Letter from Tacoma #54: November 7, 2016

 Hey everybody!!

This is how my week went:

Monday: HAllOWEEN! After emailing we went shopping for groceries, then we traveled back to Ocean Shores for a Halloween party! The Ramirez' family put on a fun, small party with a few other families in the branch. They had great food and lots of games. That was the first time I went bobbing for apples. I didn't get the most apples, but I absolutely wrecked everybody in limbo... My legs were sore from that for the next day or two though. We partied there until the end of the night.

Tuesday: We had to run to Aberdeen in the afternoon for interviews with the Mission President. We were the last ones to be interviewed, but there was no way we'd drive all the way back to Ocean Shores because we had another meeting that night in Elma, which is even farther out past Aberdeen. So, we just worked in Aberdeen, even though it's the ZL's area. It was an interesting change of scene, but I liked it. We never knocked into a single vacation home there. I wonder why (Sarcasm)

The meeting that night was a very quick one with all of the missionaries and ward/branch councils of the Elma stake, regarding member missionary work. I think it worked to get the members more aware of what they can do. The first step overall is just being friends with those around you, in your community. Oh, and by the way, Way to go Mom and Dad, looking out for missionary moments!

Wednesday: District Meeting! My companion, Elder MacQueen, gave a great training about the atonement and how we apply it in our lives. Everyone catches on the fact that Christ's sacrifice does redeem us from our sins, but another big part of the atonement is healing. Through Jesus Christ, we can apply the atonement to heal any broken part of our lives, broken relationships, broken dreams, broken hearts, anything.

That afternoon, we visited Diane, and she just seemed down on herself. She was moping about her husband who took her kids and left her 30 YEARS AGO. It was just ridiculous how she was holding onto that hurt for that long! We told her about the atonement and the gospel, what we had learned about in District Meeting that day, and how she can be healed. She then tried to use her other problems as excuses, like autism, or PTSD, or Aspergers. But we replied simply and boldly that she can be happy and joyful with those things in her life. Her problems don't have to rule her life, and Jesus Christ can raise her up and bless her so she can deal with everything with a smile on her face.

She's come a long way, even more so in her Book of Mormon reading. She's already in 2 Nephi. That's really good! Hopefully we get to see her again this week.

Thursday: Weekly Planning!... But, I derped today, harder than I have derped in a while... just look for yourself:

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Yeah... so, we were trying to park on the street that we were going to knock. So I see this patch of open dirt and I'm all like, "Oh, there's a good place to park" So I pull onto it, only to find the nose of the car sink down into it like nothing is there!  This wasn't dirt. it was sand, that the city filled a ditch with for apparently no reason. I'm serious, we talked to somebody on that street about it, and even they don't know why they'd fill in a perfectly good ditch with SAND! GAH!

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We couldn't back out because when we tried, it just dug the right tire deeper into the ditch. Eventually we got in contact with Bro Wikan who has a winch on his Jeep, but that wasn't for another hour, so we just knocked the street while we waited and my anxiety and frustration at myself was way high. But thankfully we got it out without too much trouble when Bro. Wikan found us, and it doesn't look like there was any damage either.

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Our car troubles didn't stop there, though. After we got the car out and started driving again, we noticed that the whole car was shaking when we got it up to speed, especially on the right side. We brought it to the Wikan's, where Bro. Wikan took a look at it. He used to be a mechanic, but even after jacking up the front of the car, he couldn't tell what it was.

Our vehicle coordinator was already out of the Mission Office by that time at night, so we had to wait until the next day to call him and see what he wanted us to do about it.

Friday: We called Elder Colven at the office, and he told us to take the car to Les Schwab Tires. The closest one is in Aberdeen, but there's a problem with that. The car couldn't go more than 35 MPH without starting to shake badly, and the only way to get there is by taking the highway. So, we just drove the whole way with the hazard lights on, letting everybody pass us. It took about an hour, but we finally made it to Les Schwab... only for them to tell us our problem: Sand had gotten in between the tire and the hubcap, so the weight distribution was throwing the wheel out of alignment and shaking the car.

But they cleaned it out for free, so that was good. The rest of the day went smoothly after that. Nothing but street contacting and knocking doors.

Saturday: We did a bunch of finding activities, until we had to get ready for Elma's Stake Conference, Saturday Adult Session. Another long drive, but the session was great. We had Elder Joseph W. Sitati of the Seventy come speak to us. He's from Kenya, and he has a super thick accent, but he had a lot of great messages and insights. The last hour of the session he left open for Q&A, and there were a bunch of good questions.

I especially liked the first one that was asked, "Why did Heavenly Father wait so long to give Blacks the Priesthood." Elder Sitati first replied with, "Honestly, I'd like to know that myself," before giving a pretty drawn out answer about how he came to know the church was true, and how he trusted that feeling. He then pulled out the parable of the workmen, where there were some who came later in the day and worked, but received just as much as the ones who were there the whole day. He explained that this was much like how the black people of the church weren't able to work as members of the Priesthood until 'later in the day', and how either way, everyone will receive the same salvation.

He answered the same question again along the lines of, "I'm black, yet I don't care about it, so why should you? I trust that sometime, whether during or after this life, I will learn why myself."

After the session, there was no chance we were driving back to Ocean Shores, only to return to the Stake Center the next morning, so we stayed at the ZL's house to save on miles and time... But apparently every Elder in the Zone had the same idea. We had twelve Elders in that tiny house, so it was pretty crazy. Of course, I immediately searched out the most comfortable patch of carpet and staked my claim for the night... it wasn't that comfortable though, but still fun.

Sunday: Despite having twelve missionaries in one house, with only one shower, everybody managed to get ready to go within an hour and a half of waking up. All of us were actually pretty surprised how we did that. We showed up early to save seats for the Branch. And the session was great as well. Mission President Blatter got to speak in it as well, followed by Stake President Larsen, and then Elder Sitati. All of these guys have a lot of authority, but all of them are very kind and loving of the people around them. Elder Sitati spent the half an hour before the session going around the chapel and talking to members who showed up early, which I thought was cool. Just shows that all of the church leaders are people as well, and not just figures we place on a pedestal. They were all called by God, because He qualified them to lead His church.

So yeah, pretty interesting week, and a lot going on, but we managed to get better numbers this week in the work than we have in the past two. I'm still trying to figure out how it worked out that way.

Also, transfer calls this Saturday. What will it be? Will I stay in Ocean Shores for a fourth transfer, spending Thanksgiving AND Christmas here? Or will I go somewhere else for the holidays?

I have no idea.

I love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary