Letter from Tacoma #73: March 20, 2017

Hello Family!

First off, I hope Comic-con was fun, Brandon! I'm really jealous right now, just from the few pictures Mom sent in her letter. Every time I've been, it was a blast. And I keep hearing that it's been getting bigger and better every year! I can't wait to go to another one after the mission.

So yeah, I got transfer calls this week. Out of our foursome, only Elder Pisciotta is staying in the area. Meanwhile, Elder Simkins is going to Olympia 2nd Ward, Elder Kido is going to Olympia 3rd Ward, and I'm transferring to Belfair Ward in the Gig Harbor Stake. I'm going to be serving with Elder Stuart.

I'm excited, because I'm going back to the same district as Key Center, my first area! I'm in a companionship with a District Leader, so I might get to go on exchanges back to Key Center and see a few of the members there! I also just love the general area of the Gig Harbor Stake. It's very boony, but now that it's Spring it'll be a lot better than when I served there in the dead of Winter. I also have already served around my new companion, back in Centralia Stake last Summer. He's a cool guy, though he seems to have this dislike for leadership in the mission (AP's, ZL's, DL's). Oh well, we'll still have some fun, I'm sure.

This week was a little disappointing though: We got back in touch with Harrison and met with him. He had progressed so far from when missionaries first started teaching him, and he knows that the church is good and of God. But he's been going to his girlfriend's catholic church for the past month, the only reason being to get a better relationship with her and her parents. That would be alright, except Harrison has already told us that if he were baptized, he would want to break up with her because he wants to marry in the temple.

It's become very frustrating now because Harrison knows that the church is true, but he's seen 'progress' in his relationship with his girlfriend and her family, so he doesn't want to let go of it. But he doesn't want to deny baptism completely, because he knows that God wants him to be baptized, as was answered through his prayers. So, he's started to throw up any excuse he can to keep going to the catholic church, to delay baptism. Right now, he's stalling, and it's very apparent that he feels very uncomfortable about it. I wish he would realize soon that following God should be put before a love interest. We're still praying for him, texting him scriptures in the mornings, and he still wants to meet with us once a week. I won't be here anymore to teach him, so I hope that Elder Pisciotta and his new companion can work a miracle.

We weren't able to see Leona and Reddi this week. When we stopped by, Leona was asleep, but Reddi told us to try by next week on the same day, same time. They're still reading and progressing, thankfully. Leona had to go to Tacoma this weekend to take care of family, so she wasn't able to come to church this week. Maybe she went to church in a ward down there? We'll check back later this week.

I don't have much time to write left, so just a few quick highlights:

1). March 14th, Pi day. Sister Corpe took us out to eat at Shari's, which is basically the north-west version of Marie Calendar's. Way good food, and I got the best piece of Banana Cream Pie ever!

2). Elder Pisciotta went to the doctor this week for a blood test and a scan on his gallbladder. But all the results came back completely clean. None of his internal organs have any problems from what they could see, and there wasn't anything off about his blood either. He's still throwing up and feeling sick, but the doctors don't know what's wrong. He's planning on seeing a Gastrologist later this week, so hopefully he can figure out what's wrong with him.

3).Each transfer, we sometimes decorate our Missionary Daily Planners. I've done it for the past few, but this time I put a lot more effort into it and I'm proud of it:

Front

​ 

Back

I used Alma 30:44, and since it was talking about both pictures, I split the verse, starting on the front, then ending on the back. It's probably the best one I've made so far.

4.) Saw some ducks while Elder Kido and I were knocking:

​I'm gonna miss that guy when we transfer. I'm going to miss this whole companionship. We've had a lot of fun, going out working and just picking on each other. We have this funny game where we play dodgeball in the apartment, every man for himself. It's something I can actually win at sometimes, though it can get wild sometimes.

Just barely, we received a call from a member of Silverdale 1st Ward: She told us our bishop, Bishop Barney, had a brain aneurysm and died this morning. It's so sad! He was the coolest bishop I've had in the mission! He was the kind of guy that smiled about anything, and he'd always have the cheeriest grin when he sat on the stand. Getting that call threw us for a loop... it's way sad. We even saw him yesterday in Ward Council, and when he conducted Sacrament Meeting. It's hard to believe that he's gone...

Well, I'm just glad that I got to serve with him before he passed. But I'm sad I'm not going to be here to help his family or the rest of the ward during this time. Bishop Barney was awesome, and I have no doubt that he's happy where he is.

Anyways, that's all for me!

I love you!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary