Letter #9

 

So this week was not a very good week as far as teaching and finding goes, but we had a lot of service, and it was still full of miracles. On Friday, we were having a slow sort of day, so we decided to go and visit an older member of our ward named Sister Dickjose. She is 83, and has outlived 3 husbands and a dog. She was living with a cat, and she said that that was the last thing that she considered family or friend in this world. We were talking to her on Friday and she was telling us her life story, because Elder Burt had never met her. After we talked for quite a while, we were going to leave, and we helped her with a little yard work, namely helping her weed around a bush where the ashes of her mother and her sister were burried. We left soon after that to go tracting. The next morning, we got a call right before 7:00 that her cat had just died, and that she wanted to have it burried. And so we made our way out to her place, we put that cat in the ground, right in-between her mother and her sister by that bush we weeded the day before. And so that was one of the saddest things I've seen since I've been out here. But I'm glad we were around, because she was in no condition to be digging graves for animals.

Well, we only have one person right now with a baptismal date right now, which is kinda sad, because we've had a bunch of people that we've been trying to work with all week that have been dropping appointments and ignoring us a bunch, and things have just not been working out. But it is still exciting for that one person that is getting baptized. Her name is Leah, and she is going to be baptized on May 11, and she is getting married this weekend. And she brought us a lasagna yesterday, so she is really awesome. Hopefully this week will be better though for everyone else.

We get to go to the temple tomorrow, which is super exciting. That means we get to head out to Seattle, which is outside of the mission. I'm hoping we get to a bunch of cool pictures while we're out, because we only get to go to Seattle twice for the temple, and then when we fly into the mission, and when we fly out, so this is actually really exciting. We don't have any temples within our mission boundaries, so this (and once next year) is pretty much the only time I'll be able to go there.

Well, I'm doing pretty well out here, and I don't really have any other news right now. I miss you all and love you! Talk to you guys later!

Letter #8

 

 

 

In the MTC, they always tell you about the years in your mission. They talk about how they will be the greatest and most spiritual years of your life. However, they never talk about the weeks in your mission. They don't talk about the weeks when your gospel principles teacher takes his lesson from the Apocrypha. And on a week we had investigators too...

 But overall, it was a pretty good week. My new companion is Elder Burt. He has been in the mission for about 5 months now, so he hasn't been here that long either. He is from Sandy, Utah, and he ran track in high school, and was really good at it, but he didn't actually like it. He's really cool, and we get along really well, and he's a hard worker and obedient, which are pretty much the most important things on the mission. I've had a cold all week long, and so that's been pretty annoying. But I'm on the downside of it, so it should be pretty much gone by tomorrow I think. So I'm excited for that. We're supposed to have a pretty sunny week coming up, and so that's really exciting. Today has been a really clear day so far, and with the days getting longer, and no clouds this morning, there was actually sun coming into our apartment when we woke up this morning. That was really cool. We're still in Stadium ward, and so Elder Burt has been on the mission longer than I have, but I know the people a little better, so it works out pretty well. We had ward conference this last week, so that has been interesting. On Wednesday, we got together with people from the stake and visited less actives, and last night, there was a ward social that we went to. It had free food, plus it's a good way to get to know the members better, which always helps the missionary work go smoother, and plus we got to talk to investigators/recent converts. Brian was there with his wife and kid, and so they got to meet other people in the ward better, and our investigator Leah (who was taught by the Soundview Ward's sister missionaries. I can't remember if I've mentioned her or not...) came by and met people. Sonja was there too, and so it was a pretty good turnout from our people. There were also a bunch of stake people that I met.

Because of the split in our zone that happened this last transfer, my district changed. Which I guess probably isn't all that interesting too you... but that is interesting to us missionaries, so that's why I thought to mention it. Haha, well, anyway, my new district leader is Elder Muirbrook, who has only been out one transfer longer than I have. He was in my zone last transfer, so I already know him pretty well. But he's also training a new elder, so we have a super young district. Because I'm on my second transfer, and my companion is on his fourth, and Muirbrook is on his third, and his comp is on his first, and in mountain view, Elder Generoux is on his seventh, and he's training a new guy on his first transfer as well, and both of the sisters in mountain view are on their third transfer. So there is only one person in our district of 8 who has been out for more than 6 months. Which is super crazy.

Well, there's so much that happened this last week that I don't even know what to talk about. Yesterday we were invited to a baptism in our ward for an 8-year-old, and that was pretty exciting. It's the first one of those that I've been to here in Washington. It was a really good baptism. And it was a proper one, like in California, not those silly Rexburg stake baptisms. Haha, it was really great though, because it reminded me a ton of how my baptism was. I haven't seen one like it in a really long time because of how Rexburg needs to do theirs. Also, yesterday, whilst tracting, we ran into a family who was on their way home from the grocery store, and we asked them if they would be interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ, and the dad got super defensive at first, and was acting like he wanted to argue with us or whatever, and then Elder Burt asked if he needed help with anything, and he started apologizing, and said he had a really long day and didn't mean to be rude, but we could come over to his house the next day, and we did, and he was totally prepared for the gospel, and we taught him for about 2 hours, and we gave them a Book of Mormon, and they said that they would read it and pray about it, and so that was a miracle, because in one sentance, he wanted to fight with us, and in the next, he was inviting us over for taquitos. We are going back for another appointment tomorrow, so hopefully they keep up with their commitments to read and pray and all that, because they are an awesome family, and the gospel could definitely really improve their lives.

Anyway, that's all for this week. I love you all and miss you tons! I'm excited to get to call home for Mother's Day this transfer :) Talk to you later

Letter #7

 

 

So, transfer assignments finally came around on Saturday, and I am staying in Stadium ward for another transfer! Elder Kearney is moving out to Lacey 4th Ward, and he will be training a new missionary, and he will be a District Leader for the first time. So that's pretty exciting for him. I will meet my new companion tomorrow at transfer meeting. So that's pretty exciting for me. Our zone is getting split, so the rest of my district from this transfer isn't even in my zone anymore. So that's cool.

Well, we had 2 baptisms on Saturday. Brian and Sonja. So that was pretty great. We found out last minute that there was going to be a wedding in our building right during the time that we scheduled the baptism, and apparently our ward mission leader didn't schedule the building during that time, so we had to emergency move it to the stake center the day before the service. But it was still really good. That makes 5 baptisms this transfer, which is a pretty good number. Plus we still have a lot of good potential investigators that could easily be baptized in the next 6 weeks, so the missionary work is going really well over here.

Last night, the Petersons brought Elder Kearney and me out on their boat, and that was so awesome. We went out into the Sound, and around point defiance, and saw the Tacoma Narrows bridge right before heading back. Elder Kearney said that that's the only boat we will ever have permission from Presdient to be on. The boat we were on was built in 1929, and it used to be a ferry boat. They used to live in the boat, so it was fully equipped with a bed, a stove, a fridge, a tv, etc. It was so much fun. I wouldn't mind living on a boat like that.

Okay, so right after I emailed home last week, Elder Kearney got a speeding ticket, so I have been driving all week long. Which has been crazy, because we drive all over the place, and I haven't really driven in like a couple years before this just now. But I'm getting better pretty fast. Also, our water heater exploded at about 4:45 in the morning on Tuesday, and so that was a fun experience too.

Well, this letter has been so hard to grind out, and I'm just completely blanked out... But I love you all, and miss you tons!

Letter #6

Dan sent home his first SD card with pictures on them!  I will add a few this week and next week. I think these are the tags of the people in his MTC district (?). 

 

I think these might be the actual people behind the tags!

 

These are Rexburg people that he got to see in the MTC.

 

His first baptism!

 

Now for Letter #6

 

Today marks the beginning of the last week of my first transfer. Missionaries mark time in the mission field by transfers, which are 6 weeks long. At the end of each transfer, there is a possibility that you will be moved from your current area, but I really hope I have at least one more transfer in Stadium ward. It's crazy to think that I've already been out this long. There are 17 transfers in a mission, so I'm about 6% of the way done. Which sounds super small and super big at the same time. But you should probably start sending my snail mail to the mission office, because I don't know if I'll still be at this apartment or not.

Elder Kearney and I were going to baptize Brian this last week, but when we were trying to finalize some details in the morning, we got a text from him saying he was in the hospital for his back, and that it would not be able to happen today. Well, he is getting better, and he will be baptized this next week with Sonya, so we will have 2 baptisms this next week. It was pretty disappointing, but life happens sometimes.

General conference was so awesome. I don't know if this happened with you guys back home, but all of a sudden, every talk was about missionary work. I had never seen these talks that way before, but it wasn't like there was more of a focus on it than normal, but it was where my focus was, so I saw it everywhere. President Weaver made a comment about that inbetween sessions at one point, so I guess it's a pretty normal thing. Also between sessions on Saturday, Elder Quigley (a senior elder from the office, who technically isn't on a mission anymore...) took everyone to lunch at Taco Bell. Apparently it's an age old tradition, but basically, everyone from the Tacoma Zone met at Taco Bell (about 20-25 of us), and Elder Quigley bought about 200 tacos. And we ate them all. And the 6 sister missionaries ate about 2-3 each, so that bumps our actual numbers way down. I wasn't counting, but I probably had 12-14 tacos, and Elder Kearney had 20. And that was a pretty bad Pokemon choice. But we ate all of those tacos. For conference, I marked Russell M. Nelson in the second session, Dieter F. Uchtdorf in Priesthood session, L. Tom Perry in the Sunday morning session, and Jeffrey R. Holland in the final session as power talks, and I wrote down obedience and peace as themes. And there was a ton of interesting things about having those themes too. It was great hearing about obedience, because whenever you hear about obedience in the mission, it's people telling you that you will go to hell for wearing a jacket with a logo, or something like that, all Law of Moses style, but whenever they talk about it in conference, it's all like, "This guy paid tithing for a couple years, and he's so awesome!" I was told that the MTC talks aren't released to the public because the general authorities are so much more harsh toward us than they are in conference. And then with the theme of peace, section 87 of the D&C is foretelling the Civil War, and greater wars to come, and then section 88 is called the Olive Branch, because everyone got so freaked out about that prophecy, but anyway, the point is that we are going to be talked to about finding peace the most right before it's hardest to find. Signs of the times. Anyway, those are just my thoughts from the first listen over.

Oh yeah, and I just remembered about the best part of this last week. Wednesday morning, President Weaver showed up at our apartment for personal and companionship study. And it was so great, because we were all ready on time and everything, and he was so happy with us, because he said usually when he shows up randomly to study with people that they aren't ready at all or anything, and he said we did really well. And companionship study with him was awesome, because we just talked to him about the mission gossip and stuff. He gave us some "hot buzz" to spread around, and told us our ward could have some sister missionaries in May, which they've been really wanting for a while now. Anyway, all sorts of awesome stuff.

We had a ton of sun this last week, but the last couple of days it's gone back to being rainy a lot again. But that's why Washington is so beautiful. President Weaver says that Tacoma is the Garden of Eden in the spring, because even the weeds bloom. And it really is beautiful here. There is so much green, and moss everywhere, and we have a ton of flowers right now.

Anyway, I miss everyone, and love you all! I'm going to wrap up this letter now, but I hope you are all doing well! I love hearing from you, so write or email whenever you can :)



 

Letter #5

So this last week was really great. We had some sunshine a couple times. Actually, we had quite a bit of sun for Washington. There wasn't a cloud in the sky on Saturday or Sunday, so they were absolutely beautiful days. In the right parts of town, there was a really good view of Mt. Rainier, which you can't usually see because of clouds. One of the best things about the people in Washington is that none of them take the sunshine for granted. Every time we get a sunny day, or even a sunny hour, everyone is out enjoying it, or talking about it with you at the door, or something like that. You just appreciate it way more when it isn't out all the time. It was so nice to have such a sunny Easter too. The sun is it's own little miracle out here, so it was just so wonderful.

Easter was a pretty awesome day. We didn't really have anything planned the day before, so we were mostly planning on knocking doors most of the day, especially since the weather was so nice. But when we went to church, our day pretty much filled up with other things. We eventually ended up helping some potential investigators move for most of the day. And that was a pretty weird situation. We got a call a couple of days ago from the APs saying that a recent convert in their ward who had a friend moving from a place in our ward to another place in our ward, and that we should call them to see if they needed any help. So that was an awkward phone call. "Hey, you don't know us, and we don't know you, but we do know that you are moving, and we want to help you out with that." But it did go well. We found out that we would be doing it on Sunday, and they are pretty awesome people. We didn't really do any teaching during that time, but service is really the best way you can connect with someone, and they trust us a lot more now if we do get an opportunity to teach them. We are going to visit them again on Wednesday, and they are going to cut our hair, so we are hoping to make something out of that time. There is a lot of potential out there, so we're going to do our part, and hopefully it all goes well. Worst case scenario, they are going to remember our service and be more open to the church in the future, or at least say good things about the church to their friends. Service is something that sticks with people.

Church yesterday was pretty crazy too. I was handing out programs, and getting to know people as they came into sacrament, and the second counsilor in the bishopric comes out and asks me to say the opening prayer. So I do that, and on the way back down, the bishop asks me to bless the sacrament, because the meeting had already started, and they were short people. After that, the bishop's wife gave a "talk" about her trip out to the Holy Land a couple of weeks ago (cool experience, but no actual doctrine...), and then the first counsilor in the bishopric shared some experiences that were deeply spiritual to him, but had no real punchline, so it was kinda lost on a lot of people. Okay, they were both pretty good talks, but they don't sound that good summarized, apparently. Anyway, after that we left, and ran into someone just outside the chapel who wanted us to give a blessing to her sick child. So we did that, and then went to Sunday School, where Elder Kearney and I both talked to different investigators. I met one that was apparently at church for the second time, and we had never met him before, and he really wanted to take the lessons and be baptized, so I got his name and address, and it turns out he's supposed to be going to a different ward. So we had to send that referral to the Highland Hills ward, but that was super exciting to meet him. And then during priesthood, I got asked to take an outline of the discussion we had for the lesson, so that an expanded version could be written later, and sent to the bishop. So church was super busy. But really good.

Well, things are going super well here. We have a bunch of potential here right now, so we are trying to focus now on taking the interest that people have, and making it something life changing for them. Brian is getting baptized this Friday, so that's super exciting. And we have 2 investigators right now that are super solid, and can be put on date soon. It's just so exciting to watch people learn about the truths we teach for the first time, and watch it change their lives. I'm so happy to be out right now! I love you all, and miss you tons!

--Elder Prue