I Know That My Redeemer Lives

It's currently raining here in the Seattle Washington Mission.  It's feels like a kiss goodbye as this is how it was when I arrived.  It's not the usual sprinkle rain either because I can hear big drops of water hitting the glass in the library.  The rain has become so normal to me now... It's something I expect to hear in the early hours of the morning.  Rain, clouds, wet, cold, hungry (always), irate individuals, knocking doors, etc.  This formula = happiness, joy, miracles, changed lives, accomplishment, trainings, learning opportunities, the consequence of sin, blessings I have, more education than I thought I'd ever be given, a chance to change, a chance to become better than who I was.

 

I LOVED MY MISSION!!!!! I understand so clearly now why they want every worthy and able young man to serve a mission.  It changes you more than those you serve.  We should leave with the attitude of not "what can this church do for me?"  but instead, "What can I do for God?"  However, even when you leave with the better attitude God still blesses you.

 

The most valuable things I've learned on my mission is 1) That my Redeemer lives.  Wow.  Have I felt and seen his power. 2) I can choose to become something better and defeat the natural man. 3) Sin brings negative consequences, righteousness brings blessings.  4) I have so much in my life to be grateful for. 5) I am a son of God and he does answer my prayers. 6)This really isn't my work, it's His. 7) Overall, the church is totally true!

 

Thank you for everything that you have done for me.  I loved the packages, the letters of support, the prayers, and the charity.

 

Love you and see you next week.

 

Elder John Paul Bottema

Washington Seattle Mission

September 2009 - October 2011.

Family

So it looked like I was going to be 3 short of reaching my goal for baptism... but not anymore!  We had the cherry on top for the end of my mission.  It started like this....

 

My companion and I were packed busy on Saturday.  We ended up getting out of a lesson late (around 1:10pm).  We didn't have time for dinner so this was our only chance to eat and we had a lesson at 2pm on Mercer Island which means we had 10-15 min for lunch.  So we rushed home and RAN to the top floor, because we live on the top floor farthest away from our parking spot... how convenient, and as we throw food out of the fridge we receive a text from the office elders that says,

 

"Hey can you let the Federal Way Zone Leaders into the mission office? They need some supplies and we wont make it there on time.  They are going to be there by 1:45pm."

 

GREAT!  We have no time for lunch and now we are defiantly going to be late to our 2pm appointment.  So we head over to the mission office to let them in. On our way we receive a text from the Federal Way Zone Leaders that says, "we got here a little early and are tracting in your area, let us know when you are close."  So when we are 5min away we send a text.  We drive to the side of the church where the mission office is located and we see their car but they are not there... but we know they are close by.

 

We then get a text message from our 2pm appointment who says, "Hey I got stuck at work... can we reschedule for 8pm tonight?"

 

YES YOU CAN! Phew! So we sit and wait and still... no Federal Way Zone Leaders.  Right after thinking this thought the phone rings.  I answer and they replied, "There is someone on the other side of the church that would like a tour.  They just moved from China and speak little English.

 

We are excited and meet them there, and direct them inside the church for a tour.  It is a married couple with their only daughter, Gaby, who is 12 years old, soon to be 13.  After getting to know them a little she went on to explain that she visited Seattle about 3 years ago and wanted to know more about Christianity.  She found our church, went to a service, not understanding anything, and left.  Over the past 3 years she hasn't forgotten and has been to many other Christian churches when on vacation from China.  She said that she and her husband would be coming to church the following day.  We wanted to extend the baptismal commitment right then and there but they wouldn't have understood because of the language barrier.  We waited till Sunday when we had a Chinese speaking member translate for us. 

 

They showed up to church 10min early as promised.  They sat in a seat we saved for them (right behind us) and had the Chinese speaking member sit next to them with is wife and daughter.... this is too perfect.  He was able to explain many things to them in Chinese as the service continued.  Afterwords, as we are headed to class, they repeated FOUR TIMES that they were going to join this church.  It was the best!  We have a return appointment Tuesday at 8pm, and they are bringing Gaby to Young Women's Wednesday evening which happens to be the same time as the English class at the same building.  We also invited them to "join our church" on September 30th. Two exact years after I began my mission. They will be confirmed the same day due to general conference.

 

I have prayed to baptize a family my entire mission, I have prayed to reach my goal of 45 convert baptisms, I have prayed diligently while doing my best to be the best missionary i could be.  I am so grateful for this tender mercy.  I will leave my mission exactly how I wanted to leave.  Thank you so much for your prayers.  I have indeed received them.

 

Love,

Elder Bottema

Fruits of Labors

Wow! I will finally get to see what I've been longing for my whole mission. We are seeing incredible things happen here in the Washington Seattle Mission! We have hit a record high for people who have accepted a baptismal date. 151 people as of last night are progressing towards baptism. It looks like the end of September and first week in October are going to be the highest baptizing weekends we've ever had. WHOO!!! Our zone is running along right next to the rest of the mission. I saw miracle after miracle in our own area as well. We have continued to teach our mormon.org referral and she is set and ready to go and be baptized on October 1st. We also have 3 other in our area who are progressing well. One for September 24th and the other two for October 1st as well. HOW GREAT IS MY MISSION!!! I am ending with my goal in reach and I am leaving when our mission is at it's highest peak. Not only will all these baptisms be happening and people filling our chapels but I will be watching the apostles and prophets the weekend I go home and then when I arrive I will be at the highest spiritual peak of my life. How exciting.

I have my exit interview scheduled for October 2nd and I am excited for that. President Larkin gives each missionary 30 min for his interview and a special blessing before we leave his office. I wish you could all see the events happening here. The stake and ward leadership is just as excited as we are and this Sunday we are presenting a two hour meeting in each ward that we cover [Bellevue 1st and Bellevue 8th(YSA)] for the mormon.org campaign. These videos are so inspiring and we have the greatest leaders/members/missionaries here to get the job done.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, September 14th 2011) we are being visited by the apostle Keith R Edwards and tomorrow evening we have an investigator fireside that he will be presiding in. We are just on FIRE. Our goal of a 1000 convert baptisms is reachable for the end of the year. If we reach this we will be the second highest baptizing mission in the northwest region! Imagine what could happen next year! I love seeing the progression of this mission. Only 3 years ago in 2008 we baptized 446 people. What a miraculous improvement.

I love this mission and I am becoming busier and busier for this last 3 weeks. I'll keep running (literally... we run while we tract) until I run onto the plane. I love you all!

Elder Bottema

Onward and Upward

I am so excited for this week because the Mormon.org media companion is coming to train us on Wednesday! WHOO!!! I am really excited. We also have Zone Leader Council this Friday again (bummer... my last one.. I hate that) and someone that we could potentially baptize! Details to be announced next week.

We did find someone new and awesome but she lived just outside our ward boundaries and so we passed her off to the Bellevue 6th ward (Office Elders). She is in her 70's as well and she LOVES the people in the LDS church. She has always been watching and she said she can't take it anymore! She needs to learn more about this message! We had a really good lesson and on Tuesday we will be passing her off. It's sad but good because the office Elders work so hard and this will be one of their hard working baptisms.

This past week was so crazy busy with departures, arrivals, airport drama, and transfer mania. I can't explain it all, but lets just say everything that could have gone wrong at transfers went wrong. It was so stressful. We managed to get everyone back in their area and then the next day we ran a bunch of errands and took all the apartment keys that got transferred into our area that were not supposed to be there back to the mission office and back to Seattle (which was kind of fun since that was one of my previous areas). What wasn't fun was all of the miles that we have a limited use on vanished away and we had to cancel a lot of really important appointments.

We found a lot of really good potential investigators this week and new investigators. We are challenging them to baptism this week so I am pretty excited to see what happens. Our zone really needed new on-dates and baptisms and things are looking on the up rise. I want to end my mission strong and it appears as though the Lord is providing the way. I am grateful for the opportunities and the people that have been placed in my path. I love sharing this message.

Till next week!

Elder Bottema

Transfer 17

What a weird number. My last transfer. I don't feel any different and I don't think I will until I start planning lessons and weekly planning past my departure date. This is good because I want to work till the end of my mission. I am so excited to be here in Bellevue for my last transfer. Things seem to be on the up rise again after a two week scare. I believe since we gloried in our tribulations we were able to make it through and prove to the Lord that this is his work and not ours. Therefore we are seeing success again and we have an awesome zone! two of our district leaders were just released from being zone leaders and they are GOOD! I was shocked to see I got them in our zone. We have a stacked zone which is awesome because the last two transfers we have stomped disobedience out of our zone and now that it's gone we just got something even better!

This past week we were able to hear from our beloved apostle Elder L. Tom Perry. I learned a lot in this meeting. He basically told us that we all need to make our mormon.org profiles and use the Book of Mormon Broadway to our advantage! He said he wasn't expecting it to be such a big hit but it was. He had a meeting with Brother Marriott who said,

"We have a problem. I have hotel managers calling all the time and reporting that all the copies of the Book of Mormon are being stolen out of the hotel drawers. We need more copies of the Book of Mormon!"

I would say this is a good problem and now that the media blitz is moving our way we are going to see the same thing happen here. Everyone is WANTING a Book of Mormon to know what's really inside because of Broadway. Lets give them out and show them what they want, peace and satisfaction in those pages. Stories that can help us learn and relate to.

As far as an update in the zone:

I stayed (obviously) and so did my companion Elder Welch from Oklahoma. We took 3 Elders home this week and I was asked by President Larkin to help with departures and arrivals at the airport again. We haven't had time to do anything! This is our p-day. E-mailing.... THAT'S IT!! This is so similar to being the Assistant all over again. ha ha

Last but not least I love what I am doing and I feel no different as far as "trunky" goes. I am continuing to do what I have always done and that is serve to the end. It doesn't seem real anyway so don't worry about me too much. There is too much work to do.

I love you!

Elder Bottema

Week 6

This Week always seems to be the most hectic. Week 6 of the transfer and Week 1. Usually because you have to get all the departing missionaries things ready and as a zone leader make preparations for transfers and then Week 1 is departures, transfers, Zone meetings etc.

Everyone from the singles ward either left today or is leaving next Monday to head back to school. It was weird saying goodbye to everyone. It was even funnier talking with those who will be going to BYU -I the same time I do. I already have a small network going here in Bellevue. I love the Mormon world. So many connections.

It looks like we will also be training which means new missionary orientations. It'll be busy for the next two weeks. I will be excited to train again. I feel like I've been doing that all my mission but I've only trained two new missionaries and two new zone leaders but because of all the trainings I've done all over the mission and new missionary exchanges/ trainings I feel like I've done it the past 15 months. I realized that by the time I go home I will have served 21 months of my mission in a leadership assignment. A.K.A I am really tired. But I am moving forward wonderfully wasting and wearing out my life for missionary work. I will be tired all the way to the end!

Everyone around me (including members) keep reminding me, "This is your last transfer, " This is your last cycle meeting, "this is your last departure before you go home." It was funny the first 5 min... but now it's just annoying.

This week we ended up moving Sally's baptism to the 16th instead of the 19th of August. Her mom was leaving town and she wanted to be there so we decided to move it up before her mom left town. I am excited to have another baptism this week. I need five more in two months. Two more this month and three more next month. I can do it! Please pray for me! I am so close. I want to be the best tool I could be for the savior and to do so I need to "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you."

Oh yeah! it's President and Sister Larkin's birthday today! I forgot! They are turning 51. I hope they have something planned. They are probably too busy though. I love that man so much. We had zone conference this week and he came to our lesson right after the conference.

Alright, we are off on another preparation day. Keep up your own missionary work!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Blue Angel Miracles

Yes, the blue angels were in town this weekend and since I was in Bellevue AND Mercer Island on Friday for zone leader council we did see a little bit of their air show. It was pretty exciting/fun.

This week really had to have been a week where literal angels were following us.

Reason 1) We almost died on I-90 traveling to a lesson. We were driving when a diesel had a tire explode, then as we tried to swerve out of the way the diesel looked as though it were about to roll in front of us. It all happened so fast. For some bizarre reason it began to correct itself and pulled to the side. While all this was happening everyone was slamming on their brakes and there was smoke everywhere. We almost slammed into the car in front of us and a Audi almost slammed into the back of us. We prayed!

Reason 2) We had a baptism again! We met someone on Sunday who walked into the church. His name was Bruce and he had a lot of questions about life. As of Friday night he wasn't committed to baptism. On Saturday night we took him to the Bellevue South Stake Center (The building behind the temple) and showed him a temple tour. After that we went into the church and showed him the baptismal font. We talked about the promised blessings and told him he qualified for baptism. He had been to church enough times and been living all the required commandments. We said at 5pm, "Bruce, you still have the opportunity to be baptized this evening at 7pm, what do you say?" He said, 'Well.... I guess I don't see the reason why not. I really want those blessings." WHOA!! We began filling the font, took him to the chapel to pray and called a member of the bishopric. The baptism consisted of Elder Flygare (My MTC companion who is now with us because of transfer complications) Elder Welch, myself, our recent convert Brittany, and Brother Marcia.

Reason 3) Saturday was Elder Flygare's birthday and I told him to find someone to baptize for me on my birthday. Well on Sunday while he was attending Church a part-member family walked up to him and asked, "I'd like to be taught and join the church. I'm ready now. Can you teach me?" WHAT! I thought you were a member?!?! She was put on-date for August 19th. The day after my birthday. I am so excited! I love baptisms! I need 6 more baptisms to reach my goal. Please continue to pray for me. I can see the miracles daily.

This week we set a goal for ourselves to challenge 5 people to baptism and be successful. We need to really fill our teaching pool as well as the Bellevue zone. We have fallen to 5 people on-date for baptism. Half were baptized and the other half dropped the missionaries. I would love all the help I could get.

Reason 4) Starting this week our mission is making our mormon.org profiles. We will be spending an hour each week on mormon.org becoming more familiar with the website and making profiles. We have been instructed to NOT wear missionary clothing and to NOT call ourselves Elders or Sisters but to use our full real name. Weird. Also, we are each receiving portal DVD players for each companionship to use in our morning studies. We will also be receiving the mormon.org DVDs showing the current videos on the website. The church is going all out with technology. If we don't abuse the privilege of the DVD players we will all be issued IPads for each area/unit in the mission. I never thought the church would allow this for missionaries but we need to accept the fact that this is the way the world is moving and door to door approaching is becoming less socially acceptable.

Great and exciting things are taking place in our mission. Not only do we have Elder L. Tom Perry coming on the 19th, we have the missionary department from mormon.org coming to our mission August 29th-31st to train us on the website even more and prepare us for the amazing results that will begin to happen. Then Kieth R. Edwards of the seventy is coming September 15th and 16th to do a mission tour. Then the missionary department is coming one more time the end of September to make sure we understand the mormon.org training completely. Starting October 1st is the media blitz and I will be going on my way home just as the fun begins. I am grateful to be the foundation of such a great cause though. I'm still trying to extend one transfer so I can be a part of this great work and excitement. Thank you for the prayers.

Love,

Elder Bottema

The Power of the Holy Ghost

How is it going my fellow blog readers (all 6 of you)! This last week of July was an eventful one again. Our mission baptized a high number of people this month. In the 80's once again. Our goal seems to always be at 100 but we just seem to miss it each time the opportunity comes around. I have two full months left on my mission either this month or next I want to see 100 convert baptism in one month in the Seattle Washington Mission.

This week we had two baptism. Jennifer Johnson in the Bellevue 1st ward and Scott Carins in the Bellevue 8th (YSA) ward. They both enjoyed their service and church this past Sunday. After Jennifer received the Holy Ghost , she was so happy and joyful. I wish every member in the church could see the joy that comes from conversion and that wickedness never was happiness.

This week we also received some awesome news! Coming to the Seattle Washington Mission starting October 1st is a mormon.org MEDIA BLITZ!! Imagine every taxi, bus, billboard, t.v commercial, local ads, news papers, and vendors. We are the second mission in the world to have a media blitz which is completely different than some advertising here and there. A media blitz is EVERYWHERE in our mission boundaries. How exciting this will be. Whatever our mission is lacking to achieve its goal of 1000 convert baptisms, this will take it there. They started the media blitz in the New York New York mission due to the Book Of Mormon play on Broadway. I assume they are doing it here, far on the west coast, because New York is far on the east coast. Maybe the church wants to start on each side of the country and work inward.

I can see a lot of exciting things coming from this. We are also working closely with Facebook.

When the prophecy came about that we needed to be in all the world, it never said physically. I feel the Internet is one way to accomplish this design. I am always excited to be a missionary but its going to be interesting what happens within the next two years. Till next week....

Elder Bottema

Good News!

Yes! Good News again! I guess technically the good news is the gospel which we talk about all the time BUT we have a couple exciting things happening this weekend. The first being that we have three baptisms scheduled on Saturday! Two in the family ward and one in the YSA ward. It'll be a lot of fun.

Second, Elder Perry is coming to our mission again! He came my first transfer and he is coming 2 days before my last transfer! Its another combined mission meeting as well. He is speaking to the Tacoma and Seattle Missions. 500 Missionaries will be attending at the Federal Way Stake Center, I believe. He is coming August 19th (the day after my birthday) and then Elder Keith R Edwards is coming to speak to our mission September 15th and 16th. I have a feeling we will be increasing in convert baptisms even more. =)

I would like to ask you all again to be praying for our yearly goals. 12 convert baptisms in the 1st ward and 12 in the YSA ward. We have a goal of 2 in July, 2 in August in the family ward and 1 in July, 2 in August in the YSA ward. We need all the prayers we can get! We have invited the wards to do it with us each week, especially the ward council and have had the stake president pray for it as well.

This past week was busy as usual but this week is even busier! We are completely booked from 9am-9:30pm tomorrow and 10am-9pm on Wednesday and our Thursday is mostly filled. Saturday is completely booked already too and its only Monday. There are tons of good things happening in the land of Money. Thank you for your constant prayers. We have been fasting and praying to achieve what the Lord wants. I wake up everyday pretending its my last day and think to myself, "If I ended my mission after today's work would I feel accomplished? Would I feel like I did what I should have done?" It keeps me diligently moving forward and working hard. If I could do my mission over I would've asked my self this question everyday. However, I just thought of it this week. Oh well. These last two months will be epic!

I love life. Thank you as always. I'll be alive 21 years as of August 18th 2011. These past two have been the quickest. I wish it would slow down just a little bit. Every week Sunday comes and it just makes me twinge. Where did the week go?

I love you all,

Elder Bottema

Transfer Council?

This upcoming transfer is going to be so crazy and hectic. I am so excited I only have to be a small part of it. I have been asked to help the Assistants in preparing transfers... A.K.A all the paper work. So I will be getting a sneak peak one more time and then I'm almost positive all my Assistant privileges will be revoked. We will also be helping with departing missionaries again on Monday and then transfers next Tuesday. I'm excited to completely have the Assistant burden lifted off my shoulders. I am so close I can taste it! The New Assistants have done great at transitioning. I only had to help them full time the first week. The second week I just had a lot of phone calls.

This past week was good. We challenged Jennifer Johnson to baptism for July 30th. She is an awesome lady who is 71 years old! She is wonderful and we now call her grandma Johnson when we visit her. She loves it. We love teaching her and when we taught the first couple lessons she never felt so much power in her heart. She loves the concept that we are all literally brothers and sisters and that she has a ward family anywhere she goes in the world. We are making great progress there. Our other investigators are progressing well. One of them is on-date this weekend but she may be pushed back to next week because of scheduling conflicts. Hopefully that doesn't happen though. I am focusing a lot of my prayers on Brianna and know that this is what she needs. She is 17 years old, soon to be 18 and loves how she feels at church. She is already in the ward choir. I'm not too worried.

As far as the Bellevue stake we had a goal of 7 baptized in June and we only had 6. We have 5 people on-date for baptism in July and our zone goal is 6 baptisms. This week is a make or break week. We have one Spanish couple in the Spanish branch that just need their marriage license. They were supposed to get it 3 weeks ago but when they went in to obtain it she realized her name was spelled wrong on her license. Therefore, she had to get a new drivers license and had to restart the marriage license process. What a burden. Luckily we have a wonderful missionary who is going home next week who really, really wants to baptize them before he heads home. Pray for Angela and Marco! We need all the prayers we can get. Also pray for this:

A) Two baptisms in the Bellevue 1st ward in July and 12 baptisms for the year.

B) One baptism in the YSA ward in the month of July and 12 baptisms for the year.

C) Six baptisms for the Bellevue Stake/Zone.

D) Pray for these names: Angela, Marco, Brianna, pray that they can be baptized on their baptismal dates.

E) Pray for my personal goal of 9 more baptisms before my mission is over.

I would very much appreciate your prayers and I will be following up with all of you next week to make sure you did it! Lets be united and I know we can accomplish anything. I love you all and thank you for participating.

Love,

Elder Bottema

BeLLevUe

What a crazy/ interesting week. My testimony is built everyday in the principle of, the more you sacrifice working in your own area, the more the Lord blesses you. We had a lot of meetings this week with local leaders in Bellevue and leadership trainings in the mission. Therefore we had little time to do regular missionary work again. BUT! We had a girl walk into church yesterday and say these words, "I just flew in from Texas and was going to be baptized this weekend. How can I be baptized?" We have a lesson with her today at 6:00pm with our member dinner who happens to have a daughter her age. Enough said. The Lord is merciful. "Whatever the mind can see, it can acheive..." Elder Ballard

This week to be completely honest, it was a lot of meetings and little prosolyting. BUT we had this awesome miracle. It looks like we'll baptize 3-4 people this month. We've had 2 so far and have three for this weekend but two are a little shaky. This is the best success these two wards have had in a while. We've had one in the singles ward and one in the family ward. Then for this weekend we have two planned for the singles ward (the shaky two) and the miracle for the family ward. So both of our areas are seeing sucess! WHOO! =)

Keep praying for our goals! We need two a month in the YSA ward and at least one a month in the family ward. The more prayers we get the more success we can see as a companionship. I love this work and this ward. Keep the good news coming.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Money

Bellevue is Money. The wards here are Money. Everyone has Money. The cars are all Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, you name it. I am so desensitized by all the fancy cars. I've driven past many Maserati and Rolls Royce dealerships. Yep.... talk about money here and you're in. We as missionaries fit in so well in Bellevue. This is one of the only places I don't get started at when I walk into the grocery store or when I walk around outside because, everyone is wearing a suit or a collared shirt! We met a referral who lives in Bellevue Towers. The most expensive condos in downtown Bellevue with 600 square feet studios starting at $349,000. I wish I took pictures. He lived in a one bedroom one bathroom condo but it is so luxurious I can't even describe it. You should see what people wear at the parties here Friday nights. I feel like I'm in a movie.

We had a baptism this weekend in the Bellevue 8th (YSA) Ward. His name is Favian and he is a fantastic young man! He is 19 in August and has been investigating the church for a very short time. He gave up so much to become a member including moving out of his apartment to find better friends and giving up a serious relationship. I am still busy with many of my Assistant responsibilities because I am helping the new ones adjust. I still will need to help at transfers because they have NO IDEA what is to be done. It'll be interesting. It still feels nice though because I am not responsible for any of the mistakes! Glorious!

The weather in Seattle has been quite enjoyable. We have overcast days here and there but not too much rain. It's usually in the lower 70's and it makes life so much more enjoyable. The sun begins to rise at 5am which makes getting up in the mornings so much easier. When it's dark until 8:30am I am drowsy all day. I LOVE SUMMER!

I love all of you and everything you are doing for me. Keep praying for my goals (11 baptisms to go) and the success of the Bellevue zone. I want all of my missionaries to experience the same miracles I've seen. Have a wonderful Week.

Elder Bottema

Transfer 15

What you think a mission will be like is nothing what a mission is like. The best way I can explain it clearly is to advise you to serve one. It's the only way you can fully comprehend its experience. My life is changing more and more as I am out here serving others and inviting them to come unto Christ through baptism. This transfer has some interesting changes and these changes are hard to swallow but I know that it is what the Lord wants me to experience next. Elder Bunton and I are BOTH being released and being called as Zone Leaders again in the Washington Seattle Mission. You might be wondering, "Well wouldn't that be good news?" In some ways... Yes, but let me explain.

I am being transferred out of the Federal Way Ward in the Federal Way Stake and moving up to Bellevue. I will be living in downtown Bellevue and laboring among the members in the Bellevue 1st and 8th wards (Bill Gates lives in the 1st ward boundaries). I will be "white washed" in as a zone leader with another new zone leader. White wash means both those missionaries are leaving and two new missionaries are coming in. Elder Bunton is staying in Federal Way and getting an experienced Zone Leader companion. They are going to accomplish great and wonderful things. I know what I want to accomplish in Bellevue and I am already scheming up some ideas. So this means there are going to be two brand new Assistants in the mission who are going to know nothing! So I have also been called as a 3rd Assistant, or in other words, the Assistant to the Assistants. I will still be coming into the office for the next six weeks training them on their responsibilities and helping them fulfill their roles. It’s defiantly going to be a challenge but I know it's what needs to happen.

Our mission needs to culture more obedience and hard work, which lead to miracles. Therefore, President is spreading it around the mission. My new companion and I will set stretching goals to involve our zone more than ever before. Our mission came just short of 100 convert baptisms for this month. We still have two days left and we need 10 more baptisms. I hope 10 companionships rise to the occasion.

I have such a strong belief in the Church and its restored gospel. I have seen my mind open up in ways I never thought possible. I am beginning to receive "treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures." I can't explain it in words and it's very personal to me but I am so grateful I have been privileged to feel my Savior's love. I know this is what I am supposed to be doing in my life right now. I know this is true and that listening to the prophets brings happiness. I love my area, investigators, recent converts, and members.

Elder Bottema

Elder Kikutchi & Zone Conference

Wow, where should I even start? May is done! This month is now the fastest month that has gone by and yet we have already had 5 baptism this month! We have one more person being baptized this weekend and our goal is to get a couple more to join the service. We had another miracle for this past weekend. Van Jones was a self referral who had been studying the Book of Mormon on his own for a while now. He loves religion and has been studying almost every religious text possible. He found the Book of Mormon online and had been reading it on his E-reader. We contacted him last Saturday, May 15th and he said, " I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet..." Perfect! =) We committed him to baptism for June 11th when he said, "I'm not one to just jump right into things." We committed him to continue reading and to pray about baptism. We went back on Tuesday and he said, "I want to be baptized as soon as possible." He was baptized this past Saturday. He said, "I have never felt so much enlightenment and knowledge come through any book than this. My knowledge has expanded so much that I can't deny it's truth.

A couple of weeks ago Elder Yoshihiko Kikutchi came to visit our mission again. It was an incredible meeting with alot of spiritual truth. He spoke pure revelation. Our mission needs these three things. 1) 100 % Obedience 2) Purifying our lives 3) PMG knowledge increase/ Hard Work! He gave us some very good tips and this week at Zone Conference we took them to the next level. Our mission is seeing the miracles already occur. We are only 30 away from reaching our goal of 100 for the month of May. Our mission hasn't done this since the split in 2001. As far back as our records go anyway. We are so excited to see what can happen when we follow and listen to our inspired leaders. We have transfers coming up next week which is always a killer on time, stress management, everything really. We will be running around with our heads cut off, as usual. I am taking a 5 day nap when I return home. I'm hardly walking.

What I have developed is a love for hard work. I know... strange. I Can see myself accomplishing so much more with my time on my return home and occupying myself with uplifting and wholesome things instead of wasting so much time on Facebook, computer games, reading pointless books, etc. I have such a more detailed focus on my life ahead and I am going to make sure I do everything to accomplish it. 4 months left in the mission field... I need to work harder! I'm still 13 baptisms away from my goal of 45. I pretty much need to baptize someone every week till I go home to reach that goal. It'll be done! I love this mission and the life lessons I'm learning. I'm still hungry all the time - force fasting because we literally don't have time to eat. I'm surprised I'm not dead yet. I love you all.

Elder Bottema

2 More

Another week of baptisms. This week we were able to baptize Dante, a young man from a part member family. The baptism was very quiet, reverent, and supportive. Many of the youth in the ward came. He was found two weeks ago and had been to church many times in the past. He really wanted to be baptized and become involved in the Youth Groups. Since I've been here we have added 5 young men to the youth program. The ward LOVES having all young men pass the sacrament again. It's really enjoyable seeing the ward grow and the fruits of our labors becoming more and more apparent. I have learned that in order to become successful in an area you have to continue to practice humility and rely on the Lord.

The next baptism was Anthony Vanhorn, who I taught 15 months ago in the Jovita Creek ward. He couldn't get baptized until he was 18 and I was able to be here when he made that turning point. His baptism was the most powerful and emotional service I have ever been too. The room was PACKED with 60+ people and everyone was so anxious and excited to finally see Anthony be baptized. He has been waiting so long and often said, "I can't wait to be baptized!.. 48 more days, 22 more days, 76 hours, 4 1/2 hours!!" My favorite line was, "I can't wait to wear that badge on my chest." As he stepped into the font with his best friend Jordan Grisham, you could see the realization in his face that he was actually here, making this step he has waited so long for. Everyone in the room was silently sobbing and you could feel the strongest presence in the room. Bishop Bennion from the Jovita Creek Ward is going to be a huge blessing to Anthony. This ward is going to be blessed because of this one person. He has already been asked to speak at Stake Conference and was ordained to the priesthood. Next week he will have the privilege of blessing the sacrament. I love seeing the conversion in people's eyes and the sacrifices others make to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He had no family support at his baptism.

I often reflect back on my opportunities and the childhood I had. I am so excited I made this decision to come on a mission. I understand so clearly why we areencouraged so strongly to serve. This is a life changing circumstance and my entire perspective of what matters most has changed dramatically. You begin to see things for what they really are, and treasure the important things in life. Thank you everyone for being supportive on my decision to serve a full-time mission.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Miracle

First off, God must have put Elder Bunton and I together for a very specific reason in order to serve as the Assistants for 3 transfers together. As of 30 min ago we changed our transfer scenario to keep Elder Bunton and I together to continue serving as the Assistants in the Federal Way Ward in the Seattle Washington Mission. This hasn't happened since this mission split in 2001. 25% of our mission will be serving together. One transfer in Seattle North and three in Federal Way. We are learning so much about decision making, church administration, and ministering. It is so stressful, hard, and complicated and there's no way to understand the calling we have unless you have experienced it yourself; but it is all worth it!

I have the greatest spiritual revelation come to me, many times in the night and I have begun to experience dreams. I am now keeping a sleep pad (Dream journal) by my bed. I feel so worthy right now and the cleanest I've felt. I have overcome temptations that burdened me in the past, I have developed a true and sincere desire to bring others into God's family. I love it all. It's hard... but completely worth it.

Here is our miracle of the week:

We had two people on-date for baptism this weekend, Katy and Nene, both Mashallese individuals. On Wednesday they fell off date and couldn't meet their goal. We were devastated and talked it over in our companionship studies and our long drives to Bellevue trying to figure out who we could baptize this weekend. We then went and visited another family who are pleasant to the missionaries but have little desire to change or become members. However, they had a child who could be baptized this weekend and they admire the church primary program.

So on Thursday, April 14, 2011 we started planning for this baptism on Saturday at 4:00pm. Everything was going as planned, the members were supportive, on board, and we taught the remainder of the lessons so he could pass his baptismal interview. So we come to find out 10 min before the baptism that our child is not 8, he is 7. He turns 8 in June! The service is set to go, the font filled, our district there with all their investigators... and no baptism. We were devastated, felt embarrassed, and didn't know what to do.

After cleaning up the service and looking at our plans for the rest of the evening we went to Tine and Tiah's home, our recent converts who were baptized in March. After teaching one of their family members Kalani, who will be baptized on April 30th, Tine asked us a question. "How soon can you plan baptismal services?" We explained to her that we could plan them immediately. She went on to explain that a mother and son just moved from the capital of the Marshall islands. The son has taken all the missionary lessons and wants to be baptized. We met the son who was 15 (but looks like he's 12) and asked him, "Would you like to be baptized tomorrow at 7:00pm? He said yes and that he was really excited. He speaks very limited English but loves the church and the gospel. What a miracle. We found him at 7:46pm and baptized him at 7:00pm the next day. A 22 hour find, teach, and baptize opportunity. I love this work!
My companion had prayed for a humbling experience that day and boy did we have one, but it lead us to do as Nephi did in 1 Nephi 3. He knew not what he was supposed to do to acquire the plates of brass and after his plan fell through, he followed the direction of the spirit and was able to obtain that which was required of him. We had the same experience. Nikko was our miracle and he expressed the same message to us that we were his miracle.

This work is so rewarding, challenging, and progressive. I feel ready and in charge to do something more and something better. I am so grateful for my companion, my Mission President, his wife, Sister Larkin, and the Lord. We have countless blessings in our lives and if we are struggling to see them, look around and evaluate what you do have and the experiences that have led you to progress. I love this being a missionary! "Wake up and do something more!"

Love,

Elder Bottema

Short Entry

Due to the tragedies in Japan I have the wonderful opportunity to make an Emergency Action Plan. woo. This is very time consuming and needs to be send to Elder Clayton A.S.A.P so I will be doing that for the next two hours. I need to also print off maps for each missionary apartment to a safe haven location (Church building). Thank you Google Maps.

As a recap for this week we put 7 more people on-date for baptism, all in April! =) We had two miracles fall out of heaven and we will be teaching another Marshallese family. I love the Marshallese culture. Everyone we are teaching is Marshallese except for one who is African American. I've determined that Americans are spoiled and have fallen into the celebrity lifestyle of selfishness. These other cultures have two things most Americans often lack - charity & time.

I love you all and thank you for the support. I greatly enjoyed General Conference this week. I guess I'll be getting married sooner than I thought. HAHA - BYU here I come! I am using it for exactly what the stereotype is.

Elder Bottema

Week of Miracles, Faith & Hope

Belen Baker, Tine Attari, Tiah Attari

Tine and Tiah were found through our recent converts and are so spiritually prepared. They actually took all the lessons in Portland, moved to Seattle and didn't know where the church was so never came. When we originally talked to Tine and Tiah and set their baptismal dates for April 9th they said they just wanted a refresh of the lessons and then they'd be baptized. When we had a lesson with them Thursday evening around 7:00 pm they were so receptive to our message. We were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ (lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel) Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End. When we were talking about baptism we asked, "Are you still working toward your goal of April 9th? They looked at us and said, "is it too late to be baptized this weekend with Belen Baker? We were talking about it earlier and we thought, what are we waiting for?"

Belen Baker was contacted the end of February or beginning of March. She was a self referral through Mormon.org. She went to Church In Mexico with a friend 20 years ago and still remembered to this day the feeling of being part of a family. Her date was also originally set for April 9th and she asked to be baptized sooner. She said, "I love this church and I want to be in it forever! I love my family! I want to serve and hold babies and make Mexican food for everyone... and i make my food by scratch!"

These three individuals have been huge testimony builders for me. I gave the most heartfelt prayer of gratitude to God and have made promises with him to do better in my personal life. I want to develop a greater relationship through prayer with him and overcome my final temptations of Pride and patience.

This will give me a greater Hope and a greater faith in Jesus Christ. I have felt so many powerful emotions this week, good and bad, but when the Lord takes something away from you, its because he wants to give you something better. Not only am I growing and changing my life forever, I am on a perfect unification with my companion accomplishing great things. Although we had a couple bad weeks in a transfer we are the best of missionaries. It'll be hard to see him go at the end of this transfer. His time as an assistant is up and he will be called to labor somewhere else for the last six months of his mission. I still have two transfers left of this assignment and I am honestly not looking forward of doing it without the help of Elder Bunton. However, I will be learning something new and more challenging... I just know it. I dislike those growing opportunities but it's the only way we come closer to God and strengthen ourselves in eternal progression.

I am in my mind frame of I never want to go home but I can't wait for summer and being released. Ha Ha. I am having too many great experiences out here as a missionary and it seems to be going by faster and faster. Everyday I keep telling my self and more so today, "Elder Bottema, enjoy this moment, because ever too quickly it'll be gone." I've said that to myself over and over because I am trying to enjoy every moment and not miss a single event or opportunity. I love my mission, I love Seattle, and most of all I love God. God be with you till we meet again.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Week of Miracles

This week (I'll just start with the meat because its more fun to talk about) we had a wonderful woman who was a self referral come to church the last couple of weeks. She entered in her information on mormon.org and asked for missionaries. She was on-date for baptism for the 9th of April but is now being baptized on the 26th of this month! She and the ward wanted her to be baptized sooner because she is so amazing. So this week we will be having a very long lesson teaching all the lessons (basically) and then having her interview, then baptizing her! She is from Mexico and is an outstanding person. She called us on the phone this morning telling us she wanted to be in this church forever and she wants to serve and love others. She walked up to the Relief Society President and asked for assignments and who needed help in the ward. She will be a blessing and asset to this ward. Oh how I love Federal Way.

We also found many more Marshallese people and have dug in our heels a little deeper with that community. Today we conferred the Aaronic priesthood to a couple of our recent converts and some who were baptized a few years earlier. It was the first time doing it for me and I did a 100% perfect job. I remembered all the key phrases and everything. It's not like it's all that hard. There are only five steps but I feel more comfortable doing anything in the church now. I don't get nervous about anything really. I've been called on enough times in sacrament meeting now, prayers, blessing, confirming, etc etc. Especially calling all those around me to be baptized. Ha Ha! Oh missionary work. No wonder the world thinks we are crazy Mormons.

This week we will be going on split exchanges with the Bellevue zones and Renton zones. I'll be going to Bellevue and the zone leaders are Spanish speaking so I'll be practicing my gift of tongues in this exchange. I'm in Bellevue all the time anyway so its nothing special. I do love this city though. So clean and neat and organized. I love it! Way to rich for me! Maybe one day.

I love the miracles that have happened this week and the things I've been witnessing and learning as a missionary. I had my first 'vision' this week when I was sleeping. I had a dream so clear come to me and my testimony of the Church has grown more. I feel so strong and steadfast. I feel like nothing can stop me in my tracks and I am so greatful for the confidence I have. I love this work and I love being a missionary. Stay safe and strong!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Depatures/Arrivals

What an amazing and busy transfer it was. We had 5 baptisms, changes to the mission rules, zone conference, leadership training, disobedience problems, 2 zone leader councils and lots of driving. I still don't know how we accomplished all of that. This transfer is already on such a great start since the disobedience has pretty much dissolved and is unpopular in our mission now. We are able to focus much more on our area because this transfer is interviews instead of Zone conference which is much less stressful. Elder Bunton and I are now in our third transfer together but it was split up. One in Seattle North and two in Federal Way.

This transfer was also much better because we were able to get all the departing missionaries to the airport and greet the new missionaries whose airplane arrived on time. We have a great group and our compliment on missionaries rose so we now have 101 companionship's in our mission and this is not including senior couples. We were able to split a couple more areas and our ward now has two sets of missionaries. Elder Bunton and I and the sisters. Sister Furugen from Japan (who served on UW with me) and sister Mohammad from Utah (whose dad is Muslim and from Pakistan). Her dad was never a member but her mom is and she is here serving a valiant mission. Good luck doing family history!

Our ward is loving the attention of two sets of missionaries and especially that one of the companionship's is sisters. The Federal Way ward is great. They just get it when it comes to missionary work. That is why this ward is so blessed and runs so smoothly because missionary work is the number one priority. We continued to put people on-date for baptism this week and find new investigators.

I love seeing the work unfold here. Most of our baptisms are coming from the Marshallese culture and there are many families here. I think one of the reasons they are so interested in the gospel is because families are so important to their culture and since the church is so strongly for families that rings true to them and attracts them to learn more. Basically, once one family gets baptized, they all get baptized because they bring everyone to church. If we help with the process then it gets accomplished.

This upcoming week is new missionary orientation and it's going to be a lot of fun because this is such a good group. Thank you for all the help and support. I've come to accept that I will no longer be getting any more letters and packages. I've noticed the longer you are out on your mission, the less the letters come. ;) Stay warm, safe.... and DRY!

Love,

Elder Bottema

Zone Conference Week

Wow. This week is something that describes being hit by a train. It sure does wear you out going all over the mission presenting training after training. It sure didn't run smoothly either. The first day of zone conference I left my training material up in Bellevue and a video presentation on the laptop was deleted because the computer froze as we were setting it up. So the first two zones didn't get to see the video and the pictures from my presentation. The second day of zone conference was with three zone and we had to cancel two hours of conference because the fire alarm went off and we had to leave the building. They were doing a small construction job at the Maple Valley Stake Center installing tile in the hallways. The thin set dust triggered the fire alarm. It was soooo annoying.

The third day of conference was moved to the upcoming Monday (tomorrow) because of a snow storm in Seattle. It broke a new record considering how late in the year it is to snow. Especially because Seattle doesn't usually get cold enough for snow. It's been a strange year of weather in Seattle. Then on Friday we had the usual conference which was the most normal. I was conducting and made so many mistakes it was unreal but now I'm more prepared for Monday's zone conference. Thursday is transfer board council where we decide what happens for transfers, Friday is zone leader council, and Saturday from 6-11 p.m is announcement for transfers and calls. So the only full days we have to do normal missionary work is Wednesday and partly Saturday.

Our baptism this week was great. The last of a family member to be baptized. Now the entire family are members. They have some non-member cousins that live in the same household that we are going to commit to baptism in March. I can't believe I've already had four baptisms here and we have another four coming up in March. It seems the more my mission goes by the more people I help come into the waters of baptism. It's partially because of my companion and all the help he is and everything that the ward does. I've been very blessed recently.

Our mission continues to do great things. We have put 50 people on-date for baptism again this week and it looks like we are going to baptize 100 people in the month of March which would be a new record for the Washington Seattle Mission. The difference is this time we are already putting people on-date for April and we are consistently finding as we are teaching which is leading to increased baptisms and continual success. I love seeing the mission from the position I'm currently filling. I'm going to ask if I can be released as an assistant and re-assigned as a trainer. I feel like I've accomplished what I was supposed to do here. We'll see how President feels.

Thank you for everything! Continue to have a wonderful winter.... Spring is just around the corner.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Another Amazing Week!

Last week we as a mission put 50 people on-date for baptism and this week we put 60 on-date for baptism. I wish you could all experience and hear all the stories I do and the feelings I feel as I see us and missionaries come closer to our savior. This week was a pretty "normal" week for missionary work. We actually got to spend more time in our area compared to most weeks. Unfortunately this week is zone conference but I still am somewhat excited for that because I have prepared something in which I am anxious to share. I am starting my training with a talk from Elder F. Enzio Busche. I'm not sure what the title of the talk is but if you search his name in YouTube it is the first video that pops up on the search list. Everyone should watch this video and sacrifice 6 min 44 seconds out of your day. You'll be glad you did.

This week we had the baptism of Junior (Nathan) Note. He was a husband of a part member family and now the family is no longer part member and their oldest sons birthday is March 16th in which he is turning 8. If only you could meet the best/ most wonderful people I get to associate with each and every day. I am reaping the blessings and you can read it along these lines. I challenge you to look for opportunity's this week in which you are a blessing to someone. Find that person or stranger who needs something more such as a smile, a compliment, or a message from the spiritual life that brings you happiness. You'd be surprised to find how happy it makes you. Sacrifice for those you love is what turns into love and it no longer becomes a sacrifice. The only reason we hesitate to sacrifice for others is because of the sting we are afraid to feel. Soon thereafter, or, the more you do it, the sting leaves, and your soul is filled. You can choose which road you take.

I love you all with my heart, might, mind, and strength. Continue to make good choices and follow the promptings you feel. I can't express how much joy this week brought me, but know that I am doing well and living a happy fulfilling life. I thank all of you who helped me to get to where I am now. I feel like my progression can never end and that my own charity and love has exploded. It's a gift god has helped me better obtain. I can't wait to fill my soul with more of it. Stay safe, happy, and healthy.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Another Babtism!

Hello! This week was crazy because of the leadership training but all in all it went over pretty well. We had some really good trainings and I must say that I did a fairly decent job. I love getting all the wonderful comments from missionaries who look up to me. I feel so inadequate at pretty much all times but it's all worth it when you can be a good/righteous example to others. I didn't feel like my training was that spectacular but apparently it was. Even though I get all this attention and confidence boosting comments I still want to be a regular missionary so bad! This week wasn't bad in the sense of dealing with President and any of his emotions, mainly because our mission had such a great week. We put 50 people on-date as a mission this week! Can you believe it? We even put someone on-date for baptism over the phone on the way up here to Bellevue. It was a fun experience and a great story to tell in person, perhaps in my homecoming talk eh? I still have 8 full months of proselyting and I'm using it fully and squeezing ever last minute in there.

We had another baptism this week. It was Andrea Lole and I actually taught her last year when I was serving in the Jovita Creek ward! She was being taught be the zone leaders and I was a District Leader at the time so I went on an exchange with them to the Federal Way ward I taught her. Well she is still here and I came back to find out she was put on-date for baptism! She had such a great baptism and was overcome with the feelings she felt there. She felt so "clean and forgiven" and felt like she could move onto a new spiritual path and journey, It was cool to come back and she recognized me. It is still surreal I am back in Federal Way. If I could move back to Seattle Washington I would move back to Federal Way and live in one of these wards. Especially the Jovita Creek ward but perhaps after 6 months of serving in the Federal Way ward I'll have the same love I do for Jovita Creek. The only difference is we don't get nearly the same type of experience as other missionaries because we have so many other responsibilities. For example, we have Zone Conference not this week but the next which means 5 out of the 7 days are taken. We also have to wake up at 5 to get to all the zones in time for leadership training and conference. Not to mention coming back to our area to have 2 essential lessons with on-date investigators and then crashing into bed at home to wake up early and start over. We haven't even got close to preparing for Zone Conference. We have a meeting with President Larkin tomorrow at the mission office and we'll have a nice long chat with him about everything. We usually talk to him every night but it's just to get all the people's names who were put on-date for baptism in the mission field. We announce those names on a voice blast ( A voice mail sent out to all the missionaries phones in our mission) every morning. It really helps boost faith in the mission. Especially weeks like this where we put 50 people on-date for baptism! It was awesome! This mission is growing so much and so fast. I love you all!

Keep in touch,

Elder Bottema

Assistant to President

Yes, Hell as been released on me as a missionary, I was called to the worst position in the mission... my mission president frequently reminds me, not that he needed to though. I already knew this was a horrible calling! Ha Ha! I received transfer calls last Saturday and was reassured that I was staying in Seattle North. Little did I know that President had a different thought in mind. The Assistant is never announced on transfer calls so when I left to take a missionary home in my zone I arrived at the mission home with President Larkin greeting me and asking to come into his office. "Oh great" I thought. "I'm going to have to deal with some type of horribly disobedient missionary in my zone or something." Nope. Even worse. He sat me down in his office before he interviewed the departing missionaries and asked me to be his next Assistant for the next 6 months. Therefore I have had less than 5 hours of sleep each night. Thursday nights are the worst because we have on-date updates which take 2 hours at the least. Bed time is around 1. Not to mention we still have a full proselyting area so whatever trainings we don't finish before bed, we finish in the late hours.

So far I have picked up the new missionaries at the airport, dropped off the missionaries going home, dealt with some emotionally draining situations that I have no business discussing on this blog, and eating, maybe 1 good meal a day. It's pretty common for the Assistants to only eat 1 meal because we are so busy. We no longer have preparation days and according to Elder Bunton (my old companion in Seattle North who is my new companion!) we shop after 10:00 Monday evenings. Tuesday we have trainings for new missionaries and trainings for zone leaders on Friday not to mention a baptism on Saturday. PHEW!

To finish what happened in Seattle North, I ended my week with a baptism and I missed Brett's which was this past Saturday. It was horribly disappointing but all in all I feel very accomplished of what I did while serving as a zone leader in that area.

I am scared to death of what these next four transfers bring as the assistant but I'm here to learn something valuable. The assistants area is the Federal Way Ward in the Federal Way Stake. The ward that borders Jovita Creek. I've only served on the west side of the mission. I-5 goes through all my areas! Ha Ha! I only have 2 transfers left after this assignment (a.k.a 12 weeks) and that weirds me out.

I love you all and I will try my hardest to keep you updated. Stay strong and work hard! Bring people into the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have found in my service as a missionary and my split second week as an assistant that it's all based on love. The atonement, the Earth, God, and the people called to serve. The ward leaders, the mission president, and stake presidents all love the people whom they serve so much,

I love you all x 10,000! Take care.

Elder Bottema

Interviews

Yes this past week was interviews week and it was fun herding sheep as usual. The missionaries did really well at not hanging out and getting right back to work. Our mission is on a constant improvement and we are seeing wonderful things in the Seattle Washington Mission! We have another General Authority coming this week (Elder Kearon) which always gets the missionaries excited and faith built, 2nd Elder Clayton will be giving us a training this Saturday as well AND we have a baptism! Perfect.

This past week was quite busy and stressful and we had freezing temperatures and snow AGAIN! Oh here is the funny part, we were on exchanges with the assistants last time it snowed and again this time. It wasn't as bad though because over night the temperature changed to 37 F which pelted the four inch snow storm so by the morning it was all slush. We found 4 new investigators again and we are going to keep committing people to baptism. Our Chinese investigator Jieping is excited for her baptism this week and we are as well. She has become so much happier and really got involved with the Chinese group at church.

This brings me to the next exciting part of this blog. We have organized a Chinese gospel discussion group and we are preparing to start a Chinese gospel principles class on Sundays where all the Chinese members from the 3 University wards can attend. This could be the start or foundation of a Chinese branch coming to the North Seattle Stake. Branches are hard to get going but there are some very strong leaders here who speak Chinese and are well educated in the church. One of the teachers for this group was in the former stake presidency of the Redmond Stake which is just outside our mission (It's in the Everett mission) and he is stoked to teach the class. This will be a perfect finding opportunity for us as missionaries. The Chinese culture is ready to hear about the church. I await the day when missionaries are sent there.

I love hearing of the news and I never get sick or tired of letters. =) I love all of you back home and where ever else you may be.

Love,

Elder Bottema

Success!

What an amazing week of hard work and bringing people to the gospel. We found 6 new investigators and put 3 people on-date! We had to pass off 2 because they lived in the other ward boundaries but we have a new one for our area and we still have Jieping for the 22nd of January from the previous week. She is doing amazing! She has already grown so much and they are willing to commit to anything. It's teaching investigators with no concerns. Fun!

We also but Brett on-date for the 29th of January and he is a pretty cool kid. He is a sophomore from UW and he was born in 1990... the best year ever to be born in. We talked to him during finals week and had to wait for him to come back. We had little time and left him a Book of Mormon and committed him to pray about it as he was in Chicago for the Christmas break. He came back and had all sorts of questions that were loads of fun to answer. We've taught him the restoration and the Plan of Salvation and he is progressing wonderfully. Both of our investigators came to church on Sunday and both came to the Friday friendship feast ( a cheap lunch at the institute every Friday) and the opening social at 7 Friday night. He was fellow shipped out of his mind and Jipeing was befriended by the other Chinese students/recent converts. We had such a good week! Everything seemed to run so smoothly and perfect.

We also found out that Elders Clayton and Kearon are coming to our mission to speak on the 22nd but I'm not sure if we'll be able to attend because of our baptisms. Baptisms are much more fun anyway so I wont be that disappointed if I have to miss out. Because of this all the zone leaders are meeting today in Renton to pick up flyers to place in all the chapels in our areas. So this cuts out p-day time. We also are having a lesson mid-day because they couldn't meet any other time. I love this ward/area and gospel!

Thank you for the prayers and wishes. They worked well this week.

Love,

Elder Bottema