Happpyyyyyyyy Mondayyy!

Hello everyone! How's it going??

Things are going great here in the sticks! 

Some things that happened this week:

-On Tuesday I decided to ask Heavenly Father "What lack I yet?" Like the talk from General Conference, and the first thing that popped into my head was "Patience" and I thought "What? I'm already patient! That can't be what I need to work on..." But I went on with my prayer and forgot about it. Well. Heavenly Father has a sense of humor because Tuesday realllyyyy tried my patience. We had two lessons planned with some of our not very committed investigators and they both cancelled one after the other. Then a bunch of dogs came running at us throughout the day to scare us off of property that wasn't even theirs! and THEN while I'd be steaming at these dumb dogs that keep us from sharing the gospel, my companion who just LOVES dogs would say something like "I think that was a rottweiler, one of those dogs that is always misunderstood."
-_- 

Then nobody was all that interested all day, and we did a LOT of finding all day. And when I got home I tried to turn on a light and in the process I bent my nail all the way back. Which reallyy hurt. So, it turned out, that that day I really needed to work on my patience. and I'm sure Heavenly Father was sitting back saying "I told you so." 

- We finally got our car all fixed on Wednesday. We had to sit in the Ford dealership for a few hours because we weren't really sure how long it would take, but we were able to enjoy the song Let it Go that came on. I hadn't heard it in 8 months! haha. 

- We went up to one house that had literally about 15 Yorkies. It was so weird. There were 3 dogs in the yard when we got there, and then out a little doggy door came out another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another. It reminded me of 101 Dalmatians.  It was crazy. 

- On Thursday I exercised my missionary skills and stepped outside of my comfort zone and pulled the car over right when I saw this girl sitting on the side of the road who looked like she was crying. I always feel guilty when I drive past people in need, but I've gotten better at taking time to talk to people in need. Anyways, so I pulled up and my companion didn't know what I was doing, but I just got out of the car and went over to this girl who was crying. She was probably about my age, and I guess her boyfriend had kicked her out of the car. She said they just moved here so she doesn't know anybody and she was hoping her boyfriend would come back, but I think she'd been there for a while. We can't give people rides, but I felt so bad that I couldn't do much so I gave her our phone number and invited her to come to church where there are lots of people who just adopt grandkids. and would make sure she was taken care of, and then we figured out where she lives and then left. She wasn't there about half an hour later, but we will probably go by her house sometime this week to see if she's alright. I probably could have done more, because I still felt guilty when I left, but hopefully we can get another chance to help her. 

- It has started to get reallyyy rainy and dark here. And I'm not looking forward to the time change next Sunday that will make it even darker. People worry about us, but not enough to invite us in to share our message. But we've had a few people make us promise to buy pepper spray. (I probably won't.) I have a lot of faith that as I do what I'm supposed to and continue to diligently move forward, one step at a time, that God will protect me. I know that there are angels around me watching over me, so I'll just continue to share the gospel. 

- Last thing. I may have mentioned when I first got here to Winlock that there is a couch on our back porch with a hornet or yellow jacket's nest in it. Well, I finally got the courage to go onto our back porch this week to pick up the measuring cup that was back there. And then yesterday a member mentioned it and gave us some bee killer to use if we had the courage to spray the nest... So... last night I got the courage to go against what used to be one of my biggest fears! I wrapped a scarf around my head, put on some gloves, made sure every inch of my skin was covered, walked outside and shined the flashlight on this ENORMOUS hole in the back of the couch and SPRAYED then I ran and ran and ran and had a heart attack and died! Just kidding. I didn't die. I didn't even get stung. But the hornets are ANGRY and have been trying to sting us through the sliding glass door all night. I don't think there was enough spray to kill them all so I'll have to try again in a week or so. 

You won't even recognize me when I get home. I'll be totally fearless! 

So, that was our week. 

I finished the Book of Mormon this week so I'll just share a scripture from Moroni 10. The whole chapter is good, so I'd encourage you to read it. But verses 6 and 7 say:

"And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever." 

Jesus Christ is real and so is God. Do what you can to know that for yourselves. There is power in that knowledge. 

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

Lots of love, 

Sister Warburton

Pictures:

The hive.  The hole is about the size of a softball.

Prepared to go to battle.

After I sprayed the hive.

A kitten that followed us about a mile.

Happy Monday!

Hello Everyone! 

We had a good week this week! :)

Tuesday we got to do some "service." We helped a member pick apples off her tree, and that was a blast. The weather was so nice and I got to get on the ladder to get the high apples and it was just great! Then we sat outside and cut them up so she could turn them into applesauce. We also helped her make applesauce, and I tried it (I don't eat applesauce, I have no memories of myself eating applesauce ever, but I'm sure I ate some when I was little) and it was delicious! Wow! I have been missing out! I probably only like fresh homemade applesauce though... we'll see. She gave us a 2 lb block of Tillamook Cheese to thank us so that was a blessing. 

That night we took a Young Women knocking with us and the houses were pretty spread out and only on one side of the road. So we didn't realize how far we went until 7, when we had to walk back to our car and it took us an ENTIRE HOUR. It was really dark and we didn't have a flashlight and we kept hearing creepy noises in the forest, but we made it back safely. It's amazing what the dark does to a person's imagination. We went back the next day to see how far we walked and one way we walked 2.5 miles. So total we walked probably around 6 miles (if you count the looooonnnnnngggg driveways, and I do.) 

Oh, backtrack, on Monday night, the same Young Women knocked with us and we were invited to stay for Family Home Evening with her family. We told them we couldn't eat dinner with them because we aren't supposed to eat dinner after 6 pm, and then her dad, Brother Pope, told us we needed to break the rules a little, that I was too strict. Then he told Sister Philippi that she didn't need to listen to me and that it was okay to break the rules. He's a funny guy, he was just messing with me, but I'm stubborn and he can't convince me to break any rules. So we stayed for Family Home Evening and they gave us each a snickers bar. (Because we CAN have dessert with members.) I took a bite and then I noticed that my snickers bar said something besides "snickers" so I looked at it and it said "Rebellious" and I just burst out laughing and so did the rest of the family. I think you probably had to be there to understand how funny it was, but it was pretty priceless. 

Thursday was GREAT. We woke up at 5 so that we could drive to Tacoma. We had to be in our seats for a mission conference by 7:40. We had a member of the Quorum of the Seventy come speak to us, Elder Robert C. Gay. He was a great speaker. He talked to us a lot about what the first vision has to do with the Atonement and how we can be better teachers as we teach to peoples needs, using the Spirit. He talked about the first vision and how the gospel is a gospel of deliverance from darkness and the gospel brings light and peace and hope, and how we need to help people see that. 

Then he had a Q&A session and I was brave enough to ask a question, and he looked directly at me the whole time he answered it. So, I had a General Authority talk directly to me to answer a question that I had. That doesn't happen too often. :) I was able to go up to him afterward and talk to and thank him for coming.

On Saturday I turned twenty and a half! Pretty big milestone! ;) Nothing too exciting happened on this half birthday. Last year on this day I got my mission call, so I guess that was the end of my exciting half birthday streak. 

This week we visited a lot of part member families who were really receptive to us, and let us come into their homes so we could talk to them. I really think that pretty soon we're going to be able to help a lot of these families progress in the gospel so that they can have stronger, happier families, and Christ-centered homes. This transfer hasn't been as successful as I was hoping it would be, but I think next transfer after all of our efforts will bring more success. 

I'm just going to close with a scripture that I read this week (Ether 12:4) that brought me some peace:

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith , maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. 

If we believe in God than we can definitely, without a question, hope for a better world. and not just "Well....I hope this happens" but real hope, which is CONFIDENCE that God will fulfill His promises to you. This hope will be an anchor to your soul, it will hold you down so you aren't swept away with the storms of life. It will help you to be sure and steadfast. It will bring you home to God. 

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

Love, Sister Warburton

Pictures:

Aren't we just too cute? 

This was our first attempt at a jumping picture and Sister Philippi has never taken a jumping picture before *gasp* so it turned out pretty hilarious. I was laughing really hard.

Happy Columbus Day! (I just found that out!)

Hello everyone! 

I hope everything is going well! 

This week was a good week! I can hardly remember anything that happened but I do remember a few things! 

We had a zone activity on Monday. We went bowling, and I was reminded of how horrible I am at bowling. I got a TON of gutter balls. I did get one strike though, so I'm almost a pro. 

On Wednesday we walked out to our car to find that somebody had thrown a rotten banana at our car. It was also raining so most of it was on the ground, but it looked pretty gross. It's nice to know that we have some really mature people in our neighborhood. :) 

Also on Wednesday we met some guy that didn't speak any English.... I really wanted to tell him about the Spanish missionaries... so I tried to tell him with the tiny amount of Spanish that I know... but I think I probably just sounded like a lunatic. The sad part is that the night before my district leader was telling me how to say "We are the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" in Spanish. and I didn't pay attention. So when I needed to use it I wasn't able to... So, I learned that night how to actually say it and I paid better attention. 

On Thursday, we took our car to Ford to get part of it fixed, so we were carless for a few hours, but that's okay because we were just weekly planning. 

The member that took us to pick it up also made dinner for us. The Giffords are awesome! They're one of the couples that has adopted us to make sure we are well taken care of. They made pumpkin pie for dessert and it was Sister Philippi's first time having the courage to try it. She loved it! haha, maybe this is why I'm training her. Because we are both picky but have the potential not to be! :)  After that we knocked a veryyyyy long road in the middle of no where with about 7 houses total on it. 

On Friday we did some service and helped organize a kitchen and make some shelves. I used a drill for the first time. Friday night we had a ward social that the Elders before we got here volunteered us to be in charge of. That was really thoughtful of them. (ha!) We decided to have a "Meet the Mormons" Movie night. We set up all the relief society room chairs in the gym in front of the stage. They have a big screen that pulls down from the ceiling and some curtains so it looked like an actual movie theater. We also got some tables down from the stage and set them up, and brought the couches in from the foyers. (Just the two of us did all this!) Sadly word was not spread around very well and we had a whopping 11 members show up to watch the movie. It was fun though, we ended up all being able to fit on the couches and the chairs went unused, and the movie was good and we had some popcorn... and the men helped us clean everything up afterwards. 

Saturday we met some interesting people during knocking. Both of them prayed for our souls after telling us all the things that we believe that are wrong. 

The second guy, was really just spewing things out of his mouth that he's heard his preacher say, because I've heard all of these arguments before, and they're dumb. Like "You believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers! That's just wrong!" and then when we say, "well, we believe that we are ALL children of God, don't you? So wouldn't that make us all brothers and sisters to Jesus?" he'll just skip to his next argument. Also, he told us that we REALLY need to make sure that we are baptized of the water AND of the spirit. He said that like a million times and we were like "okay, we'll make sure." Then we said a prayer with him, and he said "Let me say a prayer for you two now." And he started praying, and started speaking gibberish and when he finished he said "See. When you are baptized of the spirit you will be able to speak in tongues." 

"Oh! Wow you just proved to me that you can say random words that aren't English!" (sorry sarcasm) 

Anyways when we tried to go he told us to be careful. To watch out for the Muslims who shoot Christians like us. And he told us that Obama is the number one Anti Christ. 

haha I love people. 

And then finally, yesterday was Sunday and we gave talks in Sacrament meeting. I think it's the best talk I've ever given. It's cool to see the way I've changed since leaving home, because I got up to give my talk and I didn't have any fear. My legs weren't shaking, and I was able to talk the way I would talk to just one person. I talked about the Atonement and the Savior and how it helped me decide to come on a mission, and how it has helped me since I've come on my mission, and then of course I had to throw in a nice chunk about member missionary work and how the Atonement can help them share the gospel with their friends. :) 

One thing that I spoke about in my talk was the meaning of the word disciple. A disciple is one who believes in and helps disseminate the teachings of a master. The Bible dictionary says that disciples are all the followers of Christ (I'm talking about a disciple versus the Disciples of Christ).   The word disseminate means to scatter widely or to spread abroad.  So, when we agreed to get baptized, and took the name of Jesus Christ upon us. We decided to be disciples of Jesus Christ. To be witnesses of Him. And not only did we decide to believe in what He teaches and to believe in Him, we also agreed to spread His teachings. to "scatter widely" the teachings of Jesus Christ so the whole world could know. :) 

So, make sure that you are taking your discipleship seriously. It's the best calling in the world! Go spread the truths that you are blessed to know! :) 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Sister Warburton

Pictures!

The sunset.

And a picture of S. Philippi taking a picture of the sunset. :)

Some friends that we met while knocking. 

A slug.

The banana that was thrown at our car. 

Our small turnout for the Ward social.... 

I can't get this to turn the right way....sorry.

The day it rained a lot and we decided to street contact. 

OCTOBER!

Can you believe it's already October? I entered the MTC EIGHT months ago. Wow! 

Nothing really crazy happened this week. 

We were able to teach Renee the 1st lesson. She's the lady we met on Park day who has been reading the Book of Mormon with her friend. She's been living here in Winlock about a year, and has been going to the Lutheran church, but she doesn't really agree with their teachings, and she loves the Book of Mormon. I am AMAZED that she hasn't talked to missionaries or gone to church, but when we met with her she believed everything and agreed with everything. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! She will be baptized in the next few weeks! Maybe even on my half birthday! :D 

We knocked a lot of more boonies roads this week. And I was able to catch a snake! :D 

I also had to wait for a train, and I started counting how many train cars there were and I got to ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR TRAIN CARS! That blew my mind! It was going kind of slow, so I was thinking there were a lot of cars, but I didn't even know trains could pull 134 cars. Also it was the giant metal boxes full of stuff and they were stacked up so it was like a two story train and 134 so 260!!!!! boxes. (I've been in a small town with not much exciting news for too long now.) 

And then this weekend was General Conference which was awesome! I LOVE Conference. (If you had told 15 year old Kinsey that she would love Conference 5 years from now, she probably would have rolled her eyes and said "no way.") 

I'm actually sad that there are ONLY 6 sessions of conference. I wish we could hear more. 

My favorite talks were Elder Russell M. Nelsons, Elder Hollands, and President Monsons. And President Uchtdorf's talk was really good too about making things simpler. 

Besides that my week wasn't really all that exciting. I wasn't pulled over, I didn't get shot, I don't remember anyone yelling at us, I do have a picture of the snake I caught though. So, I'll include that. 

I was reading this morning about virtue in PMG (Preach My Gospel), and it was talking about how we should memorize hymns and scriptures so that our mind can always be occupied with good things, which reminded me of the guy that talked about "ponderizing" at conference yesterday. I decided this week to "ponderize" 1 Nephi 17:50-51 but I also decided to pick a song that I'd like to memorize. 

So, I decided to memorize the 3rd verse of "I'll go where you want me to go" which is:

"There's surely somewhere a lowly place 

In earths harvest fields so wide 

Where I may labor through life's short day 

For Jesus the Crucified. 

So trusting my all to thy tender care, 

and knowing thou lovest me, 

I'll do thy will with a heart sincere. 

I'll be what you want me to be."

I've never really paid attention to the lyrics before, but I like that this verse talks about laboring in earth's fields for Jesus. We use laboring in the fields as a symbol of missionary work all the time. Those who are ready to be gathered in to the fold of Christ, just like gathering in the harvest. 

And then it talks about how we put our trust in Him who loves us more perfectly and more completely than any human being, and doing what He asks us to do. Because as we trust Him, we know that what He asks us to do, will end up being better than what we think we want to do. Because He does love us. 

So, I'm here to labor in His fields, to bring home His children, because I trust that this is what He wants me to do, and I agreed to be what He wants me to be. 

Well, I love you all! and I miss you! <3

Lots of love,

Sister Warburton

People in Washington leave their cars EVERYWHERE. I have seen so many old cars with blackberry thorns growing over and through them. I figured I needed at least one picture of an old car in the middle of the forest from my mission. 

The birthday letter I sent Jared. 

She was so excited to send Jared a birthday letter because she was hoping to embarrass him. ;)