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
