HAPPY BDAY MOMMM! Week 6 update

FIRST OF ALL, HAPPY BDAY TO MY MOMMAHHHH! On Wednesday! I am glad you got my card! :) I love you!

Hi, everybody. This past week was a wayyy good one! Albeit, the work was slow, but I am doing much better emotionally and physically. I am feeling more adjusted! It's amazing how just a few days can make such a difference. 

We took Randy to the Family History Discovery Center and the Seattle Temple this week!!! Since he's on date to be baptized, we had permission to go (since it's out of our mission). It was SO COOL! The Discovery Center is super high tech and amazing. You're given an iPad when you walk in and you log into your family search account and then you connect the iPad to all sorts of different gadgets and things to tell you about your family history! So high tech! Apparently this is a pilot thing the church is doing, as this is the only Discovery Center outside of Salt Lake right now. It's SO cool! I attached some pictures from it! 

And I got to see the temple! Oh my gosh... The Seattle temple is just breathtaking. I just couldn't believe. Sooooo pretty. I wanted to go inside so bad! I hope I will get the opportunity to come do a session some time throughout my mission. It'll be up to the new mission president how often we go, but the missionaries already went for this year in January. There's some pictures from that, too!! Randy thought the temple was incredible, too. Just amazing. 

The work is pretty slow in Maple Valley, we haven't found any new investigators. We thought we had one that was totally willing to learn, but when we went to the appointment, he wasn't home. :( We are trying hard to work through members right now, too, as that is a huge part! There are some great potential referrals from members, but the work is still pretty slow there, too. Just can't give up. Actually, Sister Loeak and I have decided to "white wash" this area starting today. Meaning, we're just gonna clean up the area and knock on literally every single door in the entire area. Spring cleaning at its finest. Haha. We'll see how it goes! We'll start at one side of the map and make our way to the other. 

Some other news around here is they split our stake (Maple Valley) and created an entire new stake (Enumclaw). It's pretty historic! We had two members of the 70 at our stake conference Saturday and Sunday. Which was incredible. I received so much revelation at that conference. One of it being that doing the Lord's will is hard sometimes, but it's always better. We may have completely amazing and righteous desires that we are going after that are really good things to ask and pray for and work towards. We may feel really good about them, too! But, if the Lord has a different plan for us, He will divert our path (much to our dismay). He has something much better in mind. But, we don't always see it that way. We may see it as he is taking something away from us. We may be confused and think he withholding blessings from us. But, if we truly understand the nature and purpose of God (which is to make us happy and lead us on the path that leads to becoming like Him and return to Him), we know that He isn't withholding anything, but is leading us towards something even greater than we had in mind in the first place. This doesn't mean his path is easy. Not at all. But it's always, always better. It's for our eternal well-being and salvation. Think of it, He loves us enough to redirect us when necessary to ensure the greatest happiness for us. He sees the big picture. He is all knowing. We have but a small, short perspective. We are selfish, too, and want what we want! Perhaps the hardest thing to do in this life is to trust God completely and giving our life completely over to Him (for it is not our life to begin with, anyway). And when we find that his path his harder than the plan we thought we had, that's actually good. That means we're growing. And, you know what else? That's why we have the Savior. We have the enabling and healing power of the Atonement to carry us through the hard and every moment in between. And when we divert the path, the Atonement is the ticket back. It's really an amazing, perfect plan God has created for us. Eternal perspective is key. And, if we are bitter and think God took away blessings we were so close to having, He WILL repay us for the sacrifice and WILL grant us all blessings we desire. It's just in HIS timing. That's also hard. Trusting in God's timing. But, perhaps we just have a little more to learn before we're even ready for the blessings we so desire so much. Remember, He only does things that are for our good and that will make us happiest, if we will only just follow Him. :) 

Trust God. Trust Jesus Christ. He will carry you. The Atonement isn't just the light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light leading us through the tunnel. 

So something funny that happened yesterday was there was a huge wind storm that knocked the power out, but it came back up quickly because of the generator. However, when Sister Loeak and I went to go out to work, we couldn't leave because since the power went out, the electric gate for the property wouldn't open hahahah! The power outage messed it up and we were literally stuck. It was so funny, but frustrating too, because we had things to do! Eventually we just got a member to come get us for our dinner appointment, because we couldn't get ahold of anyone to figure out the gate, haha. It was just silly... :) 

The new Easter video is our for the church! It's soooo amazing! Make sure and watch it, but don't just watch it, SHARE IT! On facebook is easiest. It's at followhim.mormon.org. #Hallelujah! (Note: It's pretty cool that they're quoting the messiah for the holiday it was actually intended/written for. Haha. BUT BESIDES THE POINT.)

Oh, so quick update on Randy... Might need to push off his baptism because we have been in touch with his daughter and she can't make the 19th and she really wants to be there, so we are trying to make a date that works for everyone. Also, some interesting info has come to light. She emailed us and informed us that Randy actually has Alzheimer's and is concerned  whether or not Randy actually understand what he is doing and the decision he is making. We honestly didn't know! But to her, she can't seem to get a real reason from him why he wants to get baptized because he can't explain himself well. It's tricky. We know he has had such a change in his heart and has felt the spirit and knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he struggles with answering things because of his memory. Explaining this to his daughter is tough. But, the good new is she is SUPER supportive of him finding a new faith. She just wants to make sure he really knows what he's doing... Valid concern! She'll be speaking to bishop soon, too, to discuss it. We have done all we can from our end, so now we just pray a lot... Haha. Kinda a weird situation. Prayers, please! 

Mkay, well, til next week! 

-Sister Eldridge

PS: The group pic is my zone. Solid missionaries! However, my zone is different now since the stake split! This was the Maple Valley zone, but now I am in the Kent Zone. The other pic with all the papers is when Sister Loeak decided to go through ALL her old papers and throw them everywhere... HAHAHA! I couldn't help but take a picture. My comp is so funny.

juliann.eldridge@myldsmail.net

Sister Juliann Marie Eldridge
Washington Federal Way Mission
23175 224th PI SE Ste E
Maple Valley, WA 98038
United States