Hey Mom! October
17, 2016
The Temple trip was awesome!
Driving down was rainy and foggy. As a matter of fact, the whole past week was
rainy and foggy, which is actually rare weather in this part of Washington at
this time of year. Still! The Columbia River temple is small, but it's very
homey. You know how temples are sometimes built like the environment (i.e. the
Philadelphia temple's look)? Columbia River Temple is marvelous, but also
rustic. Kind of like if God had a mountain cabin I would say! But the spirit is
the best part there. Stepping inside kind of feels like taking a step into a
real sanctuary from the outside world. I especially love sitting in the
Celestial room and pondering on missionary work, what more we can do to help it
stronger. I got a great feeling about charity, show more charity. Definitely
not something that can be done overnight, but it is something I have been
needing to work on in greater detail.
In terms of work, we had a few
fun experiences! For starters, it rained all week. Before the storm began on
Monday we were returning some used tupper-ware to some members, and while
walking up to their door a stranger who was standing next door called out to us
"Oh, it's you guys!" So we got to meet Tristen, who we actually had
met previously before in previous efforts. Well, we talked about the
Restoration, and he was really interested! So we left him with a pamphlet with
the Institute's number on it (he's not a student but college aged). We called
Bro. Jewett up to let him know about Tristen potentially coming to
Institute.
Later on at night we were
walking around downtown. Street contacting at 8 has always been funny due to
tipsy patrons stumbling out of bars. Still, while walking around in the rain,
we noticed another guy who was obviously trapped outside his apartment on the
other side of the street. We circled around and approached him. His name is
Bill, and at that time the key-pad to his apartment was froze up. Got talking
to him, found out he was a creative story-writer, and talked to him briefly
about how a lot of great stories out there contain a lot of really cool Gospel
and Christian themes in them. That transitioned into us inviting him to take a
Book of Mormon. He said he'd read it, but the really cool part was when we
asked if we could have a prayer with him, and after the key pad failed one more
time he said we could. After we finished and parted ways, we looked back and
saw that he was able to get into his apartment right after we had said the
prayer. It works!
The rest of the week passed
rather non-tragically. One day we headed out at 2:30ish after a morning of
meetings, and walked for the rest of the day around Eburg. So the shoes are
still holding up! the rubber insoles Daniel sent me for Christmas last year are
kind of worn down, but other than that they're holding together.
Yeah, you can tell it wasn't
awfully exciting if I'm giving you a quality report on my shoes. Still! The
rain helped change things up. On Thursday we got to go out with Bro. Gibb, an
older member of the ward and veteran farmer. His wife is the Relief Society
clerk, and she gave us a list of names of sisters to go stop by. It actually
went really well! When we met with her on Sunday she gave us the actual list
and explained that they've been having difficulty getting to see everyone, so it
gave us a good ground for who we could drop by the next week. Later on we
decided to go see another less active family in the ward, and they were
actually about to call us to see if we could help them move some wood around
this afternoon. Right place at right time!
One thing that does come to
mind was our lesson with Cassie and Turk. We saw them twice this past week, but
yesterday we got to go see them again at the home of their friends, the Van
Quills. When we got there, we discovered that Cassie had brought one of her
friends along to hear what we have to say. Cool! Well, mid-way through the
lesson, one of the Van Quills neighbors dropped by and sat down in the lesson
with us too. It was cool! None of them were very interested, but it was cool
sharing the spirit there.
That's actually the week in
essence. Sorry it wasn't too exciting. I'm interested to hear how things on the
home front are going, particularly with the move and the new home. Keep me
updated and I'll be certain to let you guys know how great things are going.
Like I'd say in past before Mom, what'd I do without you? And you know, that
about goes to everyone I've ever had the privilege of knowing.
Love you all!
Michael
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