Monday August 27, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

1. How's the smoke now?

1. The smoke has gone down, and it is raining today so we are all good now.

2. What's your schedule like for the last couple of days in the mission?

2. Well Elder Robb drops me off at 10:15 tomorrow morning for a departing interview and then I’ll go to the temple with President Thompson and others and we will have dinner, a departing devotional and then spend the night somewhere near the mission home and fly out the next morning.

3. What are you most excited about for coming home?

3. That’s a hard one. Probably to see family and friends again. But there are a lot of things I’m excited for!

4. What part of your mission will you miss the most?

4. All of it! But mostly the experiences of witnessing God’s hand in the lives of others and seeing people change their lives and becoming changed through the gospel. (Sorry that’s the most basic missionary answer but it’s true.)

So honestly, I don’t really want to write anything. But it has been a wild ride hasn’t it?  I will miss every second of being out here on a mission. I feel like I have grown and changed so much and seen so many great things happen. I will never forget the things I’ve learned. I hope you know I’ve changed. I’m still the same person of course…like I’m still Colten. But I have become a different person. Hopefully better. So don’t expect the same Colten you once knew! I am super excited to see you and "give you a dang hug!" Love ya and I will see you soon! 

Monday August 20, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

1. Can you tell us about the bike trail/ride you went on last week?

1. The Hiawatha is the famous bike trail in North Idaho. It is about 13 miles long and used to be a railroad so it’s very gradual downhill the whole way. It is very gorgeous and has the super cool tunnel that is 1 1/2 miles long so you need a pretty good light. It has like 10 tunnels and 7 tall trestles so it’s pretty cool. It’s something everyone up here should do at least once…or 7 seven times. 

2. What does this last full week of being in the mission look like? Meetings/normal week?

2. Mostly just a normal week! But Thursday we get to go to the temple and also do baptisms with some recent converts. That will be a blast. Besides that we are just busy with lessons and working 

3. Please update us on your investigators!

3.Ok

This week has been good. Besides the smoke! Apparently, Spokane is now the worst city in the country for air quality. It is super bad! Like we aren’t allowed to walk to appointments even.

But anyway…the Blake family is hitting some bumps in the road, so we had to slow things down a lot for them. They are still really solid they just have a lot of life changes that they have to make which is super hard for them. 

Caleb is moving to California this Wednesday and so we are giving him a present tomorrow for his birthday. We got him a quad with his name engraved on it! He will love it. He is planning to get baptized this winter! 

That’s pretty much it! It should be a great busy week and it will probably go way too fast! But I love ya and good luck to my sisters at school this week!

Talk to ya next week!(in person!) haha Love ya!

-Elder St. John

These are all pictures we've received from members who have helped take care of our Elder in the last couple of weeks. We are so thankful for the great people of Spokane for taking such great care of Elder St. John!

Monday August 13, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

Monday August 13, 2018

Hey mom! So I’ll try my best to send a good email but we are going on the Hiawatha bike trail today so we will be super busy! I'll send pics when I can.

1. We're basically on fire here. Are there any fires near where you are?

1. Kind of. Not too many but it's been a little smoky.

2. How many times did you eat with members this week?

2. Pretty much every day but one.

3. Do you ever hear from fellow missionaries about any of your old areas and how any of your newly baptized people are doing?

3. Sometimes I do. But it's hard to stay connected when you’re a missionary. 

4. How was your big zone conference last week?

4. Great!

5. Update us on your family of 5 on date for baptism and also the younger guy waiting til December.

5. I'll have to update you next week. But the Hiawatha was a blast!

Monday August 6, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

1. Can you give us an update about your 18-year-old that wants to be baptized? Any progress with his parents?

1. Yeah I’ll update down below.

2. What about the lady in the hospital?

2. Same

3. Now that you’re headed to the finish line what things about Washington will you miss?

3. Haha well! I will miss a lot of things. There is this great pacific northwest culture up here that I have grown to love. But I will miss the trees! I know there are trees in Utah but it’s not quite the same. 

4. Have you started the coming home program they have the missionaries do now? I can’t remember what it’s called.

4. Yes it’s called My Plan. Some of it seems kinda silly because I’ve had a plan for a long time but there is a lot of it that is very helpful. Gets me thinking about the future. 

So this week was pretty crazy! God has given us some serious blessings this week. This is going to be hard to update you on, but I’ll try my best.

First off. The 18-year-old had a long talk with his parents and they want him to really make sure that he wants to join the church. Which is kinda ridiculous because he has asked like every question ever. He knows more than any other person I’ve taught. But he has decided to try to respect his parents and also be a part our church so he is waiting until December to get baptized so that’s good and also frustrating.

Second. We went over to give a blessing to Trina who is the lady who was in the hospital. So we went over Monday night and her whole family was there. Tommy who is 18 and engaged to his girlfriend Mara were also there. Along with her son Rylin, daughter Taylor and son Preston. We gave Trina a blessing and then after a long talk and a lot of teaching we gave Tommy a blessing too.

Backtrack about a month ago…we got haircuts and the girl who cut Elder Robb’s hair was talking to him about God and she wanted to learn more and gave us her number on the back of the receipt. Well a couple days later we realized we had lost the number! We were super bummed and then we show up at Trina’s and guess who is there? Mara, the girl who cut Elder Robb’s hair! She just happens to be engaged to Tommy, Trina’s son! What the heck!

Ok, then we give Trina a blessing. We get talking with Tommy and he has had a rough past year and really needed some God in his life. But, right at first, he was very opposed to missionaries and God and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. But, after a blessing to Trina he was curious and we convinced him to let us give him a blessing! I’ll tell you what, there was a lot more that went into this that is just too hard for me to explain but it was a very spiritual experience and at the end of the night we were planning on meeting with the whole family on Wednesday. After meeting on Wednesday, we now have a family of 5 people on date for baptism and they came to church on Sunday! Overall that’s probably confusing but we have been so blessed to find this family and they are so ready for the gospel! 

That’s about all for this week. It was pretty crazy though! Tomorrow we have zone conference with about a 3rd of the mission so it will be huge! I’m super excited but also sad because it will be my last zone conference! 

I don’t know if you remember them but Elder King and Elder Bennett (from my mtc group) fly home today so that’s a little weird. 

Love ya!

-Elder St. John

MLC

 Elder Jackson, Elder Bennett, Elder St. John, Elder King

Monday July 30, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

1. Is it hot where you are?

1. Kinda. Not too crazy. It’s mostly been in the high 80's low 90's, but this week it’s supposed to climb into the 100's a little bit.

2. Do you ride your bikes anywhere in this area?

2. Yeah, we ride our bikes pretty often actually.

3. Are you still riding buses?

3. No that was just that one area. We don’t ride them here at all.

4. Do you have any pictures of just yourself you'd like to share in the ward newsletter?

4. Maybe I’ll see.

So this week was pretty insane!! It was crazy busy working with the people we were given. I’ll do my best to tell the stories from this week but it probably won’t be that cool to you.

First off, we have been stressed about our friend Caleb who is 18 and just graduated. He wanted to be baptized on the 11 of august but his parents are a part of a church called Real Life (don’t get me started on what that church does). He has been scared to tell them that he was going to get baptized until this last week and they didn’t like the idea of him committing to something like that. So, they said they want him to wait a full year, which in my book is pretty ridiculous! He really wants to get baptized so I’m not sure what will happen but prayers for him and his parent’s hearts to be softened would be needed! 

Second, we have been teaching this lady named Trina and her life is totally falling apart and she really needs the gospel. She hurt her wrist and didn’t know what was wrong with it for about a week. After several doctors’ appointments and meds and a whole lot of stress they finally found that she had an infection in her arm! Her wrist was crazy swollen too. She had to get surgery right away and while she was out after her surgery her son and ex-husband showed up and the son and ex-husband got in a fight and the son punched his dad in the face and broke his jaw! The son got put in jail and the dad went in for a jaw surgery to get it fixed right away. (didn’t even have to drive to the hospital since that’s where the fight took place!) So, that has been really crazy for her. She is recovering now and has been very humbled as you can tell. She wants to be baptized sometime in September, so we will be working with her. She is an amazing lady and would be an amazing member and has some spunk that this ward needs.

Third, we are teaching a 9-year-old girl named Alora and she is super awesome. They are in a part member family and are super nice. 

Well that’s my update for the week. It sure has been a crazy one. But its good and it keeps me busy. Well I hope you have a great week and do some fun stuff as summer starts to wind down. Love ya!

-Elder St. John

Monday July 23, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

Monday July 23, 2018

1. Are you hanging tough through your last transfer? Working hard, not losing interest?

1. Oh yeah. I’m doing just fine. Don’t worry.

2. Have most of the Elders you came out with gone home now?

2. Not yet. The earliest they leave is in like 2 weeks. There’s a couple that go in the middle of August and then me and the couple Elders with me. I think there will only be 4 of us that fly into Salt Lake. Elder Jackson is one of them.

3. We have our ward newsletter for August coming out next week. They always like me to send in a picture and a little synopsis about how you're doing. With this being your last message is there anything in particular you'd like me to include? Words of wisdom? And a picture of yourself?

3. I’ll try and type something down below.

So this week was crazy and fun and just a great missionary week. We had transfers on Thursday and then we spent the whole day rearranging our apartment and getting things figured out so that we could just have Elder Robb and I live in it. So, we have a bunch of extra shelves and tables and stuff because our apartment got changed from a 4 man to a 2 man. We have a lot of extra room now. So that was exciting and then the rest of the week we worked and Sunday night we saw a miracle…

We have this lady we are teaching that has been super hard to meet with. We called her and she said she could meet that night at 8 which was in a half an hour. So we called our good member friends who are our fellowship for her and they dropped everything and came to a lesson on the spot. They are awesome. We had a super good lesson and we put her on date for baptism! So things in this area are starting to look up. It has taken a lot of patience to find people who are ready but God puts them in our path on His timing not ours.

As for a little message… I want everyone to know that our God is a God of miracles. He has always worked through his imperfect children to change our lives and the lives of those around us. Moroni 7:35-37 states:

35And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I 

have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the 

last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased? 

36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the 

power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth 

shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

The day of miracles has not ceased! I have seen miracle after miracle in my life and I know that our Father in Heaven’s hand is always stretched out to guide us and help us. He won’t ever leave us alone. He just waits until we are ready to let Him in. It is through the power of his Son’s Atonement that we can be cleansed and return to live with him we just have to trust Him. We have to have enough faith to act. To be able to make changes in our live that bring our will in line with his. Then we can be ready to make covenants with him. Binding promises that hold us close and give us the strength and power to overcome the struggles of this life. If we live that way we will be healed of our sins and become better than we can even imagine. It brings me great joy to live the Gospel I don’t know what my life would be like without it. 

Love ya!

-Elder St. John

Monday July 16, 2018 Spokane Valley, WA

Hi Mom -

This week was good. We worked hard and found a couple new people to teach. 

We got transfers today and Elder Robb and I are staying here in this area. But they are sweeping out the other Elders in our zone with sisters. They are also combining our zone with another zone so I will be in a district with 3 sets of sisters and just Elder Robb and me. So...looks like I will be running a relief society. Haha

So I enter my last 6 weeks. First off it doesn't feel real yet. And second off I'm super excited for what lies ahead.

-Elder St. John