Letter from Tacoma #99: September 18, 2017

Hey everybody!!!!

This is so crazy how suddenly this last month of the mission has approached! It does not feel like I've served the large majority of my mission yet! A part of me is saying, 'Finally! I'm ready to start life again', but there's another part of me going, 'WHAT? No! There's no way I'm done yet! I've still got six more months left!!'

But hey, since I'm at war with myself emotionally, I'm determined to enjoy every day that I have left.

So, some good news! Even though I've been feeling pretty miserable lately, what with constant pain and exhaustion. I'm actually feeling much better. But, I'm still feeling pain on a regular basis. I've learned that a lot of it comes from stress, so the good news is that I'm learning how to handle and manage my stress so that I'm not in as much pain. I think the biggest thing that has worked has been starting each day with the determination to be happy, no matter what lies ahead.

I tried this yesterday, because Saturday night we had Stake Conference for Olympia, and that's where I received the inspiration to try this tactic. So, Sunday came, and I was just in a good mood all day. Stake Conference was great that morning, got to talk to President and Sister Leishman, had dinner with some members, and we had a great lesson with our recent convert, a little nine year old named Mikey. But probably the best part of the day was when we went knocking doors after dinner:

It started raining!!! Finally! It's been so dead and dry out here, it just wasn't feeling like we were in Washington anymore. But then it just came pouring down around dinner time and I just felt way happy being out in it. The rain seemed to cool down a lot of tempers, cause we just knocked into a lot of pleasant people the whole time.

But then the finale!: We were walking along to the next door in this neighborhood, and I started to feel a little pain. It was enough to make me think about turning back and resting at the apartment for a bit, but I decided to keep working through it. Literally only five minutes later, the rain instantly ceased. A little bit of sunshine from the setting sun poked out from the clouds, brightening only the treetops up above us. As I looked up to get a better view, I saw one of the brightest, most perfect rainbows I've ever seen in my life. It was incredibly bright, and as I took a picture, I realized that there were actually two of them.

DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!!!! ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE SKY!!!

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That was a very spontaneous moment, one that would be very hard to recreate. I'm way grateful that we were led to knock doors in that area, because that was one of the most beautiful sights I've seen. I'm not talking about just the rainbow, but about that whole moment. Washington really is beautiful, and I'm a little sad that I won't be able to enjoy for much longer. But I'm grateful that I didn't turn around and walk home, otherwise I don't think I would have experienced that moment.

It reminded me of, and affirmed what I had read about in, a talk by Elder Holland. I think it was called, 'The Gospel path to Happiness'. One of the things he highlights is that happiness isn't a right, but rather the pursuit of happiness is the right that everyone has. The analogy used is that happiness is like a butterfly; when you chase after it, it will fly away. But when you are doing something else, you might be just aware enough to notice it light upon your shoulder. That's definitely true, cause I just saw it in action.

So, other than me now being a lot happier than I was, let me tell you what's going on. I haven't been able to do much work because of my health (Don't worry! It's getting better!). So primarily we've been focusing on Willy. We were aiming to get him baptized this Sunday, but he drank Coffee Thursday evening, so that didn't work. He's so close!!! He's quit smoking, and he had gone a week straight without coffee before he gave in on Thursday. Right now he's just fighting the habit of drinking it, so we're pretty sure that we can get him baptized either this week, or next week at the latest. Willy is determined to make it, so at the very least I'll be able to see him baptized before my mission ends.

But thanks for reading!

Love you all!

-Elder R. Austin Moe

Wa-Tac Missionary