December-January Federal Way Washington LDS Mission current
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
It is always good to begin a new year. As a mission we have set the goal for 365 baptisms this year. That is one a day. Last transfer our goal was 36 and we had 35 which made us very happy. It was our best transfer so far. Along with our fasting each day and receiving a “Fast Blast” twice weekly, we see our faith increasing and our work being blessed. The Lord has truly blessed our mission and our converts as they repent and prepare for the important covenant of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. We love seeing the light in their eyes increase as they come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel. We invite all of you to pray with us for our goal of 365 of His sons and daughters to enter the waters of baptism this year.
To help us achieve our goal, our zone conference in January focused on member work which includes working with bishops, ward mission leaders and missionaries and the members. We are becoming better at inviting members to set some personal missionary goals. Missionaries meet with members, leave a brief message and invite them to commit to a specific missionary goal. We are there to help guide them. We have a list of 17 things to choose from if they don’t have an idea of something they want to commit to do. We invite all of you to call the missionaries in your ward and invite them to your home to talk about your missionary goals. They will be able to guide you as you reach out to others and share the joy and blessings the gospel has for everyone to enjoy. I promise you the blessings in D&C 4:4. We repeat the entire 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants at the beginning of all of our meetings. It is a wonderful reminder of how important this work is for all of us!
Following a great Christmas Lunch and Devotions in mid-December, we had a wonderful “white” Christmas here in Washington. A beautiful snow storm arrived on Christmas Eve and continued through Christmas day. Other than the 2 minor accidents and some Hermanas having to abandon their car that was stuck, it was great. I’m guessing that getting a call from your missionary on Christmas day will be among your best Christmas memories ever. We hope your family was able to learn more about the wonderful tracting, teaching and service….the good your missionary goes about doing every day in Washington. We are in that unique position to see the growth these missionaries go through. We are a young mission with most of our missionaries being here only a few transfers. But we are indeed a strong mission. They have progressed quickly and with faith made great things happen in the Washington Federal Way Mission. We look forward to even better things in 2018.
We are now preparing for the arrival of 12 new missionaries. They will add to the strength of our mission. We will be saying goodbye to six amazing servants of the Lord who have served well. I love to hear their departing testimonies as they are given the opportunity do that at Mission Leadership Counsel, zone conference and at the devotional at the mission home following the dinner the night before they return. It strengthens my testimony as they bear pure testimony of our Savior and the truthfulness of this gospel. May we all look for opportunities to bear our witness to others of the truth of the gospel and the blessings it brings us. It will not only bless our lives, but those who we testify to.
Sister Rasmussen
This greeted us on Christmas morning. So beautiful! Washington is the Evergreen state. It was wonderful to see the snow hanging onto the beautiful tall Evergreens. What a treat! A white Christmas and a call or Skype home.
The passing of a Prophet—Thomas S. Monson, we sorrow, and we rejoice!
When anyone leaves us on this earth we miss them and we sorrow, yet in President Monson’s case he led a life well lived that blessed many people. Many marvelous talks have been given celebrating his life and testifying to his amazing love for his people, especially the “one”. He was no respecter of persons. He love all. His deeds gave purpose to all that he met. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and lived as the Savior would have us live. Now, he is blessed to be sitting next to the Savior along with all the Prophets . He truly gave meaning to the phrase “ENDURE TO THE END”. We Thank thee, Oh God, for a Prophet!
Remembering the Real Meaning of Christmas
The passing of a Prophet—Thomas S. Monson, we sorrow, and we rejoice!
When anyone leaves us on this earth we miss them and we sorrow, yet in President Monson’s case he led a life well lived that blessed many people. Many marvelous talks have been given celebrating his life and testifying to his amazing love for his people, especially the “one”. He was no respecter of persons. He love all. His deeds gave purpose to all that he met. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and lived as the Savior would have us live. Now, he is blessed to be sitting next to the Savior along with all the Prophets . He truly gave meaning to the phrase “ENDURE TO THE END”. We Thank thee, Oh God, for a Prophet!
Remembering the Real Meaning of Christmas
He was born in a manger, the lowest of births. He was beneath those with scholarly educations, beneath all of the wealth and pompous attitudes of the "highest of society", yet he was the Savior of the World.
Yet he gave the world the greatest gift of all gifts, the atonement, the pathway for the forgiveness of sin and the opportunity to live with our Father in Heaven again. He is the single most important person the world has ever known.
Our Missionaries share in the physical gifts from home, from their loving parents. Even in the way the Savior gave us our greatest gifts, we share with our children expressions of our love and dreams for them.
Elder Novits, contemplating the season and the gifts. It is exciting to get a box from home and there they are, all piled up behind him.
Gifts are collected in the wards for those who might not be so lucky as to have someone send them gifts. They are lighting the world!
Missionaries reveal the enormous job of the collection and distribution of the parent's gifts. Elder Pond with his protective attitude, "These gifts are safe with me"!
Christmas Devotional- a spiritual blessing:
Lovely Table settings enhanced the setting over the holidays as many efforts were put forth to make the season a celebration for the missionaries.
Elders Baguley and Wright - with Sisters conferring in the background!
Beautiful missionary sisters- What spiritual forces they are
Hello Elders Stucki Delp and Leavitt - Merry Christmas!
Elders Corbett, Faulkner, Stucki and Leavitt
To make the season even brighter the Marsalleese brothers and sisters presented a special sacred present in the form of a sacred cultural event for the President and Sr. Rasmussen.
They were quite impressed when our Elders spoke to them in their own language. The Spirit was strong.
It is going to be a great new year! The mission has two focuses:
First the concentration on baptisms will be one per day in the mission during 2018. This number was arrived at by fasting and prayer by the missionaries. They challenge themselves to work hard. They understand they are here to do the Lord's work.
The second focus will be to focus more on the atonement of Jesus Christ. The more testimony they can have on that, the more powerful they will be in "bringing others to Christ. The Holy Ghost is more supportive the more effort we put forth
So with those things in mind the missionaries wish all of their families a happy, healthy and prosperous new year with an amazing spiritual growth.
Fun Stuff!!!!
Even though we seniors are on missions and basketball, volleyball, football are not up to our functional ability to pursue - we have our ways!
Sr. Olson and Ford-Trudo are trying to teach Sr. Leavitt the difference between sweep and eat. She gets her wires crossed sometimes. We thought we had it together when we looked outside and guess what we saw:
Snow Angel Leavitt on the left. She is afraid of nothing, not even 4 inches of snow on the ground. This scene produced quite a laugh from the group, we weren't sure we were ever going to get her up!!!! So much for mobility!
For Special News to parents go to the end of the blog for information regarding the new smart phone requests for your missionaries
➝
Leadership
Gaining leadership ability is one of the most often achieved skill on the mission. In order to do that, zone and district leaders changed from transfer to transfer. This shares opportunities to be in charge of a district or zone from transfer to transfer. The additions below shows the leaders during the last transfer.
Member Leadership Council
Auburn zone Leaders and their zone:
Elder Corbett Elder Faulkner
Auburn Zone
Elder Christianson - Top Left
Elder Jones-Bottom Left
Enumclaw Zone
Federal Way Zone Leaders
Bottom Right - Elder Cottrell
Bottom right - Elder Roach
Kent Zone Leaders
Top Left - Elder LyonBottom Right - Elder Thibaudeau
Kent Zone
Puyallup Zone Leaders
Bottom Right - Elder Delp
Puyallup Zone
South Hill Zone Leaders
Bottom Right - Elder Ward
South Hill Zone
Renton Zone Leaders
Bottom Right -Elder Pugh
Renton Zone
Transfer Days -
Elder Wilson, Thank you for the art work!
News to parents:
The information below was already given to your missionaries. Please note this information and respond to your missionary as soon as you can. They are so excited over this change in the mission!
January 26, 2018
Dear Elders and Sisters.
As many of you know, the
Washington Federal Way Mission has been authorized by the Mission Department
for smart phone use. Over the next
several months we will acquire, setup, and register the phones. We will install the applicable, approved
apps, and learn how to safely use the phones to increase our productivity. Our missionary purpose will not change. The smartphone will never replace face to
face contact with our investigators where we can bear pure testimony and bring
the Spirit to the hearts. The way that
we do missionary work will change somewhat as the smartphones will allow us to
have greater opportunities to contact and teach our investigators. The smartphone should allow us to be more
effective in teaching, and in working with Church leaders and members.
The first step of the process of
implementing smartphone use in the mission is to acquire the phones. The phones will need to be acquired by each
and every missionary, with the exception of missionaries that are returning
home within three months (Before May 1, 2018).
Those who are returning home before May 1, 2018 will have access to a
mission owned phone for the duration of your mission. I have uploaded to the
portal a document entitled “Acquire and Set Up Smartphone”. Please print and completely read the document
before doing anything else. Once you
have read, and understand the document, the process for acquiring your phone is
listed below:
·
Contact your family by email and let them know
that you need to purchase the smartphone.
Your family will need to provide the funds for the device and may assist
in acquiring the device to be shipped to you.
Help them to understand fully the necessity of purchasing the phone and
the requirements for the phone to be purchased.
·
Arrange to purchase the device.
o Pay
particularly close attention to the requirements as listed in the first heading
“Approved Smartphones”. The smartphones must meet all four
criteria.
o You
can purchase the phone from any vendor.
The church has arranged a negotiated price with insight.com, but there
is no requirement that you purchase the phone from them. They have available the Galaxy J3 and Galaxy
J7 models, which meet the necessary requirements.
o It
is highly recommended that you get the following accessories:
§ A
case. You can visit insight.com’s
website for an example of a good case.
§ A
screen protector.
§ A
MicroSD memory card (32GB or more).
o You
may, if you desire, get an extended warranty.
·
You should be able to get the smartphone and all
recommended accessories for less than $300.00.
If you have difficulty meeting any of these requirements, please let me
know.
You need to have possession of the smartphone no later
than February 12, 2018, so don’t delay the purchase of the device. We will provide the necessary guidance and
help in setting up the device and in learning how to use it effectively.
Please don’t fear the use of
smartphones in missionary work. We will
help you to learn how to be safe in the use of the device, and how it can be
effective in your missionary work. As
you learn to use your phone safely and effectively, you will learn skills that
will be useful throughout your entire life.
We are sent to this mortal life with agency, and the need to learn to
control this mortal body that clothes our spirit. The Missionary Department has authorized us
to use these tools in our missionary work.
The leaders of the Church trust us to use them wisely. I am confident that the Lord trusts us as
well. We can learn how to use mobile
devices for our benefit, and for the benefit of those that we teach.
With Love,
President Rasmussen
Comments
Post a Comment