This week was in complete honesty one of the best weeks I have ever had on my mission so far. It was amazing!
We've been struggling lately with finding people in our area and so we decided to put a huge focus on the members this week. As the Spanish sister missionaries in Wenatchee, we cover the Sage Hills and the CastleRock wards, searching for all of those that speak Spanish in that area. I have been in Wenatchee for nearly 5 months and I knew about 4 families from Castle Rock and one from Sage Hills. So we decided to go through the ward mission leaders and the bishops to begin to break down each ward and activate the members from the English ward, gathering referrals along the way. It began on Wednesday, when we met with Brother Shepherd, the ward mission leader of the Sage Hills ward. We sat out back and went through the roster, going over all of the members that could use some extra help, those that would appreciate sisters stopping by, those who speak Spanish and those that were really awesome, strong members that might be willing to come out with us.. We all left in high spirits, excited to begin to work as a newly formed team to strengthen the church as a whole. On Thursday we went and helped Hermana W get ready for seminary after District Council and when she drove us home she gave us a referral! Friday after planning we were walking to contact one of the referrals we had received from the elders and these two darling older ladies pulled over and asked if we needed a ride. We gladly accepted and as she drove us to the address, she asked what set of missionaries were the Spanish Sage Hills. We were pretty much thrilled beyond belief to tell her that we were and she gave us another referral, one that she wanted to introduce us to herself. On Saturday we met the standard of excellence where OYM's are concerned with 10 OYMs. It was an awesome day. We had had a set appointment for almost every hour of the day and just about every single one of them fell through. But the Lord placed in our path others to teach and we got some really awesome potentials in place of all of those that dropped us. That night we met up with Brother Shepherd to visit a member who ended up being one of the little ladies that had picked us up just the day before! She was so excited to get to know us because sisters were the ones that had found her and baptized her. It has been such a blessing to me to be able to see how many people love us sisters. The elders do an amazing work, but as a sister I have never felt more loved than this week as we began to meet with the members of the Sage Hills ward. That Sunday we attended the Sage Hills ward and introduced ourselves to the third hour class. We got signed up on their dinner calendar and will now be eating two nights every week with every ward, allowing us to better get to know all the wards and involve not only the Spanish members, but the English members as well. We went to our ward immediately after, where unfortunately none of our investigators were able to make it but I had the opportunity to accompany a special musical number that Elder Adams played on the cello, Come Come Ye Saints. Our little Spanish ward has been growing so much and it has been so wonderful to work with all of the members. Thankfully cherry season is almost over and there are members begging to go out with us. Shortly after church, we met with Bishop B's family from the Castle Rock ward. We were able to get to know all of the members of their family, Emma who has gone out with us often, as well as Jordan who just got back from his mission and begged us to let him come with us sometime. Not only that but he told us that he has some referrals that he is preparing for us, and we are so excited to get to work with them. We found out some incredibly helpful information about different members to visit, as well as some crucial information on one of the part member families we are currently trying to reactivate that Sister B has helped a lot with in the past. Finally, that night we went to the Sage Hills ward missionary coordination where we were able to coordinate with the other ward missionaries and get a list of members who can speak Spanish, as well as those who can help. One of the ward missionaries is a darling mom of 4 boys and has felt as though she hasn't been used enough, so we asked her to come out with us to a lesson we had just earlier scheduled that night. I have felt so incredibly blessed to be a part of this work. Not only have we been able to make so many new friends, but we have also been blessed with a flood of referrals, member support, new investigators, and all of our numbers have been up as well. I have gained such a testimony of member work even with just this past week. I know that the Lord is watching over us and will bless us with that sure testimony after the trial of our faith.
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Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission
Just another beautiful day in Wenatchee. And this was just Tuesday. Thursday it got up to 110. There comes a point where you've been walking in the heat for like 3 hours and you get to a door and just begin to laugh hysterically because this is your life. It was awesome :) I never knew I could sweat so much.
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Sister Jaycie Baird
Washington Yakima Mission
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