Letter from Tacoma #57: November 28, 2016

Hey everybody! I might make this email a bit shorter because I've had a pretty rough morning. Last night there was a big storm going, which woke me and my companion up about three times during the course of the night... which ended up with both of us sleeping through the alarm and waking up when we were supposed to start studies!

So yeah, still super groggy.

Ugh!!! I miss Grandma and Papa's! Thanksgiving there looked like lots of fun!

Thanksgiving here was pretty good, too. We spent the morning and afternoon serving at the Lion's Club, a local community club in Ocean Shores. Every year they hold a big free Thanksgiving Dinner, so we helped set up and get the food ready. Here are some pictures:

The place before people arrived:

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We cut up all of these pies:

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A lot of people showed up:

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After we finished serving there, grabbing a nibble on our way out, we went to the Giles' for dinner. It was great! Sister Giles makes some reeeeeaally good mashed potatoes. I was stuffed by the first plate! And what really topped the day was we went back to our apartment, kicked off the shoes, and promptly passed out on the couch. It's been a while since I've gotten to take a nap after a big meal like that. Usually we'd be out knocking doors, but there was none that day. It was a peaceful end to the holiday.

Work here has gotten pretty hard, mostly because of the weather. The weather always gets worse when it's dark, and the problem is that it gets dark by 5:00 PM, which is when we're supposed to be out knocking doors. When it rains, you can bet it's going to be very windy, which makes for a freezing night, especially if your shoes are wet... now it just sounds like I'm complaining, isn't it?

Don't worry about me though. I've got a few coats, as well as some rain pants, both of which block both the wind and rain. The only part I'll need to fix is my footwear. I used to have boots that shielded from the rain very well, but the problem is I wore through those too! I think the soles were made from some kind of cheap material. I better get some new ones soon, because my current shoes keep getting soaked!

The work is going pretty well though, even if it is hard to find new investigators. Diane is still reading the Book of Mormon and this week we taught her about different things in the church like Eternal Marriage and Temples and Family History. She was very bewildered when it came to baptism's for the dead, so we'll probably talk to her more about it when we go back tomorrow.

Rosa is doing well, but she's expecting to go through surgery the second week of December, so I don't know how long she'll be gone for as she recovers from having both knees replaced. When we visited her this week, her broken sliding glass door was finally being replaced with a regular wood door and a new window. We also helped her clean out some shelves, which still had some rat poop in it. The house is actually looking a lot better than when we first saw it.

This week we also stopped by to visit some former investigators out of the blue, Andrea and Gordon. Back when we were teaching them, they were soooo solid! But they could never come to church because of Gordon's health and a bunch of other stuff going on in life, so they dropped us so they could focus on getting their life in order. That was back in September, I believe, so now we dropped by, and they were glad to see us. It wasn't a good time for us to visit, but they told us to come by later tonight. I'm looking forward to that.

And of course, I saved the best for last. One night when we were knocking a neighborhood in Ocean Shores, it was almost pitch black dark, save for the lights of the houses on the street. Elder Devenberg and I were going door to door, just like normal, armed with flashlights and rain gear, in case it began raining during this fairly calm night. We approached this one house, heading up the driveway, when suddenly we heard this strange noise.

It was a single cry, not too close, but it did not sound far away either. The closest description I could give of it is a short yelp, as if it came from a girl or a small child... but it didn't sound human. Both Elder Devenberg and I froze, exchanging glances as we thought, 'what the heck was that?'. Something didn't feel right. Immediately, both of us felt like we needed to leave. But why?

Suddenly, I remembered one of my past companions, Elder MacQueen, had told me of a time when he and his companion had been knocking out in the boondocks. They had been walking up a long dirt road in the dead of night, when suddenly they heard a sound like a child crying far ahead. His companion immediately grabbed him and dragged him back, saying that had been a cougar's cry. As those two had left, they heard a couple of dogs at a nearby house start barking their heads off at... something.

When that thought came to mind, I put two and two together and found, "Oh crap, that's a cougar."

Let's just say I speedwalked back to the car as quickly as possible, leaving my comp in the dust. I had heard of the locals say they've had a cougar in this area before, but I wasn't so sure how true that was, nor was I wanting to go confirm if it was. So, we drove away to the other side of town and knocked around there for the rest of the time. That was how I almost had a run-in with a cougar.

I love you all! Don't worry about me, because I'm obviously being looked out for!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary