Baptism by river water

      Hello everyone - I am so happy to be back in Issaquah!  I miss Federal Way, but I honestly feel like I could move here! (My mom says "No"!)

     This past week has truly been wonderful.  I often ponder the joys of my life here, I am eternally grateful for my mission!  There was a pretty neat story that happened while I was gone! I believe that I have spoken of it previously but I will mention it again.  Before I was transferred, we tracted into a woman named Angela! We were walking past these bushes and felt prompted to go through the path to the side of them. There we saw a set of houses that we had never seen before. And then we found Angela! She was baptized two years ago, but hadn't gone for the past year because of her husband. She said she had just prayed to know what to do about attending church. We gave her our phone number but didn’t hear for her for about a week! One night we felt strongly we should return to their home.  She answered the door with amazement, she said that she had lost our phone number and prayed that God would send us back.  I left the area the next day and was so sad!  They began teaching her husband Andrew!!  He was baptized two weeks ago!!! I was so happy to see them. When she joined the church, he was livid.  And for two years she had to avoid church to avoid issues. They are now preparing to be sealed as a family and their two children next year!  His life has changed forever.  They are an amazing couple with a brilliant spirit about their home. The gospel is true. I love it with all of my soul.

       Ray Kent was baptized on Saturday! He has been taught for about 3 years now! I have taught him for the last nine months!  He is a man with the best heart, he will literally do anything for anyone.  I feel like I have known him all my life and was so blessed to be a part of it!  I loved that day.  The spirit that was there was something that I will never forget. 

     The day before we got buckets from the creek to put into the font! He really wanted to be baptized in a river but it wasn’t allowed.  So on Friday we got the buckets from the creek and took them up to the church building.  It was just great.  I have been amazed this past week at the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the joy I feel for my Savior.  I was a bit nervous to be called as a zone leader here to this zone, as it has always been the lowest baptizing in the mission.  I have been praying with all my heart and soul that God would lead and guide us to new heights as a zone, and to change the culture here.  That seems to be changing.  God has blessed us more than I can fathom.  I have never been so humbled in all my life.  Our zone had the most new people put on date for baptism this past week.  It’s a miracle.  And literally we play no part in it.  God is real, and He guides each of us.  I have rarely felt Him guide me so much in a calling. This work is the most important thing we can ever do, to bring our Brothers and Sisters to Christ.  It’s the work of angels.  I love you all so much, and I am forever grateful for our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. They are at the head of it all! We owe them for all of our blessings.  I am forever indebted to them for all I have been blessed with here, that is what drives me daily!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Aiken

Back to Issaquah...again!!!

Back with Elder Berry!

      HAPPIEST DAY OF THE MISSION.  I am back in Tiger Mountain and Issaquah First!!   Yep, the third time back in Tiger Mountain and second for Issaquah!  And I am back with Elder Berry! We are serving as Zone Leaders in the Bellevue South Zone! I truly am just so happy.  I can't wait to begin serving here again.  

Stan's baptism!

    The past week there have been so many experiences that have changed my life, and the courses I will take forever!  First I want to share about Stan.  Stan was baptized on Saturday!  It was the most amazing thing that I have ever experienced.  Stan was a man that could hardly speak when we first met him, he was so full of  sadness that all he could do was cry.  He was lost and was searching for the joy. I am forever touched by these scriptures in the Book Of Mormon in Alma Chapter 7:11  “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and sicknesses of his people.  12.  And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

     This is what Christ did for each and every one of us!  He suffered our pains and afflictions so He could run to our aid in our time of need!  He did just that for Stan.  Once he learned about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that it had been restored to the earth, he learned how to draw closer to the Savior and how Christ could then heal him from his pains.  I know with all  my heart that God does live and His Son died for us all.  It was amazing to see Stan leave the font with a smile as big as I have ever seen!  He said “ I feel peace, and so much joy!”  When we went to say goodbye last night my heart was just swollen.  The mission is the best thing in my life. I am so grateful that I was able to meet Stan.  He has truly become one of our best friends in the world.  You can always tell the truth of something by the fruits that it produces. The gospel has brought a man from the depths of sorrow to the peaks of joy.  That’s real and undeniable.  The message of this church is true.  

Cassie's baptism!

    Yesterday evening we had another great baptism! Her name is Cassie. We have been teaching her for the past transfer.  She was being taught for quite sometime before I got there.  I am amazed at her change once she committed to a baptismal date!  She said that “She finally knows how to speak to God and He answers her prayers!”

            On Friday Elder L. Tom Perry came and spoke to the mission.  It was simply incredible.  All I can say is I have never been so grateful to have prophet on the earth!  It is the most real thing that I have had the opportunity to witness.  As he walked in the room the spirit overcame me!  The spirit deeply confirmed to me that GOD DOES CALL PROPHETS AND APOSTLE TODAY!! And will forever and always speak to us.  I just thought to myself in that meeting, what have I done to deserve a great family who raised me in the gospel?  Why did I get so lucky to have the fulness of the gospel in my life?  This has been the most touching week of my mission.  I know that God lives and loves me! I am so grateful to amazing parents who raised me in this and stayed strong all their lives in it!  That’s a blessing.  Just a brief acknowledgement to my great Mom who this week has resigned from KSL, I am so proud of her and the many lives she touched by bringing light many stories of great people that wouldn’t have been told otherwise! 

Last day with Elder Bunton and Elder Livingston

     I love you all. I am deeply blessed.  I love my life and my mission! I hope I can stay here forever (but my mom says "NO"!) I will miss Elder Bunton and Elder Livingston! They became my best friends.  Two of God's greatest.  I am so happy to be back in Issaquah but will deeply miss Federal Way!  I hope we can all, like Stan rely on Christ and the Atonement, and put Him deep within our lives! Have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Aiken

Stan to be baptized!

     Hello everyone, I hope you have all just had an amazing week! The week here has been great!  I am so blessed to be here.  The transfer is already coming to a close, time is flying by!   I just can't believe it sometimes.  I am so grateful for this gospel and the trials that help us grow.  I am amazed at what it does for us in our lives! 
     Stan is a great man.  He is excited and scheduled for baptism on Saturday.  I can't wait!  We brought Stan with us to teach a Russian woman early in the week and it was wonderful!  He was pretty much teaching the whole lesson!  She had so many questions about the Book of Mormon and he just pulled his Book of Mormon out and started to read scriptures to her that had touched him in his morning reading!  He has become a man that is so close to God and his teachings.  So touched by life and the beauties that surround us!
     I just want to briefly share my sure testimony, that this truly is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  That through this message we can draw close to Him!  When we draw closer to him, we then become truly happy!  Satan and his traps try to convince us otherwise, that sinning is fun and fulfulling.  Even from birth we all are born with the “light of Christ” or the ability to know good from evil.  Through the Gospel we can draw closer to the good things of this life, and prepare to meet God!  I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!
Love, Elder Aiken

Monday, August 8th, 2011

     Good Monday morning everyone.  This week has truly been great!  I miss and love you all!  I won't be able to type a long email this week because we had some surveys to do. 

     So on Tuesday we had a meeting with Stan…the man I spoke of last week!  When we knocked on his door and he answered with the biggest smile and said come in!! He had cleaned up the whole yard!! Done all of his laundry and had scipture quotes taped on the walls.  He is a different man.  THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS TRUE AND HAS BEEN RESTORED TO THE EARTH.  He has changed his life and drawn closer to Christ. Through that he has changed everything about his life.  My heart was so touched.  For a moment I had a glimpse of our true purpose!!  The Savior spent his time on the earth healing. Healing hearts, minds, and souls.  That’s all he did.  For a time he is directing the work from the Heavens.  We, as his missionaries have the blessing of being guided by him to the souls that need him.  As I sat on the couch I was just struck with awe. 

     We are truly doing HIS work.  It’s the greatest blessing of all my life.  I would truly rather be doing nothing else, than minister with Our Savior and Redeemer.  I love Him!  I hope you all have a great week.  
Love, Elder Aiken

Great Lessons Learned!

     This week was a week that I will never forget as long as I live.  I have so many experiences that I want to share, so many things that will shape me for the rest of my life.  I will do my best to share them with you and I hope that the spirit will guide me in how best to share them.

     Two weeks ago we got a referral from the Zone Leaders in Bellevue.  A man named “Mr. Loud” found a pass-a-long card on the side of the road.  He called the number and got ahold of the missionaries in Bellevue and said that the card really intrigued him and he wanted to join our church.  They passed the referral on to us and then we passed it on to the Elders in Hylebos.  For the past week they have been stopping by the address that Mr. Loud said he lived at but they were never able to find him at home.  Day after day they weren't able to find him at home. 

     Rewind to last week when the Hylebos Elders felt prompted to knock on a man's door.  A man answered the door named Sunny and he had just been evicted that morning and was down on life and needed help.  They had an amazing lesson with him and Sunny came to church the following day and loved it.  That whole week they had no clue where he moved!  "Mr. Loud" was gone with no way to get ahold of him.  So on Friday I went over there for exchanges!  We felt prompted to go knock on "Mr. Loud's" door one more time!  We knocked on the door and Sunny opened!!  So I said “are you Mr. Loud??”  He said no I am Sunny!  I had no clue who he was but the Elders were so excited!  Elder Hilton said “What are you doing here!?”  He said I just moved in today!  We walked in and had a very moving lesson!  He said “I am so happy you found me!  I love your church, its my home!!”  We taught Sunny about our message and he began to tear up and said that he wanted to be baptized!!  He then said that his family of seven will join him in that!  It was amazing. S imply amazing.  God, by the miracles of Heaven, placed Sunny in our path through a referral that we still have never been able to find.  God knows us!  He knows Sunnny and wants his family to be blessed by the joy of his church!  A Mighty Miracle.

Sassy misses Brock!

     Earlier in the week while Elder Bunton and I were having a training session with the District Leaders, our companion Elder Livingston went knocking doors around the church with Elder Oh.  He and Elder Oh met a man named Stan who came up to them and wanted to learn more!  They could only talk for a minute so they told Stan they would come back.  For the following three days we went back to Stan's, everyday we knocked, there was no answer!  The Third day we knocked.  Then knocked again.  There was no reply.  We had a feeling that we should wait for a minute.  Finally Stan answered the door.  For three minutes he stared at us, looking each of us in the eye.  He said “for three days you have come and knocked on my door. Why? Why do you keep coming here? Why do you keep on coming back!  I havent answered once.”  I looked him in the eye and said “because we know this message is the key to happiness and it can bless your life.”  He fell to his knees and wept.  I went down on the cement and sat by him and put my arm on his shoulder.  I asked him what was wrong.  He wept for what seemed like an hour.  He looked up at us and said “My wife just left me.  I have lost my job.  My mom is dying of pancreatic cancer, and my Dad was just diagnosed with skin cancer.  My children are gone.  I am broken.  I have nothing.”  He again began to cry.  In all my life I have never met a man with such sorrow.  He had lost all hope at that point.  My heart ached for him!  I just wanted to pick him up and fix his life!  We sat for some time talking to him.  Read scriptures and talked with him about Christ.  He said “What time is church?”  We told him when it was and he said can I come??  Haha, we said of course! He said “ You guys are saving my life.  You have saved me.  Thanks for coming back and not giving up on me!”  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to happiness.  In the depths of sadness, Christ can heal us and save us from our woes.  I know that Stan will be happy again!  The ward is so excited to help him!  We have a big service project lined up to clean his yard and house.  As he walked us to the car that night he kept asking if we were real!  It was sad to see a man that for so long hadn't felt loved and like he was worth anything.  Through the atonement of Christ Stan is beginning to feel loved.  It was heart breaking to see a man who felt that he had lost it all.  I am so blessed to have met this man!  He has taught me so much already.  Through him I have again gained the assurance…that God knows us!  He lives and loves us!

     The final experience happened yesterday!  This too touched my life forever!  It was the last day of the month and we hadn't baptized anyone!  We had been praying with all our souls that God would lead us to someone who had already been prepared to be baptized!  It was the last day of the month and still we had found no one.  For a moment my faith was shaken.  As we left church to go visit a potential, I took a wrong turn.  I know that’s weird, I would never do something like that, right?!  So we decided to just continue down the road and go to another person that was previously interested.  As we walked down the street we saw Robin!!  Robin has been coming to church with us for a few weeks and has gone to church for a while down in Auburn!  The past few weeks we haven't seen her!  She had previously told us that she was already a member!  So we asked her again, are you sure you were baptized?  She said "well when I was sixteen I was going to be baptized but I got too scared!”  So we said, “There is a baptism in thirty minutes would you like to come?” She said, "yes I would love to"!!  She ran inside and grabbed a change of clothes and we waited for her ride to get there to follow us to the church!  She said “for the past few weeks I have been going to different churches to find out which church is right!  This is my home.  This is my church!”  The baptism was amazing!  She was so happy and so overjoyed!

     This past week has been truly amazing!  I have learned and realized so many things.  I know that God is at the helm of this work!  Nothing we do can bring miracles to pass as we are humble and realize our own nothingness and rely on His hand, He places miracles in our lives.  As such is the path of life!  We are here to prepare to meet God.  While on this journey we will face times of heartache and trial!  But as we rely on the Lord and turn to him, He will never lead us astray!  I love you all.  Thanks for all of your love and support!  I humbly declare that this is Christ's church once again restored again to the earth, in all of its Glory! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Aiken