This was a really good week. (minus me being sick for 2
days, but I'm better now!) Last Monday we went down to PCH and I got to see the
ocean! It was so pretty and the weather was really nice. Then we went to main
street in Huntington beach which has a lot of souvenir shops, restaurants, and
surf shops. (huntington beach is called surf city) We have randomly contacted a
lot of Egyptian people lately. Two of the them came to church but we realized
they live in a different ward boundaries so we had to pass them off. Another
Egyptian family that we met lives in our apartment complex. We went over and
talked to them about our church. They are muslim and I never knew that we had
so many similarities with them! They don't drink, smoke, gambol, they pay a
form of tithing, they pray and read their scriptures, they believe that we are
God's children, they believe in prophets, they believe families are important.
The main difference is that they believe that Jesus was just a prophet. It was
a great discussion but they weren't really interested in converting, just
curious about what we believe.It made me think though just how important it is
to believe in Christ and have faith in the atonement and how much they are
missing since they don't believe that. Also we are still working with Viv.
Sadly she didn't come to church on sunday and her reason was that she was going
to an exclusive red carpet event at the Emmys. (welcome to orange county) But
we had a great experience with her this week. She has been having trouble keeping
commitments especially since she started her nursing class. A few nights ago we
were over at her house and I asked her how she was doing with saying her
prayers every night. She told us that she was trying and that she had had an
experience this week. She was listening to music and when she started to listen
to the lyrics she suddenly thought about God and how much he loved her. (coming
from someone who has been atheist her whole life this was awesome!!) It was a
Rhianna song (which doesn't have anything to do with God but the lyrics said
something about "where have you been all my life") As she was telling
us she broke down into tears and told us that she just never felt this way
before and never felt so much love. We told her that what she was feeling was
the spirit and that, however random it may seem, God knew her and he knew how
to talk to her even if it was through a song. It was just a great moment
because I can see her faith growing in just knowing that God is there and He
wants her to be happy. I made a comment to her that all of these little
moments are bringing her closer to the truth. She agreed but she said that this
wasn't a small moment. She said that it felt like lightning struck and things
just clicked. This was a good reminder for me. Sometimes it can be frustrating
when investigators won't even do something as simple as praying. But for her
realizing that God was there was a huge moment for her, since she has never
known he was there. It was great. This week we also had a finding training
where we were taught about how to be better finders and what we can do to try
to get more people to teach. We are trying to still find right now which can be
hard in our area but hopefully we will keep getting better at it. We are
getting excited for conference because it is ten times more awesome when you
are a missionary. Also our mission president told us this week that there are
80,000 missionaries out right now which is crazy!! The work really is moving
forth!
love you all!!
-Sister washburn
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