Letter #26

 

Gig Harbor is pretty much the opposite of Tacoma.  My new apartment is right on the edge of Gig Harbor, so when I look out my back window, I see a line of yachts.  And there aren't really streets to tract around here.  Mostly you just forage through a blackberry jungle until you run into a group of mailboxes, and then look for houses around them.  People live super spread out for the most part, unless they are in a gated community, which we aren't allowed to tract.  Last night we were in one of those for dinner.  I guess it's one of the nicer ones in the ward, because there is a golf course in the middle, and a security guard on duty 24-hours a day.  And it was just really funny being there, because I was thinking the entire time about how the week before, I was eating dinner with members in the slums of our mission.  And probably the biggest difference about here is that people here actually have jobs and work during the day... In Tacoma, so many people were living off SSI, and you could give out lessons like candy at any time of the day. Here, the afternoons are super slow, because everyone is out at their jobs....  And so it is way different here.  There are so many normal people that I don't even know what to do.  I can't handle them.  But I mean, there are some nice things.  It is really pretty out here.  And you don't hear gunfire out of your window at night.

So on Saturday, I got permission from President Weaver to come back to Tacoma for Francis' baptism.  He asked me to do it, so that was really cool.  We got kinda a late start on it, because we were expecting the first councilor in the bishopric to show up, and then he didn't, and he wouldn't answer his phone, so we ended up just starting without him.  So while we were waiting, Francis called me into the other room with him, and asked me to pray with him.  So I said a prayer with him, and he said a prayer afterward, and it was a really sweet thing.  And so we actually got started, and I took him down into the water, and bring him up, but he's not helping me out at all, so I have to pull him up myself, which is always on the awkward side.  And when I get him out of the water, he's sobbing.  Loudly.  He's just standing there in the water, howling.  And I was standing there with him, and I didn't know what to do.  And eventually, Sister Copeland says, "Well give him a hug!"  So I sorta did that, but that was pretty awkward too.  And then the witnesses finally just closed the doors to the font, and so I led  Francis back out to the dressing room.  And so we get dressed and make it back, and everyone is crying.  And then we have our talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and everyone cries some more.  And then we have a closing prayer, and then a closing song (Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds.  Funny how set in our patterns we get.), and then everyone went to talk to Francis one-on-one, and everyone cried some more.  So it was a pretty eventful baptism, I guess.  And then we had to go back to regular missionary work after all of that.  So we got back to Gig Harbor and did our 5-7s, which President Weaver has been pretty strict about lately.  And so I haven't been too excited about them, because apparently the missionary who I replaced here said that he tracted the entire area in the last 3 months.  So we were knocking this street that was actually pretty busy, and we got a ton of honks and shouts and everything, and there weren't many houses to knock on it, but we decided to knock it anyway.  And we knocked on this one house, and the only person there was an 18-year-old kid who just graduated high school.  He was the only one home, but he let us in and let us talk to him.  He said that he did a little 1 week mission thing in Mexico with a Lutheran church in the area about 3 weeks ago, and that  before that, he wasn't super interested in religion, and that before that, he probably wouldn't have even let us in, but since then, he had been thinking about it a lot.  Also, he said that his grandma was a member, so some of the things we were saying sounded familiar from when he was a kid and talked to her a ton about that stuff.  Also, he knew someone in our ward who just barely left on a mission to Brazil.  So he was pretty prepared to listen to the Restoration.  And my comp wasn't used to getting lessons while tracting, so he was a little over-excited (like Elder Calhoon teaching the resto from The Best Two Years) about the whole thing, but it went over really well.  After that, we went to a dinner appointment, and one of the kids there was friends with the younger brother of the guy we talked to, and he said that the guy we taught wasn't even supposed to be home at that time, because he was supposed to be doing something with his family, but that he went home because he had just gotten his wisdom teeth out, and he didn't feel that well.  So that was a really cool teaching experience that we had this last week.  He is going to go on a church tour this next week, so we're pretty excited for us.

Letter # 25

Transfers are in, and I am going to be going to the Crescent Valley Ward in Gig Harbor.  Needless to say, I'm pretty sad to leave my first area.  But someone announced in priesthood that I would be leaving the area, and so they asked where I was going, and I told them, and everyone just laughed.  The guy in front of me said, "May God have mercy on your soul."  So I guess it's a pretty rich area.  And I'm coming from one of the poorest areas in the mission.  But I guess people really like it up there.  From what I hear, there is a lot more work with the members than there is tracting/street contacting/etc. so that's a good thing.  It's going to be sad leaving the heart of the mission, but there should be a lot of good times on the other side of the narrows.

Francis is getting baptized, and he asked me to do that, so I should be able to come back this Saturday for that.  We are teaching him the commandments tonight, but he's already paying tithing, and gave up coffee, and doesn't live with anyone, and he read over the interview questions, and said everything looked good, so there shouldn't be any problems.  So I'm way excited for that.

And I don't think anything else worth mentioning happened.  We talked to some lovely Catholic people who slammed doors in our faces, and we helped 2 people move, and one of them was actually a little normal.  So that's about everything that is worth mentioning.

Anyway, we're going to say that I'm running out of time and end this email here, so yeah

Letter #24

 



 

 

Transfer meeting is next week!  So if you are writing to my residential address... Then don't until I find out where I'm going to be next transfer.  After 6 months in Stadium ward, chances are I'm headed somewhere else this time.

This week was not super eventful.  We had our last district meeting of the transfer, and so that was pretty exciting.  I guess there isn't really anything to say about that.

Well, I guess Francis is pretty exciting.  We taught him the first discussion, finally.  And then we awkwardly got talking about blacks and the priesthood, so we never got around to invite him to be baptized.  So luckily he texted us the next day to let us know that he wants to be baptized.  Which was pretty exciting.  We're going to try to make that happen before I leave the area, so that would be super awesome.

Also, we went to Yelm yesterday to see one of Elder Williams' old investigators get baptized.  And then I really didn't want to leave Tacoma.  But we'll see where I go.

Okay, so I just spent all my computer time shopping for a shoulder bag, so now I've got to go, but I love you all!  Talk to you later.

Letter #23

Hey, so we had a "Mission-wide Zone Activity" in Lakewood today, so I'm kinda short on time for emailing, but I will make sure I get something out while I'm on.

Yesterday was testimony meeting.  Which is always fun, because you never know what kind of "doctrine" your investigators will hear (This month it was that our church is guided by a living prophet, President Romney).  So when we met with Francis, we let him know what this meeting would be, so he would be ready.  When he got to church, he sat by us, and leaned over to tell us that he paid fast offerings to the bishop.  And then after a rousing chorus of "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd" for the opening hymn, he leaned in to tell me, "I am the sheep.  I am the lost sheep."  And then we had the testimony meeting.  And right in the middle of that, Francis got up and left.  After a couple of minutes, our ward mission leader got up to check on him to make sure he was alright, and he was listening from the foyer, crying.  Which was sorta a surprise.  After the meeting, he was still bawling, and we went outside to talk to him, and he says, "I guess that's the Holy Spirit."  And we're like "Ya."  Haha, and it was great, because he originally told us that he could only meet with us on the weekends because of his work schedule, but before he left, he said, "Is there any way you guys could pencil me in for tomorrow?"  So that was really cool.  He's an awesome guy, and we're super excited for him.  Anyway, I don't have much more time, but I miss you all, and I'll talk to you guys later!