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