Meet Sister Fragapane !

Hi everyone!! Meet Sister Fragapane, my new companion! 

St. Patrick's Day - we decided to wear the same outfit !

So first off.... I bet you are wondering how you pronounce her name... I will try and explain it here. "Frag-a-pawn-eh" It is an Italian name and most people have a hard time saying it, but the ward is slowly starting to figure it out. Sister Fragapane was born in Argentina, then moved to Germany when she was 5. So she speaks both Spanish, German, and English (which she only learned her English in the past 9 months since being on her mission and her English is SO good, it is very impressive!)

Sister Colvin and I drove to Brampton on Tuesday morning and got our new companions. 

Sister Colvin and I 

Transfers are always fun in the sense that we get to go and see a lot of missionaries that we haven't seen in a long time. It is always a nice reunion, hence all of the pictures from the day! (See more pics at the bottom of the post)

Elder Washburn, Elder So'o, Sister Colvin and I

Elder Vanderstel, Elder So'o, Sister Fragapane, and I

The MTC...........

Sister Zerkle, Sister Lamb, Sister Colvin and I

I haven't seen Sister Lamb since the morning that we arrived in Canada, so it was fun for all of us to be together again!

And ONE YEAR LATER !

After transfers,  we got back to the area and got to work! Things are going well! We are needing to work on building up our teaching pool again, that is the problem when you baptize people.. there is no one left to teach. haha But... as Elder Prochnow once told me.. it is a good problem to have. :) 

The weather is still pretty Canadian here.... We went from +7*C Tuesday to.... 5 inches of snow Wednesday and about -10*C... and then it has been pretty cold ever since. Some of the snow is starting to melt. I saw some grass for the first time in what feels like a century so that was good. :) But really is is still freezing when we are out working. I have the faith that someday it will warm up but.... just not sure when.

So I have some pretty sweet news... At our last Zone Conference President Scott told us that there was going to be a Special Meeting March 22nd and they told us all to prepare spiritually and that all the missionaries would be able to go and that we would need to look out best... So we knew that someone pretty "high-up" in the church must be coming.. but we didn't know who. Well... now we know who is coming and we are all pretty excited about it. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum 12 Apostles will be here... in Brampton... this Saturday.. and we all get to go and listen to him speak! I am really looking forward to this once in a lifetime experience! It is going to be pretty amazing so I look forward to letting all of you know how that goes next week. :)

Elder David A. Bednar

Things are good here! Lovin' my new companion and am grateful to still be here in Kitchener Waterloo! 

Elder Lasley and I
He got transferred to another part of the mission. I served with him in Hamilton and then here in Kitchener.

Finally got Elder So'o to do a real smile in a picture :)‏

          Sister Taylor and I‏

              Sister DeRuvo and I‏

                                 Sister Raymer and I‏

 I never see her enough but I love this girl! She was in the same ward as me my freshman year of college, I never really knew her, but then we met each other in the MTC and we knew that we knew each other from somewhere. She is so great. She is going home in July to go back to school as well. 

                              Sister Willoughby and I‏

She is no longer a roomie here in Kitchener.. she was transferred to London

Last week before transfers...........

Well it is a nice, crisp -18*C here (-18°C = -0.4°F)  in Kitchener Ontario this morning....... And I can't believe the pictures I am seeing from Morgan, Utah where there is NO snow because... some snow piles we have around here are at least 8 ft high. haha I think this place might thaw out by the time I go home in July... maybe... A Sister can dream! :)

Karly's backyard in Morgan, Utah

Karly's backyard in Kitchener Waterloo

This week is the start to the last week of the transfer... so crazy. This has been a really fun transfer and a lot has happened. We have been so blessed with all of the baptisms that we have had and this past weekend we added to the list of Max, Janet, and Norm when Ethan was baptized on Saturday!!

Ethan is the grandson of Sister Tenny, who was baptized a few years ago. Sister Colvin and I started to get pretty close with Sister Tenny over the months that we have been here and we have also gotten to know Ethan.  Missionaries had taught Ethan before but he never seemed interested and never expressed to us that he was interested so we just let it go and never really talked with him about baptism. When we didn't get transferred this past transfer I really didn't know what I was doing here anymore.. I just felt like I didn't know why God was keeping me here so... I asked. The night that the transfer call didn't come I prayed to ask why I needed to still be in this area. And.. after I said my prayer I was laying in bed trying to sleep and then I got a distinct impression that Ethan was the reason that we were still here. So.. the next day we set up a time where we could go and meet with Ethan. We went and talked with him and when we invited him to be baptized he agreed and he picked the date of March 1st. And the rest was good ever since. We taught him all the lessons again and helped him to prepare for baptism. He is a really sweet kid and I know that his grandma was excited. The baptism went really well. I spoke and Sister Colvin sang. It is just amazing how timing is so important in everything. This whole time Ethan had been developing his Faith in Christ and all he needed was to be invited to act on that. He is a very special kid! 

Ethan and his grandmother

Sad to think that my time may be close to over here in Kitchener Waterloo. I don't want to ever leave. This has become a very sacred place for me... but I know that if I do have to leave I will go wherever I am meant to be! 

Us with Janet's daughter Amanda who we are now teaching

Oh we also had Zone Conference this week, which is always great! We drove to London and were there most of the day. I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a long time.

Sister DeRuvo and I.. I haven't seen sister DeRuvo in about a year now so it was great to see her.. especially considering she goes back to Italy in a week. :(

Sister Tebbs and I 

So yes... things are good here. :) Still living the dream!   (more pics and video below)

Sister Howey a member in the ward‏

Sister Rose Young really is the most incredible woman EVER...

So classy and such a role model for me

Sorry - I can't get this video right side up !

Busy Week :)

Well a lot has happened since I last got to email home. About 5 minutes after sending that email we got a phone call from the AP's saying that they had needed to do an emergency transfer so we would be getting another companion.  So we drove to Brampton and waited in the office until the other companionship showed up. 

(Related: the AP's know most all of the missionaries that have came from Morgan and while we were talking they said that I give off the same "Morgan vibe" like Elder Prochnow.   I am going to take it as a compliment. There just must be something different about us Morgan people!) 

Sisters - Prescott, Tuia, DeRuvo

So we got our new companion, her name is Sister DeRuvo, she is from Italy and after a week of knowing her I already feel like we are best friends. She is FANTASTIC. So funny and talkative and a really great missionary. I think it has been a really great blessing having her. Unfortunately transfers are in a week and I bet we will all be separated :( but at least it has been a really fun 2 weeks.

At the Toronto Temple

Saturday we were able to go to the Temple in Brampton! It was so great! The only bad part is that we had to wake up at 3am to leave by 4am to get there at 5:30am for our session that was at 6am.   Needless to say we were a little tired, but it was so good to be able to go to the temple and be with other missionaries and really feel the Spirit. Never take the Temple for granted, especially all of us Uta

hns, it is an incredible blessing that SO many temples are SO close to us at all times.

We witnessed a serious miracle this week and that came through this kid named Paul. We met Paul through a member and he has some SERIOUS addictions that he is trying to give up. He has a ton of faith and it working hard to get through them he is just struggling. As we all know ,addictions of any kind are hard and so he is just trying to get through so that he can be free. Anyway, Paul had told us and other people more than once that there is no way that he will give up smoking weed. He said he wanted to give up alcohol and hard drugs, but he didn't see how weed was bad. So we went to a lesson with him Thursday at the church with the full intention of dropping him because we can't help him to change if he doesn't want to change. The second I saw him I knew things were different today, and I knew that we couldn't drop him. My feelings were right because as we started talking, he said he had just met with his doctor and she told him that they weed is in fact harmful to him, and that he really needs to consider giving it up because it is slowly killing him.  So.... Paul went from a kid who was NEVER going to give up smoking, to seeing that it is something that is harming him and he was considering it and saying that it is something he needs to do. I wanted to jump out of my seat and do a small victory dance. Seeing someone experience that little bit of change and want to be different is incredible! The lesson was really good that day. Paul was able to feel the Spirit and see that this is something that he wants. We are going to keep working with him and keep helping him. We know that he can overcome this, it is just getting him to see his potential and then to seek help from the Lord and other sources to really get through it. He is an awesome guy and we are hoping for the best for him.

Easter was good! We had 2 investigators come to church and all of the talks on the atonement were perfect for them to hear. We were able to eat Easter Dinner at a members house.

We met with a man named Egigu this week and by the end of our second meeting he was saying he wanted to be baptized. He is SO prepared. He came to church Sunday,  stayed for a baptism that took place after church, and asked us yesterday if he could move up the baptism we had already set for him. He is from Africa and is a really cool guy. We met him on the bus and he really is just so prepared. I will keep you all updated on that. 

District Meeting 

All I can say is it is just really fun to teach people and see them change and grow and love what they are hearing. The Restored Gospel really can and does change lives. These people just need to be given the opportunity to hear it! :)  Well this will be kind of short for today so I can get a chance to upload some pictures!  Have a great week! :)