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.
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!
Tess has officially accepted her invitation to attend BYU Hawaii. After some research and pondering, she feel confident that her decision is the right one. When she announced her decision, I immediately thought, "We'll HAVE to go visit her in Hawaii", and then I thought, "Wow, that makes three kids living outside the continental United States!" We feel very blessed that our children have started to become adults and are making good decisions as they are starting to leave home. This is what I have discovered will occur over the next five years: 2010 Tess leaves for college, 2011 Jessica goes to college, 2012 Ethan and Amanda go to college/Seth and Travis return from their missions, 2013 Aarun goes to college, 2014 a break...no one leaves home, 2015 Evan and Alyssa leave for college! Late fall 2015...empty nesters. By my count, that's only five years. Some of my "friends" have reminded me that I could be a grandmother by then...is that really possible? Thanks, "friends"! 
The big news of the week is that Evan's hand IS broken. The big event happened on Monday in school during PE class. As any child would, he came home complaining of his hand/finger aching. After nearly 20 years of parenting I have learned that most complaint (at least 90%) end up needing nothing more that some ice, some love, and maybe a cookie. So that's what I gave him, along with some help on his math homework. 
Late Friday afternoon I received an email from a friend that there had been a 7.2 earthquake in Japan. Of course, I immediately got online to find out where the earthquake was, and how close it was to Hiroshima. It seems that it is far north of Hiroshima, and it is likely that Travis did not even feel it. I truly must have not been a big event, because it wasn't even mentioned on the news that evening. Just when I was breathing a sigh of relief, we woke to find an 8.8 earthquake in Chile...with all eyes pointed toward Hawaii for a tsunami. Gladly, both earthquakes and the tsunami seem to have been much less devastating than they could have been. We are blessed, and happy that both boys have escaped any injury the the earthquakes they have both been close to this past month.
There is an older missionary couple that oversees 17 missionary companionships in Seth's area and they have a blog where they post regularly. We found this photo of Seth on their blog. Seth mentioned the day they did a "Slip and Slide", what a treat to see a photo of him here! It makes me very happy that Brother and Sister Johnson are there in the DR watching over our son. It gives me great comfort! Seth is adjusting to the weather and is really enjoying missionary work. He tells of a story of a couple that cannot hear or read. Seth and his companion use simple pictures and drawings to communicate with them. They aren't sure if the couple can actually be baptized, but they are enjoying the time they have to teach them. Seth tells us that his Spanish is getting much better. He was starting to get a reputation for being a very quiet Elder, but he is feeling more comfortable now and starting to speak out. Seth has had a couple of investigators join the church, he tells us of their humility and excitement for the gospel. The people of the Dominican Republic live simple, and in many cases, very poor lifestyle, but they gospel is the same in every nation, so says Elder Rumbaugh!+111.jpg)
