This week has been such an amazing and fun week that I don't even know
where to start and I'll have to narrow it down so it's not too long.
We've been having so much fun with melissa home! I'm so grateful that
families are forever!
Okay, melissa told me I can finally share this amazing and exciting
missionary story. We had to wait for him to tell his family and friends first.
Melissa s good friend, Jason Agtrap is getting baptized on Jan 10th!! I love
this so much! I first met jason when melissa was in 7th grade. It's kind of
funny, because he was the first boy that ever came over to our house. Haha she
brought him over after school so he could go to a combined activity with her.
After that he came to our house a few times for different parties and such. I
drove out to his house to pick him up or drop off for many stake dances. I've
always been impressed with him and knew he was a nice kid. Melissa has been good
friends with him since the 7th grade. Her sophomore year she gave him a book of
Mormon with her testimony in it. He hung out with the Mormon crowd and has
always been a great person. Melissa and I actually joked about it and daid
someday he'll join..
Well this year he went to college at the University of Oregon in Eugene
Oregon. He "ran" into some missionaries on campus. He went up to talk to them
because he has had so many lds friends that have either just left, got their
mission calls, or are planning on going. It was fun because afterwards he texted
melissa and told her all about it. She called me and told me all about it! Jason
asked melissa lots of questions and continued to hang out with the elders,
playing basketball, etc. And then taking lessons! Thete were lots if
conversations with miss and him that I got to hear about. It was so exciting!
He's planning on a utah trip for his spring break to see all the lds attractions
and by then his missionary that he's grown so close to will be home.
Recently when he came home he found his book of Mormon that melissa gave
him. He wanted some books of Mormon to give to his parents for Christmas. (Of
course we made sure that could happen!) He told his parents and they're ok with
it, they just don't want it to interfere with their relationship with him. They
also told him that they wanted him to wait until he graduated from college to go
on a mission, that they would still pay for his college if he waited. Melissa
told me he bore his testimony to her and he had to stop for a minute because he
was all choked up. I'm so excited for his baptism on January 10. We are driving
down there to see it. One of the pictures is an instagram picture jason
posted.
We had the opportunity to go with melissa to get her patriarchal blessing.
Of course it was wonderful. I already knew that she's a great person, but it
was nice to have it confirmed by hee blessing. She has many great things to
live up to. One if the things that the patriarch said before the blessing and
something that I have a strong testimony of is, isn't it remarkable how much our
Heavenly Father knows and loves us each individually! I am constantly amazed at
his kindness and goodness.
We also went to a few Christmas lights and a different day up to Seattle.
We love riding the ferry up from Bremerton. We Witnessed a scary hit and run..
it was so close to hitting us, that we all felt blessed it wasn't us! We later
found out a guy s stole the car that hit the 67 ford Mustang and then hit the
other car. As soon as it hit, the guy that stole the car burst out and ran. We
had no idea what was happening at first until we were there a while hearing the
whole story. Crazy! Afterwards we enjoyed the lights and monarail in downtown.
So much fun and excitement! We're trying to cram as much fun and time in with
melissa as possible before she leaves tuesday.
I loved seeing so many pictures of Skyping with families. I'm sure it was
awesome!
I love you all so much! You're in our prayers daily and individually by
name.
Keep up the good works!
Love,
Sis Shoop
