Happy June!

Hello!

I hope everyone is doing well! For those in Texas, I'm glad you all survived the flood. In Utah, I hope everyone is doing great. In Florida, I hope the humidity hasn't hurt you too much. And anywhere else, I hope life is treating you well!

On Tuesday, I got the chance to go on an exchange with Sister Lomu, a sister who is Tongan. I went to Tacoma with her. We had a blast. She is so fun, I hope I get to be companions with her sometime. She was surprised to find out that I actually can talk a lot. Most people are. I'm pretty quiet in a crowd, but if you get me started it's pretty hard to get me to stop. Most of my Young Women's leaders told me that in high school. But we had a lot of fun. We knocked the "sketchy" part of her area. (Which was the nicer part of Tacoma.) And it was her first time knocking there, so we were both pretty surprised to find out it wasn't sketchy at all. I think Belfair is probably a whole lot sketchier. Tahuya, especially is. One thing that was awesome about her is that she actually shares the gospel with EVERYONE. At every door instead of saying "Hi, we're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Would you be interested in learning more?" Which pretty much invites people to say "no." She says something like "Hi, We're the local missionaries in the area and we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ that will change your life. " Or she'd start a conversation with a person and then tell them how the Gospel will help them in whatever situation they are in.

Sister Kramer and I have been trying to figure out how to do that. We came up with the idea but didn't know how to execute it, and then on the exchange we both watched our Sister Training Leaders do it so flawlessly. It was awesome. Our door approaches have been 10 times better this week because of it.

This week was a little bit slow. We pretty much dropped everyone we've been teaching. We have one actual investigator. And we haven't even been able to meet with him because his family has been out of town. But his name is Lincoln, and he's a cute 9 year old with a strong testimony. He's being baptized on June 13, if everything works out. So if you could all pray for him and his family, that would be awesome!

We've been doing a whole lot of door knocking and finding. We started going through our household report and calling everyone in the ward that we don't know. There are 600 members in our ward, and only about 170 come to church every week, so we are inviting people to come back to church. It's a hefty project, and we are hoping that with diligence we will find more people to teach and also help a lot of less active people come back to church.

I hit my first animal with the car this week. A bird flew into the window while I was driving. I don't know what the outcome was though. I'm hoping it didn't die.

On Friday, we fixed arrows at Zion's camp. Then they made lunch for us and it was fun to sit with all the missionaries. They spoil us. :) They put the box of cream puffs in front of me and told me to eat as many as I wanted. They actually forced me to eat like 30. haha. Good thing we run a mile every day.

Saturday was kind of fun. We had interviews with President Blatter. And then Sister Blatter talked to us for a while. She's funny. President Blatter is pretty serious and straight forward, but Sister Blatter likes to try to bend the rules a bit haha. Missionaries always go to her for information on wedding engagements of former missionaries.

Then for dinner that night Sister Tidwell (Our meal calendar coordinator who worries about our welfare brought us dinner and the stuff to make a fire on the beach so we could make S'mores. She is the cutest old lady in the world. She cracks me up and is just full of fire. Apparently in her youth she swam across the Hood Canal. Which is a pretty big distance to swim.

I think that's everything from my week. Another thing you could pray for if you want is that we'll find new investigators so we don't have to knock doors for 4 hours every day. I'm trying to not be too tired, because pioneers walked thousands of miles without shoes through the snow. I've got a car. And shoes. And nice members who make us a huge dinner every night.

This morning in my studies I read about the Lamanites who buried their weapons of war. (Alma 24) I love finding conversion stories in the Book of Mormon. They gained testimonies of the gospel and gave up all their sins to know God and when the enemy was preparing to come against them to war they said

"Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.

And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved."

They had such a good attitude! They had done everything they could to get those stains washed away from them, and they knew the happiness it had brought them. They also knew that they might be tempted to break their promise with God if they didn't dispose of everything that could bring them back to their previous stage. So they BURIED their weapons of war. Because no matter what happened, they knew that they would rather give up their lives than break that promise with God and suffer for eternity because of it.

The next part of the story also amazes me. When the enemy did come to battle, they just knelt there and prayed to God. The evil Lamanites killed them without having anyone fight back. All those who were killed went straight to God, sinless, and clean. But the people who were killing were "stung" (verse 25) as they realized the horrible thing they were doing, and THOUSANDS were converted.

"And it came to pass that the people of God were joined that day by more than the number who had been slain; and those who had been slain were righteous people, therefore we have no reason to doubt what they were saved."

"but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people."

Sometimes it seems like God isn't paying attention to us, or the things He allows to happen don't make sense. But God works in mysterious ways. There is always a plan. He's watching over us. He's doing everything He can to get ALL of His beloved children back to Him. Don't doubt God. Don't be mad at Him. Look for the good. Look for the happiness. Trust in Him, and know that He has a plan for you, for me, and for all of us.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Please send me conversion stories. I only got 2! I want them from EVERYONE.

Lots of love!

Sister Warburton

Pictures!!

Who could it be?

Our exchange!

My backyard!