Taking on Tacoma: 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!