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