Baptism? I hardly know him!

 เฮลโล Hello!

So this was a crazy week. I need to introduce you to someone. Now, this may come as a surprise... but I had a baptism this week! His name is Mino!

NEW KID

The Zone Leaders have been teaching someone for a while. He is YSA, but a universal rule about missionaries is that they are stingy about referring their friends that they're teaching that are YSA age. But this week they finally handed him off to us. He's awesome! The gospel has really changed his life for the better and he told us that being baptized is his decision on his own and he loves the improvements that come as he grows closer to Christ. So, on Saturday, he was baptized! The service was awesome. It was the first time I've confirmed someone a member of the church before. A little nerve wracking, but it was fine haha. I'm just so happy for Mino, he's an awesome guy.

THE TEACHER IS TEACHING

Last week, we spent all of our time finding potentially interested people. This week, we reaped the reward of all those seeds that we planted. We had so many places to visit, we spent basically the whole week going from spot to spot to teach lessons to everyone we found last week. It was awesome! We got to teach a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds. We got one of our friends on date to be baptized on February 27 (hopefully that works out, right, Alli?), we taught an agnostic guy who had every single "religion bad" stone ready to throw at us, and just a bunch of other people that I'm having a hard time remembering haha. We probably would've gotten more if we didn't start to feel under the weather a bit towards the end of the week. We're getting better, don't you worry.

TRANSFER UPDATE

Since it's been 6 weeks, another round of transfers are here. I'm staying in Alki YSA with Elder Knapp! It's game over, we're gonna be baptizing nations. And we have some more good news. We're moving into an actual apartment! As exciting as the hotel life is... I'm ready to have an apartment again, so it's a good change.

LAST THINGS LAST

- The two people I've baptized are named Mina and Mino.

- I can still fit all of my stuff in one suitcase, but it's tight.

- I know there have been some rumors going around, but let me set the record straight: I DO love you.

เอ็ลเดอร์ ต้องนอนก่อน  (Elder must sleep first.)

Elder Barrett

Laying down naked watching farming videos

 เฮลโล Hello!

This week was awesome!!! We had a goal as a companionship to find 35 interested people this week. We got 48!!! We were grinding hard. It's been so much fun to just be working as much as we can to meet a ton of really interesting people. Including a really large man who said to us what I wrote for my email title today haha. So here are some of the highlights of this full week!

WEST SEATTLE PT. 2

We had another companion exchange with West Seattle this week. I got to be with Elder Justin Kase (coolest name ever) in West Seattle. We put protective paper stuff on a ladies house and he challenged me to a pun battle. I, never being one to back down from such a challenge, accepted and we were pun battling for about 2 hours straight. It was a pun time. We also walked all around the West Seattle area. My watch told me that I walked over 10 miles during the exchange. I've gotten too used to living a life of luxury, being able to drive around in a car. I need to get back into shape. My taste buds are still in Thailand shape, though. We had some barbeque and I told them to give me the hottest sauce they have. That stuff was weak sauce. 

OH YOU WERE READY FOR US

We were out tracting (like missionaries tend to do) for 2 hours one night. We didnt see a ton of success, and not even my furious joke making could pick up the mood of exhaustion. We finally got to the last door of the apartment complex. A Hispanic guy opened the door and let us in before we could even explain what we were there for. We walk in and turn the corner and about 10-12 people are bordering the room and sitting down, bibles open on their laps. I was thinking, "wow, it looks like they've been waiting for us." They just listened attentively to our message. And then the guy who let us in started dropping a bunch of bible verses explaining how we were wrong and contradicting the Bible. I am inexperienced in the art of Bible bashing, but I'd like to think that I held my own in the conversation. The coolest part of all of this? Before the lesson, we said that we could have the Spanish missionaries come by another time, and they said no, we would be just fine. After we shared our message and explained how it fit in with everything else, they asked for us to send their phone number to the missionaries! It was a crazy way to end the night.

MUSLIMS

Something I didnt anticipate before I came out on a mission was that I would learn a lot about other religions, not just my own. Specifically, I've been learning a ton about Islam. The flaws are very apparent, just like most religions, but I'll tell you what, muslims know their stuff when it comes to their beliefs. Every time we meet one, they tell us all about their religion. One of them even gave me a Quran haha. Just props to muslims, y'all know about your religion a lot more that a lot of Christians.

LAST THINGS LAST

- Sometimes the best way to get through being tired is to find excitement in just being alive!

- People use the craziest things to decorate the outside of their apartments.

- You're the best! I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ อาจจะกลับไปที่เมืองไทยในไม่ช้า (Elder may soon return to Thailand)

Elder Barrett

Apartment Wars Ep. II: Attack of the Karens

 เฮลโล Hello!

What is up dog? How's everyone doing? Hopefully good! This was quite the week. A lot happened without much happening. Confused? Me too. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up!

I BLESSED A FRIEND DOWN IN AFRICA

Technology is cool! We met a guy named Samson who lives in Nigeria! He's really interested in the gospel. We were able to actually video call him and share the restoration! It was dark where he was, so he was lighting his face by shining a flashlight directly at his face. So I guess Joseph Smith wasn't the only one who saw a pillar of light, huh? Do you wanna hear something else that was pretty cool? I got to teach the restoration in Thai!! It went really well, and the person I taught (over the phone) wants a Book of Mormon! So hopefully I'll be able to meet with her this week and hand it off in person!

KARENS. KARENS EVERYWHERE.

While we were tracting at a certain apartment complex, we met three different ladies who all had a bone to pick with us, I guess. The first one slammed the door in our face when we were talking to her. Nothing out of the ordinary, so we moved on to the next door. While we were sharing with the person at the next apartment, the first lady opens her door back up and starts yelling at us about how we can't be soliciting at this complex. My companion calmly starts explaining the difference between soliciting and proselytizing while I just ignored her and shared about the Book of Mormon to the kind person who was actually hearing us out. After a bit, she finally went back inside. The second lady found us when we were going back to our car. I was standing behind the car to back my companion, and this lady rolls down her window and says, "you can't park here if you don't live here!" So I responded, "in the visitor's parking?" Then she said, "I have your license plate number." So I kinda chuckled and just said, "Okay." And she drove off. The third and final encounter was actually a few days later. We were doing more tracting at this same complex and a lady answers the door and politely rejects us, and was actually on her way out of the door already, so she walked past us. We stood there for a minute to write something down on a card, and from the bottom of the stairs, she starts screaming for us to get away from her door. How we were encroaching on her place of residence. We didn't want to yell back at her, so we just said ok and started finishing up the card. And almost immediately she screams again how we need to leave now. So we told her what we were doing and she didn't have anything else to say. We heard her walking around the parking lot talking about how she went to bible college and that there's a scripture that totally debunks our entire doctrine. She never mentioned a reference or even paraphrased, but I'm sure it would have been devastating. At an entirely separate complex, we have 2 cranky old men yelling at us from all the way across the parking lot about not soliciting. We ignored them until they screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU, DEAF?" And we just said that we aren't soliciting and left them to sulk in the darkness. They were like the two old men from the muppets but not funny and just angry haha.

FINISHERS WANTED

I'll be completely honest with you, for the most part this was a HARD week. Lots of hours of work with very little to show for it. Sometimes it can get tough to get myself out of the apartment to go knock on doors if it hasn't been yielding any results. All around our zone here in Seattle, the other missionaries have been having a ton of success and miracles on a daily basis. But we haven't seen comparable blessings. Why is that? We've been working as hard, right? Well, one of my favorite talks came to my mind while I was looking over this week, so I'm going to share a little bit from "Finishers Wanted" by Thomas S. Monson:

Though disappointment, heartache, and trial were to beset him, yet Paul, at the conclusion of his ministry, could say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Paul was a finisher. He admonished us to “lay aside … sin” and to “run with patience the race. … Looking [for an example] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. …”

Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come to the one who stays.

“Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life’s victories after a while.”

God needs finishers! He called me out here to be a finisher, not a beginner. Anyone can start a task, but it takes some real character building to finish one. If I just came out to start a mission, what would I have learned? That a mission is hard? Ok, cool. But through trials and difficulties, life's most important lessons are learned. I didn't baptize nations this week, so what? Many times, the impact that we make on others is never noticed by our own eyes, but I'm confident that through my efforts and continuing faith, I'll recieve life's victories... after a while.

LAST THINGS LAST (sorry about these, mom)

- We had a guy whip open his door with a gun in his hand. He was actually really nice.

- We heard a drive by shooting happen just about a block away from us. About 9 shots fired. Yes, we counted.

- Ghetto spots really like shopping carts.

- A bunch of Mexico missionaries and even some Africa missionaries were sent back to their original assignment this week!

- Don't think I could forget about you. I love you! Have a great week.

เอ็ลเดอร์ นักกฎหมาย (Elder Lawyer)

Elder Barrett

Spiritual Mamas

เฮลโล Hello!

I'll be real, I'm having a hard time remembering all that happened this last week. It was a ton! This week we were focusing on being out and teaching/finding as much as possible, so we were so busy. It was awesome.

WEST SIDE

We had to drop off the West Seattle Elders for interviews with President on Wednesday. So, while we were up there, we did a few things. First thing, we actually went to Alki Beach to get an amazing view of the Seattle skyline. I'll attach some awesome pictures. And then we tried to find some members in the area! There was one in our area book whose name was "F from Tialand." I figured we needed to give that a look, maybe Thailand and Tialand are similar, right? She wasn't there, but I actually had a few chances to speak Thai this week! We got a referral for a Thai lady and she is adorable. We also ran into a Lao man. The only downside? He doesn't speak Lao!!! He was stumbling through english with us, so when he said he was from Laos, I spoke all the Lao that I know and then he was even more confused!!! What even??? He wasnt interested anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter.

SAAAAAHMOA

Talo fa! I got to go on an exchange with the Samoan Elders. I picked up a few cool words, and we went from Renton to Federal Way just trying to find Samoan people. So that was awesome! Did we find a ton of people? No. Did I eat Johnny Rockets for the first time? Yes. I see that as an absolute win. Fa se fua!

LESSONS???

We are finally getting to teach some of the people we've been finding! We had almost nothing to go off of in our area book at the beginning of the transfer, so we were forced to do a TON of finding in the last few weeks. But this week? We actually spent about half of our time on return appointments! We went to places with creepy clowns, bullet holes in the windows, and even a dead body... So yeah, we've been putting all that we've got out there. We have a few people who are really really solid and we had awesome lessons with them. A few of them even lasting like 2 hours. Most of that time filled with them just rambling, but I'm working on patience anyways. We had one cool experience where we were talking to this muslim guy who really likes to talk. He was talking about how we shouldn't be celebrating Jesus's birthday or even our own birthdays. And how Jesus wasn't God's son and this and that. Basic nonsense. We were standing at his doorstep for about 30 minutes when eventually I felt prompted to just bear my testimony and get out of there. That's exactly what I did. He was honestly speechless. After we left, Elder Knapp said that he didn't feel the spirit at all while that guy (who we call bicycle because we cant remember his actual name) was babbling. But he did when I bore my testimony. I'll tell you what, there's nothing like the spiritual confirmation that comes after your boldly testify of the restored gospel, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. It's honestly such a testimony building experience to just share your testimony. So go out and share your testimony! Find opportunities to go out and do it! You won't regret it.

LAST THINGS LAST

- Happy New Year, everyone! Congrats on making it to 2021!

- On Saturday, our fridge stopped working, fire doors closed and emergency lights on in the hallways, and an alarm sounding outside. Literally thought it was the apocalypse.

- Wait a minute... I LOVE you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ບໍ່ເວົ້າພາສາລາວ (Elder does not speak Lao)

Elder Barrett