August 31, 2016 - Week 20 (I keep messing up the week # thing, We'll see if it matches up in the end)

Hello everyone, sorry to disappoint those who expected an email Monday. We were supposed to have temple Preparation Day next week but then Monday night they changed it so we didn't have time to warn you guys. (you should email President that you are unhappy)

So the Temple today was pretty friggin awesome! So the Walla Walla Zone and Kennewick East Zone went at the same time so I got to see Elder Winuea! It was great! Plus, The President and Sister White came too so it was extra awesome! Then we went to Deseret Book, I got some pictures to use for planner covers. The member we were with is awesome, she drove us at 6am so pretty great.

Last week was pretty good, we now have two people preparing for baptism.

1: E' Toupo 

He is 9, he has been taught for a while but now his family is finally read to get this thing did, sep 10th. His Dad is from Micronesia and his Mom is from Samoa. Her dad knows the Moligas (Edris's Family) so it was a pretty good connection to have.

2: Donna.

She has also investigated a while and has accepted baptism. We just need to get a better set date, all she has agreed to is the 3rd week of October. Just need to firm her up a bit.

She knows Robby too BTW, pretty cool. Robby did try and Drop the new Dayton Elders though, Hopefully all goes well.

Not too much else has been going on though. We have just been working really hard to find more people to teach and doing a ton of stuff that come with training. It was a really awesome week and a half though. Last Wednesday I conducted my first exchange. I brought Elder Korhonen to my area and Elder Snelgrove went with Elder Taylor to the YSA area. Elders Torgerson and Thompson are our Zone leaders and they just moved out and Elders Korhonen and Taylor move in. It has been a busy week with that crap, but it went pretty well.

I also went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I got to go with Elder Torgerson. He was my Zone Leader in Richland so it was really fun to finally get to work one on one with him. Plus sometimes it is relieving to just be a junior companion again, I loved it!

Wellp, I gotta get going, Love you all!!!

Elder Strong

Snelgrove taking a picture of some geese 

Elder Snelgrove was tired

Left to right: Me, Elder Taylor, Korhonen, Madsen (backseat, Blacks trainee) and Black

Temple trip

August 22, 2016 - Week 19

Hello Everyone!

So Serving in College Place is pretty awesome so far! We live with the Zone Leaders so that is a ton of fun! I don't have any pictures of the apartment yet...because we live with the Zone Leaders...This Place is a mess! We have a lot of work to do today.

My new Companion and Trainee is Elder Snelgrove! He grew up in Virginia but went to High School in Orem. He is fresh out of the MTC! We are getting along great together all ready, he has a lot of fire and a desire to work hard, He is So AWESOME! He just graduated High School and is 18, He is great!

Here in College Place WA There are tons of Seventh Day Adventists. They are all really awesome people and we haven't met a single mean one yet. They aren't looking to argue or tear us down or anything. They actually sometimes like to learn more about us, so they give us the opportunity to teach, it has been pretty fun!

Being a District Leader is Fantastic! I get a lot of new privileges and responsibilities that have been making it a lot easier to throw myself even harder into the work, I love it!

Also, Elder Black from the MTC is training a new missionary also and he is in my District so I get to see him a lot! It has been so fun!

The only thing that has been slightly negative so far has been that we share a car now. We do share with Elder Black and his trainee though, and he has spent his whole mission so far in a walking are so he has been really nice about the car. They use it Sun-Wed we get Wed-Sun so pretty good deal.

This week I will be going on exchanges with some Elders in my District and will be holding a District Council so I am kinda nervous but way excited.

Welp, gotta go. Love Ya! 

Elder Strong

I was not looking forward to packing...

Elder Winuea in the Paper

"The War Maps"

Me and Elder Winuea saying goodbye

Me and Elder Snelgrove

August 21, 2016 - Pictures and Conversation from a Ward Member

This message melts my heart. I love to hear that his not afraid to be himself. This simple tractor picture means the world to me as some of you will understand.

Alice

Sister Strong  this is Sister Wall I took over my husbands note!! Your Son has a strong talent of being genuinely interested in others-it was wonderful to have them in for dinner, your son came in and asked my husband right off oh you are making gravy-can I watch then we found out latter that he has a love for cooking and shared some of his ambitions of being a chef and owning his own business someday. We admire the young men that come out and have goals for after their misson. Your son looks happy and seems to be very content  with his new comp. We both laughed when we asked where we could take a picture to send and your son quickly spoke up and asked if we could take it in front of the John deere 820 I think it took him back home for a split second. They are good missionaries, 

---

Oh, thank you very much! There is a special place in my heart for old tractors so that was especially nice to see Elder Strong in front one so beautiful.

My heart is full! It went to Sacrament Meeting today that was a farewell and homecoming for two Sister Missionary's so Jason has been on my mind all day.

Thank you for these great pictures.

Alice Strong

On Sun, Aug 21, 2016 at 8:44 PM, 

Hello Strong & Snelgrove families;

Your sons had Sunday dinner with us tonight; both are happy, healthy and doing well.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so we've attached two we took a few minutes ago.  We are impressed with them both.

Best wishes from Walla Walla;

Rob & Karen Wall   

 

August 19, 2016 - Picture from a Ward Memeber

Elders Strong and Snelgrove here in their new area of College Place, WA. Had them for dinner. Live both of their good spirits. -Sister Shere Christensen

August 15, 2016 - Week 18

Holly Cow!! Hi Everyone

So this week was pretty great but then things got even better!

So yesterday, 5 minutes before opening prayer at church, we got a call from President White.

Elder Winuea will be being transferred to Kennewick East with a mystery companion (we don't know who he is).

We were kinda expecting him to be transferred since he already has been here 3 months but then we got the unexpected news. 

I will be transferred to College Place area, which is in the same zone i am already in. I will be a DISTRICT LEADER for a district in the zone (it is the same district I am already in, 6 companionships!)  I will live with the Zone Leaders so I am only moving 45 minutes away. I AM ALSO GOING TO BE A TRAINER!!!!! 

So CRAZY!!!! So Wednesday morning I will be in Kennewick getting assigned a brand new missionary! I am so excited and crazy nervous! It is going to be great!

Because me and Elder Winuea are both leaving we have a ton to do to prepare the area for two pairs of fresh eyes, also I will be the District Leader to these new missionaries. So cool! That means I will come back here on exchanges and interview all the people in the area they will be baptizing. Crazy!

The Ward is a little freaked out, they figured E. Winuea would leave but they didn't think they would lose both of us. It will be a great experience for everyone!

This week we spent a lot of time going out and trying to find new people to teach, not a ton of promising people but you never know whos lives you effect just by trying. Robby won't be able to be baptized this Saturday but we aren't letting it get us down, he just needs some more time.

That is basically it for this week. Elder Winuea got Heat Exhaustion Friday and Saturday so we couldn't really leave the house but he is all better now.

LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

Elder Strong

890 My District (this transfer)

917 Elder Winuea

912-915 Trying to teach a statue  

The Fulbright's and us with Robby

August 8, 2016 - Week 17

Hello Everyone!!!

So we had another great week!

We taught Robby the Plan of Salvation, It was awesome! We have been teaching him at a member's home and they love it! Brother Fulbright got up and bore his testimony on how much he likes it and how much it helps his testimony. Awesome!

Fast sunday in this ward is AWESOME! There are so few people in the ward that they all HAVE to get up because there aren't enough people to think "I don't have to go up, someone else will" Because there really isn't anyone else, chances are you are the last one who hasn't gone!

Not a ton happened this week but it was still a good one. We found a guy who hasn't been to church in twenty years but he still calls himself a member and likes us coming over. I think the problem is, he married a non member wife who is in a religion called Bahai. She is non practicing because of the Bahai views on Gay Marriage...

Next, This town has 5 Museums and so far, they all friggin love us! They really want our help, we told them we could volunteer for yard work. We may even be allowed to give tours if President White says yes. Pretty cool.

We also met the Pastor of a local church who said we could help them out in their community service activities. pretty cool also.

Saturday we got a new car too. It is a 2016 Nissan Rogue. Change is always exciting, especially this one since we drive a lot. The Impreza we had was pretty annoying. It sounded exactly like a Boat when we drove, It was hard to get in and out of, and the past missionaries didn't take care of it at all.

So here are few really really good talks I have been listening to. Cleon Skousen's is really interesting and talks about a lot of really good stuff.

Glenn Beck's is good whether you like him or not. I like listening to it to think about how it doesn't matter how someone used to be but how Christ sees them. Really good one.

Then Brad Wilcox. OOOOOHHH Man. Really good. Testimonies are not controlled by a light switch!

Love you all! hope you have a good week!

​

Elder Strong

These are the only Pictures I took this week, this is at Brother Fulbrights house

August 1, 2016 - Picture just for dad

August 1, 2016 - Week 16

Hello Everyone!

This week was fantastic!

So to start off, I'm going back to last Saturday. I didn't write about it because I didn't think it was going to be much of a big deal but holly cow!

SO, we got a call from a lady from Richland who needed us to go check on a friend in Dayton and give him a blessing because that week he had a stroke. His name is Robby, he is in his 30's. Last year Robby was in an accident where he was shot in the head. He didn't die. The only brain damage he received has been some slight memory loss but he seems perfectly normal. The only reason you can really tell is because he is currently missing a piece of his skull because the implant they put in wasn't healing correctly, he has to wear a helmet. We went over with a member and gave him a blessing. He really appreciated it and thanked us a lot. He told us to stop by any time we wanted and visit with him.

Before we had the opportunity to go visit him we got a text Monday night asking us to go back and give him another blessing (he was having chest pains). We went down and gave him another one. This time I left him a Book of Mormon and Mosiah 24:14. He thanked us again and we left. Well a couple days later he texted us and told us he wanted to be a part of our mission and go out with us and bear his testimony to the people we teach (Mosiah 24:14, "ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter"). So me and Elder Flores (we were on exchanges) went over, taught him about Priesthood authority and put him on date for baptism for Aug 20! Then we brought him to a less active member and right as we were leaving he stopped us and said "we haven't put him on date to come to church" (Ernesto would not agree to go to church, he really likes us coming over though, we don't understand him)

So that was awesome!

Nothing else really happened this week except I went to the District Leaders area on exchanges and their Saturdays suck. Apparently Saturday is the Sabbath there (Everything is closed, everyone is gone. College Place is the Provo of 7th Day Adventist's). He was sorry to bring me out there but it was the last day he could, so all we did was walk and met no one. It was fun staying in an apartment with 4 Elders in it again though.

Also our apartment is completely over ran by elder bugs, it sucks

This month went by crazy fast. Now there are only 2 weeks left and then it will be transfer time again, crazy.

D&C 101: 7-9 

Something I found this week, pretty cool. See also Mosiah 24.

Love ya!!!

Elder Strong

Me and Elder Winuea 

I just can not capture how beautiful this area is.

July 25, 2016 - conversation

me: Hi baby! Sitting at the reunion.

Jason: Cool! Looks like I would probably be bored there! (who knows though). Family Reunions are fun for maybe the first 10-20 mins that about how long I last. 

Love ya! 

(a total Jason thing to say)

July 25, 2016 - Week 15

Hello!

So this week was pretty good. 

Monday night we gave a blessing to Candice. Her family are Recent Converts of about 7 months (I think). She is 4 and had to go in to get her Tonsils removed. She was a little nervous of the blessing but not so much the surgery : )

She is doing really well right now, they just have to convince her to rest more.

Wednesday we had District Council in Walla-Walla. It was pretty different than the other ones I have been to because my new district is 12 companionship's which is bigger than my whole Zone was, it was only 7 companionship's. It was fun except because it is so big it isn't as much as a council, we didn't have enough time to focus and discuss the things we needed to. And it is always weird when you don't know anybody there.

Did I mention that Elder Morales-Flores is in my District? He is doing really good. We are going on exchanges with each other Wednesday so I am pretty excited, it'll be really cool to teach with him again.

Thursday we did some more service at the Library again. We helped hang Cork up for a bulletin board. I have never done it before and neither had any of the Librarians so it just turned into us pouring all types of glue we could find on the pieces of cork and then nailing them into position and hoping they stayed on. (looks like they all stayed up!) 

Friday we had dinner with the Clemons Family. They had a non-member young man living with them so we were excited to meet him but when we got there they informed us he left. Just didn't come home, told them he was staying somewhere else. He was the Clemons son's friend so he wasn't obligated to stay there or anything, he is 18 and  a foster child. He told them he wanted to meet with us but now we have no way of getting a hold of him. (the son told him off, they aren't in good standings right now) Hopefully we find him soon.

Saturday there was a stake activity in Walla-Walla but nooobody in our ward wanted to go. Except Cody (recent convert) and Wendy (the ward just has to be extra nice to her) So we ran around town trying to find them a ride. Eventually we convinced Wendy to make it a date and she went with some guy she knew. Then we convinced a visiting young couple to make it a date...and go down with some 16 year old kid they didn't know to a bbq/baseball game that was 45 mins away.

Nothing happened Sunday except we got this weeks supply of Goats milk and Bro Walker (milker of goats) made me lust after Black Walnut Gunstock (hard to stay on purpose around him... sooo hard).

By the way, it is hard to watch poor Elder Winuea email his family, he emails in his native language Kiribati (auto-correct ruins his life).

Also it takes a month for him to send/receive mail from his island. Sad. 

So here is some spiritual Meat.

I have been listening to Cleon Skousen. His talk I am listening to is about his mission experience, Intelligences, and God Science. It's called "Meaning of the Atonement" go to LDS.org to find it, and you definitely need to find it! 

It is some DEEEEEP DEEEEEP stuff but it is good car listening. Makes you think and really thirst for more scriptural knowledge. (Holly Cow, such a good talk. Makes me glad we have to drive 70+ miles today. Unfortunately it uses a few too many new/big words fro Elder Winuea, good for his learning English though)

I also listened to a talk called Filling Your Testimony Tank, also super super good, LISTEN TO IT!!!!

Also in my Studies I have been doing a lot of Reference chasing. I started at Ether 4:7 and have chased all over past that. I really liked D&C 5 and now I am going through D&C 88 (long and full of good stuff) 

Well I hope that can sustain you for now, I could flood you with all the scripture references from these talks but it would just be too much and it will be better for you to listen to it yourself anyway. (Something tells me none of you will do it, I will believe non of you do it unless you email me to inform me otherwise)

Well, love you all!

.

Elder Strong

I have these on my wall, Everything to do with Promises of Revelation, Using/building faith, and things that hold back Revelation

Not a ton of great pictures this week, but look what I found out my Camera can do! 770,777,778

July 18, 2016 - Week 14

Hey!!!

So this week was super cool.

We were talking to Beth Sunday and got confused because she made it sound like she was drinking coffee. So we went back Tuesday with some back up to tell here she couldn't get baptized without being 2 weeks clean but then she found out she would have been 2 weeks clean on Thursday, So she was baptized Saturday!!!

Everything went super well and her less active husband actually came to the baptism, we weren't sure he would but he came. Oh and they were also married the same day, it was super awkward but it got done. I only knew them for about 2 weeks but I still care about them a ton. It was awesome to be a part of it. President and Sister White even came to the baptism, It was great.

This week we also had a zone conference in Oregon, It was awesome. The Whites had three of their children there (their youngest is like 22). They did a presentation on their family, they are awesome. Everyone in the family has served a mission, they are awesome. There was also a ton of spiritual stuff but I don't have my notes with me or nearly enough time to explain everything I learned.

We had a great week this week! Love You all!

Elder Strong

Me and Elder Jordan saw each other again at zone conference

 Wedding. They were married by Sister Fielding. (the Fieldings are both proselyting couple missionaries in our area, we work with them.

Baptism table

Cody, Elder Fielding, Beth, Elder Haviland, Elder Winuea, Me