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! :)

Good News !!

Well hello family and friends! Looks like we all made it through another week! :) I have some good news! The mission policy for emails has changed... we can now email friends! #raisedaroof So..... go crazy, kids and send me some emails! karly.prescott@myldsmail.net :) I want to hear about what's going on! The only bad thing with this being I will probably never have time to reply especially in this area. The mission president does give us permission to spend more time on the computers but the libraries here only allow you to have an hour a day so..... just send some emails and I will respond if I can or write letters back. I finally got some letters this week! They were written and sent around the same time I left the MTC, though, so it really does take about a month to get mail here. I also sent some letters home so it will be interesting to see how long that takes.

 This week was better than last week, I hope that pattern continues. Everything gets a little bit easier as I get more and more experience with it.The only thing that is not getting easier is dealing with this weather. I freeze ALL. THE. TIME. I can bundle up and and wear a million layers and this cold still finds a way to cut through and leave me miserable. (OK maybe that is a little dramatic, but it is cold) Last night we walked about 2 miles in the cold until we were able to find a bus. Bus systems are different at night so we though we were going to have to walk the whole way. I guess it could have been worse, but it still was pretty bad.

 This week I did my first exchange with the other set of sisters in this area. It was fun to see how another missionary works and the different things they do in their teaching and finding. More and more I am being able to pull ideas of the kind of missionary I want to be and the way that I want to teach and do things.

 At District Meeting this week President Scott came. It was a little intimidating because I had to give a thought and then role play with him, but it was good. He is such a great guy and I am so grateful to have him as my mission President. He really is so loving and cares about us individually and that really is good to know. Talking with him makes me feel like a million bucks. He really needs to come around more often. haha

We did a ton of finding this week and still didn't have much success. We need to find people before we can teach people and the finding part is proving to be hard. Some people will want to listen but a lot of people open their doors, say something that is usually not very nice :), and then quickly close the door. Oh well, we'll just keep going and eventually we'll find those people who are really prepared. I promise cool and great things happen during the week but I just cannot seem to remember them right now...... I guess this email will be short then. :) But here are a few random things!

 1. St. Patrick's Day was like a serious thing here.... I am fairly confident that the college students (did I mention Guelph is a serious college town?) were all drinking from Saturday night all through Sunday. Which meant we got to see a lot of people make complete fools of themselves all day long. Also they don't just use the holiday as an excuse to drink, they also went crazy with the wearing of green. And not just a green shirt here or there, they were wearing green mini skirts and huge bows and wigs and it really was out of control. I have never seen anything like that.

2. So my District leader, Elder Dewey, is the son of a famous artist.. Simon Dewey? I didn't know who he was, but I guess his dad does a lot of the famous LDS paintings. I am sure a lot of you will know who he is.

 Sorry that was so short.... I will try and do better next week. :) Missionary work really is amazing. Everyday I learn so much and my testimony is strengthened. This week I really have seen the importance of a testimony. People will argue doctrine or not want to talk with you but a testimony is something short and simple yet so powerful that you can leave it with everyone. It is hard for people to dispute something you KNOW to be true. There is no arguing with that. :) So I challenge all of you to constantly strengthen your testimonies, in whatever it may be, because that is the most powerful thing we have when it comes to sharing the Gospel with others. Have a great week!