Miracle Week!

A lot of miracles happened this week, but I want to focus on the greatest miracle in the history of the world- The Resurrection of Christ. This event is the last act in the three part play of Christ's Atonement that includes his suffering in Gethsemane and his death on the cross.

The resurrection of Christ overcame the bands of death.  The resurrection made it possible for all of us, it doesn't matter if we are good or bad, believe in God or don't, would one day have immortal, perfect bodies. The resurrection overcame one of the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve (when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden)- a physical death. And that is incredible! Only a complete, whole individual could do that, our Savior.

One of our eternigators (somebody who has been taught by the missionaries for over two years) has been having a hard time with hearing us at lessons (she is 75) and just found out she has breast cancer. We decided she really needed to feel the peace and comfort that comes from the Spirit as that is where her greatest understanding and conversion will stem from. So we planned a lesson centered on Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Since Betty can hear a loud speaker and enjoys visuals we chose three short videos on the Gospel Library- "For God So Loved the World," "None Were With Him," and "He Lives."

The first was a brief depiction of Christ's life, the second was a testimony from one of our modern-day apostles, Elder Holland, and the third was the Easter video from a couple years ago. Betty felt the love from her Heavenly Father and it was a beautiful thing to witness. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he sent his only Begotten Son to be tried, feel pain, distress, our sins, sadness, so he would know how to take care of us. Betty felt some of the enabling power that comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

This is the Lord's work. His work is hastening and Sister Mortensen and I are doing all we can to keep up with His hastening. It's awesome :)

Hail!

The calm after the storm.

Sister Frisch and Sister Mortensen

There is a part in the New Testament in Mark where Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles are sailing on the Sea of Galilee. Christ is asleep, very exhausted from his day's labor, and a storm has risen on the sea. Winds are crazy, waves are scary, and I'm sure the torrent of water seems endless and frightening. By this time the apostles are full of fear that their boat is not going to survive the storm as they battle to keep their boat from capsizing . So, they wake up Jesus, and in verse 39 of Mark chapter 4 it says, "he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm."

Lately it's been super stormy in Seaside. Like 80+ mph winds and high tide warnings, power outages, and trees and signs (metal speed limit signs being completely bent to the ground because of the wind) falling all over the place, and hail. Lots of it. So it's been pretty awesome. Right now though, as I type this, the sun is peeking through and I am actually seeing a blue sky. How beautiful. 

A week ago- Monday- as our district was playing gatorball (a mixture of soccer and rugby) I received a call from the mission office. It was Sister Burgoyne calling to tell me Bonnie, someone I taught for six months in Vancouver was getting baptized this weekend and I was going to give the talk on the Holy Ghost! HOLY MOLY !

Backstory on Bonnie. Missionaries first came in contact with her two weeks before I came as a newbie missionary to Vancouver. She was the very first person I invited to be baptized and she downright told me, "no." Well, over the course of six months, her answer to that question

became a "maybe", to a "when it will happen, not an IF it will happen." She has a huge testimony of her loving Heavenly Father and has faith. As Alma puts it in the Book of Mormon, "And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

So, in the past month and a half I've been gone, she found her faith and has been growing it and was baptized on March 12th. Sister Mortensen and I were able to receive permission to travel the 2+hours from Seaside, OR to Vancouver, WA to participate in her baptismal service.  Sister Tauala and Sister Nilson (my two previous companions) were also there because they taught Bonnie. It was a joyous reunion. I started crying because I was so happy. I love something Sister Tauala said. It went something like this, "I pray that if the reunion in the Celestial Kingdom is just like what all of you witnessed today in the gathering of all these missionaries, I pray that all of us may be there." Man, we tasted a little bit of the happiness and joy found in the Celestial

Kingdom and the love Heavenly Father has for each and everyone of His children.

This moment- Bonnie's baptism, is just one reason why the mission is worth it. There are so many hard, trying moments on the mission and in life that often leave me to cry out, "Lord, save me." In contrast, the calm afterwards is so sweet as I do reach out to my Heavenly Father who has been there all along, and he says, "Peace, be still." Right now I can feel that peace as I continue to look to my Savior and see miracles taking place.

True peace and happiness are found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know God lives and loves. The Atonement is real and works. How grateful I am for the Atonement, especially the enabling power which allows me to feel of God's love and heals my soul. As we look to our Savior, we can always find peace.

All my love,

Sister Frisch

Sunshine!

I don't have much to say, at least lately, I haven't had too much to say. Sister Mortensen is my new companion and she, as well, is a Ute fan. Hmmmm, haha, she's awesome!

 I've been studying a lot on grace and I love this quote by Elder Oaks, "It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts."
This past transfer was the hardest transfer on my mission and Sister Mortensen is the hugest answer to prayers. Seriously. But I've also learned the most this past transfer of the enabling power of the Atonement and patience. Holy moly, this is the Lord's work and everything is done in His timing on His watch. On the mission we have to have patience for ourselves, our companions, for those we teach, and how the work goes. Patience is definitely one of my weaknesses and I am working hard to make it a strength. But that is something I love about grace, as I put in my best efforts, and am exhausted to the point of giving up, as I reach to God, He reaches back with much more strength than I have.

Well, there is my two cents for the day. Peace!

Love you!

 Transfers. I am holding Sister Tuhoe's ukulele and jamming out to it. I'm still really bad at this whole picture taking thing

Friday, March 4, 2016

Today we helped clean the church building. Each auxiliary is in charge for a certain  month and relief society is it for March. Nobody signed up for this week so we helped the Relief Society president clean the building. We then did service with the Warenton sisters at the Catholic food bank. We then did weekly planning, which went super well! We did most of it before dinner! We had dinner with the Davis family. I had met sister Davis. Brother Davis I had talked to on the phone before, but I thought he was one of the kids. I asked if I could talk to his mother and I got an immediate hang up. Oops! The Davis family is fun, though Brother Davis is going inactive. His testimony is being tested somehow. We have been teaching members the restoration and talking about why member missionary work is hard and so we did that as our dinner thought with them. Brother Davis had been giving us a hard time about a dinner thought and the kids had been rowdy, but when we started talking about the first vision, the sprint was so strong. I wanted to cry. The kids were all quite and listening and Brother Davis was listening, too. I hope he comes back to church. We then went home and finished up weekly planning. We went through the ward directory.  For everybody I have a face and name together, we highlighted . We are going to start visiting every family and sharing the message of the restoration with them and getting to know them, as they are better established in the community than we are.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Today was an awesome but exhausting day. We had 6 lessons with investigators and less actives. It was also sunny! We had a lesson with Billie. She told us how she and her husband-Richard met. It's cute. They've been married for 40 years. We also had dinner at the Bushing's. Natalee was there. She had a friend over and while we were talking to sister Bushing, I overheard Natalee telling her friend she was going to get baptized soon and become a missionary and then go to school to become a teacher. It was awesome! She then watched little Mormon messages with her friend on Sister Bushing's tablet. It was an awesome missionary moment. Though we still can't get Sister Bushing or Natalee to church, Natalee is looking forward to going on a mission and getting baptized. 

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Fast Sunday! I forgot to fast until we were in the middle of Ward council and people talked about the Ward fast we were doing. I looked to Sister Mortensen and just mouthed, "oops!" She smiled and she knew I forgot to fast. Haha. Oh dear. So I didn't fast. Oops. Ken shared his testimony on the stand though. It was awesome! We were able to teach the Restoration to the Erdts family and Sister Nebeker. I love these two families so much! Sister Erdts gave us waterproof maps of all of the hikes on the Oregon coast. We live really close to a trail head, so for exercise one morning we are going to wake up early and hike a bit. I'm excited! We are also going to plan a hike for the district to do on p-day. Sister Mortensen and I really bonded. She's awesome. She's an amazing teacher. So yeah, awesome!