Joe's Baptism

Another really good week! The big thing that happened this week is that Joe got BAPTIZED! :)

Here we are with Joe and Brother and Sister Marjanovich.  They are an awesome couple here.  He would do anything for missionaries.  He is so awesome. 

On Saturday we got together with the Marjanovich's and Joe and played a little review Jeopardy game.. It was a lot of fun! We went through all the questions and I don't think I have ever been more proud than I was sitting there hearing Joe answer all of the questions. He has learned and progressed so much in the past few weeks and it is amazing! He has really worked hard and read from the scriptures a ton so that he can learn all that he can.

Joe's Baptism

The baptism went really well.. There is nothing better than the Spirit that comes at baptismal services. Joe was really happy and you could tell that he was really feeling the Spirit and that he felt really good! So happy for him. He is a wonderful guy and he really is proof that it never is too late to change.. So many people will tell us that they are too old to change, but Joe would have to disagree! :)

We are still teaching Minh and he is SO. AWESOME. The more I get to know him the more I like him. He has a great Spirit and he is willing to do anything to be baptized. He is super sincere and LOVES the Book of Mormon. It is so great to go and talk with him and he will tell us the different stories that he has been reading. He says that it is like a movie and that he just can't put it down.

Sister Zerkle came to Oakville to do our exchanges for this transfer... it was a ton of fun!

With Sister Zerkle

Elder Gibb and I

Tomorrow is the last Zone Conference of my mission and also President and Sister Scott's last Zone Conference. They go home in a few weeks. I am really looking forward to it, but am also pretty sad that everything is coming to an end. :(

My mission has taught me SO much and I still just keep learning everyday. I am starting to get really sad that I am running out of days to teach people the Gospel. Teaching was the part of missionary work that I was most worried about coming out, but I have come to find that it is the part that I love the most and I am really going to miss it.

CN Tower in Toronto

Next week we are going to down town Toronto with our ward mission leader and his wife to see the CN Tower! I am stoked! I was honestly thinking that I would go my whole mission in the "Canada, Toronto Mission" without actually seeing "Toronto" but it looks like that is not the case! 

I probably won't have time to email next week but I will take lots of pictures so the next weeks email should be a good one! :)

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

A Busy Week - *Eh?

Riley sent me a care package
BEST DAY EVER !!

Finally, PDAY!!!! Monday was Labour Day, (yes "Labour" day not "Labor" day) In Canada they add that "U" in there for who knows what reason (I think it is the French influence??) All I know is that the word Color (colour) and Flavor (flavour) and many many more all do that.... That is one thing that I probably won't be bringing home from my Canadian experience. The expression *"eh" and "washroom" instead of bathroom are, however, going to be permanent fixtures in my vocabulary! 

So really, longest week ever! I knew that P-day was going to be moved, but I thought it would have been Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Oh well, life goes on, just grateful I get today to recharge my batteries!

This week was good. We had a Zone Training and then tomorrow will be going to a Zone Conference in Etobicoke (if you say the "k" Canadians will make fun of you, so... silent k??) I am excited because at Zone Conferences we get to learn from President and Sister Scott as well as some of the other leaders in the mission,  AND we get fed and get to see other other missionaries who I don't see all the time. I am pretty sure Elder Prochnow will be at this Zone Conference which will be good. We haven't been able to discuss Morgan, Utah in awhile now!

We did A LOT of finding this week.... and had very little success. Most people are already religious and say that they will NEVER change. It is kind of discouraging, but we just have to keep going! School started back up here so now there are a lot more college students around. It is crazy to think that I have been in Hamilton the entire Summer. I was here before school got out and am still here when school started back up. Time is flying!

The weather has cooled down a bit the past few days. Everyone says that after Labor day it really starts to cool off. That will be nice for a change, and it will just be good to have people back from their family vacations. It is really hard to find people when they are not even here all summer long.

Still learning a ton! Having a few hours to study every morning is the best. If you haven't picked up a Book of Mormon lately you should definitely do so. You are going to like what you see :)

The members here are the best. I am going to miss them A TON when I leave (which I feel like I will probably leave at the end of this transfer, but who really knows!?)

Things are going really great, just can't believe it is already September! Hope everyone likes this blog post a bit more than the last few... I have been a horrible writer lately! I will try and start doing things more focused on something I learned from each week! I will prepare something and let you all know Monday! Have a great couple of days! :)

*  Eh - (pronounced "ey", as in "hey" or "hay") A suffix some Canadians add to the ends of sentences, to ask for a response of agreement or disagreement, similar in meaning to "don't you think" or "right?"(Similar to the word "Huh?" Used in the states.) (eg. "Looks like a storm comin' in, eh?"). It is a way of being polite - to ensure that the other people in the conversation are feeling included. It is also sometimes used with "I know," as in, "Wow, the Calgary Flames really kicked butt tonight!" -"I know, eh?"

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!