Glaciers n railroad tunnels n such

Ah man, best P day ever yesterday.

No offense, but I love P days where we can't email.

More time to go play.

We drove out to Lake Crsecent.

It's about half-way between Port Angeles and Forks.

Both of Twilight fame.

Didn't make it to Forks this time.

But I did see the Italian restaurant and the bookstore that Bella goes to in PA.

Woooooo.

The lake is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my whole life.

Glacier water.

It's literally blue.

We climbed through some railroad tunnels.

I felt like Derrick.

Wilderness Explorer.

Impressive pop culture/Disney movie reference, eh?

Sol Duc Falls is legit too.

Had to cross some snowy paths to get there.

Worth it.

The view from our balcony at home is of Canada.

No lie.

Victoria is just across the water.

At night we can see the lights in the clouds.

I keep hoping that dog experiences will get better for Crosby.

She even tried putting herself out there, petting a dog on a doorstep.

Too bad he tried to bite her hand and by the grace of the angels standing by only managed to pull her glove off.

That's Washington for ya.

We have a kid on date.

Joseph.

He is getting baptized in March.

Things are really starting to pick up here.

We're busy and are finding lots of things to do.

Dinners are a challenge.

Not becuase we don't get them.

Because if I look at my companion at any point during the meal I will lose it in hysterical laughter.

Our ward is amazing.

We helped a recent convert move this morning.

She got kicked out of her house and has been living in a hotel for about a week.

She got her new apartment today.

She has a lot of disabilities and needs a lot of help.

A sign hung on the fridge when we walked in.

"Welcome home, Loretta! Heavenly Father has richly blessed you!"

The next few hours consisted of different ward members flocking in and out bringing donated things for her home.

Not a house.

A home.

My ice cold heart melted a little.

Good Grinch moment.

As of this last Sunday I have 100 days left on my mission.

100 Days of WA-TAC.

A picture a day.

I'm not counting down.

Counting down implies some amount of desire to reach the end.

I want to document ever moment I can.

I love this home.

Much love.

 

Chronister

When did you really love it?

Question of the week from Crosby:

When did you really start loving your mission? Because I like my mission, but you love your mission, you don't ever want to leave.

I tried to think for a long time about that.

When did I really start loving my mission.

The answer is that I have no idea. 

It happened somewhere along the way.

In the middle of the trials that I was wading through, trying to sort everything out, I became a missionary.

Mind, heart, might, soul I am a missionary.

This is normal life.

This is what I do.

I don't remember life before this.

It's the best dream ever, and I hope that when I "wake up" it continues to change me forever.

It's always a gradual process.

Happy Valley is wonderful.

Such happy people.

And happy missionaries.

Feliz.

Heureux.

Felice.

Glucklich.

Iloinen.

Happy.

I love Jesus.

Amen.

Chronister

Baby Crosby!!

Oh man, the last week.

Crazy.

Sequim is far away from Tacoma.

My poor greenie.

We're driving around, seeing our area.

It's all rural, out in the sticks.

Lots of space between houses.

It's quiet.

I love it.

I think she's weirded out.

She's jumpy and afraid of the dark.

I'm working on curing her of that.

Knocking on sketchy doors and almost getting eaten by dogs.

I think it's just making it worse, actually.

Not much we can do about it though.

We are far, far away from the city.

It's peaceful here.

The Spirit is stronger.

Church was amazing.

There was so much love in the chapel.

Everyone is so excited to have sisters.

It's good to feel loved.

We have pretty much nothing to work with as far as a teaching pool.

Right before we came the elders were covering 2 wards.

Then each ward got their own set.

They just baptized their one really solid investigator.

She bore her testimony.

She is super legit.

So we are basically starting from ground zero.

It's fun.

It takes patience though.

It's hard remembering everything you need to do.

And it's hard fighting off those thoughts the adversary puts in your brain.

I got so programmed to thinking no matter what I did things wouldn't change.

That's not true.

Things can change.

God doesn't leave us hanging.

Sooner or later He brings forth the fruit.

He jsut doesn't tell us what it is or when we'll get it.

Oh, and I sang in transfer meeting.

Me and Grenfell.

In front of the whole mission.

I was scared out of my mind.

And I think I was shaking so bad I almost knocked the building down.

But I think it went well.

"Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling."

It's a great song.

Check it out sometime.

Back to mission things.....

The ward is awesome.

They had us sit on the stand yesterday so everyone could see us and so we would bear our testimonies.

My companion bore a really sweet, sincere testimony.

I got up and TTIP'd the ward and invited them to work with us.

Basically, it was one giant request for referrals haha.

I like our companionship though.

I feel like I'm this veteran, knows the tricks to the trade, pretty much has things under control.

(I say pretty much cause you never completely have everything under control)

She is out here going on faith.

Greenie faith is incredible.

I have over a year of experience to know what to do, what to say, how to react.

She is just out here because she knows she needs to be.

She's learning on the job.

Her faith is ebing tried every minute of every day.

And she's still here.

It's awesome.

I love new missionaries.

Training them is a blast.

I have a lot that I can learn from her.

At our new missionary meeting the AP's did a training with all of the trainers while the Weavers were with the newbies.

It was basically a WA-TAC love fest.

We talked about everyting WA-TAC.

It got me so pumped up to go do missionary work.

This is the greatest mission ever.

Sorry, rest of the world.

I love tracting now.

Sometimes it's still hard to get out of the car, but I always do it.

So much good this week.

I'm excited for the upcoming one.

Jesus is the best.

Love you.

 

Chronister