Bothell Portuguese Transfer 1 Week 3

It has been a really good two weeks!!! We had transfers. It was a pretty crazy day. We ended up moving apartments to an apartment up north. That helps us a lot because most of the people we teach live up here. 

 

 

Most of our zone stayed the exact same with the transfer, which makes sense considering that we all had an emergency white-washed in two weeks before the transfer. It is going to be such a great transfer of miracles together. The only changes that we had were in the Portuguese work up here. Elder Ludgate is now in a trio with us, and Elder Diago and Elder Kelley also came up to form another Portuguese area up here.

 

 

The three most notable things that happened the week before this last week were:

 

 

3. I did an exchange with one of the district leaders, Elder Ballard. He is a super awesome missionary. We went to teach a really cool part member family that Elder Ward and I had met. We got there, and the lesson fell through, but we did get to give the member a blessing,which was cool. It had been more than 9 months since I had given a blessing in English, so that was pretty cool.

 

 

2. We had an awesome dinner with some of the Brazilian members that live up here. Their names are Eric and Vanessa Santos. Their family is so cool!! They had us and the Canyon Creek Elders (The elders in their English ward) over and cooked us a big Brazilian churrasco (barbecue). It was awesome!! They are super fun to talk to.

 

 

1.The best thing that happened was our lesson with Guilherme and Juliana. They are such a cool family!! They love us coming over. We had an awesome Restoration lesson with them. The Spirit was so strong!!! 

 

 

This last week has also been super good. It has been awesome to be with Elder Ludgate again. He has changed a ton in the last month or so. This last week was a little bit different because we only had 2 or 3 lessons, so the rest of the time we just tracted and looked for new people to teach. We were led to some really cool people. The Lord guided us to several new Brazilians. 

 

 

We also had interviews with President this week. It was super good to talk with him.

 

 

I honestly don't have too much else to update on just because we have pretty much just been tracting. The most important thing that is happening right now for us is that we are trying to push for the Portuguese group to become a branch. Please pray for this to happen. If this is going to happen, it will happen now or never.

 

 

I have been thinking a lot about how important gratitude is. One little bit of inspiration I had this week is that gratitude can take away fear. I think a lot of times it is easy to get wrapped up with concerns over life changing. We miss things from the past and fear different things coming in the future. The thing that I realized this week is that changes always come, but if we have gratitude for the blessings we received already and how we were able to have such great experiences, fear of change diminishes. Gratitude is key to not having fear or regret.

 

 

Alma 37:37

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

 

 

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

 

 

Photo 1 - Elder Ward forgot his mask and wallet one day and so I bought him a new one

Photos 2-5 - Elder Ward and I out and about testifying

Photo 6 - Welcome to Bothell

Photo 7 - Beautiful Bothell

Photo 8 - Working in the woods

Photo 9 - I spilled farofa all over my pants at Eric and Vanessa’s house

Photo 10 Cool tag pic

Photo 11 - We saw a circle rainbow

Photo 12 - Figured that I should finally get a picture at the mission office after almost a year here

Letter To Stake President Jake Sowby

Letter from me to stake President Jake Sowby of the Sammammish River Stake. This was a letter that my companions and I wrote when it seemed like all of our efforts with the Portuguese group were going to be in vain. 

----------

We have some new information in regards to the members for the Portuguese group.

We were at Eric and Vanessa Santo's house this last Sunday. They told us that there is a good chance that they will not be able to come to any more of the group meetings. Vanessa is about to be called to the primary presidency in their english ward this Sunday. 

We talked with them a lot about everything going on with the group. The sense that we got from them is that all of the members are just kind of confused and one foot in and one foot out because they have no idea what is going on.

Eric and Vanessa are super awesome and are super willing to help out. She told us that when they extended the call to her, she almost said that she is going to the Portuguese group right now and that they were committed there, but she didn't say anything because they weren't sure if it was ever going to turn into a branch. We think that they would possibly be willing to still help out if a call were to be extended to Eric. However, now with Vanessa having that call extended to her, it would probably require coordination with their ward to see if there is anything that could be done as soon as possible.

Eric is basically the only option for a group leader in this mission. He is the only Brazilian Melchizedek Priesthood in this mission. If there was any way to figure out a way to call him, we really believe we could get the number of people at church up to above 40 consistently to be able to form a branch. However, if this were to happen, it has to be as soon as possible. 

Now that Covid restrictions are loosening and many wards are beginning to have primary and other classes again, if things don't get figured out soon, it is very probable that many of the other members will have a harder and harder time coming to the group meetings if it is still unclear as to what is going to happen. If they knew that there was a group leader and if they knew how we could turn it into a branch, we believe they would really get behind it. 

Looking at the list of people below, if a group leader were to be called, we believe that we could definitely sustain a consistent number of about 40 people at church each Sunday, excluding missionaries. There is also definitely a large possibility of others of the members that currently have callings in other wards participating in the future if this becomes a branch. This would basically all be conditional on the situation with the Santos family being worked out, as there is no other viable option for group leader besides people in the Lynnwood stake. We would also need the Santos family to be all in if this was to turn into a branch. 

If this does not happen now, this is all going to die very quickly as soon as we all leave this summer, or possibly sooner as more of the members get callings in their other wards. As long as they have uncertainty as to what is going on, they will be one foot in, and one foot out. 

We do not want all of the efforts from the last 9+ months to be in vain. Obviously, it could never be in vain, many miracles have happened, including several of God's children entering the covenant path. We have also been able to make a huge impact on the entire Brazilian community here. However, we truly believe that this could, should, and will become a branch, and that in particular is one of the big reasons this all happened. If there is a branch here, then there will always be missionaries that speak Portuguese here, and they will continue to have great success in teaching the Portuguese speaking community here. There are plenty of members for this to work. But for any of this to happen, we have to have a group leader before any of this. Without immediate action, calling a group leader might be made impossible after the window of the next few days.

We don't know if Eric is even still a feasible option, that would require talking to his bishop and additionally his wife and himself to see how they would feel. Regardless of the feasibility, he really is the only option that we can see. Even if an American from this mission or a Brazilian from the Lynnwood stake were to be called, it would be hard to sustain numbers without the Santos family. We have been feeling for the last few weeks that we have reached a critical point of this either becoming a permanent thing and even growing, or crumbling. Considering the fact that a call to serve in their ward's primary presidency has been extended to Vanessa, if a decision is reached to still try and call Eric, it would have to be made before she is set apart this weekend. 

We do believe that if you were to talk with the Santos family about how crucial their help is, they would be on board.

With all this being said, we also want to apologize if we have overstepped our bounds at all with this email. We recognize your priesthood authority and leadership as the priesthood leaders that hold the keys to make calls and all decisions in these matters. We will respect and support whatever decision is made. This email is not intended to pressure or try to overstep our authority. We are merely trying to supply you with the information about the situation that we feel is necessary for you to follow a correct course of action. As President Nelson said, "good inspiration comes from good information."

Thank you so much for all of your support over the last few months. We have seen so many miracles, and we believe we are on the verge of something even greater. We love and appreciate you!!

 

Elders Dudley, Ward, and Ludgate

Lynwood

• Mario and Roselene Costa (Totally committed to being a part of things)
• Kiria and Tyler Carlton +2-3 kids (Kiria is Mario and Roselene's daughter. They were super committed at the beginning and really wanted to be part of it. They stopped coming after a while after he got called as Elder's Quorom president in their ward. If things got solidified and their support was needed to make the branch, we think it is extremely likely that they would start coming again) 
• Guilherme and Rebecca Castro + 4 kids (Have been extremely dedicated and come almost every single week)
• Elisangela and Curtis Marshall + 2 kids (Have been extremely dedicated and come almost every single week)
• Peter Pereira and family (only been one time. He is serving in the bishopric in the same ward that Guilherme goes to. If this were to ever become a branch, we wonder if the Branch President wouldn't be able to convince him to come)
• Andre and Cristina Lima (Kind of less active due to covid)

Everrett

• Andre and Aline Brandao + 3 kids (We just got in contact with them, they came the week that we started talking with them. They seem super solid and likely to participate if things were closer to them)

Bothell

• Eric and Vanessa Santos + 2 kids (amazing, but if things don't change this week, she will be in the primary presidency for her ward and they won't be coming anymore)
• Rosi Apovian (Recent Convert, is definitely always going to come)
• Fatima and Donald Rachels (we just met them. They are not likely to commit fully, but they would definitely come sometimes. They still need to be sealed)
• Joseli (Super less active, but is coming back to church. We have been working with her and using members to minister to her)

Kirkland

• Rita, Liv, and Luiza da Silva (Recent Converts and will definitely always come)
• Janaina and Raymond Fowkes (Awesome and will definitely do what is necessary to get the group to a branch)

Bellevue

• Trenton and Thiffany Hyers + baby (haven't been in a long time because they were scared of Covid with their new baby)

Renton 

• Patricia and Robert Berrier + 2 kids (would definitely do what it takes to get this to become a branch)
• Alvanira (Patricia's mom) she is the reason they drive up often.

Kent 

• Catia and Wesley Nobles + 2 kids (Super committed and definitely will do what it takes to get this to become a branch)

Response from President Sowby

Elder Dudley, we love you. We are on this and rolling.

Thank you!

My response to his response

Sorry about the long email Looking back that probably wasn't necessary. Thanks for all that you do

President Sowby’s second response to me

It was 100% appreciated! 

I have a hand written note to give you the next time I see you and it is so highly complimentary it even made me blush a little! :-)

Thanks for being you! 

JS 

Bothell Portuguese Transfer 1 Week 1

Woweee!!!

 

 

It has been such a crazy week!!! This has definitely been one of the best weeks of my mission!! So many incredible things have happened!!!

 

 

On Monday, we ran around and said goodbye to some of the members of the Totem Lake Ward. It was super sad to say good bye to some of the families, especially the Olsens and the Christensens. The Christensen kids are super attached to all of us missionaries. We had a really cool moment with the Olsens, to. We were leaving a message with them, and Brother Olsen just started talking about how incredible it has been to watch all of the Portuguese work go on and how they feel like they have such a connection to Brasil after going down there several times. He got totally teary talking about it. 

 

 

On Tuesday, we woke up, and Ifinished getting all of my bags packed. We took off and got some tracting in before we had to meet at the Bothell stake center. I started getting super sad to leave Kirkland. I got even sadder when Elder Diago called me to say good-bye. He was all teary. The good thing is that I get to go down there and see them every Sunday at the Portuguese sacrament meeting.

 

 

At the Bothell Stake Center, President Beardall and President Williams( Stake President) talked to us for a while and gave us the rundown on everything that is happening in the stake. Not only are we whitewashing a whole zone of missionaries, but all of the ward boundaries changed on Sunday, which involved eliminating and combining several new units to make new wards. It was really cool, though, to be there with all the missionaries going to the zone. They are all awesome!! The Spirit was super strong as President Williams testified of how unique and special an opportunity that we have here. This is a really incredible opportunity because the missionaries from the Everett Mission have not been able to leave their apartments for pretty much the last year. There has been no work done outside the apartment, so all of these people have been waiting for us to contact them!! It is like a completely fresh start!! 

 

 

I am so excited to be with Elder Ward!! He is an awesome missionary. I already know him really well because we served in the Portuguese group for several transfers together, though not as companions. We drive a minivan!! Only one of the other four companionships of elders drives a car, so we have to pick pretty much all of the Elders for P-Day shopping and for district councils. 

 

 

On Tuesday, we went and dropped all of our stuff off at our apartment (which is super nice) and then we had an appointment at 5:30. I was able to set up a good amount of appointments for us before the transfer because I had a bunch of contacts that live in Bothell. This appointment was with Guilherme and Juliana. They are soooooo cool!! We started teaching them English, but it turns out they met with missionaries a couple years ago!! They love us already!! We had a second class with them later in the week and they fed us an entire meal afterwards. Guilherme invited us to go play soccer with him and a bunch of other BRazilians every Wednesday at a field right next to our house. 

 

 

On Wednesday, we had to go take the other Elders shopping because no one had a chance to buy food on P-Day. After that, we went tracting for a while. We had some really cool experiences!! We said a prayer that we would be led to Brazilians, and the very first door we knocked was a Brazilian named Felipe. He wasn't interested in the gospel, but he works at a local coffee shop called Kitanda and said he would put up an advertisement for us. It was super cool because he was the very first door we knocked on. I definitely gained a huge testimony this week of how the Lord answers prayers and guides us by the Spirit. WE found at least one new Brazilian family every single day this week. This is remarkable, especially because none of the other 7 companionships ran into a single Brazilian family!! The Lord knows us and how to do His work through us!!

 

 

Another cool thing that happened at least once every day this week was that someone would let us immediately in after we knocked on their door each day this week! Every time, we would teach and talk for 30 minutes to an hour!! We met some really cool people.

 

 

We knocked on Jans' door. He left the church when he was 16 and has had a lot of interesting life experiences since then. He had a phase of life where he was very against the church and would do a ton of research to try and disprove the church. Currently, his feelings towards the church have neutralized and his relationship with his family is a lot more stable. We talked with him for a long time to see if we could help him come back. 

 

 

We ran into another super less active member named Rachel. She let us right in to talk with her and her fiance, Brandon. He is Catholic, but he really wants to understand where Rachel is coming from, so he started asking us a bunch of questions. It was awesome. We talked about parts of the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome, and before we finished, they asked us if we could come back on Saturday to explain more. On Saturday, we were on an exchange with the Assistants in the morning, so I went to teach them with Elder Rose. It went so well!! They had looked over the pamphlets for the plan of Salvation and the Restoration and had questions ready for us. Brandon's dad John was also there, and he was super cool. We had an awesome discussion.We taught them about the premortal life and they totally thought it made sense. After we did that, we taught them the Restoration, and it went so well!! We have another appointment with them tonight!!!

 

 

We got to have an in person lesson with Anna Paula and Marcio for the first time ever!! We have been teaching them on zoom for the last while, and it was so much better to be there in person. We taught them about receiving answers to prayer and how personal revelation works. THey opened up so much! It was awesome!! 

 

 

On Thursday, we also had Zone Conference. It was super good!!I really love President and Sister Beardall!!

 

 

We ran into a really cool young guy named Michael. He is a Christian, and we gave him a BOok of Mormon and talked to him for a while at the doorstep. We set up a return appointment, and it went through!! We came back and had a really interesting conversation with him. He knows the Bible very well, but the cool thing is that we can actually talk with him openly about our beliefs and what the differences are. 

 

 

On Friday, after we taught Guilherme and Juliana for the second time, we were tracting in their apartment complex. We knocked into this really cool Brazilian family that let us right in!! Their names are Marcello, Lidia, and Sabrina. The crazy thing is that Elder War taught them a couple times over zoom, but it was just too hard over video call and they were super busy three months ago. We talked with them for a while, and they want to start taking English classes with us again! We have two appointments set up with them for next week!! 

 

 

On Saturday, we also went down to Enumclaw, right next to Mount Rainier!! It was such a pretty drive. Elder Ward served there for the last two transfers, and he got to baptize one of the people that he taught.The Spirit was really strong there. We had to drive for an hour and half to get there. I have now been to all 12 zones in this mission at one point or another, which is pretty crazy!!

 

 

Sunday was one of the best days!! We were led to four new Brazilian households!! They all live in the same complex!! We have been asking all of the Brazilians we know where the highest concentration of Brazilians is. We have narrowed it down to 2 areas so far. We got to do some work up in North Creek, which is one of them, earlier in the week. We had planned on tracting in Kenmore on Sunday, which is the other. When we got there, we realized that Elder Ward had forgotten his mask at home. We can't tract without masks, so we walked around for a while to see if we could find one. We were not successful, so we decided that the best course of action would be to buy another, despite it being the Sabbath. We were too far away from home to go back. It was definitely inspired for that to happen. When we left the dollar tree, we saw a guy walking on the other side of the street that had on a Brazil jacket. He was across four lanes of traffic, so we ran ahead to the crosswalk, crossed, and then chased him down!! He was not Brazilian, but in the half mile that it took to get to him, we passed by the Cedar Park apartments. We had forgotten about them, but earlier in the week, another Brazilian had told us that some Brazilians lived over there. We knocked for about 2h ours, and had some good success, but we did not find any Brazilians. On the last side of the complex, we found the first household of Brazilians. Five doors later, we found a really cool Brazilian lady named Marliette. We set up an appointment with her later this week. She was super cool. We asked her if she knew any other Brazilians in the complex, and she gave us the door numbers of all the others!! We knocked on the other doors, and we gave them both Book of Mormons and got return appointments with both!! One of them let us in and we talked for 30 minutes!!

 

 

I had the feeling that miracles were going to happen this week, but this has been truly incredible. I feel really blessed to be part of this!! I think that this has been the most joyous week of my mission!! I am truly amazed by how incredible God˜s plan is!!!

 

 

Doctrine and Covenants 8:2-3

2 Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

3 Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.

 

 

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

 

 

Photo 1 - Last tracting session with Elder Beardall and Elder Ludgate the morning before the transfer

Photo 2 Elder Ward and I

Photo 3-4 - Morning workouts

Photo 5 - At Guilherme and Juliana’s house with their bird

Photo 6 - Tracting

Photo 7 - Zone conference with the Bothell Zone

Photo 8 - The special Transfer meeting. Left to right: (back row) Elder Lam, Elder Collard, Elder Whitney, Elder Depew, Elder Ballard, Elder Dudley, Elder Ward, Elder Simms, Elder Robb, Elder Whitley, Elder Huntsman (Next Row) Sister Schnebly, Sister McCurdy, Sister Bradshaw, Sister Lott, President Beardall, Sister Beardall, President Williams (Bothell Stake President), Sister Williams, Sister Rees, Sister Meyers

Photo 9 - Elder Ward and I

Totem Lake Portuguese #1 Transfer 6 Week 4

It has been another incredible week here!!! The combination of Easter and General Conference was absolutely incredible!! 

 

 

On an exciting but also kind of sad note, I am being transferred. This is a mid-transfer transfer, which is kind of weird, but that is because our mission is expanding. Another stake was just added. I will be going up to the new stake, Bothell. My new companion will be Elder Ward. He has been out the same amount of time as me. I am super excited, because there are tons of Brazilians in Bothell!! I have been dying to go to Bothell for the last 8 months. We have gotten in touch with so many Brazilians on Facebook, but never been able to teach them because Bothell was out of our mission. It'll definitely be a little bit challenging because we will be opening up the Portuguese area up there, but I am sure the Lord has people prepared for us to teach, just like he did last time when we came up to Kirkland. I am so excited for all of the miracles that are about to happen! It will also be super awesome because the missionaries from the Everett Mission (which previously included the Bothell stake) have not been able to leave their apartments for the last year. That is good for us because it means that there has been no tracting up there for an entire year!! It will be a lot different than Kirkland, because we have knocked every door and every street about 5 times over in Kirkland. 

 

 

We spent a while getting back in touch with a bunch of people we met online that live in Bothell. I texted about 20 people. So far, a good number of them have responded, so we should have a pretty good teaching pool right when we get there. I am excited!!

 

 

I am really sad to be leaving Kirkland. This has definitely been the most important and special out of all of my areas. I have spent a huge chunk of my mission here - 6 transfers!! I got here at the beginning of last August. I have witnessed so many miracles in my time here and feel really blessed for everything that has happened. It is going to be so hard to leave this place I love so dearly. The good thing is that I should be coming back to go to the Portuguese meeting every week. 

 

 

Another really sad thing that happened this week was that Elder Buhler went back to Brasil. He is such a good missionary and friend. We have both been in Kirkland in Totem Lake since August and virtually saw each other every day for 8 and a half months. He is going to do incredible things in Brasil, but taking him to the airport was really hard.

 

 

Conference was incredible!! I feel like it gets better every time!! On Saturday, we went over to Rosi's house and watched the afternoon session with her. She made us an awesome lunch - salmon, Armenian rice, mashed potatoes, and chocolate cake. It was so fun for her to get to watch conference for the first time. She loved it! We didn't get a chance to watch a session with Rita, Liv, and Luiza, but they loved their first conference as well! 

 

 

I loved all of conference, but I especially loved the Saturday sessions. They were so good!! I felt like every talk just got better. There were some really cool themes that I got out of conference. I am super excited to go through and review all of my notes today. President Nelson's invitation at the beginning to be continually praying to know what debris we could remove from our lives was so neat. I feel like this was the conference that I have most received personal revelation in my life. I received promptings as to the many ways I can change and become a better disciple of Jesus Christ. I also received a lot of inspiration and answers to questions that I didn't even realize I had going into conference. It was amazing!!

 

 

Easter was amazing. I love when Easter Sunday falls on conference weekend. There is no better way to celebrate Him and His resurrection than by hearing the testimonies of His ordained prophets and apostles. I am so grateful for their witnesses. They truly are special witnesses of Christ. We went over to Rita, Liv, and Luiza's house later that night, and we read through the last couple chapters in Matthew and Luke with them. It was really special to go through and read that.

 

 

No matter how much we study the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we will never fully understand it. On one hand, we know what happened very well. He suffered personally for us - it is our sins, our infirmities, and our afflictions that He felt. We understand why Jesus Christ's sacrifice was necessary and what it entailed. Because of His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, we can repent and be forgiven of our sins. We can receive divine aid and strength through His grace. He knows exactly how to succor us. Because He rose again, we will as well. 

 

 

However, we will neve comprehend the combined toll and weight of the sins of the world. We will never understand exactly how He was able to do it. It was utterly incomprehensible. We will never feel in the slightest what He felt. I think that I read something in an Elder Maxwell talk one time that reads something like, "In the very moments that Jesus Christ extended the promise of justice and mercy to us, He was denied those very things." Because of Him, everything will be reconciled and restored, perfected and purified. 

 

 

Sometimes it is hard to grasp exactly what happened aas He atoned for our sins. That is why when I read the accounts written in the New Testament, I like to try and imagine what it would have been like to stand where His disciples stood. It is easier for me to wrap my head around how they felt. One thing that has stuck out to me this Easter season is that besides the many times that Christ referred very specifically and directly to how he would be crucified and then resurrected, the disciples seemingly failed to understand and realize what that meant. It seems that they kind of lost all hope after Christ died. Even after seeing so many miracles and having built their faith in trust in the Savior, it seems that they doubted or did not realize that He would rise again. This makes me wonder if there are times when I read the Savior's words in the scriptures or hear His voice as I pray that I either doubt or don't recognize what something means. If we can do a better job of not just hearing, but understanding the Savior, I know that we will feel more hope. 

 

 

I love the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 46:13. It reads, "To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christis the Son of God and He was crucified for the sins of the world." This is one of the gifts of the Spirit listed in this section. Just as Christ's disciples testified of Jesus Christ's resurrection and divinity, we too can testify and bear witness of Him if we come to know that He is the Christ. I invite you all to think about what your witness of Christ is. I know that He lives and loves us. I know that He is our friend, and that we were sent here to this earth with HIm to help do our small part in "bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." 

 

 

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 - Out tracting with the trio

Photo 3 - Dropping Elder Buhler off at the airport

Photo 4 - the drive to the airport

Photo 5 - Elder Beardall and I bought a 13 pound turkey for 5 bucks!!

Photo 6 - General Conference!!

Photos 7-8 - Eating lunch at Rosi’s house with Rosi and Julia before general conference

Photos 9-10 Brazilian Easter egg from Rita, Liv, and Luiza

Photo 11 - The Transfer map to Bothell

Photo 12 - Saying good-bye to Elder Koenig and Elder Merrill

Photo 13 - Saying good-bye to Elder Diago. He called me the day I left and was super teary. He told me that I had been a super good example to him.

Photo 14 - Saying good-bye to great uncle Richard and great aunt JoAnne

Photo 15 - Saying good-bye to the Olsen family in Totem Lake. They loved all of us missionaries and got teary when the told us how amazing it has been to see the Portuguese work explode

Photo 16 - The Christensen family in Totem Lake - Campbell + Rebecca, Grant, Max, Price, Danny, Zerin. They were the most incredible missionary oriented gospel centered family. I really love them!!