I will Always Associate the Smell of Weed with Washington...

Always. Somebody smokes a ton of weed next to the member's house we live in. There are also three cannabis herberys in my area.

Also, the sunshine peeped out this week. It was blinding but beautiful. I just stood in it for a moment, and then I photosynthesized. Haha.

Tuesday we traveled as a zone to the Portland temple. It's beautiful! There is a huge atrium in it with real plants. You can see the angel Moroni from the windows in the atrium. We did get caught in traffic though on the way home, so I was in Portland for a good half of the day. There are bridges everywhere! I love it! Also the city reminded me of Phoenix, so it felt like a rainy day at home. I love the temple. There is so much to learn there and a peace there. No matter what temple I go to, it feels like home.

Christmas was awesome. Sister Nilson and I had decorated a little corner of our basement living quarters as a "Christmas corner". We had a miniature Christmas tree thanks to Sister Nilson's parents. We decorated it and any packages we received the past two weeks we wrapped and placed under the tree. Christmas morning we opened presents and stockings and then headed over the Rowley's (recent converts) house. We skyped our families which was wonderful! I love my family so much and am so grateful to be sealed to them for eternity.

By brothers are hilarious as always. We ended Christmas Day with caroling with our zone. It was fun caroling with missionaries because we were laughing, bringing joy to people late Christmas Day, and there was just this light feeling.

Good news! At one of Brian's lessons we needed another male to make numbers right and spontaneously a guy (named Cole) was open minded and wanted to sit in. At the end of the lesson he asked for reading
materials, and so of course we gave him a Book of Mormon. Turns out him and Brian have been reading from our gospel principles book along with reading all of the additional study scriptures from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. Cole wants to take the lessons too! Man, Brian is on top of this missionary work thing. It's amazing!

Well, peace! Write to you all next year! (In case you haven't heard that joke yet :D)

The sun peaked out for the first time in weeks. It felt similar to what I imagine a mole popping its head out of the ground. I was blind. But I loved it. It snow/rained the next day.

A Week Full of Miracles (and rain)

 Hello from my new companion, Sister Nilson, and me!

Miracles and rain aren't surprises, right? I'm still not sure how to organize my emails, so they will come how they come. :)

This week was full of miracles (as told by the subject line). First thing: we have 7 new investigators. WE FOUND SEVEN NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!  More like they found us. Last week during p-day while we were playing soccer as we always do, the Elders in the ward next to us said, "we have a referral for you and he has read the whole Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized." So sure enough, the elders passed along that we hold a bible study at a VA recovery place every Tuesday and that Brian (the referral) could meet us there.

The moment I stepped into bible study I could tell who Brian was. His countenance shown with the light of Christ. We even had a full room of 10 people at bible study-4 being people Brian brought. So, we read John chapter 14 in bible study, talked about it with everybody's religious backgrounds, we even had an atheist in the mix! It was awesome! People had questions about God and the chapter we had just read and Brian responded with our doctrine from the Book of Mormon! It was the coolest thing ever to see. See, we believe in both the Book of Mormon and the Bible, I love the Book of Mormon because it fills all the gaps the Bible has. After bible study we stayed and talked to Brian and heard his story. He has had a very humbling background that in May brought him to God. He then found the Mormons, read all of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Old Testament, New Testament, went to general conference at the stake center( this is how the elders got in touch with him) and wants to be baptized.

We had our first lesson with him yesterday (November 1) where 3 others (Doug, Kelly, and Troy) sat in and participating. Brian was there because he wanted to be baptized. Doug was there because he was raised Baptist in Phoenix, AZ, knew Mormons, also had very humbling circumstances that brought him to read the Book of Mormon, but he had never met missionaries. Kelly is currently angry with God and had heard of Joseph Smith, but wasn't quite sure about the whole thing, and Troy was raised Protestant, had never met a Mormon, and wanted to learn more.

We taught the restoration, making it applicable to them, and helping them feel of God's love, because that is at the very heart of this gospel- is the love God has for each and everyone of His children. The moment we got to Joseph Smith's account, the spirit was so strong.

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me...When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” Joseph Smith--History 1:16–17.

Doug teared up. Afterward there was silence. The spirit was so thick that I didn't want to say anything to make it disappear. After about a minute, Troy said, "where has this been all my life, especially in the last 9 years?"

By the end of the lesson we had baptismal dates for Brian and Doug, and Troy is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know the Spirit was In the room, because that is what really teaches and testifies to those who have an open and humbled heart. The church is true!

So that is four of our new investigators, and the other three are the children of the less active family we brought the birthday cake over to last week.

More exciting news: Sister Nilson is my new companion from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is so patient through training as well as how often we got lost. Here is story time: Our area is very long:it takes about 20 minutes to drive from the top to the bottom which is at the Columbia River. We were contacting people downtown and a lot of the streets down there are one way. One street that I thought I had to take was actually the wrong one, and before I knew it we were on the freeway over the bridge that takes us across the Columbia river to Oregon-Portland, Oregon. So we got lost in Oregon for a total of 20 minutes before I got off the freeway, turned around, and came back over the bridge to Vancouver. And dear Sister Nilson was patient as I freaked out because we were completely out of our area and zone, and maybe even our mission, I'm not sure. All that matters is that we are safe and sound, and that president just laughed when he found out. Apparently, that little adventure has happened before with 1st ward missionaries.

Last of all, I have really been studying charity lately and all of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is my favorite on the subject. Also a thought I had is not only do we need to submit our will with God's will, but replace our will with His will. It makes us happier, and we can truly become the best people he wants us to be.

Well, I love you all, peace!
Sister Frisch

Windy Vancouver

Important News!

First off, one must pronounce Washington as "Warshington". Don't forget the "r". Same with warsher and dryer. Also, if one lives in Vancouver, Washington, call it "the Couve" so as not to confuse the place with Vancouver, Canada. Yeah.

Second thing, when a York Mint Pattie breaks near your ear, it makes the same sound as when your head gets stuck in a spider web.

Here is normal Washington winter weather.  

The area that I serve in is perfect for Halloween because a lot of the houses are older than the 1960's, overgrown with moss, vines, and plants.  Real spider webs are everywhere, and it is dreary.  I love it.

Third thing, I AM TRAINING!!! On Wednesday we have transfers and I am staying in my area and training a newbie from the MTC. Weird thing is, is that it has already been three months since I have been out. Crazy how time flies!

The Sistrict

(A district made up of sisters, except for the district leader and his companion.)

Fourth: never doubt the power of a birthday cake. There is an in-active family in the ward who had announced to everybody when they moved in that they wanted to be a part of the ward. After they were moved in they kind of shut everyone out. So, as missionaries, we were the last ones to still have a tie to them. The ward needed the mom's birthday, so our wonderful ward missionary leader made an incredible snickers cake and we took it over. We sang "Happy Birthday" on the door step which got us past the door step. Woot! Woot! Turns out the mother's birthday is the same day as your's, dad! We ended up talking to the whole family for 45 minutes! At the end of it, the three kids want to be baptized and their mother supports them! It was a miracle! So, "YAY!" for birthday cakes.

 People at bible study.  

Pictured is me, Tom, Marrisa, and Sister Tauala.  Hugh from Bible Study.  He thinks I am the most knowledgeable person about the bible he has ever met.  Thanks mom and dad for having us watch Living Scriptures bible videos along with Veggie Tales.

 When one finds a blanket/shawl thing, one must then pretend to be a hobbit.

Our "shwarmas". We call them that because we can't remember the actual name of these shawl/blanket things that Bonnie gave us.

That is me, in my "shwarma" by our car. Word.

 Horrock's family.  WAPI making party with the Sistrict.  Selfie with the STLs during a sister study activity.

 The Walkers.  They are converts as well.  

Brother Roniger proud of his homemade kimchi (me photobombing the picture).

The members we live with.

I love the mission.  It does not seem like three months have passed.  I've fallen in love with my area. On Wednesday, I will meet my new companion, bright-eyed and ready to learn and immerse herself in the gospel and service.  This has definitely been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but also the most amazing!  That is all I have time for, so peace!

Love,

Sister Frisch

Happy!

 Isn't Washington beautiful? (Sister Tauala is my personal photographer.)

Hello!

I am just going to relay a story from Monday that was a turn for the better after last week. This week has been the best week ever!

Monday, October 12th, was awesome!
We had a lesson with the Micronesian family that we found, This is the order:  Kilatis is the grandma, Jackie is her daughter-in-law (she is not really interested), Gemsin and Gemlin are Jackie's children. Kilatis's niece is Kantita. Her son is Junior. So Gemsin, Gemlin, and Junior are second cousins or something like that. Gemsin is 10 and reminds me of my little brother Ryon. Junior is the same age. Gemlin is 7.

As we walk up to their apartment complex, and just as we turn the corner Gemsin and Gemlin start yelling, "Hi, Sister Tauala!" They don't remember my name. By the end they call me Sister Fish :) they then say they have bad news. Gemsin explains, "Grandma is moving to Missouri tomorrow." We then tell them we are visiting with them today and that the elders are coming to give grandma a blessing. She had boils all over her stomach and back. We give them pictures of Christ-the one where He has come to the Americas and people are gathered around him.

We walk upstairs to the apartment- number 43. Shoes piled high in front of the door. We take off our shoes and enter. It's clean, warm, leftover food from dinner still on the stove top. In the middle of their living room is a giant mat that we sit on while we teach. Kilatis doesn't speak a lot of English, so Gemsin translates a lot.  Kilatis asks if the elders are coming. She had asked us last week for them to give her a blessing. We tell her yes. 5 minutes later the elders knock on the door. Gemsin answers while we are still seated on the mat. They take off their shoes and come in.

As they walked in, the Holy Ghost was so strong. Gemlin looked excited, she could feel it. The elders read a scripture from the New Testament where Jesus heals a man and it is based off of he man's faith. They ask if she has faith to be healed. She says yes. Sister Tauala set up a chair for her to sit on, and then the elders proceeded with a blessing.

Gemlin sat by Sister Tauala. Gemsin sat by me. Junior sat by Gemsin, all listening to the blessing. It was beautiful.

The elders immediately left once it was over. Kilatis returned to sitting on the mat and said we would probably not be returning. (Because Kilatis was leaving to Missouri) sister Tauala then explains how we love her. We love the children, but most importantly, Heavenly Father loves all of us. Kilatis closed her eyes and started saying, "praise the Lord." She wept. She prayed in Chuckeese. As her weeping turned silent, Sister Tauala started singing. She sang in Samoan a song of gratitude to the Lord. A song only sung at funerals, but a song this Micronesian family from Hawaii would know. As Sister Tauala poured out her heart in this song, my heart filled. I knew it wouldn't be the last time we see this family. Tears slipped from my eyes. The spirit also confirmed this was one reason why Sister Tauala was called to this area and mission.

If there is a reason for the saying, "heart to heart," this was a moment. At the end of the song all was quiet. Everybody was just feeling the spirit and the peace and comfort that comes from it. Without words spoken we knew, that Kilatis knew and gave us permission, to come back.

After a few minutes I broke the silence with asking Gemsin how he felt during the blessing. He said happy. Gemlin said the song made her happy. Junior felt good. Kilatis smiled. I explain that is the spirit also called the Holy Ghost. Gemlin still had her picture of Christ laying on the mat so I asked the children if they would like to read the account portrayed in this picture in the Book of Mormon. Junior is super excited and brings out his English Book of Mormon. Kilatis understands and brings out the Chukeese Book of Mormon. Together Gemsin and Junior turn to 3 Nephi 11- the climax of the Book of Mormon. Junior reads aloud the introduction. Gemsin helps Kilatis turn to 3 Nephi 11 in her Book of Mormon. They mark the chapter with the picture and promise to read it. I ask them to call us once they have read it. Gemsin says he will.

We have to leave so Kilatis chooses Sister Tauala to say the prayer. After prayer we go around hugging and shaking hands. Gemlin asks, "Are we going to see you again?" I reply yes. She gives us each an apple and a water bottle. And we leave. We leave behind Kilatis and the kids. We leave behind the pile of shoes at the door. We leave behind three copies of the Book of Mormon. We leave behind testimonies that Christ lives and that He loves us. And we leave behind a piece of our heart.

But we are going to see them again, because we know, and Kilatis knows, that these children need to be baptized.

We found this cool magnifying glass in our basement.

This is a rambutan.

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice...

First off, here is a video of Sister Tauala and I singing. We do it a lot at dinner lessons. One of our investigators made Sister Tauala a ukulele, so that's cool.

We have found a large Micronesian family who wants to be baptized and we have our second lesson with them today. We also have have three investigators on date for baptism this next month, it's exciting!

 This is one of the member's dogs.  It is so cute.

Newel from Bible study

 Brother Roniger catches possums.  I watched him drown this one.  It was sad.

  

Our ward mission leader made us delicious pumpkin shakes.

We are matching.

This was my outfit today. Another skirt from Nana and yellow jacket!

 I match our wall!

Me in one of the new skirts from Nana and a shirt that Sister Tauala gave me.

We had the opportunity to watch the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference with Bonnie (one of our investigators). (October 3, 2015) We challenged her to write down a few questions about anything, the church, God, ect and pray to have them answered in conference. She took that challenge. After we watched the session with her she proceeded to tell us how every single question she had was answered.  It was awesome! Afterwards we sang/played "How Can I Be" for her. The
spirit was so strong and the whole room was warm. Bonnie started tearing up as we bore testimony of our Latter-Day prophet and the Book of Mormon. It is so amazing to see her progress in the gospel.

Riya & I

Besides teaching and meetings, we have been doing lots of tracting in the letter streets of Vancouver. This week I found out we aren't even supposed to be down there after dark, oops. We have a ton of less actives we are trying to contact; most of them we are finding have moved. On Saturday (October 10th) we were finding less-actives. On S and T street which are the ghetto of the ghetto in Vancouver. I love finding addresses in the letter streets because the house # is based off of what number AVE the person lives off of (those streets run in numerical order from east to west) and then the letter street (in alphabetical order north to south). We couldn't find a specific house though and walked around a whole block to find the address. When we got to the house, it looked like children lived there and just a fun little house. We knocked looking for a less active. A lady opened the door sobbing. She had a fat lip, swollen eyes, it wasn't good. The first thing I asked her was was she alright. The response was she is fine. She didn't look fine at all. She asked what we wanted. We responded we were looking for the less active. The less active wasn't there. We then left her with our card and left because there was nothing else we could do. I felt useless. There was a heaviness in my heart because sister Tauala and I could tell exactly what had gone down.


Working in the letter streets I have realized a lot of things. The type of houses and the environments people work in like in the book:  "the Jungle" by Upton Sinclair still exist. How can I, as a girl who has lived in a "red neck" neighborhood, with mostly Mormons, with educated parents understand them and help them? I don't know what it is like to go hungry, to be dirty, to be cold, to be hated, to be abused, to go homeless, to be hopeless. I've been sad and scared, but I have never seen eyes so full of fear until I saw that woman answer the door. And that was the trigger. The rest of the evening I keep on thinking what could I do and so was pretty silent. Sister Tauala knew something was up. I broke down crying. Seeing something in real life I have only read in books shook me pretty badly. We called the mission president and talked about it.

I couldn't focus on the work the rest of the evening or Sunday. So Sunday evening, I received a blessing from my district leader and Ward mission leader. Within seconds the spirit was so strong and I felt this huge weight come off of my chest. It was an incredible amount of peace that filled the room. It wiped away any discouragement and sadness I felt, and I knew the girl would be okay. Our mission president forbade us from going back to that house, but I felt a sense of hope. 

See, I don't know what people go through. I probably will never understand it, but our Savior does.
I am so grateful for the priesthood power, because it is real. That power and authority from God makes things real and binding here on earth and in heaven. I found this picture of Christ passing the sacrament. The deacons who pass it on Sundays are doing it under the authority of God, just as Christ would. It puts it in a more real perspective.

Sunshine and Lollipops

Hiya!

The mission is the best thing ever. Really!

Today we hiked Multnomah Falls in Oregon, so this is a pretty sparse and short email.

This week we had exchanges and I was in charge of our area, so I got to drive! We only got lost once, and it was on the way to making WAPIS. I overshot a street and passed the Port of Vancouver, realizing we were lost when we were no longer near civilization and fields and trees were all around us. But we made it to WAPIS! Only 10 minutes late!

The best part of this week was General Conference. We had the wonderful opportunity to hear from our Latter-day prophet, apostles, and other inspired speakers. One of the talks that I loved was by Elder Haynie. I don't remember much, except the talk brought to my remembrance a poem I memorized called:

 "The Touch of the Master's hand" 

This is how it goes:

''Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer

Thought it scarcely worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin,

But held it up with a smile:

"What am I bidden, good folks, "he cried,

"Who"ll start the bidding for me?"

"A dollar, a dollar," then, "two!" "Only two?

Two dollars, and who'll make it three?

Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;

Going for three-" But no,

From the room, far back, a gray-haired man

Came forward and picked up the bow;

Then wiping the dust from the old violin,

And tightening the loose strings,

He played a melody pure and sweet

As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,

With a voice that was quiet and low,

Said, "What am I bid for the old violin?"

And he held it up with the bow.

"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two.

Two thousand! And who'll make it three?

Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice

And going, and gone!" said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,

"We do not quite understand

What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply

"The touch of a master's hand."

And many a man with a life out of tune,

And battered and scarred with sin,

Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd

Much like the old violin.

A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine,

A game- and he travels on.

He's "going" once, and "going" twice,

He's "going and almost "gone."

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd

Can never quite understand

The worth of a soul and the change that's wrought

By the touch of the Master's hand."

The Atonement of Jesus Christ can touch any of our lives. It was designed perfectly by our Father in Heaven who loves us with a love unimaginable to the human senses. Despite the course our life may be going, the pain we may feel, our sadness, depression, fears, anything, Christ can touch our hearts and change us. He descended below us so that he may lift us, even with all of our faults. Grace saves us, but the atonement and repentance change us. When we let the Master's hand touch our lives, we realize our divine nature and feel of His love- the love that is always there, we just have to reach back. We are all sons and daughters of a God. A God so real, so tangible, who is testified of in both the Book of Mormon and Bible. And I am here because I love Him and am learning to see the world how He sees it.

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Frisch 

Short Hiking Video

No Better Place to Be (Cheesy)

Hello!

A lot of this week was spontaneous reliance on the Lord. 

Monday evening we got a call from Brother Auchziger. He has a ton of health problems, one of them being cancer. So, Monday he called us and bishop to come and talk with him. We is 69 and hopes to live to be 70. He told us he believes he has 6 months to live and started planning out his funeral and things. 

We haven't been able to see Bonnie in a while because she has been sick, but Tuesday we decided to drop by with some goodies to see how she was doing. We ended up spending two hours with her listening to Christmas music, listening to her concerns, organizing her CDs, and eating goodies. Sometimes we need to have those bonding moments with investigators because they are normal people. So are we.

(WAPIS-water pasteurization indicators)

Wednesday, we made more WAPIS (WAPIS are water pasteurization indicators)! As always :) we meet new people all the time there. We tracked a lot downtown, visiting the old folks home as well. There is a sweet old lady-83years old named June. We call her Miss June. We took her to visit a less active in a different part of the old folks home. Long story short he wasn't there as we knocked and rang a doorbell, but on the doors are these other things right below the peep holes. I asked June what they were for and what happens if we push them. She proceeded to tell me, "they'll probably blow up." Straight face and all. She's a funny lady. Gotta love Miss June! Also, a couple weeks ago we printed out the pictures we took with Bill for him and he shows them to everybody! We are going to find frames to put them in. Man, I love old people.

Right now our teaching pool is small. We have three progressing investigators-one progressing towards a baptismal date. Bonnie, Makalii (new investigator this week), and Virignia (baptismal date!) so, we are trying to find more people. Now, the best way to find people to teach is through members. We have found that the number of people baptized found by missionary efforts (tracting) in this mission is next to none. Like 5% or something tiny. Members play a HUGE role! And I never realized that until I got out here. Members and missionaries together bring the best results for bring souls unto Christ, Not just the missionaries. So, we are still in that dilemma of trying to re-activate 400 inactive members, or trying to clean up the records. On Friday, I called 12 numbers from the ward directory in a row and all of the phones were disconnected. We have also found a couple addresses where the people no longer live there, so that is always fun, sifting out records. 

Thursday, I had my first break down. I couldn't stop crying for 40ish minutes and just felt so stressed and frustrated and sad. After the breakdown we contacted a referral who is a potential investigator! We are meeting with them next week to invite them to take the lessons. Then, we spent the evening with Roger and Vickie. They are converts in the ward, in their mid and late 50's. Roger has had terrible health his whole life with heart failure, etc. A couple of weeks ago he went in for surgery to get his pace maker replaced and he ended up having terrible blood pressure and was given 6 months to live. So, we check up on them every now and then. What was cool was while we visited them, we realized they would be perfect to bring along to an appointment with Donna and Dave. Donna and Dave are stagnant investigators, but Roger and Vickie are a lot like them. I am excited to see how our next appointment goes. Roger and Vickie have such wonderful testimonies and impactful conversion stories. That was a powerful, spiritual moment after my breakdown. It gave me a little momentum. 

Friday was weekly planning. So, the day goes as follows:

6:30 am wake up and workout

7 shower and get ready

7:30 breakfast

8 personal study

9 companion study

10-11 weekly planning part 1

11-12 lunch

12-2:30 weekly planning part 2

After 2:30 tracking and visiting less-active members of our congregation

(our appointment fell through )

5:00 dinner. We ate at Jerusalem with members, a Mediterranean food place. 

6 tracking and visiting LA (less-active members)

We ended up stopping at a members house at about 6:45pm just to say hi and leave a short message but it turned into dinner number 2 because they kept insisting we eat Thai food. So we did. It was delicious! They have a young less active member living with them, so we taught them a lesson.

8:15pm had a meeting with the ward mission leader and that ended the night.

Saturday, we did three hours of tracting after studies and service. It was the perfect time to go because we talked to at least 20 people! One house sister Tauala had a strong prompting to go to. It was set back from the road, pretty much in the middle of the forest. I felt fine going there, so we did. As we walked up the driveway a lady walked out and was very nice. We asked if she had a belief in God and she replied, "I'm looking for one." Bing. Golden. She is looking for a relationship with God. After talking with her some more she broke down crying saying her younger sister got in a car accident just yesterday and broke her neck. She wants us to pray for her. Sister Tauala then went into the plan of salvation and brought out a “Book of Mormon” to share with the lady. She was looking for one of the scriptures that talks about the SpriteKit world in the doctrine of Christ scriptures we have been reading. As she struggled I got the strong impression to give this lady my “Book of Mormon” I have been marking all up while on my mission. So, I did. I flipped through it I came upon the perfect chapter to share with this lady. We left. I hope we hear from that lady soon. Her name is Brandy.

Saturday was also General Women's Conference September 2015. AWESOME! It was pretty cool because every single thing that was talked about in Women's Conference sister Tauala and I had studied that morning. My favorite was the story President Uchtdorf shared "Summer with Great Aunt Rose". An investigator was supposed to come with us to watch it, but she bailed, so that was sad.

Sunday was awesome because it was fast and testimony meeting and everything was great, but one of the coolest things was we were contacting a referral and the mother-in-law to the referral ended up answering the door. She asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We said no, Mormons. Her face lit up like she was coming home and found out that she was a member long ago in Guam and is still a member. She is coming to church with members next Sunday. I am so excited to see this lady again.

This is Brother and Sister Latta. They are AWESOME!

Today, before grocery shopping we got another call from Brother Auchziger. His wife has dementia and had fallen in the shower and the care giver needed help lifting her. So, we drove over as fast as we could and helped lift her out of the shower. The care giver was pretty shaken up and so was Brother Auchziger. I love that guy. And all the old people.

This week I felt the spirit confirm to me at every location that this is where we need to be right now. And I feel at peace and am filled with so much love for these people. Sometimes my heart aches with the troubles they are going through, but when I testify of Christ and His Atonement, nobody can help but feel comforted. This gospel is true!

I love you guys so much! The boys grow up so fast and are smart and athletic. Mom, you are the most self-less human I have ever met. And dad you will continue to be the most intelligent person I know.  I have the best family in the world.

Love you guys!

Sister Savanah Frisch 

Washington Vancouver Mission

2223 NW 99th Street

Vancouver, WA 98665

It Rains a Lot in Washington!

Tracting in the rain.

First off.

Here is my mailing address:

Sister Savanah Lynn Frisch

Washington Vancouver Mission

2223 NW 99th St

Vancouver, WA 98665

Second thing. I had my first baptism on Saturday and it was incredible! It was for a cute 10 year old. Her mom is super inactive and didn't even come to the baptism, but her dad is starting to come back. After the baptism, he said he wants to work towards becoming an elder and being endowed. So, that is way cool! We are working a ton with less actives and part-member families.

Third thing. Transfers were this week and we have 23 new missionaries. We have a super young mission- over 75% have been out for less than a year. There were also at least 6, 6 week old trainers and most everyone else is a 3 month old trainer, so we are the young training the younger in missionary work.

We took out two sisters, so here we are at the mission home.

 Sister Tauala and I took out these new sisters.  They flew out from the MTC Tuesday morning.

Here is a quote I really loved from Elder Uchtdorf's talk "The Love of God" from general conference in 2009.

"Our Father in Heaven has given us, His children, much more than any mortal mind can comprehend. Under His direction the Great Jehovah created this wondrous world we live in. God the Father watches over us, fills our hearts with breathtaking joy, brightens our darkest hours with blessed peace, distills upon our minds precious truths, shepherds us through times of distress, rejoices when we rejoice, and answers our righteous petitions.
        He offers to His children the promise of a glorious and infinite existence and has provided a way for us to progress in knowledge and glory until we receive a fulness of joy. He has promised
us all that He has.
        If all that is not enough reason to love our Heavenly Father, perhaps we can learn from the words of the Apostle John, who said, “We love him, because he first loved us.”

Sister Frisch

 This is Kailie, the girl who was baptized this last Saturday.

 Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Bristow.

This stove is from the 1950's.

We met this lady with a bunch of plants in bird cages. It was rad.

 More tracting in the rain.