Letter from Tacoma #79: May 1, 2017
Hey Family!
We got transfer calls! I'm going to be staying in Belfair with Elder Stuart still. This is his last transfer, so I'm officially going to be 'killing' him. Yay, MANSLAUGHTER! ... um, I mean, Yay, MISSIONARYSLAUGHTER! Yup, should be fun.
He says it's weird to be on his last six weeks, and I poke fun at it here and there. But then again, I shouldn't talk because I don't have much longer. I'm down to my last four transfers! That's crazy!!
That's exciting that Brandon's mission papers are in and he'll be getting his call soon. I'm just going to throw my guess out there, before he opens his mission call, that he's going to Somoa on his mission! That's my guess, and I'm sticking to it.
Hm, that's crazy to think that Katrina could be having her baby at the very moment that I'm writing this. I hope the little guy comes soon because it sounds pretty hectic coordinating everybody to be there when he arrives. Watch, he'll troll us all and get stuck for another day. Hahaha!
Ryan got bee's?!?! Wow, that's cool! I've met a lot beekeepers out here and they all say that they love it. I'm not too sure if I'll like them crawling or buzzing all over me, but you never know.
Congratulations on the engagement, Brittany! I hope you get everything sorted out before the big day! Too bad I'll miss it though
This week was pretty good!
On Monday, after shopping and emailing, we met up at Gig Harbor's apartment where they were playing this really fun board game called, "Betrayal in the House on the Hill". A board game that's fun? excluding a few certain titles, who's ever heard of that? It turned out to be a really fun game, a mix of spooky stories with mystery. Afterwards we headed back to our area and got back to work as usual.
Wednesday, we had a pretty awesome district meeting. It was about revelation through the book of mormon, so for a part of it, we just went around the room, each of us telling about a scripture in it that means a lot to us. The spirit was very strong in the room, and I'm sure that each of us felt a renewed desire to talk about the book of mormon more with people.
After District meeting though, we had planned to go back to our area and check on some people. But then we felt and urge to split-knock with Key Center instead. So, we did. We had a good time. Nothing too outstanding happened. Around 3, Elder Stuart and I drove back to Belfair, but along the way, a line of at least 12 police cars passed us calmly on the other lane of the road, no lights flashing. It wasn't until later that we had learned that somebody had taken a gun to the local high school, so the school locked down and police showed up and barred off the roads around the school. If we hadn't split-knocked with Key Center and just headed home, we would have been stuck in traffic for more than an hour! Tender Mercy!
Thankfully nothing drastic happened at the school either. Nobody got hurt. But a cool thing that came from it was the church was just around the corner from the school. Bro. Bautista, the first counselor in the bishopric, opened up the church so parents could have a place to wait until they could get their kids. The parents there were very appreciative, so they gained a better opinion of the church.
Thursday, we spent most of it cleaning the apartment for the carpet cleaners that would come the next day. They showed up Friday morning, and we left the apartment. We went to the church, where Elder Stuart worked some more on his final report and the 'My Plan' program the mission is having him do for his last six weeks. We grabbed pizza for lunch, then did some service for the local senior center, sweeping and mopping the floors. Then we got back, the carpet cleaners were gone and everything looked way clean. It smelled clean too.
On Thursday night, though, we were able to meet with our only solid investigator, Gloria. We read the last chapters of 1 Nephi, which lead into some great discussion. She's not set on getting baptized yet, wanting to wait until after she finishes the book of mormon. But she loves the church, she loves the gospel, and she loves meeting with us. She's very solid, but she doesn't feel the urgency for baptism yet. But when she does, at least we know that she will be a strong member of the church if she's being this careful and concise about her decision.
Saturday, the day started pretty slow, but it got crazy in the afternoon when everybody started getting their transfer calls. Excluding us in Belfair, the whole zone got mixed around. Two areas had their elder missionaries pulled out and sister missionaries took their place. One of the ZL's wards went to one of those elder companionships. The sisters in Key Center got taken out, leaving just elders there, but one of those elders is leaving, too. This was one heck of a transfer call that nobody saw coming.
When we got to Sunday, church was super refreshing. I think I'm starting to learn how to listen for God's voice in all the meetings, listening to both the teachers and the spirit. I notice that as I concentrate on doing so, the three hours fly by and I learn a few things that I hadn't considered before. Lately, there has been a lot of people wanting to just argue with us and prove us wrong. But as I thought about it in sacrament meeting, I felt the spirit say that we need to love our enemies. We need to love everyone as God loves them, even if loving our enemies doesn't end up making our friends. They still have their agency to feel what they want toward us, but we need to be that example for them and others. It's easier said than done, but I'm willing to focus more on that this week and actually strive to live it.
Oh yeah, and on Sunday, we had dinner at Bishop Thomas' house. We had Hawaiian Haystacks, which I haven't had for maybe a full year now! He has three young boys, and the middle one absolutely loves Minecraft. So, I connected well with him, his name is Kaden, and he showed me all his Minecraft figurines... I may have gotten way trunky, very excited to play that game after the mission. Afterwards, Bishop Thomas thanked me for going out of my way to connect with his kids. He wants them to be able to look up to missionaries as role models and eventually go on missions because of the examples set by us. (See Mom? Video games totally helps out in the mission field because it's a good way to connect with people!)
Picture of our district
These neighborhoods are so open, their dogs start following us from door to door. It's not uncommon to have a 'knocking buddy' join us in a knocking session each week. I've even had one dog who was following us defend us from a big, aggressive dog! Way funny!
That's all from me! Love you all!
Thanks for reading,
-Elder R. Austin Moe
Wa-Tac Missionary
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