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February 22, 2010
I'm writing from the not-so-big-town of Colville, WA. Contrary to what I would have guessed, the town name is pronounced "Call-ville". But that's not as bad as Chewelah. Not Chew-illa, but Choo-Wheel-ah. oh score.
Anyway, I knew i would like Washington before I got here, so that's nothing new. It's beautiful with the mountains and the green. The weather is coldish but there's no snow so it's been lovely. Colville, though, is the smallest town I've ever lived in. There is a walmart, but not much else. For dad, it doesn't seem like they have even a flashing yellow light, let alone any normal traffic lights (no...yellow is not normal...).
My first day here, Sis Brown (from West Jordan, UT) and I got right to tracting. It was interesting but not much different from calling on the phone. You get the same responses: "I'm _______ (pick your religious denomination)." "Not interested." (hang up phone or close the door). It's the same approach though: you have to be able to develop that trust with people and tell them exactly what our purpose is and why they need to talk with us. I like it. But I have discovered that you can get "tracted out". Only so much rejection, thank you! On the first night of tracting, never fear! I ran into crazies! They seem to be everywhere. The one girl was named Satin and I forget her friend's name. We knocked on their door and they asked us to sit down right away and said "oh! you're not our normal Nancy." (Me) "What do you mean?" (Satin) "Nancy the Jehovah's Witness that comes by." Anyway, the friend was a guy that has died ( I ALWAYS meet people that have died AT LEAST once. lucky me...) and said he was kind of brain damaged but discovered (himself) that he was saved to be here and think for everyone. So his religion was that someone writing the bible had made a typo and said God instead of Good like it should have been and that what we all need to get at as being to the point where we feel all good, all the time, rather than conflicted or confused because our spirits when we die will just go to a feeling. He said that when he died, he felt like it happiness akin to the combined effects of every single drug he ever took. Wow. uh...so it was interesting. We seemed to come farther with him, the original thinker, than with his friend Satin who took his idea and put passion into it without really thinking all that much about it. They said we could come back and talk more with them but they seemed more interested in spreading their own thought than listening. It was all ok though.
The next day we had a lesson with some of the investigators here so it was nice to sit down and teach. The couple, Andrea and John, is really nice and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked them if they would be baptized. They both said they would like to but have some issues they need to pray about before they make the commitment. It ended really well and we are meeting with them again this week.
We went back to tracting again and found some people to go back to visit. So far the highlights have been a woman from Mexico named Claudia (she has 4 kids). She's awesome! We'll see how it goes if she can read the BoM or not. Then there is Al Dunkle. A 90-yr-old man who has two cars restored from the 40s and lost his wife. He responded well to the Plan of Salvation and we gave him a BoM. Then there is Danny that we left some materials about families and hope to hear back from him. Anyway, I have to go. Love you all!!!
Sister Hulet
