Sent on August 5, 2013
Hoi!! Thank you so much for the letters and emails this week. I loved them, and I love you all!
Well, this week was the most crazy, glorious, stressful, powerful, happy week ever. I cant wait to tell you all about it! Hopefully I can include everything that I want to and do it in a way that you all can feel the Spirit of what is going on on the Muckleshoot Reservation!!
The first church meeting on the Rez. Historic. I will never forget. We met in the Sla-Hal Shed, i dont even know the best way to describe it. It really isnt that bad, probably just a step above a garage but a lot bigger with lights and tables and chairs! No air conditioning. It actually has a garage door that we left open in order to have some ventilation. But it truly was the best place we could have met. I love that place. It is like the place of Mormon for me now :) haha. But we have spent so much time and effort to get all of this set up, to help people gain a desire to come. It was a little disheartening when 3:00 rolled around and there were only two non-member natives there. Two! I was super grateful for them though, and we had some less active natives from the Rodarte family that are going to come and help too, so that was a miracle! President Miles (Auburn stake president), President Rodarte (Maple valley stake president), and President Eaton were all there along with Bishop Hafner and Brother Bird. Elder Lynch and I blessed the sacrament while the two stake presidents passed it. It was glorious :) Then the miracles started happening. By the time the sacrament started to the time we actually started testimony meeting, three native familes rolled in :) we ended up having about 40 people there, probably between 20-25 of them natives, and 14 non-member natives!!! I was so happy. So happy.
The testimony meeting was one of, if not the most, powerful meetings I have ever been a part of. The first two people to bear testimony were natives that arent even members yet. Some of the less-active members bore testimony as well. All of the leaders bore testimony. Elder Lynch and I did as well. Since there was really no time limit, we ended up going a half hour longer than we were planning on. The spirit was so strong. The people that were there felt it, they felt loved, they felt the foretaste of eternal joy.
One of the less-active members that bore testimony (probably the testimony that brought the spirit the most) said, "I know in the scriptures it says that by small means, great things are accomplished. And I was thinking, what is a means? What does that mean? Now I know. This meeting is a means. Great things are going to come from this."
I was in tears multiple times, and I felt so much love for my Heavenly Father, for the Savior, and for these people. It was all just too great :) and just like that testimony, I know that there is much work to be done, it will only get harder from here. I thought I would feel relieved from the pressure I have been feeling once the meeting ended, but as soon as I got back in the car to leave, I felt truly how hard this was going to be, how patient we were going to have to be, how much more pure we needed to be as missionaries, how much these people truly needed to be taught, how much harder the adversary was going to work. But guess what, God is on our team. It will be all right :)
SLIM MOMENTS: (great week for these haha)
-so I have yet to have a problem with any dogs on my mission, until this week... On thursday Elder Lynch was going to go and pet a dog, and let me note that I told him not to do this haha, but he pet it for a second and then the dog just went nuts! It bit him on the wrist.. We were in the ER til 10:30 that night. He had to get three stitches. But he is all good :) great story to be able to tell.
-but thats not the end of it. The next day we were playing basketball with these kids and there was this dog there that is normally super nice and all of the kids love. Well, I dunked the ball once and for some reason that dog got really excited and started running at me! I backed up, and then it went into attack mode. It jumped at my leg and got a tiny bite in on my shin. I jumped back and when it came at me I kicked it in the head. This bought me some time to get away from it, but then it got a running start the next attack. But that turned out to be beneficial for me cause I got to plan my kick. It was perfect. I got it right under the jaw, hard. It did a full back-flip. It was pretty epic. It ran away after that. I felt kinda bad but, you mess with the bull you get the horns :)
I want you all to know how much I love this work! It has been hard and stressful, but I love it so much. I love Elder Lynch and our companionship. I love my district and all of the work they are doing. And I love the Muckelshoot Reservation and the people there. I love building Zion. It is everything. I love our Heavenly Father and our Savior with all my heart, and I trust them with everything! I hope you can all continue to feel the blessings of this gospel in your life. Pray more fervently than ever before. Study more diligently. Seek revelation, record it, act upon it. Be more aware of the needs of those around you, and serve selflessly and lovingly. I just can't express to you enough the love that I have for this gospel. I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much!
Elder Cook
The Muckleshoot Water Tower and Mt. Ranier
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