Tracting Travails

(rec'd February 25th, 2013)

People in Sequim are funny.

Sometimes a little scary.

But mostly funny.

We got "threatened" with guns a few times this week.

Once by a guy who, I think, has his gun stuck up his bum.

People don't understand the way we tract.

We just pick a street and go.

They think we come specifically to them.

I guess the Spirit brings us to them.

Anyways.

The other guy was really old.

And really nice.

He had this gun leaned up against the wall.

He asked his wife where it came from.

She didn't know.

Someone gave it to him.

He picked it up and was pointing it at the ground.

His wife told him not to point it at us.

He aimed at the ground and, shaking it, said,

"I'm gonna make a Catholic outta you!"
He wasn't interested in being Mormon.

Bummer.

The most fascinating thing to Crosby on her mission?

Animals.

There are these deer that are always hanging out by our house.

Every time she sees them she freaks out, squeels "BAMBI!!" and runs and grabs her camera.

Being the kind and loving mother that I am, I even stop the car for her so she can look.

Teaching was pretty slow this week.

No one was available.

That happens I guess.

I'm excited for this week though.

A young man in our ward gave his farewell talk yesterday.

He reports to the MTC on Wednesday.

Colombia.

I'm so excited for him.

Mostly because he has no idea what is actually coming.

I think if someone tried to tell me what my mission would be like I wouldn't believe them.

Either that or I wouldn't understand.

The Julian family (from Tacoma) had a huge miracle.

Anthony (the dad) baptized his two sons, Ryan and Conrad.

I wasn't able to go, but I heard it was a great event.

On an even better note, I heard this week that the Tangaro family is going to the temple to be sealed next month.

I.AM.SO.EXCITED.

I didn't think that I would be able to see a family that I helped teach and baptize go to the temple.

God is sneaky and he worked it into the plan for me.

Things up here are easy going.

Can't complain much.

The ward loves us.

We love them.

No less than 5 people came and reminded us about when we are going to their house for dinner sometime in the next month.

The people here are unbelievably good.

They just want to be that way.

That is a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

I hope I can learn from them and be more like them.

Read the Book of Mormon.

It's true.

And good.

Much love.

 

Chronister

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

Peter Pan

Think Happy thoughts.

Literally.

I'm going to the Happy Valley ward in Sequim, WA.

(Pronounced 'squim')

(I have to clarify that all too often. Crazy Washington names.)

I am also going to be a mother.

Yup.

Training.

Doubled-in baby mama.

I can't tell you how relieved I am.

As usual when the call came my stomach did a backflip.

Then when I heard where I was going it came back to me.

Relief flooded through me.

The light is at the end of the tunnel.

It's clearer now than it ever has been.

The night is always darkest just before the dawn.

Thanks Batman.

This last week has been a blur.

Don't even really know what we did, to be honost.

I got to babysit some greenies the other day while their comps went to the temple.

Preview of my life for the next 4 1/2 months.

This has been the most interesting 3 transfers of my mission.

The conclusion is the best part.

I came here to find God.

In order to find Him I had to ask where He was.

Joseph asked the same thing in Liberty Jail.

Kind of an ironic name for a jail if you ask me.

In the movie Prophet of the Restoration, Joseph is shown sitting in jail, suffering, wanting to know where God is and where is the pavilion that is covering His hiding place.

The next scene is a sunrise.

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment."

It didn't immediately solve all of his problems. 

It didn't even all come at once.

The sun came up, little by little like it always does.

Slowly the warmth and light come.

We panic when things don't happen in our time.

Hyrum asks Joseph how they are supposed to keep going.

"We trust Him."

Trust God.

He will not and cannot lead you wrong.

He might teach us and chasten us, ask us to do things we don't want to do, and call us to endure hard things.

But we can be assured that whatever the challenge is, there is a promise.

We will not be given anything we can't handle.

God is always with us.

Even unto the end.

God bless.

Chronister

REAL

I hope you know how real the opposition is.

And how much more real God is.

I knew coming on a mission would be hard.

I didn't know that I would be asked to go through this.

It's crazy how far the world has gone.

There is darkness everywhere.

At times it even seems like it might win.

That's a scary thought.

But we have to remember it doesn't solely rely on us.

There is someone greater.

Light will always overpower the darkness.

Even a match can't be snuffed out in the darkest of rooms.

In the world we will have tribulation.

But be of good cheer.

HE has overcome the world.

HE is our foundation.

HE has our back.

HE has already won.

The only fight that's left is the one for each individual soul.

It's up to you.

You can't control anyone else.

Just control you.

Do what you can.

Be who you need to be.

Fight.

Don't give in.

None of us are perfect but we can still try.

That's the point.

Love is the answer.

It's the light.

It's what will win and what will save us.

A little 9 year-old girl asked me yesterday what the Savior means.

I can't wait for to her to not just know from what I told her, but to find out through experience.

There is nothing like actually going through something.

People can share their experiences, their wisdom, their knowledge, their advice.

The key word is "their."

It's theirs.

Not yours.

Make it yours.

The Atonement is not personal until it becomes personal.

That which is to give light must endure burning.

You have been chosen for this.

It's not impossible.
But it's not easy.

There will come a time when everything you learn will be put to the test.

That's when it goes from faith to knowledge.

God is real.

Christ is real.

The Atonement is real.

I think I am beginning to understand.

 

Chronister.

Rolling in the deep

And by deep, I mean a puddle, and by rolling I mean skimming the top. But, things are going really good here.

The twin girls Aiysha and Ameerah are amazing. We met them last Tuesday for the first time and I am having a hard time finding the words to describe what it was like teaching them. GOLDEN. I have said this before, but it seems like every time I say it someone comes along to beat the last one, but I have never met two girls who are more prepared for baptism. We asked them why they want to get baptized and they said because they want the Holy Ghost with them every day. I think most people that want to be baptized have their own reasons, but each one is unique and perfect. There isn't just one blessing for baptism, there are infinite blessings, because baptism offers us access to the infinite Atonement. I digress. The girls are going to be baptized next weekend! We are so excited for them. They came to church yesterday and met the bishop and loved Primary and already know a few of the kids from school. They absolutely love missionaries and the gospel. When they came into sacrament meeting they both decided that they wanted to sit next to me. I forgot how much little kids need to move in an hour. It was fun though. I gave them some pamphlets with pictures to read and they spent the rest of the meeting showing me all the words they knew and telling me that church is long haha. I love them though. 

Yesterday we had our missionary musical fireside in Tacoma. I had an interesting thought. Sister Weaver talked about Peter walking on the water and how he started doubting and probably wanted to go back to the boat. I put myself in that situation and realized I don't want to go back to the boat. I'm walking on water. I can't ever go back to who and what I was before. I have been changed here. Christ has changed me. The only way I can go back to the world, the boat, is with Christ right next to me, letting me know I can still walk on water and that miracles still happen. I love my Savior. I feel like I don't talk about Him enough, even though that's what I do every day haha. My emails home mostly consist of cool stories and funny things, but I feel like all I want to do is cry repentance and praise Jesus (no, I have not turned into a Pentacostal preacher, just a joyous missionary). This is the best life. This is the best work. I glory in my Jesus. Without Him I am nothing. With Him I can do all things. He doesn't make up the difference, He is the difference. I know my Redeemer lives. God bless. Have a great week.

Chronister