Christmas Came Early

Christmas came early this year in the form of the best week ever!! SO many great things happened... I will number them off so I don't forget to tell everything! :)
 

1. Wednesday we got a text saying that on Saturday Elder Hallstrom of The Presidency of the Seventy would be visiting the mission and we would be lucky enough to attend the meeting!! I was pumped! And then of course I got a bit more pumped when I realized that I would be able to see Sister Tebbs, Elder Palmer, Elder Healey, and Elder Ikeda. haha

Sister Tebbs and Karly

Saturday came and we rode to Etobicoke with two of the other Sisters who serve near us. We got there quite early because they told us multiple times that if we were going to be late, then we just shouldn't come.  And there was no way I was missing this opportunity. :) I got to see everyone before the meeting started, and then Elder Hallstrom and President and Sister Scott came. They started the meeting with us going up and shaking their hands, and then, just before it was my turn, President stopped us and he went to the back of the chapel and brought a man up with him who had just walked in. This man turned out to be Elder Homer who was called to be a member of the Seventy a few months ago. (He used to be the Stake President of the Hamilton Stake.) So then I was able to shake the hands of both a member of the Seventy and a member of the Presidency of the Seventy.... I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty awesome. :) Elder Hallstrom is with the Prophet and the Twelve Apostles daily, so shaking his hand was almost like shaking the Prophets hand. :)

             Elder Homer                     Elder Hallstrom                                            
Both Elder Homer and Elder Hallstrom spoke with us and I was mostly blown away. They both talked a lot about how special the time on our missions is, and that we shouldn't waste a minute of it. Elder Hallstrom also talked a lot about how he sees us not as missionaries, but as future husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, Bishops, and Relief Society Presidents, and that our time on our missions is the best time to build a foundation in our lives that we can build on, so that we can be successful in our futures. And if we are not doing all we can now to be obedient and fulfill our purpose, we need to repent now and do better. It was pretty awesome and I think the Spirit was teaching all of us the things that we need to work on, and his message was definitely an answer to my prayers.

It was also pretty amazing to be in the same room as a man such as that, as he bore to us his Solemn Witness of Jesus Christ and of the message of the Restoration, and the reality of a living Prophet and Apostles today... I am telling you, I could have sat in that room for forever just because of how strong the Spirit was. That really will be an experience I will always remember. It was very special!

2. I found out this week that the woman that Sister Tebbs and I taught 8 months ago, Shelmith, decided to be baptized and was baptized yesterday!!! I was SO excited to hear this. Shelmith was prepared the day we met her, it just needed to be the right timing. I really do now see the importance of "planting the seeds" that can be "harvested" by other missionaries later.

 Shelmith with Brother McMullen who is SO awesome. He is the ward mission leader in the Heart Lake ward, and the sister missionaries serving there also.

3. Speaking of the Harvest... we got our Christmas present from the Mission at Zone Conference on Tuesday and this was also something that I was very excited about. Elder Dewey's dad... (ya know.. the Artist Simon Dewey. :) haha) had made this picture of the Savior and the Toronto skyline and they put it on temple recommend holders for all of us.

4. Now... I can talk about Janet. :) She was found by missionaries in another area and the story of how they found her is pretty amazing. Janet had heard of Mormons years and years ago, but had never really had the opportunity to look into it. She had researched many churches and a couple of months ago had even been baptized into a church, but she said that there was still something missing and that she was looking for more. One day she was praying that she would be led to the Mormon Church and... that very day she was sitting at a bus stop that she normally wouldn't go to at a time that she normally wouldn't be there and guess who walks up?..... Sister Mitchell and Sister Griffin. She immediately tells them,"You are not going to believe this... I have been praying that I would find you." So.... they taught her! And then she moved into our area, and it took us about a month to meet with her and when we did she said that she was loving everything that she had learned so far, and that she knows Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.  She was just waiting for an "a-ha" moment to know that she should be baptized.

Which brings us to this weekend! Saturday night Janet came to the Christmas party and loved it, and then she also came to church on Sunday and the Spirit was really working on her. After the blessing of the Sacrament she said, "Wow... there is some power behind that prayer.. I can just FEEL it." (Sidenote: it is my favorite thing when investigators are describing the Spirit and how He works with them.) So the rest of the day went great, and after church Janet was SO excited. She told us that at the Christmas party she thought she "felt" something and she went home happy, but then told herself that she might have just been making that feeling up. Then she said that when she woke up that feeling was gone and that she wanted it back. She said the second  she walked into church on Sunday, she got the feeling again and she knew that this is what she had been missing at all the other churches. Before church that day she didn't know about being baptized, but Janet got her "a-ha" moment during the meeting and she couldn't have been more excited. :) We will be working with her toward baptism which will hopefully happen soon.  So incredible to be a part of her experience in coming to find the WHOLE truth. :)

Well now that you are all probably extremely bored with reading, I guess I can wrap things up! This coming week some pretty exciting things will be happening, as in Wednesday it will have been one year since I received my mission call. Can't believe it has been one whole year! It feels like just yesterday. And also Friday will be my 10 month mark since going into the MTC!

Transfer calls are also this weekend, so I will update all of you with that news on Monday.  I really have no feeling this time as to what will happen. I would like to stay, but in the end God knows where I need to be so I will go wherever! He hasn't let me down so far! :)

Three month mark, and Mother's Day call

Three months ago today I got dropped off at the MTC! Sometimes I seriously can't believe it has been that long. (Even though in the grand scheme of things 3 months doesn't seem too long. haha)

Anyway.. This week marks week 6 of this transfer so transfer calls will come Sunday. I don't think I will get transferred (or maybe that is just me hoping I won't get transferred) but I guess we shall see! Either way the Lord knows where I need to be and if that means I stay here I will stay and if not I will go.

This week was good! We found a few new people to teach and had some good lessons. Shelmith, who we have been teaching for about 4 weeks now, should be getting baptized either this Sunday or the next Sunday and I am really excited about that. She is an amazing woman and I am grateful that she found us.

It went from being really hot to really cold this week and I am hoping that is goes back to the hot end of things this week.

So with yesterday being Mothers day I was able to call home! 

It was the best! 

Thank goodness for modern technology! Really how great is it that I was able to Skype my family and then talk to Blake over the phone through Skype.  I think it is pretty cool! Calling home was good but... I can see why we only get to do it twice a year. I haven't been homesick or really cried since being on my mission but all of the above happened Saturday when I got to call my mom to set up our time to Skype for Sunday. haha oh well....  Back to the regular missionary grind today.. no time for homesickness!

The members here are so awesome! This week we were invited to a farewell party for one of the members and got to be with like 10 families all at once. Now that is an effective way to do some missionary work and be involved with members. haha Weeks are starting to feel like blurs.. I wish that I had more to say but... I think that is all for today! I will try and make next week's email much, much, better. :)

Random pics !

Elder Randon Prochnow and Sister Karly Prescott
Both from Morgan Utah !

Ketchup Chips - Pretty good :)

Longest week of the Mission

This has literally been the longest week of my mission! And not that it was bad, there were just a lot of things that happened.

Tuesday after I emailed home, Sister Tebbs and I went with the Elders and got Poutine for the first time since being in Canada. Poutine, for those of you who don't know, is fries, topped with cheese and gravy.... yeah real healthy. The place we went to get the Poutine is a bbq place, so ours had bbq pork on it which was good but... in the end a 6 pound plate of Poutine called "the mammoth" is just no good for anyone. It'll probably be a few months before I try that again.

Elder Snow,  Karly, Elder Skirvin, Elder Wilson, Sister Tebbs, Elder Palmer

So I knew that I had the best district ever, but this week I discovered how great they really are! I had been a little bit grumpy and just having a rough day or two and the Elders totally caught on...we call that the gift of discernment :) And they were able to give me a blessing and even bought me a nice drink. Really... such good guys! And I am SO thankful for the power of the Priesthood! This is something I think I may have taken for granted, but I am so thankful that these young Elders are worthy and willing to help when I needed it. And it has made all the difference. I have felt SO much better in every aspect of my mission since that night.

The day after that we had a Zone training which was great. We were able to set some goals that we are going to work to achieve as a Zone, and Elder Prochnow and I were able to talk about some Morgan gossip so all and all a great day! haha But even after that it got better. For I think the first time since being out, I was able to go out, talk to everyone, knock on some doors, and just feel super happy. So.... finally figuring out this whole mission thing. :) Bout time, eh?

And the other really, really awesome thing that happened this week is that I almost met Alex Boye! (He is a pretty famous LDS singer who is in the Motab, Everyone should Youtube the video I will Rise by Alex Boye and watch it.) Anyway, somehow someone in another ward knows Alex and had him come to do a fireside. It was really awesome. He shared some great experiences, his powerful testimony and of course sang. :) Unfortunately, all of us missionaries had to leave early so we could be home on time. (Exact obedience brings miracles! haha) But our investigator was there and she was able to meet and talk with him and it was a REALLY awesome experience for her so I am happy. Since we weren't able to get a picture with him Sister Tebbs and I took our own picture with the flyer they gave out. haha Just know that I really did sit in the same chapel as Alex Boye.. yeah, I am kinda a big deal. :)

Sunday we were able to attend a baptismal service so that our investigator, Shelmith, could see a baptism. It was awesome. There is always such a strong Spirit at baptisms, so we were grateful that she was able to go. Oh and one of the baptisms was Elder Prochnow's. Shout out to him. haha

Elder Prochnow and Karly

Oh and let's talk about how I am turning into such a missionary. We have a family here that always says if we don't have a meal just to tell them and we could go over. Well... this is a nice sentiment but I never actually thought that I would do it. Well... yesterday I did it!  I just straight up asked them if we could come over for dinner. Of course they said yes, but who am I becoming!? haha

I am almost out of time, but the week was great! There were some definite ups and downs but all and all there were some great turning points for me and my growth as a missionary! Now I will quote Alex Boye here when I say, "All of the power that we get comes from the Book of Mormon and we need to read it over, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. :)" Have a great week!

Pretty Great Week

This week was pretty great if I do say so myself and also.... it's the the last day of April... uh what?? Where has the last month of my life gone?!?!

Yesterday we went to Burlington and had a conference where Elder Paul V. Johnson, of the Seventy, and his wife spoke to us. It was really, really great! He taught us a lot of things that we will all be able to use to make ourselves better missionaries! It was fun to get together with a bunch of other missionaries and see some of the Elders and Sisters that I haven't seen in awhile. Oh and funny story, Sister Tebbs got called up to the front during the conference to take part in kind of an object lesson. Elder Johnson was explaining how we learn different things in different ways and so he brought Sister Tebbs up and said, "OK, in 5 minutes I need you to teach me how to be a soccer player." Well Sister Tebbs responds to that with, "Well it would take a lot more than 5 minutes to get you in shape!" Everyone started laughing and the joke for the rest of the day was that she insulted a General Authority! Of course she didn't mean to and he thought it was funny but.... my companion got pretty famous yesterday! haha

On Saturday we were able to do a service project which was a lot of fun even though all we did was pick up trash at a park for four hours! I will have to get a picture of the group of us to send sometime. I can't believe how much trash we were able to pick up. It was pretty unreal. Oh and this park had a "petting zoo" even though you weren't allowed to actually pet the animals. But.... I felt like I was at home seeing the cute goats and they even had some mini donkeys! Granted, these mini donkeys weren't too happy like Otis back at home. I wish I could have freed them from their pens... anyway... I got a little bit sunburned this day as well. It was super hot! Once again I am not really sure how I will survive the summer.

That night we got together with our zone and did what is called a Blitz. Basically we got together with the other District, the Zone Leaders and the Assistants and all of us missionaries went to an area in Brampton and talked with EVERYONE. It was pretty cool! We flooded the streets pretty much and it was really effective in a few ways. 1. we got a lot of contacts and 2. It motivated Sister Tebbs and I to talk to some people! Up until this point we had still been pretty scared to open our mouths so this was something that added some competition and forced us to do it. And it worked because Sister Tebbs and I handed out 5 copies of the Book of Mormon in just over an hour. All of the Elders were pretty impressed and now Elder Prochnow is giving Sister Tebbs a hat for her achievement and Elder Amorim will be giving me a Canadian Flag. haha It took a little bribing, yes, but it was just the confidence boost we needed and now we aren't worried about talking with everyone!

So what else happened this week.... oh one morning I woke up and had a pretty severe rash on my neck and face and my eyes were SO swollen. It was pretty bad. haha I mean like really bad.... I may send a picture but I doubt it because..... woof.

This week was full of ups and downs but thankfully they were mostly ups! Sometimes I can't believe how much I have changed in the past 3 weeks. I look back to when Sister Tebbs and I first got to this area and I know I have had to grow a lot. The change is gradual for me, but I really do feel like I am a completely different person and it is totally in a good way!

Time is also flying by. I can't believe that I am in the 4th week of this transfer. Feeling like I can't get too comfortable either, because I will probably end up getting transferred again. Word on the street is that 20 new sisters will be coming in this next transfer which means that big changes will be happening again. I guess we will just have to see! :)

Sister Tebbs and I have a progressing investigator that we are pretty excited about! I hate even saying that for fear of it not happening, but she has a baptismal date, has come to church twice and is really, REALLY loving it. Her name is Shelmith and she came from Kenya about 6 weeks ago. She is really so awesome. So open to the Spirit and willing to learn. Sister Tebbs and I have been praying for her A LOT and we have a good feeling. :) OK so a funny story... we have an investigator who LOVES us. Her name is Nicole and she was a little leery about meeting with us because she thought we would be weird, but now she thinks we are great and wants to learn more and wants to take us to dinner sometime soon. haha Anyway last Monday her and her husband saw us at Walmart and last night she told us what her husband said to her when he saw us. He said, "Hey there are those girls you meet with. They are so pretty and they are covered up... but they're so pretty." So we could have taken this as being creepy but honestly I take it as the fact that modest really is hottest and that the "missionary glow" is a real thing. haha

Ok I think that should do it for today! :) Missionary life is pretty sweet and I am honestly loving it. Some days it hits me how fast time is going and I honestly get pretty sad. It isn't everyday you can go share the good word with complete strangers and it is sad to think that so soon I will have to take off this name tag and be done. I don't even like thinking about it. I'll just enjoy every moment.... keep inviting others to come unto Christ and baptizing the nation. :)