Letter from Tacoma #69: February 20, 2017

Hey Family and Friends!

This week has been exhausting!!! I'm am literally aching, and I really haven't done anything too strenuous or physically demanding at all this week... well, besides missionary work. But that still wouldn't make any sense because I don't think I'm working any harder than I did last transfer. This past week I've been super tired, esspecially while working. I have been going to be earlier a few times this week, which seems to help a little bit, but it immediately gets just as bad later on... Maybe I just need to get to bed at 9:30 every night. We'll see if that helps.

Anyways, besides it being tiring, this week went fairly well. Unfortunately, Harrison still doesn't want to commit to being baptized. We met with him on Friday night and reviewed the Restoration of the Gospel with him again, this time having him explain it to us. I think it really helped because during the lesson he had a vague idea of what it all was and meant, but now he has a bit of a better understanding. He didn't come to church this week, probably because he either went to his girlfriend's church again or he's practicing basketball. He's on the High School team, and right now they're doing really well. They may go to State to play from what we heard on Friday. He's excited for that, but that also means we might not get to see him this week.

On Wednesday we had Zone Meeting, but just before the meeting we had interviews with President Blatter. I was the very first to meet with him in the morning. As always, the interview was pretty short, just letting him know that I was doing well and liking the area. But later on, apparently he told one of my companions this, he said that he was impressed by how much I had progressed in the past couple of transfers. I have a vague idea of what he's talking about, considering how much I work in this area compared to my past areas, but I don't think I've gotten that much better.

Oh yeah, and speaking of one of my companions, my last companion in Ocean Shores, Elder Devenberg, drew me this for my Birthday!

It's Twilight Sparkle Vs. Mewtwo! How awesome is that!

As far as the work goes, this week was good. There's a couple of cool moments that popped up that stood out to me. In both cases, I was with Elder Kido, who doesn't talk a lot because he's not confident in his English, so I basically handled this situations myself.

The first was while knocking doors between 5-7 on Friday night. It was near the start of knocking this neighborhood when we knocked on this one gentleman's door. He came out, talking very loudly and making sure it was evident that he wasn't interested in hearing our message. He told us that he had a friend who was a mormon, but mentioned that whenever religion was brought up, he could never agree with him. Immediately, he went on asking us questions, to try to prove his point as to why our faith made no sense.

But as he asked his questions, I surprised myself by holding my ground. The answers I needed at each of those questions came so clearly to me. As I spoke them to the man, they actually caught his attention and he began to calm down, and by the end of our conversation, he was genuinely interested in listening to what I had to say.

I could see where he was coming from, mostly because of others who have said the same things in the past that he brought up. He was Christian, and he had a firm faith in Jesus Christ. One of his concerns was that he heard that Mormons worked their way into heaven, and that it wasn't by Christ alone that we are saved. It was that point in particular that seemed to be a stumbling block for him.

But I explained to him that it is only through Christ that we are saved, if we have faith in him. We don't do good works merely because we think that'll advance us into heaven in the same way you would work your way to the top of a business company. We do good works because of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is because we believe he is the son of God, and that he comanded us to do these things, that we are baptized, that we serve others, that we go out on missions to share the gospel. Without faith, none of these things could be done, so in that way, yes, we are saved by having and exercising our faith in Jesus Christ.

At the end of our conversation, he was very calmed and much more friendly. He seemed impressed by us and realizing that he had been presumptious about our religion, he told us that he was going to do some more research.

He didn't become an investigator, but I'm still sure that moment had a profound meaning for his life. As we walked away, my legs felt very light, but weak and shaking. I was on a spiritual high and that whole night passed by very quickly. The spirit had been so strong during that conversation, and thank goodness for that because I definitely could not have said what I did on my own.

The second event was yesterday night. Sunday nights usually consist of us dropping off the ZL's at the Stake President's house and then going out working for the rest of the night. This night, our other plans fell through, and so we were left to figure out what to do. Typical.

So, we decided to stop by a potential investigator's place, who we hadn't been able to make contact with for the past two weeks.His name is Gordon. This time, though, he happened to be home and he let us in. Elder Kido and I taught him the Restoration of the gospel, though it was mostly just me because, again, Elder Kido isn't that confident in his English.

But still, the lesson was great. Gordon had a lot of good questions, some of which I'll have to look up before we go back to see him next week. He committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and he seems very genuine about it. Near the end of the lesson, he was curious about us missionaries, and it led into a nice conversation. I told him about how I planned to go to USU after the mission to be a pilot, and other things. I can't wait to see him again next Sunday, I hope he reads.

So, in both cases, I was left to teach on my own, and to my surprise I handled it well. Hey, I'm finally a decent missionary!

Here's a cool picture I got during a sunset while we were out knocking.​

Still waiting for Spring.

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary