Letter from Tacoma #83: May 29, 2017

Hey, Family!!!

Last week, after emailing, we went to Costco to shop, but first to grab lunch. One of the missionaries with us wanted to get a Costco card, so we waited while he signed up and purchased one. As we waited though, a young man came up to us, asking if we were missionaries. We said yes, to which he asked us to come over to his table when we were done getting the missionary's card.

The young man walked off, sitting at his table where another older man sat. At this point, Elder Stuart began wondering if these were members or anti. But once we got over there, we found that they were actually members from the Ollala Ward and they wanted to buy lunch for us. That was very much appreciated. (Haha, sorry, I had to tell about that one because it looked like it was a similar experience as one in Ben's latest email. Good things come from getting lunch at Costco!)

P-Day was fun. We shopped, and then met back up with the other elders in the zone in Gig Harbor. We chatted for a while, got bored and decided to smash an old bowling ball they had lying around in their apartment (Their idea, not ours!) 

Then we played Betrayal at the House on the Hill, again! I love that game. I may need to invest in getting it after the mission. Afterwards, we headed back to Belfair, ate dinner, and to save miles on the car, we knocked for the rest of the night before turning in. It was way hot that night though, so I found an A/C unit in the closet, took out the screen from the study room window, and installed the unit. Turned it up to full blast and it felt way nice. Felt accomplished!

Tuesday: We did the usual morning routine before doing service at the Food Pantry food bank. After that, we went home, finished studies, had lunch, then ran to the church for Elder Stuart to do another section of "My Plan". He only has one more to do now. Then we knocked doors before dinner with the McMinn's. Though before dinner, when we got there, their grand-daughter was watching Moana, so I got to see the first few minutes of it. It seems good, so I'll have to watch it when I'm home.

After dinner, we knocked 5-7's, tried to see a few members, but nobody seemed to be home anywhere. So we ended up street contacting for the rest of the night.

Wednesday: After studies, we grabbed Subway for lunch and headed to District Meeting. It was pretty good, about How to Begin Teaching. Whenever you teach somebody about the gospel, they need to understand that you love them and that they can trust you. And equally important is inviting the spirit to be there to testify of the truth that you speak.

After District Meeting, we tried seeing less-active members, with no luck, sadly. We had dinner with the Martin's, who were a little rushed, so they provided pizza for dinner, with salad, and then cookies and ice cream for dessert. Needless to say, I felt like crap knocking 5-7's afterwards. It was good in the moment, but the aftermath is not worth it!

But to make the night better, we ended it by giving Nathan a tour of the church! He finally got back into contact with us, so we met him at the church and took him on a tour around it. Mutual was going on, too, so he was able to meet bishop, both of his counselors, elders quorum president, and a few other people. We had a good lesson, and Nathan has a lot of good questions. He hopes to come to church, though he didn't come this week. But he said he'd be there this coming Sunday.

Thursday: We did a little weekly planning, but then we got called up by the Food Pantry, asking if we could help them out with moving some equipment out of their storage unit. They were planning on having a bit of a yard sale to get rid of it all, so we went over in service clothes and helped them. They had a lot of heavy stuff, and we didn't have a lot of heavy-lifters to help. We helped them for about four hours, and by the end I was sore all over. But even after, we continued on working as normal, so by the end of the day I was pooped.

Friday: After studies, we went to Bro. Nielson's home, where we did service for him by helping him install hardwood floor in his living room. It was fun, and it took a while, but they fed us dinner before we went home, changed, and then knocked 5-7's. We visited a couple members at the end of the night.

Saturday: We spent the morning doing another service project (three days in a row), this time for Bro. Giles. He wants to remodel his house due to some water damage that's been going on over the years, so we helped him demolish and deface his front porch and garage door. He appreciated the effort because now he has a better idea of what he needs to do to fix it up properly.

Then we knocked doors, ate dinner at our apartment, knocked 5-7's, and then spent the last while visiting a new member family who moved into the ward, the Staley's. They just moved from Georgia, and they're loads of fun. They love missionaries, and they're pretty willing to help us out in any way they possibly can. They'll be a great addition to the ward.

Sunday: We had ward council early in the morning, and then church. Sacrament was packed because of all the visitors on vacation for Memorial Day Weekend! We had to open another one of the overflow curtains, and even with extra trays for the sacrament, we were left with only four water cups extra at the end. It's a wonder that we had enough for everyone.

I enjoyed church. It was uplifting, and considering that we've done manual labor for the past three mornings, it was good to get a rest.

But that's about it from me! 

I love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary