Phew!

Well, I have a few minutes to really quickly tell you all the highlights of my week! So, here goes! 

On Monday, I got to have lunch with my family! That was weird. I guess they just couldn't wait the last month and a half for me to get home. (I am pretty hard to live without I suppose.)

Then we had a super fun zone activity. (They're always fun if the elders listen to us ;) ) We had another flour fight at the park. Afterwards all the elders took the nylons and put them over their heads and that just made the zone activity a hundred times better. 

On Tuesday we drove to Minter Creek in the morning to study with Sister Philippi and Sister Redenbaugh. It was Sister Redenbaugh's birthday so we brought her brownies. During studies, Sister Glauser and I pretended to go to the bathroom (one at a time) and filled the bathroom with balloons. They weren't very cooperative balloons though, so no matter how quiet I tried to be, it didn't work. And then finally one of them popped, so I knew I wasn't being sly enough. It was funny.

Then we knocked all day and had a scripture study class at night. 

In our decompression time I attempted to cornrow Sister Glauser's hair. She lost a bet and had to wear it like that to district meeting the next day. So, on Wednesday morning we just went to the office and helped out there so we wouldn't look too weird out in public. 

We did service for a non-member in the afternoon and helped her take dead flowers off her rhododendron bush. That was fun. 

On Thursday we did MORE service. This time as a zone at the Tacoma Dome. Our Stake President wanted us to help set up for some banquet thing, so we blew up balloons, set up tables, put programs on the tables, hung up banners, and all sorts of other stuff. That was fun. Now I can say I've been inside the Tacoma Dome. 

On Thursday night we needed to burn something because it was Sister Glauser's one year mark. We tried to find someone that had a fire pit, but didn't find anyone so we just decided to use a big spaghetti pot on the basketball court. (We live with the Stake President and his family. We're in a little house by their house, and next to us there is a basketball court that they own) So, we got a skirt and we put it in the pot and  had a bunch of glasses of water next to us just in case, and we lit the skirt on fire. It was pretty contained, but it got kinda big. (Also, it was about 10:15, so we weren't gonna be up past our curfew) But then, a car drove up, and then TURNED INTO THE DRIVEWAY. And we were like "Oh no..." And it was the Stake President! Coming home from the temple! Haha! So, he rolled down his window and asked "Who is that?" And we said "Uh... the sister missionaries....." haha...we were caught. And then we explained that it was her year mark and that we needed to burn something. And he said "You could have just used our fire pit!" haha we should have asked the people we live with! But then he wasn't mad, and he said "We'll go get you some stuff to make s'mores!" And then Sister Garlock brought us some marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, and sparklers to celebrate even more. How nice is that?! It was really fun, and a funny experience. 

On Friday, a lady invited us to go have lunch at this place called Boathouse 19 and it was super duper good food, but holy cow, it was filling. Walking out we both felt SO sick because we had food trying to come back out of us. There just wasn't enough room in our stomachs.   That made it really difficult the rest of the day to work, but we made it through. 

On Saturday we met with the bishop in the morning and still after all our our knocking and street contacting all week we didn't have any investigators. So, we were DETERMINED to find people to teach. So we knocked ALL DAY LONG (almost) and we found tons of people that were definitely in the right place at the right time and it was so cool! I felt like a real missionary! Chris and Christina are a cute couple that have 2 daughters (an adorable and very friendly 4 year old, and a brand new 2 week old.) They said when we were leaving that they felt enlightened and really want to learn more. We also met Crystal who has 3 kids, two with special needs, and she wants to learn more also. We got to teach her the Restoration. Throughout the rest of the day we just kept meeting people that have been looking for a church or who want to learn more about Jesus Christ or who have been wanting to be baptized. It was really cool. Just a lot of miracles. 

None of them came to church, but we didn't expect most of them to. They said that we could count on them next week though. So, next week we'll have a lot of miracles to report on. :) 

Sunday went the same way, we worked really hard and continued to find people who have been wanting to learn. It was really cool.

I am out of time, so I've got to go. But I hope ya'll have a wonderful week! Pray for missionary opportunities, it is the best thing in the world to be a missionary and bear your testimony of Jesus Christ to someone! It's the best! 

I love ya'll! 

Love, Sister Warburton

Whatta Week!

This has been probably one of the craziest weeks of my mission! TONS of out of the ordinary things went on this week! 

On Tuesday we went to Zion's Camp, which was a lot of fun! Instead of doing the ropes courses, Sister Glauser and I got to be in charge of them. And that's fun. I like bossing people around. ;) (just kidding.)

I was actually kind of worried about having a whole group of 20 sisters and how some of the ropes course would go. But our group did awesome! I was really impressed! With getting everyone over the 10 foot wall they worked super well together to make sure everyone got up safely and quickly. It was so cool to see how united they all were! (Normally the sister group on the wall takes FOREVER and is really an emotional day because they struggle with the wall.) But not this group! 

Then the one where you have two platforms with a rope swing in the middle was also a cool experience. Normally you have 10-14 people on the platform, but we had to fit 20! And since we were in charge we could kind of make them do whatever we wanted. So, we got there and said "Okay, everyone on the platform!" And they were like "What!? All of us?" But then they just went and did it! It was definitely a struggle. They had people on each others shoulders and were holding on for dear life! But they got everyone to fit. But, then we decided it would still be too hard, so we "killed' about 5 sisters and made them get off. (I'm making this sound really harsh, but it wasn't actually that bad, it was fun.) Then they worked really hard to help each other get to the other platform. It was just so cool to see how much each sister loved the other and how hard they tried to help everyone. It wasn't just every man (woman) for herself, but it was a team effort, and they understood that. Then we did a trust fall, and President even said it was the best group of sisters that he's ever seen because they were so united, and not one person fell. Even when they wouldn't fall the way they were supposed to. We didn't let anyone fall. He trusted us so much that HE LET US CATCH HIM. Crazy stuff! But President did the trust fall with the SISTERS! 

The rest of the day at Zion's camp was really fun also. We had lunch, took group pictures, had zone conference, and then we went to a camp fire and burned our "weapons of war" (something that we each decided to give up to be better missionaries). We then heard the testimonies of the missionaries going home in few weeks, and then sang Amazing Grace together. Our mission song. 

It was a really fun day! It's a little surreal because it was my last zone conference. But that's okay, it was a good last one to have. :) 

After Zion's camp we got permission to go see some of our former investigators in Belfair. So, I saw Ashley! She's not interested, but I'm determined so, I told the Elders to go over again when they get a chance. :) 

On Wednesday, we did a LOT of finding. Door knocking and street contacting. 

On Thursday we sat outside in the sun (the one sunny day we had this week) to weekly plan and got the weirdest sunburns ever. The inside of my knee was burned to a crisp, and so was my other leg. Poor Sister Glauser's legs must not have seen the sun in a while and were FRIED. We've been using a lot of aloe. 

On Friday the sun went away again. But we had a good exchange with Sister Bolos and Sister Powell. Once again all of our plans fell through, so we ended up knocking and street contacting all day. 

On Saturday we also had no lessons planned so our plan was to knock ALL day long. One of the sisters in Stadium wasn't feeling well, so she asked us to come and stay with her, while one of us went out and worked with her companion. So, I went and knocked in that area with a sister. That was fun, until this giant, dark cloud came out of nowhere and then thunder came and then LIGHTNING. Then hail. Then crazy wind. Then giant raindrops. Then sirens. It was crazy. Then our zone leaders called and told us that President wanted all of us inside until the storms passed. It was so bizarre! WE never have thunder OR lightning here. I've only seen lightning one other time my whole mission! It's kind of exciting! 

So, we went back to the apartment and I organized their area book for them. That was kind of fun. 

On Sunday, early church meetings were cancelled for Fathers day, so we headed over to church like any other Sunday... when we got there we were standing in the foyer when the bishops wife walked past and said "Hey Sisters, there's an investigator in the chapel." Then she kept walking, and I was confused because I didn't think we had any investigators coming to church, but we weren't going to pass up that opportunity! So we headed straight to the chapel before the Elders could get the investigator. ;) And then to my HUGE surprise, I saw my GRANDPARENTS! That was the absolute last thing I was expecting at church! It was really exciting, but also a little bit weird, because when you go on a mission, you just accept the fact that you won't see any of your family for 18 months, and that's just how it is. But it was a fun surprise. Papa made sure everyone in my ward knew who I was by the end. So, I'm a little worried to ask any of the priesthood holders what he talked about during priesthood... The Hales ALSO showed up and so after Sacrament meeting I was just standing there with almost all of my extended family there. It was the most bizarre thing. 

So, that was our week. Lot's of crazy things happened.

Zions camp, lightning and thunder, crazy sunburns, strange visitors at church claiming to be investigators, and then we finished off by giving President Blatter a giant Father's Day card signed by all the missionaries! It was a great week! But also a strange one! 

I don't have enough time to add an uplifting spiritual thought. So, I'll just find something really fast on lds.org. 

Don't forget to love people this week! 

Love ya'll! 

Sister Warburton

These are pictures of Zion's camp

My weird sunburn

The sunset I think

And some other random things...?

(I already forgot what pictures I put, so I guess it'll just be a surprise.)

A bunch of random stuff and then some chocolate that my friend Bette sent me from Belgiam! :) It was delicious! 

"Tacoma...You'll Like It Here!"

We did a lot of stuff. And we are pooped! 

We had exchanges on Tuesday. That was fun. I spent the day with Sister Baldwin, and I was kind of a mess because.... I've only been here for a week and I have no idea where I am ever. But it was fun. It started off nice because we got into their car and realized that we had a whopping zero miles of gas left in the car. haha. But when the cars say zero, they actually mean a few more than that. But maybe not. Maybe I just have so much faith that the car was running on NO gas for a few miles so we could make it to a gas station. :) Life as a missionary is always an adventure. We also had a really great time knocking doors and we met this really awesome kid named Omry who wants to get baptized. Unfortunately, I found out the next day that I was actually knocking in the Highland Hills ward the whole two hours. So, we handed him over to the AP's. Sad day. 

On Wednesday we had "Exchange-overs" I think I talked about those before. But it's like a hangover after an exchange. We were tired. 

We also had district meeting. Nothing too exciting happened at that. We couldn't help but laugh during stewardships though because since all 6 of the missionaries in our district are also the 6 missionaries in our ward, the 4 elders (in a fourpanionship) all stood up to tell the two of us about their investigators. It was kind of comical. I don't know if I can explain how it was funny, it just was. 

We had a really great lesson with a 14 year old named Doug. He's on date to be baptized on June 26th. We're really excited for him. Pray for him if you can! 

On Thursday, all of us missionaries had dinner at the Millers. They are an awesome awesome family in the ward. They have 7 kids and 3 of them go out knocking with the missionaries multiple times a week. They all want to serve missions, and one of them already has his mission call to the Columbus Ohio mission. They're a fun family. We like them. 

That night we were still pretty tired, so we were struggling to keep working because all of our plans fell through. (story of my life) But we kept working and we kept trying, and we got to see a few miracles because of it. It's cool as a missionary to recognize that we have absolutely nothing to do with the success we have, we're just blessed enough to have the opportunity to watch God work and be a part of it. I love it. :) 

On Friday we got to go to BELFAIR!!!! Wooohooo! The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders all went to Zion's Camp to do the ropes course and learn how to do it so that next week we can show all the other missionaries how to do it. It was a lot of fun. I'm really sore. I got bruises all over the place from climbing the 10 foot wall, but it was a blast. Afterwards we just made a quick stop to visit Sister Tidwell, because we just can't drive past her house on the way home and NOT stop to say hello. We LOVE Sister Tidwell. :) 

We also went knocking with Sister Redenbaugh and Sister Philippi because they are in the same stake as Belfair and they are in our "stewardship" Also, we remember being in Belfair and never seeing other sister missionaries ever, so we thought we would knock with them. That was fun. 

On Saturday we were even MORE wiped. We had to meet with the bishop at 6:30 am. All of our lessons and plans fell through on Saturday also. So, we were out finding and testifying alll day long. (Which is great! But we were reallyyyyy tired.) 

On Sunday, we had another 6:30 am meeting with our Ward Mission Leader. (I don't know why they like meeting so early here! But it makes for some really really reallyyyyy tired missionaries!) We had dinner with Elder and Sister Buist, knocked doors with a young women, Rachel, and then met Doug's mom who is really awesome! She's way excited for Doug to be learning about God, so that makes things easier for us! Woo hoo! 

We've been focusing on our recitations (D&C 4, The Standard of Truth, mission motto, 3 Nephi :13, and the missionary purpose) this week and how they help us to be better missionaries. 

I thought I'd just share the standard of truth with you because it's pretty powerful:

"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing;...the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

This is God's work. No one can stop it. I'm so so so grateful that I get to have a part in helping my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, in this work. :) 

I love ya'll! Have a great week! 

Love, Sister Warburton