This week was just as great as last. We were extremely busy and were doing all we could to teach, find, and help people come to church. We were blessed with success and had eight investigators come to church. We are excited for a baptism in about two weeks. It has been quite the effort to find people that are ready, but we should be having more here in the future.

The Spirit has helped us so much it is the greatest feeling. We were traveling down the street on our bikes and we weren’t sure what to do with an extra thirty minutes we had before dinner. Then I had the thought to go to Eric’s house, a media referral we received two months ago and hadn’t been able to contact him yet. We went and he was home. He has a testimony of the gospel and has been going to church with the person who referred him. He is about to move, but plans on being baptized. There was a good spirit about him and I could tell he had made big changes in his life. It was great to meet him.

Our weeks this transfer have been so full of those experiences it has been so great. We got transfer calls and both Elder Hardy and I are staying. Yea! We plan on working just as hard as we have been. I really enjoy being with Elder Hardy.

We had some Nerf Wars last week on Preparation Day. I was well equipped.

It is exciting to hear about the SBOs in the ward. I think we have a long record of them now. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad. Thirty years is ten years longer than I’ve been alive so it seems like that’s been awhile. Thanks for all the support!

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

Esther Short Park, Vancouver, Washington

This week was a dream come true and it continues to be that way. We had two days in a row that we were so busy we had just enough time to grab a snack for lunch between appointments. I like to have lunch as a back up plan anyway. We continue to find many prepared people to hear the gospel.

Joe is a good example. He is 11 years old and we had talked to him about a month ago and he missed our return appointment and we hadn’t seem him for awhile. As we rode down the street he called out and said, “Hey, can you wait ten minutes I want to do a Bible study with ya!” Of course we waited and we taught half the Plan of Salvation. We had another appointment so we left after a brief lesson, but he followed us and said he wanted to join us in the next lesson. We saw nothing wrong with that so we let him and it happened to be that we taught the Plan of Salvation again.

Keelin was another young man referred by his grandma to us. His mom is a less active member wanting him to be baptized. He basically taught us the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was like, “Do I set a baptismal date or do I talk to the bishop or something?” “What happens when I mess up?” “I heard after you’re baptized God gives the Holy Ghost. Is that right?” We were happy to answer those questions.

We have a few that are close to baptism and we pray that they’ll make their set dates to be baptized. Along with those we have made tremendous progress with investigators that have been coming to church for years and aren’t yet baptized. Things such as not having parents permission or fear of offending a parent stop them it seems. We continually pray to have the Spirit help them make the commitment.

We met with 16 different investigators this week and I have never before had such an awesome week in my mission. Our plans simply worked out and people were home when they said they’d be. The Spirit lead us to people and we were teaching full-time this week. It was the best. Zone Conference was great too and it helps keep our spirits high. President said to us, “Your area is on fire isn’t it?” We said “It sure is!” We feel so blessed for the things we’ve witnessed. I could probably tell stories from this week for a long time.

Well transfers are this next week, so I hope I don’t leave here.

Thanks for all the great emails.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Photo Credit: Cory Barnes

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

All the mission leaders met this week for a four day training for missionaries. It has a lot to do with how to follow the Spirit, teaching skills in general, and the importance of certain commitments. It’s hard to summarize four days of excellent training, but we were able to role play each day to practice. I’ve already had the chance to use the things I learned and it has been great.

Elder Hardy worked hard with another Elder Draper he was able to be with. We arranged for priests to come out with Elder Hoskin (Elder Draper’s companion) so both areas would have missionaries in them. It was as if I had never left. Both my companion and Elder Hoskin grew a lot from the experience and it was good for them to take the area over for awhile.

We had seven investigators at church and they all had a wonderful time. I am so happy that they were able to come. The Lord has been leading us to so many people to teach, our days are full with appointments two to three days in advance. It is honestly one of the busiest times of my mission and I love every moment of it. We are very grateful the Lord has trusted us with so many great people to teach.

While I was in Kennewick I was able to be with Elder Derges and Elder Kelly again. They were both my companions before and we had a blast sharing old memories. They are both really good friends to me. We stayed at Elder Derges’ apartment and did his work in the evenings after the training.

We decided to climb a mountain at six in the morning before our meetings at eight. See picture. Also the member’s house we stayed at there was a llama. Practicing the every soul is precious principle I attempted to share the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately the llama didn’t show much interest.

It was a great week here and I’m glad everyone had fun camping and at Bear Lake. The pictures are great! Thanks for sending them.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.