Religion – Page 9

Jake Executes A Flawless Inverse Proposal

October 17, 2010 by rickety 13 Comments

The short version: The wedding is on Wednesday 15th December 2010.

The detailed version: The proposal was kept top secret. No-one knew. Steven helped to figure the ring size from photographs by counting pixels. So he knew that a proposal was coming but he didn’t know when.

Jake explained to me in an exclusive interview for Rickety blog that he wanted to execute an inverse proposal. It works by asking for her hand in marriage at the beginning of the evening, and then the rest of the evening can be enjoyed as an engaged couple. It also contributes to being a complete surprise. I added that if she says no then you can cut your losses and cancel the rest of the evening.

Once Steven had figured the ring size from pixels, Jake bought a cubic zirconium, to preserve the surprise, on Friday 8th October. On Sunday 10th October Jake knew he was going to ask Rachel that day but didn’t know exactly when. In Testimony Meeting at the Davis Park YSA Ward, Bishop Visser gave a strong testimony about not delaying important decisions. With that, Jake decided the proposal was to be done as soon as possible.

Jake drove Rachel towards her home but turned off and drove to their favorite hill nearby. Rachel noticed but didn’t think anything of it. Jake suddenly stopped the car and immediately got on one knee, showed the ring, and asked the question. Rachel was so shocked that she did not say anything for a long time. Jake eventually said, “You haven’t said ‘Yes’ yet.” Rachel responded, “Yes.”

The following day, Monday 11th October 2010, Jake took two of my home-made candles and arranged an Olive Garden-to-go candle-light dinner.

On Monday 17th October Jake and Rachel will pick up a ring (with a real diamond this time) that Rachel has chosen.

Thus was executed a flawless inverse proposal. Jake, you should work for the military.

Rachel by a wedding picture of her soon to be sister-in-law Sarah

Missionary Dan Email #27 from Vancouver, Washington

October 13, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Daniel and Elder Powell

My new companion is Elder Powell. He is from Gilbert Arizona and is a great person to be with. I’m excited to work with him with the short time that we have together. We worked very hard to get investigators to church this week. After transfers we spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday teaching our investigators what church will be like, setting up rides, and confirming that members can take them and sit by them. I don’t think we’ve ever made more phone calls and talked to more people in attempts to get people to church. All of them were excited and were very willing to come.

With every forward effort there is opposition. On Thursday I got a bloody nose and a flat tire (I’m okay now). Sunday morning as we saw our hard work fall apart I got another flat tire in the rain. Calls from investigators and talking to them later we found out that one investigator had to care for his mom’s poor health, one got sick and couldn’t come, another her parents didn’t want her to go, and the other had to go pick up her kid last minute. Two completely forgot even though we were at their house the night before, three went on vacation and one mentioned that she doesn’t want to come because she feels she doesn’t belong at our church.

I admit I was discouraged sitting at church. With the high hope that all could make it, we were sure we had at least six that would be there. I realize that we did all that we could and things just happen.

But it wasn’t until our new member Stephanie came in and she sat next to us that made me feel much better. It instilled in me a new commitment this coming week to again attempt to get people to church, teach them with the Spirit and help them feel of Heavenly Father’s love for them.

With all our efforts to do something good, it seems sometimes the opposition will overwhelm and win. I know if we press forward with faith great things can happen. This is the Lord’s work and he will be there.

We ended up having two investigators come, that have come before, and continue to enjoy coming to church. To see them smile makes it all worth it. I love being a missionary! Thanks for all the letters of support.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

Missionary Dan Email #26 from Vancouver, Washington

October 5, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Daniel_and_other_elders_at_general_conference_time

Daniel (bottom left) and other elders at General Conference time

General Conference was great! I really enjoyed everything that was taught. It felt like they gave all the members encouragement and I could feel the love that they have for us. My favorite talk was from President Uchtdorf on simplifying our lives. I try to live a simple life. For example you will notice for the past four and a half months I have worn one tie per transfer. It started with dark green, then light green, now yellow. The same tie every day for 42 days.

The next transfers tie (which starts tomorrow) has been selected, but I haven’t yet selected a tie for my month extension. There is competition among missionaries in my zone campaigning for the tie which I will wear. They want theirs to be picked. This in turn simplifies my life more because I don’t have to buy any new ties. Other ways to simplify my life are: Wearing a white shirt and slacks every day.

I really enjoy General Conference. I hope to become more positive and express more gratitude for all that I have. Elder Hardy and I had a great last week together. Transfer calls came and Elder Hardy will be transfered. I’ll get a brand new missionary tomorrow to train. I’m excited to train again and at the the same time sad to see Elder Hardy leave. He is a good companion. He’ll be great missionary!

President comfirmed my extension, but so far I don’t think there is any more updates on flight plans. I’m sure they’ll figure it out when it comes time. Thanks for all the support and have fun on your cruise!

Love you all, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

Missionary Dan Email #25 from Vancouver, Washington

September 28, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Today we got to go to the temple. It is a great place to be and I always feel the Spirit. Today it reminded me of the MTC because our zone came together. It was an awesome experience.

We continue to work hard and the area is doing very well. We found several new people to teach and a few investigators we’ve been teaching came to church for the first time. They enjoyed it. Stephanie has met a lot of people and is progressing very well in the ward. I’m excited to see what will happen at transfers. The roads for my bike are safe and great to ride my bike on.

Thanks for all the support next week will be more exciting to write about.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

Missionary Dan Email #24 from Vancouver, Washington

September 21, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

So after talking to President, I decided to accept his invitation to extend my mission for 30 days. President Greer asked me probably about 3 to 4 weeks ago if my Mom would be upset if I extended. I said she probably would be, but at the same time she’d be fine. So I thought about it for a week or two and I thought that the Lord would be pleased with whatever decision I made.

Then I sent an email to Mom that I might be extending and for my birthday present she should let me. I also thought that more time in the mission field would be a privilege. Either option sounded great to me, but I decided that I’d be happier with staying here a month longer than going home.

So I called President Greer last week and made my decision. He said the reason he asked me is because he’d like for me to train another missionary, and it is better for the new missionary to be with his trainer past 6 weeks. So I am happy to say that I’ll be coming home on December 15. The other details I have no idea. I’m sure President is figuring out the fine details.That’s the best part of missionary work, it’ll all work out eventually. I sent a letter home saying all this, it must not have made it there.

My birthday was great. The presents came right on time (on my birthday) and the hard drive is the best! Thanks everyone. I sent a neat video of using the toy cars and Smarties that I got. I’ve spent awhile putting all my pictures on this hard drive. I think it’s just about done.

This week was a good work week. We had a few exchanges with the other missionaries. It has been fun. My knees are getting tired from all the biking. Since we live a mile and a half outside of our area we put a lot of miles on our bikes. We figure about 20 miles a day. My bike is holding up great too. Well… kind of… for being a free bike it works great.

A follow up on the Relief Society versus Priesthood presentation. I forgot to mention we accomplished the same thing in both presentations. The only difference was in Priesthood it took 30 seconds, in Relief Society it took 13 minutes. :)

All the activities everyone is doing looks like lots of fun. Thanks for your continued support!

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

Missionary Dan Email #23 from Vancouver, Washington

September 14, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Stephanie and Crystal were baptized. The Spirit was really strong and was a great experience for them. Elder Hardy said it was “Super duper cool” to baptize Stephanie. It was his first time baptizing someone. Stephanie couldn’t stop smiling at church and it was great that I was able to confirm her. Stephanie’s mom who isn’t active in the church but a member said it was the best decision she ever made and was really proud of her.

We used the opportunity to get the members excited about missionary work. We gave a short presentation in Priesthood Meeting before everyone separated to their classes and asked “What are some of the reasons we do missionary work?” After a long silence one high priest raised his hand and said, “Because we have to.” Then I asked “What stops us from doing missionary work?” and there was a lot more responsive answers.

We did a similar presentation in Relief Society. After asking “What are some of the reasons we do missionary work?” five to six sisters raised their hands and gave awesome answers. They continued to discuss missionary work and reasons they don’t do it. It was an interesting experience. I’ll not comment further on the situation.

There has been many awesome experiences here and they continue to come. We are doing our best. I really enjoyed all the birthday emails. The letters have started to come again too. I noticed that the Ward’s letter had the wrong address, but it still made it to me. My address is 13608 NE 72nd St B14. The mistake was the “3” was a “2”. Thanks again for the great birthday cards. They were funny and the pictures are awesome.

I’ve been thinking about extending my mission for 30 days [after being asked by President Greer] and at the same time thinking about not extending. So I’m going to call President Greer today and make a decision. Next week I’ll let the family know. The President is allowed to extend any missionary for 30 days without Seventy approval. Any longer after that requires their permission and it’s difficult to receive it. The President is curious to see what I’ll do.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
Rickety signature.

Missionary Dan Email #22 from Vancouver, Washington

September 7, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Old Apple Tree Park by the Columbia River, Vancouver, Washington

This week went great. We got things all lined up for Friday where we have our two baptisms. That is really exciting for us. Elder Hardy gets to baptize Stephanie and Brother Brown is going to baptize Crystal so it an awesome opportunity for everyone.

We had three investigators drop us this week. It seemed that each of them had talked to a friend and they told them something. They were all really nice telling us not to come back again. Things like we believe in a different Jesus or we only believe in half of a God and Jesus was their mix up. One the investigators, about two hours after dropping us, gave us a call. She expressed how horrible she felt for rejecting us. She said she saw the love we had for the scriptures and how we were like Christ going to the people and visiting them. She also said that someone at her church had told her not to meet with us. She didn’t agree with that and said as she was reading her scriptures she felt she should call us. She apologized and then invited us back, not to share much about our religion, but to share the love we have for God. So we will let the Spirit work with her for a bit longer and stop by.

So as I was writing this email another person called me and said she wanted to discontinue meeting with us. I said we’d give her some time and perhaps stop by later when she figures things out. She accepted and we look forward to still meeting with her.

It has been a testimony to me the opposition that is towards this work, but also how much the Spirit actually does. I know we are servants to spread the message of the Restoration of the Gospel and that we can truly know for ourselves that it’s true. We help others find out for themselves whether or not they want to act on the message we share. I know its true and that’s why I am here sharing it.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Photo Credit: Sheryl Todd

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
Rickety signature.

Missionary Dan Email #21 from Vancouver, Washington

August 31, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

Daniel (right) and and Elder Hardy with couple

We had yet again another great week. This time its full of exciting things such as baptism! We had one investigator pass an interview and another having her interview this Friday. They should be baptized next weekend.

Stephanie is a investigator that looked up the church online and went to the wrong building and at the wrong time. She remembered going there as a small child and said she enjoyed the services. The bishop there got her information and it was passed to us. I remember her saying on the first phone call she wasn’t interested in converting. I mentioned we would stop by to tell her more about the church so she’d feel comfortable coming and could answer her questions. So she has come to church about four times now and we’ve been meeting with her for that month’s time. We asked her to be baptized a while ago, but since she was living with her boyfriend she didn’t know when she could be. So this week, she is moving out and it opened up the opportunity for her to be baptized. Her boyfriend didn’t treat her with respect so she is relieved to move out. We are so happy that the Lord has helped her to improve her life.

Also we have been working with a less active couple. They had been making their way back to activity and asked us to come over and teach the lessons. We taught them lessons and the Spirit helped them. Now they feel comfortable coming to church. We saw them at the ward BBQ (see picture above).

To top it off four investigators also came to the ward BBQ and they had a great time. We got to play volleyball with them for awhile and they developed friendships with the members.

The weather here has been very dry for about two months now. We hope the rain holds off for a lot longer. It has been nice, but it has had it’s effect on people’s lawns. Since it does rain so much usually they don’t have sprinklers so in the summer it’s common to have a dead lawn. A member’s neighbor wanted to still have green grass so they painted it (see photo below). The member said of the experience, “I went to church in the morning and we both had dead grass, I come home and my neighbor’s grass was green. I thought they don’t go to church and I do, but they get the green grass.” It was funny to hear him talk about it.

All things are well and thanks for all the support. The pictures were great to see, it looks like the festival was fun.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.
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