Serving The Lord in the Lone Star State: Fun times in Portland!

Our recent converts are doing great. Ralph Perez got the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday, so he's really on track to be a great member. Dave Dean is loving life. He had all 4 of us over for dinner on Saturday. He served homemade egg rolls. They were super delicious (and greasy!) His wife is a little crazy but they try to do the right things.

Brother Dement, our ward mission leader is great. He is a wonderful leader and really wants to help out. He and his family love food, so he has us over every week and stuffs us full. We get a lot of food here, everyone is willing to feed us. We sometimes ask to simply come by to talk and they offer food anyways. I'm not one to refuse, so fine by me.

On Friday, the Scouts here had a fundraiser; they held a cake auction. People donated different cakes, plus there was a potluck to go with it. (People definitely love food here) There were well over 30 cakes/baked goods and they all sold for quite a lot. The auctioneer rigged the first cake: he gave us $100 and asked us to bid against another guy all the way up to $100. Since the first cake sold for so much, the rest of the night was at a high standard. The lowest price treat was $40. I was amazed. Most were over 60 and a few were over 100. The final dessert was a homemade toffee. Apparently it is a ward favorite, because the small box of toffee sold for $340! They made over $2500 from the auction. This was apparently the 4th annual cake auction. There were a lot of people there, and most of them participated. It was quite a success.

Overall Portland is great. It is just like home and it will be hard to leave. Hopefully that is not soon. Speaking of which, one of the members here that has just moved in served his mission here. It took him 8 years but Brother Chavez is back.

This week, since I've been back in America for awhile, working in a ward much more like home I've learned a lot about how members see missionary work.

First of all, when missionaries ask, "Is there anything we can do for you [today/this next week]?" we are super excited when the answer is yes. There's no need to be afraid to ask the missionaries for help. Whether it's washing dishes or mowing the grass, we love to serve. As long as it's not babysitting, we want to be asked to help.
Also, lunch appointments are great. Breakfast, for that matter, is awesome as well. We shouldn't be doing it everyday, but a Saturday morning breakfast or lunch after church is super fun.
Thirdly, I'll repeat to you that missionary work can be quite simple. If you don't know what to do to help, start off simply praying for missionary opportunities. Step two, just meet a neighbor, say hi. Step three invite them to dinner, and have the missionaries there as well. That is as much as we need.

Just keep the missionaries in your prayers and you will see more blessings come.

Elder Larkin Moss