Happy Memorial Day!

Well, I don't have much to say, or much time today anyways, so this time my email is going to ACTUALLY be short. 

We had a great week full of missionary work. Nothing too exciting. We don't have any investigators at the moment, so we spent the time finding, and hoping that the sun would come back out. Luckily, I have the best companion, so we had fun even though we didn't have much exciting stuff happen. 

Unfortunately, the dream team is being split up. :( 

I got my transfer call on Saturday and I am being moved to the Soundview ward in TACOMA. 15 months in the boonies and I am finally going to the city this mission is named after! I have my concerns though. (Always do.)

Concerns:

It's the city, which means there are going to be a LOT of people. I'm still not the best at talking to lots of people. 

I'm still going to be a Sister Training Leader but this time it's around President and Sister Blatter and the Assistants to the President and the Zone leaders. Which means if I mess up, people will know! I'm going to have to be on my best behavior! 

I might have to give a training at zone conference again! 

I have to look nice. So.... I can't wear my same favorite comfortable skirt that I wear every day here. People will notice. 

People are going to expect me to be this great missionary, but then will realize that I have no idea what I'm doing! 

And I won't get blackberries. :( (which are just barely starting to blossom.)

Oh man. 

But there are some perks:

I get to be close to President and Sister Blatter. Who I love. 

I'll have so many more opportunities to talk to people and bear my testimony. 

I'll probably have an easier time finding people to teach. 

The sun shines more there than it does here in Elma.

I'm not so far away from everyone. 

My area isn't even close to a thousand square miles.  

I could probably walk everywhere within my area in a day! Woohoo!

I don't know much about my companion. Her name is Sister Glauser. She seems really nice. I'm excited to get to know her more. 

If you'd like to write me letters (which I'm sure you all do... you must just be holding back because you knew transfers were coming up, right? (; )

My address is going to be the mission office:

4007 Bridgeport Way

University Place, WA

98466

I sure will miss Elma and Montesano and McCleary. I'll definitely miss the cows and the small town feel that I have around here. I'll miss the boony roads and the people that have lived here 89 years and aren't planning on going anywhere. But the fun thing about a mission is that you get used to this change and you learn that even though it feels as though there is absolutely NO room left in your heart for MORE people to fit, somehow when you meet them, you find out there is. I now have 7 wards worth of people all crammed inside of my heart that I worry about and pray about and love and care about. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to see them again, but if not, I suppose that's what eternity's for. :) 

And luckily, I've been studying joy, so I'm not having too much trouble still rejoicing. 

"There never were men (and women) that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name. 

Now, if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people..."

(Alma 26:35-36)

If I had to sum up my testimony into a few verses of the Book of Mormon, these would be it. This gospel (including the Savior, His Atonement, and the knowledge that I am a child of God) is my LIFE, and my LIGHT, my JOY, and my SALVATION, and because of this gospel I have been REDEEMED from everlasting wo. Nope, there never were such people that have ever had such great reason to rejoice. :) 

Have the best week ever! I love ya'll! 

Love, 

Sister Warburton

Happy Memorial Day!

Cows.

The Whites.

Tim Brown.

Just being us.

The Westcotts.

Our wall before I took my side down.

The Hardys.

Kaytee and Megan.

Paul and Jewel and their granddaughter Adelaide.

The Schultz Family.

Lorraine.

A baby turkey.

Liam playing the bagpipes for us before I left.

Both ward Memorial Day breakfasts.  I made the Elma 2nd ward take a ward picture with me but it didn't turn out super great so I went up close.

Grandpa B.

The Nielsons...they made my birthday lunch.

And last but not least, Arlin and Cindy Burbridge, who were in the YSA branch with me and then were released and came back to the Elma 1st ward.  :)  This is my second time having to say goodbye to them!

15 Months

Hey everyone! 

I feel like this week lasted about 2 months. But it actually didn't, so I'll try to get everything in it. 

On Tuesday we had a temple trip! I was starting to feel like a less active because it's been 14 MONTHS since I last went! But it was great and we really enjoyed it! :) 

We woke up really early and then met at the Olympia Stake Center. Then our zone and the Centralia zone got on a school bus to take to Bellevue (which is next to Seattle.) It feels weird to be on a school bus. The maturity levels of the missionaries drop a few degrees on a school bus... but it was pretty fun anyways. :) We went through a session at the temple and then we had lunch and then the shortest testimony meeting ever. There is a cool interactive family history center at the church building next to the temple, so we took turns going through that, at the same time as the testimony meeting and for some reason, at one point there were only 6 missionaries in the chapel. So, I took that chance and bore my testimony to 4 senior missionaries, two regular sister missionaries, and President and Sister Blatter. And then I sat down, and that's when all the missionaries came back in. 

Phew! Perfect timing. 

Then we had another loooooonnnngggg drive back home. Going to the temple really wipes a person out! 

On Wednesday we had a normal proselyting day. Unfortunately every single one of our plans fell through. And then all of our back up plans fell through. We had a very big and specific goal that we wanted to reach this week, and it seemed like Satan was doing everything he could to keep us from accomplishing our goal. So, Wednesday was a bit slow and rough. But we made it through. 

On Thursday, we weekly planned and then tried to visit out investigator Chris. Nobody was home though so that didn't go through. Then we knocked doors and went to Shelton with Kaytee, our other investigator so that she could have her baptismal interview. She passed! :) 

On Friday, we did service at the food bank. That was pretty fun. We love serving there. Those old people are a hoot! Oh, then we went on exchanges with Sister Boyd and Sister Bird. I spent the day with Sister Bird and we went to try to see Chris again. He was on date for May 27th, and he has some word of wisdom problems so we wanted to follow up on him and see how he was doing. Well, we got there, and then someone came up do us, I'm assuming it was his dad, and told us that he died. That was a shock. Unfortunately, I don't know how to react to things like that so all I wanted to do was laugh. (Not that it's funny! It's just the way I react to horrible things!) I didn't laugh, but I did later... but now that it's hit me I'm pretty sad about it. I really liked Chris. He was coming really far.

So, that was an interesting way to start an exchange. The rest of the day we just visited people, and taught the Restoration as much as we could. I LOVE teaching the restoration. It's probably my favorite thing to teach. 

On Saturday, we sent the Winlock sisters on their way, and then headed to the library in Elma for a family history thing. We wanted to help people start up familysearch.org accounts but not many people showed up at the beginning. So, we left to go proselyte, until they gave us a call saying they needed us again. We got to help one guy start up his family history. So, that was pretty fun. 

After that we went to the church to fill up the font for Kaytee! :) We had a really good baptism for her. Everything went smoothly, and a lot of her family showed up that she didn't think would want anything to do with it. After the baptism we were able to start teaching her cousin, who wants to be baptized too! So, does her little sister, but that might take a little more convincing on her mom's part. 

Sunday was good, we just continued to work hard and to teach and teach and teach. Our zone leaders told us that we were doing so good, that Satan had to kill our investigator to try to stop us. So, we definitely weren't going to let that tactic work. It was a really good week and by the end of the day we were exhausted. 

Our goal for next week is to see even more miracles. The quote I want to share for my spiritual thought is:

"Pray like it all depends on the Lord and work like it all depends on you."

That's what we're trying to do. 

I love ya'll! Have the best week ever! 

Love, 

Sister Warburton