Hello :)                                            July 29, 2013

The highlight of my week was definitely my interview with President Scott! We get to have an interview with him every other transfer (transfer=6 weeks). The person who's "on deck" talks with Sister Scott until it's their turn. So I had a good conversation with Sister Scott too! She is the epitome of charity. Seriously. Every time I talk with her she makes me feel like I am number one! I want to be like her when I grow up :) Then in my interview with President Scott he asked me a question that really had me pondering this week. He asked me what changes I've seen in myself so far on my mission and what changes I want to see in the future. I told him that I feel like I have a greater ability to explain the gospel in simpler terms and that I have really grown closer to my Savior as I've been applying the Atonement. The Atonement is honestly a miracle. Christ's ability to comfort and heal us is so real. I never really understood how real until I watched it change lives, including my own.

We had an interesting experience this week. We met a two guys last week, Chisso and Samuel, and they were interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon. So we called them and set up an appointment. Chisso insisted on meeting for lunch, so Sister Sorensen and I met Chisso, Samuel, and another one of their friends, Laura, at a Thai restaurant called Lemongrass. (I ordered a Basil Chicken dish and it was AMAZING!) They were Orthodox Christians and were very nice, but they're main objective was to persuade us that we're wrong. And if we didn't accept their doctrine of the trinity (God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all one person) then we could not be saved. If anything, that conversation strengthened my testimony of what I know. That God is our Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is His Son. The Holy Ghost is our comforter. And They are three separate beings. I'm so grateful for this knowledge and testimony. 

We taught Lenore the Plan of Salvation this week! She is seriously amazing. AMAZING! She was on the edge of her seat asking questions and making comments as we talked about where we were before we came to earth, why we're here, and what happens after we die. She LOVED it! She kept saying, "Everybody needs to know about this!" She is pumped about the Celestial Kingdom. That lesson was probably one of the most powerful I've ever been in. It's such an amazing experience when you are speaking and know the words you are saying are not your own. 

We also taught a girl named Caitlyn. We met her last Monday and set up an appointment for Wednesday. The Robinson's offered to have that lesson at their apartment and that they would feed us dinner! Senior missionaries are seriously magic! They fed us pasta and chicken then we taught Caitlyn. She didn't grow up religious and just recently has started developing a belief in God. At the end of the lesson, we knelt and had her offer the prayer. It was the first time she prayed. The spirit was so strong!

I hope you all have a great week! Keep smiling :) 

Love and Prayers, B

Christlike Missionary

Hello :)                                                      July 8, 2013

This week has been a good one. As usual :) We were able to do some service at the gardens we planted for the salvation army a couple weeks ago. We just weeded. In the rain. We were muddy messes! :) Hahaha. It was definitely a blast! 

Joseph got baptized yesterday! Remember Joseph and Chinonso? Yup. Joseph is now baptized :) And Kashra's baptism is this coming week! Being a missionary is seriously the best :) We're meeting with Kashra tonight and we're going to walk around the temple before we teach the lesson, so I'm super excited for that! 

Sister Sorensen is so much fun! We have gotten to know each other a little better this week and I decided it's going to be a great transfer :) Our Zone is fantastic too! Elder Snelson is still our District Leader. He and I are the only two that stayed in the district. Everyone else left, and new people got transferred in and I love them all! We're going to play volleyball soon. So if this email is a little shorter, that's why :) 

But in district meeting, Elder Snelson's instruction was about "Being a Christlike missionary, not just doing missionary things." He really asked us to evaluate our motives. What is the reason behind everything we do? Why do we wake up at 6:30every morning? Why are we obedient? Is it because we want to impress our mission president? Is it because we have to? Is it because our companion is doing it? Or is it because we love our Savior Jesus Christ and we love the people we are teaching? I loved it! He's a powerful teacher. He challenged us to study Preach My Gospel chapter 6 because it's all about Christlike Attributes and how we can develop them. This week I've thought a lot about that. What motivates me in missionary work? And as I thought about it, I realized how much I really love these people that we teach. I really do just love them. God blesses us with additional love and patience for those that we serve. I know it's true. I know God loves us. Have a great week!

Love and Prayers,

B

Ancestors

Hello :)                                                                                      July 22, 2013

Kashra. Rocks. Enough said! She was confirmed a member of the Church yesterday and it was incredible! I sat next to her in sacrament meeting and she was marking all the scriptures on her phone that people were reading in their talks and she was organizing them according to categories. It made me so happy! And she's going to a YSA Conference in Guelph this weekend so that's awesome! She also might be taking Sister Sorensen and I into downtown Toronto on our next P Day! So that would be pretty awesome :)

We had quite a few dinner appointments this week which is rare for YSA. One was with a girl named Rivera who is a gluten free vegan! Crazy huh? It was the first time I had tofu. I didn't like it. But the avocado sushi was good! That was a first too :) Rivera got her mission call the day we went over for dinner!! She is going to Australia! She'll be fantastic! She was baptized two years ago and has a super strong testimony of the Atonement. 

Miracle of the week. Her name is Lenore. She was a referral from the Weston Elders. She is 20 years old. Jamaican. And a Christian. When we taught her about the first vision and Joseph Smith, she talked about how she had really similar questions. She was so confused about why there are so many churches and just wants to know what to do! Sister Sorensen asked her what she would do if she knew Christ's true church was on the earth, and she said, "I would find it." Just like that. I would find it. She is scheduled to be baptized on August 11. She came to church yesterday and loved it! I'm so excited to continue teaching her! 

Yesterday I was praying really hard. I pray really hard everyday because as a missionary, that's just what you do :) But yesterday, I prayed harder than usual. I just felt like I needed an added measure of comfort and peace because missions are hard and stressful. Partaking of the Sacrament definitely brought peace, but I also had another really neat experience. Before I left on my mission, my mom spent tons of time compiling histories of my ancestors so I could read them while I was out here. And I am so thankful for that :) Thanks mom! But I was reading the one that my great Grandma Claris wrote, and just reading her testimony gave me so much strength, peace, and comfort. I felt her approval. Near the end she said talked about how much joy the knowledge of this Gospel has given her, and that her prayer is that her family will continue to serve and find joy in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I just cried. I knew in that moment that not only my Grandma Claris was proud of me, but my Father in Heaven. I am in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time. There is no greater peace than that knowledge.

Have a fantastic week!

Love and Prayers, B

What a week! :)        July 15,2013

Oh my goodness. Being a missionary is too good! So last Monday, it rained. Flooded actually. I have never seen rain like that in my entire life! Usually it takes us 30 minutes to get home from Brampton, but it took us an hour and a half! We had to do nightly planning in the car. Then when we got home that night, we had no power! Hahaha. I thought it was fun actually :) Writing in my journal and brushing my teeth by light of a flashlight. I was so grateful for that flashlight! Toronto was in a complete black out! It was insane :) But there were a ton of basements that flooded.

On Thursday night we got a call from the Elders that serve in the same ward as us, Elder Snelson and Elder Wilson. They said that we were needed to help out with a service project the next morning at 8am to help people who had flooded basements from the crazy rain storm on Monday. So we drove to Etobicoke on Saturday morning where we met about 20 other people. Most were full time missionaries and a few members from the Etobicoke ward. Sandra, the lady in charge handed us rubber boots, rubber gloves, and yellow "Mormon helping hands" vests. She informed us that we would be dealing with flooding from sewage backup, so what we were about to do wouldn't be pretty, but we needed to rip out carpet, take out chairs, and anything fabric that could have soaked in water because it's contaminated. We split up and went to work! The first house we went to was a lady in her ninties named Simona. Her husband died a few months ago and she told us that she had been crying for the past few days and had only slept maybe two hours a night since the flood on Monday. The smell in her home was terrible! I don't know how she has lived in it for the past week! Five days of sewage backup flooding mustiness and mold doesn't smell very good at all! We carried out rolls of dripping wet carpet, chairs, mattresses, blankets. Pretty much her whole basement. She was so grateful! We helped another man named Bob that could barely walk! Let alone carry things out of his basement! When it was around lunch time and everyone was waiting for pizzas that Sandra had ordered, Sister Sorensen, Elder Snelson, Elder Wilson, and I were just walking up and down the street looking for people who looked like they needed help. We passed a house with an old guy outside and we went over and started talking with him. He told us they had already been by and helped him, but we talked with him for a minute anyway. His name was Stan and he said, "I'm going to look up Mormons on the internet tonight and then I'm going to come to your church on Sunday." It was amazing to see how people reacted to so many young people ready and willing to help with smiles on their faces. It was such an incredible thing to be a part of! After we ate pizza for lunch, Sister Sorensen and I helped out at one last house. We asked the old man if he needed help and he said no because he was trying to save money. When we told him we were volunteers, he gratefully accepted. His daughter was around the side of the house next to the door to the downstairs entrance, and when she saw us coming and realized we were volunteers ready to help, she just started crying. Miracles happened that day. What an amazing day! I was super sore the next day from lifting and carrying things, but it was completely worth it! 

Kashra got baptized yesterday!! It was quite possibly one of the happiest moments of my mission. I love her SO MUCH! She is a miracle. Kashra helped me understand that God loves us too much to let coincidences happen in our lives. He is in every detail. After Kashra's baptismal interview on Saturday night, we walked across the street and took a stroll around the temple and talked with her for a while. It was so peaceful. She is most definitely a kingdom builder! She means so much to me and I love her with all my heart! She bore her testimony after her baptism yesterday, and talked about faith. She talked about how last week she loved fast and testimony meeting! And that in one of the testimonies, someone talked about faith. So Kashra, went home and looked up faith onlds.org so she could learn more about it. She found a talk by Richard G. Scott and loved it! She shared her favorite quote in her testimony and then talked about how she has felt her faith growing in the past few weeks that we've been meeting with her and said that she is so excited to continue the growth of her faith. I just cried :) I felt so much love for Kashra in that moment and felt my Heavenly Father's love so strong in that moment. The Spirit was so completely tangible all day yesterday! It was truly incredible! Kashra's nonmember aunt and uncle that she lives with came to her baptism and her aunt hugged me and whispered thank you in my ear. She was wiping her eyes during the actual baptism. It was seriously one of the coolest moments of my life! I can't even describe it. All I know is that God loves us so personally and individually. It's a miracle.

I know our Heavenly Father is one hundred percent aware of every aspect of our lives. He loves us. He sent His Son. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He died for us. He lives for us. He lives. 

Thank you for your love, support, and prayers. Have a fantastic week!

Love and prayers,

B

Canada Day Photos

Transfers

Hello one and all!                                                                                  July 3, 2013

Transfers transfers transfers :) The verdict is... I'm staying in Churchville YSA!! But Sister W left :( She is now serving in Brantford and is a Sister Training Leader! I'm so proud of her! My new companion is Sister S and she is from Pleasant Grove Utah. She is super bubbly and is a fantastic teacher! I'm excited to get to know her better. I am the designated driver because I know the area, and it's fun! I must be like my mom because driving in the city doesn't even phase me. Hahaha. It's been a wonderful week though. I want to share two miracles of the week this week :)

God answers prayers. I know He does. Sister W and I had been praying for opportunities to perform small acts of service as an opportunity to share the gospel, and we had a cool one this week. We were supposed to meet with an investigator named Brittney and her member boyfriend, Carlos, but Carlos forgot to inform her. So we just shared a message with Carlos, his roommate Michael, and a less active member named Elizabeth that we took with us. After we taught a short, spiritual message, we went outside to get in the car, but one of the neighbors came over and asked if we could help her jump start her car. We didn't have any cables, but Michael did! It started POURING rain right as we pulled our car up next to hers. So we were holding towels and umbrellas over the hoods to keep the cables dry :) We got talking with her and her name was Rosa and her boyfriend's name was Dijon. Like the mustard :) The battery seemed fine, so we concluded that her car was simply out of gas. Hahaha. Dijon and Michael went to get gas and we stayed and talked with Rosa. She believes in Christ and said she would love yo come to church! She and Dijon didn't end up coming, so I hope we can get in touch with them soon. It was an answered prayer :)

I decided a mission is simply a series of miracles. Sister W and I had an appointment set up with a girl named Shallu at the Albion library, so we just walked the 2km to meet her only to find the library was closed and no Shallu in sight. So we decided to sit down in a bus stop for a little while and call/text people that we needed to get a hold of. While sitting there, I looked up and saw a lady walking by and felt like I needed to go talk with her. My body protested, because it was the end of the day and we had done a lot of walking and I just wanted to sit on that bench! But, the Holy Ghost is persistent :) So I found myself running after her (Don't worry, Sister W could still see us so I wasn't breaking any rules) I introduced myself as a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and she said, "How did you know? How did you know I was praying? As I was walking past that bus stop I was praying asking God for help." She told me her name was Mary and that she was just leaving the hospital. Her mom  is there and she feels like she has to be strong for her siblings and family. She looked like she was about in her mid fifties. As we talked, I found out she has faith in Jesus Christ and firmly believes God loves and watches over her. However, she doesn't attend church and hasn't been baptized because she doesn't know what He wants her to do next. She said she doesn't know what the next step is. But she wants to follow Jesus Christ because she knows that will bring her peace. So I gave her a Book of Mormon, Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and a temple pass along card with out phone number on it. She asked if she could have a hug and I gladly gave her one. She held me tight and whispered thank you in my ear. I took down her phone number and address and testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She thanked me again and went on her way. I'm so sad we can't teach her because she's not YSA, but I definitely gave her information to the Weston missionaries :) I needed that experience just as much as she did. A mission is so hard. SO HARD. But moments like this make everything worth it :)

This Gospel is true. Christ is at the head of His church. I love my mission and I love all of you! Have a fabulous week! Keep your head up, because you are a child of God!

Love and prayers always, B