Letter from Tacoma #71: March 6, 2017

Hey Family!

I'm glad to hear the move went good. It's weird to think you guys have been living with Ryan and Katrina for over a year now, but now that's changing. I hope it doesn't take to long to get the whole place organized and liveable.

My week went well, and this time I made sure that I remember what happened each day:

Monday: After emailing, we grabbed a whole bunch of food from Costco, and then headed back to the Stake Center for Zone Activity. We played hockey in the gym, and for the most part I played as goalie. I got pretty good at blocking shots, but some of these Elders can make some powerful shots. I walked away from the game with a whole bunch of welts and some red knees. And I took a way hard shot to the inside of my left leg, and for the majority of the week I still felt it and I walked around everywhere with a bit of a limp. But it was still fun.

Tuesday: We got a call in the morning from a former investigator named Daryl. He wanted us to come by and help him cut a log on his property into lumber. He said he needed help operating a four foot long chainsaw! We went over a couple hours later to help, but when we got there, he was already done with what he needed! He showed us his chainsaw, which was as long as he said it was, though it was meant to be operated by two people. However, after he had called us, he managed to find a way to operate it himself using a bunch of ropes and pulleys. For an old guy, he's pretty resourceful.

So, since there was no service to be done, he treated us to lunch and talked with us for a bit. Not much came of it, but it was a nice, friendly chat. Not much else went on during the day, though.

Wednesday: We had District Meeting in the morning, which was good. We talked about the Doctrine of Christ, and how the most important part of the gospel is using all the principles and ordinances together, because that's how you'll really get the most out of it, and how you'll become truly converted to it. Afterwards we were going to do service for another older gentleman named John. We've cut wood for him before, and we were hoping to do so today, but he was asleep when we got there. His wife said that he hadn't gotten much sleep last night, so we'd have to come back another day to work for him.

So that's twice this week we weren't able to do service. What are the odds of that?

Thursday: Weekly Planning day. That usually takes up a lot of time, so we only had time to knock some doors before we had dinner. Nobody signed up to feed us that night, so we were on our own. After eating dinner at the apartment, we went to knock 5-7's. I went knocking with Elder Pisciotta, but after a half an hour he began throwing up his dinner. He has an inflamed stomach still, and he just got some new medicine to help keep his food down, but apparently he ate something that his stomach did not like at all. So the two of us headed back to the apartment, and Elder Pisciotta was out of commission for the rest of the night. That day ended up being a very short-lived day as far as work went.

Friday: Elder Pisciotta and Simkins drove down to Tacoma for Missionary Leadership Council. Meanwhile, Elder Kido and I went on exchanges with the Silverdale 2nd Elders. I spent most of it with the district leader, Elder Struble. He was in my MTC district, and we'd pass by eachother every once in a while during the mission, so we had fun catching up on what we'd done since then. It was a fun exchange; we knocked an apartment complex and almost got kicked out by the manager, we did some street contacting around the Silverdale mall, and a non-member took us out to lunch at this great burger place! (Though at the end we realized he only did it because he wanted to bash us about how we're trying to work our way to heaven, and how we 'really don't need to repent because we're saved anyways'. Seriously, it's so annoying how so many people misunderstand that about us)

Saturday: This was a very weird Saturday. We did a lot of knocking that day, probably knocked on doors for most of the day, but I noticed that there was very few people that were even home, or that even answered their doors, even fewer than normal. I guess there was something big, or a lot of big things going on that day. We knocked into this one lady, who seemed like she was in the process of getting ready to go out. But she was dressed in a costume from a video game called Bioshock: Infinite, so I guess there was some kind of convention going on today somewhere. But then I also remembered that today the new Nintendo Switch console came out, so I assumed some people would either be gone or shut themselves in to play that.

Either way, knocking was unproductive. But then we tried seeing most of our investigators throughout the day, and not a single one of them were home or available. It was kind of frustrating. This had to be the most unproductive Saturday ever!

Sunday: Elder Simkins and I went to the Silverdale 1st Ward yesterday. Though something cool that happened was this non-member just walked in and sat down in the chapel, about twenty minutes before sacrament. His name is Danny and he lives across the street from the church in an apartment complex. He came to church because he wanted to see what it was like. We had a good testimony meeting, which was slow at first. But after this one primary girl bore a way powerful testimony for someone her age, a whole mass of six people got up all at once to speak. It was a cool experience, and I'm sure Danny enjoyed it. He only stayed for Sacrament, but we caught him on the way out to thank him for coming.

Unfortunately, Danny lives in the 2nd Elders' area, so we can't tract into him ourselves. We didn't get any contact info, so we just have to hope he either comes again or 2nd finds him.

Gospel Principles class was awesome. The lesson today was about the Atonement, and the teacher, Bro Mickel, did something that I thought was really cool. He had the whole class close their eyes as he read aloud the section in the Gospel Principles book about Christ suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross. As he read, I could visualize it clearly, and I was able to picture the scene in greater detail than I have before... it was... awe-inspiring to think about. A deep sense of gratitude came into my heart, and it was apparent that everyone else felt it.

At the end of the day we had a "Why I Believe" Fireside. Those are always a lot of fun. We sung a few of my favorite songs, and the spirit was very strong as recent converts got up and bore their testimony and told about their conversion story. One of the speakers was just confirmed that day, and his testimony was probably the best one out of the program. My favorite part of his testimony was, "I know there are a lot of people, even myself in the past, that say that this fait is a cult... well, let me tell you... the latter-day saint church has nothing to do... with a cult. It has everything to do with family. with love. and with peace." Those last three points were spoken with such conviction, even I got shivers from it. It was way awesome. And one of the best parts was the fact the Harrison showed up to it! I wasn't able to talk to him myself, but I was just glad that he was there to experience it.

It was way sad, too. One of my past companions, Elder MacQueen, goes home in two weeks. At the end of the fireside, he realized that this was his last one on the mission, and immediately began bawling. We hugged it out, and he calmed down, but it's way sad when everything does come to an end. I'll miss him when he goes home. I'll be sure to visit him after the mission, though I'm not sure when because he lives in Baton Rogue, Louisiana.

Then, to end the night, Elder Kido and I played a little joke on Elders Pisciotta and Simkins. You see, they have in their possession a large American Flag and a set of three throwing knives. These two things were stolen in the past by a couple of missionaries, and when that happened the two of them got way mad. Eventually they got the items back.

That night, however, that missionary who stole them before just got called to be emergency transferred to another area. But at the Fireside, he had joked that he'd swing by our place on the way down and take the flag and the knives with him. It was only a joke, but that's where my idea came into view.

After the Fireside, We dropped Elders Pisciotta and Simkins off at Bishop Byron's house, where they discuss missionary work and report numbers to the office every Sunday night. Meanwhile, Elder Kido and I went to a member's house, grabbed some milk they wanted to give us, and headed home. Once home, I took the knives and the flag and stowed them away in Simkin's desk, in one of his drawers. While I did this, I touched up a few things to make it seem like somebody had run in and taken them.

With everything in place, we drove back to the Byron's and picked up the other Elders. Once we got back, though, they instantly noticed that the items were gone. Man, they were so mad! They immediately tried calling the missionary who did it before, only to get his companions, the Bremerton ZL's. Apparently the missionary was already on his way down to his new area. Simkins and Pisciotta then demanded why they let him steal the flag again, but they insisted that they had nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile I was in my room, changing into my pajamas, trying so hard not to laugh out loud. Elder Kido was snickering, too. By then I had had my fun, so I told Simkins, "Hey, one of your drawers in your desk is open. I'm pretty sure he took something from there, too."

"He better not have," Simkins grumbled, heading downstairs. Following behind him, I watched him go to the study room, open up his desk drawer, and find the flag and knives sitting there in it. After a moment's pause, he pulled them both out and turned around to find my giving him the most trolly grin I could muster.

"You didn't..." He started, incredulously.

I laughed, shouting with the satisfaction that only comes when everything you planned goes exactly the way you expected it to, "GOT 'EM!"

Hahaha! Oh, man! They were so mad at me! Simkins shouted like he always does, and Pisciotta tackled me onto the couch, threatening that I'd be serving on bike next transfer. I just couldn't stop laughing though. Even if he were to convince Mission President to put me on bike, it'd totally be worth it.

But that's it from me. I gotta go soon!

I love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary