TRANSFER TIME!

Well, another transfer has come and gone! It's on to transfer number 6! After this transfer, I'm halfway done! So crazy. Well, I'm going to make you wait until the end of my email to tell you what happened with transfers.

This week was kind of a blur. We were finishing up all the areas we wanted to tract, saying our "just-in-case" goodbyes to the members, all the good end of transfer things! Most days, we kind of felt like we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off!

We had more active member appointments this week than we've ever had before, and it was amazing. We had so many activities going on, I can't remember them all, but it was an amazing week!

Last Tuesday, we were having an absolutely perfect day! All of our appointments worked out, we had two meal appointments, everyone we talked to was super nice! But then, we went to open our apartment door, and our perfection came to a screeching halt... THE KEY BROKE OFF IN THE LOCK!!!!  Well, do you remember that window Sister Hunter and I jumped through six months ago when we locked ourselves out? Well, guess what we did again, haha? Only this time, we had to work around the A/C. Luckily for us, our landlord was able to come after we jumped through and she was able to replace our  lock. What a lovely, lovely experience!!! On Saturday, we went to an appointment with a returning member and I had another lovely experience with a dog. We were teaching her lesson #3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. About five minutes in, I noticed that something wet was seeping through my dress. I was like, "oh my goodness, oh my goodness, please, please be water." Unfortunately for me, I found out that it was not water! Such a wonderful experience to end my time in Brockville, haha.

 

My testimony this week of relying on the Lord during trials has definitely been strengthened this week! We have a returning member who recently lost her brother, but despite the pain and the difficulty that she has been experiencing, she continues to smile and put her trust in the Lord. She is a wonderful example to us! 

I'm sorry this is a short email, but we're in a rush because we have to Brampton tonight because...I'M LEAVING BROCKVILLE! I will be going to Bowmanville with Sister Snickers! She's from Belgium, she just finished training, and I heard she's amazing! She speaks French too. I've decided all of my companions have to be from Utah or Alberta, or speak French. That's definitely been the pattern so far! Bowmanville is actually only about 20 minutes away from where my first area, Cobourg was. Back to the Oshawa Zone (I'm convinced I'm never leaving the east side of the mission, haha). Bowmanville is actually where Sister Hunter was transferred last time to train, so I'm kicking her out and stealing her companion! I'm really sad to be leaving the people here because they've come to mean so much to me, but I'm really excited to go learn new things in Bowmanville with Sister Snickers!!! 

Love,

 

Sister Dille

 

 

 

 

1,378 Pounds of Food

Hello!

Well, week five is officially over and we're on to our final week of the transfer! Where does the time go?!

Last week was cool! We found a family to teach! We started to a guy standing on the sidewalk downtown (he was holding a German Shepherd puppy, so that's how I got the conversation started, haha!) and he agreed that we could come teach him. When we went by on Saturday, he wasn't home, but his girlfriend was and she invited us in (man, totally surprised us)! They have two little kids who are both autistic, and we're so excited to start teaching them to help them see how the gospel can bless their lives. Amazing family!

On Wednesday, we went with one of our branch members, Sister Clark to visit her husband in a long-term care facility. He has dementia and he's in kind of the final stages. I brought a violin along and played some hymns for him. It was so nice to be able to do that again! I love playing music for people! 

Friday was wonderful! It was one of my favorite parts about the week. We went to zone council, and I received an answer to a question I've been taking to almost every meeting for the past several months. The two district leaders in our zone, Elder McDonald and Elder Beddes, gave an instruction about the four types of missionaries. The two that really stuck out to me were #3 and #4 missionaries. #3 missionaries are obedient, but they still desire to do what they want, not what the Lord wants (ex. being at home with their families). #4 missionaries are obedient, but they completely surrender their will to the Lord. These are the missionaries that come home completely changed by their missions. As we talked about it, I wondered how I can become a #4 missionary, because I do my best to be obedient, but I still want to be doing what I want to do. As I thought about it, the scripture from Helaman 3:35 came to my mind. "Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God." I cannot become a #4 missionary, until I learn how to start applying the Atonement to my life everyday! It was a neat learning experience with the Spirit!

After zone council, we came back and did a little bit of tracting and we started talking to a group of people sitting around a table. As we talked, we realized that they were very drunk! It was pretty awkward! They kept trying to get us to try a whiskey or a beer, and we just kept telling them, "no, we don't drink." We left and kept knocking doors, but every time they saw us, they'd yell, "come on! We know you want one!" We were like, "no! We really don't!" Haha, it's moments like these that I'm very grateful for the Word of Wisdom!

On Saturday, we did a branch service project and it was so cool. We collected donations for the local foodbank, and we had a wonderful turnout! By the end, we had received 1,378 pounds of food from the community! 

It turned out to be a great week! I still can't believe it's week six! I'll email you next week about transfer news! (Our guess is we're both staying for one more...)

Love ya!

Sister Dille

Brockville had a festival called Tall Ships where huge sail boats come in and you can go tour them.

Tall Ships Festival!

Haha, I found my twin, Sister Bingham, again!

Tried schawarma for the first time with the Smiths!

       Sunset while we were tracting in Yonge Mills

Tracting in Yonge Mills!

I found out that the organ in our chapel is not locked and I could've been playing it in sacrament meeting instead of the piano

 Branch service project!

Huge Spiders!

Hello, Hello!

After p-day ended last Tuesday, we had a lesson with our brand new investigator Mark! We found him on Monday morning outside his apartment building, so we started talking to him and invited him to our family home evening that night. He completely shocked us and showed up! On Tuesday night, we taught him the Restoration and invited him to be baptized, and he agreed (again, completely shocking us)! On Saturday evening, we had another lesson with him and we invited him to be baptized on October 29, and once again he completely shocked us and agreed! So cool! He showed up in the lesson in a white shirt and tie too, haha! Then he came to church yesterday all dressed up in his nice suit! 

On Wednesday evening, we drove down to Toronto for our zone conference with Elder Arnold. We carpooled with the Trenton sisters and it was so much fun! We got to drive through my old area, Cobourg, which I loved!!! It was POURING rain though! I literally could not see the lines on the road. We had to stop and get gas and there were HUGE spiders all over the pump. I made Sister Gariki push all the buttons and I stayed as far away from the pump as I possibly could.  I'm so nice to my companion, huh? Anyway, I got to drive to through downtown Toronto, and anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely hate driving through big cities. We stayed the night with the Toronto YSA sisters and it was awesome, except their apartment had flooded and we couldn't use any water, so it made things a little bit interesting! The best part of the night though was the Bowmanville sisters stayed with us, which is where Sister Hunter is! It was so good to see her again and I got to meet the missionary from Belgium she's training, Sister Snickers. (She laughed at my French too...) :(

Elder Arnold's conference was amazing! He taught us a lot of things we need to do to get our mission moving forward. It was really cool though because one of the first things he said to us was, "This is a mission I can trust!" It was awesome! Elder Arnold is very bold and some of the things he's asked us to do are going to be a test of our obedience and commitment to serve the Lord, but the scriptures say that we must obey His words. Whether His words come from His own mouth or from the mouths of His servants, it's the same! (D&C 1:38).

On Sunday morning, we got a wonderful text from our investigator Erin! She had her baby! She let us come over and see really quickly, and the baby is just beautiful! Her baby has the same birthday as Bronson!! Woohoo! What a great day to be born, haha! We're so happy for her and we love her so much!

 

Sister Gariki and I got to give impromptu Sacrament Meeting talks yesterday. The speakers from the district didn't show up, so our branch president stood up and said, "I'm sorry, Sisters..." Haha, it was cool though because we both talked about the role of prayer in our missions. I wanted to share a scripture in D&C 98:1-3 really badly, but I couldn't remember where it was. Sister Gariki stood up and shared that exact scripture! As I shared my experience about how prayer helped me through the beginning of my mission, I realized how much God truly was there for me. I never would have made it without His help.

Well, I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

 

Sister Dille

 

Look who I found! SISTER HUNTER!

Birthday party, wearing some of Sister Gariki's Tahitian clothing!

Trenton sisters! The one on the right is Sister Bingham. We've decided that we're twins and we need to be companions some day haha. Her name is Maddy, she's from Meridian Idaho, and she has two younger siblings (a brother and a sister in the same order!)

The sunset when we got back from Toronto.

Sister Gariki though I needed to send you a picture of Walmart, so here ya go!

 

Heading to Toronto!

Wow, this week was crazy! We had lots of lessons with our returning members, on Tuesday, the Hatches (our senior couple) came from Smiths Falls to come teaching with us, we set four of our returning members with temple dates (two of them are going to receive their endowments and be sealed together!!!), someone actually invited us in to teach them while we were tracting (that never happens!!!), President and Sister Shields came to our zone to show us the video of the missionary meeting with Elder Ballard, one of our investigators came to church for the first time, we ended up walking one of our returning members to the ER, and we got called hypocrites! Haha, what more could you ask for in a week!!

I think the highlight of my week though was when we were able to set Brother and Sister Timms with a temple date!! We've been working with them for a long time now, and over the past (almost) six months I've worked with them, they've progressed so much! We were able to help them find their own family names and take them to the temple for proxy baptisms twice, Brother Timms passed the Sacrament for the first time yesterday and is working towards receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood, and now they're preparing to be sealed  in a couple of months!!! I'm so grateful that we have been able to work with them! 

Sorry, I know it's a short letter without any details, but we have a crazy day today because we're getting ready for a zone conference with Elder Arnold. We're carpooling with the other sisters in our zone from Trenton all the way to Toronto, and I'm the driver. So lucky me, I get to drive through Toronto!! Ah! Wish me luck!!! Haha, love you all!

Sister Dille

We celebrated my one year left day with oreos! Tell Uncle Brian not to worry...we saved him some too. ;)

The Shields came to our zone!

Car inspections!

Haha, they have chocolate toonies here! You know you're in Canada when...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE BROTHER!!!!!!!!!