Olá!!!
It has been an awesome two weeks. We had such a good start to the transfer. Elder Beardall and I are still companions, which is a blessing, and we are now in a trio with Elder Ludgate. Elder Ludgate is also from Virginia!! It is super fun to be with someone else who is from Virginia. We are having a good time together.
We had some really fun things happen recently. We had awesome lessons with some referrals. Rita, Liv, and Liza (our recent converts) referred this lady named Patty and her daughter Isadora to us. We started teaching them english. Patty is hilarious!! She can talk like crazy and is so funny! She gave us some really awesome food at the end of the lesson. We shared the Book of Mormon with them at the end of the second lesson, and it went so well!! They thought it was so cool!! We are going to teach them again tomorrow, and I am so excited!!
Rosi also referred one of her friends to us. Her name is Marcia. She and Rosi were neighbors back in Brasil, and now they are neighbors here. Marcia is super cool. We have had 3 lessons with her. Last week we also shared the Book of Mormon with Marcia. She thought that it was super cool. We had a lesson with her again this last Saturday, and she read the Book of Mormon and loved it!! She asked us to prepare reading assignments for her to read each night this week!! The other really exciting thing is that her 15 year old daughter has been coming to church frequently with Rosi!
We had two really cool experiences following promptings this last week. Elder Ludgate really felt like we needed to start praying more. So, this week we started really praying about the places we would tract in. On Saturday, we prayed asking for orientation as to where we should go. When we finished the prayer, I was prompted to remember a specific contact. It was a door I had knocked 6 weeks ago on an exchange. I hadn't even written down the info for him and had pretty much completely forgotten about him. So, we went and knocked on his door. Larry answered the door, and we started talking to him. It turns out that he has been reading the Book of Mormon!! We are going to go back and teach him the Restoration on Wednesday!!
On Sunday, we had a similar situation. We prayed to see where we should go. Elder Beardall felt like we should go to a particular apartament complex. We went there and started knocking. The fifth door opened up, and it was a Brasileiro!! They were super cool. We were already excited because of that, and then we knocked on the next door. The person that opened the door was Gabb!! She is someone that Elder Beardall and I taught 6 months ago. She was supposed to get baptized on October 10, but kind of disappeared. It was so cool to run into her!! She let us right in, and she had two friends there. We ended up talking to them about the restoration, and they were super interested!! Gabb remembered everything, so she would be like, "Oh, tell them about the Book of Mormon, or the prophet, or Jesus coming to the Americas, etc…." It was so cool.they both really wanted Book of Mormons, so we gave them two in Portuguese. They are super excited to read them. They also got super excited to hear about the church in Portuguese. They are going to come to church this Sunday.
Last Saturday, we got a text from Billy, one of our investigators. He is super cool. He texted us and told us that they were going to be having a barbecue at a park in Kirkland. He invited us to come eat. So, we went, and it was super awesome! It had been so long since I had eaten a real Brazilian churrasco (barbecue). They brought so much meat!! They had two huge flanks, probably 15 pounds of pork, and 4 massive trays of steaks. The coolest part was that we got to meet his wife and daughters for the first time, because we usually just do English classes online with him. That was already super awesome, but there were two other Brazilian families there that we got to meet! I love tracting and knocking doors, but I have to admit that barbecuing with Brazilians would definitely be my preferred method to find new people to teach. It was awesome!!
We also had a fun English class with Rosi. She wanted to do something different, so she took us to MOD pizza!! It was super fun. It was the first time that I had eaten in a restaurant since before Covid. We just did the english class while we were eating pizza, and it was super fun.
Scripture of the week: Deuteronomy 32:8
8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
I like this verse of scripture because when Elder Klebingat came, he taught us that the Lot sent other spirits to earth according to the number of the House of Israel
I loved representing the Savior in Brasil, I love doing the same thing in Washington, 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
Photo 1 - MOD Pizza with Rosi
Photo 2-3 - Churrasco with Billy and friends
Photo 4 - going to service
Photo 5 - The ever present Mount Rainier
Photo 6 - Goofing around with Elder Ludgate making a video for the Zone Facebook page
Photo 7 - President Sowby of the Sammamish Valley Stake and I
