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

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