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!!
