6 on Date and Other Assorting Things

October 15, 2013

Suasedai, y'all.

I learned y'all from Sister Packard who I went on exchanges with this week! How did this happen, you ask?

News 1 is that I went on exchanges this week with the STLs (not to be confused with STDs) or Sister Training Leaders. They're other fellow missionaries who are like zone leaders in that they're called to watch over a certain number of sisters in the surrounding areas. They try to go on exchanges once in a while to see how we're doing in our area and if we need any help with anything, etc. I went to their area, and one of them came to my area and spent the day with my companion. The reason this is exciting is because I was with Sister Sarah Packard (friend from BYU, and niece/cousin to the Boston Packard Mission-President family) that whole day! It was super fun catching up with her and learning from her example and experiences. She hit her halfway mark the day I was there, which means she only has 9 months left. I'll send pictures of us next week.

News 2 is that we have 6 on date this week! When you invite someone to be baptized, and together you set a goal date for them to work towards to be baptized on, that's called having someone "on date". So this past week, we invited 6 different people to be baptized, and each of them committed and set dates to work towards to be baptized on. This is kinda a big deal! That's why we're out here as missionaries, is to invite people to take the steps that will lead them to Christ, and baptism is a pretty significant one. Having people on date means you have people progressing towards baptism, and a baptism is always a reason to celebrate. So I have decided to throw 6 tiny parties in a row to celebrate each of them. I will be inviting my companion, my pillow, and the spiders that insist on living in our apartment. It will be a rager, I'm sure.

News 3 is that we had a tiny miracle-
we had a coupon for buy one get one free Wendys chicken sandwiches (coupons are the only reason to ever set foot in a fast food place because we can't justify affording it otherwise). So, we're in the Wendys, pooling together all the change we could find in our couch and car and pockets in order to pay for lunch, when this less active guy finds us and introduces himself. He insisted on buying us lunch, talked to us about his conversion story, and committed to come to church on Sunday for the first time in a long time. So we got a free lunch, an unexpected lesson, and were able to remind the guy why he was baptized in the first place and help him want to return to church. Hooray!

News 4 is that my companion Cassell and I have taken to naming the missionaries in the zone after the Disney characters they are most like. We have a Zazoo (lion king), a Kronk (Emperor's new groove) a Flynn Ryder (Tangled) and a Prince John (cartoon Robin Hood), just to name a few. At first the Elders acted like they were too cool to care what Disney character they were named, but as of late they've dropped the facade and started begging to be named the character of their choosing. I have to say, nothing makes me happier than yelling out, "Piglet!" and having a 20 year old Elder spin around and respond immediately to the name we picked for him.

I've been in the WA-TAC 20 weeks, in the MTC for 10 weeks, and a missionary for a total of 30 weeks! And yes, even in Tacoma, the church is true here too.

Love,

-Sister Diddly-homeslice knick knack paddy whack J-McQuiverly