Hooray, Washington!

Christmas Greetings from the Pacific Northwest!

 

Don't worry, the rain is plentiful and the sky has been cloudy 99% of the time I've been here.

 

Here's the dish: 16 of us flew into Seattle on Tuesday morning. The sky was so clear and, shock of the century, Mt. Ranier was visible. Beautimous. President and Sister Wilson greeted us at the baggage claim and all rejoiced. Then we all drove to the mission home/their house in Mill Creek for a bigfat lunch. Don't worry, we have a mission cook and her only job is to make delicious meals big enough to feed hundreds. My stomach died of joy.

 

After a brief, one-on-one interview with Pres. Wilson, we went through some technical goodness with some of the senior missionary couples (cars, finances, medical jargon and the like). Fast-forward to an hour or so later, where 16 trainers are brought into the room, one for each new missionary. Naturally, I scan the 4 possible female candidates for who my trainer might be. The stars smile upon me and I get the one who looks most like she would have been my friend in the real world. God answers prayers, people.

 

Quick companion profile: Sister Anna Hone. 22. From St. George, Utah. Cowgirl to the max. Loves hunting, rodeos, and...wait for it...television shows that were popular in the 1990s. Do we quote Clarissa Explains It All and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to eachother constantly? Of course we do. She's been in the ward for 3 months already, and she's a rockstar missionary, so basically I walked into a cushy situation where everybody and their dog (and there are a lot of them) loves the missionaries. Thanks, universe. Basically, Sister Hone and I teach like Lewis and Clark traveled: expertly and in sync. Will all of the people in our area be better because of us? We don't hope so, we know so.

 

Brief area profile: Granite Falls, WA. The second I got here I thought, "What in the Forks/Twilight/Edward Cullen is lurking around somewhere is happening here?!" People, I live on the Twilight movie set. For real. Everywhere we drive I either point out how beautiful the landscape is, or make a comment about Twilight. I'm convinced Taylor Lautner is running shirtless in these woods and it's my job to locate him and bring him to Jesus. Challenge accepted. In real news, Granite Falls is tiny and relatively small-town ghetto in most areas, but there are spots of middle class woven in for good measure. Second surprise of the century, I kind of love the people here. Everybody smokes like a bandit and makes all kindsa excuses for why they can't come to church but, oh my heavens, are they humble. They don't have much, but they're thankful for our efforts and they love people who take the time to care. I'll take that kind of area any day.

 

Presently, my fave investigator is a woman who's friends with a family in our ward. The family is having their 8 year old daughter learn the missionary lessons because she thinks it's important that her daughter understand fully what's she's doing by being baptized. A bit unorthodox, but cool. As the mom of the member family talked to her friend about what the daughter was doing, the friend immediately asked if her daughter (who's 7) could learn from the missionaries, too. Bonus. As Sis. Hone and I taught the woman's daughter this past week, the woman listened and kept the daughter focused. The 7 year old can only handle about 10 mins of religious info at a time, which is cool, so we shifted to teaching the mom. Cue magic. The woman  has a ton of thoughtful/genuine questions about the church. The more answers we give her, the more questions she has for us. Long story short, the woman has guilt issues about raising her children without an established faith annnnddd she has a husband who is: a) abrasively Atheist and b) adamant that she and the kids cannot pray in the house. I feel like this is something you talk about before marriage? Anyway, her heart is so pure and all she wants is to know that she's being a good mom and that her daughter has the option to choose religion if she wants it. We are in love with her already. Updates to follow.

 

My final thought for the week is a testimonial of hard work. This work is exhausting, and you can't really understand that until you're doing it. As I reflect in the last week of how much I've learned, I think about all the times I've reminded myself, "this is not about what I'd prefer. This is about doing what's best for other people. End of story." You want to preach about God's unconditional love for his children? Live it. Love them.

 

I love you all. I pray for you constantly. If Mom Goodpaster hasn't told you 1,000 times already, my address for the rest of the mission is this:

 

Sister Carlyn Goodpaster

Washington Everett Mission

P.O. Box 13390

Mill Creek, WA 98082

 

I'd love to hear from you more than you know. The mission office will forward all my mail to wherever I am so I don't have to update you all every 6 weeks. Good? Good.

 

Be well. Live well. The Church is true.

 

Love,

Sister G.