This has been an eventful
week up here in Moses Lake. We started the week off on Tuesday by heading out
to Quincy to have one final meeting with our mission president before the
mission split the next day. It was for all the leadership in the north half of
the mission and overall it was a great meeting. Both sets of APs (one for the
WKM, one for the new Yakima Mission) gave a training along with President Ware,
touching on various leadership subjects. I guess the A/C was out or something
though because we all about boiled to death inside the chapel but despite the
heat we were able to have a great revelatory experience with our mission
president before the split the next day. It was also a great chance to see so
many friends I had made in the mission one last time since we had all gathered
together for the meeting. Definitely was a great way to end my experience in
the Washington Kennewick Mission.
After the hour drive back we
head straight to dinner with a family and when we came in the news was on and
talked about an explosion that happened in Moses Lake, which definitely piqued
our interest. We inquire of the family we were eating with more and apparently
someone had been making homemade fireworks that went off unexpectedly and got
the bomb squad from Spokane (about 2 hours away) to come down and investigate.
It was interesting because it happened right in the middle of our area, so as
we leave we see the actual location of the pictures they had broadcasted.
Thankfully, no lives were lost and no serious damage happened to any of the
homes.
Wednesday morning we woke up
and about the only thing that happened to celebrate the new mission was a text
from our former branch mission leader saying he wanted to be the first to
officially welcome us to the new mission. No parties or celebrations happened
really, until Saturday. I guess the message took a while to get out but
Saturday the whole city seemed to be celebrating for us....
Friday though we were blessed
to meet our new mission president and wife. He comes to us from Orem, Utah and
had up until his call been working in external relations at BYU. He is a very
articulate man that you can tell just by seeing him has a burning testimony of
the Savior and of the Gospel. I am sad that I won't have a long time to learn
from him because his knowledge of the gospel and his way of teaching seems like
it would provide a lot of great insights into the mysteries of the kingdom. As
with most life changing events he seemed a little overwhelmed with everything
that was going on but he was ready and willing to tackle the obstacles that lay
ahead of him.
Saturday was pretty
uneventful for us. We had a meeting that morning with our zone (this was a
regularly scheduled meeting; the other two just added to the plethora of
meetings this week) but then afterwards went to work for a few hours until 6 PM
when we were required to be inside. Can't have missionaries going crazy
partying now can we? Thankfully we live with another set of elders so we were
able to keep ourselves mildly entertained and were able to see some cool
fireworks from the top floor of our apartment building, but the majority of the
evening was occupied with throwing pop-its and confetti things at each other,
coupled with lots of food. We made sure to prepare ourselves and stock up with
only the importants, namely cheescake, root beer floats, and apple cider.
The only other thing to note
that was different was I got bit by a dog this week on the ankle. Not enough to
draw blood but enough to be mildly painful for a bit. Oh the experiences of a
mission. The quote for this week comes from the zone meeting we had Saturday
morning and was given to us by our marvelous zone leaders. We had an excellent
training on finding joy in missionary work (if you want some cool scriptures,
check out Luke 6:22-23 and Romans 14:17) but
the quote that really stuck out was the following:
"Joy is the key
indicator of living the Doctrine of Christ."
If we are doing what we are
supposed to and living the way that we should, namely exercising faith,
repenting, making and renewing covenants (like baptism), and keep following the
guidance of the Holy Ghost and endure faithfully in that way, then the only
natural result will be a true joy that only Christ can provide. Already between
now and then I have been able to look for and find that joy in our service as
missionaries, despite the rejections and not so nice people that we see on a
daily basis.
May you all have a joyful
start to the month of July!
Elder Kupferer
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