Letter from Tacoma #19: March 7, 2016

 Hey everybody!

Happy Birthday Zac and Kennady! Just know I'll be missing one more of those before I can celebrate it with you again!

So, I've officially transferred over to Lakewood. And let me tell you, it is different. My area covers the heart of the city of Lakewood, and there are some parts here that I definitely wouldn't walk into if I wasn't wearing a missionary tag. Why? Well, I'll answer that by giving an account of what happened just two nights ago.

Right now I am in a foursome of missionaries. Me and Elders Clark, Ellis, and Evans were driving down into an area that's wedged right between I-5 and Joint Base Lewis-Mcchord. Among missionaries and the locals, the neighborhood is called Chocolate City, mostly for the large number of blacks living there. That night, we were going to check up on a potential investigator, so when we pulled up to the guy's apartment, Elders Ellis and Clark hopped out to knock on his door.

But from inside the car, Elder Evans and I noticed a police car coming down the street beside the complex. No big surprise, until we saw it park beside another patrol vehicle down the street. Then two cops hopped out, armed with big, bulky machine guns and tactical gear, and proceeded to walk down to the apartments across the street from us. They scanned all the cars parked along the way, checking the area with flashlights, and I was getting kind of sketched out by the time Ellis and Clark got back to the car.

Our investigator never answered, so we started driving out of Chocolate City. However though, during the half-mile drive back to the freeway, we passed by eight different police cars along the way. They had set up a perimeter around this ghetto neighborhood just to catch somebody or someone. That kind of says something about the area I work in, right? (Considering the fact there's a neighborhood even worse than Chocolate City)

Anyways, don't worry about me though. I'm doing great. Being with three other missionaries is a bit different, but it's surprisingly fun. Things get pretty crazy, but I'll tell you about that some other time. I've still got limited time to write, and I had to use some of it to teach Kylie about Minecraft.

Sorry, I haven't taken any pictures week! Still getting into the routine of things!

And I'm thinking I'm just going to have everybody send my mail to the mission office. It'll be much easier that way. I'll get the mission office address in my next email, but until then,

Thanks for reading!

Love you all!

Elder R. Austin Moe