Hello from The Great California Long Beach Mission!

Hello from The Great California Long Beach Mission! (as my mission president would say)

 

This was a good week other than my companion getting sick! She was sick in bed for 2 days so I just had to sit around at home all day. Basically I finished the book of mormon, organized all my stuff, read the whole ensign, read my study journal, took a couple naps, and tried not to be too bored since there wasn't much to do. I got to go on exchanges with Sister White this week!  So that was super fun cause I miss getting to see her. I'm getting along a lot better with my companion. I think that once we merged our ways of doing things and figured out more what we are doing we are really getting along. We got 4 headquarter refferals this week!! This like never happens. Headquarter referrals are when someone requested the missionaries from mormon.org or missionaries street contact someone who isn't in their area so they send the info to you. Usually you are lucky if you get one referral  a transfer so we were really surprised! One of them was a hindu lady who just wanted a bible so she could teach her kids about Christianity (but she wasn't interested in the discussions), another one we have a return appointment with a guy named Richard, and the other 2 we haven't gotten ahold of yet. The investigators we have right now have been really busy and our appointments have been falling through. They aren't home when we go to their house for our appointments and they are hard to contact. Hopefully things will work out because we haven't been able to meet with Leslie in like 3 weeks! As a district we have all been praying that each companionship will be able to see someone they are teaching enter the waters of baptism this transfer. We try to remember this in every prayer and since we pray at least around 20 times a day, it is really helpful in keeping us focused! Hopefully someone we are working with or someone we will find will be committed enough so that they will join the church! I rode my bike for the first time last week. It's hard to ride in a skirt and I hate wearing helmets because they are super dorky and mess up my hair but oh well-- all in the name of safety right? We usually just walk or drive. Our area is 3 times as big as most of the areas in the mission so we drive to a certain part and then walk around. Also I went to ward council for the first time on my mission (finally!) The ward has good intentions to do missionary work but hopefully we can help them become more actively involved. Sister Reinsch and I want to do splits sometimes with some of the sisters it is just hard because they are either older ladies who aren't super capable/willing or they are young mothers with a bunch of little kids. So we will see what we can do. I just finished the book of mormon but I read the books in random order so I finished with Alma. Suprisingly the war chapters were some of my favorites. Captain Moroni is awesome!!! I love how devoted he was to God and his country and how even when the Nephites seemed outnumbered or they weren't sure how they were going to get back a city, he always told his people to trust in the Lord. As they showed obedience to God and his commandments, time and time again they were delivered by the hand of the Lord. And then come in the stripling warriors who had so much faith, strong testimonies, and courage that they did not doubt that God would help them. They ended up fighting with so fearlessly and with miraculous strength that not a single one was killed. These examples have helped me a lot to remember that if I continue to have faith and to show God that I am willing to follow him and do what he says that he will guide us in our efforts. Sister White used to always say "sometimes we are the seed planters, sometimes we are the growers, and sometimes we are the harvesters." As missionaries it is easy to just want to be the harvesters all the time and to see people getting baptized right and left. But a lot of the time we are planting seeds or helping people grow in the gospel. It we have faith and work diligently God will lead us to those who are ready and through patience and obedience we will be able to see people enter the waters of baptism.
Love you all!!
Sister Washburn

 

Me and Sister Reinsch, yes that is a super fancy library in the background.