Letter from Tacoma #65: January 23, 2017

 Hey Family!

I'm glad to see everything back home is going good.

The house is looking awesome, and all the little kids are looking as adorable as ever.

I'm really glad to hear that Eric is active in his ward now, especially after this week. This week we've been spending a little time trying to visit less-active members, and in every single case I notice that these people aren't... joyful. They're either just content, or they just look like they could care less about the world. I know I wouldn't want to be like that.

This P-Day a few members who are part of the Navy, took our zone on a tour of an Aircraft Carrier. It's the USS Nimitz, which is in port for renovations. It was super cool. I got a lot of pictures. It was really awesome to see a giant ship like that and see how the Navy lives on deployment, but I was the most interested in everything about the actual aircrafts onboard.

... Unfortunately the fleet that usually accompanies this ship is based out of California, so while the ship is in port here, the fleet is down there. So no actual planes, but there is the husk of one on deck, which the crew and mechanics practice on, doing drills and whatnot. In one of the pictures is the empty hole in the plane where one of the jet engines would have gone.

The carrier was amazing. Up close, you can really tell it's literally like someone stuck an airport on top of a ship. There's a runway, an aircraft control tower, a hanger beneath the deck (I got a picture looking down at the elevator that brings the planes up to the runway. It's the one with the orange crane on it). The rest of the ship wasn't that bad either.

Not a lot else happened this week. It all actually went so fast that I can't really remember all that happened. But there was one event that stuck out to me, which I think highly of.

On Friday, we met with one of our investigators at our church building. His name is Harrison, and he's been taught all the lessons. He just won't commit to baptism yet. So we wanted to talk to him a bit more and figure out just what all was holding him back.

During the meeting, we got to talking, and he taught us right out that he knew this church was true. He had never felt comfortable with any church he'd been to, except this one. He knows he needs to be baptized, but he wanted to wait and see how his life panned out. He's in his Senior year in High School, and he has a catholic girlfriend who won't marry outside of her faith, which he's curious to see if their relationship could go any farther. With an uncertain life as an adult approaching, he wants to make the best decision when he can see everything.

So, we talked to him about the reason why we're baptized. We aren't baptized to show a commitment to a church or faith. We are baptized to make a covenant with God, a promise to take his name upon us and commit to follow Him. With this promise, God promises as well to give us the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

In Harrison's case, with all these crucial life decisions coming, it's even more important that he be baptized so he can have the Holy Ghost to be his guide. It was a very free discussion, and every bit of it was guided by the spirit, even more so than in any lesson I've ever been in. We committed Harrison to pray sincerely about it, to ask Heavenly Father specifically to know when he should be baptized. When we pray specifically about things, God gives us specific answers.

That was a really cool experience, and I know that Harrison is ready to be baptized. I just hope he really prays about it, because I know God will answer him in his due time.

Love you all!

Thanks for reading! 

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary