Early Morning Wake Up Calls Bring Blessings.....

Hey Guys!

We only have two weeks left of the transfer, and it's so weird! I can't believe how quickly my last four transfers in Bowmanville have gone. I feel like I just got here yesterday! 

We had such a cool experience this week! On Wednesday, we had a lesson with our investigator, Peter. We were following up with his Book of Mormon reading, and he proceeded to tell us how he's been reading and praying about it. He said that early that morning (at 4:00), he woke up from a dead sleep, and was wide awake. He had a strong desire to pick up the Book of Mormon and read. He read through several chapters in 1 Nephi, and felt good as he read. I asked him if he received his answer that the Book of Mormon is true, and he said, "I have. That's why I was woken up to read this book." I was so happy I almost started crying! Sister Barrow and I had a party back at the apartment when we got in for the night! Miracles do happen...sometimes they take a while, but they do happen!

We also had another really cool experience that built my faith this week. I wrote a few weeks ago about how Sister Barrow and I have been working to achieve the standards of excellence by the end of the transfer. So this week, we increased our goal to find new investigators a little bit and got to work. By the time Saturday came around, we still hadn't found any new investigators. I was starting to get a bit panicky. We went out and dropped by a former investigator, but she wasn't home, so we started talking to the neighbours in the area. A man named Stallone answered one of the doors, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. He wants us to come back this Wednesday to teach him more. Then, yesterday, we had so much to do after we got home from church, we didn't know how we were going to have any time to go find new investigators. We scheduled in as much finding time as possible and then went out and worked. We were blessed to be led to two more people who are willing to let us come back and share the gospel with them! 

Well, I think that's about it! Love you!

 

Sister Dille

 

Hello Toyota! We got a "YO," Dad!

Bye, bye Subaru!

 

 

We Will See Our Loved Ones Again......

Well, guess what?! The transfer is halfway over already! I don't know where the time goes, honestly.

But this week was really great! No more ice or snow storms, thankfully. It's actually been like 12 C the past few days and it's so nice! We've been out working in jackets. It sure makes the work a lot more enjoyable, I'm tellin' ya! 

We had our first district meeting of the transfer on Wednesday. We talked about different ways we could start conversations while we're talking to people. We've been trying to use some of them, and it must be working because we found two new investigators this week! We're really excited about it!

We also had a lesson with our investigator Peter on Wednesday. We read in the Book of Mormon with him, and it was a great lesson. 

I had a powerful experience with the Book of Mormon this week. The first few days of the week were really rough for us. Both of us were completely exhausted, the work was difficult, and it was really difficult to stay motivated and keep working. I remember getting down on my knees and pleading with the Lord for help, because I didn't know what else to do. I opened my Book of Mormon to Alma 26, which is one of my favorite chapters. I've read it several times before when I've struggled on my mission, and it's helped me a lot. As I read it this time, so many wonderful principles stood out to me, but one in particular really hit me hard. In verses two and three it says, "And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell? Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work." I noticed as I read, that Ammon was grateful simply because he was able to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. He wasn't grateful because they found a lot of new investigators of had a lot of baptisms. I thought that applied really well. I just need to be grateful for the things the Lord has blessed me with, and not worry about everything else. The Book of Mormon is such a great way for us to receive answers to our prayers!

I had another cool experience on Sunday. We had a less-active member who came to church, and she stayed for the Sunday School lesson. We were talking about what happens after we die. When the lesson was over, she came up and told us about how she had lost one of her children before he was born. She wanted to know if she would ever have the opportunity to see her baby again. The teacher told her that because of Heavenly Father's plan, she would be able to see her baby again. She burst into tears, and it was so special to see how much it meant to her. It made me realize how much I take God's plan for granted. We're so blessed to have the knowledge that God really does have a plan for each of His children.

On Friday, we got to do a service project for some members in our ward. They were moving honey into new, clean containers, and let me tell ya, it was a STICKY process! It was so much fun though. They let us take a little bit home, and Sister Barrow was really happy about it!

Yesterday was Family Day up here, and we got to go help some members with their basement. We've been working on dry walling, mudding, sanding, and painting, and we're making so much progress! We're almost to the point where we can put colour on the walls! 

Anyways, I think that's about all for the exciting things that happened this week. Have a great week!

Love,

 

Sister Dille

 

 

Here's the honey project at the Fenton's!  It was so much fun!

Here's our district!

This is Sister Clark.  She's the member who is letting me borrow her violin..

                                           We got to volunteer at the soup kitchen in Oshawa, and we thought the                                              hair nets were so attractive, that we would send you a picture.

 

Icy Hair and Crunchy Coats...

Hey Everyone!

I hope you've all had a nice week! Well, winter is officially back in Canada. I think the snow has left the west and has now settled in the east, because we got dumped on yesterday! We got almost one foot of snow! It's also been freezing cold and windy, which ya gotta love. It was almost -20 C the other day with the wind chill. We also had an ice storm earlier this week, which we got caught in. We were walking back from the library when it started. By the time we got home, we had ice in our hair, on our coats (they made crunching sounds whenever we moved), our feet were soaking wet, and we were freezing, haha. Ice storms are kind of cool though because once they're finished, the trees will creak and groan in the wind. It sounds really cool, but you really start praying that the branches won't fall off and land on your head. ;)

We had zone conference on Wednesday. We talked a lot about the Sacrament and the role that it should play in our lives. One thing that really stood out to me is that we should be repenting and applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our lives throughout the week, so that when Sunday rolls around, we're very prepared to partake of the Sacrament and we can spend the Sacrament portion of the meeting focused on the Saviour. They also said that sometimes, people can change their lives without the help of the Saviour, but this is not repentance; it's just willpower. True repentance requires the Saviour's help. I've been thinking about that a lot the last few days, and it really shows how important it is to have the Saviour in our lives. We can't repent without Him.

After zone conference, we went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders. I stayed in Oshawa with Sister Santaluoto. She's from Finland! :) It was a really great exchange. We talked to a lot of people and learned a lot from each other.

One of our coolest miracles this week was on Saturday. Our mission president has established some standards of excellence to help us work hard and increase our faith. Our standards are 3 new investigators, 2 investigators at church, and 1 baptism every two months (3-2-1). So at the beginning of the transfer, we were sometimes getting one at church and one new, but that's about it. So we set the goal that by the end of this transfer, we want to be at the point where we're hitting standards. Last week, we found one new investigator, and one of our investigators came to church. This week, we wanted to bump it up to two new investigators. So Saturday rolled around and we were still sitting at 0. We've developed the habit of fasting once a week for our area/people, so we began our fast and went to work. We were so blessed to find two new investigators by the end of the day! It's like goal setting, planning, fasting, prayer, and diligence work or something! Haha. :)

On Saturday night, one of the bishopric counselors texted us and asked if we could fill in for one of the speakers who had cancelled last minute. So we said sure, and then completely forgot about it until early Sunday morning when we were sitting in our ward council meeting. Right after ward council, we have a missionary coordination meeting, and then church starts, so it left us with no time to prepare a talk, haha. Let's just say we were slightly stressed out. So as Sacrament Meeting began, we were flipping through our scriptures like crazy to try to find something to share. It kind of reminded me of cramming for calculus tests, haha. We wanted to be sure that we didn't talk on the same thing, so I said I was doing prayer, and Sister Barrow said that she was doing faith. But as I searched, I felt like I needed to speak on the Saviour instead. So Sister Barrow went first, and she obviously must have had the same prompting, because she got up and spoke on the exact same thing, haha. Luckily, we picked different scriptures though. I shared a scripture from Luke 22: 39-44. "And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and he sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." These verses have never stood out so powerfully to me before. As I read the verse that says "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me;" I had to stop here in the middle of the verse. I really felt the Spirit as I read, and I couldn't continue. It took me awhile before I could get the rest out, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." I am so grateful for that last phrase. The Saviour was in so much pain and agony as he took or trials, sins, sorrows, and weaknesses upon Himself one by one that he didn't want to continue. But because He loved us so much, he said, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." That last phrase makes all the difference to me! I am so grateful for my Saviour.

Oh, one more thing...I HIT MY YEAR MARK! We had a party to celebrate, haha. I can't believe how fast time goes!

Love you!

Sister Dille

I Finally Saw A Moose......

First week of the transfer if over! Sister Barrow told me this morning, "I can't believe I'm already into my second transfer!" So I said, "just wait! It gets worse!" Time is flying by! I can't seem to keep up with it!

We had a really cool lesson with our investigator, Peter, this week. We went into the lesson, and we were planning to teach the Plan of Salvation, but as we followed up on his previous commitments, we felt impressed to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ instead. I was kind of nervous about not following our lesson plan, but as we taught, he said, "it's like you keep picking this just for me." The Spirit works! It really taught me that we can't teach without the Spirit.

We had zone council on Saturday, and we went over some of the things that were talked about in the worldwide missionary broadcast. During the broadcast, they made two huge changes to missionary work. 1. Instead of having nine key indicators, we now have four... investigators baptized and confirmed, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators at church, and new investigators. 2. They changed our schedule! No, we don't get to sleep in. :( But, the purpose of the schedule changes is to help us be more effective and have more opportunities to use our agency righteously. It's kind of weird to get used to, but it's definitely a good thing!

On Sunday, the Spencer's both came to church! We were so excited to see them! We were a bit disappointed though because Sacrament Meeting started, and Peter wasn't there. It's kind of strange how your heart sinks when your investigators don't show up to church. BUT THEN...he walked in a few minutes after the meeting started and we were excited all over again!

We also had a musical fireside about the Saviour on Sunday. We had a few people cancel at the last minute and a few people almost cancel at the last minute, so we had to throw a few together three hours before it started, but prayer works, and the fireside turned out okay! I'm really relieved that it's over though! Putting musical numbers together is a lot of work, haha! Peter came to the fireside, and he really seemed to enjoy it!

Well, I think that about sums up our first week. On to week two! 

Love you!

 

Sister Dille

 

I got a Canada blanket!

I finally saw a moose!

Will you be my valentine?  You know, since we're missionaries and that kinda thing isn't allowed.

These are the pictures from zone council on Saturday.