Marvin the frog finally found a happy home #LONGESTWEEKOFMYLIFE

WASSUP EVERYONE this week was WILD to say the least, and this is an absolute NOVEL so let's get into it, shall we? 

Hours spent at Church this week: 7.5

Late nights spent prepping for Sisters Conference: Too many

Cookies baked: About a zillion

Sunny days: 3 YAY

Mondayyy we went to the Arlington Outlet Mall and it was so fun!! We felt fancy 💅 we also went to Cabala's lol just for fun. That night for FHE we played human foosball and some board games, and there were SOOO many people there it was awesome!! 

Tuesdayyy we had some meetings in the morning that took up some time and then we went to deliver some brownies to one of our favorite missionaries who was finishing his mission, and we left with a pet frog. The Elders had caught a frog and then they gave him to us in a tiny Mason jar, and so our next quest was to find a home for this frog. Luckily, we were planning on visiting one of our favorite YSA members, Kevin, because he was moving to Utah this week and we wanted to say goodbye. Kevin lives in Snohomish, and his house is half a mile up a dirt road. So, we walked around with Kevin to find a home for our pet frog, whom we named Marvin. We ended up finding a beautiful little stream for him to live in and had a beautiful release. Anyway, after that we had dinner with some members in the Mill Creek Ward which was super fun! And then we had our Office shift, which was good.

Wednesdayyy was TRANSFERS AHHHH don't worry I'm staying with Smithy, but they're taking us out of the family Ward and putting us only in the mega YSA Ward, which honestly, we're super stoked about. Anyway, the day was spent at the Mission Office preparing for everyone to come, then all of the missionaries gathering for our transfer meeting! Our District got a little bigger, and we still are the only Sisters! They did put a set of Sisters in Port Gardner though so now we can like, actually be STL's! It was so fun to see everyone, but we had to say goodbye to some awesome missionaries which was sad. After transfers, we met with our new Social Media squad and gave them a 101 training. After that, we raced to our dinner which was a 45 minute drive out to the boonies of Snohomish, with the Jones family! 2 of their kids are in our YSA Ward, Elise and Mason! They're our favorite people ever and their house was even more wonderful! They have like 5 younger siblings, and they live in the middle of the woods. We all ate BLTs on their back patio and then Mason showed us his Theater Organ! Mason Jones is known internationally in the Theater Organ community apparently and I can see why, HE'S INCREDIBLE it was so fun. After we left their house, we made a few more YSA visits to Ana Morrill, who let us paint our hands on her wall, and one of our Ward missionaries, Jonathan! It was such a long day, but honestly such a good day.

Thursdayyy was even longer than Wednesday not gonna lie. We started off by having an awesome lesson with our recent convert, Denna! After that, we raced to District Council, and Elder Claridge is back again to be my District Leader once again! We met with our new YSA Elders, Elder Galloway who reminds me of Robin Williams, and Elder Basyrov who is from Russia! They're so fun and so hard working, so we're excited to share a Ward with them! Then we raced to the store and bought ingredients to make about a zillion cookies for Sisters Conference. Sister Oakes had asked us to make them, and it was INSANE we made so many! But they tasted awesome at least! We took a break to take the Port Gardner Sisters to Dutch Bros which was so fun! They're so funny haha we're excited to have them in the Zone. 

By the time we finished with cookies, it was about 10pm and we still hadn't written the talk that we were supposed to give at Sisters Conference the next day, so by the time we finished that, it was far later than it should have been lol but we FINALLY made it to bed.

Fridayyy we got up and drove out to Arlington for Sisters Conference!! It was so fun to see all the Sisters and feel the spirit all together! Sister Smith and I made a video for the Sisters of all their favorite memories of their missions and their favorite pictures of Christ, and it turned out so good!! It was an awesome program, and our talk went great! Sister Oakes had also asked me to do a musical number, so I ended up doing that too lol. During lunch we did a clothing exchange and a recipie exchange! It was so fun, but I don't think I ever need to plan a Sisters Conference ever again 😅 Once it was all cleaned up, we went straight to our Office shift, and then once that was done, we CRASHED. Until we went to a lesson with another recent convert, Greg! After our lesson, we went to meet with the former missionaries and former Ward Mission Leader of the Halls Lake Ward to get the info on who they're teaching. We met at the Mountlake Terrace building, and it was SOOO fun to go back!! I've missed that place soooo much, it was awesome to drive through it again. And then the day was FINALLY over!! 

Saturdayyy we got up and helped clean the church! After that, us and the Elders met with Bishop Stoker and talked about how missionary work is going to look in our mega huge Ward, so that was good! We went to our Office shift, and then we tried to go finding at the Alderwood Mall. It was SOOO crazy busy though, so not much luck there. So, we decided to make some contacts with people around the mall, and it was actually so good! We had some good lessons with some inactive members and got some good info! While we were making some contacts, it started DUMPING rain, which doesn't actually happen a ton in Washington, it mostly just sprinkles all the time. But it was raining BUCKETS. We felt like we needed to go up to Everett, but we were a little nervous to drive up with the weather, so we decided to ask Heavenly Father to slow the rain. And as soon as we got on the freeway, the rain STOPPED. It was crazy. We didn't really see any miracles while we were up there, but it was cool to see that our faith still mattered to Heavenly Father!! And then that night we did some good weekly planning!

Sundayyy we were at Church ALL. DAY. LONG. We had Ward Council at 10am, then Church started at 12. We had an awesome testimony meeting though, this Ward is just incredible. We had a GIANT Sunday School class, and we passed around a meal calendar too. The stigma around YSA Wards is that you never get fed, but when class ended, EVERY SINGLE DAY ON OUR CALENDAR WAS FULL. It was insane I LOVE THIS WARD!!! After that we had a big break the Fast and had breakfast for dinner! 

After we ate, we had a fireside with a sweet Sister who's from Ukraine!  She served her mission here a while ago, and she's now found herself back here as a refugee. She spoke to us about ways we can support the refugees here in Washington and it was so cool! She was so sweet, and our Ward is excited to help however we can. After that, we had dessert, and then we had a Missionary Coordination meeting! So, we ended up not leaving the Church until about 5:30pm. It was wild. We went straight to our Office shift, and then had Mission Devotional! It was a wild day but so good.

Today we're probably going to play some outdoor games at a park with our District, which should be super fun!

OKAY LETS GET SPIRITUAL 

The talk that Sister Smith and I gave at Sisters Conference was all about how to find joy during trials. We based it off a talk President Nelson had given in the 80's called "Joy Cometh in the Morning" He talks about 3 ways to find joy during trials! 1. Love yourself, 2. Love your companion, and 3. Love God. If we are willing to have confidence in our divine identity, we will be able to see others the same way, and that will lead to a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father. And Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of doing these 3 things!! He knew his potential, he helped others see their full potential, and he gave the glory to his Father. I want to invite you guys to write these 3 things somewhere you'll see it every day! And as you practice them, watch for experiences with the Savior to happen in your life!!

I love you all a WashingTON ❣️ 

Sister Gibb