Letter from Tacoma #77: April 17, 2017

Wow, this week was a total contrast from the last one, because now I actually have stuff to write about and I'm pretty sure this will be a long letter!

That's too bad about Kennady being in the hospital dealing with that, but I'm glad that she's feeling better!

That house looks like a good one, Kelsey and Zac. Awesome find!

Kyler! That's an awesome cake! I hope you liked that birthday party! Minecraft is awesome, I really miss it and I can't wait to play it again. Seriously, Katrina, you outdid yourself this time in putting it all together.

Ooh, Katrina looks like her baby is coming soon! That's exciting!

Brandon already had his Senior Send Off?! That's crazy. It can't have been that long that I've been gone, can it?

Let me talk about my week:

Monday: We emailed at the Gig Harbor library and then shopped for groceries. Then we all met at the Zone Leaders' apartment for Zone Activity. We followed them down to the bottom of the zone to the beach on our side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. We had a fun time exploring the rocky beach, goofing off, and also climbing trees. 

But as we finished with a zone picture underneath the bridge, right about to head back, we were hit by a flash storm. It rained buckets and hail, so naturally we all ran like heck for the cars. Fun experience, but ironically the rain ceased right as we reached the cars, and everybody was drenched. On our way out, we all stopped for ice cream at McDonald's.

We went back to our area, grabbed a little dinner, knocked, then tried visiting a few potential investigators. The Key Center Elders met us at our apartment at the end of the night, to stay over for exchanges the next day. We played a few rounds of scum before heading to bed.

Tuesday: We started off with doing some service for the local food bank, the Food Pantry, which is always a lot of fun. It's even more fun when you have twice as many missionaries there. We got stuff done way quick. Then I went with Elder Meik and knocked in the boonies until dinner. Then we met back up with the other elders at Big Bubba's Burgers, a small burger stand in Allyn, but they probably make the best burgers I've ever had. Afterwards, I went knocking with Elder Cloward. Had a good time, until we tried to see some members at the end of the night. These members live way out of the way, and it didn't occur to me that not only did we not have their address, but they live far beyond the point of cellphone service and we wouldn't be able to call them. So we spent about an hour trying to stay relatively close to their area while still searching for a signal to contact them. It turned out to be a waste of time because we then had to go to Ward Correlation meeting with our Ward Mission Leader.

Went back home that night, and Key Center stayed the night again so they could save miles and ride with us to Zone Meeting the next day. Played a few more rounds of scum before bed again.

Wednesday: Zone Meeting. This time the Zone Leaders talked about effective planning. 'Effective' means having the power to obtain the desired result. Pretty cool. Then we went back to our areas, knocked for a bit, then had dinner. Knocked some more, before ending the night by visiting a newly moved-in family in the ward. They were way cool and they spoiled us a bit with a bunch of snacks.

Thursday: Weekly Planning day, but also the dreaded Park Day. We weekly planned, then hoofed it for most of the day, visiting potential investigators nearby and knocking doors. Thankfully we had dinner at a member's house who also lives closeby, the Woodland's. And what do you know, when they heard I was from Highland, I learned that Bro. Woodland is the brother of Bro. Woodland in Highland 6th Ward! How does that even happen? Why is the Mormon world so dang small? They are a fun family, and they make great food, too.

That evening we got a ride to our investigator's place, Gloria. We shared with her the talk by Elder Costa from this last conference. We talked some more, and she told us that she already knew that the Book of Mormon was true, but she wants to read the whole Book of Mormon before she gets baptized. That's exciting, but we really want her to get baptized sooner, because even she knows that at this rate she won't finish the book until December. So we committed her to keep reading, and ask God when she should get baptized.

Friday: Usual day of work. Knocked doors most of the day, not much else happened that was noteworthy. Just looking forward to Easter.

Saturday: It was a way nice day, nice enough to go down to just a shirt and tie while knocking doors. It was sunny, a beautiful view of the canal, and some generally friendly people. It's fun to work in conditions like these. But later in the afternoon, we met this one guy who was friendly, but he openly said he didn't believe in going to church. He felt that being outdoors was his church enough, but he felt he should at least hear what we had to say. So, he asked us about where do we go after we die.

We talked to him about the spirit world, and he seemed impressed by it. The conversation continued on and we touched on a few other topics, though mostly about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We taught him how Christ's grace isn't just to save us from death, but to change us and prepare us for life in heaven with God. Christ paid the price, which has invested in our own growth because God sees the infinite potential that we have as His children.

This man said he was impressed that a couple young men like us could tell him these ideas that 'opened his eyes somewhat'. He took a Book of Mormon and we marked a spot in Alma where it talks more about the spirit world for him. He gave his address, but unfortunately he doesn't actually live in our area, so we later referred him to the sister missionaries where he lives. It was funny though, as we walked away, we heard him mutter, "Heck, I'll read it right now," as he plopped down into his camping chair and opened the book up. I'm pretty sure this guy was prepared by God.

Sunday: Easter Sunday. This whole week, I'd been reading day by day in Jesus, The Christ, following the story of the savior's last week in His mortal ministry. We didn't have ward council that morning, so I read the last part of what I'd hoped to read, to Christ's resurrection. I really enjoyed doing this reading along, because it really helped me realize just how real these events were. I felt that it increased my faith in the Savior, and helped me see what kind of a man he was while he 'went about doing good'. It put me in the right spirit for church that day.

Easter service was good, and walking out to a bright, sunny day was very refreshing. I felt today was going to be a good day. We didn't have a dinner yet when church started, so the Woodland's volunteered to feed us again. They're awesome. They even gave us some Easter candy, some Cadbury mini eggs. Those have to be my favorite Easter candy.

After dinner, we knocked in the neighborhood. But near the end of the knocking session, we knocked into this one lady. Unfortunately I completely forgot her name, as did my companion, but she was very humble and nice. She told us that she recently lost her husband, and was losing faith in the world. She apparently works with a bunch of members, so she was open to hearing us and she accepted a Book of Mormon, too. She seemed intrigued, so she invited us back next Sunday. She has a lot of potential, so I hope it all goes well.

Really fun week, and hopefully this week is as eventful as the last one was.

Love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary