I guess we better start off with transfers. I've been taken from my land of Deer Park and sent to Spokane. If you know much about me, you know exactly how I feel. I guess I have little else to say of this. My one consolation is that I'm not sweeping into an area again. Hum.
So there's this weird place in the mission called Chewelah. It has some kind of curse which prevents missionaries from finding new people to teach. We slopped our way down there last week to undo the curse and was greeted by freezing wind. There isn't much there to prevent the bone chilling cold, so we shivered our way violently down the forsaken dimly lit streets. We had to walk backwards to stop the wind from wrecking our face in the 10 degree weather. After a few doors of minimal success, I felt like we needed to go to 712 east where members supposedly lived to ask them for help. We slither our way down go to where 712 should be, but wasn't. It was a house lit well with Christmas lights. I really enjoyed it and we walked up the steps, and then I figured we shouldn't knock because it's not the members. I turned around and felt that this was the wrong idea, and I might as well just knock. I slap my fist across this door and a sweet guy welcomes us right in to thaw our faces out. We bonded instantly with a love of animals. Shortly after, his wife came and I bonded with my love of cows specifically. We became friends and shared a brief message, and they were very excited for us to return again. We handed them off to the other missionaries and then returned home to our actually warm apartment. We went the next day to another investigator couple we have and started teaching, then told them of our experience. To the shock of us all, it ended up being their friends who they were about to refer to us that day! I couldn't believe it. We followed a prompting and snatched up a referral before we even received it. God is good.
I might've had my last visit to the pig farm unknowingly. When we did go, the owner wasn't out and about yet. I felt so proud to realize that I had just gone straight to work without any instruction. I had assessed what needed to be fixed and put together and this and that. When I had first come, I was confused and didn't know how to do anything. It was really cool for me to reflect on the experience I had obtained. It made me feel great. But anyways, not much of interest really happened.
It snowed a whole lot this week, and just about all of it was powder. It just dumped everywhere, and then the windstorm came. It rattled our windows and blew waves of snow everywhere. We could see dark shadows appear and disappear in the snow. As we drove, the snow slithered across the pavement like evil white snakes attacking the wheels of my beloved Rav4. Snowdrifts piled up as high as four feet further east. Many people got their cars stuck in snow. Not us, boys! Rav4.
For our district councils, we are able to have hour long lunches. Elder Larsen brought a big ol pot of spaghetti which he had made the other day. I didn't think much of it as I munched on my jelly sandwiches, daydreaming and just enjoying life. It was then that an odd smell wafted past my nostrils. Something definitely did not smell good. I looked back and forth, searching for anything which had caused such a putrid stench. I then looked at the microwave in fright. Elder Larsen put his metal pot into the microwave and had cooked it for over a minute. We hurried and yanked that microwave door open and I hid behind the fridge in case it exploded. Now I had never really put metal in the microwave before, but I was aware that it was extremely dangerous. I'm still not sure if it could have exploded, but I do know we are very lucky and then it smelled so bad we opened a frosty door to air out the appalling stench, as Elder Larsen made excuses.
Now it's time for the good part of the week for me. If anyone I ever teach/have taught reads my blog, take note. It breaks my heart when I work so hard to get the people I teach to church, they commit to coming, then no show on us. Anyways, we went on over to this wonderful woman from Iraq's home with some members for a sweet lesson. Mini story! She takes care of her community, and there was a Russian man who bullies the residents. She confronted him, and so he switched from English to Russian and angrily yelled. This wonderful woman looks at him, puffs out her chest, then says "This is America! You speak English!" Man, I about died, especially with her native language being Arabic. Anyways, back to business, we were teaching the plan of salvation and it was going incredible. She participated a lot, asked many good questions, and even taught us a bit. She is a convert from being a Muslim, so Christianity is fairly new to her. She tells us a woman said, "I won't give you false hope. Your mother wasn't Christian. You will not see her in heaven." She had a hard time, but she accepted this heresy and kept quiet. The spirit told me to take a seat so that it could speak through me. I strapped on my seatbelt as my mouth was used to deliver like a 5 minute speech, starting with, "I have been set apart as an authorized representative of Jesus Christ, and I swear in the sacred name of Jesus Christ that that woman was wrong! You will see her again." And then autopilot just kicked in and wrecked the false doctrine while I just tried to keep breathing. The spirit isn't used to breathing, so. It was incredible, and everyone but me and Elder Larsen had fallen to tears. Eventually, I gained control of my body again and we resumed the lesson. The members then invited her to church at the very end, and she excitedly showed up to church for the first time with her daughter. The ward instantly loved them and supported them and made it an amazing experience. Its not often that I get to see the fruits of my labor. People never come to church. I was so grateful I was able to see one of my last miracles before returning to the land of Spokane.
I don't have much else to talk about this week. Just shout out to my member families which helped make this area so good, the Birds and the Lims. Even if you don't read it, I love you guys.
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| Haircut for the Birthday Elder |
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| Celebrating my birthday early because of transfers |
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