Sister in Seattle : Week 9: Ode to Hermana Deagostini

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Lo siento everyone for last week. The internet at the library crashed so writing home came to an abrupt stop. (Check Week 8 for some additions.) Now I will attempt to at least somewhat fill you in on everything that has happened in the past two weeks.

Okay, so almost two weeks ago we were trying to find a referral when this Polynesian guy started yelling at us from inside his apartment. He was like, "What kind of missionaries are you guys?" We started explaining and he said, "Will you come in here and teach my family?" As soon as we walked in he gave us a warm hand shake and was like, "Aw, I am just messing with you guys. We are all members here!" Haha, of course all I could think of is Tony.....It was definitely a "wait what?" moment for me! They are a fantastic Tongan family. We were able to share a short scripture with them and we sang "I Am a Child of God". We sang the first verse in Spanish, they sang the second in Tongan and we sang the last verse all together in English. It was so beautiful, I was almost in tears. The spirit was bursting through the room. Just then one of their friends walked in. The husband was like, "This is Miguel. He needs the gospel and he speaks Spanish. And he lives upstairs." So right then and there we went upstairs and taught Miguel and his son. Perfect member/missionary work.

So we had our first baptism...sort of. We have been teaching a less active family and we got them active enough to have the desire to have their 8 year old baptized. Technically it's a child of record baptism, but we had to work hard for it to actually happen. We had to plan, organize and arrange the whole thing. We didn't even get to go to it because we had a member/missionary fireside in Bellevue that night. It was all good though, because that fireside was awesome!

Hermana Deagnostini, Hermana Stoddard & Hermana Boley
Following the Member/Missionary Fireside in Bellevue

All the missionaries in our mission were there. We sang a few numbers and recent converts bore their testimonies. There are so many languages in my mission and it was so cool to see so many missionaries translating all the languages. One of my companions' recent converts spoke an Hermana Boley had to translate on the spot! She did a great job!

The other super exciting thing is that we have a set baptism for Sept. 13! His name is Virgilio from Honduras and he is the only one who has been keeping his commitments. During our last lesson with him, his first question wa,s "What do I need to do in order to be ready for baptism?" Golden! Pure gold! Honestly, this is why missionary work is so fantastic!

This Saturday I had many new experiences. It started off with my first exchange with one of my sister training leaders, Sister Nielson. And yes we were speaking English! But I spent the night at their sketchy apartments in the Heights. I haven't seen anything there, but I have heard stories. And yes, I now know what pot smells like. I got my first taste of Seattle rain that day. And fog. It was glorious! I also officially went tracting for the first time. Some people are super appreciative of what we do, but aren't interested. But some people are just flat out rude. Oh, well.

Our glorious view of the harbor in Des Moines.

We had dinner with some members here. Hooray Members!!
Can you see Mt. Rainier in the back?

Hermana Deagostini left us early Thursday morning. It was weird having a companion die when I was just born. She was so nervous to go home! But I know she will do great things. Her parents are from Brazil so she made us some pan de queso (its that cheese bread) before she left and we might have eaten 2 batches in 24 hours....

Hermana Deagnostini

But Hermana D. was a huge example to me. She gave me the best words of advice. She was so good at talking to people and she had such a strong testimony. I already miss her, but I am so lucky to still have Hermana Boley here cause she is fantastic as well.

Our weapons of war.
We are going on a spider crusade.

Well the biggest problem we are facing at the time is inactive and less active members. They have their agency, but we really need them to come back to our branch. My challenge for all of you this month is to buy a Preach My Gospel (if you don't have one) and read it with your families during family home evening (and if you don't have FHE, then repent and rededicate yourselves:) Also, Elder Bednar recently gave a talk about flooding social media. Tell the world through videos, sharing scriptures, ect... text a friend, post on Facebook, spread the word. One of President Choi's favorite quotes to use is "Stop looking around and look up". Stop listening to the world. Put our Father in Heaven first. I love you all so much!

Week 9 Challenge:

Con Amor,