HAPPY MONDAY!!

Hello Everyone! 

We had a pretty normal week this week. It did start raining though... and it doesn't look like it's going to stop for a while... :( it was exciting for a little while because there was a crazy windstorm that blew a bunch of leaves and branches everywhere, and the power went out for everyone except for us because we live right next to hospital. 

I'm struggling to remember what happened this week. So, I think I'll just tell you about my investigators. (Please pray for them):

Ryan: He has been investigating the church for a year and a half. He had to wait until he was 18 because his parents didn't want him to get baptized, but even after he turned 18, he still wanted their blessing. So he FINALLY talked to his parents and they were fine with it. (He pushed back his baptism date multiple times because he kept putting off talking to them) Now, he has their permission and is on date for this Saturday, but he still has some doubts and wants to push it back again. I know that he is ready, and he is ready, but he is worried and doubting and Satan is trying to keep him from doing something right. He needs prayers more than anyone right now because he needs to know that what he is doing is the right thing. 

John: We've been teaching him a little over a month. He is awesome. He wants to know/learn everything there is to know, but there is SO much to know, that it overwhelms him, I think. We try to stay focused on the basics. Because if he gets a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, then everything else will fall into place. 

Tammy: We knocked into her a while ago and she was so nice. When we asked if we could share a quick message with her, she said yes. (Which almost never happens.) So we taught her the Restoration and she wasn't super interested in us coming back... but being persistent missionaries, we did. She's very busy but she's so nice, so we finally were able to come back and talk about the Plan of Salvation, and she told us that she's been looking for a church to go to. Yesterday she came to church for the first time and it was great! :) Hopefully she will come back and find that it is the church for her!

Other people that would be good to pray for: 

Frank- who needs to overcome smoking

Sharla- who has trouble waking up to come to church because her baby is awake all through the night

Mary-Ellen- who SO wants to come to church and be a part of something, but her step-mom won't let her for some reason. (We are teaching her step-mom as well...)

and Rachel- who is YSA age and we taught a really awesome first lesson, and she seemed really excited to learn more, but we haven't heard from her since.... 

For my spiritual thought I want to share a story that a sister in my ward told us:

When she was 16 she had a big crush on one of the 16 year old Priests. On Easter Sunday, he was the one saying the sacrament prayer, and for some reason he just couldn't say the prayer just right, so he kept doing it over and over and over until he got it perfect. Well, this sister was angry with her bishop by the end because she thought this boy was just perfect, and didn't think it was fair that he had to keep saying the prayer over. And she was bothered all day about it. However, on the way home from church, her dad said "Wasn't that the most beautiful sacrament meeting we've ever been too?" and she was stunned! Because she was still bothered. And then, seeing that she didn't understand, he said, "We are all so far from being perfect. We try our very best but we have to come to church every Sunday to take the sacrament and repent of the mistakes we keep making. We try and try, and still always make mistakes. But the Sacrament is there so that we can try again and again until we become absolutely perfect." 

I really liked that story, because just like we don't take the Sacrament until the prayer is said perfectly, we keep trying in our every day life until we become perfect, which won't happen while we are here, but doesn't mean we should stop. God knows we will keep making mistakes. That is why He sent His Son. So that we could try again. And that's all He asks of us. He asks us to keep trying. 

Thank goodness for that. I can't promise to be perfect, but I can promise to keep trying, every day. 

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

Lots and lots of love,

Sister Warburton

Pictures!!

Sister Evans holding all the stuff we had to bring in from the car. 

​We thought it would be a good idea to go street contacting on the trail during a wind storm... haha we were able to talk to the one other person who was out. Besides that we got some pictures with this branch that fell out down on the trail while we were there. (We left soon after.)

This is me pole vaulting.

A picture of Sister Evans with the branch. 

A horrible picture of me but a cute one of Silem, one of the 18 year old's that comes knocking doors with us all the time. :) We love her. 

Eating ice cream at Grandpas. Missionaries get ginormous single scoops. 

My AWESOME tan line. (not.) 

I haven't had to worry too much about dogs here in Olympia like I did in Belfair... but this past week I got a few bruises from some menacing dogs that kept jumping on us and barking.  Then we knocked a street last night that just had a chorus of dogs barking the whole 2 hours. 2 ran at us but were stopped by the neighbors before they got to us, and then this yard had FOUR giant dogs that barked and barked and barked and barked and barked and barked. We didn't go into that yard to knock on their door. Anyone with that many dogs is NOT ready for the gospel at this moment. 

A snake we found. 

The rain has been making for some pretty sunsets this week. This sunset was way prettier in person... 

Emailing is exhausting...

...but I will try to have a good email anyways!!

Nothing TOO terribly exciting happened this week. It's difficult to write these emails because the things that happen in missionary life that are exciting to me aren't really that exciting to normal people. 

Like on Tuesday, we had a stake missionary meeting where we talked about how to improve the amount of member missionary work. Our Stake President and Mission president were there and all the ward missionaries were there. And that was pretty fun. It sounds super boring, but it's exciting to brainstorm ideas to further the work, and to improve the quality of the work of the Lord. We also got ice cream at the end. 

On Wednesday we had a Zone meeting which got me all pumped up to become a better missionary. The number one thing is to be more Christlike. Because I'm not here to teach as many people as possible, for myself. I'm here to share the gospel with as many people as I can because I love them, because they are children of God too, and because He loves them, and has asked me to share the gospel with them. It's not about me. It has nothing to do with me. So this week I'm going to be better at forgetting myself. (I say that every week, and every week I get a teensy tiny bit better, but I've still got a LONG way to go.) 

On Thursday we had park day. (no car) We also accidentally planned 4 appointments on completely opposite sides of town in a matter of 3 ish hours. So, we humbled ourselves and asked people for rides. (Last park day we just walked everywhere we needed to be) We ended up having an awesome lesson with a girl named Rachel. Her sister got baptized a few years ago and got married and moved to Utah, so she was curious to learn more. She was super nice, and had lots of good questions, and wasn't scared away by any of our answers. Which was exciting. :) 

On Friday nothing too crazy happened, but while we were knocking I found an inchworm that I kept with me for most of my time knocking doors and I named him Everett. He was really cute. We were fast friends. 

The rest of the week consisted of more teaching, Stake Conference, hazy weather (smoke coming over from the other side of the mountains), and teaching 3 women in their mid 80's who live on their own, build their own homes, and are strong independent women. 

Well, that's all I've got for all of you! I hope you all have a great week! Remember who you are and what you stand for and that God loves you infinitely more than you can comprehend. If you don't feel that love, kneel down and ask Him yourself if He knows you and loves you. He'll answer if you ask sincerely. :) 

I love you all and I hope all of your wildest dreams come true this week!

Love, Sister Warburton :)

Pictures!!

This is Everett.

This is Sister Evans.

Hello!

Hi Everyone! 

We had a great week this week! Nothing tooo terribly exciting happened though. 

We worked super duper hard to have lessons and to teach a lot this week and we saw a lot of success which was exciting. :) 

A few things that happened this week that don't normally happen:

We went on an exchange on Tuesday. Sister Geraldino came to Olympia 1/5 with me and we had fun. We got to do service lifting heavy wood on a bunny farm. And we went knocking with one of the Laurels in the ward. And we had a cool lesson in the Evening. 

On Wednesday we had district meeting. And I got to teach the first half of the training. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in the conversion process. 

Thursday was just weekly planning. That normally happens. 

It rained on Friday! Alllllll day Friday. And there was lightning and Thunder. Which I haven't seen/heard since getting to Washington. And we were told that we weren't out "finding' enough (not really, but kind of) so we knocked doors for 4 hours in the rain and really the rest of the day we were in the rain too. I actually really enjoyed the first few hours in the rain. The thunder was exciting and we were able to get our rain jackets out. People weren't really very nice to us though and throughout the day I felt the rain soak into my bones and by 9 at night I was pretty tired of being outside in the rain. 

Saturday though was really good we worked and worked and worked and ended up getting to teach the Restoration to FOUR different people that we found while knocking doors and street contacting. There is something so satisfying about teaching full lessons to people who are willing to listen. A return missionary in our ward, Lindsey also took us out to lunch on that day, and she is so sweet and willing to help. 

Sunday was loooonnnggg as normal. After this area, 3 hours of church is going to feel like a vacation! 

Other fun things:

I changed my hair. Now my part is on my right side of my head instead of my left. You won't be able to recognize me when I get home! 

My foot tan that I have been working all summer on is faintly visible. 

And I got to say the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. 

Besides that everything else was pretty normal. 

For my spiritual thought I want to share a bit of a talk that I read this morning. It's by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and it's called Four Titles. 

He says:

"We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. he takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? We encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step, the child is becoming more like his parents. 

... compared to the perfection of God, we mortals are scarcely more than awkward, faltering toddlers. But our loving Heavenly Father wants us to become more like Him, and that should be our eternal goal too. God understands that we get there not in an instant but by taking one step at a time.

I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him. Even when we stumble, he urges us not to be discouraged--never to give up or flee our allotted field of service--but to take courage, find our faith, and keep trying."

I love this quote, and I've actually been looking for it for a while, I stumbled upon it today while looking through the Priesthood Session talks from May 2013, and remembered  that my Heavenly Father is a loving Father, who cares so much about every step that I take, He cares about every time I fall, and He watches and waits and hopes that I'll reach out to Him for help. I don't really need to say too much about this quote, President Uchtdorf says it well enough. Just remember that it's okay to stumble, just make sure you get back up and try again. :) 

Have a great week! I love you all! 

Love, Sister Warburton

Pictures!!

This was a fun tree that we found while we were knocking. 

Us posing by a tree

Sister Evans next to a Kiwi. 

Our phrase in Washington is: "And in the Wa-Tac We Baptize!" Now it's turned into one of the suggestions our phone gives us when we type the word "and".  I thought that was funny. 

Hello!

This week was the longest weeek EVER. I was trying to remember what I did this week and when I realized that Transfers were just this past Tuesday I was amazed.. because that feels like it was 3 weeks ago! 

We had a fun P day. We played Clue and spent time at the Stake Center since it was our last P-day as a zone. 2 of the missionaries went home on Tuesday so we said our goodbyes. 

Tuesday we got to go to transfer meeting even though we were both staying here in Olympia 1/5. It was a super long meeting because we had 21 missionaries leave and 24 new missionaries come in. So we had 24 welcome skits which were all pretty funny, and then we had 21 final testimonies, along with our typical songs in between and some closing remarks from Sister Blatter and President Blatter. It was a great meeting, I decided that I need to take better advantage of the time I have left because it does go by quickly and I don't want to waste any of the time. 

I only get 18 months to completely focus all my energy on serving the Lord and His children. After that I'll have to worry about school, and work, and all the other things that come with reality. So, I'm trying to totally forget about myself and work as hard as I can for the rest of my mission. 

The rest of the week nothing too interesting happened. At district meeting on Wednesday we got 2 new people that weren't in our district before. Now we have 3 missionaries from Utah, and 3 not from Utah. We have a little bit of a rivalry. But I'm kind of the odd person out because the two who aren't from Utah (that aren't me) are from New Zealand and Fiji. I'll probably be kicked out next and someone from Samoa will come in my place or something. 

Not much else happened this week. We did a lot of door knocking, a lot of visiting families, former investigators, potential investigators, service, etc. Typical missionary work. 

It's hard to put into words what being a missionary is. It's hard. 

Everyday we work from 6;30 to 10:30 with little breaks to eat. The only sitting we do is at church, when we are teaching, and when we are driving. We walk a lot, we're out in all kinds of weather (lately it's been hot and humid, but we did have one cold, wet day.) People shut the door in our faces, I am constantly realizing how inadequate I am and all of my flaws. I feel like every second of every day I am finding a new thing I am not good at. My feet hurt, I get bug bites, I'm tired, and I'm always stepping outside of my comfort zone. 

But it's SO worth it. Because I meet so many people and I realize that I have enough room in my heart to love one more person. Even when I think I can't possibly fit anymore people into my heart, I do. 

I feel my Savior by my side every step of the way. And when I take the time to listen I hear Him whisper to me how proud He is of me, for all the effort I put into His work. He tells me how much He loves me and is aware of every struggle I have. 

I get to watch people change, and find hope in the message that we share. 

I get to see myself change. Every flaw that I find in myself helps me to push past it even more to turn those weaknesses into strengths. 

I made sacrifices to be here, but I get SO much more out of my mission than I thought I would. When we give a little, God gives back a lot. 

One sister who went home last Tuesday talked about how on her mission she realized, like I talked about, how inadequate she is. Heavenly Father could do this work on His own. He doesn't need missionaries. But He's asked us to help. Even though we are young, and we don't know anything, and we are so imperfect, He's asked us to help. And He accepts and appreciates and loves every tiny offering we give him. 

It blows my mind that Heavenly Father accepts me and what I have to offer Him. And I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. 

I love you all and I hope you have a really great week! Know that you are loved! 

Love, Sister Warburton

Pictures!!

This is my district from last transfer. This is just a representation of our Battle of the Book of Mormon.

​And this is our zone. 

Our district pictures from Monday...haha!

Our district pictures from Monday...haha!!

Elder Nelson and I.

Elder Tani.

We got this big free thing of jelly beans... it's what Sister Evans eats for breakfast! 

This is what the elders did on Monday to get us back for the Book of Mormon... That was a week ago. We stilll have a pile of tissues in our car haha!

And then this is something I drew.. because I thought it was funny. 

6 Months!

Happy Monday! :)

I realized last week that my emails have become really boring... sorry. I've gotten lazy! I'll tryyyyy to make it less boring and to add in more interesting things. 

On Tuesday while we were knocking doors we met a lot of nice people that were willing to let us do service for them. (Which never happens! People neverrrrr take us up on our offer to serve them.) but we knocked into one lady who invited us in for dinner.  We had just eaten so we told her we couldn't, but we asked if we could do anything to help out, so she led us into her back yard through the biggest, coolest garden ever, and behind that was a HUGE area fulllllll of black berry bushes with pathways going through it, like a maze, and she asked if we could pick blackberries for her. and told us we could eat as many as we wanted. It was a blast!  Best service ever!!

Sister Evans doesn't like to stop to eat berries, but I do, so she doesn't stop and she just lets me run to catch up to her. She said while we were picking berries that it was God taking pity on me and giving me an opportunity to pick and eat berries. Then the next day our Zone leaders told us that they ALWAYS stop to eat berries and that it is their bonding time. Then I told them that Sister Evans doesn't stop to eat berries and they told her to stop and smell the flowers. So the next day she stopped with me and we both ate berries! It was beautiful. :) 

Something really funny that happened this week: 

Our district leader, Elder Nelson and Elder MacQueen, had a little Book of Mormon hanging from their car window, and we really wanted it so we asked where they got it and they wouldn't tell us, so Sister Evans took an opportunity to check if their car was unlocked (AND IT WAS!) so she took it. Like 2 weeks ago. We kept thinking they would notice that it wasn't hanging in their car but they never did so we thought we'd just give it to them at transfer meeting (tomorrow) but THEN last Tuesday evening we met our zone leader, Elder Tani, who was on exchanges with Elder MacQueen to give them a key to the church building, and Elder Tani noticed the Book of Mormon hanging from our car and said "Hey! Where did you get that?!" Because he had secretly wanted it but didn't want to steal it from the other elders' car. Well, when he said that E. MacQueen realized that it was THEIR Book of Mormon and he wanted it back, so we quickly rolled up our window and drove off of course. 

We knew they would want it back now that they realized it was gone so we came up with a plan to make a decoy to give to them to stall until transfers. So that night Sister Evans made a Book of Mormon that looked the same except on the cover it said "Oops Wrong One" in gold ink, and on the inside it said "Better luck next time! <3 The Sisters" hahahaha. At District meeting the next day they tried to convince us to give it to them so we got in our car, rolled down the window and threw the fake book out the window, while they went to grab it we drove off. hahaha. Then they texted us a few minutes later and said "We respect that." It was really funny. We found out though that our District leader has the spare key to our car so we aren't really sure what to do to keep them from getting us back. We still have the original tiny Book of Mormon though. 

The rest of this week was awfully hot but we survived. It's supposed to be cooler this week though. We had some good lessons, and two of our investigators, who are also on date to get baptized this month, came to church yesterday! So it was a good week! 

This morning I was reading the talk from this last conference, "Is It Still Wonderful to You?" by Gerald Causse. It's a great talk that you should all go back and read, but I loved how he said: 

"To marvel at the wonders of the gospel is a sign of faith. it is to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives and in everything around us. Our amazement also produces spiritual strength. it gives us the energy to remain anchored in our faith and to engage ourselves in the work of salvation."

In this talk he is reminding us to remember the way we felt when we first felt touched and comforted by the gospel of Jesus Christ to avoid apathy or becoming desensitized to the Spirit. 

"Do you remember the first time you read a verse of scripture and felt as if the Lord was speaking to you personally? Can you recall the first time you felt the sweet influence of the Holy Ghost come over you, perhaps before you even realized it was the Holy Ghost?"  

It's so important to remember that we should always be learning and striving to feel even closer to God. While here on earth we will never reach the top. There will ALWAYS be room for growth and improvement. I got a nice reminder on Sunday that I have not reached perfection. That even though I have grown a lot, I am not perfect and I need to be humble and always strive to move forward and upward. Because as soon as I think I am there, that's when pride will get in the way for me to keep moving. 

I don't know if that makes sense, but it made sense to me, and gave me the ability to admit that I need to humble myself and remember that though I am weak, I can be made strong through the gospel of Jesus Christ, but also to remember that though the Gospel has made me strong in some things, that doesn't mean I'm so strong I don't need my Saviors help ever again. We've got to always be learning, always be growing, always praying for help along the way. 

I hope that makes sense. 

Anyways, I also hope you all have a wonderful week! Oh! and Sister Evans and I are both staying in the same area. So no changes there! 

I love you! 

Love,

Sister Warburton

Also...something funny Kinsey wrote to Gary this week:  Even though I've been here for 6 weeks, only like 3 people know how to pronounce my last name. I"ve been called Sister Wharburton, Sister Warturton, Sister Wareburton, Sister Warbucks, Sister Waterburger Sister Warburger, Sister Waterboard, etc. People start to get really creative when they try to remember my name....

Pictures!!

Sometimes there are perfect fields with perfect lighting and you just happen to have your camera with you and the photographer in you has to get some nice pictures.

Sister Evans showing me a picture of a Kiwi.

Emu!

Emu!

Isn't he pretttyyyyy?

This is us working on our transfer picture.

This is our transfer picture because this is pretty much how this transfer has been....haha!

Pretty similar looking, huh?  We used some really old Spanish pass along cards and cut them to the right size to tape together and then put black paper on them.

The inside of the fake Book of Mormon we made.

I decided that since I'm less picky now, to buy one banana a week and to slowly try to get to where I can buy 2 bananas a week so I get more potassium.  So this was my one banana last week.  That's chocolate fudge on top of it...hahaha!  It was still gross, but I tolerated it.

This is Sister Evans when she stopped and smelled the roses.

This is us during weekly planning.  It was reallyy long and exhausting this week.