Listen

Hello!                                                                                                                          February 18, 2014

This week was crazy. So much happened this week. I dont even know where to start! We have seen so many miracles, and I want to start with two that happened yesterday. On Sunday, there was a returned missionary who shared his experience of learning to decipher the promptings of the Spirit and how he learned to determine whether it was the Spirit, or his own thoughts. He said he just did all the little thoughts that came into his head, and that's how he learned which was the Spirit, and which were his own thoughts. So yesterday I did everything I could do follow all the little thoughts that would come into my head. We were planning to drop by a recent convert and so we were at the station and got on the bus to go to his house, but then I saw a guy walk past and get on the bus behind us. I just had a little thought that I should talk with him. Immediately my second thought was how inconvenient the timing was and how inconvenient it would be to get off the bus we just got on and get on a different bus. But we did it anyway! I grabbed Sister Sites and we got off the bus and jumped onto the bus with that guy on it. Sister Sites is such a good companion, because she just trusted me even though she had no idea what was going on! I didnt have time to explain it to her :) I sat by this guy and started to talk with him. It was soon apparent that he had been in contact with the church before and he had lots of questions. He doesn't have a belief in God, but wants to know if He's there. He had some time right then, so we pulled the cord, got off the bus, and went and sat down in a Tim Horton's and answered some of his questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and we're meeting with him again tonight! Small and simple things :) The other miracle was later yesterday on the bus. A couple got on the bus and sat near me and I knew I needed to talk with them. I said a little prayer and asked Heavenly Father what restored truth they needed to hear. Family History. So I pulled out two family history pass along cards and started asking about their families. The girl was SO excited! She said she is right in the thick of doing her family history and feels she is at a road block with it! I actually happened to have a blank four generation pedigree chart that I gave to her and she was super excited about that too! I explained the reason we do family history and testified of forever families, and the spirit was so strong. It was definitely an incredible experience! See? Miracles :) The Spirit truly is a still, small voice. And those who heed it, will be given more promptings and more sensitivity and courage to follow them.

I think I mentioned Onneetse before. She is our investigator that is from Botswana and we've been meeting with her for a while, but she hasn't really been progressing. And she finally came to church on Sunday! And she loved it! Most people I talk to are so distraught that we have the audacity to go to church for three hours every week! But Onneetse thinks anything less wouldn't be enough :) We met with her on Saturday to explain what church would be like and review the Restoration, and at the beginning of the lesson we asked about her Book of Mormon reading to see how it was going. She said she went to lds.org

and something on the website took her to 2 Nephi 33 :) Oh yeah! I love this chapter! It's the one that says if you don't believe in the book, believe in Christ, and if you believe in Christ you will believe these words, because THEY ARE THE WORDS OF CHRIST! She said that when she read that she felt something. That is absolutely my favorite thing. Helping people recognize and feel the spirit! We helped her talk through it and process what she felt and help her understand that the Holy Ghost was testifying to her of truth. It was so great! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Moments like that make walking through multiple feet of snow for several hours at a time WORTH IT! So worth it. No question.

I hope you all have a great week! I know this church is true. I know it with all my heart. And I love it. Pray. Read. Pray!

Love and Prayers, Sister Felix

Quote of the week:

"Seek to know your Father in Heaven. He loves you, and He has given you the precious opportunity to draw near to Him as you pray. Your prayers, offered in humility and sincerity, are heard and answered." True to the Faith, pg 75

Phone Miracle

Hello! I hope you've all had a fantastic week!                                                                                    February 10, 2014

On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Sister Sorensen this week! :) It was so much fun! We taught three lessons that day, and we didn't miss a beat! It's weird that we were only companions for 6 weeks, and that was about six months ago, and we taught in such unity! It was incredible. Sister Sites was really sick early this week :( So she and Sister Waldron spent most of the day at the hospital for their exchange. Sister Sites is feeling better now though. So don't worry :)

Austin is still working towards being baptized! He set his baptismal date for the February 23, so keep on praying. He's still working hard to overcome his fears with faith. Church was so good yesterday though! Everything I heard was applicable to his situation. So I hope he received the strength he needs to overcome.

On Wednesday we had a zone training meeting. One of the business items the Zone Leaders talked about was not to lose our phones or our bus passes. They understood that it's accidental, but they just wanted us to be extra careful because they are expensive to replace. So guess what happened the next day... We lost our phone. I realized it wasn't in my pocket when we went to drop by our investigator, Ben, and he told us to text him later that night. I told Sister Sites and we both were sure it was probably back at our apartment. So we went back there and searched everywhere and couldn't find it. So we said a prayer. The last time I remembered having it when when we were running to the bus stop, so we went and checked the sidewalk by the bus stop and couldn't see it. We asked our landlord if we could borrow his phone for a minute to call our phone to see if we could hear it while in our house and car, but we didn't hear it. He let us take his phone to wherever we needed to go to look! So we want and checked by Ben's house again. And went back to where the bus stop was. This was about two hours later and my faith was almost exhausted. I was role playing in my head a much dreaded conversation with the zone leaders... Although we were tired and had somewhere to be soon, we decided to check one more time on the sidewalk. So we said another prayer. Sister Sites was walking on the side walk looking around and I was driving slowly next to her on the road. As she was walking, she stopped and had a feeling that she had just passed it. She looked back and down at the snow and kicked her foot into the snow. When she brought her foot back, there was the phone! Miracle. Prayers are answered WAY to many times to be merely coincidences. They are miracles. Nothing less. It was so nice to have a simple reminder that our Father in Heaven is in charge and knows all.

Another simple, faith-building experience happened on the bus on Friday. We got on the bus and I started talking to a man from Ukraine. He is an international student that is only here for 6 weeks. He goes home in two. I used simple terms to explain why I was talking to him and asked him what his beliefs about God are. He opened and closed his mouth several times obviously trying to translate in his mind how to express his beliefs in English. It was then that he told me to wait for a moment and he pulled out his phone. Using a translating app, he translated what he wanted to say. When he figured it out, he looked up from his phone and looked into my eyes, and said in simple english, "He is our Father." The Holy Ghost bore powerful witness to my heart that it was true. I smiled and said, "Yes He is." He got off the bus shortly after, but I was so grateful for that experience.

I know God lives and loves us unconditionally. I know that after hundreds of years of darkness and confusion, a fourteen year old boy said a prayer with a specific question. His question was answered by a personal appearance of God the Father and His Beloved Son Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith was called to be the first prophet of this dispensation. He translated the Book of Mormon, which is the keystone of our religion. I have no doubt that this happened. I came to know this through prayer. That is the only way to know spiritual truths. I'm so grateful that our Father in Heaven loves us enough to communicate with us directly. All we have to do is pray, then listen.

Have a great week and a fun valentines day! We're going to the Hudson's home for dinner :) I'm excited about that!

Love and Prayers,

Sister Felix

Quote of the Week:

"In every thing ye are enriched by him." 1 Corinthians 1:5

FEBRUARY ALREADY?!

February already?!                                                                                                                                    Feb. 3, 2014                       

 I can't believe I only have 9 months left...

I hope you have all had a great week! I surely have. I am so pumped about working with Sister Sites! This is the first time I have a companion who is the same age as me! She just turned 20 last month. She's from Twin Falls, Idaho. She's been out a year this month and is an incredible missionary! On the first day she was here, we were walking back to our apartment to eat dinner and we were talking about the huge snow piles everywhere. All of a sudden she pushed me sideways and I fell right into a huge snow drift!! Hahaha! I laid in the snow for a second, a little shocked, but then I just started laughing! She jumped in next to me and we sat there laughing for a while! I knew we were going to be good friends from that moment on :) We can also work hard together though. She's taught me so much and it's only been a week!

Austin is still working towards baptism, but Satan is working so hard! Why... Why does he want so badly for us to be bad?! It frustrates me sometimes. We've been talking a lot about faith with him lately, because that's really what it comes down to. He knows what he needs to do, he just needs the faith to do it. It's so interesting to see parallels in the lives of our investigators and my own. I feel like I learn so much for my own improvement as we study for them, teach them, and pray for them. Yesterday during the sacrament I was praying for Austin, and I just started tearing up a little bit. I want so badly for him to just take that leap of faith and see how much it will bless his life! But then I was reminded that there are leaps that I have to make too. It's so easy for me to see the blessings Austin will receive for being baptized, so then why is it so hard for me to take my own leaps of faith when I know Heavenly Father will bless me? It's a lesson learned over a lifetime.

I love fasting. So much. Austin fasted yesterday too and felt the difference. I learned something really cool in Relief Society yesterday that I want to share with you. The lesson was on being anxiously engaged, and one of the scriptures we read was in Matthew 22, about the first and great commandment. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." I think that is what this life is about. Learning to love God, and then express that love in the way that He has asked. I was thinking about loving/worshiping God with our soul. I read under "Spirit" in the Bible Dictionary, and it says, "The spirit and the body constitute a mortal soul." So then I got thinking about expressing love to God using our spirit and our body and different commandments God has given us to show our love for Him using our body and our spirit.

When I was thinking about worshiping God with our body, I remembered an experience that I had a few years ago. All of you who know me well know how much dance is a part of my life :) I went to a performance done by BYU-I's dance company in July of 2012 and the show was called "Come What May and Love it." It was in the conference center theater in Salt Lake. A certain dance really stood out to me during that performance. It was a contemporary style, which is a really expressive kind of dance. There was a dancer in a black body bag laying in the center of the stage and the other dancers mournfully danced around her. Part way through the dance, the girl in the body bag climbed out and was dressed in all white. She went around and comforted the dancers in black. Their expressions made it obvious that they could not see her, but they were comforted by her presence. Other dancers in white entered the stage and comforted the mourning mortals during the climax of the piece. I was in tears. That was such a powerful experience for me, and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father testifies to us of the reality and divinity of His plan so frequently. And that He was able to do it in a language I understood and love. I am so grateful that we have bodies so we can become more like our Father. I am so grateful that we can use this gift to worship Him in return.

Have a great week :) The Lord loves you. He died and lived for you. Do something to show your love for Him this week. Not only this week, but every week! How about everyday? :)

Love and Prayers, Sister Felix

Here's a picture of my in a maple leaf! And this is Sister Sites :) She says hello!

Hello hello! :)                                                                           January 27, 2014

I'm staying in Guelph YSA! I'm super excited about that! Sister Dyer is leaving me though :( She is going to Oakville North. And my new companion will be Sister Sites. All I know about her is that she has gorgeous, dark hair and she works hard! So I'm excited to get to know her.

Austin didn't get baptized this week :( He's really going through some hard times. But soon. Keep praying for him. He's SO CLOSE! I don't think he realizes how close he is... He was working a lot this week and had family things so we didn't get to meet with him as much as we usually do. We should be meeting with him tonight though, so we'll see how that goes.

We met a guy named Dennis a few weeks ago, I cant remember if I told you about him but he's so amazing! We met him on a SUPER cold night as we were walking home in the snow. He had missed his bus so he was waiting at a bus stop. So we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ right then at that super freezing cold bus stop :) He is from Ghana and is a first year University student. He is really Christian, so we knew that an understanding of the Apostasy and Restoration was crucial. We taught him last Monday night, and he loved it! He was a little wary when we told him at the beginning of the lesson that we would invite him to be baptized, because he was already baptized Christian, but by the end of the lesson he accepted the baptismal invitation and is working toward being baptized on the 16th of February! Then we met with him again and taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He loved that too. We use a lot of scriptures when we teach him. A LOT of scriptures because it adds another witness and validity to what we are saying. There have been times when we teach him something, then give him a scripture to read about it and he reads it then looks at us and says, "Okay. I understand. What happens next?" Hahaha. He's so cool. I'm excited to see him progress in the Gospel.

For district meeting this week Elder Hardick asked us to pick someone from the Book of Mormon and three attributes about this person that helped them to be a good missionary. I picked Jacob :) The brother of Nephi. The three attributes I picked was that he "Labored Diligently" (Jacob 1:7), He was bold (Jacob 2:11), and he kept good records (Jacob 4:2). I studied for a while about diligence. In Preach My Gospel, chapter 6 is all about Christlike attributes, and diligence is one of them. It says, "The Lord expects you to work diligently-persistently and with great effort and care...Diligence in missionary work is an expression of love for the Lord and His work." (PMG 121) So I've been really focusing on setting goals and making plans to be a more diligent servant of my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ. I realized we need to be diligent in three ways to be fully diligent. Diligence in MIND. Diligence in ACTIONS. Diligence in WORDS. I have started memorizing hymns to be more diligent in mind. And the hymn for this week was "O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown." #197 in the hymnbook. If you have time today, go look up those words! They are incredible! We sang it for the sacrament hymn yesterday at church, and I love it more and more every time I sing it.

I hope you all have a fantastic week :) Christ lives. Never forget it.

 Love and Prayers, Sister Felix

Quote of the Week: "If you want to be near Him, to feel His peace, you can do it best in His service." -President Henry B. Eyring

 

 

 

Priesthood

Hello!

This is the last week of my sixth transfer!! I'm having a hard time believing it... So next week I'll let you know what is going to happen next transfer. I've been with Sister Dyer for the past two transfers, so I don't think we'll get to stay for another transfer, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Austin's baptism got rescheduled for this coming Sunday, the 26th, so keep praying for him! He's really excited for that! And so are we! He has come so far. It's truly amazing to see the changes that happen inside of someone when they start to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a miracle.

Sister Dyer and I had an experience this week that really strengthened my testimony of the power of the priesthood. It's amazing to see what happens when faith and the priesthood work together to produce miracles! I think my favorite part of the Restoration is the priesthood, because that is what made it all possible! I am eternally grateful for the priesthood. Without it, nothing we do on earth would be valid in heaven. So it's kind of a big deal... I studied about the priesthood this week and discovered this quote in Preach My Gospel, "Through priesthood ordinances and righteous living, we can live as families in God's presence eternally." Isn't that the best?! Priesthood ordinances and righteous living. That is the meat and potatoes of life ladies and gentleman!

Honestly, this week has been a little hard for me, but if I have learned anything, it is this: I can do hard things! And hard things are what make life worth it. If we never had to work, we would never reap anything. If we never had to struggle, we would never be strong. If we never had to question, we would never get answers. I had this thought go through my mind multiple times this week, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." And get going I will :) I am so grateful that our Father in Heaven loves us enough to let us go through hard things. He knows we can't attain Celestial Glory if we don't. So just keep going :) I love you all!

Christ lives. This I know. Have a great week!

Love and Prayers, Sister Felix

Quote of the week: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." -Leonardo DaVinci

Tender Mercies: Above Freezing

Hello hello!                                                                                                                                                          January 13, 2014

What a beautiful week it should be! The sun is going to be out and the temperature is supposed to be above freezing! I believe in tender mercies :)

Austin is preparing to be baptized on Sunday!! I'm so excited! I can't remember how much I've told you about him, so I'll just tell you his story. We met him during what our zone called a "consecrated finding hour." One Saturday afternoon back in December we all prayed at 2:00 then went out for that hour with the faith that we would find prepared people to teach. We went tracting and knocked on the door of a college student that just rolled out of bed and wasn't very interested at all. We continued tracting the street then on the way back there was a guy shoveling the driveway of the college student house and we went over and talked with him. It wasn't an incredibly spiritual contact, just the usual introductions, testifying of Restored truth, getting his phone number, giving him a mormon.org card with our number, etc. We called him the next day and set up an appointment. That was when we realized how prepared he was! He asked why there are so many churches that teach similar doctrines and why there isn't just one way back to God. We testified that there is. Before Sister Dyer said the first vision from memory, I told him he would feel the Holy Ghost. I briefly described what it might feel like then told him we would give him a minute to think about it. After Sister Dyer finished, the spirit was so tangible it was incredible! After a few moments of silence, Austin grabbed his chest and asked, "Do you feel it right here?" I said, "Yes. That is the Holy Ghost." We then promised him that he would receive the same feeling every time he read the Book of Mormon. We set him with a baptismal date for the 19th and he was so excited about it! He was also super excited to come to church, but that was the week of the ice storm. So because church was cancelled, he watched a session and a half of General Conference! How amazing is he?! He's been to the YSA branch 3 times now and has made some true friends. The adversary knows he is getting baptized this week though, and some extremely hard things are happening in his life. So pray for him. He knows this is true. And he even told us that no matter what, he is getting baptized. Whether it is this week, or another week, it's going to happen.

As all of these hard things have been happening to him I have been praying so hard. I have been thinking a lot about helping someone develop enough faith to withstand hard things. It's hard enough to go through your own hard things! So how do you help someone else? I studied a lot about adversity and these are some of the things that I learned. Adversity comes from one of three ways. 1) SIN. Sin is a self inflicted trial and is caused by bad usage of agency. It is the consequence of one's own pride or disobedience. 2) LIFE. Why do hard things happen to good people? Because that is why we are here. Some trials are God given, and even though they are hard, these trials are meant to bless us. 3) OTHERS. Trials caused by the poor choices or hurtful words of other people are called afflictions. They are also meant to strengthen us as well. Some of these things I learned as I read about adversity in "True to the Faith" and one of the quotes that I love in there is this, "Your success and happiness, both now and in the eternities, depend largely on your responses to the difficulties of life." No matter what kind of trials we get in life, if we respond with faith and trust in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, everything will be alright in the end. I came to the conclusion that if an investigator is reading, praying, and coming to church, they will receive the strength they need. Austin faced a temptation last night, and instead of giving in, he read his Book of Mormon. He recognizes the strength that he receives from reading and praying and it just amazes me! It's the same for all of us. So let's follow Austin's example and face trials with faith okay? :)

We had another cool experience this week. Probably one of the most powerful of my mission. We got a text at 10 as we were walking out the door one day to go work from a less active asking if we could go visit him sometime that day. This was unusual because he's been rather cold lately, so we decided to go right then. When we arrived, we found him in tears. Absolutely a mess. I have never witnessed someone so low. We talked and he expressed his feelings of darkness and said, "I need Heavenly Father again." We had him read 3 Nephi 9 where it says, "Will you not repent and come unto Me and be converted that I may heal you?" to the end of the chapter. We then promised him as representatives of Jesus Christ that if he knelt and pleaded with Heavenly Father in prayer, he would feel the calming influence of the Holy Ghost. He sat there for a minute in thought, then decided to do it. We all knelt down, and he offered the prayer. It was the sweetest, most sincere prayer. It was interesting to hear someone else say a personal prayer. Usually in a group setting, the person praying prays for general things representing the group. But in this case I heard the plea of a man in agony asking his Father in Heaven to pull him from the pit of darkness that he was sitting at the bottom of. I think the miracle factor was that he was willing to work to climb out. He had faith. The spirit was so strong!! SO strong. After his prayer ended, none of us moved for a while. That little spot where we knelt became a very sacred place in my mind.

We went on exchanges this week! Well, sort of... Sister Waldron came to our area and we worked as a trio for a day! It was a blast! We had a few other changes in our area this week. We got a lower monthly kilometer limit for the car and bus passes! Sp that day with Sister Waldron, we were on buses all day and it was so good! I have missed bus contacting. I didn't realize until that day, but I've really missed it. There is nothing more awkward, but I love it! Sister Dyer's trainer  always said, "As missionaries, we learn thrive in awkward situations!" And it's so true :)

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! Let me know if any of you have any missionary experiences this week! I'd love to hear about them! Keep smiling because THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!

Love and Prayers,   Sister Felix

Guelph

 Isn't Guelph the cutest?! All covered in snow :) There's a lot more snow now!