Elder Udall Goes To Washington: Letter received 12/4

Letter received 12/4 in the mail but from the week before Thanksgiving
The past week was AWESOME! It was week one of the transfer with Elder Haupu. Not much done until Wednesday so I will skip to that. We had a wonderful lunch with the Reeds. We helped out at the food bank, like we usually do once a week . We did a little service and just saw people and then had dinner. Nothing on Thursday but a doctor visit. Friday was spent on an exchange in Burlington. Lots of lessons! We got word that Elder Cisneros got his visa and was leaving for Brazil on Sunday. (NOTE: some of the missionaries in the Everett mission are "visa waiters". They have been called to serve missions in a foreign country, usually somewhere in South America, and then they finish their training but can't leave the US yet as they are waiting for visas.) The great and happy part of that day was not only the TON of teaching but that one of their investigators who I have taught in previous exchanges asked me to confirm her! So that will happen on December 1. We exchanged back on Saturday morning.

Elder Bednar, who is an apostle, came to speak to us. (Chris asked me to attach a youtube video of Elder Bednar's talk about "patterns of light", so click that to watch...it's about 7 min long) Two things that I want to share from his visit is that first, when he walked into the room, the Spirit told me and confirmed to me that he was just a man. A son of God, just like you and I, imperfect but trying to follow our Savior's example. The difference is that his is VERY in tune with the Spirit and he has been given a call and a responsibility to be an Apostle of the Lord. The other thing I want to share is that he talked about the fact that we are agents and not objects. We can make ourselves become objects but we are agents have the choice to be better and like our Savior Jesus Christ, or to be an object and let Satan take control.

On Sunday, S & J came to church! That was WAY sweet!

Hope all is well with you! We are still working up here! Something Elder Bednar said was "Work hard. Work smart." I usually quote Wiz Khalifa "work hard, play hard" but what Elder Bednar said tops Wiz Khalifa, so I'll leave you with this thought of combined advice: Word hard, work smart; and play hard, play smart! Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Udall

Email from 12/9/2013
I don't really have a LONG email to write. S and J are not on date for the 4th anymore because S will be working on the 4th so they still want to be baptized but nothing set in stone date-wise yet. Went to the Native American Reservation and taught a lot of people. Even the people that didn't want to listen were nice and polite and said, "Im good, no thanks." That is the BEST place ever! You will be getting a package this week. Just sent it this morning. We have another lesson with the M____'s. Wife is non-member, older couple. She is doing great. Will probably put them on date for baptism this week. I think I told you about a young woman (a girl age 12 - 17) in our ward that invited her friend over a TEXT to church! I don't think people understand how EASY it is to invite someone to do something. If they say no then you're still friends with them. It was awesome! Her friend has been to church twice. Hopefully we will teach her soon. We definitely could use more people to teach but we are doing pretty good!

I shared on the blog earlier that we had a family offer to help Elder Udall celebrate Chanukah! He and his companion were able to spend 5 nights lighting candles with the family. Sometimes they were able to stay for longer than just lighting candles, but this experience was not only great for Chris and the Brignone family, but it confirmed to us that Elder Udall is exactly where he needed to be for the holiday season. Words alone cannot express our gratitude for the Brignone family, and their desire to serve the missionaries in the Sedro-Woolley area, and the blessings they provided to me for taking in Chris at Chanukah!

I received a box of stuff that Chris sent home, which included his Coyotes jersey (which was hanging in his room) and some t-shirts and other things he didn't need...and which he said simply took up too much room in his suitcase. A bonus SD card was included!! I love getting photos! Several of the photos are without caption below...the caption Chris included was this: The GPS took us this route home, so we took photos of the scenic route.