An Eventful Week!

Well ladies and gentlemen, things are looking up again here in Lake Chelan this week. All sorts of crazy things to write about.

So I guess first things first.  Last Tuesday some members invited us over for dinner to inaugurate a new outdoor fire pit they created with some classic hot dogs and marshmallows (no, that was not the crazy part). So after we finish eating and are sitting around talking one of the younger sons proceeds to continue whittling on a stick and his mom comments on his knife how he got it from his grandpa and the story behind it and then the dad asks his other son to grab his knife from inside the house. The next thing we know, we are learning how to throw knives. It is rather fulfilling watching a knife stick into a piece of plywood. Don't worry mom, I still have all ten fingers.

Later on in the week, we helped a member finish the stone work around his own outdoor fireplace as well. From picking up the sand from a spot on the side of the road to putting the mortar down and choosing the rocks we wanted. That was a ton of fun. Of all the things I expected to learn on a mission, I can honestly say basic masonry was not one of them.

Another cool experience we had this week involved the local Lutheran Pastor. We work with him and some of his members/other volunteers Monday and Tuesday mornings at the local food bank and have developed a pretty good relationship with him and those members over the years that the missionaries have been doing this. So we were walking around town between some people we wanted to visit and saw a lady outside doing some lawn work and offered to help, to which she agreed. And then we realized that it was the aforementioned pastor's wife. It was great seeing how two different religions can still work together despite doctrinal differences. Just because someone believes something different doesn't mean you can't work together or be nice to each other. It was refreshing to see such acceptance. 

Now for the quote of the week, there are many I could do but I will choose one I found rather interesting to think about. For those of you that aren't members of our faith, this past weekend was what is called General Conference, when the Prophet and Apostles and various other general authorities give talks in Salt Lake and have it broadcast throughout the entire world in myriads of languages. One of my favorite quotes comes from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was giving a talk in part about how sometimes the path of discipleship of Jesus Christ won't be easy and from there comes the following:

"It is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods, who not only don't rock the boat, but don't even row it."

That was definitely an interesting point to think about. Sometimes it isn't going to be easy, but God demands a lot so we can become that much more. Even when we are called to go through hard times, we have the promise that the reward will be more than worth it. For the full talk, you can watch it (and others) here: 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3434605271001&cid=5

And with that, I bid thee all farewell. Until next week everyone!

Elder Kupferer

Badger Mountain (?)

Hello everyone!

Mission life has been pretty awesome recently. The work is coming along great and I am really enjoying everything. Here are some fun points for this week.

Since Benton City is only about 3000 people, there’s only one High School with a population about the size of my graduating class. As such, the entire town rallied behind them for homecoming this past week. All over the town they had signs painted onto the windows in support and things like that. It was really cool.

The weather up here is really nice. It’s a little bit chilly right now – it’s about as cold as Irvine will get in the dead of winter (although I would hardly consider what Irvine goes through a winter) - so we will see what this winter brings. Everyone is saying that it is supposed to be a pretty bad winter but it should be interesting nonetheless. Thankfully since I'm Spanish speaking I have a car so I am not too worried about it just yet.

Our mission president decided to change one of our key indicators last week at zone conference. We used to report every week how many OYM's (or Open Your Mouth's) we had (essentially how many non-members we talked to through knocking doors or responding to potential contacts) but he has decided to do member lessons instead. We now are focusing on working with the members to try and help show them that sharing the gospel isn't as bad as it may seem at first. Hopefully we will help them gain confidence in sharing a brief message which we hope will find new investigators. So far it’s been working great.

Here in the east part of Washington it’s pretty flat but we are right at the base of some foothills and had the opportunity last week on P-Day [Preparation Day] to go hiking a bit up a hill called Badger Mountain. Why it is called Badger Mountain instead of Badger Hill I have no idea since it is by no means a mountain but alas it was still a cool hike. The view from the top was pretty cool. In the picture below, the little valley I believe is Benton City.

I think I mentioned this earlier but either way Benton City is what we call a "zebra area" because we as missionaries speak both Spanish and English. Right now we don't have enough Spanish people to create a branch and so we have the opportunity to translate what they are saying in Sacrament Meeting into Spanish. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do so. It was kind of crazy because a) I'm still learning Spanish and b) they don't really go that slow for us to translate. But it was still a neat experience. I feel like I did pretty well but there was definitely some heavenly help going on.

As for an update on my Spanish it’s coming along really well. Still having a bit of trouble understanding when they start speaking super fast but overall its coming along great.

So to end this, I have some exciting news. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is coming to our mission!!! It is super rare to have the opportunity to hear from a member of the Twelve like this and he is coming just to speak to us. It’s gonna be amazing!

And with that, I sign off. Everybody have a great day and I'll see you again next week.

Elder Kupferer