New Companion - New Area !

Not much time to email today! We have to email in a library here in Oakville and time is limited so I will just keep this short! 

Oakville is great! It is taking some time to get used to the area but I really do like it so far.   Sister Mendenhall is a lot of fun and the work is moving forward here. 

With Sister Mendenhall

Oakville is right on Lake Ontario and it is beautiful!

We did a lot of finding this week and were able to find 4 new investigators. We didn't have many people to teach first getting to the area so it is good that we have started to build that up!

This is a really nice area! The people are great and I am just looking forward to getting to know everyone in the ward! 

Sister Shurtliff stayed the night with me (before transfers) and then we drove to Brampton the next morning.

With Elder Palmer

With Elder Ikeda

At the Mission Office on Transfer Day

PICTURE THIS - I'm finally getting transferred!

Transfers!!

I am going to Oakville with Sister Mendenhall! So sad to leave Kitchener... but I guess I couldn't stay forever! I don't have much time to write today... we have a lot of things that need to get done! But.. I am very happy and looking forward to my new area. I will be whitewashing (which I have come to LOVE) So I am really looking forward to it! We are in the final weeks! This will probably be my last area! Pretty exciting stuff!

Easter Brunch

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We had a big brunch here on Friday and it was a lot of fun!

Helping one of the little girls with her Easter Basket

Really, really going to miss Kitchener... This place is going to have a special place in my heart for forever! So thankful for all of the things that I have learned here and for all of the wonderful people that I have met! 

Clinton and I 

Chloe came and did some missionary work with us! She LOVED it !

We decided to take a bunch of funny photos because we knew it was going to be our last week with all of us together

Setting up for the Easter brunch.. and some selfies. haha

Saying bye to Caitlyn Rowden and her Dad this morning (see below also)

The Olsen's - I am going to miss them soooo much !

Brother and Sister Fischer

At the Mitchell's today‏

This was taken at the Mitchell's today
(along with the next few below)

Lesson with Janet and Amanda 

Easter egg hunt at the Meyer's

Saying bye to Julie

Saying bye to the Cliftons

Pretty drive to the Meyers. Sunset 

More Easter pictures at the Meyer's.. Chloe and her Neice‏

Elder Parker and Elder Prochnow with us.

They were in the Spanish Branch and we were in the Kitchener Waterloo ward.. Both wards go to the Chapel here in Kitchener

The Whole Zone 

Brother and Sister Richins and I 

Spring Baptisms and Easter

Another super good week! And finally some warmer weather! We were able to spend a lot of time outside this week talking with people and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately it is going to get cold again for the next few days... :( but... at least Spring is here! :)

Amanda's Baptism

Amanda was baptized yesterday! It went really well. Her family was able to be there and it was so good to see them all together. The Gospel has really spread fast in their family and they are all so happy. It is wonderful to see. The Relief Society room was packed with members there to support Amanda on her big day. Sister Fragapane and I did a musical number with a few of the other girls in the ward. Amanda bore her testimony after she was baptized and it was SO perfect. I just really am so glad I was able to be a part of all of it. After the baptism Janet was so happy and she came up and hugged me and thanked me. But really I feel like I should be thanking her because knowing them has been such a blessing to me as well. 

From left to right...  Me, Norm (baptized February 16, 2014), Janet (Baptized February 16, 2014), Brother Raynor, Amanda (baptized April 13, 2014), Ben (getting baptized April 20, 2014), Treena (Baptized March 30, 2014), Sister Fragapane. And then Ben and Treena's youngest of 3 little boys is down in the front. :) His baptismal date is set for about 8 years from now. :)

So many wonderful things have come from the missionaries and Janet running into each other at a bus stop 6 months ago! And I am SUPER glad I have been able to be a part of it.

So this is the last week of the transfer already.. this really has been a super fast and fun 5 weeks. I am not even going to try and guess what is going to happen with transfers, but I will probably end up saying bye to all of the members again just in case.. This will be the 3rd time that I will have said bye. haha They probably won't believe me anymore!

Sister Griffin and I on exchanges

We are having the Easter Brunch this Friday so if I am leaving at least I will have this extra day to spend with all of the ward! I am really going to miss everyone  like crazy if I do leave.... but I guess we will all just have to wait and see what happens. :)

In honor of Easter everyone should check out the cool website that the church has up. I really liked the video on this website so... everyone should watch it! It helps us to remember why we celebrate Easter.

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

I hope that everyone has a good week and a Happy Easter! :)

General Conference Recap, and a new investigator !

And.... it's Monday again! 

I hope that everyone enjoyed General Conference! Soooo much to learn and sooo much to take in. I will be looking forward to the Ensign coming out so I can read through everything again. I think the Saturday morning session was my favorite. I can't even remember specifics, but there were a lot of things in that session that really stood out to me! It was so fun to be at the chapel with different members, especially those who are recent converts. Great to see them there soaking it all in for the first time.

With Max at the General Conference broadcast

General Conference was also made really fun by the fact that Michelle and Natalie Julian from Hamilton came to Kitchener to watch a session of it with us. :) They came to the Sunday morning session and then we talked for a little bit after. Michelle brought us cupcakes from the place that she works. It has been so long since I have seen them so it was really fun to see them again. 

Michelle and Natalie Julian from Hamilton came to visit me! They came and watched the first session of conference with us on Sunday and then we talked for a few minutes after and she gave us cupcakes (mine gluten free of course) haha It was soooo good to see them. I already am trying to figure out a time that I can come back post mission and stay with them for a week. I told Michelle that was my plan and she was said, "stay for a week, stay for a month, heck stay forever.. we don't care!" haha

Another really good week. The weather is starting to warm up which makes me happy! Aside from General Conference we had Zone Training, and we also found a new investigator who I am pretty excited about! He has a pretty cool story too. A couple of weeks ago we got a media referral (which basically is that someone got on mormon.org and requested missionary visits and then we get a text on our phone with the information that they gave) We spent a few weeks trying to contact this guy and were able to set up an appointment with him for Saturday between sessions of General Conference. 

We went to his house and he was SO cool. He is from Sudan and he told us a little bit about how he got in touch with the church. He said that years ago he worked with a man named Jordan who was from Utah. He said that on their breaks Jordan would tell him about the Gospel and that he eventually gave him a Book of Mormon. But because their breaks at work were so short they never really got to get into really good conversations but he said what struck him was Jordan's testimony. He said that he had been to so many churches but what he found different is that Mormon's talk about things and say that they "know" them to be true. So Jordan went back to Utah and he never did meet with missionaries or attend church. Until a few months ago when he went back to Sudan to visit his father. He said that he discovered that the Church was in Sudan as well, and he attended a few meetings but he never got to sit down and talk with missionaries about the church. So when he came back to Canada a month ago he got online and looked up how he could meet with missionaries.... and, this is where we come in. :)

The lesson with him was really, really good. It was one of those lessons where everything seems to go perfect. The Spirit was really strong and he understood the things that we were teaching him. He is a very sincere man and I am excited to see how he progresses. As well as his family. We weren't able to meet with his wife yet, but I am hoping we are able to soon. 

Sister Fragapane, Amanda and I in our rainboots

And in other good news... Amanda's baptism is this weekend! Really excited for that! And... other good news.... Treena (Amanda's sister who was baptized last week) well her husband has agreed to be baptized at the end of April... Pretty cool if you ask me. :) So much has come from Janet choosing to listen to the missionaries.. She even said that the other day when she was out teaching with us.... She saw that most people don't actually want to listen to what we have to say so it was great to hear her say, "I am so glad that I listened when missionaries came to talk to me." 

So... life is still good. :) This transfer is quickly coming to an end which I am super bummed about but... such is life.. everything good, and bad, eventually comes to an end! 

Have a great week!