Letter from Tacoma #44: August 29, 2016.

August 29, 2016

Hey everybody!

Sorry about emailing two days late, but then again, if you read my last letter you would have seen this coming.

So, last Monday, we had visit from Elder Uceda of the Seventy coming for a visit to the mission. The meeting we had with him started at 7:45 that morning in Tacoma, though that time was a bit of a problem for my companion and me; The drive from Ocean Shores to Tacoma takes about two and a half hours, so we had to wake up at 5 that morning to make the long drive. Also, since my last companion was transferred out, that means I'm the designated driver now. So... that was fun, though I was exhausted by the time we drove back into Ocean Shores at 4:00 that afternoon.

But the training we received from Elder Uceda was great. He's very funny, and you can really tell from listening to him that all that he says about the gospel is really a part of himself he's sharing. The gospel means so much to him. A lot about what he talked about was how to become effective teachers of the gospel, and he explained that those skills we wish to develop to help others are things that God can provide as we seek and work towards them. And the first step to doing that is through obedience, to God's laws and also the standards set by the mission and the church (Though they're basically the same thing when you're a missionary).

I think I took away a lot of information from that meeting, and I'm glad I was able to go.

We had a great first week of the transfer. The Tuesday before Yesterday, I went up to Tacoma and got my new companion, Elder MacQueen:

He's loads of fun! He's a hard-working missionary, a great teacher, and incredibly honest. Also, he's a nerd of my caliber; he's played and seen a lot of the video games and shows/anime that I've seen, as well as a few others I haven't, so most of our conversations revolve around that.

The funny part is that he's 23 and already engaged; He's had a fiance his whole mission, which has been about 18 months so far. Everybody he's served around has told him they were expecting him to get a 'Dear John' letter at any time. But no, he's still going strong with her, so it may actually happen. With how charitable I've seen him act towards others and myself, I'm pretty sure he'll make a fantastic husband for her.

This first week flew by, surprisingly. Since Elder Hansen left, I've been left to take over the area. It hasn't been that bad, but the hardest thing I've found is when you're making a plan for the day, but then everything falls through, including your back-up plans, and you're left scratching your head as you try to figure out something to do at 8:00 PM, the time when nobody really wants to see you. But oh well, we've gotten through it without much trouble. Everything's going as good as I thought it would.

Yesterday, though, was the highlight, because we were able to have another lesson with Andrea and Gordon. They're really our most solid investigators right now, and just like I said in my other letters, I think they'll get baptized soon, if not that much later. We were planning on teaching them the Word of Wisdom, but the discussion took another route, mostly about prayer and study. The two of them really are diligently seeking the truth and we really want to help them. Near the end, we gave Gordon a blessing of healing so he'd be feeling better and be able to come to church this week. Almost immediately after the blessing, Gordon's whole countenance changed. I think he really felt something happening and because of that, he had the biggest smile on his face that I've ever seen.

We're planning on seeing them again this Saturday, and hopefully we can teach them more about the commandments there... unless God has other plans, in which we'll do what we can as far as the lesson goes. The work out here is super satisfying, even when you have only one family or investigator you're seeing the fruit of your labor come from. Your success can be minimal, but even then, you'll be so much happier that you did have it.

Everything looks like it was fun back home, and hey, now you have a decent looking cardboard-cutout of me.