Yeah for missionary work!

This week has been full of planning for Anna's baptism, finding new people to teach, and handing out our festival of lights pass along cards like candy to a 3 year old. The VC looks so great with all the Christmas decorations! We had a choir come last night to practice for this weekend, and hearing all the Christmas songs really made me miss singing them with you, but I'm so glad that December will be a busy month, so starting tomorrow I will hardly have any time to even think about anything, not to mention home, then the season will be over and on to a new year =].I haven't seen any deaf people since last week. I trust that I'll serve that part of my mission in due time, but right now I'm needed where I am, and the area is very successful so I'm having a lot of really good experiences and learning a lot about everything. Next week my P-day will be cut short so my letter may not contain all the details you would wish, but I'll still write =].Tomorrow we have Pres. Packer and Elder Oaks coming to the VC! We don't know yet if we are actually going to meet them or not. I'll just have to let you know next week. That is so cool!! They are coming to give 2 new sealers the sealing power, and are planning on coming for both ambassador's nights (Tonight and Thursday night). I'll only be there tomorrow night, but I'll let you know what happens.Anywho, that's about it, just continuing to learn adn grow and be a missionary. There are definitely some powerful lessons the Lord is teaching me right now, and I'm so grateful to have this opportunity, and also grateful for your letters and support. I love and miss you all!!! Have a wonderful week =D

~Sister Wister Witbeck~

Happy Thanksgiving!!! gobble gobble...

Wonderful! My P-day is tomorrow but because it is thanksgiving and the libraries will be closed we are allowed to email today. This morning I went to the city for the first time! It was for a service project that the mission does every year with the salvation army. Way cool because the years before we were never allowed to proselyte but this year they told us to go for it, so we talked to tons of people. Basically it was a charity thanksgiving dinner for a bunch of homeless people (they were expecting about 4000 peeps...I dunno how many ended up coming but it was a lot of people!). It was at the Washington DC Convention Center. We stripped turkey for about 3 hours then we served it. We talked to many of the other volunteers, and lots of people on the metro. I LOVE the metro....crazy, but I think it's cool. Of course I've never been on it before so that's probably why =]. The table behind the one we were serving had some deaf people there, so I talked to them and invited them to go to the VC. One man offered me a job in DC (hehehe), and the other knows a lot about the church, and said he's not realy religious but told me a story of how he found out he couldn't kiss sister missionaries! Hahahaha it was quite interesting, not to mention awkward =]. There we go with the bluntness of deaf people. LOVE it! Plus I found some on the metro on the way home, so I talked to them as well. It was a good morning.One of our investigators is getting baptized!!!!! Yay! She told us on Sunday (Mom's b-day =]), and set her date for Dec. 2nd. She's been ready for a long time but hadn't figured it out till now. Her name is Anna Munoz-Lair from central america, and she is amazing! She's just ready to commit to everything cuz she knows this is Gods church. She's been going to church almost every sunday since May. It's about time she's baptized!Emails may get really short during Dec because we have the festival of lights and we are going to be super busy. Sometimes we won't even have a full p-day. It'll end at about 3 instead of 6, so I'll probably end up not even reading your emails till after I write (You know just print them to read them later), so if you ask me questions in the email don't expect an answer right away cuz I probably won't have time to read it.Anyway, that's about it. I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving!!! Love to all =]

~Sister Witbeck~

Missionary lingo hehehe

For those of you who didn't understand the meaning of LA in my last letter, sorry for not explaining. LA is Less-Active.Now for this week....nothing too new just more miracles and lots of new investigators. We are teaching a family (which is REALLY cool!). Normally we teach older single people or part of a family, but we found this family through a member and they are all pretty interested, so we'll see how the spirit works with them and if they are ready right now. I LOVE that I'm not working alone. Now only do I have an incredible companion, but the spirit works through me so all I need to do is follow it. Easier said than done I know, but I'm learning slowly. As I'm obedient to the commandments, follow mission rules and just work my hardest that's when I see miracles and know the spirit is gonna take over when it needs to.I really like the VC because the spirit is already here and people come to us. We don't have to find them on the streets, however we still have to "sift" (find out if they're really interested or not). I think what I love most about teaching the gospel is that I can be blunt and just tell them how it is because it's the truth. If they are truly ready to receive the gospel then they will recognize the truth and will make and keep commitments and follow the commandments.Sis. Baxter (my comp) got a letter from her dad (who is a member of the 70 by the way--Elder David Baxter), in which he answered some questions she posed in her last email, of how we can work better with members and LA's (remember??? hehehe). So he wrote a pretty incredible 7 page letter with a few new ideas for us to try. I'm really excited to implement them. I guess I may as well start with you =]. We are always asking for referrals from people because that is the best way to find new investigators, but we need to go about it in an intelligent way and so far we haven't found one until......yup, you guessed it; the conference talk letter. D&C 35:12 says: "And there are none that doeth good except those who are ready to receive the fulness of my gospel, which I have sent forth unto this generation." SO......who do you know that is a really good person??? Those are the people that the Lord has prepared to receive the fulness of the gospel. It doesn't say they will accept it, but that they are ready to receive it. Think about that my wonderful family (and friends =]). Don't shirk in your responsibility to share the wonderful gift Heavenly Father has blessed you with. Give those good people you know the opportunity to at least make their own decisions about whether they want to accept or not, but show the Lord He can trust you by inviting them. As you invite others and trust the Lord (as well as show Him He can trust you) He will put more people in your path for you to touch and bless. Those people you are thinking of right now as you read this are people that you should invite. Whether you want to invite them to listen to the missionaries, receive a free video, read the Book of Mormon, or go to church is between you and the spirit, but you must do your part and invite them. Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Tim. 4:12). I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, and neither should you be ashamed of it. Share it. Believe it. Live it. I love and miss you all!!! Have a FANTASTIC week!

~Sister Witbeck~

Miracle of miracles

Ok, so my new companion is incredible! This area is being transformed as I write this. It's amazing the miracles we have seen in the last week...just small things but they are fantastic miracles! First, we went to visit a less active (we had no info about them at all), and a woman answered the door and told us she was not a member but her mother-in-law is, so whe went upstairs to get her. A few minutes later she came down with her and told us "um, she's deaf so I don't know..."as she trailed off I got really excited and just started signing to Sis Ramis (the mother). Apparently her son is a LA in my ward and she and her husband (both deaf) are LA in the deaf branch! Crazy! They are painting their house, so we are going back to help them paint, and see what we can teach them =]. The Lord loves us so much! It's been amazing to see what He does for those who love Him and serve Him and are obedient. That's one miracle, the other is an even bigger one! A man and a woman came to the VC yesterday, and they obviously were together but also, obviously didn't know each other. She was coming to the temple and he (Pascal) was just coming to visit, and I was super confused, but asked him if he wanted a tour and he did so I took him around the VC and basically taught him the first lesson, then I gave him a temple tour (really we have the pics of the different rooms in the temple and we tell people about what the temple is, and why we go, and why it's important...that's what "temple tour" means), and in the middle they told me their story. ....ahem....She had gotten on the wrong metro and was on it for hours trying to get back to the one she could get to the temple on. When she finally found the right one she realized she needed 5 cents, so she turned to the man next to her (Pascal) and asked for 5 cents. He gave it to her and she told him she was going to the temple and invited him to come along, he said "I felt something inside me tell me to go, so I went." Then they showed up at the VC not really knowing what to do. 2 days ago he almost witnessed a murder and he said he was really amazed that he was standing there listening to me tell him about God and His gospel. I just told him that God wanted him to be there to hear about this message, and there is a reason why he ended up at the VC. Anyways, so he filled out a card to have missionaries come to his home to teach him, and went to watch the "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" movie while the girl went to the temple (she is a RM by the way). While he was in the movie I looked up the address where he lived and guess what?!?!? It's in MY AREA!!!!! Which means that my comp and I are the ones going to teach him! I was so excited and humbled. When he came out of the movie I told him the good news and set up an appointment to go teach him for tonight =]. He is so humble and really wants to learn. I can't wait to teach him and see him progress. I am also sincerely humbled that the Lord would trust me and my companion enough to send hum straight to us. It's not just another person who came to the VC just to learn, but all the people that are involved with the whole thing just boggles my mind! The woman who invited him (just think if she had decided not to go to the temple that day, or not to invite Pascal to go with her, or had gotten on a different metro), Pascal himself (if he had decided not to go with a strange woman to learn about a different religion), myself (if I had not been where I was supposed to be at that time, or didn't follow the spirit in teaching him at the VC)...the Lord was able to work through all of us because of our faith and righteousness in bringing His son to know of His goodness and mercy. When we are obedient and doing what we need to be doing when we need to be doing it, then the Lord can send prepared people our way. It has nothing to do with any work I did. I didn't tell him to come to the VC, or find him on the street, he came and wanted to learn. That's what the Lord does! As a missionary I just need to be obedient and work work work, and the Lord will put those He has prepared in my path. I am just amazed at the love God has shown us this week, and cannot wait to see Pascal in white!!!Moral of the story---ALWAYS invite people. No matter what it is. If you invite them, they can make their own decision and if they are prepared the Lord will make sure everything else happens they way it's supposed to.I hope that story made sense. It was an amazing week, and I'm out of time so I will write again later =]. Have a fabulous week!!!! Love you all =]
~Sister Witbeck~

Love it =D

Ok, so I am in my same area (Derwood) but with a new companion and she is amazing! Her name is Sis. Baxter and she's from England so that's fun. She's been in the singles wards her whole mission...never in a family ward so we are excited about all the changes we will make in this area in trying to get the members excited about the gospel, it is going to be fantastic! We got 6 new sisters here yesterdayand among them is Sis Nelson who was in mission prep with me (soooo exciting =]), AND another sister in the Spanish program who knows how to sign!!! As soon as she's trained.....she's mine!! Mwa ha ha ha. I really think we could be in the ASL program together (really just wishful thinking, but it could happen =]). Finally saw the ASL elders again. It's been well over a month since I have signed with a deaf person, that makes for awkward hands, but it worked out, the spirit made up for what I lacked and the extremely shy investigator felt the spirit. Progress in the work, that's what it's about, progress.This week we went to visit a man we had tracted into, and he wasn't home, but his roommate was and he told us to come back and teach him that night, so we taught him about the restoration and he seems so sincere, we're going back to teach him on Saturday and commit him to prepare for baptism. I'm so excited for all the new things that are going to happen in this area! Sister Baxter is exactly what these people need, and many miracles are going to occur I just know it =]. Well, I love and miss you all! Hope you all have a wonderful week! Kiss the temple for me =D
~Sister Witbeck~