Six Months Out...Eighteen To Go!

still consider myself a bit of a new "missionary mom". I must admit that I secretly count the hours between Auburn and Japan and Auburn and the Dominican Republic. I feel badly if I don't write the boys each week, and I think about them all the time. By, now, the sting of them being gone has settled a bit, but I still miss them. The 1/4 mark is our first big milestone, with many more to come. Here is an excerpt from each boy:

Elder Travis Nuttall:

It has been raining for most of the week! When it rains in Japan it POURS! We're okay though, we have rain jackets and rain pants (kappa in japanese) so we can stay somewhat dry. My companion and I have been working on improving our english class, and its worked! We had 11 people (as opposed to the usual 3 or four) last teusday! We also found a new investigator from the class - she even came to conference! Conference is 1 week delayed here, we watch it on DVD. I was way exited for conference, because we had 2 investigators coming. It worked out very well because one of our investigators was struggling with resurrection vs. reincarnation, and there were tons of talks about resurrection because it was Easter! Everything was easy for our investigators to understand too. Conference is Subarashii! Another big thing this week was Zone Conference. The entire island of Shikoku has become a zone, so there were a-lot of people there. One new elder is from Brazil! He is learning japanese from english which is tough because english is his second language. Hes doing fine though, the Lord really does help out "after all we can do". Elder Frogley and I are planning on 2 baptisms this transfer. I've still yet to have one, but I know we can do it! We have "baptismal focus plans" for all our investigators, with a very specific vision for how we will help them to recieve baptism. Goal setting is really important! One other amazing thing happened this week. We visited an investigator who we have only known for 2 weeks, and asked her if she was able to read the introduction to the book of mormon like we asked her. She told us she had, and that she had also been reading in other parts of the book of mormon! (which happened to be 3rd nephi 11) She asked us "what is baptism? it talks a-lot about it in here". We were glad to explain it to her! We also started teaching her about prayer and she told us that she already prays everyday, and that she's prayed about the book of mormon and thinks its true!!! It was an amazing miracle - the Lord really does prepare people! We've boosted our teaching pool to over 10 people, and we hope to hit 20 by the end of the transfer. Missionary work is the best work on earth, because we are building up the Kingdom of God! Ill be sure to keep you all posted on how everything's going, and thanks so much for your emails! Love you all!

Elder Seth Rumbaugh:

Well, it was a pretty good week. My companion and I had a baptism this last Saturday. I did the baptising. The kid´s name is Misiyel. He is 15 years old. What was awesome was that the next day at church, after he recieved the holy ghost, he got up and bore his testimony about his conversion and the Book of Mormon. It was really strong and super cool to see. Several of the members thought it was cool too. My companion and I dont have any baptisims planned for this week but we have 5 or 6 planned for the 24th. It will be sweet if all of them can be baptised.

My companion Elder Almonte, and I have quit a few investigators. We have so many appointments that we really dont have time to contact. We are teaching this family right now. There names are Miguel and Ana. They have three little girls. The other day we were reading out of 3rd Nephi 11, the chapter where Christ comes to visit the Nephites. Miguel had doubts that Christ really came to the Americas. While my companion tried to explain to him that Christ did come to the Americas, I started reading the chapter to myself. While I was reading verse 10 caught my attention. In this verse Christ is testifying of himself as the person who prophets testified would come to the world. The word world caught my attention and reminded me of the famous scripture John 3:16 which says, "...God so loved the world, that he sent His only Begotten Son...". I then explained this to Miguel that God loved the world and sent His Son to the world. Not just Jerusalem but the whole world, including to the people in the Americas. This answered his doubt a little bit. I know for a fact that it was the Holy Ghost that was helping me in this situation. It felt really cool.

Everything here in the sizzling hot DR is going pretty good. Luckily it has been kind of cloudy this last week. It is hard to believe that I am almost a 1/4 of the way done. I remember vividly my first day in the MTC. Time is flying by. Love you all and miss you a lot. Until next week.

Well, that's plenty for now!

Salt Lake City!

We returned yesterday from our trip to SLC for General Conference. The trip was complete with the usual triumphs and hassles! We enjoyed the time we spent together, conference, Temple Square, and swimming in the hotel pool. We are pleased that we survived the LONG car drive (we took two cars, actually). The occasional whining is just part of the territory and was balanced out by the spirit of conference and the excitement of the Easter Bunny. Yes, the Easter Bunny still comes even though we have older children!

We have heard that both boys are doing well in their respective missions. Travis is still in Kochi, he is experiencing the challenges of teaching in a country where Christ is not well known and not well received. He is faithful and hard-working. His companion and him often log the most tracting (they call it "streeting") hours of any other companionship in the area. It nice to see him enjoying the hard work. Seth is adjusting to his new area. The weather is warming up quite a bit...Seth has written home asking for some deodorant. Apparently, the deodorant in the Dominican doesn't quite cut it for him. Neither boy has received their Easter package from home...it is still difficult to predict the speed of the mail (or lack of it).

Enjoy the photos of conference!