This week has been super amazing!! Yet again, we have had some awesome miracles happen.
Elder Beardall and I have had a hard time finding new Brazilians to teach. We have had a lot of nights where we just don't have any appointments, so we just end up tracting in the dark all night long. Good thing I like tracting!! This last week, however, we were finally able to find some new Brazilians that we are going to start English classes with this week. We are super excited.
We had awesome miracles with Viviane and with Billy this last week. We sent the entire hour and twenty minute Restoration film to Viviane, and she watched the entire thing twice, and was planning on watching it again with her husband!! She loved it and is starting to understand the importance of what we are teaching her!! She is progressing really well.
We had an awesome lesson with Billy on Saturday as well. We finally had the hermanas up in Bothell get him a Book of Mormon. He read the introduction and understood it perfectly!! We had the most incredible discussion about it all!! We taught most of the Restoration to him again. He loved how we are different from most Christian churches in the fact that we preach discovering the truth through prayer and study. We don't just tell people to believe in us, we tell them to believe in prayer. Billy is progressing really well, and he finally understands just how important it is to read the Book of Mormon.
We are starting a new transfer this week. I will be staying in this area for the 6th consecutive transfer!! I am so happy to still be here. I sure love this area. I would be perfectly happy ending my mission here, but I will do whatever the Lord needs of me. I will be staying with Elder Beardall, and Elder Ludgate will be with us as well. He is from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. He has been out for a little more than a year and started his mission in Ribeirao Preto, Brasil. We are super excited for this transfer.
Elder Justesen went back to Brasil a week and a half ago. He was really anxious, and it was hard to say goodbye to him. We have all gotten so close in the last few months.
I also received news this week that I have been permanently reassigned to the Washington Seattle Mission by the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. I figured that would happen, but it is nice to know for sure. I was expecting to have lots of different emotions, but Ijust feel totally at peace with this. I know I am in the place the Lord needs me to be and that I have met and will continue to meet the people God sent me here to teach and help embrace His gospel. I do really love São Paulo Leste. I also really love Seattle, Washington Seattle. One really interesting thing about this timing is that this week was the same week that most of the missionaries from my MTC district found out that they would be going back to Brasil. You would think that might be kind of hard to see them go back and stay here. Honestly, when I heard that, it testified that the Lord knows that I need to stay here for the Portuguese work and that there is more for me to do here. But regardless of where I serve, what I love more than anything else is this great work. I am so grateful to be part of this. The Lord definitely has a perfect plan for each of us.
I have been thinking about time recently. I think it is because of the amount of time I have spent in this one area. Time is such a precious resource and gift from God. Our diligence and good use of each moment of our lives is a direct sign of our faith in God and our conversion to His Son. I think it is no coincidence that when we fill our lives with productivity we are blessed with happiness. We are to consecrate our time to the Lord. The time we have been given is not really ours, it is the Lord's. Every moment is precious and should not be wasted. I feel like one of Satan's greatest temptations is to just waste time. I love how we are taught by Amulek that "Now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you…..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." (Alma 34:31-32) God told us in Abraham: "And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them" (Abraham 3:25) I truly have learned on my mission that time passes so quickly. In Doctrine and Covenants 58:27, it reads: "Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness." I testify that if we give ourselves over to the Lord and use the time He has entrusted to us in the best way possible, we will have more happiness.
I love representing the Savior in Brasil and Washington, 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 - The view from the chapel in Skyview, Renton. We stopped there to do studies as we waited for zone conference. We had to take Elder Justesen to get a Covid test at the airport that morning, so it didn’t make sense to go all the way back before zone conference
Photo 3 - Saying goodbye to Elder Justesen
Photo 4 - Pretty view of the sunset
Photo 5 - the zone!! Left to right: back row - Elder Dudley, Elder Hardy, Elder Reeve, Elder Merrill, Elder Koenig, Elder Buhler, Hermana Gonzalez. Next row - Elder Lai, Elder Streadbeck, Elder Ludgate, Elder Beardall, Elder Griffin, Sister Callahan, Sister Lott, Hermana Zacarias, Hermana Merrill
Photo 6 - the zone
Photo 7 - Matching ties with Elder Griffin
Photo 8 - Exchange with Elder Buhler
Photo 9-12 - Beautiful day of tracting with Elder Beardall
Photo 13 - In the park
Photo 14 - At work with Elder Beardall
