Chocolate Chip Cookies & Tender Mercies....

Hey Guys!

We had a busy week, and it went by so fast! We had two exchanges this week, so we felt like we weren't really companions. On one of our exchanges though, we had such a cool tender mercy!

I was with Hermana Karpa and we were walking to Sister Lau's to help her with her English class and it was POURING rain. We were completely soaked, and I found out that my raincoat isn't as waterproof as I thought, hahaha. The water from skirt was dripping down my legs into my boots and the wind was blowing so hard we couldn't use umbrellas. It was great! ;) It made us appreciate dry clothes and shoes a lot more. So we got to the appointment, shared our message, and then started putting our coats/rain boots back on. Sister Lau was like, "sisters, I drive you home." Tender mercy! We were able to go back to our apartment and have enough time to put our stuff in the drier. Then for tender mercy #2, we had talked about chocolate chip cookies that morning walking to Sister Lau's, and all day I wanted chocolate chip cookies so badly! We went to another appointment at Sister Miner's house and when we stepped in the door, she was putting cookies in the oven, and they just so happened to be chocolate chip. :) She told us that she felt prompted to make them for us. The Lord is so good to us.

Yesterday, we were on a car fast, and we met the most hilarious people! We met this older guy who was wearing a cowboy hat and jamming out to rap music while he cleaned his pick-up truck. We met this young mom walking down the street pushing a stroller, so we said, "Hi! How are you?" She said, "I'm not interested!" (Kind of a strange mood to be in). Then we knocked on this door, and a lady opened. We asked how she was doing and she told us, "I'm really angry. Why did you knock? I have a doorbell right there and you didn't use it." Then we offered to do free housework for her and all hard feelings cleared up. She's going to let us come back in two weeks as long as we don't try to convert her... ;) 

We went to downtown Toronto this morning, and it was so cool! There were so many people. We got to see the CN Tower, Union Station, the waterfront area, a cool park with old trains, and a bunch of cool people. It took up a lot of our time, so I probably won't have time to email a lot of you back, but I love you!

Love,

 

Sister Dille

 

 

You Remind Me Of A Girl I Once Loved.....

Hi Guys! I hope you all had a great week!

Wow, it seems like forever since I emailed you last, hahaha. We had such an amazing week, I don't even know where to begin...we saw so many tender mercies! A few weeks ago, we met a really nice lady downtown while we were walking to an appointment. Her name is Sister Pat, and she's from Jamaica. :) Last Tuesday, we went to teach her for the first time, and it was so good. We taught her about the Restoration, and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. (Cool random side note...we brought Sister Edmay teaching with us, and when Sister Pat opened the door, both of them got so excited. It turns out they're really good friends, because they used to be neighbours, and now they're reconnected!) A few days later, we went back, and we read the introduction with her and part of Alma 5. She said, "Sisters, I know it's true." In our heads, Sister Seegmiller and I were like, 'are you sure? It's pretty rare that after only two lessons someone knows that certainly.' Then yesterday, we went back and she had been reading in Alma, and she said, "Sisters, I know that whatever I read in this book is true." It's such a tender mercy.

Then this morning, we were able to have lunch with our investigator, Sam, from the Philippines. After lunch, we shared the Restoration. We talked about how the priesthood authority has been restored, and after he's baptized, he'll be able to receive the priesthood to help do God's work. He started crying and was filled with so much joy! He has such a deep desire to serve God. He said the closing prayer, and it was one of the most sincere prayers I've ever heard. It's such a privilege to be working with such prepared people!

In order save kilometers, Sister Seegmiller and I have been walking a lot. We've gone on two really long car fasts, and we've been so blessed for it. Last week, it was SOOO hot on the day we chose to walk. It was almost 40 degrees outside, and we were dying! We were on our way back home from an appointment, and this black car pulled up alongside the curb. The driver rolled the window down and it was Sister Anderson, one of our members! She gave us a ride back to our apartment, and saved us from walking in the heat! Yesterday, we were on another car fast. We walked to a less-active sister's house, and had a wonderful lesson with her. As we were about to leave, she said, "Sister, wait! I"ll make lunch for you." It was such a tender mercy because we didn't have time to go all the way home before our next appointment, so we wouldn't have been able to eat. On our walk back to the church, another member found us and gave us a ride. The Lord is so good to us!

Hahaha, this email wouldn't be complete with some good funny experiences, so here ya go!

1. A few weeks ago, we were tracting, and a Polish man opened the door. We had a conversation with him, and asked him how long he had been here in Canada. He told us he's been here nine years, so we said, "wow! You've been here longer than we have!" He asked us where we were from and how long we've been here, so we told him we're from the States and we've been here for a little over a year. He was like, "wow! Your English is very good." We said, "um, thank you...we uh, spoke it in school."

2. We had a regional broadcast a few weeks ago in Etobicoke. We were standing by the doors and an older gentleman walked in and started talking with us. He looked at me and said, "you remind me of a girl I once loved. I saw you sitting up on the stand and wondered if it could be here. It's a long, sad, story." I had no idea what to say! I just stood there hoping my face wasn't the colour of a tomato!

3. On Sunday morning, we decided to start our day off right by locking ourselves out of our apartment! :) We were heading out the door for church, so we grabbed all of our stuff, locked the door, and headed to the car only to realize that our keys were still hanging inside the hallway. (It was also in the middle of a thunderstorm, hahaha). We tried knocking on our landlords door, but they weren't awake yet, and the screens on our windows can only be removed from the inside, which is really unfortunate when you're trying to break into your house. So we walked to church in the wind, rain, and thunder and learned a very important life lesson; always make sure you have your keys! 

Love you!

 

Sister Dille

 

 

Walking to church in a thunderstorm.

Me and Sister Seegmiller!

I found Sister Gariki :)

Sister Lau made us sushi!

Exchanges with our Churchville YSA sisters.

 

When Performance Is Measured, Performance Improves...

Hi Guys!

Sister Seegmiller and I learned a really important lesson this week! (Well, we've actually been learning it for the past two transfers, but ya know...). At the beginning of our first transfer together, our area was struggling with finding new investigators. In Preach My Gospel, it says..."When performance is measured, performance improves.  When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." 

So, we've been working on our key indicator of finding new investigators for the past few months. We've been setting goals, making plans, implementing our plans, evaluating our efforts, adjusting our goals/plans. Now, we're finding several new investigators every week. It's been amazing to see how the Lord helps us to achieve our goals!

I found an awesome scripture on member missionary work! In 3 Nephi 18:32, it says...

"Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship,  for unto such shall ye continueto minister; for ye know not but what they will return and  repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall  be the means of bringing salvation unto them."  As members of His church, we are the means of bringing salvation unto those who have not had the chance to receive the restored gospel. Now truly is the time for members and missionaries to work together. I invite each of you to pray this week for what you can personally do to share the gospel with the people around you. The Lord's work will move forward when you as members and we as missionaries are equal partners in the work.

We had an amazing miracle on exchanges this week. I was with Sister Rhodes, and we had an hour from 2:00-3:00 where we needed something to do. We couldn't figure out what would be most effective, so we moved on, and decided we'd come back to it later. We set a goal that we wanted to receive and contact a media referral that day, and wouldn't you know that a few seconds later, a text from church headquarters came through with a referral assignment. We called the man up, his name was Sam, and he asked if we were free at 2:00! The Lord is so good to us! He's so prepared to receive the gospel. He was visiting his niece and nephew in the Philippines, and started going to church with them. The missionaries came over several times and taught him a little bit. When he flew back to Canada, he was so excited to meet with missionaries here and keep learning. He came to church yesterday, and on Saturday night, the Spanish elders in our ward had a baptism, so he came to that too. He's all excited now to enter the waters of baptism! The Lord provides!

I love you!

Sister Dille

 

We got smoothies!

Exchanges with Sister Samuels and Sister Jensen.

On our way to church!

Exchanges with Sister Rhodes and Sister Short.

District service project at the Brampton Community Gardens.

They Did Not Doubt Their Mothers Knew It...

Hi Guys!

We had the craziest, most ridiculous week of my mission, hahaha! We had so many funny/weird things happen! 

1). On Thursday, we had a lunch appointment, and since we're trying to save on k's, we decided to walk. It was such a pretty walk, the weather was beautiful, the lunch was so good, the day was basically going perfect. On the way back from our appointment, we saw the most awful thing I've ever seen. A crow was flying past us with a screaming baby bunny in it's mouth, and the momma bunny was chasing the crow down trying to get her baby back. We chased the crow down to try to save the bunny, but it landed on its neck. By this time, it had started raining, so we stood with our umbrellas, crying, and watching the poor baby die. It was awful! A few minutes later, we saw the momma standing all by herself on a lawn, and started crying all over again. It was ridiculous! Seeing this though reminded me of something really important...the importance of mothers. I love the story of the stripling warriors in Alma. I love the verse where it says, 'they did not doubt their mothers knew it.' Mothers have such a powerful influence in our lives!

2). We put an add on Kijiji offering help with house or yard work. A lady contacted us for help with gardening. So we go and we're pulling up brick, raking up dead leaves, basically just tidying up the yard. We had about 20 minutes left, so we asked if there was anything else she'd like help with. "Oh sure," she said, "I'd like you to cut my lawn. I"ll be right back." So out of the house she comes with two pairs of kitchen scissors in her hands. She happily gave them to us and put us to work. We got down and started cutting, laughing hysterically! It was one of the weirdest things I've ever done.

3). On Saturday, after ESL, we got a phone call from a member who needed  help moving and she had to be out of her apartment and have the u-haul truck back by 4:00. We pulled up and started working. Luckily the elders had been there the day before to load up the heavy furniture, so we just had to worry about the boxes and bags. We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off throwing things into the elevator, dumping in the truck, dragging them out of the apartment, etc. We finished the apartment and then pulled up to the storage unit and started chucking things out of the truck. We finished unloading it, and then we were trying to get the gate in the back closed. We were hanging on it trying to get it to close, and we just about had it. So then we start pushing on it from the top, jumping on it, looking quite ridiculous I'm sure. But! By the time 4:00 came around, we had the apartment empty, the truck unloaded, and the storage unit full!

So despite all these ridiculous things, we did have a lot of cool miracles!

1). On Wednesday, we had MLC, and I learned so much! We both learned so many good things we can do to be more obedient! We've been working on implementing them, and it does make a difference!

2). We had an amazing lesson with Janice this week on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught her about repentance, and how it's just small simple changes to our lives. We talked about how it's a joyful thing to repent, and she started crying. It was so cool to see how much the gospel touched her life. That same lesson, we were able to set her with a baptismal date.

3). We were able to find three new investigators!

I love you all!

 

Sister Dille

 

Me & Sister Seegmiller!

We went shopping with our new convert's daughter, Adrianna, on p-day!

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Arabic, Muslims, and Turkish Delight...

Hi Guys! 

We had a crazy busy week, but it was so good! On Tuesday, I learned a really powerful lesson...we had a lot of administrative things to take care of, which left us with only a few hours of time to minister, but somehow, we were able to get so much done and see so many miracles. We went and helped with transfers in the morning for a couple of hours, and then Sister Shields (our mission president's wife) asked us if a new sister could spend the day with us because her trainer had some departing missionary meetings she had to go to. So we got to bring Hermana Cluff with us for the day, and it was so awesome! By the time we got back to our area, it was 1:00, and we only had about five or six hours until we had to take Hermana Cluff back to her trainer. We went street contacting and found two new investigators! One of them is from Saudi Arabia, and the other is from Turkey. They both speak Arabic. Samara, is from Turkey, and she's Muslim. It's kind of hard to teach her because obviously Jesus Christ plays a much different role in our lives that He does in theirs. After church ended though on Sunday, she told us that she was having a bad morning, but felt much better and really peaceful at church. Her mom texted  her after the service ended, and asked why Samara didn't bring her too. Hopefully we can help her learn to recognize the Spirit so she'll understand that we're teaching her the truth. :)

We were also able to do service for a member, and have several great member lessons! The Lord blessed us in a matter of hours to get done what would normally take us two full proselyting days. It was such a blessing! He'll magnify our efforts when we do all we can.

I learned another really cool lesson this week! Yesterday, Sister Seegmiller and I got home from church and we were doing some studies. Sister Seegmiller jumped up off the floor and yelled, "oh my goodness, that's so cool!" I about had a heart attack, holy cow! She was reading an article in the Ensign by Elder Larry R. Larence, and there was a really powerful quote in his talk. It says, "when he [the adversary] hears murmuring, complaining, and criticizing, he takes careful notes. Your negative words expose your weakness to the enemy." It was so powerful! It really made me think about how I can do so much better at being grateful for my blessings, instead of focusing on the things that are hard. 

We had a hilarious experience at Walmart last p-day. Sister Seegmiller and I were in the produce sections happily picking out our apples. Content with our selection, we then moved over to the grapes. While we were picking our grapes, a couple entered Walmart, and they were obviously having a rough day. The man walked past the produce section and kept going almost to the back of Walmart while the woman stood by the produce yelling all kinds of crazy things at him. As we headed over to the good old bananas, he started yelling all kinds of crazy things back. Everyone in Walmart was staring at them with their mouths wide open wondering, 'is this really happening?' Sister Seegmiller and I thought it was hilarious and we were dying! To top it off, we picked a bad cart that had a broken wheel on the front, so while we're going through the store still laughing about the unhappy couple, our cart wheel is making this wonderful, squeeling/scraping sound. So instead of getting a new cart like smart people would do, I just picked up the front and my companion picked up the back, and we carried our cart full of fruit through Walmart.

I love you!

 

Sister Dille

 

Downtown Mississauga!

Sister Seegmiller cut over 6 inches off of my hair - headaches are gone!

We went to a member's home for dinner last night, and she's from Turkey.  She gave us Turkish Delight....it tastes just as good as it looks in the Chronicles of Narnia!