New Way of Teaching

This was an awesome week.  The biggest thing that happened was that we got a call from the AP's (President's Assistants) and they told us we needed to be at the mission office in the morning for a special conference.  Very weird, we had no idea what that was about and their was nothing on our calendar for any meeting, district meeting was the next day, but we were suppose to skip it and come to the mission office.  So we came, there were only 60 missionaries invited, 40 elders and 20 sisters so it was AWESOME to be invited.  Also Sister Bonham heard that Sis. Oswald and I sing and asked us to sing at the meeting, so we got to sing later that day in the meeting.  So yeah, the Salt Lake City Missionary Department was there to teach us new methods of teaching that the Church is implementing.  Elders Donaldson and Gonzalez were there!  Elder Donaldsen was the mission President of the San Diego mission that was filmed known as "The District" which is on BYUTV and are also the training videos we have to watch as missionaries, so that was also so cool to meet him!

We had a training from 8:30am-4:30pm.  The lessons are no longer 45min-1hr, nor do they go in order of 1. Restoration 2. Plan of Salvation 3. Gospel of Jesus Christ and 4. The commandments.  It is now 1. Restoration (which is also revamped adding inviting them to pray immediately, invite them to be baptized immediately, protect them from anti Mormon literature, and get them on mormon.org before we leave). 2. Book of Mormon 3. Church then 4. Plan of Sal 5. Gospel and 6. Commandments.  Its crazy!  OH!  And we have to be in and out of people's homes in 20/25 minutes, the actual "restoration" part of the lesson is only 7 minutes.  He said the message we have is short and simple, Christ set up his church, it was taken off the earth, now its back.   They said the Work of Salvation is Hastening NOW.  We are fighting for people's time.  So that was awesome to be a part of.  That night at our member dinner I practiced and got it down in 7 minutes and 14 seconds.  It was cool to practice with the members and show them.  Also they said that this general conference they will announce ya or nay to missionaries around the world having ipads, facebooks, etc. They have been doing a couple "pilot" missions, and they are studying and will decide a yes or no for everyone.  WAY COOL.
      
We implemented the new method of teaching this Friday night at a family we have been working with since august, who are less active. We have been working with them on coming back to church.  (They are now active and have come for about a month and a half now and to every activity).  His mom usually sits in on the lessons, but not as an active participant or showed any desire to come to church or learn for herself, but she likes being with us. We implemented the new method, she prayed for the first time out loud, then we invited her to be baptized, she said yes, then she came to church on Sunday for all 3 hours!  It was a true miracle.  I know this was designed of God and my testimony was strengthened after seeing its blessings in action. I can't wait to see all the good that can and will come of this. The work IS truly hastening.
          
Our investigators are great.  K.D. was baptized this Saturday and it was one of the best baptisms I've ever been to.  He's been attending the ward for quite some time now, so it was like a mini sacrament meeting, the primary room was PACKED, not enough seats, people even had to stand at the back and by the doors. What a beautiful thing it was to see. He had so much love and support. Then on Sunday when he was confirmed there were about 12 people in the circle.  Just seeing the strong circle of priesthood men, now all brothers in the gospel to him was so exciting. He has so much love, support, and friendship in the ward, its been awesome to see. He is getting ready for a calling and to receive the priesthood which is going to be another amazing step in the gospel for him. I feel blessed to have been a part of his journey towards baptism.

It was a great week!

Love
Sister Wawro

Baptism Pictures:

Primary Room set up for baptism

Family!

Shells and Double Bluff Beach

Officially 6 months!  Crazy Crazy :)

Times a flyin'.

P-day was so fun yesterday.  We went to this beach called Double Bluff, it's filled with shells! It was awesome, I had an entire gallon ziploc bag FULL of them.  I just love them!  It was so much fun, definitely can't find that in Texas. Lol

Not too much happened this week, we visited a lot of people.   We found a new investigator tracting, she is so nice.  A young mother of sweet, adorable girls.  Open to learning about the gospel, so that will be exciting to see where that goes.  Its crazy how much you truly come to love people as a missionary.  You really get to experience seeing others as Christ does.  We've been helping this sweet old lady move out of her house and into her new house, and I just LOVE her.  I barely know her but when she cries I tear up with her because it breaks my heart.  When we were helping her move in, I looked over at her and noticed she looked distressed, so I went up and gave her a hug, and she just started crying and said I needed that, thank you.  It just warmed my heart, that has been one of the best parts about being on a mission.

We had to be in early on Valentine's Day, so that was a nice surprise.  The Mission President texted us and said he wanted the people in our areas to spend time with their spouse and with the families.  It was really funny - he ended the text with "Sister Bonham and I will be your valentine tonight, be in by 6pm" Lol!  They are great.  So we came back and made cupcakes to deliver, cookies to deliver, and muffins for ward council on Sunday.  It was definitely a pleasant surprise to be in early!  :)

We also had the unique opportunity to run the youth fireside on Sunday on missionary work.  I got to share my personal conversion story.  Born a member, but everyone has their own conversion to the gospel, member or not.  It was a great experience and the spirit was definitely strong.  Between church, taking the sacrament, teaching the gospel class and firesides, Sundays have come to be my favorite days!

Thanks for all the support and letters I received this week, it was amazing :)

LOVE YA

Sister Wawro

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Pictures!

We made the cupcakes from the Valentines package mom sent, and then we got tons of fun stuff in packages from friends!

Double Bluff Beach

Sister Oswald, Sister Wawro

Tons of awesome collected shells, all cleaned!

Our District!  :)

Video?  Trying again - didn't work last week...

SIX Months Already??

Can you believe 6 months already? I can't, its just crazy to me.  I passed transfers again and am staying on the island another 6 weeks! March 25th is the next transfer! :)  Pres Bonham emailed Sister Oswald and I this morning and said "you two are one of the few companionships not being switched this transfer. Consider yourself lucky" Apparently President is making some BIG changes this transfer.  I GET TO STAY ON WHIDBEY UNTIL MARCH 25th! Woot woot!

Last P-Day we were able to walk around the shops at Langely, it reminded me a lot of home and the downtown square in Denton. (Denton's is definitely better though :)  ).  But that was really fun!  We walked around the beach too, which was pretty sweet!

We taught 13 lessons this week, they all went really well!  We have definitely been blessed this week to find people to teach.  We even met this sweet young mom tracting who told us we could come back during the day this week to talk with us!  So that was exciting!  We had the pleasure of meeting a couple of Atheists.  One guy did let us in and we were able to talk to him.  I was able to bear my testimony to him of the Book of Mormon and how it could bless his life.  It was a little scary, but its good to do hard things!  That's how you grow.  He said he would read it eventually one day, but doesn't expect anything to come of it.

We taught our investigator that is on date for baptism, and he is doing so well and exercising such great faith. We taught him about tithing this week (we were worried about tithing and word of wisdom) because he told us he would never pay tithing even if he joined the church. Our ward mission leader, Brother Jaeger, who was just recently called, was baptized 5 years ago, and was exactly in his position when it came to tithing. We brought Brother Jaeger with us, taught him about tithing, and it was another great lesson. We shared scriptures, promised blessings, and Bro. Jaeger sweetly bore the best and most sincere testimony. Our investigator said he knows in his heart that he should, but he is just going to go on pure faith, because he doesn't physically have 10% to give. He then asked if there were some faith scriptures he could study to grow his faith! We assigned Hebrews 11, Ether 12 and Alma 32. Its been such a blessing to watch that miracle of the Book of Mormon and his testimony grow as he has put away the worldly things and come to Christ. This week he is coming to Brother Jaeger's house for dinner and we are teaching the word of wisdom then. I am not as scared anymore, because he has truly showed such great faith.  I know he can continue to have that faith and grow his conversion throughout his life.

Saturday night it snowed 4 inches so we woke up Sunday with a white blanket everywhere!  We drove to our meetings, very scared. But we said a prayer of safety before we left since we have to go down a huge hill to get to the building. Then once we got to the church at 7:30am, we got a text from President saying "avoid driving at all costs today, by avoid, I mean do not do it at all.  Under no circumstances may your tires hit the snow."  Wooooops.  We told him we already were at our meetings.  He said it was okay but go home after church and no driving.  So the remainder of the day we had member rides, ate with the Moss family and met with our ward mission leader.  It was a great Sunday.  OH! And Sis. Oswald and I sang "abide with me tis even tide" in church today.  It was a great song.  The spirit was so strong, the room was silent, even all the babies stopped crying, so that was cool.  Unfortunately the snow kept a lot of investigators we invited to church from coming... so we will just have to sing again!  It was also ward conference so a lot of the stake leaders were there, so that was pretty awesome.

Its been a great week, I am still loving the island so much!

Love
Sister Wawro

PICTURES (and we'll see if the video works...7 seconds of the beach):

Video on the beach :)

The only theatre on the island, "The Clyde".  Only shows 2 movies at a time.  

Been around since the 50's.  No Cinemark or Rave up in here.  LOL!

Cool statue

Seahawks!  Goodness...

Yesterday's SNOW!  View from the backyard...

 Our ward mission leader and his wife.  He was just called.  I LOVE HIM and his wife.  They are the best.  They are who we spent Christmas Eve with! 

They take such good care of us  :)

"Selfies" in the library.  Gotta do it.  

Now you can see what I look like at this EXACT moment! Lol!

Time's a Flyin'!!

Can't believe its February! This time next year, I'll be preparing to come home... SCARY AND SAD.  It's just flying right out from under me.  I am learning and growing so much, what a blessing it is to be out here.  I have grown so much, I feel the difference.  The way I look at people, the way I feel about people, I truly deeply care and love them and want to serve them as I see them as Christ or our Heavenly Father sees them.  My prayers are deeper and more sincere.  I have a deeper yearning for gospel knowledge and I cherish the moments I get to study the scriptures.  My testimony of the Savior and His gospel has just flourished into something bigger than I ever thought.  This mission has been such a blessing and a life changing experience.

Well this week we had exchanges, I stayed here and got Sister Brielle Millet from the Port Gardner area.  It was a really great exchange, we had some great lessons and contacted lots of referrals.  I've really been trying to work on my boldness this week.  I always get a little scared and my heart pounds, but then I just say what I'm thinking and then the scary part is done.  We had dinner with our recent convert.  Her husband is Jewish, non-practicing, and I straight up asked him if he truly believes Judaism is real because he grew up in it and so it's comfortable, or he received a witness from the holy spirit confirming that is the truth.  He said no and we talked about religion a little, then I bore my testimony of the gospel boldly, it was scary at first, but felt so good after.  Now he has committed to come to church this next Sunday!  So that was a great experience.  Its cool to see how the Lord can push you past your own limits and grow your potential!

We've been giving some service to this sweet lady, Meg, and it's been really enjoyable.  We've also been about to teach her the lessons.  The spirit is so strong and she cries all the time during our talks, and I know that she is feeling the spirit.  She is always in tears of gratitude when we leave, and it just confirms again to my heart why I am here and why I'm serving these people.. easy, because I love them!

We taught a lot of lessons this week and gave quite a bit of service.  It was a really great week.  We are still preparing for our baptism coming up on the 22nd, so that will be exciting.  :)

We are singing this Sunday in church, so we practiced yesterday.  I'm really excited because it's a great draw to get some of our investigators and less actives to church! 

The Super Bowl was yesterday so we had to be in early.  We ate lunch with the Papritz family, who I LOVE. They are trying to set me up with all these nephews and stuff after my mission so I can be in their family.  They are the best!  Seriously, and then we played some games with them before going home - it was super fun.  Then we went home, pushed our beds in the living room and watched church movies, it was really fun! :) 

I totally miss Grandma Betty's fondue!  :(   I love those nights at grandma's.  I heard the Super Bowl was a total killing - 43 to 8!  Crazy!  Everyone is going crazy here.  I'd love to get a Seahawks shirt, though!  :)

Brit sent me 25 pics of herself and what she's been doing this year... can I say, ANY MORE GORGEOUS?!  Holy moly???? For realz.  Wow!  Seriously I was just blown away by her.  I love to get pics like that about her life.  I look up to HER like in every aspect of life, seriously.  She's amazing.  Seriously she NEEDS to go on a mission.  She would be the best. Honestly and truly she would!

It's been a great week and the Lord has really blessed us! :)

Love
Sister Wawro

Seahawks stuff EVERYWHERE!

 

 Exchanges :)  With Sister Millet!

Sister Oswald, my companion - so funny!

Cool little marina by our house