Nov 27, 2017

Hey Y'all! 

This week was crazy! Monday we had an interesting experience with blessing a ladies home who thought it was haunted! It was pretty cool! And you could feel the Holy Ghost there after, which was good! Kinda a weird experience though! 

Then Thanksgiving was crazy we house hopped all day because we couldn’t go out so we just had three Thanksgiving dinners with our members! So that was crazy! Hung around and had a good time played games and ate food all day so nothing to complain about there! 

Saturday was another crazy busy day! We had service setting up for the festival of nativities! It’s like this big festival they have in the church building every year and it’s crazy! There is supposed to be like 1000 nativities including a few live ones! So the set up was kinda crazy! Then we had a lesson and then we had a sports day with our investigators and the Chuukese people! It was crazy! We played volleyball and basketball! It was crazy! There were so many people there!! Then we got transfer boards and I’m staying in Kelso for another transfer! Elder Ferris is getting the boot though! He’s headed to Vancouver and I’m getting an elder named Elder Peterson! He came out with Elder Ferris so he’s still pretty new! He’s cool from what o hear though! So it should be good! Other than that I can’t think of anything exciting that happened! Talk to y’all next week! 

Love y’all!

Elder Caleb Dewald

Nov 20, 2017

Hello everyone! 

Let’s see this week was a pretty decent week! We had a really good lesson with Kate and Kate is doing great! We had a bomb lesson with her this week! We taught her the Plan of Salvation! She is so responsive and has the best answers! And it was so cool she had a ton of family at the house(it's actually her mother in laws sisters house who is the lady that gave us the referral ) and they all just testified to her the whole time about everything we taught especially coming to Chruch and reading the scriptures!! It was really cool! 

Raven came to mutual again and that was pretty cool! They did this activity, pudding Pictionary! It was pretty cool! I forgot how loud young woman's is. They are crazy! But that was pretty fun! 

We also went out to Rose Valley to visit the Colins a little before they left for vacation to California and that was pretty cool! Brother Colin isn’t a member so we did some service with him and hung out for a little! He’s got a bench press and so I benched a little and it was pretty fun haven’t been able to bench for toooo long but it was good and then we shared a message with them and added him on Facebook so we could keep up with him! 

We also had a basketball night with the Chuukese people and that was pretty cool! I’m so out of shape for running though I was dying! But other than that it was fun! 

 Then on Saturday I got to go to a baptism for a kid I did the interview for this week and it was pretty cool! It was in Chuukese and it was really cool! The kid's name was Ernest Rain! And he was so excited to be baptized! 

Then Sunday there were like 60 Chuukese people at church so that was pretty cool that’s the most that have ever come before! 

That’s about everything exciting this week!  Hope Y'all have a great week! If you have any questions I’d love to hear from Y'all! 

Elder Caleb Dewald

Nov 13, 2017

Hello everyone! 

How did your weeks all go? 

This week was pretty good from us! We had some super good lessons with a few people this week and Raven our new investigator who’s 15 came to mutual this week and had a great time! They made mini golf courses and then played them! It was pretty cool! 

Then Thursday we had a bomb lesson with a members sister in law’s daughter in law! Her name is Kate! And she is super excited to learn more! So we’re excited to teach her!

Then on Saturday, we had talked to this crazy guy he went on for about 40 about how Satan was supernaturally changing reality and his biggest thing was that names of thing have changed! He thought Jif peanut butter was jiffy and just a few weird ones! He then talked about Paulina the transgender apostle it was an odd conversation  

Other than that nothing too exciting happened this week! Love y’all! Have great weeks! 

Elder Caleb Dewald

Nov 6, 2017

Hey y’all!

This week was kinda crazy! Had a meeting on Halloween, where we got trained on how to use Facebook and do online missionary work and it’s been pretty cool using it so far this week! It’s been a really good way to get ahold of people and it’s been cool to teach a few lessons over it! 

We also had a great lesson with one of our new investigators Raven! She is excited to learn more about god and we are excited to keep teaching her! 

We’ve also been working a ton with Elaine who is our investigator who has a baptismal date for December 23rd! We had about 3 lessons with her this last week! And she is doing pretty good! She also just had one of her cats have a litter of kittens and they are super cute! 

Other than that I can’t think of anything too exciting that happened! My memory gets worse and worse I swear well I had a pretty decent week! Hope y’all did too! 

Let me know if ya have any questions! 

Elder Caleb Dewald

Oct 30, 2017

Hello everyone!!! 

This week was pretty good! We had a good meeting with our ward mission leader last Monday that was interrupted by his bird landing on my head! I’ll send pictures of that in a little! 

Then the rest of this week a few exciting things happened we found this super dope girl named Raven who is friends with a bunch of the young women and is super excited to learn more and come to church! So that was pretty cool! 

Other than that we had a sweet ward party on Saturday! 

Then we got Facebook and started cleaning it out so we can start using it tomorrow!! So excited it’s gonna be so much easier to get ahold of people now we are also getting smart phones it’s gonna be so crazy here! But Elder Ferris and I are excited to get this new technology to help with the work!

Also, we had a super awesome lesson with Elaine! (The cat lady ) We talked to her about baptism and committed her to baptism on the 23rd of December!! It was awesome! other than that I can’t think of anything too crazy that happened! Got a few sweet pictures this week! Hope y’all had a great week and I love ya talk to ya next week! 

Elder Caleb Dewald

Oct 23, 2017

Hey y’all!!

This week was pretty good! Not too much exciting happened we have all the new people that came into the zone here at p day and that’s pretty fun!
Elder Oswald who was in my MTC district is in my zone now so that’s pretty awesome! I love that guy he super funny! And he likes weight lifting like me so we’re gonna get big this transfer   

Other than that we went to the mall and got roped into buying hand sanitizer at bath and body works because we made the mistake of walking in hmmm I’m trying to think what happened this week during the week
Nothing too exciting happened! We’ve just been trying to work with the people we’ve found already! Other than that no crazy stories or anything! I got some decent pictures this week!

Oct 16, 2017

Hey, Y'all!!

How the week going? 

First off I have something that President McAteer has asked we send home to all y’all!

Dear friends and family of the Washington Vancouver Mission: As most of you are probably aware, our mission has been chosen as a test mission for social media. We will begin to use facebook, skype, and other forms of social media to spread the gospel. There will be considerable temptation for the missionaries to use these platforms in ways that they were not meant to be used in our mission. I would ask you to continually encourage your missionaries to be obedient and faithful with the proper use of this technology. It has such incredible potential to move the work forward at a much faster pace, but as with any good thing if it is used incorrectly it can have detrimental effects. With that in mind, the Mission Presidency has authorized an official WVM facebook page to be able to more readily communicate with families of missionaries on a regular basis. We have become concerned of late over some of the things that Fred Swink has posted. He is the administrator of his Washington Vancouver Mission Facebook page and as such he has the ability to eliminate any posts that he does not like or that might not agree with his position on things. He does a great job of sharing photos and things about the mission and we love him for that, but sometimes he goes beyond the mark. There are a number of times that I have tried to post messages and they have been removed from his Facebook page. I hope that you will all join the “Official Washington Vancouver Mission” Facebook page. Sister Christianson, wife of the 2nd Councillor in the Mission Presidency, is the administrator. We hope to continue to post pictures of and insights into the lives and efforts of your missionaries. They are great and we love them!!! If you have any concerns about the mission please feel free to contact myself, our mission nurse or any of the mission staff. They will direct you to the information that you need. I am very confident in the capabilities of our mission staff and I can attest to you that their central focus is the health, welfare, and happiness of your missionaries. 
Thank You
Pres. Dennis McAteer

Okie doke so this week was pretty good! Nothing too crazy happened until Saturday when we were running around all day so the day started off with us going to a baptism in our ward for the sister missionaries! It was a way good baptism and Elder Ferris and I presented the Restoration afterwards! 

After that, we had a few lessons that went pretty good! And then we went to another baptism! for someone, I did the baptism interview for and it was really good too! This one lady say the same song at both baptisms so it was kinda funny cause the second time we knew the song! So it was really cool to be able to go to two baptisms in one day! Then after that, we had a few more lessons and it was just a really good busy, busy day! Oh this is funny too so we met with Elaine the lady with like 20 cats this week and we invited her to church and she said she didn’t know if she was gonna be able to make it because she might have to babysit a little girl that stays at her house! So we were like okay we’d love to see you if you can make it! Next day at church the little girl she was gonna babysit Maddie was at church with a friend it was hilarious! Sadly Elaine didn’t come but we’ll try and tease her about Maddie being there and invite her for next week!  She's such a sweet lady! 

Then the rest of Sunday was good! We went to the Chuukese meeting again to help out and support the young men! Then after that, we had dinner and then a few lessons! And that was about it nothing too crazy or exciting this week! Oh also we got transfer boards and elder Ferris and I are staying here to finish his training! So we’ll be in Kelso for another 6 weeks at least! 

Okay, love Y'all! Hope you have a great week! Let me know if ya have any questions! Love ya! 

Elder Caleb Dewald

Oct 9, 2017

Hey Y’all!! 

How are Y'all doing today?? This week has been pretty good we had a good week! We did some service on a ranch again this week! So that was pretty cool! 

We also had a crazy guy call us on the phone and rant to us about how there is only one God and how the Book of Mormon supports this and it was interesting the whole time I would try to say okay goodbye, in a nice way because I wasn’t trying to be rude or anything and he would like go off again and so I finally got off the phone with him after like 20min of him yelling and me just sitting there like what’s going on?? How did this man even get our number?? It was the weirdest thing  

Then on Saturday, we had a crazy packed day!!  

We had a sports morning with the Chuukese people and that was really fun! Then we went  to go to a lesson and I accidentally forgot my iPad on top of the car and by some miracle It didn’t fall off  until we were almost there! And I just saw something fall and I look back and I see it and flip a fast u-turn and and grab it and by some miracle it was undamaged!! It was a tender mercy then we had 4 great lesson in a row for the rest of the day!  It was a good day crazy busy but good! 

Then on Sunday, we had an interesting experience! We went to church in 3 different languages! Let me explain! So we obviously went to our ward and then the Chuukese group went to the Spanish branch for sacrament because they aren’t officially a group yet and the after the sacrament they had a testimony meeting in Chuukese! So because we are working with a few of the young men we went to the Chuukese meetings too and so we had church in English, sacrament in Spanish and then a testimony meeting in Chuukese it was awesome though I loved it! Then I had the chance to give a baptismal interview to a YSA guy and that was a good experience! 

Then after we went to dinner and it was cool the members had the horses and it was really cool to see them! 

So it’s been a good week!  There is probably more but I don’t remember now so I’m sorry love you all!! Have a great week! 

Oct 2, 2017

Hey y'all!! 

This week was pretty good! Had an awesome time watching General Conference! It was so good!! But I'll get to that later!! First the reason for the title! 

So this last week we met this sweet old lady named Elaine! She met us outside and then she invited us inside so elder Ferris, Tylor the new priest in our ward and me went in and found out this lady has 23 cats.. 23!!!    It was freaking crazy so then she introduced us to all of her cats by name and we talked to her about the gospel and the restoration. It was an interesting experience because the cats kept jumping up on her shoulder like they were parrots she even said that that's what they thought they were. It was odd but she is the nicest old lady ever and she rescued the majority of the cats that she has! She like fixes them up and puts them up for adoption so that's pretty cool! 

Other than that we had a bomb sports night this week and a ton of Chuukese people showed up to play so that was sweet! A ton of them showed up for General Conference on Sunday too!! So that was way cool!! 

Also, a drunk lady talked to us and that conversation was interesting to say the least.   

We also found a new family to teach who are way excited for us to come back on Tuesday! And also we had a great lesson with Erica and Joaquin and their little girls this last Saturday!! The spirit was really strong and we had a really good time with them! Then last night we met a man named Orlando and had a great lesson with him where he shared a lot of the trails he's had and we shared with him the refiner's fire video and talked to him about how God has protected him through his trails so he can help others! It was a good lesson! 

Other than that I can't think of anything super exciting that happened! We did take Tylor on splits twice! He's the young man so got the priesthood last week! 

So Conference! Let me see I loved so much of it!! 

A lot of what it seemed to be about what helping others and the power of the Book of Mormon in our lives! I loved the two reasons elder Uchtdorf gave for reasons to turn to God! 1 "your life will be better"  and 2 "you will make others lives better". Everyone has a role to play and everyone can be blessed and bless others in the gospel! And then Bonnie L. Oscarson "talked about service and said that the greatest opportunities to serve are right around us," "What good does it do to save the world if we don't help those around  us. " and "Service is noblest within the family, service within the family should be of highest priority. " I loved all of those things she said! She also talked about how we never know what others are going through and how we may not know what our service could mean for those around us so we should reach out to all those around us. We don't know who might be on the edge and putting on a show! We don't know who might be desperately in need of love but hides it. This stuck out to me a lot I think because there was a young man in Longview who took his life this last week. For all everyone knew he seemed happy. Just a normal teenager, but he must've been hurting in some way. Nobody in his family did anything wrong it wasn't anyone's fault. But it made me think and it highlighted the importance of reaching out to all those around us. You never know if someone might need your help. It also reminds me of something president Monson said once

"I have wept in the night

For the shortness of sight

That to somebody’s need made me blind;

But I never have yet

Felt a tinge of regret

For being a little too kind"

So yeah that's what I got out of Conference! I like a lot more than that but that's what stuck out to me the most!! 

Hope y'all had a great week!! Love ya tons! 

Elder Caleb Dewald

Sept 25,2017

 Well that's awkward  that empty email wasn't supposed to send 
Hey y'all how's it going? This week has been pretty good!
We did some service this week on a ranch! So a guy in the Spanish
branch could come to church! It was pretty fun! We took care of a
bunch of chickens and ducks and pigs !! It was way fun!! Then
later in the week, we found a new investigator who is an MMA fighter!
He's 2 fights away from going pro!  So he's pretty cool! We also found
a guy that is a rapper! He was just like rapping in his front yard and
we went up to say hi and he rapped for us about Jesus it was pretty
good! We're hoping he does a rap for us when we go back over cool
guy though!
Then on Friday, we met a guy who did welding art and it was legit! I
have some pictures of some of it!
Other than that we've just been working with the people we've got this
week! Nothing else really happened till Sunday when I got to give
Tylor a young man in our ward the priesthood! That was pretty sweet!
He's coming out with us on splits tonight! He's a good kid!
Then today we went to the beach as a zone! It was pretty cool! I got
some pictures we also drove across the longest bridge in he USA it's
like 4 miles long or something! It was crazy! We also went to this
place called the Astoria Coloma its like just this really tall tower
on top of a hill! Couldn't see a ton because it was pretty cloudy but
it was still pretty cool!
Over all pretty good week! Here are some pictures form the week!

We got to go ankle deep!!

Ranch life!

Sept 18,2017

 Hey y'all!
This week was really good!
We've been working hard and trying to find people to teach all week!
Tuesday night we had a little extra time we decided to pray and then
decided to stop by a less active member to meet them. That address
turned out to be a bust so we look at our map and picked another name.
That address was a bust too. So then we decided to stop by a potential
investigator who was nearby and they had moved but the family there
invited us back to share our message on Saturday! So the week goes on
and we are still trying hard to find people to teach. Saturday rolls
around and we show up to the lesson with the family we found on
Tuesday and they had two friends over who they promptly invited to sit
in on the lesson and they did! And now we have a lesson with all of
them next week! It was a miracle find and they are a wonderful family
and elder Ferris and I are so excited to keep working with them and
watching them grow!
Other than that I'm not sure what else happened this week  I know
there was other stuff! But I can't remember all of it 
Hope Y'all have a great week! Love ya!

Elder Caleb Dewald