Call 911!

     What an amazing week!  I am so grateful for this past week it was a very spiritual week and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be serving a mission! 

     There is so much to say so if I don't make any sense im sorry!  So on Tuesday we got a call from our Mission President saying that we had to move out by midnight because the lease was up and there was some confusion on where we should move!  But we had a bunch of appointments so we couldn't go home and move until around 8 p.m. and we still had to move all of the beds and couches and everything. We moved to the other end of the hall and into the Zone Leaders apartment.  So we were all just hurrying and trying to get all of the stuff moved out so we could get to bed somewhat close to on time.  Around ten o'clock we got most of our things moved out and into the new place and then we got a call from the mission president saying that we had until tomorrow to move everything because he worked out some deal with the place. 

     So we just finished unpacking all of the important stuff and decided around 10:30 for some reason to go and turn off the lights in the old apartment and lock it up, which we never do.  When we walked into the old apartment smoke was coming out of the kitchen hood over the stove and so we start freaking out and for a second I thought that maybe someone pulled a prank on us and put a smoke bomb in there or something, but then we got closer we realized it wasn't a prank. 

     So we ran out and down the hall and the apartment down from us at the end of the hall had smoke pouring out of the door frame!  My companion runs down and pulls the fire alarm and I called 911, but I had no clue where we lived so I threw the phone to my companion.  The apartment on the other side of the hall across from the fire is where the Staples live, they happen to be members and are the apartment managers!  They have four little kids and the alarm wasn't waking them up! 

     I start yelling and banging on the door to get them up!  The dad runs out and opens the door to the fire and the smoke and heat just about knock him back so I just start running in their apartment and grab the kids out of bed!  The zone leaders ran from floor to floor to evacuate everyone.  It was the craziest night ever!  I am just shaking writing this, it was straight out of a movie! 

     We got back into the apartments around one in the morning and everyone got out fine.  We are all so blessed to be safe, the story just could have been different on so many levels!  Yesterday Sister Staples and the kids brought us cookies and she goes "thanks for saving our lives".  And we were just like haha whatever.  And she got really serious and she was like "no Elders, we found out today that the sprinkling system was broken and the fire alarms didn't go off until the latch was pulled".  So if we hadn't of moved that night, Elder Twingstrom and I would have been asleep in the room opposite the fire....and if we hadn't been prompted to go down and close the apartment up, the Staples wouldn't have woken up because the apartment that started on fire was vacant and so was ours!  So the whole half of the hall no one lived in so no one would have known until the floor above caught on fire.   

     We are just so grateful for the Spirit!  As missionaries we are promised protection and I can feel it everyday!  I accomplished a few dreams.....calling 911.....pulling a fire alarm, and running out of a burning building!  So it was great!  So after that day the week only got progressively better!  We were able to meet with a bunch of our investigators and find a good handful of new ones!   I just love everyone that we have been able to teach!  I am so grateful for all of them.  We have recently changed from going through areas, to praying where we should go. Every single investigator that we found this week was from streets that we prayed to go. The mission is amazing because of the spirit we feel as we serve. We are so blessed to be serving our Father in Heaven and carry the name of His church on our clothing! 

     On Thursday night we tracted into an amazing family!  We taught them the first lesson and they were all so interested!  They were just the most athletic family, we walk in Mom, Dad, and the two boys all wearing jerseys and watching a football game together!  At first only the mom seemed really interested, but as time went on the Dad kept sitting up straighter and straighter and everything just clicked for him. We hopefully get to teach them again this week! 

     The best experience of the week for me was yesterday.  So a few weeks ago we tracted into this family and they answer the door and go come on in! Hahaha.....ya sure don't ask me twice!  So we come in and just talked for ever and they said they didn't have time for a message but we could come back.  They gave us eggnog and jams and stuff, a really amazing family.  So we finally were able to go back over together.  So the dad had all of his kids sit around the table and have us tell them why we do what we do and what our church means to us.  We basically taught them a lesson and as we were talking we found out that the Dad and Mom grew up Roman Catholic and their upbringing turned them off to the idea of religion, but he really wanted the kids to do what they wanted and they could be Mormons or whatever they wanted.  So I looked at him and asked him if he found out there was one church on the earth if it would mean a lot to him?  And the thirteen year old talked really loudly and said yes!!!  So I look over at him, and I was like wait what?  I was just taken back I guess, and he goes I don't get why there are so many churches, I want to know!  He had the biggest smile and the widest eyes, and we gave him a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon and he ran upstairs to set the book in his room!  He reminded me of Joseph Smith, just so eager to truly find out for himself!  It was so inspiring how much faith he had in us and to truly find out for himself. 

     I love you all!  Thanks for all of your prayers and letters they all mean so much! Don't ever be afraid to share the gospel.  It changes lives!  I am so happy to know that this Church is true and to be able to bear my testimony to these people. Have a great week!  Love, Elder Aiken.

November 29, 2010 - Another great week in Paradise!

     Another great week here in Issaquah! This place is just the best - already dreading transfers because I just love the people here too much! 

     The first of the week was really crazy!  Seattle got "pounded" with a big snow storm, a whole 6 inches! Haha nothing like Utah snow but literally the whole town shut down. We got a call from the mission office on P-Day that we had to head home and park our cars because the roads were getting too bad. So we headed back home and had to make some calls to figure how we were going to get around for our appointments for the night. We had one of the members in the ward come and pick us up from dinner which was great. But the way home was another story! We were driving down back towards our apartments and we got to this part of the road that is a bridge and there were a good - hmm - twenty cars crashed everywhere and the line of cars went on for a mile!  So we decided it would be pointless for Brother Adams to take us home so we just walked. The only problem with our area is we live three miles outside of it.  We started walking down the bridge and started to help get the traffic going again! The bridge was only two lanes and the lane coming from the city went for miles because cars weren't making it up the bridge.  We pushed cars up the bridge for an hour and a half!  And let me tell you, people do not know how to drive in the snow here haha!  We were pushing a BMW and we would just push and walk along side and coach them up the hill, so we would just kept telling them to drive steady and we would push!  Haha the second it would start to slip this guy would floor it....so does it seem logical to floor it when were are on a slanted icy bridge? Noooope. Ya - see ya Elder Aiken and Elder Twingstrom and the BMW towards the guard rail. It was a crazy night but Heavenly Father definitely helped us be safe so it was great!  After we and a couple of drivers got the traffic going again we began our walk home. Loving life just passing our Pass-a-long cards along the way! It was a great way to talk to people. 

     Long story short, the traffic was so bad that it took one of the members in the ward 3 hours to drive three miles up the road home!  I heard Utah got some of that storm too! So the first of the week was hard because it was difficult to get around to our area but we ended up finding alot of potentials, so it was great!  

My 2nd Family - the Powells!

    Thanksgiving was just great here!  We had a mission activity in the morning and then dinner at the Powell family's house later that day!  It was soo much fun. Their family is hilarious! They are my second fam and I just love them to death!  We had a great meal with them. It was a great day to take time to think about all that we are blessed with. 

    We had a great rest of the week with our investigators! Gerald and Lucy have been gone for the past week so it has been hard to find time to meet with them but we have had a couple great lessons with them!  I just love them so much and it's great to watch as the Book of Mormon brings the spirit into their lives. The Book of Mormon is truly such a blessing in our lives, it brings us so close to our Savior.  We hope to put Gerald and Lucy on date for baptism this upcoming week. We just love them to death. This upcoming week should be great! There is alot of work to do in this area and the Lord is preparing a way for all of these people to hear the gospel and it's just amazing.  Heavenly Father and his angels walk along side us daily. He loves us so much and is there for us all the time, if we will just take time to be quiet and feel of the spirit. It's been a great week here and I love you all more than you can understand! Thanks for all your love and prayers, I feel them constantly!  Elder Aiken.

(Letter from Sandy Powell)
"Ok, so your son just left.  They came over at 2pm and stayed the whole day.  The yams he made were amazing!  He did a great job!  And the key lime pie was truly to die for.  It was funny, he ate so much that he was literally sick!  He tried to lay down for a nap, that didn't work, he couldn't breathe, then he sat down and we were all talking and he would laugh and had to walk out of the room he was so full and just having a great time.  We played cards and just talked for hours, it was very fun and we had a great time!  He and I kinda had a whipped cream war, he squirted me (on accident) then me him (on accident) and got it on his tie.  Anyways, he said to tell you Happy Thanksgiving, and he's doing great!

Happy Thanksgiving!

     Another great week here in Issaquah, Washington.  First off, thanks to everyone for all of your birthday wishes and gifts! I love you all so much! That meant so much to me.  I had just a great birthday!  

     We had a really spiritual week this week. On Thursday 3 or 4 zones met with the president and had a little lecture at the stake center. It was awesome!  President Larkin is a very inspired man, he truly is just the best!  He talked a lot about the power of prayer and that we need to pray where we need to go tract. The whole time I was kinda thinking that it didn't apply to us becuase the area of Tiger Mountain is so small that if we don't do the next neghborhood in line we will end up tracting a neighborhood we did a week ago. We left the meeting and decided that we should change that and start to pray before we go tracting and decide where we should go!  So we went home and did just that. 

     We headed out tracting with a specific area in our minds that we felt we should go. We went down this road and felt prompted to go to the house on the left side of the road.  We knocked on the door and the lady let us right in!  We talked with her about our church and how we are different from other churches, we didn't get a return appoinment but I felt the spirit so strongly that I know that something will happen with that later on.  

Happy Birthday Elder Aiken!

     I came home from tracting and walked in and saw packages from my friends and family!  I was so happy because I didn't think that the zone leaders were going to have time to go to the mission office and get them!  We all made a cake my friends sent me and loved every second of it!  It was the best. 

     On Friday we had another great experience!  We headed over to the church at 4:30 to go teach Ray, one of our investigators that they have been teaching forever. He always comes to church and asks us if he can come tracting with us but isn't baptized.  So all day we really felt the spirit telling us that we needed to be serious with him and find out why he hasn't been baptized.  I felt really strongly that there was something else that was stopping him from being baptized than just the commitment. We started talking about tithing and that he felt that he wasn't going to be able to pay it.  The spirit was so strong and I bore my testimony about the principle of tithing.  I shared the story of when I was going back up to Utah State for the second semester and I pretty much had the option of paying my tithing or buying groceries. Almost every night those two weeks before my first pay check someone invited me to dinner. I always was provided for because of the power that is in paying tithing. I don't remember half of the things that came out of my mouth but I know that Ray felt the spirit and will be baptized in a short time. 

     One more quick story!  On Saturday we really felt that we needed to go to another area that had been tracted kind of recently. As we were riding our bikes up this mountain road we really felt prompted to head up this driveway, as we started going up the driveway it was SOO sketchy so we almost turned around but felt that we should go anyways. This old man answered and said that he wasn't interested but as we were walking away he said, one second here is someone that might want to talk. His 30ish year old son walked out and invited us in!  We had such a great lesson. We committed him to be baptized on December 11th and he said if he read and felt the spirit that he would! Truly amazing.  As we were leaving we found out he was just visiting his dads and lives in a different mission but I know that he will come closer to Chirst through all of this and his life will be changed. I love you all!  This week is Thanksgiving and I hope that we can ponder in our hearts always, our many blessings. We receive more blessings than we can take in. Remember that. Love you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Now this is Heaven!

November 16, 2010

Good Tuesday Everyone! Life is really great here in Issaquah! The first week was really hard adjusting to mission life and for being away from the family!  But everything is great now! The Issaquah area used to be a really tough area but we are out tracting and working really hard and things are looking great! 


So this week we got bikes because it much faster to tract this mountainy area!  On Wednesday we did 154th Street.....it's one mile long and gains 1000 feet in altitude! It was a great work out, I loved it but I don't get why people bike Big and Little Cottonwood canyons....doesn't make sense to me!  


Heavenly Father is guiding us to where we need to be!  We had an amazing experience on Friday!  So we went out to go tracting on Tiger Mountain Road but my companion wanted to go back down a road where he thought he may have lost his name tag!  So we went walking and couldn't find it but we saw a guy working on his truck so we went and said hi!  We had an awesome conversation!  His name is Gerald!  We talked to him for awhile, he told us he wasn't interested but we just talked for awhile about life and he was just hilarious!  We became best friends pretty quickly!  We both love cars and he is just too funny!  So at the end of the conversation we asked if we could came back and share a message. He said you know what, why not, so we set up an appointment for the next day!  So on Saturday morning we headed over to teach Gerald and his wife Lucy about the restoration. They were both very receptive!  They said they would read the Book of Mormon and we invited them to church and they said they would love to!  After, Gerald and I were talking and he said that the missionaries have come a million times but that day he really felt he should listen. They came to church on Sunday!  They are both in their fifties i would guess and Gerald drives horses around the country, so we can't teach them for another week but they seemed to love church so it will be exciting to see what happens! 


The ward here is amazing! Everyone treats us so well!  They were so excited to have investigators at church on Sunday because they haven't had new investigators in years.  I really am going to miss this ward. They all know how to cook and I love that!  The best door response this week was: " No wonder the dogs are barking! YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE, GET!"  I about died - never laughed so hard!  

The beauty of Issaquah!

I love you all!  Thanks for all of the birthday wishes!  It will be a great Birthday on Thursday! God be with you. Take time this week to realize how the gospel in your life has made you happy. The mission has made me really appreciate how much I truly love the Church!

First Area - Issaquah!

President and Sister Larkin

I am assigned to the Tiger Mountain area in Issaquah!  Its pretty much in the boons!  My companion is Elder Twingstrom!  We are very different but its great.  I am learning so much! We got here on tuesday around eleven!  We came in to beautiful weather!  Seattle is awesome one of the prettiest places I have ever been. The drive to the mission home is really great!  We went to the mission home and just had a quick meeting introducing everyone!  Then we had the best lunch ever.  I had never been so excited to eat normal food in my life, MTC food ruins you!  We had homemade philly cheesesteaks!  They were amazing!  The mission president and his wife seem really great.  Then we individually had meetings with the mission president and he got to know us all really well. Then they send you all down stairs with all of us "greenies" sitting in chairs and then the future companions on the opposite part of the room, I was so nervous!  Then he calls of the compaionships one by one and your area! Elder Twingstrom was assigned as my trainer!  We headed out to our area around five. The area of Tiger Mountain is a really big area in terms of size but really small in terms of the number of houses!  Most of the people live on dirt roads, and last week my companion ran into a bear while tracting.  The week before a guy answered the door with a gun in his hand and said to get out!  So it's a great area just loving it!  We are working really hard! T here hasn't been a baptism in Tiger Mountain for 9 years but we are working with an investigator right now!  They call him an "eternal" investigator, he has been taught for two years.  He knows everything is true but he just now is working on praying to know if he should be baptized!  I am excited to see what happens!  I taught my first lesson to Ray on wednesday!  It was really great to be teaching again!  I miss that MTC so much, it was the best place ever.  About ten minutes in to the lesson I for sure got a bloody nose.....let's be honest only me, so that was fun!  Haha excuse me I have a bloody nose I'll be right back!  The lesson went really well!  On thursdays we help a Christian man named Skip with his yard work. It's really fun to do service out here because serving others seriously is one of the best things we can do in this life!  We are helping him make a walking path up this little hill!  It's funny the culture here in Tiger Mountain is so different.  Most everyone's driveways are a good quarter mile long and everyone's old cars are just scattered along the driveway full of moss.  I will send pictures one of these days soon.  We ended up teaching six lessons this week so it ended up being really great!  We are really working to bring this area back to life again.  On sunday we had dinner at my Seattle family's house!  The Powell family is amazing!  They literally are hilarious and I am going to be sad to leave them when I go!  The dinner was amazing.....everything tastes really good after a week of making your own meals!  I am so grateful for the Powells they are the best.  I love you all!  Remember to always have faith.  Life can be really hard but remember that Christ has gone through all that we are going through.  If we will have faith that He can take those pains from us, He will.  This work is amazing!  Have a great week.  Sincerely, Elder Aiken.  


P.S. Please send letters to the mission home - it's not far from us so we get them quickly!

My first companion - Elder Twingstrom

(BY THE WAY - BROCK'S BIRTHDAY IS NOVEMBER 18TH IF ANYONE WANTS TO SEND HIM A CARD!)

Saying BYE to the MTC

I can't believe this is my last day here at the MTC! It has gone by way too fast! I have loved every second of it! Only 21 more hours left, yes we are counting down! I am so excited to get to Seattle. This last week has been amazing, the MTC is truly an awesome place. I am so happy we got to be a part of the pilot program, I have learned so much I don't even feel the same! 


On friday and saturday we taught our last two investigators. It was a great experience. We were really struggling with an investigator named Diego. Whenever we would go and teach him you could just tell that he was taking it in but he just didn't care. We had been praying all day friday that the spirit would guide us and direct us on how to teach the investigator. Diego is played by our teacher Brother Moreno by the way. It's really cool! Heavenly Father really works with us to have these experiences be real. So when we started the lesson it was just going ok. The spirit wasn't there because you could tell that Diego just didnt care. As we got talking we finally found out why he wasn't really into it. We asked him why he keeps having us back but doesn't want to progress. He said that he didn't understand what the importance of the Book of Mormon was and he didn't know why it mattered if he found out if it was true because he already felt like alot of other Churches had the truth. I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life!  I kept feeling in my heart and in my head "Talk about Priesthood, Talk about Priesthood!" I was wrestling with that thought in my head because I thought it might be too big of a topic to bring up in only the third lesson. We are promised that if we will just follow the Spirit and open our mouths Heavenly Father will help us. He sure did. We started to talk about the priesthood, and that during the apostasy and the death of the apostles, the keys of the priesthood and that power from God were lost. We told him that's what our church had, that the others didn't.  After we simply explained why it is important to have the priesthood the room went silent. We waited and waited so the spirit would work on him and testify of its truth to him. His eyes got big and after a minute he said "I get it!" It was amazing to realize with him the power of the Spirit! He committed to being baptized next month! It was really amazing! I know that it was only simulated but the MTC does an amazing job in this new program of making it real! You truly can't tell the difference so its great to learn how to teach these lessons before we enter the field! 


On Tuesday we had the best devotional I have ever heard! I honestly can say that I have never heard that good of a talk in my life! Elder Richard G. Scott came! Two apostles in one week! We are soo lucky, the only tuesdays we were here were apostles! We hear it hasn't happened in years! His talk was called "To Be Led by the Spirit". He literally summarized his life experiences on to a front and back sheet of paper of bullet points and talked about them! One of my main goals for my mission was to be able to better understand and realize the Spirit in my life so that I can be a better dad, husband, and be successful in the mission. This talk I felt was just for me. I couldn't have wanted to hear anything more! He said that sometimes we need to be thankful that God let's us struggle with things, our character and faith will grow more than be can realize. He said that seldom does that answer that we are seeking come while on our knees. It comes in little packets in time so that we can be able to grow and learn. How true is that? It changed my life! I'll talk more later on that! 


On wednesday we brought in our last district! It was really great to take them on a tour and teach them what we have learned from our experience here! It was great. Its going to be really hard to leave! We have become really close to the two districts we have been Zone Leaders for. It's amazing how close you become after just three weeks here! I am sad to be leaving. I feel like I have made life long friends! Sunday we had to conduct the priesthood meeting! Our branch presidency was out for that hour because of meetings!  I was so nervous because I had to conduct and there were a good ten Senior Missionaries that were attending as guests! We assigned 8 elders to teach a five minute lesson! It turned out amazing!  The Elders all did such a great job! At the end I bore my testimony before closing and I think we all wanted to cry because it was our last sunday together and we seriously all have become best friends. The topic was on charity so I briefly shared the story from my farewell talk about the kid with cerebral palsy and literally all the elders started crying because I think we realized that's what we need to have when we enter the field! Sunday was such a great day we were on a spiritual high! 


I leave here a different person. My testimony isn't even the same. I know this church is true with all my heart and I know that it changes lives. I leave here ready to live my life on an upward curve hoping that my last day will be my best! Seattle here we come! Get r' done. Love you all and miss you more than you know.

Just say "nope" to cod nuggets!

Good Morning Everyone!!!  What a freezing cold day!  This has just been the best week!  I love the MTC its such a great place!  We leave here in 8 days!  It has gone by so fast i just cant believe it!  We got our flight itineraries on wednesday!  We fly out nice and early! (Not going to say a time cause i dont want my parents to show up)  Cant wait to get to Seattle!  We have learned so much this week its just unreal!  I dont even feel like the same person!  We taught six lessons this week to investigators! Half of our investigators are played by our teachers!  They play investigators that they taught on their missions so it can be really hard!  Its such a great learning experience!  Revi made a committment to get baptized if she has a good experience with praying this week which was very exciting!  Diego is another one of our investigators! We are struggling with him because he wont put forth any effort!  We can do all we can to testify and teach doctrine but its up to the investigator to pray and learn it for themselves!  We are trying to make a better connection with him so we can understand his needs!  The sisters in our zone were teaching an investigator that was an outside volunteer and the funniest thing happened!  The investigator said that she never had time to read!  So Sister Wiley replies saying that she could just keep a book of mormon in her bathroom, everyone goes there once a day......haha the investigator kinda starts gagging and was like ya i guess.....maybe i could just put a protectant cover on it! It was too funny! Every tuesday we have devotionals!  This week  Elder Russel M. Nelson came! It was amazing!   The spirit in the room was so thick i loved it!  He gave an amazing talk! He talked alot about continuing a relationship with converts!  He said that we should be friends with them and continue to fellowship them!  He said that we should be interested in the lives of their kids, and their grandkids!  He also talked about being followers of Christ!  We need to be like him and share the light of Christ!  


One thing that i learned this week is to always open your mouth!  We are sometimes prompted to share to gospel with someone but the fear of talking sometimes overcomes us!  If we will just open our mouths heavenly father will speak for us and through us!  Never put aside those promptings!  As we learn more and more about the converting process one of the huge steps in the process is taking the investigator to church!  For a lot of people that is their biggest fear! They can do well in the lessons because they are in the comfort of their own home but going to church is way out of their comfort zone.  We as members need to work with the missionaries to fellowship investigators they bring to church!  They wont get baptized if they dont have a good experience at church! Its just that simple!

    The food here is gettin old - seriously the elders and i were walking to dinner...we look up at the sign "cod nuggets". Nope. You dont eat cod nuggets from the mtc. I can't imagine what that would do to you!  On sunday we were sitting in sacrament and President Fisher waves over to me and asks me to come over to him. He goes where is Elder Robey and Gallegos? Of course we have no clue so my companions and i had to walk around the mtc and look for them!  So after a good while of no luck we headed to the front desk to see if they new about where they would be!  Elder Robey was sent to the hospital and had to get his appendix removed!  I cant even imagine getting that done here i really cant!  He wont be back until later in the week!  I am sad that we are leaving so soon!  We have become so close as a district! The elders in our district are amazing!  I love you all and miss you!  Life is great!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Sincerely, Elder Aiken.