The Feast and the Famine

Another transfer down! I've really enjoyed this last transfer. I've learned a lot about myself and about others, and we were able to help our friends and members out! I truly see the Spirit of the Lord in them, and helping them fully access the divine power that they have access to is beautiful, and perhaps one of the things I enjoy most about missionary work. 

It's been another week and a half and I've forgotten everything that happened!

The new missionaires came in last wednesday, and we did the new missionary blitz thing again. We basically each get assigned a new missionary to take round the U district and campus, and show them what missionary work looks like. It's really cool!

I knocked my first two doors waiting for a dinner appointment! There's not a lot of knocking done in seattle, especially our area. We got in contact with them, shared a message, told them we were looking forward to the super bowl (I don't care about it) and said goodbye.

Speaking of the super bowl, a lot of the members were happy that the Seahawks won it! Most of my exposure to the super bowl is through the half time show, which I heard was boring, but I'll never see it until August next year, so that'll be interesting to watch. 

The world cup is better. I will die on that hill defending my beliefs around that. You can't change my mind, because I am right

We said goodbye to Elder Durrant, who literally just moved something like 40 mins up the road to Lynwood. I'll miss him. He was a good trainer. My new companion, Elder Kieffer is cool. We get along really well. The only downside is that he's not watched a lot of movies, so we can't really talk about that. 

Speaking of movies, i had a really good conversation with a member over the phone about movies. We got a call from his uncle in Utah who wanted us to reach out to him. We found out that he worked at a cinema placd, and started chatting to him about that. It was really nice to talk to him about great movies. It was also good, because he's the first person who I've talked to over here who's seen Hot Fuzz, and we were able to chat about Edgar wright films for a while after that. He wasn't too pleased that we were missionaries, but i think he enjoyed the conversation

Finally went to MLC, which stands for Mission Leadership Council or something like that. Basically, all of the Zone Leaders get together with president, talk about numbers, and get fed decent food. It was an extended version of it so the district leaders (me) get to go. Normally the district leaders don't go to it, but extended MLC is basically district leader training. It was so good that i fell asleep through it. President sherman started talking about how to make stake coordination meetings go really well and be productive for about 25 mins, and I just went 💤 😴 💤 

It's ok though. We spoke with each other (President and I) about our combined love of Nandos, which is sadly nowhere to be found in the US of A. However, there is one just across the border in Vancouver, so i if I ever get sent up to Bellingham, I might just take a cheeky nip over the border and get some of those sweet sweet peri peri chips and a nice chicken platter. 

We've been doing a lot of stands on campus recently. We've saw great success from it, and have found a lot of new people to teach. For anyone that's serving currently in or near a university campus, i would highly reccomend that you try a stand. We usually have a whiteboard that people can write on to answer the question on it. Something like "What brings you joy?" or "What do you value most?" It's been really successful and we brought our new member Mason to come and do it with us one day. He loved it!

Our bishop taught false doctrine on Sunday! Said that we were polytheists, because we believe in a heavenly mother. Luckily, only one of our friends were there, and none of the other missionaries had anyone there, so that's fine. The friend that did come doesn't seem likely to progress anyway, so it could definitely be worse. 

At institute yesterday we had one of our new friends come, Evan. He's super elect, and asks all the right questions. "Why is faith in Jesus Christ necessary?", "How do you know that old guy is a prophet?", and "Why did Jesus have to come to earth?" Super elect. We chatted all the way through the class about prophets and stuff like that. I later apologised to the teacher for talking constantly throughout his class. In my defence however I was teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, so I feel like that's a good excuse.

There has been a spiritual feast recently. We've seen a lot of new friends being made, and these stands are doing an excellent job. There has been a famine though, because I can count on one hand the number of dinner appointments I've had since I've been here. That's ok though. I've gotten really good as quickly whipping something up to eat (aka putting a chicken patty and chips in the air fryer and waiting)

The Feast and the Famine is also a Foo Fighters song, so that helps

Today's spiritual thought will thankfully not be false doctrine, but read doctrine. It's gonna be a simple one as well:

Jesus Christ loves you

God loves you

You are saved from death

You have access to help

You can find peace in Christ

You will feel comforted at church

Prayer works. I was talking with one of our freinds about prayer. If you pray for God to give you a lambo you're probably not gonna get it. If it aligns with God's will, he will grant it to you, or provide the means by which you can achieve your goal. 

A prophet in the Book of Mormon asks us in Moroni 7:35 "if [the days] of miracles [have] ceased?"

I say no

I see miracles almost every day

God is still working

We just have to look for him in all that we do

Keep it up!