More Cat Problems!

Wow, this week has been super busy, I'm trying to remember everything that happened! On Wednesday, we had zone conference. The Oshawa, North York, and Kingston zones were all combined, so there were a lot of missionaries there. I got to see one of my trainers, Sister Spiekerman! It was so cool to see her. Since she's going home soon, she also gave her departing testimony and it was so wonderful to be able to hear it!

I learned so much at zone conference and I received so many answers to my prayers! The biggest thing I learned about though was humility. In order to help the people in my area, I really need to humble myself and start focusing more on them. It's also been interesting as I've studied the Book of Mormon the last few days to see how humility ties into the principle of obedience. If I'm not humble, I can't be obedient and I can't have the Spirit!

After zone conference, we went on exchanges. Sister Hunter went to Oshawa and I stayed in Brockville with Sister Gousse. I was actually kind of stressed out about exchanges because it was the end of the week, we hadn't found any new investigators yet, and Sister Hunter was gone. I remember praying that night and really asking for His help. I was feeling overwhelmed. The next day, we went and taught one of our returning members, and then we felt like we should tract in the area. As we knocked on doors and shared the message of the Restoration, we found five new investigators! It was so wonderful to be able to share the Restoration with so many people and it was honestly one of the happiest times of my mission so far! As we walked back to our apartment, we also met a really cool lady named Pam. We talked with her about the Plan of Salvation and she told us about how she loves helping people find God in their lives. Before she walked away though, she started rubbing her hands together (she said it was to warm up her praying hands!) and then she prayed with us right there on the sidewalk! It was so cool! I've never had that experience before. We ran into her on Friday too and she prayed with us again! She's one of the coolest people I've met on my mission so far! I loved it!

On Saturday, we went to a member's home for dinner (Jeannie), and she had one of her friends over who belongs to a different church (Pat). Before we came, Jeannie had given Pat a copy of the Ensign, and Pat had read it cover to cover. While she read, she wrote down a bunch of questions and then Jeannie had us answer them while we were there. When she showed us the list, I may have had a small panic attack! Some of them were kind of tricky to answer, but it actually went really well, and Pat is super cool! We taught her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, and she taught us about some of her beliefs. It was a really cool experience!

On Saturday, we taught one of our investigators, John, and while I was sharing my testimony with him about prayer, his cat (Bob)  jumped into my lap and started ripping pages out of my scriptures! I have bad luck with cats on my mission! Luckily, we were able to tape it back together, but boy was I mad at that cat, haha! :) 

My testimony that God hears and answers our prayers has definitely been strengthened this week. I am so grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who loves us enough to listen to our prayers. I know that He truly does listen to our prayers, that He knows our worries, our fears, and our weaknesses. I know that He is aware of our circumstances and that He loves every single one of His children. I know that He will always answer our prayers in His own timing.

I love you all!

Sister Dille

I got to see Sister Spiekerman at zone conference! She going home at the end of next transfer. It's really weird when your companions start leaving!

We said goodbye to President and Sister Clayton at zone conference! They leave on Thursday!

We found a new investigator, so we celebrated by doing some monkey bars!

This is Catherine and John-Marie (our investigators who are deaf)! The lady in the wheelchair is Sister Timms. She knows some sign language, so she comes teaching with us and helps us out!

This is Jeannie's friend, Pat. She is super cool!

Scraping Wallpaper

Hey Everyone!

We had a pretty good week. We had our first exchange of the transfer, and I went to Oshawa with Sister Mamarova (she's from Bulgaria). All of our appointments except two fell through, so we did A LOT of tracting and contacting. Since Sister Mamarova can't drive in Canada, I had to drive in an area I'm not really familiar with. Oshawa's a pretty big city too, so I was a bit nervous about it, but I didn't crash the car, and we both lived, so I guess you could say it was a successful exchange!

So Sister Hunter and I had a bit of a scare this week with our investigators Will and Marsha. They called us on the phone and they told us that they didn't want to be baptized anymore. We were really nervous that we were going to lose them, but they agreed that we could come see them that evening. We just went and we asked them questions and we really tried to listen to their concerns. It was a really powerful lesson, and we were able to figure out what they need to progress. It really taught me the importance of having the Spirit with you and of loving the people you teach!

 

Oh, Sister Hunter and I have been working on a service project for a member in our branch. Her name is Jeannie, and she's from Florida, so she has a really cool southern accent. Anyway, we helped her take down wall paper in her living room because she wants to paint it and brighten up the room (actually, it's really sad because she's doing it for her husband who has terminal cancer. She doesn't want him to have to die in a dark room so that's why she's doing all of this work). There were like four layers of wall paper on those walls! We're still working on it with her. It's crazy!  We love it though because Jeannie is hilarious and she keeps you entertained the entire time!

 

On Sunday, our investigator John came to church for the first time! We were able to meet with him on Saturday and teach him about the Restoration of the Gospel, and it went really well. While we were there, he told us that he found his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and we were like 'whoa, this guy's cool!' It was super awesome!

Something I've learned a lot about this week is the importance of the Book of Mormon. The past few weeks have been kind of stressful and challenging, but as I've turned to prayer and the Book of Mormon, I've really felt peace and it helps me to remember that no matter what, everything will work out.

I love you all!

 

Sister Dille

 

 

 

Me & Sister Hunter

We finally finished scraping the wallpaper at one of the member's homes!!!!!

The ICU, Raw Sewage & Having Hope!

This week was super crazy, but it was so good! Sister Hunter and I had a surprise trip to Trenton that threw our schedule off a little bit. We came home on Wednesday and we found out that a sewer pipe had burst in our apartment and we couldn't use the toilet or anything. There was raw sewage sitting in the hallway. On Thursday morning, we walked into the kitchen to get breakfast (the lights weren't on) and I stepped in it!!!!! (I may have screamed a little). ;) Anyway, we called the mission office, and they told us that we had to spend a few days with the Trenton sisters until we could get the problem fixed. It was pretty crazy, and our apartment smelled like an outhouse for awhile! It was really gross!

Even with being out of our area for a few days, we were still able to find two new investigators on Saturday! We're really excited to start teaching them soon! Oh, so we met this really cool guy named Kevin on the street the other day and he let us teach him the Restoration on the street! It was super cool, and it was the first time I've been able to do that before. At the beginning of my mission, talking to people was really, really scary, but the more you do it, the more you love it. It still scares me a little bit, but talking with people really makes you happy because you know that you're trying to share the gospel with them!

 

This morning, we got a text from our mission president letting us know that there was a man in the ICU at the hospital here. He was in critical condition because of his heart and he wanted to meet with the missionaries and get a priesthood blessing. We started calling any priesthood holders we knew of that lived close by, and we were able to find Brother Wilcock and Brother Kelly (our branch mission leader). They gave him a very nice blessing, and he actually wants us to come back and teach him in the hospital later on this week! (We're really excited because he is super nice and he's really funny)! He wanted his phone charger unplugged from the wall, so Brother Kelly went over and unplugged it. Of course, we're in an ICU room with tons of chords and equipment, so Brother Kelly didn't want to pull the wrong one. He unplugged the charger, and as soon as he did, the guy yelled, "OH, YOU KILLED ME!" and then started laughing. The look on Brother Kelly's face was priceless! It was so funny!

I've been studying a lot about hope the past few days, and I have learned so much. These past few weeks have been wonderful, but they've also been very challenging and I've really felt my testimony being tried. In my studies this morning, I found several scriptures talking about hope that really brought me a lot of peace. In 2 Nephi 31:20, it basically says that we just need to keep moving forward, keep loving God, and everything will work out! Then in Alma 58:10-11, it talks about how Helaman and his army received great strength, faith, and hope through prayer. It reminded me of the scriptures in Mosiah 24 where the people have heavy burdens placed upon them, almost heavier than they can bear. However, as they prayed and sought the Lord's help, He didn't take their burdens away, but he strengthened their backs so they could bear them with ease. If we have hope through the Atonement of Christ, He can help us through any trial!

I love you all!

 

Sister Dille

Family History

Wow, this week has been super busy! We've seen so many miracles, I don't even know where to begin! Oh, so I forgot to write about this the last two weeks, but I finally finished training!!! I'm really excited! Anyway, we had a zone council last Friday in Kingston, and it was a really good meeting. We learned a lot about how we can help increase member missionary work in our area. Afterwards, the senior missionaries took our district out to lunch at Wendy's, and it was super fun! After we finished lunch, they bought us Dilly bars at Dairy Queen. ;)

We've been learning a lot about the importance of following promptings from the Spirit. One night, we went to drop by and see returning member, and we saw a lady walking by with her dog. I really felt like we should go talk to her, but I didn't listen and we just went and dropped by the returning member. When we were walking back to our car, we saw the same lady walking again, and I really felt like we should go talk to her. This time, we listened, and we went and introduced ourselves and had a really nice conversation with her. She wasn't interested in meeting with us yet, but we planted the seed! :)

So our mission is putting a really big emphasis on family history and temple work right now, so Sister Hunter and I are learning how to help people with their family history. On Wednesday night, we came to the family history center, and we had a family history consultant show us how to use family search a little bit. Sister Hunter and I both started tracing our lines back just to see how far we could go, and the lines just kept going and going and going! I started hitting names from the Bible like Levi, Nathan, King David, Boaz and Ruth, Jacob and Leah, Isaac and Rebekah, Abraham and Sara, Joseph and Mary, Enos, Seth, and ADAM AND EVE!!!! We were both so excited when we found Adam and Eve that we might have screamed a little. It was such a powerful experience and it really built my testimony of the importance of doing family history! 

Sister Hunter and I set a goal to find three new investigators this week. We tried our best to talk with everyone, we prayed a lot, and we tried to set time aside each day to go and open our mouths. We were able to find three new! On Saturday, we were walking around a neighborhood, and Sister Hunter really felt like we should knock on a door. She wasn't sure about it at first, but she decided to obey. We knocked on the door, and this sweet old lady from Holland (Marguerite) opened the door, AND SHE INVITED US IN!!! That's the first time on my mission that's ever happened! We talked to her about her family, she had me play some hymns for her, and then we talked to her about the Book of Mormon. She told us that we can come back this week to teach her more about it! After we left Marguerite's house, we stopped to talk to a guy named Christ, and he said we can come teach him and his family as well. If Sister Hunter hadn't listened to the prompting to knock on Marguerite's door, we would have missed the opportunity to talk to Christ too. This experience really taught me the importance of following the promptings of the Spirit and talking to everyone, because you never know who the Lord is preparing! 

I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! 

 

This is Marvin. He's an older guy in our branch, and he's super funny!

These are our senior missionaries the Hatch's! They're so awesome!

These are our old sister training leaders, Hermana Mousley and Hermana Smith.

We had a celebration because I finished training!

                                                                                                                

 

We had a picnic with some members at Brown's Bay. The mosquitoes were horrible, but it was really pretty!