First, Wednesday we went to an investigator's house to help him with bear grass which is where we takes sheaves of long green grass you seen in floral arrangements, and cut the dead parts off to make it look nice since they sell it and that's where a lot of Cambodians get their income. I didn't even do much but cut grass and listen to Sister Loy and the investigator chat away in Cambodian in this small, cold basement, but I felt such a love and belonging being there. We do a lot of work, but knowing my call is to Cambodians, those special moments I serve them are all the more fulfilling.
That night as we stood silent at a doorstep while this man pointed and ranted about everything "wrong" with our church, again, I felt that same assuring love that it doesn't matter what others say they think they know about the gospel, it doesn't make it any less true. It's moments like those that make tracting both really hard, and worth it.
Tuesday we didn't have any appointments, so we went tracting down a street that apparently gets knocked a lot because the people were very abrasive, so we stopped and just started walking down the sidewalk. I prayed that we'd be able to either find someone who needed us, or that they would find us, when two minutes later we saw a woman walking up with 6 bags of groceries balanced out and her pursed hooked to her belt making her way from the bus station. We offered our help which I expected her to brush off when she accepted! We walked with her a few blocks to her house where she told us she lived with a nephew, her cat Gato, and she'd heard of the church and had attended once but wasn't really interested in going. She wanted to show us her cat, so we arrived in time for it to get its medicine, and upon her request, we said a prayer for her cat's health before we left. You just got to love Tacoma!
Sunday we had several key less-actives coming to church which we were planning for, and there was a rumor in town that we were having a special guest visiting church, so a few hours before church when it was confirmed, we used that as part of our edge in convincing the last few people to come to church. The best part was that they were more excited about knowing who of their friends were going to be there than the fact that Elder Dallin H. Oaks was coming. We got a new bishop on Sunday, so naturally all the missionaries worked hard to get as may people there for this special event as possible which made it packed, but the best part was sitting down and being able to see a whole bench taken up by Cambodian less-actives, recent converts, and investigators!!! It was the most Cambodians I've ever seen to church in one setting, and it just added to our excitement to see Elder Oaks on the stand as our bishop was released and his son Lloyd Oaks was made our new bishop. It was definitely a memorableSunday!
Tuesday, which is why we couldn't email yesterday, we had a conference for a visiting authority of the Seventy, Elder Steven E. Snow coming to speak to us. The power went off near the beginning of the meeting, so we spent half of it in the dark which was fun, and still managed with various flashlights and cellphones to see our scriptures. We didn't get a lot of missionary work done as the meeting didn't get done until late and we were asked to participate in a mission fireside that evening where I accompanied a musical number. It was the most challenging music I've had so far, I'd only gotten the day before and hadn't had time to practice at all, so although it wasn't perfect, it turned out well, and the Spirit was definitely there, and I enjoyed it.
So that's been my week in the WA-TAC! Love you, all!!
Sister Dunster
Our zone-wide Sister's pday activity.
Bottom: Sisters Madsen, Rasmussen, Biggley, Lomu, Thompson, Jensen
Middle: Bishop, Walker, K, Hardy, Chipman,
Top: Me, Loy, Humphreys
Wishing our President a Happy Birthday!
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