Don't Ever Compliment A Lady On Her Cute Purse On A Crowded Bus.....

The transfer is over and we're both staying!!!! We're so excited that we get six more weeks with each other!

We exchanged with our Black Creek North sisters this last week, and I got to go to Black Creek. It's a bus area, and it was my first time on a bus! It was so much fun! You get on and the bus driver starts moving right away, so you have to grab on quickly or you face plant (either that or you land on the lap of the person in front of you, which is kind of an awkward conversation starter if you know what I'm sayin'). There are so many cool people to talk with, and it's so much fun! One of the times we were on the bus,  a lady came and stood in front of me. She had a really cute purse, so I smiled at her, and said, "Hi, how are you? I like your bag." She then proceeded to zip it up, turn away from me, and then move to the other end of the bus as soon as it stopped. Hahaha, looking back now, I see that it's probably not the wisest idea to compliment someone on her purse on a crowded bus in the big city of Toronto, especially since we were working by Jane and Finch; the sketchiest part of Toronto.

Guess what we did yesterday? We made crepes! They turned out pretty good actually. By the time we finished, we figured out the right temperature to make them nice and golden with no brown. I'm so grateful for my good companion! We were at church, and this young mom, Sister Low, came in with her two kids, Grant and Maddie (hehe). All three of them were sick. It was really cool to see that she was still committed to renewing her covenants even though she didn't feel good. Anyways, Sister Seegmiller leaned over and she said, "we should take them dinner." So we made them crepes and took them over. When we walked in, she started crying, and it was really cool to see how something so small and simple touched her.

We had an amazing experience with our investigator Janice this week. On Saturday, after getting back from exchanges, we went over to  her house for dinner. She had worked so hard to make everything perfect, and she had dressed up really nice. She was so happy and had so much energy. It was incredible! Usually when we go, she's really tired and kind of stressed. As we were getting ready to leave, she told us that she's been reading and listening to the Book of Mormon! We've been working with her trying to help  her read for about a month now, so it was so cool to see the difference in her when she finally did it. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. I really notice a difference when I read. I'm happier, our days go better, and you have the Spirit to be with you more.

I love you all!

Sister Dille

The Last Week of the Savior's Life....

Hi Guys!

This week was really good, but holy cow...it went by fast! I can't believe it's Monday again. Also, this Sunday is transfer call day already. There's no way it's already been a transfer! 

We had so many cool experiences this week! My favourite though was our investigator Tina got baptized! :) The Spirit was so strong, and so many of the members came out to support her! The best part though was on Sunday, after she got the gift of the Holy Ghost, Bishop let her bare her testimony. It was so powerful! She's such an amazing example of faith! In her testimony, she talked about a priesthood blessing she received where she was counseled to stay strong, believe, have faith, and make the effort. She then encouraged all of us to do the same. It's amazing what the Lord can do in our lives!

We had a cool tender mercy this week. When we woke up on Saturday, it was raining pretty hard, and we had quite a bit of tracting/street contacting that day. We prayed that it would be able to stop raining so we would be able to find people. We went to our English class, and it rained hard all through the class. When we came out to go find, the rain  had stopped, and the sun was out! We were able to go tracting/contacting without fighting the weather. Such a blessing!

I've been reading in Jesus the Christ, and last week, I skipped ahead a little bit, and I studied how the Saviour spent the last week of His life. It made a huge difference for me! Every day last week was special, because I knew what the Saviour was doing at that time when He was on the earth. This week, my Saviour became more of a reality to me, and my testimony of Him was strengthened. If you haven't studied Jesus the Christ, I encourage you to start...your testimony of the Saviour will be strengthened! :)

Here are some funny moments that I stole from Sister Seegmiller's email...

Funny Moment: We were shopping at Shopper's and we went into the line to check out. The lady asked, "did anyone help you?" "No," we said, "why?" Oh well this is the checkouts and returns. Oh we said, seeing the sign.." purchases and exchanges" we are not from here....( as though our lack of seeing the sign could be justified by the country we come from) it was so funny and we felt very foolish. Moral of the story... always read the signs!

Another funny moment was running our 5k:) We got this wonderful idea to include a young woman who loves to run. So we planned the route, well she did. And we went running on our p-day with Brittney. She is amazing, but she is in very good shape, and lets just say Sister Dille and I have some shape to get into. As we began to run and we saw the hill, we could not breathe, we were laughing so hard. We felt so funny and we were saying, "Wait! Slow down.. I think I might need to take a break..." But ran we did, and we finished it in 35 minutes! It was so fun to be with the young woman and to talk about mission life with her. 

I Love You,

Sister Dille

 

We Can Be Grateful In All Things.....

Hola!

I hope you're all doing well! :) We had such a great week! So many miracles and cool experiences!

On Tuesday, I learned a really important lesson... We were on exchanges with the Hamilton STLs, and I stayed in Mississauga with Sister Holmstead. Our plan was to go contact a referral a member had given us, but her address had been deleted from our phone, and Sister Jo wasn't home to send us the address again for a few more hours. So we went to the church to make copies for a later lesson, and while we were there, Brother Gundaker texted us, asking if we were free to come give one of his friends at Home Depot a Book of Mormon. Because our plans fell through, we were able to go have an awesome experience of helping a member with his missionary work. I learned that the Lord's timing is so much better than mine!

On Wednesday, we had MLCs, and President shared some scriptures with us to teach us about how powerful the Book of Mormon is. He shared 1 Nephi 6:4-6 with us and it really strengthened my testimony of the importance of the Book of Mormon. There is nothing in that book that will lead us astray, because it's only things that are pleasing to God. Also, there is nothing in there that is not of worth to us. It's so cool!

My companion is the best example to me! On Friday, she was feeling really, really sick. But all day long, she didn't complain and she was so happy. I asked her if she needed to go home and rest, and she was like, "no, it's okay. We really need to have these lessons." After our lessons ended, we went in for dinner, and she was laying on the floor, under her coat, in pain. Then she proceeds to start listing off all the wonderful things that happened that day, and how grateful she is for x, y, z. Hahaha, I was like, "are you kidding me?! You're dying on the floor, and you're still talking about how grateful you are?!" It taught me that we can be grateful in all things.

Other Highlights:

- We had zone council on Friday

- We were able to find three new investigators this week!

- The weather has been so nice! It's 23 today! 

- We had a lot of amazing, spiritual lessons

- We took our new convert, Lisa, teaching, and she shared a really powerful testimony!

Love you!

 

Sister Dille

Finding Ginco....

Finding Ginco....

This week was so amazing! I have developed a stronger testimony of the word of wisdom...Sister Seegmiller and I have been going running and trying to eat healthier, and it's amazing how much better we've felt! We're able to work harder throughout the day, sleep better at night, and be happier. Your physical health really does affect you spiritually! 

I loved President Monson's talk during general conference! It was short, but powerful. I know that what our prophet said is true, and that reading in the Book of Mormon everyday is so important. So my encouragement to you is to follow our prophet's request to read it everyday. It will bless your life! :)

We had an awesome district meeting on Wednesday! It was on the Restoration of the Gospel. We talked about the Great Apostasy and how it was a time of spiritual darkness, then as the Restoration unfolded, more and more light came with it. Our district leader did a neat demonstration to teach us this principle. When we walked into the room, all the curtains were closed, but the lights were on. So we had a good amount of light, enough to get by anyway. As we talked about the Restoration though, he walked to the back of the room and started pulling all the curtains open. More and more light came into the room. One of the elders shared a neat thought. He said something like, "I didn't really notice how dark it was until we had more light." The gospel brings so much light into our lives, and as we study it and live it more and more, the light in our lives will increase! :) 

We had two pretty awesome experiences this week...

Number One...I was on exchanges with Sister Zick, and we were driving to an appointment. Now, for some reason, the closer you are to the city, the ruder the drivers get. So in Mississauga, we get honked at quite a bit. Well, we were in the left hand lane because we were about to turn in 300 or so meters. The speed limit was 70 k/hr, but I was only going 65. The driver of the minivan behind me was quite put out that I was slowing him down by a whole 5 k/hr, so he proceeded to follow super closely and honk his horn again and again and again. Meanwhile, I'm driving and singing to myself, "he is a child of God..." Hahaha, I love grumpy drivers!

Number Two...On exchanges, Sister Zick and I found this man named Gino who said we could come back the next day to share a message with him. So the next day, Sister Seegmiller and I went to drop by. But! I wrote down the wrong house number. (Hehehe, oops!) So we said a prayer to be able to find Gino, and started re-knocking on all the doors we had knocked the day before trying to find him. Well, I'm sure you're all familiar with the moving Finding Nemo, where Dory can't get Nemo's name right and calls him Bingo, Fabio, Cheeko, etc. We had a wonderful reenactment of the movie as we knocked. My hand writing must've been sloppy or something, because Sister Seegmiller thought his name was Ginco. We'd knock on a door and she'd ask, "hi, we're looking for your neighbour. He's a tall, older, Italian man, etc... His name is Ginco." Then we'd leave their doorstep and I would start laughing my head off, and remind her that his name was Gino. By the time we finished knocking on all the doors he could've lived at, we had probably repeated that phrase about 10 times, and it got funnier and funnier every time. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard on my mission. 

Other Highlights...

- We went on exchanges with the Churchville YSA South Sisters, and it was so fun!

- We got to go to the temple.

- General conference was fantastic!

- We found a new investigator who wants us to come help her son stop drinking!

- The weather was so nice!

Love ya!

 

Sister Dille