Week 3 of transfer two in Kirkland
Sorry that I haven’t sent an email in three weeks! I wrote them, I guess I just forgot to send them.
This has been a pretty good week. We had a lot of amazing things happen. I did something that I haven’t done in 7 months and that I thought that I wouldn’t ever do again - knock on the door! Our area presidency gave the ok for us to start tracting in specific circumstances determined by mission presidents! There are very few cases and places in our mission that tracting is currently allowed. We had interviews with President Beardall last Thursday, and he talked with me about how effective and well received tracting would be with the Brazilian community. He decided that it would be ok and interesting to try, and that most Brazilians would not have a problem with it. I went on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders after interviews, and he showed me an app called whitepages on our exchange. It is basically like an online phonebook, and you can search nearby locations. When we go to apartment complexes, we can just go through everyone who is registered on whitepages in that complex. I don’t think Elder Fullmer quite realized how useful that would be for us. This week, Elder Beardall and I went around to every single apartment complex in Totem Lake and made a list of all of the Brazilian names that are registered on Whitepages for us to contact. Even though very few Brazilians are registered on Whitepages, we still found 100+ names and addresses. We have split the list up between the companionships, and we are going to go through and start contacting all of these Brazilians and asking them for referrals of other Brazilians in the same apartment complexes. The only thing about door knocking is that the Brazilians are almost never home until at least after 6:30. It's pretty much only productive to do that after 6:30. During the day, it is still more effective to just message them. So far, we have only had time two nights to try contacting the people we found, and so far it has been pretty. We are excited to put this to more use.
This Sunday, we will have our first Portuguese sacrament meeting at 12:00!!! We are so excited. We need extra prayers!!!
We had an incredible miracle last week. We finished teaching Gabb the commandments. She is pretty much ready to get baptized on the 25! She made the comment to us during the lesson that she is still trying to pray to get a real response from Heavenly Father if this is what she should do. Two days after our lesson, one of the other Portuguese companionships asked us for some of the names off the list that we had created because they wanted to do some tracting. Out of all of the thousands of apartments in Kirkland, the one that they chose to stop by was Gabb’s apartment. It was under another Brazilian’s name, and we had never been there because we teach her on zoom! She told them that God usually answers her prayers through other people, and that she had been praying when they knocked on the door. She told them that they were an answer from God. They were able to have a great lesson with her and address some of her concerns. It was incredible.
We had a bunch of really great lessons this week. Rodrigo and Andrea are absolutely incredible. THey love us so much. The second time we went back to teach them, they had already invited another couple to do the English class with us. It was awesome because we taught Rodrigo, Andrea, and their two friends.
We had a really cool lesson with a less active member named Silvania. We read Moroni 7 with her and talked about faith through adversity. We also shared what had been said in General Conference about Doctrine and Covenants 121 and 122. The Spirit was so strong that she started crying. Next time, she is going to invite a non-member friend to come to the lesson with us, and she is going to try and come to church.
I love you all!
Scripture of the week; Alma 34:32-34
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.
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 1-2 Got some love from home
Photos 3-5 Exchange in the Willows area with Elder Fullmer
Photo 6 - Working with Elder Beardall
Photos 7-8 The leaves are changing!!
Photos 9-14 - Cool park in the Lakeview area that has a great view of Lake Washington
Photo 15 - the view of Lake Washington from big Finn Hill in Kirkland
Photo 16-17 - Zone conference
