The work Continues

 Just a little update, mission rules have changed and we can now only use email to contact friends and extended family, no more messenger or google chat. So if I haven’t responded, that is why… I know, sad.


Trainee Training
 At the beginning of the week we had a training with our mission president and his wife, and it was so good to actually get to know them a bit (more then just the handshake and picture I got when we first got to Yakima). They really are the sweetest people and they just love everyone and want us all to be the best missionaries. I have to say though, the best part of the training was getting to see my missionaries from MTC district. It felt like a family reunion!

Spaceships and Crosses
 So this week we had dinner with a member and some her friend that aren’t members, and let’s just say I had to stop myself from laughing multiple times! The friend, Patty, is a very unique human being. She’s christian, and she started to tell us about how she found Christ, but then she says that she says that she’s not interested in our church cause she’s had a bad experience with mormons. She begins to explain that she was living with a mormon family a while ago, and one night she was just sleeping when a spaceship came to her window. She said these “things” came out of the spaceship (she assured us that they weren’t aliens cause aliens aren’t real) and tied her up with ropes and put a cross in her arm. She was very very serious, and I’m shocked that I held it together. That’s why she won’t join our church though, cause she just can’t trust us mormons. 

The Finding Continues
 So my first week here we actually had quite a few people on our teaching list, well, that list has dwindled. We stopped by the house of one of our friends Chase cause we haven’t been able to get ahold of him for a while. While we are knocking the neighbor says from across the street that he is currently in jail and won’t be back for a while. Apparently he attacked his patrol officer or something, so we’ll be saving that contact for when elders are in the area, cause he definitely needs Jesus. 
 We have been walking approximately 5 miles a day just finding, ok there have been a few lessons, but mostly finding. A perk of not having a car is that we don’t have to worry as much about exercise in the mornings, so I’ve been able to work on getting my splits! And Sister Morgan, I really am getting closer, I’ll have them by the end of the transfer! Anyway, the other day we decided to walk to what we thought was a park so we could have a break from knocking, and after a 45 minute walk we got there, and it was a cemetery… ya. What we thought was going to be a gold mine of people to talk to ended up being a gold mine of people, we just couldn’t talk to any of them. We actually did end up talking to one women that was there visiting her nephew who’d passed away a few years ago. She didn’t speak much english, but we were able to have a short conversation about how it is such a blessing to know Christ and find peace and comfort in him. The spirit was super strong and I think we were able to help her feel some peace. I think it was Heavenly Father’s plan for us end up at the cemetery to help that women. Even though we didn’t teach her a lesson or anything, we were able to simply minister as Christ would have, and that means so much. 

HORSES!!
 There is this horse therapy facility here in Wenatchee and we got to go do some service there for a while. We just pulled weeds, and let me tell ya, I have never been so happy to pull weeds in my life! It was like a little taste of home! But after we were done the lady showed us around, and this place is so special. They do so many different types of therapy for over 100 people every week. They have 12 Norwegian Fjords (as the lady said, it’s the horse from Frozen) and these horses are incredible. We got to go in and just love on them for a while and it made my heart so happy. It was definitely a little bittersweet though. 

Spiritual Thought
 Lately I have been contemplating the joy that Christ brings. It is only through Him that we are truly able to have lasting joy. We are able to repent and be forgiven and be released from the burden of our sins. We are able to be with our families for eternity, which the knowledge and belief of that takes away the sting of death. We are able to turn to our Heavenly Father and the scriptures in times of unrest and turmoil and find peace, if you have patience and trust. Without Christ I would be completely lost. But I know that through Christ, I am able to have pure joy. As I draw closer to Christ in the moments that are really hard, I find both gratitude for and strength in my struggles. Mosiah 16:9 says “He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death”. I whole heartenly know that this scripture is true, and am so grateful that I have Christ to turn to. 

I love you all so much, and I can feel your prayers!
Love, Sister Wanlass

                                    us recreating a painting for a district challenge
        we fit a hay bale in the back of the car so we can Sis. Spencer can teach roping         lessons. This is our idea of creative finding!

 

                                                            the cemetery 

                             stealing some leftover funeral potatoes that were left in the church fridge 


           me and a world famous therapy horse (he's allowed in hospitals, stores, any park, he's pretty cool!) 


                                        horses in a green field aka the prettiest view 

 

                                                                    - my sisters!! 


                                        At the training lunch with my district fam

 

                                             I got pooped on by a bird on our way to a lesson 

 

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