Taking on Tacoma: Happy Memorial Day!!

Hello!

I hope all is well in the outside world! My world is going pretty good!

We had a pretty slow week, our investigators are dropping like flies, so we've been doing a lot of finding this week, with not much success, but it's okay! Sometimes I think God gives us weeks like these so we can be prepared to appreciate the awesome week He has planned ahead. So, this week is going to be reallyyyyy awesome!

Monday, we did normal P-day stuff, which is mostly just emails, grocery store, and sleep. But we mixed it up a little by also going to the Port of Allyn, and walking on the boardwalk, and getting some ice cream. That was fun!

That night we met some really interesting people while knocking doors. One guy talked to us for a while and told us about how he came to find God. He was in a cave in with his dad, and his dad died, but he didn't. He spent a lot of time feeling guilty and angry and drank a lot, but then he met this lady who talked to him and talked him through it and directed him to a church. He said he will read the Book of Mormon. He was a really great guy, one of those people who just smiles their way through life.

After him, we walked up a longgg road with a bunch of wood houses all the way along it and a huge garden and it was so pretty. This whole family of Born Again Christians live there and own 25 acres of land. I LOVE the idea of having a family farm. I think that would be so fun to live on all that land together. Anyways, one man close to the beginning of the road preached to us about how "so many Christians believe that we have to do certain things to be saved, but it's not true! We've been saved! Christ died on the cross and we don't have to do ANYTHING!" Then we over heard the kids ask the mom "Who are they?" and she said "They're missionaries. They are earning their salvation." Haha!

Then we kept walking up the road and met another lady who talked to us a bit and then looked at me and said "Do you have a testimony?" and I said yes, then she said "Tell me your testimony." So I started to bear my testimony of the Gospel, and of Jesus Christ and she interrupted me and said "That's not a testimony! Let me tell you mine. In 1991, I had just had my 7th miscarriage when I heard a voice say, as clear as day, "You will conceive a son in 1992." I conceived a son in 1992 and he was born in 1993. That's a testimony. I will pray for you two that the Lord will allow you to have an experience with the Holy Spirit so you can gain your testimony." Haha!

I forget sometimes that other religions have different words for the same things we do. Or the same word means something else. Explaining the priesthood to people who have Priests, is weird. In Catholicism you have to give an apology, which means testimony, and doesn't mean you are apologizing for something. To Born Again Christians, a testimony is an experience where the Holy Spirit talks to you I guess. And to us a testimony is what we believe.

Tuesday was a bit of a sad day. We had 3 set appointments, and every single one of them fell through. Even dinner fell through. We got to end the night with our meeting with Bishop Wing though. That is always fun. He's just one of those people who you could go to with any questions, and he would have an answer that you could trust. We always ask him for advice for specific problems we have with investigators.

Wednesday we had our district meeting and it was a really good training! But then it ended with our district leader saying "This week I challenge each of you to put someone on date! Who's 'tism (baptism) hungry?! I know I'm 'tism hungry!" etc, etc. With a few other words put in there that I don't totally love that elders use. So, I didn't really get pumped up like the rest of the elders did haha But I really enjoyed the training before that!

Thursday was Park Day. Which means we didn't use our car at all. It was a beautiful day and we walked a lot. I think we walked like 5 miles and I got a really good sunburn! All of our lessons for that day fell through also, except for James at night, but we had to kind of have a "break up" meeting with him, which was really sad. We got to a point where there is nothing more we can teach him if he won't come to church. And he completely understood that, so he said he would keep listening to the Book of Mormon and that maybe he would come to church one day. When that happens we will happily begin teaching him again!

Friday we did service at Zion's Camp. nothing toooo exciting happened besides that.

Saturday was full of disappointment haha. It was just one of those days where NO ONE was home. We tried to visit TONS of people. We called people, we texted, no success. But we did end the night well. We knocked on Stretch Island, which I didn't even know existed until recently. I found the place I'm going to live one day. It's a bit far from everything but it is an island, which means it has coast, but it is also covered in farmland!!!! It's so beautiful! It's quiet, all the people that live there are really nice, there are white wild flowers everywhere, and we saw a deer! One man said they have a lot of wildlife! Hopefully my future husband will be able to work from home or something. Or be rich so he can afford the gas to commute. Because Belfair already doesn't really have many job opportunities. Most men drive 30 minutes to get to the shipyard. But this is another 20 minutes from Belfair. I guess I don't need to worry about that right now though.

Sunday was fun we had a really good Sacrament meeting. Belfair exploded overnight because our Chapel was FULL I have never ever ever seen so many people in our chapel. But with Memorial Day weekend it was very full.

We had a musical fireside at night, the missionaries from 3 stakes got together and had a choir. 6 of us sisters sang a musical number, and then all of the missionaries sang a few songs. Between the songs a few recent converts from the different stakes bore their testimonies. It was a really great fireside. It was also fun to see so many of the missionaries.

So, that's my week!

A few days ago I read Alma 17, and I am in my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon right now, besides 3 Nephi, when Christ comes. I admire those missionaries, the sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger. And Alma the Older, too. I look up to them all because if you pay attention, they have some realllyyyyy cool conversion stories. Anyways, I could go on and on about each of them. But in Alma 17, Alma and the Sons of Mosiah see each other for the first time in 14 years and they are all really excited because through the years and trials and temptations, they have remained follower's of Christ. Then it goes into detail about what they did to stay on the right path. They fasted, prayed, studied the scriptures in depth, they followed the commandments, they focused their eyes on God, and they had faith in Him. Even when they were nervous about going into scary territory, they prayed for comfort and God gave them peace. He promised them that He would make them instruments in His hands in bringing souls to salvation . With that promise it says their "hearts.. took courage to go forth." And I love that.

I definitely am always working on being more courageous. Because the opposite of faith is fear. In Elder Dallin H. Oaks talk from this past conference he said, "When we are paralyzed by fear of the future, [it] hinders our going forward in faith, trusting in God and His promises." Later he quotes Hugh W. Nibley who says, while talking about our duty to hold to our beliefs instead of accommodating the world, "You have to be willing to offend here, you have to be willing to take the risk. That's where the faith comes in... Our commitment is supposed to be a test, it's supposed to be hard, it's supposed to be impractical in the terms of this world."

There isn't time to be afraid. If we trust God, we'll be too busy following Him and His Son, to be fearful. There are things to be done, push past the fear and keep going. That's how we stay on the right path. We don't worry about what the world thinks. We just worry about what God wants of us, and we'll be fine. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Warburton

PS. I didn't get a single conversion story this week. I'm not just looking for people who joined the church later in life. I want conversion stories from people who have been members their whole life. We are all converts. We are all still being converted. So, pleasseeee, send me your conversion story. :)

Pictures!!!

Allyn Bay, I look like I have red hair!

I forgot to tell this story....On planning day we decided to go look at the hood canal. Around lunch time, the tide goes WAY back and we decided to walk on it. It's VERY muddy and we actually sunk down to our knees sometimes haha. It was really fun, but dried out my feet so they hurt a little bit the next day.