WASHINGTON FEDERAL WAY MISSION!!!

This week was FULL of miracles! Seriously! It was so busy, fun, exhausting, etc. I loved it! But by looking at me, you wouldn't know it. haha. I'm so unemotional because I want to conserve every ounce of energy that I have!

People were just popping out of the woodwork this week. The spirit was so strong and our faith has increased so much. The Lord really does provide if we trust in Him, have faith, and work on. Sister Dobbins second day in the field, we met a young family. We asked the wife how having a new born helped her to understand her purpose in life. She said that she just wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and raise her kids. OKAY, mormon. They have been looking for a church, so we took them on a church tour a couple days later and there was this huge ward party going on. Despite the noise and chaos, they said that it felt warm and like home. Sister Dobbins put em on date for march 23rd! Das ma gurl!

The next day our plans and back up plans fell through and then this potential's name popped into my head so we ran over there and she was home for the FIRST TIME EVER. we taught her a lesson and set up a return appt. As we were driving away we saw a former investigato standing at the bus stop on a busy road. So we parked the car and ran and talked with him, we talked about church and said a prayer. He came to church for the first time this week!!! Then we went by after church and he is now preparing for baptism. his brother and sister-in-law are less actives. (samoans, yea buddy :) I love being a part of this work!!!

Our investigator that went MIA is baaackkk! She came to church! She was just going through a really rough time, but she got a priesthood blessing this week and she can be baptized whenever! She is just nervous/unsure. Pray that the spirit works on her and that she will feel peace! PLEASE.

Oh my goodness! while we were tracting, we came around the corner to tract another building of the complex and there were 4 cop cars and two policemen standing outside behind bushes with their guns loaded and aimed! hahah! So we turned around and left. Oh man, I LOVE FEDERAL WAY. I love it so much!

It's so crazy to be a part of the work at this time in life. The Lord truly is hastening the work and the church is changing right before our eyes! There is an added measure of excitement for the work these days. It's awesome.

oh. and a HUGE samoan woman kissed me on the cheek this week. i love her!

haha, sorry this is so scattered. carry on, work on :) have faith! love you all!

Love, Sister Mara

"Why you no like my food?!"

Haha! What's good erybody?! Oh my goodness, i had a new baby girl! haha. I just got her yesterday! I'm training again! only two sisters came this transfer but i have to have her ready to train the 20 sisters that are coming next transfer. I'm so incredibly tired but we have already seen miracles together and she invited a family of 3 to be baptized last night!

It was so sad to leave sister fedorovych though. We stayed up laughing for a long time before transfer morning. Man i will miss her. We were doing language study and she asked me how to ask if someone didn't like my food. I was like " why you no like my food?" dead serious. I thought that was correct and then i caught myself. My english is shot.

Sister Dobbins is my new companion. She's american but might as well be from a different country. She is from montana and there are 167 people in her town. the nearest town is 30 miles away and she had 6 students in her graduating class.... yup yup . I love it. She is so enthusiastic about the work and she is so much more prepared than I was haha. oh man. She is a drama and theater person and has an amazing voice! I feel like i'm living in a broadway musical everyday. Life is good.

SO last week was a trial of faith! Oh goodness, i was just sad because we couldn't find or help anyone to come closer to Jesus Christ. Then, Elder Bowen came to our mission and talked about some guy who broke the record of running a mile under a minute and since then people have broken his record several other times... He said that doctors said it wasn't possible for the human body to run that far that fast. It just goes to show that whatever the mind can BELIEVE, we can ACHIEVE. no lie. It's a beautiful thing. We are in control. It gave me so much hope and faith! I trust God!

Last night was an awesome experience. We met with an inactive woman and i just love her. SHe was baptized 8 years ago but doesn't go to church anymore :( She said that she didn't want to talk about it and it would open up a can of worms. We shared a scripture about the sacrament and the spirit filled the room. she started crying so hard and said she knew she needed to come back to church. Oh! I love it!!

Ok, well we don't have much time today. We have to run off . have a great week!!! Believe and just wait, something good will happen :)

I love you! Love, Sister Mara

God will provide

That is so COOL that our ward has Sisters now! Oh my goodness. how awesome. I can't wait to work with them :) Well, i Can wait. But it will be great to be able to go on splits and stuff.

We had a great week! we found two SOLID investigators. One of them came to church and stayed all 3 hours. We had members at the lessons and everything. It was awesome. We are starting to see the power of God here in our area! We are definitely experiencing a trial of faith and haven't helped anyone get baptized lately, but it's okay! God is pouring out his miracles and power here. I feel like we are more united with the ward and things are starting to slowly progress. It's fantastic.

We met with an investigator at our bishop's home last night and some other members were there. It hit me so hard that we don't have to help them understand EVERYTHING and wait for them to get it all. As long as they read gain a testimony then they will repent. And that is the doctrine of Christ: to repent and be baptized. It's not as hard as it sounds.

Sister Fedorovych is so funny haha. I feel like i'm raising a child. Oh my gosh, i laughed so hard this morning.  I had to call and schedule a dentist appt for her and then fill out all the paper work at the dentist's office. It was so funny trying to explain some of the questions on the sheet. Like "have you ever had a locked-jaw?" She couldn't understand it so i had to act it out for her. There were at least 7 other times like that. I die.

Then we had to wash our car today. OKAY, the girl has never washed a car before. We had a timer of 2 minutes to spray it, scrub it, soap it, rinse it. I told her to spray.... false didn't work. Then i let her attempt to scrub. She had no idea what she was doing. oh man, everyday is an adventure.

I love this work. I love our family and friends and the plan of salvation. The gospel can help ANYONE- we just have to show them! I love you all :)

Love, Sister Mara

From the Four Quarters of the Earth

Things have been going really well lately. I have such a testimony of putting our faith and trust in God and continuing onward with hope. I have noticed this cycle that I get into,  where I will rely on myself, my teach abilities, my obedience and then we see a few miracles and then things get rough again. So I will completely turn it over to God and just give it up to him and we will see a few miracles and then things get rough again. This week. I feel like I began to understand what it means to work as if everything depended on me and pray as if everything depended on God. It changed the work. We didn't have an influx of lessons taught or a baptism, but for the first time this transfer, our investigators have begun to progress! it's amazing. 

Coupled with that mind set was determining who's glory we are really seeking and what are our true motivations. I felt the focus change: from teaching so many lessons and striving for baptisms, so the ward would know we were working hard-to sincerely loving God and his children and trying to talk with everyone out of a genuine desire to help them have a relationship with their  Heavenly Father. The shift was amazing. The work was less stressful this week, and teaching was more enjoyable. I feel so humbled and I know that all of the success that we saw this week was because of the Lord. NOT US. Oh, and the thing that sparked this shift was a letter from Sister Manwill (aubrey:) She is an amazing example to me! good friends are so important. 

We had three of our investigators come to see baptisms this week. The spirit was so strong at each of them and the ward members were so welcoming and warm. I SO appreciate it when members step outside of their comfort zone just to make others feel welcomed. It means the world. ( oh we are teaching a Burmese woman, thai kid, sudanese man, kenyan guy- the 4 quarters of the earth are here in OUR mission!)

I really love having foreign companions. Sister Fed hears idioms and tries to use them- I laugh so hard every time. This week she said that we could take a less-active with us teaching and she said " it will be great! We can kill two rabbits with one stone!" hahaha. Then later, we met a woman name Velvet. Well, sister f can't say "V" so everytime she talks about her, she says "welwet" haha. I'm so immature, but it's the little things that make each day fun!

We met a kid this week who's eyes were so empty. I have never seen eyes like his before. He told us about his life story and how he has been on his own since he was 10. Oh my goodness. We wanted to help him know that he has a loving heavenly father so badly!

I LOVE federal way. I love this ward and their desire to help people. i love their love for missionaries and the gospel. I love our Heavenly Father and I know he wants whats best for each of us. This is HIS work. 

Have a good one yal. I Love YOU.

Love, ME.

BELIEVE!

January 28

I'm so scared! My time is so so short! Oh goodness, I don't want to go home. It was a great week. We met a lot of new people and have been going through the ward list to try and find those people that are never at church or who we have never heard of. It's amazing how the spirit is directing us to random names. We met with a woman last night that the Bishop hasn't even heard of or met and she said we can come back tonight! I hope we can teach her and her family! One of the less-actives that we have been working with lately came to church for the first time since i have been here, in federal way. Oh  my goodness, it made my heart so happy to see him there.  I don't know why, but it just made me happy. Maybe it's because it was something that he has been wanting to do and knew he needed to and he finally felt the strength and desire to do it. I don't know. haha. This work is the greatest. 

So for Sister Fedorovych's bday she wanted to go to an asian restaurant. We picked one that neither one of us had been to before and sat down. It was a japanese buffet and then they told us that it was 20 dollars a person! I totally was game to get up and walk out and not eat there, but Fed was too embarrassed and said that we should just stay. hahha. So we did. And there was a lot of sea food that I didn't like, but she loved it. Happy Birthday to her. lol. I'm glad it made her happy.

We met with another investigator this week and she is baptist and from burhma. we told her to pray and ask god if she should come to our church and help him soften her heart. She looked at me and said "you pray" lol. I told her that she had her free will and needed to pray for herself. and she said " well if you don't believe then my heart won't change" haha. I loved it. I love asians. It was a simple statement,yet profound! and she was right ;) 

I love you so much. I love how this gospel has blessed my life and our family. I love our family so so much!

Love, Me.

Foggy nights and Skate Parks

January 21

Hallelujer! Praise the Lord! Oh my goodness. This week was great. Interesting but so great. Sister Fedorovych is hilarious. She will be 25 on the 24th this week. We taught a lot of Russians/Ukrainians and started an English class at the church. I teach grammar, she translates and I help them pronounce things. We got a lot of cards printed off to advertise, now we just have to go out and find all the people!

 

So we were trying so hard to contact 80 people each day this week... which is harder than it sounds. But we just went to parking lots and contacted and ran up to people getting out of their cars and walking into the mall. We talked with EVERYONE. Serious, I have never been able to do that before on my misison. I don't know why I'm not scared anymore. I probably got a little prideful and thought it was just me being confident, but Sumner's email humbled me and I know it's the Lord that blessed me with that courage. I'm the worst trainer. lol. I laugh everytime Sis.Fed tries to contact people. She gets SO nervous. I told her that i was right beside her and if her mind went blank, then I would fill in. She is doing great though. WE have been practicing on inviting everyone to be baptized. I did it a few times as an example and then I set it up for her so it would be really easy. When it came time for her to extend the commitment her mind shut off and she didn't say anything. Hahaha. SO funny.

 

I think the Lord sees how hard she is trying and working because we experienced such miracles this week. as we were talking with everyone, this woman came up to us (who had previously rejected us a few days later) and said that we looked so happy and she wanted to take her girls to church! We got her info and went and had a lesson with her with a member. She came to church with the member and she wanted to leave after the first hour but her girls begged her to stay. So they stayed all 3 hours!

 

30 minutes after we met her, we were knocking on a door. It was really foggy and dark outside and super sketchy sketch. We noticed these two guys watching us. We talked to the woman who answered the door, told her who we were and said that we wanted to help her strengthen her faith in Jesus Christ. She wasn't interested. So we were walking down the stairs and the guys were standing at the bottom of the stairs. It creeped us out a bit so i just told Sis. Fed to keep walking. We did and when we were about 50ft away one of the guys comes running after us and said "Hey! I overheard you talking to that woman. I have had a really bad day and things have been rough lately. Will you tell me about Jesus Christ?" So we had a lesson in the parking lot! It was awesome and humbling.I know that the Lord sees us and blesses his children for their efforts. I love this work and I want to do it for the rest of my life!

 

It's been SOOOO foggy lately! and at night it looks the coolest. I love it! Especially at the skate park. There is a soccer field right behind it and the lights for the stadium are so bright- it creates a backlight for the pine trees and silouhettes everyone at the skate park. Man! I love the landscape here.

 

I love life. It is so good! We just need to follow the Lord's will and be happy! I love you family! Have a great week :)

 

Love, Sister Mara.