"Finding"

Hello!!

This week was good minus the fact that we had to get flu shots. I was already a little bit sick and so the flu shot made me more sick so I was out for a whole day. But the beauty of being in a trio is that my comps dropped me off at a members house for a few hours and then went out and worked. Sister Phillips is awesome!!! She is from Tennessee and she was going to BYU and she is 21 and she has a little bit of an accent and she is just the best trainee ever. We all get along really well so it has been a lot of fun to be in a trio. Oh also she is going to Sao Paulo Interlagos, Brazil. She will be here for at least 6 weeks and then she will leave whenever her visa comes. They are super backed up for Brazil though (apparently 500 missionaries are waiting for their visas to go there, I guess the soccer world cup is in Brazil this year and so that is making it hard) We have her practice her portugese on us every morning for a few minutes and even though we have no idea what she is saying (actually I can understand some of it cause some words are similar to spanish or french) it helps her a lot to remember things.

 Last week when we taught the YM/YW we talked a lot about first having the desire to share the gospel, then acting on the desire by trusting that the Lord will help give you opportunities and help you know what to say. Then we kind of made it like a district meeting where we had eveyone get into pairs and practice teach. We had them practice different senarios of answering questions their friends might have or asking their friends to come to a chruch activity. I think that it really helped them becuase we ended up passing out 12 book of mormons at the end to people who wanted to give one away!! Our stake has really been emphasizing missionary work lately and I think that it has pushed a lot of members to do more. In stake conference our stake president said that "we could double our stake." Afterwards when all the missionaries in the stake had fhe with him, he said that the spirit prompted him to say that. He was nervous becuase that is a big commitment but he felt like that was what the Lord wanted him to say. I think that this is awesome!! The Lord really is preparing people in our stake to hear the gospel! It is so exciting to be a missionary in this area where church leaders are focused on really making missionary work a priority.

We have really been trying to work more on finding lately. We have a few potentials that we have found lately so hopefully they work out. Things with Viv aren't going too well. She hasn't been keeping any of her commitments and while she loves learning and knows that what we have taught her is true, she doesn't want to change. I think it is just kind of scary for her because she would have to change a lot. We were going to drop her if she didn't come to church this sunday (which she didn't) but she said that she doesn't want us to give up on her so we might try a few more times. We might bring Mario over to tell her his story (the guy that was homeless) because he didn't want to chang eeither at first. He always tells us that he used to be Korihor at first. He had been agnostic all his life and had told people that they don't need to believe in Jesus or God. But after the missionaries taught him and he realized all the things that the Lord had done for him, he had a change of heart. The Lord has done so much for Viv and if she would just realize that and let it motivate her to change hopefully she will be able to commit herself again. Training has been a really good experience for me. I feel like I have already gotten better at a lot of things since I have to be the one leading and being the example for how to do things. I feel like I am a lot more confident in contacting which can sometimes be hard for me. We had a blitz this saturday and me and the Sister I was with were talking to everyone we saw. We even practically ran down the street to catch some people who were getting out of their car. (there aren't that many people out and about in this area so we have to use every chance we get). We are going to keep focusing on finding so hopefully we will soon have some more people to teach. Also you should pray for the missionaries in the ward back home by name. One thing that I have learned on my mission is that specific prayers are so much more powerful. It will really help them a lot!! Last week for p-day we went to PCH again so Sister Phillips could see the ocean. It has been beautiful weather here lately and the ocean looked so pretty.

This week I have been thinking a lot about faith. As a missionary I have learned that faith can be one of the hardest things to have. I have also learned that a lot of times we have to act and to show the Lord that we are willing to try and that we have the faith that as we do what he is asked he will bless us. Sometimes we won't have a flood of blessing come the minute we act on our faith. But as we show the Lord that we are willing to do whatever is asked of us we will eventually see the blessings come.

Love you all!!
-Sister Washburn