First week in Moses Lake has
gone pretty good. It’s been a lot of running around not knowing what to do
since I'm new but overall things are turning out pretty good. My companion is
pretty young so it’s been fun reminiscing back on my greenie days and I'm glad
that I can now turn around and help him. This area itself is a pretty
entertaining spot. Moses Lake itself has about 20,000 people and with 10 family
wards, a Spanish branch, and a YSA [Young Single Adult] branch it has the
highest LDS population per capita behind Provo, Utah. That’s a lot of Mormons.
With 4 buildings and 3 wards per building there’s always something going on.
The city itself was home to a former military air base which has since been
converted to residential housing and one of the largest international airports
in the nation I believe. [Editor’s
note: Grant County International Airport is "...one of the largest airports in the Western United States.”] Moses Lake is
the biggest small town between Tri-Cities and Spokane. Not too big. Not too
small. Overall it’s chock-full of people to talk to and fun experiences to
have.
On Thursday we were helping
out at the local food bank which happens to be the distribution center for the
surrounding area, so there is always lots to be done. This week's adventure was
spending an hour chopping away at a giant block of frozen shredded carrots to
put them in smaller bags to send them to smaller groups. The box it came in was
about the size of a cube pallet is the only way I can think to describe it (a
pallet wide, long, and high). Three of us spent an entire hour breaking it up
with a shovel and scooping it out to put in smaller bags. At one point two of
us were inside the box trying to get the last of it to come out. It was quite
the adventure. I'm positive that that box alone contains the amount of carrots
I've eaten in my entire lifetime.
One of the cool things I like
about the church buildings in Moses Lake is that they were planning ahead.
Sunday at church both of the normal translators were absent and so I guess
since I've been out a while they assumed I spoke passable Spanish a member came
up to me just before the meeting started and asked me to translate the meeting,
to which I agreed. I was surprised when we started walking to the front instead
of the back where most of the translating I've done occurs and even more
surprised when there wasn't any apparent equipment sitting out. He led me to a
tiny door on the side of the stand with a mirrored window (one where you can't
look through if its dark on the inside) and opens it up to reveal a microphone
and a headset. The room itself was barely wide enough to fit myself in there
but I sat down and started translating. It was set up in a way where when the
door closed I could still see out to the speaker but had a little speaker above
me that broadcast what was being said so I could speak without having to bother
other members not needing the equipment. It was probably the coolest
translating experience I have had to date. It made me feel all
professional.
That is about it for the events of this week. Skyping home last night was enjoyable. I heard there was a
city-wide internet outage last night which made things a little interesting but
nonetheless the call made it through (I just don't want to see the data bill
that supported an hour long video chat on my dad’s cellphone).
The quote for the week comes
from this most recent conference session during the Priesthood session, which
has been a hot topic of discussion lately in the zone and sadly took me too
long to figure out. President Uchtdorf quoted it but it is attributed to Albert
Einstein of all people. It says:
"Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do
count."
When it comes to the gospel
of Christ, there is not a way to quantify one's conversion or the amount of
service rendered, so there’s no point in aspiring to such. It has really made
us reflect on what we do as missionaries and how we can truly help
people.
Until next week,
Elder Kupferer
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