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