Car Camping and Holiday Fun!

January 4, 2016

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had an awesome week off from school and maybe work! Our week was suuuper slow because we couldn't proselyte on Thursday or Friday, but it was interesting nonetheless. And cold. It's been down in the single digits a few times this week, which just happens to make the best tracting weather because people almost always let us in! 👍

Deer blocking the door to an investigator.

Because we couldn't proselyte on Thursday, we did as much service as we could. We were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, so we made some brownies to take to people. Not special brownies, because that has a different meaning in Washington, but delicious. We took them to people that have helped us in the past or fed us for dinner. The night before, we were still with the Zone Leaders, and we were out tracting in 15 degree weather. They were from Arizona and San Diego, so obviously they loved it! Even though we were tracting at 8:00, we still got into a few homes. I think that a lot of people around here are kind of lonely, so they will talk to whoever comes to their door. Even if it's the Mormons. Works out perfectly for us!

"2013 road kill, 'possum."

We weren't able to meet with any of our progressing investigators this week because most of them were out of town and the others were busy. It's like they want to spend time with family or something. But hopefully we'll be able to meet up with Selena and Amia this week to help them with a baptismal date. 

On Saturday, Elder Coy and I decided to tract on the reservation in Nespelem. We were looking for a former investigator, Cassandra, but we ran into her mother instead. Her mother, Jay, was very open to our message and so we taught her about the restoration. Afterwards, she agreed that she would bring her daughter to the next lesson, because she believes that we could really help with the problems their family is going through. It was perfect! The rest of our time tracting was pretty sketchy. You know you're in a wholesome place when every time you knock on the door someone looks through the window and asks if it's the police. That honestly happened more than once! I can't really blame them because we do wear all black and Elder Coy is a big guy, but still. One guy let us in after we told him that we were the missionaries, but was so crazy that as soon as we came in we wanted to leave. He was speaking English, I think, but it was hard to understand most of the time. I was looking around for other exits in case he blocked the door, but Old Shifty Eyes stayed clear. Pretty sure he suspected that we were the police.

Story of the week: We were headed home from Brother Land's house Monday night, and the driving conditions were terrible. Elder Coy had me drive because I have more experience on icy roads. There was a really dense freezing fog as well, so I couldn't see more than 15 feet in front of the Jeep.  We were literally in the mists of darkness. I was following the GPS, and it told me to go straight at a 3 way intersection. However, when we were at the intersection, the road in front of me disappeared. It was gone! I tried to turn on to the other road, but we didn't make it and

The Wilbur area is notorious for 24 hour fog and white-outs.
It can go days without seeing the sun.
This was taken before the fog started getting thick!

got stuck in a snow bank. It turns out that some roads up there are not used often enough to be plowed, and the GPS wanted me to go down one of those roads. Long story short, after trying to dig the jeep out for a while with no cell service, we realized that we would have to sleep in our car. It was pretty cold outside, but we said a prayer that we would be safe and turned on the car every hour or so to keep the heat in. Thanks mom for always telling me to bring a coat when driving in the snow! The next morning we walked 2.5 miles to the nearest house, Brother Churchill's, because we still didn't have any cell signal. He was surprised to see us walking at that time of day in the middle of nowhere, but luckily we caught him just as

The frost build up on our antennae from staying overnight.

he was pulling out of his driveway headed to Wenatchee. He brought us in for breakfast and then towed us out and told us that he too had gotten stuck there a few weeks ago.  If we had been any later, he would have driven away in the opposite direction and we would have had to walk to find another house. Heavenly Father watches out for the missionaries, even when we make stupid mistakes, and I am so grateful for that! We have snow tires now, so hopefully that's the last time I'll have to sleep in a car while on my mission.

Have a good week everyone! Don't get stuck in any snowbanks! 

Elder Moser