Totem Lake Portuguese Transfer 1 Week 3

This has been such a good week! We have been able to get in touch with a good amount of Brasilian members now. The Abreus (less active), Da Silvas (less active, part member), and Fowkes live in Kirkland. A recent convert lives in Bellevue. There are four families of members that live in Bothell that we found on facebook. There are also a few families in Renton. 

 

 

The english classes are going super well. English Classes are pretty much the only way we have been able to find and teach people, but it is going amazingly well. Every night, we have time to teach 3 english classes between 5 and 9. That is pretty much the only time people are home and not working. Teaching the individual classes works incredibly well for teaching the gospel afterwards. Here are a couple things that I have noticed about the english classes that have been really cool:

 

 

• We have been able to meet with everyone consistently and multiple times a week without having appointments fall through. We are building real, solid relationships with these people. All of them genuinely love us and support us. It is rare for us to leave without being given food. All of them want to support the church as well. We have told all of the people we teach that we are trying to get the branch started, and all of them except one have said that they will be there when we can meet.

• We have tried to make sure that we clearly explain our purpose in teaching these people both English and the gospel. We almost always are able to not just leave messages and invitations to hear more, but to actually teach the lessons and help people progress. We are seeing a lot of people truly progress. Because we are serving them and forming relationships, people actually listen intently when we teach the gospel and try to understand what we are saying.

• The people that we teach English are actually keeping gospel commitments that we leave them. I am not sure if it is the relationship that we have with the people or the gratitude that they feel for learning English, but these people are actually doing what we ask. We have had so many people actually read the Book of Mormon, gain interest in it, and actually be able to teach us what they learned as they read! I have never had so many people keep commitments in my mission.

• All of these people immediately love us because we love their culture and speak their language. 

• Our friends are becoming curious about us and what we believe. Oftentimes, we don’t even teach the lesson that we had planned because our friends ask inspired questions that we are able to discuss and that we use to teach the gospel. 

 

 

This teaching pool that we have because of the English classes is honestly the biggest and most solid teaching pool that I have ever had in my entire mission. I have never taught so many people that have genuine potential. I think part of that is because all of these people are prepared by the Lord, and because they are different from the typical people that we find as missionaries. They are as a whole very motivated. They have come to the US to improve their lives.

 

 

We also figured out a very simple but extremely effective method to find new people to teach english. In the last two weeks of the transfer, I have friended as many Brasilians that live in Seattle as I can find on Facebook. Because of Facebook’s algorithms, almost all of my suggested friends are now Brasilians that live in Seattle. I don’t even have to search for them on Facebook anymore. They just pop up. As soon as someone accepts my friend request, We immediately send them a message explaining who we are and that we teach english. We ask if they have interest in learning english, or know anyone that would have interest. We have had so many people respond just in the last couple of days that we have started doing this. This would definitely work for any of the other language speaking missionaries in the mission. They would just need to find and friend enough of the targeted ethnicity that live in Seattle that their friend suggestions become others of that language group that live in Seattle. They would be able to find the specific ethnicities through Facebook groups or through their member’s friends. Up to this point, I have made over 150 Brasilians in the last 3 weeks. My suggested friends are almost all Brasilians in this area now. 

 

 

 We are now so full at night that we sometimes have nights double booked so that we teach 6 english classes in between 5 and 9. On the nights that we have double booked, we do an exchange with Elder Buhler and Elder Collingwood so that two of us go to three classes and the other two go to the other English classes. We don’t do this every night because that would take them away from their area too much, but we definitely have enough people that we could do that every night. 

 

 

We have been in touch with some of the other Portuguese speakers. Elder Beardall, Elder Ward, and Elder Brammer all have good grasp on the language and enough experience to help out. Elder Justeson also might have. We don’t know about him yet. We are going to try and continue finding people that want english classes and are interested in the gospel so that we know how many people we could teach when the next transfer gets here. I could definitely see us needing as many companionships as possible. 

 

 

It is so incredible to see all of this happening. I really believe that this branch is going to happen. We got close to getting some people on date this week. We did not get anyone new on date, but all of the lessons turned out really well and led to our friends progressing.

 

 

Photo 1 - Awesome food that Rita, Liv, Luiza, Ademario, Bianca, and Patricia gave us!! It was soooo good!!

Photo 2-3 - Brother Richardson of the Totem Lake Ward has a full on recording studio and guitar building shop

Photos 4-5 The drive out to Snoqualmie to visit a super far away referral

Photos 6-8 Our new amazing extended stay in Bellevue!! It is much better! We actually have a full sized fridge and a little space

Photo 9 - Me in the new room

Photo 10 - Lunch at Ademario and Patricia’s house!!

Letter To President Beardall And His Response

President Beardall,

 

 

The work is going so well here! This might be a kind of long email, but there is a lot of stuff

happening that is really incredible that I wanted to share with you. We are getting super

busy.

 

 

We have been able to get in touch with a good amount of Brasilian members now. The

Abreus (less active), Da Silvas (less active, part member), and Fowkes live in Kirkland. A

recent convert lives in Bellevue. There are four families of members that live in Bothell that we found on facebook. There are also a few families in Renton.

 

 

The english classes are going super well. English Classes are pretty much the only way we have been able to find and teach people, but it is going amazingly well. Every night, we have time to teach 3 english classes between 5 and 9. That is pretty much the only time people are home and not working. Teaching the individual classes works incredibly well for teaching the gospel afterwards. Here are a couple things that I have noticed about the english classes that have been really cool:

 

 

We have been able to meet with everyone consistently and multiple times a week without

having appointments fall through. We are building real, solid relationships with these people.

 

 

All of them genuinely love us and support us. It is rare for us to leave without being given

food. All of them want to support the church as well. We have told all of the people we teach that we are trying to get the branch started, and all of them except one has said that they will be there when we can meet.

 

 

We have tried to make sure that we clearly explain our purpose in teaching these people

both english and the gospel. We almost always are able to not just leave messages and

invitations to hear more, but to actually teach the lessons and help people progress. We are seeing a lot of people truly progress. Because we are serving them and forming

relationships, people actually listening intently to when we teach the gospel and try to

understand what we are saying.

 

 

The people that we teach english are actually keeping gospel commitments that we leave

them. I am not sure if it is the relationship that we have with the people or the gratitude that they fell for learning english, but these people are actually doing what we ask. We have had so many people actually read the Book of Mormon, gain interest in it, and actually be able to teach us what they learned as they read! I have never had so many people keep commitments in my mission.

 

 

All of these people immediately love us because we love their culture and speak their

language.

 

 

Our friends are becoming curious about us and what we believe. Oftentimes, we don’t even teach the lesson that we had planned because our friends ask inspired questions that we are able to discuss and that we use to teach the gospel.

 

 

This teaching pool that we have because of the english classes is honestly the biggest and most solid teaching pool that I have ever had in my entire mission. I have never taught so many people that have genuine potential. I think part of that is because all of these people are prepared by the Lord, and because they are different than the typical people that we find as missionaries. They are as a whole very motivated. They have come to the US to improve their lives.

 

 

We also figured out a very simple but extremely effective method to find new people to teach english. In the last two weeks of the transfer, I have friended as many Brasilians that live in Seattle as I can find on Facebook. Because of Facebook’s algortihms, almost all of my suggested friends are now Brasilians that live in Seattle. I don’t even have to search for them on Facebook anymore. They just pop up. As soon as someone accepts my friend request, We immediately send them a message explaining who we are and that we teach english. We ask if they have interest in learning english, or know anyone that would have interest. We have had so many people respond just in the last couple of days that we have started doing this. This would definitely work for any of the other language speaking missionaries in the mission. They would just need to find and friend enough of the targeted ethnicity that live in Seattle that their friend suggestions become others of that language group that live in Seattle. They would be able to find the specific ethnicities through Facebook groups or through their member’s friends. Up to this point, I have friended over 150 Brasilians in the last 3 weeks. My suggested friends are almost all Brasilians in this area now.

 

 

We are now so full at night that we sometimes have nights double booked so that we teach 6 english classes in between 5 and 9. On the nights that we have double booked, we do an exchange with Elder Buhler and Elder Collingwood so that two of us go to three classes and the other two go to the other english classes. We don’t do this every night because that would take them away from their area too much, but we definitely have enough people that we could do that every night.

 

 

We have been in touch with some of the other Portuguese speakers. Elder Beardall, Elder

Ward, and Elder Brammer all have good grasps on the language and enough experience to help out. Elder Justeson also might have. We don’t know about him yet. We are going to try and continue finding people that want english classes and are interested in the gospel so that we know how many people we could teach when the next transfer gets here. I could definitely see us needing as many companionships as possible.

 

 

It is so incredible to see all of this happening. I really believe that this branch is going to

happen. We got close to getting some people on date this week. We did not get anyone new on date, but all of the lessons turned out really well and lead to our friends progressing.

 

 

Thanks for all that you and Sister Beardall do.

 

 

Love,

Elder Dudley

 

----------

 

President Beardall’s Response

 

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to put all of this in writing. Would it be okay if I shared

your letter with others, specifically my counselors who are working to help others get English classes started and with other language missionaries who are trying to do what you two have done? There is no reason to keep "reinventing the wheel!" What you have done is provide us with a model to follow. The "theory" is turning to actual results as you have pressed forward in faith. Yes, as we get closer to the transfer, we will discuss how to best deploy other Portuguese-speaking resources. Thanks for blazing the trail! We love you!

Totem Lake Portuguese Transfer 1 Week 2

It has been another great week here in Kirkland! The miracles keep on coming! I am still so grateful to be here right now. 

Monday

 

 

After P day ended, we had two great english classes. The first one was with Adei, Rosi, and Thalles. The class went really well, and they are all super nice. It was our first one with them. None of them identify with a specific denomination, but all believe in God and are more than willing to hear our message. 

 

 

Later that night, we had a really cool double english class. Ana Paula, who we have been teaching for a while, wanted to speak English with her Bolivian friend. So, we decided to team teach with the hermanas. It went super awesome! Ana Paula’s friend, Sheila, is so cool! She is really nice, and loved the Book of Mormon! We are going to start doing this joint English class every Monday. Even though I don’t really speak Spanish, I can understand almost everything.

Tuesday. 

 

 

On Tuesday, we had district council and interviews with President. It was great. We have a really good district. Everyone wants to be here and participates really well during the meetings. I brought some Brazilian candy (pasoca) that I bought at the Brasil Market, and everyone loved it. During our interviews, President kept on saying how excited he is for us to be working with the Brasilians up here. He is really all in on starting this branch, so that is great!! It was so good to talk with him and see how much he wants this branch to start. 

 

 

Later that night, we had an English class with Walber. It was so awesome! The English class went really well. We did some grammar, new words, and then we read the first two parts of the Restoration pamphlet in english. Afterwards, we followed up on the Book of Mormon. Walber had read the intro, and he understood it perfectly! He told us everything that it talked about without even looking at the intro. He then talked about how he has doubts that this all happened, but then he read us the last part of the intro that talks about Moroni 10:3-5. He told us that he really liked that because that is how he will know! He literally understood perfectly. We just talked about the importance of praying, reading, and asking. He is progressing really well!

 

 

Wednesday 

We did some service for a lady named Tamara that I found on Facebook. It was mostly just weeding, but I did get to use a propane tank/torch/flamethrower type thing to crisp some weeds on the driveway, so that was pretty sweet. 

We also started to do this new finding idea that we had. I had the idea of making English class flyers and asking the apartment complex offices to post them or email them around. Some of the apartments won’t do it, but we have had a good amount of positive feedback. There have probably been about 6 that are going to send the flyer out to the community email and post it around the complex. 

 

 

Unfortunately, yesterday, we realized that we wrote our phone number down wrong, so all of the time we spent doing that is wasted because if people are interested, they won’t be able to get in touch with us. 

 

 

We also went over to the Fowkes’ house. Brother Fowkes served in Curitiba, Brasil, and Sister Fowkes is from Brasil. They want to be a part of the branch! It was so amazing! They are going to be a huge help to us. It was really fun to be over there and talk to them. They also made some Brazilian food for us, including acai! It was great!

 

 

 Later that night, we had another English class with Ana Paula. It went well. We didn't get to leave much of a message afterwards because we were helping her resolve some problems that she is having. We did talk with her about the Book of Mormon. She read the intro! And some of the pamflet! And she understood! She talked to us about how interesting it is that Moroni and John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith. We told her that we would explain more about Joseph Smith next time!

 

 

Thursday

We had a really unique experience Thursday afternoon. Ana Paula had a meeting with an immigration lawyer in Renton. We needed to visit people down there anyway, so we went down and worked in Renton. We then went to the meeting with Ana Paula and translated for her. It ended up being 2 and a half hours of translating. Basically, she wanted to see if there was any way she could become a legal citizen. After the meeting, she decided not to try and to just stay here illegally because she would most likely be deported if she tried. It was really interesting to learn all about that process. I was pretty drained mentally afterwards, though.

 

 

 After that, we had an English class with Bianca and Patricis, and then we shared Ether 12:4 with Mario, Rita, Luisa, and Liv. It was kind of crazy because the Nascimento family came over, but it was good to meet them. We are going to have a big lunch with all of them on Sunday!! 

 

 

That was followed by English with Walber. We went over a lot of past tense with Walber during english. He is definitely getting more comfortable speaking. At the end, we followed up on 2 Nephi 31. He read, and understood it really well again.  He is so prepared. Next time, I think that we will probably teach the Plan of Salvation.

 

 

Friday

On Friday,we had two English classes. One was with Haritta, the other was with Rosangela. Haritta’s class went pretty well. She is speaking pretty well and just needs practice. At the end, we read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon.

 

 

 We then had an alright English class with Rosangela. She just has such a hard time with english. We probably spent 15 minutes trying to pronounce one word. At the end, she started talking about the trouble that she is having. We shared Mosiah 24:14 and talked with her about how the Lord will support her in her trials. We talked about patience and faith. She really loved the scriptures we read.

 

 

Saturday

On Saturday, Elder Buhler came and worked with us for the day. His companion, Elder Colingwood, went with Elder taylor. Elder Buhler was in Brasil for one transfer. He is still learning Portuguese. It was really good for him to be with us and get to speak some Portuguese. We had a really good day. We stopped by a bunch of people in Redmond and Bellevue. It was cool to see different zones. We also swung by another Brasilian Market to drop off some of our flyers, and while we were there we bought some more acail. 

 

 

That night, we had an English class in Bellevue with a guy named Orlando that I found on Facebook. It turns out that he is a member! We were talking with him during the class, and he just told us that he had been baptized 5 years ago in the Kirkland Spanish branch. He is less active now, but that was pretty crazy! I was surprised because he literally hadn’t said anything when I was texting with him. 

At eight o’clock, we had another English class with Rodangela. Again, it went really well. At the end, we taught her about prophets and hinted at the Restoration. She wanted us to finish what we were saying but we told her that we would the next day.

 

 

Sunday

We had the biggest, most amazing Brazilian lunch with Bianca's family and their neighbors. We got to know them, and continued to make a super good friendship with them. They are literally the best! Elder Bremer actually used to teach them, so he called to say hi to them part way through. It was pretty fun to see him and say hi.They absolutely love us! At the end, we reminded them of the importance of the Book of Mormon, explained what it is, and gave them a copy. They love us, and have stated multiple times that they will come to church to support us. They are not completely committed to learning the gospel, but are very christian, don't have a church here, and are willing to listen to us. They sent us home with almost 10 pounds of food. I was so full afterwards! It made me so happy to have a traditional Brasilian meal.

 

 

 Our lesson with Waldesson’s family fell through, so that was a bummer. We were going to try and put his wife and son on date for baptism.

 We did have a really great lesson with Lucie. We read 3 Nephi 11, which she loved, and talked about a ton of different things afterwards. She had some pretty random, but inspired questions. We ended up talking about baptism, repentance, the prophet Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and multiple parts of the Plan of Salvation. We left her with Alma 11 (because while we were deciding on a chapter, she picked that one) and told her that we would teach the Plan of Salvation next time. The lesson was so good!! 

 

 

 We also had a third lesson in a row with Rosangela. We taught English, and then we taught the Restoration like we told her we would. We explained about prophets, and she totally understood the pattern of apostasy and dispensation. After we finished, we asked her how she could know if these things are true, and she said "study, looking for the answer, learning, and asking God". We invited her to be baptized once she knows these things are true and God responds to her prayers. She said yes!!

 

 

It has been a crazy, and an incredible week. We are going to try and get even more lessons set up each night. If we need to, Elder Schelin and I will go on exchanges with other elders to teach twice the classes. We are trying to get this all moving as fast as we can. 

 

 

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 18:20

 

 

I loved representing the Savior in Brasil and Washington, I love representing Him in Seattle, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!    

 

 

Love,

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley

1 - One of our creative ideas to try and fin Brazilians was to go to all of the apartment complexes in the area and ask them to send an English class advertisement out to the residents. They usually weren’t willing, but we didn’t have many other ideas.

2 - My transfer goal poster

3-4 Elder Buhler, Elder Schelin, and I with açaí bowls

Totem Lake Portuguese Transfer 1 Week 1

Totem Lake Portuguese Transfer 1 Week 1

 

 

What a week!! So, last Monday, Elder Atkin and I went up to the Bellevue South Stake Center for transfers. It is right behind the temple, so we went and walked around for a little. Then we had transfers! Elder Schelin and I got the stuff we needed, got in our rental car and started our drive to Kirkland. Our rental car is awesome. It’s super nice, with air conditioned seats and everything! We are living in a hotel because there are not enough apartments. It is a Comfort Inn, and is going to work out fine. It is definitely a little cramped, and we don’t have a kitchen but that is ok. We bought a microwave omelet maker, and we have a crockpot, mini fridge, and a cooler for our food. We either pre-cook everything at the other Elder’s apartment, or we use the crockpot. So far, it is going good. There is another companionship in the room right next to ours. There are both reassigned Mandarin speaking missionaries, so that is pretty cool. 

 

 

The work is going well here. It is kind of crazy that we are trying to start a Portuguese branch. I am so grateful to be part of this. I definitely feel that the Lord has prepared these people for this branch. We have already seen some awesome miracles this week. One interesting thing is that we are super jam packed with lessons each night, but have nothing during. Pretty much all Brasilians work all day long. At night, it is super easy for us to get lessons because they all want english class and love hearing the message afterward. We are pretty much booked from 6-9. During the day, we just have to be creative to find people. We are trying to get permission to set up a little booth in a Brasilian market and advertise english classes. We also are making flyers that we got permission from apartment complex offices to post on their bulletin boards. 

 

 

Here are some of the people and miracles that happened this week:

 

 

Ana Paula

• We have been teaching Ana Paula English on zoom for the last two months. We finally got to meet in person! We had an English class at the church with her. It went well. It was just hard to keep her focused. She is super nice, though. At the end, we gave her a Book of Mormon and explained what it is. She also told us that she wants to start doing the english class with one of her friends that is Hispanic. The Hermanas and us are going to joint teach, so that will be cool.

 

 

Liu

• We met Liu as we were trying to contact people in an apartment complex. We shared Ether 12:4, and committed her to read the Book of Mormon. She was super excited about it.

 

 

Lucie

• Lucy was one of many referrals that we have received from around the mission. Most of the referrals have moved by now, but we were able to have a good lesson with Lucie on Sunday. We covered most of the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. It went really well, and she really liked us.

 

 

Walber

• We have been teaching Walber English for the last month or so over zoom. We met with him twice this week. He is awesome. He is kind of quirky, but in a good way. We explained about the Book of Mormon after our first English class, and when we came back the next time, he had read 3 Nephi 11 and told us exactly what it was about. We taught him the Restoration after the second English class. It went super well, and he understood perfectly. At the end, we asked him if he had any questions. He understood how important what we said was, and that there can only be one true church of Jesus Christ. He asked us how he could know when God answers His prayers. It was awesome!

 

 

Haritta and Rosangela

• Haritta is about 30, and Rosangela is her mom. We had one English class with Haritta, and two with Rosangela. They both went really well. We taught Haritta the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. When we met with Rosangela, it was completely different. She definitely has ADD and dyslexia. It is so hard to focus her on English, and she really struggles to read. She loves us, though. At the end of our first class, we explained the Book of Mormon to her. She loved it and thought that it was so cool. She also gave us some awesome Brazilian cake, so that made us super happy! We were also talking with her, and we brought up that we are trying to start a Portuguese congregation. She thought that was super cool! She said that she will start coming, and she immediately grabbed her phone and sent a text to an admin of a huge 200 person Brasilian group chat for Kirkland asking them to add us. She was super excited about everything! We taught her the next night, and we had another really cool experience. I have been praying to become a better English teacher because that is how we are finding most of these people. We were doing the class, and Rosangela was really struggling. I had the impression to tell her to stop reading and just repeat what I said. I did that, and she repeated the phrase perfectly! We did that a couple of times, and then we had her read. It was so amazing! She struggles to read, but she has a really good ear for things. We now know how we can help her learn. At the end of that class, we read the intro to the Book of Mormon with her. She thought it was super interesting. One kind of funny thing that happened is that she tried to get us to do the sacrament at the end. We asked her if we could pray, and she immediately went and got water and told us to bless it. We just didn't know what to say. I finally was just like, "well, we usually only do that on Sunday", and Elder Schelin pulled out a scripture from Acts about meeting on the first day of the week. She just said ok and put it away. It was pretty funny.

 

 

Waldesson, Gleiva, and Waldesson Junior

• This is a less active family in the Totem Lake ward. The parents are Brazilian and don’t speak english. We taught them on Sunday. The dad is the member, and his wife and son are not. We taught the Restoration, and it went soooo well! At the end, the wife just looked at us and siad, “so, joseph Smith was a prophet of God?” It was so awesome! We talked for a little bit more about Joseph Smith and the importance of having a prophet, and then we gave her a Book of Mormon. I then asked her if she would be baptized when she got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. She said yes!! It was so awesome!

 

 

Josiane

• The most incredible miracle this week happened as we were contacting some of the referrals that we received from around the mission. These were all just people that were buried in area books due to the language barrier. We decided to visit some people in Redmond (the neighboring zone, which we can go to because we are allowed to go to other zones to teach Brasilians). We decided to visit this one guy named Tiago. We got to the apartment complex and walked around for 20 minutes. We just could not find the apartment. It literally didn’t exist. Finally, we checked the last four doors. None of them were the right number. Right before we left those doors, Elder Schelin had a feeling that we should knock one of them. We did, and Josiane answered. She is Tiago’s mom! Tiago has been deported, but before he was deported, they were planning on getting baptized. Josiane still loves the church and missionaries, and we talked with her for about an hour. She is super excited that we are trying to get a branch in Portuguese started. It was so awesome!! We are going to start meeting with her.

 

 

This is going to be a really incredible transfer. This is such an incredible time to be here. I am so grateful to be part of this effort to start a Portuguese branch. 

 

 

Scripture of the week:

2 Nephi 27:23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

 

 

I loved representing the Savior in Brasil, I love representing Him in Seattle, I love my companion, I love the Gospel and Atonement of Christ, I love my family, and I love my Redeemer. I am ready and excited to work harder, learn more, and love better this week!    

 

 

Love,

Elder Warren Matthew Dudley

 

 

1 - A park in Kirkland. We taught Anna Paula some English classes here because no one was home with her during the day.

2-7 - The referrals that we received in our book. All of these people spoke Portuguese and had been contacted by missionaries in the last 2 years.