Taking on Tacoma: The Final Stretch

Well, Friends and Family, this is it.

I am down to my last transfer of my mission. Crazy stuff!

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think on my mission I've lost my ability to be emotional or something because I'm not really sad, and I'm not really excited. I think I'm happy to be here right now, and I think when August 16th rolls around I'll be happy to be flying home to see my family. And then a few weeks later we'll see how I'm feeling about going to school, because I imagine that that's just going to be stressful and weird, but also fun. I don't know.

I've gotten pretty good at being a missionary. Scriptures pop into my mind when I'm talking to people, about the gospel, and just in regular everyday conversations (so please don't make fun of me when I come home and reference scriptures when I'm telling you about going to the grocery store or something.) I've gotten way good at knocking on doors. It's a talent I'll probably have for the rest of my life. You'll always know if it's Sister Warburton knocking on your door! I'm also really good at randomly going up to people and saying things like "Hey! Wanna come to church with us this Sunday?" or "Hey! We're holding a baptismal service on July 17th, would you like to prepare to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized on that day?" or "Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Would you like to strengthen that faith in Him?" and other things like that. (Talking to normal people about normal topics is not something that has improved.)

So, you can probably imagine that I'm a bit worried about being a normal person again because I don't know if I remember, or ever knew, how to be normal.

But, I don't have to worry about that yet! Phew!

This week we continued to do lots and lots of finding of people to teach. We knocked on doors. We walked through parking lots and bugged people. We took advantage of people that were waiting for buses (so they couldn't leave until the bus came!) We taught a few lessons to Debra and Maddy. We were dropped by Maddy. But Debra is still holding out strong! (Please pray for her. (: ) We taught a scripture study class and focused on 2 Nephi 31. I started My Plan which is the program the church has put out for missionaries that are in their last transfer. It helps us to set goals for life after the mission so that we can continue to grow and progress. We went to a ward barbeque and ate lots of unhealthy food. Then we watched the primary kids have a "bike parade" (they all decorated their bikes for the 4th of July and then took off riding around and around the parking lot.) it resulted in a few kind of comical crashes, and a few tears.

Saturday was my last transfer call day. And we didn't get a call because we stopped at the office where the AP's were calling everyone so we could stock up on Book of Mormons (we were determined to pass out TONS this weekend) so they told us there.

I will be staying here in Soundview and getting Sister Skousen as my last companion! :) And Sister Glauser will be heading off to Parkland in Lakewood.

While at the office I pretended to be an AP and called some sisters to give them their transfer call. That was fun. I've been telling President my whole mission that he should make me AP, so I guess this is the closest I'll get to it!

I'll just share one last experience from this week that was kind of humbling. Sister Glauser and I stopped at Walgreens for a quick trip to grab some transfer photos so we could hand them out to members on Sunday. While we were waiting for them to print, some lady came up to us and told us that we were her random act of kindness for the night. She told us to grab a card and fill it up with anything that we need and she'd pay for it. It made us both feel very uncomfortable because we aren't used to being served, our job is to serve everyone else! So, we grabbed like 3 things, and then she saw us and asked us where our cart was. Then she made us grab a cart, and she went aisle by aisle with us telling us what to grab. It was SO nice and SO Christlike of her. We were blown away by how much she was giving to help two random girls that she'd never met before. She said that God told her that she needed to do this for us. And we definitely didn't deserve it, but she said she has a 21 year old daughter, and if she was away on a mission somewhere, she'd want someone to do this for her too. We didn't know what to do, but we left feeling very humbled and loved. One day I'll do that for someone else. :)

Oh, also, a very less active member of the ward that we visited when I first got here who doesn't believe that God loves her, and, in fact, thinks He has abandoned her, came to church yesterday. And that was so exciting to see. It was probably more exciting than having investigators at church. It reminds me of the song:

Dear to the heart of the shepherd, dear are the sheep of his fold;

Dear is the love that he gives them, dearer than silver or gold.

Dear to the heart of the shepherd, dear are his other lost sheep;

Over the mountains he follows, over the waters so deep.

Out in the desert they wander, hungry and helpless and cold,

Off to the rescue he hastens, bringing them back to the fold.

Dear to the heart of the shepherd, dear are the lambs of his fold;

Some from the pastures are straying, hungry and helpless and cold.

See, the Good Shepherd is seeking, seeking the lambs that are lost,

Bringing them in with rejoicing, saved at such infinite cost.

Dear to the heart of the shepherd, dear are the ninety and nine;

Dear are the sheep that have wandered out in the desert to pine.