Ola!!
We had another incredible week here! I am just amazed at all of the incredible things that are going on here! We keep on finding more people to teach that have really good potential. This week, We had one or two appointments starting every morning at 8:30, before people go to work, and then we would come home, do personal study, then go to the park to try and find some more people, and then teach again starting when people get home at 5:00. We taught so many lessons this week.
It got pretty smoky here this week. When we are on the highway, we can barely see the tops of the trees lining the highway, and when we drive through Bellevue, we can’t even see the skyscrapers. It is pretty crazy. We all need to pray for those affected by the fires.
On Sunday, we had 3 Brasilian meals between 1 and 7. It was amazing, but very painful. I ate so much. We had lunch with some people we are teaching, dinner with some Brasilian members, and second dinner with another family that we are teaching. It was great!
I did a baptismal interview for the first time this week. It was pretty cool. The Willows Elders baptized Wei on Sunday.
We signed up one of the people we are teaching for BYU pathways! His name is Wellison. He is 23, and is super cool. He speaks really good english. We are also starting to talk with him about eventually going to BYU. Wellison is also progressing! He started tearing up during the restoration.
We had zone conference on Thursday. It was super good. We talked about moving to “Higher Ground” as a mission. I think it definitely helped the mission. Some missionaries were getting pretty relaxed after going home or being in quarantine. It was a good reminder of why we are here. I loved it.
After zone conference, Elder Schelin and I had a meeting with the Assistants and President to talk about the next transfer and to make some recommendations on where we need Portuguese companionships and how many. We have so much work that we are probably going to have all 10 Portuguese speaking missionaries in the mission helping us next transfer! It is going to be so cool! President Beardall is starting to get super excited about it all.
The Kirkland Stake President, President Sowby, called us the other day. He told us that he talked with the area presidency and got permission to start a Portuguese speaking group! It should hopefully start when we go back to church at the end of the month! I am so incredibly excited and happy! It is going to be amazing! I think that we might have a ton of people at church for the first time! We are going to start telling all of the people that we teach about it. They have all pretty much promised us that they will be there when we get it going.
We were finally able to get in touch with some missionaries in the Everrett mission that speak Portuguese. We have been talking with their mission office for a couple weeks about passing some referrals over, and we were finally able to get the contact information of some missionaries in Bothell and Lynnwood that speak Portuguese. We passed probably 25 referrals to them. We are just going to keep on finding more people on Facebook, especially in Bothell. We found so many people in Bothell already. There would probably be enough work in Bothell for the Everett mission to put two companionships of portuguese there, but right now they only have one missionary in Bothell that speaks.
Two stakes also finally got back with an official list of Brasilian members. That added 12 households to our membercount. Many of them are probably less active, but we will be able to start working with them. Hopefully some of them are active or just haven’t been going to church because they can’t understand it. Getting those lists also made us excited to hear from other stakes. We have only heard from Renton, Bellevue, Seattle, and Kirkland. We think that pretty much every stake will have some members buried on their records.
I'm going to start including a list of people to pray for on my email each week. These are some of of our focus people
Meire
Gabrielle
Wellison
Vinicius
Walber
Adeí
Rosi
Scripture of the Week: John 15:7-12
We must abide in the Savior by loving Him, glorifying God, keeping His commandments, and loving one another. As we abide in Him, and as we let His words abide with us, we will become His disciples and have a fullness of joy.
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
Photos 1-6, 8-9 - The increasing smoke from the fires
Photo 7 - Me + Smoke
Photo 10 - Screenshot of handbook requirements to start a branch
