Letter from Tacoma #68: February 13, 2017

Hey Everybody!

Man, it was cold this week! But through the struggles the weather presented, I learned something: Snow is fun; rain, I can deal with; but rain when there's snow already on the ground, complete and utter misery. Never before have I gotten my shoes completely soaked through and have my toes become numb like I've been walking through the snow in bare feet.

Yeah, this week was pretty hard. It snowed until Tuesday afternoon, and then after that it continued to rain. But even then the snow stuck around until about Friday, which was surprising considering how much it rained. During this whole week, it's been nothing but dark and cold, and it seemed like everyone we talked to felt that; There was hardly anyone who even wanted to carry a conversation on the doorstep.

But finally Sunday came, and how glorious it was:

​It was so bright and sunny, I could barely see because my eyes were so used to the gray, cloudy days. It felt so nice to work out in. Made me excited for working in the summer. I'm glad that the winter's almost gone because this was my last winter as a missionary. This was one of the worst times to work, but from here on out it'll be great conditions to go out and work all the way until the day I fly home. Ooh, I'm excited just thinking about it.

Work was alright. Probably the highlight of the week was transfers. We started a new week with a new companion. Elder Gerber was transferred down to Sinclair View Ward, and instead we got Elder Kido!

​He's from Osaka, Japan. He's only been out for seven months, three of which he spent in Japan while he waited for his visa. Beforehand, he had been learning English for a year at UVU, so he's pretty familiar with how things work in America, and also his English is way good. He isn't too confident in his English language.

It's been fun working with him and learning what life was like for him back in Japan. He's watched a lot of the anime I have, and he likes video games. He loves swimming, which is great because out here it's so wet that you might as well have jumped into a lake. I've been telling him about Ryan and how he served in Fukuoka.

It's so cool when he speaks in Japanese! We found out very quickly that he was definitely transferred here for a reason. The night he got here, we found this lady who's actually from Japan, but her husband is in the Navy so he got transferred over to here. She's been feeling homesick, but as luck would have it we now had a missionary here who can speak her native language! Her name is Tami, and Elder Kido got to teach her last Friday. Apparently it went really well, but she wants to talk to her husband about it before learning any more.

Also, at church in Silverdale 1st Ward, there was a member who gasped when she heard Elder Kido was from Japan. Apparently she has a friend who is also from Japan who lives in the area, and she had been trying to teach her friend about God. However, her friend is Buddist, and not to mention her English is subpar, so a Japanese missionary seemed to be a blessing from God for her situation. She's referred us over to her friend and we hope to see her later this week.

As for our other investigators... Harrison is... Well, it's become an odd situation that requires a lot of patience. He went to the catholic church this week with his girlfriend again, and I think he'll be going there one more time next week. He knows that the LDS church is true, and he knows he needs to be baptized, but this is a really hard decision for him. He knows that once he's baptized, he'll want to marry in the temple, but he knows he can't do that with his catholic girlfriend. So if he gets baptized and yet still continues to date her, he feels it would be unfair to her because it wouldn't go anywhere. But he loves her and giving her up doesn't sit right with him either. I personally think he's scared to make the decision, and putting it off by going to her church for a little while would make it worse, I think.

There are a lot of prayers going around the Ward for him. I just hope he finally comes to a decision soon. He has asked that we still meet with him a few times a week; He asked us, mind you, so that's a good sign. Just keep praying for him and we'll continue to do what we can. The members of Brownsville Ward are definitely wanting to get involved with this, so that's the plan for tonight: We'll be meeting with Harrison at a member's house tonight and see if they can provide any wisdom for him.

Oh yeah, and today for P-Day, I finally went and got me a Costco Card!!! I can't believe I put it off for this whole time, but oh well. At least now I'll have my membership for another 4 months after the mission, too. But it's great! I have bought all the food I'll need for the rest of the month... and now Elder Kido owes me $50; Apparently he'd never been to Costco before, so he grabbed a big package of bacon and a huge bottle of protein powder, which I ended up paying for because I was the only one out of the two of us with a costco card. Oh well, I had enough money for both of us.

So, yeah! That's all from me! This week we have interviews with President, so I'm looking forward to talking with him a little.

Also, Happy Valentine's Day!

Love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary