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.
