"If you want to know how much you are loved, count all the waves in the sea."

That's what a sign says in the member's house we do our laundry at. I thought it fitting since it is February and Arizona's 104th birthday is coming up on the 14th of this month.

I also love that quote because the waves are a constant. Every morning I can look out my window and see the waves on a continuos roll, until they crash or hit the beach. It doesn't matter if it is raining, hailing,windy, or sunny. Either way, the waves never stop coming. Our Savior's love is like that. Somedays we are filled with resentment towards people, or we make bad choices, or we don't live up to our expectations (actually those things happen everyday, just on different levels), they could be breaks to our Savior's love, but they aren't. See, Christ is the epitome of love through words and deeds. Not only was he a perfect being, but his love is perfect. It's infinite, just like the waves in the sea.

Seaside is a cute touristy town with lots of old, retired people during the off season. I love it! I lied in my last email though, when I said the area was 5 times the land area size of my previous area. It's actually 20. There are lots of places we cover with just forest and water, and not many people. But, it makes finding fun because so rarely do we see people just walking around. It's like a treasure hunt trying to find people to teach. The gold is getting to teach them about God's love and his wonderful plan. We have two investigators right now progressing towards baptismal dates. Ken is golden. He referred himself and wanted a Book of Mormon. His grandma was a Mormon and he loved his grandma a lot :) the other is a referral from her daughter who is a convert of a year. The main thing though is that they both have a desire to change. They recognize that they have agency in this life and can choose where life takes them.

Something that has really stuck out to me this week is that missionary work really is Heavenly Father's work. He knows the souls that are prepared to hear the gospel. He knows them by name. But, he won't lead us to them unless we are living worthily and being obedient. Sometimes Heavenly Father leads us to people who have no interest in the gospel at all to make sure that He can trust us with these individual souls and that we will take care of them, and work with all our might, mind, and strength to bring them back to Him. He also knows us perfectly. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our fears. He knows where we lack in missionary skills or even life skills. Yet he trusts us, and he trusts us to trust him despite our faults. He trusts that we will turn to him as we find those faults and weaknesses so that through His strength we may be able to continue His work. He knows it all. When we confide in Him and listen to the Spirit, and act on those promptings, there are no bad days in missionary work, because we are doing His will. That is what I learned this week. I wish I had learned that 6 months ago. But hey, better now so I can change the rest of my time out here, than later.

That is all I have to say now, except, I saw a whole arch of a rainbow over the ocean in the sky and it was super cool. Water and light is an awesome combination!

Hello Family and Friends! 

Sorry I didn't send an email last week. It's been pretty crazy lately. After 6 months of being in downtown Vancouver, Washington I have been transferred to Seaside, Oregon. 

My new area is about 6 times the size of my previous area. It covers at least 5 little cute touristy towns and is all spread out. (We have Canon beach and that famous rock in the ocean.) Seaside only has 5,000 people, so it is a lot smaller than Vancouver. Our apartment overlooks the ocean and we can walk on the beach, so my new companion, Sister Pope, and I have done that :) surfers dot the waves in the day-time and crab-boats are illuminated spots of light in the night. The first two days I was in Seaside it was a downpour of rain with probably a two-minute long let up. The town really looks like the city of Chew-and-Swallow from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

More on Sister Pope, she is awesome! She has only been out three months. Sister Tauala and I actually took her and her MTC companion out to lessons with us on her first day in the mission, so that is pretty cool. She is from Utah, but unlike Sister Nilson and Sister Tauala who are Ute fans, she is a Y fan. So no more college rivalry happens during weekly planning :)

This week has been up and down. I had to say "see you later" to all the people who have become my family in the past 6 months. I'm going to see a lot of them again one day, either when I come back and visit or when I get married. Either way, I have their addresses so I can bombard them with letters :) I have also met new people here in Seaside who are awesome. That's something that I love about the church. It doesn't matter where you go, you are going to have a family because the gospel is true and makes people happy and loving and reach out to you.

Something I have been thinking about is faith and having faith in God. There is a wonderful devotional by Elder Lynn G. Robbins from 2015 called, "Tasting the Light." He references Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon a lot, but something he addresses is faith, especially faith in God from a very logical standpoint. He first talks about Pascal who is a mathematician. Yes, the pascal triangle thingy you had to learn for Trig and pre-calculus but never in my life have I used that thingy again. Anywho, he came up with the mathematical theory of probability, which provides the science behind rational choice theory-a logical approach for making the best decisions. When it came to the big question whether or not God exists, he laid out four options. 1) we believe in God. If God exists then woohoo! We are saved, we have exaltation, eternal happiness, it's awesome! 2) we believe in God but he doesn't exist, then there is nothing to loose. We have become a better person by trying to be the best we can be. 3)we don't believe in God, but he exists. Then we loose eternal life. We loose our ability to progress and change. 4) we don't believe in Him, and he doesn't exist, nothing changes. We are the same. So logically it would make sense to believe in God because nothing is lost and eternal happiness is promised.

I thought about that a lot as we ran into some people who didn't believe in the Book of Mormon at all. I know it's true because I have read it and have a witness that it is true from the Holy Ghost. Even if I didn't have that witness, it makes sense to believe in it because I am better person from reading it and grow closer to both my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. There is nothing to loose from reading it and praying to know if it is true. If anything you loose time that could have been spent watching football or Netflix. That's not too bad of atrade-off, is it?
So today I am sharing my witness that I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know from reading it and from daily study and prayer I have come to know my divine nature as a daughter of a God. I have come to know of the greatest, most perfect love felt from my Heavenly Father.
From its pages I have come to know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. That he suffered and died for me, that he would know how to pick me up and carry me all throughout my life. Because life is hard. I am not perfect. And I really dislike the rain. But through Christ I can always see the light and the warmth that comes from truth. So if you are a truth-seeker, pick up the Book of Mormon.
Peace!

Love,  Sister Frisch

Sister Missionary

Sister Frisch is a kind hearted, bright blue eyed, yellow coat & rain booted, big rimmed glasses, joyful missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Seaside!

We went hiking with the Roniger's-8.3miles in "the Gorge". It was beautiful and sunny weather so we had to enjoy it and soak it up.

So yes, I am transferring to Seaside. That was my dream place to go on my mission. Rumor is the sisters live in a beach house there. It is rainy and more stormy then here in Vancouver though. Right now it is the perfect time for whale watching in Seaside and to wave watch.
Somebody at church said the waves were 20 feet tall this past week. My new area is HUGE! It goes down a big chunk of the Oregon coast-further then Canon Beach and up to where the Colombia a River meets the Pacific Ocean. I can't wait to send you pictures.

I am going to miss Vancouver 1st Ward. We have a good system going and so many progressing investigators and finding new people everyday. But, I am also excited to start new somewhere. I'm good at organizing :)

We Had Two Baptisms This Week!

This week was great and not so great all at the same time.

So first off, we were snowed in Sunday and Monday. But Tuesday, we could go out to appointments, so we did :) well, that was the plan, but 10 out of our 14 scheduled lessons this week fell through. It was pretty disappointing. 

Tuesday: Brian also had his third baptismal interview done by one of the zone leaders. When he came out the form was empty and we were confused. The zone leaders said they would have to talk to president about it, so they did and Wednesday we had the form, signed and everything and the okay for Brian to be baptized! Brian also finished reading the Book of Mormon for the second time. He was so excited to be baptized.

He sent us this text when he finished the Book of Mormon.

I've been doing yoga every morning since Christmas, along with 100 jumping jacks and 45 sit ups. Today we have a lot of down time since we can't even go grocery shopping. So, I did yoga a long time today. Here is the side crow pose that I am getting down :)

Sister Frisch and Snow

Winter Wonderland

Washington is beautiful when it snows because the Evergreen trees are, well, evergreen. And the snow is beautiful and white, and it looks likes Narnia, until ice rains comes and plink on everything and makes driving or walking dangerous. We have seen a couple cars fishtail from braking too fast or driving too fast and slipping. Also, some zone leaders slipped on black ice and ended up in a ten car pile up. All of this is new to this missionary from Arizona. Yesterday church was cancelled because of the ice and snow. Today we are again ice/snowed in.  But this is a blessing because our miles are going to be much lower this month.

 Besides the cold weather and snow and ice and rain, everything has been grand! Sister Nilson and I had a resolution to be more obedient, like waking up at 6:30 instead of 6:31 and really trying hard to talk to at least 10 new people a day. Blessings came from that. Just on Wednesday we talked to 21 new people.

 Some of my favorite experiences:

"I do not have a name, I am Catholic."
We witnessed a drug deal.
At least 12 people were smoking marijuana.
"I don't feel like talking about Jesus today."
We met a bisexual couple who looked like they were siblings.
And a potential investigator who is so awesome! Actually a lot of potential investigators.

We have agency- the ability to choose and to act. We have the ability to define ourselves, create ourselves. We can be what we want to be, but we don't have the ability to choose the consequences that come from that. That is something I have been thinking about. We define ourselves as different things: a mother, an employee, a student, a kid, a soldier, disabled, female, male, a musician, anything. We can choose that. But something I have noticed is once that thing that we define ourselves is taken away, we become lost. There is depression, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy because what we were is gone. We literally don't know what to do or what we are.

The only lasting solution I have seen to this, the only thing that brings true peace, comfort, and joy, is defining ourselves as who we really are: sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. That identity and divine nature will always be there, even if we don't acknowledge it. But, if we do acknowledge it, then when we lose our other titles, we can always lean and support on the fact that we do have a loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who died to lift us up.

This is one of my favorite things to teach people: that everyone has worth. That there is a God, who is tangible, who I like to refer to as Heavenly Father. That we are His spirit sons and daughters and that He really does love us. I love it because it is true and when I realized that, I became a much happier, sunnier person.

We are working with so many less actives right now who don't know their worth. That is why I love the poem "The Touch of the Master's Hand", because I am seeing the beauty that comes from people realizing their worth when they allow God in their life. The gospel of Jesus
Christ helps us realize that beauty and light inside of us. It helps us to change and grow. It helps us become like our Heavenly Father and achieve eternal life.