I used pepper spray AND called 911 for the first time

alright everybody buckle up because this is aboutta be the most exciting email i've ever written cause this has most definitely been the weirdest week of my whole mission hahahah

small plates (the spiritual stuff is more important so it goes first):

-so there's firestation here that has a 9/11 memorial out in front and apparenty it's the only place in the western US that has pieces and artifacts of the towers and the pentagon which is super cool. the morning of 9/11, us and the sisters decided to go check it out, and it was absolutely unforgettable. there was already a special spirit there, but what was more incredible is the fact that we got to talk to so many other people and immediately connect with them as they shared their stories and experiences with us. i was 2 when it happened so i obviously don't remember much, but it was special to talk to the other people there because there were a few people from new york who knew some of the names on the wall and one of the firefighters who put the memorial together actually was a fireman in new york and a ton of his buddies were the ones that died that day. it honestly gave me so much hope to be able to be in such a sacred place sharing such a special experience with so many random people and was honestly such a great missionary experience.

-so it's official that we have taken over teaching the elders' friend leshanta haha, but we aren't complaining because she's awesome. we had 2 lessons with her this week and they were soooo good and soooo full of the spirit and she is just getting closer and closer to baptism. it's crazy because every lesson, we plan on teaching something specific, and every time, she coincidentally brings up the topic we planned all on her own (WOOO that's the spirit right there). sooooooo keep this woman in your prayers please because she is so so awesome but just needs to take the leap of faith!!!

large plates:

-pepper sprayed 2 elders this week because they're stupid and being pepper sprayed in the face has always been a lifelong goal for both (elders are weird man)

-got lowkey chased by this dude at a sketchy mexican restaurant. i lowkey thought he was gonna kiss me because he grabbed my hand and was like 6 inches away from my face but my brave companion grabbed me and we ran haha

-killed a massive spider with a tazor (if you want the video lmk because it's probably the funniest video i've ever filmed in my entire life)

-it's so smokey here from all the fires that we are lowkey quarantined again because the air quality is so bad, so that's pretty wild

-the elders caught a bee and knocked it out and then tied a string around it to keep it as a pet. they've named it barry and they're currently trying to domesticate it. ill send updates next week

-we were playing soccer one night with a bunch of youth and after we were done, we were standing around in the dark with 3 other companionships and this dude came up to us to tell us that we were literally glowing. he went on for an hour telling us that he was convinced that we were angels because he saw a literal glow around us and he knew he had to come talk to us because we quote on quote "had the good drugs". he said god sent us to federal way and then asked us to take down his number so we could come teach him (woot woot). he also just got out of prison and had an ankle moniter on which is always a good time. the people here are a hoot

-okay. heres the freaking highlight of the week and one of the highlights of my mission hahahaha. we went up to the church to study and prep and there was some dude wandering around outside the church and he came up and asked us for some water. so, being the good missionaries we are, we went to grab him a waterbottle from the church. i didn't think we'd talk long so we left everything inside except our phone and the keys and went out to talk to this guy because it was a lovely missionary opportunity, but we realized pretty quick that he was a little loco. he was homeless and had just gotten out of jail and was trying to make it to tacoma to see family and started getting pissed when we wouldn't give him a ride. we let him use our phone to call his dad and he started yelling at the top of his lungs on the phone and told his dad he had 2 hours to get a car there and then told us that we had to stay the whole 2 hours with him. we were spooked that he was gonna get violent so we stayed to talk for a little bit because i was genuinely scared this dude was gonna try and break into the church if we didn't, but i sent a message to the zone leaders letting them know that we potentially might be killed. fast forward an hour, this dude started getting hecka antsy and started angrily pacing and then started threatening us and telling us that if a car wasn't there in exactly 30 more minutes, he was going to burn down our church and smash our windows and we were like uhhhhh plz dont do that, that is our church building the sisters randomly showed up which was perfect timing because they could distract him long enough for us to call the elders and send the SOS because he started full on threatening all of us and told us he was about to beat us up and take our car keys and drive to tacoma, and literally right as he told us that we needed to call 911 because he was about to get violent, the elders pulled up to save the day (beautiful timing). he took off running down the street after calling his dad one more time so we hurried and called the cops while he was gone, but in the middle of the call, he came back & started running towards us because he realized what we were doing so our brave little elders created a little barricade and told us to book it for the church. this dude started yelling at the elders and ripped his shirt off and was trying to take their keys or start a fight, but they surrounded him and did a lovely job of distracting him long enough for a cop to get there to take him to the hospital. anywho, long story short we love our brave elders and we now know to carry our pepper spray with us always. we call federal way felony way for a reason hahahah

God is real. He's very aware of us and He's literally always there right in the moments we need Him. I've seen so many tender mercies throughout this hectic week that testify that that is true.

glad 2 be alive and glad 2 be preaching this beautiful gospel here in feddy way. peace and love