Monday, September 28, 2015

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

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