Khakis and a Fanny Pack

เฮลโล Hello!

How is everyone doing this week? I'm doing pretty well myself, thanks for asking. This week was faster than fast, but it was amazing. Elder Knapp and I are staying in Alki YSA for one more transfer! That's insane! So, here's to more of the YSA life!

Uh oh, this man has พระ (priest)

We tracted into a guy who invited us inside for a Pepsi. We went right in and he started talking to us about what makes our religion different. He was genuinely listening. He even took out a pen and paper to jot down some notes. Now, this man was some kind of super genius. His questions were so hard to answer, because he used so many big and fancy words in rapid succession. We had an awesome conversation and we offered to give him a Book of Mormon. He said he would love to read it, and that he actually wrote down a goal to read it once he finished the Buddhist book he's been reading. When we pulled one out and handed it over to him, he said, "is this the actual Book of Mormon?? Cool!" He then showed us his "altar" in his room with a bunch of idols and incense and stuff. It was surreal haha. Reminded me of Thailand. 

SEASIDE MIRACLE

We were tracting again one day and we weren't getting any success, so we decided to try something new. We went over to Seahurst Park, which is a beach right in the Puget Sound, to do some street contacting. We talked to a few people who weren't very interested and we decided we were gonna head back home for dinner. We saw a lady painting rocks under a pavilion and almost just walked right past her because we had been rejected so much that day. But we went and talked to her anyways. She was very nice and told us she had actually met missionaries in Kirkland a few weeks ago and they were going to send her information over to some missionaries in Tukwila. We just happen to be some missionaries in Tukwila. We had a cool talk with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. Hopefully we'll see her again!

IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

This is one of the most meaningful experiences of my entire mission, so if you read anything in this email, please read this story. One man we tracted into this week tried to shut us right down by telling us he's gay and he knows we hate him for that. We told him we don't hate anyone because he's gay and he started to listen. We had a cool doorstep lesson and he told us to come back another day. So on Sunday night, we stopped by. He opened up and we explained the Restoration a little bit more. At some point, he interjected and told us that he didn't want to live anymore. He said he just doesn't want to wake up again. We really didn't know what to say. We stopped teaching and we just talked to him man to man. We talked about how we sincerely wanted to see him the next time we come over. It was a good conversation. He thanked us for coming over, especially because he told us to, and he was really happy that we both remembered his name. It really meant a lot to him. He said he couldn't promise that he would be around for us the next time we stop by, but we got his phone number and told him to call or text us anytime that he needs someone to talk to. He's been texting us youtube videos of carpool karaoke and stuff. 😂 He's a really funny guy. But the biggest thing for me is that just being a missionary might have saved someone's life. And that is all I need to know that this is where I need to be. That just being out here has made an impact on someone's life.

LAST THINGS LAST

- The weather was good enough to bring out the short sleeves and fanny pack! Classic TBM look.

- The Elders Quorum President snapped at the Sunday School teacher during our first week back to in person church.

- Microwave burritos make decent enchiladas.

- We had a pool table show up at our front door one day. It's made a great table to play Pokemon on.

- Just a quick FYI for you, I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ไม่ไหว้รูปเคารพ (Elder does not worship idols.)

Elder Barrett

I am the Dog Whisperer.

 เฮลโล Hello!

Welcome back to another week in the life of Elder Barrett. This week was ZION week, meaning 3 things: exact obedience to the daily schedule, always acting on promptings, and repenting immediately. Was I perfect? Not by a long shot. Was it a good week? You bet!

TRIAL OF YOUR FAITH

One of my favorite scriptures is Ether 12:6. It says, "...I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." Let me tell you, this could not be more true. I had a very long week. Not that I wasn't having a good time, but there was very little visible progress in the missionary work. It was a little frustrating at times, but we kept going. On Saturday, we were doing some tracting and were getting very little interest. Eventually one lady screamed at us to get off her *freaking* porch (censored for the children). It felt a little fruitless to keep going, but we didn't have anything else to do, so we persevered. We moved onto the next building and the very first door was a YSA aged girl who said that our message was "something the world really needs right now." And that she would definitely talk to us some more next week! Then a few days later, we met this guy from Honduras who used to meet with the missionaries a few times a week in his home country! He talked to us for like 45 minutes it was awesome. Suddenly, it was going so well that we were late for an appointment! We definitely didn't receive our witness until after the trial of our faith.

LEARN YOU SOME EDUCATION 

We have a few friends who are progressing really well. I'll sum up a few of our experiences this week. 

Jesus - We had an awesome member present lesson. We shared about the Plan of Salvation, and he really liked it! He's on date to be baptized the second week of March, so we'll see how he keeps progressing.

Eric - He always lets us in. He's a super sincere guy and I can tell his interest is increasing every time we come. He has met with a lot of pastors and ministers before, but just hasn't felt comfortable with many of them. He told us that we feels differently about us! He's going to be praying about the Book of Mormon and to know if he should get baptized.

LAST THINGS LAST

- Dogs just flock to me. And sleep in my lap. It makes me feel like a Disney princess.

- Sometimes a smoke break is a great time to run into missionaries! Who knew?

- This week, we got snow, hail, and rain. What is this place?

- I love you more than I love Costco muffins. I would be honored if I was you.

เอ็ลเดอร์ ไม่สนุก  (Elder is not fun.)

Elder Barrett

That was STAIRifying!

 เฮลโล Hello!

Another week down! They are flying by! I mentioned to Elder Knapp last night that it was like I blacked out on Tuesday and suddenly we're back to Monday, and he said, "RIGHT??"

SPANISH FOR A DAY

We had a super fun exchange with the Spanish Elders this week. We got to check out an awesome park, and I even got to sit in on an English class! It's really weird to have a class like that where I want to say something to the student, but right before I open my mouth, I realize that the translation I found in my brain is in Thai, not Spanish. So I decided that I would just enjoy it a bit.

JUST DRIVE

I got to drive for the first time since I got out here. I exchanged with one of the Zone Leaders and we actually had an awesome day. We had such a great lesson with a friend named Eric. We could really feel the spirit and he said he could too. He was very involved and he is excited for us to teach his wife, too when she's around. We went around trying to find some of the people we've met recently, but no luck. At the end of the night, we took care of a complex's pest problem, and finished out the day.

HARD KNOCK LIFE

We did a bit of tracting this week. We had a few interesting experiences, including one guy who actually put on a coat so he could come out and talk to us some more about the message we've been sharing. We had like a 15 minute conversation about the Book of Mormon and the need for a Restoration. It was awesome! In that same complex, a very strange man told us about how he had a girlfriend who was Mormon, but he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon or anything. We talked for a while and eventually he invited us inside to show us a video that "disproves" the Book of Mormon. There were so many things wrong with that video, I couldn't even start to list them here haha.

LAST THINGS LAST

- We found the most loveable guard dog.

- A crazy Mexican man sang next to me at the top of his lungs while I just wanted a burrito.

- When members unexpectedly let us come in, it's the greatest thing.

- Never forget that I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ยิงหนู (Elder shot a mouse.)

Elder Barrett

I challenge you, one snow wizard to another!

 เฮลโล Hello!

เฮลโล Hello!

Hello again, coming at you from Anchorage, Alaska!... wait. Oh, whoa it's still Seattle? But it snowed A FOOT! This week was snowy! We had a ton of fun. I've never thrown so many barehanded snowballs.

PRUIS PUSHERS

In our apartment's parking lot, there's a steep slope that we have to drive up to get to the exit. Someone driving a Prius was trying get up that slope as we were coming down. We almost crashed, but don't worry we both came out of it unscathed. This Prius was giving itself headstarts and trying to get up over and over. We almost went inside to our apartment when we remembered that we had borrowed a snow shovel that morning! So we sprinted back out and started shoveling a path for this guy! It was a pretty dinky shovel, so we were having to scoop quickly. We swapped between scraping the ice and pushing the Prius up the hill! There were two hills to get this guy up, and he wasn't exactly expert at keeping his tires in the tracks we carved out for him, but after about 15 minutes of hard work, determination, and a lot of pushing, he broke through and was on his way. It was a "Hurrah for Israel" moment for sure.

DON'T LOOK! KEEP YOUR EYES SHUT!

The STLs invited us over for a pass-off lesson with their friend, Ruel. We got there, walked up to his house, and noticed some interesting things. Like a van painted like the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. When we got inside, he wanted to show us some of the kittens his cat just had, but first he turned on his TV. Let's just say that what came on was not rated E for everyone. I kept my eyes glued to the sisters until they switched it off. We had a really interesting lesson. He was pretty flirty with the sisters. He shared some pretty interesting beliefs like how you need to be the perfect balance of good and evil to become all powerful, or how God is a woman, just to name a few haha. It was a kinda awkward lesson, because the sisters never told us what it would be about, and we had a tough time following where they were going with it all. He definitely doesn't feel ready to commit just yet, but hopefully soon he'll come around.

NO GREATER LOVE

Happy Valentine's day! If you don't have a special someone this year, I'm sorry to hear that, but I have great news! There's someone who loves you! It's Jesus! Wow! In John 15:13, it says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." No one loves you more than the Savior! Sometimes it feels like you're alone, and that no one really cares too much about you, but let me promise you that there is always someone there who truly cares about you in a personal way. In John 15:12, it says, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." It's his commandment, but it's also my challenge to you this week! Show others that you love them!

LAST THINGS LAST

- We made a snowman and named him Snowlepoke in honor of The Other Side of Heaven.

- Snowangels in missionary clothes are so much more fun than in snow clothes.

- I am a snow wizard.

- Washington doesn't know how to plow roads.

- Since I can't really have a "Valentine" as a missionary, I'm naming all of you as my honorary valentines this week. I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ตัวช่วยสร้างหิมะ  (Elder Snow Wizard)

Elder Barrett

I'm a textpert. An expert at texting.

 เฮลโล Hello!

I'm out of quarantine! My mission President let us get out on friday, and we got right back to work. But the work started before we got back outside.

IM A TEXTPERT

I did a lot of Facebook finding this week. But since I'm not restricted to Seattle, I can text people from anywhere in the world. So there's one specific place I targeted. Anybody wanna take a guess? ...yeah, its Thailand. I basically spent the end of my quarantine texting as many Thai people as i could. It was fun! I really miss Thai people, they're all so nice. I texted so much that Facebook Messenger told me to stop. I'd say that's some missionary work. A nice added bonus of that was I got pretty fast at texting in Thai!

A CHOSEN PEOPLE

I got to go on another exchange in West Seattle this week. It was a great time! Lots and lots of walking, some yardwork, and some lessons! The one that stood out the most was one with their friend, Justin. Justin is the coolest. He's Thai, doesn't speak it though, and he LOVES the gospel and pretty much already lives directly according to every single thing that we do in the church. This man already keeps the word of wisdom and fasts EVERY Sunday. Unbelievable. It's always a good time when I get to spend a day up there.

DORA THE DOOR EXPLORER

As a mission, this week we were focusing on knocking as many doors as possible. We are never one to turn down such a challenge. We knocked and knocked. We were sprinting from door to door to knock as many as possible. It's called urgency, look it up. We didn't meet very many people, but I did teach a guy the entire Restoration lesson in like 2 minutes at the doorstep, so that was fun! All those hours studying Preach My Gospel are paying off haha. Also, pro tip: no one wants to talk to missionaries when the Super Bowl is on. Sounds like an exciting event. In the words of Elder Knapp, "can I put super cereal in this super bowl?"

SINCERE SERVICE

I'd like to just talk about the difference between superficial service and sincere service for a moment. I was in a meeting with the other mission language leaders (it's not impressive, I'm just pretty much the only Thai speaker), and one of the missionaries brought up a question. It was along the lines of, "when our English students don't want to learn about the gospel, how do we stop teaching them?" That question made me very upset. In our mission, we teach free english classes as a service for the community. We also offer to teach them about the gospel seeing as we are missionaries, but the most important thing is that we are serving our neighbors by offering these classes. If we don't want to continue serving these people, because they won't give us something back, that is superficial service, and I would argue that we were never serving them out of love in the first place. Sincere service is offered out of charity, which is the pure love of Christ. When offering a service, focus on the person or people that you are serving. How does your service make them feel? Do you feel a connection with this person? Do you feel sincere love for this person? I'd like to challenge you, if you're still reading this, to do a small act of service without the expectation of receiving something in return. Focus on how serving makes you feel. Focus on how it makes the recipient feel. Serve with a real, genuine intent of just making the world a little better, and let that be your reward.

LAST THINGS LAST

- Sitting on a bed all day is not good for your back.

- My abs are not as strong as they were in my cross country days.

- Stop. Hey! What's that sound? I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ ช่างส่งข้อความ (Elder Mechanic Message)

Elder Barrett

Ķøřøňåväïřű§

 เฮลโล Hello!

This was a pretty uneventful week as far as missionary work goes. We had been feeling very tired at the beginning of the week and we started to have a few covid symptoms pop up. Turns out, we have it! So I have been stuck in our apartment all week long. Not too many stories to share from this week, so how about a spiritual thought? Great!

THE BOOK OF JUDGES IS CRAZY

With all of the extra time I've had on my hands, I can finally make some more progress into the Old Testament! Specifically the Book of Judges. This book is INSANE. Want a few highlights? Ehud stabs Eglon with a cubit-long knife, but Eglon is so unbelievably fat that he absorbs the entire thing and sucks it into his stomach. Abimelech got bonked by a rock a woman threw at him and told his servant to stab him so people can't say a woman killed him. Jepthah's daughter went with her friends up and down a mountain for 2 months complaining and crying about her virginity. Samson killed a lion, ate honey from out of it, lost a bet because his wife cried, killed a thousand guys with the jawbone of a donkey, lied 3 times about his weakness and eventually just said, "eh, fine, why not get destroyed?" and he got his eyes wrecked and thrown into prison, and finally, he knocked over some pillars in a prison which sent it all crumbling down and destroying all 3000 people in there with him. Sheeeeesh.

These are all crazy stories, but the thing is, they were all unavoidable. Well, except for Ehud. But the thing is, crazy, uncontrollable things will come into our lives. Doesn't matter who you are. Whether it's our own fault, or something that's just fallen upon us, there's one thing we can do: call on God! Trials and difficulties come to everyone, but the people who come through these experiences stronger than before are the people who hold onto their testimony. The grace of the Savior is an ENABLING power. It's the enabling power that we all have access to through our faith. So, if any of you are experiencing unexpected struggles, don't stress too much. The Savior already payed the price for that, and he can help you out if you'll help yourself a little by praying for strength. That's what brought Jericho's walls down. That's what led the Israelites out of slavery. That's what can save you from your own life's battles.

LAST THINGS LAST

- Does anyone have any good ideas for ways I can fill the time for another week inside?

- Ramen is not that good when it becomes your main meal.

- Fans of my New York Times bestseller (pending), "A Back Tattoo for Mr. Goo" should get excited, because I am currently working on another book, "Pepper the Leper".

- Roses are red, violets are blue, covid is gross, but I love you!

เอ็ลเดอร์ นอนอยู่เสมอ (Elder always slept)

Elder Barrett

 

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