckily the member walked away and the man yells at him across the foyer "In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you!" Then the member turns around and starts laughing, then walks downstairs. This man is crazy, the member handled it in the worst way possible and I was WAY too tired to break up a fight because it was fast Sunday. It was super awkward in the moment but now its really funny.

The police have been informed if you were wondering. Well, on that note, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Bottema

P.S I promise I'll have some good experiences for the next blog entry. But I had to share this one story. It doesn't happen everyday.

UW Daily

My family and friends! How are all of you? I have some exciting news to share. It might not be all that thrilling to you but I really appreciated it. I am in the University's paper today and they have posted this article on the website as well. You can check it out at UW Daily. (note from Elaine: This is a direct link to the article, but John's picture is on the newspaper's homepage, just wait for the photos at the top to change!)

This week was a lot of fun and very busy... of course right? We are always busy. Last Monday's FHE was really fun though. We had a tri-ward activity where we had a photo scavenger hunt. We lost but we came really close! The prize was a $20 coupon to krispy cream doughnuts. They had 2nd and third prizes as well which was a $15 coupon and so on. Then on Tuesday we had a lot of church tours with people from campus. There was a lot of excitement on campus because school started on the 29th so all of the booths from the different clubs were all set up where we usually proselyte. We talked to people anyway and had good conversations with them. We have been having so much success as a zone and mission. This past year has been rough with out baptismal goal. We've constantly been treading our last years actual but now we are in full swing. Especially after Elder Kikutchi came.

Our mission tour with Elder Ringwood is on the 20th of October and then all zone leaders get a personal interview with him on the 21st. I'm so excited! I wonder what he is going to talk about with me? So in other words there is a lot of excitement in the air. The only bad thing is the poor weather. It's not too bad right now but the sunny days are diminishing. The trees are amazing right now though! Especially where I live since it's right on lake union. You look across the lake in the morning and their are trees of every color along with the evergreens. This makes it look even more spectacular.

On Friday we had zone leader council which was very productive. We had a talk about texting on our cell phones and I found out I'll probably be transferred before we get it. It wont be coming until mid December or early January. It's a shame I couldn't enjoy the benefits of texting with the university wards. It'll make the area much better when they do get it though. Conference this weekend was a blast!! We got permission to watch it with our entire ward at our bishops house. We had breakfast and watched conference. Then he had a giant BBQ before the next session. He as a really beautiful house and it's perfect for our ward. Some of the other ward members come too because it's so much fun. As far as priesthood session and Sunday conference we watched that at the Seattle North Stake Center. I loved it of course. Conference weekend is comparable to Disneyland in missionary life.

As far as our investigators we have 2 new we are teaching tonight and I'm very excited! I'm sure you'll hear more about them next week if they are progressing after today. I love all of you and can't wait to hear of the good news happening back home. Keep up the good work!

Elder Bottema

Mariana's Baptism & Transfers

The past two weeks have flown by so quickly I can't beleive it. I didn't eat lunch 4 out of the 7 days of the week because we didn't have time. The past 6 days I've actually eaten lunch 5 out of the 6 so there is an improvement. My companion Elder Scott went home on the 20th of September and he had a baptism on the 18th and a confirmation on the 19th and then flew home the next day. What an end to your mission! That's what I want to do. That'd be really fun. I can't believe a year has already gone by. I feel weird when people ask me how long I've been out. I feel like I have to pretend I didn't hear the question. Don't ask me why... I guess it's a missionary thing. We have another baptism on the 23rd of October and one on the 30th both of which I am excited for. It's fun to see them learn and connect with the ward. The university wards have the best fellowshiping in the mission. I love the singles. It's so fun to serve in a college ward. Especially right now with school starting. There are activities everyday this week and FHE is a picture scavenger hunt tonight and we have some investigators coming as well as Mariana, our recent convert. We have to miss the Friday activites because of zone leader council but I guess I can't have all the fun right?

In other news my new companion is Elder Bunton and we actually came out together! We were not in the same disctrict but we came out in the same group. I sat next to him on one of the 3 plane flights from Salt Lake to Seattle. If you don't recall we had a lot of problems with the planes we boarded. He is an excellent missionary and he is from Raleigh, North Carolina. He has a very sucessful family with brothers and sisters going to harvard, researching scientific things and making life altering discoveries! haha He actually studied Neuroscience at BYU and then deferred to come on a mission. He turns 22 in March so he's a little older. Luckily he is extrememly clean and neat and we have the same work ethic and so on. I've been really lucky the past couple companions I've had. Elder Scott was NOT clean at all but he was such a good missionary and I loved serving with him. He was a great influence and taught me a lot. I wonder what he is doing right now? Probably catching up on all the movies he missed the past two years. He had a long list of things he wanted to catch up on.

In last news we had Elder Kikutchi of the 70 come speak to our mission last Monday and that was so powerful. He did a training with us on contacting people and boy did it work! We had 12 new investigators this week and 4 church tours. We have two people on-date for baptism and our zone is doing amazing. Our mission is finally getting out of this rut that we've been in. Our mission president is a lot more liberal on his rules. He gives us a LOT more stewardship over our zone and lets us control a lot of things. It's so different than what I'm used to but I like it. I still ask him things all the time but he always lets me know it's okay. So different. That is definatly the plus of being a zone leader. You get to work with the mission president all the time. I see him at least once a week if not more. This blog is getting longer and longer so I better calm down. Thank you for everything you do for me and all the prayers I get. They are working.

Elder Bottema

Fast Week!

This week went by so fast and it feels like I am going to be so busy the next two. Especially since I have a companion going home. Elder Cameron Scott from Draper, Utah, he goes home on the 20th.

Another reason this week went by fast is because we had to go on two exchanges and then yesterday I was on one with Assistant Adams from Cedar City, UT. He actually went to middle school with me. That was fun. The reason I'm e-mailing today instead of preparation day is because today is temple day and I was privileged to do a session. There is nothing cooler to me than seeing a temple I was able to help work on. Even though I wasn't endowed at the time I love seeing all the stone base on the upper floors. It looks really good. Feel proud Bottema Tile!

Our Investigator Mariana is doing amazing. She is still on for September 18th 2010 and she wanted to do a 24 hour fast with us this Sunday AND she paid her tithing even though we told her she didn't need to pay until she was baptized. She keeps every commitment that we extend to her. All we have left to do is cover a couple more commandments from Preach My Gospel and start organizing her baptismal program. School starts soon thereafter she is baptized. I have never been so anxious for school to start in my life. I'm ready to talk to all the new people coming in. As of now there are between 8,000 and 10,000 students on campus right now and starting September 29th 2010 there will be around 45,000. I am SO excited! I am ready to baptize everyone in my path. I'm really pumped because I'm really sick and tired of the institute being so slow. Thank goodness we've found ways to stay busy.

Some of you have asked if I was able to do anything or see anything besides missionary work.... not that I can think of. I was able to meet the assistants in my first area last night which was really weird. I felt like I was at home. I really can't think of anything. Our mission president changed our schedule in the university wards. We no longer have a specific schedule and we can now have dinners any day of the week. I was excited at first and then remembered I was in a singles ward. I would have LOVED dinners everyday in my last ward. Oh! They were so awesome and made such good food. Mmmm.... how sorry I am that my time has passed there. We are still required to contact/tract 4 hours a day but we can choose when to do those. Other than this news the mission president hasn't really changed anything else. He's full of ideas and very fun to talk to but we've only been able to try a few of his ideas.

I've enjoyed the letters and such but I'm sad to say little time to write back. Let it be known I love reading them.

I love ya all!

Elder Bottema

Leadership Training

Wow! This week was so busy I didn't know how to handle the stress. It'll be nice to calm down a bit even though we have 3 exchanges to go on this week. EEK! Our leadership training this week focused all on Preach my gospel and the new teaching methods. The whole point of preach my gospel was to get missionaries to stop following the lessons so exact. The church did a follow-up in 2009 to see what has happened since 2004 and they were not happy with the results. Therefore we have a new training method. Starting in May 2011 the MTC will no longer be teaching missionaries the lessons from Preach my gospel. Instead they will be training on 8 specefic points from preach my gospel such as prayer, church attendence, the doctrine of christ, revelation thru the BOM, and so on. One of the main points they trained us on was teach people not lessons. The training was awesome and it consisted of a lot of MTC lifestyle. Sit, eat, sit and role play. Evaluate and role play some more. haha

It was a lot of fun to socialize with other missionaries as well. This week we have zone leader council again with the mission president and he told Elder Scott and I he'd be making some pretty specefic changes to the individual zones as far as scheduling goes. He actually went out with us for three hours on Saturday night and he brought his two kids Allie and Levi who are 10 and 13. It was a blast and it's still weird to see kids running around our mission president and hearing "DAD!" all the time. It's a lot more fun I must admit.

This blog will have to be short this week due to only 30 min of E-mail time. Hopefully next transfer wont be as busy because I think the stress is causing me to lose weight. yeah... I can't do that. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I much enjoyed them. Hopefually I'll find time to write letters but I'm not making any promises. I love you all

Elder Bottema

Summer in Seattle

The weather here has been insanely nice the past week. It's been in the 90's with hot sun. It's not too fun when you are wearing black pants everyday but I still enjoy it. I heard this doesn't last long.

Crazy news: We ended up moving apartments because ours was not up to health code. It was pretty disgusting. I wish I took before and after pictures because it took me the entire transfer to clean it and then we moved. It was a blessing. Our new apartment is right next door but the difference is fresh paint, new carpet, and new appliances. It smells a lot better as well. We also got new cell phones in our mission and I'm surprised because they are really nice! I can't believe they'd give missionaries a phone this expensive. It's made for texting and our mission president is pushing hard for texting to come back for the assistants, zone leaders, and university wards. I am definately on our mission presidents side. Who wouldn't be? Hopefully this time around nobody will abuse the privelage.

So as far as transfers go I stayed with my companion and it looks like I'll be with him the remainder of his mission. He goes home on September 20th 2010 and I came out September 30th 2009. Oooh! So he is a full year older than me. He's from Draper and excited to go home but not trunky. There is a difference and I've had trunky companions so I know the comparison. This means I will probably be taking the area over and will most likely be here until the December transfer. I know I'll be here until November 1st at the earliest because that's the transfer after Elder Scott (my companion) goes home. I don't feel like I've been on my mission for 11 months and I don't feel like it's going to end. I feel like I'm going to be a missionary forever so I have the same attitude... still the same Elder Bottema. I assume I won't really start freaking out until the last 3 months. I guess we'll see.

We took some companions to the mission home on August 9th to go home and it was the first time I was destroyed about a group of missionaries going home. This group taught me and helped me a lot when I was new to the mission and I served around them constantly so it was weird to watch them go. I wonder if we'll be good friends or if it'll be like EFY when you leave and tell everyone you'll be best friends and then 2 weeks pass and you can't even remember their names. hahaha so typical. I feel like this is a bit different because it was a longer span of time and you go through every emotion on your mission and in that sense I think your a lot closer. Only time will tell!

Thank you for all your birthday wishes! I probably wont get packages for a while because we don't have leadership training until August 24th. I got one from the Saint George clan and I very much appreciated it. The quarters have helped immensly. =) I also enjoyed the visit from the Hamilton family even though that's a huge no no. I thought it'd distract me but I was too busy to be distracted. We got a picture together and I'm excited to celebrate a Disneyland reunion next October! haha! I love you all and thanks for everything you do.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Hospital Quarters

We have been at the hospital a lot this week. We visit this Lady three times a week who we gave a blessing to two weeks ago. We have also got calls to go give blessings everyday this week and actually have another one we are giving today which means P-day ends at 4:30 instead of 6:00 P.M. This makes it extrememly difficult to wash the car and get my haircut and the reason I need to do all those things is because zone conference is this week on Thursday. This week we have been so busy and I was hoping to get a lot accomplished today, bu,t oh well.

Next preperation day is on Tuesday because it's transfer week. I better not be getting moved. I just got here and I just spent these past 6 weeks trying to get used to the streets in downtown Seattle. Also we are teaching Mariana who is the coolest person ever and she needs to be baptized because she believes everything we teach her.

We had zone leader council this week and President Larkin didn't really change anything. He's keeping the schedule exactly how it is and the only thing he's really changing is nightly calls. Instead of calling the district leaders everynight and talking to them about their day we are going to do that during district meeting. Even last night when we got key indicators for the week are talking was very brief. I got to bed at 10:35 sunday night which is a miracle in it's self. The earliest I've got to bed sunday night as a district leader was 10:40 and as a zone leader it was 11:10. So it was nice to actually lay my head on the pillow and sleep the full 8 hours. Our goal is to get to bed everynight at 10:30 and we are slowly getting there. President Larkin told us he's not going to change any rules or schedules until we can learn how to follow the basic getting up at 6:30, home by 9:00, and in bed by 10:30. After we learn this princple then he will decide what to do next.

Hope everything is fun and warm at home. Enjoy it,

Elder Bottema

Contacting on University of Washington Campus

This week was an interesting week to talk to people. I had a lot of crazies this week or should I say, those who "accept everyone" execpt those who are LDS. Yeah some guy ran up to us at a bus stop, screaming, which by the way was filled with people, and was telling us that we are so lucky jesus saved us because we should all be going to hell, mormons have killed society and murdered millions. I'm not even typing everything he said. It was a long awkward moment.

However, the same day in the evening we were walking back to the institute for an appointement and we found this investigator who is awesome! We set-up an appointment for the next day and she already belives that Joseph Smith is a prophet and reads the Book of Mormon more than we assign her. We teach her Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then have her come to church on Sunday. It's so awesome and it works out perfect. She is from Venezuela and she is a chemistry graduate student. She plans on moving back to her country to be a professor. She is catholic and yet soaking it all up. She's really fun to teach.

Last Monday we actually did something fun and postponed our laundry because we didn't really have a working washer and dryer. We had to call the apartment maintenance. Especially since all 8 apartments share one washer and dryer.

Anyway, we went and drove downtown which is only 5 min or less from our apartment and decided to see the space Needle and the farmers market. Even though I had already done that it was fun to do it with Elder Grover, a missionary in my zone. The thing I had never done before was I went to the Troll under the Aurora bridge next to our house. Its right off of Freemont. Probably a 2.2 min drive from the apartment.

This week we are having zone leader council with President Larkin, again, because he wants to discuss some things. It's tomorrow in Bellevue and I'm quite nervous since we only have 2 on-date in our entire zone. EEEK!

Other than that I have no new news. Hope you are enjoying summer. I know I am! I love July in Seattle and I'm sure August will be just as nice. I heard September is also a great weather month so I'll be in my disappointed mood when October arrives again.

Thanks as always for everything! Enjoy this summer season.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Productive Week

Hello my fellow readers! This week was awesome as far as finding people to teach AND my companion cleaned the bathroom. It was great. We get along pretty good. The only bad thing is he's extremely messy and dirty but I convinced him to clean the bathroom so now the two most important rooms in the appartment (kitchen and bathroom) are clean. YAY!

Okay back to the important things in life, we found 3 new investigators this week up on campus and they are all awesome new investigators. Finally! I am so sick of contacting people all day. I want people to teach! My prayers have been answered. We have a lesson with one of them tonight at 7:00 so thats pretty exciting and wednesday our schedule is crazy. We will contact for probably 35 min in the morning and then we have a lesson at 11, district meeting from 12-2, lesson at 2:30, lesson at 4,5,6 and our meeting with the stake president at 8 for RMA's which stands for report mission activity. Its basically a bunch of key indicators and what the ward needs to improve on, what their strengths are, ect. Our stake presidnet is probably the coolest guy ever. He has been the stake president for 8 years and he is 67 years old. He looks like he's 55 though and he lives in magnolia which is right outside downtown Seattle.

Oh speaking of downtown Seattle, we actually had a dinner last night which is a rare occasion in the singles ward and it wasn't even with the single students. It was with the Strongs (brother strong is the 2nd counsler) and they live in the heart of downtown Seattle in these really cool appartments. She made the best dinner ever and just made it up. It was a mixture between lasuana and enchiladas with chips and homemade salsa. Oh geez it was delicious.

As far as other news goes I don't really have anything to report on except that I love my new mission president and we are all getting new cell phones the first week of August. This is big news for us since our routines are so robotic. Especially since you hear the same alarm and ringtones everyday all day this will be new entertainment to missionaries. Good luck with your home affairs. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Change, Resposibility, and Work

Yeah I'm too busy to E-mail on my mission I decided. I really do think they should have preperation day all day. 8 hours would seem like enough but we NEVER get everything accomplished. Especailly since the zone leaders are the hospital service missionaries. We get calls for people who need blessings at least once a day. And if it's monday that seems to take an hour or two. Last week we didn't get to E-mail because the 4th was observed on the 5th and we had zone leader council on tuesday then interviews with out new president wednesday, then exchanges thursday and saturday and weekly planning on friday so I never had a lunch break to E-mail the family. I've been trying to write letters but I honestly have no time. They are turning into 3 X 5 card letters.

So to start off this is the new change our mission president came out with. This is church wide, not in our mission alone. The church wants the mission president and the missionaries to spend more time prosolyting so they are changing some meetings. We used to have interviews, zone conference, and leadership training every transfer. Mission presidents were spending 50% of the month interviewing missionaries. That is changing. They are now rotating meetings every other transfer cycle. For example, Interviews was this transfer, so zone conference will be next transfer and leadership training will be quarterly but will be from 10-4 instead of 10-12. The church is also displeased with how missionaries are teaching and most missions are teaching too similar to the preach my gospel lessons. So we are being re-trained on how to teach by the spirit. "Teach people, not lessons."

So we are practicing different types of investigators and how to plan for them and also if they have questions to answer them instead of giving them a quick one that doesn't satisfy their needs and then continuing on with your lesson plan. They want us to be able and ready to throw our plan out the window if a question arises. The only meeting that increased is zone leader council which is monthly instead of each transfer. Our mission president isn't going to change anything until our next meeting which is August 2nd. So we are still on the regular schedule. 10-12 contacting/finding. 12-2 lessons with RCLA's potentials, formers, ect. 2-4 Break time or lunch/dinner. 4-5 lessons. 5-7 tracting/contacting time, 7-9 lessons. 9-9:30 planning. 9:30- 10:20 nightly calls. 10:30 bed time - which never happens. We ALWAYS get to bed at 11 or later and then on sundays have to get up earlier because of meetings. I sleep really well when I crawl into bed sunday night. So I assume the schedule will change in August because our mission president isn't the biggest fan, but as for now not too much has changed.

President Larkin so so awesome though! He is going to be all the zone leaders companions to drive around the zone to see what needs to be done different. We have him scheduled on Tuesday July 27th to go street contacting with us and then after the 10-12 street contacting we are driving him to each area from 12-2. He is the best. I will love him just as much as my old mission president.

As for the ward I'm serving in, the University 2nd ward, the summer is slow. Sacrament attendence is mostly visitors and it's harder to find investigators to teach because no as many students are on campus. You'd think "why not go contacting down by the space needle?" It's pointless. We are looking for 18-30 year olds in the university boundries. Not tourists or families. It's a very different area.

Thanks for the letters. I love them! If you ever feel like you want to help a missionary send me quarters for the laundry mat or poppyseed muffins from costco. haha those are soo good! alright I'll write next week.

Love,

Elder Bottema

*Note from Elaine: If you really want to send the Costco muffins, a half dozen package fits perfectly into a medium sized flat rate box at USPS.*

Seattle North

The big news that you have all been wanting is here. First off, I have been transfered to the University 2nd ward which is on the Univeristy of Washington campus. My companion is a zone leader also (which is the case now days. If your a zone leader that means your companion is one too). My appartment is on Dexter Ave which is just off of Freemont street where the gay pride parade was held this week. yay. Anyway, my appartment is horribly old and trashed. It looks cool from the outside and is in a nice area of downtown Seattle but is so gross. My companion is NOT a clean person. He is a good companion outside of the appartment though. We pretty much agree on how the work should go and we compliment each other really well. The only negative thing is the cleanliness issue. Another different thing about this building is there are 8 units and one shared washer and dryer. It's $1.00 for a load and 75 cents to dry. So it comes to $5.75 every week for laundry. Not to mention I have to start buying laundry soap and dryer sheets again.

Zone leader council was interesting and we learned a lot about president Larkin. Our mission president said he'll probably change a lot of things but that's okay and to just tell him we'll do it. He arrives on Thursday and we have an interview with him on Saturday. So this transfer we'll have interviews twice and 2 zone leader council meetings. It's going to be the busiest yet. This area is completely different from Federal Way. Really busy, different culture, liberal, and no tracting. Only street contacting because there is no where to tract in my area! And if we did tract we'd be referring most people to the family wards. So everyday we walk to this place on campus called "red square" and contact people while they are walking. It's really a lot more difficult because you have to be so much more bold. Another difference is since this is a student ward you don't really make back-up plans. If a lesson falls thru you go back to campus and talk to people. So it's starting to get old but I'm here for a reason. I've been praying for a lot of help.

I've talked to a lot of really interesting people though. My companion is super bold. He'll run after people or try and stop them while they are jogging and if they don't stop he'll jog with them and then if they keep telling him to go away he slips them a pass-a-long card. I feel soooo weird but it shows that we are serious. I'm not at that level yet nor do I think I'll ever be.

The persecution is a lot harder here. There hasn't been a day gone by I haven't been talked bad about, swore, or had things thrown at me. I had one guy tell me if it was possible he'd kill all the mormons. EEEK! I've been hit on by homosexuals twice (both were on saturday) and had my butt grabbed on red square. I think this change has been happening all too fast. Please pray for me! haha I need all of them.

Okay time to run. My companions is needing his blood drawn. I don't know how were are going to accomplish everything we need today but I'll have to happen. Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Zone Leader

I know, I was not excited for this call at all late Saturday night but it's true. I am going to be a zone leader but I have no idea where. I'll find that news out in an hour. At least it makes you anxious for the next blog entry right?

So if I'm going to be a zone leader that also means I am going to be transfered. I am horribly shocked, sad, anxious, excited, and nervous/stressed all at the same time. My mind can't focus on all the emotions so it keeps bouncing all over the place like a bipolar basketball. One reason I'm so upset is because I was told I was staying in the area another transfer from the mission president. Well the next day some missionary circumstances arose and president went to the temple and abracadabra! I was called to be zone leader. It really shocked the ward as well because they are transfering us both out. My companion is goigng full time Korean speaking in Bellevue and I am leaving to be a zone leader. The missionaries coming in are extrememly lucky for a white washed area. They have on-date investigators for baptism. 3 Progressing investigators, lessons set-up for the week. A ton of BIG potential investigators, a fully up-dated area book, and a very nice big clean apartment. Not to forget the fact that we had to leave a lot of our food. Grrr!!! It's such a waste of money and trust me, those are sacred funds. We live off of $4.90 a day. So being transfered and having to buy all new food is a hole in the budget. Maybe I'll be doing a lot of fasting.

One more thing. The new mission president is arriving here shortly. In two weeks I just might have met him. Keep posted to the blog. So many events are happening. Thanks for everything you all do and till next time.... I love ya!

Elder Bottema

New Investigator

Every week we find at least one new investigator. However, the best investigators are the investigators that walk up to you in sacrament meeting and say, "I want to be baptized." Sweet! Are you available tomorrow at 7? Meet me at the Bennions for family home evening." BAHAHAHA! I thought I was dreaming!

We also have two church tours set-up this week. Everyone we wanted to put on-date for baptism either moved their appointement to this week or cancelled. We actually had a lot of investigators drop us, but honestly, I wasn't too sad because we found people this week as well. So the work goes on. I have been slacking on the pictures but I guess I have been too focused on other things. I finally feel completely immersed in the work and it is so much more enjoyable and peaceful when you have a perfect companion and one who has the same work ethic as you. I couldn't say anything negative about him. We have been finding, teaching, and baptizing and really foucsing on good planning which has been a blessing.

I feel the most prepared and confident now than ever before. It's nice to be in a period of calm water. ahhh.....

Not much more to report on this week other than these awesome experiences. Thanks for the support!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Alex Elder

Alex's baptism was amazing this week! There were 60 people there. We had to open the overflows in the primary room and setup more chairs. We had a musical number for the intermission and it was sooo good. There were non-members there, investigators, and her family. They all came to her confirmation on Sunday as well. We had an excellent week. What was even better is after the baptism we were invited to a graduation party from the bishop. There were a lot of kids there just a year or two younger than me and we talked a lot about the church and missions (and of course Disneyland). I invited them to come to church on sunday and here is the crazy part. They did! A bunch of graduating seniors came to church on sunday! haha it was so cool! So this past week has been a lot of fun and we accomplished a lot.

My companion is so great! Honestly not one thing has annoyed me. Not one. I have tried to think about something and I can't. I've never had a happier length of time on my mission. I've had awesome days and awesome weeks but this has been the best length of time. These last two weeks of the transfer are going to be packed busy. Leadership training this week on wednesday, district meeting Tuesday and interviews the week after. I have to plan district meeting obviously and conduct in leadership training so tonight and tomorrow are going to be long hard nights planning for these meetings. Much to do. Hope all is well. Still grey and rainy in Seattle. Everyone here says July 5th to September 30 is the best weather. I am counting down to the days of sun. The only sunny day since May 18th was June 5th... the day of Alex's baptism. :)

Good luck at home and much thanks!

Elder Bottema

Public Libraries

You may be wondering why my blog would contain such a title? lets just say a lot of missionaries are at the library today E-mailing and there are such nice people (read that sarcastically) talking to us. I'm pretending I don't hear them while i type this out. It's very eplicit. The sisters are next to me and I would justify it as sexual harrassment. someone is handling the situation right now. Seriously? How old are we again? Obviously not old enough.

Anyway, as missionary WORK pertains we had an excellent week as far as finding goes. We have a ton of lessons set-up this week and I am soooo tired. I think i've been getting busier and buiser on my mission. Training is very exhausting. On top of that we have extra meetings and we just had our last zone conference with president Moffat. He was, to say the least, horribly emotional. He is setting up his facebook! haha so when I get home I'm totally adding him. It was a strange zone conference. We wont have another for 8 weeks. This is going to be a 5 week transfer and then next transfer will be a 7 week transfer so that President Larkin can adjust and have everything running smooth when he arrives. We will be back on the normal transfer cycle August 10th. My new mission president will be in the mission home July 1, 2010 with three children. One of them will be leaving on his mission from the mercer island ward. cool huh?! i'm excited to meet the fam. okay enough random info. Enjoy the weather. It's been rainy... really rainy since may 18th. It's about to break a record for this time of year. The weather forcasted another 7 days of rain too according to many of the members. Ugh. It's supposed to be summer! Enjoy!

Elder Bottema

Korean Speaking

Yes, my thoughts were correct. Why would I be getting a car again? Maybe because we are covering two wards. My new companion is Korean speaking and he is from Bountiful, Utah and was at the MTC for 11 weeks. Poor guy. Training is difficult but so rewarding. Being a district leader trainer adds a whole other section of busy-ness. I have less study time, more meetings to prepare for, more meetings to attend, and required to teach MORE lessons. What the freak? How do zone leaders have time to train?

Bro. Long has been especially nice which is out of character for a new missionary because he like to intimiadate, but I think he's just as excited as I am to have a new missionary. Especially since he and Elder Merrill were in some type of fight everyday. No exaggeration. He has been so giving and kind, as well as my new companion. The first thing he said to me is, "I'll do whatever you train me to do. " ahhhhhh the heavens have opened! Talk about a humble companion. President Moffat had him read charity and love from the chirstlike attribute section of preach my gospel before he assigned me as a trainer. I don't know why because he is the most charitable companion I've served with thus far. I love this guy to death! I honestly wish he knew. I understand where the slang comes from when missionareis call theire traines sons because it kind of feels that way.

As far as baptims go we are preparing for Alex's baptism on June 5 and her interview is tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. She is awesome! I love teaching her. She is going to BYU Idaho next fall. We are still teaching Cory and are going to put 2 more people on-date. We were going to do it last week but the appointments fell thru. We will press on!

Okay as far as that goes no other news here. I'm only writing my blog because My new companion needs to set up his new address. Thanks for everything!

Elder Bottema

Training

I must say I have a lot of news to share this week. So transfer calls came and I am again staying in the Jovita Creek ward but I am getting a new companion. Not any regualr old companion but a brand new one fresh from the MTC. That's right. I am training and I am as nervous as anyone could be. I think I'm getting a foriegn speaking elder because I got a call from our car coordinator and I am getting a car again. I'm still biking on days we don't need it though. It's better biking. It's only October - March that it isn't fun to bike. Anyway, i'll probably have to start covering 2 wards but only time will tell. I don't go to transfers until 12:00 today and then I go to Bellevue to the mission home at 1:00 to be trained and then to pick up my trainee and leave at 2:00. EEEK! My companion is leaving and of course I don't know where yet. We don't find out until transfers. I've never been so happy to get a fresh start.

In other news the weather this past week has been perfect! Rainy in the morning to clean the air and sunny by 11 for us to bike. Life is good. It's rainy right now but I bet It'll clear up by 2:00. Who knows though. It is Seattle.

As far as baptisms go we just started to plan and orgainze Alex Elder's Baptims for June 5th and we are planning on putting a lot more people on-date this week. I'm going to leave my area with a bang. Next transfers is June 29th and I am pretty confident I'll be leaving that date. It's less common to stay in an area longer than 6 months. A lot of great things are happening in the Jovita Creek ward. I'm glad i'll be with Brother & Sister Long another 6 weeks. Speaking of that I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our latest prank. The next one will be a new beginning and a different genere of pranking. We've done this kitchen thing twice now. maybe the bathroom will be next..? Thanks for the news from home. I love you guys!

Elder Bottema

Mother's Day

This week was very productive as far as finding people. We were able to find 3 new investigators and take 2 of them on a church tour to teach the restoration. Every member needs a copy of PMG. It's written towards missionaries of course but there is a lot of information for members as well. Many of us get caught up in all the deep doctrine and this brings us all back to the basics. The messages we REALLY should be giving our non-member friends.

We had a crazy cleaning insepction from brother Long.... he is really clean. But now our basement looks spotless and I love it since it's usually messy. Hey, I keep my side clean. I get up at 6:30 every morning and make my bed. Does my companion? No, it's usually 7:30- 7:45. Moving on!

We are really working had on an investigator who we can not get to church and it's really frustrating! I don't know what his deal is?! He says he wants to be baptized but if you aren't coming to church then don't count on it. That's an important step. Any suggestions?

We also had interviews on Friday and they went really well! I am praying I'll stay one more transfer and get a new companion. That's my selfish side speaking but if I leave I'll know I'm going where I need to go. It's still kind of a win win situation because I won't have to be with you-know-who for another 6 weeks. YAY!

Okay enough negative talk. I love my mission, I love the people I'm teaching and I loved talking to the family yesterday for mothers day. Sounds like home isn't too bad. The only things I really miss are Disneyland and music. But they are sacrafices I'm willing to make. Alright I'm done writing nothing exciting. Thanks for the support. I'll write next tuesday since next week is transfers and preperation day is on Tuesday. The mission office also starts holding mail on Friday and sends it out again on wednesday. There is your tidbit of information for the week.
Till next time,

Elder Bottema

Snakes

Due to lack of time this will be a short, but sweet, blog entry with a cool picture. So we were tracting and my companion stepped in front of me to knock on the door, just as he started knocking I saw something moving next to his shoe.. or starting to "slither" up his shoe. That's when I realized what it was and I yelled, "There's a snake behind you!" haha It was just a little garden snake but it was a little goose bumpy if you know what I mean. I almost saw it cilmb up my companions pant leg!

This week we also went to the temple and I did baptims for the dead. That was a lot of fun! We also had leadership training in Renton on wednesday and that was the craziest day! We were so busy running around like crazy people! I get to give some more baptisimal interviews and I am only 4 weeks away from Alex's baptims. Cory is coming along but we are pushing his date back because he needs a little more time to prepare. However, he is still progressing and doing such a great job at getting his feet wet in the gospel. :) Sorry to make this so short but I really gotta run! Love you all for the support!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Temple Day

It's sunny and slightly warm and it's temple day. Today we are going to be traveling to the far side of our mission ( a 25 min. drive). The joys of having such a small mission. I love the members here. This past Sunday was so uplifting and encouraging. There was a a kid in our ward, Jordan Lewis, who gave his farewell talk this past Sunday. He is going to guatemala but I can't remember which mission. His talk was so powerful and uplifting. Half of Fife High school was there and it was filled with non-members. The chapel was PACKED and we almost had to open the double overflow. I know a lot of his friends felt something because many of them were crying. Probably for two reasons. One being that he is leaving and they will miss thier friend, two being they felt the spirit. Jordans good friend Mallory who used to be in our ward but is going to shcool at BYU came back for the weekend jsut to sing his favorite song. He didn't even know about it. Oh man sacrament was amazing and we had 3 investigators there as well as a ton of less actives who didn't even know about his farewell! It's nice to see the friuts of your labors when you see less actives were working with come to church and to see our investigators lives changing. It makes a mission all more enjoyable.

Right now our mission is struggling a little bit with baptisms and such. However our zone is still doing great and really pushing and uplifting the mission. It's so nice to be in an area with people to teach and things to do. Bellevue and Bellevue South are the two zones nobody want to go to because it's hard to fing humble people to teach there. Well recently Bellevue South has had some amazing sucess so it shows when you put in Elders and Sisters with faith you can find anyone. All you need is hardworking missionaries, faith, and patience. Easier said than done but as I can see it's working. Well that has been the highlight of my week. Enjoy the spring weather no matter where you are!

Love,
Elder Bottema

Zone Conference 5

Tomorrow is zone conference... again! It's up in my old Stake in Seattle. I'm pretty excited. However I'm not excited to get up even earlier. Leadership training is at 8:00 A.M and we have to leave by 7:15 to get there on time which means getting up 30 min. earlier. NOOO!!! At least I know I'll sleep well Tuesday night. Next week I'll have preperation day on Tuesday because It's temple day again. We get 4-5 temple days a year and It's time. I'm excited because I heard the temple grounds are in full bloom right now. If it's sunny I might be able to snag some great photos. If it's rainy I'll still take a couple anyway.

It's really weird to think I only have two more zone conferences and two more formal interviews with my mission president. He's really getting to the wire. I'll have my new mission president for 15 months of my mission. I'm excited but sad at the same time because I really like the one I have right now. I've never really had a conflict with him.

My companion has been slightly better but that doesn't mean I'm not still practicting my patience. I think I'm just used to the criticism now. hahaha Oh geez. uh.. moving on!

This week we are planning on putting another person on-date. Today actually at 12:30. I hate planning lessons durning P-day because we have limiting time as is but it was the only time he could meet. I'm excited though because he's really excited about the church. He's 52 years old but looks like he's 40. He's in really good shape. He works in customs and sky dives with a member of our ward. I love referrals. Then we have a Church tour at 6:30 and we plan on putting another person on-date! We'll see what they say. Thank you Federal Way, Washington Seattle Mission.

As for exciting news that's all I really have for this week. My bike is getting fixed right now but I'll be getting it back on wednesday or Thursday. Time to run with the others. Gotta catch a ride to go shopping. Thanks for the letters. Keep em coming. Nothing is better than a letter.

Love,
Elder Bottema

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Wow. April is a really rainy month here! So in Seattle when I talk about rain it's usually a constant drizzle or a light sprinkle all the time. Well this week it has been actually raining hard all day everyday. It makes for good bike stories but as your pedaling in windy rain it sucks. It looks really funny going into lessons all wet. A member in our ward gave us towels to dry off in lesson. They laughed.

So we had some new changes this week. The mission has really been struggling on its goals and the Federal Way zone (the one I'm serving in) is 12 ahead if its zone goal. So we are really uplifting and keeping the mission going. Therefor we have done something unusual. Every first wednesday of a new transfer we have what you call a ZONE MEETING. This consists of missionaries in the zone setting goals and making plans and role playing lessons with one another. Well this one was quite different. This time we had a combined zone meeting with the Seattle Stake (my old area) and president ripped us a new one. We are counting lessons different but it makes it even more difficult to get our 20 lesson goal. I like the changes in some ways. I don't have to do nightly calls anymore to get key indicators. I just call to see how everyone's day went. I don't ask for numbers excpet Sunday night to get everyone's weekly key indicators. Our companion exchanges are also going to be a little more strenous and our district meetings may have 'surprise' guests such as Presidnet Moffat. EEEK! That scares me.
I'm just happy I'm serving in such a fruitful area with a lot of sucess and people to teach. My first 6 months have been very fortunate in that sense.

Well this blog is getting quite long. I still LOVE the letters. It's like a christmas present everytime I open the mailbox and see a letter for Elder Bottema. Keep being positive and good examples.

Love you favorite person,

Elder Bottema

Transfer 5

Here I am starting my fifth transfer. It has a lot of 'first' things. First time I've stayed longer than 3 months, first time I have a companion longer than 6 weeks (and of course the one that is spoiled and doesn't even want to be here) and the first time I finish tracting with daylight at 7:00. This past week was quite eventful with conference. My second one in the mission. I was able to have two investigators there which was fun. They really like some of the talks. I loved some of the talks, especially Elder Uchtdorfs. He is my favorite german buddy. I like to see how diverse the 70 and apostales are coming. Different nationalites. One things that's really cool up here is how there is one of every race. A very big melting pot.

The zone in which I am serving is having major sucess right now while the rest of the mission is struggling. We might be saving their butts! We have a combined zone meeting, not zone conference, tomorrow which experienced missionaries have never had. Our zone leaders informed us that there will be some changes in the mission and we will all be informed by the end of Wednesday. Im curious but anxious at the same time. It could be changes I like or changes I don't like... obviously. Opposition in all things! haha great.. now im laughing at myself thru my own missionary jokes.

Easter was great! I had a really good dinner with an awesome traditional easter bunny cake. It reminded me of my baseball cake when I turned five years old. I still remember that event quite well. Im so happy I have a good long term memory.
This will be an interesting transfer being with someone I honestly.. deeply dislike. Let's see how far I can go without breaking one of the 10 commandments. Just kidding. Time to run. Got to finish grocery shopping with the other missionaries. Love you all!

Elder Bottema

Kristina Hansen

Krissy is the best! We had a baptism this past saturday that went just as planned. Everyone on the program showed up, the water was hot, the spirit was strong, yeah everything went perfect. Krissy has been investigating the church for two years now and I had the privilage of seeing her be baptized. She has had a strong conversion with a lot of life changing events. She has a lot of support from her husband who, by the way, baptized her. They are living the happy married life in bliss! :)

The best thing about Sunday was her confirmation and just as we lost a person to teach to enter into baptism we found some more. We had a lesson with a guy named Dave who is a member referral. He is definatly interested and he is an awesome guy. I can't wait to teach him more. Then on Sunday the bishops son brought this girl from school to church... again because she liked it last week and she and her parents are very interested. WHAT THE?! There is so much good stuff happening in my area right now. I am constantly teaching and finding which is very fullfilling. Cory is still on-date for baptism on May 1st and now we have a chance to put a family on-date. How much better could it get?

It's been really challenging companion wise but I don't like to talk negatively about him. Lets just say if he gets transfered I'll be happy.

Thank you for the prayers! I feel them! No seriously... some days I feel them more than others. I love ya guys!

Elder Bottema

March Maddness

hey! So to understand this picture i will exlpain briefly of what it means. So I was walking down this street with my companion (obviously) and we were tracting. Well we tract one side of the street and then when we get to the end we turn around and tract the other. As we are tracting the east side we see a couple drinking coffe or hot cocoa or whatever it was on the west side. We wave at them and they wave back. We only had two houses left so we decided to continue and then we'd see them again shortly. On our way back we are just about to walk up the driveway on the west side of the street where these friendly peopled waved and they had stratigically placed an old christmas decoration in front of thier door so we couldn't knock on it. I thought it was pretty funny! So that is the story of the week.

As for more serious matters I had a very different interview than I usally do. My companion has been struggling pretty hard and i've been in a little rut. It escalated to an extreme on saturday night. He is extrememly home sick and was on the verge of going home. He's been out 6 weeks longer than I. He as a lot of medication for physical and mental disabilities. Very ADHD and anxiety and IBS and much more. He's been a struggle. I'm at a loss of words though because we've been so busy I don't understand why he's getting so depressed and angry. During interviews President Moffat said there are very few missionaries who can be his companion and therefore I have been forwarned that I could be with him for a long while. He needs CONSTANT attention and support. He gets a lot of that from home but apperantly needs even more. President also told me this isn't new news. The longer Elder Merrill stays out the more confident he'll stay on his mission. He said every companion he's had has had this issue at least once during the transfer. His 2nd companion got it every week. Please no. At Distrct leader correlation I got a lot of training on "how to deal" so we'll see how this works out. It's definatly a trial week. As for me I am still moving forward and you shouldn't have any worries of me coming home early.

Thank you again for the letters, love, and support from home.

Love,
Elder Bottema