Score!
WOW. So embarrassing.
I'm so sorry I already sent the beginning part of my email. That's so embarrassing.
IF you get a chance go watch that video. Now, here's my actual email.
First of all, I just want to let you know how much I love all of you. And miss you and I'm grateful for your emails and encouragement and support and prayers.
I find myself thinking of a lot of you throughout the week and wondering what you're up to, and how you're doing and I wish I had enough time to email each of you individually, but if I did that I'd probably have arthritis. And my hands would fall off. So just imagine that this email is personally for you. :)
There were a lot of things that happened this week. I feel like last Monday was a year ago.
We went to the beach on Monday which was really fun! We prayed and prayed and prayed that the sun would be out so we could go. And even though it was POURING in the morning, and on the way there, the sun came out the whole time we were there and then started up again when we left! :D It doesn't really have anything to do with missionary work, but it does go to show that God loves His children and has a desire to see them smile and answer their prayers if they ask. :)
We took pictures to make the coolest sign for President Blatter by spelling out "WE <3 YOU PRESIDENT BLATTER!" With our bodies. It was pretty fun. We probably looked ridiculous. Oh well.
On Tuesday we had an exchange with the Winlock sisters. (By the way, fun fact, Centralia stake was reorganized yesterday and the Winlock ward and Toledo ward were combined and renamed the Mountainview ward. And the bishopbric was reorganized and everything. Winlock will never be the same.) Anyways, it was a really fun exchange. I spent the day with Sister Stirling and Sister Rosenvall and Sister Bird were together. Sister S. and I visited a few less actives that are offended and don't want to come to church anymore. Then we went to the church and picked up a pie that was left for us. And then we met the sisters and carpooled to dinner. We went knocking on a street that had nice houses and I wasn't expecting much, because honestly nice neighborhoods are normally brutal for knocking. But the people we met were SUPER nice all night long. It was awesome! Then we spent the night visiting other people.
We stayed up a little slight bit past 10:30... taking some REALLY awful pictures. I'll send a really embarassing example. Which will be my reminder to never ever get plastic surgery.
Is that embarrassing or what? I didn't even know my face could do that!
That's why we are supposed to get to bed at 10:30.
On Wednesday we had district meeting and it was so nice that we sat outside! It was in the 70's! We take advantage of anytime the sun comes out! Because you never know when it'll go away!
On Thursday the sun was even MORE out! It was soooooo nice! We were on cloud 9! We had a waffle breakfast with some members and then we came home and weekly planned on a blanket outside. We were so excited about the weather that we picked a super long road we've been wanting to knock and knocked from 5 all the way until 8:20 when it was STILL light outside! It was 85 degrees and we walked 5 miles! We probably talked to more cows than we did humans, but it was way fun!
On Friday we got up extra early and went to Tacoma for Missionary Leadership Council. We stopped at the mission office before so we could hang up our pictures for President Blatter. Then we had our meeting. For some reason missionary meetings make my stomach hurt. I'm not sure why, but they do. When I hit my year mark, I made some 6 month left goals and one of them was to be comfortable with everyone right away. And it's sad, but I'm comfortable talking to complete strangers, I'm comfortable talking to members in any ward, I'm comfortable talking to grumpy old men, hobos, people at the bus stop, and even people in parking lots that are annoyed to see me. BUT I am STILL not comfortable talking to missionaries. I just can't figure that one out. So, my goal by the end of my mission is to be able to socialize at missionary meetings. Right now it's just a lot easier for me to clean up while everyone else talks. So sad.
On the way home from Tacoma we decided to knock doors in Shelton with the Shelton 1st sisters. We never get to drop by our sisters, so we took advantage of our long drive back from Tacoma to do that. That was fun. I think it was needed for all of us.
Saturday was a typical missionary day.
And so was Sunday.
So, there you go! That was my week!
At MLC we talked about increasing our faith, and President Blatter asked us to study a talk called "Lord, Increase Our Faith" by John K. Carmack in preparation for the meeting. I really liked it and one part that really stuck out to me is this:
"if we want increased faith, such as Enoch gained, we must give ourselves over completely to our Lord, utterly trusting Him and striving to act as He would act in all circumstances. No matter how difficult and impossible the circumstances we face, we must retain the attitude that we are still in the Lord’s debt. Just keeping the commandments, while laudable, may be enough to maintain our faith but not enough to increase it. We must continue sacrificing and serving with no thought of reward. We do it out of love and gratitude for the Lord, to whom we owe everything."
It reminds me of Mosiah 2:21 that talks about how God gives us everything we have and we will always be in His debt. He'll never, ever owe us. So, just remember that. But also remember that He doesn't do it so we owe Him. He does it because He loves us. :)
Also, I love you and miss you!
Love, Sister Warburton
