Progress......Goals......the work is moving forward

Last week we met up with some other missionaries and went to some waterfalls in Hamilton! It was a ton of fun! It is so pretty and green here and so it was nice to be able to go out and enjoy it.

We had another really good week. We were able to achieve the Standards of Excellence again, that is twice now since being in this area. (I know that I have talked about that before.. so.. I won't explain it again. :) We really have been so blessed here. When we first got to the area it didn't seem like much was happening, but then slowly things have started to progress. I think it is going to be a really good last transfer!

We had Zone Training in Hamilton this week. As a mission we have a goal of having at least 60 Baptisms in this month of June so we talked a lot about that. Last year we got 78 baptisms in June so I hope that we are able to even beat that number. It really is amazing how fast the work is moving forward here in Canada! :)

So I still can't believe that it is actually June and that I come home next month. It doesn't even seem real so it has been hard to wrap my head around it. Just trying to enjoy every moment here because I know that it will soon be over. 

We have some really great people that we are working with and if all goes well we will have 2 baptisms this month! Pretty exciting stuff!

All my skills of transplanting flowers I learned from watching you, mom!

General Conference Recap, and a new investigator !

And.... it's Monday again! 

I hope that everyone enjoyed General Conference! Soooo much to learn and sooo much to take in. I will be looking forward to the Ensign coming out so I can read through everything again. I think the Saturday morning session was my favorite. I can't even remember specifics, but there were a lot of things in that session that really stood out to me! It was so fun to be at the chapel with different members, especially those who are recent converts. Great to see them there soaking it all in for the first time.

With Max at the General Conference broadcast

General Conference was also made really fun by the fact that Michelle and Natalie Julian from Hamilton came to Kitchener to watch a session of it with us. :) They came to the Sunday morning session and then we talked for a little bit after. Michelle brought us cupcakes from the place that she works. It has been so long since I have seen them so it was really fun to see them again. 

Michelle and Natalie Julian from Hamilton came to visit me! They came and watched the first session of conference with us on Sunday and then we talked for a few minutes after and she gave us cupcakes (mine gluten free of course) haha It was soooo good to see them. I already am trying to figure out a time that I can come back post mission and stay with them for a week. I told Michelle that was my plan and she was said, "stay for a week, stay for a month, heck stay forever.. we don't care!" haha

Another really good week. The weather is starting to warm up which makes me happy! Aside from General Conference we had Zone Training, and we also found a new investigator who I am pretty excited about! He has a pretty cool story too. A couple of weeks ago we got a media referral (which basically is that someone got on mormon.org and requested missionary visits and then we get a text on our phone with the information that they gave) We spent a few weeks trying to contact this guy and were able to set up an appointment with him for Saturday between sessions of General Conference. 

We went to his house and he was SO cool. He is from Sudan and he told us a little bit about how he got in touch with the church. He said that years ago he worked with a man named Jordan who was from Utah. He said that on their breaks Jordan would tell him about the Gospel and that he eventually gave him a Book of Mormon. But because their breaks at work were so short they never really got to get into really good conversations but he said what struck him was Jordan's testimony. He said that he had been to so many churches but what he found different is that Mormon's talk about things and say that they "know" them to be true. So Jordan went back to Utah and he never did meet with missionaries or attend church. Until a few months ago when he went back to Sudan to visit his father. He said that he discovered that the Church was in Sudan as well, and he attended a few meetings but he never got to sit down and talk with missionaries about the church. So when he came back to Canada a month ago he got online and looked up how he could meet with missionaries.... and, this is where we come in. :)

The lesson with him was really, really good. It was one of those lessons where everything seems to go perfect. The Spirit was really strong and he understood the things that we were teaching him. He is a very sincere man and I am excited to see how he progresses. As well as his family. We weren't able to meet with his wife yet, but I am hoping we are able to soon. 

Sister Fragapane, Amanda and I in our rainboots

And in other good news... Amanda's baptism is this weekend! Really excited for that! And... other good news.... Treena (Amanda's sister who was baptized last week) well her husband has agreed to be baptized at the end of April... Pretty cool if you ask me. :) So much has come from Janet choosing to listen to the missionaries.. She even said that the other day when she was out teaching with us.... She saw that most people don't actually want to listen to what we have to say so it was great to hear her say, "I am so glad that I listened when missionaries came to talk to me." 

So... life is still good. :) This transfer is quickly coming to an end which I am super bummed about but... such is life.. everything good, and bad, eventually comes to an end! 

Have a great week!

Wonderful Week !

Another week has come and gone at what feels like record speed. Time is going by so fast these days! I guess the closer I get to the end, the faster it is going to go which is really sad. :( I just keep learning more and more every day that I need to make the most of every second because time is slipping away too quickly.

Sister Fragapane and I

The Relief Society had an activity this week and at the end of it one of the sisters showed a slideshow of pictures that she had put together of the ward and... I am in a lot of them. haha I was here for Halloween, Christmas, various baptisms... I look like I am a member of the ward!

Oh and good news! Janet's daughter, who is in the other ward and being taught by other Sisters, is getting baptized April 6th! Pretty amazing to see how the Gospel blessed not only Janet, but she is now able to share it with her daughters. 

We were all in Brampton to see Elder Bednar and then this is all of us eating lunch after. A TON of missionaries

So our special training meeting with Elder Bednar was on Saturday and it was incredible. The meeting was at the Stake Center in Brampton and all of the missionaries in the mission were able to attend. 

The people at the meeting were; Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, 

Elder Bednar

Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy,

Elder Soares

Elder Foster of the Second Presidency of the Seventy, 

Elder Foster

and Bishop Davies of the Presiding Bishopric

Bishop Davies

 as well as their wives. That is a pretty good group if you ask me. At one point Elder Bednar made a comment of how an opportunity like that will never happen again in our lives and... he is right. haha Truly a once in a lifetime, incredible experience. I really don't even think words can describe how great it was. It was a 3 hour meeting that did not feel that long at all. I probably could have sat in that room for a week and learned from all of these great men and their wives. I learned a lot and I know it is an experience that I will never forget. We really are so fortunate to have Prophets and Apostles on the Earth today. Being able to be in the room as one of them really helped to strengthen my testimony of that. I really wish I could describe all the things that were talked about and the Spirit that was there, but unfortunately that is one thing that can't really be conveyed. So I will just take what I learned, and my testimony of it.. and go and share that with others. :) 

Elder Palmer, Elder Healy, and I 

And Elder Wihongi and I... He was my Zone Leader in Hamilton

It was a wonderful day and it really got me excited for General Conference. There is so much to be learned and I am so grateful that it is time for General Conference again. We also found out this week that we will be able to go to the temple this weekend!! It has been a year since I have been able to go to the temple so I am really looking forward to it. 

Toronto Ontario Temple

This will be a fun couple of weekends! I really have been so blessed to have all of these experiences!

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?"

Busy......Hot.....Storms......Faith

This week was a pretty busy week, if feels like a lot has happened. Monday we got together with the zone to play some games at the church. If you want to see something funny all you have to do is get about 12 companionship's of Elders and Sisters together to play chair soccer. Actually, none of you would probably think it is funny but... I think it is pretty funny. :)

Elder Palmer and Karly
P-Day with the Zone

We had our Skills and Interviews with President Scott. That was really nice. It is always nice to be able to talk to him and Sister Scott. They really know how to make you feel like a million bucks.

It has been wicked hot. I don't think I have ever drank so much water in my life. Tracting is not the most fun thing in the heat but, we do it anyway. haha  We had a sisters exchange on Friday and it went really, really well. Sister Tofa came to Hamilton with me and we spent the entire day finding. We had set a goal to find 3 new investigators and what did we do?.... well we found 3 new investigators! We talked to a bunch of awesome people and 3 were really interested. We were able to get return appointments and Sister Puruganan and I will go back this week and teach them. One of the guys was really grateful. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and he said that he has been through a lot and he is willing to try anything if he thinks it will bring him happiness. He gave Sister Tofa and I pins of Jesus Christ. It was super nice. He was a really great guy.

The day was extremely hot and then out of nowhere a storm rolled in. We got a call from the Zone Leaders saying that we all needed to go inside because there had been some tornado warnings. So we went inside and the storm hit. There was a ton of lightening and rain. The storm let up so we decided that we would be ok to drive to Oakville to exchange with the Sisters again. That was probably not the best idea because just as we were getting on the highway is started raining so much. I could barely see and cars were pulling over.

It was pretty scary. Thankfully it let up. But.... after the exchange when we were driving towards Hamilton there was a ton of lightening. I don't think I have ever seen lightening like that before. It got really dark, started to rain, and once again there I was driving down the highway and couldn't see a thing. Thankfully we made it home safe. The power was out and I am fairly convinced we almost got struck by lightening but, all in all a successful day! Thankfully it has started cooling off. Hopefully this will be an easier week because it won't be so hot!

And on a more serious note...... This week I have been thinking a lot about Faith. My faith, the faith of my investigators, the faith of the members around me. This whole mission experience just feels like one big trial of my faith. It is rough! It would be a whole lot easier if Heavenly Father didn't love us so much that He gives us trials to make us better, stronger people. This week I have read this talk multiple times and would encourage everyone to watch it. When I heard this during conference I feel like it was a big changing point in my mission. It helped me a lot and continues to help me to this day. Because let's face it, sometimes our faith is shaken. But what I do know is that the Church is true and that all the other little trials that come my way won't get me down if I hold on to what I do know to be true. Of course Elder Holland says it much better than I can, so watch the talk and if anyone is struggling with their faith (or maybe I am the only one.. :) think about what he says. I know that it really helps me!   Have a great week!

I have killed at least 10 of these nasty critters since living here. If anyone could identify the make and model of this stupid thing that would be great. THEY ARE GROSS!

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!