Missionary Stuff

Hello Everyone!

Nothing too terribly exciting happened this week!

 

Last week, after emailing we had a Zone Activity. We played "Life" at the Stake Building. I tried to encourage a hike or something but Elders are lame. They would like to play basketball inside of a church building that looks the same as their church buildings back home every single p day rather than go outside and enjoy the fresh Washington air that they only get to be in for 2 years.

On Tuesday, Sister Harris and I went to a stake quilting thing. They do it every Tuesday and they make quilts for people in hospitals. It's all service for other people. We walked in for our first time and we had like 10 people say "Oh yay! We have sisters! Elders are okay, but Sisters are way better!" (The elders go every week) They were also all jealous that Belfair gets sisters and the rest of them have had to have elders for years. So, that was a nice boost to my ego haha. I'll have to humble myself.  It was fun though, we pinned a quilt and then cut some rag quilts and did other random tasks. These old ladies are VERY particular and perfectionists, so they started us with small jobs to do. We can work ourselves up to sewing.

We also caught a wasp. In our apartment. On Sunday we caught one, and then there was another one. The second one died that day, but the first one lasted FOUR days and was still kicking. So, we let it go. It'll probably come back to get revenge.... 

 

Wednesday was our district meeting. Sister Harris and I decided to dress up like elders. And by that, I mean that we wore black skirts, but also wore white button down shirts and ties, and a blazer. We thought it was pretty funny, we kept our conversations to protein powder and how much we bench for a few minutes before I couldn't stop laughing. The other elders just thought we were weird. haha. We changed after the meeting, because white button down shirts and ties are really uncomfortable. Also, we would never wear those kinds of clothes while proselyting. It wouldn't be professional.

 

 

We found out that our area covers an island called Treasure Island. We didn't even know it existed, but when we found it we decided to knock it. At almost every other house, someone would say "um, you aren't supposed to be knocking here, no soliciting" but we felt like we should keep going. One man (Rodger) said "Right now is dinner time, but I'd like you to come back and I'll talk to you. I was just in the hospital for 11 days and I've had some time to rethink some things." So, that gave us the courage to keep going in this neighborhood. His neighbor said "I'm going to be nice about it, but if you knock on my neighbors house he'll run you out of the neighborhood." and we looked at each other and said, "you mean the guy with the beard?" (Pointing to Rodgers house) "This house right here. He won't allow solicitors in the neighborhood."  "We just talked to him. He wants us to come back..."

Anyways, my dialogue skills aren't great over the computer, but it was a tender mercy. This neighborhood really does not appreciate missionaries and the one house that houses the man who is in charge was nice to us for the first time because he'd had some time to rethink things. Which allowed us to keep knocking, which led us to finish knocking doors at 7, the normal time, and as we left the neighborhood we ran into a couple who we've been trying to contact. So, it was all God's timing and it was pretty cool.

On Thursday, we had a really good church tour with Jamie and Lucas and the spirit was really strong. Sister Harris and I sang Be Still my Soul for them in the chapel and Lucas had tear in his eyes when we finished.  Sadly, they said they would for sure be at church though, and then they didn't come. But there is still hope there.

 

One other funny experience before a spiritual thought:

On Saturday night we were knocking doors and we met this guy, who I'm pretty sure was high, and he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. We then said if you'd like to learn more, here is our card and you can just call us if you ever have any questions. Then he said "What if I just want to hang out?" and we said "Um, then you'd have to call someone else... we're missionaries. This is what we do for 18 months" and he said "Whoa! That's hot! Like, honestly, that is so hot!"  Haha so, for those of you who aren't sure if you want to go on a mission, missionary work is "hot." (Just kidding, don't go on a mission for those reasons.)  He also said "Do you think Jesus would smoke with me?" And we said "Uhh... Jesus loves you a lot, but He wouldn't smoke with you..."

So, those are the kind of people that we meet here in Belfair. There are actually about  5 medical and recreational marijuana shops here in town. It makes it really super easy to teach the Word of Wisdom to people. Not.

"No illegal or addictive substances."

 

"Well, Marijuana is legal! And it isn't bad for you! Chocolate is worse!" -_-

Anyways, I don't have anything SUPER spiritually uplifting. No huge epiphanies or anything but a good scripture that I heard the other day was Alma 38:5. "remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

Trust God, He has a plan for you, and He knows what you need. :)

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

 

Sister Warburton

 

A llama we saw while knocking

Some cute month old kittens that like to climb up people.

Another one of the cute kittens. Sadly, as cute as it was, my eyes were in pain for the rest of the day.

 

Twenty.

Quite a bit happened this week!

 

For full details you will have to read my journal one day when I write a book about being a missionary. Just kidding, I probably won't do that. But this is going to just be my abridged version of my journal. Kind of like the Book of Mormon. All the best stuff is in here. :)

 

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference with a 3rd of the mission. That was really fun. We spent a long time talking about safety and health. Sister Blatter (The mission president's wife) got up and gave a little spiel about psyllium (I don't know how to spell it) and flossing. haha. She is a mother by nature and has gotten over all the awkward parenting conversations with her 6 children so she has no problem doing it for all 200 of us missionaries as well.

 

We also had some trainings on planning and getting members more excited about missionary work. Then we had lunch all together and finished off with President Blatter talking about Grace, and a testimony meeting. Whenever the mission gets together we sing"Amazing Grace, my chains are gone." It sounds amazing and it's really cool hearing all the missionaries singing together with so much energy. It sounds beautiful.

 

On Thursday I was sick. It was rough. I felt pretty nauseous all day and had a pretty awful headache. I'm pretty sure it's because on Monday we were given a pizza, on Tuesday our dinner was Dairy Queen with some members, and then Wednesday we ate at the "Airport Diner" with a different member, where we ate deep fried "fish and chips" With chocolate pie to top it off.  I don't like fast food. I didn't before, and I don't like it even more. 

 

All day on Thursday I wanted to just ask the members to feed us healthy food because as missionaries, we teach the word of wisdom, and we should live it so we can have the energy we need to share the gospel... So, if you are feeding the missionaries, don't feel too stressed about giving them a five course meal with the fanciest dessert you can find. Because a 5 course meal every night leads to really sick missionaries. And fast food is the worst. Pizza is even worse than that....

 

Friday was my BIRTHDAY! :D I'm twenty! It was a great day! The weather was beautiful! The sunrise was so pretty and it made me feel like it was a little birthday present from God.

In the morning, most of the elders from my zone called to sing me happy birthday, which was pretty funny. They sounded awful. Sister Blatter called me to wish me happy birthday also.

Then we had a lesson with Ashley Leinnaweber. We bought ice cream and sat outside in the sun and taught her the restoration. She's stubborn, but she actually knows that she needs the gospel. She loves the idea of her family being together forever. She just needs to make some changes in her life to be ready for it. I love her and I hope she keeps trying.

 

We then did some service and visited a few more people before dinner at the Waites house. (Ward mission leader) They made me my favorite food and also made fruit salad for dessert because I asked for that instead of something sweet and unhealthy. They gave me a present with chocolate, cotton candy, and nail polish in it, which was really nice. I was able to eat the cotton candy by Saturday and I had forgotten how much I loved cotton candy! :)

 

After dinner we went knocking by their house, and didn't have much success, but we were in a really beautiful area and the sun was shining and we found a cute little frog to hold. (don't worry, I have a picture) We also found a house that is deep in the forest that has chickens, turkeys, and peacocks! Another guy had pet geese, which gave us a heart attack, because just before that house we had been chased by a dog that gave us a bigger heart attack. (I think I will have PTSD with dogs.) 

 

On Saturday we helped out at Zions Camp, they were having a giant stake clean up, so Sister harris and I prepared lunch for everyone. We flipped burgers for 2 hours. Since we were there for lunch, we ate really fast and then explored for the rest of the hour. We played in the tree house, sat on a see saw, and played on the swings, because that is what mature, 20 year old people do. Obviously.

 

Later that afternoon we were street contacting when we found a lady rearranging her readerboard, she looked like she was struggling, so we offered to help. She had the word Methodist on the board and needed to change it to woodshed, and on accident, for at least 2 minutes it said METHWOODSHED. Which, maybe isn't the best thing in Belfair, Washington. Hahaha, it was actually really funny, but we got it down pretty fast.

 

The rest of the week was good too. The weather here is absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining, it's light outside from the time we wake up all the way up until 8:30, which is so great for us. We found 9 new investigators this week which was really exciting, and now we have 18 people that we are teaching! It's crazy the amount of work that Belfair has for us to do! I love it here!

 

For my spiritual thought, I'm going to talk about one of my new favorite stories. It's in Ether 12:23-29. (The whole chapter is really good, but this is my favorite part I think.)

 

So, Moroni, is a really cool guy, and he's an amazing missionary. He has so much faith and everything that he says is said with power. He uses the spirit to speak with power and people feel that spirit, and are converted. So, his talent is speaking. (lucky him) but then the Lord asks him to write about his spiritual experiences. For us. Now. He is told to write down his experiences so people of this day and age can read the Book of Mormon and also be converted unto the Lord. Writing is not Moroni's talent. He worries that the gentiles (us) will mock him and his words because he isn't talented in writing. He worries about the "awkwardness of his hands" he also compares himself to the Brother of Jared who is so much better at writing than he is. But then the Lord says: "Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; and if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give until men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

 

"My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me."

 

I think this story is amazing. Moroni is awesome. and he became, through his weakness, a really awesome writer. Because God's Grace, is what will give us the power to do things we never thought we could do! Through that Grace I am here and I am sharing the gospel with strangers deep in the forests of Washington, and through that grace we can all overcome our weaknesses! IF we humble ourselves before God and turn it over to Him. Because I'm only a good missionary if I let God turn me into one.

 

I love you all and I encourage you to go and read this chapter on your own, because it's really good. I love it. :)

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love, 

 

Sister Warburton

 

 

Sister Harris drew this picture of me. It's pretty accurate.
​

It's Elder Nelson!

 

 

I WENT TO PRISON!

Did that catch your attention?

Lot's of crazy things happened this week. In general, it was a pretty slow week. All of our investigators were sick or out of town, so we didn't get to teach any of our regulars. Almost all of our set appointments were cancelled. Which was kind of a bummer. 

On Tuesday, we had exchanges. I stayed here in Belfair and the Sister Training Leader Sister Horgesheimer, came here with me. Tuesdays are normally our best days, we meet with 3 of our investigators on Tuesday. But Becca, and Ashley, both cancelled because they were sick. Soooo, that was kind of a bummer. Luckily, Sister H is a really nice and laid back missionary. We just went with the flow and had a lot of fun. We met a lot of really nice people and got a few potential people to teach. We also were able to teach the Plan of Salvation that night and I think it was a really good lesson. 

I did the driving because she is blind in one eye, and I was really nervous about that, but we survived without any mishaps! I drove 51 miles that day. Which is probably more than I've ever driven total. Then on Wednesday I drove us on the freeway to Gig Harbor to exchange back. And everything was still okay! It wasn't my time to go so God made sure there were less cars on the road that day. Phew!

We have a new Zone leader, his name is Elder Schaffner. I'm only going to talk about him for a second because he's from BARTOW, FLORIDA! (!!!!) Which is where my grandparents are from, and my mom grew up there, and it's a teeny tiny town in Florida that I spent almost every major holiday in until I moved to Texas. Which means that I probably went to church with him at least once in my childhood. But I don't recognize him. So, who knows. But I was pretty excited about that.

At Zone meeting on Wednesday we talked about how we need to really work hard for our goals. Our mission goal is to get 800 baptisms this year. So, they are pushing us to reallllllyyyy work hard and be diligent and find the people who are ready to be taught. My thoughts are a teensy bit mixed on that, but that's beside the point. Anyways, Elder Schaffner started talking about Moroni from the Book of Mormon and then out of no where ripped his shirt off (He had another one underneath it) and buttons went flying. Then he turned his shirt into the Title of Liberty for our zone... They wrote our baptism goal for the month of April on it and then we all signed it. 

Missionaries are really weird and cheesy. But we're pretty cool too! :) 

On Friday we went to Tahuya again, and, get ready for it..., we got our car stuck in the mud. Haha. Hahahahaha. Tahuya days are so fun. We parked on the grass on the side of the road, and when we tried to leave the car didn't move. It was raining and I guess the grass was just a lie. It was just some green stuff on top of some really nice mud. Going forward wasn't working so we tried to back onto the road and then the front tire got stuck in a ditch with some mud... hahaha. It was all very slow going and we didn't get hurt and neither did our car. So that's good. We were right next to a members house who had a big truck and he pulled us out. There was an audience and everything was just fine. :) Just a fun story.

While knocking doors one night a man yelled a few choice words at us and then said "MORMONS DON'T LOVE AMERICA, YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF CHEATS AND LIARS AND YOU ARE MESSED UP!" (Edited) Um. We just said "Oh, okay. Have a good night!" and then left haha. Neither of us had any desire to yell back. We just felt sorry that he felt that way. And I think our response probably made him way more mad. But I just don't understand how someone could look at two 20 year old girls who really aren't all that scary looking, and think "OH I HATE YOU!" and then yell at us. It doesn't really make sense to me, but it's not a big deal. It doesn't hurt my feelings because I don't really feel all that threatened. 

Another lady was very sweet and talked to us for an hour and a half without taking any time to breathe. She told us that she was so proud of us for what we are doing and loves seeing missionaries walking around. She was really sweet.

Now, to the best part of the week! On Thursday night Sister Harris and I got to go to the Women's Correctional Facility and teach 18 women about their divine nature. It was probably the coolest experience of my whole mission so far! These women were so nice to us and so ready to learn. They had their scriptures open and they took notes and they had a ton of questions. We wanted them to know that they are children of God. Literal Daughters of a King, and that they have the potential to become someone amazing. We also taught the plan of salvation and it was SO cool! The spirit was so strong in that room. One lady asked about her 2 year old daughter who had died and hadn't been baptized. We told her that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers children and that she is up in the Celestial Kingdom with Heavenly Father right now. She has no need to worry about her daughter. She just needs to do what she can to make it there herself to be with her daughter. She was instantly in tears and smiling and it was so beautiful to see the change in her. This is the best part of missionary work. A lot of people focus on the numbers. I try to focus on the people first. It's important to have goals, but some of the elders think that teaching women in a prison is a waste of time. Because we can't invite them to be baptized. I think it was the greatest possible way I could have spent my time and I hope I get to come back again. I would go back and teach them in a heartbeat! I love those women so much and I only got to spend an hour and a half with them.

I love this gospel and the hope it brings people! It's beautiful! It's awesome! I love it so much! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! To my friends at BYU, good luck with finals!

<3 Sister Warburton

Pictures from the week:

 

Goats!

 Her:  The skeleton of a strawberry that I found while weeding! Isn't it cool?!

Me:  I don't think strawberries have skeletons.

Her:  They do! They are like strawberries from last spring! I found a bunch of them that looked like this!

Sunset on the hood canal.

A giant deaf/blind dog that really gets in my personal space.

Happy April!! (Washington Week 7)

Hello Everyone! 

April is the best month so I'm really excited to see what things are in store for me this month. :)

This week didn't have too many crazy things happen. 

I had pizza 3 times this week. So that's a bummer. People say "You sisters probably get pasta all the time, so we got you pizza!" I think I've had pasta maybe 3 times total. I love pasta. We've had pizza on the other hand 3 times this week and potatoes almost every night but I think I'd rather eat roasted potatoes over pizza. Mashed potatoes are still my least favorite out of everything and I will still avoid them at all costs. 

Another thought I had, I don't like Fridays anymore.  I think the mission really tries to shake ALL of the world out of you. Not just in the spiritual sense but in the normal sense as well. They want it to be as traumatic as possible when you get back home. ;) Just kidding. It won't be traumatic.

But back to Fridays. They are the worst! and Mondays are the best! Which is crazy! Because everywhere else, Fridays are the best and Mondays the worst! 

 

This Friday we had another Tahuya day. And it was about as bad as last week.  Tahuya is an odd place. It's beautiful, but a few hours spent there kind of give me the heebie jeebies. Before we went knocking we decided to take a 5 minute power nap so we could have the energy needed to survive this area. It was so awkward.  We parked on the side of the road, and put our chairs back so we could sleep for 5 minutes. Two annoying teenage boys kept driving their extremely loud motorcycles past our car, and then we heard some people in the road talking like right next to our car. and then we hear this lady knock on our window, so we rolled down the window and she asked if we were lost. We just told her we were two tired missionaries. (We had only been there for 3 minutes at this point.) Then she was like, oh, okay, and it was really awkward. After she left, we drove away and decided that a power nap was not going to happen so we started knocking doors in a completely different area. We saw about 15 dogs in about half an hour, 8 of them were not fenced in or tied up or anything, just wandering around, and we heard about 30 dogs barking at us.  Then we knocked on the door of a less active member and the lady that had knocked on our window was there. We asked if she knew this less active member we were looking for and she said "Yes, she is my partner." So... that made things 100 bajillion times more awkward for us. 

Anyways, so that sort of sums Tahuya up in a paragraph. It's an odd place, and I thought that maybe I wanted to live there one day, but I changed my mind. Also, I still never want a dog ever.

 

The other night we knocked on this guy's door and he was really nice at first until I realized that he's a bible basher. He wanted to "test us" because "you two are missionaries and you need to make sure that you know your stuff!" It was dumb. He kept throwing out a bunch of obscure scriptures from the bible and telling us that we need to find God and keep searching until we find God. He also wanted to argue with us about the Book of Mormon. Every time we tried to talk he would interrupt us and tell us why what we were saying was wrong, without ever letting us finish our sentence. Anyways eventually I was like "Look, I have a testimony that this book is true, that it is another testament of Jesus Christ and I got that testimony from the Spirit. I prayed about it and I studied it and I know it is true. I'm not going to stand here and argue with you. Do you want a copy or not?" and he said no, so then we said "Alright, well it was nice talking to you, have a good night. Happy Easter." He took up like 30 minutes of our time. He just kept talking and talking and talking and repeating himself. He probably felt pretty good about himself afterwards, but he didn't do anything to me except give me an even strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. That's the thing. These people think they can trick us and tear apart what we believe but I have a testimony that, like Jacob's (Jacob 7:5), can not be shaken. You can spout a bajillion random Bible verses at me and you won't shake my belief. I have found God. I know who He is, I know that He loves me and I know that I am doing what He wants me to do. 

Conference was this weekend! That was definitely the highlight of my week! Our Prophet and Apostles are so awesome! We were 2 out of 5 people that watched it at the church building so we had the whole chapel to ourselves while we listened to the prophet. It was nice to be able to not have distractions and just listen to the council we were given this weekend. Also, Easter was the best day to watch Conference as missionaries, because we didn't get anything else to really celebrate Easter as much. Besides dinner. The whole town was at an easter egg hunt, and Sister Harris and I watched conference in an empty chapel.   It's sad that so many people forget the real reason for Easter. 

One thing that I loved from Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk yesterday said something to the extent of:

The destiny of all of God's children changed on Easter day. Death has no sting, the grave no victory, Satan no power, and all of us will be able to be resurrected and to live with Heavenly Father again. All because of Jesus Christ. 

President Uchtdorf says it better, but it still sounds pretty good doesn't it? Isn't that amazing?!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland also said something like:

Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God came to Earth, felt all our pain, died, and rose again to grasp us from our fall, hold us with love, and lift us up out of the darkness.

There is a new church video called Because He Lives, that is similar to Because of Him, from last year. Both are beautiful and uplifting. Because Christ lives, we have a chance. We have more than one chance, we are saved from the fall of the world. Don't forget it. 

Believe in Jesus Christ. Trust in Him. Have faith in Him. It is only through Him that you and I can be saved. 

He will also bring you more happiness than you can imagine. Life has no pain that Christ can't heal. 

Happy Easter!

Lots of love,

 

Sister Warburton

PS. I'm sorry, I somehow didn't take any pictures this week... so unlike me... but next week I'll have some!