Letter from Tacoma #60: December 19, 2016

 Merry Christmas everybody!

I'm excited to talk to you guys back home on Sunday!

This week was pretty fun, too... except I was sick for the first bit of it. I was alright on Monday, enough to go to Zone Activity and play some games there with the other missionaries in Elma. We played chair soccer, or at least, I watched the other missionaries play chair soccer, which was still hilarious to watch. But afterwards I was feeling good enough to join in for a game of Signs. Ah, it just brought back memories of home, especially when we'd play it with the foster boys.

But after zone activity, we went on exchanges with Raymond. So, I went back to Ocean Shores with Elder Zhou... Now, Elder Zhou is a good kid, very smart and intellectual, and a way more dedicated missionary than I am. I mean, he will stop at nothing to be exactly obedient all the time...which turned out to be a bad thing sometimes. His only problem is that common sense goes completely over his head.

So we went back to Ocean Shores, still had some time left before the end of the night, so we stopped by and visited Andrea and Gordon. We had a nice chat, but we weren't able to talk for long. But we did talk about expectations concerning the lessons, like "What should we prepare for each time you come by?", which was an awesome question to ask. So, we told them everything they needed to know about next time we'd come by, and we scheduled and appointment for Wednesday.

Tuesday, I woke up and I just felt terrible, worse than I did yesterday. So I tried to continue on through studies, but that didn't work too well because I wanted to pass out at my desk. So when it came time to head out the door, and Elder Zhou was just rearing to go at this point, but I put my foot down and told him I was taking a nap for the morning, and then we'd continue the rest of the day like we had planned. Thankfully Elder Zhou relented and I passed out for about two hours. I didn't mean to sleep so long, but I was feeling good enough to work (After taking some flu medicine, mind you).

So we went out and saw Diane, and that visit we didn't read anything like she had expected. We just talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement, about Grace, and also about the spirit and how to recognize its promptings. She seemed to understand it all, and we left her with the task that whenever she felt the spirit, she needed to pay attention to where she was, what she was doing, what she was thinking, anything that would show why she was feeling it.

After that, we went street contacting, but it was freezing!!! I checked the temperature, and apparently this whole week it's been in the 30's in Ocean Shores. This is the coldest Winter they've had in years! After that, a member, Sister Ellsworth, took us out to eat at the Lucky Dragon.

But as we ate dinner, I'm pretty sure the medicine I took was wearing off. I didn't have much of an appetite to begin with, but I began to gradually crash where I was sitting in the booth, just coughing and sneezing, feeling aches and chills everywhere. Sister Ellsworth, sharp as ever, noticed and immediately told us to take the rest of the night off. I wasn't going to argue, but Elder Zhou was flustered. Apparently he had no idea how he was going to convince Sister Ellsworth I was still well enough to work. Finally, he submitted, but not after asking me, 'Are you sure you're not feeling good enough to knock doors?' about five times. (Now, just read that question with an Asian, Loony Tunes' Elmer Fudd voice. That describes perfectly how Elder Zhou talks)

So, we took dinner to go and went home. Sister Ellsworth called Bro. Christensen to come give me a blessing, which I appreciated a lot. Then, I retired for the night. But it was kind of funny and sad to see how stressed Elder Zhou got when he couldn't go out and work. I could tell he was miserably bored, and obviously failing to find something to do. I feel a bit sorry that he came for exchanges right when I got sick. As for me, I passed out till morning.

Wednesday, we woke up (feeling a whole lot better, I might add), did studies, and went off to District Meeting. Got Elder Devenberg back to finish the longest exchange of both mine and Zhou's life. (I mean that both figuratively and literally. Exchanges only normally last a night and a day, not two) That District Meeting though, I don't know what got into us, but that was the wildest D Meeting we've ever had. It was hilarious... well, hilarious for everyone except Zhou, but that's understandable.

Unfortunately, that night Andrea and Gordon had to cancel our appointment, because Andrea had to leave unexpectedly for something, but she never told us for what. So that night we just visited with members, had a good time there.

Thursday, weekly planning! And also, we were invited to the Senior Center for lunch and also for the birthday party of one older gentleman who normally eats there. His name is Arnold, and he just turned 93. He has some awesome stories, like how he had served as a spy in the military during one of the old wars (I think it was WW2). He's a really funny person. Other than that, the rest of the day was pretty normal.

Friday, we went back to the Senior Center to help serve lunch. As always, I made my garlic bread, but unfortunately I let one of the pans sit in there a little to long and some of the bread got singed here and there. But it was still good. We were on our own doing finding and other missionary activities, but nothing turned up.

Saturday, a very busy day for us. We were out finding all morning and afternoon, but then we rushed over to the church to set up for our branch's Christmas Potluck that night. We got all the tables and chair set up in the cultural hall. Meanwhile the branch presidency came and started preparing the food. So, Elder Devenberg and I rushed back to the apartment, made a tray of brownies, plopped them on a plate and hurried back.

When we made it back, we found it was a packed house! Almost the whole branch was there, and then some. There were some less-actives I knew there, too, and Andrea, Gordon, AND Diane came, too. Oh man, it was a party. There was singing, games, lots of food, kids running around, just overall Christmas Craziness. Everyone enjoyed themselves, even our investigators... though maybe we partied a little too hard because the next morning, only about half of the people there showed up to church before we partook of the sacrament, and none of our investigators showed up at all.

But the rest of the day went pretty well on Sunday. We had dinner at President Baron's house, then went knocking. Then we visited the Mcara's, since we didn't see them at the potluck, and we played a round of Dominion with them. (I finally won, with a score of 48! That's the first time I've ever won that game)

But yeah, that was my week. Before I leave on that note,

Merry Christmas from Ocean Shores:

Love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary