New Comp, Investigators & Service

So a lot happened this week. On Tuesday Sister George and I woke up really early to go take Sister Okanoue (one of my old companions) to the airport. It was so weird because President and all of the other missionaries that were going home were there. There was also my trainer Sister Reinsch, one of my old zone leaders, and a few other sisters I knew. It was crazy that in just a few hours they would be back at home sitting in their parent's houses as normal people. And it was crazy because I realized that that will be me in 4 months!! Then later that same day I went to go pick up my greenie. My new companion is Sister Culala. She's from the Phillipines. This is her first time in the U.S. Its funny because America is a lot different from where she lives. She hasn't ever really driven in a car, they don't have washing machines where she lives so she thinks they are really cool. Also the other morning she pointed to the toaster and says "Sister Washburn, do you just put bread in here and it cooks it?" It reminds me of when I trained Sister Le.

This week was really busy with training meetings and stuff and it has been super humid which is gross. But we have been working hard. We have a new investigator which is the 9 yr old son of a less active family in our ward. Gotta love 9 yr old investigators. It is actually really fun to teach him because we get good practice teaching simply and he is really excited to learn and answer questions. We also had some good contacts. We contacted this British guy who was atheist but we actually had a long conversaion about the church, making good choices, the atonement. He wasn't too interested at the end, but you never know maybe some day. We also contacted this guy smoking outside his house who the gospel could totally bless his life. He said he had lots of questions about religion and we said we had lots of answers. He wouldn't commit to a specific return appointment but we'll stop by again and see if he's interested.

We did some service for this family in our ward this week. They were redoing the siding in their house and so we helped Sister Spencer to take nails out of all of the old boards so that they could throw them away. It was good to do some real service that we haven't been able to do in a long time.

There are about 5 Phillipino families in our ward so they were pretty excited to meet Sister Culala. One of the families invited us over and gave us some food (which was pretty good). Also they gave us some referrals for thier Phillipino friends. So we are excited about that.

Also Robert Ruiz (our recent convert) got the preisthood last week. It was so cool we got to sit in on the ordination. I realized that it was the first time I saw someone be ordained to the preisthood so it was cool that it was my recent convert!!

I have been studying about faith and hope lately. They are mentioned a lot together in the scripture along with charity. These really are the bascis of missionary work. To love those we serve, to hope and trust in God's promises, and to have the faith to try our hardest and be diligent so that God can guide and bless us. I know that God tries our faith and help us learn to put our faith in Him, the one thing that will never fail us. We can find hope through His atonement and through His promise of helping us to overcome all to return to Him. I love our Savior and am so grateful for the hope He gives us.

Love you all!!

-Sister Washburn

Training Again!!

from 7/28

I'M TRAINING AGAIN!!!! I'm kind of excited if you couldn't tell. I just really like training so it is going to be great. There are only 2 sisters coming so it will either be a sister from the Philipines or a sister from Utah who is a double amputee. So either way it will be an adventure. Sister George is leaving me and I feel like I still don't know the area/ward that well but at least I pretty much know how to be a missionary at this point so I should be fine. This week was pretty good. We found a new investigator. We contacted him watering his front lawn and since then we have had 2 lessons and he seems pretty interested. We will see if he keeps progressing. I have found that it is pretty easy to find new investigators in this area but it is hard to find quality ones that will progress. If we keep working hard the Lord will lead us to those who are ready. 

It kinda hit me this week that I am getting towards the end of my mission. A lot of my friends had their departure fireside on Sunday and it was weird that they are leaving. I remember in the MTC our teacher told us that at the end of your mission your body just gets worn down. At the time I was just like "okay, whatever." But man I am starting to feel it. I'm just not the young missionary I once was. But I think training will help me to keep being motivated and working hard. Besides being a missionary is a lot easier now that I have a lot of experience behind me. 

We had a really good lesson this week with a sister who is trying to become active again. Her and her husband are working towards going to the temple. It was a really powerful lesson because you can tell she believes in God and has faith but she needs a stronger testimony that this is God's church. (she got baptized a couple years ago so she still needs a better gospel foundation)  It just really hit me that a simple, heartfelt question to God can be answered through His spirit. That is all we have to do to know of truth. It is sad how many people miss out on understanding God's plan or gaining a deeper testimony because they won't do that one simple thing. I just love that as we are obedient we can trust that God will continue to give us guidance. Keepin it short today, I don't have a ton of time to write because we have a lot to do before transfers. Love you all!!

-Sister Washburn

Mini Missionaries

from 7/21

me, Sister Lavea, and Sister George

This week was crazy because so much happened. We got to go to the Newport temple. We found 2 new investigators. We had our mini missionary. Having Sister Lavea was a lot of fun!! It reminded me of when I was training. We got to go on more splits since we had her and teach her the basics of missionary work. We dropped her off this morning and it was sad. She was crying and was like "You girls changed my life, you are like my big sisters." And Sister George and I were just like "Thanks we didn't think we did all that much." We really did love having her. Doing missionary work totally brings the spirit so we are glad that we could help her strengthen her testimony whether she ends up serving  mission or not. 

I went and had an interview with my mission president this week. I was so glad I did because I haven't had an interview with him in like 6 months. I just wanted some advice from him about how i can better become the missionary I envision myself to be. In a lot of my other areas I have had certain barriers to overcome with the work or my comps. Now that I am in a good area with a capable companion I realized that the only barrier left from letting me reach my potential is myself. I just hold back sometimes or doubt my abilities in some ways. President gave me some good advice and he always has a quotable quote that you go away remembering. He told me "Remember, today is part of eternity too." He talked about how God's name is eternal and so eternal happiness and eternal life is God's happiness and God's life. Our whole time on earth is to learn to have the same happiness God has and to learn to live life the way He would. So that quote meant that we don't have to wait to have happiness or to become who God intends of us. Each day we can work at making small steps in the right direction. It will take time but if we have a willing heart God will help us to change. We can change our very nature to become who we want to be.

This week we also had our zone conference and it was so good. One of the best zone conferences on my mission. The leaders did some really great trainings and talked about how each day we aren't just setting the culture of our mission but we are setting the foundation for the rest of our lives. If we are going to try to be obedient, work hard, and keep trying even when we fall short. Our mission President gave a really great training about change. How we can decide now to change and become the person God sees us as. About how each day we can change for the better or worse. It was just really good because I have been going through some changes lately for the better. Just realizing some of the weaknesses I have and realizing that I can change them and that the Lord wants to help me do that. He talked about how when we build that desire to become more than we are that we need to let it propel us to actively do the things that will help us become better. It was just really good. 

This area has just been really good for me and has allowed me to learn a lot. We got to visit our awesome 93 year old investigator who just got out of the hospital this week. She was as spunky and funny as ever and so It was great to see her. We also visited this really nice Samoan couple. The husband is less active because he has seizures a lot and can't always come to church. But he made it to church on sunday. Also the wife works for a make-up company so she gave us a ton of free stuff. It was really nice of her. Also we had a really good lesson with a recent convert who has been coming to church a lot recently. She doesn't have a super solid grasp on the gospel so we have been reteaching her the lessons. Also I had one of the best lessons of my mission this week! Sister George and Sister Lavea went to another appointment and I went with Sister Mitchell (a sister in our ward) and taught Ellie and Jesse. Ellie is a less active who is trying to become reactivated and Jesse her boyfriend is our investigator. They both told me the stories of how they came to know God. They have both had a rough past so it was cool to see how far they have come. Then I taught about personal revelation and how God wants to continue to guide them in their lives. They both started to realize how God has lead them this far and what they have to do to have Him keep leading them. The spirit was totally there and at the end I told them how they should look at how far they have come and what they can become. That there is great potential in each of them they just have to keep making right decisions and making God a priority in their lives. And I told Jesse how I could see him being a strong member and doing a lot of good he just has to trust God enough to act on an inspired answer that this is His true church. (Jesse thinks too logically and so he has a hard time deciding to get baptized). Anyways it was just so good. And I felt like I could feel a little tiny bit of how Heavenly Father feels about us. He sees our potential and the greatness within us. But he can't force us to make right choices or to choose to change. We have to do that on our own. And if we can do His will and use His strength to help us change, great things can happen.

So all in all it was a great week. This week is the last week of the transfer so we will see what happens!! Have fun in Cali (its weird you all are so close by, and yet so far haha)

Love you all!!
-Sister Washburn

All That Is Asked is to Do Your Best

This week was really good. We got to visit a lot of people that I hadn't met still. Robert is doing great. He is excited to keep learning and takes notes in church and when we teach him (haha its the best) He got confirmed this week in sacrament and a member gave him a new quad which was really nice. 

Our other investigators are doing good but not really progressing. Hopefully we can get them going because they like being taught but don't keep commitments. 

We picked up a great new investigator this week. A member in my last ward referred us to her friend. We went by and she is one of those people where if you didn't know she was Mormon you would think she was Mormon. She's christian and she has family members who are Mormon but didn't really know anything about what we believe. She had lots of questions and the first lesson about the restoration answered them all. You can tell she has felt the spirit before and this church would just give her the added truth that is missing. We really hope that she keeps learning cause she was eager to read the pamphlet and Book of Mormon we gave her. Hopefully she doesn't get anti-ed or anything.

This week we had our ward picnic which was awesome because i feel like I'm starting to get down who is who in the ward. We had a young women come out with us who just turned 16 so that was super fun.

This week we have a mini missionary!!!! Her name is Sister Lavea and she just graduated high school and she is from Compton and she is Samoan. Our mission has the mini missionary program where youth over 16 in the stake can come live with the missionaries for a week or 2 and see how mission life is. So she is with us for the week seeing how mission life really is. Today we went to the temple which was awesome as usual. Also I saw my old bishop from the Fountain Valley ward which was cool. There were a couple of boys going through the temple for the first time and it reminded me of when I went through for the first time. 

This week was a lot better mentally/emotionally. Sometimes I think that I think too much. I got to go on exchanges with Sister Perry who I have pretty much served with my whole mission so it was just really fun and I learned some good teaching tips from her. We ended up going with her and Sister Bauer and Sister George to get Yogurtland. It was really fun we were singing Newsies and High School Musical and Annie. Ya I know they weren't hymns but sometimes you just have to have fun too!! 

This week in church there was a great talk by one of the sisters in the ward. She talked about how in life there are lots of different doors that could lead us different ways. We might open one door and see that God wants us to scale a huge cliff. Some of us might just start recklessly climbing others might not try to climb at all thinking they are inadequate. But if we rely on the Lord he will help us make it to the top. I also like that she talked about stripling warriors and how they weren't stripling they were young boys who didn't know how to fight and they were weak but the trusted God and had unshakable faith and that made up all the difference. Then she also told a story of this baseball player who was the last hitter of the game and they were going to loose. His first two hits he didn't really even try. Then he found out that his son was watching in the crowd. He wanted to be a good example so on the last hit he really tried but he missed and they still lost of the game. Afterwards he didn't really care that he hadn't hit the ball he just felt bad that he hadn't tried his best the first two swings. I think that this totally applies to a lot of things in life. Sometimes we are too focused on hitting the ball that we feel like a failure if we didn't hit it when all that matters is that we tried our best. Sometimes we hold back and don't give our all thinking "what's the point" when in reality as the long as we try we have already succeeded. I just really liked this because I think that it is easy to hold back sometimes from reaching our full potential. Whether we are too scared of failure or we think we aren't good enough to try, or our expectations are too high, or we aren't confident in ourselves. I love that all God asks of us is to try our best. He doesn't demand perfection and he understanding of our weaknesses. Someone told me not too long ago that the best missionaries they know aren't afraid to mess up. I love that. I think sometimes we hold ourselves back because we think that we will look dumb, or we won't accomplish what we want, or we want things to go a certain way and they don't. We just have to be willing to do what we should and not be afraid to mess up as long as we are trying our best. 

Well I hope you all have a good week.

Love,

Sister Washburn

With Sister George at the temple

Nina (the member that took us, she is going on her mission to Houston Texas in a month) sister George, Sister Lavea (mini missionary), me

Knottsberry Farm- we drive by every day

BAPTISM!

This week was pretty awesome because we had our BAPTISM!!!!!! It was so good. Robert was so excited the whole day. He was like "I feel like it's my birthday or something." He was just really at peace and ready to be able to follow Christ more closely. He even got up and bore his testimony in sacrament meeting. Man it was the best! Sister George and I felt like proud parents (even though Robert is way older than us). The baptism went really well. There was a ton of support from the ward and 2 of Robert's cousins came. I was so nervous the whole time for some reason, Robert wasn't even that nervous. I guess I just knew how important this day was and I really wanted everything to go well. After the ordinance I was finally able to just enjoy the service. He was just so happy the whole time and that just made me so grateful to be a part of it all.

The fourth of july was fun. We did some service walking Libby who is the dog of this awesome lady in our ward who has leg problems and can't really walk. Then she took us out to eat at Farrells which is a really cool restaurant. It is like an old ice cream parlor and they have hamburgers and sandwhiches too. The waiters and waitresses sing for you if you are eating there for your birthday/anniversary/ect. or if you order one of the crazy things on the menu. It was Sister Matsen's birthday this week so they came and sang for us. The food and the ice cream was so good. You guys should go there if you end up going to Knottsberry farm. Then we had a practice teach with our district leader and our zone leaders. After that we went to our dinner appointment. It was a barbeque with a couple families in the ward. Then we went and visited this old man in the ward named Brother Murdock. He plays the harmonica and the ukelele and loves to sing. Good thing Sister George is a good singer so she sang for him (dodged that bullet). Afterwards the fireworks started and things got crazy so we just went home and visited with Sister Roper (the widow we live with). There were tons of fireworks the rest of the night. People go to Mexico to buy the illegal ones that you can launch in the air. There were so many fireworks going on around where we live that we didn't even really see the ones Knottsberry Farm does. All in all it was a good day.

On Monday night we had a really fun FHE with our investigator Jesse and his semi active girlfriend Ellie and her 7 year old son. There was 3 other families too. The Mapas are the family that hosted the FHE and the dad is from Tonga and made these super good teriyaki chicken burgers. Seriously thought they were so good! Then we had an activity where all of the kids had to find these letters we hid that spelled the word happiness. We taught a lesson about how obeying the commandments brings happiness. Then we talked a little about how being kind is following the commandment to love one another. We showed the mormon message about the 2 little boys who hide silver dollars in the poor farmers shoes. Love that one. It was a fun FHE and helped our investigator and his family to have some good fellowship. 

Then we also got to visit with Brother Collings. He has had a crazy life. He is paraplegic because he hurt his spine when he was younger because he and his friends were jumping of the roof into the pool and someone pushed him in and he landed wrong. So ya but he was less active for 20 years and the sisters were able to reactivate him just before I came. It was good to visit him, we practiced the first lesson on him and it got him thinking because it has been a long time since he has heard these things. We will probably teach him the rest of the lessons too. 

We also saw Sister Eves. I just love visiting her. This time when we came over she was making these fruit juice drinks and dancing to Guatemalan music that she got when she went on a trip there. She does weaving and spinning (like using a spinning wheel to make yarn) so she has traveled around to learn about it. We had a good lesson with her on the Book of Mormon. She also says the best prayers like "God you're fantastic!" or "Thank you for letting me visit with these godly women and please help some of it to rub off on me." It's the best.  

Sister George and I are getting a lot better at teaching together. Also we are being a lot more honest with each other. Communication is really key in a companionship and if one or both of the companions are keeping things in that bug them or that they wish would change then nothing will ever get better. I think it has been really good because we have been able to support each other more and help each other with our challenges. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about the atonement. For some reason I was just getting really bugged about things that happened to me earlier in my mission. I guess I was just comparing myself to Sister George. She had a really good trainer and started in a good area and I was just like "Why didn't that happen to me?" I guess I just felt like if things had been different I would be a better missionary by now. I was reading the talk by Elder Bednar from conference about "Bearing our Burdens with Ease." On my mission I have really realized how to use the atonement and how faithful members of the church who are striving their best can really use the atonement just as much as the people with "big sins." The part I really love says "Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities—but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us."  

I realized that on my mission I have literally experienced every single one of these things and I have been able to use the atonement to help me overcome them. I am grateful that my mission has been hard and that things have happened not that way that I would have planned. Because of the things I have experienced I have been able to use and understand the atonement in a way that I wouldn't be able to otherwise. I know that the Lord truly has been leading me along. He has been able to allow me to learn in grow by overcoming specific challenges. I am so grateful for the atonement. I am grateful that Christ loved us enough to literally experience and thoroughly understand everything we go through. I am grateful for the sacrament that allows us each week to be cleansed of our mistakes and burdens and that gives us the strength to try harder the next week.  

I am so excited to work hard this week. I know that the Lord has great things in store for us. I love being a missionary!!!

Love you all!!
-Sister Washburn

With Robert on his baptism day!

Robert got these cookies for us during our last lesson and then one of the members brought a bunch to the baptism

                                                       This is us in red white and blue for the 4th of july.

Great Week!!!

So this week was really crazy because so much happened. On Monday we had 2 FHEs. We had it with a new family in the ward and then we had fhe with our investigator Jesse his girlfriend who is recently reactivated and her 7 yr old son and a family from the ward. We had cut outs of the tree of life dream and for the activity we tied rope around in the YWs room and they had to follow it in the dark and me and my comp were trying to get them to let go by saying things like "we have candy" "we"ll give you a million dollars" "free tickets to Knotts Berry farm." I think that the families really liked it. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday I was sick. Since we live with a member I stayed home with her and my comp went out with another sister. I had just gotten new medicine for my sinus infection and it wiped me out. But now I am way way better so I think I am finally over that nasty sinus infection. 

We finished teaching the commandments to Robert. He is doing so well. He has just totally been prepared because he is so willing to do whatever the Lord asks of him and wants to follow the commandments. We went over the baptismal questions and so he should be good to go for his baptism on Sunday!! We are so excited for him! Also he talked to his parents the other day and they said that if this church makes him happy then they are glad for him. That was so cool because he was so worried about how they were going to react because they are strong Catholics. 

Also this week there was a baptism in my old ward that I really really really wanted to go too. It was the son in law of a family I love and so I wanted to go and to get to see people from the ward. But in order to go we had to bring an investigator. We asked all of our investigators and none of them could go. So then we were asking everyone all over the place. Like literally we asked everyone but no one could come. So 2 hours before the baptism on Saturday one of our investigators called and said they could come and then like 20 minutes before another investigator said she wanted to come. Miracles happen people!! It was a great baptism and it was fun to get to see everyone and most importantly our investigators both really felt the spirit. 

Sister George is great. I can't remember what I told you about her in the last letter but she is from Rexburg Idaho. She is a quadruplet and one of her other sisters is on a mission in South Africa. She already graduated and was working as a nurse before her mission. She a good missionary and we get along pretty well. Our teaching styles are really different so that has been kinda hard to get more on the same page but it will work out just fine. 

So things are moving right along and are going really well. It is amazing to me how easy it is to talk to people on the streets here and everyone has been so nice so far. It's weird. But awesome. But there are also some crazy people. 

But overall I just know that God just so totally knows us. I feel like I have had so many tender mercies after coming to this area, I mean coming to this area in the first place was a tender mercy. The Lord is always guiding us through the hard times and the good, because there are things we need to learn in every moment. This week I got a blessing for being sick and in the blessing it said that the Lord knows my struggles and has given me trails at certain times so that I can learn the things he wants me to learn. I know that as we trust in the Lord's timing He will make more of us than we could ever make of ourselves. Love you All!!
-Sister Washburn

Awesome Week!

Oh. My. Goodness. This week has been crazy and awesome. So this is like the first time on my mission where I have been sent to an area that hasn't been struggling and it has been a major blessing!!! We have 5 investigators right now. One of them is Robert Ruiz. He is this middle aged mexican man who they met on the street and he is totally open to the gospel and to learning. He was really willing gave up coffee and this week we had the tithing lesson which went over really well. We also talked a lot about baptism since he has a baptismal date for July 6. His main concern is that his family won't understand since they are strong catholic. Also a few of his friends have made weird comments about mormons to him. We tried to clear up his concerns and help him to know that as long as he keeps trying his best and staying close to the Lord his friends and family will see the good changes in him and his happiness and will know that the church is good. Our other investigator is Sister Eves. She is this spunky 93 year old lady. She is actually getting rebaptized because years ago she had her records removed from the church over a misunderstanding. She searched for another church to go to but never found on she liked. Then a few months ago she met a member of the church at a sewing class and she brought her to church. She realizes that this is the church she has been searching for and wants to get baptized so bad. So right now she is just working on her letter to the prophet and stuff so she can be cleared to get baptized. She has such a good testimony and wants so badly to follow Christ and to do what is right. The other investigator we have is Jesse. He is in his 20s and is the boyfriend of a less active who is coming back to church. He already has a strong belief in Christ and so for him it is more of just gaining a testimony that this is his true church. He has already had all of the lessons and so right now he is reading the book of mormon. He says he just hasn't gotten his answer yet, so will have to help him keep having good spiritual experiences that will help him to get the revelation he needs. Our fourth investigator is Josie. We actually found her this week while we were out tracting. We were on our bikes and started talking to her. She has been raising her grandson because her daughter is on drugs and she wants him to have God in his life. She wanted us to help her learn how to pray. We taught her the first lesson and really focused on the atonement and prayer. She really felt the spirit and kept telling us that she will never forget meeting with us for the first time and the way she felt afterwards. Her main concern is that her husband just wants them to stick to their old church so we will see what happens. Our last investigator we have right now is named Lorraine. She is an older lady who is friends with a member in our ward. She is open to learning and is a little hard to get to know to understand what she really needs but she wants to have a better relationship with God. 

It has just been crazy going from a really slow area to an area with so much work. We have people to teach, there are a lot of less actives in the ward, and there are some members that are really good about missionary work. Also finding is a lot easier because there are a lot more people in this area whose lives aren't so put together and they are a lot more willing to listen. Our ward area is pretty big. We live in a little house with an old widow who is pretty home bound and just basically watches tv all day. We help her out sometimes when she needs things. Our church building is literally right across the street from Knotts berry farm. We also live just down the street from Knotts berry farm so sometimes when we are out at night we can hear people screaming from the rollar coasters. 

My companion is Sister George. She's from Rexburg Idaho. She is 23 and she already graduated from college and was working as a nurse before her mission. Even though she just got out of training, she is really motivated and knows what she is doing in the area and stuff so that has been a big help. She is a pretty good missionary already and I think that it helps that she is an older sister because she is just able to take control of things better than some beginning missionaries. The only hard thing is that she was trained a lot differently than most missionaries. Her trainer had them so "go by the spirit" a lot which is great and important but she doesn't know how to make lesson plans or switch of in lessons or how to plan as effectively. But she is really willing to learn so we will be able to figure it all out. It is just been nice to have a companion who is on top of things and who is really motivated and positive. 

This transfer we decided that our goal is to really help everyone we serve to recognize and use the atonement in their lives. This can be for members as they use the enabling power of the atonement and look for missionary opportunities. It can be for less actives as they rediscover their testimony and how the Lord can change their hearts and help them come back to church. It can be for the non-members who don't understand their relationship with God and Christ and how keeping the commandments and repenting can relieve their burdens and help them to to be truly happy. 

Mostly I am just really grateful to be in this area to to be able to grow more as a missionary since we are actually teaching a lot and are always busying with helping people to progress. There are just a lot of things I will be able to learn from this area and my companion so I am really excited.

You all are the best! Have a good week!

-Sister Washburn