This week we saw some pretty great things. 

 

First of all, I believe in miracles, ok? 

 

So on Friday night we were knocking as we usually do from 5-7 (it's much nicer in the sunshine lemme tell ya) and we looked at our phone at 6:59 and said "ok, one more door" and so we debated which one to go to and walked up to this kind of hidden in the backwoods house to these 2 guys outside drinking and smoking, so we kind of called out "hiii!" and introduced ourselves and what we were doing and one of them said, Ok. I'll listen to ya. SO we walked up closer and started talking to them - Levi and John - and basically taught them the whole restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon and they had tons of honest questions and we cleared up a lot of misconceptions and we were there about 45 minutes teaching them and at the end they said we could come back and share more! So we're going back Tuesday night :) Woopwoop!

 

We had a lesson with James (who we found last week and was super excited to see us) Monday night and he was super into everything and we had a recently RM Lindsey come with us (she's amazing) and the lesson went super well and at the end I invited him to be baptized and he was like "I am baptized" and we were like "...in this church?" and he was like "yeah, I mean in Tacoma but yeah" and so come to find out he was baptized when he was 9 but didn't learn anything and never went to church so he knows next to nothing but wants to learn! So that's always a fun awkward moment. But it was way good. He didn't come to church yesterday though which was a bummer. 

 

Our 40 day fast in YSA is going awesome - we had 2 referrals this week! Yay! We haven't been able to contact them despite our almost-stalker efforts.. But we're excited. The ward is doing good. We had a girl bring her friend to church yesterday and after I had talked to her for a while and me and Sis Tanner were going to invite her to take the lessons she came up to us and said "ok I can't lie to the sister missionaries anymore - she's not an investigator. she's a RM too and she just wanted to know what it would be like to be an investigator" and it was way funny. We almost had a new investigator.. haha. 

I guess eventually living in WA the rain would come, especially after so much sunny beauty, so the past few days the heavens opened and poured us out a blessing of rain on rain on rain. I love it. But our plans for street contacting all day Saturday didn't work out the way we'd hoped they would, so it just helps you to remember to have good backup plans and include the spirit! There's always something to be doing :)

 

This week as a mission we get to go to the TEMPLE!! I AM SO EXCITED. We get to go as a mission once a year. I haven't been (except for baptisms with Sierra) since the MTC and it's kinda cool how it's almost at my halfway point :) 

 

I got to go on exchange with Sister Rasmussen on Tuesday and it was the complete opposite of last time.. haha. Last time we had like 5-6 lessons while knocking, amazing things, etc, and this time everybody was just angry and everything fell through so we just laughed at the end of the night. It was a super good thing for both of us though - I love exchanges. 

 

At church yesterday we had a farewell and a homecoming the same day! And then a homecoming in YSA! It was so so good. And then last night we had another "I Believe" fireside in Lacey and all of my living companions were there and some people from Oly 3! It was so fun to see everybody and the spirit was so strong - I LOVE those firesides. Being there is one of the strongest feelings of love and the spirit you could ever feel. I LOVE MISSIONARIES. I love being a missionary!!! Things are going great and I love each of you so much and hope you have the greatest week! 

 

Sister Wilson

 

 Oh and this is from our zone activity on Monday - we went to Tumwater falls!

 So we finally got rid of the Christmas tree that's been sitting in our apartment since who knows when

 And this is just what I see everyday here in Washington <3 LOVE

 Dutch came to the fireside! We took a picture of all of us who love him :)

 Dutch came to the fireside! We took a picture of all of us who love him :)

I got to see Sister Harbaugh again!! <3

Also, on a quick note, I wanted to attach this quote that I heard in Avery Neeley's farewell talk at church yesterday because I thought it was super good and wanted to share and hopefully someone can benefit from it the way I did:

 

"Well, my dear sisters, the gospel is the good news that can free us from guilt. We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.
Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to his disciples were, "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20) He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that. He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.
You know that people who live above a certain latitude and experience very long winter nights can become depressed and even suicidal, because something in our bodies requires whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day. Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we'll open the door and let him"  Sister Cheiko Okazaki

:) The Atonement is real.