Another Great Week

Greetings from Canada! Did everyone hear that both the women's and men's Canadian Hockey teams won gold? Everyone around here was pretty stoked about it. The stereotype really is correct.. Canadians LOVE their hockey. We obviously didn't see any of the hockey games, but we heard all about it. So I feel some pride in the fact that Canada won! 

Haircut time

Another good week! Janet and Norm were confirmed yesterday, which was exciting. They were very touched by the whole experience and I think they are excited to be able to move forward in the church. Sacrament meeting was really good yesterday. One of the members just got back from his mission this past week (he was serving in the same place as Grant Clunas and knew who Grant was) He gave his homecoming talk and it was very powerful. He talked about the Light of Christ and also experiencing a change of heart. He shared different experiences of how people he taught on his mission experienced a change of heart, and then he talked about the most important change,  the change that he saw in himself. He had a very sincere and powerful testimony. I am sure everyone in that room felt that Spirit. Max, who was recently baptized, came up to me after and told me that he thought it was very powerful and there were multiple people in tears. It was cool. Church is always just the thing I need to keep me going for another week.

The Meyer Family - members in our ward

Last night we had a cool experience. Some of Brother Mitchell's coworkers have had questions about the church,  so he invited them to meet with us. We had dinner and then were able to talk with them after. All 3 of them are from Mennonite backgrounds and one of them could, "thump a pastor in a Bible Bash" as Brother Mitchell would say. haha  Anyway.. we visited with them and were able to teach them the Restoration and a bit more about our beliefs. If a year ago someone would have told me that I would be able to sit down and hold my own in a conversation with people who know the Bible like the back of their hand,  I would have told them they were crazy. But... here I am.. able to do that. It is pretty cool.. Amazing what some study and the Spirit can do for you.

That is just more proof of how much I have grown and changed in a year! It is pretty cool what can happen when we apply ourselves and take the time to let God shape us into the people that he needs us to be. 

We will be having another baptism this weekend, his name is Ethan. We really have been so blessed lately with success in our work. I will talk more about Ethan next week.

I just sure wish the weather would start to warm up around here. We have had a few days where it has felt like it might warm up, but it is always short lived. I am beginning to think all of this snow will never, ever melt. It does feel like Spring is coming.. the days are getting longer and that makes this Sister Happy!

I hope that everyone has a great week!

This mission really has changed my life

This was another great week full of a lot of exciting things!!

First off I hit my year mark and so we did some fun things to celebrate that. (I don't have much time so I will just let the pictures explain some of the things that we did. :)

It still blows my mind that I can now say that a year ago I was a missionary. That is a long, long time!

Janet and Norm were baptized this weekend, and it was the greatest experience. The day before the baptism we met with them, and hearing both of their testimonies brought me to tears. They are so amazing and so grateful for the Gospel in their lives. I can honestly say that if not one good thing happened on my mission except for meeting them and seeing their progress, I would have still said it was all worth it. I could not stop smiling and was so happy to see them so happy. Thankfully I have had a lot of wonderful things happen throughout my mission but it is amazing how just one thing can really make all the hard days 100% worth it.

Sister Colvin and I have really started to see so many blessings in this area. The work just continues to progress and I feel like the ward has been pretty excited about it. We were able to achieve the "standards of excellence" again this week and we saw a lot of really great things happen. It almost feels like I worked hard for a year and then the week that I celebrated my year mark Heavenly Father just poured out the blessing upon us. Pretty great!

For Valentines we bought some roses to give away to people and then someone had given the Chinese (speaking) sisters roses so we decided to take some pictures

So I feel like this is all over the place and the computer here at the library tells me I only have 18 minutes left, so I will wrap this up for this week and then when I am back to the Family History center Monday I will write something longer. But I DID take a lot of pictures this week so that should make up for it, right? :)

Burning stuff at the Mitchell's to celebrate my 1 year mark

Only they would leave dead ducks hanging in the tree. haha Brother Mitchell says if I ever need a good dose of Redneck that I just need to come on by. haha

Brother  and Sister Weber - members of our ward

Good old Canadian Humor
These houses have "a" and "b" sides.. a member lives on the B side of this and their neighbors are apparently pretty funny. haha They said missionaries always get a picture of this

This mission really has changed my life and I am seeing that more and more lately as I compare where I was a year ago and where I am now. I don't know what I would do without these experiences and all the wonderful people that I have met!

I hope that everyone has a great week! :)

1 Year Mark !

Well... it has officially been a year since I gave my farewell talk.. and tomorrow it will have been a year since I was set apart as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.. and Wednesday it will have been a year since I put on a name tag and entered the MTC... and that is pretty crazy. :) It doesn't feel like that long ago that all of that happened, but a whole lot has happened in that year! It is fun to look back on how far I have come.. I could have never imagined how great and also how hard a mission would be, but I don't regret for one second coming on a mission and I am so grateful for all of the things I have learned in this past year.

Last time i took a picture here it was SO hot‏

So since Sister Colvin and I started out our missions together in the MTC and are now here together a year later we are going to do some celebrating this week! Not exactly sure what we are going to do but... hopefully next week I will have some pictures of nice adventures we will have! 

This week was good. Janet and Norm are still on track for baptism this Sunday.. Elder So'o interviewed them yesterday and said the interviews were probably the most spiritual interviews he has ever done. Janet and Norm truly do love the Gospel so much and are so grateful for it in their lives and I am very excited for their baptisms this Sunday! I even agreed to sing a song with Sister Colvin at the baptism.. I am turning into a little singer here! 

Well, once again, I wish I had more time to write... but I don't :) so..... Have a great week! And everyone go and do something to celebrate my "1 year Mark!" 

Skogstad Family

This is Anne, I just thought this was the cutest picture ever. She is 78 and I feel like she is one of my best friends! 

Brother and Sister Sellars

Busy Crazy CROWDED Week!

February has arrived! And... in 10 days it will be my year mark!! We are trying to plan some fun things to celebrate.. Crazy that Sister Colvin and I started out together in the MTC last February and now we are together this February... My how time flys!

Sister Tofa and I last pday... She went back home
 to Australia this week. :(

The Rowden's had a "Welcome Back" party for us when they found out we didn't get transferred! The party was complete with a banner, balloons, tiaras, feather boas, and cake with candles! They are the best! It was so much fun!

This has been another busy/crazy week! 

Thursday we got a phone call from the Chinese speaking sisters saying that they would be moving in with us.  Apparently they were supposed to be living with another set of Chinese speaking sisters, but the apartment manager wouldn't let them so... we were the next choice.  Sister Colvin and I hurried and tried to make the apartment so everything would fit, and then about an hour later Elder Parker and Elder Prochnow show up and they just start hauling loads of huge furniture into our house. Being a missionary really teaches you how to "go with the flow".  One minute we were living in an apartment all to ourselves and the next minute we were cramming beds into a room.

It was pretty stressful and it has been a weird couple of days,  but things have settled down and it feels like we can move on with life. It has been fun having Sister Willoughby and Sister Mak with us! They have been teaching us some Chinese and that seems to make the whole "sharing a bathroom with 3 other girls thing" worth it. ;) We don't know how long they will be staying here, but.. I am glad they are here so... It will be good if they stay forever. It makes things more fun to have more people around! And... you know me.. I love to have fun! :)

Sister Willoughby, Sister Mak, me and Sister Colvin
after moving all of the stuff in

During all the chaos of the Thursday move, the Bishop called us and asked us to meet him at the church because he had some good news that had to do with Janet. So we hurried to the church! Now a little background.. we had been praying and doing everything we could to figure out how we could find Janet a place to live. Nothing seemed to be working.. Both Norm and Janet had been praying and none of us could think of anything... but.. our prayers worked because the Bishop said that there was a sister in the ward who would let Janet rent a room and so... just like that.. Our prayers were answered! Now another cool part to this story is that the night before Elder So'o had been on the phone with Elder Prochnow and Elder Parker and they were brainstorming how this could all work out so that Janet would reach her baptismal date. They weren't coming up with anything until out of nowhere Elder Prochnow goes, "Woah, I just had an impression that there is someone in the ward who has a place for her to stay." And he couldn't have been more right. :)

We went and told Janet and she was SO excited! And Norm too was so excited... Now Norm has moved his baptismal date to February 16th and they both will be getting baptized! It has been a serious blessing and I am SO glad to still be in this area so that I get to be a part of it. They are amazing people and I am very, very excited for them!

It snowed some more this week... everyone here is amazed that there has been this much snow. It has been a fun week, just very busy. Things are still going very well with the area. We have hit our goals again this week and are seeing a lot of great things happening. 

Just staying busy, which I guess is what it is all about! :)

Baptism ~ Staying Put ~ Chinese New Year

So this week was pretty sweet to say the least.... remember Max who I told you about last week? Well... he got baptized yesterday and it was really great! Here is a brief rundown of the whole story again... 

Max's baptism

"Well when they say, "Expect Miracles" I now know that is 100% true because this week we saw a serious miracle... and his name is Max. :) Max is from Nigeria and 3 weeks ago after driving by our Stake Center multiple times he felt prompted that he needed to call the church. So he went home, looked up the address online, and called the number. They asked if he was a "single adult," he said yes.. so they told him to go to the Young Single Adult Branch. So he did, the Elders started teaching him, and then the next Saturday I met Max. I started talking to him, asked how long ago he came to Canada, he said 7 years ago, and then I asked how old he was when he came here.. he said 30.. So that makes Max 37... definitely not able to attend YSA! haha So... he went to church at the YSA branch the next day and then we did a hand off lesson this past week. He already had a baptismal date for Feb 2nd, but we met with him and we all felt he would be ready for January 26th. So... we taught him everything and he was baptized yesterday! It was SO.COOL." 

So many of the ward members stayed to the baptism that we had right after church and it was really great that everyone was there to show him that support. I think he was a bit surprised to have everyone there. haha It was really special and everything went so well. My favorite thing was during the actual baptism seeing all of the little kids up surrounding the glass watching the baptism. It was just really neat and I am grateful that I was able to be a part of it. We are really excited for Max, and I am grateful we will be sticking around for another 6 weeks so that we will be able to get to know him more. 

Oh and there is the other thing... We didn't get transferred. The ward had us all but packed up and moved. haha Everyone was saying bye and getting pictures  (see below) and fully planning that at least one of us would leave but... here we are. They were all pretty shocked and I'm not going to lie, so were we. We though FOR SURE something would have to happen. We have been here forever. But... I guess God has other plans and there are still things here that we need to do.

With Brother and Sister Ince

With Janet and Norm

With part of the Mitchell Family
This was before we knew we weren't getting transferred. we had to take pictures just in case!

This is Katelyn Rowden, she is a senior in high school and is a member of this ward. She was sad to think that we might have been leaving and she wrote us the nicest letters. needless to say she is happy that we are staying

Well... random fact. A member told me that Keith Urban was having a concert in London, Ontario either this past weekend or this weekend so.... that is just a kick in the face for this country music deprived Sister! Oh and The Band Perry had a concert at this place that is practically next door to us. Oh well... I have made it this long without Keith Urban.. I guess I can make it a bit more :)

This week at District meeting everyone decided to play the "What year were you born game?!" Now this is not my most favorite game and you will see why... A few missionaries say they were born in 1992 (which is fine), a lot of them say they were born in 1993 (like Elder Prochnow... who after saying that goes, "Sister Prescott, weren't you born in like 1989 or something?" and then he just laughed) And then there are the two Elders that say they were born in 1995..... 1995!! I was 5 years old when they were born! haha They are babies! It is so weird! So they like to make me feel like the old grandma. haha They are all a lot of fun, but it blows my mind how at 23 I can feel so old!

Celebrating the Chinese New Year

We also celebrated Chinese New Year. The Mandarin speaking Sister put together a big party and it was great! All of our investigators enjoyed it and a lot of people came. It is now the Year of the Horse, which is actually what I am. These are some of the characteristics of people who are "horses".   I think they are pretty fitting if I do say so myself :)  

This week was a lot of fun and I finally took some pictures so enjoy!

Things are coming together

Officially starting the last week of this transfer today! This has been a really fast transfer and I can't believe that it is coming to an end. It feels like I have been in Kitchener for a long time, but it makes me sad to think that I could be getting transferred next week. I don't know that I am ready to leave yet.. I guess we will just have to see! :)

This week was busy... really, really busy.

We started Monday evening off right and found a new investigator! It was a great way to start the week and then it seemed like everything just kind of fit together after that. 

We met with Janet and Norm and they are continuing to do so well. They were able to see the Baptism of a man in another ward this weekend and they loved it. They are really wanting to be baptized and working towards it. They will hopefully be able to be baptized in the next few months. As for now they basically consider themselves part of the ward, just with out the baptism side yet. They went to the baptism, a Stake Talent Show, and to a Cottage Meeting last night.  Janet's motto, "If it's Mormon, I've got time!"  They are really embracing everything and it really goes to show what happens when people give the Book of Mormon a chance and just read it.

Saturday we were also able to find another new investigator among all of our appointments.  And then Saturday night at the Stake Talent Show we saw another little miracle.  The YSA (Young Single Adult) Elders had brought a guy with them that they had been teaching for about a week. His name is Max.  His story is that he always drives by the church and he was wondering what it was all about so he looked up the number and called. They asked if he was a "single adult" and he said yes so they told him what time to go to church on Sunday and what building.  He went to church on Sunday, met the Elders and they starting teaching him. Now Max is from Nigeria and looks like he is 24 so... the Elders didn't even bother asking his age . But when I was talking to him Saturday I asked him when he came to Canada, he said 7 years ago.  Then I asked him how old he was when he came to Canada and he said, 30. I just looked at Elder Lasley (the YSA Elder) and then looked back to Max, and Elder Lasley goes, "wait... how old are you??" So... basically Max can't go to the YSA ward. We told him he has to go to the family ward and he was totally ok with it.  So that was a serious blessing. This guy is very prepared and will be baptized either this week or the next.  It is amazing how there are people who are so prepared and I am grateful that we will be able to teach him. 

Things really did just come together again this week. We were able to hit the Standards of Excellence for the 2nd week in a row and are really seeing so many great things happening. Hoping we can keep it up for this coming week as well. 

Unfortunately... I have absolutely no pictures from this week... which I realize is SO boring. haha  Oh well.... I will do better this week!  Hope everyone has a great week!

11 whole months !

Does anybody know what today is??? Nope? Well... I will tell you... today marks 11 months since my cute parents dropped me off at the MTC... 11 whole months!! It is a strange strange thing, and pretty exciting to look back on what has happened in the past 11 months.. I have met so many new people and have done things I never thought I could do and have learned so much! 

The day that the thermometer said -21 and it was apparently -40 with the wind chill... and also they said if your skin was exposed to it for more than 5 minutes you could get frost bite... and then... it rained Friday. Go figure!

 This week was good. The weather got crazy cold Tuesday and Wednesday. Everyone said it was -40*C with the wind chill so... that is pretty darn cold. Thankfully we had quite a few appointments so we tried to stay in a house or in a car most of the day. On that Tuesday we got a funny phone call from Elder Prochnow and Elder Parker (the Zone Leaders)... It started out with a," Hey Sisters..... ummm..... do you think that you could come and jump our car??" Their battery was going bad and even in their underground parking the car was way too cold and was not starting. So... we went and helped them with that... This is now twice I have had to jump a car on my mission.. Heavenly Father really was preparing me for this when my car would die ALL THE TIME back at home. Glad that it wasn't all for nothing. :)

My outfit on a freezing cold P-day

So after we made it through the freezing weather things were good. We had a Zone Training Wednesday and then we did exchanges that night. Sister Tofa came here with me and it was a lot of fun.. She leaves at the end of this transfer and it will be sad to see her go. She will go back to Australia and I am going to have to convince her to move to the states at some point so that this isn't the last time that I see her ever. 

Ice cream cake that Elder So'o had made for
Sister Willouhby's birthday

All of the sisters with the cake

We had some good lessons this week. Janet and Norm are progressing SO well. Norm has really started getting in to the Book of Mormon and I cannot believe how fast he is reading through it. Norm even committed to baptism which is pretty amazing. Three months ago you would have never even seen him wanting to sit down to talk with missionaries. It really is a testimony to me of how much power is in the Book of Mormon. He really has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and you can see it working in his life. We are really excited for them! 

We had a really great week! We hit "standards" which I haven't done since the first transfer of my mission. So this means that we have 2 progressing investigators, 2 investigators with baptismal dates, 2 investigators at church, 4 lessons taught with members present and 2 new investigators. It was pretty great to see our work paying off and also seeing the tender mercies. We were quite blessed this week!

Transfers will be coming up soon and... I really have no feeling as to what will happen but... If I do leave I already know that I will be so sad about it. I really love this ward SO much. Since we have had a lot of dinner appointments lately I feel like I have gotten to know the members more and more and it makes me sad that I will have to leave! It is a great thing about missions that you get to meet so many new people but it is a sad thing that you have to leave and that some people you may never see again. Oh well... I guess it is all a part of it!

Brother Mitchell (the vet) brought this cute thing home from work the other day.. She had broken her jaw and the farmer didn't want to pay the money to fix it so Brother Mitchell said that she would take her and then he just did the surgery and now they have her so... if at any moment you want to buy a mini horse that would be GREAT. :) 

Oh and yesterday the new Stake Presidency came here for ward conference. They spoke and taught all of the classes and it was really cool. The Stakes theme is, "Feed the Spirit, Nourish the Soul" and they talked a lot about how important it is for all of us to be continually "feeding" our Spirits. So... if you haven't read your scriptures lately... try that. :) If you haven't said a prayer lately... go do that. :) There are so many things we can do to feed our Spirits and it really does help! 

Well... I hope this was a bit more of a "substantial" email then some of my others have been. I hope everyone has a great week! :)

Have a ever mentioned that there are squirrels EVERYWHERE here??

We play this game where we see how long it takes to see a squirrel when we leave the house and it usually only takes about 10 seconds... Case in point.. looked out the window... squirrel sitting on the emergency exit stairs outside our apartment

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Sister Tofa and Karly at the New Years Day Read-a-thon

Glow in the dark glasses

The weather is probably the biggest news this week. Lots and lots of cold... lots and lots of snow and then lots and lots of more cold to come in the next few days! I guess Canada has decided that I really need the Canadian experience.  This is the worst winter they have had in years and years everyone keeps telling us.

This was after we had cleaned our car off at 9:00 last night

Thank goodness for boots, coats, and mitts

Janet and Norm came to church on Sunday and again loved everything about it. Norm has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and really loves it. He had basically written off religion because of bad experiences that he has had in the past, but his experiences with the Book of Mormon and with church are really changing his mind, and he is starting to make some big changes in his life!

Well.... I really can't think of much to say and... I don't really have time to say it. The internet is down at the libraries so the other missionaries are here so I have to get off, but.... once again here are some pictures... hopefully that helps.  And... next week I
will write the blog email first so it can be a good one. :)

Merry Christmas Week

Well.... I didn't really manage my time too well this morning and thus I don't have much time to write so.... I will do my best to get all of the details out. :)

First things first, I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I know that my Christmas was great! Especially since I was able to Skpe with my family. :) Christmas morning started out at the Stake Center doing the scripture Read-a-thon. After that we headed to the Clifton's to do our Skyping.  That really was THE best Christmas present ever. So great to see my family.... but then so sad to have to say bye to the for another 5 months until Mothers Day roles around.  I am just super grateful for the time we did have to talk. We had dinner with the Clifton's that night with was a lot of fun. I like seeing the different traditions that different families have and I am looking forward to incorporating into my life at some point. :)

We had dinner with the Skogstad's on Boxing Day which was fun! Brother Skogstad found out that I had a blog and this is the conversation we had at church yesterday...

Brother Skogstad: "So.... I found your blog.... and then I read it."

Me: "Perfect! I will give you a shout out tomorrow."

So.... Here is my shout out to my newest blog follower, Brother Skogstad and his wonderful family. :)

The week really was good and pretty busy. Janet and Norm both came to church yesterday which was really great. (I think I have talked about them before?? haha) Janet loves everything about church and is really looking forward to getting baptized. :)

I know I am forgetting a million things to say but I just have no time... sorry. :( I will prioritize better next week... but... hopefully some of these pictures make up for it.

Christmas Day Read-a-thon

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year... we will be doing more of the Scripture Read- a- thon and then back to the regular mission grind at the first of the year. Well... talk to all of you next year! (that is the lamest joke in the book but... I felt I should use it. haha)

OH!!! Remember how I wrote once that I am REALLY good at getting dinner appointments... well... I have a classic example of this. :) Yesterday we went to church with a completely empty dinner calendar and within one hour of it being passed around the combined RS/Priesthood meeting (which we taught by the way) we went from 0 dinner appointments to about 20 dinner appointments... we are getting fed everyday this week but Saturday. haha Sister Colvin thinks I am a mooch... which I probably am... :) But I promise I am a classy, mooch. :)

Christmas Eve Morning with Anne

Sister Griffin and I

Merry Christmas from a couple of kids from Morgan, UT

At the Read-a-thon - very fake glasses of one of the Elders

One of my favorite Christmas presents - Duck Dynasty flash light.. to go along with my Duck Dynasty shirt

I survived the Ice Storm "Ontario 2013"

So this week went form being not too exciting, to quite exciting thanks to the Ice Storm that hit Ontario Saturday night into Sunday! People had told us that a storm was coming but we didn't really know what to expect or didn't know if it would be as bad as they said it was going to be.

The mission had us park our cars Saturday night and then just work around our homes to keep us safe. It wasn't so bad when we went to bed and we had arranged rides to get people to church and we had also been called and asked to teach Gospel Principles AND Relief Society the next day.

So... we woke up in the morning, started getting ready, it didn't look too bad outside and then we got the news that church would be canceled (I was bummed yet also a little relieved considering the 11 hours that had passed since being told we needed to teach in church hadn't given us much time to prepare. haha) And then the power went out.... and then the tree next to our house spit into 3.... and.... it just went on and on from there. I will let the pictures tell the story. haha

We survived, though. The power came back on later at night and the apartment warmed up nicely! I feel like I need to make a tshirt... something along the lines of "I survived the Ice Storm" "Ontario 2013" haha



This street was closed with all of these trees down


It honestly feels like such a weird week without going to church. I live for Sundays because I feel like they give me the boost to get me through the week. I guess I will just have to wait until next week for my boost! :)

So it is Christmas and that is a little crazy to think about! The mission is doing a scripture read-a-thon so Christmas Eve we will be reading the scriptures from 12-9 and Christmas day we will read from 9-1. (and we will also be doing that on New Years Eve and New Year's Day) Not sure how I am going to stay awake for that many hours but... it should be a lot of fun, and a cool experience to be able to get an overview of the scriptures like that. We will be reading the Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

Our Christmas Card

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! It is weird to be away from my family and friends, but I am grateful that I get to be here with such wonderful people! I am also excited, of course, to be able to Skype with my family Christmas day! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was Skyping them on Mother's day.. and now here we are... 7 months later!