Week 37: The Wealth of Seattle is Great

Dear Friends and Family,

          Wow, I am serving a whole different mission than my first 6 months. I am in Cougar Mountain ward which covers some of Issaquah and New Castle right by Factoria.

My new Apartment Complex complete with Spring Blossoms!

It's much more mountainous and hilly than my other areas. It's also much more wealthy than any of my areas. Rumor has it that it is one of the wealthiest in the mission, complete with many multi million dollar homes. It's much different that the trailer parks where I spent a lot of my time in Seahurst Spanish. A great portion of the people here are Asian. Lots of Chinese, Korean and a few Japanese. Many members and investigators are from China. I think China is being so prepared for the gospel, it's crazy! 

Invesigators Bin Shang with his son Alvin
Celebrating baby's 1st 100 days

          This week, President and Sister Choi invited all 8 sister training leaders to come to a meeting at the mission home.

Sister Choi, Bruening, Clayton, me, Norton,
Hales, Brooks, Bienfield, MacIntyer

It ended up being so amazing and it was just a simple luncheon. They made kimchee and Korean pancakes that were full of shrimp, clams, mushrooms, garlic, onions and carrots.

It was actually very good. President Choi even fed us some food from his chopsticks. He said that that's how he feeds his children so that's how he is going to feed us.

They showed a lot of love and concern for the sisters. They knew that the best way to help and motivate us was to show us love instead of giving a lecture like some of the Elders need. We felt so inspired after that to go and help and love the sisters we are serving.

Sister Bruening, Sister Beinfield & Hermana Stoddard

Roses from President Choi

          As a part of my assignment, I go on exchanges with 3 different companionships of sisters to help train them and make sure they are doing alright. We have already had some problems that we have had to handle, but these Sisters are so strong and it's truly a blessing to serve them. Hermana Norton is awesome. She is on her last transfer of the mission, but she is going to finish out strong. We try our best to speak Spanish with each other, especially because we got our hour of language study back. 

Stoddard y Norton

It rained super hard yesterday!

          Well, I am on page 112 of the Book of Mormon. It's teaching me a lot about how we are given the knowlege that we are ready to understand and accept in our hearts. I love this gospel and I know it's true. Please pray for our investigators Chen Xia and Don! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard

Sister Singing in the Rain