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.