Email 39: Staying + Lost Sheep + Jokes

Sent on October 15, 2013

Im staying! So is Elder Lynch! I was going crazy on Sunday before the calls went out. But I just kept praying to understand what the Lord needs me to do. I am not going to lie. I thought many times about how it would be such a nice refresher, although I would be very sad, to go to a new area and even a new zone. On Sunday night I prayed for peace strength to be able to serve the people on the reservation with love and patience for as long as the Lord needs me to. The next morning during studies I found a scripture that changed my life!

Mormon 8:15. For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given him of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an^aeye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord.

It talks about how the Book of Mormon would come to pass and how it must be done by the power of God, which can only be obtained when your eye is single to His glory. I realized very powerfully that that is indeed the same with ALL of God's work. That the amount of power that we have to fulfill our callings is dependent upon the the amount of focus we have on Him, instead of ourselves. That is something I must work on. But I am super pumped for this transfer!! I will still have Mill Pond and Lake Holm in my district and I will also have the Game Farm A Elders (Elder Rodgers and Elder Macdonald) in my district! It is going to be glorious! Elder Rodgers came out with me and we have both be in Auburn together our entire missions! We have been serving in the same ward for the last 4 transfers now. He is one of my best friends. Elder Davis got transferred out of White River. I will miss him, but he has been assigned to be a Zone Leader in Maple Valley and he will tear it up. Elder Grandstaff also got transferred to Kent, he will be training there! So Auburn got mixed up quite a bit but The Rez is still the best and Auburn is still Zion :)

Elder Lemmon comes out today! I am praying that Elder Young trains him in Mill Pond so he will be in my district. But I could also see Elder Grandstaff training him. He would love that. We will see!

Brynne asked to say something specific about Elder Lynch. Haha. Where to begin. He is half-Navajo and has a great love for the people on the Rez. He played football and basketball and baseball at a small school in AZ called St. Johns. It reminds me of WS. He had a scholarship to play baseball but came on a mission instead. He is super great and we have a lot of fun and work our faces off! Love it.

So our potluck this weekend was awesome! Not as many people came as we were hoping, at all. But it was a great time! We ate a great dinner. Sis. Rodarte had a presentation about all of the missionary work that has ever happened on the Muckleshoot Reservation and why we do it. It was powerful and you can just feel the love she has for these people. Then we played a jeopardy type game and had a lot of fun, a lot of laughing. They put Elder Lynch and I on opposite teams and we went hard, everyone loved it. So overall it was a success. At the beginning I was just wishing that more people were there, but as I have thought about it, and studied the parable of the Lost Sheep, I realize that we would and should do all of that just for one or a few people, and we should joy in the fact that someone's, even if it was just one, life was brightened because of our efforts.

As far as investigators go, we really have no one progressing towards baptism. We have a lot of people that we know and try to teach and that we are great friends with. But not very many are really engaging in it all yet. All in good time though :) Just keep plowin baby. I CAN DO THAT NOW!

SLIM MOMENT:

-we had a member meal on Sunday and the kids, Ethan and Julia, were 4 and 5 years olds. They got a kick out of sharing jokes, and so did we. Haha it reminded me of all the little cousins. But here are some of them:

1. Why did the fork turn into a fork?

    Cause it wanted to be a fork!!

2. Why did the blueberry bush turn into a bush?

    Cause it wanted to be a different bush!!

3. Why did the cup turn into a person?

    Cause it wanted to be a window!! Duh! 

Hahah Elders Grandstaff, Rodgers, Lynch laughed for ten minutes. It was great.

I am love, love, lovin' my life! I love the Rez. I will continue to strive to give more and more! I love you all and always pray for you! Have a great week and keep it real! :)

Elder Cook