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

Pictures

Sister Warburton is FINALLY Taking on Tacoma

WOW! 

I feel like I'm in a different country! Just kidding. It's not really that drastically different here in Tacoma. It's definitely not in the middle of nowhere. And there are definitely a lot more people. And I haven't seen any cows or pigs lately. Also, I haven't walked any looonnnnnnggggg gravel/dirt driveways recently. But, I'm still looking for those. 

I feel like this week has been a million days long. But I'll try to tell you as much about it as I can. 

On Monday after we left Elma, we headed to Olympia for a Memorial Day picnic with a third of the mission. That was a blast! I played Gator Ball for a while. Which I guess is a mixture of soccer and football? I just ran around and pretended to be involved for most of the time. Then, when I couldn't breathe anymore I went and talked to President Blatter and some other missionaries. 

After the picnic we couldn't go back to Elma because we didn't have any miles, so our plan was to knock doors with the Olympia 4th sisters and then stay with the Lacey 3rd sisters for the night. Unfortunately, we didn't make any plans for the two hours between the activity and knocking soooo we just went around Olympia like hobos for a while. We found the mall and tried to shop, but malls these days have some weird people dressed in weird clothes and they also sell really weird clothes, so we left. Then, because we didn't plan very well, we didn't know where to go to meet the Oly 4th sisters, so we ended up just calling the Olympia Zone leaders and asked them if they had a street they wanted us to knock. So, we went to that street and knocked doors. And funny thing, I realized it was one of the few streets I had knocked in Oly 2nd before because we tried to find YSA age people there once about 10 months ago. Funny stuff. (I don't know if ANY of that just made sense. So, sorry.) 

After that we went to Lacey 3rd and street contacted for 2 hours. 

The lesson we learned from this is that there is no place like your own area. The area you have been called to serve in, because there is definitely a difference when you leave your area. 

On Tuesday, we did the same kind of stuff before we went to transfers. We didn't have anywhere to go really, so we had lunch with Sister Holdaway! (Who I love!) And then just headed to Tacoma for transfers. Sister Glauser and I got my stuff all in her car and headed off to an appointment. (first difference between boonies and city. Rather than planning an hour or two to travel back to your area, you just make plans to do missionary work, because that's how close we were.) 

I'm not going to give details for the rest of the week because we did SO MUCH STUFF. I'm just going to say that we talked to a TON of people. We stayed busy every minute of every day. We knocked doors, we street contacted, we prayed with people, we bore our testimonies of the Savior over and over and over again. We passed out 31 Book of Mormons and my testimony of that Book was shared over and over again as well. It was so fun to be so busy always sharing the gospel at every turn. I love it! I'm so grateful that I get to end my mission staying real busy all the time! It's definitely a humbling experience to see how much I am NOT a great missionary. But it's good to be humbled so we can learn right? 

I'm trying to think if there is anything specific ya'll need to know about being in Tacoma. It's just fun. I feel like a real missionary here. (Just picture Pinocchio "I'm a real missionary now!")

Also, this is my backyard. We live with the Stake President! (Isn't that nerve wracking?)

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Warburton