Garage Sales and Break-Ins!

This was an AMAZING and crazy week.

We have someone on date for baptism!!!!!!  Kirk, whose family was baptized last year (wife and 2 kids), accepted our invitation to be baptized this Thursday. We taught the Restoration, that was his 4th time to hear it, but this time he had read the Book of Mormon. The spirit in that lesson of the Restoration was amazing.  His heart was sincere in his desires to learn. The spirit was so strong, and that was by far the most powerful lesson I have ever been a part of. To see the light of Christ change this man has been a miracle to see. In August he was a completely different person. In late September we gave him a Book of Mormon and challenged him to read and to pray to know of the truthfulness of the message. He has read twice a day, every day since we gave him that challenge. I am so grateful to have gained an even greater testimony of the Book of Mormon as I watched that precious book truly change his life. Now, the coolest part was that Sister Oswald and I both prayed about a baptismal date, we decided on February 22nd, 4 weeks from now. When he accepted to be baptized, we told him we prayed about him and his name and a date and we thought Feb. 22nd was it. He said yes, and his wife in tears told us that was the day she was baptized a year ago. They will be baptized on the same day, one year apart! God is real, and He most definitely had a hand in the whole thing. What a blessing to be a part of.

We had training meeting this week for 6 hours, but it was pretty fun.  I like to have a refresher on the "basics" of being a missionary, and the simple things like a short powerful testimony, are sometimes the best kind of testimonies.  The faith and desire of new missionaries are amazing.  It was a really enjoyable meeting to be a part of.  Crazy that just over 5 months ago, I was sitting in that meeting with my trainer scared to death! Lol!   But here I am now, oh what blessings the mission has brought into my life. It has truly changed me.

We helped at a garage sale for a lady that is moving in the ward.  We have been helping in the process of packing and cleaning and organizing the sale, and Saturday was finally game day.  We were the cashiers at the sale, we had our little table equipped with the cash box, Books of Mormon, restoration pamphlets and mormon.org cards.  We tried to talk about the church with everyone there and were even able to pass out a few things.  That was a neat experience, and it always feels good to do service!

Last night something a little crazy happened.  We came home at the end of the night and the garage door we walk through to get to our front door was opened and then our front door was slightly ajar.  We felt very weird about both doors being opened and just had a really bad feeling.  So we called our ward mission leader, Brother Jaeger.  He was worried and told us not to go in and that he would come there to check it out.  He could tell we were a little panicked on the phone and sounded worried, and told us to just wait and he would be on his way.  But, while we were about to give him our address, the phone died.  So then he is probably freaking out thinking we are in real danger!  So we go upstairs to our neighbor that we live under, but he doesn't answer.  He is like 95 years old and 9pm is probably past his bedtime.  So then we drove to the nearest members house, the Papritz family.  We use their phone to call the Jaeger's back.  By this time they are worried sick and have called the police to come check out our apartment!  So then we had to go back over to our apartment with the Papritz's.  We called the mission president to let him know what was going on, since we were clearly going to be past curfew.  Turns out, the house was fine!  No signs of intrusion, we just didn't quite close the doors ALL the way (it's an old house and you really have to pull the door hard to close).  So that was our crazy night of adventure!

The work is going well, I am so happy to be here!

Love you all!

Sister Wawro

*****

It's been very foggy on the ferry lately!

I love my fam pics by my bed.  A member in the ward gave me a conch shell! 

LIFE IS MADE.  

Also gotta have my BEAUTIFUL sister by my bed :) 

In line at the ferry!

Creepy mannequin in a boat in someones yard...some people here. WEIRD.  Lol

 

Garage Sale.. being silly.

Deception's Pass and the Beach

SO officially 5 months!!!!! Crazy!  I can't believe it.

So last Monday we went to the Mukilteo beach for district P-day and I got to collect some real shells, that was just awesome!!!! And then we saw the lighthouse, which was also pretty great!

This week I had a cool experience.  We got a new investigator who we helped give service to!  We taught the Book of Mormon and said a prayer and she was in tears by the end of the prayer, which was pretty awesome.  That is the best feeling ever to watch someone have that light of Christ come into their life and see the effects it brings into their heart. 

Then when we were tracting, we met a guy that was clearly happy with his church and uninterested, but he kept talking to us about his church, and I kept praying and asking what I could offer this man, what does he need, or what could I bear testimony of?  Then he said "Church isn't the most important thing to me, my relationship with Jesus Christ is what matters most and how I can strengthen it." That's when I knew that I could testify of the Book of Mormon as ANOTHER testament of Jesus Christ, and bear testimony that this book is what could help him strengthen that relationship, and how it's done that for me personally.  He gladly accepted the Book of Mormon and thanked me for my sincere thoughts.  The power of prayer is real, and missionary work is truly hastening.  The Lord is helping me to be an instrument in bringing souls unto him.  That is the BEST feeling in the world.

Then we both had to speak in Sacrament on Sunday with the high councilman and that went really well!  And we are set to sing "Abide With Me 'Tis Even Tide" on February 9th, so that will be exciting.

Yesterday we went to Deception's Pass with the Moss family and it was SO great! It was beautiful outside, a perfect day to walk the bridge, it was so awesome.

This morning we had interviews with the Mission President, where he told me I was a child prodigy missionary when I was being trained and he loves to see me training.  That's always the BEST thing to hear from your mission president!

Well, I'm healthy and happy and LOVING the island.  Oh and Sister Oswald... she is the greatest!  Seriously, we have so much fun together, laugh all the time, but she is also a hard worker who loves Jesus Christ and wants to be the best missionary she can.  Its such a blessing to have such an amazing companion. We will surely be friends forever, I love her!

Love you all :)

Sister Wawro

***************

This is the Mukilteo Beach we went to and the shells I collected!

This is Julie Christensen, she is like our second mom out here, she is the best. She takes us to Pickles Deli like twice a month for lunch just to talk and see how we are doing.  She is a returned missionary so she knows all about what we are going through and all that, so it's great to have her here!

The Seahawks are going to the Superbowl, everyone around here has been going crazy!

Sister Oswald, I just love her!

 

The Sweet Moss family

Driving to Deceptions Pass and then being on the bridge!

A 14-Lesson Week!

Wow, tomorrow makes 5 months that I've been out... what what!  That is just crazy to me.  The time is flying but at the same time, I feel like I've been out here forever.  I honestly can't even picture life outside of a mission.  This really has been the best 5 months of my life.  The hardest, and most challenging as well, but definitely most rewarding.

Well, we just got a new ward mission leader, his name is Brother Jaeger, and he is THE BEST.  He kept feeling prompted that he should go on a mission, but he is a father of 3 young kids, and obviously can't just pick up and go.  He was shortly after called to serve as ward mission leader.  The spirit in sacrament meeting when he was announced was so strong, as our bishop cried and bore testimony of the truthfulness of his calling.  I've never seen anything like that where you just KNOW that person is in the right calling.  It was an awesome experience.  He told us the full story later at his house and it was just powerful.  He is so great, we love their family and I am so excited to see all that we can accomplish together.

This Wednesday we had quite the busy day on the mainland with zone meeting, interviews with President, tags renewed on the car, oil changed, and grocery shopping, but it was a good day.

We helped this sweet lady take down all her Christmas stuff and got to hear about her life stories, joining the church, living on a sailboat for 10 years and sailing the world, teaching English in China, backpacking in Europe, she had quite the life! So that was fun.  And she needed help organizing her Christmas boxes down stairs, and you know I was ALL over that, so that was pretty great.  :) I really have loved to give service so much.

We had a busy week, taught 14 lessons this week!  One family we met were Quakers, they were a referral, but they were very nice and invited us back over to dinner!   I really love to teach and to testify and to feel the spirit literally every single day while I am serving, its the best!

We had cottage meeting last night at the Mission President's home and that was amazing.  So many wonderful testimonies and conversion stories.  The bishop from our ward, Bishop Baesler, was asked to speak and give his conversion story.  I have never felt the spirit more strong in someone's testimony, bearing witness of the truthfulness of the gospel and the power missionaries have in teaching and proclaiming that gospel to others.  It was amazing.  Moments like that, I will never forget.


Oh, we are speaking next Sunday in church with the high councilman and we are singing on February 9th together.  We sang some hymns in the chapel after church (Sister Oswald is a BOMB piano player) and it was so great...it was like being at home singing at Aunt Wanda's house.  :)  Sister Oswald has a great voice, so we are going to sing together "Abide with me 'tis even tide"

Well, nothing else is new here.  A couple of insights I've had on my mission:  I have become obsessed with avocados and pears.  I had never before tried them, and now I want them on everything!  So silly.  I love it here, Washington is the best, and the island is the greatest!

Love you all!

Sister Carina Wawro

******************

My companion, Sister Oswald, is AMAZING!  She is seriously the single greatest person in the world.  She works hard, she diligently studies, she excels in exact obedience.  She wants to be a good missionary, she loves the Lord very much.  I look up to her a lot. We have so much fun together and I just love it!  We laugh and have jokes, and it's so stress free when you just love and get along with your companion.  I feel SO blessed she is with me!  We will most definitely be friends forever!  She is the best!!!

Sweet sister we visit...I LOVE her!

One of the drive ways we walked up, the trees here are huge!  It was a mile walk from the road to the persons house, for real!

Sister Oswald & Sister Wawro

(mom sidenote...beautiful women!!)

 Huge wind storm, lots of trees broke down, there was rubbish all over the roads.

 Haha some of the streets here just crack me up.  I need to start taking pictures of all of them.  This week we saw "Fox Spit Rd"  "Dead Goat Rd" and "Hokey Pokey St."  LOL!

 I was able to see all my friends and sister Cromar last night at the mission president's home!

New Companion!

Can you believe its been 20 weeks?? Next week I hit 5 months!  So crazy, it really is just flying by.

So I got to stay on Whidbey Island ANOTHER transfer, it is awesome!  I just love it here so much, seriously, it's the best place on earth.  So my last companion went home on Tuesday.  I dropped her off at the mission office Tuesday morning at like 7:30am then spent the rest of the day with two other sisters, making it a 3 pack.  We were in the Port Gardner area.  First we did a service project that morning.  We hauled big chunks of wood into a truck that they had cut down.  They were so impressed with our strength and hard work, he insisted we take $20 from him and go down to this old diner to eat milkshakes and fries.  So we couldn't say no.  :)  This diner was called "Mikies" and it was filled with about 20 old men, it was like the old-man hang out, they are all playing chess and checkers and laughing and talking - it was awesome. So that was fun! 

Then we had a couple lessons, one lesson in particular was with this African family that spoke Swahili.  The 14 year old daughter was the only one that could speak English so she would have to translate everything we said from English to Swahili to them, then when they had a question she would translate from Swahili to English back to us.  That was the coolest Plan of Salvation lesson I had ever taught. 

Then they dropped me off at the mission office for transfers.  I just hung out the rest of the day with all of the other trainers, there were about 8 of us total.  Finally it came time for our greenies.....oh, well first - we usually meet in the chapel and have an opening prayer and sing hymns and then the trainers sit on one side of the chapel, the trainees on the other side of the chapel.  The President announces our companion and area we'll be serving, and we hug and come sit in the middle of the chapel together.  Tradition.  BUT the ward at the Mill Creek building was having a New Year's party and they were using all the rooms, so we just had to do it in the hallway.  He would announce the names and we stood up and hugged, so that was pretty funny - it was so informal!  Lol!  But yeah, so I got.... SISTER OSWALD.  She is so amazing.  From Cedar Hills, Utah.  Just turned 19 in December, did a semester at BYU before coming.  She is so great.  Very sweet and so fun to be around.  I am so looking forward to the next 12 weeks with her. 

So then we stayed at the Port Gardner sister's house again and came back to the island the next day.  We have just been visiting all our investigators and introducing my new sweet missionary to them.  So that is all that happened this week, but it's been pretty great!  Oh, there is also another missionary who came in from The Colony, TX as well as Chay Johnson from Denton!

I also just wanted to share a cool experience I had in my personal study...

I am learning so much.  I'm still studying the four gospels, currently in the Book of John.  I just wanted to share with you this insight I learned.  So, though I am currently in the book of John, I went back and was comprising some studies from the Book of Matthew.  I came across chapter 4 where Jesus is fasting for 40 days and then the devil tempts him.  In verse 11 it talks about after Jesus had fasted, and the devil finally left him, angels were sent to minister unto Him.  Which totally makes sense because that was a very hard trial, it would make sense that angels could come and help him!  But if you read the footnote for that verse and the JST that goes along with it it says that Jesus knew that John was in prison and so he sent the angels to minister unto HIM as in John, not himself.  Wow!  I never knew that.  What a testimony building experience that in the face of trial and adversity when he is given help, he sends it to someone else who is in more need.  What a selfless example, He was truly perfect in every aspect of life.  Always turning outward and not inward.  That is something I really want to focus on, turning outward constantly instead of inward.  Focusing on the people and what I can do for them, instead of the numbers and what I want for me. 

Having the opportunity to serve a mission has by-far been the best thing that could have ever happened to me, and has changed my life for the better forever.  Everyone needs to have the opportunity to serve a mission.

Love you all!!

Sister Wawro

Here is my sweet companion, Sis. Oswald.  Isnt she great!?  Seriously now.  Gorgeous.  I love her and we have so much fun together.

Seriously this view just kills me, I love it.  And the mountains... LOVE IT!!