Letter from Tacoma #3: November 16, 2015

 Hey everyone! You may have already noticed this, but this week I took the liberty of sending this email to everyone in our immediate family, so you don't have to worry about them getting it, Mom!... Though then again, I think that kind of complicates your pre-set list of people you forward my emails home to a bit. Oops, I regret nothing!

So this week actually was a bit of a slow one, surprisingly. I think it had to do with the fact that we hardly have any investigators to begin with, and finding new people to teach is really difficult in an area where they're so spread out like this one. I thought it was kind of ironic, but just yesterday at church, one of the men in Elders' Quorum said tracting was one of the least effective ways to find new investigators. The reason why that's ironic is because here in the Wa-Tac, Tracting, or how we call it 'Knocking', is the sole reason we get 60% of our baptisms here, and one of our mission mottos is "And in the Wa-Tac, we baptize!" Anyways, I just pray that we find some new investigators soon, because for the past three weeks I've been here, we haven't gotten one.

But hey, that just means more time to focus on the ones we do have! And just this last Saturday was my first baptism! His name is Blake, and the way he was introduced to the church was through his mom and step-dad, the Browns, who are like super members. Seriously, their story of conversion through the gospel is amazing! Both of them were probably as bad as you could get, everything from drugs, to alcohol, to prison, and to just about every action in between that the adversary uses to drag people down to the depths of misery. But as soon as they learned the truth of the gospel, within two years, they've made a complete turnaround and are now preparing to go to the temple to have their family sealed together. Part of the reason Blake is now baptized is because he saw the drastic change it had on them, and he was so excited to learn what it was that changed them that much.

Though, no, I didn't actually go down into the font with him, but I did confirm him at church the next day. However, it was kind of funny because during the confirmation, they didn't have a microphone I could use, so I had to almost yell to carry my words across the chapel. Thank goodness for TKD and learning how to speak from your diaphragm, cause I don't think anyone would've been able to hear me. But I think it was a good experience for Blake, because if I had to muster that power behind my words, it was more of a physical manifestation to the power and authority by which he was receiving the Holy Ghost through. But long story short, he's really happy to be on the same page of life as his family now. And better yet, he got baptized on his 18th birthday, so that was really awesome too. 

Speaking of which, Elder Hansen and I are going to be heading over to the Brown's tonight for FHE. Can't wait to get there!

Oh yes, and there's something else I've noticed about my area. There aren't very many youth in this area. It's wonder if you see a group of five or more walking down the street together, but that's not even when the school buses are dropping them off at their streets. Mostly everyone here is retired or just pure country folk that really like their privacy. Though half of each are extremely polite, while the other half of both groups want nothing to do with missionaries. I'm not kidding when I say every other house has somebody saying, "Oh yeah, you're Mormons, right? Well, we're not interested, but we really appreciate everything you do. You're a bunch of good lads. etc." while the ones in between grumble, "Get off mah doorstep or I'll sick Ripper on ya!" (Ripper was an odd dog, a mix between a Great Dane and a Rottweiler, but still huge!)

Oh yeah, I've had a couple guns pulled on me. Did I mention that? Well, I mean, the first one was just the ward mission leader, so I guess that doesn't count.

But no worries, all is well! Nobody has fired yet or anything, and I'm doing my best to stay out of trouble! And don't worry, the Lord protects his servants, so long as they remain obedient... huh, I guess that gives me a bit more incentive to get out of bed at 6:30 in the morning, doesn't it? Nonetheless, I'm having a blast out here! (Oh, no, not literally, Mom.) It's awesome being out here in a different setting, but it's also great to hear what's going on back home!

So, we're finally moving out furniture at last? Guess you're really mission my extra pair of hands to make the work light, but I'm a bit sad as well because I won't be there to see the house of my childhood emptied out and bare. Oh well, no turning back now. Good luck hauling stuff without me! 

I'm missing everyone so much right now! I can't wait to hear what's going on back home from letters from Mom and Dad, thank you so much for those! But I feel like there's a lot I'm missing still, like small enjoyable parts taken out of a storybook. If anyone else can, I'd like to see everyone writing letters, but not just to me, to everyone in this family! It's your own decisions, I know, and I respect if you'd rather not, but I think it'd be something fun we could do together, even though we aren't all in the same place.

Oh yeah, and lastly, Mom, Dad, if it's possible, could you send me two things? One would be the red, black, and white quilt Grandma made for me, wherever that may be since you moved it out of my room. I think I might be able to sleep better at night with it, but also it might give me some inspiration, because every Tuesday we help out with Humanitarian work with the Relief Society by sewing quilts! (Yay, I'm actually learning how to sew something!)

And the other thing would be some piano or orchestra music to listen to. Anything will do on that list from the mission president, but also look up stuff by "William Joseph". He's an LDS pianist, and Elder Hansen has some music from him and it's amazing! I'm loving music right now, though you can only listen to MoTab for so long. :)

I'm running out of time here, so I'd love to hear back from anyone who has the chance to write to everyone.

Thanks for reading!

--

Elder R. Austin Moe